Saturday, April 28, 2007
It's been 1 month plus since ord but I never knew that I'll be making another trip to the east so fast. Went with philip to the cisco centre which was located at paya lebar on monday to get our photos taken for the public sector smart card which will be our form of "11B" when we start our studies in nie and all the way for use when we actually start work. Monday was the allocated day for moe personnel for phototaking and only 2 time slots were given. "10am to 12.30pm" and I didn't bother looking beyond that. The other time slot is in afternoon after their lunch break which I think isn't a good time to pay them a visit. People usually take their own sweet time to return from their lunch break and yes, I'm speaking from experience. Furthermore, they don't work well after that.
Looking at the list of people who went before us, I think we're the earliest from the cohort. I just wanted to get this admin stuff settled asap and as philip would have known by now, I'm a gan jiong spider. For those who have not used the online street directory before, you should check it out because it's pretty useful. I used it to look for the exact location of Jalan Afifi(where cisco is located). For those who drive, there are instructions on how to get there. For those who are takin public transport, there are exact buses to take from the nearest mrt station to get to your destination. People like chee yong even gave me more tips on how to get there and from the map, it seemed that the place is indeed quite far. However, when I reached paya lebar mrt station, I was quite surprised to see this all familiar looking building across the road. I couldn't believe my eyes and even proceeded to ask the mrt station manager. He confirmed that was the cisco building. Damn, the wonder the street directory mentioned that it was only a bus stop away.
Even though I hardly slept the previous night, I still think it's better to get the photoshoot settled in the morning. Futhermore, philip has work so he can still go back in the afternoon. Works out nicely for both of us in the end. Clearance signing has given me the knowledge that one should never never hope to accomplish anything moments before lunchtime or at least 1 hour after that. The people you want will never be around. Even though it's not 11am yet, the sun is shining down hard on us as we made our way to cisco building. It probably took us less than 10 mins from the mrt station. Not that I'll complain about it.
Philip saw that there was a undercarriage mirror tucked away in one corner. Brings back memories of how mavarick broke 2 of them and had to sign 1206 for them. The usual security proceedings were being conducted when we arrived at the lobby. Pass exchanging and the walkthrough of the metal detector. Sad to say, the female guard was just going through motion when she didn't bother to check the front 2 pockets of my bag, only the main compartment. She probably thought I was trying to be funny when I'm suddenly so nice to her and even volunteered to remind her whether she wanted to search the front 2 pockets. Well, I think me and philp are certainly qualified to do so. We know how they do their job and function so I don't mind if they take their time but do a good job out of it. Last time I used to think such searches are a waste of time but if it makes the place safer, why not?
The phototaking took 1 min and it's over, just like that, I couldn't believe what I was seeing and I even asked the guy in charge, "So that's it? Do we need to give you anything". As we still had some time, we checked out the building besides paya lebar mrt station, it looked impressive on the outside but don't bother to check it out because it was a waste of time. Filled with mostly coffee joints, macs, kfc, this fashion, shop n save and popular bookstore, need I say more. Very disappointing. I finally realized where city plaza is after seeing it from the mrt platform on my way home. Heard so much about it for its handphones from hock leong and michael last time in camp but never see it before in person.
The eastern part of Singapore certainly has lots of places waiting to be discovered. However, I had enough of it during the 2 years in changi to last me for some time.
