The First Time Always Hurts

The night started with excitement. I hurried from work to home to change and leave my laptop. Then off to Waterfront Hotel for “REveal”, the first major fashion show of friend and former staff Ronald Villavelez.

It was a success [read separate blog entry on this].

A friend (John) whom ive met the last three times he was back from the middle east was supposed to join me in the fashion show but was a no-show. So i was on the way from the hotel to a coffee shop uptown to meet Ozzie when John texted that he was already in Doce (a gay friendly bar) alone.

Being the good host, i texted Ozzie that i’m meeting John at Doce instead and requested him to follow me there.

The taxi driver, who seemed good natured (he offered me some of the food he was eating), requested for exact fare.

That’s when i put my week-old phone down on the seat to get change from my pocket. I arrived, paid the exact fare, got out, and started to cross the street when i remembered my phone!

I was still halfway across the street but had to pause a bit to allow a car or two to pass by, all the time seeing that my cab was inching away slowly.

I thought i would be able to catch up because there were people hailing cabs in the area, but other taxis were there, so my taxi drove away!

I got on another cab, telling the driver we needed to catch up with that taxi because i left my phone in it.

But what do you know, bad luck reigned supreme that night.

We were stopped by red lights two times before we completely lost him. So i told the commiserating driver to u-turn and return me to where i hailed him.

When we got there, i was surprised to note that the taxi meter read 90.00 for a trip that should have cost no more than 40! Sensing my bad mood, the 2nd bad cabbie of the night said 50 would be okay.

I rushed to meet John to borrow his cell and called my phone many times. It rang everytime, which gave me hope.

In many stories like this, people calling their phones couldnt because the phones would have been turned off already by the thieves, with the SIMs replaced.

After another hour, Ozzie arrived unexpectedly and he also tried calling but this time, my phone was already turned off.

We had no choice but to call my service provider to report the loss so outgoing calls and messages can be barred.

This is the first time ever that i ever left anything in a ride. What irritates me most was not the fact that im embarrased about my forgetfulness, or my initial good impression of the cab driver, or the exploitative nature of the 2nd cabbie, or that i lost a new phone.

What gets me is that i was just starting to enjoy that new fone. I blogged already about the troubles i went through to have my contacts transferred from my old phone to the new one. I was just about done figuring out how things worked on the new unit, how to download and group music, how to group my contacts, how to edit photos on it, and stuff.

And then i lost it.

C’est la vie? Well yeah, and life does go on.

In the meantime, i wish the thief/thieves would die a very slow and utterly painful death, together with his/her loved ones!

Oh, and world peace to everyone!