A Singaporean In Australia

Anonymous commenter said: [link]

Too bad he/she didn't leave a name behind for me to properly congratulate him/her for gaining enlightenment and mastering life. I'm full of envy. For some reason, I couldn't seem to make anything out of this statement. What I meant was I failed to understand what it actually meant.

For a start, what is a "true talent" ? Obviously I'm not one of them, for I'm not smart enough to comprehend this statement. I ask of you guys out there to explain what do we define as a "true talent" in Singapore? Is it someone with an exquisite pair of hands to revive a half-dead Dendrobium crumenatum, someone who could restore any machine which stopped working, someone who could charm the birds down from a tree, someone who aces every academic examination, someone who could win a boxing match with his hands cuffed behind him?

What is your take?

Without a proper definition, it is pointless taking on the rest of the statement. I don't need anyone to agree what is the correct definition because the statement is false irregardless. I would safely say any of our ministers in parliament could be defined as a 'true talent'. After all we are paying each and every of them millions of dollars per annum. If these folks aren't 'true talents', at least I can identity 'true fools' - the people who agreed to pay them. No, Singaporeans are not fools, so a minister of Singapore is a true talent. No arguments.

Let's carry on. Can these "true talents" find a job in USA? I'm not sure. I don't know anyone living in the US and don't have much readers from there. If you are one, you are welcome to contribute your input. I know for one, if Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the most important man in Singapore was to give up his Singaporean citizenship and become an Australian, he would not land a job at a Mac Donald's in Perth. Not because he is over-qualified. Nobody cares if you are over-qualified here. If you could not convince them you could flip that burger well enough, you're out. If you do not have local working experience, you're out. Lee Hsien Loong has neither.

Hey. That's not being fair isn't it? Obviously the prime minister has no experience in frying fries and probably can't even say, "Upsize the downsize?" properly in Mac Donald's here. He is a politician, a great one. So let's see if he could be a politician in Western Australia. Labour Party? Liberal? Let's face it, he'll end up picking fruits in Swan Valley.

Could Warren Buffet or Bill Gates end up as a 'true talent' in our parliament if they would to take up Singapore Citizenship? I mean, they're quite good aren't they? No. Especially that Bill Gates chap, school dropout. Maybe we could slot him in to be Tin Pei Ling's PA. That's about it. He could perhaps help out a little in fixing the faulty PCs of poor residents in Macpherson. That Buffet guy? Wouldn't get anywhere near Temasek Holdings. Maybe an executive officer in MAS lah!

I would confidently say the top plumber in Perth takes in at least 6 figure salary per annum. Let's just call our top plumber, Super Mario. A true talent in his field by any standard, no doubt about it. Just how well will Super Mario fare in Singapore? If only I could send Super Mario to this mission. I would probably see him barking at some Bangladeshi workers as a site supervisor in the flash ponding during the next monsoon cycle.

Wait a minute. If everyone is a 'true talent' what makes of the rest of the population? Most of the people must be mediocre to make the small better portion 'talents'. If most of the people are good, that makes the small 'talented' minority outstanding. Let's just agree these are talents and not debate if our definition of a talent is flawed in the first place.


What about the rest?


If you are not a 'true talent' then what? Can we even choose not to be a 'true talent'? If not, why aren't we given a choice? Sadly, this Singapore society has advanced to a stage where you're either in or out. So much for inclusiveness.


As a 'non-talent' of Singapore, I am surprised to find that the likes of me, the losers of life, are welcome here to contribute to the society. A hard day's work for a hard's day pay. Commoner, average man on the streets but able - and allowed - to raise a family as a sole breadwinner. I felt like that average son that my family cast out to the streets. Fortunately the neighbour is willing to take me in.

There are many more things that aren't right in my eyes here, work processes in particular. I could only do a bit each day but give me half a year here, the place will be transformed significantly, fortified with elements from my homeland. If anyone were to take note of the changes one day, I will tell them ... this ... is the Singaporean Way. It isn't perfect but we believe in an ever-improving system and we are proud of it.

In Part I, I shared a brief history and the government's weak justifications of establishing the Group Representation Constituency system. Obviously, the GRC was drawn up as a political tool to help the PAP retain power rather than serve its said purposes.

