Saturday, March 03, 2007
Fun rides
Hi,
Fun ride for all ages.
The little kid climbed up onto the kiddy ride machine in his awkward way and sat in it happily. His granny inserted a 20 cents coin into the slot. The aeroplane whirred and came to life and the song I fly up the clear blue sky in Mandarin livened it up. Leaning and crouching and swerving, the kid manoeuvred the plane with delight like an ace pilot in a real dogfight while the granny looked around, interested in her own observation. Barely a minute passed and the machine stopped, also the music. The kid tugged at his granny's hand, and she inserted another coin. Twenty cents for hardly a minute's enjoyment, thus making it out to be more than twelve dollars for an hour of fun for a little kid.
A young girl went for a golf game in a buggy for the first time. It was difficult to tell whether she enjoyed more playing golf or driving the buggy, but it was clear that she hogged driving the buggy for the whole 18 holes. And the buggy fee was twenty dollars over a game which lasted more than four hours. Thus it worked out to be less than five dollars for an hour of fun drive, along the buggy track and swerving up and down the beautiful fairways, no traffic fines and no licence required.
There was a time when I decided to enjoy an MRT ride for the fun of it, and also partly to see the parts of Singapore which I seldom passed by. The ride from Tanah Merah to Jurong East lasted about an hour for which I paid a senior citizen concession fare of about seventy cents, during which I got to see some landscapes of Singapore from an elevated view. It was a calm, smooth and peaceful ride.
All these three stories illustrate that the cost of enjoyment greatly decreases with age, from over twelve dollars an hour for a small kid to less than five dollars an hour for an adult to less than a dollar an hour for a senior citizen. If this does not bring out the old fogeys for very cheap Mrt rides in place of boredom at home, I must also add that there are unusual things to see.
Once when I boarded the train there were two ladies dressed in their religious habit, which is that their whole body was covered in a black dress except an opening for them to see. When the train stopped at Eunos, a similarly dressed lady came up. Immediately they recognised each other, and thereafter there was friendly chatter. Some time later I narrated this to a group of friends and wondered how they could recognise each other. Almost at once a blurted answer stumped me, "Smell, smell !" His utter was a joke of course, and everybody laughed. The funny thing is that a longer time later at another gathering this same friend narrated a story which was exactly the same as the one I just told. Naturally and spontaneously I voiced, "Smell, smell." That brought out another hilarious moment. Another funny thing is that people easily forget what they said in jest.
When bored take a long MRT ride.
Have a nice day,
Ronald
Fun ride for all ages.
The little kid climbed up onto the kiddy ride machine in his awkward way and sat in it happily. His granny inserted a 20 cents coin into the slot. The aeroplane whirred and came to life and the song I fly up the clear blue sky in Mandarin livened it up. Leaning and crouching and swerving, the kid manoeuvred the plane with delight like an ace pilot in a real dogfight while the granny looked around, interested in her own observation. Barely a minute passed and the machine stopped, also the music. The kid tugged at his granny's hand, and she inserted another coin. Twenty cents for hardly a minute's enjoyment, thus making it out to be more than twelve dollars for an hour of fun for a little kid.
A young girl went for a golf game in a buggy for the first time. It was difficult to tell whether she enjoyed more playing golf or driving the buggy, but it was clear that she hogged driving the buggy for the whole 18 holes. And the buggy fee was twenty dollars over a game which lasted more than four hours. Thus it worked out to be less than five dollars for an hour of fun drive, along the buggy track and swerving up and down the beautiful fairways, no traffic fines and no licence required.
There was a time when I decided to enjoy an MRT ride for the fun of it, and also partly to see the parts of Singapore which I seldom passed by. The ride from Tanah Merah to Jurong East lasted about an hour for which I paid a senior citizen concession fare of about seventy cents, during which I got to see some landscapes of Singapore from an elevated view. It was a calm, smooth and peaceful ride.
All these three stories illustrate that the cost of enjoyment greatly decreases with age, from over twelve dollars an hour for a small kid to less than five dollars an hour for an adult to less than a dollar an hour for a senior citizen. If this does not bring out the old fogeys for very cheap Mrt rides in place of boredom at home, I must also add that there are unusual things to see.
Once when I boarded the train there were two ladies dressed in their religious habit, which is that their whole body was covered in a black dress except an opening for them to see. When the train stopped at Eunos, a similarly dressed lady came up. Immediately they recognised each other, and thereafter there was friendly chatter. Some time later I narrated this to a group of friends and wondered how they could recognise each other. Almost at once a blurted answer stumped me, "Smell, smell !" His utter was a joke of course, and everybody laughed. The funny thing is that a longer time later at another gathering this same friend narrated a story which was exactly the same as the one I just told. Naturally and spontaneously I voiced, "Smell, smell." That brought out another hilarious moment. Another funny thing is that people easily forget what they said in jest.
When bored take a long MRT ride.
Have a nice day,
Ronald
# posted by chunmu @ 8:00 PM 
