Walao Man!

About the title: "Walao" is an exclamation commonly used in Singapore to express shock, amazement, surprise, or frustration.


Today was NOT my day. I knew that from the moment I woke up. I showered, got ready for work, and headed out the door and toward the bus stop. After waiting for the bus for a few minutes I realized that I had left my wallet in my hotel room safe. YIKES! No wallet means no bus pass.

I walked back to my hotel and went up to my 17th floor suite only to realize that the room key I needed was ALSO in my wallet in the locked safe. Just my luck! I headed back down to the front desk to get a new key made only to realize that I needed proof of my identity (i.e. my drivers lisence, which was OF COURSE . . . in my wallet, in the safe.) Anybody starting to see a pattern developing here? The front desk clerk gave me a quick quiz on my personal info to vertify that I was indeed who I claimed to be, and made me another key. I ran back up to my room, got my wallet and just as I was heading out the door for the 2nd time, my room phone rang. AAAAAAHHHHH! At this point I was late for work (only my 2nd day . . . not a good look.) I picked up the phone, only to find it was my mom, perky as ever. You know when you are in a bad mood and all of a sudden you come into contact with someone who is ENTIRELY too happy? It just makes you madder.

Anyway, to save time, I called my parents back on my cell phone to talk while I was walking back to the bus stop. As soon as I set foot out of the hotel front door I saw the bus coming down the block. I sprinted across eight lanes of moving traffic and flagged down the bus driver, who had already begun to drive away from the stop. It was SUPER embarrassing cuz everybody on the bus had already seen me stupidly running through traffic balancing a laptop, a cup of coffee, a cell phone, and the morning newspaper. Not to mention the fact that I am ALWAYS the only 6’2” white kid on the bus. My existence in this country is kind of like the proverbial pink elephant in the room I guess.

If things weren’t already bad enough, after 10 minutes of phone conversation, I realized that I was on the wrong bus. Yes, I had gotten on the 64 bus thinking that it was the 51 bus. (I guess I DO need to wear my glasses more often.) By this point I was on the totally opposite end of the island. Orchard Road!? I wanted to be in Bugis! Trying not to make a scene, I quietly got off of the bus and caught a cab into work. Somehow my 80-cent morning commute turned into an 8-dollar adventure. Hummphh. I walked into the office late, looking frazzled. Andrea giggled a bit as I sat down across from her at my desk. After quickly flashing her the “I don’t want to talk about it” glare she stopped. She knew what was good for her. Haha.

But all in all this day ended up not being so bad. The website for the ad campaign that I am running is due to be launched tomorrow (my 3rd day of work) so I’ve been in conference calls all day with our web design agency. I really thrive off of this energy. I also found out today that I might be going on a business trip to Sydney, Australia to run the casting call for our Holiday Inn TV commercial. God is good.

After a super jam-packed day at the office, Andrea and I walked to Arab street to grab dinner. It was gorgeous. All of the streets were lit up for Hari Raya (The Malay festival of lights) The Golden roof Mosque was lit up too. We both had Murtabak and lime juice. (FYI Murtabak is Indian flatbread with egg and curry chicken backed into it. It is AMAZING.)

I’ve been back at the office for two hours now doing some extra work and trying to get on my Boss’ good side. It’s almost 10pm so I guess it’s time to call it a night.

All in all, I guess today wasn’t a bad day after all . . .