Bayside View

The view from my hotel room window ... but the sunset was clouded over, so this will have to do.

Done with breakfast at the 3* hotel at around 09.30, returned to my room, and practically finished not only the packing (which was peanuts) but the slide show as well, including the music.  Gave myself a few hours to think about it.  At 11.40, I was downstairs.  Checked out.  Mimi arrived at the same time with some bags, then went back home to get the children.  Ordered a GRAB and off we were ... to the bay, to the 4* hotel rooms I'd booked two weeks before.

The idea was to give Mimi a rest from the children as well as from her abusive partner.  However, she couldn't leave the grandchildren as their mother Kara had to work the night shift at the call center (which she has to do more often than not).  Okay, grandchildren in tow.  Her husband refuses to even look at them so they couldn't be left behind.  They are staying in another room.  Her other children, my goddaughter Katy and their youngest sister Kaslin are pitching in with the expenses.  There's a terrible family saga there that there's not enough room for in this blog, but everyone is staying positive.  Reality check -- their resources are limited, but then, so are mine.  I've made that clear.

While they rested after the move (children are hyper-active with extremely short attention spans, and we think the youngest has autism), I decided to walk the short distance to The Manila Hotel.  We visited it once in a while when I was younger.  The atmosphere has changed.  There's still a classical strain but the hotel is no longer only for the elite, thankfully.  I sat down and ordered a medium-sized but nevertheless carb-heavy meal, and then dessert ... and the size of the dessert was a surprise.  At the old Intercontinental, one serving of this dessert would have been enough.  The Intercontinental was demolished around three years ago and I don't know if anything has been built in its place, but the Manila Hotel is serving the same dessert but it is three times larger -- almost a meal in itself!  While I was sitting there enjoying all of this, some thoughts breezed through my head, and I felt like I was talking to the folks who've long since died -- Remember when you felt you needed money to eat here?  Remember when you behaved so arrogantly whenever you came here?  Well, look at all these people now who are eating here!  Look at me, who never had what you had, and I'm sitting here, ordering and enjoying what they have to offer, being served like a respected client.  Should I even try to imagine what you would've thought of the whole thing?  What I have is as good as anything you had.  That hurts, yes, but not for me.  ... Silly, isn't it?  Competing with the dead ...

Back at the hotel, the children were restless.  Helped Mimi clean up their mess (room is in my name, too, don't forget), and this calmed down everyone.  Mimi is at the end of her leash.  At least, this weekend, she won't have to cook or do dishes, or deal with a drunk and violently abusive husband.  She didn't ask his permission to enjoy these next few days and hopefully she'll manage to get away again soon.  He doesn't live with them but just goes to their place in the weekends and bosses her around and throws things in a temper and creates trouble, but none of that for her for a few days.

Finalized the slide show with music ... fabulous!