The taxi incident
How many times have you made a cab booking and the driver didn’t appear?
There’s currently this law that says cab drivers can only pick up passengers from taxi stands during certain hours of the day. With that, drivers are NOT ALLOWED to legally pick up passengers from Shaw Tower, right? Since there isn’t any taxi stand AT the building itself.
I have heavy bags in tow tonight. Called comfort hotline using office line. “Auto-pickup location: taxi stand before Shaw Tower. PRESS 1.” Ok did that. “Sorry that is an invalid location. Please wait for our operator to assist you.” WHAT?!?!?!
Directed to operator.
“What’s your location ma’am?” Hello? It’s a fixed line leh? Cannot see from caller ID meh?
Shaw Tower, I said.
“Oh ma’am, cannot pick up from Shaw Tower.”
Hey your auto-pickup said taxi stand is an INVALID location.
“Is the taxi stand number XXX?”
Sorry I’m not too sure. Have yet reached.
“ma’am please call us again when you reach the taxi stand”. HELLO? I cannot book cab when I’m < 5min away from pick-up location meh?
Dun worry I’m just 5mins away
“Ok. Please wait for the taxi number.”
Ok thank you.
“taxi: comfort sonata XXXX. arriving in 7-10 minutes”.
Huh so long ah.. Ok lor..
Takes bags and leave. (bags already packed before making the call)
Reached downstairs. Ehhhhhhh so many vacant cabs lor! Why I still book cab ah? *facepalm* since made booking liao, wait lor. Cannot cancel booking so many times, comfort will blacklist you de. Bo bian. WAIT for another 5-8mins lor.
Walked to taxi stand abt 100-200m away. Ok lah.. Not very far. But laptop and mooncakes HEAVY leh! Sigh..
Wait. Vacant cab zoom past. Wait again. MANY vacant cabs drove past. ARGHHHHHHH. If you cannot reach within 7mins then dun accept the booking lah… 🙁
10mins. WHERE’S THE BLOODY CAB???????
Depressed. 🙁 I want to go homeeeeeeeee
Oh here comes the cab! Eh driver! Where are you going??
The cab with an “on call” sign drove PAST. Oh no! No way am I going to walk BACK to Shaw Tower with my heavy bags!
Gave the driver 1min. Where’s the phone call? Don’t they usually CALL when they don’t see any passengers waiting?
No call.
Fine! Dials 6552-1111 AGAIN. CANCEL BOOKING.
BLOODY HELL. A hungry man is an angry man. Fits this scenario perfectly.
Thankfully a vacant cab appeared less than a minute later.
Reached home ONE HOUR FROM THE TIME I MADE THE CALL.
Wah laos. Super angry man!
Now who’s the one who said CANNOT PICK UP FROM SHAW TOWER huh?
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday to my dear cousin Joy! Woohoo~
Up on the Singapore Flyer for F1 Night Race
Thanks to @24seven for the tickets!
Had a chance to go up the flyer (2nd time in 2 weeks) for the Singtel F1 Night Race! Woohoo~ (The previous visit was a trip sponsored by STB, by 24seven too!) [If I can get those posts up…]
Saw this tweet by 24seven, Victor, Huishan & me decided to try our luck. I didn’t get the tickets, but both of them did! So I still get to tag along! 😀
Go flyer.. cannot forget Pinkys right? hahhaah
Found a box to house them!
Met Qiquan, Victor & Huishan for dinner @ Central Waraku. Saw the flyer Level-1-access package (which we later understood that it means access to level 1 viewing area but not the level 2 & 3 ones).
The Singapore Flyer – F1 pass allows us unlmited rides. Didn’t know what that orange strip was meant for, but we put it on anyway. (Only when we left the place did we realise that.. that is the media pass! *facepalm*) The card also gave us unlimited rides on the water taxi that ferries us from Clarke Quay Jerry to Raffles Marina Jetty and vice versa.
Water taxi leh! Who will take a water taxi from Clarke Quay to Singapore Flyer? Vaguely remembered reading about it sometime back, when it was newly launched. But I can’t seem to find any information on the web. Only managed to find a link for the River Cruise, which is SGD15 for a 30min ride. Oh! Found the link! But the boat we took was the one for the River Cruise. Bigger!
Since the practise race starts only at 10pm (missed the 7pm one), we decided to go for a ride up the flyer first. Capsule’s not very crowded, so out come the Pinkys!
