Come fly away with me

"Where shall we go for dinner?", asked Da.

We looked at each other. Gosh, there really are not that many places one can go to for dinner (without the use of a car) on a weeknight after 8 pm.

We mentally went through the MRT stations along the route home:-

(a) Bugis station - too crowded

(b) Lavendar station - Eminent Plaza sells delectable steamed char siew pau but we would need to drive there

(c) Kallang station - the food stalls at Geylang are within a stone's throw from the Kallang MRT station but we did not feel like eating beef noodles tonight

(d) Aljunied station - we like the dim sum at Ho Kee Pau but it was a very warm and humid night

(e) Bedok station - Da shook his head immediately. He said that it was very hot and difficult to get a seat at the hawker centre (sigh, AT and AL - I wouldn't have minded eating the chwee kueh from the hawker stall there. When will you be buying the chwee kueh for work again?)

(f) Changi Airport station?

Erm... did someone suggest Changi Airport? I think that the people in Singapore are one of the rare few breed of people in the world who actually hang out at their airport. This is because we have one of the best airports in the world, ranked among the top in the world. Our Changi Airport is not only for departures and arrival of flights. It is a shopping mall in itself!

OK - so Changi Airport won the toss. Now we had a dilemma - there are so many food establishments to eat at Changi Airport. We decided to have our dinner (albeit a late one) at Popeyes. It is a fast food outlet selling Louisana-style chicken and savoury biscuits.

I like to visit Changi Airport. There is always a sense of excitement when I am approaching the airport, especially when we drive to the airport and we can see the control tower getting nearer and nearer to us along the expressway.

Today, however, we took the MRT train to Changi Airport as we did not drive to work. We had to alight at Tanah Merah MRT station and change to a connecting train to Changi Airport, which train let us straight to Terminal 2.

We have 3 main Terminals at Changi Airport and a Budget Terminal. I have never visited the Budget Terminal. When I went to Hong Kong with my colleagues in May 2008 on a firm trip, some of my colleagues and I took the sky train to Terminal 3 for a "look-see" before we boarded the Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong. (Hey, BD, SPD and Miss Southampton, I look forward to going on another little getaway with you kids in the near future!)

As Popeyes is located at Terminal 1, we had to take the Skytrain from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1. The Skytrain is like a miniature version of the MRT train - there is only one carriage.

Finally, we stepped onto Terminal 1. I have always preferred Terminal 1 to Terminal 2. Perhaps it is because 16 years ago, my daddy collapsed at Terminal 2 and he could not be revived. I have always felt bitter about this and perhaps in my young mind, I blamed the medical personnel for not putting in more effort to bring him back to us. To add insult to injury, after the funeral, my daddy received a medical bill for resuscitation efforts. Enough said.

What did Da and I see on the announcement board at Terminal 1? Yes, a 10.05 pm flight to Perth, Australia. Sigh.... we started to reminisce and wish that we were in Perth right now, enjoying the tail-end of springtime over there.

I remembered vaguely that Popeyes was located at Level 2 in Terminal 1. The last time that I ate there was with my colleagues when we arrived in Singapore on our return flight from Hong Kong.

We took the escalator to Level 2 and when we turned the corner, we saw Popeyes.

I behaved like a typical Singaporean and reserved a table while Da went to queue up to buy our dinner. For my overseas friends, the Singlish word for reservation is "chope" (so, I "choped" a table). Yeah, the past tense of "chope" is "choped". heehee.....

If you have never tried Popeyes, I would recommend the fried chicken, Cajun fries, coleslaw and savoury biscuits. I have been told that their mashed potato is also very nice although I prefer coleslaw to mashed potato (probably because of the peppery gravy that often accompanies mashed potato. I am not fond of pepper except freshly ground peppercorn medley. Yes, I am fussy, I know....).

All too soon, it was time to go home. We wanted to take the MRT train home but as we were approaching the MRT station at the basement of Terminal 2, we heard an announcement that there was no more train service in the direction that we were headed. As such, we changed our route and decided to take a bus home instead.

When we went to the bus terminal, we found out that we had a direct bus home - SBS Service 24. Perfect!

To my penpals - do visit us in Singapore when you can. Not only do we have a beautiful airport, we have so much greenery over here that you will sprout flowers in your hair before long. Da and I would love to meet up with you.