Archive for June 2012

My love to read must be attributed to one person - Miss Ong of QPS. She literally stuff books into me. Funnily, we had an interesting first meeting. I was in my lower primary back then and barge into HER LIBRARY in Block C. Within seconds of creating a din, I was greeted by her angry face. Instantly I disliked her. Needless to say, she gave me a good telling off. I thought that was the end of the nasty encounter with the nasty fierce teacher.

Of course I was wrong.

Miss Ong taught my eldest sister before and she remembered her. She didn't teach my second sis before but somehow she knew her and then she got to know I was the younger brother of these little nice girls. My fate was sealed. Bad time awaited me in upper primary. Miss Ong became my form teacher for 2 years. I became her (arguably) most terrible student in class. She kept me firmly under control because it was her best class. The school depended on many of my classmates to score the A-stars for PSLE. I was fortunate enough to be in that class. The friends were great, both the boys and girls. I missed the days so much. Miss Ong paid special attention to me that no teacher ever did before and after. Maybe I was the little brother of one of her memorable student, I never knew. One thing for sure, I became her memorable student even years after we graduated. I heard from friends who visited her telling me she distinctively remembered me (the naughty one) but not my best pals, which I found impossible because we were always a funny gang together.

Miss Ong shoved books to us as early as she could. We started reading about Helen Keller, Louis Braille and other commendable people. Then I read countless of Enid Blyton books under her recommendation. I began to develop a funny way of writing composition, more fictional than fiction than most teachers would expect. Miss Ong realised I had outgrown Enid Blyton and introduced the class short stories by Roald Dahl. I particularly remembered she highlighted 2 stories, <<The Landlady>> and <<The Hitchhiker>>. I did get my hands on Roald Dahl's books, which was a rarity in the library back then, including the children stories that Miss Ong initially didn't prioritised us to read. I wasn't selective, I ate up everything I could find. In 2 years under Miss Ong's training, I became a book monster.

Miss Ong was spot on in introducing Roald Dahl to me. My writing range expanded exponentially. Rapidly, I evolved from writing funny fantasy stories to funny suspense stories. After graduating, I failed to carry on the great work Miss Ong did for me. My secondary school education was a total disaster, especially in English language. I hardly read and English lessons was joke. Despite that, the foundation set by Miss Ong was adequate for me to survive all the way to university. I managed to clear examinations which required some form of expressing. I realised many of my friends did not pass subjects here and there not because of the lack of study or knowledge but their weaker skills of expressing themselves in words. That didn't really matter for many of them could express themselves so much better in speech. That is what really matters in the real working world. I have no doubts most of my university classmates are doing better than me today in their careers.

Many told me that children who grow up in Australia are much better in expressing themselves. I thought it will do them good in their working lives in future. So the idea of moving back to Singapore when Albany is old enough to attend school diminished quite a bit with time. It is a pity that teachers like Miss Ong became non-existent in Singapore. With due respect to the current batch of teachers, I know what I am talking about. You probably know too.

Many times I wondered how I could get Albany to be interested in reading like Miss Ong made us. It was an incredible gift to us. I wish I could thank Miss Ong personally. Today Jen told me to pick her up at Gosnells library after work. It was my first visit to a library since I came to Perth. I arrived before 1800 hrs and the library was almost vacant. It felt joyful to me, I think I will be visiting this place more often in future.

Hopefully Albany will love reading like her dad

I think she will

I am not a car guy but I am fine with getting my hands dirty. Technically I can be a car guy but somehow I never did because there wasn't much guidance from my peers. With Micky's knowledge and willingness to guide, plus his amazing array of tools of course, I did learn to do minor servicing sometime back. I must agree the short lesson helped. For one, I could jack my car and remove my wheels to play around with the axles.

An Aussie chap, Darren, joined us recently in the factory as a casual worker. He is the kind of guy who drove cars for decades but never visited a mechanic even once. Yes, car guy. Whenever there was a chance, I would ask him about car repairs. He encouraged me to try things out, small things first and move on to bigger things when I have the confidence to do so. Little did he know confidence isn't what I need. I was a tank mechanic and could strip and lift an AVLB tank engine in 20 minutes with 2 of my best partners back in the army. I can handle tools, remove and connect stuff in terribly confined situations. But give me a car, I am helpless. Blame it on sleeping on the lessons back then, I didn't learn about automobile mechanics as much as I wished though I had the chance.

Fortunately with decent basic knowledge from the countless tanks we serviced and repaired, I could catch concepts that Darren tried to convey to me quickly. Each conversation with him improved my knowledge about the basics of the average car. We agreed that I should not be tinkering with Goldilocks at the moment until I have a backup car in case any repair required an off-road time longer than expected. Moreover I have inadequate tools and my garage is now too small because of Penny's car and Barry White's dead body lying around. Soon... one day... it is inevitable.

It isn't a pre-requisite for a man to get touchy with his car here but it certainly comes useful. First, obviously labour is expensive and it is good to do some basic things ourselves. Second, it can be really helpful. Just imagine being 150km away from Perth City on a roadtrip with a flat tyre and not knowing how to install the spare. Yeah I heard you say 'roadside assistance from RAC' but they are not omnipotent, it never hurts to know a little.

During a meeting up with a yandao private car seller when Penny was looking for her car, I shamelessly took the opportunity to 'shoot questions' at the seller who had unwisely revealed his job as a car mechanic apprentice. He was nice and patient and answered many of my queries. In the end we didn't buy his car and I probably ended up the biggest winner for that visit.

