• Happenings

    Singapore Transport

    September 14, 2008

    Am I the only one who thinks the costs of transport in Singapore is too complicated for anyone to understand?

    Take for example the recently approved hike in bus and train fares, here is from the Public Transport Council website:

    0.7% Fare Adjustment For 2008 With New Transfer Rebate of 40 cents

    7-Cent Fare Reduction To 4-Cent Increase For Most Bus & Train Journeys

    Firstly, how much increase is 0.7%? Secondly, is it a 7cent reduction or is it a 4cent increase? Now to go into the details of the fare increase from here :

  • Fares up by four cents per ride on buses and trains for adult EZ-link and senior citizen concession EZ-link card holders
  • Transfer rebate increased from 25 cents to 40 cents per transfer Fares down by seven cents for a journey with one transfer; greater reduction for journeys with more transfers
  • Fares on long-haul rides (beyond 28km on bus and 32km on train) up by 9 per cents per ride
  • The maximum adult EZ-link fare on an aircon trunk bus service will go up to $1.67 from $1.58, while the maximum fare on a SMRT train will go up to $1.84 from $1.75
  • Cash fares up by 10 cents per ride on buses and trains

    • Does anyone even understand this? I do not, and I will not be able to calculate exactly how much is my train fare just to go to work.

    As for the taxi fares, it gets worst. Taking the taxi fares from Comfort website, the rates and charges page is like pages long!

    And if we are not taking public transport but driving instead, how many of us can keep track of all the ERP gantries? How many of us know what are the charges for each gantry at each time of the day?

    Why can’t they keep things simple and easy to understand?

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  • Ramblings

    Regular Customer

    September 13, 2008

    I went down a few days ago to Gamescore in Funan to pick up my preordered copy of Spore. I always get my gaming needs from them, but I have not been down for a long time, mainly because of my busy schedule.

    So I was pleasantly surprised when the boss actually recognised me and remembered my name. When I expressed my surprise that she still remember my name, she answered strongly, ‘Of course!’.

    I guess nowadays businesses always know who their regular customers are, and by making a point to remember their names, they can offer a level of personal service which will bring back repeat business. Take the above incident for example, knowing that they recognise me will mean I will not hesitate to go back to them anytime I need to purchase my gaming needs.

    I get free drinks from my regular watering hole, I get free coffee from my regular afternoon coffee place, I get recognised at my semi-regular watering hole, the people working at these places know my name, and I get greeted by my name everytime I visit them. It is a nice feeling, the name greeting, and the free drinks and coffee are small gestures which make me feel welcome.

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  • Ramblings

    The Omnivore’s 100

    August 31, 2008

    From mei.

    Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.

    Bold all the items you’ve eaten.

    Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

    1. Venison
    2. Nettle tea
    3. Huevos rancheros
    4. Steak tartare
    5. Crocodile
    6. Black pudding
    7. Cheese fondue
    8. Carp
    9. Borscht
    10. Baba ghanoush
    11. Calamari
    12. Pho
    13. PB&J sandwich
    14. Aloo gobi – maybe
    15. Hot dog from a street cart
    16. Epoisses
    17. Black truffle
    18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
    19. Steamed pork buns
    20. Pistachio ice cream
    21. Heirloom tomatoes
    22. Fresh wild berries
    23. Foie gras
    24. Rice and beans
    25. Brawn, or head cheese
    26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
    27. Dulce de leche
    28. Oysters
    29. Baklava
    30. Bagna cauda
    31. Wasabi peas
    32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
    33. Salted lassi
    34. Sauerkraut
    35. Root beer float
    36. Cognac with a fat cigar
    37. Clotted cream tea
    38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
    39. Gumbo
    40. Oxtail
    41. Curried goat
    42. Whole insects
    43. Phaal
    44. Goat’s milk
    45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth US$120 or more
    46. Fugu
    47. Chicken tikka masala
    48. Eel
    49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
    50. Sea urchin
    51. Prickly pear
    52. Umeboshi
    53. Abalone
    54. Paneer
    55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
    56. Spaetzle
    57. Dirty gin martini
    58. Beer above 8% ABV
    59. Poutine
    60. Carob chips
    61. S’mores
    62. Sweetbreads
    63. Kaolin
    64. Currywurst
    65. Durian
    66. Frogs’ legs
    67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
    68. Haggis
    69. Fried plantain
    70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
    71. Gazpacho
    72. Caviar and blini
    73. Louche absinthe
    74. Gjetost, or brunost
    75. Roadkill
    76. Baijiu
    77. Hostess Fruit Pie
    78. Snail
    79. Lapsang souchong
    80. Bellini
    81. Tom yum
    82. Eggs Benedict
    83. Pocky
    84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
    85. Kobe beef
    86. Hare
    87. Goulash
    88. Flowers
    89. Horse
    90. Criollo chocolate
    91. Spam
    92. Soft shell crab
    93. Rose harissa
    94. Catfish
    95. Mole poblano
    96. Bagel and lox
    97. Lobster Thermidor
    98. Polenta
    99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
    100. Snake

    I so need to go out and try the rest.

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  • Ramblings

    A Comet Appears

    August 31, 2008

    One hand on this wily comet,
    Take a drink just to give me some weight,
    Some uber-man I’d make,
    I’m barely a vapor

    They shone a chlorine light on,
    A host of individual sins,
    Let’s carve my aging face off,
    Fetch us a knife,
    Start with my eyes,
    Down so the lines,
    Form a grimacing smile,

    Close your eyes to corral a virtue,
    Is this fooling anyone else?
    Never worked so long and hard,
    To cement a failure,

    We can blow on our thumbs and posture,
    But the lonely is such delicate things,
    The wind from a wasp could blow them,
    Into the sea,
    With stones on their feet,
    Lost to the light and the loving we need,

    Still to come,
    The worst part and you know it,
    There is a numbness,
    In your heart and it’s growing,

    With burnt sage and a forest of bygones,
    I click my heels,
    Get the devils in line,
    A list of things I could lay the blame on,
    Might give me a way out,

    But with each turn,
    It’s this front and center,
    Like a dart stuck square in your eye,
    Every post you can hitch your faith on,
    Is a pie in the sky,
    Chock full of lies,
    A tool we devise,
    To make sinking stones fly,

    And still to come,
    The worst part and you know it,
    There is a numbness,
    In your heart and it’s growing.

    A Comet Appears – The Shins

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  • Ramblings

    It Crumbled

    August 30, 2008

    The walls crumbled.

    I let it.

    The alcohol had nothing to do with it. Truthfully I was worried about how I am getting increasingly immune to the effects of the alcohol. But then I had something else to worry about.

    Like what will happen when I let the walls crumble.

    I have mixed feelings when I realised it was not as bad as before.

    As for the walls, they were rebuilt the moment I was home.

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