Archive for February 2015

Gentlemen behold! Retards!

"For stay-home mothers, we are especially concerned that they do not get to benefit from the CPF system. As they do not receive formal payment and CPF contributions for their care-giving, they do not enjoy the attractive interest rates paid on CPF balances and the positive effects of interest compounding," the PAP Women's Wing said in a statement.

"A sensible approach is for their husbands to make regular voluntary top-ups to their CPF accounts; likewise for their adult working children. We urge the Government to raise awareness of the benefits of such top-ups and the availability of GIRO transfer options," the statement added.

You know, if I were a member of the PAP Women's Wing, I would want to make sure Singaporean mothers have the peace of mind in regards to finding a shelter over their heads, regardless they are married or not. Very simply, any parent needs a roof to raise a kid. If the Government refuses to allocate public housing for the needs of single mothers who is left to help them?

Instead, all the PAP Women's Wing care for are CPF benefits for married women who chose to be stay-at-home mums. Unlike the past, a stay at home mum is a rarity of late. To cope with the high cost of living in Singapore, most mothers have to work. The Government encourages that because it increases productivity and are willing to give incentives to working mothers, such as a childcare subsidy. In a nutshell, the situation has become such that a stay-at-home mum is a luxury that most families of the working class cannot afford.

Now to make it even more unaffordable, some smart asses are suggesting that husbands should pay their stay-at-home wives CPF so that they can also "get to benefit from the CPF system." Good as it sounds, there seems to be an awkward correlation between maid levies and paying our wives CPF that leaves Singaporean sons in a-damn-if-you-do, damn-if-you-don't situation. Many of us would rather leave cash buried under the Bougainvillea hedge than to leave it with the CPF. You know, even if you throw a bundle of cash into Bedok Reservoir, you can hear a resounding, "Plop!" That's still more satisfying than converting them into imaginary digits and not hearing anything from it ever again if you leave it at you-know-where. Or better yet, husbands could just give their wives cold hard cash. Or set up an endowment fund which gives a far better yield than 2.5% There are so many options out there yet they are looking for just another method to channel funds into the CPF. Predictably, a voluntary system would turn into a compulsory system once the Government is able to show the "benefits" of their small database of volunteers in future. The real question is, who really get to benefit from the CPF system in such an arrangement?

One of the reasons why we moved to Perth is that we will not be able to achieve a single income family model in Singapore. Over these 3 years as a parent, I could see the obvious benefits of having a stay-at-home mum to take care of my child. Unfortunately, instead of working towards a more family oriented environment, our government is doing their best to make this arrangement even more unfeasible than it already is.

With all the baby bonus and one time perks to entice young couple so to have kids, nothing much has been done to improve the sustainability of having a larger family. Instead, they gathered some bitches to make it worse for everyone. I can't see how our trend of declining birth rates will be reversed anytime in future. We'll just have to stick to importing more foreigners to keep the scheme going.

After 3 great years of service, Goldilocks finally broke down for the first time. The beauty in that was that she managed to take me home safely after work instead of breaking down on the highway or something. An hour later, I left home with the intention of fetching Albany from the childcare centre, there it happened.

After I started the car, I sensed that something was not right immediately. The engine wasn't running smoothly, clocking erratic RPM as seconds went by. After about 10 seconds, the engine spluttered and went dead. Each time I restarted the engine, it lasted shorter than the previous try. By the next day, I could not start the engine at all.

Without a proper garage, tools nor mechanic training, I couldn't do much. All I could do was to speculate what could have gone wrong with Goldilocks. From the symptoms, since I managed to start the engine, I ruled the possibility of a bad battery out. The starter motor should be working as well. So I changed the spark plugs, in hope for a quick solution. No luck. The pistons were still not firing. My bet was the fuel system. If I could get the engine going the day before but eventually went dead, I figured that the pistons were not receiving enough fuel for combustion. However, if the fuel pump was not working, there was no way I could change it. For a start, I didn't even know where to locate it.

