It’s been so long…! Yea.. apparently I have a sudden mood to write now. Hm.. not really.. It’s more to a sudden interesting story flashing in my life.. about effort.. luck.. and Capybara. Not related? Wait until you hear the whole story…

The story began when I went out for dinner with a bunch of friends at Astons - The Cathay, Orchard. After dinner, a friend of mine brought us to a place full of arcade games. But instead of the other arcade machines, she seemed interested more to the claw crane catch vending machine.. a machine that basically cheat your money by placing anything for you to catch inside, but nearly impossible. She tried to catch a Capybara soft toy from that machine several times. It was very easy to catch it with the claw, but after it was lifted up, the claw didn’t move toward the drop hole. The soft toy was always just lifted up for a few seconds, then dropped to its previous place. Seemed that only magic could move it into the drop hole.

I did try to advise my friend not to waste more money and asked her to stop trying. She said that she’s been ‘aiming’ for that Capybara for quite some time. Seeing her face.. how she really wanted it ..and finding that I had a few $1 coins inside my pocket, I also gave it a try ..and ended with the same conclusion.. Impossible! But then.. I still heard, “I want the Capybara… ” and it made me ask, “Since you really want it, why don’t you just buy it somewhere else instead of trying to catch it here?” She convinced me that it’s not for sale, couldn’t buy it anywhere.

I didn’t really believe that nowhere selling that soft toy. The arcade games place itself must buy it from somewhere, don’t they? So at night, I sit in front of my computer.. “googling” for the words ‘capybara soft toy’ ..and it directed me to eBay. Gothca! I found one looked very similar with the one inside the claw crane machine. It had minor difference though. The one at eBay was biting an apple, and I forgot whether the one inside the claw crane machine was biting anything or not. I read through the details at eBay. It said ‘Capybara will move its mouth like eating apple when you clap or pat it’. In the second picture, I saw the other Capybara was biting sort of grass or leaf. Then I concluded that the apple or grass or whatever it was.. it’s just an ‘extra’ to show that it could bite. I checked the price and found that it was still reasonable, so I just clicked the ‘Buy It Now’ button without any further thoughts.

Now.. payment matter. I am always very careful with money thing. I didn’t want to pay it through internet.. no without being sure that I would get what I wanted. So I asked the seller if I could just meet her instead.. ‘Cash On Delivery’ basis. I’d rather spending more time to take it directly from the seller than wasting my money for nothing if I was cheated. I got a positive response from the seller. We communicated through e-mail about our meeting point.. time, place, and so on. Seemed that the seller was not a ‘heavy duty’ internet user as me.. It needed around 24 hours every time I waited for her reply.

There was one day before I got the final ‘result’ of the eBay Capybara, I saw my friend at her working place. We were chatting when suddenly she showed me something.. which is.. another Capybara soft toy! Smaller.. but typical. And.. “See! Very cute!” with a very happy face …but…. “But I still want the bigger one at Cathay…” I didn’t want to tell her what I had done before I could really get it for her. But I couldn’t resist to say, “Ok.. I will give it to you next week.” The response was, “Really??” with a tone that I couldn’t guess even until now whether it was a ‘hoping’ tone ..or a ‘disbelief’ tone.

Doesn’t matter.. I’d just try to get it for her.. but I did say that I wasn’t promising. I didn’t like to make a promise while I was still uncertain. To make sure, I asked her, “The bigger one can bite, is it?” And the answer was… “NO! The one at eBay can! Not the one at arcade!” And she stared at me with a DON’T-TRY-TO-BUY-IT-FROM-EBAY look ..at least.. that’s how I felt when I saw the look. I only responded with silence.. didn’t know what to say. I was like.. ‘uh oh.. she knows me quite well.’ I started to think whether I should continue to buy it or not because from what she said, seemed that I was hunting a wrong item. In the end, I decided to continue it anyway. My plan was going back to Cathay after I have it in my hand and compare it with the one inside the machine. If it’s not the same, then I’d just keep it for myself.

The ‘D’ day.. Meeting point was Chinatown MRT station. After some messages and phone calls, I finally met the seller. She took one Capybara soft toy from a plastic bag and handed it to me. And.. OH NO! Within only a few seconds, I could see it wasn’t what I want. The color was white.. not brown as the one inside the claw crane machine.. Ok.. it wasn’t that white.. but it’s definitely not brown! And it’s really biting an apple. I asked whether the apple could be removed but the answer was a big ‘no’. Then I decided to cancel it, said that it wasn’t the one that I wanted, told her that I wanted the brown one. She tried to explain that the picture in the eBay auction was exactly that color.. but I just didn’t want to listen, and ‘acted blur’. Yea.. I know I was bad.. but after that DON’T-TRY-TO-BUY-IT-FROM-EBAY look.. I really didn’t want to give my friend that totally different color of Capybara.. I guess it’s either something was wrong with the seller’s lighting when taking the picture.. or something was wrong with my computer color setting. She was really upset with the cancellation.. but at least I didn’t waste too much of her time to see me because the meeting point was near her working place.

