Disappointment; Mauritius.

My mother has this uncanny ability to disappoint. Let me give you a brief overview of the situation. A couple years back, my mum asked me if I would like to take a little jaunt to Mauritius, to meet my then newly-made friend, Christie. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance of travelling to an exotic locale I had never been to before. My mum and I spent a considerable amount of time poring over the flight schedules online, and it seemed as if we were raring to go. However, nothing more was said from my mum after that hectic night.

That was why I greeted her offer to go to Mauritius earlier this week with skepticisim. Surely it must be yet another false hope. I did not dare to get overly excited regarding the matter, neither did I deign to inform my friends about the trip. Only when my mother said she had confirmed the booking and showed me the receipt didI dare to get remotely excited.

Once again, a calamity occurred. My passport would be expiring in May 2008, and a passport requires at least six months validity to travel. The personnel at the check-in counter said in a tone of finality: "You cannot go to Mauritius."

Can you imagine how crushing it feels? The prospect of taking a cab home from the airport despite having just arrived with all your belongings looming ever so darkly. It seems as if I could never be sure whether I'll actually end up in Mauritius or not. Even if I do end up there, the immigration authorities have every right to send me packing back to Singapore ability for not having a valid passport.

I am not in the habit of blaming others for my misfortune. What good does it achieve to shove the blame unto someone else? It is not as if blaming others would change a thing. Since I cannot change my circumstance (trying to change other people is one of the most formidable tasks anyone can attempt to take on), I can only change my perception of it. I can only blame myself for my inability to cope with disappointment.

In this situation, it is not as if I went pleading from my mum for a trip to Mauritius and got rejected. I did not ask for the carrot. Instead, it was dangled in front of me, and then quite on the verge of being taken away. However, I did voluntarily allow myself to get tantalised, which I shouldn't have. Expectations can only bring disappointment. The irony is that these expectations were not set by me, but by someone else. Do you now understand why I have such a deep distrust of people's promises; of people in general?

People may mean what they say with genuine goodness. But somehow, something always falls short along the way. And what can I do about it? Expect to be disappointed? Nah. Too negative for me. Instead. I will NOT expect to be satisfied, if the converse of disappointment is satisfaction. It is two quite different things. Hah. Whatever that means.

Oh well. Cest la vie.

P.S. Besides her uncanny ability to disappoint, my mother also has an uncanny ability to pull strings. So boo ya, I just spent two days in Mauritius and it's been pretty... interesting.

Hahaha. Really laidback place. Or boring, if I wanted to be less euphemistic. But the thing about Mauritius is that laidback suits it. If it were all developed like Singapore, it'll kinda lose it's rustic charm, and that's where the appeal lies anyway. The place is really not fashion-forward at all. Not like I expected it to be... I only saw ONE pair of skinny jeans, and they belonged on a mannequin in a shop. And skinny jeans are like, ubiquitous in Singapore lah. Sigh.

Like both Hai Ning and Jason said, the beaches are GORGEOUS. The sea is turquoise! Really pretty. I was eating a chicken kebab (which was quite tasty) with Christie at the beach, and I asked her: "Since the shops don't open on weekeneds, what do people do? Go to the beach?"

"Yea. Or visit relatives or stay at home. Besides, Mauritians don't have a lot of money to spend on shopping."

Wah sian. Also, the population is made up of mostly Indians or of Middle Eastern roots? I don't really feel like I've left Singapore at all. I feel like I've just walked into a more "rustic" part of Singapore, like Geylang or Little India or something, since I don't see a lot of white people. Though there are quite a number of black people. Yea.

I am going to Seychelles tomorrow! Exciting exciting! Though I'm like quite tired, because I slept at 3 am on Saturday morning, and the flight was seven hours, and since the time over here is four hours before Singapore, it was as if my day had extended by four hours, and by the time it was 10pm here, it was practically 2 am in Singapore, and I was dead tired. Am still dead tired, but it's getting better.

Had this really delicious pizza at an Italian restaurant last night. I love woodfired thin-crusted pizzas.

Okie dokies! Pictures can only be up when I'm home, I think. I've a few pictures in Christie's cam, but they are half-naked ones of us in the pool. And half-naked pictures of flabby fat me is not very appealing. So yep, pictureless post for now!

P.S. I had a thought today. I am quite tempted to feign my own disappearance, and see if people will think I'm dead, then start SMSing me messages like "Oh I wish I were nicer to you while you were alive" or something like that. Would be pretty interesting, huh.