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Hiaz... One weekend in Gentings and I chalked up an excess $25 in my phone bill. What really surprised me though, was how I had to pay more for the incoming calls. Since mum kept calling me to ask about JY, who's almost always ignorant of her calls, I ended up with the biggest bill in the house, even though my usage was the least...
Just found out yesterday that Cher is on holidays in Hong Kong and parts of China. Through SMS. I wonder how much the 4 SMS (2 sent, 2 received) will cost me. Or my dad, rather.
Recent news mentioned the use of dry walls in the wake of Indonesia's sand ban and the resulting sand crisis. Apparently, the walls can resist fire for an hour and every point of the wall can withstand 25kg of pressure. Wonder how the walls perform with 25kg of pressure at a point in a fire...Then there's Mr 'Newsoil', who found a way to build roads using soil with special chemicals added. I thought that was pretty cool!There's also the Bring Your Own Bag Day (BYOBD), which has seen total participation from Ikea from Earth Day onwards, as opposed to having it only on the 1st Wednesday of every month. I was intrigued by the oxo-biodegradable plastic bags they use. Apparently they biodegrade under room condition, which I suppose, means that they biodegrade in air. I wonder what they biodegrade into...Exams are round the corner - literally. Econs paper falls on next Wednesday! Excited at the prospect of having my exams at Expo (a totally new experience!), yet nervous about my 1st actual exam in a long time...Hope I do well.
Today, I would like to give a little illustration of the presence of Murphy’s Law in my life. From my observations, you should be able to sense my frustrations at the unwelcome coincidences. I will add more case studies should I come across them.
Case 1
Background:
Whenever I take bus 74 home from school, there are two bus stops which I may alight from, to transfer to a feeder bus to get home. The first stop requires me to cross a short stretch of road, whereas the second stop necessitates the crossing of an overhead bridge. However, there are two buses that I can transfer to at the second stop(119 and 136), compared to only one(119) at the first stop.
Murphy’s Law comes into play…
Often, when I alight at the first stop, 119 take ages to arrive (typically 15mins and above). On the other hand, if I decide to alight at the second stop, 119 will appear just after my bus leaves the first stop. I will then end up watching the sun go down while waiting for 15mins or more at the second stop. On a few occasions, I watched 119 go pass as my bus leaves the first stop, only to wait for 20mins before boarding 119 at the second stop. The 136 driver probably had to make a detour to the toilet on those occasions.
Case 2
Background:
There is this road that I have to cross whenever I have to go to the mall near my house. I almost always cross at the traffic junction (because I am a law-abiding citizen. Haha!).
Murphy’s Law comes into play…
From my experience, the pedestrian lights are only in my favour on three occasions out of every 10 trips I make. (I include favourable light changes within ten seconds of arrival)
I probably lost 5 years of my life from all that smoke inhaled. But I’ll come back to that later.
I travelled to Genting Highlands over the Good Friday weekend via coach. By Five Stars Tours Pte Ltd. On a 1st Class coach.
It was a truly enjoyable ride. My seat seemed to be able to accommodate two of me, and there was a wide choice of (Nintendo-typed)games and videos to choose from. And since we traveled on Thursday night, it was nice to be able to catch forty winks on a reclining seat that opens to 150 degrees (I think). Pity the thigh massager in my seat wasn’t functioning, otherwise I could have a complete massage. I never thought I would be able to enjoy such VIP treatment (though apparently, they offer all the above, complemented by in-bus stewardess to provide refreshments; ironically, their VIP coaches are one rung below the 1st Class coaches).
We had a very fast and efficient driver who got us to First World Hotel in less than four hours, excluding a half hour stop in Yong Peng for toilet break and refreshments. It was surprising to learn that the hotel holds the Guiness World Record for the most number of hotel rooms. Another surprise was meeting Meng Keong at the lobby. The poor guy had to wait in queue for his room while I was able to check in straight away, having paid a little more in booking fees.
The hotel is pretty huge, and it takes quite a while to orientate myself around the myriad of shops. There is a good mix of retail, F&B, and entertainment outlets around, on top of the usual outdoor theme park, but there is a dearth of signage and directories. I missed out on some indoor rides, as I was not able to locate them on the first day, when I got a day pass for unlimited rides. I was also disappointed with the exorbitant fees for the LAN shops. 12RM an hour would have provided me with six times as much entertainment in Singapore! The pool/billiard and bowling are set at decent prices though, at 12RM per hour and 6RM per game respectively. Watching a movie costs only 10RM, but tickets to Mr Bean’s Holiday were sold out when I wanted to watch it.
The trip was generally fun, but it would have been better if smoking were not allowed in the hotel. I had thought the casino would be the only haven for smokers – how wrong I was to be. Whether one is in the toilet, in the lift, queuing for tickets or taking photos with the mock Statue of Liberty, there’s just no escaping the smoke. Even in the few areas where smoking is banned, regulation is lax. The no-smoking signs did not stop smokers in the billiard shop; neither did the counter girl, who probably has eyes on her feet, and nose in her hair. Similarly, signs that restrict smoking in the hotel passageways were ignored. I was not surprised though; nobody would be. Not when you provide rubbish bins with ashtrays on the lift landings of every floor! So what if you have an anti-smoking sign above the bin?
I’m glad Singapore is largely smoke-free.
Another surprise was the great disparity in cigarette prices compared to Singapore. While cigarettes in Singapore typically cost S$10 – S$11 per pack, in Malaysia, they only cost around RM$7! I know our cigarette tax is huge, but it is only now that I realise how significant it is.
