A Singaporean In Australia

I filled Goldilocks up to full tank at a discounted price of A$1.31 per litre today. That came up to about A$47.00. That will last me for 2 weeks, if I do not drive the car during weekends. Since I am still ferrying my worker-with-no-car to and fro work everyday, this full tank will probably last me only 8-10 days. Things are getting more expensive here. I don't expect anything different really, considering where I came from.

A month ago, I had to fill up at A$1.50 per litre or so. That was really hurting everyone's pocket because we were able to do it for A$1.20 per litre less than a year ago. A 20% increase in fuel cost was no joke. Driving a car is not a luxury in Perth, it is almost a necessity especially if your work location is not accessible by public transport. I believe my friend Joni, who doesn't drive at all, will have something to say about that. After all she survived 4 years of Perth without driving. Though Joni completely debunk the notion of the car being an absolute need, I will not agree if anyone tells me not driving in Perth makes good financial sense.

Perhaps the above example lies near the borderline between a want or a need, taking into account the commuting situation is Perth and Singapore is largely different. How about a subscribed Sports Channel? Didn't customers raise a racket when Star Hub or Singtel decided to increase the price of streaming their favourite football matches to their home? They will be back signing up or continuing their subscriptions once their heat die down. Absolute need? Absolutely not. There are more examples if we look around ourselves. There are people who subscribe magazines or buy them regularly. There are still millions of households who subscribe the Shitty Times and their spawns. Some gamers pay monthly subscriptions for a dash of online entertainment. Online memberships, club memberships, gym memberships, church memberships, cigarettes, hair dye, I can't even list them all.

The problem is, when we are too casual in adding items to our absolute needs list, we will sink further into a financial mire. Just a few decades ago, none of us had internet or mobile phone bills to service. Though the amount of money we spent on these items isn't a large figure, the fact that we have completely accepted that they are necessities of life is where the trouble lies. That means to say we have little control over our financial health if service providers decided to increase their prices as they please. Most of us still reckon we can always walk away when things get unreasonably unaffordable. In truth, we don't. In reality, we can't. Habits are harder to kick than we think.

How about cycling to work for a start? There is never a good time to start. Summer's too hot, Winter's too cold. Autumn and Spring are too rainy. Perhaps it's worth trying out for a few weeks. It's not about saving money, that is only the bonus side effect of cultivating a good habit. I always enjoyed cycling when I was still a young chap in Singapore. In fact, one of the earliest events I got to Jenny was during a overnight-cycling event where both of us raced through a crazy rain which followed us from ECP to Suntec City. I lost the race despite having good strong thighs back then though I won the rest of them later on in the years to come. Guess we know who is more afraid of rain.

I cycled twice to work in Autumn and had a fall during the first one. That is the price to pay for neglecting my health by not exercising regularly. I hope to try that again, once I get those colleagues to get a bloody car so relieve me from my chauffeuring.  Perhaps once or twice a week for a start. Hopefully I will be fit enough to do it everyday in future. Why not, since:

Legend has it that Singapore experienced terrible floods in the ancient days. Then the heroes in white came along and rallied their resources to fortify the village with a chain of wide channels as a defence so as to fight the flood demons. It worked. The victory, together with other legendary deeds, put the ancient leaders right on top of the perch acclaimed as heroes. The song of heroes continues to serenade the people, while the radiant aura of their statues illuminates their shady successors, who would be hiding in shadows otherwise in their vampic undead dogs form.

Oh really, are they giving up already? Knowing how the government sector operates, when the top dog says 

go, the rest of the pack will hound the target without question. Under the SOP, no rationality or common sense is necessary. Just follow, get the meat bone and go back to the kennel to savour it until the very next day. So when the CEO of PUB did the opposite and told Singaporeans to shove their flash floods complains up their own asses, let's imagine what is going to happen to the rest of the PUB team.

