A Singaporean In Australia

A few weeks back, Auntie Jo came over to visit. Before she left, she pulled me over and whispered, "You see your grass is creeping to your neighbour's side. Clear it in case they not happy."

Oh bother. It wasn't initially added as my Autumn task list but now I had to commit time to do that. No choice.

Since I had some pavers left, I thought it would be a good idea to create a deep boundary with barricade with them. The roots of the grass would never grow that deep and cross over to the other side again.

It was surprisingly hard to dig a tunnel for my pavers. The roots of the grass were insanely strong. I had to change into my safety boots and eventually wear socks because the stomping on my shovel was starting to give me blisters. Nabei.

Before long, my stomping job was done. The grass finally gave way and realised who was the boss. With the digging done, putting in pavers was a formality for me. I prided myself in doing the best boundary on my street. I saw some of the slip shod work done by my neighbours .... nothing comparable to mine. Theirs were not even straight, for a start.

Now that I have the worst planter box on my street, at least that boundary pavers, along my pavement leading to main door was the best on my street. In time to come, I'll make the best letter box on the street to make up for my planter. I'll do that later..... I have only 2 hands and 24 hours a day...

After the job, Jen helped to remove the grass that crept over to the neighbours. It looked much cleaner now. I'm sure the neighbour will like it.

Well, I ran out of Jasper color paint. You know, I'm very reluctant to spend more on paint. That is one of the reasons why I procrastinated the painting of my planter box until now.

I thought it was a great idea to use some the leftover paint for MIL's job to paint it. It was a good, expensive outdoor paint and would make a lasting finish on any surface.

Before long, I realised it wasn't quite a good idea. The brown simply stood out against the Jasper painted feature wall. Tough luck. I would have to redo the damn thing. Fortunately I stopped at an early stage. A search in the garage yields the finding of plenty of Scallopini paint. That would do, as it was the same paint as the rest of the house face. The only disadvantage using that was the planter box would not stand out as a feature anymore. Did I care? Not really.

So Scallopini it became. I was actually relieved using it because the finish of the rendering was far from perfect. Yes I should have grind uneven surfaces away and patch blots before I began to paint. It was too late to do so as I realise it didn't look that good when I almost completed the paint job. On the bright side, it would look a lot worse if I had used Jasper.

Sure, I could fix the problem by patching and re-painting it. It wasn't all that bad. However, it isn't me to fix up something that is done. I'll always move on to the next undone priority and come back to it when I have nothing left. It could be Spring time or even next Autumn. I do not know.

Since I had all the painting stuff out, I took the opportunity to fix up the imperfections of the Eggshell Cream paint area all around the house. With that, I could strike out two jobs of my Autumn task list. The list is shrinking. I'm relieved.

I found out later it wasn't the gutters I was supposed to pain. I don't know what you call these here but in Singapore we usually call them fascia and the projects I was dealing with only involved aluminium or glass panels as fascia.

Whatever it is, the job has to be done. Well, I wasn't feeling that great because there was a hemorrhoid problem acting up. So sitting on hot tiles on the roof where part of the fascia goes to wasn't exactly my idea of spending a nice Easter holiday but like I said, the job had to be done so I turned up.

I walked into Bunnings and saw every staff wearing bunny ears hand bands. I even spotted an elderly female staff hopping around like a rabbit. Aussies really get into things when they do, don't they? There was free flow Hot-crossed buns, I would have eaten a whole pack if it was a normal day because I am ... well Singaporean. However I was on a diet so I didn't touch any. What a sin for a Singaporean to commit. This is the kind of thing that makes Christ rise from his grave in anger.

I painted fascia all around the house and finished the job by lunch time. (only to know I have missed one area after a few days and had to go back to finish up) I thought I would paint the wooden side gate as well. It seemed like a fast and easy job at first because I was painting the front face. Once I went on to the back of the door, I found the bracing components annoying like fuck. However, I did a pretty good job. MIL couldn't complain. It is already mid Autumn by now. I better keep going before Winter comes.

GUEST BLOGGER

Hi Nix,

I am Mr N, a very silent reader since my email to you in 2012.

