Shrek and I....(part 2 of recent Singapore trip)

getting lost down under..

Ok, not so down under and Shrek wasn't lost. Just myself. Driving in an unfamiliar territory (this mini island called Singapore...hehehe), I had with me some googled maps as well as some internet directions to get to my ex-boss' place. Dinner was scheduled around 7pm, so I had a good 90-100 minutes to get to the other end of the island. Which, is way more than enough..

Unless you get lost..During peak traffic period. It didn't help that the internet instructions were somewhat ambiguous, or required some basic knowledge of Singapore roads. While I have been to Singapore multiple times, this is the first time I am driving down on my own, unassisted/guided. Ok, minimal assistance.

Anyway, right out of the Customs area I had an immediate crossroads which thanks to lack of split second manoevering I didn't take an exit I shouldn't have. I ended up driving along the highway and eventually saw signboards that was familiar (as in noted in the internet directions) and began familiarising myself with the acronyms for Singapore hgihways. Off my head, they have PIE, CPE, errr......Only 3 weeks and I am already forgeting details.. Sigh. A sure sign of growing old.

Back to following internet directions, I manage to get onto the next highway without much glitch although I was travelling way under the permitted speed limit. Clear indication of a noob in the city. Nevertheless my next direction got me in trouble. From what I can recall, I was suppose to stay in PIE (and expressway) but it referenced Toa Payoh. Silly me thought that I needed to exit it and found myself off PIE and inside Toa Payoh surburbs. Took me a good couple of minutes to realise things were amiss as I couldn't find anything relevant to my next direction. An sms to my ex-boss to indicate I am lost and I proceeded to double back onto PIE. Had I any local street knowledge I would have been able to exit PIE much more ahead rather than where I left off, but alas, noob is as noob be...

Returning to the expressway I was again conned (by my silly self) to take the next exit, I think Paya Besar...(something like that) as it was indicated in the directions. Unfortunately for me, it was again just an indication that PIE would cut through that area, but I wasn't suppose to get off the expressway. This time I realised my mistake much sooner. Unfortunately, before I could make an appropriate (and somewhat late) change of lanes I had this Singaporean car honking me for my late manoever. I mean, the light was red and besides him, there were no other cars. Clearly Singaporeans have little patience. Especially this bloke. He even proceeded to move to the lane on the left to level wih my car and give me an eyeball. Funnily, he exited far left when the lane I was on proceeds to the right. Jerk.. :D

After a good turn or 3 I returned to PIE and told myself, no matter what happens I'll stick to this expressway until the very end where it's suppose to exit to CPE (another expressway). All the while I keep seeing signboards that say I'm headed towards Changi Airport and for all the wrong reasons I kept having the idea that Changi Airport is on the west side of the island while I'm suppose to be heading east. Internally I was torn, with my gut telling me to change directions but my brain saying enough gut moves, just stick to the plan.

Luckily for me at the end of the expressway was clear indications to the CPE and this time it gave me the option to go away from Changi Airport. So I figured my gut was right anyway (despite later realising how wrong I was). My next instruction was even more confusing. I was given the address as Marine Vista, which, by Malaysian standards, sounded like an condo name. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a road name for a smaller road.

The exit I was directed to go to didn't get me directly onto Marine Vista but the turning before it. The reason was that I was coming from the east, the exit directly to Marine Vista only existed if I came from the West (which would cause further confusion later). I could already see the scores of high rise condos around me and felt confident I was near, but I just couldn't find anything that would lead me closer to my destination. Time to use up my last helpline; Call the ex-boss.

Informing my position wasn't all that difficult, except that my ex-boss thought I came from the West, not East. So I supposedly overshot and had to exit back to the highway and move backwards (in terms of the directions, I was exit right, but from my perspective, I needed to exit left...) So I did exactly that and turned up even further from my destination.

