That is the message I see a lot of times every day.
My wallet is really heavy nowadays. And the singapore currency i carry in it contributes very insignificantly to that weight. All possible places within the wallet have been occupied by cards. And as u will see, each card has a purpose :). If you dont carry your cards with u, you are only inviting some trouble. So first lets list down the cards:
1)Access card to Graduate hall: Cant enter hostel without it.
2)Metric card: kind of I-card here. Also this is access card to lab so somewat important!
3)Student pass and Visit pass: Issued by Immigration and Checkpoints authority, these cards allow me to stay in Singapore.
5)[Notice the "and" in above entry] Singtel Chip card: needed to make local calls from payphone
6)Singtel Hello card: to make internation calls.
7)Ez-link card: mandatory for travelling in Metro railways which is the most convenient and most importantly cheap mode of transport here. Also it can be used for bus travel.
8)IITK I-card: The only useless card may be..but yeah it could have got me a thrill ride in NTU motor fest in a FIAT or a Mini Cooper!(Yeah ..details in next post :)
9)Last but certainly not the least..Debit card of Parents:Another card from India and most important. Hopefelly i ensure that money on the account lasts :)
So wat happens if one forgets some card? Well I forgot one card and perhaps that prompted me to write this blog.
We had to go for the Asia Pacific Science and Technology centre(APSTC) meeting at Sun office in Singapore last Monday. The meeting was at 8 AM! We had to meet Melvin(One of our supervisor and Technical specialist at APSTC) at Clarke Quay MRT(Metro railway station) at 7:30 AM so that he could take us to Sun office as we did not know the location of office. As expected, we woke up a little too late for comfort, managed to get ready in time somehow and were out before the Sun(not Stanford university network :P) had decided to come out![Yes..this happened..SACCHI]. We saw the bus to Boon Lay MRT approaching a bus stop and rushed to catch it. And just as i was to enter, I realized something. Wat? that i had forgotten something..and it was Ez-link card!! So basically i could not board MRT from Boon Lay to Clarke Quay. We thought that Counter which issues Ez link card will be open at 6:40AM in morning and so decided to go ahead by paying in cash for the bus travel. But there are normal people in Singapore who wake up a little late and so the counter was closed. So Kaushik decided to go ahead for the meeting while i had to head back at NTU for my Ez-link card. And it also sealed one thing: I was going to be late for my formal meeting with a research team:). Anyways I caught a bus to NTU, got my card ASAP and reached Boon lay again at 7:45 AM. Basically after arnd 45 mins of travel, I had managed to reach the nearest MRT only but I had all my cards now with me. I saw on the monitor that the next train was just departing...so ran on the escalator and entered the train with the doors clossing red bulbs flashing before me. Yeah almost like Shahrukh caught a train in DDLJ..only tini-mini difference.. Kajol was missing [It has always been that way :(]. Anyways at 8 AM, I was somewhere near Queenstown far far away from Sun office. I needed to change train at Outrem Park Interchange for Clarke Quay. Again I caught another train with same last minute entry style with one thing at back of my mind, how to find Sun office from Clarke Quay MRT. But God's angel had sorted things out. I caught hold of Jasleen in train. He is a final year student here who is doing his project under my supervisor only. We reached at Sun office just in time for our supervisor's presentation and also in time to order breakfast :). But still, I learnt my lesson..Carry all the cards with you or else be ready for some trouble!
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Friday, March 10, 2006
First Things First!
Yeah..finally after pondering over the thought of starting a blog, I am writing the FIRST one today. And since I have really nothing sensible to write, perhaps i should write about the so many Firsts i had during the last 15 days.
The story began at the stroke of midnight on 28th Feb. I boarded the Indian Airlines flight to Singapore, my First international venture. After arrival in Singapore, we got the access cards for our hostel in NTU. Well, i used a access card also for FIRST time only!(Read ahead..its full of pointless facts!). On weekend, we roamed around the Singapore city. On Marina Bay, we had Icecream with Bread! Now had any of u even heard about such a dish! This was followed by Lunch at a South Indian restaurant where i tried Chettinaad chicken for the first time. Oh also, i used a debit card for the first time![Yes, IITK friends..i hv account in UBI only].
On Sunday, I, Kaushik and his friend Vimal went to Sentosa Island Resort. At this place, I had lots of firsts and some of them might interest you also. We visited Merlion, Images of singapore(depicts history of the country) and had ride in the cable car which took us 130 m high on sky tower. But since we are talking about the Firsts only, lets cut short this story. We saw a 15 minute movie at Sentosa. Now that does not sound interesting at all. Ok it was a 4-D movie show! 4-D movie show involves normal 3-D cinema + u get the effects like water is sprinkled on u if the movie star is sliding through a water stream, u feel crabs near ur legs etc. It was one unique experience. This was followed by a luge ride. Then we visited the underwater world where we saw huge variety of fish. Sharks, crabs, jelly fish, starfish, all of them. And then was the time for the Dolphin show. Well i will let the pics do the talking for that. Just wait for some more time :). We were planning to leave when something on the Sentosa map caught our eyes: Southermost point of Asia continent. The view there was beautiful( i just cant find a word to express that!). One can see the vast ocean and also Indonesia and Malaysia.
On the next weekend, I visited a south indian temple in little india. Aptly said by kaushik, i am discovering south india here.
Well the weekdays involved some not so interesting firsts like using washing machine, and i cant even recall others right now :).
And i guess now its time to click the "Publish post" button below. And hopefully there will be another first, the first comment on my blog!
The story began at the stroke of midnight on 28th Feb. I boarded the Indian Airlines flight to Singapore, my First international venture. After arrival in Singapore, we got the access cards for our hostel in NTU. Well, i used a access card also for FIRST time only!(Read ahead..its full of pointless facts!). On weekend, we roamed around the Singapore city. On Marina Bay, we had Icecream with Bread! Now had any of u even heard about such a dish! This was followed by Lunch at a South Indian restaurant where i tried Chettinaad chicken for the first time. Oh also, i used a debit card for the first time![Yes, IITK friends..i hv account in UBI only].
On Sunday, I, Kaushik and his friend Vimal went to Sentosa Island Resort. At this place, I had lots of firsts and some of them might interest you also. We visited Merlion, Images of singapore(depicts history of the country) and had ride in the cable car which took us 130 m high on sky tower. But since we are talking about the Firsts only, lets cut short this story. We saw a 15 minute movie at Sentosa. Now that does not sound interesting at all. Ok it was a 4-D movie show! 4-D movie show involves normal 3-D cinema + u get the effects like water is sprinkled on u if the movie star is sliding through a water stream, u feel crabs near ur legs etc. It was one unique experience. This was followed by a luge ride. Then we visited the underwater world where we saw huge variety of fish. Sharks, crabs, jelly fish, starfish, all of them. And then was the time for the Dolphin show. Well i will let the pics do the talking for that. Just wait for some more time :). We were planning to leave when something on the Sentosa map caught our eyes: Southermost point of Asia continent. The view there was beautiful( i just cant find a word to express that!). One can see the vast ocean and also Indonesia and Malaysia.
On the next weekend, I visited a south indian temple in little india. Aptly said by kaushik, i am discovering south india here.
Well the weekdays involved some not so interesting firsts like using washing machine, and i cant even recall others right now :).
And i guess now its time to click the "Publish post" button below. And hopefully there will be another first, the first comment on my blog!
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