Cheating the System

I was browsing through my old entries that I never published when I came across this entry which I started on the 21st of July 2008.



So we have all heard of and in fact done things ourselves to cheat the system of everything and anything that can be cheated.


My walk of fame includes using someone else's ID to enter the gym (so I do not have to pay the appalling 2.50 pounds), faking my age when entering clubs when I was still underage back then, using someone else's ID to claim things on their behalf because all Asian people look the same here in the UK, while the top of the list includes a group of us working in perfect unison to smuggle people into the student union (one of the nights many years ago) to avoid paying entrance fees.


I'm just the tip of the iceberg, there are a whole lot of other things people do, that is so smart you would not think that it is possible.


But as the saying goes, what comes around, goes around.


So here I was this happy afternoon, skipping along as the sun shone down....





and?

What happened?????

Think as hard as I might - I realised that this incident that probably provoked me enough to warrant an entry had been completely replaced with the doses required to treat a community acquired pneumonia.

500mg Amoxycillin TDS
or
500mg Clarithromycin BD

But, I DO want to know what was it that came back to me and made me eat my own hat. This is enormously frustrating.

The student union mentioned in the old post above is non other than Saturday night's Big Cheese at Potterrow where yes, I now remember clearly how Matthew coyly chatted up the bouncer, how WeiWei and Alvin blocked the cashier's counter pretending to pay for 2 people, while the other 20 or so of us slipped right through, blending in with the dark shadows and *fill space with your imagination*.

Of course, highly illegal - but now at the end of my university years, with finals coming up in 4 weeks, I think back of all the stupidly smart things my friends and I have done since first year; the list obviously getting much shorter as the years wore on.

The most infamous one I remember was our first trip ever over Easter of year 1 - to Amsterdam. Upon finding out that the train ticket to Keukenhoff(the flower gardens) from Amsterdam was double the price compared to the station before Keukenhoff, we made the ultimate decision that we will buy the half price ticket to the station one stop away from our intended destination.

The plan was simple.

Pretend to sleep - when the ticketman comes around - become all flustered and stutter - hopefully they will let us poor Asians with our multitude of luggage off at the next station(which WILL be Keukenhoff) and kindly point us in the right direction to get back to the station before.

So when the ticketman came around, we executed the plan brilliantly with our very own Vicky scoring Oscar for Best Actress of the year.

Yes, the ticket conductor was ever so kind to see our panicked faces, ever so sympathetic with our high pitched voices and ever so helpful to point us out at the next (ahem, correct) station on how to board another train and backtrack.

Little did he know after thanking him profusely and flashing him with the sweetest smiles ever, we bolted out of the turnstile at Keukenhoff at a100 miles per hour, never looking back.

The same trip saw us using 1 ticket while two people went through the turnstile at the metro in Paris, or 1 person goes through - walks to the automatic exit door - opens the door from the inside - and everyone else troops in FOC. Even in the presence of CCTV cameras.

Brazen were we.

But like I said, what goes around, comes around.

That trip ended with 3 of us losing our cameras. That is a 50% hit list.
(Look, I know I had just recently lost my purse twice and also my camera 2 years ago, but I was NOT in that hitlist. Stop sniggering)

Summer of year 1 saw us in Germany, trying to pull the same tricks.

Thinking that no one checks whether we have tickets or not on our trips on the metro, we decided that there is no point in getting a €0.80 ticket to travel that one way.

Up til the 5th day when 2 ticket conductors boarded the same carriage as us and started asking people for their tickets.

O M G.

I still remember the pure terror and adrenaline that went through my veins as I inched farther and farther away from them.
Problem was - there were 2 of them and they started from either end of the carriage, working their way to the middle.
So caught like a rabbit in headlights, I stood trapped at centre of the carriage, praying that the next station will come soon enough.

One of them tapped me on the shoulder to ask for my ticket.

Don't even ask me where the others were. 10 of us Asians in that one carriage, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible?

Not

A

Chance.

I fumbled around, pretending to look into my bag.

Ting

The doors opened at the next station.

And. I. Fled.

If you had never been a hunted man before, go find an opportunity.

All I saw out of the corner of my eyes were my friends leaping out of the train and...

Fear brought me to a higher level where self protection is key.

So I skedaddled out of the station, taking the stairs 5 at a time, hid behind a bush at the station entrance and peered out with saucer eyes -

Only to be met by another friend who ALSO took the flight of the wanted with wings at his ankles.

So we waited for more to appear.
1 minute
5 minutes
10 minutes
15....

And the other 8 of them traipsed out of the station, downcast and dejected.

For good reason.

Each and everyone of my fantastic friends got fined €40 for not possessing a €0.80 metro ticket.

That sucked. 5 years ago, €40 is a lot. In fact, it is a lot up til now.

Therefore, from 1st year onwards, I made a solemn promise that I would not cheat the system again. Escaping such a fate is my luck and I honestly think I'd had enough of adrenaline rush to last me a lifetime.

But obviously, no.

Something came back to me according to the post on the 21st of July 2008.

If only I did not need to learn how to save someone's life from a community required pneumonia.


I'd still be basking in the glory of my youthful days.