Mind the gap

So the reason why I haven't been online or blogging much in the past week or so is because
1. My virusscan subscription has run out.
2. The new Norton Antivirus which the rest of the coms at home use sucks.
3. The Panda Antivirus (which may or may not suck) doesn't want to install itself because it is scared and says that etrust EZ antivirus is already taking its space in the bamboo forest that is my com. All efforts to coax the Panda to mate have failed.
4. Thus the only way forward is to reformat my com and bulldoze the bamboo forest and replace it with a squeaky clean glass enclosure. I needed to reformat anyway.
5. However I can't do this without backing up lots of stuff.
6. I unfortunately have not had the time to do this because of all that work stuff and meeting up with people and playing pirates and whatnot.
7. Thus I have not been online.

However, I HAVE been taking the MRT a fair bit, and things i noticed:

1. "Please mind the platform gap."
What's up with that? Are we trying to be more and more like the British? In Paris only the number 1 metro line actually warns you of the gap, since that's the line which all the tourists (which are presumably less observant than locals) use. Kinda strange in Singapore, have more people been falling into the gaps since I left? And somehow the phrase gives me a sort of snooty British kind of a feeling. "Mind that gap, will you, ol' chap?" Singapore MRT should have something which instead says "Carefoo! Got hole!".

2. The faded Singa courtesy lions with their multilingual messages have been replaced with a warning not to kill yourself and act responsibly. Since, of course, throwing yourself onto the tracks would make lots of people late for appointments and things, you selfish cad. At first I thought it was just a series of signs at Simei MRT because of its proximity to Changi General Hospital, but then i noticed that the nice friendly colored lion with the smileyface on its shirt was indeed gone. Tragedy. I guess lots of people need to mind the gaps.

3. Jurong East is neither in the East, nor used as an indication for when the trains running east-west are coming, but for the north-bound trains instead. Poor tourists must be confused. Maybe that's when they fall into the gaps.

4. I've actually seen a dog have its hindlegs fall into the gap once while alighting from a Paris train, it sort of scrabbled a bit and its owner pulled it out. Poor thing must've been terrified. Maybe they should have the message in dog-language, too.