The day-after-victory was not so great. I had lost most of my voice, we had only managed 4 hours sleep and we had planned an overly ambitious day of walking around the Botanic gardens, shopping on Orchard Road and stopping by Raffles Hotel. The gardens were pretty but, meh, it was hot and we were a little hungover. Our hearts weren't in the shopping, and you need to bring your A game for Orchard Road shopping. Raffles has great architecture but is a little too touristy and seems a tad run down.
A nana nap recharged me and I went off to catch up with an old school friend I hadn't seen for more than a decade. It was pure coincidence that we had connected on good old facebook a few days prior to my trip, and it turned out Fi had moved to Singa less than 2 weeks before my trip! We had last seen each other in Dublin in 2000 where she was living at the time. We've decided our next meet up will have to be in some other random city, say Zurich, in 2022.
We met up at the scene of the previous night's crime (Pump Room) because that was the only place I knew the location of. A few beers, lots of laughs and 2 hours of chat later (me sounding like a husky stripper) and it was back to the hotel to meet the girls in time for dinner at the amazing roof-top Ku De Ta at the Marina Bay Sands resort.
Got a great nights sleep that night, and was up early the next morning to punch out 8 x 1km repeats. It had been raining so the humidity wasn't as bad and Singa looked nice after a bath. Before I left Oz I sussed out the spot on the banks of the river near the ocean, behind the parliament and museum buildings. There's some nice parkland and avenue of trees alongside the path, and it's flat.
The first one was a struggle but I amazed myself by doing probably my best session of the year! My watch told me that each interval was faster than the previous, and they were all well under 5 minutes, which was my goal time for this session. I felt like Dane Swan after a week in Arizona. Gotta wonder whether my watch had gone haywire in the heat, but I'll take it! Back to the hotel feeling smug.
The three of us went to different places that day, Mel to the zoo, Vin to the Arab quarter, and I went to visit the Changi prison chapel and museum. My great, great uncle Charlie was captured by the Japanese during the fall of Singapore during the second world war, and was a prisoner of war for an incredible 3.5 years. He was held captive in Singapore before being sent off to work on the Burma railway. His story, along with so many others, is incredible. The fact that he lived to 87 is amazing, given the photos of him whilst in the prison hospital, looking skeletal.
I remember him clearly - in fact my very first childhood memory is of visiting him on his farm in Victoria. I remember following his dog Troika (named after a German war ship that sunk - he obviously had a sense of humour!) along the track while he dug in wombat holes. He was a gentle and kind man, belying the horrors he was subjected to during the war.
The Changi chapel was moved ten years ago from its' original spot to where it now sits in the museum. It took me 1.5 hours to go through the museum, following the audio guide. On a number of occasions I couldn't hold back the tears. What the civilians and POWs endured at the hands of the Japanese is unbelievable. The atrocities were unspeakable. I spent a good deal of time at each part of the museum display and in the chapel. I wrote up Uncle Charlie's story and added it to the chapel wall, ending with the words WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
That Charlie and his mates survived is a miracle. Their courage, resilience and spirit to keep pressing on against the most unimaginable adversity is inspiring and moving. It certainly put the previous couple of days into perspective. Without taking anything away from the teams, as brilliant as the netball was, and as sweet as the victory was, this was a stark reminder that it is just a game. We all go home freely to our comfortable homes and lives. The sun will continue to rise and set.
Unfortunately there is a winner and a loser, which is heartbreaking under the circumstances of Sunday's game. As it was with last year's Commonwealth Games gold medal match, which went to not one, but two, extra-time periods. The result was the reverse on that day. Both teams have enjoyed the sweetness of victory and had to endure the ache of defeat. Both teams gave everything they could, and they all made mistakes, cos they're all human. No one moment in the match won it or lost it. In both games, the pinnacle events for netball, the result could have so easily gone either way.
Enjoy the spoils of victory, absolutely. Withstand the pain of defeat, absolutely. In team sport, both situations teach people things about themselves that can make them better at not only sport, but life. Allow yourself to be consumed by either? No. In the end, it is a game, and Changi is a great reminder that there are far more important things in life.
But it did feel bloody great to win this time.
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