East Coast Park & ‘The Car’ Episode
Dearest Little Skyler,
We had yet another long day today.
Papa had to go to school in the morning to attend a course then Papa had to rush home to take care of you as Mama had to go to school to do her work.
After Papa got back home, we quickly got ready and left for lunch. We ate the Chinese restaurant at the Point and you had some porridge and a bit of ‘pau’ skin. You wanted to look at the fish in the tanks so we brought you over to do that. You refused to sit in your high chair so we had to take turns to eat as usual so that one of us could bring you around to look at things.
We then set off to bring Mama to her school. After letting Mama off, we headed over to the East Coast Park. You had already fallen asleep almost immediately after we left the Point. On the way there, Papa was also very sleepy. Papa was SO sleepy that Papa couldn’t take it too much longer so Papa decided that he had to take a nap too or we would be in trouble if he continued driving.
We drove into a multi-storey car park in Marine Parade and Papa pushed his chairback down and … you stirred! Papa was so worried that you were going to wake up and start crying and Papa would then have to care for you! But, thankfully, you continued sleeping and Papa went out like a light!
Papa woke up soon after feeling much better and you were still asleep. As Papa was feeling okay, Papa drove us over to the beach. Being a weekday, the place was not so crowded thus it was quite easy to find a parking place for the car. After parking, Papa woke you up from your long sleep and brought you over to a newly opened Burger King to feed you your afternoon milk.
The place was quite huge and empty of people. There WERE a few groups of people around but there were very many empty tables as well. So, Papa fed you in relative peace and quiet. However, you were not so hungry and only finished half the cup.
Since you did not want to eat or drink anymore, we went for a walk along the beach. There were some people there but it was not overly crowded. There was lots of space for us to walk without bumping into anybody. You were so intrigued by the sand that when we sat down on a bench, you started bending over and playing with the sand. Initially, Papa was worried that you would get dirty but Papa decided to let you experience touching the sand as this was actually your first time playing with sand at the beach. The last time Papa brought you to this beach, you were asleep throughout the time we were there.
You then spent some time just grabbing some sand and letting it drop through your fingers. After some time, Papa decided to continue walking thus he cleaned your hands and we continued with our walk. We saw lots of people cycling, roller-blading, playing, swimming and even barbecuing (Papa was quite surprised that people had started barbecuing at that time – it was still so early in the evening). We then went over nearer to the water’s edge and we found some shells to pick up. Papa decided to take back only one shell (as it was fairly nicely formed) as a souvenir of our trip.
After getting back to our car, we drove off to Grandma’s. This was where things got bad for Papa. After we had parked in the carpark below Grandma’s block of flats, Papa wanted to get you out of the car. But before he could do that, Papa had to take out the stroller and load it with our stuff. (Actually, you have stopped using the stroller already for some time now but Papa needed something for you to sit on during dinner with Grandma and the coffeeshop’s high chairs were all very dirty.) However, when Papa left you to get the stroller out, you kept on crying! To distract you while Papa did all that, Papa left the car key pouch with you.
Everything was going well … Papa had the stroller out and had put all the stuff that we needed in it. Then, Papa shut the front passenger door and reached for the handle of your door. Just as Papa was pulling on the handle, the car alarm beeped, the doors all locked and there we were … Papa locked out of the car and you locked in it! You had pressed on the alarm activation button! To make matters worse, you dropped the whole key pouch by the side of your baby seat and you were still strapped in it! There was absolutely no way you could reach for the key pouch and undo what had happened! Papa almost totally freaked out!
All the doors including the one for the boot had locked and there was no way Papa could unlock any of the doors! (Even though Papa was conscious of that, Papa still tried every single door anyway thinking that maybe, just this once, the remote locking system had failed – no such luck!) Then Papa remembered that his Papa had had a car where if the door was partially open when the door was locked, all one had to do was push the door closed all the way and the door would unlock. As your door was in this position, Papa tried it but of course the people who designed the car security had known of this and designed it to remain locked! As Papa no choice, Papa immediately called the Emergency Phone number – 999 – to summon help!
Thank God the Grandma’s block number and street name were printed clearly on the sign attached to the block and was visible from where we were as Papa couldn’t remember the address at all at that moment. Papa managed to give the person who answered his call the necessary information and then Papa could only wait for them to come and help free you.
