It's That Time of the Year Again! Help!
Oh noooo... It's that time of the year again! I need to do my Toastmaster's Project 3 on Thursday! (Yes, I know I know. I do only 1 project a year... Stop rubbing it in!) And.. I have not thought of what to speak about! Arghhh!!! How how how?!
My brain has shut down for the holiday season.. Why did I ever promise to do my speech this time round!
Help help!
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Friday, December 07, 2007
Doors are for Decorative Purposes
Armed with the mission of acquiring my first branded bag, my two bodyguards-cum-shopping consultants (Julie and Brenda) and I decided to storm the DFS building down at Orchard Road. Even the most mission oriented soldier would need to answer nature's call, which, of course, brought us to the posh DFS restrooms.
Once we went through the main door, we were greeted by a ceaseless chatter from the cubicles. Instinctively, we proceeded to the cubicles and we caught two women with their pants down - literally. Do I sound like I'm joking? Seated on two toilet bowls, in two separate cubicles were two women, well, with their pant's down and animatedly chatting to each other in a chinese dialect, with the doors WIDE OPEN. One of them was wearing a bright red suit. Not only that, they were oblivious to our presence. I checked the door to my cubicle, it was working.
There were a few conclusions I could derive :
1. The doors were for decorative purposes.
2. They did not know how to use the doors.
3. It must have been culturally impolite to close your doors while using the toilet.
4. The doors would hinder the conversation and they wouldn't be able to hear each other. However, I highly doubt this as they were loud enough to be heard from outside the toilets (That was with the buffer of 1 door - the main one, because their cubicle doors were not closed.)
5. To air the place
6. To share the mutual joy of relief of nature's call.
7. To show off the branded underwear. (I was too embarrassed to scrutinise the brands. Looked white from far though.)
8. They forgot to bring their umbrellas.
9. They were in a hurry to use the facilities.
I simply can't think of another reason to make it ten. Therefore, as you can see, it is not necessary to travel overseas to experience cultural exchange. It can happen right under our noses, in the restrooms.
Armed with the mission of acquiring my first branded bag, my two bodyguards-cum-shopping consultants (Julie and Brenda) and I decided to storm the DFS building down at Orchard Road. Even the most mission oriented soldier would need to answer nature's call, which, of course, brought us to the posh DFS restrooms.
Once we went through the main door, we were greeted by a ceaseless chatter from the cubicles. Instinctively, we proceeded to the cubicles and we caught two women with their pants down - literally. Do I sound like I'm joking? Seated on two toilet bowls, in two separate cubicles were two women, well, with their pant's down and animatedly chatting to each other in a chinese dialect, with the doors WIDE OPEN. One of them was wearing a bright red suit. Not only that, they were oblivious to our presence. I checked the door to my cubicle, it was working.
There were a few conclusions I could derive :
1. The doors were for decorative purposes.
2. They did not know how to use the doors.
3. It must have been culturally impolite to close your doors while using the toilet.
4. The doors would hinder the conversation and they wouldn't be able to hear each other. However, I highly doubt this as they were loud enough to be heard from outside the toilets (That was with the buffer of 1 door - the main one, because their cubicle doors were not closed.)
5. To air the place
6. To share the mutual joy of relief of nature's call.
7. To show off the branded underwear. (I was too embarrassed to scrutinise the brands. Looked white from far though.)
8. They forgot to bring their umbrellas.
9. They were in a hurry to use the facilities.
I simply can't think of another reason to make it ten. Therefore, as you can see, it is not necessary to travel overseas to experience cultural exchange. It can happen right under our noses, in the restrooms.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
ERP-Is it even vaguely helping??
It is yet another trying morning to get myself to the office, which fortunately (with the beautiful waterfront view) or unfortunately, sits smack in the middle of the CBD. With the new ERP schemes in place, traffic does not seem to have subsided under the pressure of the amount of dollars and cents ticking away from the cashcard.
In fact, I have already lost count of the timing and prices of the various gantries. When the ERP initially started, everyone was faithfully keeping track of it and we even had cars queueing on the shoulder of the road to save a few cents for the next cheaper time slot. But now, it was "Hey! When was this stupid gantry erected?! It wasn't here 3 months back! &#@%$#"
The gantries have been popping up like mushrooms in the most unlikely places! And now, if you try to get home between 6-8pm, you even have to pay! What is this about work-life balance? Are you going to stick around in the office until it is after 8pm? Or are you going to ignore it and join the crowd in paying for it and jamming up the roads? Seems like the plans of the Ministry of Transport and the Singapore Family Planning and Population Board are in conflict? How are we going to have more children and population growth if the parents are not going to be home because they need to avoid paying for the ERP? And the BIG question looms - WILL the SUCCESS of the ERP be at the COST of Singapore's future BABIES?!!!
