The Tip of the Prawn

surprise, surprise. P didn’t manage to make the deadline. for whatever reason he gave me, i know deep down it stemmed from a conscious lack of effort. am i shocked or devastated? totally not. in fact, i was expecting it and i’m pretty surprised by my lack of emotions.

perhaps it’s because i know it’s time to move on. two years and nothing has been done means… nothing ever will be done. and regardless of circumstances, i learnt that people will always take advantage of you when you’re too nice and easygoing.

so, no more P as a potential partner in my life. we will always remain friends and whatnot but i’m never crossing the emotional threshold with him ever again. he doesn’t deserve someone like me.

which brings me to C. certain issues which had hampered my trip have been magically sorted out which means… i am going for my much-needed break! we’ve been talking more these few days and it’s really nice to feel that way again. teehee. i do have to go down to the travel agent tomorrow to get my visa, and confirm a ticket back to singapore, but other than that, everything seems good to go!

my new year’s resolutions are to:

- groom myself better (stares sheepishly at stubble on legs, upper lip and eyebrows).

- less procrastination.

- be more serious if i’m in a relationship ergo no more goofing around and respect the other partner.

- take better care of my eyes.

- go on a long holiday to somewhere far far away like london.

- spend less money on cabs.

happy x’mas to all.

nothing better to start the day than a nice chat with the chisel (hereafter known as C). teehee. i haven’t laughed at jokes like that in a long time. nothing crude, mind you. just nice intelligent jokes that only someone smart could come up with.

sometimes vocabulary goes a long way in making a joke funnier than it seems.

aiya, but you all know me lah. i’m so easily tickled by just about anything.

well, i’ve lodged a police report and next step is to file a civil suit with the small claims court. don’t think i will get the money back so i’ve written it off but i want to catch this fibbing creep.

no plans yet for x’mas or new year. it’s going to be a quiet sending off of 2008 and welcoming of 2009. am not particularly excited about anything except moving in to our new apartment.

boy, what a bummer. this month has been nothing short of disastrous. but it did teach me one lesson - to always trust my instincts if something is too good to be true.

everyone knows zia and i have been looking for a 2-bedroom apartment to rent once our lease in teban gardens expires this december. so i surfed redad and stumbled upon a particular post advertising a place in bedok north ave 2, fully furnished, air-con for $1,500.

i immediately called the phone number listed there and arranged for an appointment for the next day. however, the agent called me to postpone it to the day after and i agreed.

we met at the place itself and he brought us straight up and pulled out a bunch of keys, muttering that he wouldn’t be sure which key would fit, but he got it right on the first try. i put it down to coincidence.

alarm bell #1: he had pungent beer breath, but that didn’t give me much cause for concern then as i wouldn’t fault someone for enjoying a beer with dinner. but i would’ve thought a professional agent would want to be optimal condition when trying to close a deal.

so we walked into the place and the smell of body odour hits us almost immediately. probably someone sweaty lay on the fabric sofas and didn’t bother to open the windows. the house was pretty nicely decorated and i remember making an unnecessary remark about a stairmaster. one master bedroom, one common room, washing machine, fridge, TV, everything to make a cosy home was there.

he knocked on the storeroom door and then said “oh! this is a storeroom, i thought it would be a bedroom!”.

alarm bell #2: the apartment was a standard configuration HDB 2-bedroom apartment where the storeroom is located in between the master bedroom and common room. any genuine house agent would know that. and besides, he told us he’d already brought someone to view the place the day before.

unless you’re trying to trick two gullible girls into thinking you’re unfamiliar with the place, thus trying to dissociate yourself with anything to do with the flat.

we cleverly tried to bargain the rent from $1,500 to $1,400 and he immediately agreed, giving us the story that the landlord travels a lot overseas and she didn’t want the place to go to waste. earning money isn’t her objective, he assured us, that’s why he could lower the rent to $1,400 on her behalf.