It was decision making time. Is it time to buy a new old car or a brand new car? Was it a bad choice to buy an old car in the first place? I still insist it wasn't. Since I spent $2,100 or so on Goldilocks 3 years ago, if that was really the time to say goodbye, her depreciation would be a decent $700 a year. If I were to buy a brand new Toyota Corolla for $27,000 today, the number of years I need to drive to match that depreciation rate is 38 years. I may be dead by then. So even if I repair Goldilocks, it may be well worth it if I can get her running for another year. How does that work out? Say if my repair cost $600, I'll add $600 to my purchase price. 2100+600 = 2700. 4 years of depreciation = 2700/4 = $675. Still awesome. I will never run on such low cost if I were to buy a brand new car.

But how about a new old car? I would love to drive a RAV4 or a CRV, wouldn't I?

Let's call up the mechanic and see.

Goldilocks Reloaded

The Liews are a special family to me. Well you see, prior to moving to Perth, all my friends were about ±5 of my age. Patrick and Josephine Emma are my first friends of their age group where they are too old for me to regard them as my siblings and too young for me to treat them as my parents. Since I am a social misfit, I will normally clam myself tightly shut when I offer little relevance to other parties.

The Liews do not allow such nonsense. Over the years, they have been taking care of our social well being by endless inviting us for home gatherings. Although I appreciate these kind gestures very much, it is the nature in me to feel pai seh to constantly impose on them. However, I always remember something that Patrick once said. He reasoned that if we Singaporeans remain constantly in our pai seh mode, our friendships will never evolve to a higher level.

It made sense. So thereafter, I decided to disrupt their 二人世界 often, let Albany sleep on their spare beds, raid their refrigerators, pantries and make sure they will do the same in future.

My first Chinese New Year in Perth was only 4 months after I departed from Singapore. I was working that day because there CNY is not a public holiday in Australia. Before I started work, I made a call back. They were already at the usual gathering at my Grandma's. The familiar chatter rang through the background. I ended the call with a few tears welling in the eyes. It was my first and only bout of homesickness. After Albany was born, we had been too busy to feel homesick. Chinese New Year became a memory of the past and just another day of the next few years.

I come from a Hakka family. There is a Hakka song called <<出外靠朋友>> The title of the song is a part of the phrase, "在家靠父母，出外靠朋友" I didn't understand the true meaning of this proverb until I came to Perth. Only after I did so, I realised my umbilical cord was truly cut off. All my 30 years, I had been that mummy's boy whose well being was well provided for. The independence was frightening in my early days. Most of the Singaporeans came here in their small family units, without their parents. So there is little meaning of having a Chinese New Year feast.

This year is special. The lunch at the Liew's reminded me of a Chinese New Year spread back in Singapore. They even prepared a Lou Hei set to spice the atmosphere up. The only thing that was missing was the dong dong chiang songs on the radio but the chatter among the quests was a good substitute. The food tasted as good as it looked, doing the long hours Josephine spent preparing justice. That was the first Chinese New Year Feast in Perth. We should make sure that wouldn't be the last. Though we have no family here with us, we lucky to have made some great friends.

GUEST BLOGGER

Satki Yoda

11 Feb 2014

Culture Shock

Nix, it is Satki Yoda taking a break from driving my black vios and writing to you again. How apt that i travel to Singapore soon for the Chinese New Year, and how suitable it is to be talking about culture shock. I would start my own blog writing about my experiences in Australia, but i am not satki enough to warrant the position of a "leader" or "inspiration" like you do, neither am i keen to be in the limelight (i might be young and satki but i know the pitfalls of being well-known) so please let me kapok your space to vent.

As requested, even though i am not following the script closely, here is my personal account on adapting to the culture, and the "culture shock".