I think Mr Chew Men Leong should at least try a bit more, considering he wasn't the top, top dog around. Didn't the other bigger, shaggier, and furrier one plagued the country with his toxic, "Cheaper, Better and Faster," mantra sometime back? Chew was not being a very obedient subject for not trying to be better. I hope he doesn't run into the shaggy dog in the back street someday for he will have to hide his tail between his legs and cringe when Shaggy snarls, "Other than best, there is still bester and besterest!" while he cleans the gap of his molars with the toothpick he stole from Ding Tai Fung.

Chew should at least humor Singaporeans by providing us honest statistics depicting Singapore experiencing much higher rainfall in recent years, as well as the current volume of rainwater our drainage systems can handle, and justify why the PUB team is unable to solve the flash floods unless we increase our drainage volume. Period. Is that too much to ask from an engineer? Perhaps it is, if that engineer came from the SAF. Nothing good ever happened to a department headed by an ex-military personnel, this bias from the general public is fast becoming a reinforced wall of truth, with Chew just added another brick to the mix.

Is there any untold reason why Chew could not justify the flash floods? In any case it is the responsibility of any civil servant to tell the public the truth. As a Singaporean, I believe there is no truth so bitter than we cannot swallow. We are even prepared for a day where we are told that there is no more money in our CPF account so what are a few construction mistakes? Truth, rectification and move on. That's all we need, not the kind of hoodwinking efforts of coining terms like "ponding" by the PUB team or "No amount of engineering prevent floods" by one of the fallen heroes.

Summer starts in December. It isn't even November yet. What the fuck is Summer doing here? Did he rush here because someone told him his wife is in labour? He should realise that refers to the political party. With the hoards of minion flies in his command, he doesn't need no kids.

Last year, Summer overstayed into the first month of Autumn. That was 4 months of entertaining that mother fucker. Now that he gatecrashed into a party he would never have gotten invited ever, that will be 5 months of nonsense if he decided to overstay again this time.

Bloody fuck turd. I didn't come to Perth to reminisce the Singapore weather. At 37°C with low humidity, it felt like the high humidity 34°C hotter days in mid year Singapore. When the >40°C days come, it will feel hotter than the worst days in Singapore. Fortunately these days were not common. Hopefully that does not change, you'll never know with an asshole who doesn't know how unpopular he is partying around.

Despite the searing heat wave, I was not even sweating a quarter as much as I had been in the reasonably "cool" 31°C Singapore afternoons. That was the only consolation of getting baked like a potato, if there was anything to feel grateful for. Another small bonus was that the minions decided to call it a day and deferred their master's instruction to irritate the hell out of all living creatures around. Even minions can perish under the crossfire of the area of effect spells of their obnoxious master.

The doll must be laughing gleefully in her snow cap. She was the real smart one.

Looking back, I didn't realise I wrote so much about Summer. I felt sorry for Spring because it was so fine that I was too busy enjoying my days than to write about it. For more glorious accounts from the historian who survived Summer's onslaughts, read the below

http://asingaporeanson.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/fuck-you-summer.html

http://asingaporeanson.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/hottest-week-in-80-years.html

http://asingaporeanson.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/what-you-need-to-know-about-evil-summer.html

http://asingaporeanson.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/minions-of-summer.html

http://asingaporeanson.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/summers-vengeance.html

http://asingaporeanson.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/australia-summer-myths.html

http://asingaporeanson.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/exsiccation.html

http://asingaporeanson.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/summer-rain.html

I should publish a book on this.

Gintai the ex-SMRT train driver who lost his job [link] due to in a controversial decision from his management to sack him due to "compromising of safety" told me yesterday he went for a job interview at Semb Corp. For Gintai, in his early 50s, is too young to retire and have to remain employed to survive the high cost of living, without any unexpected unemployment safety nets.

Since we are at job hunting, I will take the opportunity to highlight a part of at interview done by some girl with some girl in Sydney. [link] The interviewee cited it wasn't all rosy in Australia as compared to Singapore. This was her parting shot

Apparently Jaslyn Lai, the Malaysia chick who was interviewed is 27 years old today and have been living in Australia for 8 years. That's a tough cookie to survive 8 years, considering how hard she described life in Australia. Yours truly is already thinking of migrating to Greenland at the thought of coping with my third summer in a month's time.