The incumbent's favourite tactic is fielding one or two "heavy weight" ministers as the "anchor", relatively experienced MPs and slipping in new faces. The numbers selected for each category will depend on the GRC and the expected opposition contesting in it. If a walkover is expected, the maximum number of new faces will be pumped into the team to allow them a seat in parliament before a single vote is casted on election day. The GRC was designed to allow the PAP to never taste defeat again. Indeed, it was almost flawless and worked for almost two decades. Until......

The price of "losing all" by fielding the best candidates to contest against the PAP in an GRC is a serious deterring factor that any opposition party has to deal with. Over the years, opposition parties had probed around with the system and found that the GRC moat was impermeable. In the last election, it was observed that opposition parties have realised the only way to stand a slightest chance of victory was to field the best team but risk paying the heavy price in defeat. There is simply no way around it. A surprising victory for the Worker's Party in Aljunied GRC would change the electoral history of Singapore forever.

There was a lot of discussions after Worker's Party's victory. Most of the discussion revolved around whether losing a "good PAP minister" in George Yeo was too heavy a price to pay for opposition voice in parliament. Amidst these discussions most of us forgot one thing - how is the PAP going to ever win back Aljunied GRC?

I would assume the Worker's Party team to remain unchanged to consolidate its position. Low Thia Khiang spent two decades in Hougang before leaving to contest in another ward so we would expect status quo in the lineup. After all, voters would not be happy if Worker's Party attempts to tweak anything and they probably know it. With that in mind, the GRC system that the PAP had cleverly designed has became an unlikely double edged sword. Aljunied GRC became the gun that is pointing the wrong way for the PAP. Under normal circumstances, the Worker's Party will never have won in that contest. However with many factors ranging from bad publicity of some PAP team members, a rare talent joining the WP team, a generally weak PAP performance in the years prior to election, PAP's underestimation of the impact of new media and so on. It was the perfect storm. The opposition now has that moat.

The PAP will not be able to field a stronger team than the one which lost to the Worker's Party 'A' team. Its former team comprises of two ministers, one MP touted to be the next Speaker of Parliament, a new face which was highly tipped to be a future minister and another MP to make up the number. If the PAP fields another team of such weight - and loses again, they'll be running out of ministers in a few elections to come. The GRC system that was meant to be their invincible fort has turned into a deathtrap.

Think about it. If you are the Prime Minister, you will have to make your decision among these choices.   One, to field all promising new faces aka 'suicide team' style against the WP 'A' team. It is highly doubtful this strategy is going to work at all. Two, fielding the previous team to fight it out. With George Yeo doing a disappearing act after his defeat and Cynthia Phua making herself more unpopular with her antics, it's hardly going to create any impact at all. Three, fielding a couple of out-going ministers and a new team. Are there any remaining outgoing ministers that are even popular among Singaporeans except for (maybe) Emeritus Goh Chok Tong? The Prime Minister's last option is to field a genuine PAP 'A' team comprising of one or two of its best Ministers and promising MPs. I'll leave you to draw up your PAP dream team. That doesn't matter because it will never happen.

Going by the recent Hougang by-election where the PAP had a rare opportunity to poach Hougang after an ugly YSL debacle, PAP disappointingly fielded Desmond Choo. If the PAP thought that Desmond Choo was their best candidate, it does not bode well for the men-in-white at all. Else, it simply reflected that the PAP was extremely conservative. If they could not even be adventurous enough in their approach to contest for a seat that they had already lost but given a second chance to win it back, they will never try to field a strong team aggressive enough to pose a serious challenge to the WP team in Aljunied GRC during the next election.

In short, they will never be able to win Aljunied GRC back - cleanly. It's back to the drawing board to, of course, redraw electoral boundaries. 

With surrounding GRCs and SMCs scoring uncomfortable slim 50+ % victories for the PAP, it could pose even the most creative member in the elections department some problems in drawing a good game plan for the next election. We might really see a West Coast-East Coast GRC perhaps. Expect the unexpected, they will take this very seriously indeed. An Aljunied GRC could equate to five losing PAP candidates in the next election if WP plays their cards right in the coming years. Imagine two GRCs falling into opposition hands. Or three. The backdoor to slot in weakly qualified candidates such as Miss Tin Pei Ling and military men will become narrower. Joining the PAP would not be such an attractive proposition if your first mission is to go up against the likes of Pritam Singh in a general election.

