Lelong! Lelong!

At about 1.30pm , I was waiting in line for a taxi. One came by and the driver asked the couple in front of me where they were headed. He then refused to pick them up, which worked in my favour as my destination was more 'acceptable'. Later, in the taxi, the driver explained that he was refusing to pick up passengers who were headed for Singapore Expo because it was jammed packed with people and cars. He had been down there twice that late morning and had been caught in the vehicular jam. He said that even the Traffic Police had been called in to control traffic flow.

Now why are there so many people and cars in Singapore Expo that Sunday? I guess it must be people who were thronging SITEX, the computer and electronics exhibition, to pick up bargains - and there were many to be had. I suppose it also had to do with the fact that this was the last such exhibition of the year and many might have gone Christmas shopping. Another reason is the good bonuses that people are expecting this December. Civil servants, people working in government have been promised at least two months' worth.

Fortunately for me, I had already gone on Saturday, and even then, the place was packed. The entire sprawling parking lot was filled with cars - a rare sight indeed! And it took longer than usual for the buses to navigate the roads to the bus stop in front of the exhibition centre too. I know because I took the bus. And it took a half an hour before I could board the taxi from Singapore Expo in spite of the constant flow of taxis in the queue. The organisers of SITEX this year have struck the jackport, and many shoppers too - what with $899 Samsung 32" LCD TVs, $902 Core2 PC with 400GB HDD and 2 GB RAM (no monitor though) and you won't believe the crowd that was there for the S$598 Eee PC from ASUS. A dedicated tent was erected to hold the crowds interested in this product. You'd be forgiven if you thought this UMPC was for free.

Going by the rules, the taxi driver was violating the rules by picking and choosing his destination, but I can understand why after he explained that he wasn't going into that area a THIRD time.