Incident for thought (6)

It was a typical workday morning, on the MRT to work. There was a couple, maybe in their late 30s, with the wife sitting and the husband standing right beside her. When the train stopped at a station and the passenger besides the wife alighted, the husband moved to take the seat. But at the same time, another auntie came out of nowhere at lightning speed and was going for that seat too. They bumped into each other, and after each giving the other a "how-dare-you-snatch-my-seat" look without a word, the husband sat down, conveniently ignoring the auntie's deadly stare.

I didn't know why this incident bothered me. Maybe it was the way that the guy still took the seat when he knew that the auntie was going for it too. Or maybe it was just the traditional me, still believing in the "gentleman spirit".

Incident for thought (5)

Just something to think about : some time into the future, when you are old and wrinkly and is officially a senior citizen, and happen to hop onto a train with no vacant seats, would you stand right in front of the youngster who is occupying the "Reserved Seating" for the needy and proceed to try to stare him/her down for the rest of the journey?

Or maybe I was thinking too much, maybe the old woman just find the youngster handsome to look at.

Incident for thought (4)

Venue : cab stand, Suntec City

I was approaching the cab stand, where there was not a queue at all as a lady had just got on a cab and it was driving away. So, I walked towards the cabs as they were slowly driving in to fill the empty space. Then this slightly plump guy in spectacles, who looked to be about in the late twenties (but could actually only be early twenties, you know that kind), appeared from my right and was approaching the cabs moving in to the stand. I was about 3 to 4 steps away from getting onto the cab when he just moved right past me and got on. And to think I still gave him the credit of maybe being gentleman enough to ask if I'm in the queue, or to offer to let me go first. I couldn't stop staring at his back, and I think he knew I was looking coz he seemed to be doing a bit of a crab walk so as to pretend either not to see me, or to make eye contact with me.

WTH is the world coming to?! To be honest, I'm more upset about his manners than his cutting into my queue. Is it the much polluted air that had gotten into these people's lungs, or the increasing amount of artificial ingredients in the foods and drinks we are having these days? Or is it just me that always happened to meet such people?

Incident for thought (3)

Update : decided to change the title to "Incident for thought", or else people will be wondering what kind of people Singaporeans are if I keep coming up with posts about Ugly Singaporeans. I'm, after all, a Singaporean as well.

Time : 7:35 p.m. to 8 :10 p.m.
Day : Tuesday (24th Feb 2009)
Venue : MacDonald's, Suntec City

There was a couple who was already seated at the place on my left when I got there. They soon left and immediately this other couple came over and took the seat, because of the two power points at the side so they were able to use their laptops.

Anyway, while the guy went to get the food, the long-haired girl, wearing a sleeveless black and white sports top with shorts, and wearing spectacles, which I'm guessing is not any older than 26, was left alone to set up the laptops and most likely to clear whatever the previous couple had left behind, which I later saw, was just an empty paper cup.

So, instead of taking that empty paper cup to the dustbin, this girl took the cup, went over to the table where the Filipino couple had just vacated, and put the empty cup there. The best thing was, the Filipino couple had just got up from their seats and the guy was still collecting his bag, when this girl just walked over, put the cup at the place and walked off. Even though the guy exclaimed quite loudly, "Why did she put her empty cup here?" The girl didn't even so much as looked back and apologised, or even have the decency to look a wee bit embarrassed. She just went back to set up her laptops as if nothing happened.

What in the world are Singaporeans turning into? This is a young girl I'm talking about here... the generation that will most likely be working, or are already working in our society. What are we showing to these foreigners/tourists/expats with such behaviour? What happened to those Civics and Moral Education lessons we used to have in school?

Incidents for thought (2)

The following 2 incidents took place on different days.

Incident 1 :
At Seng Kang MRT station

A man was pushing a pram, approaching one of the bigger fare gates, when another younger man came in from his blind spot, cut into his path, and went through the fare gate.

The older man was immediately pissed. He turned back to his wife, and said in a loud voice, "Wah, like that also can. He cannot see I'm pushing a pram?" (which by the time, the younger man was already walking away, without even turning back)

I heard the wife muttered something, and the man continued loudly,"So inconsiderate one ah, these Singaporean people." Then he hurriedly pushed his pram and went after the younger man, which at this moment, I didn't know what happened since I was going in the other direction. But judging from his reaction, I won't be surprised that he went to confront that young man.

You know what I find most amusing about this incident?

"Singaporean people."

Incident 2 :
At a family clinic

You know how there are some neighbourhood clinics which share the area with a dentist, then all the patients will be seated together at one area? The family doctor I went to is in such a clinic.

There were about 5 more patients in front of me, and so I sat somewhere near the registration counter for the dentist, since the place was nearly full.

There was this woman with her baby, complaining at the dentist counter about how someone accidentally cancelled her 12 o'clock appointment (it was already 1:30pm at that time) and she had to wait for an hour before someone comes back to the counter after lunch. She was completely incensed, and she was not really a quiet one and the place was not that big.