Seriously, I wonder how Jaslyn get the idea how instantaneous we can get a job in Singapore. Assuming she did her tertiary education in the early part of her 8 years in Australia, she would be barely out from college at 19 years old prior to her move to Australia. Here are the following doubts:

- Did Jaslyn try out the Singapore job market at 19 years old to know how easy was it to get a job?

- If so, did she assume the job market in 2013 is as good, if not better than it was in 2005?

- Did the interviewer consider the candidate's age before coming into conclusion that Australia is not greener where it comes to the job market?

If we are young like our friend Jaslyn, everywhere looks really green really, so let's have fun staying in the less green side for 8 years, it doesn't really matter. But tell that to Gintai, unemployed in his 50s, that the Singapore job market, where age discrimination is criminally rampant, is greener.

At the interview, Gintai was offered S$1,300 a month for a job. Never mind if that was a far cry from his average salary of $4-6k (including OT) in SMRT. Most of us understand it is not realistic to get anywhere close to our previous salaries if we get a retrenchment or sacking at the peak of our career. A pay cut is unavoidable but S$1,300? Didn't the frog face sushi guy offer S$3,000 to his dishwashers and told the whole Singapore that no Singaporeans were willing to take it up? I wonder if Jaslyn is willing to switch to the greener side and take up this job.

When I graduated from University in 2004, I was offered a job at a company in Bukit Merah. I was offered, coincidentally, S$1,300. I did not take it up because after making the calculations, I would not be able to make ends meet. I am surprised to hear this figure being offered for a job 9 years later, taking into inflation into consideration. There is no question that Singapore is a greener place that Jaslyn attested to. Trees lined up the roads, gardens were aplenty and bight green faces of mechanical humans add to the shine. Australia is just a huge patch of brown desert, less greens but more grins.

How would you approach a 1 km and a 5 km run? Some of us will approach both runs in the same manner, slow and steady and finish the respective runs recording a similar average pace throughout. The approaches will be entirely different if a maximum allowable time is set and there is a prize for the best performer at the end of each race. In such a situation, we will see a significant difference in average pace between the two runs. That is because the limitations of our human bodies restrict us from duplicating our best performance in a short run to a long one.

We can easily relate this to our working environment, where most of us are subjected to a carrot and stick situation. We have a minimum number of hours at work to fulfill and our performances are pit against our colleagues in a leaderboard. Like running, working is all about pacing ourselves and each of us do that subconsciously because of the limitations of our human bodies. We pace ourselves to last the 8-hour shift, to last the entire week, the entire year and our entire careers.


Contradictory to what the management gurus preaches, the level of our performances is somewhat fixed in time. We can only increase our productivity if something else give way on the other side of the balance. If a worker is asked to work faster today, he will require an additional break or the quality of his work will decrease due to the weariness or the lack of concentration. If a worker is asked to work longer hours, he should be compensated with rest as soon as possible, preferably the next day latest, so that he can resume the same level of productivity in the shortest time. Failing to do otherwise will see the worker seeking down-time be it on purpose (slacking) or not (falling ill)

If we understand these simple concepts, we will see employers in Singapore are extremely shortsighted. The concept of giving time-off for workers who go overtime instead of paying them in cash seems like good management advice. Not if you consider the real purpose of a time-off, which it is to ensure that the worker receives adequate rest for his additional sprint so that he can get back running at his usual average pace in the shortest time. What is the purpose of a time-off if the worker can only claim that time-off in, say, the following month? In a normal situation, the worker will slow himself down the next few days to cope. If overtime is enforced over a period of a long week or even a month, the level of productivity the management will receive will be on a curve of diminishing utility. Since the workers are not paid for overtime, they will take longer breaks (remember the runner's behavior) or slow down his average pace if breaks are not possible or suffer a burn out. It is a natural survival instinct that defy any management theories known to man. As a result, the company receives less than what they eventually pay for in time-offs, worse if workers activates their sick leave which they are less likely to do if their health is sustainable in a reasonable work routine.

