Qoomonster moved here

We’ve recently rediscovered the library. You know. That place with lots of books, cold-as-ice glares when you sneeze and musty shelves of heavy-as-heck hardcovers in pristine condition. Apparently people went there for information. You know. Back in the dark ages. As recently as the late 1990s.

I think. I can’t be sure. Me and libraries, well. We didn’t have too much fun together. I think it began one day, in primary 3 or 4. I forget. Anyway, I went to the primary school library to return a book. The teacher there said there was one more book I hadn’t returned. I was stunned, it can’t be. I didn’t have any other books in my bag. I didn’t leave any at home. She turned me away and walked off.

My buddy at that time, and I still remember her name, which is no mean feat, because I haven’t spoken to her in more than 20 years – she transferred to I have no idea where at the end of the year – took the loaner card out of my sleeve and gave it to me. “Go” she said, looking around.

I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I took it and left. It turned out to be the card for the book that I was supposed to have loaned. The title seemed familiar, but I thought I’d returned it a few days ago. I was super perplexed, and the way my friend tried to help me out made me feel like a criminal.

A few days later, a younger schoolmate I took the schoolbus with gave me the book that was missing. She said she took it from my bag to read while we were waiting for the bus.

But it was done. I avoided the library like the plague, and I stopped being nice to the younger students. They were nothing but trouble!

Anyway. The Patron Saint of Libraries here did a number on me, I guess. The number happens to be 50. I get to check out 50 books for 3 weeks. I also get to check out 10 DVDs/CDs/VCDs a week.

What liberation! We started out borrowing documentaries. Since it beats reading! We quickly went through the stuff of interest. Now we’re borrowing j-doramas. I’m even making plans to hit the other libraries in the vicinity when we exhaust the little one near us.

The strange thing I notice is this. The people at libraries, are old. They are generally older than me. Old ladies, retiree looking folks, middle aged folks. I feel young in SF libraries. I don’t know if it’s the sign of the times – kids use the internet, I suppose – or location, time of day, etc. I would’ve figured more kids around since it is next to a school. But it’s fine. Kids smell funny anyway.

Old school, it seems, can sometimes be enriching too.

I thought I’d wind down social engagements this week, but despite that, it was still hectic. I managed to spend some time with the family – had lunch with the brother and folks at Tiong Bahru Market for the first time, despite living nearby for so long while I was here, and painted Chinatown red with my folks. Today we went to Sentosa again.

One of the tasks I needed to complete while I was back this time was to renew my passport. I heard that it was a pretty straightforward exercise, and it would only take a week. They were wrong.

It took less than that.

It was such an easy, efficient and pleasant experience, I am totally impressed. Probably with the process. So here’s how it went.

Last Friday, 20 Feb, after uhming and awwing, I check out the ICA website for information on renewing my passport. There is a web-application option (APPLES). It costs $10 less than doing it at the ICA. You’ll need to submit your passport photo online. They provide the specs in detail. Totally cool.

I set up my gorillapod, put on a nice top, and take a couple of photos. I picked one that’d work, and had to correct the white balance, levels and crop the picture to spec. That took longer than the actual passport application process.

After I submit the photo – I had to pay for the passport. That was the bit that was a little iffy, because it required a new version of JRE that I didn’t have. As a result, I had to abandon the process and start a new one, because hitting “Back” doesn’t screws the system up. But anyway. I found it a little odd that they didn’t ask for my address in the submission form, just a mobile number and email, along with other identification details. But I thought, since I’m doing this online, perhaps it was the expected behaviour to complete the process completely electronically. So I didn’t put much more thought into it.

ICA website states it takes about 3-4 days to process. So I figured, perhaps they were right, processing + actual passport creation = 7 days or so. I figured they’d contact me the following Friday, and I could pick it up the week after. Not too shabby.

On Tuesday Feb 24, 3 working days after submission, I received an email from ICA saying my passport was ready for collection the next day. If I make an appointment, it would probably cut down the waiting time. They include a link to make an appointment with the email. I set the appointment for Friday, 27 Feb at 1.15pm.

On Wednesday Feb 25, we checked the letterbox. Received snail mail from ICA saying my passport is ready, please bring this mail along at collection. Gee, they must’ve gotten my address from my IC number! Putting two and two together, I decided to bring everything – whatever that was mentioned in the email, along with the physical snail mail notification to the ICA to collect my passport.

When I got the to ICA, signs indicated collection on the second level. I saw a few machines that were giving out queue numbers, as well as an information desk. I wanted to head to information because I was half an hour early for my appointed time, but since there was no one at the queue number machine but people at the information booth, I got a queue number first. Turns out that was where the snail mail notification was useful. There was a barcode that the machine read, and identified me instantly and gave me a number.

Queue number in hand, I ask the lady at the booth if it was ok that I was half an hour early for my appointment. Could I get my passport sooner? She said, no problem. And was going to get me a queue number when she saw I had one. She said, it’s ok. The system knows I’m early, but no matter. They’ll call when they’re ready, and even though it seems like there are 122 numbers in front of me, I won’t be called in that order. That’s nice, I thought. I found a seat, sat down, saw a moving ad about finding out my wait time by SMSing my queue number to a phone number and was about to hit “send” when my number flashed on the board. It took all of 6 minutes.

The nice lady at the counter greeted me, asked for my IC and old passport (which she punched holes in), took my thumbprint and signature, and I was done. I spent 10 minutes in total in the building. It was quick, pleasant and the counter service was excellent. I really enjoyed it!

