Wrong Way Wednesday

This happened two weeks ago.

We were on our way out of the office to buy food for lunch when Mildred realized, “Hey, since we’re complete, why don’t we have lunch out and save the environment from some styrofoam?” Usually, one or more of us would have brought packed lunch so the rest would just buy lunch outside and we’d eat together in the office pantry.

“Great idea! Where do we go? Signature? IBM?” I asked, naming the nearest food courts.

“No, let’s go somewhere else for a change!” Joc suggested. We all agreed enthusiastically.

“Let’s go to Changi Citipoint!” Nantoy exclaimed.

“Okay!” we all said. “Look! There’s a bus just arriving, perfect timing!” Changi Citipoint mall had a shuttle bus going around during lunch time to pick up people from Changi Business Park, where the offices are, and drop them off at the mall.

“Are you sure that’s the right bus? It looks like it’s a different color,” Nantoy protested. We all argued that it was the right bus, and rushed to the bus stop and immediately got on the bus as soon as it arrived.

After we sat down on the front row seats, the driver asked us to pay 20 cents each. This should have been a warning sign that something was wrong. “Really, 20 cents? I thought this was a free shuttle,” someone said in bewilderment. But then someone else shrugged it off, saying, “Maybe that was only at the beginning, and they’ve started charging now.” So we dug into our coin purses and produced the required change.

After a while, we noticed that the bus was going in a different direction. This should have been warning sign #2. “Weird, why is it going this way?” someone asked. “Maybe it’s because of all those closed up roads due to the MRT construction,” someone else guessed. So once again we shrugged it off.

Until that moment when the bus started going down a completely different road which we knew for a fact was going far away from the mall we thought we were headed for. That’s when we went: “Uh oh.”

Now the funny thing is, we had joked about this scenario in the past. When we rode a bus to eat out at Expo or Changi Airport, we’d joke, “Oh no guys, I think we rode the wrong bus. We’re headed to Jurong. We had better call our seniors and explain that we won’t get back on time.” To paraphrase a famous phrase, be careful what you joke about because it just might come true. :-/

Joc tried to ask the driver where we were headed. He answered us by handing a small scrap of paper with different military times written on it, presumably the bus schedules. He didn’t answer our question, but he did give us useful information. We noted that the earliest schedule was 13:05.

Luckily, the bus didn’t go too far, but stopped at Simei. We hopped off and I took a look at the bus. It did have a sign saying “Simei” on the front. I don’t know why not one of us noticed it!

The Wrong Bus

Most of us were not familiar with this place, but luckily, Mildred had been here before, so she led us to the food court. The mall beside the food court was closed off for renovation.

Simei Food Court

Jemma and Nantoy spotted a noodles stall and excitedly queued up there for Jemma’s favorite hokkien mee. Mildred said that there was a stall that sold yummy claypot dishes inside, so we went off to look for it. The stall was called Herbal Soup, but they sold more than just soup.

Mildred putting in our order

Mildred said that the dish she had tried before was called claypot soft bone with fragant yam. We decided to split one order with two bowls of rice.

Claypot soft bone with fragrant yam

She was right! The dish was so delicious that I finished all my rice (I usually don’t). It’s similar to the taste of the Philippine humba dish, salty and sweet, with very tender meat. The hokkien mee was yummy, too.

Whoops. We’re not supposed to be here.

We really enjoyed our lunch.

Until the moment that the child whose parents we were sharing our table with suddenly started wailing at the top of his lungs. He was seriously so noisy that we had no choice but to beat a hasty retreat. Oh well, it was almost 13:05 anyway! We had just enough time to buy some bread for later on from a Breadtalk that we passed on the way. As in the moment we arrived at the bus stop, the bus pulled up. Perfect timing!

So kids, our realization from this trip was: If you find yourself in the wrong path, don’t panic. Just go with the flow. Sometimes it can lead you to something joyful, something you wouldn’t have discovered otherwise. And if not? Still not a problem. At least it will make for a funny story.