the power of three

Date: 2 Jul 2004
Time: 1840 hrs
Place: Outside Clarke Quay Station

Three German girls (a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead) were have a quiet discussion over their German language guidebook to Singapore. It had a nice map. They needed to get back to "Novotel", I needed to clarify which one because there were a couple of "Novotel"'s in the country (wouldn't life be easier if the hotel chains put their branding on the end of the hotel names rather than at the beginning?) So it turns out to be the Novotel Apollo on Havelock Road, where some time ago they boarded a river taxi and ended up here. Looks like they already decided to take a walk back to the hotel, and had already figured out the civilised, follow-the-roads route, but the discussion was about whether to walk along the river.

I pointed them in the right direction (upstream) and advised them to walk on the other side (that's the Robertson Quay side) as it's more pedestrian-friendly.

It was the short one with the eyebrows that almost faded into her face that could speak the English well. I wonder why girls tend to travel in groups of three, or why girl groups in general are in threes (pop culture examples being Powerpuff Girls and Charlie's Angels). Sorf tells me it's cheaper to pack three girls into a single room, and the odd number is needed to break deadlocks. Makes sense. :)