A Terrorist TIBS881G Driver - Bus No. 190

Here's a letter I wrote 30 minutes ago to the Corporate Comms department of SMRT...

Re: Complaint against driver of TIBS881G – 30 August 2006

Bus No: 190
Vehicle No: TIBS881G
Boarding Point/Time: Outside Stamford House / 6:50pm
Alighting Point / Time: Outside RGS / 7:20pm


I would like to highlight a serious complaint against the driver of the vehicle with details as listed.

At 6:50pm, my colleague and I boarded bus 190 outside of Stamford House. We had intended to take the bus to the stop outside Thong Teck building to meet our manager for a crucial business appointment at Shaw Centre at 7.15pm.

The bus being a bendy bus had two exits and we were standing at the 2nd exit located at the furthest end of the bus. Having reached our destination, the bell was pressed by other passengers sharing the same stop and the first exit was opened. The driver however forgot to operate the 2nd exit, the exit where we were waiting to get off the bus.

Seeing his oversight, I pressed the bell repeatedly to signal his attention to open the door. This repeatedly pressing of the bell failed to jolt his memory to open the 2nd exit. Due to the peak hour, the bus was fairly packed and we were unable to try and make our way to the first exit in time and risk having the bus move off.

In a state of panic as we were rushing for our important business meeting, I raised my voice sufficiently to request the driver to please open the door. My volume was loud enough to have passengers in the front portion of the bus turn their heads to look at me. I repeated my request twice in the same volume.

Unfortunately, none of the passengers in the front assisted in getting the driver's attention and he simply drove off with us still frantically pressing the bell.

About a minute later, the bus came to a stop at a nearby traffic light, seeing that this was the perfect opportunity to salvage the situation, I again frantically pressed the bell repeatedly hoping that he could open the door for a second just so that we could hop off and get to our meeting in time.

The driver again chose to ignore our signals and the sounding of the bell. He finally let us off at the next stop outside of Raffles Girls School.

Once I got off the bus, I ran over to the entrance to get the driver's attention and he had the audacity to open the door and glare at me as if it was our fault that he forgot to open the second door.

If the driver is not able to be sufficiently focused and competent enough to captain a bendy bus with 2 exits (3 including entrance) he should be scheduled to drive normal buses with just 1 exit and 1 entrance.

The way the driver handled this situation is truly appalling and NOT a good or healthy representation of SMRT. I would not have complained if he had the decency to apologize when he opened the door after we got off.
Our distress did not end there, after the bus happily sped off, we were left in the rain - in great panic as we were late for our important business meeting and we were not even able to call a cab due to the peak hour situation coupled with the rainy weather.

As a desperate resort, we had no choice but to trudge our way back to Shaw Centre by foot in the pouring rain. By the time we walked all the way back to Orchard, we were soaking wet and an hour late for our appointment.

As anyone can imagine, we did not look a pretty sight, much less expect to maintain a professional image. Our manager was also not impressed with the whole situation and we were 'advised' to not attend the meeting with her so as not to disgrace our company; in our state of being 'rain-soaked' - all thanks to the fantastic TIBS881G terrorist driver who happened to ply the roads at the peak hours of 7pm.

I can only hope that my colleague and I will not be black-marked by our company for this unfortunate incident that was through no fault of ours. As a working professional yourself, I trust you will understand our position and our fears of being misunderstood as shoddy employees by our company.

With his level of customer service and professionalism, it would be safer if he kept to just driving a bicycle instead of jeopardizing the welfare of his passengers who are at his total mercy and have to risk being glared at by him for his mistake.

I hope that your good company will look seriously into this matter and investigate the performance of this driver so as to prevent your good name from being further tarnished.

I hope to receive compensation on the fares that my colleague and I paid since the service required was not delivered. More importantly, I would also appreciate if your company could take suitable action against the driver or to issue him a warning or better still, send him for skills retraining.

Seeing how Singapore is aiming to be a world class city nation with world class service as illustrated in our hosting of the upcoming IMF meeting, such a 'wonderful' driver would be a befitting disgrace to our country.

I am ready to write in to the Straits Times and to the Ministry of Transport to highlight this incident. My colleague is too willing to testify towards this incident, so as to prevent others from the possibility of being terrorized and distressed by this driver in future.

