Archive for January 2013

Albany

Today is the 16th month since I came to Perth. My baby daughter, Albany will be turning one tomorrow. I'm a very contented and proud father. How time flies. I will never forget the time when I sat on the ledge by the window staring at the great Summer sunset of Perth, cradling the newly born Albany, wondering what the future holds for us. Unlike other new fathers, I didn't had a single friend around showering me with congratulatory words. What I had was just Albany and myself in the surrealism of the hospital ward. Albany slept contentedly in my arms, hardly noticing she was out of Jen's womb barely half an hour ago.

We spent the next few months crammed inside the rental room we previously stayed at. My mother in law came over to help out. Three adults, one baby and all the material possession of our lives. All in one tiny room. It was Summer and we did not have air conditioning. We got by. That was nothing, as compared to what other less fortunate had to go through. We had clean bedding, good food, adequate rest and a lots of joy from the newborn. We are currently renting a villa with over 200 sqm of living space on a 300 sqm of land. There are plenty of space for everyone especially for Albany, who seem to be inspecting every nook and cranny that she can get to. The extra space offers more comfort for sure but the source of happiness has never changed. It has always been centered around baby Albany.

Six days later after Albany's first birthday, it is time for us to spend some time alone. That will be our third wedding anniversary. (I pray I didn't get this wrong) Jen has been severely shortchanged since she married me. We did not have a grand wedding and I returned to work to slog for my ex-boss without a word of thanks the following Monday. No honeymoon. Then she was engrossed in work like any member of the Big 4 audit firms in Singapore would. She got pregnant, frustrated with my frustrations and agreed to make the move to Perth with me during her 2nd trimester where she had to endure the new environment, shifting house twice before Albany was delivered. At the same time last year, Albany refused to be delivered even after the doctor tried all she could to induce that. After more than 14 hours of labour, we had to go through an emergency cesarean section operation after Albany was found in distress, a potential dangerous situation where she was suffering a lack of oxygen in Jen's womb. Since then, Jen has been a wonderful mother and we have a happy, healthy baby. Jen is tired for sure and deserves a break.

A week after our anniversary will be my birthday. I'll be in my mid 30s. That sucks but that's life. It's time to get a little bit more serious in life. Compared to peers of my age, I've achieved nothing in life - by SS101, Singapore's gauge of success in life. I don't own a property, I have to lease them. I drive a 1999 Daihatsu Pyzar that cost me A$2,200. No credit cards, no condo, no country club membership. Just coins and unused condoms. My family is everything I have and that is all that matters to me. The least I can do is to spend more time with them and protect their privacy. I can do both if I stop updating this blog. It could have been a long long journey. Perhaps you would be reading my new adventures of starting a Nasi Lemak stall in Perth and eventually hunting for a small abode in the hills. But you wouldn't since I've decided this is the last chapter of my story here.

I was told by people that my journals inspired them to start writing accounts of their own adventures. J, the New Zealand adventurer, did that. Singaporean Mum M does that, in her facebook account. Stressed Mum J might (if I didn't get it wrong) and Yanchun did resume her blogging (though I wouldn't claim the credit). It's time for new adventurers to tell their own stories. When I was a small kid, I enjoyed writing stories. I found the love after so many years, after the rigors of life corrupted it. It was great to be able to express my thoughts again. 596 posts over a year and half or so - I cannot complain I have pent up frustrations inside anymore. If there is anything I enjoyed more than writing, it will be reading. With Albany able to walk soon, we'll be making many regular trips to Gosnells Library 5 minutes away. Over there, Albany will spend moments reading books with her dad. At the back of the library, we can enjoy the lush greenery of the sub ground level park. It will be a great way to see the rest of Summer off.

I'll return to writing not long later. I bet I will not be able to stop for long. If you are remain in the internet, we may meet again someday. It will not be here @asingaporeanson.blogspot.com for sure. I hope you will enjoy or hate my future project as much as you did here - that is, if you can find it in the www.. All bad things come to an end, fortunately for bad blogs as well. I hope you enjoy this little journey with me over a year. I'm honored to be given the role of your tour guide.

Wish you good health and good wealth. So long, farewell.

asingaporeanson

Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

Milestone: Breaking Even

Milestone: Renting a House

Milestone: Landing a Permanent Job

Month 8

Month 9

Month 10

Month 11
End of Year 1
Month 13

Month 14

Month 15

This isn't a touching sob story to motivate you. This is not going to leave a warm fuzzy feeling in your tummy. If you expect that from the title of the post, I apologise for the misled. Indeed, we need healing soup for the broken soul when the tough gets going. Being born of a Chinese family, when we get sick we take herbal soup to get well. The elders used to tell us the more bitter the herbal soup, the more potent. So it had been instilled into us that bitter might not be a bad thing in life. At times, it was even necessary.

