walking in the rain
Monday, July 14, 2008
keeping things fresh
With the recent incident of the loss of my wallet (read previous entry), I’ve decided to start afresh today.
Apart from all the new stuff I’ll be having and using:
new digital camera,
new earphones,
new bluetooth,
new bag,
new wallet,
new cards (at least my NETS and debit card for now),
new clothes,
a newly-packed table in a self-revamped room,
and a whole bunch of other new miscellaneous stuff which I’ll be using starting today…
I’ve decided to make changes in my life.
I’ll be having a new direction in life, and there will be new aims, new goals and new perpectives.
It’s going to be fun. :)
Apart from all the new stuff I’ll be having and using:
new digital camera,
new earphones,
new bluetooth,
new bag,
new wallet,
new cards (at least my NETS and debit card for now),
new clothes,
a newly-packed table in a self-revamped room,
and a whole bunch of other new miscellaneous stuff which I’ll be using starting today…
I’ve decided to make changes in my life.
I’ll be having a new direction in life, and there will be new aims, new goals and new perpectives.
It’s going to be fun. :)
Sunday, July 13, 2008
the day i lost my wallet
Friday, 11th July was supposed to be one of the best days in a long time.
However, it turned out to be one of the worst, when my wallet was stolen on this fateful day.
The interview in the morning went well. In fact, it went so smoothly I almost couldn’t believe it myself.
Here’s what happened after:
I decided to meet H for lunch at Swensen’s Park Hotel, to have sort of a mini-celebration. I was in a real good mood so we splurged quite a bit, and ended up paying over 60 dollars just for lunch, something I don’t do very often.
While paying for the bill, H saw that there was this new Swensen’s card, where points which were earned could be redeemed for food items. He also learnt that the money that I had just paid could be used to exchange for some points even though the card could have been applied at a later time, provided the receipt was kept. Because I was the one paying, I took the receipt, and kept it in my wallet.
We then headed over to Takashimaya to meet someone – a bag seller whom H was supposed to meet up with. I was reluctant, but we went anyway. We waited for 30 minutes, but she never turned up. It was at 5pm when we were just about to make a move, when an SMS rolled in, saying, “Sorry, I was in a meeting. I’ll be over by 5.30pm”. Neither of us didn’t want to wait any longer, so we left, and walked to the bus stop to catch the bus home.
A single-decker service 14 bus arrived. Yes, single-decker. For those of you who take SBS Transit’s service 14, you will know that SBS Transit uses double-decker buses to ply the route of this bus service. Unfortunately, I was tired and didn’t want to wait any longer, so I boarded the bus together with H. Besides, the bus came rightaway, and there were still ample empty seats around anyway.
Both of us headed right to the back of the bus, and sat down comfortably.
During the journey, H asked me for the Swensen’s receipt I had kept earlier on. I dug out my wallet, handed over the receipt to him, and I’m not sure if I did this, but I probably had my wallet in my left hand, together with my phone, after passing over the receipt.
Holding my wallet together with my phone is something I do quite often, I must say, so that it’ll be less of a hassle during alighting. I have always disliked the idea of trying to fish for your wallet while trying to make your exit, especially when the bus is crowded and the people around are staring at you. So there, it was highlly likely that I had held my wallet and phone in my hand.
Halfway, H alighted at his place at Bukit Merah, while I continued my journey.
Unfortunately, I was feeling really quite tired as I had got up early for the interview in the morning, and I fell asleep by accident. It was around the Buona Vista area then. I got up about 5 minutes later at Dover MRT, and I remember seeing almost everyone leaving the bus then. I was glad I didn’t miss my stop, because I was 2 stops away from home.
Here’s the wonderful part.
I was just about to get ready to alight when I realized my wallet wasn’t in my hand. Ah, must be in my pocket, I thought to myself. Nope, it wasn’t there. Must have dropped into my bag then (it happened before, because I usually hug my bag, and yes my wallet has accidentally dropped into it before). I searched frantically for it, but it wasn’t there. I tried to calm myself. Aiyah, I must have dropped it onto the floor! I looked around, but found nothing.
This was when I started panicking. The bus had arrived at my destination but I continued my search. I mean, how am I even supposed to alight when I don’t have my wallet?
I started ransacking my bag, looking around the floor, and even the corner next to my seat. I found nothing. There weren’t many people left on the bus, and I was just about to ask the lady who was sitting nearby for help when she started looking at me suspiciously like I was about to plant a bomb or something. I changed my mind, of course.
I completely panicked when I realized my wallet was really MISSING. It was the first time I’ve ever lost anything as valuable as this, so you can imagine how I was feeling at that time.
The bus reached Clementi interchange 3 stops later, and I informed the bus captain that I had lost my wallet. He told me he’d park the bus first, while I continued my search, which was to no avail.
Fu*k, I thought to myself. My immediate reaction was to ring up DBS bank at 1800-111-1111. It’s the easiest number to remember ever, you know. The automated voice said: “Welcome to DBS Bank. For English, please press 1.” I hit 1. It continued, “For Mandarin, please press 2.” I pressed 1 again. There was nothing.
