Taxi Driver which does not know the road name!

That was quiet frustrated that today about 3.05pm I wanted to take a taxi to Singapore Island Country Club Singapore for a meeting at the taxi stand that just next to Ang Mo Kio MRT.

I saw there are at least 5 taxis queuing at this taxi stand.
When I sit into this taxi (vehicle number SH something and follow by the number 6024 and some alphabetical) and I told him I wanted to go Singapore Island Country Club, this Chinese old man about 60+ told me he did not know the place, so he do not go there! He waive his hand (means don’t do me business) even I try to pass my street directory map to him.I hate this type of unprofessional taxi driver!
So I get out of this taxi and try to copy down his number, he quickly drive a way so I can’t really copy down the full detail of his vehicle number.

When I go into the taxi behind him, this Chinese taxi driver who in his 60+ driver also trying to do the same thing to me but he stopped it after he remember he saw me copied down the taxi number in front him just now.

So he got no choice have to fetch me to the destination indicated by me.
Of course, I really past the street directory map to him for reference.

I hardly understand that why so many taxi drivers don’t know how to go to many roads and as a taxi driver, most of them not even has a street directory which cost Singapore dollar $12.90 including GST?Maybe I am the only passenger in this small country who facing this problem?

Interesting Clouds

It was not 'crowd', it just cloud!Just took these photos at East Coast Park.

The Art of Control the Crowd III

Through controlling of the queue, you can see many kinds of peoples; like their attitude, the way their reactions…..and their ‘Creativities’.

As a professional event artist, I always try my best to draw as much caricature as possible and try maintain the best quality within such time frame as I can.

In some type of events (usually in companies’ family days) , if there are 10 peoples in your queue, it doesn’t means there are really having 10 peoples queuing for your drawing, it could be multiple of the amount!

What I mean is: while I think this lady is the next person to be drawn in my queue, she does not sit down but will waive her hands and get both of her sons and husband cut the queue to sit down and get drawn instead!Based on this scenario, if one person queuing for 2 family members, you are going to draw 30 persons even though there are only 10 persons in the queue. That is the unexpected circumstances you need to handle.

Of course, people come to family day is to enjoy, there are many free gifts can be taken home and everyone just wanted to ensure each of their family members having the gifts, that is understood.

Unfortunately, we, the entertainers in-charged of producing free gifts might not able to fulfill every single guest’s need due to ensure the event running smoothly within the event’s time frame.

New Immigrant Belly Dancer and Drummer

I just found that these belly dancer and the drummer are wife and husband after watched Channel 8’s Thursday 10.30pm-11.00pm documentary ‘焦点’ yesterday.That is something new to me after met them in many events but did not know this at all, that was interesting to me yesterday ;p

Indian’s Deepavali Celebration

Passing by Little India after shopped for some computer stuffs at Sim Lim Square and found the decoration of Little India was very nice, so I just took some photos.

The Art of Control the Crowd II

Why need crowd control? We need to ensure we are not over work during the booking hour(s), the event organisers also might need to ensure the crowd proceed to the next stage (like getting every guests seated to pay their respect and attention to the related persons’ speech eg. the chairman giving speech the guests.)

This also ensures the rest of the planned programme to be running smoothly, for example, in the dinner and dance, usually the fringe activities start from 6.30pm – 7.30pm, the guests need to be seated in the ballroom by 7.45pm and then the dancers do the opening dance from 7.45pm till 8.00pm and follow by the chairman’s speech etc, every scheduled programming have to be execute in time!
Especially during the peak period of company dinner and dance like November and December, many entertainers having tight schedules (like those dancers, magicians, Chinese opera mask changing performance, vocalists, models etc. needed to rush to another place to do their performance.) hence any delay will cause the relevant schedule go hair wired, either the event organisers or the entertainers themselves.

Imaging you supposed performance your belly dancing 8pm till 8.30pm at hotel A and your next performance will be at hotel B from 9.15pm-9.45pm, you sure pray every of your show should be done within the scheduled time frame.

We, the fringe art artists (caricaturists, silhouette cutting artists, henna, airbrushes, glamour shoot and etc have to be stop in time to help the smooth running of the event.

The Art of Crowd Control During Events

Whether you are in charge caricature drawing, airbrush tattoo or doing any complementary items in the events, I am very sure you always face the big crowd or people queuing for their free stuffs.

After many years’ experience doing event, I found that crowd control for complimentary stuffs is one of the very important thing we need to do.

To me, crowd control is an art. You can’t expect there is always having event officers or crew to help in the crowd control, hence you need to control by yourself and I found that is the best way to make the show running smoothly.

For example, during my caricature drawing session (stationary type, not roving type), I will estimate how many people I can draw within the last 30minutes, and then I will quickly go to the queue and past my colorized papers to the limited peoples in the queue, I told the queue I can only draw these amount of peoples within the last 30minutes’ working hour, hence basically avoided any disappointment and frustrations.

Some artists was passing own made queue number to the queue in 30 minutes in advance as well, it work as well.