Minding your pees and queues...

Minding your pees

I came across this "sign" at the Grandstand shops (the Old Turf City):

I don't think I need to explain the picture. But, just to be sure, here's a YouTube video of Restroom Signs -- Around the World (to the very irritating and repetitive tune of "It's a Small World, After All"; one comment poster called it "ear rape", so do mute the sound!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MswbFLVIWgA

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Minding the queues

Thanks to the Hell-o Kitty saga, the world now knows Singaporeans love to queue -- but not always when they should do so. We can't seem to wait till alighting passengers get off the trains and you will always find people who refuse to wait in line at the bus interchanges.

The problem goes way back, to my schooldays. I remember that -- whenever there was a popular show, say, one of the early Bond movies -- cinema-goers waiting in line at the ticket booths would invariably be approached by a "chow kuan" (no sense of decency) person asking to "potong jalan" (queue-cut) and piggyback a few tickets. Funnily, those behind did not seem to mind. We lived and let live then (even if the Bond movie being screened was "Live and Let Die"). But I don't think this "lompang" (borrow-your-queue position) ploy is practised any more, at least where movie tickers are concerned.

Some years back, I was wandering around Tekka Market's food centre around lunchtime. I saw a line that was fast growing. It was the only line! So I joined it, not knowing which stall I would end up at. Happily, I found myself at a nasi bryani stall. I was later to find out that it was quite famous, and operated only from 11am (I think) till 2pm -- in a food centre where many stalls stayed open till late.

And last month, Angie and I decided to do some "investigation", so we joined this queue shown below:

Let me zoom up to the sign in the distance ahead...

Ah, "branded" handbags. I wanted to know why on earth women would pay the earth to buy such bags that ranged from well over S$20,000 for exclusive top-of-the-heap Hermes designs to still four- to five-figure prices for the others (before the sale discounts). So I dragged Angie along (she did give me a scare; she picked up an LV bag, only to return it at the payment counter).

The sale of branded handbags has not abated (and why should it, right?). Here's an ad which appeared today:

I must assume there will be queues at this sale too.

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Finally, this one is serious -- and troubling. It cause the person who wrote to ST Forum (June 28) to become very distressed until the matter was resolved. I expect both the bank in question and the banking regulator to fix this problem, which can happen to any of us!...