I lost my extra phone that I’ve been using whenever I go abroad. Along with it was the Starhub SIM that I’ve been keeping alive for quite a while. It was annoying that I had to buy a new SIM card when a top-up of SGD 10 everytime I fly here is sufficient because I get 9GB of data for free when I avail of the one-week validity and it keeps the sim alive longer. I use that number for transactions here in Singapore, like the registration for the SimplyGo app and whatnot.

Anyway, I kept searching for the phone at home, which just lived in my second drawer in my room. It’s unlikely that my kids took it; they aren’t interested in since that’s a very basic phone. I don’t want to put suspicion on my cleaning lady who has all access to all corners of our tiny home. My kids’ friends don’t come near my room. So I don’t know…

The frustrating thing about this lost phone and SIM card brouhaha is that it was difficult to buy a new Starhub prepaid, similar to the one I had. The ones being sold at the airport are too expensive (SGD 50) for a short stay and they’re Singtel. Of course they’re going to push the state-owned brand. I couldn’t have access to the MVNO brands because I’m a foreigner. They had been throttling the access of foreigners to prepaid SIMs that have longer lives to keep text and call scams at bay. What I got is an M1 SIM and it seems like I can only top it up with SGD 7 and keep it alive only for 120 days—and I can’t use the data in the Philippines. And only it’s only the Philippines in Southeast Asia where I can’t use it.

The Singtel tourist SIM isn’t different. A tourist can use the local data allocation in major ASEAN markets except for the Philippines. I noticed that my Starhub wasn’t working in the Philippines for a year or two now. Does it have something to do with the presence of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators?

Aside from human trafficking, these POGO entities are suspected to be behind the text and call scams all over Southeast Asia. They used to be housed in Cambodia only but have proliferated in the Philippines during Duterte’s time. Before Alice Guo’s arrest, Filipinos were inundated with text scams. These slowed down after the ban on these POGOs.

I suspect that they’re also running boiler room-like operations to scam people in other ASEAN markets. Singapore is particularly vulnerable because they have a lot of elderly people who have been scammed of their retirement funds. These criminals are foreigners and use foreign numbers. The call scammers in the Philippines are the same. I tried talking to one of them just for lark and also to get a sense of their accent and how they run their schtick. Then I reported them to my telco.

Meanwhile…

I went inside the Singapore store of one of the contemporary brands I had been patronizing and went out as quickly as I could. The prices are just unbelievable. I can buy the same item from their official website in the US and have it shipped to the Philippines for 20k less. 😑 I already have the item in my cart prior to flying to Singapore. I guess I would have to click the check out button once I come back to Manila. That extra 20k that I would be able to save can be socked into my investment accounts and make my frivolous purchase a win-win situation.

And that, my friends, is very tellling.

Ok, I got to prepare for my conference and dinner interview with a CEO.

I got stood up.

I was supposed to have the last interview of the day at 7 pm on the other side of the island. Because I was not familiar with the area, I arrived an hour before the appointed time and prepared for the interview. An hour after the supposed meeting time, the interviewee was surprised that the interview was today. Then he realized he made a mistake as he entered the wrong date on his calendar.

I had to graciously accept the apologies and I just rescheduled the interview for tomorrow night. I cannot leave Singapore without this interview because it’s one of my deliverables. Although my harvest during today’s conference was a lot—better than I could hope for—I still need to maximize my working hours here. It will be quite a while before I can come back here, with Christmas and Chinese New Year holidays coming up. We have a company Christmas dinner two weeks from now, but I don’t think it’s worthwhile for me to fly again since all the people I need to talk to here would have flown out of the country by then, taking their own long Christmas breaks.

So yeah, I looked ridiculous in that restaurant in my conference get-up (dress, pearls, and all), looking like a dejected girl who got stood up by her Bumble date.

I was so hungry that I ordered horfun for myself. It was large but it’s ok, I will have it for brunch tomorrow at the office.

First time I got stood up. 😑