Crowne Plaza: Bubbles in Time

11th July 2009

I stood there, looking out the window, squinting through the reflected images at the lights that lined the runway. Little taps were heard on my glass window - taps that accompanied each and every little droplet that fell, playing a soothing tune of harmony to the jazzy sounds of Michael Buble.

I watched a little droplet slowly trickle down the window, as my mind wandered...

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Water trickled down my brow as I rose, my body still shivering from the initial plunge.

The pool was unusually cold, just as she had forewarned, perhaps due to it's marble floor, unique layout or simply just due to the fact that it was on the 3rd floor and located around an airport where we were left virtually naked to the powers of the wind; one way or another, that didn't stop the eyes from widening as the arms tightened themselves to the body in an attempt to trap heat.

Architecturally designed to be contained within the distinctive "Cat's Eye" of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, the eye provided a poolside view that included the distinctive Control Tower as part of it's backdrop, providing swimmers and poolside-loungers alike with an instantly identifiable landscape.

Inside the Cat's Eye

A graceful backstroke allowed one to peer through another rooftop "Cat's Eye", but this time with the gently floating clouds providing the hypnotic backdrop that fed the eyes with each graceful stroke of the arms.

Due to the different medium, movement slows in water; and perhaps as a figurative parallel, I had found a moment that time slowed down for me, a moment of respite amidst a chokingly-busy schedule, allowing me to take both my mind and body off the drowning workload, giving me the first full 2-day weekend that I've had in the last 4 months.

Uniquely designed with tropical trees and plants littering the landscape of the pool, little and disparate cosy jacuzzi corners were well-camouflaged under the trees and behind the plants. To a passer-by perhaps only the sound of crackling laughter could be heard coming from behind the bushes, as we shifted along the stone slabs, in an attempt to find the strongest jet to massage our (my more than hers) aching backs.

Adjusting myself to an ideal position to get a automated massage, I saw the bubbles rise from the 2 jets adjacent to mine, little bubbles rising to the water's surface and dissipating as the came into contact with the air. And while I knew that my little Bubble in Time would soon burst in the coming of reality, all the more I was determined to enjoy every little moment of rest that I could muster out of this little bubble endowed upon me by my lovely host.

Illusion of Time