Anyway, as I have no tools and space, I decided to fix the urgent issues about Goldilocks first by visiting a professional mechanic. Incidentally, this shop was introduced by an Aussie guy whom I met online. He volunteered free service to answer car questions. After a few email exchanges with me, I reckoned he was starting to regret volunteering because I didn't know how to stop asking questions. To cut the story short, I visited this mechanic who specialised in fixing CV joints problem because hmm... Goldilocks had a CV joint problem.

I crawled under the car that weekend before just to have a look. The boot of the left CV joint was completely broken with grease exposed. All versions of smart guesses from Darren's, yandao car seller and online retired mechanic seemed to fit. On top of that, I watched quite a number of videos in youtube about replacing the joint. I knew I could do that myself given the tools and spare part. I chose to go to a mechanic nevertheless because yandao car seller told me over here if they screwed up a repair, I could keep bugging them until they fix up the problem.

So I was prepared to part with some money but I knew I was not going to leave the place without gaining something in return. Unfortunately the first thing I gained was weight. There was a waiting area I was told to stay at with a big jar filled with small packages of different chocolate and potato chips. I was told to sit there a few times after they caught me loitering around the repair area trying to catch a glimpse. Guess the snacks helped in snaring me (and possibly other curious men) at the seat. Yum.

Fortunately the boys at outercontrol (the name of the mechanic) was sincere in doing business. When the wheel was removed, they asked me to go over to have a look at the faulty areas and explained how things work and the situation. Enlightening. We also took the chance to look at my screeching brakes. I was pretty sure it was both the brake pads and the rotors that required replacement but mechanic boss told me I only needed to change the pads. I requested them to do it for me even though it was not part of their service. They did that anyway. The brakes worked fine now. Jen would be please to drive it. There was still humming sounds at occasional braking. The rotors, I'm quite sure. Mechanic boss did admit the rotors were worn and probably had to be changed when these new brake pads get worn down eventually.

CV joint close up

Simple small, clean workshop

Wish I have a jack like that.

Ok, I got carried away again with car repair tales. I was suppose to share why it is a good thing to know a thing or two about cars if we want to live long term here. I stopped at point 2. To continue, thirdly, I noticed these car fixing things seemed to be a social activity for local men here. I had drove past houses with a few guys standing around chatting with a couple of cars with their bonnet up. It seemed weird at first where men gathered at each other's house to admire each other's car engine but it was probably simply friends lending one another a helping hand while chilling out. Not a bad thing to do especially during winter, if you ask me.

Back to the visit to the mechanic, the guys at outercontrol fixed:

1) My left CV joint (outer)

2) Replaced brake pads, both sides of course

Total cost: A$277.00

No more creaks, no more screech. I'm sure Jen will enjoy driving it over the weekend. To prepare for the weekend I filled the tank today. I noticed the price of fuel has been rather good during winter. I'm sure it wasn't my imagination that fuel prices were much higher during the entire Autumn, hovering way above A$1.30 per litre. I got my fill at A$1.201 per litre today after that 4c Woolies discount. Not too bad.

We used to tease one of the section mates often in the army. That was mean of course, considering he was the one who introduced me many cool games such as Silent Hill and Final Fantasy 8. He also introduced me the idea of Atheism. Well he was one and he insisted I was the same as him, an Atheist. We had long debates as we stripped engines out of the combat engineer vehicles. He was my understudy.

Technically I am never an Atheist. Atheist rejects the idea of deities, regardless of religion. I don't. My argument with him was that I am a free-thinker. A free thinker, in my view, forms his opinion base on reason, independent of authority. When we think authority, it does not limit to religion but a broad range such as schools, camps, governments etc. Going by my definition, you'll never see a true Atheist step into a religious ground but you may see a free thinker not just doing so but even more than one.

Having said that, it does not mean that a free thinker is a hypocrite or has double standards on his views. Amidst his inconsistent actions, there is consistency. That he acts according to what he believes, no pertaining to any definition. In short, you'll never find 2 free thinkers with the same beliefs. That's quite different from an Atheist and that was my argument against my good section mate. We had fun debating.

Little did we expect, after leaving the army, this friend became a Christian after attending several service in a famous church in Singapore. We were shocked as he was the 'staunch Atheist' if there is even such as thing. We could recall he was regularly screwing us up for half believing in deities of whatever religion. Heh, just another chapter of life that taught us to expect the unexpected. When he told me over the phone that he didn't play computer games anymore because they were evil, I knew I lost a friend somewhere.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't alienate a friend because of his newly found beliefs. I am a free thinker remember? It was just that his preferences changed so much that it was inevitable he drifted away from our group because some of our actions (such as gaming) was unacceptable. In fact, things turned out excellently for him after he returned to the house of God. He was the straight-nerd kind without a slightest bit of sense of humor and we suspected he would never get married at that rate. We were dead wrong, someone hooked him up with another girl in church and he got hitched at 25 years old. As he married young, he was at the right place at the right time because he bought his 5 room HDB flat for $150,000 to move out.

The last time I heard from him, he found a good job in the government sector. I am quite sure he is a dad by now and has paid up his HDB flat. 3 years younger than me and debt free with a roof over the head. We all know that for anyone holding a decent job with no debt, Singapore is quite a paradise to live in. Who's laughing now? God has returned his faith 10 folds, 100 folds indeed.

