Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 55

"Singapore Heritage Shophouse No. 55"
6x6 Oil on Panel
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I'm finally getting back into the swing of things, and it's just about time to check out again for a week.  Sigh.  The summers are always super hectic here.  People are gone a lot visiting family, new people are moving in, others are getting transferred out, and  usually we are traveling ourselves; things just seem to be busy.  Speaking of which, I had a lovely lunch and foray to the art store with someone who is new to Singapore.  I love getting new people into the city; it is such a breath of fresh air.  New friendships new experiences, new stories.  Plus I would be lying if I didn't say I wasn't kind of worried with most of our friends repatriating (moving back to the US) at the end of December.  The future was starting to look a bit lonely. 

In any case, I was also waxing about how efficient yet completely inefficient Singapore can be.  Library, car tolls and parking violations are the most scarily efficient process I have ever seen.  There are no people involved and it is totally automated.  Notifications of fines and fees are sent via mail.  Other things, not so much.  Like any kind of internet payment.  With a lot of the payment vendors online, you have to enter your debit card info on the website, then it sends you a text message to verify that the transaction was authorized (even on small transactions - like $20 for movie tickets), then you have to type in the verification code from your text message back onto a special website within three minutes or your transaction resets. It's a total nightmare.

So today I was trying to register my business with Singapore (online, super efficient, right?).  It's about a three step process, once you go through the eight step process of getting a special PIN that requires you to sign over your first born child while getting a text message and hopping on your left foot (and I digress... I really don't get these extra special PINs and passwords that can only be obtained through superhuman means).  In any case, after this short, three step process, I accidentally clicked on the wrong form of payment.  Any other website in the west, it would be no big deal, just click back, or exit out, or whatever.  Nope, instead, I get this crazy screen of doom:

"Please try again after 27 minutes" SERIOUSLY?  27?  I'll rate you!

So now its an hour later and I still can't get the website to acknowledge the fact that I exist.  Le sigh.  I was just ONE STEP AWAY from a perfect efficient easy experience.  Welcome to Asia.