Those were the longest five minutes of my life, Little One. I have been totally stressed out by several things in my life and each second that passed in those incidents were excruciating but none can match how I felt during this whole episode.
You were crying so piteously in the car and Papa was totally helpless! Papa had always promised to care for you and never let anything untoward happen to you but here he was unable to do anything! It was a terrible, terrible time!
All the while while waiting for the police to arrive, Papa was wondering what was taking them so long! (Strangely, all it actually took them was five minutes to arrive – which, on a normal day, would not have been long at all.) The first people to arrive were paramedics in an ambulance. Ironically, Papa didn’t think that they had come to help us as Papa had no idea why an ambulance would be sent. Funnily, Papa thought that someone had summoned an ambulance to help one of the elderly in the building as the building was built for the aged. Then Papa heard one of the paramedics in the ambulance say that he must be the one who called for them as there was nobody else around. A fire engine filled with firemen hot on their heels and they poured out of their vehicle and started moving around the car to assess the situation.
Papa must have watched too many TV shows and thought that all these people had to do was simply ‘break’ into the car like a car thief and unlock the door to save you. Apparently, that only happened in TV shows. The firemen said that the only way to save you was to smash a window so that they could reach in and unlock the door. They chose the smallest window that was the furthest away from you so that it wouldn’t cost as much to replace the window and also so that the glass would not fly onto you and hurt you. To do that, they kept on asking me for permission. Because they kept on asking me for permission, Papa got a bit confused and also asked them if there was any other choice. (The only other option was to get Mama to bring the spare key down but that would have taken way too long thus it was not really an option at all!) As there was no other choice, Papa kept on telling them to break it and get it over with. The strange thing was that there were three of these firemen and every one of them asked for permission to break the window. Papa kept on telling them to go ahead until, finally, they did.
The fireman who broke the window stuck half his body in so that he could reach in to unlock the door. It was quite dangerous for him as the glass was still on the window frame and he could have cut himself. Thank God nothing happened to him.
The paramedics pulled you out of your seat and passed you to me. That moment really felt like when the doctor passed you to me when you were born! My goodness, the relief I felt when I saw that you seemed totally okay!
The paramedics then wanted to conduct some tests on you to see if you were okay. You refused to let them touch you as they were strangers and you also did not like them putting on some device on your fingers or toes. Then, a paramedic examined you with his stethoscope and you started bawling. Apparently, your crying assured them that you were totally fine and none the worse for wear and they left us soon after. Papa totally understood that they were trying to ensure that you needn’t be brought to a hospital for further checks as many babies have been trapped in cars for long periods of time under a hot sun and they have become dehydrated and traumatised. As they had responded so quickly, you were actually still okay when they freed you. Thank God!!!
The firemen and policemen (oh yes, the police had arrived by then) asked Papa how this situation occurred and Papa in total embarrassment told them. The most humiliating thing was that the fireman asked Papa for his educational level. Hahahahaha! Oh well… After getting Papa’s personal particulars, everyone left us.
It was quite anticlimactic for Papa. Papa had thought that he would have had to sign a statement of some sort or something for having disturbed so many people. But, no, everyone just left us alone. It was quite a strange feeling after having caused so much commotion.
Papa was so traumatised by the close call that he had to call Mama even though she was in class. Papa just had to tell someone. Mama didn’t get the call the first time but she called back and Papa told her what had happened while we sat on a bench downstairs. Actually, Papa was the one who sat down; you were just wandering around looking at the people and the signs that were at your eye level. It was so amazing; you seemed totally unaffected by the whole incident!
After speaking with Mama, we went to Grandma’s place and then came back down to have dinner with her. Papa asked to eat at the coffeeshop next to the car park as we had a big hole in the car where people could reach in and steal something. :P But Papa didn’t mention anything to Grandma about this was it was quite embarrassing.
After dinner, we dropped off kor-kor Kenji’s replacement gifts of Star Wars figurines and then we went to pick Mama up. After we had stopped by Civic Centre to pick up some groceries we came home.
What an eventful day, Little One. Papa will never forget his silliness and also, Papa will never ever let you play with the car key again. :P
We love you, Little One.
