A Singaporean In Australia

The day had a forecast of 39°C at the peak. So I decided to do some work at 5am in the morning.

Woah! Surprisingly, it felt rather cold. I was almost shivering in the morning breeze. The air was fresher than usual, with the scent of freshly cut grass. The sun had risen and provided more than enough light despite the clouds. It should be a good day to be productive.

That was the sketch of the work. The side gate of Savvy Steve's house was finally going to happen. All I wanted to do was to plant two gate posts in the ground and concrete them up. As simple as. Unfortunately, it wasn't to meant to be.

The digging didn't take me long. The reticulation pipes did slow me down but it didn't stop me. Before long I planted my first post, 600mm deep. 

I heard a giggle somewhere and looked up. Albany was standing at the far end of the corridor in her pajamas. 

"Why are you laughing, Albany?"

"I thought you were in the study but I couldn't find you. Then I found you here. Hee hee," she replied.

Oh well. As usual, I let her watch me work from a safe distance, with her shooting questions non-stop. "Oooh, daddy, it's a rock!" she exclaimed when she heard my shovel hitting something hard.

"Hmm," my brows were knitted. "Oh dear...." as I suspected something worse. Alas, my fears were confirm as I dug deeper. It was a part of a slab which had no business to be there. I held back my curse and begun to keep my tools. It was too early to cut, core or drill. I would piss my neighbour off big time, if I hadn't already with all the digging and chomping.  It would be way too hot later to do any sort of cutting. Even if I was willing to subject myself to working under intense heat, I wasn't sure if there was a fire ban. So I decided to fuck it and call it a day. After keeping my tools, I made a call to mum.

"Gong xi fa cai," I begun.

My mum, happy to hear me, gave a robust reply. I told her I was digging a ditch just a moment ago and she chided me for working during the first day of Chinese New Year. I decided against telling her I hit a rock and had to stop, lest she got worried about my luck of the rest of the year and stuff. For me, I don't give a damn. If I do, I would be the same as the fuckers whom I scorned for bringing their Hungry Ghost beliefs to Australia, offerings, not being able to shift houses during ghost month etc. These jokers should just fuck back to Singapore lah!

I had a great chat with mum before letting Albany take over the phone. Later on, I tried for the first time to blast CNY songs via a bluetooth speaker. Jen continued to sleep through the din. There was no red dates tea or sticky cakes for breakfast. Tried as I did, it just didn't feel like CNY.