I rarely feel lost. I felt DAMN LOST now. The only thing I had going for me was this internal sense of direction which I trusted (yeah, even boasted too) very much. From a complete lost position, I felt I was further off than initially suggested and took a risk to just drive on the main road that I was on. I thought to myself, "I'm going to need a little luck now." Time to score some critical rolls with my luck/direction score/skill. I believe I did, as somehow I saw the signboard Marine Parade, which was something mentioned in the additional instructions that came by after I got lost the second time.

Driving along that road I realised now that I have gone a full circle around my destination; As in instead of overshooting the first time, I undershot my exit, only to then reenter even further away from my destination because of the misconception of my position relative to my destination. I then drove aimlessly pass my destination only to find my way around.

So luck aside, I found myself on the other side of the road where my ex-boss was waiting for me. Initial plans were for me to drop off my luggage before we head to the dinner venue; my time spent groping around Singapore meant we'd have to go straight away and leave the 'lets check out the place much later'. Here comes the other funny part.

I'm been holding out that my ex-boss was a lady all through my writing I believe. If I let on about it earlier, then my bad. But for me to deliver the punchline now required me to indicate that it's a she. A brief description is that she's a somewhat typical chinese female in her forties, I believe. To make things easier for she decided she would wait for me at the main road nearby the bus stop outside the condo (or apartment? hmm...). I've seen my ex-boss before and my impression of her was as she is. Middle aged chinese female. For the fact that she was once a lawyer and worked in the same 'field' as I do now gave me the impression her attire would be somewhat...Old fashioned?

So there was this female which was in shorts and sleeveless with pony tails standing my the side of the road and in my erred mind I go,"Now where's my ex-boss? She said my the bus stop? Better drive towards the bus stop and look." I didn't give that youthful hip looking lady a second look!

Luckily there was a bus in front of me, so I stopped and waited for the bus to leave before seeing if this was the right bus stop. As I stopped my ex-boss rang me but disconnected immediately before I picked up the call. I was confused. Suddenly I realised there was that very same female I dismissed as some young chick running towards my car ( I think with arms flailing) and it finally dawn upon me..."That's her, you silly boy!" My ex-boss asked if I even saw her in the first place and I could bring about telling her I did but dismissed her as some teeny bopper....

I sure get my fair share of embarassing moments everytime I travel..Once she got on the car it was much easier to get to the dinner venue as she could direct my way. While she's not been in Singapore for awhile, she definitely knew Singapore much better than the noob me.

Dinner went as planned and food was so so. It was a beach side restaurant and 8 of us had a simple and talkative dinner. By 10pm ish the restaurant was asking for last orders, signalling it's time to go. Suprisingly no one decided to go drinking. I guess aside from the attires, everyone was rather homely type (or didn't want to show the crazy side of things to the people there...Alcohol does that, you know...)

A short drive back and we decided to have a quick teh tarik first before entering the condo area as parking before 11pm was by hour, after 11pm was until the next morning. Parking in Singapore is quite expensive. It seems like over the years teh tarik has become quite a norm there, so we found ourselves going to a nearby place for it. A short chat to update latest work stuff (mainly bitching about some colleagues and their incompetences...:D) and it was time to get back to the condo.

Oh, I haven't seen it yet. I should describe it. But I'm way past the number of words per post...So it'll have to be another time then!

Next up: The Condo, The Food and the Great Revelation!!!! :D :D

About a ....(Part 1)

trip down to Singapore last weekend....

Well, looks like I've been able to keep up with traveling to that country that I supposedly so loathe. The people, in general, at least. The country is actually quite ordered and nice.

In any case, enough talking about same old same old...The trip down last weekend was quite different from the previous trips...Here's a few reasons:

1) I was driving down...ON MY OWN...(Ok, I went with Shrek..But I'm sure he doesn't mind me not actually counting him... :p)

2) I wasn't there on business or for some event that I was in some way a part of. I was going there with no other reason but to eat...Eat..and EAT!!!

I actually had some photos taken, but somehow I failed to get around uploading the pictures. So when I do, maybe revisit this and have some silly fun on the silly pictures I take (hint hint, I don't think there was anyone in the pictures..).

