Tiao kang...

Before i go about explaining my title (which i'm pretty sure is needless anyway...) let me conjure up a magical screen in front of you, okay infront of your Monitor, fine! In this screen you see yourself waiting at a busstop for a bus. Typical isn't it? Most probably that is just one of numerous times you have spent at the busstop waiting for a particular Service XXX. The untypical thing thing occurs... You (yes the you in the screen..) see many buses stopping and zipping off at the busstop. But the problem is that they happen to be AAA, BBB or CCC bla bla.... Where on earth is bus Service XXX? You are fuming... and you have spent needless time waiting for the wretched bus... You give up finally! Getting up, you sweep away the mounds of dust that cake you since the beginning of time begin to flag down a cab... Just then, Bus XXX humms into view. Abort "Mission hail taxi at $2.40" and you see yourself lumber onto the aisle of the bus...

The screen refreshes... and you see "Windows XP Professional".@#$@$%#$# oops, got the wrong scene! Okay you are back at the same dastardly busstop. With the usual crowd of scrawny schoolchildren flooding the Busstop.. (No... You are not at New Orleans alright...) This time however, you are waiting for Bus Service AAA. But you repeatedly witness Bus Service XXX humming and stopping at the busstop. You are bewildered... It as if the entire bus depot activated the whole fleet as service XXX. And the whole affairs sucks as Bus Service AAA plays the elusive bus.. Magic Schoolbus anyone?

Well, you may not have had the above experience (stop lying you cad!) and you may not have treat the above incident as negatively but i do sincerely believe that this is a conspiracy! Nono... it's not what you think, it's not that i think that the Bus Companies are having a kick out of denying my Service but rather I feel that this whole affair smacks irritatingly of Murphy's Law... I observed this ever since i was in Secondary School, dependent on Buses... At one point, i even planned on researching on a theory... "The special theory of the suka suka elusive and tiao kang bus"

Actually the theory is supposed to be longer than that... My name was supposed to be "The special theory of the suka suka elusive and tiao kang bus as well as the intriguing mystery of the magical self-emptying coffeshop". What's that again you enquire? Gd Question Matey! (hefty slap on your back... smack*) yeah... that grouse.. ahem! scientific observation about our Coffeeshops... if you are not so Arty Farty and have been to our coffeeshops or the ubiquitous Hawker centre, this scene would not be so unfamilar to you...

Summons the magical screen again... (in 1st player view mode) You stake out the prey among the plethora of stalls in a setting of a guilt ridden food paradise. (Now keep away your muskets you fool! and what about that fella with your repeating crossbow? You are not starring in Indiana Jones you know!) What i mean is the holy grail of the crowded hawker centre (Choir in soulful hymn: Gey ito gra ah shi ya ah...) Not another mistaken identity again... It is the empty table for LKY's sake! Ever elusive, it is believed to be more rare to find in a crowded hawker centre than the halley's comet passing Earth... As you stake out for the holy grail from your vantage point, you notice similar bounty hunters looming nearby... After some grinding waiting and a successful battle of alertness as well agility, you procured the prize!!! But to your chagrin, you notice your euphoria evaporating as the surrounding tables begin to lose their seated yau kuis...Not farnee right? When you want a table so desperately, the empty table just seem so elusive but once you get it, it seems that the holy grail is available freely everywhere... darn! So very the Tiao Kang lor!

But seriously... i can't do anything to this Tiao kang business cos simply put, i don't control the Buses in Singapore. This has however, strengthened my resolve to procure my own transport option aka my private car! I think this is the only viable way to break out of the hair tearing, expletive-spewing and simply wretched trap of having to abide by train schedules and the simply erratic bus frequency and not to mention their slowness. I realised that i've acquired a learned reflex courtesy of SMRT Pte Ltd. Whenever i'm on the platform, i'll automatically turn my head towards the accursed Plasma Display. I never fail to mutter some curses under my breath whenever i'm prevented from finding out the time before the train arrives, by the stupid ads. Oh dear! i sound so vengeful! But i'm totally hell-bent on acquiring my own car. Never would i be under the evil grasp of the train schedule and bus frequency. I'm adamant on that... just have to endure Murphy's Law for now i guess! sigh...