Lion, Sotong and Kiasuism

The Lion King musical posters were everywhere, everybody was talking about it. Even Sotong, who never does anything artsy, couldn't help feeling curious about it. But tickets were so expensive, wouldn't it be a waste if I didn't know how to appreciate it?

The perfect opportunity presented itself - my company was selling heavily subsidized tickets to staff.

• Platinum $240 $60
• A Reserve $185 $45
• B Reserve $165 $40
• C Reserve $125 $30
• D Reserve $85 $20
• E Reserve $65 $15

The tickets booking would start at 12 noon on 27 May, first-come-first-serve.

Cool! Now I can test my interest cheaply!

But only 1 pair of tickets per lucky staff. Need 1 more so I can go with both my siblings. Need help from a colleague! Who would possibly be UNinterested in cheap Lion King? On the prowl for victims...

"I really think you don't want to watch Lion King."

Not being a very successful lioness here. I could only think of N, whose husband was likely to be overseas during the period, so no one would be watching with her and hence she's probably not going!

I sounded her interest by... being very direct. She agreed to help me. Thanks! :D However, I was slightly taken aback by the readiness. I suggested that she should still check with her husband. Should she change her mind, just let me know.

The next day, I checked with N again, but she hadn't spoken to her husband yet. Again, I emphasized that she has priority, but she should let me know as earlier if she decided to keep the tickets for herself, so I could look for someone else to help me. She said ok.

When I probed again a few days later, she said her husband might be interested, but as of now, she's still helping me. Uh oh. Confirm with me soon ok?

A few days later, still no reply. Getting insecured. Paiseh to probe her further :(

N still didn't give me an answer even when it was already the day before The Day. And she's on leave. And I'll be on leave on The Day. How to coordinate effort like that? For one thing, I knew she's taking leave because her husband was back and she's spending time with him. So I should take it that she's not helping me? Better get my backup plan together just in case. Looked around the office for targets... seriously, I think the whole office was interested in going and looking for extra tickets themselves lor.

Had to stay back to guide T, a colleague from country C to do data upload. He has A DAMN LOT of questions! I would have finished in half the time if I didn't have to entertain him :\ He had bad breath, yet sitting so close to me *gasped for air* Why did so many of them have bad breath??

He could repay me in some way though... *tentacles creeping up behind him*

Sotong: 你有去看 Lion King 吗?
T: 什么来着?

Yes! Chance!

I told him about the mass email. Seemed like colleagues from country C were always left out of such things, although they were also considered National Cockup Schedules staff. As such, T wasn't sure if he was eligible at all, although he didn't mind helping me. Har... Ok let's do it this way. If N couldn't help me tomorrow, I would get T to help me. If he's wasn't eligible, too bad for me. Since I would be on leave, I would need to contact T by phone or online. New contact on my MSN... Hugged the laptop home since I might need VPN to access the booking link.

The Day, a.k.a. today, has come. I was on leave and was supposed to go out for lunch and shop, but all had to wait because the hyperlink to book the tickets would only be revealed at 12 noon. VPN-ready. So at 11.30am, I was all dressed and ready to step out of the house to start my day, but couldn't because I had to camp in front of the computer -_- It's like NUS arts tutorial bidding all over again. Nostalgia.

Smsed N, but she didn't reply. Called her, but she didn't pick up. Gone to the washroom? Maybe.

Waited...

That's too long for a toilet break. Gone chit-chatting? T was online! I asked him to see if N was around. She wasn't, maybe gone for lunch? That's real early... got to wait for her to return call then.

Almost 12 noon and still no response from N. She don't know this kind of thing need to be first one meh? How's she going to get the tickets for herself or me or anybody if she's at lunch at this critical time? T, help me please! T was sooo nice :D

12 noon! But still no Lion King link. Kept refreshing my webmail, but still don't have. J was camping at home too, like me. Glad to know it's not that the HR had left me out.

HR sent an email saying that there was a problem and they were working to resolve it. Walau... faster lah, I want to go out! No idea how long they would take, didn't dare to leave my computer :S

Finally, the link came! I sent the link to T too. Attack!

Taking damn long to load. Opening multiple tabs didn't help. Same result with Firefox and IE. Argh! Something curious, it's a Sistic website, meaning it's public. So no need VPN lah. 害我（爸爸） laptop 回家. How were they going to prevent outsiders from ordering? Also meant that helpers need not be SinkHell staff...

Finally I got through to the booking page. Wa Platinum was sold out already! M had advised me not to choose the Dress Circle seats as they could be quite far back. I selected Stalls seats for A Reserve, keyed in the captcha, but it said I got it wrong. Ok again... still wrong?? It kept accusing me of keying wrongly. I where got so lousy! It happened to J too. Walau system cock up lah! Frustrating! Sistic should have known this would be like the whole SinkHell launching a DDoS attack on them. Shouldn't they have increased the server capacity? Maybe the main Sistic website wasn't working now as well, haha!

J told me that it was rumored that SinkHell people received the links way before we did and had already helped themselves to the Platinum seats. If it were true, UNFAIR!

Ah I got through the captcha! I made the mistake of choosing my own seats, because it took a freaking long time to load the seating plan!! Like hang there! So long that, if there were any seats at all, they would be gone by now. Sigh, gave up on that session, balek.

I suspected that the captcha mystery might be a way of telling us that the seats were sold out. This time, whenever it accused me of poor tying again, I changed the seating area. And I let the system assign the best seats. The less clicks, the faster I could complete the transaction.

T got to the confirmation! It's Dress Circle seats, but A Reserve, so not so bad! Not so fast, roadblock! A Sistic account was required. What... I thought it would be asking for National Cockup Schedules staff particulars lor... instead, we just got the usual Sistic workflow. Cheapo. I was apprehensive about giving out my Sistic account to outsiders, but on the other hand, I feared asking T to sign up his own account would result in requests which the server obviously couldn't handle already. Nah!

Hey my confirmation screen was up! Different seating area from T, but at least it was on the same day.

The confirmation itself took time to get through. Heaved a sigh of relief when it did. Double heave when the confirmation email arrived. 1pm already. Thanked T profusely. He had to go for late lunch all because of me. So touched!

Results: 2 D Reserve Stalls, CC 2,3 + 1 A Reserve, B 47. All so off-centre lor... hope can see.

The extra browser tabs we opened started getting through too. Looked like the server was finally getting a breather.

And finally I could go out. Couldn't help but feel pissed with N. She didn't reply me at all. I guessed she's probably on leave too. She's not obliged to, but it I really felt she should have at least informed me that she's not helping me. Or she's paiseh about deciding to keep the tickets for herself? I could only guess. I'm not going to raise this topic to her after today and will pretend it never happened.

At least, I learned something about N from this.