Well, to a certain extent, yes. I’m almost ready to talk about it now. For the uninitiated, I decided on a hair cut yesterday and the deed was done yesterday evening. The rationale behind the hair cut was because I wanted a new look. However, like most previous experiences, I got more than what I bargained for.

1 year ago…

I got my hair cut in Kimage Funan by a supposedly senior hairstylist. I didn’t get his name, but he looks rather senior - literally old. Anyway, to cut a long story short, he:

• burnt my head with hot water
• left water in my ears
• left soap behind my ear and on my neck
• combed my hair so hard that my hair snapped
• yanked my hair out of my scalp
• doesn’t give a damn to what he was doing to my hair
• tried to get people to wash and blow dry my hair

Senior hairstylist? My foot. Anyone knows anybody from Kimage Funan? Maybe they should do something. And oh, this isn’t even the school/academy. It’s the Professional outlet. If this is Professional, I fear for the students under him.

Come to think of it, I should have done the favourite Singapore past time - write in to complain.

Now…

Yesterday morning, I decided to search on the Internet for "hairstylist good recommend Singapore" on google.com, and found a forum where someone left a good comment for a hairstylist located in downtown. So I called up the branch and made an appointment for yesterday evening, asking for the hairstylist who was mentioned.

When I finally arrived at the place, I was ushered onto a seat and moments later, the deed was done…

Looking back I am not heartache over the loss of so much hair. For one, it really feels much lighter now. Haha… then again, it’d take another couple of years for everything to grow back again.

I wished I had pictures with me, but they were taken by someone else… so, I’d just have to wait. Coincidentally, the gal got her hair cut as well this morning! Haha… tis’ the season for hair cutting… fwa la la la la, fwa la la la…

An early season’s greetings to all my readers! It’s time for a quiz again, and this time, we have attractive prizes waiting for you! What better way to enjoy a nice cosy gathering with your friends for Christmas than to have nuts and wine (and cheese*) to go along with?

For this Christmas, we would be giving away a wonderful mix of cherry tomatoes, Iranian figs, pistachios, cashews and assorted nuts-in-shell with a classic bottle of wine hamper! In fact, we have up to 7 different set of prizes^ to give away for this round of quiz, with the best answer given the full set of yummy hamper!

This quiz is very simply. You can enter either of the following quiz with the same prize:

• Describe in detail what’s wrong with this video - there’s something that we are looking out for this most people didn’t describe (hint: look beyond); OR
• Send in a photo of anything (yourself, yourself and family/friends/SO, some Christmas decorations, outdoor shoots, objects, etc.) and say in a sentence or two about the picture and why you’d want the prize

It’s that simple! So hurry now and send in your answers to the email address at the about page. This quiz closes on 15th December 2007 and prizes will be delivered by 16th December 2007. All entries will be acknowledged but only winners will be notified by email.

Good luck! =)

* cheese is in addition to the package and is subjected to availability

^ there is a main prize and up to 6 consolation prizes of assorted bottled nuts and/or fruits

Frankly, if you ask me, I think it’s all a sham. Haha… ok, maybe not as serious as that, but what I feel is that there is too much emphasis on the wants of taxi drivers to raise the fares. What taxi drivers want, I feel, is to take more bacon home. No, I don’t mean the Cold Storage ones, I mean money. Paycheck. Or whatever you call it.

Before I go into any argument of sorts, I’d like to point out a few things that I’d base my arguments on:

1. Taxi drivers want more income
2. Raising fare hikes is one of the ways for them to get more income - probably one of the more obvious ones
3. Raising fare hikes is NOT THE ONLY method that is available for them to get more income

With that being pointed out, it’s now important to realise one thing: why are taxi drivers complaining about not having enough income? Some reasons cited includes:

1. Increase in fuel charges
2. Payment of ERP charges to go into the city area without passengers

In addition to this, there had also been an increase in rental shortly after the last fare hike. The amount however, varies from company to company.

The thing that I don’t get is, why isn’t the companies helping to bear to brunt of the increasing cost of the drivers? Isn’t it supposedly in the best of their interest to help the taxi drivers? Or are they really just like rental companies who are concerned with whether the taxi drivers are paying their rent via Giro and not bother about what happens to them?

I understand that the taxi companies are supposedly profitable organizations, but sometimes, I wonder if they treat their taxi drivers as customers, or do they really consider them as staff? After all, all they are concerned at the end of the day is seemingly ONLY the bottom line and perhaps passenger complains (which I am beginning to doubt because of this). Do they care whether their taxi drivers are in dire straits? Or do they care whether they can pay their rent on time?

Of course, they are help to lower the cost of diesel by providing their own pumps at their own centres, but have they considered that there may be drivers who live at the other end of Singapore and whether it’s worth it to go all the way down to the refuelling stations? If they really want to offer an option to the drivers, I feel that it’s a half-baked option.

For all I know, they might start increasing rentals from the taxi drivers now that the fare hike is confirmed. Perhaps I am really new and raw to the entire concept of capitalism and it probably goes deeper than what I had expected.

In fact you know what? I give up. I don’t think I want to care anymore. Raise taxi fares for all they like. Raise the rentals for all the want. Squeeze the damn daylights out of the taxi drivers and squeeze them dry. Milk them till there’s only bones and roughage left. After all, there will be generations after generations of taxi drivers - why bother about the current fleet? There will be new drivers to take over when the current fleet gives up. At the end of the day, passengers who need to take cabs will still take, those who don’t need to take will stop taking and the disappearing taxis syndrome will stop.

Good.

IT IS official. Taxi fares are going up.

Taxi giant ComfortDelGro Corp has notified the Public Transport Council (PTC) about an imminent fare increase. The PTC could not say more.

Commuters can expect to pay more from as early as the week before Christmas, as taxi operators have to inform the council at least two weeks before any fare changes.

For its part, ComfortDelGro again declined to comment, as it has for several weeks since speculation about a hike first started.

Sources, however, said the adjustment will include a 30-cent rise in flag-down rate. This would bring the minimum starting fare to $2.80. For newer cabs which meet the stringent Euro IV emission standard, the flag-down will go from $2.70 to $3.

Currently, ComfortDelGro has about 2,000 of such cabs in its fleet.

Commuters can expect changes to the distance and time-based charges too. Surcharges are also expected to be streamlined.

There is speculation that the operator might help cabbies defray electronic road- pricing charges to encourage them to enter the Central Business District - where demand for cabs is high.

The signs of a fare hike had been there for some time as cabbies and their associations have been lobbying for it for several months now, arguing the increase in diesel price and the goods and services tax have eroded drivers’ income substantially.

The plight of cabbies is not lost on commuters. Said merchandiser Ivy Ong, 41, who takes cabs regularly: ‘Will this fare adjustment be helping the taxi-drivers? If their taxi rental goes up, I don’t think it would.’

Citigroup Singapore strategist Lim Jit Soon does not think ComfortDelGro would raise rental this time round as it wants to retain as many drivers as possible ‘in this buoyant market’.

‘What it means is that it might gradually remove some subsidies,’ he said.

For instance, ComfortDelGro is still selling diesel to cabbies at 94 cents a litre, 36 cents cheaper than diesel dispensed at stations run by oil companies.

christan@sph.com.sg

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 5th December 2007