Today I went down to the Co-op with Daisy and Norman to place an order for a new notebook. It seemed like a simple procedure, since I already had a model in mind, and all I would need to do is to produce my matric card for verification.

The lady at the counter asked me if I had purchased a notebook under the ownership scheme before and I said yes. many moons ago.. when I was an undergraduate. She took my matric card and even dug out my old matric number.

"Did you get a loan for that?"

"Yes, but its paid up already"

"I need to get clearance from the bank to verify that you've paid up, and you need to get a written consent from the com centre for the return of the ethernet card"

"WTF?!?!?" cue blank stares from all 3 of us. "But.. that was like 8 years ago! I don't even know where the computer is now and most of all... if I hadn't paid up that loan, the interest accumulated would be even higher than the principle!!!"

"Yes.. but we still need to see all these.. SOP you know"

And that was that.. I was discussing the next course of action with my mates when a few minutes later, she came back with a form and asked me to fill it up the order form. Blank stares again. Didn't she just say a few minutes earlier that it was no go without the documents?

"Oh.. its ok.. no need to see all these lah (I was just kidding)" almost in a 'gotcha!' tone.. apparently, they do this to regularly. Throw people off with required documents (who uses an ethernet card nowadays anyway?) have fun watching their reactions for a few minutes and then everything's ok. Will have to wait 3 weeks for it to arrive though. Hopefully it'll come on time.




The one that got away... frog fish from Taiwan.