Please contact me at 9xxx xxxx soonest possible. I thank you for your kind attention in this matter.

Yours Sincerely,
Sharon Tan

Pics from The Ultimate 2's Opening

Hi Pple,

Here's some pics from the opening event.

Left to Right: Jaz, Shirley and Me

Cool Sales Technique!

Woahz! Cool manz, just received a box of ‘free’ sampler mooncakes from Tung Lok!
Hey, it’s not like I never tasted mooncakes before or so cheapskate that I get so happy over a box of mooncakes but hey its just an example of great customer service and very subtle yet effective sales technique…

Anyway how the goodies came about was just by dropping Tung Lok with an email to request a quotation for the corporate purchase of mooncakes… they followed up with an email, their detailed quotation (with plenty of options and flavors of mooncakes to choose from) plus sent a box of sampler mooncakes…

Don’t worry, I am not such a greedy pig to keep the mooncakes for myself… left them on my manager’s chair for her appraisal hehe…

Good work manz Tung Lok! They must be rich!

Here's the link to their mooncake page http://www.tunglok.com/index1.html
If you going to order mooncake for your company, email their Senior Sales Manager johnho@tunglok.com

Disclaimer on the results of the Personality Test

I just got to put in a disclaimer on the results of the personality test I posted.

I got to say that it is pretty accurate overall, but I think it is a reflection of my 'raw' nature, that is if I totally act without thinking or self-control...

But having been schooled for a bit in the school of hard knocks... I must say that I am definitely must self-controlled and conscious these days...

Besides being a girl... how could I resist making small talk :)

And for seconds, in case my boss is peeping in on my blog... I assure that I DO respect authority and proper reporting conduct :)

The giraffe sitting beside me at work shared this cool test with me

Thanks Jacky!

You Are An INTP

The Thinker You are analytical and logical - and on a quest to learn everything you can. Smart and complex, you always love a new intellectual challenge. Your biggest pet peeve is people who slow you down with trivial chit chat. A quiet maverick, you tend to ignore rules and authority whenever you feel like it. You would make an excellent mathematician, programmer, or professor.

What's Your Personality Type?

Part 1: DVD Review on Da Qing Feng Yun

This DVD series depicts the epic tale of the Qing Dynasty.

Key Characters:
- Huang Tai Ji
- Duo Er Gun
- Da Yu Er
- Hao Ge
- Fu Lin
- Kang Xi

The story starts from Huang Tai Ji, the 2nd generation Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. Upon the death of his father, Nie Er Har Ci, the throne was to have gone to his fourteen brother Duo Er Gun; however his lust for the throne made him plot against his own brother and Duo Er Gun's mother. His plot succeeds, he manages to remove Duo Er Gun's mother and claims the throne as his own on the pretext that Duo Er Gun was merely a boy and unable to manage the throne.

Years later, Duo Er Gun grows up to be a leader of exceptional abilities. Huang Tai Ji employs him as an able general to help him win numerous battles.

But the seed of Huang Tai Ji's betrayal of him and his mother was to take root in his heart and play a pivotal role in the history of the Qing Dynasty.

Meanwhile, Duo Er Gun as a young man falls in love with a ravishing Mongolian princess, Da Yu Er... she too falls in love with him... Sadly, their desire to be together is thwarted when Huang Tai Ji takes a liking to her as well and asks for her as his concubine...

From this point on, fate was to play a cruel joke upon Duo Er Gun and Da Yu Er... destined to fall in love yet never to let their love come to light... they were fated as chess pieces forever to be playing on different sides.

Part 1:

Huang Tai Ji is suddenly taken critically ill in a strange turn of events; at this point of time, the Qing dynasty is just about to overthrown the decrepit Ming Dynasty. This sudden turn of events creates internal turmoil caused by the tricky situation of succession.

The vying candidates are the Crown Prince, Hao Ge and his fourteen uncle, Duo Er Gun.

Hao Ge hopes that Duo Er Gun will be tempted to rebel at this time, so that Duo Er Gun who has always been a thorn may be removed from his flesh forever.