Anyway, that is a sidetrack. As I was saying/writing, I have lost count of where/when/how much it cost to get through the gantries, so I simply gave up and stuck to my usual driving habits and just pay LOR.... According to my survey (more like being kapo(nosy) during tea-time), my survey subjects have also given up on remembering the details of the ERP gantries and have stuck to their normal driving times... So HAS THE ERP HELPED?! Right, it has definitely helped in increasing the amount that I need to top up the cashcard though. =p
Soon, you will see the article issued from the LTA on how "after the implementation of the this and this gantry on the this and this place, with the increase of this and this amount of dollars on this and this timing, the average speed on this and this stretch of road has crawled from 30km/h to 32km/h. Congratulations! The ERP has been a tremendous success! With this in view, we will continue to keep this in place until the average speed has finally increased miniscularly to 34km/h." I have always wondered how the average speeds were measured... definitely not through the speedometer of my car... Looking at it from their perspective, they simply cannot announce that "oh! We have built gantries all over Singapore and increased the toll prices but there is simply no change in the bottleneck situations. We have just as many cars on the road and just as much traffic jam around." When a problem crops up, they have to do something about it, whether or not it works, is a separate matter..
They call it the Electronic Road Pricing, I call it the Ever Redundant Plan.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
The PHANTOM of the OPERA is HERE!
I thought I had outgrown Phantom and that I probably wouldn't enjoy it as much (considering that tonight's performance was my THIRD!). Phantom's splendid sets had never ceased to amaze me. The last time I watched it was in London. However, tonight's show was a strong reminder of its grandeur,the elaborate costumes and emotion evoking songs.
I had the greatest urge to insert my Phantom CD while I was in my car. But, as usual, my stuff was all over the place and it was definitely unreachable at that point of time. Well, the actor who played Phantom was fantastic, as usual. I don't remember having heard a lousy phantom before. Christine was good as well. However, 3 words appeared in my mind for Raoul - a weak voice. A very weak imitation of Michael Ball.
To me, I have always preferred Les Miserables to Phantom. I find Les Miserables more rousing and Phantom is, a love story. I have never been much of a romance junkie. I do read trashy romance novels now and then for stress relief and as an intermission for heavy duty reading. I even thought that the plot for Sleepless in Seattle was illogical (how could they possibly have recognised each other at the top of the empire state building?! DUH!), only to have my friend accuse me of being UN-romantic.
However, this time, at the final installment, where Phantom gave up Christine so that she could find her own happiness with Raoul, strangely, it felt like something was stuck in my throat. I am becoming a softie as i age. Sigh... Or it might very well, be that my seat was so good that I could see the anguished look on his face!
Phantom to me is more than a world-renowned musical. It brought back fond memories of the MAGXXM, scenes of us rolling around on Seow's bed, listening to musical CDs, her prancing around in her Phantom T-shirt and all the silly antics (which included making prank calls to the guys in our French class and making them say dumb-ass things). Life was so much simpler and idealistic then. I'm wondering if these are being remembered. I had the urge to call Seow and discuss about Phantom. But, now, everyone has her own life to lead, husband to pander to and children to fuss over. Nothing much, just a very strong sense of loss...
Anyway, it was great that I had been there, done that. It certainly beats not even having such memories at all.
So if you ask me, will I watch Phantom a 4th time? I'll tell you, "oh yes!" Not only that, I will prepare my Phantom cds on hand so that I will not be suffering from withdrawal after the musical ends.
Well, life goes on.... Back to reality now!
I thought I had outgrown Phantom and that I probably wouldn't enjoy it as much (considering that tonight's performance was my THIRD!). Phantom's splendid sets had never ceased to amaze me. The last time I watched it was in London. However, tonight's show was a strong reminder of its grandeur,the elaborate costumes and emotion evoking songs.
I had the greatest urge to insert my Phantom CD while I was in my car. But, as usual, my stuff was all over the place and it was definitely unreachable at that point of time. Well, the actor who played Phantom was fantastic, as usual. I don't remember having heard a lousy phantom before. Christine was good as well. However, 3 words appeared in my mind for Raoul - a weak voice. A very weak imitation of Michael Ball.
To me, I have always preferred Les Miserables to Phantom. I find Les Miserables more rousing and Phantom is, a love story. I have never been much of a romance junkie. I do read trashy romance novels now and then for stress relief and as an intermission for heavy duty reading. I even thought that the plot for Sleepless in Seattle was illogical (how could they possibly have recognised each other at the top of the empire state building?! DUH!), only to have my friend accuse me of being UN-romantic.
However, this time, at the final installment, where Phantom gave up Christine so that she could find her own happiness with Raoul, strangely, it felt like something was stuck in my throat. I am becoming a softie as i age. Sigh... Or it might very well, be that my seat was so good that I could see the anguished look on his face!
Phantom to me is more than a world-renowned musical. It brought back fond memories of the MAGXXM, scenes of us rolling around on Seow's bed, listening to musical CDs, her prancing around in her Phantom T-shirt and all the silly antics (which included making prank calls to the guys in our French class and making them say dumb-ass things). Life was so much simpler and idealistic then. I'm wondering if these are being remembered. I had the urge to call Seow and discuss about Phantom. But, now, everyone has her own life to lead, husband to pander to and children to fuss over. Nothing much, just a very strong sense of loss...
Anyway, it was great that I had been there, done that. It certainly beats not even having such memories at all.
So if you ask me, will I watch Phantom a 4th time? I'll tell you, "oh yes!" Not only that, I will prepare my Phantom cds on hand so that I will not be suffering from withdrawal after the musical ends.
Well, life goes on.... Back to reality now!
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