If we think the concept is not applicable to highly motivated workers, we are wrong. An outstanding worker can appear to produce longer than most of his colleagues without compromising of work quality. He may even do that for months or even years. Such a worker is only drawing his reserves from elsewhere like how a credit card user will spend his future money. Before long, the worker will break down either mentally or physically or lose concentration once he finds new priorities in life that eluded him previously. Workers that do not fall under such a pattern are exceptional, are few and far between and should never be taken as a norm.

There is a reason why Singapore workers work the longest hours in but remains one of the least productive countries in the world. The notion of cheaper, better, faster is the most foolish mantra a nation can adopt. A good strategist will identity the most profitable demands, align and aggressively attune human resources to fulfill these demands, full prepared to balance the limits of the human being at the other end. That is the only way to stay relevant and sustainable at the same time.

They say we have a keen sense of smell and hearing. Little do they know our sense of feel is stronger. We may not know how to speak or communicate but we are sensitive to their emotions, perhaps even stronger than they are towards one another most of the time. I may know not of any language. I know nothing all but a few words. What I am sure though, is that they do not want me anymore.

Singapore has to be one of the best, if not the best country in the world to be a woman. There is hardly any Asian countries, or even the world, that can match up with Singapore in terms of education, career opportunities, respect and equality as compared to men. Let's not go into absolute equality today, because that is a century long debate without any meaningful conclusion.

Being a woman is in Singapore is great but being a mother? Recently I have been sending my Afghani colleague to and fro work because he lost his car to a nasty car accident. During one of our conversations, I asked my passenger what did his wife do in Afghanistan. He looked at me curiously and replied, "I don't understand your question."

I rephrased my question such that my colleague, who was a little weak in English, would understand. "Oh!" he paused for a few moments. "No woman in my country work. They stay at home to cook and take care of the house." As far as I know, Afghanistan is part of Asia. Yes, I know it is a difficult argument because there are too many factors to define the "best place." If you put safety as a factor, then the busy Singaporean woman who has to juggle work, demanding bosses, kids, teachers, maids and mother-in-laws will be still in a better place compared to the happy Afghanistan homemaker who can lose her life anytime without rhyme or reason.

I can accept many Singaporean women do not relish the idea of being stay-at-home mums. There are mothers who actually rate a successful career the same importance as family. In fact, that actually highlights how ambiguous a concept of a "best place" can be. What are really the right markers? I suppose the Australian "no worries" is a good start to look at things. The lesser worries a mother has, the better the place being one.

I can list you 9 common worries of the Singaporean Mother without cracking slow brain. Many of you should be able to resonate with them.

1. Money

It does not buy happiness but it can cure some worries for sure. In fact, it helps eliminate most of the issues down this list. We have not seen our government mouthpiece telling us that Singapore is one of the cheapest place to raise a kid because that simply can't be done, even if they play around with statistics.

2. Getting Pregnant

Most of us believe getting pregnant is only about having sex at the right time. We used to think Singaporeans were not having babies because they didn't want them. Recently we see many couples not being able to get pregnant even if they want children. This important article may change your mind [link], take note of the chilling traits that Singapore is having. Our birthrate problem may be much more serious that what we think it is.

3. School

The elitist mentality in Singapore drives most parent to a neck-breaking dragon chasing journey to get their kids into the best school and even the best tuition centres these days. It is not a secret what some parents have to subject themselves to just to get a chance to enroll their children into the schools they want. These addition stress and worries take off the fun of being parents. In fact, it sucks.

4. Child Care

The average family will struggle financially if it operates on a single income model. Child care is too expensive and eats up bulk of the mother's salary. In recent years, there are even vacancies issues with accessible, affordable childcare for the working parents. Parents end up with no time for kids and not much more disposable income at the end of the month. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. So parents have to resort to;

5. The Maid

In an ideal world, it is stress-free living with an outsider day in, day out. In reality, it isn't. We do not need further elaboration here. Abuse, communication problem, personality clash, wages tussle, leave, boyfriends, maid pregnancy, privacy issues etc.etc. Even if parents are lucky enough to hire a perfect maid, she will be a surrogate mother to some degree. Is that a true complete family in Singaporeans' mind?