So you wanna migrate. But you are unwilling to do the field work that everyone who walked the path before you did. You feel that migration application fee is too high and you doubt the feasibility of the idea. You want a guaranteed job, one which pays you higher the current, before you are willing to move. Migration can be arguably the biggest transition of your life other than death. It takes so much away from you mentally and spiritually Even getting married doesn't come close. it does not render you physically apart from your family, loved ones, buddies, the land that you love and the memories that you cherish. Well ok, maybe it does for some cases, if you choose to marry a disaster. Yet you know how to customise your own wedding to a dream with no prior experience. You can design the renovation of your HDB flat like an incarnated professional architect. You buy a >100k car after wading through a maze of technical specifications. When it comes to migration you don't know anything, you don't know how to and expect to be spoon-fed.

www.immi.gov.au

Remember the above url. Print it out, burn it into ashes, mix it with water and drink it if you need to. That's your technical manual. That's your 10-years-series. All you need to know is there. Nothing less, nothing more. Go to a migration agent if you want to save the trouble. Singaporeans do not like trouble. We pay money to get rid of trouble. That's why we hire ~~slaves~~ maids and engage migration agents. Else, if you walk up to someone and say, "I want to migrate but I don't know what to do, can you tell me?", be prepare to get "Stay at home." as an answer. And accept it.

Why am I so anal about this kind of thing?

The entire blog is about a migration story. If you read, you'll come to understand that the migration application is a very small part of the whole thing. In fact even at the stage where I am, I cannot see the entire picture. I did not publish every single misadventure I had here but that did not mean my life had been smooth going. So that is how far the path leads and that was why I stressed a great deal on managing your mentality. If you are unable or unwilling to change the old Singaporean mindset of thinking nothing out of the text book, take my advice: stay at home. For the road ahead is far more treacherous than you will appreciate. If you cannot hold a rudder by yourself, who will be paddling for you when you set sail? Advice is aplenty out there. Even good free ones at times. As the saying goes, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. When you are downed, strangers will come to revive your spirits. No one will lend a helping hand if you sit in your broken-down car, until you begin to push it yourself. Ok. If you are the holy type, then you'll have heard that God helps the one who helps himself. Little miracles happen to people who take action. It happened to so many people who came to me and share their own stories. To take action, you need to set your mind to it. So we are back to the roots once again. Your mentality. Do you want it hard enough? Why do you want it? If you do not know why, you will not figure out how. Think it over. It all begins with a thought.

I've met so many people who shouldn't be here in the first place, myself included. I have asylum seekers working under me. A brick layer bud who wouldn't meet the requirements if he went through the 'proper route'. Unqualified people who married qualified persons - like myself and Mr E. People who came through business visa, study visas, work-holiday visas, tourist visas and who knows what else out there. I am not sharing these to encouraging anyone to do anything illegal. I am making a point that there were people who wanted it hard enough and got it. Go legit if you must. Again examine your thoughts. If your mind is set on seeking adventures abroad, Australia need not to be your only destination if you do not qualify for it. New Zealand, Canada, Taiwan and even other paths much less traveled. The world is your oyster. Who knows, I may be venturing to Indonesia or Myanmar one day. Why not? And why not you?

If you are determined to leave, shed the cotton wool around you. If you want to go camping but expect no mosquito bites, stay at home to play Nintendo Wii. The more you are willing to take it down your throat, the more options you open for yourself. The countries you can go to, the jobs or businesses you can do, the lodgings you can stay in, the kind of activities you do for leisure. The limits of the array is entirely up to how much you are willing to sacrifice. Remember, you are not making sacrifices for nothing. One day, you reap what you sow.

Leaving for a better place. There is no better place in the world. There is no racism in Singapore. We pay low tax. We are first class citizens. The country is clean and green. Our public transport is one of the cheapest and most efficient in the world. Our government is effective and free of corruption. Menial jobs that Singaporeans do not relish are outsourced on the cheap. The country is safe and secured. Crime rates are low and it is safe to go out late at night. There is neither riot nor protests, not a trace of civilian unrest. The relationships with our neighbours are cordial. The weather is stable and the land is shielded from natural disasters. The country maintains a high level of hygiene and low level of mortality rates. Life expectancy has been increasing steadily. The majority of people have a roof over their heads, as well as jobs. The city and heartlands are well maintained and kept presentable. The foundation of the country is strongly built, based on justice and equality. The people are happy, prosperous and their future, progressive. Majority of the population has confidence for the future and will be expecting more good years ahead, promised by a capable government who will be always here for us. There is no better place in the world, fellows. All that glitters is not gold. So if you choose to leave the best place in the world, why do you worry which worse place you ended up at? What do you worry about if you made the decision to forsake your blessings?