By now even Prime Minister Lee, wise as he is, would have realise the impact of losing a GRC to an opposition party. It isn't about the increase of opposition voices in Parliament, that is negligible. It is about how the GRC will be used against them in the future. I wish PM Lee all the fun drawing lines. If he fails to work out a decent solution, I won't be the slightest surprise if he comes out with new cheap schemes to support his cause. Cooling-down month perhaps. Or Internet censure. Maybe abolishing the GRC altogether and coming up with a repackaged fort to hide his party behind.

Interesting times ahead.

My mother was not a highly educated woman but she was very serious in our education. Though I didn't go through a single lesson of private tuition in my entire life because we couldn't afford it, my mum expected me to do my best. Needless to say, if I came home with an examination result of 37.91% I couldn't possibly tell her, "Mum, change is coming. I only got 35.2% in the last exams." 

I'll get whipped.

Though I knew a boy back in school who could get away with the same reasoning even with his parents pumping in financial resources to hire personal tutors who virtually held the pen for him to complete all his tuition homework. Sometimes you could get away with any bullshit, it depends on what kind of family you are born into.

These boys have it rather good. They are the ones who get to play the newest computer games, new toys and a whole group of friends clamoring around them. Even if they got a score of 37.91% in their final exams, it felt like they were the winner. For years down the road, they still get the ice creams and pocket money to take chicks around town while we stay at home to play that same pirated computer game for the 41th time, betting a char siew bao with the best buddy that I could do it blindfolded without dying.

I wonder when will these guys ever taste a real defeat in life and understand the true meaning of being down and out. Maybe when they finally do, they feel the pain multiple times harder than the others, who are more seasoned to the blips in life over their early years. Well that's life. That's why life is interesting.

Before you see the last of the back of the rich kid, somewhere down the street, you see that obnoxious school bully coming your way. You know some bullies are real badass. They do evil stuffs but they stand out and accept punishment from the teachers when caught. Those are the bullies you've got to secretly take your hats off them sometimes. But what we hated most in school was bullies that hide behind a shield. Like an asshole who behaved like an asshole knowing he would not get into trouble because his father was a friend of the school principal. These cowardly bullies, despite all the backing they have, did not even have the guts to hammer that brave kid across the street who stood up to them in a rare occasion. Instead they run off to the teachers and told them that the kid across the street was provocative and combative. After which of course, they walked out of school with the teachers behind them and gesture to the kid across the street, "Come lah, beat me lah!" when the teachers looked the other way.

We meet all kinds of assholes, even very early in life. Normally these irk wouldn't disappoint. They grow up to be the same kind of assholes, perhaps to a greater degree. Their change in status doesn't change a single thing, essentially they're still the same assholes they were back in school.

24 years ago, the government of Singapore came out with a scheme that changed the political scene in Singapore forever. The Group Representation Constituency (GRC) was established with these said purposes:

Not going into the underlying purposes of establishing a GRC system yet, for even the official statements are questionable if we stop to think about it for a moment.

We all heard about free bus rides and Nasi Lemak for old folks in exchange for some simple play acting cheering for some political party. We also heard of free chikus and abalone porridge. Now we have phantom hand to teach uncle how to cheer properly on national TV.

Only 1 packet of Nasi Lemak, need to do so much things. Work OT until so late some more. Anyway, compare that with this:

There are many things money can buy. Not pure passion in this case.

I think I can help you in answering the questions Mr I asked in your latest posts. I have 3 kids and 1 of them is currently in Year 1 in a public school.

Note: All this is from a living in Perth perspective.

1) Is education for kids free?

Primary/Secondary education is free to a certain extent. That is, if you en-roll your children in public schools, you don't have to worry about school fees. However, public schools do rely on certain Voluntary contributions which may or may not be monetary. e.g. Help wash some laundry for the school, voluntary contributions to extra curriculum activities. The general cost shouldn't be too much ( around max $100 ) for the whole year. I didn't keep tabs because the amount was small. The major costs will come from school uniforms, textbooks and that shouldn't cost you as much as if you had to put your kid through school back in SG. Meals are not provided by the school for obvious reasons. This applies to kids who are PR too.

For private schools, you will have to pay "tuition fees" which is basically the school fee and the price varies according to the "prestige/atas" of the said school.

For university, tuition fees are required but you may apply for HECS to get a loan which will be deducted from your salary when you start working eventually.

2) Is Medical Free.