(I usually don’t edit my photos unless I’m printing them. So what you’re seeing are the original ones! Zhiwei commented that I compose well after seeing the Dairy Farm Nature Park photos.. I don’t think that applies to this batch of photos leh)
The above photo, I was trying to get a feel of Yoshiko (that’s the name of this pinky!) looking at the circuit. I think.. it’s almost there?
She’s my favourite pinky coz of the sweet look she has on the face. But.. I cannot neglect the rest right?
This round of flyer, I took out 3 pinkys. Out of the 9 that I brought along. (The other 9, unfortunately, did not get to see the scenic view in the end)
An attempt for a group (pair) shot with Maki!
That’s Miko!
I thought this photo look nice, with the CBD area at the back. =)
That’s about it for the Pinkys shots.. We took a breather somewhere and took another round up the flyer, just in time for the race to start!
My 6-yr-old camera failed me at my attempt for the F1 shots up the flyer. Hahahah.. It has only 3x zoom! The shots were so bad I didn’t want to post them here. Some of them are up on my flickr set though!
Huishan has some nice shots (she said only 3 passed her mark), but she hasn’t uploaded yet. Got those 3 from her!
Now that is the difference between my trusty Canon Powershot A80 to her Nikon D300 =X I need a new camera with more zoom!
Oh! I took a short video while up on the flyer! Listen to the ZOOM ZOOM noise! woohoo~
Shiok hor? 😀
Went over to the race track (level 1 viewing area) and attempted some shots. Mostly failed, quite blur! Either settings were wrong or forgot to use macro hahahaha
One of the few that made the mark..
It was a nice experience being so close to the track. Thanks again @24seven (@claudia) for the tickets! It’s a nice birthday gift! 😀
Took the water taxi back to Clarke Quay (which took us 1 hour to reach!). Headed over to Liang Court McD and a bit of monopoly deal, which DK joined us the moment he knew we’re there LOL. Played Deal till almost 4am, after which DK sent all of us back. Thanks DK for the ride home!
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Post edit: Forgot to include the link to the flickr set =D
Pinkys loves nature
Plans for the day (had a date with office – hey I’m passionate about my job!) failed when I overheard mum’s conversation on the phone with dunno-who. “Later meet 4pm @ the Salvation Army carpark right?”
Curiosity got the better of me. “Where are you going?” I asked. “The newly opened park at Dairy Farm” Mum replied. For the uninitiated, this was reported on Straits Times on Friday. (While doing research on Dairy Farm Nature Park, I realise NParks site isn’t iPhone friendly. Fail!)
And so I postponed my date to Monday =
A 15mins bus ride was all we need. I was in my tshirt & shorts, with slippers. Everyone else was in sports shoes LOL
Upon reaching the destination, first thing I did was to whip out my camera!
My intention of this trip, was a Pinkys outing! So while waiting for 4th uncle’s family to reach..
We started on the route first, while 4th uncle waited for small uncle to reach. Grandma’s joining us! woohoo!
I allowed the rest to walk ahead.. while I take my own sweet time to take photos.
At the speed I’m going, I’m uncertain if I’m able to finish the trek with the rest.
Just as I was done with this shot, I heard familiar voices behind.. Granny caught up with me! That’s how slow I was! haha
A good 30mins later.. Quarry in sight!
1.5hrs after I started the journey, I’m finally at the quarry!
I’m fully satisfied with the turn-out of the photos! From the exposure, contrast, focus etc. It’s a good attempt this time round! Macro shots can be fun! I had a hard time choosing from this set of photos as the album cover on facebook 😉
If you find these photos cute, check out the other photos on my flickr set =)
FYI, these figurines are called Pinkys. Each of them has a unique name. It’s hard to find them in Singapore now, as demand is not high. You can find more information on them at the official site.
Looking forward to the next photography trip. No idea where I will be heading to next!
It’s all about basketball
First heard of the Singapore Slingers when Daphne Maia plurked/blogged about it last year. Missed last yr’s season for some reason, didn’t want to miss it again this year.
I’m not going to do any quotes, but if you’re curious enough to know more about the Singapore Slingers, check out their site.
Was half-hr late coz I was caught up with work. The moment I was at the North entrance, waiting for Daphne to pass me my ticket, I kept hearing “Wei Jian” from the commentator. Didn’t know who he was, since the only player I knew was Darren Ng. LOL. I know nuts about the players at all!
And so, the first match was..
vs. 
(Images taken from Daphne’s post)
Initially I felt lost at the match, partly coz I was late, partly coz I know nuts about the players. Took me a while to realise which team is which, and who the slingers are playing against.
