Les Petits Contes

About life's little observations, which matter. About hilarious situations, which illuminate. About stories which offer immense possibilities, open endings, different interpretations and perspectives.

Name:
Location: Asia, Singapore

Melancholic but with a quirky sense of humour

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Chasing Cookies, Threatening Laundrymen, Stealing Towels, and Trying to be Sane

Maybe it's just me - I love to give myself stress, I love to ''cheong'', and I have an uncanny knack of getting into hilarious situations.

For the past few weeks it's been hectic, madness, incredible, and upon hindsight, funny.

First it was my CEO and snr managment visit. Which fell in the same week I had external early morning meetings, or late night conf. calls, not to mention early morning live TV interviews. It also happened to be the same period I made a brave decision to sell my shortbread.

One morning I had to take the company cab at 6 am to pick up my CEO at his hotel. Despite setting up my alarm clock, I woke up at 5.45 am, catapulted out of bed and broke world record showering, washing, dressing and even putting on a hint of make up - all in 15 mins. Heck - I even managed to grab a can of beverage to take along (I later found out the consumption expiry date), in case I faint. (Yes, yes - I skip lunch or have late ones but I do eat my breakfast whenever I can!)

Another morning I managed to wake up early enough, but the driver waited at the wrong block, and I panicked when I did not see him. He was halfway towards the hotel before he suddenly asked, ''did you bring your passport?'' and threw me off - I guess I was still half awake. Yes, the secretary has reminded me to remind my CEO to bring his passport to gain entry into Bloomberg office, and she has reminded the driver to remind me to remind my CEO, and I have also set my mobile phone to remind myself... but after picking up my CEO, it was only again, halfway to the studio, that I remembered to remind him about his passport....and of course there was this merry chase for the office/studio entrance, all thanks to my great sense of direction...

But of course I managed to turn up for Italian class still.. very late of course - cos I was scrambling over my homework :-) My classmate actually thot I was mad enough to cut round holes in my lime green Jean Paul Gautier (JPG) note paper and asked, ''so nice - did you cut the holes yourself.. . '' Do I hv the word ''madness'' on my face ?? I told her it's JPG, not me :-)

Fine... so I managed to steal some time after he left Singapore to go to the gym... I was basically working out in a daze... and ''stonily'' did my crunches on a mat... until a guy came along, and asked, ''excuse me, did you take the towel you are lying on from here.... I think it is mine...'' By then I was no longer in a daze... but he happily took back the towel and declined to exchange for a new one...

And then there was this baking marathon - 47 jars (a few more to go this weekend) ... more shortbread than I have seen or eaten in my 14 years of knowing the recipe....enough said.

Wish I had just as much food during a seminar I organised for our employees tho. I did not expect the turn out to be so good and asked the support staff to cater for 25 - 30 pax for tea break... abt 100 turned up instead. Sent my colleagues on a mad food shopping drive - to Holland Village. The driver also broke record - for his speed limit.

So after so much hectic rushes, I decided to have a more leisurely lunch hour - by visiting my trainer's brand new studio at the same time delivering her cookie order. While she entertained other drop-in visitors, I wondered around exploring... and was so thrilled by her aerobics studio - spacious, empty and full of mirrors... that I could not help do a pirouette, plie and other ballet stunts I used to do and missed so much - thank goodness I was in a flare skirt that day. Thanks to the mirrors, my eyes caught her contractor staring through the front door and trying to get my attention... he had decided to drop by unannounced, to do up the finishing touches....I immediately ''pirouetted'' in double speed upstairs to look for my trainer.... who later told me the contractor still had not stopped laughing.

But this one takes the cake/ cookie/ cup: I had sent my expensive, precious, branded, sexy evening dress for dry clean - to a hi end, expensive, ''valet dry cleaner''. They do pick up and delivery and guess what - the dress arrived without the attached/ customised bra cup. Imagine calling them - the whole biz is managed by 2 guys - trying to explain the missing cup. From Sat till today hv been calling and chasing them to check on the ahem ''item''....the conversations with Eddy the guy, now that I think abt it, is soooo comical: me: Make sure you check and retrieve the correct cup - it fits this dress. Don't give me a replacement pair because...'' (I was not about to divulge my cup size over the phone!) And he wd go, ''sure, I am sure the original padding can be found...'' and then when he finally returned call again, after my threatening to call CASE, said, ''we found the pair of...'' and I wd go, ''you sure it's mine'' and he had no choice but to be specific, ''yes, your dress is blue and I remember the cups are blue also, the normal ones are neutral colours and usually white or beige.... my seamstress detached them and sent in a separate bag to clean and they will return only this Friday ... can I pick up the dress from you on Monday to stitch it back bla bla...''

By then I was cupping my mouth with my hands to stifle my laughter, while he went on, ''Hello hello Ms Loh are you still there?''