Ugly Driver

I always think that I am not a very good driver. I lost my way, I speed at times, I throw rubbish out of the window (when no one is looking, my passenger is guilty of the same) and the list can go on. But I am quite certain I am not the worse driver in Singapore.

Every evening, I can witness deliberate attempts to cut/jump queue. To name one spot, it is Clementi Avenue 6. I can empathise with people not willing to give way to vehicles changing lanes, even though it wasn't an attempt to cut queue (you can tell, trust me). Myself, I would give way to people who made an attempt to change lane to get into the queue early, and that they signal their intentions, else, forget it.

Today, I sounded the horn at a Hipporolla driver who attempts to magically change from lane 1 to lane 2 while turning into Bt Batok Road from PIE(without signalling, of course), sending him back to his lane 1, and I had full satisfaction doing what I did.

爱在记忆中找你

Attention seeker

E63 - 5th Sep 2009

What can you do when you met a woman, a mad woman, who barks at you, asking you to stop whatever work you are doing to entertain to her nonsense.

Yesterday, while setting up at Seng Choon. A lady, seemingly of north Indian origin appeared and barked at Xiang who was tying a piece of canvas to a nearby wall fence. She asked him to remove it immediately, in a tone which seemed to suggest that Xiang was a burglar of sorts.

I stepped forward to clear up the matter, only to make it worse. I told her that if she do not want us to tie anything there, we could remove it. Then, she became agitated, saying things like she did not order for it and that she could call the police, and finally identify herself as the owner of the place, like we were supposed to know her. I told her that we did not know she is the owner and what I experienced was a stranger who came along and using that kind of tone to bark at my colleague. She found my arguement 'fair enough' and Seng Choon's representative was called upon to settle it.

Her last words were, 'Sorry guys, you can carry on with it.'

Birds of the same feather, black

I made a feedback to the Ministry of Environment & Water Resources (MEWR) weeks back, with regards to National Environment Agency (NEA) officers smoking in the public, within the comfort of shelters. The reason I shot the letter straight to MEWR is simple, I do not want any cover ups at agency level, because birds of the same feather usually, well, cover up each other. For the record, the NEA officers who were supposed to know that they should not be smoking within 5 metres of build up areas have no problem finishing the whole stick under the watch of the general public. Two of them and one more (not smoking) at the nearby eatery.

I got the usual "Thank you for your email dated...", "...is now looking into your feedback" and "will respond to you shortly", which essentially meant "damn it, another one. give us some time to think of a good excuse." Their templated replies had been used so often that they now number them so that when they received similar feedback, the manager or whoever determines how to respond will just say, "hey you minion, just reply that bugger with sentence 2, 3 and 4, and remember to ask them not to hesitate to contact you in the event they need clarification, like they are really interested!"

True enough, the excuse came in today.Not very convincing if you were to ask me.

"Thank you for your feedback. We note that the NEA officers whom you have mentioned had shifted to a location away from the eatery to prevent smoke nuisance to the patrons of the eatery. We have taken note of your feedback and have reminded our officers to conduct themselves properly at all times."

Notes:
- the NEA officers did not shift at all.
- it would be really troublesome for them to test wind direction before smoking everytime.
- the crux of the feedback is not about being a nuisance to patrons of the eatery, but really the irony when the ones coming out with the law broke them and get away unscathed.

This is Singapore government. Integrity, Service, Excellence.