It is apparent that Hao Ge lacks the foresight to be a great ruler as he is narrow minded and more concerned with removing those he dislikes and those whom he perceives as a threat to him, rather than considering the overall game plan and the fact that some of those he dislikes, are the key players in the overall chess game.

Duo Er Gun definitely is a stronger leader and of a better caliber to lead the country, however it is natural that Huang Tai Ji would like to hand the throne over to his own son, his other fear is that by handing the throne to Duo Er Gun, his sons who have been against Duo Er Gun thus far might be endangered,

In his heart of hearts, he knows that Duo Er Gun is the best possible choice for the country. He decides upon a test for Duo Er Gun, one which if he should fail, it would be a test that would warrant his death and removal.

Huang Tai Ji stages a scenario where Duo Er Gun’s loyalty to his country is tested against his love for Da Yu Er. He issues a decree that he wants Da Yu Er to accompany him in his royal grave to the netherworlds.

Da Yu Er is torn between her fear and her love for Duo Er Gun. While fearful for her life and the fate of her son, she is tempted to seek Duo Er Gun’s aid in saving her from her untimely death, yet she does not want to jeopardize Duo Er Gun’s life or well-being by standing up to the Emperor for her life.

Her love for Duo Er Gun prevents her from telling him or seeking his assistance, the news of her impending death is however deliberately leaked out to Duo Er Gun’s ears by the Emperor.

Duo Er Gun is duly agitated by this news; he contemplates storming to the Emperor to demand he withdraws his decree. He makes a visit to the fretful Da Yu Er to assure her that he will not watch her accompany Huang Tai Ji to the grave.

Da Yu Er tries to stop him, to dissuade him from confronting the Emperor over this matter and possibly risking his life in the process. Da Yu Er finds it strange that the news has passed so quickly to Duo Er Gun’s ears, upon further contemplation; they both realize the plot behind Huang Tai Ji’s decree.

Having realized this plot, they both realize that Huang Tai Ji may not be really dying but possibly exaggerating his condition to test Duo Er Gun’s loyalty to him and to his sons.

They decide to take a step at a time and not act rashly and possibly rocking the boats… They wait in cold sweat as Huang Tai Ji speaks his last, Duo Er Gun is ready to battle it out if the Emperor should insist upon his request for Da Yu Er to accompany him on his dying bed. Fortunately, Huang Tai Ji decided against it with his last breath, he decides that the Empress should accompany him to the Netherworlds.

With Huang Tai Ji having passed on, an internal strife ensues with Hao Ge’s and Duo Er Gun’s struggles to claim the throne as their own.

Review on Hoodwinked

Based on the infamous fairy tale 'Little Red Riding Hood', the makers on this innovative animae offered a refreshing twist on this age old tale of 'Good triumphing over evil' but of course, the notion of 'happily ever after' still rings true even for this tale with a slightly macabre twist!

The movie start with its four key characters or so it seems, Red (short for Red Riding Hood), the 'Big-Bad' Wolf, the 'frail' old granny and the 'hero' the woodcutter!

The tale is fast forwarded to the pivoting point where the wolf is found in granny's bed, Red's life is being threatened by the wolf, and granny hops out of the cupboard all bonded and tied up and the woodcutter bursts in through the window wielding an axe...

At this point, the animal kingdom's law-enforcers burst into the scene and conducts their investigations to establish the truth of the matter.

Of course, the complicating matter of the whole entire story is that, there is a recipe bandit who is going all over the forest and robbing all pastry shops of their precious recipes... thus the police is given the task of trying to establish who the bandit is... the wolf, the granny, red or the apparently heroic woodcutter...

At the end of the day, the culprit emerges as a disillusioned character... supposedly whom no one suspects (but actually it get a bit obvious as the plot proceeds halfway through...)

In all, RED is seeking freedom and trying to tell the world that she is no longer a kid, frail granny is also not as frail nor as frumpy as she seems, the woodcutter is an accidental hero and the wolf... is basically a victim of generalization.

Plenty of hidden messages in this animation, but an engaging and fun one to watch nevertheless!

Link to official movie site: http://hoodwinkedthemovie.com/mainpage.html

Check out the crowd manz

Taken at Plaza Singapura a couple of weekz back...during the food festival...

Just look at the amazing
crowd of people manz...

We love food indeed!