A Mind of My Own

Having had the privilege to travel a few times, I must say, my favourite trip is to Australia. I went there during the Chinese New Year. Of course I visited my relatives before that. It was a package tour but ended up half free and easy.

However, it wasn’t that bad because we had a guide who drove us around according to the itinerary. In fact, I still remember this couple, there were only 3 couples. This particular couple caught SH and my eyes because of their odd pairing.

They didn’t look married. They didn’t behaved married. They behaved as if they were brother and sister. We just couldn’t make out what sort of relationship they had. The guy wasn’t that great in English and there was this one time, it rained heavily on our way back. One of us wanted to buy something and the guide recommended 7-Eleven. And so, we went there to make some purchases.

Before we alighted, the guide was telling us a whole lot of information and we weren’t used to the accent yet. This guy (from the odd couple) kept nodding and agreeing. At the end, he asked, “Ee kong simi?” (What did she say?)

We couldn’t keep our laughter in. I guess face was the issue here. It’s one of my favourite trips as it was rather relaxed and we had someone to drive us around. The only thing was that I got sick of was seeing kangaroos and koala bears from day one to day six. I did like feeding them though.

6 unimportant things about me. Gee, I wonder if there’s anything so unimportant that anyone would truly want to know about me. Modobs, for you.

1. I’ve always secretly dreamed of marrying someone who has a huge house like a bungalow, with 2 maids, a golden retriever and a private swimming pool. Oh no, now it’s no longer a secret.

[via Flickr]

2. Somehow the idea of living in the era where martial arts are dominant has always fascinated me. I like the idea of flying from tree to tree with ease. Does make it a whole lot cheaper if I can fly to work instead of depending on the public transport with prices that are exorbitant and unreliable at times.
3. I have a driving license but I prefer DD to lovingly drive me around.
4. I like to do many things but lack the maintenance drive for them. Things get started by be enthusiastically but the tying up of loose ends are by others. Oh dear.
5. I prefer to stay at home and devour books. I used to be able to do that because I didn’t have to worry about bringing home the bacon. Now I have to do the latter. Sad. So very sad.
6. I’m still proud of that horse picture I drew many years ago. It was displayed on the art board of the day!

[via Flickr]

With these, I shall now tag Jian, Jasmine, DK, Cris, Pubed and Xinyun.

[via Flickr]

We can get from one corner of the island square to the other corner in 20 minutes, max. That’s if you “travel at 120km/h without stopping, and assuming you drive in a straight line, and don’t encounter any traffic lights, you CAN make it in 20 minutes”. I have timed the traveling a few times and have yet to discover the magic 20 minutes.

Oh wait, I live in the wrong corner, that’s why. And I get fined and receive demerit points for speeding at 120km/h too. There is no way I can travel at that speed because of the speed bumps, traffic lights and tiny winding roads. Remember, speed limits are abundant.

Trust me, I don’t know if the 20 minutes include the police escorting your car, all traffic lights are green or something. The bus is supposed to reach virtually every corner of Singapore too. Oh. But what about those bungalows? Hang on, they have cars.

At this rate, I’ll never get to any corner in 20 minutes. Unless I can fly.

It’s true. Singapore is green with trees everywhere, and look! Even our face is green too! You see, we work like slave, end up all wounded, but no pay raise. Just look at the Face Green Green video.

[via Tomorrow]

It’s no longer safe to wait at the bus interchange. I was on my way home from the wedding dinner when this drunk, yet another dark skin, stared at me. I walked away from his line of stare. Not happy, he mumbled loudly and attempted to walk in front of me as close as possible, twice. I was contemplating to walk home when he tried to make his advances on me. Seriously, the police should patrol the dark places and even bus interchanges at night.

I didn’t take a taxi because there was a jam forming at Orchard Road and I doubt that they would magically appear unless upon booking. It used to be safe when I got home late at night in my area. Now? It’s no longer safe. I have to worry about drunks, perverts and lord knows what else. Oh, and disappearing taxi drivers.

Ah, our great transport minister has decided to create more surcharges and to increase the board on rates. How wonderful. Let’s see what other people are feeling about this hike.

Dejavu: Taxi Fares and What’s Not - $8.40 before the taxi had moved a centimetre.

Simply Jean: Taxi Hike -  ‘It’s a choice between $3 or nothing for drivers, so this will definitely influence their driving behaviour. We may head to more problems and complaints, in the end, if taxi drivers do avoid taxi stands along the fringe.’ That’s exactly what they are doing now, my dear MP Ong.

Decay on Net: You Guys Might as Well Go Rob a Bank - I don’t think they have to rob one but they have been robbing us all these while, haven’t they? Our money in the banks, right? We have to withdraw to pay.

All and Sundry Singapore: Attempting to Solve a Problem -  Actually, the problem had always been there. The taxis weren’t there, so a late night surcharge was given to attract but it still wasn’t enough and then there’s the favourite booking charges that they prefer, etc.

Mr Brown: Complain about Taxi Somemore -  I can’t think how better to put it than him. Yeah, I waited for 45 minutes for a taxi at Suntec City on a Saturday. It was after midnight too.

Oh my, so many “happy” customers out there. Comfort Delgro, you are very happy now, right? Serving so many customers who don’t want to pay for the higher fares but unable to do anything because they have no choice.

And my take? If I have a choice, I would be driving my own car without polluting the environment and without those horrible drivers who love to hog the roads, don’t know how to give way and those who love to kiss my car’s butt. Oh, not to forget, I don’t have to pay so much for fuel because it’s an environmental friendly car that doesn’t depend on petrol whose price is always on the rise.