Going to the doctors for children is free..and you might be required to pay abit for adults if your doctor does not support bulk billing. I have on some occasions visited a GP clinic in canning vale that supports bulk billing and got a consultation without any out of pocket expenses. There's also the medicare's Family safety net program which you should apply for that helps lower medicare costs. Medicine however, is not FREE and will cost a lot more than back home. a  basic typical antibiotic treatment course would set you back by AUD $18 and doctors only prescribe them when your health doesnt seem to be recovering as fast as it should. Else, they will usually ask you to get lots of rest and other over the counter products.

For pregnancy matters, the delivery and checkups are free at our public hospital. Note that this does not include an ultrasound scan unless required and are performed by midwives/nurses in the hospital. (They are very qualified). If you decide to go to a private hospital and have your checkups prior to delivery done by a private gynae, it would cost you abit more - if you have private health insurance. ( Do not engage a private gynae till you have private health insurance and your insurance qualifies you for private hospitalisation for the purpose of delivery). The out of pocket expenses for each gynae checkup is around $150 and includes an ultrascan..if the gynae has such a machine. The final cost for delivery is probably $< 1k... Sorry, I can't remember much since it wasn't as expensive as back in SG.

Infant/Children periodic checkups are FREE with the community nurse and immunisation jabs which cost ~$180 per jab in SG is FREE too. infact, if you are fastidious in getting the immunisations done, you get paid some money from the govt.

3) Do they give monthly allowance for the kids?

Yes and No.. There's a bunch of fortnightly payments from the family assistance office and you get subsidies for child care. There's also the education tax refund program which allows you to claim expenses while your child is at school. For e.g. A parent with 1 child should be able to claim close to 9k per year depending on the family's income since this is means tested but it gives you a general idea of the differences between the SG govt and Au.

There's also the baby bonus and Paid Parental leave which I think you mentioned.

p.s please excuse any grammatical errors..typed this out in a hurry and too lazy to proof read.

Regards,

Jonathan

******

Dear Nix

I've tried posting my comments but it keep disappearing thus choose to
email to you instead.  Hope my little contribution helps.



"We came in 2010 under Skilled Visa.  We got our kids and rental
allowance of almost $900/mth about four mths after we landed.  It was
calculated from the day one we arrived.

Public sch is free and $40 yearly contribution is optional.  There is
no other compulsory payment in my kids' sch.  "

Take care,
Wanzhen

******

I read somewhere on the net that politics divide. That - a homogenous apathy throughout the population is  a better situation than now, having the people seemingly divided. That may sound right. After all, peace is the priority and we do not want to live in a turbulent society.


But it's wrong. The idea of political apathy sound silly, even ignorant to me. The basic but most important thing you give up by being apathetic is your freedom to decide. You don't want someone to decide for you on what course you should take, what car you should drive, what job you should be doing and who you should marry. These are some of the things you would value your right to decide. On the same basis, you don't want someone to decide what kind of place you should live in, what kind of education system your child has to go through, who cooks your takeaway food, what rights you have as a worker , when you are eligible to your housing as a single and how you should spend your retirement savings.


You would want a say in these.


If you are happy to allow others to decide about how you should live without your single input, you have been taking things for granted, simply. We may be happy with how our lives turn out and what we have to go through in life. That only meant one thing. The people who made the decision for you did a good job in planning out a generally pleasing life progression for you. Make no mistake, it make seems tempting to assume so but no, that doesn't make apathy right. We should be clear on that. What happens when the good planning wanes and life starts getting rotten? When you are too tired slogging out for a living that you have no ounce of energy left in your husk to dabble in political stuff that 'doesn't concern you'? Only that it does. Every single policy affects you down the road, once you map it out on the table. By leaving it to others, you are giving up your right to shape your destiny and make a better home country according to your dreams.


You would wish that there is a proper system for you to say, "Hey, this isn't right," only to realised that the system doesn't exist in the first place, because you allowed it - by choosing to be apathetic. This awakening tells you another thing, that of a united population has never exists and has been kept fragmented on purpose. You realise you couldn't voice out no matter what your points are. You would be judged as a dissenter, a rebel or even anti-establishment. You couldn't question because no one would hear your concerns, casually waved away as childish anti government banter.


Anyone has the right to vote for anyone, be it the PAP or the oppositions, no doubt about that. Though even if you voted for the incumbent, you may be hesitant to shout out having 6 seats out of 87 to represent 40% of the population who didn't quite agree with you in the general election a year ago is not right. If you didn't realise by now, that the system is set in a way that disallow you to have a proper voice representation in policies making, you'll be a very frustrated citizen when you are hit badly turning a wrong corner here.