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Skilled employment Only 20 points can be awarded for any combination of skilled employment in and outside Australia	In Australia: skilled employment in your nominated skilled occupation or a closely related skilled occupation
	In skilled employment for at least one but less than three years (of the past 10 years)	5
Australian study requirement	One or more degrees, diplomas or trade qualifications awarded by an Australian educational institution and meet the Australian study requirement	5
Other factors	Study in regional Australia or a low population growth metropolitan area (excluding distance education)	5

Since WA is struggling and is the worst performing state in Australia, prices of property has gone down for the past 8 quarters. Unavoidably, this affects the rental market. Unlike the days where I had to fight 20 applicants to rent a place, I heard some landlords are now offering a period of free rental to whoever taking up their untenanted properties. It is a 360 degrees change from 5 years ago when I first set foot in Perth.

The reason why residential properties are over supplied now is mainly due to a negative migration rate and the bulk of folks leaving WA are economic migrants from the eastern states who came over to capitalise on the mining boom. After the bubble burst, they fucked off back to where they came from, reversing the supply status of properties in WA completely. Not surprisingly, property prices in the eastern states are still increasing consistently.

So why did the eastern state people leave? Well there are no more jobs for them. Many companies seem to vanish completely in the air, as if they have never existed. The others have downsized. So where does that leave us? Industry areas looking sorry and desolated all over the place. Less cars on the road. Perth has returned to its old boring state, which is great - except that survival remains a doubt and a challenge. 

Some factories in prime industry areas have been left untenanted for more than a year. Free rental in those properties is a given if you care to rent of one of those. It is a question of how many months you get. Thus my company was interested in moving to a bigger place, in a better location because the management think it is now or never. At the peak of the boom several years back, we can only dream. With the rental rates going down, the boss reckoned that if we were to negotiate and lock in a 5 years contract with the much lower rental rates, we should be able to handle the risks of higher overheads for the next 5 years.

I have mixed feelings about this. While I was one of those crying out for a bigger factory, anyone knows that if we are unable to capitalise on the advantages of having a bigger inventory, we will go down in the long run. To make things simple, sales has to go up significantly. Period. At this climate, it is easier said than done. For an employee, it means more work with the same pay. So we can never win. However, I still feel great pride in this expansion attempt. It is the first time in my work life that I have grown with a start-up company and played a role in building it up. The new factory is basically my canvass. I am free to design the set up in the best way I feel it should be. Though I am not paid fantastically here nor do I have good bonuses and have not seen a pay increment from Day 1, what I cherish is the trust I have from the management to run the show. When there is no problem, they practically left me alone. With that freedom, after I get things up operationally running smoothly, I concentrate on thinking of better ways to do things. That is why I stay in this job until today.

The new factory is about double the current factory space. It isn't huge like some of the businesses out there but the increase is still significant. With the space, I will be able to allocate some space to aid some of our annoying work inconveniences in the factory. I should be able to implement some of the low/no cost ideas, albeit crude and unsophisticated, to make things easier for us in terms of operation or stock taking. The location of the new place will mean my commute time reducing to 50% of the current. It should take no longer than 20 minutes to get to work in future, which is good. That is one of the reason why I moved to the valley. We should be able to move this Winter.

If there are somethings that benefit us but not Savvy Steve, these fucking panels are some. As we know by now, Savvy Steve does not bother what we do with his house as long as we pay our dues at the end of each month, unlike Slutty Susan somewhere else who decide to be a bitch to all her 99 year leasers. Therefore, it makes no sense to me not to install a solar power system on the roof above.

The total bill came out to be $3,100 inclusive of GST. That was painful for a pissed poor peasant like me. Top that up with a couple more hundreds, it will buy the good ol' Honda Jazz I am driving to work everyday. Unlike the car, this solar power system is an investment I expect to recoup my capital on. 

It better.

Though there was a minor hitch in the beginning, they didn't take too long to finish the installation. By 10.30am, the system was up and running. The Missus told me I could download an app on my mobile phone and check its status anytime so I did. I was like a boy with a new toy, poking at my phone every hour to check how the hell the system worked.

