The world of JULIANA

Nope. I didn’t get electrocuted. De moment I opened my eyes, de clock next to me showed digits that spelt ‘PANIC NOW’.

Indeed, I had overslept. It was 5 minutes past 8am and I should’ve been touching up on some make-up and waltzing out of the house under normal circumstances. On an ‘ordinary morning’, I’d wake up at 7.30am, and snooze-in till 7.45am and then enthusiastically get out of bed and continue with the rest of the ‘routine’. I’m blessed with a workplace that is less than 10mins away frm home, hence I can afford to wake up as late as 7.45am on a working day!

Nevertheless, today had proven to be a dramatic morning. I can’t remember the last time I overslept. A minute passed by and I was still panic-stricken, wondering on my action-plan and ‘damage-control’. Whilst thinking it over, I tried shaking Robz to wake him up to ‘announce’ tht I had overslept, only to be greeted with a sleepy moan and there he was, as motionless as a log, fast asleep.

Argh.

I knew I HAD to get out of bed immediately, as I’d have to punch in at work at 8.30am! No time to say my morning prayers with Robz, absolutely no time to do those abdo-crunches. Brushed my teeth, jumped into the showers, and got dressed within a period of less than 10mins. There was absolutely no time for make-up. I have this obsessive habit of taking out clothes I’m gonna wear the next day , the previous night, along with matching ear-rings and bracelets and necklaces. Never did I realize tht someday, tht obsessive habit of mine wld work towards my advantage . . . until this very late morning. Everything was laid out in front of me and all I had to do was quickly put ‘em on!

Dashed out of the house and sped thru’ to work. Thankfully the road was clear and there was no traffic jam. Parked my car in the first available lot at my workplace and whisked off to the punch-clock at the reception. Time? 8.28am! I still have no idea how I did it. Errrmmm, for starters, the punch-clock has been pushed backwards (by some truant staff some days ago) approximately 5mins LATE. Hence, tehcnically speaking, I reached work at 8.33am, but due to the 5-mins-delay, I was SAFE! No red-mark on my punch-card.

*breathes a huge huge sigh of relief

Once I had settled in at office, I began pondering. According to popular Indian beliefs, starting the day on the wrong foot would bring ‘bad luck’ for de rest of the day! One had to anticipate the worst of twists of events. I’ve never been superstitious but yet again, I couldn’t help ward off the thoughts tht I might run into some ‘bad luck’ later in the day. Work was routine and hectic, nonetheless exciting, as usual.

Instead of havin’ lunch like most folks do during their lunch-breaks, I decided to do somethin’ different instead. Decided to pamper myself with a luxurious pedicure nearby my workplace. The timing was perfect and the place wasn’t full, hence, they could cope with my walk-in-appointment. Ahhh, nothin’ beats the delight of havin’ one’s toe-nails done whilst leisurely seated on a cosy couch in a dimly-lit room with the air-con blowing chill air whilst everyone else is busy braving thru’ the lunch-hour-traffic on a hot scorching day! Pure bliss. By the end of my lunch break, with gastric juices running riots in tht stomach of mine, I grabbed a li’l hot-dog & iced-lemon-tea at Bakers Cottage whilst admiring my newly painted toe-nails every couple of minutes! Yep. Vanity is my middle-name.The thought of havin’ pushed in a li’l pedicure over my lunch-break was just fabulous. Work in de afternoon seemed so much more pleasant, just havin’ pretty toes! I know i know . . itz all psychological . Oh well, it made me feel betta, so what the hell!?

In the evening, still basking in the glory of the pedicure, I decided to try out somethin’ a li’l more adventurous. Robz was goin’ to be comin’ home late tonite and hence, I thought it might be worth gettin’ a li’l hair-cut. I reminded myself that I had just visited the saloon a month ago to REBOND my hair. But, the thought of havin’ a relaxing head-massage was a li’l too tempting and hence, I succumbed to the craving and drove straight to my regular hair-saloonist. Gettin’ a lot at the car park was easy, amidst de peak-hours-chaos after work. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that my saloonist closes his saloon on Wednesdays. I should’ve realized tht it was a ‘hint frm destiny’ tellin’ me to scrape off de idea of doin’ somethin’ to my hair. But, nope. The temptation to get the hair done was much greater. Went on a hunt for the next available saloon. Walked into a saloon which was packed. Waited 20mins. Again, I got impatient, and decided to try a third saloon. Being perseverent can be a good quality at times, but not all the times. I should’ve realized tht I was being ‘warned’ that it may not be a good day to do anythin’ with my hair today. Did I listen to ANY of those ‘warnings’?! Absolutely not!

Eventually, I found the hair-saloon tht I used to frequent in my teenaged-days. I was lucky enough to be attended to almost immediately upon arrival at the saloon. All I wanted was to my have fringe trimmed and to wash my hair. Whilst she kept chopping away my hair, I should’ve realized that this was heading toward disaster. I did warn her, "I don’t want my fringe too short, alrite?". She gave me her usual business-million-dollar-smile and went on snipping away. Somehow, I wasn’t convinced and fear began to creep in.By the time she was done, I knew it. DISASTER had struck its ugly head, and my hair had became its victim.

Argggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh…………she cut it too short. I was still in a daze in the saloon and just robotically paid for de hair-wash-n-cut and walked back into the car. Once I sat at the car, and stared into my rear-view mirror, reality had surfaced. The brutal reality tht I now looked like a mad-woman who went amok with a pair of scissors and decided to massacre her hair! Folks, am not exaggerating. Everytime I look into the mirror, my smile turns into a frown upon havin’ to face tht ugly short fringe! The consolation? It’ll grow out. Then again, that’s gonna take a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I’m going to have to depend on hair-clips to push back this awful ‘thing’ called a ‘fringe’. All thanks to my determination to have my hair done today. I wish I had just ‘listened’ to those ‘warnings’ . I wish I had just quietly gone back home instead of being all adventurous. Oh well . . . wishes shall always remain wishes. Neither can I turn the clock back now.

Ultimately, as silly as superstitions may be, sometimes, it’s almost ironic when there’s a tiny tiny tiny tad bit of element of truth in it. In my case, it was just an ugly disastrous combination of events all day. Nonetheless, I’ve written a mental note NEVER to be too spontaneous and do things on the spur-of-the-moment without givin’ much thoughts to it. Unless one wants to end up lookin’ like a psycho-woman, of course!

*Sigh