17 August 2005 — Of late, my Pipi hasn’t had much time for me. He tries to make time on Saturdays and Sundays, but during the week I’m pretty much left to my own defences. The restlessness within me stirs, and a week later, I’ve booked myself on a plane to Shanghai. Yes folks, I’m heading for the land of Mao and giant pandas! In the next 5 weeks, I’ll be meeting up with Weiling, Shihui, Peiling and Tommy in various places in China before heading back to Singapore for a week in late Sep. How fantastic is that?!? I’m calling this my “Saturn Return” trip, but that’s another story.

Today’s is on my mad dash to get the visa to go to China. Thinking it can all be done by the travel agent and only takes a day or two, I relaxed and took my own sweet time. Ah, what’s the hurry? Plenty of time! When speaking to Irene the agent today, I kind of just casually asked, “…and how about the visa huh? You can arrange that for me too right?” “When are you travelling?” “23rd” “23rd!!! Oh No! There’s no time, I think you better go down to the Chinese Consulate and get it yourself! The visa takes 4 working days to process, but if you go through us, we do it by mail and it takes 7 days!” Oh Shit! She continues, “If you go down today, you may still get it by Monday if you’re lucky (note: I’m travelling on Tuesday). But they only open in the morning. If you can’t make it, you have to apply for the emergency next-day collection visa, which will cost you $50 extra!”

Wah liao! The visa alone already costs $50, and now another 50?!? That’s a lot of 小笼包 and mebbe even a fake Gucci bag or 2! PANIC! PANIC! Quick, call the consulate to get the address. Ah Shit, always get these automated answering services, and what is she saying anyway? Aiyoh, why get a native Chinese speaker? I can’t even understand what she’s saying!?! What did she say the address was again? Dumpling St??? Doesn’t sound right leh… Where got so 巧, Chinese Consulate on Dumpling St?!? And the opening hours? Mon–Fri, 9am–12pm only. Oh Shit! It’s already 11am! But what’s the stupid address anyway?!? I can’t rush out not knowing where to go?!? Oh man, I want to talk to a real person! WHAT?!? 25 mins wait?!? You must be joking! Quick, google search the website. Grrreat! The website is down!

Panic! Panic! Quick, Think! Call my pipi, call my pipi. Ok, he’s going to get me the info while I get dressed. I can do this, I can do this. Ok, got my passport, got the photo, print out travel itinerary, and yes! Wil’s sent me the info. Aiyah, it’s Dunblane St! Dumpling St, Dumpling St… Ah shit! No cash though, still got to make a detour to ATM to get money.

Got to the Milson’s Point station finally. Oh man! Already 11.25am. My mind begins to play tricks on me: Are you sure you want to do this? It’s too late, you won’t make it. Face it, you’re just gonna have to pay $100 for the emergency visa… NO! I’m not paying another cent extra! I’m already paying extra $300 to fly via SQ, not another cent! Mebbe I should forget about travelling on the 23rd with Tommy, mebbe I should just fly China Eastern direct to Shanghai and save the $300, but then, China Eastern leh… Don’t think they even have personal TV screen. What?!? No personal TV for such a long flight?!? Cannot lah. + if I fly China Eastern, can’t go back to Singapore and see all my other friends and family. But I’m so not going to spend another cent more lor! Aiyah, let’s just forget about this whole trip!

Aiyoh, calm down, calm down. How can give up so easily? Where’s your “Amazing Race” spirit? It’s not over till it’s over. Still got a fighting chance. And besides, Central is only 3 stops away. You might just make it. Ah…. Ok lah. PIAH all the way! At least I give it my best shot. And once the decision is made, there’s only one thing left to do. In the name of Archangel Michael, please send your blue ray to this situation. Please, please, please, help me get the normal processing visa. I also ask for Reiki energy to be sent to manifest the reality that I make it in time for the normal processing visa, please please, please. Cho-ku-ray, Cho-ku-ray, Cho-ku-ray. Aiyah, ham-ba-lang BOM lah! Also ask that Green Tara, great bodhisattva who comes swiftly to aid in emergency situations, please, please, please also come and help me. Om tare tutare ture svaha, Om tare tutare ture svaha…” Yes, yes, yes, I must have faith. I will prevail. This is nothing more than another opportunity to witness God’s amazing presence. MUST, THINK, POSITIVELY!

Ok, reached Central. Time-check: 11.37am. ARRRRGH!!! Ok, decisions, decisions. Taxi or bus? Taxi or bus? Taxi? Probably costs another $10, but would be quicker. Bus, 60 cents, but would be slower. But there are 8 buses that I can take, surely they’ll come in no time, and besides, if I take taxi, and still don’t make it, wah lao then I’ll be even more dui! Ok, ok, I’ll monitor the situation and see how long it takes for the bus to come. How long? How long?!? Too long!!! That’s how long. Why so long oso haven’t come yet?!? Ah, forget it, take a cab. But where’s a bloody cab when you need it?!? And NOW the bus comes. 11.47am. And of course when you’re oredi running late, SO MANY red lights!!! @#$%! And no, that’s not another person waving down the bus izzit?!! 11.53 am. Oh man… you people are killing me, KILLING ME!

Ok, ok, I see the bus-stop. Any time now, any time now… Ok, quick! Walk like the wind. Walk, girl, Walk! Should I run? But my knee… ok, brisk walk, faster, faster, actually I think I can slowly run a bit lah, slowly run should still be faster than quickly walk right? Ok, slowly run, slowly run. Dunblane St, Dunblane St. Where the freak is it?!? Broderick, Marsden, Briggs, WHAT? Still not Dunblane?!? Dunblane. FINALLY! Ok, ok, this is it, the last leg of the race now.

As I turned down the street, a Chinese man actually said to me, “抓紧时间, 还有两分钟!” (”Hurry, you’ve still got 2 minutes!”) Wah, China Chinese got so nice one meh? That’s a lucky sign. So playing those words over and over again in my mind, I dashed the last 20 metres towards the entrance… (cue: St Elmo’s Fire theme song) … and was stopped by the security guard. NO!!!! “But the clock on the wall says 11.59am, I still have 1 min!” “Ah… ok.” YAY!!!!!!! Gasping for air, I charged through the glass door and collapsed on the reception counter. The receptionist kindly said, “别急, 进来了就可以了.” And man, how lucky was I?!! The guy who showed up literally two seconds after me was turned down flat. 好险哦!

Heng ah! So I made it before closing time, but that’s only the first step. Did I also make it for the normal four-day processing time? Om tare tutare ture svaha, Om tare tutare ture svaha… “Ok, come back on Monday to collect your visa, and you pay the $50 when you collect.” HALLELUJAH! HALLE-LUJAH, HALLE-LUJAH! Thank you God! I could be so blessed!

Moral: Don’t be so slack like me. Where travel plans are concerned, better sooner than later cause we all know A$50 = 310 RMB = plenty plenty小笼包!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 17th, 2005 at 9:16 pm and is filed under Gratitude Chest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.