Incidentally he goes to the church where multi-millionaire Pastor Kong preached. That's one of the big ones. The late fiasco about Kong and his friends allegedly misuse church funds to have fun did not surprise me a bit. Only the naive believes that Singapore is a piece of white cloth where corruption does not exist. Over the years we seen dirty linen dug out in NKF, Ren Ci, SLA, CNB/SCDF scandal and then the hot news of the week, CHC. Frauds, misusing of funds, corruption, there are the same thing. Looks like Kong is going to set up a new cell group somewhere else soon, meals provided.

If CAD bothers to work harder, there are plenty, plenty to find out. A good place to start is the White Fortress but they wouldn't do that would they? Another one is the Vault with many Keys, that is mother of all hot potatoes. It is best that we leave things at what it is. I bet you, no one can handle the truth.

I worked as an NParks Manager at some point in my life. It was a close knitted family-like environment if you compared the company to other stat-boards. Each family has its own juicy stories but that's for me to know. I'm talking about other stuffs today. As we were a relatively small company with limited budget, as far as I knew NParks did not throw events like annual dinner and dance. Instead we had a lot of activities together such as long cycling events, jogging, walking trails and treetop walks and countless gathering in Hort Park. We knew many friends across the departments quite quickly, especially the departments we worked closely with. It was quite fun really.

My colleagues (whoever still in Parks Mgmt) are having it good man. The head of department has always been liberal with staff welfare. It is not a bad thing really though their recent acquisition of bicycles that cost S$2,200 each [link] for parks staff to do their patrolling was a bit over the top. Walk, walk more mates!

Ok, I am jealous. Staff who used to walk can cycle on good bikes now. Our parents used to live in kampong and now enjoy water gushing out of the tap in the comfort of the flat instead of buckets from the well. My generation used to climb a few stairs from a lift landing now enjoys lifts stopping at every level of a HDB block. And me, me everyday write on black boards in my factory, drag god damn 6m high shutters manually using my full body weight, open or destroy crates with a crowbar and do every single thing with hand. The most high tech machine in the factory is a forklift. So who said Australia has a higher standard of living to Singapore? No, no. Not true. We need to cook here, plant stuffs like farmers and use our hands a lot during work. Backward.

You know what, many times I am amazed with the things we did with little resources, some brains and lotsa body strength from the boys and myself. Ironically due to the lack of resources, I found myself using a lot of knowledge I learnt in school to deal with problems at work here such as mathematical formulas and general scientific knowledge. As the implementation of ideas accumulated, the boys seem to look at me differently and are accepting me as a supervisor.

Sometimes work seems like playing computer games like Box World here. Being able to put my past experience and knowledge (from my gaming) makes work more meaningful. We laugh a lot during work. It has been a long long time since I laugh at the top of my lungs. I wondered why. It felt as liberating as the last time I remembered doing so. The boss left us pretty much alone in the factory because we have been delivering very well so far. However, we didn't leave him alone because milk and coffee in the pantry runs out once too often than he can replenish. The boss must improve, we'll see to that.

Well, I've gone way, way too far from the point. What I wanted to say was Penny, my housemate actually (finally) bought her car over the weekend. The one who should receive credit was of course, yours truly. Why? Because I drove her as far north as North Beach and as far south as Byford on a single afternoon to view cars and test them out. To my disappointment, she ended up choosing a car which looks like a wreck on the outside:

She calls it 'Little Red'

You can't really see the true extent of the hail damage from here and the vandalism on the paintwork of the body. Trust me, it's bad. Penny is back to Malaysia on holidays right after buying this car so I can take the opportunity to tell you about her car. Haha! Maybe I'll sell her car while she is away. Guess that was why she took the key back to Malaysia with her.

Anyway, she was smug and told me she loved the interior and how the car handled and how it was a better buy than Goldilocks. To be fair, the car ran really well. The gearshift was smooth, the clutch and accelerator performed and it braked like it should. The suspension was smooth, no clicks or creaks like Goldilocks (though the problem was fixed). The interior felt comfortable for both the driver and passenger. The most important question: How much did it hurt Penny's pockets?

A$1,800

Why? Firstly, it was an ugly car with hail damage and vandalism. Haha! Secondly it was a Hyundai. Hyundai Accent of year 2000 make to be exact. Still I have to admit it was a good deal, especially the rego (the version of road tax here) is up till next January. Penny was pleased. We were happy for her. Now it is her turn to roam around Perth. Congratulations Penny.

Yes the "Korea cars suck yada yada" but still you see laopok Korean cars zipping around here year after year. We need to be rational here. Or is it better to actually cycle around in the S$2,200 NParks bicycles? I don't think you want to do that here in Winter. Nor Summer. Nor anytime.

I woke up 45 minutes late this morning but I ended up 15 minutes late for work. How did that work out? No, I didn't drive beyond the speed limit - not that Goldilocks was able to go much beyond 100km/h really.

One of the previous episode of Masterchef was particularly interesting to me. In an elimination round, the half crying contestants were asked to pick their ingredients and whip up a dish in all in 20 minutes. The 'safe' winners were then picked and the remaining losers were to do the same thing in half the time, just 10 minutes to fetch all ingredients, cut and wash them and complete their cooking. The final 2 screwed up losers ended up facing each other in the last round - to cook something in mere 5 minutes and that of course include choosing materials, preparing and cooking.