What is the issue that we are trying to solve? Taxis to be available at all times since we have people willing to pay? Taxi drivers who choose passengers? Taxi drivers to take any passenger despite changing shift and the passenger is going the other direction? Or just covering the rising operating fees under the guise of solving disappearing taxis?

I take taxis because I have too many heavy stuff to carry and a trip on the train would be too horrifying indeed as I don’t want to be on Stomp captioned “Took up 4 seats just to put her bags because Can’t afford the taxi fares.”

That’ll be real nice, no?

I wanted to stay at home cozy yesterday. All was fine until ES SMS me, “Where are you?” My 1st mistake was to “At home.” My 2nd was to log online as demanded. My 3rd was to be good friends with ES and HF. Ok, that last part was a joke. Don’t kill me.

Eventually, after much cajoling online and extreme nudges, I got ready to meed HF as she would be taking a cab down. We had a trying time looking for places to have a drink. As in coffee, tea or Ice Blended Latte. However, most closed at 11pm and it was already 10.30pm. Note to self: Millenia Walk is a lousy place to have a quiet chat. The pub there don’t even serve hot drinks after 5pm.

We wanted to sit at Dreamer’s Live! Cafe but it was full house. What a pity. In the end, we took up a spot at McDonald’s in Suntec City. We can always depend on Good Ol’ Mac. It was midnight when we ended our thoughts of life with each other. The wait for the taxi was ridiculously long. There were so many people in the queue but all the taxi’s were On Call.

One taxi driver even blatantly stopped in the circle for someone to book a cab. The audacity! The queue where we were waiting, refused to call for a cab. The driver waited for about 3 minutes before we saw it light up with “On Call”. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the license plate.

Our total waiting time for the taxi was 45 minutes. We should thank LTA and our million-dollar MPs for promoting such good service. We have to wait for 45 minutes to take the “150% surcharge at midnight and Late Night surcharge” taxis. It would definitely be easier if we can just pay $6 on board fare cum $0.05 per 500m for the trip. I find it torturous to calculate the fares. Oh wait, our million-dollars MPs prefer formulas to show off their thorough thinking-ness.

It was the usual routine getting into the train and nap during my 45 minutes ride. When the train pulled away from Sembawang, I overhead this argument (aye, our never ending woes trying to board the train and squeezing into the crowded train).

Brown shoes (BS): Can you move in? (stern tone)

Black bag (BB): Why should I move in?

BS: There’s space over there!

BB: You don’t push, ok?

BS: Then you move in!

BB: Why should I move in? (and a whole lot things that I can’t recall).

BS: I don’t want to talk to you.

BB: You think I want to talk to you? You are so rude, ok.

BS: Ok, ok, I don’t want to talk to you. Just shut up.

BB: So rude.

All this while, I was thinking, can the two of you just shut up? Just look at the size of BB and the space that is available. BB can’t fit into that small space. BS, you got parallax error. After that, BS tried to read Today but failed to enjoy it. I think BS was the one needing more space due to his favourite way to pass the train ride by reading the papers.

My God, sometimes I wonder if taking the public transport is making us more self-centred. Just listen to the message, “For the convenience of all passengers, please move towards the centre of the car. Thank you.” And that message came after the terse exchange between BB and BS.

I’m overdoing it. I bought a new dress, French manicure, pedicure and changed my hairstyle. And it’s not my wedding. Or I seriously lack such pampering and doing all of them in one go. My pockets are screaming “NO! STOP!”

And this boy tried to destroy my pedicure while attempting to snatch that seat in the crowded MRT. For God’s sake, YOU DON’T STEP ON MY NEW PEDICURE! I would be asking for compensation. And I don’t care how ugly I looked at that moment. Even better, I call Stomp. Unfortunately or fortunately, he didn’t destroy my pedicure, merely missed it by millimetres. And Miss Loi, where you got your nail art done? Mine was at Nail @ The Lacquer Room (VivoCity, level 2). Quite nice.

I have to stop myself from buying new shoes. I will be going for lelong at this rate if the shoe buying spree is not curbed. Note to self: It’s not my wedding.

One advice for the mother, can at least control your kid or not? How can he squeeze all over and step on others? What if he disturb some old person or pregnant lady? The old person will scold him till dog bleed drop head. The pregnant lady will be stressed. You don’t want her to sue you, do you?

Thanks for the raise. The surcharge for taxis based on locations that MP Seng Tan Thong is proposing now. He’s proposing that the surcharges be deployed to locations such as Raffles Place, shopping malls, pubs, etc. Wow. MP Seng is very thoughtful.

Thanks hor. Now I know that I have to pay for midnight charges, morning peak hour charges, weekend peak hour charges, booking charges, CBD charges, and other various charges of different names that I can’t possibly remember.

So, all these charges are supposed to do something? Like make those taxis appear out of thin air? Wow. The surcharges and other what-nots sure can do magic, ya? Did I mention that I spent $18 in the morning during peak hours just to get to work? Oh, I did.

Why not get rid of the charges and save us some headache instead. Just charge us for a boarding fare of $5 and the route charges. That’ll save a lot of calculating what time to take a taxi and where too.

Let’s make the formula less complicated, shall we? Get rid of the numerous charges because they obviously are not serving their purposes. So, just charge $5upon boarding and the route itself. You won’t have to crack your head on what sort of formula to use next. Neither do you need to think of various surcharge names either. Makes your job as MP so much easier and lighten your busy schedule, right?

[hijacked by WishbAne]