Rain. In Singapore. Not unheard of, you are thinking, and you would be right of course. Singapore is pretty well set up for rain in fact, with storm drains all over the place and a number of big reservoirs to catch and keep the watery stuff. So what happened last Wednesday to produce these pictures?
A flash flood, that's what, compounded by a blocked drain, apparently, resulting in complete havoc in parts of the city centre. Not only were the basement car parks flooded, but, as you can see from the photos, so were the streets. This photo shows the part of town near where we live - luckily, we are on a bit of a hill, and on the 22nd floor, so no danger of getting the tootsies wet. Apparently, almost 100 mm of rain fell within a two-hour period - more than half a month's worth, in the space of less than a morning.
Spooky that it should happen once, but then it happened again this week. First thing in the morning again (and I missed the whole thing, as I had gone in early to work). It was all quite dramatic, with fallen trees blocking roads and turning the morning commute into an obstacle course. Singapore's water agency - the wonderfully named PUB - recorded 100mm of rain in an hour this time, the same amount as the previous week, but in half the time. I wasn't aware rain could fall that fast.
There is a Latin motto "Nemo me impune lacessit" which the Scots (a race to which I am proud to belong) have translated into "Wha dare meddle wi' me" and which this Scot, after the day that I have had, would render as something completely unprintable.
So why am I in such a bad mood, you ask, living as I do in permanent summer, in the land of the mango and the papaya (not that they grow here, but the shops are full of them), with the lovely Chris and the almost as lovely Lola, the best dog in the world? Well, let's start with Bonkers Bank, shall we? A bank of which I have been a "premier" customer for the last 20 years, and who now see fit to transfer me from pillar to post, in ever decreasing circles of competence, instead of responding to my legitimate request to transfer my money to another bank. As requested, I sent them a letter making the request, then when they could not find that letter, I sent them another one. When they could not find that, they asked me to fax them a copy of the letter, which I did, and to phone up afterwards to check that they had received the letter, which I did. After all that, were they able to help me? Of course not, which is why I am in such a bad mood. I feel like a character in a Kafka novel, going round in circles. Will I ever see this money again, or am I doomed to make an endless round of phone calls to people whose idea of helping me is to give me a number to call and leave a message after which someone will call me back within 3 hours? Don't you just love Service Level Agreements?
I know that I am sounding like my good friend Steve, whose blog you really should read, (http://blogfromthebarn.blogspot.com/) and who is prone to the occasional rant and/or fit of grumpiness, but my patience - to be fair, not a particularly strong suit of mine - has been tried beyond reason. It really does bring home the reality of outsourcing core functions like customer service when the result is that both constructs - "customer" and "service" are washed away in a sea of learned helplessness. I think a haiku is called for:
Loyal customer?
I don't think so, Bonkers Bank
Why? Because you're crap.