I didn’t feel like stopping my effort at that level. Next plan was going back to Cathay and wished that I could just buy the Capybara from them. The great part was.. I knew the bulding name was Cathay, located around Orchard.. but I wasn’t sure where it was. Yea.. all my friends know that my ’sense of direction’ is so lousy. I knew there’s Cathay Cineleisure building nearby my ex working place but I doubt it’s the right one. I still went into that building after all ..and of course.. found out that it was totally a wrong building. Then I decided to send a message to my other friend, asked her the direction to Cathay building which Astons restaurant was located. And finally.. I could find that arcade games place of the Capybara.

Instead of the claw crane machine, I walked straight to the counter.. asked the person behind the counter whether I could just buy the soft toy inside the machine. The answer was somehow predicted.. it’s not for sale. Further more he said that even though they would sell it, the price would be over hundred dollars. No! Ten or twenty dollars …or maybe even thirty dollars, I wouldn’t mind. But spending over hundred dollars for a small soft toy would be ridiculous. Walking in vain, I stood in front of the claw crane machine. I saw the Capybara position was very near to the drop hole. I was thinking to give it another try.. I took all my coins out of my pocket and found two pieces of $1 coin. I inserted one coin into the claw crane machine and started to aim. I think I focused too much on shaking the machine in order to make the soft toy ‘flying’ to the drop hole and it made the claw didn’t even lift up the soft toy.

Ok.. another try.. one last try. I only had one piece of $1 coin left with me, and if it’s finished then it’s finish. No point to push my luck. It’s good I did say to my friend that it wasn’t a promise. I inserted my last coin, started to play. Now I guess I focused too much on positioning the claw. I did it very carefully until the claw dropped down before I pressed the drop button. The claw moved down.. caught the Capybara.. lifted it up.. At the highest point of the claw, right before it released the soft toy down, I shook the machine to the left.. and as I wished, the claw swung a bit and threw the Capybara to the left.. toward the drop hole. Yes.. it really flew and landed inside the drop hole! I stared at the drop hole.. took the Capybara out of it in disbelief.

Yes my friend.. I only spent $2 to catch that Capybara. I knew you wouldn’t believe me if I told you about it, so I’d rather be quiet when you asked. It’s even cheaper than the battery that you bought for it. But then.. please take good care of it, will you? Because it means a lot to me.. it taught me something about life. Haha, just kidding. But I did learn something from it. I was wondering what was it actually that helped me to get that Capybara.. Was it my effort to reach it.. or was it just a plain luck?

When the luck of having talent is not enough, a talent of having luck is really needed.

Ya.. without any efforts.. without any trials and errors, without giving any chances.. there is no way we can get what we want. But I believe luck takes part in our life.. more or less.

One of my friend expressed his disagreement with the quote above. Here is what he said:

Luck is intangible. Talent is intangible. It can not be identified by your five senses. It is therefore non-existence.

I won’t argue about it. In fact, I am totally agree that the effort done with our five senses will take the biggest part in any of our achievements. Still.. luck plays its part.. I believe. At least I know that I am lucky enough to have my five senses in their very good condition to help me doing any of my best efforts.

Sometimes.. for some reasons I feel that my friend.. the one who really wanted that Capybara soft toy so much.. is someone that has quite a big luck in her life. When I finally caught that Capybara, I might think I got the luck ..on her behalf. Anyway.. back to life.. I am doing my best effort at this moment to find a new job in Singapore. Honestly, there was some times that I felt like giving up.. stop trying.. and just go back to my country. But.. I have one month left with me to keep on trying.. and I will give my self a chance. Same with the coin left when I was about to catch the Capybara.. my one month time.. when it’s finished then it’s finish. No point to push my luck. And even though if in the end I can not find the job, I will go back to my country with no regret. Hmh.. actually my ‘Capybara friend’ ever said that she hoped I could find a job and stay here in Singapore. Hopefully that expectation is as big as her expectation to get this Capybara… so I can.. again.. get the luck ..on her behalf. Oh well.. I think I’m getting ‘insane’.. I better stop now. See you in the next story.. don’t know when..

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