In one of my past recent entries I mentioned that I have lost the concept of weekdays and weekends with the elimination of book-in and book-out days from my weekly schedule. That was then. Now, I am more calendar-conscious due to the way my tuition and driving lessons are planned. Add to that the fact that weekdays are inherently very different from weekends, it is not really that hard to tell whether I am on a Saturday or a Wednesday.

The arrival of weekend heralds mugging because tuitions are on Sundays. Weekends are when entertainment is pricier but unfortunately the only time when friends are free from work/studies/NS so that inevitably means going out.

And going out is when the problem comes. Weekends are charactersied by crowded public transport. MRT and buses are excludable and competitive in consumption; on weekends when there is higher passenger volume, there is reduced satisfaction on the part of the consumer (me). The situation is made worse when our shrewd bus monopoly tries to maximise profit per trip by not increasing the frequency of service despite the increase in passenger volume. I love bus rides but not when I have to stand for upwards of half an hour getting jostled and pushed by body masses all the time.

A lot of these people who take the train and bus eventually reach places like Orchard and Vivocity which would be teeming with people. I absolutely abhor going to town on weekends, but I still go because there is nowhere else to. The once-peaceful little town called Telok Blangah now sees thousands of curious Singaporeans flocking to the new giantess shopping mall everyday. And I mean EVERYDAY, weekend or not. The difference is that it gets even worse on weekends. NEL turnover is probably at its historical high with Habourfront station now resembling Boon Lay terminal, albeit an air-conditioned one. Taking NEL has lost the sense of 'exclusiveness' that I had always reveled in.

I shudder to think that I am having an outing at Vivocity tomorrow. And it's a public holiday.