Sunday, November 8, 2009

Logicocks

Was eating Lor Mee with my old man yesterday morning at the kopitiam. As usual we start talking about what's been going on in town since I don't get much news inside of camp. Hot topic of the week? Unreasonable legislations...

1. Food Ban in SMRT

While I do commend their efforts to make train riding a much more enjoyable experience by banning people from eating and drinking food inside. Indeed, it can get pretty irritating if you're all dressed up and prepared for a crazy night at clarke quay, only to get your (insert brand here) perfume ruined by the smell of durian. Ok forget durian, how about curry puffs? Another problem brought about by food consumption in public transport is litter. No one likes to hold on to trash for 5 minutes, let alone an entire train ride that often lasts at least 30minutes. What to do? Throw it on the floor like everyone else :)

Still, why water? It doesn't stain, it doesn't stink, it doesn't even attract ants! What? some crazy terrorist is gonna prepare a bomb (i think you just need to throw an alkali metal into water and it'll explode). I find it highly illogical to ban water. Like I've said, it usually takes at least 30 minutes for an average train ride to reach it's destination, for the unfortunate it might even take close to an hour. What if we need a drink?

Better yet, there are people who are on medication. My dad points out that it might be too late for a victim of cardiac arrest to walk out of the train station just so that he can get some water to down his medication. Yes, he can always swallow the pills dry but not everyone is skilled enough to let it travel down your oesophagus smoothly without water. There might be assistants running along the train cabins equipped with water but how can we ensure that they're always in the right cabin at the right time?

2. Disposing of tissue into bowls and plates

This is an interesting take. From what I've been told. Clearing your used tissue paper/napkins into your plates and bowls might award you with a fine! What you should do is simply place them beside your used cutlery, with some weight on top to prevent the napkins from flying off onto the floor.

Then again there is a downside to this. Some of our dishes are kinda soupy, yet remains served on plates rather than bowls (i.e mee siam). Tilting the plates might mean spilling the leftovers which in turn equates to more work for cleaners. Yes I'm over-assuming, but we still have to consider these possibilities.

Speaking of cleaners. Here comes the ridiculous part. While we get fined for landing a 3-pointer into soup bowls, nothing happens to them cleaners for sweeping everything (including napkins) back. What? They can't be fined cuz they're making soup?

If you want to enforce that regulation, kindly make it mandatory for cleaners to come armed with 2 bins then, one for tissue paper, one for everything else!

On a different note, sometimes I feel that us NSFs are being view upon in an inappropriate light. Few questions to ask.

If a single army boy talks to a female friend, does it automatically mean he's in for sex?

Is a happy soldier an efficient one? Or would mindf**king them make them better?

Should we be proud of our protectors?

End of rant!