The final round was the most exciting of all. I am not a fan of Masterchef but this one caught my attention. The winner of the final round performed so well that you wondered why she ended up in the final knock out stage in the first place. She chose picked strawberries and some white stuff (yoghurt or cream), nuts and sugar. That probably took her 1 minute at least. Then she proceeded to cut leaves out from the strawberries, desperately gave the nuts that she spread on the table a smart slap with her saucepan. Then she shoved all the nuts into the pan, blasted the flame to full and chucked sugar in. In a flash, she chucked the strawberries into a blender and started the machine. With her left hand on the blender and her right hand on the pan, conjuring caramel from the melted sugar, she was a sight to behold. Her final product was an elegant dessert with the white stuff and strawberry mix in a glass topped with caramel coated nuts. All in 5 minutes. She survived the elimination and the other chap who made a modest salad was made to kiss goodbye.

In an interview with one of the contestants who took part in one of the elimination rounds, she commented that everyone did wonders in 20 minutes, it made her ponder if they could have done much better in the normal competition rounds they experienced previously with 60 minutes or more.

I had no idea why I was late by only 15 minutes and not 45 minutes. In theory, I could have woke up 30 minutes later each day and still make it on time. But that somehow doesn't happen in practical, this happens to everyone and you know it's true. This tells us one thing, when a human is properly focussed on a particular task he performs in pure optimal efficiency that he can not imagine possible. Alas most of the time any one of cannot muster this supernatural ability once he is given even a single second to doubt.

The Singaporeans whom I met in Perth all asked me if I have some kind of HDB flat rental which I can fall back on, or huge savings or whatever. I have none of these safety nets thus that 'I would never had done what you did' statement will follow. I would never have done what I did if I stopped to think. It was just a 'you have 5 minutes to do this' moment.

Selection process of the elites in Singapore

Ever wondered why Singapore needs foreign talent? Captain obvious said we need foreign talents simply because we lack talents. Singaporeans spent a lot of time having a (one way) debate with the government about the definition of talent and questioned if Singapore had a real need of the talents that the government insisted on.

We were asking the government the wrong questions all along. The questions we should be asking are that, after decades boasting about our top universities rankings, why is Singapore left in a situation where we are lack talents? Is "Molding the future of our nation," working? Maybe it is time we should re-examine our rankings fetish and pay some attention to our real needs.

The big part of the problem is the way we package occupations in Singapore. Jobs imbalance across the market is our biggest obstacle. Such that everyone wants their sons and daughters to be lawyers and doctors first, bankers and financial controllers second. Engineers, if all else fail and tough luck everything else. I wrote about this topic a couple of times. It was like playing soccer in the school days - nobody wants to be the goalkeeper. Even in the world of professional soccer, there are star defenders being paid close to, if not as much, as strikers. Comparing Singapore to a game of soccer, if we are paying our strikers many times more than any other positions on the field, everyone just wants to play striker. Without quality defenders, you don't become a top team.

We need talents, local talents in every field and not limited to only a few selected vocations. In order to do that, we need level the income disparity across all occupations. Of course we are not talking about, say, getting a waiter paid as much as a lawyer as that would be too far fetch. But the current situation is such that some occupations are being paid 10 to 15 times or more than many other occupations. A certain member of parliament spoke about the link between a wage earner's dignity and salary. I am happy somebody saw the link but terribly disappointed that he was only referring and fighting to justify his own salary and forgotten about the people he was supposed to serve.

Labour chief cum Minister Lim Swee Say finally recognises that we must have our own local hearts in excelling in every vocation in order for Singapore to grow inclusively. We must stop the malediction of using foreigners to cover the cracks.

Read the story: Repackage low wage jobs into 'jobs of the future': Labour chief

A stitch in time saves nine. We are running out of time but our Labour Chief is still taking his own sweet time increasing workers' pay from S$800 to S$1,000. It is heartening to see us moving in the correct direction but we need to move much faster. If we are serious in this, we have to freeze the pay of the top earning occupations for years. It this sounds too radical and painful for the affected, did anyone stop to feel the pain of the majority remaining occupations while the disparity widens over the decades?

When a working man knows he can earn enough to support a family, he has the choice to enter the industry that could bring out the best of his abilities instead of going where the big money is. If we could drastically increase the percentage of our people performing optimally to what they are naturally good at, we are looking at the increase of productivity and possibly even innovation that would reap dividends in the years to come.

If we could recreate that burning passion in the work of the everyday wage-earner happy to perform, the probability of Singapore creating products or services of international demand will be significantly higher. The possibilities are limitless if we are open for a change in the structure of our educational and work system. For a resourceless country like Singapore, we need to be the fittest not the cheapest, to survive. To be fittest, we need to tap on the wisdom of the crowd from the Singapore population and bin the idea of investing in the selected few. Relying on minority who simply did better than the rest in their early life is myopic - a terrible investment strategy.

How about the idea of hiring foreigners to form the bulk of our army and let the higher educated locals to work to produce for the economy instead? That's unspeakable. Over reliance on foreigners is a fallacy that does not apply to strictly the security sector. We should think the same for any other sectors for there isn't a sector too unimportant to be trivialised. Remember the logic of a strong football team. It is time for Singapore to seriously rethink and redo what has gone wrong.

A stitch in time, saves nine.

Roleystone

9 months was a very long time to be away from home someone who took his first plane ride at 26 years old. I wasn't built to be the traveling type of human, never had wanderlust whatsoever. For much of my life, I didn't even have an urge to visit another country, much less to live and work. The occasional Malaysia trips with my friends was good enough for me. Similar climate, superb scenery, great food, reasonable price. What else would anyone ask for?