Now the main excuse for me to go down was to join in a farewell dinner of my ex-boss, who, while was quite unfortunate to be retrenched by my company and inadvertably realised how despite all the talk about employees being important et all, realised that in times like these (yes, my company is affected by the whole economic crash in the USA) everyone's so busy covering their own ass they forget to do the decent thing; retrench people with dignity. They shy around the subject, make it all hush hush yet when the shit hits the fan, they act as though they didn't know it was coming despite being informed like aeons ago. Earlier in my working life I still believed that sometimes leaders/bosses don't get the news that we expect them to get as much as we expect them to, but over the years I've come to know that a leader that's ill informed is a poor leader. A good leader tends to get information from various sources and when dealing with retrencment/downsizing, if they're not part of the plan then they would have contributed in it. Hence, they would have KNOWN..

Back to my ex-boss, who unfortunately only rejoined the company around 2 years back so would only get a small package, initially took the news quite hard. As with anyone who is forced to undergo a change in their lives, especially when in comes to losing a source of income, she was quite unhappy with the news. But over time she saw the better side of the news. Coupled with the fact that despite being told to go within 1 month of the announcement, she was asked to stay for another 6 months, giving her more time to clear up the stuff and look for another job. While she has yet to reemploy herself, I hear she's lined up good prospects and wishing her best of luck. In any case, she's enjoying the extended holiday where the only reason it will end is because she chooses too; Not because the annual leaves approved only so much or something needs to be done back at work...

Oops. Supposed to talk about the trip..hehe..

Now dinner was on a Friday and for some reason the Singapore Government decided that they'll let cars from Malaysia drive over for free if it's from 5pm to 2am daily. Why? I don't know. Maybe they want travellers to not come into the city during working hours. Since getting past Customs at 5pm would be just nice for me to reach dinner time around 7pm, I had to time my drive nicely so that I do not arrive in Johor Baru too early or too late.

For those unfamiliar, the drive is from KL - JB - SG and the distance is around 400KM thereabouts. I racked up a good 900KM for my whole trip. Which was good exercise for Shrek. I expected the drive to take about 4 hours bar any jams along the highway. I left my office (yes, I ws working on Friday) around 11.45am and decided to eat lunch along the highway. At first I wanted to have McDonalds at one of those drive through outlets, but I missed the outlet along the highway and ended up with 2 buns instead. I bought a Snickers bar, but didn't eat it until I reached the causeway.

The drive down was largely uneventful. Trying hard to abide by the speed limit and keeping to the fact that I needed to arrive at the causeway after 5pm, it was quite a carefree drive. Shrek doesn't go very fast, so at 110KM/H he was quite worked up but stable. I had 2 short stops along the way, mostly to relieve myself and to change from shoes to slippers. Do not drive long distance with shoes unless they're superbly comfortable..Have mercy on your right foot...

Despite all my attempts to be on time, my inner anxiety of being late made me arrive Johor Baru by 4.15pm. With time to kill, I went petrol kiosk hunting so that I have a full tank when I cross over to Singapore. Luckily for me, I'm not restricted by Singaporean laws that require the petrol tanks to be of a certain amount when crossing over, either way...Unfortunate, for the very fact that I didn't reasearch JB at all, I ended up driving round and round the city eventually ending up at the same petrol kiosk I spotted on the opposite side of the road. Then I decided to make another big round before going towards the malaysian Immigration complex as I prepare my travel towards Singapore.

It wasn't after 5pm, however. But as much as I wanted to save SGD 20 by crossing over after 5pm, I was getting jittery waiting for time to pass by. I clearly have issues staying put. So I crossed the Malaysian Customs 20 minutes ahead of time. Nothing much happened except I notice that there were a large number of cars stopping at the side. I guess I'm not the only one intending to not pay. Eventually a traffic police came over to 'encourage' us to move along and stop waiting.

Passing through Customs in Singapore was quite a breeze. Luckily from there onwards I DID research...Somewhat...Now, if only even having some directions and a print out of the way to meet my ex-boss I'd not get lost....

But then again, I expected to get lost since I'm driving in a foreign country for the first time...... :D

.....To Be Continued...