My story of adapting to the Australian life

I must be very honest with you. i was, and still am, a typical sinkie when i first landed in the sunny shores of Melbourne, thinking i was Xie Shaoguang on his Ch 8 drama 出路, being the first and unique sinkie to reach the shores of sunny Australia, like a sua gu going around telling everybody how great Australia was, and singing the words 飘洋过海，我吃得起苦 so many times i was quite close to getting strangled in my sleep by my housemate.

Usually, well-meaning migrants before me, especially those with popular blogs, sometimes including yourself, give advice, telling people to "don't look back in anger" and "immerse yourself fully in the culture". This is perfectly good advice and i agree, but like the disclaimers they have at the end of every bank or financial advisor's statements, "this advice is general advice only and is not meant for your personal circumstances" or something along those lines. For example, Nix may have always dreamed of having a farm and a large plot of land to tend, and that is a very Australian thing to do, but that doesn't mean that me, a city slicker who enjoys the comfort of crossing the road to tapao McDonalds, needs to have that as my dream just because i moved here. There's probably as many people who were born and bred here who feel like me in wanting to tapao McDonalds than live out in the bush. And notice i still say Mcdonalds (not Maccas) - because i hua hee. Similarly, they say the fishing is great here where i am, but fishing to me is one of the most boring things you could ever do and i rather stay at home and read a book! I know Nix, you won't take offence, and understand that all i am trying to say is that, everyone has different hobbies and interests, and it takes all types of people to make the world. You don't have to force yourself to conform to a stereotype of something or someone, just to fit into the culture. It is being different, that makes you unique (and wildly popular with girls).

The great thing about Australia is that people don't give a shit what you do for your hobbies, but if you don't have hobbies you are an extremely boring person to talk to. And you know what? Even if thats the case, who cares??? if i like sitting at home watching JAV and surfing the famous EDMW forum after work stirring shit about the gahmen and don't have any other cool hobbies, so be it! Don't force yourself to like things just because its "what people do here". On the other hand, if you've always been dying to try something, say golf, but couldn't because there was no opportunity, eg it was so expensive in Singapore, by all means, drive (pun intended) yourself crazy on the golf course.

So, if you ask me for an honest assessment, no, by the usual standards, I haven't adapted, I haven't learnt from all the well-meaning advice of other fellow migrants to "immerse yourself in the culture" etc. I still go back every 3-4 months, behave like a sinkie, go to JB to pump petrol and buy malboro red, complain on social media more about Khaw Boon Wan than Tony Abbott. I go home everyday and skype with my family and loved ones for a good 30mins to 1hour, keeping in touch with the latest developments and politics in my large extended family. I don't watch footy unless forced by my angmoh housemate (its his TV, bo bian).

On the other hand, my supposedly "Australian traits" are that i'm well known at work because of my achievements in the large amounts of alcohol i can drink, and i play an organized contact group sport in soccer regularly with a group of tradies who i haven't broken the news to that Singapore isn't in China. And, the sports rims on my satki black vios.

And then, there is the dreaded, "Should i have aussie accent or not" question. Recently, a friend who has been here for 7-8 years remarked how Singaporean i still sound, in his Aussie twang (you can tell he trying hard, because he speak much slower). Nabeh, Yoda got booksmart degree from satki Australia lumber one uni and satki professional job wearing shirt and tie go office edit spreadsheet give presentation one leh. In corporate speak, "my job requires me to analyse complex data and communicate this clearly to senior stakeholders". I think my communication skill and level is sufficiently understandable to anyone around the world who spiking the engrish, whether in Australia, America, UK, Thailand, India or wherever.

In conclusion, satki yoda's advice is, just be yourself, learn to laugh at yourself, learn to stand up for yourself - and if you find my advice is shit, so be it. Just because you move to another country, doesn't mean you have to be a different person. Unless you WANT to be a different person. Be like Frank Sinatra, and say, "I did it my way".

And that, is why, I feel at home in Australia.