however, we had to pay the money that night itself or he would have to let it go to the next viewer who could pay up. by then, zia and i were so excited that we had such a nice apartment for what we thought was a steal. so we went to ATMs and withdrew the money for him and headed to burger king opposite to sign the contract.

he pulled out two copies of a contract and we read through it. halfway through, he excused himself to make a very long phone call, leaving us there for about 15 minutes. later, he came back saying that one of his tenants couldn’t pay rent and his client was threatening to kick them out.

he told us the current landlord was his church friend and he was doing this as a favour. the landlord would want to meet us when she comes back from her overseas trip and he would give us a call to arrange the meeting.

all in all, we paid a total of S$1,828 [one month's rent and an agent fee of $428 (strange figure, i know, but we didn't question it in our naivety. he claimed it was a special price for his "church friend".)].

the cold hard cash was handed over but no receipt was issued. he didn’t have a receipt book but his office would issue one and post it to me, he said. i told him to send it to my office.

alarm bell #3: which agent doesn’t carry a receipt book? i didn’t insist on one because i figured the contract could pass as proof of payment.

we said our goodbyes and zia and i headed to our pigeonholes in teban to celebrate our new find.

the next day, i couldn’t shake off my slight suspicions and i googled his company name. as expected, no record. searched the singapore business directory but it wasn’t registered. googled his name but nothing came up. i decided to leave it as it was, trusting as i usually am.

alarm bell #4: although his name card claimed his company is a pte ltd one, there was no mention of it in the business registry.

alarm bell #5: receipt never arrived despite my SMSes to remind him. he blamed his office.

alarm bell #6: never scheduled a meeting with the landlord despite my repeated SMSes to him.

alarm bell #7: said we could move in on 13 december. when we requested to move in one week earlier, he said we couldn’t as he had a church event. wtf.

alarm bell #8: suddenly called me and said landlord passed away overseas. seems that the person who signed the contract with us is her sister who had power of attorney but once dead, the power of attorney dissolved. so the flat would be used as collateral to settle any outstanding bills or debts of the landlord and would be placed in the possession of HDB. however, he wrote an appeal letter for me and he came over to my office to get it endorsed by me.

alarm bell #9: no news until i called him and he said most likely we couldn’t move in anymore and the deposit would be returned to us. when? he couldn’t answer. few weeks, maybe. but in the meantime, he would look for places for us and take us to view.

alarm bell #10: long silence about deposit and viewing of new places until we had to call.

alarm bell #11: told us he’d personally gone to view a few apartments but nothing suitable. he would continue looking.

alarm bell #12: that’s it. i told him to return our deposit. and the stupidest thing happened. he called zia using another number and pretended to be a lawyer. like we couldn’t recognise his voice lah like that. said the deposit couldn’t be released to us yet until a few more documents were signed and even then it would be a few more weeks. would i like him to send a representative down to pass me the documents? i told him i wanted to meet the landlord’s sister, he said no can do. i don’t want to see your representative, i want my deposit. when we hung up, i said to zia that he’s so stupid to think we wouldn’t recognise his voice. so outrageousssssssssly stupid.

msged him that i consulted a lawyer and the return of the deposit shouldn’t take so long. he immediately replied that i would get it within four days. meet up with the landlord’s sister to get it back personally.

the day came and went and no news from him. tried calling and the phone was off. called the “lawyer” and no answer. a few hours later, the “lawyer”’s handphone was switched off. msged him that if i didn’t hear from him, i would make a police report the next day.

so the next day came and nothing from him. zia and i went to the bedok police station who advised us to check out the place and the address of his namecard. and to also lodge a report with the small claims court.

we went to the bedok place and there were these two ladies there who claimed they didn’t know anything and had rented out the apartment to him for a month but he’d left a few weeks ago. the lady who spoke to us was incredibly unhelpful and i have a feeling she’s probably in cahoots with him or we were probably not the first to knock on her door.