It is good to know the system can generate around 3kW at its peak, which is actually at 100% efficiency. I am happy with a 90% efficiency at peak so I am not complaining here. The app even shows a daily income, which is nice for a change. That income is generated after the deducting the household's consumption of energy by selling excess energy to the grid. The selling price used to be good but it isn't fantastic anymore. Still, every cent counts for a pissed poor peasant. 

So effectively, we are achieving a free energy consumption and not buying any electricity from the grid during the day and a small income by selling excess energy to the grid. These two factors will determine if I can recoup my $3,100 and how soon.

I took this screenshot at 6am in the morning on the third day of installation. That is why it is showing 0% because the system is not generating anything. My system would have been working for 1.5 days by now. As the graph shows, a lower energy generation on the first day because installation took up a few hours and the second day shows a rightly higher generation for a full day.

Have the system already generated $21.98 for me? It sounds too good to be true. The only way to verify the savings, as well as income is to wait for the next bill. In the meantime, I am sure we are saving energy. 

With this, I will have to start changing my family's lifestyle to capitalise on this. Instead of aiming to sell more energy by using less, I need to use more energy in the day and sell less. The reason is very simple. Say if you sell energy at $0.60 and buy it at $3.00 from the electric company, it makes sense to use as much energy as possible at the right time to reduce usage at $3.00. 

So for example, I will charge up the power banks in the day with solar energy without drawing from the grid and use the power banks to charge our phones, laptops and other devices at night when the system is not working. Thus energy consumption that would have been required at night for this purpose will be totally eliminated. Using a slow cooker to make our meals during the day will also reduce my gas consumption. I can set that on timer, return home with a meal ready and know it does not cost me anything in electricity or gas. I'll cook with the oven in the day and the stove when the sun is down. Clothes can be washed during the day on timer and sun in late afternoon when we return from work. A dryer can be considered if we stagger the usage of main power drawers carefully because a 3 kW system is probably unable to run everything at the same time. The possibilities are endless, these are just the beginning.

After a few bill cycles, I'll review and see if my strategy works. I plan to recoup my $3,100 in less than 3 years. If I could do that, it would be a 30% ROI a year. I will not be able to find many ways to get that kind of ROI with $3,100. Stay tuned for the review in 1-2 months time.

It all seem impossible. There are kids to fetch from school and childcare, everyone to be fed, kids and plates to clean. It'll be a challenge to get out for a walk before sunset. However, I always believe something like that is a priority issue. People hire maids so that they can work because they find working in offices more fulfilling and financially rewarding than taking care of the houses and children. People sacrifice small windows of light exercise opportunities and replace them with a larger window in a paid gym. It is a priority placing thing that influence the final decision.

For me, I did not choose to live abutting a park for the view. Sure, I hate people in general so one less neighbour opposite to my front door will do my sanity no harm but the main draw was the urge to use the park. It serves as a constant reminder every single day that I shall not slack my lazy ass and get out there. For the past week, I managed to get the family outside for a 30 minutes walk after dinner. Every single day without fail.

The benefits are almost instantaneous. Since we have to have dinner as early as possible, we do not go to bed with a full stomach. Despite that, for some unknown reasons, my urge to snack has completely disappear. I could fit into my work pants without squeezing out fats after a week of walking. If I continue to do so, I would have reduce my fat content low enough for my pants to feel loose. That will be perfect for my Winter preparation. Needless to say, the disappearing obnoxious lump around the tummy also makes me feel and breathe better. Within this 7 days, Albany learnt how to cycle and got better by the day. I have to do brisk walking to a slow jog to taking short cuts catch up with her.

If I can feel a difference within 7 days, I am pretty sure there will be more in the long run. The only question is how long we can keep this up. Will we be determined enough to carry on the walks through Winter and Summer? Will we slacken after sometime? Hopefully we can carry on as long as we can.

Everyone I know wants to be rich.

However, not everyone is willing to be rich.

