Taxi Uncle

There's a saying that goes that if you want to know what's happening on the streets, just take a cab and engage small talk with the local cabbies. They will most likely rant out all their frustrated feelings about the government.

Initially I did not want to write about this incident because it was a small matter to me but somehow it stayed with me a while.

It all happened when I flagged down a cab at about 4.45 pm on a working Monday. I have a very close cab driver friend and I knew normally cab driver switch shift at 5pm, hence it is normally very difficult to grab a cab. I knew about the switching of shifts of cabs and I decided to go a little earlier just to avoid the peak hour surcharge. Several cabs actually zoomed passed me with their labels indicating 'change shift' and I thought that I was never going to grab a cab before the peak hour starts (5pm)

Thankfully there was this passenger that stopped where I was about to alight and I quickly asked the uncle if I could hop on. He was hesitant as I knew he was changing shifts but thankfully where I wanted to go was in his direction. So I hopped on and told the uncle I wanted to go to Merlin Mansion which was perpendicular to East Coast Road and Still Road. I asked him if he knew the direction and he clearly said that he know where it was.

However, after a few minutes he started asking me where exactly it was and I showed him on google maps to clarify the location but he kept complaining that he couldn't see as it was too small for him. To cut the long story short, we actually took a huge detour and I ended up guiding him to my intended location which I felt was not my fault because he said he knew where it was.

So as I was about to alight, he charged me the exact amount displayed on the meter and I was a little disappointed because he took me on an unnecessary detour.

I said to him, "Oh how 6.50?"  
Uncle, " Ya, my fault is it if you don't know the place. Not happy is it?"
Me, " Ermm, but"
Uncle, " Not happy ah? want discount is it? 50 cents? You think i'm cheating you?"
Me, " -.- I didn't say that, just wondering only." I paid him the cash and took my stuff from the boot
Uncle, *rambles on and on*

Oh well, I don't know why he felt so touchy when I was hesitant to pay and asked an innocent question.He probably forgot that I was his 'momentum customer' and probably his last ditch of income aka bonus before handing over his shift.

What say you?

Ps: An incident during lunch today where a customer raged at the counter girl triggered the above.

Taxi Taxi!

USB Cables

For the past week, I had some major problems charging my handphone and tablet all because I was using a lower grade micro USB cable.

Ya, you know those that they sell at the night markets and they come in many colours to cheat you

Well, the thing was I knew it was not going to be as good/sturdy as the original cable but yet I decided to buy it. In fact it was my first time a 'fake' cable and if you know how I take care of my stuff, things rarely get spoilt or missing. hehe.

I did go to several shops before purchasing my 'fake' cable asking the shop keeper on the difference. They mentioned that fake cables are obviously cheaper but they tend to charge slower. I knew that but I didn't expect it to be so slow. I took 20 min to charge 1% of my battery. Funny thing was my brother's phone was charging as per normal. He owns a zero dollar phone while I decided to jump on the upper end of the handphone hierarchy.

In the end, I gave up on the 'fake' USB cable and bought the original cable and my phone is charging so much faster :D

And oh, original cables in singapore are way much cheaper compared to johor. Orignal or fake after this incident? * I still like cheap replicas :P*

Small Tweaks

I've been using the June holidays to do some small tweaks in certain areas. Here are some of the tweaks which I can recall,

1) Exercising 'more regularly'
I had a little more time to exercise during the holidays and I also had an exercise buddy, E and my brother, to help me get going. Some small tweaks I did was to eat a little earlier so that I could go for night jogs which I soon realized that I got hungry after my run and ate even more :D Fail max.

2) Review of accounts
Sounds very old man-ish but this was what I did. I took a day to consolidate my monthly expenditure and soon realized that if I did switch to the OCBC 360 account, I could soon 'feel richer'. Well that minor switch was quite a hassle for me but I'm thankful for helpful people at work to get the necessary admin done for me. I basically bazooka-ed all my spendings into one account which actually simplifies things for myself. Well done Nik! *pats my own shoulder*

3) Got hooked onto Young Justice.
All it took was just a visit to E's place which I came across this cartoon. With just that small tweak/click of the play button, I ended up watching the entire season 1 & 2 in 3 days :P I must say that show is really addictive or I'm just a super-hero kinda guy. If you want, I can share with you the site I watched online. Too bad that there won't be season 3, else I'll probably be blogging less.

So, from the above, I guess not all small tweaks are the best tweaks right?

What are some of your small tweaks that you have done recently and how well/bad did it turn out?

hehe, a picture of my Young Justice won't hurt right?