The ultimate (so far) seat chopper!

In Singapore, we have this concept of "chope-ing" seats. Basically, it is an informal style of seat reservations in the crowded economy food eateries (Hawker Centres and Food Courts) where there are no waiter/resses to take your order and no 10% service charge that do not actually get employed to provide service. I have yet to see this be used in a fast food eatery such as KFC though.

The general tool for this reservation is the non-exciting pack of tissue paper. A table with a tissue paper on it is treated as if it has "reserved" stamped (chopped, in singlish) on it. Although I myself have never used it, I do wonder who started the trend. Quite a useful system I think, from the perspective of a single guy who tends to eat out alone. It is tough to queue for food, look out for seats, and hope that the ones you find would still be available by the time you reach there.

Now, here is the amazing episode. It has got nothing to do with eateries though. I was on a crowded bus one day, heading for my class. It even had people standing at the second level (where I was seated, and no, they are not supposed to do that.) 2-3 rows behind me, there was a guy who had his bag occupying half of the available seat. He appeared to be so engrossed with his PSP (Play Station Portable), that he managed to completely ignore another guy who was standing right beside the seat. (I think the standing guy tried to say something, which I did not catch) 10 or so minutes later, his phone rang and he answered briefly in a kind of annoyed tone before going back to his game. 2-3 minutes later, a gal came up the stairs, walked pass my seat, and plonked herself beside the guy (whom had somehow removed his bag). Turns out that he was reserving a seat on the bus for her, and they managed to time the boarding somehow.

I was like "..."