An incident today led me to think of blinkmummy's similar experience a couple of weeks ago. And I reckon none is as big a fan of hers as i am , i pasted the exact story from this particular entry 'The Singaporean Squeeze' of hers, dated on 6 April 2008 sunday, below. nothing illegal or against the laws right?
"Anyway, back to our weekend...
Spent a good part of the day walking around Orchard Road like tourists. Despite the crowd, it's really quite enjoyable to go to that part of town once in a while. Though the parking charges could be lower. Think we paid like SGD12 for 4-5 hours. That's crazy, but not as crazy as some incident we had encountered at the URA carpark on Kovan last Friday evening. 'Good Fren' picked me up from Raffles Place. Because it was Friday and town was packed, we decided to have some laid-back dinner away from town. Teochew Porridge at Kovan! So, we drove through the crazy traffic. We got to the URA carpark and waited for a lot. A car in a lot diagonally behind us was leaving. We got really excited. Then a blue sports car drove by and stopped beside us. "Are you gonna take that lot?" asked the yuppie chirpily. "We would!!" replied 'Good Fren'. So, the blue sports car moved forward to make space for our reverse motion. Just then, a Toyota Altis slid right in that lot. We were like... What the... So we honked at the car full of people. The driver was a woman in her fifties, a grey-haired old man in the passenger seat. In the back seat, another woman (resembles the driver but slightly younger), a maid, and a kid (probably two years old) strapped to the baby seat. At first, they did not react to the honking. We thought they couldn't hear coz the car park was very busy. After a while, it was obvious that they were just ignoring the honking. Ok, here is the dilemma. Keywords: Elderly people, Baby, Parking lot, Hungry. Being young(er) able-bodied individuals, we could have let them have the lot. All was fine and within the realm of decency until the driver got out of her car and shouted indignantly, "Please lah!! 我的Baby哭到这样了... 你park别的lah..." At the same time, the old man had stepped out and removed the child from the back seat. She was quiet as a mouse. "哪里有哭？" we asked in the most bemused manner. (Have you met people who get their little children to cut queue for them and stuff?) Just then, the woman in the back seat emerged from the back seat and shouted, "You overshot already, ok!" Flipping the argument from 'urgent crying baby' to 'right of way'. Then the two women started to discuss, and looking around at the carpark which was totally jammed with cars seeking lots. "你也懂没有位ah?" I said loudly. "你哪里可以这样？Buah Paiseh ah?" 'Good Fren' said loudly. Then the woman driver put an end to the situation. She shouted very loudly,
"我就是BUAH PAISEH!"
FWAH... Win!! Dunno whether to laugh or not... For a parking lot, this woman is willing to announce her shamelessness in a public carpark. Ok, it's very clear she wants the lot very much for whatever reason. Just take and go. Her emotions must have gotten to her, because even though she remembered to display the parking coupon, she forgot to switch off her the light in her car. However, she stood at about 20m away from her car and did not walk back to switch it off. Instead, she passed her car key to a young man (probably her son/nephew from another car in his late 20s/early 30s) who did it for her. We saw this because we eventually parked in a lot near where she was standing. Someone, who witnessed the incident, had kindly found a lot for us. And it must be fate!! Our feeding destination was the same Teochew porridge stall. Their group was quite large. At least one other carful of people. They had wanted to sit at a table just beside ours when the lady in the back seat saw us. They then moved to the farthest part of the stall. =))) I must say I am rather appalled by their behaviour. If they had explained their situation politely, regardless whether the kid had really been crying, we would have given up the lot to them. I think it might be a case of these people being unable to handle stressful situations. Hence, the most primal reaction is to put up a fierce front. Too bad she lost it in the end. 'Good Fren' was trying to make sense of the situation. He thought some philosophers must have mulled over such incidents. Yes. This is where the concepts of karma, punishment by a greater being etc come into play. Where the helpless individual place his trust that somehow it will be set right. There are others who do it differently. 路霸s or Road Bullies are more 'pro-active'. They attempt to set things 'right' on their own. But to be really honest, I believe some people do get away with such behaviour and deeds at no cost. That family, made up of at least 8 adults ranging from those in 20s to at least 70s, did not undo the situation. They simply carried on with their dinner as planned. As long as they get what they want. After a quick dinner, we walked back to the carpark and passed our parking coupon to the next vehicle that parked. This is not a demonstration of moral superiority. We do this all the time. The truck driver was all serious-faced when 'Good Fren' knocked on his window, but melted into a wide smile once he understood 'Good Fren's intentions. We wanna thank the yuppie in the sports car for passing the lot to us, even though we did not manage to park in it. =_= We also wanna thank the middle age man who secured the 2nd lot for us. He did it and disappeared into the dark Friday evening. We didn't have a chance to thank him. Civil people do exist. No doubt about it. Just that those ugly ones stand out a lot more."er, ugly right? i met one today. wasnt too pissed off, but nevertheless, i guess it was uncalled for. yes, wasnt very pissed off, but i still took a picture of his car. bleah!