I had been always happy with life in Singapore. Always a proud citizen of Singapore on the endless list of international top rankings and achievements. Before I turned 30, the thought of working somewhere else out of Singapore never occurred to me. I wouldn't dare, I knew what kind of capacity I had and where I stood in society. I was never some kind of talent that any country needed. My country regarded the likes of me as passengers, thus the urgent need of importing talents to keep the machine running smooth. No hard feelings, the country is more important than self.

To be honest, I didn't have any real gripes about foreign talents coming to Singapore. Do I really think I could excel in my career such that some boss felt obliged to pay me a 5 figure/month salary or even half of that? No. Another secret truth, I didn't really need that kind of money to be happy. I did think my salaries were meagre but it never made me miserable. For I never spent more than what I brought home ever. If I was a car, I would be that cheap economical model that no one regarded as a dream car. Nothing really wrong with that. Such cars start each morning and if you think about it, it is probably a better thing tooting along in a go-kart or a forklift than being stranded on a road with a crashed red Ferrari.

I never failed to be amused when someone from my country tried to imply why do I became a hateful foreigner in someone else's country when I hated foreigners in my own country. It made me laugh. I knew where these people were coming from - the cesspit of course. Surprisingly despite that, they didn't know a shit. They would like to imagine that a migrant like me would be regarded as what the dog drags in here, not knowing that the percentage of xenophobics and racists is probably a much higher percentage in the Singapore population. I made friends by a simple rule. For those whom I get along with, we're friends. For those who piss me off, they're idiots. Regardless of race, language, religion or country of origin. There are a lot of Singaporeans that piss me off more than any foreigners I've worked with. That's just a plain fact. I'm siding nobody here. It is important to note that for every asshole of a Singaporean, there will probably be many nice honest, considerate, responsible Singaporeans. But if we choose to apply a double standard towards people from another country by stereotyping, we need to take a look at ourselves.

I heard a lot of reasons from Singaporeans here who left for Perth.

For their kids education - I didn't have a child back then when we decided to apply for a permanent visa here so that didn't apply to me.

For better career - Nah.

For a slower pace lifestyle - maybe but that didn't happen for me. I still work like a horse everyday at work.

For more money - There is an increase but it is not a lot more actually. Nothing like doubling or tripling my money. I don't think someone will migrate just to earn that difference.

For cheap cars - Funny but no.

What did I move here for? The main reason was Jen but if I could examine myself to find exactly why I thought it was a good idea, I did have something in my mind. It might sound superficial for many but it meant a lot for me. I moved for better air and more space. I might have some kind of demophobic thing in me, I'm not sure. Finding my weak spot, when my friend Aku urged me to change my thinking so that I could have a whole new positive perspective towards anything I was displease with, I did try but I simply couldn't feel more comfortable. I probably even tried imagining the possibilities of the crowds on the streets turning into ice cream. It was fun while it lasted but there was a limit to delusion. I had to move and that was nothing to do with my opinions on the Singapore government. I had lived decades of my life under these bunch and I could take that comfortably. But when the numbers grew and grew and grew on the tiny island, I had to go. I know myself clear.

Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

Milestone: Breaking Even

Month 4

Month 5
Month 6
Month 7
Milestone: Renting a House

Milestone: Landing a Permanent Job
Month 8

So this was how Father's Day felt like.

Father's Day has always been under-hyped as compared to Mother's Day, not that it really matters. After all, most fathers probably don't give a shit to this kind of thing. The celebration I mean, not fatherhood. Fatherhood is big big deal. It is just that kind of thing that cannot be imagined or described in words until you experience it yourself.

The little baby has been cranky during sleep time at night of late but outside that, she is an absolute gem. It is like I'm in love again. Images of her which occasionally ran through my mind during work made me smile like an idiot, only to realise my alarmed colleagues were looking. Everyday, I look forward to knocking off from work. Fortunately the rather long drive home was usually smooth, allowing me to drive at 100km/h without missing a beat for most of the distance. My mood remains calmAlbany tends to smile without fail once she sees me at home after work. She would stop crying whenever I let her cling close to my chest and I would hold her there for long periods despite whenever pains I had to endure on my ailing back.

I could recall that I had doubts about fatherhood even days before Albany's expected due date. I still have doubts I can be a good father but I am dead sure I am enjoying every minute of fatherhood so far. Albany makes me happy, very happy. Every single day is simply joy since her birth, especially so since AD 03/12. (After Departure of Mother-in-law).

It is ironic how parents wish their babies are normal when they are young but expect them to be abnormal when they are older. When our children are babies, all we hope is that they can see, hear and feed like most babies do. Then we hope they'll learn to flip, crawl and walk like anyone else's baby. Finally, all we ask for will be the toddler to have a normal learning ability, normal speech and communication ability, the most common range of colours identification etc. In short, we just wish our children to be healthy and could perform basic but crucial abilities we took for granted.

After that, we Singaporean parents really go overboard. We expect our children to have super-human abilities the moment they established their 5 senses. Suddenly, normal isn't good enough, being average doesn't warm the hearts of our Singaporean parents. There is no need to explain why, we know why we subjected our kids through scientific educational methods even as early as the first trimester of pregnancy. All of us just want our children to be outstanding, to have a better life when they grow up. That - to us, is fulfilling our responsibilities as parents. Or is it really?