What's the logic? Why wouldn't everyone be willing to get rich, if they want to be rich? Isn't that a given?

There is only a minuscule difference between these desires. They are separated by a single thought. There are no mysterious formula to get rich. Over the past few centuries of humanity history, the rules never changed. Working as an employee isn't a way, unless of course you are a Singapore political lapdog. Otherwise, it is very unlikely to get rich being an employee. Being well-to-do perhaps but not rich. There may be some exceptions but those assignments are far and few between. 

The way to get rich is to engage in illegal activities. The other is to run an enterprise. Neither of these are what average people are willing to do to get rich. While they are of radical contrast in nature, they share two common factors. Risk and fear. People perceive doing businesses, illegal or legal, as risky activities. Fear prevents them from trying, the fear of getting caught and the fear of failure respectively. These are not what most people are willing to do. What we prefer having wealth handed over to us. Winning the lotto, being born rich, inheriting, marrying a rich are some examples of instant riches. These are what everyone wants, to become an overnight rich, to have the money to do whatever we want without putting in effort or taking risks.

Over the years I always lament the fact how easy it is for the rich to get richer. I still maintain my position. It is an undetectable fact. As one rise up the food chain, the access to good opportunities increases. The rich take the better ones, leaving scraps for the rest down the pyramid. However, if that is the case, why are there still cases of rags-to-riches constantly happening during each era? They had no money to begin with, no opportunities given to them. So how did they do it?

It all happens in the mind. It begins with a single thought.

A few days ago, I posed this question to as many people as I could, "If a rich man comes up and tell you money is not a problem, tell me your income generating plan and we'll do it and share profits. What will be your plan?"

Only 2 out of 20 people told me their plans. It didn't matter if their business plans were workable or not. What intrigued me was while everyone wants to get rich, only 1 in 10 people have a plan in mind and probably 1 in 100 or even less will take action. The rest of the responses were

I was surprised with the reactions. I really was. Although the question was obviously hypothetical, I did not get any hint of excitement from any of them, as compared to how the question of "What will you do if you win the lottery of $15 million dollars?" A hypothetical question all the same and the likelihood of that happening to anyone I asked is near zero, yet watch them tell you their fantasies in a child-like glee, you wonder why there isn't any similar response to the previous question.

The important question is, what kind of person am I? 

What am I willing to do to remove my financial shackles and break the poverty viscous cycle for my family? Or will I be contented to stick to the day job and hope for a miracle like everyone else?

When I was offered an employment opportunity with profit sharing and a chance to gain shares, it bothered me to no end. I was sullen for days. I knew there was no point asking anyone for opinions because all I'll get are voices screaming at me to stay out of dubious arrangements and stay down-to-earth. Then the guilt manipulative statements will follow, "Think of your family and kids. What will happen if you fail?" That one should stab through the heart of any father and sole bread winner. I cast aside all the irrelevant stuff and asked myself the question, "Should I have a decent piece of farmland and a sum of investment capital, do I know how to use it, create ROI and get rich?"

It was then I realised why I am a pissed poor peasant as it is. 

If .... or when the employment opportunity comes knocking really hard, will I open the door? I can see the fear in my wife's eyes when I brought it up. I can see my very own in front of the mirror. There are 101 questions unanswered and 101 doubts uncleared. Is that how it is, akin my migration dilemma 5 years ago? I have taken a leap blindfolded before. What is another? Life is but an adventure. I shouldn't take it so seriously. Should the knock comes, I'll open it and check what was on offer. If the odds are favourable, I'll walk through the darkness and jump .... like what I did before.

You know what is bad about living in Perth?

The last Singaporean visitor I know said that Perth was a tad "boring" for her. Well, am I surprised? Not at all. Perth is actually dangerously boring to Singaporeans. There is a rumor floating somewhere that once in a while, a Singaporean visitor or new migrant  splashes cash to get a pistol in the black market to put a bullet through their head due to a bad case of boredomistis, a life-threatening disease that tend to affect vibrant Singaporeans.