6. Exams

It isn't uncommon to hear mothers using their annual leave for school exams instead of taking a break from work. Parents burnt books with kids after exams. Tell me there isn't an element of stress behind these behavior. Truth to be told, parents are stressed out, especially the mothers.

7. Illnesses

HFMD, Dengue, SARS, the annual Haze. If anyone is to get sick, the children are the most vulnerable. The potency of diseases or viruses increases with a higher population density. No doubt about it. Just imagine if Singapore gets another SARS outbreak. It was deadly for a 4 million population on this tiny island in 2003. It will be worse for a 5.3 million population today. It will be catastrophic with a 6.9 million population. If the government failed to plan our infrastructure to our population growth, just wait until the next mysterious virus outbreak to hit Singapore to see if they prepared Singapore well enough to a virus disaster.

8. Work

Singapore does not have the best culture, those who worked overseas before can attest to that. Many of us bring work home, mentally if not physically. How many of us have experienced waking up in sleep dreaming of work? How many of us receive calls outside working hours for work-related matters? In Singapore, work engulfs our souls. 

9. Long Working Hours

Singapore workers clock the highest number of hours at work. They sell their lives [link] in exchanged for promised dreams. One day we will retire in glory. Maybe, just maybe. The extra number of hours spend at work is detriment to our health. To make things worse, we have a "自己保重” (save your own arse) medical system in Singapore. Our bodies will claim back the extra hours of work and the lack of sleep one day like an inflated credit card account. Payback time will be painful.

Being is mother in Singapore is far from "no worries". No doubt mothers in other Asia countries will face similar issues, but at least half of the factors are unique to Singapore. With a many more worries to handle, is Singapore really the best place to be a mother?

Hi fellow Singaporean down under,

A follower of your blog, I'd like to get your view on in regards to your decision between having your child born in SG vs born in Perth - who will be granted a citizenship automatically.

I've just filed my application this morning and while my husband and I are planning to start a family, what's your view in regards to:-

- giving birth in AU so the child will be granted the citizenship automatically. This is definitely a plus point but we're also at risk given that a)we both are unsure how soon we can get a job and b) having to adapt too many new challenges at one time - coming to a foreign land, having an addition in the family

OR

- giving birth in SG, make full use of the 4 months paid maternity

- apply for dependent pass for the child

I imagine it must be a stressful period when your child is born and barely a few months in Perth?

Happy to hear your thoughts.

Thanks

******

Hi ST,

I gathered that you asked this because you read that I came over to Perth with my wife 5 months into her pregnancy. In case you wondered, we didn't plan for that. We didn't even plan for a child but we were blessed with a brilliant one. The experience of taking care of a pregnant wife in a new unfamiliar environment was indeed daunting. It kept me wide awake, slightly excited, slightly panic during my earlier days in Perth. If you guys are not pissed poor as we were, perhaps you wouldn't have to worry like I did. You will be nurturing your pregnancy holding hands with your husband in regular park strolls in the most serene environment you can ask for just like what we did, but without the nagging feeling of finding a job ASAP. I know you are after the technical points about this rather than these crap, but I thought you should be also consider the pregnancy life in both countries, not just the giving birth part. In this case, I give Perth the vote. Peaceful environment. Splendid air. Wide open space. I don't think I need to elaborate much about which environment is better for a woman during her pregnancy.

It's a personal thing - I hate applying for things. The thought of an additional application process for the baby sends shivers down my spine. The thought of applying for 4 months paid paternity leave doesn't excite me a bit, especially if I am planning to leave the company once I come back from leave. I had never left a company with the feeling that I owed them anything. That's just me, so don't let that affect you. Got money, feel free to grab.

We already planned to leave for Perth in Sept 2011. The air tickets were bought months ago. I learnt about our surprise pregnancy later and had to come to a decision. I could have chosen to stay and wait out my child's birth in Jan 2012. Then I would have to apply for whatever she needed to fly to Perth with us and would have to disrupt her earlier development by taking her to a brand new environment to get used to. If you are not a first time parent, you will understand it is easier to move around with a baby inside than outside the tummy. When I say move, I don't mean going to the shopping centre downstairs. In my opinion, it is double the stress to migrate with an infant in addition to the same things that any migrant goes through, no job, no friends, new environment. 

