Circuit Breaker Anecdotes

An Electrical Circuit Breaker

I believe many of you are confined in your home and probably at your favorite monitor to work from home (WFH) or kill your time reading some interesting stories because of the "Circuit Breaker" rules during the current COVID 19 pandemic.

If it's the latter, we're in the same boat.

In this case, you may have heard or read some amusing anecdotes or extraordinary episodes of offenses committed in the last five months during the pandemic.

I would like to share with you some of the more unforgettable anecdotes and my derisive remarks on them.

My non-chronology of narratives went something like this:-

1. For the first time in Singapore, McDonald unprecedentedly suspended all their 130 outlets from April 9 until May 4 because seven of their employee were infected with COVID 19 virus.

McDonald employed more than 10,000 people in Singapore and serves more than 6 millions customer monthly.

Some disgruntled customers moaned that they are abruptly deprived of their "die-die must have" comfort food, have no ways to satisfy their 2 am hunger prang and screamed that whatever little normalcy they used to have is gone.

Therefore, when McDonald reopened their outlets after 23 days of suspension, queues at some outlets were ridiculously long of a few hundred meters with 1-meter social distancing in place.

Not only were there physical queues but also virtual queue online. Some patrons had to go through the virtual queue system before can they even get to the menu.

My remarks.

What's so good about McDonald fast foods and why are they so successful?. 

In my 73 years of eating, I had at the very most eaten McDonald's chicken nuggets three times and McDonald's burger twice. Definitely not the kind of food I crave for unlike my loti-prata, laksa or chai kuay teow

Yet, McDonald is the largest fast-food restaurant chain in the world with more than 37,000 locations in about 120 countries.

McDonald is so successful not because they created the best hamburger in the world but because they created the best business system - a brand and customers buy their brand not their food.  KFC, Nike, Starbucks, Levis, and many others are like McDonald.....an irresistible brand.

I'm Sovereign

2. An infamous Singaporean lady who proclaimed herself as a "sovereign" is now remanded in a mental hospital for medical certification that she's fit to stand trial for not wearing a mask and assaulting a 47 years old lady during the "Circuit Breaker".

Indeed, most Singaporean were puzzled at her as remark..."I'm sovereign. This is something people are not going to know what it is".

Well, it seems that the origin of "sovereign" followers originated in the USA in the 1970s and was mostly influenced by white-supremacist and anti-Semitic groups.

These believers professed that they're citizens of no country, no need to obey any law, can choose rules to obey and which ones to ignore.

My comments:

I can think of one true "sovereign" person here. She happens to be a top executive of our "Sovereign Fund" and she doesn't have to obey the rule in declaring her salary to anyone. Her salary is somehow a State Secret. Every law-abiding citizen has to declare their income or salary in their tax return but not this sovereign lady...she can choose to ignore the law...

3. As you know, in the span of just two months, 29 people were convicted for various offenses related to COVID-19 like breaching quarantine, stay at home notice, not wearing a mask, safe distancing, hurling vulgarities and harassing enforcement officers, operating a non-essential business, eating at a prohibited place and visiting/dining at a friend house.

Out of these 29 cases, I find two cases rather interesting involving the fairer sex and like to opine on them.

Beauty Saloon Lady

3a) The Massage Lady.

Mrs. Jin Yin, 55, a Chinese national, was convicted of operating a non-essential business and allowing a male customer into her saloon at Upper Cross Street for massage and masturbation for $150, during the "circuit breaker" period.

She cried hysterically in court and dropped to her knees to beg for mercy after the prosecution asked for $21,000 fine. She said she has only $3,000 left and a daughter in Beijing to raise

She also said that she committed the offense because of the debts she incurred after her mother contracted cancer.

The judge rejected her plea and adjourned the case to a pre-trial conference later this month.

She committed similar offenses previously,

On 10th. of June, she was convicted and fined $22,000.00. If she cannot pay the fine, she will have to serve eight weeks jail in lieu.

My Comments:

I guess a massage and stroking an organ would probably take no more than half an hour. 

At $150 for half an hour job, it's certainly a very profitable work almost like our PM's job who is paid  $376 an hour ($3.3million/365days/24hours).

The difference is she used her hands while our PM uses his brain but both are earning a living albeit in different ways.

The Gusty Auntie

3b). The Power "Auntie".

A senior auntie who simply refused to budge at eating her food (kuay teow) at a hawker center during C.B. period and was willing to pay a fine of $300 got her wish granted.

Initially, when the enforcement officers kindly reminded her that she'll be fined $300 for breaking the C.B. rule, she got agitated, banged the table and said defiantly in Hokkien:

 "It doesn't matter. I'm not afraid. You people are bullying me. My back ached when I've to walk home and my food will be cold than"

Eventually, her son came to pick her home.

My comments:

This auntie reminds me of a rich friend who always refused to place a parking coupon whenever he parked in the "coupon area". 

He loves to display his defiant and risk-taking nature at any opportunity. 

I'm sure this auntie is not as wealthy as my friend but I salute her fearless stand albeit misplaced.

But look, how many people is as gusty her. 

It's as simple as that.