The Swiss Vandal

Swiss FT arrested for spraying graffiti on MRT train via kwout

• YouTube (18 May 2010) - [EXCLUSIVE VANDALIZED] SMRT C151 047-048 Graffiti Drawing - Departing Kembangan (Westbound)
• AsiaOne New (04 Jun 2010) - Graffiti Vandal Breaches Security At MRT Depot
• The Temasek Review (04 Jun 2010) - Swiss FT Arrested For Spraying Graffiti On MRT Train

There has been quite a stir back home where a Swiss guy broke into a MRT train depot and sprayed graffiti onto one of the trains.

That presented the chance for the increasing xenophobic locals to jump in and make a meal out of it. As usual, they took the opportunity to question the gahmen's wisdom, or the alleged lack of, for such loose immigration policies.

To me, all these jibber jabber are just white background static noises. Noises for the sake of making them. However, there is this one comment that caught my eye, although I am unable to verify if the incident (see above kwout) actually took place.

Assuming that it did happen, I have these to say:

1. Sure you can laugh at us all you want about our anal uptight-ness. You can laugh about it only BECAUSE it didn't happen to you. Let's see you laugh about it when your swanky BMW gets a graffiti face lift.
   
   Do you know why we are so tickled by the classic slip-on-banana-peel gag? Why the harder the fall, the funnier it is? Coz if you are watching it, it isn't happening to you. That's why it's funny. Comedy 101.
   
   
2. Some may say that the Swiss chap did a fantastic job and that the graffiti looked fabulous. Yes, let's open the floodgates on this and abolish the vandalism restriction. Let's go for a free-for-all and you are going to find every Tom, Dick, Harry artist wannabe trying their hand. With limited number of trains, painting real estate will be limited as well and before you know it, you are going to have graffiti all over the fucking train.
   
   Sure it looks nice right now. How about fast-forwarding by a couple of year under the exposure of the elements and then the graffiti will look like these:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   Then what? Taxpayers' money to clean up the mess left behind by the so-called artists?
   
   
3. So I say, we haul this fella up to the courts and charge him. Michael Fay's punishment, back in 1994, was meant to be a deterrent sentence but obviously the message didn't quite go through to these folks.
   
   In view of the fact that this is public property and vandalism on a significantly bigger scale, I say, the punishment meted out should in proportion to that of Michael Fay's. Then we up the dosage to set a new bar for the deterrent, which the former obviously didn't work.
   
   And yes. Also issue a Corrective Word Order for him to clean up the train.......
   
   
   ....with a toothbrush. His own.

Image Credits: http://www.streetsblog.org;  http://images.nycsubway.org; http://upload.wikimedia.org

- Voxeros

1. TehC left...

Saturday, 5 June 2010 1:03 pm

*cough cough* I do think SMRT should award that vandal with 1% stock option. otherwise, they will never know that their so-call security is not working lor.

2. JayWalk left...

Saturday, 5 June 2010 1:44 pm :: 

TehC: In general, everybody in Singapore is just too complacent. Perhaps we need to revisit the Total Defense campaign back in the 80s.

3. sunshin3 left...

Tuesday, 8 June 2010 10:31 am

i like your approach. hahaa

4. JayWalk left...

Friday, 11 June 2010 9:29 am :: 

sunshin3: Thank you..... thank you very much.

5. pmg left...

Tuesday, 29 June 2010 8:47 am :: http://modernburrow.lah.cc

He Swiss mah. He doesn't know that an American got rotan. Anyway... He was arrested in Switzerland for graffiti many years ago also.

6. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 29 June 2010 9:31 am :: 

pmg: Without the rotan, the misdemeanour record is more of a badge of honour than just a criminal record. I am glad he will finally learn what's coming to him.

Naked Man On The Street

Nope. That's not his clothes that perhaps resembles a toga.

Nope. That's just some piece of cloth that just draped around him either.

Maybe it's his blanket when he sleeps on the streets at night.

If you go close enough, you can actually see the shlong and ding dongs.

I know coz I had the unfortunately luck to witness it up close when he was standing right next to our car at a red light two days later.

Eeek.

Welcome to QQLand.

p.s. If you are REALLY that curious, click on the picture to enlarge.

- Voxeros

Entire LOST Series Explained In 3 Minutes Via Post-It Notes

The TV show LOST started off very well that I was glued to it religiously. Well, that was for the first few seasons which by Season 4, I thought the writers were starting to be true to the element of the show. Lost.
My attention span quickly dwindled as the plot seemed to go round and round in circles (a bit like the current season of Heroes which will be canceled to put it out of its misery).