So we get our kids to dress up in their traditional racial costumes in school like a beauty pageant during Racial Harmony Day and sing one another's folk songs in their respective languages only to show them doing the same thing in public when they get out to the real world may get them arrested? Not if you do that without a musical instrument, that will only land you into Buangkok Chalet. With a cultural music instrument in hand, it will be the Cantonment Coffeehouse instead.

Whatever happened to the Racial Harmony declaration we encourage not only our kids but every Singaporean to recite during the Racial Harmony week every year?

We, the people in Singapore, declare that religious harmony is vital for peace, progress and prosperity in our multi-racial and multi-religious Nation.

We resolve to strengthen religious harmony through mutual tolerance, confidence, respect, and understanding.

We shall always

Recognise the secular nature of our State,
Promote cohesion within our society,
Respect each other's freedom of religion,
Grow our common space while respecting our diversity,
Foster inter-religious communications,
and thereby ensure that religion will not be abused to create conflict and disharmony in Singapore.

Was that meant to be a rap or did that mean anything for real?

In what way does playing a couple of musical instrument during a traditional festival go against the principles of religious harmony? How does such a festival differ from littering the skies of the River Ang Bao venue with glittering paper and blasting the eardrums out of participants with firecrackers? If it isn't the decibels, how does the authorities measure offensiveness?

When the Pilipino Independence Day Council Singapore (PIDCS) withdrew their application to hold their Independence Day at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza due to receiving excessive flak from the Singaporean public, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wrote a Facebook post condemning the " thuggish behavior" of these critics and urged Singaporeans to be more gracious towards diversity,

"We must show that we are generous of spirit and welcome visitors into our midst, even as we manage the foreign population here. Otherwise we will lower our standing in the eyes of the world, and have every reason to be ashamed of ourselves."

- PM Lee Hsien Loong, 19 April 2014

What is the point of rallying the country to accept a foreign community when we have clearly yet to recognise the different religious and racial liberties of our existing communities?

During every Chingay Procession, we showcase our multi-cultural society to the world by getting every creed and race to make a racket with all sorts of musical instrument imaginable. The Singapore Police Force seems to have no problem endorsing this event, without anyone feeling awkward that the world Chingay is equivalent to the Mandarin zhuang yi (妆艺) which means "the art of costume and masquerade" in the Hokkien dialect and the event stems from Chinese roots. Does that mean it will be okay to hit the drums during a Thaipusam procession if we repackage it as a multi-cultural event?

As a Chinese Singaporean I am ashamed to read about the arrest. Every year during the first day of Chinese New Year, my Chinese neighbour will hire a Lion Dance troop to perform the traditional custom of "cai qing" (採青) in his house without fail. The Lion Dance troop will be heard on the streets way before they turn into our carpark. Their drumming and cymbal crashing with peak in gusto as they move along the final stretch of the corridor of the HDB flat. Over more than 20 years, we have never heard of a single complain by a non-Chinese neighbour who does not celebrate the CNY. We also saw more than 10 Malay couples getting married within 2 blocks of our HDB flats over these 2 decades. On every wedding, we got to hear the great (and not so great) karaoke singing of the guests following by the playing of the kompang according to a distinctive rhythm that will reverb through the neighbourhood to announce the arrival of the bride and groom. Many of us would stand on the side of the street to watch the newly weds. The music did not bother us. Over decades, we have been celebrating racial tolerance. Unbelievably, this year, the Singapore Police Force chose to stop a Thaipusam progression from playing their drums outside a temple in the name of "deterring public disorder which may be caused by rivalries between groups."

Can't anyone see that such an act of religious persecution is a greater dividing force that can potentially create crack lines within societal peace and harmony than a forbidden drum solo? Are we living in a age where we cannot tell the rights and wrongs between guidelines and common sense?

