Highly Literate But Poorly Educated
29th December 2005, Thursday
We often know of tales of ugly Singaporeans but the problem with us islanders is that we often have that "jump on the bandwagon" factor existing within each of us, thus often resulted in doing what everyone else is doing...
Today there was a mass-mail that had been circulating within the entire organisation stating that the cater company for that paltry X'mas buffet dinner 2 Fridays back had complained of missing over 100 wine glasses (which they used to serve the highly-diluted soft drinks and beer in) as well as porcelain plates for the meal... Now those who had unknowingly (yeah right) taken the cockeries are to return them duly by the end of the day...
Seriously in an organisation filled with highly educated scientists and researchers, one will wonder whether such a case is a joke to begin with...
Over lunch yesterday, we chatted over certain ugly incidents occuring just at the doorsteps of our workplace...
There was a newly set-up library meant to supplied the researchers and students a place to get the suitable information they required..however it eventually transformed into a pigsty as a very vocal pricinpal investigator had voiced out over the company mass-mail.
This drew the irk of the Executive Director who duly responded by saying he might need to change into his draconian manner to barbeque some of the culprits since they behaved like wild boars...
Then there was the case of the public-sharing color printer existing in every floor. It seemed like our staff had been indiscriminately abusing the usage to print from a scientic journal to more personal uses like self-made posters/calendars (as the girls over my lab was guilty of in the past) to 600 pages recipe and even the entire Lord of the Ring trilogy.
It was disgusting over the fact that the IT team had to change the toner (each could cost up to $1000+) every single day...
This very well answered why there wasn't a nice pantry area filled with coffee,tea and other goodies (like cappucino machines) over here like other big MNCs or even government statuory boards...
It is because we have a really unsightly bunch of barbarians well known to pillage any source of modern civilizations here in this godforsaken slum...
I used to point the fingers at the PRC people (or vultures which I like to refer to them with the behavior during free buffets) but I think some of the locals had the "well we can't stop them, let's join them" effect to aggravate the problem..And don't think the "ang mohs" are spared, I believed they are equally (if not worse) ugly...ugh...
Well as long as I know I would not become such "Jekyl & Hyde" personality...
That aside, back to looking back of 2005...
Nummer Drie (Number Three in Dutch): The Alliance
My closest friends for the past year had been a newly forged one at the turn of this year: The La Tendo Clique
I had known the likes of Vincent and Tay-chan for a good 5-6 years now since the now-defunct DJ Su Pata Pata Fanclub enlisted the help of Vincent's Universal Human Network to host certain huge parties which otherwise could be considered illegal gatherings by law...
I even interviewed my huge (size-wise) friend for a modular project back in NUS.
However with the fateful reconciliation back in 2003 when I bought a set of capsule toys over the local online auction site, I had been with them from their scrawny stall at now-disintegrated flea market on Sundays at Clarke Quay to the establishment of the shop back in Feburary 2004 to now a household name locally (and perhaps in Southeast Asia) for retailing of delightful toys from Japan.
Through the course of it, I got to know the likes of Eng Kiong (Tay's brother) and Matthew (who seldom appear for the flea market in the past despite being a major partner)...
There was Chan who first appeared as an ardent supporter of the stall back in Clarke Quay and with the prefix "Mr" made him so senior when in actual fact he is only a year older than myself.
And in more recent time Karen, Ferris as well as Ferris' younger & equally manga/anime/resin kit/ toys-crazy brother, Bryan as we spent plenty of Saturdays hanging out at the only sporadically crowded place in town, La Tendo (they are really crowded on Saturdays as well lah, don't make them sound like we are there only swapping flies all day); indulging in our talks about anything related to our favorite hobbies, sharing informations, helping them to pack their toys, sometime helping out to entertain their customers, jibing each other as we usually do, taunting and cajoling each other to spend more money on whatever new stuffs the shop has brought in and ultimately finding solace after a week of hardship at work...
There would be that usual gatherings beside La Tendo such as potluck and fireworks viewing at Vincent's place, movie outings (always thanks to the diligence and perserverance of Chan) and soon to be wedding banquets...
In frequent fashion, we will chat over MSN to share informations, lobangs and more jibings...
Putting our resources together, we often get to enjoy a variety of anime series, manga, PS2 games, DVDs, books, magazines and even China dramas...
Last but not least, we nearly all became partner of a fashion apparels retailers which didn't work out in the end as I had just known over last weekend.
Nonetheless the close bond we had soldered over the past year is why they are the first names to appear on my guest list for my forthcoming wedding banquet; because it is not easy to find people around your age that can spend hours talking to you about spoilers for "One Piece" or whether a characters had died in "Bleach"....