So you may end up threading carefully like most of the Singaporeans I knew here. The dad moves over first, suffers the heartbreak of being away from his infant or toddler, finds a job, a place to stay before bringing the rest of the village along. That may take a few months to even a few years depending on different circumstances. There is nothing wrong with such an arrangement at all but my wife and I chose to go through every chapter of our struggles together. It was just a personal choice.

If you are not a first time parent, you will also understand a baby does not come with a snap of the fingers. I mean, of course you know that but I wasn't referring that. I know enough couples personally who didn't want babies when they could and wanted babies when they couldn't. The point I am trying to put across is that sometimes babies cannot be timed as you like it. So it sounds kinda weird to me if anyone plan to adjust their migration according to their missed periods.

Some parents just want to register their children as Singaporeans. They cited reasons such as Baby Bonus and other what nots. Again, that's a personal choice. That will depend on what the Singaporea Citzenship means to you. I have gone there before [link] and won't elaborate more. Personally, I will not involve money on the citizenship weighing scale. If I have to talk money, I'll still pick Perth because I rather have a peace of mind having no hospital bills to pay over a lucrative baby bonus. Same logic as one will rather have no GST to pay at all than to pay GST and receive GST rebates from time to time. You decide which is better.

The birth of my daughter, Albany, was a special moment. It marked the first time I shed tears of happiness in my life. The midwife got me to put on a diaper on my 10- minute old baby and wheeled her myself to the ward. On my way down, every hospital staff gave me a wide smile. As I sat by the window bench of the empty ward watching the sunset, holding my baby gingerly in my arms, flashbacks of our early sweet and bitter Perth moments tore through my mind. In the far future, I may even look back and pick this as one of key defining events of my life. I will never take anything in return for that moment. Never.

Anyway, if you have A$500,000 to spare, what kind of house would you buy in the current Perth market? A couple of my pals bought a nice piece of 500 sqm land and build their dream homes on it, the "standard" 4 x 2 x 2 which means 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 2 car spaces in an automatic garage. That sounds really expensive but don't mistaken that as a HDB 5 room flat though. Yes, these have 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms like the HDB flat but the similarities end there. Last weekend I was invited to Micky's little 4 x 2 and saw his swimming pool, generous amount of verge, a big exercise bike right in the middle of the hall and still enough space left over for his 2 beautiful daughters to run around till they pant. Not a bad, if you consider that was built on freehold land.

My beautiful wife sent me an unusual text yesterday afternoon and told me to check my email. "We can't afford this, but I bet you'll love it!" Oh? You know that is the beauty of finding someone like her, after three frustrating decades of feeling misunderstood. So the property was in Redcliffe, which was about 8km from Perth City, nearly 700sqm in land size and the sellers were asking for A$499,000 for it. This was how it looked:

Many will turn their heads away from Redcliffe but not me. It was the first suburb I lived in and it was great. If it only 2km from the Swan River if you want a nice quiet picnic watching ducks waddle by. Or a good jog leading all the way down to Burswood if you are up to it. You can even cycle to the city without breaking your legs if you are in the mood. It does not have the hustle of Belmont, its neighbouring suburb. The wife was right. If I have A$500,000 loose change, I would have slapped it down for this one.

For new migrants, don't be depressed if you can't afford a A$500,000 property. There are a lot of cheaper options around. They will only be appear for those who bothered to look hard. I am not in a hurry. Everything is running as planned. You'll see.

By now, thousands of Singaporeans would have read the account of Gintai's termination from his SMRT Train Captain job. Gintai is a personal friend and had confided in me about his dismissal a few weeks ago. Yesterday, he finally decided to make it known publicly by writing his reflections on his blog. [link] Within hours, his post went viral, partly due to his shocking termination, partly due to the fact it was a comeback post from such a popular blogger before he decided to retire from blogging one year ago.

I read Gintai's painstakingly written appeal letter to the SMRT management which he sent me in private. It was professional, straight to the points, honest and sincere. I wonder if I will ever attain his level of writing skills. However, I have no doubt that the SMRT management will not consider his appeal. In fact they probably won't even bother to read it. I didn't tell my friend in case he still habour any hope in getting his job back. But since he decided to write his post, he had gotten over it by now.