Source: [link]

Again, for Singaporeans who are coming this way for whatsoever reason, public holidays may be of interest to some. You see, some Singaporeans may wish to avoid specific public holidays, i.e the Summer end-of-year holiday blitz. In that case they will not encounter Perth deader than its usual dead. Others may come at the exact period to experience how the locals spend their end of year holidays.

As Australia is such a big country, public holidays can be country wide, state wide or only for certain regional areas. For example, in Tasmania, locals celebrate Easter by having back to back public holidays (Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday). Another example is Labour Day, which Tasmania celebrates on a different day to WA and names it differently too. (They call it Eight Hour Day) Every state also have their own exclusive public holidays.

Even within the WA state itself, Queen's Birthday is celebrated on 4 different dates because some regional areas holds this public holiday on their respective days of significance. Coming from a small city state, I found these amusing at first. Just imagine if there is an Western Singapore Day or Hougang Day or Tanjong Pagar GRC celebrates National Day on Lee Kuan Yew's birthday instead of on the 9th of August. Funny eh?

I was added to this whatsapp group of Singaporeans living in Australia. There are only a handful of participants in the group, neatly spread all over Australia. If my memory serves me well, there is only a single participant from Perth (me), Brisbane and Adelaide each and 3 others in Melbourne. Almost everyday, we will share basic information such as weather and fuel cost. Other days, I'll be able to read about the casual jobs situation in Melbourne or colourful festivals being held in Adelaide. These remind me that Australia is such a huge country, almost a continent by itself. There are so much diversity across the country and the country offers so much possibilities.

Before I made my move to Perth years ago, there was a particular night I laid on the deserted running track of ITE College West at 10pm, exhausted after completing a slow but long jog. Those days, I experienced many disturbed nights when I had long periods of quiet time by myself. I felt poisoned after the first thoughts of migration came to my mind. Day by day, as my yearning for attempting the unbelievable increases, my fears froze me in tandem. I could not even land myself a job in my own country, what would be my odds in a country I could hardly understand a sentence that their locals speak? Why then, would I take my pregnant wife along with me to Perth if I didn't lose my sanity? Still lying on the running track, I opened my eyes and saw a few stars flickering dimly up above. Out of the few stars I made out, there were thousands invisible to me due to my bright surroundings. Although darkness is fearful, it is equally frightening when brightness blinds. I reasoned that Australia has 8 capital cities, spanned across a huge land mass 10,743 times bigger than Singapore, surely .... surely there would be a crevice that could accommodate my humble family? It was then I realised I had mistaken the sense of detoxification as a poisoned state.

I thought it may be useful to share this with Singaporeans with young kids who are planning to migrate or taking a short trip to Perth. With the public transport infrastructure here yet to match up with our world class transport back home, most of us will be commuting by car. Thus if you are bringing along the young ones, it is good to know what you are require to provide for them under the WA law.

The Law

Laws came into effect on 1 October 2010 that introduced rules for the restraint of children in vehicles.

The laws reduce the risk of injury caused by the use of unsuitable restraints for a child’s size by specifying the type of restraint to be used at different ages and where children must be seated in a vehicle.

The laws require children from:

Birth to under 6 months to be restrained in a rearward facing child restraint (e.g. infant capsule)

6 months to under 4 years to be restrained in either a rearward or forward facing child restraint with in-built harness

4 years to under 7 years to be restrained in either a forward facing child restraint or booster seat restrained by a correctly adjusted and fastened seat belt or child safety harness.

Also, children under 4 years are not allowed to sit in the front seat of a vehicle with two or more rows of seats, and those from 4 years to under 7 years are only allowed to sit in the front seats if all rear seats are occupied by children less than 7 years of age.

Children 7 years and over can be restrained in an adult seat belt or booster seat.

