{"id":8009,"date":"2010-03-03T23:31:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-03T15:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2010\/03\/03\/day-2-trapped-in-singapore-ang-moh-imprisoned\/"},"modified":"2010-03-04T15:19:57","modified_gmt":"2010-03-04T07:19:57","slug":"day-2-trapped-in-singapore-ang-moh-imprisoned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2010\/03\/03\/day-2-trapped-in-singapore-ang-moh-imprisoned\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 2: Trapped in Singapore! Ang Moh Imprisoned!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blog-day2-Trapped-in-Singapore\" In all my years of fumble and folly, I have locked myself out of many places: my car, my house, my office, even my bathroom.\u00a0 Today, however, I managed to lock myself in<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Preparing to leave Yang and Ling\u2019s condominium late yesterday morning, it became evident that I had lost track of the house keys Yang passed me.\u00a0 One key is paired to the front door, the other key is paired to the iron gate clasped to the external frame encasing that door.\u00a0 Opening the front door from the inside is obviously not a problem.\u00a0 However, opening the locked iron gate without a key is a non-starter.\u00a0 Having left earlier in the morning for their respective workplaces, Yang and Ling took with them, quite naturally, the only remaining keys.\u00a0 I was trapped!<\/p>\n

I never tire of explaining to friends the safety and security I experience in Singapore, often conjuring exaggerated circumstances under which, comparative to the US or elsewhere, I\u2019d be a dead duck, yet in the assuring confines of Singapore one\u2019s safety is practically guaranteed.\u00a0 But one thing is for sure:\u00a0 If you lose the spare set of house keys, they\u2019ll lock your ass up.<\/p>\n

With William Wallace\u2019s last-breath cry of \u201cFreedom!\u201d reverberating through my bones, I faced, by means of my own stupidity, the not-so-proverbial rusty cage that imprisoned me and my people \u2014 except Irish, not Scottish.\u00a0 Just beyond the reach of my outstretched arms:\u00a0 my shoes, the elevator, the neighboring children\u2019s bicycles . . . roti prata.<\/p>\n

A stiff wave of panic enveloped me.\u00a0 Before the US consulate could return my phone call, Yang caught up with me online on MSN.\u00a0 We felt certain the house keys fell out of my pocket while riding in the front seat of the car the night before.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, buddy,\u201d he wrote, \u201cit doesn\u2019t look like you\u2019re getting out of there until Ling returns home from work.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s OK,\u201d I wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you know, you have plenty of bak kwa there, and if you like go ahead and order McDonalds in, or a pizza.\u00a0 They should be able to stuff the food through the gate rungs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just might do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, in the meantime . . .\u00a0 Look, I\u2019ve read studies on incarceration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh?\u201d I replied in surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it\u2019s very important for you to keep busy, or else you\u2019ll rot away into nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs Ling returning home sometime within the next decade?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yes, yes, of course.\u00a0 But still, we should be proactive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you have in mind?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yang hesitated.\u00a0 \u201cI think the marble floors could use a mopping.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh really?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I\u2019m sure of it.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find the necessary supplies in the storage closet.\u00a0 While you\u2019re doing that, I\u2019ll contact the warden.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe warden?\u00a0 You mean the landlord, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I meant the landlord. . . .\u00a0 Bye for now.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Yang\u2019s helpful advice in mind, I took to my task.\u00a0 He was right, I\u2019d decided, it really is best to have a clean prison cell to inhabit.\u00a0 And the work helped quell the pity for the self and the pangs of hunger quaking throughout my body.<\/p>\n

Not long after completing my task, Ling sent me a text message.\u00a0 I rushed to my notebook to give Yang the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cYang,\u201d I wrote, \u201cLing just texted me saying she found the keys in the car! They\u2019d fallen out my pocket into the front passenger seat, just as I expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat news, buddy,\u201d he replied.\u00a0 \u201cDid you mop the floor?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it looks fabulous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat.\u00a0 Ling should be there within the hour.\u00a0 Tell me, buddy, how do the windows look?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m logging off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after Ling arrived home to free the incarcerated ang moh, carrying with her little Hannah, an armful of various food, and, of course, the spare keys.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have brought your rations,\u201d she said, smiling.\u00a0 \u201cWait \u2014 have these floors been mopped?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUm, yes, Yang thought it would be good if\u2014\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cOh!\u00a0 Yang is clever one.\u00a0 This happens every time!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat, you mean this has happened before?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

She remained silent and set about preparing Hannah\u2019s afternoon bath.\u00a0 I chose to leave well enough alone, for clemency had been grant and there was food to be eaten in the kitchen.\u00a0 And after all, I had learned an important life lesson today:\u00a0 To get the most out of Singapore\u2019s tourism catchphrase, \u201cUniquely Singapore,\u201d one need but remember the spare house keys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In all my years of fumble and folly, I have locked myself out of many places: my car, my house, my office, even my bathroom.\u00a0 Today, however, I managed to lock myself in. Preparing to leave Yang and Ling\u2019s condominium<\/p>\n

Read More Day 2: Trapped in Singapore! Ang Moh Imprisoned!<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ang-mo","wpcat-4-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}