Why am I so sure that SMRT will junk Gintai's appeal letter straight into the bin? Any company that decided to dismiss a loyal staff who served for 18 years because of technical errors during work would had pretty much made up their minds even before his official dismissal. They were only waiting for the chance and the right timing.


I'll like to take the opportunity to clear Gintai's name for I read some of the most nasty speculation from Singaporeans who didn't even know him personally. For example, one insinuated that Gintai was a chronic late-comer at work. That was far from truth. Not only he was ever-punctual for work, he went on a few years streak without taking a single day of MC from work. 18 years of punctuality, dedicate service with a record low count of medical leave taken. Tell me honestly, how many employees have you worked with who can boast of such statistics? Some of us are already tearing our hair out before the 10th year. Many of us can't even last 1.8 years in our jobs. There isn't a point discussing what Gintai did that warranted his dismissal. Let's just say in his situation, he would be dismissed even if he pat a stray rabbit that turned up uninvited at the train drivers' smoking corner.

Like many others, I think sacking a staff like Gintai was a loss to the SMRT. A man of his dedication can be used to do much more for the organisation. The organisation was uncomfortable with his blogging (that's a catalyst but not the reason why he was dismissed) but failed to recognize that the man was dedicated, even obsessed, about his job to start a blog on it. Heck, most of us don't even want to talk about our work the moment knock off, much less write a whole blog about it. Over the years knowing him, I assure you it is not an exaggeration to say his passion for the job is unparalleled, with due respect to other SMRT drivers in Singapore. He literally ate, drank and breathed trains. If SMRT team was actually SMART (alas they are missing an 'A' for asshole who has been invited to turn the organisation into his personally army), they should had milked Gintai to death by making good use of his popularity to boost its ailing image to the public instead of feeling insecure about their driver telling the whole Singapore what they already know.

Gintai's mentor, the esteemed Dr Loh [link], warned Gintai of the consequences of posting about his dismissal because that will be dire to his chances of getting his next job. Sadly I agree with Dr Loh but I sincerely hope it will open up some unexpected doors for him instead.  All the best to you my friend.

The Duchess dropped me a message just before she came back to Perth. It was a quote from Heng Swee Kiat, the Minister of Education which caught her interest. Interesting meh? Maybe she was considering sending her child back to Singapore for studies? Heh.

We have elite schools, good schools and average schools in Singapore. Everyone knows that, so it is not even an open secret. Our government officials know, for most if not all of them came from one of the elite schools in the country. They know all about that. I doubt any Minister will dare to tell the public that every school is as good as the other and they are all the same. They shouldn't even bother to try because the kiasu Singaporean parents will always emulate their millionaire Minister idols - to send their own kids to the same schools the Ministers send theirs and then hope one day their kids miraculously become a Minister like how Chan Chun Sing, who claimed that he was a product of meritocracy, did.

I admire Heng Swee Keat's vision to make all schools equal in Singapore just like the Finland education system where all parents are assured to send their kids to any school and get the same world class education from another down the street. If Heng knew the real reason behind the strange behavior of Singapore parents, he wouldn't even need to bother transferring principals here and there. All he need is to get his boss to endorse an email and send it down to his colleagues as a directive to ban them from sending their children to the 'usual' schools. Soon, the zombie parents will follow suit. Oh yes, that will work like a charm.

Heng has to understand what it takes for a school to become successful, elite so to speak. He should watch a little football perhaps. From there he'll know that the top 3-4 teams of a major European league will be eligible to compete in an elite competition called the Champions League the next season. All participating team will receive around €10 million upon qualification. Each team will yield at least €1 million per game in the competition and will receive bonuses upon reaching the later stages of the competition. So the further the team advances into the competition, the more money they will win. The grand winner prize money is another €10.5 million. Even the losing finalist rakes in about €6.5 million. With so much additional funds coming to the respective football clubs, on top of revenue from their local league, how can the smaller, weaker competitors ever break their dominance?

