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Tuesday 16 October 2007

Hwei Ming's Syndrome?

It started raining around 5pm. Bumper. I hate rainy days, especially when I am taking the public transport home, lol.

My colleagues and good friends, YZ, KM, C and I left for bus-stop around 5:30pm. There is a covered overhead bridge which connects between NTU and NIE. We normally take the bus on NTU side as the service is more frequent. When we got to the stairs, as usual, people were crowding on the stairs and blocking the way. However, being a rainy day, it was worse than usual, the crowding was half way up the stairs.

There is a sign that is clearly displayed at the foot of the stairs which says "Please move to the covered walkway. Avoid blocking the stairs" (or something to that effect). However, no one ever takes notice of it and heeds its message. These are mostly students of NTU and NIE. Something is very wrong here. Can't they read ENGLISH?! Oh dear, our education system has failed. Either that or these students have all suddenly developed "selective blindness", you know like the disorder, Selective Mutism. They should add this "Selective Blindness" into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition Text Revision (DSM IV TR). I don't mind studying this new "disorder" and coming up with the specific criteria for diagnosis and maybe I can get it named after me, Hwei Ming's Syndrome, lol. Hmm, on second thought, "Hwei Ming's Syndrome". Doesn't sound very nice hor. Hahaha.

Anyway, I was fed-up and told my friends that I was going to go through the crowd to get to the covered walkway. In a fairly loud and firm voice, I went "Excuse me, Thank you. Excuse me, Thank you. ..." and proceeded down the stairs. I finally got through the crowd! But when I looked back, my friends didn't follow behind me. Huh? What happened? When we boarded the bus, they explained that they were admiring the way I was zigzagging and snaking through the crowd. What?! What is there to admire?! Hahaha. I thought I was paving the way for them to follow me onto the walkway. Unfortunately, they said, I wasn't wide enough. Fine :P Lol.

I am very lucky. My father, despite being unwell, came to pick me up from the MRT station, near my home, so that I didn't have to walk home in the rain. :P Thanks, Dad. :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you observe how the bus stop is situated, you will see that there is no motivation for anyone to move to the covered walkway. Everyone wants to get out of this "birds don't lay eggs, dogs don't shit" place, and if they moved to the end of the covered walkway, they will be at the end of the queue when the next bus arrives. Therefore, everyone cramps at the foot of the stairs and the queue is subsequently formed along the staircase as it is blocked by those waiting in front.

Rather obvious that the people who put up the sign don't take bus from NTU...

yz

hweiming said...

Wah, very rare of you to comment on my blog. Must go buy toto, lol.

But if everyone moves onto the covered walkway like we always do, they will be near the front of the queue for the second bus that usually comes along during the peak hour. No? Lol.

hm

Anonymous said...

Well... i guess don't go home too early to avoid the crowd hahaha

hweiming said...

Depends on your "don't go home too early" is how late. I left once at 7pm and the bus-stop was still super crowded. Hahaha.