We often know of tales of ugly Singaporeans but the problem with us islanders is that we often have that "jump on the bandwagon" factor existing within each of us, thus often resulted in doing what everyone else is doing...
Today there was a mass-mail that had been circulating within the entire organisation stating that the cater company for that paltry X'mas buffet dinner 2 Fridays back had complained of missing over 100 wine glasses (which they used to serve the highly-diluted soft drinks and beer in) as well as porcelain plates for the meal... Now those who had unknowingly (yeah right) taken the cockeries are to return them duly by the end of the day...
Seriously in an organisation filled with highly educated scientists and researchers, one will wonder whether such a case is a joke to begin with...
Over lunch yesterday, we chatted over certain ugly incidents occuring just at the doorsteps of our workplace...
There was a newly set-up library meant to supplied the researchers and students a place to get the suitable information they required..however it eventually transformed into a pigsty as a very vocal pricinpal investigator had voiced out over the company mass-mail.
This drew the irk of the Executive Director who duly responded by saying he might need to change into his draconian manner to barbeque some of the culprits since they behaved like wild boars...
Then there was the case of the public-sharing color printer existing in every floor. It seemed like our staff had been indiscriminately abusing the usage to print from a scientic journal to more personal uses like self-made posters/calendars (as the girls over my lab was guilty of in the past) to 600 pages recipe and even the entire Lord of the Ring trilogy.
It was disgusting over the fact that the IT team had to change the toner (each could cost up to $1000+) every single day...
This very well answered why there wasn't a nice pantry area filled with coffee,tea and other goodies (like cappucino machines) over here like other big MNCs or even government statuory boards...
It is because we have a really unsightly bunch of barbarians well known to pillage any source of modern civilizations here in this godforsaken slum...
I used to point the fingers at the PRC people (or vultures which I like to refer to them with the behavior during free buffets) but I think some of the locals had the "well we can't stop them, let's join them" effect to aggravate the problem..And don't think the "ang mohs" are spared, I believed they are equally (if not worse) ugly...ugh...
Well as long as I know I would not become such "Jekyl & Hyde" personality...
That aside, back to looking back of 2005...
Nummer Drie (Number Three in Dutch): The Alliance
My closest friends for the past year had been a newly forged one at the turn of this year: The La Tendo Clique
I had known the likes of Vincent and Tay-chan for a good 5-6 years now since the now-defunct DJ Su Pata Pata Fanclub enlisted the help of Vincent's Universal Human Network to host certain huge parties which otherwise could be considered illegal gatherings by law...
I even interviewed my huge (size-wise) friend for a modular project back in NUS.
However with the fateful reconciliation back in 2003 when I bought a set of capsule toys over the local online auction site, I had been with them from their scrawny stall at now-disintegrated flea market on Sundays at Clarke Quay to the establishment of the shop back in Feburary 2004 to now a household name locally (and perhaps in Southeast Asia) for retailing of delightful toys from Japan.
Through the course of it, I got to know the likes of Eng Kiong (Tay's brother) and Matthew (who seldom appear for the flea market in the past despite being a major partner)...
There was Chan who first appeared as an ardent supporter of the stall back in Clarke Quay and with the prefix "Mr" made him so senior when in actual fact he is only a year older than myself.
And in more recent time Karen, Ferris as well as Ferris' younger & equally manga/anime/resin kit/ toys-crazy brother, Bryan as we spent plenty of Saturdays hanging out at the only sporadically crowded place in town, La Tendo (they are really crowded on Saturdays as well lah, don't make them sound like we are there only swapping flies all day); indulging in our talks about anything related to our favorite hobbies, sharing informations, helping them to pack their toys, sometime helping out to entertain their customers, jibing each other as we usually do, taunting and cajoling each other to spend more money on whatever new stuffs the shop has brought in and ultimately finding solace after a week of hardship at work...
There would be that usual gatherings beside La Tendo such as potluck and fireworks viewing at Vincent's place, movie outings (always thanks to the diligence and perserverance of Chan) and soon to be wedding banquets...
In frequent fashion, we will chat over MSN to share informations, lobangs and more jibings...
Putting our resources together, we often get to enjoy a variety of anime series, manga, PS2 games, DVDs, books, magazines and even China dramas...
Last but not least, we nearly all became partner of a fashion apparels retailers which didn't work out in the end as I had just known over last weekend.
Nonetheless the close bond we had soldered over the past year is why they are the first names to appear on my guest list for my forthcoming wedding banquet; because it is not easy to find people around your age that can spend hours talking to you about spoilers for "One Piece" or whether a characters had died in "Bleach"....
Japanese word of the day: 野蛮人(Barbarian) I believe the terrorists at Al Qaeda is more civic-minded some of the people over at my workplace.
posted by Kei at
2:08 PM
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