Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Taxi-you-oke?
Okay this post is long in the making, owing to general fatigue, being woken up at ungodly hours by the parents on weekends, and waking up at unholy hours for work in the morning. (what kind of people start work at 0730 hrs?!?! oh yeah. surgeons. bugger.)
Before the main feature, we bring you these messages :
1) Do not fence while coming down with flu bug. Is very bad for body. Feels like dying only no relief from actually dying, and coach generally unsympathetic to Y chromosomes. bugger.
2) Singapore is very hot. Yes, I'm still coming to grips with the concept. I sweat when it's sunny, and I sweat when it rains. I have a feeling the only time I will stop sweating in this lovely garden city is when I'm dead.
******
Everytime I catch a cab, oops I mean taxi. Or is that teksi? In this country with V, we have a mini-misadventure. (sort of like the VW golf advertisements in the UK which were so silly you had to love them)
Our latest escapade involved another friend, a (long) walk down the estuary near the esplanade and several why did the chickens cross the major expressway moments, which fortunately we did not succumb to.
The second we stepped into the taxi the driver got into full swing (no mean feat considering the ride proper only lasted 3 min thanks to the roads not doing what the banks of the waterfront do at all. doh!) and warned us of the dangers of monsters, ghosts, indian people, and lonely walks down the waterfront. (He threw in the term Pak-tor for good measure. From the sounds of it, he also said what must mean menage-a-trois in mandarin, but the two angellic girls I was with didn't recognise the term, and he was loth to explain it. ha.)
By the end of the journey he was treating us to a pretty good taxi-idol rendition (if not for the ah-beng accent it'd have been really good!) of Because I love you by Shakin' Stevens.
Geesh. This sort of stuff happens to V on a regular basis. I think she should start a Taxi-Driver Diaries blog, before she begins to take it all for granted.
*****
Some time later, V, reading some of the comments on my previous entry commented that she brings out the weirdest in cab drivers, but I bring out the worst in blog-readers.
Shrug. It's strange, really, "writing for a mass audience" - my own quirky little attempts at sarcastic humour are only appreciated by a small audience who know me in real life (various members of the blogging community don't pick up on the "trigger words" in my head, through no fault of their own) and (this is but an observation) some people are unable to debate the salient issues - and not the person. I suppose this is a universal trait the world over, but never in the UK have people persisted in hammering home the same points once I've pointed out that they're irrelevant to the debate at hand. Perhaps it's my years of debate experience, and my professional life in my career - we keep things impersonal, and discuss the issues rather than make character assessments and attack the individual.
Anyway, either way I'm glad and grateful for the responses (all of them, including the mini-arguments) generated, since it means my words are generating thoughts in readers, which I guess is a good thing. (regardless of how hostile they are. laughs)
Thing is, I'm not actually writing for a mass-audience. Else I'd tone myself down, and censor my thoughts (to avoid those pesky little flames/hot coals at my feet). I'm just writing down - my thoughts. Mine. For me.
*****
ps - AAARRRRRRRrrrrgh! MrBrown does it again! not once, but TWICE! Talk about adding injury to injury. Mutter. Must meet ipod contract killer ASAP...
Before the main feature, we bring you these messages :
1) Do not fence while coming down with flu bug. Is very bad for body. Feels like dying only no relief from actually dying, and coach generally unsympathetic to Y chromosomes. bugger.
2) Singapore is very hot. Yes, I'm still coming to grips with the concept. I sweat when it's sunny, and I sweat when it rains. I have a feeling the only time I will stop sweating in this lovely garden city is when I'm dead.
******
Everytime I catch a cab, oops I mean taxi. Or is that teksi? In this country with V, we have a mini-misadventure. (sort of like the VW golf advertisements in the UK which were so silly you had to love them)
Our latest escapade involved another friend, a (long) walk down the estuary near the esplanade and several why did the chickens cross the major expressway moments, which fortunately we did not succumb to.
The second we stepped into the taxi the driver got into full swing (no mean feat considering the ride proper only lasted 3 min thanks to the roads not doing what the banks of the waterfront do at all. doh!) and warned us of the dangers of monsters, ghosts, indian people, and lonely walks down the waterfront. (He threw in the term Pak-tor for good measure. From the sounds of it, he also said what must mean menage-a-trois in mandarin, but the two angellic girls I was with didn't recognise the term, and he was loth to explain it. ha.)
By the end of the journey he was treating us to a pretty good taxi-idol rendition (if not for the ah-beng accent it'd have been really good!) of Because I love you by Shakin' Stevens.
Geesh. This sort of stuff happens to V on a regular basis. I think she should start a Taxi-Driver Diaries blog, before she begins to take it all for granted.
*****
Some time later, V, reading some of the comments on my previous entry commented that she brings out the weirdest in cab drivers, but I bring out the worst in blog-readers.
Shrug. It's strange, really, "writing for a mass audience" - my own quirky little attempts at sarcastic humour are only appreciated by a small audience who know me in real life (various members of the blogging community don't pick up on the "trigger words" in my head, through no fault of their own) and (this is but an observation) some people are unable to debate the salient issues - and not the person. I suppose this is a universal trait the world over, but never in the UK have people persisted in hammering home the same points once I've pointed out that they're irrelevant to the debate at hand. Perhaps it's my years of debate experience, and my professional life in my career - we keep things impersonal, and discuss the issues rather than make character assessments and attack the individual.
Anyway, either way I'm glad and grateful for the responses (all of them, including the mini-arguments) generated, since it means my words are generating thoughts in readers, which I guess is a good thing. (regardless of how hostile they are. laughs)
Thing is, I'm not actually writing for a mass-audience. Else I'd tone myself down, and censor my thoughts (to avoid those pesky little flames/hot coals at my feet). I'm just writing down - my thoughts. Mine. For me.
*****
ps - AAARRRRRRRrrrrgh! MrBrown does it again! not once, but TWICE! Talk about adding injury to injury. Mutter. Must meet ipod contract killer ASAP...