We allowed personalities holding directorships and positions that suggest multiple conflict of interests. Look no further than NTUC for example. Another glaring one is the government's spending of national tax on PAP wards only, blatantly ignoring that citizens living in opposition wards pay tax too. We voted for the PAP to avoid being penalised the same way, where what we should have done was to question why was this incredulous system being allowed to take place? We allowed that by being politically apathetic for too long.


We whimper about our artificially depressed wages and have to wait for a professor to speak out for us. Where were our hands when the the oppressors push our voice down the cliff? Behind the back of the professor or in our pockets? Yet we continue to groan about that paycheck at the end of the month. We accepted it when we were told in the face that public housing was affordable, we could get onto packed trains if we wanted to, foreigners are here to create jobs. We accepted every solution to the problem that was created in the first place by the decision of the government that we had no part or say in.


Before our people could be divided by political awareness, we would be vanquished by our pathetic apatheticness. It's all too late by now. No opposition parties can save Singapore. We have allowed the system to be single party for too long so much so that no oppositions would be capable enough or have the resources to take over the governance of the country however the extent of the incumbent rot. Other than the foolish apathetics, the remaining ones cast their votes on the PAP, not as an act of support but to slow the bleeding, to suppress the imminent. Only that suppression is not cure. choosing the hospice over a chance of cure is their will.

Good morning. 

Yup dead serious in getting out of this race and creating a new world for my kids.. Hopefully its the right choice. Unfortunately, the agent told me I am too late to be under old system. But he said I should be OK. 

There are flexible jobs for mums here but it's not enough to cover the lifestyle here. 

How is the system there? Is education and medical really free? Do they give monthly allowance for the kids? 

******

Dear I,

Basically the three key questions you posed are:

1) Is education for kids free?

2) Is medical free?

3) Do they give monthly allowance for the kids?

I would have tried to answer 1) if I wanted to. But forgive me bro, my spirit is willing but my flesh is weak. Last night I sank into bed at 2000 hrs or so and didn't wake until the next morning when it was time to go to work. Strangely, I found myself way more tired in this new job than the previous one, where I worked longer hours under more challenging working hours. Maybe I'm just not a morning person.

Basically what I'm saying I have as much information as you for question 1). And if you search the net, you could probably find as much as I could. When I reach that stage where Albany goes to school, I promise I will go into detail on it. Right from the school fees to uniform costs to benefit future migrants. I appeal to those parents with young children with up-to-date information to share their knowledge on this with you in the comments. I hope it helps.

Question 2. Admittedly, I'm not too sure about this too. But I have a better idea about this than Qns 1. Basically there are Medicare and Private Health Insurance. Any Australian citizens or permanent residents are eligible to sign up for Medicare. Signing up is free. Of course that is subsidised from the tax that people pay here but let's not go into that to complicate matters. Let's just take it that we don't need to further pay anything upfront.

I didn't have time to look through what services are covered under Medicare. Just to share what I went through so far. When we came to Australia, we visited a private doctor in a clinic to seek help about Jen's pregnancy. The bill came up to A$62.00 (if i remember correctly). We went to Medicare and claimed about A$30.00 back. The GP gave us a reference letter to King Edward Hospital. From then onward, we went through 5-6 checkups in the hospitals and eventually Albany was delivered by the excellent doctors and midwives there. We walked out from the hospital paying nothing each time, including the most blissful final time when I strolled out cautiously with Albany in my arms. All her immunisations so far were free.

Other than that, I went through 2 minor eye surgeries in public hospital without paying anything upfront as well. That was my experience with medical issues so far. From what I heard, things like ambulance and dentistry is not covered under Medicare but these can be covered under Private Health Insurance. So, a lot of people here get themselves covered under that. To be honest, that's as far as I know. Again, I'm sure the pros here will be happy to advise you on this matter. Please do, because I want to know as well.

Question 3: Erm. Jen told me last Friday that a sum of money came in for the first time. I thought it was baby bonus but she told me that included allowance. So a simple answer for you on this is: Yes. They do give allowance, but not monthly. It is fortnightly. As for how much it is, it is another round of heavy reading. To make matters worse, they change it almost every year. There is a new set of guidelines for the year 2012/2013. If you have time to read, here is something for you to begin with: [click here] and scroll down till you see this section:

I apologise because I cannot give you clear answers for all your enquiries. Let's hope we'll get some discussion going and we will be able to learn from one another here.

