Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Blog - The One after Long Time
Very interesting scenario. Picture this.
Subject: Typical Singaporean family. (Or are they?)
Issue: University student having to pay for meals and school stuff VS. Typical Singaporean family. $350 tuition fee.
Said family lives in a condominium, has a dog and a pampered kid. All in all, there should be at LEAST a comfortable amount of money in this family.
First, the family cancels and reschedules their tuition as and when they like, last minute, on the day when you're just about ready to head down for tuition. Next, they cancel your last day of tuition before the holidays start (coincidentally, also the day you're supposed to get your pay), saying that they will reschedule another day so that you can get your pay, and they can review their son's examination grades with you.
Not surprising when they cancel that rescheduled tuition as well.
What's surprising, however, is that the dad (businessman and all) doesn't have the basic courtesy to reply smses when you ask if it's convenient for you to come down and collect the tuition fee (OWED FOR A MONTH), or pick up calls to at least let you know that the smses have been received and that you don't have to worry that your phone is conked up (since it seems NONE of your smses are getting any reply).
So after countless bugging, the dad replies to say they have wrote a cheque and sent it out.
You wait HALF a week (that's a total of like 4 days) and there's no cheque sitting in your mailbox. You sms to check if it's been sent. Surprise surprise, the man doesn't reply and refuses to pick up your calls. By now, you have forsaken the need to be courteous (why bother when the respect is not reciprocated and instead downright trodden on). You call endlessly. Oh you know the man's not going to pick up no matter how many times you call. You just want to bug the hell out of him. And after countless of calls, he replies your smses!!
"Be patient with the postal service. I've already sent it out."
A WEEK LATER.
Still no cheque in the mailbox. For some reason, you don't think the postal service in Singapore takes that long. I mean, we're not China.
Repeat steps of smsing and calling again. Test-retest reliability is high! Once again, ignored. Just when you're so pissed off you're ready to head down to their residence yourself to get your cheque, SURPRISE! Reply.
"In and out of the hospital to see a close relative. On top of that another dear bro was hospitalised, seem to (have) recover(ed) but suddenly collapsed and died. I hope you can learn to be a more understanding young person. No body is avoiding you. YOU shld know it. Today made out the new cheque to you again."
I'm really sorry to hear the bad news. I do hope your relative is fine, and that you will recover from your loss.
How could I have known you were in such a bad state when my smses and calls were incessantly ignored. You could have replied after my first sms to let me know, and I would have stopped bugging you and understood. Instead, I had to sms countless times and implore you to respond (and STILL get ignored). Then I had to resort to calling endlessly (and it's not like I fancy your M1 ringtone) and still get ignored.
For some reason, I've always had the impression that if someone
1. ignores another's smses or calls
2. pick up calls and then hanging up once they hear other's voice
or 3. cancel another's calls instead of pick them up,
it meant he/she was trying to avoid the other person.
One more thing, funny how you weren't at least a little surprised to hear the cheque you first mailed didn't arrive.
6:13 PM