To flee or not to flee?

Frequent doodling and drawing have developed my patience as an artist. But every time I took our train services during peak hours, I got really upset and frustrated with ‘smoke’ fuming out from my hair.

First, the trains are fully packed with commuters like sardines in a can with my face just inches away from those strangers. I had to quickly cover my nose & mouth when ever someone near me sneezed or coughed. But moving my hand quickly could potentially touch the other person unintentionally and the risk of molest if I’m surrounded by young inside the packed cabin.

 

Next, our train services often chose to breakdown during these peak periods. The train either refused to move or at times moved very slowly by the inch due to some faults. Our ‘big brothers’ and the train’s operator chief had explained all sort of reasons but the real root causes to these recurring problems. I strongly believe it’s due to overloading of the system if one analyse the breakdown statistics. Train service breakdowns during non-peak hours are rare. Go check it.

Our train systems were designed & built more than 30 years ago. They were designed to cater for a small population of 3M people, not the current 5.5M to 6M population. Some of the old stations, especially those underground ones were so small that commuters could hardly move inside during peak hours. 

There is currently no other public transport alternative as no direct bus route runs parallel to our train networks. One would need longer traveling time to take multiple buses to reach the same destination or train station. When the same operator runs both the train and bus services, it’s common business sense to get more people on the train than on buses to maximize profitability. Think about it.

For every delayed trip, I’m charged the same fare for my journey although it took longer than what is stipulated on their route-map. Surely, the train operator is not delivering the service as promised in traveling time. Yet there is no compensation for the delay and I have to run the risk of being late for work. But I have no other choice but to use the service and start my journey early. Every day, I’m fearful of taking the service and gamble with potential delay. I’m loosing everyday. Sigh!

 

I'm fast. Others are faster.

This watercolor painting is available for sale.

When our local swimmer and fly specialist Joseph Schooling won a bronze at the swimming World Championships in 2015, it was considered a sensational moment in Singapore sport. Two years later, the same medal colour carries far less shine.

The one-sided result – the winner Caeleb Dressel was almost a second faster than Schooling and the Singaporean's time was 0.44sec off his personal best. In swimming, every split second counts and our poster boy has failed to repeat his stunt after winning last year's historic first Olympic gold for our country.
 
Schooling acknowledged his podium finish in Saturday's 100m butterfly final as "a setback" as he went into this meet with high expectations (targeting wins in the 50m fly, which he finished fifth, and the 100m fly which he finished third in a tie with British swimmer James Guy).

 

Schooling’s coach, Eddie Reese, the 76-year-old head coach at the University of Texas, where Schooling studies and trains sould be busy right now analysing his charge’s performance and determining what had gone wrong and draft the next course of actions. This is akin to a post-mortem after an event.

Setting objectives is easy.
Planning what to do and how to achieve them is not difficult. But if results didn’t show, it just means one thing: the plan didn’t work, it’s time to change something. Your mentor and coach can tell what was not right and what changes are needed. Ultimately, it’s the owner’s self determination and discipline to make the changes and get it work. This theory only makes sense if you’re the sole owner to the problem. In real organizations, your proposed plan could work if your boss likes you. If not, live with the problems like many organizations till you find a better way out.