I had a bit of a nightmare just now.

Well, it’s not really a nightmare so to speak, and I came out unscathed and fine, but it was a horrible experience nevertheless.

Here’s what happened.

I’m a partner of a company with Sheila and we have an office in PJ (I won’t say where exactly for security reasons) that we don’t use very often because we usually work from home. It’s on the top floor, and there are 2 other offices in the same lot, and all the offices belong to the same owner. One was empty and the other was a solicitor’s office. All the offices were broken into recently, and we were kind of lucky compared to the solicitor’s as only one of our computers was stolen, and even that was more like a personal PC rather than our data PC. The PC which held our important data was untouched, although its computer screen was taken. The solicitors had quite a lot of things taken.

Anyway, because of the break-in, the owner had changed the locks on the doors downstairs which opens to the stairwell that leads to all three offices. I held the original copies given to our company, and I had used them once after the break-in, and they worked. I had even lent them to Sheila when she hadn’t had a copy made yet, and at that time they worked when she used them too.

When she returned my keys, I made a copy of all the new keys and gave them to her. But the key to the padlock on the grill door downstairs didn’t work, and she blamed my keymaker, so she made her own set. And it still didn’t work, so she was going to make a copy again at another keymaker, but as I hadn’t passed her my key yet, she didn’t.

It all suddenly sunk in just now as to why.

I went to the office just now towards closing time, when it was still open. However when I wanted to leave about 7.15pm, I went downstairs and found that the offices were already closed and locked up. And they locked the doors downstairs too.

It was stupid of them not to check if there was anyone still around. But that’s not the worst bit.

MY KEYS DIDN’T WORK ON THE PADLOCK EITHER!!!

It was like a nightmare! I couldn’t get out!

The problem for me was because I don’t go to the office often, I did not have anyone else’s phone number – the owner, nor the people in the solicitor’s! I had no idea who had locked up, and how to get hold of them! I tried calling Sheila a million times to no avail (she later told me she had been busy with something else), to see if she had any of their numbers.

I had even gone up to the office and opened the window and looked to see if there was a way down… problem was because we were on the top floor, I could not find a way to climb down. There was an “emergency back door”, which I managed to open and get all the way down, but the door at the end was locked from the outside and I could not even get it to budge.

It was a horrifying situation. I was like, there is no way I was going to stay the night in the office. To top it off, I was supposed to have tuition at 7.30pm, which I obviously couldn’t make! I wasn’t really panicking, but I was utterly furious!

I was not strong enough to break open the door (obviously), and well, the hinges of the door are not the kind which I could use a screwdriver to take down.

I didn’t know if my father could cut the lock open, but I tried calling my sis to ask him for help. He was in the shower when I called, so while I waited for my sis to ask him, I found the number of a locksmith in the stairwell (it was on a sticker that was stuck to one of the pipes. Kind of like the Ah Long style ads) and I called him to see if he could come over. I explained the situation and he said he could come over in 25 minutes, and it would cost RM100.

But anyway my sis managed to get hold of my dad, who said he can cut it open but I need to find a power source for him to plug it into. I had no idea where to get one. There was a shop next to us, but I didn’t know if it was still open.

You see, there were two doors downstairs – one wooden door, and one grill. The grill however had a piece of metal welded all over the front of it, and there was only one small opening around the lock for people to padlock the grill on the inside. The doorknob to the wooden door was on the other side, and as long as my hands were, I could not possibly open the doorknob to flag people down.

I was furious at the person who locked up, but I was even more furious about the fact that my key didn’t work. I mean, I can’t really blame the person who locked up, because it was the most natural thing to do, since they were probaby usually the last persons in the lot. But someone had changed the locks, and did not give us a working key, and this is obvious because the solicitor’s office had a key that worked, to open in the morning and to lock up at night.

Anyway my sis and dad came to the rescue. I called the locksmith back to tell him that my dad was coming but I’ll call him later if I needed his help – and all I got was the phone put down on me. I guess he was annoyed that he lost business. Apparently money is more important to him than the safety of a young woman trapped in her own office.

Anyway, as I was waiting for my sis and my dad, I tried to call up someone to while the time with away and managed to get hold of Jefri who patiently listened to my furious ranting and raving. Bronya then returned my call and even came over to see if there was anything she could do for me. She, with her 2 boys in tow, arrived the same my sis and dad did, about 8.20pm. There was enough space under the door for me to hand my keys to my sis to open the wooden door, and I finally managed to see the world beyond through the little square on the grill door.

The shop next door was still operating (thank god!), and after checking out the situation of the padlock on the grill, my dad hooked up his power saw, using the power supply from the shop. Wearing his gloves, I held the padlock up while he sawed right through it. I was honestly surprised that he could. I mean, those lockmakers say that their locks cannot be cut through and all that. Well, here’s proof that the myth is BUSTED!!!

And finally… I’m free!