so my next step is to go down to the address on his namecard tomorrow with P and if there is no such address, i will file a report at the small claims court as well as the police station for fraud. thanks to everyone for helping - even our current agent is helping us and has tried to call him to pretend to co-broke. everyone has been offering advice and care and concern for zia and i and we will not stop until justice has been served!

btw, i tried googling the crook agent and i’m pretty sure this is him.

oh yes, thanks to everyone who have offered their service to call him and set up an appointment and corner him so i can clobber him. i wouldn’t mind taking a swipe at him but my main priority is to get the money back. totally depleted of savings now.

here’s a question that’s been skipping around in my mind lately.

how do you know when you’ve reached your limit? how do you know how much torture you have to put yourself through before you say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH?

the worst feeling in the world is to be so happy and hopeful only to have everything thrown in your face with just a little bit of inaction or misspoken words.

this week has been as baaaaaaaaa-d as a bunch of zombie sheep grazing on the hilly greens of new zealand.

started off with a major fight with P that lasted unti Tuesday. i’m glad we managed to work things out but all the same, betrayed trust can sometimes be irreparable.

then, boss called me into her room to tick me off for something that i did, or more accurately, did not do. haiz.

then just as we slinked into the cinema to watch madagascar, we received an sms from the pussywhipped landlord, telling us to vacate our rooms by 1 december 2008. madness! i flared up and was boiling mad that i had to walk out and spew to da jie.

hope the week ends well though. haiz.

at least P and i are on less shaky ground now. i treasure him too much to ever risk losing him again. right now, he’s the only one who can cheer me up in a blink of an eye with just a corny joke.

the past week has been a whirlwind, with personal and work lives taking on the speed of super torpedoes.

after assuming the new position and salary hike, i’ve had project after project piled on me and expectations (on me) flying sky high. i will not crumble under the pressure.

i won’t. i won’t. i won’t.

had an interesting encounter at supperclub but in the end, left a bitter taste in my mouth. the only word i can sum up for my feelings is “annoyed”. maybe stir in a little bit of “put off”. and that perhaps i can’t play the game as well as some people think i can.

i want stability and security, just like any other woman. too bad i haven’t been able to find it in the right package.

back to work.

honestly?

i don’t know where i’m headed but i’d like to think everything’s on-track.

next year’s not looking very good now.

it seemed like only yesterday that i slinked into the classroom full of unfamiliar faces. i was 6 years old, it was my first day in primary school and i was already missing my kindergarten friends.

i don’t remember much of that year, except for my best friend, L. she had a wonderful smile, made all the more endearing with her toothiness and pure heart.

we stormed through primary 2 (she beat me to monitress title) and primary 3 (i beat her this time hurhur), before i left brunei in primary 4. but that didn’t stop us from keeping in touch until i touched back down in primary 6, but in a different class from hers.

we were reunited in form 1 and we became very close, sharing secrets and telling each other who we had crushes on. form 2 was where we got even closer and she came to say farewell at the airport when i left back to penang.

from then on, we wrote each other almost every week and exchanged x’mas, birthday, valentine’s day, CNY cards - any reason to keep in touch at all. she regaled me with stories of her latest boyfriend and how they made out in the school’s stairwell even when she was a councillor. i, in turn, told her about my boyfriend and how we were making out in shopping complex stairwell but kena tangkap with our tongues down each other’s throats.

over the years, our busy lives made correspondence a bit more sporadic but we still made the effort to update each other and go out whenever she dropped by singapore. it’s been 12 years since i left brunei and she’s still my closest link there.

so imagine my happiness and excitement when she dropped me a msg to tell me she will be getting married next year and she wants me to be her maid of honour. apparently, i’ll be wearing a pink dress and i specifically requested not to have anything midriff revealing because i don’t want her guests to mistakenly think she has a pregnant maid of honour.

after 20 years of friendship, she’s beaten me at walking down the aisle. i am genuinely happy for her and hope things work out beautifully for her and S.

looks like a trip to brunei is in the pipeline.

where it all began - st andrew’s school, primary 1B, 1989