Funny little encounter....

....I experienced last week which, after so many days, still rings fresh in my mind and I've decided (after some prodding) to put it down.

I happened to find myself out east at the Singapore Expo Centre (not sure what the real name is - more on that place another time...) and helping to set up a booth for some trade show going on there and this is what I encountered - on the opening morning of the trade show, I got a call from a colleague to meet him at the entrance to the hall as he needed a hand to carry a workstation into the hall.

Strange, I felt, as we went around carrying such things with trolleys. So I trodded outside to help him, only to see there were a few trolleys outside with people hand-carrying all sorts of equipment, by hand, into the hall. Huh?

So, feeling a bit ridiculous over what I saw, I decided to approach the security guard. And the conversation went something like this (in hindsight, I really wished I had recorded it, for posterity, if anything):

Me - "Excuse me, can I wheel my workstation into the hall"
Guard - "No, cannot. Must carry into the hall"
Me - "Why not? This is an expensive and very heavy piece of workstation"
Guard - "Cannot. Minister coming. So cannot use trolley. Must use hand to carry"
Me - Puzzled "Why minister coming cannot use trolley, ah?"
Guard - Pointing the walkie-talkie at me threateningly "Cannot. Minister coming"
Me - "So, if I carry this computer and I drop it because it too heavy, then how? Who will compensate my company?"
Guard - Silence....
Me - "But still cannot use trolley?"
Guard - "No. Minister coming"
Me - repeat earlier question about dropping the computer and who would compensate me
Guard - "You wait ah - I call my supervisor"

And guess what? The whole "minister is coming" conversation repeated itself. And I was then passed on to the supervisor's "boss", who repeated the "minister is coming" conversation yet again but eventually realised I wasn't going to back down, relented and, lo and behold, we were all allowed to wheel our hardware.

And guess what? I never saw the minister coming our way although, with all due respect to the minister concerned, I really would have wanted to ask what his stand was for trolleys.

In the end, I'm not sure which I found more amusing - the whole "minister is coming" excuse being used to hold every trolley off at the entrance (I should have taken a pic of that too - in hindsight, it really was quite funny) or the fact that everyone else just left their trolleys there and actually carried their stuff in. By hand.

Arrgh.....