the morning when nothing went right...

Yesterday was just horrible...

I can now write about it... after regaining my sanity...

Okay... typically, a working day begins with me waking up at 6:30 in the morning, make myself breakfast, bathe, and take a bus to work... I usually get to work on time.

However, yesterday, after a great night listening to the UST Singers (sidenote: they're REALLY good... MABUHAY ANG PILIPINAS!), I found myself waking up at 7:51AM... yes, the alarm did not wake me up... so I panicked.

I realised I had two options:
a.) take a cab ($8++), which had two sub-options:
1.) call; or 2.) stand and wait.
-or-
b.) take a bus like I always do.

Of course, I took the politically correct option: call a cab, pay a bit more, and get to work on time.

Now, after bathing and brushing my teeth, (it was around 8:05AM), I started calling... no response... "if you want us to continue searching for a cab, please press '2'..." I think I heard that 4 or 5 times... while going down the elevator, walking towards the road, waving endlessly at "HIRED" cabs... So I decided to be practical... I took a bus down... which means I'd get to work around 9AM... boss is going to kill me... but at least I show up, right? It's the effort that matters.

At this point, I thought that the politically correct thing to do was call up my boss and inform her that I would be late.

The line was busy.

Great.

So I took the LRT down to the bus stop where there was a bus that would bring me to work.

My choices: 190, 700, 171.

Usually, I'd take a 700 or a 190 down. But two 190's just ran past me while I was running to the bus stop.

Great.

700's were notorious for coming once in a few years, and 171's were known to go around Singapore before getting to your desired stop.

Suddenly, from the horizon emerged a bus... my bus... a 171.

So I got on the bus... everything's gonna be fine already, right??? I'm gonna get to work by 9AM, the boss will talk to me, I will explain... at least it was under an hour. So I got on presuming that everything's gonna be alright.

I was wrong.

It was just the beginning.

You see, that bus stop was the one before the PIE expressway... 190 and 700 would usually go straight and turn at Stevens Road...

Well... this one... turned right away... about 5 meters into the highway...

So I thought... how can this be wrong? maybe I was just hallucinating...

Know what? I wasn't...

Soon enough... signboards came up... instead of the "Orchard Road" and "Stevens Road" signs that I should be seeing, I saw "Mandai Road"...

bad...

that wasn't the worst... Remember, I was on the highway, so there's no way the bus is gonna stop for the next 15-20 minutes...

So I started looking out for familiar landmarks... that could get me to town... so I could get to work ASAP...

You know what? I did see a familiar landmark...

And guess what? all of you reading this would be familiar with this landmark too... Not because I have a certain degree of mastery of Singapore's roads...

Man, even tourists on a 3-day trip to Singapore would be familiar with this...

Yeah... NIGHT SAFARI / SINGAPORE ZOO.

So naturally, the landmark didn't help me... it only helped to discourage me further.

So I figured I'd just take the bus all the way to Yishun MRT, the next "strategic location".

Got off at the bus terminal... time check: 9:10AM!!!!

So I dashed to the nearest taxi stand and waved like a crazy man... yes, a cab came... and drove me to work...

the fare?

$14.90 (savings, huh?)

time?

9:45AM

I said sorry to one of my supervisors... guess what??? she just smiled and gave me work to do haha

and as for my boss?

She wasn't around... she was walking around for much of the morning, I suppose... I even said hello to her...

But I didn't let that spirit of negativity and pessimism defeat me.

Prayer works wonders...

I ended up having quite a nice day at work!

So now, I have a 171-phobia... and I have 2 alarm clocks... one waaaaaayyyy out of my reach so I have to get up to snooze it...