There is a thin line that divides wanting to give the best to our children and wanting to live our dreams through our children. I'll get slated for sure. First, I'm at the infant stage of parenthood so experienced parents will brush me off with that "you will do it when it's your turn" thing will be used on me. I am mere human, I will be lying if I said I am immune to peer pressure.

That happens in my subconsciousness but when I know what I want to do, I don't succumb to it. When that happens, stubborn is the word used on me. I grew to like that word and whenever I hear that, I knew I was doing something right. One example was that I was supposed to buy a one-carat diamond ring or whatever I could afford to show my love to my love when I made my marriage proposal. Much as warned not to do it without a 'minimal size or brand' proposal ring, I focussed and did what I think my prospective wife really wanted and what was the best for both of us. The same went for our simple wedding, which happened slightly less than 1 month after my proposal.

What I am trying to express is not that it is bad to splurge resources on the well-being of our children but we have to think carefully what kind of messages are we sending the kids when we chauffeur them around in luxurious cars, sending them to the best tuition centres and dressing them in branded apparels. In my days, we had to fight to convince our parents to send us for extra curricular courses such as martial arts or music classes. I lost in each and every of my fights. Till today, I am convinced learning to cope with losing in early life made me a better person. At the very least, I learnt to appreciate trivialities and modest luxuries.

The young could not see as far and what older folks like us needs to do is to show them the big picture as it is, the good the bad and the ugly. They should be allow to make certain decisions for themselves to a safe limit. In doing so, they could understand the real meaning of a consequence as early as they could and not just being able to spell and explain the word in perfect English. The life map should be shown to them unshaded instead of what we want them to see - with a spot lighted path with the rest of the map clouded. If we do a Straits Times on them, they may end up as good as exam-smart one track machines. Well, mind you, that's not exactly a bad thing if you are in Singapore. If one of your kids are genius in this kind of thing and could possibly be the next Lim Swee Say, why not? Go for it. However, if he or she isn't cut out to be, you may be cutting out your child's true calling.

"Poor Albany." I can hear them already. They used to say, "Poor Jen."

I grew to like the mythology of phoenix during my teens. In my early childhood, being from a Chinese family, I was taught that a dragon is a masculine symbol and phoenix is, of course, a feminine symbol. After learning how to read at 13 years old, I got myself some fantasy materials that offered an alternative perspective of a phoenix. We all heard of mythology.

A phoenix is a myth because nobody has seen one. That will be similar to aliens if you consider that over the years, thousands have seen aliens but the idea of aliens remains a myth. On the other hand, because somebody can prove gravity works, it became a scientific fact though nobody has actually seen gravity before. Come to think of it, how does gravity works? We have been told gravity exists else we would be floating in the air. Unlike a magnet pulling a selective range of metals and minerals, gravity pulls everything regardless of properties, race, language and religion. Thus despite no one could really explain how and why gravity works, the world agrees that gravity exists because the idea of gravity seems legit.

Religion stuffs on the other hand are pretty messed up. Unlike gravity which works 24/7 and 365.25, the idea of God was less straightforward, inconsistent and sometimes even contradictory. On top of that, there are more than one idea out there which makes things more confusing that it already is. That was why I grew up without engaging religion. There are things that are as consistent as gravity in this world. Many things in life works scarily like computer programming. When you stop to question why are things designed to function this way and nobody has the answer, the only answer will be God. If one don't believe in the idea of God, he'll just have to accept things happen because it is the way it is. Life is too short to pursue every single answer.

The things I referred to above are cycles of life. Cycles exist everywhere, in all aspects of life from nature to the most scientific man-made entity. Morning and night comes everyday, probably even long after every single human is wiped out from the face of Earth in the future as foretold. In school we learnt that plants and trees produces oxygen through photosynthesis but takes in oxygen at night. We also learnt about water cycle whereby water goes through evapouration, condensation and finally returns to ground as rain. Not many of us realised our air conditioner works in a similar water cycle logic whereby chemical compounds are forced to evapourate and condense over and over again in an artificial eco-system.

All living things in the world abide by the rules of cycle. Animals and insects are programmed to survive. In performing their acts, they go through the cycle of young, maturity, mating, reproduction and death. Humans may be the special breed who seeks to break out of their life cycle. We seek the meaning of life, the reason of our existence and question the need for routine. Perhaps in doing so, by breaking out too far our original intended life cycle, we are moving closer to the demise of human life. Or perhaps eradication is actually part of a human life cycle.

Just like a phoenix.

The idea of a phoenix is incredulous but believable at the same time. It isn't holy or anything mysterious. A phoenix dies like anything else. Legend has it that when a phoenix approaches the end of its lifespan it ignites itself in fire and dies. That's believable. I mean, some humans detonate themselves to die don't they? So how unbelievable is a bird setting itself on fire? Here comes the cool part. Well according to legend a phoenix rises from its ashes in a rebirth after a long long time. A human couldn't possibly rise from ash though some species could possibly have risen from their asses. Perhaps in future, some species could even rise from their graves "if something is wrong". Zombie apocalypse is very real.

I don't have to believe the idea of a phoenix is real. I am intrigued with it because it is just a simple life cycle which holds a meaningful meaning to me. The spirit of the phoenix is such that each time we are down, make sure we rise again. To those who disdain you and everything you believe in, you're probably that annoying cockroach that doesn't die - and can fly. In reality it doesn't matter how many times we get plummeted down. A phoenix is never the strongest creature around. Neither it is the fastest, smartest or most beautiful. What's remarkable we can learn from the fiery bird is such that each time we fall, regenerate, rise and fly like the legendary fiery phoenix. Pick what you like to beat me with here. Anti religion, anti human, anti immortal politician, anti zombies whatever. The last time I did a search on google for people who gives a fuck, my name was not on the list.

