ah moy in paris* [part 1] 

I've been blessed to go to Paris for training recently. For a good 6 days from 16 – 21 May.

When the news of the trip broke, I held my composure.
"Be a cool cat", I told myself. Inside my heart, I was doing jumping feats and suave acrobatic somersaults on an imagery trampoline. But on the exterior, cool as a cat I remained.

"Please don’t pull my leg. If it's a joke, it’s so totally not funny." I told my boss.

"No, I am seriously not joking with you. Just wait and see," she replied.

Don't get me wrong here. I am not trying to be superficially obnoxious or arrogant. That’s not my intention at all. But I have had a handful of false alarms before, in my previous employment, which made me swore never to fall victim to such news until it actually happens. No more premature ejaculations of high-spirited emotions. The word 'control' does exists in my vocabulary.

Soon enough, the plane ticket was issued. It carried my name. Yeah, the whole name including the alias. But cool as a cat I remained still. Until I reached my car at the end of day, I shouted with joy. When I reached home, I jumped like a mad kangaroo high on Ecstasy. Not to the cool beat of boom, boom, boom - but more to 'yapadabadoo boom ba da boom, boom, boom.'

Then I spent the whole night microscoping the plane ticket to death. It all still seemed surreal. I think I slept with the ticket on my pillow that night. So 'suaku'...

The next day, I shared the news with all my close girlfriends. And with each sharing, I felt equally blessed when they responded as being truly excited for me. No female jealousy of sorts. Just genuine and sincere "Good on you! You deserved it." Of course, before that "You lucky bitch!" was thrown in as well. But they were really happy for me.

There was a saying that if you have 5 close friends in a lifetime, you're very lucky. Well, I think I have a higher count. So I consider myself extremely blessed. Yes, indeed.

Week before the flight was madness. Had to make sure everything was completed, but of course I was being too optimistic as usual. On actual flight day, I worked until 6.30pm before rushing home to do my last minute packing, then told the old taxi driver to depress the accelerator to the max. Any slower, I would have asked him to take the back seat and let me drive instead.

Reached KLIA early. So decided to feed my face with some Burger King - Whopper Jr meal with large onion rings. Yummy! Read an interesting article in Symbiosis magazine titled "Of Geniuses, Madmen and the League of Extraordinary Charlatans" by A. Azmy. The article struck a cord coz I have nicknamed 3 people 'Genius' as I really think they are highly intelligent beings with such deep passion for what they believed in. Such drive. They pursue their dreams albeit hardships and risks involved. I'm encouraged as a result.

Being full like a well-fed guinea pig, I slept snugly throughout the whole 11.5 hours flight. Had been awake for 36 hours the night before - so I was totally knocked out. Woke in time for breakfast before the plane landed.

Reached Paris at 5.30am local time, at the break of dawn, feeling totally refreshed. As we were walking towards our hotel from the Port Maillot stop, I found myself humming to the line "I danced again to the beat of your heart" (From 'Last Good Man' by Pete Teo). Yeah. Emotionally, I was dancing to the heartbeat of Paris. Took me a while to believe it was not a dream. And it felt awesomely Grrreeaattt!

July 26, 2004 // anjali* pranced on tip-toes all over the keyboard at 7:15 am
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