Row, Row, Row Your Boat…

I write this at 1:30 in the morning. No surprise, because I’m in Singapore and in San Francisco, it’s 9:30 am. Counting the 90 minutes sitting on the runway in SF airport traffic, I sat for 18 hours straight on the plane, in company with my book, my Crostic puzzle, five good movies and a few hours of restless slumber. I left San Francisco at noon on Thursday and when I finally entered my hotel room at 10:00 pm (Singapore time) on Friday, I was so happy for a horizontal position and a night of needed sleep. 

 

But as that first sentence notes, my body had other plans. As one music teacher so eloquently put it, “I’m in canon with myself.” Canon meaning “round” a la “Row Row Row Your Boat,” where one group starts singing and the next group comes in some (usually 4) beats later, singing the exact same thing. In music, the goal is to keep that 4-beat distance to create harmony. In jet-lag world, the goal is for the second part (the astral body) to eventually catch up to the first part (the physical body) to achieve a harmony of equilibrium. Usually 2 or 3 days later.

 

I purposely arrived two days earlier so I could be more present in teaching on Monday, so I will have some welcome time on my hand to wander the somewhat familiar territory of Singapore. In fact, alongside Salzburg, Spain, Hong Kong, Taiwan, it’s a place I’ve returned to teach many, many times—2008, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, to be exact. Coming in from the airport, the sights of the Singapore Flyer, the hotel with the pool on the roof, the Science Museum, were all familiar. I suspect I’ll do some walking in the Botanical Gardens and along Orchard Road and feel right at home. 

In fact, it’s my 9^th time here, as my first visit was in 1979 when it was a different city altogether. Could be interesting to share my journal entries from that time, captured on my computer as part of my next book about a year-long trip my wife and I took way back then. If I’m up again at 4am, I believe that’s how I’ll pass the time until daybreak.

 

Meanwhile, back to horizontal and see if the astral body continues chasing the physical one, while I sing in my head “Row, row, row your boat…”

PS For those curious, the plane movies I enjoyed were: Roofman/ The Best You Can/ The Roses/ Good Fortune/ Good Night & Good Luck. And a Gina Brillon Comedy Special called "Mind Your Business."