Doing a Quinsy

Well, I screwed up my timing on Monday and had to do a Quinsy. Aiyah, take a cab lah. You never read her blog meh? That woman is damned solid. Whole day got money to take cab, then complain broke. Really quite the can. I wonder how this Justin T is keeping up. He's often broke too, or so I understand from her blog.

Anyway, I am not here to judge. Neither am I here to say anything negative about her. I just wanted to share what happens when I break my vow of ta-xi/ce-libacy and had to rush from Aljunied to SMU on a cab. No, there was no way I could be in time if I took the train and the last thing I wanted was to enter the meeting room hungry and sweaty. Furthermore, I just battled the animals in Sec 1 Normal (Academic) class.

Ok, since I am here, allow me to digress. Today, two kiddies came to ask a teacher to return a handphone. Apparently, student A lent his phone to student B, who promptly used it and got caught. Teacher T then confiscated A's phone when B was using it. A and B came to the staff room and demanded for the phone back. T asked why should the phone be returned, since B had violated the school rules in the first place by using the phone in class when he was not allowed to.

So there was some mini commotion out there and finally, T said, Do you know what it is like to walk into your class? It is like walking into hell. You know, hell? Hell on earth? Your class is like hell on earth. You are the little monsters in hell.... Wah! Shiok! Finally, another teacher now has the gumption to tell it like it is.

Hallelujah! Praises! Amazing Grace. T sees! There is hope. There is a god! I nearly broke into song a la Sister Act in the staff room. Fortunately, I didn't. Still, those very words were holiest prayers for my ears. My soul was immediately uplifted. I was exhilerated. It was like the final stages of some exocism - "In the name of ..., I command you to return to your classroom..."

I'm getting carried away but please allow me just this once to celebrate this miracle. I have always felt I am a bad fit to the school because I am a Buddhist while they are mostly Methodist or Christians. I call a spade a spade and in a manner which will sometimes grate on the other's nerves. I guess they might call me a little "radical". But hey, spare a rod and grow your monsters. I am a monster in class. My class never knows the weather of the day. The kids don't need to. And they shouldn't try. Because I don't know what I will feel the next minute either.

So, back to the doing the Quinsy. I hailed a cab at the bus stop outside the Aljunied MRT station and said I wanted to go SMU. And the driver went, which part of SMU? I was amazed this question propped out. The entire SMU is just a lump in the heart of the city. Only the Admin block is far away. The rest are more or less concentrated around a quadrangle. So I said, opposite Chijmes. He said Victoria Street. I said, yes. Well, I know not my street names but I know how to get there. This is a driver's curse.

And so he drove there and got both of us onto Victoria Street. Then I asked if he could turn into Stamford Road, where I needed to get to. He said no. I was a little perturbed - since you know that there is no right turn, then who not take South Bridge Road so that we can get there? No point pushing this.

So I asked if I could alight by the roadside. He said no, he can't stop because of the new ruling banning taxis from stopping at non-designated areas within the business district. So he said, he'll turn into Chijmes. That's great, I said. I could cross the road. Not much of a walk, anyway, I added.

I wanted to assure him that I wouldn't go and complain against him for such a little thing. After all, if the passenger cannot be clear where he intends to go, then the taxi driver is not to be blamed for not being able to get him there.

So he turned into Chijmes at the first opening. I hardly finished my sentence that he had entered via a one-way exit, he said, never mind. Just stop ahead. He stopped in a lot near a valet parking service and he realised that his actions were observed by a guard. Sheepish about it, he asked me to wait while he reversed the taxi to make a direction change.

He shifted into reverse and backed the taxi out as though there was no tomorrow. The next thing, his rear bumper whacked into the front bumper of a Honda Jazz. It was so fast I could hardly tell him to stop. Then I said, you hit a car. He then said, oh, I hit a car?

He quickly shifted to drive gear and moved off. I paid him the cash and he rummaged through his pouch to get me my change. Before he managed, the guard walked up to him and said, "You hit a car you know?"

I got off the cab by then, took my changed and walked out of the compound. There was no use lingering there. With or without me in the car, such reckless reversing of any car would result in grief.

What I cannot understand is this: With the phenomenal increase in taxi prices, where is there no corresponding increase in the service standards?