You don't feel happy. A wise man once said to me, "Contentment is the key to happiness." If that is true, it is not difficult to understand why Singaporeans are unhappy. It is difficult to cultivate contentment, if we live within a viscous cycle of vanity and pride. Better off moving to a country where you are able to embrace simplicity - and truly feel contented with something as simple as a bowl of rice on the dining table. That is why you get the retorts from your best friends, "If you hate Singapore so much, why don't you fuck off?" But if you intend to move to Australia or anywhere else in the world to indulge in the same bad practices once again, why not play a simpler game? Buy a house in Johor Bahru post pictures of it every day in facebook. Do that to the second house as well. Or better, stay at home and continue the material chase. A rolling stone gathers no moss.

A stitch in time saves nine. If you have real desires, do not delay. Circumstances change. You may be made ineligible by a change of migration rules elsewhere. Do not assume we will always be a coveted nationality. After all, the father of modern Singapore said our mothers and sisters may be maids in the future. The red carpet will be there for only a limited time. There is never a right time. There is never a wrong time. Only one golden rule, time waits for no man.

Each time I decided to drop the pen, someone came along and told me I had been doing a good job. Siggy did that for me twice in precise timeliness, right at the points I thought I made up my mind. She was a master of motivation. Last weekend when the thoughts of putting things to an end lingered seriously once again, I was thanked by a father of a daughter for the help he thought I rendered to her daughter though I didn't actually do a thing. Most important he told me I did a good job to help Singaporeans.

Did I? It was something I had been thinking about for a few days. Since I began blogging, I was contacted by more strangers in a year than my entire life. Till now, I have a lot of emails which I haven't replied. Some of these strangers became friends and became strangers again. A couple may be lasting friends for the long haul. No matter. I found myself stopping to think if I kept this blog to benefit myself or others. It shouldn't be good for Singaporeans, unless you consider helping your countrymen getting out of your country a good thing. I don't. In fact, I felt guilty when someone told me she was inspired to leave after reading this and did just that.

We'll come to the end soon enough.

To update about J, the stressed Singaporean Mum. What she achieved for herself was miraculous in my eyes. I had a discussion about her case with a few friends over dinner one weekend. None of us reckoned that she could even complete a single goal out of the three that she set for herself in her week-long 'reccee'. To get her son enrolled, she needs a residential address. To get a residential address, she needs references, preferably a job and definitely identity checks which she hadn't complete. To get even your driver's license, you need other points of check such as Medicare Account, Tax File Number (TFN) and Bank Account. To get these, you would be asked over the counter your residential address. It's a bundle of Catch 22 mess here.

But things work out you know. When everyone thinks you're in for a hard time, sometimes life has other things planned out for you. If you believe in God, like what Singaporean mum, M, kept telling me - God lead her to me and then she trusted God I wasn't some child molester or stayed with us for a week or so. The last time I saw her, she was in very good spirits. Even other guests who barely knew her were inflicted with her contagious joy.

Though everyone thought her chances was next to nil, Stressed Mum J actually managed to find a rental house, via the owner of the Bed N' Breakfast lodging she was staying at before I even met up with her. With that, she escaped the usual strike-and-wait rental housing hunt routine which she probably run out of time if she engaged in it. Her son's enrollment should be smooth from here. The last time I heard from her, she was trying to apply for her driver's license. It looked like she was all set to go the next time she returns to Perth. Sometimes, small miracles happens when you take the leap, whether or not God introduces you any friends.

I think I've said enough. Though these stories are unique, the points are repeated over and over again. Perhaps it's not required anymore. Things should end in January.

So shove it up his arse, fellows

The newcomer described himself as a "son of Punggol" - having been born in the area and spending his childhood there.

He gave an account of his humble beginnings - growing up poor, with a father who was a bus driver, working two shifts a day.

He lives in a 5-room HDB flat in Telok Blangah.

"Before we moved into our house in the combined accounts of our banks, in the pockets together we had $11.50, so we were scratching our heads thinking how to even have our first meal in the house when we had no money to buy chopsticks? We went down to Toyogo at Lorong 8 Toa Payoh and we had to count the number of pieces of chopsticks we can buy with $11.50 to equip our home."

Right. Dr Poh Koh Koon, PAP candidate for By-Election Punggol East 2012, was once a poor man. It's about time for Singaporeans to realise if they are living in a HDB flat and born to a father who isn't a banker, CEO or director of some sort, they are poor and not 'middle class' as what they prefer to believe.

