40 Winks

I’m feeling prolific today. Maybe it’s the well-rested weekend. I love nondescript weekends. Time out for myself by myself.

I remember this MSN chat a couple of weeks ago with a very old acquaintance A. I don’t really know why. But we’re never really friends. And somehow he reminded me of this idea I’ve been nursing for almost a decade now.

There was a time in my mid-twenties when I had to fuel the need to always want to be OUT there, finding every excuse to stay away from the cloistered home. There seem to be this whole café culture going on. We would be hanging out at the café in school in between classes. And then proceed to lounge at the cafes in town when lessons end. Close friends like BG. and D. would recollect my youthful follies at the now-defunct Au Bon Pain at Forum The Shopping Mall. But I digress.

At about this time, my idea of Resting Stations catering to retail fiends was born. Bearing semblance to Tokyo’s capsule hotels, these sleeping coffins would be placed along the entire stretch of Orchard Road, providing a quick recharge/relief/respite whichever. A perverse version would have these street furniture outfitted with peepholes so that passers-by can pay to observe the sleeping habits of others. Of course upon verbalisation, friends were aghast. Nevertheless they’d listened with patience and perhaps that was all that mattered.

Years later, I’d even considered moving these contraptions into an actual shop space. Providing freshening services (including 40 winks) in our hot humid climate for a long day spent trawling the malls. Come to think of it, I’d never actually once put idea to paper but in my mind I was fretting over hygiene issues, whether clothes crinkled, will there be adequate privacy… etc.

And so it is to my dismay that I saw MetroNaps. To think I thought I had a winning idea from day one. These guys took an idea and went all the way to research on sleep. These people even had franchise all worked out. Any one looking to invest? Or should I really put this to rest?