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Claustrophobia

It has been 6 days since one of the most embarrasing incidents in Singapore happened: the grounding to a halt of the world's largest observation flyer for 6 hours.
Besides finding themselves with a full bladder to be relieved, a super dry throat to be quenched, hunger to be satiated, fear to be quelled and the belief of the high reliability of the Singapore Flyer to be dispelled, some of the passengers stuck in the capsule, suffering and reeling from the nasty ordeal felt a fear that never surfaced in their lives till that very incident: claustrophia, which is simply to be explained, fear of enclosed spaces.
I am luckily not of one those unfortunated passengers stuck in those miserable capsules but I always imagine what it is like to be stuck there.
Hungry, alarmed, panic, thirsty, feeling the urge to answer the calls of nature are all feelings I have experienced before. Claustrophobia, this feeling seems alien to me.. what is there to be scared of confined spaces? especially when I was in the army, I was often deep undergroud, in the deep self-scapes, holes, fighting some silly enemies and the irritable mosquitoes, keeping a lookout for those things I don't want to see at night.....
But soon this feeling of claustrophobia struck me !
I was at the Singapore Expo yesterday, buying some business pants and shoes from the Great Metro Sales. I took a fancy to one of those pants I saw and went to the those make-shift fitting room cubicles to try it on. It was quite a long queue with many Singaporeans out in full force, grabbing at some of the cheapest offers in town in the light of the economic crisis.
After waiting for some 20 minutes, it was my turn and I entered into one of these cubicles. The moment I shut the door of the cubicle, Claustrophobia struck me.
Wow, you might think that I am exaggerating? Claustrophobia within one second, somemore in a comfortable setting and I was not even trapped as compared to those in the unfortunated capsules ... and for 6 hours.
Yes, I am telling the truth, I feel claustrophobic within a second after entering the cubicle and so much so that I wanted to exit the cubicle FAST! Worst still, I felt nauseous and wanted to vomit immediately too!
Wow, another exaggeration? Vomitting also within a second entering, plus claustrophobic? Was I feeling sick instead rather than claustrophobia?
No, I was not feeling sick, it was indeed claustrophobia, the fear of this silly cubicle.. the reason, the reason being that this cubicle stinks like thousands of rotten eggs as my 'predecessor' to this cubicle has BO ! (Body Odor).
A more apt term for my type of claustrophobia: Bododorphobia!
Anyway, Singapore Flyer will not be open even till the first week after the new year, it seems. The flyer needs to be 'cleared' by the Singapore Police before it can resume its operation. However, there are good news: there will be a free new year concert at the Singapore Flyer for all on the island; though the reason for such concert may be obvious: to boost the sales of the restaurants and shops at the flyer which are affected by its temporary closure.
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Anonymous said…
nice blog. hey visit? XD
Tue Dec 30, 04:47:00 PM GMT+8
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