Anecdotes from Singapore

As I complete 3yrs in Singapore, I was thinking about a few funny and sometimes embarrassing incidents that happened to me here and thought I should put them down somewhere.

1.I had been in S'pore for about 2weeks, when my cooking gas got over. So I called my hubby at work and he told me there is a sticker on the cabinet door and asked me to call that number. So I did and the man asked me - "what condo-unit?"...it took me about 15mins to realize what he was saying and then had to embarrassingly tell him - I don't know...can I call u back?. I am sure he thought I was stupid. So I had to take the lift down, find out the name of my condo (imagine asking people- excuse me-what is the name of this condo; when you can actually standing inside it), the block number and also my unit number and call him back.


2.Another classic one was when I went for a walk with my son one afternoon after his lunch and came back to my condo only to realize I had forgotten my house keys at home, along with my phone and purse. And my condo had a private lift, so I couldn't even go up to my floor...Oh and did I mention I didn't know my husband's number? So I went to a market nearby, borrowed a dollar coin from a stranger, called my grandmother in India, got my husband's number from her quickly and cut the line before she could ask me anything else, then borrowed 20cents from another man, called my hubby and told him what happened. My husband got home as soon as he could, but left only after he gave me a huge lecture and wrote his number down on my son's stroller with a marker.


3.A blistering hot S'pore afternoon in the June of 2009. Was lazing around on the couch trying to watch a movie after demolishing a very heavy lunch. My then 2yr old was jumping up and down on the sofa beside me as usual, singing at the top of his voice. After a while he stopped jumping on the sofa and began waving and saying "Hi...nice to meet u"...I smiled at his imagination
After a few secs, he seemed to get irritated and shouted “Hi”...waving frantically...and then my heart stopped cuz from behind me came a deep male voice...."HI" it said. I still don't know how I did it, but in a sec I grabbed my son, jumped over the low table with my son's tennis bat in hand, facing "THE VOICE" - who turned out to be an innocent painter who had come to paint my balcony as a part of the whole condo painting venture. We are on the 8th floor so you can imagine my surprise to see a man standing on my balcony, long paint roller in hand. My couch faces away from the balcony and I had forgotten that I had left the sliding doors open to let in some air. The guy apologized profusely for scaring me, but I could see he was desp trying to hold back laughter. I must have looked a sight with my all powerful kiddie bat in hand out to slay the intruder.