Random Thought Bubbles

so i was supposed to leave for brunei last saturday. but lo and behold, half an hour before the shuttle was due at 2am, a cold shudder overtook my body. my passport, my passport. we were waiting in kit chung's (who was himself out for the night) house for the shuttle because we'd given up our house and couldn't wait in it. i thought i put it into my handbag. i'd taken it out that very afternoon and placed it on a table. then saw it again and put it back in my handbag. or didn't i? it played over and over in my head. i couldn't have packed it away. i couldn't have thrown it away. who throws or packs away a passport?...

then came the flurry of looking into my handbag, which isn't very big at all. emptied it out. no, nothing. not there. na da. okay okay i last saw it in the afternoon. it was there. i didn't leave the house, it should be somewhere nearby. i looked through my bag, the boys looked through my bags. 3 TIs looking into 3 bags. and could not find a passport. the boys looked through their bags. still nothing. the shudder became a realization that i might not be leaving auckland at all.

it could've been in one of the boxes that i was packing up that afternoon. but the boxes had gone off to storage. maybe it was in one of the boxes. but it was too late to go to storage. maybe it's still in the house. call apartment manager. who cares that it's 1.30am in the morning. this is an emergency. look in house. nothing. it's spotless. no trace of a red little book. so insignificant yet the ticket to my freedom.

frick. panic fills my heart. a strange electric sensation fills the skin and turns it cold and hot at the same time. the afternoon's happenings play over and over in my head. but there are gaps in my memory. could it be in one of these lost moments that i misplaced my passport?

what should i do? who should i call? call kit chung (i suppose the funny thing is i didn't think about calling my dad first haha). kit chung will know what to do. in my mind, kit chung is mr. know what to do in any situation. a flustered and very distressed marilyn calls dr. wong who tells her to calm down and asks if she's looked everywhere. he confirms that it's not possible to fly without the passport and there's nothing she can do unless she finds that passport. but no, it's nowhere to be found. dr. wong says delay the shuttle, he'll try to think of a way out.

call dad. maybe he has a magic trick up his sleeve. dad asks the same questions. have you looked here and there and in all the pockets? yes, i wouldn't have called otherwise. dad says keep looking. delay the shuttle or something. but the shuttle is here already. mom asks the same questions... have you looked here or there or in your bag. how could you be so careless...

the shuttle comes. the 3 TIs board the van and throughout the journey i explain over and over again on the phone to my parents that i've looked everywhere. this is not helping. i'm helpless and there is nothing i can do.

arrive at the airport. look once more. ask at the counter what i can do. lady says to talk to the rba rep. i look through my bags for the millionth time, hoping against hope that 3 TIs were blind enough not to have found it before. no success. defeated, i lug my stuff to the counter and tell the man... i have lost my passport. i need to change the flight. can you help me? he tells me there is a charge for it. but since it's saturday i'll have to call reservations on monday to change things. but to call the embassy first so i'll know what date to change my flight to.

the boys check in and i'm left sitting tired and distraught waiting for a miracle. they come to me and we look once more... nothing again. i sms kit chung to say i'm not flying and that i need a place to crash. he says come come, of course you can stay. they walk me to the shuttle van and i go home. the shuttle driver used to be a singaporean and he is talkative. i let him prattle on about how stressful singapore is. really, i'm too tired to care. so at 4.30am in the morning kit chung comes downstairs to get me and i sleep. kit chung's house is full of people. kevinjit, kapil and me and the next day his younger brother too and all our stuff as well. it's cramped up but all the flatties are nice enough to welcome us anyway. they are studying for 4th exams which are this thursday... it was so nice of them...

morning comes and i explain my story over and over again to people i meet. why are you still here? i lost my passport. (i'm not distressed anymore. there is now a plan or the makings of one. i don't get stressed when there's a plan... my parents were more worried than i was or am...) nothing i can do now till monday anyway...

but one of the flatties has a number i can call on the weekend to ask for help. and lucky too coz that saved me alot of time. otherwise it would've been me needing to wait for application forms to come my way from wellington and then only being able to make the appointment to go to wellington to get an emergency travel document.

i look into storage twice more with no luck. time to make a police report. the police man is nice and says it's so common. 2min later i'm out of the station and walking home. this is sunday.

monday comes and it's making calls day. i wait till after lunch time and the contact comes through for me. i have an appointment for thursday which is excellent. i make some other calls and insurance says they'll cover me. i change my ticket and get a flight for saturday. so i'm going to kl instead now. i can only fly to my home country. i suppose it's fate... or carelessness.

thank goodness for friends who come through for friends. so very grateful... don't lose your passport. it's a hassle you can live without.