Everywhere I went, I seemed to bump into someone who was in mining, or is currently in mining or knows someone in mining. Mining is huge in Western Australia. It is after all, the reason that transformed Perth from a sleepy town to ... a less sleepy town. Many have benefitted directly or indirectly from the mining boom, probably including me because my company supplies products to big firms in the mining as well as oil and gas industry.

Today I met Mrs D's sons in the workshop. Who is Mrs D? She is a wild-haired Indonesia woman who barks at us everyday. Initially the boss introduced her as one of the workers in the workshop. Fortunately I was wise enough to notice something was unusual between them early enough on my first day of work when the boss took me out to buy my work clothes and boots. He stopped by the lunch bar to buy a set for Mrs D. Not that it made a difference for me to know she was the boss's wife at the end of the day because I would have treated everyone with the same respect anyway.

Today was the first time I saw Mrs D's sons. They were from her previous marriage. They looked very Indonesian but spoke like locals. I picked up a conversation with the younger chap, Tarrun. He told me he was working Karratha, up in the far north of Perth. I knew he was in some sort of mining related occupation immediately. I asked him how did he start off finding a mining job.

Surprisingly, Tarrun stopped and shared a good 20 minutes with me talking about this. He is working as a labourer in a construction firm building site facilities for the mining giants. He stressed 2 points a few times during our conversation. 1) He is a labourer. 2) He works for a construction and not mining company. He even showed me photographs he took during work and described in detail his roles and responsibilities as well as work routine. When asked how much do companies pay such roles, he replied straightforwardly.

"Ah, for me..."

With the loads of helpful information Tarrun wrote down painstakingly for me, I might have to keep his notes deep in the pockets until our conditions allow me to look north. I couldn't leave Jen and the baby for such long periods unless there are support in my absence. That is my only concern. Working in harsh conditions in mining sites isn't a problem for me. I know that I can take it.

Knock knock.

"Dinner's ready!"

The usual knock on my bath door and the call. The first thing coming back from work was straight into the bath. The timing was perfect tonight, I finished my bath just as Jen called out. The aroma of dinner slipped into the room tonight, that wasn't a norm. Together with the 13C cold Autumn evening, it motivated me into changing up quickly.

It was baked rice straight from the oven. The cheese topping, browned to perfection, was a pleasing sight. It was responsible for the aroma that filled the rooms. Herbs were added in the rice generously yet not overpowering. A layer of leftover tomato paste was sandwiched between the artfully prepared rice and the layer of divined baked cheese.

"I wanted to choose a white sauce, but we didn't have that," claimed Penny, who was the masterchef tonight.

I was the one who finished dinner first tonight. Another warm delight lied lurking in the oven. Jen's apple pie. I love apple pie. I love it so much that I tried baking it many times in the past. Never once was I pleased with my produce but apparently Jen had gotten it right after her second try. It was just the way I want it, presentation, texture and taste. I finished my share of pie before the second person started.

Back home, having dinner at 1800hrs or 1900hrs on a working weekday was near impossible, let alone home cooked dinner. Let alone by my wife. Back then, she couldn't cook or bake for nuts. 8 months later, she baked a better pie than I did. Would there be a day when she would cook better than me? I look forward to the day. It isn't that hard, I'm not exactly a good cook.

With an adorable baby, a reinvented wife and fresh home cooked dinner on the table, it was worth working my guts as a sole bread winner. I wouldn't be able to enjoy all these should I stay in Singapore, I don't want to kid myself. It was scary, it still feel scary doing this but I'm beginning to start feeling it is a good idea.

They used to tune in to certain radio station in the workshop. It played old songs, songs which made me feel young. Many of the numbers were popular hits when I was a teen. I guessed at some point in life, you stop following the current hits and gradually starts listening to songs which brings you back memories of the time you were attractive and virile. Because we could never outperform ourselves, year after year after year. When one is past his prime, he tends to associate himself with entities of the past to remind himself how good he used to be, how good he used to feel.

Living in the past.

Songs bring back memories in a profound manner. It has a knack of digging up bits of history in the deepest crevices of your mind you thought didn't exist anymore. The memories are vivid, flashing loudly like a movie playback with strong colours and sounds.