Anyway, I spotted this youtube clip via TV.com and this amazing dude explained everything. In 3 minutes. Using Post-It notes. And I got it.

So it looks like I am heading back to the series from Season 5 and work my way to the end from there.

- Voxeros

Sian XMM Episode XIX

Long time neber sian xmm liao. Here's another one. Enjoy.

--> Click here for past Sian XMM Episodes.

- Voxeros

Ngee Ann Polytechnic 2010 - Epic Fail

Spotted this off mrbrown's blog only to find out that it was removed by the time I got in front of my laptop.

Still, thanks the BarFlies CSI team, the alternate link was uncovered.

As an added measure, I am saving a copy offline too.  Wait they KNN remove it again.

Afternote (13 Oct 2010) - Just as I have suspected, it was taken offline. Watch it here then.

- Voxeros

Bad Hair Day

Must have been a bad hair day. Worse. Bad Hair Day X 2.

Took this picture while very far away and pardon the puny zoom from my Lumix while I was walking.

- Voxeros

1. xoxoxo1121 left...

Sunday, 23 May 2010 11:30 pm

wah, it looks like the jellyfish haircut tt rainie yang had quite sometime ago.

2. JayWalk left...

Monday, 24 May 2010 7:37 am :: 

xoxoxo1121: Hey, that's a good name. I shall call them Jellyfish Heads from now on!

Lost In Translation XIX

Spotted this sign in Shanghai en route to my meeting appointment. *facepalm*

Then at dinner, I saw this sign outside the toilet. This one confirm win liao coz I was totally defeated by their Engrish.

To read past Lost In Translation Archives --> Click here. 

- Voxeros

Question Of The Day

How come Ong Teng Cheong no state funeral ah?

•  ChannelNewsAsia (14 May 2010) - State Funeral For Former DPM Goh Keng Swee

- Voxeros

1. Prashant Sarkar left...

Monday, 17 May 2010 12:49 pm

According to this wikipedia article, Ong Teng Cheong did not get a state funeral because his family rejected the offer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ong_Teng_Cheong

2. JayWalk left...

Monday, 17 May 2010 5:23 pm :: 

Prashant Sarkar: Welcome to the blog and thank you for the update. I stand corrected.

However, it seems like the feel on the ground is still otherwise. I wonder why is that?

3. Pam left...

Monday, 17 May 2010 10:00 pm

The feel on the ground may be 'otherwise' because 1. you are projecting your own opinions onto others (so it's impossible that others feel differently from you since your opinion must be the one true one - psychologically speaking, not necessarily true); 2. people like to be contrary esp in a situation where people are 'unhappy/frustrated/pee-ed off'; 3. people think that OTC should have had a state funeral but people didn't have the 'power of the media/social networking' at that time to demand for one; 4. you are so far away from sg - how do you know that 'the feel on the ground is otherwise'?; 5. people like to say 'people say'... but who are these' people'?!?!?
Not arguing either way - just putting forth suggestions of why things might be so.

4. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 18 May 2010 4:00 pm :: 

Pam: I am physically far away from the ground. That is true but this question has been around for eons.

People say. Who are these people? Very simple. Hop into any taxi and ask the cabbie uncle this question. I can tell you all of them same sentiment.

Just this morning, I spoke to a friend about wiki mentioning that there was no state funeral coz the family rejected this offer. I was given a skeptic response. Somehow she wasn't too convinced.

5. Vandalin left...

Tuesday, 18 May 2010 4:28 pm :: http://vandalin.blogspot.com

Actually I am surprised that OTC didn't have a state funeral. Wee Kim Wee had one as well?

6. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 18 May 2010 8:03 pm :: 

Vandalin: Mr Wee Kim Wee had a state funeral. OTC did not.

7. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 18 May 2010 8:05 pm :: 

Two Links Here:
Yawning Bread (May 2005) - The Mess That Is Our Presidency

JayWalk Plurk (18 May 2010) - Comments of this entry also continues here.

8. Pam left...

Tuesday, 18 May 2010 10:01 pm

Jay - I'm not saying it's either way - I'm just saying that it's vvv easy to be sceptical/contrary. You will be hardpressed to find someone who actually supports what the 'mainstream politicians' say, esp in a country where there is ONLY mainstream politicians, and no reasonable opposition parties.
besides, you spoke to 'a friend' - does this 'friend' represent the population of the country? It's a case of follow-the-leader and majority rules. People say this, so I oso say lor. esp when these 'people' are people that you somehow believe (whether they are your best friends, only friend, reliable media person, expert in their field... or basically just someone who seems to agree with you). If you want to read about it scientifically, you can check these out: anerjee, A. V. (1992). A Simple Model of Herd Behavior. The Quarterly Journal of Economics , 107 (3), 797-817. Birhchandani, S., Hirshleifer, D., & Welch, I. (1998). Learning from the Behavior of Others: Conformity, Fads and Informational Cascades. The Journal of Economic Perspectives , 12 (3), 151-170.