The educational system in Singapore is exactly the same situation. Elite school attract societal elites who pump in money via donations or support. The pupils graduate to become the next generation elites and the school forms an elite alumni. Meanwhile, heartland schools may break a gut to create the odd upset in a sport competition here or there but the heartland schools in overall will never come close enough to have a whiff of their elite counterparts. So the big question is: Does Heng's initiative solve this problem? If we get Alex Ferguson, the legendary manager of Manchester United, to manage Oxford United Football Club and get Raddy Avramović our ex-Singapore National Coach to head FC Barcelona and get them to play 100 head to head games, Barcelona will crush Oxford in every single game no matter how much hair dryer treatment Ferguson does in his finest whisky-nose mode.

Mind you, I am not undermining the achievements and greatness of our good principals in Singapore. In fact, I emphasize with them. It must be a gash in their morale if we send the best war winning generals to guard the border because they did so well. They'll be fighting to be second best from here. Or third best if necessary. Everyone will strive to do 'just enough' to siam the arrow. Maybe he should drop the rankings altogether. Without proper access school rankings, it will be difficult for confused zombie hordes to scramble for the obvious sources of brains. Perhaps over time, the divide will be better leveled. Meanwhile, he should type that directive for his elite colleagues first.

I used to drive an ex-colleague back home during rainy nights because he cycled to work. That was the previous job and when I lived in Huntingdale. The man was a rough looking Aussie, stout, stocky with 2 front teeth missing. He used to call my Nixie, to my amusement. I used to think Aussies like to shorten terms so that they are faster and easier to use but I was only half right.

There are situations where a term is shorten such as "Tassie" for "Tasmania" but it doesn't make sense to change "Breakfast" to "Brekky" because both words are two syllabus and more so increasing the syllabus from 1 to 2 for a simple name such as "Nix" to "Nixy". Sometimes it is a form of endearment. I took that as a mate recognition code and returned it by calling him "Lukie" They take it serious the same way Singaporeans love their acronyms. Drive along the streets you'll see the official "Brekky" signage outside most Hungry Jacks restaurants.

Unlike the acronyms, which is really easy to slap on anything that is long enough to annoy Singaporeans, some names be can really awkward to shorten using the Australia method. Such as

Naim (real name of my colleague) - "Amy"

Rahmat (real name of my colleague) - "Mati" (die)

Sid (English) - "Seedy"

Ka Fatt (Singapore) - "Fatty"

Gernot (German) - "Notti"

Alcock (Australia) - "Cocky"

Just for jest. Of course we'll call someone Al instead of Cocky. Just like how we like to call the Duchess of the Brook Meow instead of Sally. These may seem very trivial but as a migrant to Australia, you better learn some of these. When I was looking for replacement car after my accident, one of the used car owner sent me a text reply instructing me to "Meet me at Applecross Maccas" and I had a hard time figuring that out. Just imagine how annoying I would be if I asked her for the address.

So before long, you'll come across some of these simple ones.

Avo: Afternoon

Evo: Evening

Satdee: Saturday

Sundee: Sunday

Smoko: Cigartte break or just a break

Sickie: A day off work calling in sick

Chrissy: Christmas

Break-up Day: Last day of school. Not breaking up with your boyfriend.

Cheers: Thanks

Ta: Thank you

You right?: Do you need help?

Sparkie: Electrician

Brickie: Brick layer

Ambo: Ambulance Driver

Journo: Journalist

Pom/Pommey: Person from England

Bikie: Member of motorcycle gang

Pollie: Politician

Rego: Car Registration

Barbie: BBQ

Ute: Utility vehicle/Pick up

Woolies: Woolworths Supermarket

Chemist: Pharmacy

Chook: Chicken

Mozzie: Mosquito

Can you guess what are the meanings for the following?

1. Happy little vegemite

2. Dummy

3. Lolly Water

4. Boil the Billy

5. Carbie

6. Comby

7. City of Lights

8. Tucker

9. Joey

10. Woofer

Like our Singlish terms, it will  probably take a lifetime of learning. Feel free to contribute some of the Aussie slangs you know.