Singapore Laziest A$$

I gave the acronym SLA a long thought before deciding that it stands for Singapore's Laziest Ass. I had exercised restrain with the last word, thought I could be more specific with the region extending it with the 'h' word. A few days ago, I went to Revenue House to apply for a license to hold a funeral. Absurd. If the SLA do not grant it, the dead would not even have a place for a wake. But this is Singapore for you.

The highlight of the visit is that I am the only person in the queue, or rather, I am the queue itself. From the picture, you could see that I pressed for the ticket at 15:05 hrs. But I hope I did not mislead you with the date/time marking of my camera, for I did not get served until 15:50 hrs. While I was there, the air-conditioner was at full blast, the five counters were labelled (1)Reception (2)Service (3)Service (4) Document Lodging (5)Document Lodging. Counter 1 was occupied by a mudman who has no interest for anything else other than checking email, surfing the net and sucking up to a caucasian customer. Counter 2 was occupied by another mudman who has the same interest as mudman 1. Counters 3 and 4 are empty, and behind Counter 5 was a lady who seemed eternally busy with stapling, binding and flipping through papers after serving the only customer I had seen that day.

When it was finally my turn, my transaction finished within 5 minutes, within which I got vacuumed of $43.80. I handed the document to the 'mail counter' and left. Efficient, as the government so boasted. But what about the waiting time? 15 minutes? 50 minutes? 傻傻分不清楚。