Of the 1000 Dollars in the Trash
Yesterday,or rather the day before yesterday,my father brought our family to this restaurant for dinner.His friend Oscar tagged along.He's from Taiwan,and he sort of works for my father,or perhaps they are in partnership somehow.Anyway,he worked till 5am on Saturday morning,and my dad decided to treat him to dinner that day.So after we picked my sister up from her new school(Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts),we had on down to the hotel where Oscar stayed.Cannot remember the name right now,but it is nothing grand actually.Anyway,we got to the restaurant at East Coast and parked the car.Its called the "Long Beach SeaFood Restaurant",and its right beside the Japanese restaurant i usually go to.

That place was packed,with a line of people already queued up outside waiting to get in.Thankfully,my dad called his other friend and his family to queue up first,and he would treat them as well.So when we got there,the seats were already prepared and we sat down to eat.I'll skip the details of the dinner,since nothing special happened anyway.The food was fantastic,and i ate three pincers from the black pepper crab.Sorry guys,im a pincer freak.

The dinner started late,and ended late.It was around 9pm when we started eating our desserts,and i didnt particularly like it.I pushed it to my dad,and he gulped it down without question.As we were about to live,i stood up and checked my pockets.3 things shouldve been there.Wallet,checked.Handphone,checked.Retainers,unchecked.Wait a minute,i mustve left it on the table.Anyway,i usually wrap it in tissue when i eat.I mean,it wouldnt be nice leaving it on the table,since its pretty sick.And the dentist told me that the most common reason for the damaging of the retainers is the fact that her customers sat on them.So i usually leave them on the table.So,i went back to the table and to my shock,they were gone.Those retainers cost 1000 dollars to make(Custom made and all).I panicked,and i squeezed through the crowd to my mother who was at that time at the front of the line.She went wild.And dashed back to the table with my father,who was still pretty calm(I was acting calm as well,thinking that it might in turn calm my mother down a little).My father asked the cleaners and the manager if they saw my retainers,or perhaps thick roll of tissue paper.None of them saw,and my mother became even more panicked.The manager led me to a dump at the side of the counter where they dump their leftover food and tissues before dumping them outside.I really didnt have much hope of finding it,since the trashbin was huge,and the food was piled up to a small mount.The manager grabbed a tong and searched through the fish bones and the vegetables.My mother got even more panicked,and i was there using my "Where's Wally" skills to look for my retainers.It was an agonizing 5 minutes when she searched for them.She then lifted a fish bone,and saw this tissue paper inside.She opened it,and found my retainers.Imagine the odds!My mother was so relieved she wouldve fainted.And i for one,offered to wash them myself.Haha.Close call.Very close call.If i told my parents 3 minutes later they wouldved dumped those trash.Thank god.Really.

So on the way home,i had them in my pocket,with my fingers around them.My mom was tensed on the way home,and her shoulders were stiff.Oh well,dad tried to calm her down as well by cracking some jokes,but i know my mother wouldnt calm down until she sleeps that night.Anyway,i dont suppose it is entirely my fault.In fact,it is nobody's fault.Oh well,we found it.So thats that.End of story.Haha.What a close call.My mom always says,that to find something that you've lost,is as if you just earned the value of the item you lost.So i guess i earned 1000 dollars yesterday,without being richer whatsoever.Haha.Close.Very close.

Song of the Moment---Theme from Pulp Fiction