I hung up and redialed. “Welcome to DBS Bank. For English, please press 1.” I hit 1 again and again. There was no response. I called DBS Bank TEN times in total, and for some strange reason the digits I hit had incurred no response from the automated voice machine.
I hung up in anger, and rang H. For some strange reason, reception was poor and he couldn’t hear me, so he hung up after a while. If I remember correctly, my phone then hung on me for a while.
Indeed, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy couldn’t have been more right.
I couldn’t take it any longer. I thanked the bus captain, dashed out of the bus, and hurried over to the nearest public phone at the bus interchange. Surprise surprise, the phone didn’t work. I used another one. Finally, I was through, and talking to the operator, requesting him to temporarily deactivate my debit and NETS cards. Coincidentally, my mobile phone was ringing off its hook in my pocket. I thought it was H who was calling back, but it turned out to be another friend who was back in Singapore and wanted to ask me out. Of all times, really, of all times. I don’t blame him, of course.
I then rang up the police and informed them that I had lost all my wallet, including my NRIC. They advised me to head down to the nearest police station to make a report, as they could do nothing over the phone. I then did so, not before heading to the SBS Transit office to make a report. They told me that the bus had left so they couldn’t do anything about it.
I then spent the next hour or so at the police station, and because I was penniless, I had to walk home after.
I was completely furious that evening.
It’s sickening, you know. It’s bloody sickening to know that there are such assholes out there who would do anything for money. This was also an unfortunate incident because I had more than $200 in my wallet. I had recently developed 600 over photos at Konica and forked out the money first, and my mum returned me the money when I reached home. This was one of the RARE occasions where I had decided to keep the $200 in my wallet till the weekend, where I would be collecting a whole bunch of other fees from my students. It would then be easier to deposit all the money at one go, instead of doing the procedure twice. It was a wrong decision made. How unfortunate is that.
Now, I can only hope that the person who stole my wallet would return my belongings. You can take my money for all I care. Just return me my cards. I have lost everything, from my NRIC to my driving license to my NETS and debit cards to cashcards to access passes to student’s condos to my church pass to all my discount cards like Popular, John Little and what not.
Thank goodness I bought a new digital camera last week and have used up every cent of my $913 Best Denki gift card.
If the thief doesn’t intend to return my cards or hand my wallet in to the police, I’ll have to reapply for everything, which sucks, because it’s going to cost a lot of unnecessary money.
In any case, I’m not going to curse at the person who stole my wallet or anything, because firstly, God knows. Secondly, what goes around comes around, and I can’t be more than certain of that. I hope he or she will be punished in ways that he/she will ever imagine, and that that person will repent after.
I’m going to wrap up this entry by saying that although it was my fault for being careless, H had a huge part to play as well. If he hadn’t kept me waiting for an extra 30 minutes, I wouldn’t have been on that bus. If he hadn’t asked for the receipt, my wallet would still have been in my pocket throughout the journey.
Oh well. What an unfortunate, costly lesson.
However, it turned out to be one of the worst, when my wallet was stolen on this fateful day.
The interview in the morning went well. In fact, it went so smoothly I almost couldn’t believe it myself.
Here’s what happened after:
I decided to meet H for lunch at Swensen’s Park Hotel, to have sort of a mini-celebration. I was in a real good mood so we splurged quite a bit, and ended up paying over 60 dollars just for lunch, something I don’t do very often.
While paying for the bill, H saw that there was this new Swensen’s card, where points which were earned could be redeemed for food items. He also learnt that the money that I had just paid could be used to exchange for some points even though the card could have been applied at a later time, provided the receipt was kept. Because I was the one paying, I took the receipt, and kept it in my wallet.
We then headed over to Takashimaya to meet someone – a bag seller whom H was supposed to meet up with. I was reluctant, but we went anyway. We waited for 30 minutes, but she never turned up. It was at 5pm when we were just about to make a move, when an SMS rolled in, saying, “Sorry, I was in a meeting. I’ll be over by 5.30pm”. Neither of us didn’t want to wait any longer, so we left, and walked to the bus stop to catch the bus home.
A single-decker service 14 bus arrived. Yes, single-decker. For those of you who take SBS Transit’s service 14, you will know that SBS Transit uses double-decker buses to ply the route of this bus service. Unfortunately, I was tired and didn’t want to wait any longer, so I boarded the bus together with H. Besides, the bus came rightaway, and there were still ample empty seats around anyway.
Both of us headed right to the back of the bus, and sat down comfortably.
During the journey, H asked me for the Swensen’s receipt I had kept earlier on. I dug out my wallet, handed over the receipt to him, and I’m not sure if I did this, but I probably had my wallet in my left hand, together with my phone, after passing over the receipt.
