that one crazy iPad episode

45mins of agony

After dropping by my office to settle some stuff today, we walked over to Liang Court for a mid-day meal at about 4.30pm. Sharon was on the iPad while we waited the food to be served. Once food arrived, she passed it to me for keeping and I left it on the seat beside me. We happily left, and walked around Liang Court for a while till we boarded a bus towards Orchard and continued shopping, without realising the iPad was left behind.

5hrs later, when we were about to board the train at Orchard MRT, I discovered the iPad wasn't in my bag when I wanted to pass it to Sharon. That was when panic set in and we somehow pin-pointed Saizeriya as the location where it was left behind. More drama ensued at this point.

Decided to run out of the train station and cab to Liang Court but couldn't hail a cab along Orchard Blvd. Simultaneously, we were Googling for the outlet's phone number, which took us 10mins to finally get it. Then, the agony grew as nobody answered. While Sharon kept trying the number, I started searching for a number to Liang Court's information counter. Found it but it went into an answering machine after a few rings. On the second attempt, Jacqueline answered and I asked for a big favor. It was already 10pm and I asked if she could walk over to Saizeriya and check if they found the iPad. While waiting for her return call, I started trying to book a cab but to no avail. After a while, Sharon gave up calling Saizeriya's number and attempted to book a cab too.

We waited helplessly for minutes without progress until everything suddenly turned for the better. I finally received the call from Jacqueline. I was asked for the table number where we were seated and amazingly, I remembered and confirmed that the iPad was kept at Saizeriya all this while. Managed to get the contact number of the staff (Zhiwei) but the restaurant was closed (at 10pm) but we really wanted to rush down to collect the iPad. Couple of mins later, Sharon received an SMS that a cab was on the way and we managed to get to Liang Court before Zhiwei left. The time between the realisation to retreival: 45mins. We wouldn't have got it back without the help of Jacqueline and the honesty of Zhiwei; we are really blessed to have met them in time of need and wish that there are more people like them.

Funny thing was that Sharon had earlier bought a pack of Hello Kitty ang-pow from Liang Court and it came in handy when we decided we should give a little 'reward' for Zhiwei's honesty. It is ironic that when Sharon lost her iPhone at a hype restaurant 2yrs back, it was gone in minutes and today, we recovered an iPad we've forgotten about at $16-meal restaurant after for 5hrs. I still cannot understand why I left it behind as I'm always the meticulous one who always double check on whether anything is left behind. Just glad that we didn't quarrel and instead, solved the problem and endured the frustration as a couple.