2 just came to mind today.
I
a. The time taken for my colleagues to close 4 calls (China and Hong Kong), I can close 1. This is for calling the Philippines, where people like to be nosey and make you repeat your intention over and over again to find that they are not the ones in the position to talk to you. Then the person you are looking for is always not around. You find yourself in the same old "come again" and "for a while" loop. And you thought it couldn't get any worse
b. The time taken to close 5 or more calls (China and Hong Kong), I can manage to connect to an earthling. This is for calling India. And you thought it couldn't get any worse. Any bird landing on their overhead phone lines causes a dropped call. Any cow bumping into the poles where the wires are stretched over causes major echoes. Any static in the calls are from the in-house snake charmer who decided to busk indoors instead due to inclement weather. You realise you actually have a built-in volume control knob that goes up to 11 (maximum is 10) because they can't hear you when all your colleagues are giving you THE LOOK. Despite having been part of an English colony, their inability to understand words like "IT manager" shows how long since they last kept track of their spoken English. You end up speaking to someone who says he hasn't heard of the "IT manager" before in his life.
Thank you India. And no I don't think VISA is all it takes to improve the infrastructure there. South Korea's broadband penetration rate is even higher than Singapore, and here we are in India using the cup-to-thread-to-cup method to communicate. Sure won't want my loved ones to worry to death should something happen to me while in India. They probably can't reach me!
II
a. Knowing your other half inside of school, best at the age where things like expenses, income etc were not a concern. That's the birthplace for passion and unconditional love.
b. Knowing your other half outside of school. Where things may be no more than a monetary transaction or a game of who can hook the richer spouse to show off to their friends.
Warning: cynical world view. Read at your own risk
Example: After breaking up, girlfriend of A keeps in touch with him. Reason: she just joins an insurance company, and makes use of him to get her contacts and referrals. And he, being the alpha male that is gentlemanly, happily obliges. No prizes for even guessing why the break up.
Useless fact of the day: (Correct till June 2006) When taking the MRT and changing to bus within an hour in Singapore, rebate applies. But bus to MRT = no rebate. This is not applicable to concession holders. So MRT pass holders get no rebates.