By telling the whole of Singapore how intelligent he was by opting to buy chopsticks than feeding his Missus and himself with their last $11.50, the humble beginnings and stuff, you could see Mr Dr was trying too hard. More importantly, he doesn't get it. It was interesting how LKY's PAP used to try very hard to convince Singaporeans how special and elite his party members was, now they changed their tune to persuade their members are just like an everyday Singaporean.

To be honest, LKY's strategy worked like a T. Till this date I still hear Singaporeans, including opposition supporting voters display their disdain towards 'less than credible' electoral candidates who aren't holding some fancy jobs in monkey suits drawing a fat salary at the end of the month. So it is surprising for me why the 'Son of Punggol' chose not to highlight his illustrious career and his long list of directorships somewhere else. He could have score many more votes if he tried looking serious and told his voters what he could do for them at least and as a bonus, make them as rich as he is today and bring them out of 'poverty'. No need to. Perhaps, he knew he would win the By-Election even if he flashed his Dora the Explorer boxers on national television.

When we have a multi-party contest, we know what will happen. We know the math. Everyone does, including the opposition parties involved. Some Singaporeans, particularly Worker's Party's supporters, were furious at the involvement of other opposition parties. Come on fellow countrymen, let's not forget the fundamentals. If we believe in democracy, everyone deserves a shot to express their interest to represent you in parliament. If we believe in work-fairness and condemn job advertisements which state discriminatory requirements such as "Only Chinese need apply", are we being hypocrites when we screamed, "Only Workers' Party need apply?" When the PAP was an opposition party itself in the earlier days, did they back out when they didn't get an 1-on-1 fight?

Yes, the PAP would win this time again. Remember, nobody put a gun on voters' head to vote for them. We may argue that the PAP play dirty with their usual MSM weapon by their side but with alternative media easily available these days, there is no excuse. Let's just accept their the people want the PAP. Dirt, warts and all.

Weather for this week

If you want to experience hot rainy days and cool sunny days, 42 and 29 degree Celsius respectively, Perth will provide you that this week. It was so hot last week that weather expert declared that "The hottest week in the last 80 years", backed with statistics and figures of course. No doubt, Australia is so hot right now. So hot that it can be even felt by my friend Winking Doll all the way to Canada and enlightened me on an alarming fact:

Winking Doll9 January 2013 09:07

OMG! Look at the weather forecast for Australia!

"Australia’s weather is so hot, new colors added to weather map"
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/australia-weather-heats-colors-added-weather-map-195717230.html

That's depressing to hear. Almost as bad as being told to do the best all my growing up life only to be told that we have to be "Bester" and "Besterest" by the Labour Union Chief Mr Lim Swee Say that all Singaporeans love. Life pushes us to the new extremes, happens all the time.

Surprisingly, not everyone in Perth felt the heat. Some even gave a nonchalant, "Where got?" when this topic came to the table. Not all men and women are equal here. Some are shrouded in mystic cool dew everyday, be it at work or home, while the others lay bricks or roof tiles in the punishing heat. I pray for folks making their living in the mine sites, enduring working in an environment with temperature as high as 50 degree Celsius. The next time someone said that folks in the mining industry are paid too much, they should perhaps try their hand at it. Even in the "cool" Perth Metropolitan, 20 had fallen victim to Summer's wrath. [link]

Read Winking Doll's reasons [link]on why she choose Canada as her migration choice and why Australia isn't (It's a piece of desert) I thought that is a very good method to help make an important decision, by aligning your values and goals to somewhere that give you the best fit. Remember, not everywhere is a perfect place. A greener pasture may not necessarily suit you if you don't realise you aren't purely vegan.

I'm no expert in music. I know nuts about it and little about even the bands I appreciated. I think no one is unqualified to give their views on music though. Everyone will have their own preferences in music genre. What's shitty to me, may be Music of the Heavens to another. (bless him/her) So long we have a pair of ears, we have something to say about music, or bad noise. Considering even hearing impaired musicians created legendary music in the past, no one is bigger than music.

All things shall vanish from under the sky.

Music alone shall live, music alone shall live,

Music alone shall live, never to die.

When I was a teenager, Guns N' Roses was my favourite band. Back then, the image of the band didn't go well with teachers and parents. You know, skulls and blood and other bad ass things on their covers and merchandise. Then the reputation of turning up late for performances (read Axl Rose), smoking, performing in weird taste of clothing and not to mention the riots in a few cities after their walk-off from stage (read Axl Rose again).

