Sunday, 14 April 2013

Singapore Slung

It was supposed to be a non descript day trip to Singapore, but it turned out to be 'adventurous'. Again, Firefly departed a couple of minutes earlier than scheduled, good thing. Got The Straits Times and the Lion Air was the main story. Hmmm.... reading on, you wonder why people are still flying Lion Air ... and as a regional consumer, do we know all the facts?

The plane broke in two because it missed the runway completely and crashed into the river. But did you know that Lion Air has long been banned from the airspace of USA and Europe owing to its poor safety record.

On Feb 15, 2011, a Lion Air 737 skidded off the runway at Pekanbaru, Riau. Similar skidding events were also recorded in 2006, 2004 and 2002 at airports in South Sulawesi, East Java and Riau respectively. What were they doing, having bets about how well they can skid the planes on the runways to impress the stewardesses?

Thats not the end of it, in Nov 30, 2004 Lion Air MD-82 carrying 146 people skidded off the runway (again) in Solo, Central Java, killing 26. Do they change their tyres??? Are they on Goodyear or ...shudder Bridgestone??

So we all can be buta-buta flying Lion Air, without knowing better, so "dangerful".

Anyway, was in the city to give a thorough presentation on Murasaki system as we are launching in a big way in Singapore come mid-May with our jv partner. Had to present to 9 people who are part of the sales and marketing team there.

Almost every time I am in Singapore I will take a cab to Compass Point, Sengkang as they have an outlet for Carona Chicken (of of my all time fav food from Singapore). Used to be a lot better as Corona Chicken when it was at Colombo Court in town, then they sold it to someone who tried to make it into a fast food franchise, sigh. 

Finishing that, took the train from Sengkang to Chinatown ... what happened next was supposed to be in the movies only. There were two Bangladeshi guys on one side, and empty seat with The Straits Times papers on it and next to that seat was a 60 something Chinese guy reading Chinese papers. So asked the old guy if the papers were his as I wanted to have the seat. He exclaimed quite loudly "Don't talk to me, don't ask me any questions".... WTF!!!!

No wonder there are so many entertaining MRT videos on You Tube. I just took the papers and sat down anyway, if he says even one word he was going to have a fucking tirade from me. Luckily he kept quiet.

I wondered, why did he behaved the way he did? Were there too many China girls trying to con him, or did I looked like a pimp trying to hook him up with one and cheat his money? What caused him to be so closed off to the world? Had he been badly cheated, mistreated, had many bad turns in life, bitter and all ... or thought I was trying to pick him up or sell him some ubat orang kuat!!! WTF!!!

Sigh .... eventful nonetheless. ... and yes, my Firefly flight took off 10 minutes ahead of scheduled departure ... top that MAS.

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