I'm getting old for sure, how else can you explain this? Since I started work at the new job, I began to play the car stereo during my long drive to work. I don't even tune in to the station which they loved to play in the previous workshop. For the past fortnight I was listening to a radio station that plays music of my father's era. I recognised a lot of the songs because he used to blast them in the house. I remembered being extremely annoyed with my dad because I hated songs played loud. Surprisingly I began to appreciate some of these songs (played softly of course) over my tuner during every drive.

The feeling was odd. Last Saturday when I knocked off from work for instance, I felt like I was driving along a dusty road of old America on a hot lazy afternoon. Sometimes the thought of "wtf am I doing here?" rang through the mind. They played some very old songs even my dad might find 'retro'. At first, I listened with amusement but I did that with more intent in the last couple of days. The lyrics of many songs suggested how life were back half a century or more ago. Most songs were trying to tell a story, some albeit a tad too simplistic. Silly but nice.

It was refreshing hearing simple stories behind the old songs in contrast to many contemporary pop songs, probably written by song-writers while piercing their pee-holes with a rusty needle at the same time. It seemed like I noticed something new each passing day of listening to these ancient songs. I observed how common it was to create their music with wind-instruments such as harmonica or trumpet and things like that. You know, any little stuffs that creates sound.

It led me to think about how complicated life has became. These days, a basic piano, guitar or drum isn't good enough. Perhaps not even an electric organ, electric guitar and electric drum anymore, you need synthesisers or god knows whatever gadgets they need to create contemporary music. If we look around, that applies to everything else in our lives. Mechanical to electrical to automatic to smart. What the next step? Virtual perhaps.

Being an accidental inspiration to a few people was not the intention of the blog. Stephen told me not once but twice that prior to this, he had never read someone's blog. A couple of people said the same thing over emails. I thought that was big deal.

One of my secret ambition when I was young was to become a writer. It was during the time I was at Primary 6. My form teacher Ms Ong had a habit to hand our essays to the Primary 3s to read. It was her idea of getting us aware of our work being read by a bigger audience that we were used to as an intention to spur us as well as allowing the younger ones in our school to learn from their seniors' brilliance... or ineptitude. All in all, it was fun for both sides.

Prior to that experiment, Ms Ong would always give me average marks for my language and organisation but top marks for content in my compositions almost every time. She seemed to appreciate my story writing and found that that might be the way to help the naughtiest student in her class. I was that bad and I bet she could still remember my name. Ms Ong would tell the whole class specifically that although I did not score the highest for most of my compositions, the P3s children would always request to read my compositions first. The readership was probably consistently highest among the rest. It seemed that within that period I had made a little name for myself, if Ms Ong wasn't telling a white lie. She told me it was a gift.

That pushed me on and I began to take note of my language. My grasp on the language was not excellent but decent enough to make ends meet. Whenever I took the effort to re-read my writings, I would score as well as the top students (who eventually made it to SAP schools) in language, which in turn made me one the the highest, if not the top scorer in that round of composition. I began to look forward to writing stories.

Regrettably I did not keep up with Ms Ong's efforts after I went to secondary school. I did not read a single book nor made effort to improve. My standard of English remained stagnant since then. The bad habit of not editing or correcting the grammar mistakes of my writings also returned. Recently I had a Grammar Nazi pointing out one of my expression error. I couldn't be bothered to edit any of my post grammatically once I clicked 'Publish'. The blog will be Hotel California to his chap, I'm afraid. Haha. Though I would never be good enough to be a writer of any sorts, I will never forget Ms Ong's special attention for me. For one, I knew I would be worse off without her guidance.

However, the purpose of this post was not to boast about my half baked skills. I want to share a story of a predecessor. A fellow migrant. Like the folks who gave me flattering feedback, I don't read blogs. I don't even read mine. But there is one, just one person's blog I have read not just one but every single post he had written. 

When I first started blogging, never had I thought there would be regular readers. But I could understand why now. I am an average or some may even regard me as below average man on the street. The guy that you probably wouldn't want to speak to if you meet him at Orchard Road. My story certainly gave the "If this guy can do this, I can too," vibe and that is where the blog stands. The blogger who inspired me was entirely different. I call him the Rolls Royce of blogging and certainly deserves it this label.