Mama and Papa
Dearest Little Skyler,
We had yet another long day today.
Papa had to go to school in the morning to attend a course then Papa had to rush home to take care of you as Mama had to go to school to do her work.
After Papa got back home, we quickly got ready and left for lunch. We ate the Chinese restaurant at the Point and you had some porridge and a bit of ‘pau’ skin. You wanted to look at the fish in the tanks so we brought you over to do that. You refused to sit in your high chair so we had to take turns to eat as usual so that one of us could bring you around to look at things.
We then set off to bring Mama to her school. After letting Mama off, we headed over to the East Coast Park. You had already fallen asleep almost immediately after we left the Point. On the way there, Papa was also very sleepy. Papa was SO sleepy that Papa couldn’t take it too much longer so Papa decided that he had to take a nap too or we would be in trouble if he continued driving.
We drove into a multi-storey car park in Marine Parade and Papa pushed his chairback down and … you stirred! Papa was so worried that you were going to wake up and start crying and Papa would then have to care for you! But, thankfully, you continued sleeping and Papa went out like a light!
Papa woke up soon after feeling much better and you were still asleep. As Papa was feeling okay, Papa drove us over to the beach. Being a weekday, the place was not so crowded thus it was quite easy to find a parking place for the car. After parking, Papa woke you up from your long sleep and brought you over to a newly opened Burger King to feed you your afternoon milk.
The place was quite huge and empty of people. There WERE a few groups of people around but there were very many empty tables as well. So, Papa fed you in relative peace and quiet. However, you were not so hungry and only finished half the cup.
Since you did not want to eat or drink anymore, we went for a walk along the beach. There were some people there but it was not overly crowded. There was lots of space for us to walk without bumping into anybody. You were so intrigued by the sand that when we sat down on a bench, you started bending over and playing with the sand. Initially, Papa was worried that you would get dirty but Papa decided to let you experience touching the sand as this was actually your first time playing with sand at the beach. The last time Papa brought you to this beach, you were asleep throughout the time we were there.
You then spent some time just grabbing some sand and letting it drop through your fingers. After some time, Papa decided to continue walking thus he cleaned your hands and we continued with our walk. We saw lots of people cycling, roller-blading, playing, swimming and even barbecuing (Papa was quite surprised that people had started barbecuing at that time – it was still so early in the evening). We then went over nearer to the water’s edge and we found some shells to pick up. Papa decided to take back only one shell (as it was fairly nicely formed) as a souvenir of our trip.
After getting back to our car, we drove off to Grandma’s. This was where things got bad for Papa. After we had parked in the carpark below Grandma’s block of flats, Papa wanted to get you out of the car. But before he could do that, Papa had to take out the stroller and load it with our stuff. (Actually, you have stopped using the stroller already for some time now but Papa needed something for you to sit on during dinner with Grandma and the coffeeshop’s high chairs were all very dirty.) However, when Papa left you to get the stroller out, you kept on crying! To distract you while Papa did all that, Papa left the car key pouch with you.
Everything was going well … Papa had the stroller out and had put all the stuff that we needed in it. Then, Papa shut the front passenger door and reached for the handle of your door. Just as Papa was pulling on the handle, the car alarm beeped, the doors all locked and there we were … Papa locked out of the car and you locked in it! You had pressed on the alarm activation button! To make matters worse, you dropped the whole key pouch by the side of your baby seat and you were still strapped in it! There was absolutely no way you could reach for the key pouch and undo what had happened! Papa almost totally freaked out!
All the doors including the one for the boot had locked and there was no way Papa could unlock any of the doors! (Even though Papa was conscious of that, Papa still tried every single door anyway thinking that maybe, just this once, the remote locking system had failed – no such luck!) Then Papa remembered that his Papa had had a car where if the door was partially open when the door was locked, all one had to do was push the door closed all the way and the door would unlock. As your door was in this position, Papa tried it but of course the people who designed the car security had known of this and designed it to remain locked! As Papa no choice, Papa immediately called the Emergency Phone number – 999 – to summon help!
Thank God the Grandma’s block number and street name were printed clearly on the sign attached to the block and was visible from where we were as Papa couldn’t remember the address at all at that moment. Papa managed to give the person who answered his call the necessary information and then Papa could only wait for them to come and help free you.
