De Shi...
After a million kazillion-bazillion years of not penning down my thoughts, I thought this particular incident would be a brilliant bottle-cracker.
We now train at Tampines Sports Hall, which I must say is not the most convenient or economic-friendly place to train, but at least we have the use of boards now.
(Essie and I had quite a time doing angles and all when we were supposed to be passing!)
It was late.
Liwen, Ah Wee and I decided to catch a cab and share the cost.
Expensive no doubt it would be, we got a whole lot more than what we eventually paid.
We missed our first cab (The cabby simply refused to stop for us) and with the 2nd cab, Ah Wee very romantically called out "Uncccclllleeee"...
That sure started it.
You do understand that a majority of taxi-drivers in Singapore are Chinese-educated or to put it more accurately, are more comfortable speaking in their mother-tongue or dialect.
Looking at the back of this cabby's head of white, we immediately assumed he was part of this majority and proceeded to rattle our destinations to him in mandarin.
Turns out, he very graciously took in our mistaken (slightly stereotypical) perception and went on his way.
Less than 5 minutes into the journey, he started to ask about our education and such before revealing (through a joke) that he was previously a lecturer at the University of Boston, having obtained his Masters there and then after a few years of teaching, he joined a huge MNC and travelled the world as a very important person. (He very slyly turned down our question of which MNC it was).
He became a taxi-driver because he needed something to do with his time. He already was a grandfather and money was not an issue with him.
With humour, he taught the 3 of us life lessons he considered important.
He encouraged us to make mistakes but cautioned us to learn and rise from them.
He made us look at Success and Failure and showed us that it would only be through many failureS that we would be Successful.
Put vertical strikes through each letter of 'Success'... You'll find that a majority of what you see would be dollars and sense (cents). Do the same for 'failure'... Nothing about failure gives you the same result.
BUT
After going through a whole lot of 'failureS' (put vertical strikes though each letter again...), you'll finally hit some dollars, and once you hit dollars, you become successful and there you go... Your 'Success'.
It was so beautiful to realise that.
I mean, you get told by your parents and teachers that failure leads to success, but it was this wise cabby that made it literary beauty.
He also said to enjoy your teenage years (my last teen year) for you'll have to wait a whole chunk of your life before you get another chance to.
He was just talking about the 5 types of people that exist in the workplace when I had to alight...
He assured me that he would share more if our paths do cross again sometime in the near future.
I'm looking forward to that.
In fact, it looks as if I'll be spending the bulk of my allowance in search of this treasure, hidden not in a treasure chest, but in a yellow-top taxi.
We now train at Tampines Sports Hall, which I must say is not the most convenient or economic-friendly place to train, but at least we have the use of boards now.
(Essie and I had quite a time doing angles and all when we were supposed to be passing!)
It was late.
Liwen, Ah Wee and I decided to catch a cab and share the cost.
Expensive no doubt it would be, we got a whole lot more than what we eventually paid.
We missed our first cab (The cabby simply refused to stop for us) and with the 2nd cab, Ah Wee very romantically called out "Uncccclllleeee"...
That sure started it.
You do understand that a majority of taxi-drivers in Singapore are Chinese-educated or to put it more accurately, are more comfortable speaking in their mother-tongue or dialect.
Looking at the back of this cabby's head of white, we immediately assumed he was part of this majority and proceeded to rattle our destinations to him in mandarin.
Turns out, he very graciously took in our mistaken (slightly stereotypical) perception and went on his way.
Less than 5 minutes into the journey, he started to ask about our education and such before revealing (through a joke) that he was previously a lecturer at the University of Boston, having obtained his Masters there and then after a few years of teaching, he joined a huge MNC and travelled the world as a very important person. (He very slyly turned down our question of which MNC it was).
He became a taxi-driver because he needed something to do with his time. He already was a grandfather and money was not an issue with him.
With humour, he taught the 3 of us life lessons he considered important.
He encouraged us to make mistakes but cautioned us to learn and rise from them.
He made us look at Success and Failure and showed us that it would only be through many failureS that we would be Successful.
Put vertical strikes through each letter of 'Success'... You'll find that a majority of what you see would be dollars and sense (cents). Do the same for 'failure'... Nothing about failure gives you the same result.
BUT
After going through a whole lot of 'failureS' (put vertical strikes though each letter again...), you'll finally hit some dollars, and once you hit dollars, you become successful and there you go... Your 'Success'.
It was so beautiful to realise that.
I mean, you get told by your parents and teachers that failure leads to success, but it was this wise cabby that made it literary beauty.
He also said to enjoy your teenage years (my last teen year) for you'll have to wait a whole chunk of your life before you get another chance to.
He was just talking about the 5 types of people that exist in the workplace when I had to alight...
He assured me that he would share more if our paths do cross again sometime in the near future.
I'm looking forward to that.
In fact, it looks as if I'll be spending the bulk of my allowance in search of this treasure, hidden not in a treasure chest, but in a yellow-top taxi.
posted by Cherry Lucky @ 10:40 am
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