I went to the post office today to mail a couple of birthday cards and there was this sweet lady there who was soooo kind, she just made my day. There were 3 counters available and there was no queue. So I went straigt to this lady cause she has attemded to me before and in my mind, I have this vague memory that she was nice. She greeted me with a sweet smile and said, 'Hi. Hello.'

I responded with a weak smile as I was busy checking the envelopes that time, making sure that I had on the correct addresses and recepients, oblivious to the fact that I was being greeted with a double hello. And then she said, 'Good morning. May I help you?'

'Yes please. I'd like some stamps for these envelopes.'

'This one will be 60 cents and this other one will be 85 cents.'

I looked into my purse and dear me, I only had a crisp $50.00 bill.

'I'm sorry but it seems like this is all I got.'

'Oh that's quite alright,' she said.

One thing nice here in Singapore is that the merchants very, very rarely run out of change. They don't get cranky if you give them big bills. And they don't turn the tables over to you by asking if you have $3.50 so they can give you a $45.00 change. They would trust that if you had any change on you at all, you wouldn't be giving them a $50.00 bill in the first place. Believe me... that has happened to me before but that was in another place and time.

'Would you like to buy one of these raffle tickets? It's for charity,' she said before giving me my change.

'How much are they?'

'$3.00 apiece.'

So was that it then? Was she being kind in the hope of selling me a raffle ticket? Shame on me for the thought. Besides, even if I didn't buy a ticket, there's no taking away the kindness she has already extended to me. Oh, but I'm such a sucker for kind people.

'Okay, I'll get one.'

'Your choice,' she said as she splayed the tickets fan-like before me.

I chose one and asked, 'So how do I win?'

'Scratch this one and maybe you'll win an instant price. If you don't, there's still the raffle where you can win $50,000.00'

Right. As if I ever won anything in my life. But I went on and scratched where she pointed. As I was doing this, she got out her wetting sponge and dabbed my stamps on it and pasted them on my envelopes. She even got out a couple of 'Par Avion' stickers and stuck one on each.

'Nope. I didn't win an instant price.'

'Well you can wait for the raffle then. The results will come out on the Straits Times after the 12th of August. Good luck!'

'Hey thanks. And thanks for sticking my stamps too. You're very kind.'

And I really meant it, even if I probably got duped for $3.00. Oh well, I've never been treated so nicely at a post office before anyway. The best service I ever got before this was to have my stamps layed down unhurriedly on the counter. Usually, they would be tossed over.