Friday, September 23, 2005

Today, I was supposed to go to a friend's place. This friend lives relatively near, and it'd take me about 15 min to get there by car. I had been there before a couple of times, once by bus and once in a mutual friend's car. So when I was driving there, I took a wrong turn and ended up at the Australian school. The road was long and winding; I found no good place to make a u-turn and had to turn around for quite a while before I managed to make a 3 point turn at the entrance of a condominium. After I finally got back on Bradell Road, I took a left turn after the underpass as instructed. I then found myself turning round and round the estate of another friend. (At one point I was at a t-junction. There was a lorry and a van on the road across, and a line of oncoming cars. So, I had no choice but to back up and almost hit a car parked along the side.) At that point I still didn't know I was at the wrong place, because this other friend lives pretty near the friend whose place I was visting. Many dead ends and 3-point-turns later I found out that as near as their places are, they are simply not connected. So I stopped my car by the side and called my friend. A few rings and my handphone went dead. The battery had run out. Praying very hard that there was a street directory in the car, I searched in the side compartment. Thankfully my prayers were answered. So. I looked up 'Sunshine Terrace.' Map 98A. When I turned to 98A, I found out that the street names were in Chinese!! That really gave me a scare, but luckily there was an English version on the other side of the page. So I followed the map. Missed a turn, u-turned, backtracked, finally got to Sunshine Terrace. I looked around. My friend's house was nowhere to be found! At that point I got quite fed up. I parked my car to the side and grabbed my purse. Walked to the main road, found a coffeeshop that looked familiar, as well as a public phone.

"Hello, I'm at Iman Eating House. I'm lost. And a little scared."
"Stay where you are. I'll be there in 10."

10 min later and 1 hr after I left my place, he arrived and led me to his place. Apparently, there are 2 Sunshine Terraces. They are pretty near, but not connected in any way.

-- tee @ 11:56 pm |