I mean, they had all the information in a database to the point that they knew from me scanning a barcode who I was, which passport I was picking up, that I was early for my appointment (it showed my appointment time on the queue number chit), but the system was still smart enough to schedule me in without me having to wait for my appointed slot. Some thought must really have gone into the whole process planning. Very well done, ICA!

There are a few things that they could do to perfect the entire flow:

• Integrate the payment portion better – make the flow more like the Amazon experience – it’s familiar, it flows well. Right now you’ve to leave the ICA site to complete payment. That’s sort of iffy, not to mention suspicious. The whole JRE installation portion is screwed up. It’s circular, and if it would’ve been daunting to an internet novice.
• Be consistent with the messages via email and snail mail. In the email (which is received earlier) they should state clearly that the citizen should expect to receive physical notification that the passport was ready, and to bring that, along with the expiring passport and IC (these two were mentioned specifically though) when picking up the passport.
  In the snail mail notification, it gave the address of the ICA along with a message to collect the passport after 25 Feb. There was no mention of making an appointment to save time (and corresponding URL) or to bring the old passport and IC.
• Set expectations on how the process should work. I found out only at the ICA building that I should get a queue number, and that I should flash my IC or snail mail notification barcode to get the queue number. That could be communicated on both email and snail mail, instead of having the counter staff communicate it repetitively. Because thats where everyone would head to, since there’s doubt.
• Fix the appointment scheduler – this is a minor detail, but it really bugged me. The appointment scheduler is a shared application. However, on Firefox (I didn’t test on the other browsers) when it came to the page that displayed a physical calendar in squares, I had no clue each square was clickable. Usually anything clickable changes colour when you mouse over, or displays a link (something underlined). I had to double-click (?! who does that on a web page?!?!!) on a date-square to be given timing options to choose from. Describing that process as “not very intuitive” is an understatement. That expected behaviour is not realistic. There weren’t even clear instructions on the page, and that’s totally unacceptable. It’s an easy fix, so fix that first.

All in all though, I’m proud of the job they’ve done. This is how a first world country should work! But not all first countries function this efficiently. Anyone working there should also be proud of the level and standard of service that the ICA provides.

A week on the island later, I’ve fixed my bad eyesight and have met up with a bunch of friends. Made all the deliveries I needed to make, and just need a visit to the dentist and passport office.

I also managed to get myself into a secondary school reunion. The wonders of the innernet. I’ve not met a lot of these folks since we left school at 16, so the curious cat in me is kaypoh to find out how everyone’s doing. On the other hand, the antisocial in me would rather find out in a more passive way – like on Flickr. Guess we can’t all have our cake and eat it too.

So I’ve managed to keep myself entertained thus far:

• met up with some friends to deliver their loot
• got some random shopping done
• got my eyes checked out

Some highlights include:

• Sleeping so much on the plane I was so wide awake when I got to SG at midnight
• My dad thinking I was on some Japan Airlines flight and was still at home when I called to check if he was on the way to pick me from the airport
• Not being able to get on his wireless network when I got home
• Waking up at 6.30am after tossing about in bed for a couple of hours, and deciding to call KF to have him troubleshoot my wireless problems
• Getting onto the wireless network
• Checking out my brother’s new place
• Getting really sleepy at 5p
• Sleeping finally at 12.30am
• Receiving a wake up call at 12.20pm the next day from the lunch appointment
• Having lunch and two spots of tea right after – three groups met! And an incidental other
• Lunching with old JC buddy and getting my eyes checked
• Getting bitten by mosquitoes!

What’s left on my to-do list:

• Sim Lim stock check
• Funan stock check
• Visit the dentist
• Asian DVD shopping

Sounds like a plan!

20 hours, 2 flights, 3 pieces of luggage and many a Chinaman later, I’m back.

Got back to my parents’ at about 1am, had a shower, something to eat, and then proceeded to futz around trying to add my computer to his network. Didn’t work. Didn’t even come close.

3 hours later, I take a nap. Only to wake up 2 hours later hungry and bored. So I call KF, and with some tech-savvy via proxy, I manage to get myself onto my dad’s wireless network.

Now it’s hardly 8am, I’m up and I’m still hungry! Time for some pineapple tarts, I guess.

The inspectors visited, and seemed duly impressed (I think – but I won’t be sure until I hear the aftermath of the report they file with Zee Mom and Dad).

I tried to bribe them with a home cooked dinner, but it was a total bad-idea-v-w moment. HAHAHA. You know dinner is not going down well when they’re eating still crunchy broccoli with marinara sauce and wasabi mayonaise!

We drove them to the airport this morning so they can catch their connecting flight to Denver, CO. That went well, and they’re expected to return on Friday afternoon. So I’ve a few days to clean up, I suppose.

My uncle and aunt are arriving at SFO in 3 hours. I thought they were staying at a hotel tonight but when I called home last night (mistake!!) I was asked to host them if possible.

Crud.

Fervent, frantic cleaning and clearing up to follow, along with questions about my life (or lack of gainful employment). Bracing myself.

We were just kicking back after a light lunch, watching TV, when I saw a familiar sight.

Images of the Singapore skyline and the Raffles Hotel (along with the super well-known jagar there).

It was the most surprising thing, since it was a European news segment on KQED (a public educational channel). It seems that Germany is passing legislation to limit the amount of non-European holdings on German companies if those companies are deemed to have influence on national security.

They cited recent buys by sovereign wealth funds picking up large stakes in European banks, and utilities services.

And on that list, apparently Singapore’s GIC has picked up something like a 6.3 billion Euro stake in UBS, and something similar in Kelda Group, a company that provides water in Yorkshire, UK.

Go GIC!