Once I got my facts right (which team – by the colour of their jerseys – to cheer for), I’m hyped up. That’s already at the 2nd half of the game *facepalm*
Nevertheless..
It’s my first time watching a live basketball match! Kinda cool, especially when I realise one of the referees is a female. Rare case!
So here you are, the orange jerseys being the Slingers, the white being the CoCo team =)
And the female referee being TYN! woohoo~ yes she’s a fren of mine! hahaha!
Though I’m not a basketball fan, it’s a great experience being able to support our own team in matches like this. No matter how big or small. Big thanks to Geekonomics for the tickets and Daphne for coordinating!
Now I’m looking forward to the match on Wednesday!
Punctured Tyre
Heard a loud explosive sound few minutes ago while sitting at the room watching show.
Aunt was curious about what it was and asked me to take a look at the bus that stopped at the entrance of BKE (I stay beside the exit FYI).
Had a sudden urge to take my camera, so here it is.. HAHAHAHA
As the bus-load of passengers started to walk back to the bus stop, I saw the bus bumper on the ground.. Hmm.. Did the bus knock onto anything that caused the loud sound?
Oh upon closer inspection of the photo, I think that’s the exploded burst tyre.
I want to pay fines
Thought I might want to borrow some books from the library since I’m not in a good mood today. Happily searched for books and got myself 3!
The borrowing station indicated that I have unpaid fines and doesn’t allow me to borrow any books.
(then I remembered that NLB had recently – few months back – implemented this rule that you can only borrow books if you are fines-free)
So I headed to the payment machine. Remembering that the new ez-link card is not accepted for payment yet, I whipped out the old card. Feeling glad that I’ve yet exchanged it for the new one, was stunned when the machine rejected it.
Tried at the e-kiosk. Same error.
Unfortunately, I have no cashcard. Didn’t bring my NETS card. Proceeded to the service counter to enquire if I can pay by cash instead.
THEY DON’T ACCEPT CASH PAYMENT!!!
Best is, the system says I’m of DELIQUENT status! Simply because I have an outstanding fine of THIRTY CENTS! *facepalm*
Haiyo! I’m already feeling moody from the morning’s incident liao, NLB must treat me like that! 🙁
So I had to leave the library empty handed. 🙁
NLB, you are so friendly.
Being disrespectful
Had not been getting quality sleep for the past few days. Dreams and nightmares.
Woke up as usual this morning, feeling a little bit grouchy when I saw my bus leave the bus stop just as I was reaching =
Thankfully the next bus came within 5mins! With many vacant seats somemore! 😀
Traffic jam along PIE till BKE. Not a good way to start the day, but I’m used to jams along BKE/PIE. It’s a norm.
Managed to catch the bus (that I had to change to) that was in front. As it was packed, I was standing at the entrance.
And I got a scare/fright at the next bus stop. Almost jumped when I heard a pretty loud “HOI!” over the shoulder. Turned back and saw an old uncle wanting to alight. Thought to myself, I didn’t hear him saying he wants to alight, nor did he do any indication leh.. I was facing the front, he was behind.
For an instant, I was shocked. You want to alight, cannot tell me is it? I’m not a tiny animal that can be scared away to make way for you! Bloody hell.. scare me you very happy is it?
I gave him the same respect I have for the elderly, gave way to him without complains. But I sensed a black face when I had to move elsewhere to make way for him. Uncle.. the bus very packed leh.. Not a lot of free space to move around, what do you want from me?
If he hadn’t had his walking stick with him (met this uncle a few times on the bus, he had to walk with the walking stick), I might have turned nasty.
Felt disrespected as a human. Is there a need to do a loud “HOI!”? I have ears if you make a request. I have sense organs if you tap me. There’s no need to scare me away to make way for you.
So I’m not as famous as another blogger
Was being asked via facebook chat, if I have any blogger friends interested in attending the Changi Airport Race event.
Of course I’d say I want to go right? 😀
Who knows.. at the next instant.. 
So.. I’m not as famous as Pat Law.
So my blog stats isn’t high up on the chart..
Even if you were asking as a friend, you’re still talking to a (not so famous) blogger. To think that I was so supportive of your projects over the past 2 yrs..
I’m disappointed.
So if any one of you’s interested in attending the event, I can help pass to him. But I need details like “Your blog, Stats, hits, genre. and include 5 friends”.
Remember, they “have to screen” and you have to be “as famous as Pat”.