I took the lock with me. I couldn’t be bothered about replacing the lock with another. I was too angry.

My sister said that she had actually considered packing my toiletries and moisturiser and stuff just in case I needed to stay the night… and I’m like, no way! Do or die, I was going to get out of that office tonight!

And you know what… about 10-15 minutes after I was out (we were hanging around because my father kept his tools and I locked up), someone from the solicitor’s came back and opened the door. I was too tired to go berate him (wouldn’t know if he’s the guilty one of locking me up anyway) and I decided to let them figure out for themselves the mystery of the disappearing lock.

Sheila finally calls me back at 8.40pm and I let loose my fury. I told her to make a scene with the owner and the solicitor’s office. I was also going to write a nasty letter about the padlock incident which she would send to the owner.

The point is, it doesn’t matter about being locked in by someone from the other office. Prior to the break-in, I had been late alone in my office before and the doors downstairs have been locked before too. But it didn’t matter because I had a set of keys that could open them. This time, none of my keys could open the all-important padlock causing me to nearly spend the night in the office. Considering that after the break-in, I could open the new padlock with the given key, there is no reason why my key shouldn’t work this time. And with all the problems Sheila had with her own copied key, well… it’s not the keymaker’s fault. Someone f***ed up by changing the padlock and not giving us a key.

If you say it doesn’t matter, because we’re hardly there anyway, and we can access our office during office hours, then how the f*** can we access our own office during the weekends and holidays and even at night when we need to? Shall we just get locked in again like I did tonight?

I was chatting with Sue Ching, and here’s a transcript of our conversation:

Why does everyone want to eat my rabbit? :(:(

1. I should update my blog more often.
2. I should change the layout of my blog.
3. I ought to write more scathing things on my blog to make it more interesting. I’ve been careful about my entries because I didn’t want to offend anyone, haha.
4. that it’s time to clean up all those boxes I brought home from Sri KDU. I’ve unpacked most of them but some are still unopened, collecting dust.
5. I should go out more often.
6. I need a little more?♥♥♥. Make that a lot more.
7. I need to meet up with my friends more often. That is, if they are free to meet up with me.
8. money is the root of all evil. Therefore, all of you should send your money to me and I will help you remove the evil from your lives.
9. I need another holiday.
10. that making rabbit stew with my rabbit is a very bad idea.
11. Johnny Depp is a damn good actor.
12. I can dance! As in, from “So You Think You Can Dance”. I just don’t know if I can dance, hahaha.
13. September 16 should be a holiday. After all, it’s Malaysia Day.
14. Astro should get hold of the next and the latest season of Bones. I mean, NTV7 just finished screening Season 3, and it’s free TV! Astro only just finished screening Season 2! It’s Season 4 now in US!
15. that it’s time I updated Physics Corner. I’ll do that like, maybe tomorrow. Or day after. Or whenever.
16. that the Internet is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Not that I think sliced bread is great, though. And multigrain bread should be banned because it gives me hives.
17. I wanna get a terrapin. Does anyone want to donate one to me?
18. I’m cranky from lack of sleep and from those irritating mosquitoes biting me.
19. therefore, I am.
20. it’s way past my bedtime and I should go to bed. Good night!!!

I got my first pet mammal on Wednesday. Well, it’s technically not mine alone, it’s really supposed to be my sister’s, but we’ve agreed on shared responsibility. We’ve never had pets before… I had fish when I was in university, and managed to keep them alive for quite long, until I brought them home during the holidays and my maid killed them by changing their water suddenly (she was cleaning and their water got dirty) and they died of thermoshock.

My sister had been going on and on (and still is, actually) about wanting a pet, and she really wanted a dog, but admitted that she wouldn’t know if she had the time to take care of it. Then she thought of a rabbit, and I mentioned this to Bronya, who bought rabbits for her kids but the kids didn’t take care of them. As a result, one died, one was eaten by a cat, and the other is… still alive. We took the rabbit off her.

Even before getting the rabbit, my sis was trying to choose a name, and I suggested the name Putih. She thought I was unimaginative and refused to accept it as its name.

When we finally got the rabbit, it looked a little underweight and it was very timid as it was in a new environment. Here’s a photo my sister took.

OK, I know the dish looks really cheapskate, but that’s its temporary dish. I bought a nice porcelain food dish for it (with rabbit pictures on) later and a proper water bottle too.

My sister was still trying to decide on its name, and called it Kimo. I said it sounded like part of Chemotherapy. And I still called it Putih, to my sister’s indignation.

Well, the reason I kept calling it Putih is because as a kid, I read many children’s short stories written by local authors, and they tend to call their pets the same thing – cats called Harimau, rabbits called Putih…

Anyway I offered a compromise so that we could call the rabbit both names. Hence, its name is now Kimoputih Hoo… because it’s now part of the Hoo family.

I have a feeling Genna and Lyn Li would have a field day with a name like that.