What a day!

Since Jamie's birthday we really haven't done much. We spent the weekend hanging out around the house watching football and walking the dogs. Pretty exciting I know, but since I've started working I've been in a sort of funk. Friday I had a talk with my senior manager about how I thought things were going. I explained to her that I was not enjoying work and that we needed to come up with a solution if they wanted me to stay around. Wednesday morning she gave me some news that I did not agree with and at that point I tried to quit. She did not like my response and told me to wait a few more days and she would try to work it all out. So when I left Wednesday afternoon I was in an even bigger funk.

Which leads me to my real story. After I got off I gathered my things and went down to the taxi stand to grab a cab home as I always do. I guess that day I got in the wrong one and I myself had the wrong attitude. When I arrived at my place he gave me the total and I gave him my credit card.

Before I continue I have to give you a little back ground info on Singapore and credit cards. They hate them. Most places don't take them and if they do there is a 10% service charge on top of a 7% GST (a local tax). If you pay cash you don't have to pay this extra in most places. Other companies make you spend a minimum of $10 and still there are some that don't take them at all. Not all taxi companies take them if they do they tack on these extra fees. When you do pay with a credit card the drivers get mad because it's not money they can take home that day, the company pays them a week later. They will do everything in the book to get cash, yell at you, tell you they don't have a machine (when you are staring right at it), tell you it's broke, you name it. I can't tell you how many times I've been told off in Chinese because of this. Now back to the story...

So, I gave the driver my credit card. He mumbled something in Chinese, swiped it, and told me " It no work, you have to pay me cash". As I said, I was in a bad mood already so I told him "why, it says on your door you take credit" . It did state on his machine that there was an error, but he did not hit the clearly marked "credit card" button so of course it would say error. He proceeded to tell me it was not working. When I told him it was because he did not hit the button he began to yell at me (literally) and again told me I had to pay him in cash. I got mad and told him I didn't have any and he needed to figure it out. As you can imagine he did not like that answer and again yelled at me for another few minutes. I would have just gotten out of the car, but he was still holding my credit card so that wasn't an option. After he was done yelling I said " you figure it out, I don't have cash". His reply was "I'll call the police". With this I pulled out my cell phone and said "go ahead".

Instead he decided to drive me there. So, I spent Wednesday afternoon at the police station because my taxi driver refused to take my credit card and I refused to pay cash. All of this over a $4.00 taxi ride (taxis are really cheap here). I tried to explain to him several times that if his machine was broke (which is what he was claiming) that he had a duty to tell his customers when it was not working when they get in the car, not as they are paying. It clearly states on his door that major credit cards are accepted and it is not my problem if he does not give me the option to decline the ride otherwise. He did not agree, and said it was not his problem.

After 20 minutes of arguing in front of the police officer the driver stated that it was my card that wasn't working. When I offered up another one he got mad and walked out. Which made my point that the machine was working the entire time he just didn't want to take it.

So, I won. He left without his $4.00 and I called another cab to take me home, which I paid for with my credit card. I understand to most this seems like a silly argument to have, but when get got up and walked out it made me feel so much better!!!

I called Jamie afterwards and he told me he was glad I had won the argument but not to ever do that again! Guess he's afraid you guys may be watching the news and hear about some American getting lashings for refusing to pay for her taxi ride!

Probably not the smartest thing I've ever done but worth it!

Since then my luck has begun to turn around. This morning I had a talk with my managers and for now we've come to an agreement. Not quite sure if it will work out in the long run, but for now it will do. Work today was better than it has been so maybe my funk is almost over! I'll leave you with some more Singaporean medical terminology.

Plast - band-aid
Case Notes - chart
Trolley - delivery cart
Resus Trolley - baby warmer
Hypo Count - blood sugar
Clerk - assessment
Pluck - start an IV