Simply Jean had been running for about a year and 3 months. A blog that was initially started so that friends would be able to blog anonymously under a single moniker grew to be a blog commenting on almost everything, particularly Singapore social issues. Some have thought Simply Jean to be a political blog, but that’s… a little far from the truth. The fact is, Simply Jean is as political as the man on the street - which is quite apolitical if you ask me. Besides the usual ramblings, Simply Jean serves no more than just the daily news and discourse. Amongst the most popular topics are ERP hikes, petrol hikes, taxi fare hikes, Mas Selamat, the Li Hongyi episode and the Pedra Branca fiasco.

However, here’s where the problem lies. These daily news and discourse are usually available here, here and here; or if you have a deeper pocket, here too and we are thinking if Simply Jean is still serving any purpose at this moment. While it is common for other personal blogs to post pictures of their authors, it’s a little different here. Simply Jean wasn’t meant to be a personal blog.

In terms of "political comments", Simply Jean is lacking in many areas. In terms of the daily discourse, it’s almost what everyone else on the streets is saying. In a nutshell, Simply Jean is beginning to be of little substance. As one reader puts it:

Author: unknown

Comment: your blog is getting more and more boring…. zzz

Thus with a heavy heart, Simply Jean will breathe her last breath on 15th April 2008, yes, that’s the day when the last post will be published and Simply Jean will be history thereafter. To make it easier to remember, it’s also the last day that you guys should be filing your income tax. =)

So hurry now and unsubscribe Simply Jean from your RSS feed reader. The last thing you want is a dead feed.

No, it’s not your regular bus cheaters who tap their EZ-link cards way before they alight. It’s not those who try to pretend that they have tapped (personally, I have seen a bus captain asking an ACS boy in Mandarin to tap his card; the boy looked blur as sotong - sorry, I digress). In fact, it’s not even Singapore that I am talking about, but our friendly neighbour - Malaysia.

You see, a friend of mine got cheated of his bus ticket and was led to this crappy bus that isn’t what he paid for for his journey back to Singapore from Kuala Lumpur.

The modus operandi is simple. The cheat goes up to the unsuspecting victim, pretends to check their tickets, holds on to their tickets while leading them to some cheapo bus, pays the bus driver and goes off with the bus tickets. The unsuspecting victim will think that the cheapo bus - unlike whatever they thought they paid for - is the bus for their trip home. Meanwhile, the cheat touts the tickets to unsuspecting buyers.

Repeat cycle for as long as they want on the same ticket.

Unfortunately for my friend and his buddy, the latter gave chase and was thrown onto the ground. All effort to stop the cheat failed and he ran away. The buddy is now in hospital while my friend… is thankfully attending his meeting.

Malaysia boleh! BN boleh! Everything boleh!

Ed: I thought I read a Straits Times article on something similar except that there was no mention that it was a bus ticket cheat. I can’t seem to find that article any more. If you happen to have read it or remembered where it was, do leave me a comment here. Thanks!!!