Jinxed?

I've been having A Series Of Unfortunate Events since Monday, all to do with returning from work and leaving from current residence to work. It's really Bizzare.

The first event happened on my way back from work Monday evening. Had to take the (not so) good ol' public transportation since Auntie was on leave. Waited a good 20 minutes for the blinking bus before it Finally pulled over [in the meantime, some acquaintances who were out for their evening jog passed by. One actually stopped over and asked what I was doing at the bus-stop. What indeed! I was waiting for my carriage home, of course! You dolt]. Anyway, as the bus neared my area, I rang the bell but horror of all horrors, it didn't work and the bus just zoomed past the bus-stop where I normally alight. The driver tried to make amends by stopping a good few hundred metres away but there was no way I could walk back even if I wanted to as it was a highway and there's no pedestrian lane. I Finally got down at the next bus-stop and crossed over the highway using the overhead bridge to wait for a bus/cab at the other side to Take Me Home. As luck would have it, the few cabs that actually passed by were all occupied so I had to wait another good 10 minutes or so before a bus showed up. In the end, what is normally a 15-minute journey back to current residence took over an hour.

Mental note: Get a car. Er, but I don't want to contribute to the fossil fuel yet nor do I want to be saddled with the problems of car repair and maintenance. Ok, have a back-up list of other colleagues I can get a ride home from whenever Auntie is on leave next.

The second unfortunate event was when I had the uneviable task of removing the carcass of a rodent - let's be respectful of the dead and call them rodents Ben, shall we - as I was leaving for work yesterday morning (see previous posting). Clearly I had to take/remove it and not leave it on the porch. There were already ants swarming and unless I wanted flies to pay the body a visit, remove it I must.

Mental note: Find a cat and/or rodent repellant. Or try learning cat language to communicate to cats that I don't appreciate their (not so) cute and (not at all) thoughtful offerings.

Actually I used to love cats. We've had them for ages. But cats in this neighbourhood bring more gross bodies. Cats at parents' aka mothership aka HQ bring back other offerings in the form of birds and lizards.

The third unfortunate event (and let's hope it's the last!!!) happened when I returned from work yesterday. Tried as I might, for the life of me, I couldn't open the gate. Spent a good 20 minutes twisting and turning the key in the padlock to no success in between making frantic SOS phone calls to friends, neighbour and even HQ, and stopping a passing neighbour if she could help. Even studied the terrain and contemplated climbing over once it's dark but I was in my skirt. And besides, I still need to go to work for the days to follow. I was almost in tears as I pondered my predicament and the possibility of me turning into Catwoman then didn't exactly appeal. All I wanted was to be able to come home after a hard day at work, have a nice, luxurious shower to wash off the day's stress, have a simple, nutritious home-made meal and just Relax in front of the tube and watch a World Cup match.

Finally sighted a Panasonic van [I think it answers house calls for service/repair] at the bus-stop and hurried over to ask for help. The boss was at first very reluctant, saying that the van had broken down and they had been waiting for a tow truck for the past 2 hours. [And they were equipped with the right tools to address my problem!!!] Oh, come on, please, please help me, I pleaded. One of his Indonesian workers looked like he was willing to help but was respectful enough of his unreasonable boss to say that he couldn't help as the tow truck was well on its way and they didn't want to be further delayed as they had been delayed long enough. I had to use my charms and besought him to help and even asked the tow truck driver, which sure enough arrived shortly after, to please please please wait a while before towing the van away. After all, it would only take a few minutes to break open the padlock, right? [And waiting a few more minutes surely couldn't hurt]. Without waiting for an answer, I made my way back and thankfully, the Indonesian followed suit with his tools and less than a minute later, was already climbing my gate and proceeded to deal hammering blows to my padlock. At this time, my mate arrived to the rescue and Boy, was I glad to see him! He also brought over his tools but decided not to play MacGyver and just let the Indonesian do what he does and knows best as the latter's tools were better suited to deal with the situation. A mere few minutes later and the padlock was broken. Oh Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. For helping me gain access to my house. For allowing me to relive my closet fantasy of feeling like a modern-day fairytale damsel in distress rescued by her knight (and Wannabe knight) in shining armour.

I insisted my MacGyver-Wannabe mate stayed long enough to ensure that I managed to open the house locks and enter the house (just in case). He then told me to look for my spare padlock [which thankfully I happened to have] while he waited. Only after I had calmed down enough, called those I called in my hour of frantic and panic to assure them I've had help, located the spare padlock, tested it and locked the gate, and entered the house and locked the doors behind me, did he leave.

Adek is thankful and grateful that she is blessed with thoughtful friends who offered their help - one even offered to come by to bring me back to HQ - and of course, MacGyver-Wannabe who, despite being a true family man, came over to offer help and company.

Mental note: Keep a can of lubricant handy and apply regularly to all padlocks to avoid recurrence.

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I'm not superstitious but I do hope that the theory 'bad luck comes in threes' is proven in my case. I've had enough (mis)adventures for this week and very early in the week too.

On the footie front: South Korea came back from a goal behind to overcome Togo with two goals. Didn't watch the France-Switzerland meet and though I set the alarm for the Brazil-Croatia match, didn't quite manage to pull myself out of bed.