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Memories...

Friday, August 17, 2007

MORNING STORM

This morning i woke up and as i looked out of my window by my cozy bed, i thought a typhoon has hit bukit panjang. My gawd the rain was humongous man.

And so i decided not to ride to school.

And so i decided to take a cab. Coz i dun wanna be late for my honours seminar class.

Basket and u noe e age old saying. When ya really need cabs, they dun come. But when ya dun need them, they just keep coming in ya face.

I waited in the storm for 40 damn minutes. Considering that i m not a very patient person (esp when it comes to waiting), I was understandably fuming. Whats worse was that i tried calling all the 3 cab companies, and either (a) I could not get through OR (b) I called thru but no cab wanted to pick me up. And to add insult to injury, i was kena queued-cut for cab 2 times by sneaky fellas who sneaked further ahead of me along the road! Being the law-abiding citizen that i am, i have waited along the roadside with double yellow lines but on 2 occasions, those fellas had sneaked up in front to the white zig-zag lines (which vehicles are not allowed to stop wan) to flag for the cabs.

And so a business idea came to my head, inspired by Richard Branson. Shall keep this idea to myself 1st haha.

And then 1 cab came along but the cabbie refused to pick me up coz he said he was going to Woodlands for change of shift.

Me: Uncle, NUS clementi eh sai buey?
Cabbie: *shakes head cooly*
Me: Uncle, ke yi la. Wo zai yu zong deng hen jiu liao leh..deng le 30 fen zong le! Ke yi la...
Cabbie: *drives off*

And then ah, a giant bendy bus came along at high speed and the great velocity resulted in splashing of water all the way till my face, leaving me speechless.

Thankfully, after 40 minutes, a cabbie finally picked me up and the 1st thing he told me was:

Nice Cabbie: (Translated) Wah lau eh, morning rain so heavy i see oredi also dun want to drive lor. Purposely la kopi and read newspaper at kopi tiam 1st. On-call machine i also purposely dun want to switch on, wait a lot of people call for cab very ma fan also.

Ah hah! Now i noe why there are so few cabs around in the morning.

Anyway subsequently we had a nice chat along the way, talking bout studies, marriage, politics, healthcare..and how his friend' s son got into a accident when he fell down and became mentally ill..after which his girlfriend left, career also gone etc..he also talked bout how another of his friend's daughter left overseas to Australia to study, and ended up getting pregnant with her new Australian boyfriend there..after which they married and she decided not to come back to Singapore anymore..

Must say that the conversation we had along the way was really enjoyable and insightful, and made me forget my earlier frustrations at flagging for cab. Sometimes its good to hear from differing perspectives of fellow Singaporeans, esp from the elder generation.

If i had to pick 1 highlight of Friday 17th August 2007, this was probably it. =)

The Incredible Hock