I'm back. Because, fuck you.

I came to Perth in Spring. By now, I have experienced all 4 seasons here. That represents a wheel, death and a new beginning. In a short time frame, from an below average random Singaporean man on the street, I became a blogger, a happy father, a cook, a director, a crybaby, a mechanic, a patient, a carpenter, a mover, a machinist, a metal tradesman, a car tester, a tour guide, an adventurer, a burn victim, an injured soul, a wayward friend, a car crasher, migration adviser, an internet friend and foe, a supervisor, a labourer, a forklift driver, a deliveryman, a chauffeur, a weakling, a stubborn mule, an anti-establishment, a plumber, a rag-and-bone man and an explorer and a long bit I can't finish listing.

It was a truly humbling experience. Someone once said to me, "Life has ups and downs, or you'll be dead." Wise words. Akin the cardiac monitor in a hospital, the ups and downs do represent life and a straight line, indicates death.

I am not sure how many of you have been with me from the beginning but you sure are with me at the end. I have intruded into your lives way too long. Unless you are a totally emotionless person, i.e a dead man, whichever entry of the blog that invoked any sort of feeling, be it boredom, happiness, sadness, anger or whatever unimaginable emotion, is an intrusion to your lives. It is time for me to go, as I have been a guest too long.

Thank you for being with me for one full cycle of my life in Perth. I believe I have written more than enough for anyone of you interested in finding out how life is here. Remember, Perth does not represent Australia. Perth life does not even represent Western Australia. It is such a big place, there will always be somewhere that is more suitable or unsuitable for anyone.

The blog has did more than what I expected it to do. It turned out to be a rich avenue for advice for me as well as others. I also got to know 99% of my friends in Perth via the blog directly or indirectly. It was an amazing journey and I felt honoured to be the captain on board for over 270 days.

I'll probably be somewhere in cyberspace sometime in the near future, another project perhaps if any interests me. Or maybe just regularly playing some offline games or MMORPG. I'll devote most of my newly found time to my wife, who has been absolutely wonderful since Day 1. She couldn't cook an egg properly when we landed but tonight she whipped up a mean meal of pizza and began to bake delicious cakes for us, albeit some disasters along the way.

It's a sad day for Grammar Nazis lurking around the blog. Regrettably, this rich mine will cease operation. I chose to leave the blog open instead of deleting it, lest any information comes useful to anyone.

If you wish to contact me (no guaranteed replies)

email: asingaporeanson@gmail.com
facebook: asingaporeanson@gmail.com

Seeya, I wish everyone good health, good wealth and lasting happiness.

Yours,

asingaporeanson

Eugene once told me to take note when Australians talk about storms. He said when we talk about a thunderstorm here, it IS a thunderstorm and it is nothing that I would have ever experience in Singapore. Today, there was a warning all day about a impending thunderstorm hitting metropolitan Perth. [link]

I asked my Aussie colleague what does that really mean. He told me it was a Cat.2 storm. Oh. I know about this. You know, in the army we always pray for Cat.1 and then we went to indoor activities when it came. Over here a Cat.1 storm will mean a devastating cyclone that sweep cars and roofs away. Cat.2 will therefore be ... perhaps a bit more destructive than Singapore's Cat.1...

Jokes aside, the locals are not taking this lightly. Citizens were made to go home early from work to avoid the thunderstorm, which was calculated to hit Perth by 1600hrs. Thomas from the East sent me many updates probably because he knew I had 'no hands' to even check any updates during work. I have to thank him for that.

Fortunately, the storm was delayed and I managed to drive home safely from 1800hrs because we did overtime to catch up on a surprise surge of last minute orders. To be honest, I do not relish driving home in a storm. I had a couple of late night driving in torrent rains during Spring in my early days and that was quite daunting already. This storm would definitely be a lot more challenging. I heard from the stereo, we would be expecting winds of 125km/h. Imagine a pebble carried by the wind hitting you at the face at that speed. Plastic surgery.

By 1800hrs, the sky was very dark, even for Winter's standard. Heavy dark clouds spread across the horizon the way I had never seen Perth to be. On ROE highway, the eastern hills looked like a bad sci-fic movie. It would be wise to go home and stay home. At the point of time penning this, heavy winds can be heard beyond the tight fitted closed windows. My garage door to my home is rattling every few seconds. My last check on whatsapp saw that Denise had roof tiles fallen down at her home. Thomas told me his friend living in Perth had his fence blown down a few hours ago.

The storm is finally here. Take care everyone.

Edit: Thunderstorm hit Gosnells at 2141hrs. It was quite obvious and hard to get wrong. There was already heavy rain prior to this but with the sudden gust of (ongoing) strong wind, every structure within earshot seemed to be fighting to stay rooted against the force of the wind. I wondered if my bins were still outside my house. The feeling at the very moment the cyclone or whatever you call it hits is like driving through a carwash, plenty of action, plenty of noise plus thunder.

Edit: Storm seemed to have pass Gosnells at 2147hrs, on its way elsewhere to create havoc. Or there are more to come? Sorry no pictures. I am not into wind surfing activities. Take care everyone.