So, she went on and on and on about how irresponsible that person who cancelled her appointment was, how she still called the previous day to double-check the appointment, how she had to travel and waited one hour, how tiring it was for her to have to bring the baby along, blah, blah, blah. You know how sometimes when people are angry, they kept repeating and repeating everything, until you know the whole story and can even anticipate what she was going to repeat next.

I could see that the dental nurse was ready to leap over the counter and tie the telephone cord around her neck. But she still tried to pacify her and told her to wait since her appointment was cancelled accidentally, and someone already took her time slot. But once again, that woman whined, "Wait?! I've been waiting for an hour, and you still want me to wait?"

Maybe she thought the dentist has two heads and four arms, and can check on two patients at the same time.

Anyway, she calmed down for a while, tended to the baby who was growing frustrated in her pram. Then she turned to the dental nurse,"Who is in charge here? Or do you have a manager? I want to speak to him. I want to complain how come you people can anyhow cancel my appointment." And there it started again.

The dental nurse told her that their HQ is somewhere in Ubi, and she demanded that she called the HQ now because she wanted to complain to the person in charge. While the nurse was making the call, the woman pushed the pram over, and sat on the empty seat beside me. As she prepared to pour out the porridge for the baby, I guessed I sniffed a little, and she immediately turned to me.

"Are you having a flu?"

I nodded.

And with one "aiyoh" that means a lot, she jumped out of the seat, pushed the pram to the corner and started in her not-so-soft voice. "This place ah, all these people... full of germs."

The air around suddenly turned awkward and I was very sure there was a full minute of absolute silence.

Anyway, she finished feeding her baby and the call to the HQ was through, and once again, everyone in the clinic got to hear her story for the 53rd time. Then suddenly there was a loud noise and I saw her kind of shoved the phone back at the nurse, and it toppled over the counter and hit the nurse's leg.

The nurse calmly picked up the phone and put it back to where it was. And the woman started again, "Why did you hang up the phone? Your manager wants to speak to you."

Like, duh, she didn't even say that the manager wanted to speak to the nurse!

I should have told her I got the bird flu.

Shen Zhen (5th - 10th Dec 2008) - what I see...

I have been thinking about how to summarise this Shen Zhen trip. It's more of a "get-to-know-your-family" trip for my husband and sister-in-law (HL) as we went to visit my father-in-law's brothers and sister living over there. Since it was also my very first "visit my overseas relatives" trip, I didn't really have much expectations. But still, there were things to be shared...

Before we even landed in Shen Zhen, there was already some bit of action on the budget airline we were travelling in. Anyway for HL, the husband and myself, we decided that this shall be the first and last time we are travelling on a budget airline. Call us pampered or spoilt or whatever, but we are never ever going to sit in that tiny space with my knees practically pressing to the back of the seat in front of me, and those to-and-fro 6 hours plus flight time were most likely the only time I felt myself sitting so upright in my entire life.

Anyway, back to the story. Please refer to the picture below.


The husband and I were seated at 24D and 24E, and this uncle and was sitting behind his kids at 23C. Sometime along the way, he started to play with his kids by pushing and pulling their seats front and back, which we were sure that he did forcefully, in another words, spoiling the mechanics of the seats. This was only the "lead-in".

The "main show" happens when we were approaching landing time, when we were supposed to get the seats upright. I didn't know what came over him, maybe he was soooo excited to be taking the budget airline for the very first time in his entire life, he started to hold back onto the foldable table edge to prevent his son from pulling his seat upright. Then we heard a "pop" and hello, the table just popped down and the pin or whatever it is securing the table was bent outwards. The uncle could still laugh and turned to the person beside him to say something while trying to secure the table back. But it didn't seemed to work that well. Just when he thought he got it secured, the table popped right down when the plane started to descend.


To the Uncle wearing glasses with a white polo top with squared patterns, at seat 23C on flight TR952, leaving Singapore on 5th Dec 2008 at 1915hrs to Shen Zhen : We saw, we remembered, we shared.



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The place where my father-in-law's sister is staying at is like a privatised area, with their own entry gate and private guard house, except that the area and the number of buildings in the area is much much more than what we have as a private condo area here.

According to their building code, or whatever it is called, only buildings with 9 or more floors are allowed to have lifts at each storey. So, with their block at only 8 stories high, we have to climb up and down the stairs so many times that I have lost count. And it didn't help that they are staying on the 5th floor and my stupid foot was starting to hurt again.

Anyway, my father-in-law said he was considering to go and stay there, which I felt was not too bad a place for retirement. Even though the apartments were a symbol of modernisation, the feel about the place is still very laid back and relaxed. Neighbours were out chit-chatting with one another while the kids play with one another, and they even brought tables to play cards and mahjong outdoors.

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The place where my father-in-law's youngest brother is staying, is the older, typical Chinese houses, where we entered into a open courtyard and then on one side is the living room and bedrooms, and the opposite side is the kitchen area. It's not as big as those shown in movies, just a humble little house, with their water supply coming from underground.