His blog was plainly designed, almost non-existing if any at all in fact. That didn't matter, for his writings blew my mind. It wasn't just his excellent writing skills but his thoughts that demonstrated how brilliant the man was. That was in 2007 when I found his blog in the cold bitter winter I spent in Perth visiting Jen, who was doing her master degree back then. I spent 2 nights in my room reading every single post of his blog from the start to end. His blog was more like, "How can I be as good as him," or "I wish I am that awesome," in comparison. He was a Singaporean son like me and made his move to Perth in mid 2000s. His was a much more perilous journey which every single Singaporean migrant would recognise. His story ended tragically and I felt sad that Singapore lost a son, a true talent this way.

It is a small world. The husband of the beautiful Singaporean daughter who drives the Ah Lianish yellow Honda Jazz revealed that he knew the author indirectly. Dennis asked me to share his blog to the younger Singaporeans who read this blog. To remind ourselves the existence of this legend, lest we forget.

Little did Dennis knew I was one of the fanatics who digested his blog in almost one go. I kept my blog plain not as to mimic him but did it out of respect for the only blogger who inspires me. I would never attain his level of intelligence and writing skills and I do not seek to inspire others as he did. He shall carry on doing that and my purpose here is to show you the man.

R.I.P

SingaporeSerf

Thou shalt not be forgotten

Muscular injuries were no strangers to me. Sprained elbows, ankles, shoulders, neck, upper back, lower back, fingers, wrists, toes you name it. My lower back got me on Thursday afternoon. It was another one of those where you know 'that's it' when you felt that twitch. Surprisingly, I had near-misses in the previous job, where work was much heavier than this one. But I screwed up the lower back in my 2nd week here instead.

Lower back is one of the most paralysing strains you could have. If you get a bad one, you can hardly get out of bed. I managed to do it because Jen kindly did a basic cupping session for me and shooed me to bed quickly. I could still work because none of the parcels were heavier than 15kg. In this company, I learnt that there is a law here (which I'm not familiar with) that workers should not be expected to carry a load of more than 15kg. It sounds familiar because when I considered applying for a postman job when I first came, one of the requirements in the list was 'to be able to carry up to 15kg'. My boss is not trying to be nice and taking care of us on his own accord here. There could be something to it in the books.

Funnily enough all the heavy parcels over 20kgs are actually imported from Singapore. It is somewhat amusing to read the label on the parcel. The exporting company is at Joo Koon and they even have the packers' names written on it. Eg. Arman, Iswandi etc.

I need to get to the point. The boss came to know about my strained back and gave a wtf expression. Rahman the Afghani strained his shoulder this Tuesday and could not lift a single length of threaded rod by himself. Rohan the Aborigine claimed he hurt his chest and could not lift as well and couldn't drive a forklift. That sound serious. I managed to continue my work despite the back that gave way. Much slower, much lesser difficult movements. I suggested starting work earlier at 0600hrs on Saturday by myself so that I can leave at 1400hrs to visit a massage joiint. The boss went in and scribbled something then emerged and shoved it to me and told me to knock off immediately and visit Marianne after taking a bath.

I arrived at Marianne's house at 1700hrs sharp. She lives just 5 minutes away from me. According to boss she has been doing this for 40 over years. Ok. She must be good. She better be because that'll cost me 60 bucks for that hour of treatment. Being injury prone all my life, I'm no stranger to massage therapies. This one surprises me and left me intrigued. That's what interesting about living a life overseas. It doesn't matter where you moved to, new experiences always humble you, just when you think you've seen it all.

It felt quite ridiculous the first 15 minutes into the therapy. It felt like a quack. There was hardly any massage at all. Marianne was trained in the school of Bowen Therapy. I began to ask show my skepticism by asking all kinds of questions. Though I'm not exactly well learnt in this field, I'm no noob as well and I can tell who is bullshitting me anytime.  Marianne explained everything in clarity even though the concept sound odd. By the end of 60 minutes. Marianne hardly broke into sweat like any traditional masseuse might. She wouldn't because all she did was pinch a little here, pinch a little there in all respect. Still, by the time I paid up I felt there were something to it. I trust this old lady and whatever discussion we had about it. She told me to keep the faith and believe in my body's healing abilities. For she had set my body enough to allow itself to heal holistically.

My lower back didn't feel better by the time I paid up. After dinner, I felt better. I could still feel pain like having a bruise at the back but there was no longer any excruciating pain when I made regular movements as before. This is curiously odd. I felt compelled to learn this from Marianne. She told me she accepts student.