Holding my wallet together with my phone is something I do quite often, I must say, so that it’ll be less of a hassle during alighting. I have always disliked the idea of trying to fish for your wallet while trying to make your exit, especially when the bus is crowded and the people around are staring at you. So there, it was highlly likely that I had held my wallet and phone in my hand.
Halfway, H alighted at his place at Bukit Merah, while I continued my journey.
Unfortunately, I was feeling really quite tired as I had got up early for the interview in the morning, and I fell asleep by accident. It was around the Buona Vista area then. I got up about 5 minutes later at Dover MRT, and I remember seeing almost everyone leaving the bus then. I was glad I didn’t miss my stop, because I was 2 stops away from home.
Here’s the wonderful part.
I was just about to get ready to alight when I realized my wallet wasn’t in my hand. Ah, must be in my pocket, I thought to myself. Nope, it wasn’t there. Must have dropped into my bag then (it happened before, because I usually hug my bag, and yes my wallet has accidentally dropped into it before). I searched frantically for it, but it wasn’t there. I tried to calm myself. Aiyah, I must have dropped it onto the floor! I looked around, but found nothing.
This was when I started panicking. The bus had arrived at my destination but I continued my search. I mean, how am I even supposed to alight when I don’t have my wallet?
I started ransacking my bag, looking around the floor, and even the corner next to my seat. I found nothing. There weren’t many people left on the bus, and I was just about to ask the lady who was sitting nearby for help when she started looking at me suspiciously like I was about to plant a bomb or something. I changed my mind, of course.
I completely panicked when I realized my wallet was really MISSING. It was the first time I’ve ever lost anything as valuable as this, so you can imagine how I was feeling at that time.
The bus reached Clementi interchange 3 stops later, and I informed the bus captain that I had lost my wallet. He told me he’d park the bus first, while I continued my search, which was to no avail.
Fu*k, I thought to myself. My immediate reaction was to ring up DBS bank at 1800-111-1111. It’s the easiest number to remember ever, you know. The automated voice said: “Welcome to DBS Bank. For English, please press 1.” I hit 1. It continued, “For Mandarin, please press 2.” I pressed 1 again. There was nothing.
I hung up and redialed. “Welcome to DBS Bank. For English, please press 1.” I hit 1 again and again. There was no response. I called DBS Bank TEN times in total, and for some strange reason the digits I hit had incurred no response from the automated voice machine.
I hung up in anger, and rang H. For some strange reason, reception was poor and he couldn’t hear me, so he hung up after a while. If I remember correctly, my phone then hung on me for a while.
Indeed, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy couldn’t have been more right.
I couldn’t take it any longer. I thanked the bus captain, dashed out of the bus, and hurried over to the nearest public phone at the bus interchange. Surprise surprise, the phone didn’t work. I used another one. Finally, I was through, and talking to the operator, requesting him to temporarily deactivate my debit and NETS cards. Coincidentally, my mobile phone was ringing off its hook in my pocket. I thought it was H who was calling back, but it turned out to be another friend who was back in Singapore and wanted to ask me out. Of all times, really, of all times. I don’t blame him, of course.
I then rang up the police and informed them that I had lost all my wallet, including my NRIC. They advised me to head down to the nearest police station to make a report, as they could do nothing over the phone. I then did so, not before heading to the SBS Transit office to make a report. They told me that the bus had left so they couldn’t do anything about it.
I then spent the next hour or so at the police station, and because I was penniless, I had to walk home after.
I was completely furious that evening.
It’s sickening, you know. It’s bloody sickening to know that there are such assholes out there who would do anything for money. This was also an unfortunate incident because I had more than $200 in my wallet. I had recently developed 600 over photos at Konica and forked out the money first, and my mum returned me the money when I reached home. This was one of the RARE occasions where I had decided to keep the $200 in my wallet till the weekend, where I would be collecting a whole bunch of other fees from my students. It would then be easier to deposit all the money at one go, instead of doing the procedure twice. It was a wrong decision made. How unfortunate is that.
Now, I can only hope that the person who stole my wallet would return my belongings. You can take my money for all I care. Just return me my cards. I have lost everything, from my NRIC to my driving license to my NETS and debit cards to cashcards to access passes to student’s condos to my church pass to all my discount cards like Popular, John Little and what not.
Thank goodness I bought a new digital camera last week and have used up every cent of my $913 Best Denki gift card.
If the thief doesn’t intend to return my cards or hand my wallet in to the police, I’ll have to reapply for everything, which sucks, because it’s going to cost a lot of unnecessary money.
In any case, I’m not going to curse at the person who stole my wallet or anything, because firstly, God knows. Secondly, what goes around comes around, and I can’t be more than certain of that. I hope he or she will be punished in ways that he/she will ever imagine, and that that person will repent after.
I’m going to wrap up this entry by saying that although it was my fault for being careless, H had a huge part to play as well. If he hadn’t kept me waiting for an extra 30 minutes, I wouldn’t have been on that bus. If he hadn’t asked for the receipt, my wallet would still have been in my pocket throughout the journey.
Oh well. What an unfortunate, costly lesson.