Basically, if you child is 7 years old and below, you have to provide the right form of child car restrain for him or her. I know some of you self proclaimed car gods will think it is not necessary to do so, given your all reliable Black Vios and impressive drifting skills acquired on the rainy expressways of Singapore. However, according to the Office of Road Safety of Western Australia (not road safety park mind you), every year, children dies or get seriously injured when the car they were travelling in is involved in a crash. I shall spare you the actual statistics because as far as I'm concerned, a single dead child is one too many. So belt up your kids here if you don't want increase your odds of adding them to the statistics.

Child car seats brands that typical Singaporeans go for easily cost around A$300 here. So be prepared to crack your bank if you have 3 kids. Nobody says raising kids is cheap in Australia. However, you have the choice if you are willing to take it. For example I got all my child car seats FREE on Gumtree. They were used but have been serving me great so far. For your benefit, I will attach a pic of a "child car seat" and a "booster seat" respectively with a quick search on Gumtree. Unfortunately there are no free give-aways tonight but we have something close.

This is a baby car seat

And this is a booster seat

Conclusion:

1) Belt up your child

2) You have a choice to go cheap or free doing so

3) WA Gumtree users do not know how to rotate pictures

Campbell7 November 2014 at 15:04

I struggle to believe that anyone would wish to leave Singapore for Australia or anywhere. First class education, same goes for health, excellent Universities, lower crime rate, no graffiti, a beautiful clean modern and green City, people friendly and great weather. Admittedly house prices are a concern but you do have a system that ensures people can own their own property if they plan well from their youth. I'd live there in a heart-beat if I were allowed to. Don't emigrate, be proud of a great country.

I struggle to believe that anyone would wish to leave Singapore for Australia or anywhere.

According to ST [link], there were 200,000 Singaporeans living abroad in 2012. The number is definitely higher in 2015 and will continue to rise. Though it is hard to believe, Singaporeans wishing to leave Singapore to work or live elsewhere is reality. Why? Especially when we have:

First class education,

First class health system,

Excellent universities,

Lower crime rate,

No graffiti,

A beautiful clean modern and green city.

Friendly people and great weather,

Admittedly, you almost got me until I came to these, especially great weather. Hehe. Not when I am enjoying 10ish degree Celsius nights for 3/4 of the year where I am residing at. You probably meant that Singapore is relatively natural disaster free. I'll give you that for sure. Unnatural disasters such as once in a 50 year pondings didn't count.

Don't get me wrong. Despite living overseas, I am still a proud Singaporean holding a red passport. This blog is called A Singaporean in Australia and not An Australian Wannabe for a reason. I agree that Singapore is a great country on all counts. No country can be perfect but at least once upon a time, Singaporeans tried making their country as close to perfection as possible. We ended up with a great city state that we could be proud of.

However migration is a personal choice. Very often, the decision making process does not only revolve around the greatness of their home country but also their personal needs. Think of it from an ecological point of view. A cactus will simply not flourish even in the greatest mangrove swamp in the world. It's as simple as that. At times, personal needs are far beyond bread and butter matters such as good education, housing or jobs. A minority of the people may find it enthralling to stroll large open spaces without any human being in sight. Or playing music instruments on the street without being arrested. Like I said, it's a minority, thus explains why only 1 in 10 Singaporeans choose to migrate.

It's just personal preferences and nothing to do with our great motherland.

Hopefully the Aussies will not play down a population target as a "projection" or a "planning parameter" like our authorities did in Singapore. Our PM Lee famously declared that his government did not have 20/20 foresight for the last 10 years and apologised to Singaporean during his rally in the last GE. Sadly, it seems like the PM is not going to do something to improve it.

"Nobody knows what's going to happen in 2030. Even in 2020, you cannot be sure... Therefore we cannot decide on a population trajectory beyond 2020."

- Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 9 Feb 2013

I say, that must be one rare leader telling his country that his government was unable to decide on a population trajectory that was only 7 years away. That was shocking. Every country or state government hires a group of urban planners who will draw out a mid term plan, normally known as a masterplan. In Singapore, the statutory board formed to take up the task is known as the URA. Population forecasts play a pivotal role in understanding future challenges. Thus a population target, is in fact, one of the key factors that shapes masterplan because it helps decide how land in the country should be used in 10, 15 years time.