Nonetheless, I loved them. So did many of the boys of my age, including the cute chubby girl with an angelic face living a few streets away from me that you wouldn't think would venture within a kilometre radius of a hard rock band. I got to know her eventually as she was my school mate and looked at her as a younger sister. My first serious relationship was with a GNR fan, an even more enthusiastic one than myself. Well, she could recite the Axl Rose's quote of the Peruvian militant general's speech in "Civil War" as fast and accurate. (I couldn't even pronounce annihilation back then) and she did the quote part in "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" as well. When we met and knew what we mutually liked back then, it wasn't difficult to fall in love.

Even the boys in Perth displayed traces of appreciating GNR. It had been suggested over dinner I had carelessly revealed real names in my blog so I should be more discreet from now, until I become careless again. Mr S had been spotted with "Paradise City" on his mobile ringtone sometime back and Mr E shown interest about Axl Rose coming to Perth to perform with his band (sorry, that's not GNR to me). So you see, music written from the real life experiences bind souls. Coupled with high heat passion during performances, a legendary band was established.

It's been a long time since I heard something I like on the radio. It was painful to listen to the amount of crap they came up with these days. I mean, can you imagine anyone even bothering to produce such shit? Better time spent playing facebook games than bleed ear drums across the world, shitty music makers. Even singers nowadays do not pride themselves to sing with their real voice, allowing technologies to synthesis their voices into robotic distortion. That includes "heavy weights" in Mandarin pop such as Jay Chou and JJ Lin. "Musicians" call it "experimentation". Not so much of a experiment if every fucking artiste who ran out of ideas does the same thing.

Fargots.

"Little Talks" - Performed by "Of Monsters and Men"

Of Monster and Men is a breath of fresh air. Well, there are probably thousands of bands out there, as good if not better, in the world. I just happen to come across this one. Their little song "Little Talks" was being played often these days on Perth radio. The blood gushing out of my ears stopped temporary whenever it was aired, to prevent a possible need of blood transfusion.

When I did a search on the band and watch their 'live' video, I found them sounding as good as they did in record. Every band member oozed passion in their music and genuinely enjoy what they are doing. These folks could turn up for work in their pajamas and produce a cracker. No annoying twisting of voices of RNB, no spamming of strong vocal cords in unsavory combinations of chords to raise undead in places of final rest, no tricks, no fuss, just play.

"Little Talks" is their only platinum hit so far and it remains to be seen if this band is a one-hit wonder. Does that matter? Not if bands like that continue to keep real music alive. Doesn't matter if I can't pronounce the name of every single band member and probably never will.

Puat, the QA/QC director who came 1-2 months ago told me that Malaysia is the richest country per capital in reserves in the world. His reward was a dirty look from me and I challenged him to prove it.

Puat then proceeded to explain. He said it was important to clarify his definition of 'reserves' in his statement. I found out that his idea of reserves wasn't what was commonly understood in Singapore. In Singapore, our reserves are the chips of a housewife on her casino table. Mysterious chips that nobody knows their value or existence. Chips that belong to every citizen of Singapore, not any particular man and definitely not his gambler housewife and yet we are not allowed to know anything about it. No - according to Puat, that wasn't the kind of reserves he was talking about.

He was referring to the riches of the beautiful land he and millions of Malaysian live upon. Without a doubt, Malaysia's land is vast and fertile. On top of that, they have fresh water, bountiful enough to sell to their southern neighbours on the cheap. Puat described how vegetables grew effortlessly without care when villagers chuck the roots of vegetable they eat out in the open. Generally, the climate in most parts of Malaysia is favourable for cultivating many types of crops. While many would not equate these blessings of the heaven as wealth, I did not hesitate to agree with Puat.

Plentiful sources of good water meant that native could fish on a leisure scale but enjoy a decent yield on the dining table. Fruits and vegetable could be obtained 'for free' at unused pockets of lands, according to Puat. With medical healthcare heavily subsidised, Puat said the poorer segment of Malaysians have an 'easier life'. I bet many Malaysians would have something to say to that. You could hardly fault Puat's statement though. At least you have a choice being poor in Malaysia and stay relatively happy. Try being poor in Singapore and see how it measure up. There is a reason why members of the Singapore government declared in the national newspaper that there is no poor people in Singapore - because the poor either dead or waiting, not regarded as human beings and therefore not included in the census.

With fertile land, water and beautiful climate, the land is able to produce fantastic crops from vegetable and tropical fruits to resources such as oil palm and rubber. On top of that, Malaysia has rich sources of timber. If these riches from the ground is not enough, Malaysia has oil and natural gas within its boundaries, mines providing metals, gems and stones such as marble and quartz.

