reward for zero mc

An ex-colleague was saying the company rewarded him for not taking a single MC (medical certificate) for half a year.

Something is amiss here. There are reasons why employees take MC. It could be genuine ill-health, could be bacteria-filled workplace, could be psychologically harmful working environment, could be insane workload, etc etc. Rather than rewarding those who don't take up their entitlement, why not help those who really need attention?

Taking MC is an employee's right and entitlement (subject to doctor's professional judgement, of course). If I don't take my next month's salary, are you going to promote me straight to become director?

another type of parental guidance

Yesterday I was alighting from the MRT. You know, it is almost a SOP for people on the platform to rush in before the passengers are able to get off the train. Then I saw this lady holding her 3 children back, telling them to wait for the passengers to alight first. This was while everyone else were squeezing their way in amidst the out-flowing passengers. Reminds me the Buddhist description of the lotus growing in the mud but not dirtying itself. I salute that mother for her unwavering principle.

Another day, I was on the bus. I think a passenger was occupying an extra seat with his bag, preventing this father and son from sitting down. The father did his round, then told his son this: "don't bully others, but also don't let others bully you."

Parents' active role can definitely benefit the society.

sushi express 爭鮮迴轉壽司

I have a weak spot for cute stuff, and that was part of what led me to try out Sushi Express (争鲜回转寿司) from Taiwan, at CityLink Mall.

Let me be upfront. I am no food blogger, but I do know when I like a place. Other than the killer-cuteness, there is something conceptually different about Sushi Express. It seems like they have brought in the best practice from the experience in operating in other countries. The first thing that hit you is the everything at $1.80 per plate. Sometimes when you eat sushi on conveyor belt, the colour-plate thingie does make you think twice before grabbing the plate off the belt. With every item at same price, you basically take what you feel like taking. Isn't that supposed to be the joy of eating conveyor belt sushi?

Ah yes, the teabag. Regular tea drinkers will get the dissatisfaction when the tea gets too light after a few rounds of refilling of water. Over there, you've got a whole platoon of teabag supply falling-in in front of you. There's also this cute little rubbish bin at every table which does help to keep the table tidy. Now, why the need for rubbish bin? Cos the wasabi there is in little disposable packets. This is unlike most Japanese restaurants in Singapore where you have to dip the butter knife into that jar of rock-solid wasabi, sometimes contaminated with soy sauce and what-not. There is also this special white plate on the conveyor belt which is for you to put the transparent plastic cover from your sushi plate. Definitely helps to make space on your table and indirectly saving manpower. In fact, the GF and I were very pleased to have no disturbance from the service staff.





Then you may wonder, since everything is at $1.80, what are the choices like? Let's say besides the regular stuffs, we also tried things like sea urchin gunkan, sakura shrimp, sakura white-bail, Mexican style cheese lobster, etc. The coffee pudding was pretty cool too.

We ended up with 16 plates and still haven't tried all their choices. Next time must really "争鲜恐后". Btw, they have those cute figurines behind the counter, but sadly not for sale. Sushi Express has many outlets in Mainland China and Taiwan, let's see if they can penetrate the local market.

deserved seating

Just yesterday I was on the MRT when I saw a man fighting with a woman for an empty seat. The man was originally standing and reading newspaper while the woman was leaning against the pole. As a seated passenger got up to alight, the 2 made a life-or-death dash towards the seat. The man won, raising many eyebrows and attracting much attention in the train. It was as though the man did something immoral just because, well, he's male. I don't blame him though, I blame the train frequency.

They always say, give up your seat to those who need it more than you. C'mon, don't you think "give up" is a very negative phrase? It's like, "give up lah, you cannot make it lah". On the other hand they always tell people don't give up hope... Why don't they change it to "offer your seat"? Who doesn't like offer? Then the next thing is "need". We all need the seats, although no one would die if we don't get the seat. How about going by the approach of who deserves the seat more?

If they can come up with an intelligent system showing every passenger's HP (hit point, no combo though), the distance they are travelling, and bonus score if they have past record of giving up seat (I mean, offering seat), then basing on these criteria every passengers are assigned priority to seats. Obviously, a sick person would have lower hit point (even if he is not bai kah bai chiu), and a retired old commando could very well stand from Joo Koon to Pasir Ris and back again.

The simpler solution would be to increase the train frequency.

pwned by octopus

The GF was telling me how convenient the Octopus card in Hong Kong is, cos you don't need to tap out when alighting from bus. But I told her that is because you pay the full trip's fare regardless of where you are alighting (or, where you are boarding). It will be pretty unwise if you board a cross-harbour route just to get to a few stops later. That kind of encourages people to walk more. Of course, there are other means to work around, such as taking the MTR or hopping onto a bus route that is reaching its destination soon.

But when it comes to usages, the Octopus really has an upper hand compared to ours. Not only can you use it on various mode of transport (be it bus, MTR, ferry, tram, light bus...), you can use it at supermarket, fast food restaurant, food court, meter parking, and even when buying capsule toy. Yes, the Gashapon! You just tap the card and turn the knob. Reloading the card isn't a problem too since convenient stores are everywhere. They don't charge you surcharge like those in Singapore do. Furthermore, the Octopus doesn't just come in the card form, but other ornaments as well such as wrist watch, handphone strap, keychains, etc. Don't be surprised when you see commuters tapping their watch at the MTR station.

Lots of catching up here, be it infrastructure or habit.

offline transaction needed for online banking

Some bank really have a weird sense of logic.

I have been using online banking services from this particular bank. One day I received an SMS telling me about a special promotion only for online banking users. Open a time deposit account and you will get some special interest rate.

So I logged in to my online banking account and tried to open a time deposit account. After trying to transfer some money inside I received an error message (in the red somemore) telling me transaction fail and to call their customer hotline.

I called. After was it 5 or 10 minutes I finally got through to a lady with very heavy accent (no discrimination here). So I told her what it was about, and she actually could quote me a totally different promotion. I repeated my points, and she finally seemed to understand. And guess what she told me? I am supposed to go down to their branch, open the time deposit account at the counter, go back to my computer, log into my online banking, transfer money from my online banking account to another bank's online banking account, then transfer back the money but into the newly-opened time deposit account.

Hur?