9. JayWalk left...

Thursday, 20 May 2010 10:12 am :: 

Pam: OK. I get what you are saying. Herd mentality could be at play here.

Still, would it be too much to ask to have even 1 or 2 opposing views? While I cannot say that I have asked every single person in Singapore about this, I can however say that I have not met one that has an opposing view to this particular issue.

10. Pam left...

Thursday, 20 May 2010 4:41 pm

er Jay, ok much as I'm not 'opposing' your view, I'm suggesting that it may not be true (ie it may genuinely be the case that his family didn't want a state funeral). does that not count as a 'differing view'?????
herd mentality dude...

No Signboard. No Response? Not Really.

Well, not exactly no response. They did respond but the timeliness of the response leaves much to be desired.

The response came AFTER my dear friend wrote to Boo-n-Bouquet where the latter contacted No Signboard's Director of Corporate Communications*.

The time line of event seems to suggest one of two possible scenarios (feel free to add in the comments if you can think of more).

1. No Signboard's reply suggested that the delay in their response was a result of waiting for the errant staff to return from her annual leave, in order for the management to investigate the incident.
   
   The fact that the response came after Boo-n-Bouquet contacted the Director of No Signboard was a coincidence.
   
   OR
   
   
2. No one was manning the customer feedback email over at No Signboard's side. Had Boo-n-Bouquet not contacted No Signboard about this incident, we'd probably still be waiting for a reply till the cows come home.
   
   In short, customer service feedback at No Signboard is not a priority.

Coming back, the fact of the matter is that No Signboard did reply and I have the email reproduced below.

In a way, discounting the circumstances affecting the timeliness of the response, I would honestly say that I am satisfied with the reply. The refund of the food bill was a nice gesture but not something that I would demand for.

Let's face it, you ate and so you should pay (maybe less the 10% service charge). It's only fair.
I am satisfied that No Signboard's management admitted their mistake, apologised, detailed what they have done to correct their mistake AND further elaborated what they intend to do to avert a repeat of such an unfortunate incident.

That to me, is good enough.

Some lamented about the poor grammar in the email which to me is a non-issue. Content is king. I rather have a badly written BUT sincere apology than one that is super polished perfunctory and patronising.

I won't go to the extreme of boycotting the establishment as I think that would be over-reacting. I'll leave that decision for each individual to make.

---

Date: Thu, May 13, 2010 at 4:01 PM
Subject: RE: Dining at No Signboard, Vivocity


Sorry for the late reply.

We will like to send our deepest sincere apologies to you and your husband for the incident at our vivo city branch.

When we received your email, we have arranged to investigate the case with the related staff, due she was on Annual Leave, we only manage to get her personal explanations today.

We are extremely upset with her irresponsible and careless attitude.

Our management has given her a serious warning and lectures her in regard to the matter.

All our staffs have been trained and taught to handle all customers’ cash and credit cards in a proper and careful way. Unfortunately this incident has happened and we will definitely bring it to a stop.

We definitely know the anger and anxious that you experience, and we know that hundreds of apologies cannot amend the mistake.

Our management will sincerely like to waive off your bill as a small gesture with regard to the matter.

We hope that we are able to forgive the staff for the mistake.

Best regards,

---

* Citation Source: http://www.plurk.com/p/56lh70

 

Image Credit: http://kolomkita.detik.com

- Voxeros

No SignBoard. No Service.

An unfortunate incident happened recently to a dear friend where the restaurant misplaced her credit card.

Mishaps like this happens all the time and usually, it is at most a 5-minute grumble and thereafter, it's water under the bridge.
Service failures are inevitable and happens from time to time. While service providers will take every possible measure to counter this, everyone knows that elimination is impossible. Minimising is as best as one can go.

What's more important is actually that of service recovery that would decide if the service provider is good or crap.

Unfortunately, for this particular incident, we are led to think that it is going to be the latter. The restaurant in this particular incident has yet (at time of this entry) to respond to an official complain written to them. Perhaps they aren't even bothered to read it in the first place. Who knows?

Read below for the letter of complain to get a better idea of what happened, then decide if this is an establishment you would like to continue to patronise.

---

Hi,

My husband and I were the first customers at your Vivocity branch on Saturday. It was empty when we entered, and we subsequently ordered some dimsum.