Not impressed enough with what's under the land? Look at what's on it then. Malaysia has its fair share of high hills - very beautiful ones in fact. Many of these are kept natural with minimal human interference and turned into world class tourist attractions without a deal of money invested into it. Again, look south to see what kind of money their neighbour has been pouring into to create tourist spots such as 'highest man-made waterfall', 'biggest man-made fountain' and 'air-conditioned big garden' and 'Tang Dynasty', stuff like that. We tried creating Redang with a 14km stretch of beach along East Coast Park in the earlier days, only to find the beach completely eroded past its breakwaters 3 decades later. Some things are simply not meant to be. These days, we visit East Coast Park for anything else other than the beach. There are more tourists visiting Ubin Island for its mangroove than East Coast Park for its beach today. No one remembers the amount of money spent on the artificial beach, wash away with the tide.

With beautiful natural landscape at close proximity compared to expansive places like Australia, Malaysia would have been a great place to build a caravan culture. So what went wrong? I've never heard of a different answer from any Malaysian I've met. The place has been badly governed, not doubt about it. With proper governance, significant changes in the level of corruption and safety in the right directions, Malaysia could have been near paradise for its people, not that it isn't already for some. That's another story on another day. Back to Puat's view on which is the richest country per capita in the world, with 329,847 square kilometres of riches to share among 28 million people, Malaysia may not be top of the chart (arguable) but it is definitely one of as the most self-sustainable country in the world.

I've changed the settings allowing anyone to comment after being told they had something to tell/warn/ask the Stressed Up Singaporean Mum, J in her posts here and here. I've seen nothing so far, if there is nothing to add, I'll change the settings back in a couple of days' time.

******

I read a book by an 'investor guru' who came up with a sexy catch phrase which goes something like this, "You make your profit when you buy, not sell." Well, with thousands of investment advice going around, I don't blame a book writer for the need to add the controversy element to draw readers' attention. When elaborated, the idea was to ensure each time you make an investment, it has to be such a good deal that your profit is virtually guaranteed when you need to sell it off in the future.

In short, it was just another way of saying, 'Buy low, sell high,' the most old fashioned business rule even little kids selling candies in their school fair can grasp easily. Well, investment gurus still get their sales and book royalties but leave readers very little to take away with them. What an investor really needs is to master the art and science of identifying an undervalued investment. That of course, is a different ball game altogether.

I spent a lot of time playing Guild Wars 2 lately. More than anyone would approve. That included my wife, who had been quietly tolerant so far. Unlike Guild War 1, with a traditional in-game trading system of calling out in a populated town what you want to buy or sell and establish your deals, not without some old fashioned haggling too! Guild Wars 2 has an interesting trading post within the game. It was an automated real time stock market system, almost like the real thing. That eventually intrigued me more than any specific part of the large array of activities you could do in the game.

Surprisingly, I learnt more about stock market fundamentals than the actual SGX board that I used to monitor regularly back in the younger days. I was surprised that I actually studied the market more intently in the game than I did, and should have. The Guild Wars 2 trading system actually showed details of spreads such as quantity of orders as well as the actual numbers of buyers behind the queue. I realised how important these details were and how easily a few huge buyers or sellers of thousands of copper ore could let establish a false sense of the market by interpreting that for huge demand, as compared to a a real market demand. Well, I know that big fund managers have been impacting stock markets all along but this experience allowed me to see for myself how they make their impact.

It brought upon me why both the chartist (technical traders) and fundamentalist (value investors) often go wrong. The problem with scientific framework is that once everyone follows it religiously, it will be difficult to find value. Besides, even well studied traders are unable to bail ourselves out in time when the milk turns sour. Though it is arguable that this group of traders, having the advantage of being nimble, take much lesser damage than the mass public who leave their money to big fund managers who are often unable to steer their bigger ships out of troubled waters fast enough most of the time.

So I am brought back to the possibility of parting with my money big time here in Perth. The lure of falling into the trap has been strong indeed. Fortunately Guild Wars 2 came along as a timely reminder. There is more work to be done. A lot, a lot of work. Cool it. More haste less speed. Remember, the market will always be there. There isn't such a thing as a best or worse time.


Dear friends, so long. Wasurenai

Yan Chun requested for a blog post. It wasn't often I get a special request like that. It was normally the opposite, where I got those "Don't write about me!"s or "Don't publish my email!"s. That was something someone who had nothing good to say about anything should expect. According to the requester, I was supposed to write something to motivate her so that she would resume her blogging that she begun some 10 years ago and subsequently stopped. That was a tough task, to rally a lao jiao blogger when I was struggling to write the next blog post every time. Well, as an everyday scummy guy, I could occasionally turn up to move bags or assemble beds, but tough tasks, I shunned. So, no motivation for you Yan Chun. Since we are at it, let's talk a little about before I end this post.

