Chapter 1

I hit the lowest point in my life when I turned 36.

Most of my friends and peers would be well entrenched in their careers at that age but not for me. It’s as if life wanted to make an example out of me.

The embodiment of everything that you should not have by this age.

I ticked all the check boxes for a typical Singaporean male in his mid thirties, at least for a while. Married, with a daughter, a government flat, a stable job and a car.

That checked the first few boxes.

Unfortunately I checked the next few as well soon after.

I got divorced. Wife became my ex-wife, I got made redundant and don’t even start on the car. It was the first to go. The government flat needs to be sold once it hits its minimum occupation period of 5 years and the proceeds split according to the divorce agreement.

So to put it in simple English.

I’m fucked.

It was a combination of bad judgement and bad luck.

My wife left me because I cheated on her. I can blame no one except myself for this. It was a stupid mistake, one that many married men fall for once the kid comes along. There was a period of dry sex spell for me and my wife after our daughter Tricia was born.

I started to think with my dick instead of my head and I went to engage a social escort. I got caught, and that’s the end of the story.

No Korean drama here.

My wife Anna was devastated; so was I when the gravity of what I had done to the family finally hit me. She could not bring herself to forgive me and after a torturing period of 6 months, we initiated the paperwork to split.

Anna wanted me to move out, she felt that perhaps it might be better that way. I could see she was stressed out with trying to care for a toddler and juggling work at the same time, I did not want to argue with her and I shifted back to my parents’ place.

We maintained contact, not as husband and wife, more as friends in a way. We would spend Saturday together with our child, pretending everything was fine. I got to visit Tricia any time I wanted as long as Anna was informed in advance.

By the time Tricia turned one, Anna was more or less over the fact that I cheated on her but she still could not forgive me.

Anna: Jim, I’m doing my best to forget it but I still can’t forgive you.

That was what she said.

Well, enough of the sad family story, I deserved it.

Just when the dust was beginning to settle in my personal life, I lost my job at a metal fabrication company. After 7 years in that place, I was convinced it was a job that would take me straight to my retirement. I was comfortable, paid decently, 2 months bonus every year, good benefits.

The boss made some bad investment decisions with a partner and the company almost went bankrupt. Then the son magically appeared from Australia with a fancy business degree to take over the reins and we had a major restructuring.

More than half the old staff were let go. As I packed up my desk, I was torn between laughing and crying.

Looking up into the skies, I almost wanted to ask the big man up there if he was toying with me. That he was bored and he was trying to see how badly he could mess up someone’s life.

I spent the next month sending out resumes and calling up some old contacts to see if there were any openings in their companies but there were none.

So how did I manage?

I did the only thing left for a Singaporean male in my situation. I drove a cab.

It was not easy making a living on the road. I thought it was a piece of cake, after all, it was just driving from point A to point B.

I was wrong.

The people you meet, the traffic conditions. Unreasonable riders, mad F1 drivers, you name it.

After deducting the rental, fuel and miscellaneous cost, I made 1.5k in the first month as a cab driver. This was me clocking 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week. It sucked.