How otherwise for instance, can URA provide a figure for the HDB to strategise how many flats to build a year or which roads should the LTA widen if the government cannot decide on a population target? Why are we planning to deforest a large land mass in Tengah and East Seletar to be zoned as residential land [link] if we are not planning for a population surge? Was the PM confused, clueless or patronizing Singaporeans? That's the least of my concern now. Obviously, the same goes for the majority of Singaporeans who voted in the leader that we deserved.

Let me focus my energies to what really counts, the WA masterplan, focusing particularly on the Perth metropolitan area. For if the Aussie urban planners here is worth their salt, they will be following the masterplan the manner it is meant to be instead of flipping prata whenever the occasion calls for it. The masterplan can be my crystal ball to tell me if my commute to work is going to be as fucked up as driving along the AYE (or any other expressways in fact) to work. It will better help me decide if there is still a future for me in Perth and if so, where should I position myself.

First things first,

"A longstanding role for the WAPC has been the forecasting of population changes across the state. WA Tomorrow provides projections for growth until 2031, which historically indicate an average annual growth rate of 1.5 per cent. WA Tomorrow forecasts that Perth and Peel will grow from the current population of 1.65 million to more than 2.2 million. In order to accommodate this level of growth it is estimated that we will need another 328,000 houses and 353,000 jobs."

- Forecast of Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC)

"The ABS publishes a series of population forecasts3 which suggest that the population of Perth and Peel will be between 2.40 million and 2.88 million. This means that we would need between 358,000 and 429,000 additional dwellings."

- Forecast of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

There are slight difference between the projections done by different organisations but at least I am getting none of the "therefore we cannot decide" bullshit. It is clear that Perth will experience a stunning population growth. Though 600,000 to 800,000 people over 15 years isn't anything like Singapore's (now unconfirmed) plan to pump a whopping 1.6 million more people in our tiny island, we have to take into consideration that that figure represents an almost 50% increase in Perth's population. If we translate that to Singapore's figures, the population target will be 7.95 million! For the previous masterplan, Perth actually came short to their population target then by 50,000 people. That was not too much of a shortfall for a state of WA's size. If the track record has anything to show for, Perth will be experiencing a tremendous growth in years to come.

Are there any trackers we can pick up for the implementation of the masterplan? By the number of cars I come across on the highways at 5.30am in the morning, it is a staggering difference to my first Summer in 2011. Road works in major highways seem to be in full force. Parts of Mitchell Freeway in 2011, parts of Kwinana Highway in 2012 (still ongoing), a massive development of flyovers at critical junctions of Tomkin Highway began in late 2013 and parts of ROE Highway is going under expansion since late 2014.

When I first came to Perth in 2011, we made a visit to the water City of Mandurah and we took a shortcut through Southern River to Armadale Road that eventually took us to Kwinana Highway which could take us all the way south to Mandurah. I remembered vividly that half of the Southern River suburb was a huge sand mass of cleared space. Further south, the entire Harisdale was flat and Piara Waters was bush land, a non-existent name on the map. In Jenny's old 2007 map of Perth, ROE highway was not even built yet! Soon, we will see new suburb names such as Calleya (between Cockburn and Piara Waters) popping up like mushrooms. It is certain that Perth is earmarked for rapid transformation in the next 20 years.

I moved to Perth for the seemingly unlimited wide open spaces and great road traffic conditions (as compared to Singapore) at almost any time of the day. These will gradually diminishes if Perth is to achieve a population close to the projected figure of ABS in the year 2031. Still, a population of 2.88 million to 3x will be similar to Singapore 20 years ago when life was still.... dare I say, great. So Perth life should be still good for me for the next 15 years. The key is, how should I go about positioning myself through the rapid changes?

A Singaporean In Australia

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