Yan Chun would be in Singapore soil by now, after missing her original flight due to forgetfulness. Or muddiness perhaps. What I didn't expect was a short tale of kindness when I pick her up to send Yan Chun to probably her last journey in Perth. To the airport actually, not to send her packing to Hades. She told me she might not return to Perth in future at all. That sound a bit sad when I heard it. Not that I really like her so much. But you know how it feels like when someone tells you it will be the last time you'll see him/her there. Upon turning up at her place, where I later learnt she was adopted by a kind school mate for several days when she was emotionally down. Then I witnessed a touching scene that moved even my steely heart a little. Though all Yan Chun and her house mate did was exchanging hugs and taking a parting photograph sitting in the front porch of the house in the common lazy-cosy settings of many houses in Fremantle, what made that a proper farewell amount of genuinity oozing out of the entire gesture. With that, Yan Chun departed from Perth with the mixed feelings of dejection from not achieving her goals here and anticipation of her new life in Singapore.

I took some time to see beyond the odd quirks of Yan Chun to appreciate the greatness within her. She was well read, knowledgeable and probably wrote well better than I could, at a much higher level too. Ironically, I caught her calling me - definitely in jest - her favourite Singaporean blogger in her facebook statuses occasionally. It was interesting to learn from someone younger who knew so much more about Singapore than I did. There would be long way ahead of her. Her passion in workers' welfare would be much needed in Singapore. We needed people like Yan Chun to make Singapore a better place.

If you are still finding a motivation to write again, ask yourself why you started in the first place. Does that still resonate with you? Look at the reasons why you stopped writing. Did they still hold a significant weight at your current situation? You may not need to pick up the pen again at this moment. Or at any moment. Make writing leisure, not chore. Do remember what I told you. You walked the path that very few privileged ones could. Even though it didn't end the way you wanted it to, there was so much, so much you took back with it. These memories would not remain forever vivid in our volatile minds. Writing is one of the very rare modes of freedom of expression left in the Singapore society. Embrace it while it lasts, especially if you write cold hard facts that most, including ourselves, are unwilling to accept from their beautiful exclusionary world.

Open for orders, if you need a perfect sushi platter for your party

Albany, enjoying grandmotherly love

It was only our second meeting in Perth. Thusara had to drive from his temporary refuge to pick me up at my place. I had my car accident not long before. Thus gamely gave me a ride all the way up to view a used Mazda 121, which I didn't buy eventually.

Despite anticipating the rude haressment of Winter's icy fingers, I was stubbornly clad in my usual Perth uniform, barely enough to keep me comfortably incubated. While waiting for the car owner to arrive under the steely cold night, Thusara shivered in his full warmers. We joked about how he would be prancing around in shorts and slippers next Winter when he would be well weather conditioned. Looking back, I saw myself in Thusara's uncertainty of the new environment, like the way I saw myself in Edmund, M and even Joe. Everything felt so different when we first landed and how our perspectives changed over time.

Though Thusara lost 10 kg due to his hectic work schedule, he looked calm, relaxed and visibly happier. Why not? I would be. I didn't think any of us would be happier being alone, jobless, searching for the ideal suburb to live in, separated from family long periods and 10kg heavier. No doubt, Thusara hadn't found his perfect job but that wasn't going to be over until the fat bitch sings. He proved me wrong by being flexible by dumping all the Singaporean expectations extremely quickly. With him, I found a rare confidante appreciating the merits of buying a very used car - at least in the earlier days.

Before long, the man did what a man should, had all his deliverables ticked and he was able to bring his family over. Both times we met up, it seemed to me he had a family running on perfect harmony. With his free BBQ pit that he found in the streets, in mighty fine condition, we spent one of the last day of 2012 in Thusara's back yard, searing meat, home-made sushi and downing it with sangria. Speaking about sushi, Thusara's daughter, a fine beautiful lady 17 years of age or so, was the delicate hands behind the expertly crafted sushi rolls. She also had a good entrepreneurial spirit within her and already took orders for supplying good party sushi. Besides that, she took all but 2 days to find her first job upon landing in Perth, putting all of us to shame. We should hang around more often at Thus', so that we could all be motivated by the upbeat aura of the unstoppable youth.

It was a great night with a plenty of cross interaction among those who attended. Even Ian, Thusara's elderly neighbour from Scotland? Ireland? was not spared as Steph and Edmund took turns to grill him with retirement questions. It was probably Yan Chun's last social event in Perth, as she prepared to leave us for home. I was sure it was a simple yet memorable night for her. It was actually the first time I saw my friends here trying to get drunk and got annoyed when the beer ran out. That could only happen when we were getting more comfortable with one another. That wasn't easy to build up, not easy at all.

