Next stop: Stadium

After brunch, I convinced Dad to take the new Circle Line to the stop called "Stadium". I had wanted to alight there when I brought Grandma on the Circle Line trip on the 18th (of this month) but she did not seem too interested and we had alighted at Bras Basah instead.

This time around, I was determined and Dad was agreeable as he did not want to drink the coffee from the coffee shop that we took porridge in (read previous post) and off we went, taking the NEL to Dhoby Gaut and switching to the Circle Line there. Dhoby Gaut is now super busy, it being the interchange of 3 different lines.

When we arrived at Stadium, this was what we saw:

One of the two stations with natural sky light. The other station is Bras Basah.


See the far end of the escalator on the first picture? This is what I can actually see, except that I had to walk nearer in order to get a nicer picture.




We shopped a little at Kallang Leisure Park and had our coffee at Wang Cafe. I ended up buying groceries from the Cold Storage there and as I was about to leave the place, there was an announcement to grab goodie bags as long as we have a minimum spending of $10. I quickly retraced my steps to collect my goodie bag and was happy that I got 2 of them! Reason being that my spending at Cold Storage was over $20. Wow! What a great day it was turning out to be!

I was happy too soon though for when I tried to top up my ez-link card at the new top-up machine, it failed to do so. I panicked as I did not see any station control except for this counter that looked more like a store room than anything else.

Thank goodness there were instructions to speak via an intercom to the officer. I pressed. Waited for about 12 seconds before there was a response and after briefly describing my plight, was told to wait for an officer to assist me. It was a good two or three minutes before I saw a figure of an officer, half running towards me. I soon got to know why.

The station control was right at the other end of where I was and I tell you, it could have been a 100m dash or maybe even 200m!! No wonder she took so long to reach me! I was breathing a little heavily after I was told to go there to get my card checked. Turns out that mine was not an isolated case. Ha! Systems. Do I know about them! I used to have to explain all the system boo-boos to customers and from that experience, I have learned that I need to give these staff a little trust and let them do their thing.

Apparently, if I used the old General Sales Machine (GSM) to top-up, they would have been able to check and re-fund accordingly (if any). But because this new top-up machine is by NETS, there is no way for immediate action. Forms were being filled out by the CSO (customer service officer) I had to fill in some personal details myself and then I had to wait. For two weeks. I suupose, they need to check with NETS and then ding dong a little before they find out whether money had been deducted from my NETS card.

I emphasise again, that if I did not work in a similar environment before, I would have screamed and shouted things like "I want my money back NOW!" or "How do I know that you are not cheating me of my money" or "Now that you have taken my receipt then what proof would I have that a transaction did take place?", etc, etc. Instead, I just smiled, nodded my head as she explained away and was very cooperative.

After that, I took a pleasant ride back to where I live. Happy and excited, as I was already planning what to cook for dinner.