Shavasana

After a few months of cute cafes, runs, hikes and pilates classes on Saturday mornings, I finally gave in to my cycle and slept today, for 14 hours straight. This is actually my base sleep cycle, as vouched by my mum who would hover her finger below her baby’s nose to warily check, after I’d been dozing for 12+ hours. This is in contrast to my recent bunch of nieces and nephews who don’t want to sleep apparently. If only they knew how many sleepless nights of studying or working possibly await them (I hope there are none obviously), they would clutch onto the baby blanket more.

My beauty sleep had to be broken as today is the International Day of Yoga. Well, kind of, as it was set by the UN in 2014 as suggested by the Indian PM. There is some connection to it being the longest day of the year and close to Guru Poornima, but for all practical purposes it wasn’t celebrated until quite recently. Anyway, I went to a different branch of my gym today as my favourite instructor teaches there on weekends and noticed this gym has “Do not drink” labels on the disinfectant bottles placed next to the yoga mat. I wonder what happened for them to place this fairly obvious disclaimer in a class full of adults. It was a great class as always, including some tricky one-legged poses; I only fell over once, which is a win.

This month was very family heavy, even after my sister left. She has since sent a breakdown of how much she spent, calling a few hundred dollars “not that bad actually”. My uncle and aunt visited, and over a breakfast of pav bhaji, they shared varied news of my hometown including youngsters getting married. Inevitably when they asked me what my plans were, before I could answer, my five-year-old nephew loudly exclaimed “Forget her, I will get married first!!!”. To which my uncle goes “Forget marriage, you finish your ABCs first!”. While he did eventually sulkily finish his ABCs, I made a mental note to take him along for every wedding I attend going forward, what a bro. The nieces are more diverse in their support. The toothless six-month-old  prefers to see my face as her next snack, and the thirteen-year-old calls my music taste cringe (ouch!) but softens up when she wants to try my hair straightener. I am pretty sure my time in Singapore is made a lot lot easier by having access to family, it’s a privilege and not just because of the delicious food. All three had to put up dance performances including Gangnam Style and shuffling to Tauba Tauba before the food came though, I do not miss that part of being a kid.

Speaking of delicious food, I recently dined at a Michelin-star Indian fusion restaurant called Revolver, which serves expensive looking dishes that are assembled in front of you. While the seating was a bit “warm” as you are literally across a tandoor, I didn’t really notice because I was taken aback by my co-diner who exclaimed “I don’t like paneer”. The appetiser that resulted in this unbelievable comment was Fresh Delhi Paneer. As the name suggests, it is fresh paneer literally flown in from Delhi and served on spinach gravy or saag. Who in their right mind doesn’t like paneer? Probably people who had access to other forms of protein I guess, but on the bright side, I got to enjoy the whole plate myself.  As someone who doesn’t like sharing food, great. As someone who should be on a calorie deficit right now, not so great.

June was pretty normal otherwise. Took a new bunch of folks to cycle at East Coast Park and eat milk toast at Old Town White Coffee. At this point, I should get a paid sponsorship from them for the many patrons I have brought since 2022. Post all the running around, I racked up a hefty bill at the podiatrist for an infected toenail which he told me was from a gel manicure that damaged my nails, the exact same thing my mom said first - for free. To hear the “I told you so” in person, I get to run away from the world of bills and responsibilities to live in ignorant bliss soon. I am likely to crash out for 14 hours again once I get to Kochi, and hopefully this time, my mom will let me be.