Thank you to each soul who took care and spent time to take care of Jen, Albany and I in the last eventful year. May you all have a great year of unprecedented joy. Happy New Year.

Received the message via facebook. Tried posting as comment but can't cos it exceeded 1500 words. M can really write when she wants to can't she? Anyway, Stressed Up Singaporean Mum, J, this is for you.

******

Sorry man.. I dunno y I really can't post on your blog. Can help me post reply instead?

Hi J
I'm no expert and totally newbie to Perth. I honestly doubt I will be able to give you much of a sound advice that Nix expects coz we all do things differently so just some suggestions ... If I were you

1. Prioritise
Part A: What's more impt?
House or school?
If the suburb is more impt then you need to zoom in on house first, school next. If its school then you'll need to go school first then house. Sounds like a no brainer. Hehe.
Then again, please always do your HW before you assume the schools here work like where you came fr coz based on experience, I HUNTED down over 20 schools, emailed over 30 of them before I get a decent number of replies to say," Sorry we do not have vacancies for the year..." (depending on the year level your child is entering) Then, I had to rehunt.. Or research again and narrow scope for the school before they say:"... Ok we can arrange an interview for you with our principal." Again, please do not go with the assumption that he will definitely get a slot. it does not work that way, fr my understanding some schools go on long waitlist & some may not clear interview.
FYI, I took my time to do some research on schools so I think it took over 6months to touch base with schools to say:" hi hello.. I am interested to get in! it also took some more than 2weeks to reply after multiple emails. Hahah! You might wanna get started unless all is ready and you are sure you'll get a slot

Part B: Timeline?
Is it impt that your child must start in feb? If the school wants you, they will wait for you. A short miss in school won't hurt. (That's my idea coz I'm not trying to catch a train.. In fact, coming here, I wanna catch up with my life and I also dun wanna die getting all stressed!! (Although the writer of this blog might say otherwise) Personally, my child was applying to start school mid term and the school understands our circumstances to allow us time to immerse.

Depending what's impt, if I were you, I will go with one or the other first, if accomplished, I will then move to the next priority. In this case, Ill go with school first which will then bring me also to the next point.

2. House /Room Rental
Clearly a week is not v sufficient to find lodging. You know you will not get the best and most ideal unit in 1 week that's for sure.

Ok I have no rental history or experience in it but I researched alittle for back up cases.

Look up properties in realestate.com.au and many others u can google. Also look at rooms to rent, short term lease, shared accommodation etc. I do see some room rents online, to be safe, go with home stays or houses that are rented or shared amongst women or FIFO workers. They offer shared accommodation as short as a 3days to a week or more. Hence giving you more time to look for the actual one.
In terms if safety and security... I can't tell you much. Honestly, I'm a believer of faith and fate brought me here, fate gave me friends that I met.. And faith tells me I will be safe in a bloggers house with his wife and kid. (That's before I watched the movie 'Hostel' of coz!) haha but good faith really...

Not all things will go perfectly as planned, but if you can accept that then you are good to go.

3. Car
Honestly I'm no good with cars.. Which is why I got my new car online thru online purchase, that the salesman told me later was not normal procedure. I basically bought the car fr a catalogue aka online shopping... bargained over email and just paid the deposit. Again, good faith that they wont take my deposit and disappear... again, if they do .. well, its fate and to me, somethings happen for a reason.

Note: New cars to me are more guaranteed and has 3-5 years warranty fr manufacturer so it gives noob ppl like me a piece if mind.

Although, given a chance to buy a 2nd hand car, I was told direct owners are usually cheaper but that's if u know procedures to putting car on road. If not, cars fr dealer does it all for you from cleaning and servicing the car to make it "Like New" to paperwork for car to be on road. Most also come with dealer's warranty for piece of mind. In this case, i will go with dealer. LOL!

As you see it, some of these are pure own suggestions..
You do it your way, your pace...
Just as some wise ppl once told me, and Ill share it with you;"...dun overdo it, you dun wanna fall sick before you get your Medicare!" Go easy!

Coming to Perth is just a stepping stone to greater things and a better life.

My new house ain't perfect
So imperfect also is my new car... (Which btw has a 2mm mini paint chipped on door fr my son's rough usage! It is also dirty and dusty despite me trying to wash it!)
My son ain't perfect... He driving me nuts all day, getting himself hurt on the swing and from falling off the trolley in the shopping mall.
The list of imperfections can go on but I shan't bore you....

Just do it!
It will fall into place!
Have FAITH!

Happy New Year!
M

A Singaporean In Australia

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