Dear bro,

Please don't use my child as a chip. Let this be the first and last time and I'll appreciate that greatly. If you have anything against me, please just come at me and me only.

Let me share with you my honest deep-felt feelings about this. I don't think you really care about how I feel. It's all about how you think I should feel and do. I just ask for a moment from you to consider why I felt in a certain way. You have been prejudiced ever since one of my blog entry irked you and have been wearing toxic laced glasses to view whatever coming from me ever since.

First I'll like to rebut you saying I hated the Singapore to the core since I left for Perth. Your memory is fading buddy. You called me a 'Anti-Government' ages ago where you lent me your listening ear about my unhappiness with the way things were with my life back in Singapore. I am grateful for that and will never forget that. If I could just daringly assume you are thinking I am backstabbing my country just because I left Singapore, I sincerely urge you to give me the benefit of doubt. I have never hated my country and my people. If you could be with me and trust me on that, you will be able to see where I really am coming from in areas that infuriated you.

Second, I use the word Singaporean as a generic term. As long as I say anything, just anything, I am bound to offend. There is always a stick you can use to beat me if you wanted to i.e http://unscrwed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Pleasing-Everybody-610x447.jpg Please think about it. You are one of my most intelligent friend and you can easily pick this up but I need you to stand by me and believe I don't wield a dagger.

I love Singapore and my own people. Please ponder for awhile why I insist. I know that am not the straightest person you know but you know me well enough to know if I have an axe to grind, I don't to hide behind a tree. If I have an agenda towards my country, I won't hesitate to say so.

The accusation of me putting down Singaporeans is amusing. I am a fucking Singaporean. Do you think I am less Singaporean than you because of the fact you are stepping on Singaporean soil but not me? If I were to put a Singaporean down, I am putting myself down. To think I slog my guts out not just for my family but with a mind to maintain the Singapore brand to the impression of Australians here. I have put up with this accusation way too long.

We need to wake up. I quote you an example, one celebrity old fart Cai Lan once declared that Singapore food is lousy. Many Singaporeans (again I use this as a generic term) went up in arms howling for his blood for his comment. Needless to say, colorful vocabulary were used.

What do you derive from this incident? There are so many ways to interpret this. I bet your deduction will differ from mine. At the end of the days, do Singaporeans stop to wonder if there is any truth in the old fart's claim? I know we love to believe that Singapore was a food paradise. Note the key word: was. We have degenerated abysmally in this area. Our cheap and delicious hawker food has diminished quickly over the years. No doubt, good food are still all abouts but there is no doubt it isn't as good as it used to be.

Put away your toxic laced glasses you'll find it is not impossible agreeing with me on that. Put it on and I am a Singapore hater. If I say Singaporeans are exam smart, you'll either agree with me or hate me for insinuating Singaporeans are not street smart. As long as you are coming from there, I'll never win. Each time you told me how you think of me, I'm just disappointed that to know my friend doesn't understand me.

For many past instances, I am just relating my views and experiences as I see things. I don't sensationalise things. You may not agree with me, like many of the readers here do, I accept the difference in opinions. I don't call form an opinion of your character because of your beliefs. Take the disagreeing views away, you are the same old good friend. and my hand has always been extended to for the handshake. That has never changed. I understand where you are coming from but I need you to do the same for me.

The hostility and communication blackout were clear enough for me that your rule is 'Stop this or the friendship is over.' I'm not in the game, I don't agree with the rules. What I feel and hope you'll understand is that, my continuation to write is not an act of defiance. The fact that I write on is purely based on my interest to write and nothing else. I hope you will not interpret it as anything else outside this simple scope.

Lastly, please allow me to pose a hypothetical question. What would be your feelings towards my writings if I were physically in Singapore, never left the shores of Singapore before? If I were to receive the same disdain from you, let me share with you that I have always been writing my opinions the same manner all the while I am with Singapore but none of my friends bothered to read. My grouses were just grouses in the past but they have became criticisms just because I am posting this through an Australian server.

Meanwhile, I am trying my best to live life here sorely for my family. I am not here to prove a point to anyone or make anyone feel I am sneering at Singaporeans who cannot leave the island. If that is my goal, I wouldn't have offer migration knowledge to anyone nor warn them about the difference between Singapore and Perth. My justification doesn't represent guilt for I have none but I felt the need to explain so that you could understand me, because it seemed that communication signals get weaker with the increase of distance, just like wireless technology.

Sorry for the long post. I tried replying your comment but blogger doesn't allow me to post it there(too many characters), thus I created a new post. My elaboration will probably not go too well with you and I should have stuck with this simple summary.

My summary:

1. I have never hated my country nor my countrymen.

2. Yes, the government irks me to no end and is still continuing to do so.

3. My country is Singapore. My government is the PAP. When I criticise my government, I am not criticising my country. If you don't agree with me, please bear in mind, that's how I regard it and I post my views from this angle..

4. Neither did I criticise my countrymen nor you. If I make you feel this way, I apologise and it was not my intention to.

5. I have not thought about getting Australian citizenship at all at such an irrelevant premature stage. As now, I am Singaporean, as red as you are white.

6. I've always been happy and I'm happy when I wrote this post and I'm happy now. I'm a bit vexed why you think otherwise though.

7. Please don't bring my child into this ever again and I mean it on this one.

8. None of our disagreement of views have change my mind on friendship because I regard them strictly a different matter and I still treasure all my friendships with anyone of you in Singapore.

A Singaporean In Australia

Past Rants