similar scenario, whole family going for dinner and dad (i assume, since he's the driver) dropped everyone (kids, aunties, old granny) behind my car. at the same time, a couple walked towards their car, which is right behind me and of cos, in front of uncle.
and as i signalled for that lot, uncle did the same thing too! before i can do anything, he already inched himself nearer to the lot. wth! uncle, i WAS HERE FIRST! and even though i must admit that you were like 30cm nearer to the lot than i was, based on the unspoken rule of ethical drivers like most of us, i should have gotten the lot instead of u.
1. i was here first.
2. the lot was not as if it's very far for me and very near for u.
3. i signalled before u were here that im waiting for a lot, so dont u dare give me crap like u dont know i was waiting for a lot.
4. i signalled for the lot before the car was coming out.
5. uncle didnt even dare to look at me when i looked back. yes, he didnt look straight or in front. stop the pretense that you cant see me nor the car!
no matter what, there's no reason you should have gotten the lot unless i tell you that i dont want it. and guess what happened after he parked the car and went off? he came back!!! at first, i thought he came to check if he needed to put coupon or not until the roommate realized that he 'loitered' around the carpark. the fact is, the notice is right in front of my car and instead of going straight to it and check it out, he walked the stretch of roads behind us and checked out every car behind.
GUILTY & AFRAID THAT WE MIGHT DO SOMETHING TO YOUR CAR???
lucky for you, we are civil people. in the end, he left only until we got a lot. so there it is, a picture of his car. nice car. not so nice driver though. and yes, we saw him & the family again at alexandra food centre but i didnt bother to even stare at him though im quite tempted to made some snide remarks when i walked by their table. haha.
on a different note, was at this wang cafe in bt panjang plaza that mornin for appts and god, can somebody do something bout their level of efficiency and service?!? my client waited for 25 min in the queue before he could get us a cup of ice coffee & ice lemon tea each, and there was only like 8 person in front of him & there were at least 4 workers in the store!
their sales process go like this:
1. order & payment at cashier.
2. jammed up the whole counter after that because,
-miss-coffee-maker doesnt know who order what or what are the orders, so after the customers pay, they have to wait for their turn to 'inform' the miss-coffee-maker what he/she has paid for.
what kind of service is this?
- classic line from one of the auntie behind the counter:
and as i signalled for that lot, uncle did the same thing too! before i can do anything, he already inched himself nearer to the lot. wth! uncle, i WAS HERE FIRST! and even though i must admit that you were like 30cm nearer to the lot than i was, based on the unspoken rule of ethical drivers like most of us, i should have gotten the lot instead of u.
1. i was here first.
2. the lot was not as if it's very far for me and very near for u.
3. i signalled before u were here that im waiting for a lot, so dont u dare give me crap like u dont know i was waiting for a lot.
4. i signalled for the lot before the car was coming out.
5. uncle didnt even dare to look at me when i looked back. yes, he didnt look straight or in front. stop the pretense that you cant see me nor the car!
no matter what, there's no reason you should have gotten the lot unless i tell you that i dont want it. and guess what happened after he parked the car and went off? he came back!!! at first, i thought he came to check if he needed to put coupon or not until the roommate realized that he 'loitered' around the carpark. the fact is, the notice is right in front of my car and instead of going straight to it and check it out, he walked the stretch of roads behind us and checked out every car behind.
GUILTY & AFRAID THAT WE MIGHT DO SOMETHING TO YOUR CAR???
lucky for you, we are civil people. in the end, he left only until we got a lot. so there it is, a picture of his car. nice car. not so nice driver though. and yes, we saw him & the family again at alexandra food centre but i didnt bother to even stare at him though im quite tempted to made some snide remarks when i walked by their table. haha.
on a different note, was at this wang cafe in bt panjang plaza that mornin for appts and god, can somebody do something bout their level of efficiency and service?!? my client waited for 25 min in the queue before he could get us a cup of ice coffee & ice lemon tea each, and there was only like 8 person in front of him & there were at least 4 workers in the store!
their sales process go like this:
1. order & payment at cashier.
2. jammed up the whole counter after that because,
-miss-coffee-maker doesnt know who order what or what are the orders, so after the customers pay, they have to wait for their turn to 'inform' the miss-coffee-maker what he/she has paid for.
what kind of service is this?
- classic line from one of the auntie behind the counter:
我哪里有时间打蛋？
then what? are we supposed to do everything ourselves??? actually, they're just very messy. afterall, i dont see other coffee joints such as toast box & ya kun having similar issues.
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