Those were the longest five minutes of my life, Little One. I have been totally stressed out by several things in my life and each second that passed in those incidents were excruciating but none can match how I felt during this whole episode.
You were crying so piteously in the car and Papa was totally helpless! Papa had always promised to care for you and never let anything untoward happen to you but here he was unable to do anything! It was a terrible, terrible time!
All the while while waiting for the police to arrive, Papa was wondering what was taking them so long! (Strangely, all it actually took them was five minutes to arrive – which, on a normal day, would not have been long at all.) The first people to arrive were paramedics in an ambulance. Ironically, Papa didn’t think that they had come to help us as Papa had no idea why an ambulance would be sent. Funnily, Papa thought that someone had summoned an ambulance to help one of the elderly in the building as the building was built for the aged. Then Papa heard one of the paramedics in the ambulance say that he must be the one who called for them as there was nobody else around. A fire engine filled with firemen hot on their heels and they poured out of their vehicle and started moving around the car to assess the situation.
Papa must have watched too many TV shows and thought that all these people had to do was simply ‘break’ into the car like a car thief and unlock the door to save you. Apparently, that only happened in TV shows. The firemen said that the only way to save you was to smash a window so that they could reach in and unlock the door. They chose the smallest window that was the furthest away from you so that it wouldn’t cost as much to replace the window and also so that the glass would not fly onto you and hurt you. To do that, they kept on asking me for permission. Because they kept on asking me for permission, Papa got a bit confused and also asked them if there was any other choice. (The only other option was to get Mama to bring the spare key down but that would have taken way too long thus it was not really an option at all!) As there was no other choice, Papa kept on telling them to break it and get it over with. The strange thing was that there were three of these firemen and every one of them asked for permission to break the window. Papa kept on telling them to go ahead until, finally, they did.
The fireman who broke the window stuck half his body in so that he could reach in to unlock the door. It was quite dangerous for him as the glass was still on the window frame and he could have cut himself. Thank God nothing happened to him.
The paramedics pulled you out of your seat and passed you to me. That moment really felt like when the doctor passed you to me when you were born! My goodness, the relief I felt when I saw that you seemed totally okay!
The paramedics then wanted to conduct some tests on you to see if you were okay. You refused to let them touch you as they were strangers and you also did not like them putting on some device on your fingers or toes. Then, a paramedic examined you with his stethoscope and you started bawling. Apparently, your crying assured them that you were totally fine and none the worse for wear and they left us soon after. Papa totally understood that they were trying to ensure that you needn’t be brought to a hospital for further checks as many babies have been trapped in cars for long periods of time under a hot sun and they have become dehydrated and traumatised. As they had responded so quickly, you were actually still okay when they freed you. Thank God!!!
The firemen and policemen (oh yes, the police had arrived by then) asked Papa how this situation occurred and Papa in total embarrassment told them. The most humiliating thing was that the fireman asked Papa for his educational level. Hahahahaha! Oh well… After getting Papa’s personal particulars, everyone left us.
It was quite anticlimactic for Papa. Papa had thought that he would have had to sign a statement of some sort or something for having disturbed so many people. But, no, everyone just left us alone. It was quite a strange feeling after having caused so much commotion.
Papa was so traumatised by the close call that he had to call Mama even though she was in class. Papa just had to tell someone. Mama didn’t get the call the first time but she called back and Papa told her what had happened while we sat on a bench downstairs. Actually, Papa was the one who sat down; you were just wandering around looking at the people and the signs that were at your eye level. It was so amazing; you seemed totally unaffected by the whole incident!
After speaking with Mama, we went to Grandma’s place and then came back down to have dinner with her. Papa asked to eat at the coffeeshop next to the car park as we had a big hole in the car where people could reach in and steal something. :P But Papa didn’t mention anything to Grandma about this was it was quite embarrassing.
After dinner, we dropped off kor-kor Kenji’s replacement gifts of Star Wars figurines and then we went to pick Mama up. After we had stopped by Civic Centre to pick up some groceries we came home.
What an eventful day, Little One. Papa will never forget his silliness and also, Papa will never ever let you play with the car key again. :P
We love you, Little One.
Mama and Papa
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