October’s usually the time the Public Transport Council gives the green light for SBSTransit and SMRT Bus to raise their fares.
Has the PTC ever said no?
I believe that is a “no”.
Paparazzo
Wah, my house got famous people come and shoot.
I was sleeping, there was yelling, I looked out the window. I snapped.
Going to the bank
It’s been many moons since I’ve been to the bank.
Internet Banking has made it possible to do most tasks without ever lining up at a branch.
Funds transfers to my parents, payments for my AIA insurance, payment for my Amex credit card, my Robinsons card – I do all of these online.
Thankfully. Because what I saw today at the OCBC Ang Mo Kio branch really irritated me.
Someone has been through your stuff
Today, I was visiting RangeFinderForum and read about this guy in Hong Kong whose flat had been broken into.
The robbers made off with his Bessa L, a couple of lenses, his MacBook, Panasonic Lumix, watches and other stuff.
In one of the comments, a user posted “Sorry that you were violated and your property stolen…”
That word “violated” jumped at me and took me back to a time in Thailand.
I was about 13 years old or so. My family and I had joined one of these AA organised driving tours from Singapore to Thailand.
There are a few things that stay stuck in my memory on that trip.
They will bite
Every time I go for a walk with the dog at the reservoir, it’s a trip made in fear.
Will the monkeys be out? Will they leave me alone if I walk past them?
That En Bloc Thing Again
After going through two en bloc sales within the last three years, I feel I can make some observations of the games people play in this business of buying and selling property because of an en bloc sale.
We all know that there’ll be three parties in any en bloc sale – those who want to sell, those who don’t want to sell and those who think the potential value of the property is much higher – which is probably true, since developers are able to make a profit from redeveloping the land.
We all know that as a result squabbles, counseling, mediation and even a visit to the court to fatten the wallets of lawyers, sometimes follows.
What is not usually discussed is the level of secrecy and distrust that continues amongst members of the community from the time the en bloc sales committee gets the 80% vote to go ahead till when the last of us leaves the current property.
Are you ready for 6.5mil people?
Yesterday, my dad was on the MRT at around 4pm. The train was packed.
He got whacked in the face and stomach – supposedly accidental – prompting him to wonder to my mother why the MRT was packed at non-peak hour.
After he got off the MRT and was crossing the road to get the car, he was talking about how wonderful it was to be in safe Singapore. In other countries, they’d be pickpocketed.
And at that very moment, he felt for his pockets and realised that his mobile phone had been taken.
It’s Criminal
I was walking past a school when I saw this banner:
Okay, I’m sure these kids must feel proud to be put on a banner right at the main gate.
maybe not the kids, but surely their parents feel something. Maybe one of the parents paid for the banner. Maybe all the parents went dutch and paid for it.
Either way, there must be a reason why the boy is practically scowling. Do I hear “mugger toad”?
Or maybe he’s scowling because he knows he’s 5 points before irritating Gina. And now the whole world has to know too.
Now take away the congratulations, take away the aggregate score, they’d look like really friendly criminals (save for the boy) or runaway kids seen on the back of a milk carton.
And you know in TV, they’re always asking for multi-racial elements. Why doesn’t it apply to schools? Where’s the top Malay kid, Indian kid, or Others kid?
Seeing things
Lately I’ve been seeing unlikely things while walking my dog.
Is this what they mean by “attention to detail”?
PossibiCity
Okay, National Day 2007 “City of Possibilities” is long over.
Didn’t even see the parade on TV.
But I happened to be around the area on the NDP Preview show on 28th July, and although I’d been up and around on my feet since 6am, I stuck around just for the beginning of the show before getting bored with the proceedings.
Totally unprepared, these are the shots from my 18 – 70mm kit lens, so far the best kit lens from Nikon.