A Little Mobile Phone (mis)Adventure

hi folks! i am back from the states. texas, to be exact. it was an awesome trip to an awesome country. now that i’m back home, i can’t help but feel a little depressed. singapore is very different from america indeed.

but before i talk about the trip, let me first recover from the jet lag. texas time is 14 hours behind singapore time. just when i had finally gotten used to the time difference over there, i had to return to singapore. the topsy-turvy time differences over the short span of two weeks is something new to me and i’m still having difficulty adjusting back to singapore time.

i will blog about dallas from this weekend onwards. right now i simply must talk about the little adventure i had today. i was at harbourfront centre getting some stuff for the office when i misplaced my mobile phone. a thousand-dollar limited edition o2 atom pure that i purchased barely three months ago. and it was gone!

i was walking along the stores, minding my own business when i reached into my bag and realised, to my horror, that my phone wasn’t in its usual compartment on the front. now ladies, we all know how many different compartments our bags have. lipstick compartment, mobile phone compartment, a secret zipped compartment, or two, et cetera. you get the idea. so when my phone wasn’t in its usual compartment, i immediately thought it’s missing. after some checking i found that i had absent-mindedly placed it in a different compartment, that’s all. phew! all was well, so i went into a stationery store to buy some stuff.

00:00 hours — yay! i got all the stuff i wanted, i thought, as i made my way back to the office.

00:03 hours — at the bus stop i realised, for the second time, that my phone wasn’t where it should be! at that moment my bus came. recalling the earlier incident i thought nothing of it and got onto the bus anyway.

00:04 hours — on the bus, i checked the big compartment of my bag. no phone. i fumbled around, pouring out all the contents of my bag. no phone still. that was when i realised my phone was really missing!

00:05 hours — “excuse me sir. i lost my mobile phone. may i borrow your phone for a minute?” i asked the guy sitting opposite me. he gave me a bored look and passed over his phone without a word. i dialed my number and it rang forever. there was no answer. so i returned him the phone, said thank you, and he took it back, again without a word or even a look of concern. it’s amazing how apathetic people can get when others are in need. incredible!

00:06 hours — tracing back the events in my mind, i knew i must have left it on the counter of the stationery store as i was making payment. so i got off the bus and thought i would return to the store.

00:07 hours — i found myself at a petrol station. i decided to try my luck again and borrowed their phone. the lady at the petrol station gave me the same reaction as Guy on the Bus. i dialed my number, and again there was no answer. i called up the phone directory service to get the number of the store. the store person answered and claimed she didn’t see my phone anywhere. my heart sank. things certainly looked bleak.

00:09 hours — i knew i had, at best, a twenty percent chance of recovering my phone, but i got into a cab anyway and made my way back to harbourfront centre. finally, i encountered some humane behavior when the cab driver appeared almost sympathetic to my plight. we both agreed it’s unlikely i would retrieve my phone.

00:12 hours — reached harbourfront centre. along the way to the store i kept looking to see if anyone’s holding my phone. i figured if someone picked up my phone he or she would be trying to find a way to shut it off. people generally do not know how to turn off a pda phone.

when i reached the stationery store, i realised i had called up the wrong store earlier, which was why the person who answered sounded confused and said she didn’t see my phone anywhere. it was possible my phone was still around!

00:13 hours — the lady at the counter was the same one who served me before, but she showed no sign of recognition.

“hi, i was here ten minutes ago, buying XXX item. i left my mobile phone behind. do you remember me?”

immediately she broke out into a big smile and handed my mobile phone over from below the counter. for a moment there i swear it shone and glistened under the fluorescent lighting. i was so grateful i almost couldn’t believe it!

in my mind i wondered how i could thank the lady. instinctively i handed over a couple of ten-dollar bills and asked her to go buy herself a dinner. but she said no, no, no, no, no, despite a lot of persuasion from me. well, i found out her name at least. it was angela. what an angel!

as i walked away from the store, my heart was racing and i felt as though i was walking on clouds! that was the first time i had ever lost my mobile phone and i was more than thrilled to get it back. seriously, how lucky was i? most people lose their phones and never see it again.

in the distance i heard the light chiming of bells. normally i would have found it annoying but this time, i was in a great mood. it came from a volunteer who was collecting donations for the salvation army. i knew i had to return the karma somehow. so i emptied my wallet into their red collection tin. it was just thirty bucks but the volunteers looked as grateful as i did five minutes before.

with my heart still racing, i looked around for a quick alcohol fix to calm myself down. harry’s bar was closed for a function so i hopped into coffee club next door. the moment i sat down i asked if they had any alcohol stuff. i must have sounded like a raging alcoholic! the only thing they had was irish coffee so i didn’t have much of a choice. it tasted pretty vile, with the whipped cream being the best part of the drink. not that i cared anyway.

thinking back, i wondered if angela had wanted to keep the phone for herself. i mean, i did call a couple of times and she didn’t even pick up my calls. if i picked up somebody else’s phone i would pay full attention to it in case its owner called back. but well, it doesn’t matter now. all’s well that ends well.

and how weird was it, that barely five minutes before actually losing the phone, i got a scare and thought it was really missing? the universe does work in amazing ways! i had been warned. i just didn’t pay enough attention.

perhaps now is the time to invest in a nice pair of cargo pants.

Posted by Veron · Uncategorized category · 3,213 views