Jobs Like THAT!

You know the jobs I mean: someone calls or write or sends a text message asking you to do something really simple.

You accept the piffling challenge with a waft of your hand and a, "Don't worry! Consider it done"!

I just accepted a job like that: while you're there, can you buy me a mini Santa Claus ... I collect them from all over the world.

I set off. Hmm! This is work for a woman, I quickly decided. I then realised that while Singapore fully embraces the spirit of Xmas it does so simply by erecting Xmas Trees and draping tinsel everywhere. I found that the deep and detailed Xmas isn't here, in the shops, I mean.

That's not to say that is a bad thing, it's just the way Changi Airport is.

Well, I went into one shop and asked an assistant whether they had any toy SCs. Go to Terminal 3 she suggested. I boarded the Skytrain and got to T3. The Toy Shop is right next to the train. I found Xmas type bears and dogs and red noseless Rudolph. Oh, poo! I carried on and failed.

My eyes lit up at the sight of SC lying on top of some cotton wool in a display cabinet in an electronics shop. I asked how much they wanted for it. Not for sale she said. S$10, I offered. Again, I met a refusal.

I wandered off and even went into the Ferrari shop where there was a pukka Rudolph. Much too big and £40 to boot! I declined their kindly offer.

In the end I resigned myself to having failed and having to resort to buying Rudolph the Not Red Nosed Reindeer and returned to the toy shop, crestfallen. A job like THAT had done me in.

I plonked Rufolph on the counter but asked they had any toy SCs. She pointed at the perfect thing: the last one in the shop, suspended from a stand.

It's perfect, I said. She couldn't follow my excitement or my wittering on about it being the only one in the airport: T1 and T3 anyway.

So I bought my little SC for my friend and was content that I must have done something good today to deserve such an outcome.

DW.
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