Super Sized Me

Excited that the 'Sultan Project' is nearing completion, and fast food days are ending.

Traveling in a rush is no fun because one don't have time to eat properly. Just take the past week. Starting early at airports, McMuffin meal was the only viable option as all else were closed. When I arrived at the other airport, it was Big Mac meal or missed the next appointment.

I gulped down the fries and coke, and imagine them wrecking all the kayaking that I had done the previous week. I sensed the heart failing, and the waist expanding. Suddenly it was more difficult to sit, as the stomach folded into a layer of something that was not there before. The aftertaste of sweet coke, bleached teeth, and burped pickles. Then the rush to catch a taxi while my moving tongue was clearing small sesames stuck between the teeth.

After a whole day of meetings, and dumped by a factory at a crummy hotel ( tactically before dinner), I stepped out seeking a proper meal. The idea of a home-cooked, balanced, healthy meal drove me to walk blocks of dimly lit streets.

"Waterfront Grand Seafood"..., "Golden Palace Chinese Restaurant"..., "White Jade",... "Pizza Hut".

A proper meal, you remind yourself.

I took one brave step into the golden arches bearing the inscrutable Chinese characters, and wondered if I was really going to sit myself at a table for 10. Hold on, a look at the menu and the choices were between half a duck or a duck...can I order a few pieces and a bowl of rice, or better if you can get me a set meal for 1?

Pizza Hut was not something you imagined, as there was actually one a few blocks down. A personal meat-lovers and a seafood salad, please.

The next day, dumped at the train station way after lunchtime, and late for the next appointment, there was KFC.... 2 crispy chicken burgers (original and spicy) and a coke, please. You realized the transport ministry probably have shares in fast food companies, and why didn't you?

And so the typical days had added to almost a week; the fries and coke added to almost a bloat; minute by minute grease, cholesterol, and sauces are building layers and choking layers.

One day when the layers seized up the beating heart, you flashed back for a brief moment to this week, and wondered if this was the week that had done you in.

The horrors! The horrors!