Wind In My Head: November 2009
Wind In My Head
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Junkie
Parts of me hate the fact that APEC is happening. I was stuck on a bus for the better part of an hour this morning, on a route that usually took 7 minutes. By the time I got off the bus (and this was after I'd decided to cut short the journey and switch modes of transport), I wanted to throw up and was dizzy.But another part of me loves watching the traffic cops stop traffic. Normally reckless, inconsiderate, annoying drivers quietly and obediently come to a halt when the traffic cop on the BMW bike weaves through the traffic with sirens whirling, stopping in the middle of a busy four-direction traffic junction and raises his gloved hand. And then there's the motorcade that comes through, usually black BMWs with Volvos as security cars trailing. It goes all the way back to when I was a teen and a cousin I am very close to lived houses down from the President of Singapore. We used to get such a thrill just walking down the road to see the security detail milling outside the compound. Then in 1992, I saw my first real motorcade when George Bush (Sr) was in town and I happened to be in Orchard Road gawking at the motorcade that rocked down.
Maybe it was that or maybe it was the fact that I did international history and politics in college and uni that American politics and the presidency (save for 8 years in the recent past) fascinated me. Or perhaps it is because for a very long while, I spoke and thought in West-Wing verse and my dream job was either to be a staffer for the Bartlett Administration. Heck, Packrat and I contemplated naming our son after the fictitious president.
Whatever it is, Packrat and I seriously thought about going groupie slash junkie slash stalker and try and find an opportunity this weekend to see Obama who is in town for like a couple of hours. We plotted and planned but decided we didn't have enough information (that comes from not having anyone we know involved in APEC this time round as opposed to the World Bank-IMF stuff previously) to actually be effective stalkers. We are extremely envious of the 500 people who are allegedly on his entourage and would give anything to be one of them, even if it meant carrying someone's bags.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, APEC, Obama, The West Wing
Ondine tossed this thought in at 21:36