To counteract such things happening to us living Singaporeans, we BBQ during our free time. That brings forth another bad thing about living in Perth. Everyone has a backyard. Some have it much bigger than the others but even the smallest backyard can hold a BBQ event easily. So insecure Singaporeans have been rumored to throw hot coals at one another during their "mine is bigger than yours" debates. That was the reason why Australians make their BBQ pits gas operated, often on a hot plate.

When Pat and Jo invited us over for a BBQ, they had a Plan B.

By picking the hottest day in Autumn to do it, it created the conditions for a fly swatting event that kept participants busy. Everyone had a go at it, except Patrick of course, who isn't into interesting events like fruit picking and fly killing. We used traditional fly swatters instead of the electrical one that the Duke of the Brook normally used to achieve his legendary feat of getting his kills to fall in line like a platoon in the SAF, as a warning to future fly trespasser. We decided to have nothing of those electrical ones that day because it was too mainstream. I call traditional fly swatters the "unplugged" versions to sound more hippy. They worked brilliantly. Even the self-acclaim fly noob Judy managed to kill one. Jo and I made flies drop like .... flies and provided grateful ants free meals as we lunched our BBQ food heartily.

Great food, great company, great activities. What more do we ask for?

Everyone miss a good ol' Singapore style charcoal BBQ but Singaporeans back there wasn't too impressed. One of them responded to my pic and remarked, "Har? You all do BBQ in the afternoon one ah?" Of course we do. In fact, night BBQs are rarity here. I know it is so boring to do BBQ in daylight but in Perth, we do what the Perthians do. So while interesting Singaporeans struggle to see if their chicken drumlets are fully cooked, our plates are already washed and tea is brewing on the table. 

That is why Perth is so dangerously boring. Please heed my advice and avoid the precarious zone until further notice.

It has been a week since we added a routine to our daily life. Everyday after dinner, we will have a 30 mins walk outside. Jen will push little Anthony in a stroller and I will be tending to Albany. As Albany is too big for a stroller and too small to catch up on our brisk walking, I put her on a balance bicycle so that she can set the pace. So for the past 7 days, we went round and round the field every single day without fail. Albany looked increasingly comfortable on her balance bike each day.

So I decided the 1st of April was a good day to get her to try cycling on a proper bike. There were challenges. Firstly, the bike was one I picked up from the street sometime back. The condition of the bicycle wasn't fantastic. I cleaned it up briefly when I removed the pair of "training wheels" at the back. To me, those dumb wheels do everything except training the kid to cycle on two wheels. So I refused to let Albany rely on the wheels right from start. Despite cleaning, bike was still in a lousy condition and it had some issues. There was rust at non-critical areas that I didn't have time to remove. It was a bike with a "back pedal brake system" (cyclist will know what I'm talking about), which I found a bit odd because training cyclist need to glide a lot and tend to activate the brake without the intention to. I feel it was more of a feature for the trained cyclist. Due to rust, I was unable to adjust the height of the bicycle seat that evening (which I eventually did the next day) and Albany had a harder time to pedal. 

Things didn't go well at all. Albany was visibly uncomfortable with her pedal bike. Within the first 200m, she was already complaining and demanded for me to return home to swap that junk of a bicycle for her preferred balance bike. I told her the goal for that evening was not to cover the distance we usually do nor travel at the same speed. It was for her to learn how to cycle. 

She started to sob. Before than transited to a wail, I threw her the ultimatum, "Continue or go home." 

Reluctantly, she carried on and I big her up and encourage her. I told her if she managed to learn this, she would be empowering herself and there was everything to celebrate about, nothing to cry about. We went on for a while, with my holding her and breaking every of her fall. My back was hurting from the constant bending. Once Albany stopped crying and focused on her pedaling, I decided it was crunch time as we approached a gradual down-slope. I let go of her without a word. She started to pedal for her life to keep her balance. Her erratic handling of her front wheel stablised, as she finally made sense of it how the initially scary maneuvers of the front wheel acted like a counterbalance. 

Soon she glided and soared. 

Albany at 5 years old, achieving what Daddy didn't do until 9. If I knew you had it in you, I would have done this earlier for you. Well done little girl.