Taxi... Taxi...

Tomes have been written about the woes of taxi-using public in Singapore. But this one really takes the cake.

Yesterday, after an exhilarating and an inebriating evening at Clarke Quay, RR leaves the restaurant to go back home as soon as possible.

He gets into a cab; says "Punggol" and promptly dozes off.

After about 10 minutes, through the alcohol-hazed eyes looks out for familiar spots.

You know the drill - when you are sleeping in the vehicle (not while driving, that is!) the GPS inside the brain always runs and tells your mind that you should have reached Toa Payoh, Ang Mo Kio etc etc.

Now what did RR see... Clementi!! But before he could protest, he was already seeing Jurong. After all the expressways are meant to be clipped at at 90 kmph, aren't they?

Two things:
1. For those of you who are not geographically challenged, in Singapore to go to Punggol from Clarke Quay one kind of goes North-East; but what RR saw were all in South-South-West direction.
2. Yes, there was booze in the party. But it definitely did not explain the change of sign-boards!!

With great concern, RR asks the cab driver, "Are we going to Punggol?" (Communication Lesson 101: Clarify and Confirm); to which the cabbie vigourously replies "Yes!"

Having c&c -ed, RR goes about correcting the course (no pun intended) of the driver's action. When he told him about the 'slight' directional anomaly of the driver's navigational abilities, the cabbie got thoroughly nervous. By the time all this happened, they had already reached Boon Lay - if you go Wester, you end up in the sea ;-)

After what seemed like a million turns and u-turns, the course was corrected and RR returned home.

Here is the receipt as a proof. By far, this is the longest distance (& highest fare) that I have ever seen on a taxi bill in Singapore. I believe that the poor driver was so apologetic that he took only $15 from RR which is par for the course.

And just to give you an idea of the route...

So, next time I sit in the passenger seat, acting as the navigator for the wife, I will remind myself of the day when RR went to Boon Lay to reach Punggol!!!

PS: One thing I do NOT want to see is Comfort penalizing the poor driver for this!

Not Espana - but En Pasa!

Reams and reams have been written about the passing ability of the Spaniards.

Nothing captures that spirit than the 12th and 13th seconds of the video in the link below. It just comes so naturally !!!




Forget Puyol's bare torso!!

Ole, Ole, Kamama!!

P.S. Police were called yesterday in the apartment block next to mine. For what? Nice residents complained that there was too much noise and disturbance as some children were kicking a soccer ball around!!! How do you expect the talent to grow? People in Singapore good only for criticizing their sportspersons from the comfort of their arm-chairs & of course, to go and bet whereever there is a better odd! Aaaargh!