When we called for the bill, we were the first customers to ask for the bill, which I paid for with my Citibank Dividend card. As my water glass was empty for sometime already because no one filled it up, when the bill returned for my signature, I asked the server to top the water glass up. Subsequently, when I took my receipt from the bill folder, there was no credit card within.

The server firstly said "Impossible, I put it inside." When I pointed out that it was not, she started glancing over on the table and at my wallet. I explained that the other Citibank card was the Citibank Tangs card. My husband searched my bag. It was not around my table. She then went back to the counter looking for it.

She repeated "It's not possible" a few times in chinese, and she was just looking around, not actively searching. I was the one who got on my knees under my table to search for the card. For 10 minutes, besides standing around my table and looking and glancing around the counter, she did no active searching, except between the newspapers that I was reading. I explained that I did not take the credit card, to which I can only describe as disbelief on her face.

She offered no apologies. There was no further assistance from any other staff, and no expedition to any senior staff or management. After 10 minutes, she asked me for my number and name so she could contact us if someone found it.

I asked to see the manager, which she replied was not in yet. I asked to see the most senior staff around, to which she went grudgingly. When the senior staff came, I explained everything to her (because obviously the other staff did not) and pointed out no apology was offered, she only meekly whispered "sorry" with no sincerity. After taking down my details, I left the restaurant. At that moment, I had already cancelled my card, since I have no assurance from your staff that it could be found. 2 minutes after I left, the senior staff ran after us, explaining that she found the card tucked somewhere else. It was already too late, the damage was done.

Now I am granted the inconvenience of having to wait for my credit card to be replaced from the bank. Imagine if I was a tourist, having to call my bank to block the card and request a replacement?! I was lucky that no travel was required from me this week for work, because then I would imagine the amount of inconvenience that would follow!

All I wanted was a nice simple brunch at your outlet. Instead, I was offered the feeling that our credit cards were not a priority to your establishment. I repeatedly told the staff that my financial security could be compromised since they lost the card, what if someone took it and used it?! They only returned blank faces back to me. No apologies was given, until I finally lost my temper after  10 minutes. No proper assistance and no expedition was given.

This must be a big joke. Your establishment obviously does not care for proper customer service nor sequence. I will not even dream of dining at No Signboard now, since my credit card was treated with such little respect and priority. Shouldn't your staff know by now that it is important and even a basic thing to not lose the customer's credit card, much less imply that the customer herself lost it?! 

You have no idea how angry I am. The amount of insincerity and indifference suffered at your restaurant will keep me and my friends away from your restaurant for a long time. Be assured that I will spread the word of this incident to the community. I will not be able to have that 15 minutes of my life back, when I was treated with such incompetence of service (that's the only phrase that suits this scenario). 

I am also from F&B and the service line. I know it's easy for the credit card to drop out of the bill folder. That is why you pay more attention to it. It's not rocket science, but a simple and easy step to do. and that does not exonerate your staff of being more cautious, because it's money! I really wonder what your establishment is doing to prevent that. From what I see, nothing.

Your staff have my number. Yet your manager has not called to apologise. This really shows me how much your establishment cares about its customers.

I can bring my money elsewhere to dine. Just because I'm not a VIP, doesn't mean that the basic customer shouldn't be treated with the same and equal amount of respect.

---

Image Credit: http://coolmolecule.blogspot.com/

- Voxeros

1. zeenie left...

Friday, 14 May 2010 2:24 pm :: http://zeenie.blogspot.com

I dun like their food anyways as their chilli crab tastes like curry crab.....

2. JayWalk left...

Friday, 14 May 2010 3:50 pm :: 

Zeenie: Well, I don't go there often enough to recall how their fare tastes like but I can only say taste is subjective as it involves a person's own preference.

3. Faith left...

Monday, 17 May 2010 1:00 pm

I went to the same branch in April. Like the writer, the restaurant was quite empty when we were there. It was only my husband and me. When we told the wait staff what we wanted to eat, she suggested another crab. In all, 2 crabs of different styles for just husband and me along with a plate of noodles and two more dishes. I asked wouldn't it be too much. She claimed that the crabs were tiny. The size of her fist. We agreed and trusted her. Food came and lo and behold, each crab was the regular size of a mudcrab! Service were bad. Plates were not changed. I almost had to throw shells on the floor. The bill came and we complained to the manager and it was a dismayed sorry. That's it. I was mad enough to tell the manager if they wanted to make more more out of me, be creative and think of a better way. We took home a whole untouched crab.
They lost my business and won't be returning again. Service is crap. Staff not bothering to change plates or pour tea for us. Wonder why should we even pay service charge.

4. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 18 May 2010 8:36 pm :: 

Faith: Thanks for sharing your story. I was never a fan of No Signboard and as such, unable to comment much.