A real life comedy scene

Every month, a trip to the HDB branch office at CCK unfolds a entertaining scene, which i find it mightly amusing, a total comedy.

Wait. First, let me tell you why am i at the HDB branch office monthly. The reason i go there is to buy a greeny round piece of expensive paper. Its very expensive, and can only use for a month. It's only uses is just for display, to prevent you from getting another expensive piece of long rectangluar greeny piece of paper, which is known commonly as a summon.

Yes. I am talking about season parking coupon. Why expensive? Because it costs S$65 a month. My carpark is an open air one. Multi-storey carparks charge S$90 monthly.

So, if you are free, walk around your carpark with a counter, count the number of cars/vans/lorries, multiply with the amount, and see what HDB earns by just letting people park their vehicles monthly.

Anyway, back to the main topic.

I was at the HDB branch office during lunch time. As i was walking away from my van, towards the lift, a guy suddenly rush past me. At first, i could not comprehend what happened. But in the next few seconds, i saw it... He was trying to get into a lift when the lift doors are starting to close. He was running really fast. Sad to say, he made it.

So, i press the button for the next lift. There are 3 buttons, and by pressing any button, will activate all the 3 buttons and lifts. So i wait, patiently. Another guy came in, and press all the 3 buttons. Another lady came soon after and press all the 3 buttons, again and again and yet again and again, this time, with force. I am amazed that the buttons can withstand all those punishment.

I was standing at the center of the 3 lifts. Soon a small crowd gathered at the lifts. All pressed the 3 buttons if like pressing all the 3 buttons will allow you to strike the 10 million TOTO jackpot.

One lift came down. The crowd rushes to the door. It stopped at level 1. (we were at B1). By this time, the center life came directly down to B1, and since i was at the center, i should be the first one into the life.

I was wrong. The moment the sound chimes to signal the lift's arrival, the crowd rushes like mad to the enterance, like they are going for a 90% discount sale. Sad to say again, i was the last one to enter the lift.

At 7th floor, where the HDB office is, again, everyone rush out and go into the office. There was a long queue at the counters. Some started running towards the queue at a pace that is definity much faster than my grandmother. (An army joke), at a pace that would have made my CSM proud.

So, we queue up. An indian man tried to cut my queue (i was standing precisely at the turn point), and that evoked hostile stares from the ppl behind me. I informed him that we are also part of the queue. He than went all the way to the counter, and this time, evoked hostile stares from all the ppl in the queue.

He noticed the stares and left the scene. Thankfully, or Singapore might have a mass casualty incident.

As i was queueing, i saw the same scenes again. Each time a lift arrives, it would disgorge a handful of ppl, and some ppl would take the chance to do some serious workout, a 30 meter dash to the line at a speed which would shame a PTI.

It happens every time i was there. More so today, as today is the last day of the month, and its lunch hour.