A Singaporean In Australia

You would expect a lot of big deal about Christmas in Australia, being a westernised country. Yet to date, I have yet to hear a single Christmas song anywhere. Not on the radio, not on the car stereo. Nothing.

I didn't go down to Orchard Road these years. I told myself I didn't want to do that anymore after that 24th December in 1994. I was 16 then working as a ceramic goods replenisher at Taka Square, B2. I almost couldn't get home that night after a tiring full 14 hours of work. The seed of my hatred for crowds was planted that night. Back then, Singapore was a probably a 'mere' three and a half million people.

To be honest, I miss the blight and hype of Christmas in Singapore. Over the years I did pass by Orchard Road in December, not on the eve of Christmas of course. The songs blasted from all shops, the dreamy feel of the decorations and the normally cool weather around that time of the year did make me feel good. The spirit of Christmas would be felt everywhere even outside the town area in the heartland malls and the neighbourhood market places.

There is none of these here. Firstly, it's Summer here. Bright and hot. There was nothing that I described above. Though Steve the supervisor told me I might be able to experience something like that in Perth City, I doubt it. Not Orchard Road standard. Surprisingly too, the radio stations do not spam Christmas songs like they do back home. It's like Christmas doesn't matter here.

There was no work today. We had a Christmas Lunch instead. It was obviously too early but no one wants to give a damn about it during the real Christmas week. Everyone just wants to be at home with their family and not at work, Christmas Lunch or whatever. That's probably what really matters here.

I can't be with my family back home. I miss my mother and my dog. I still do, probably more than 80 over days ago. Hopefully we'll be spending the next Christmas together.

The lunch was, of course, in the workshop. Everything takes place over there for us. It was a pretty impressive spread. There was lobsters, prawns, turkey, beef, roast pork, salad, sweet cakes and tarts, beer and coke. More than enough for everyone present.

I had half a lobster, a couple of prawns and made myself a beef sandwich. I have to say seafood is amazing here. The prawn for example, was boiled with only water and then chilled in a fridge. It had nothing added to it but it tasted... unlike any prawns I've tasted before. I might have a word for that special taste - freshness?

The trailer was reversing in with that big thing but it doesn't stop us from setting up lunch

The young boss (in checks) gave a inspiring speech before we dig in

Lobster cooked simple but it 'punched above its weight'

Went home with 2 bottles of wine and a $100 Coles voucher. Not bad.

From 2007, I had been playing around with this website to get an idea what I might be earning in Australia and whether all these thoughts of moving to Australia was sustainable.

Over the years I must had clicked on a hundred occupations at least. I did that because I was negative (and I haven't explained why) about getting back in the same industry I was in Singapore. So I checked out many occupations just to see how things were.

Now that I'm here in Perth, I did a search on the list to check if this website is accurate. The closest I could find for my occupation is 'Metal fabricator'. To my surprise the data is quite accurate. I used to be confused why was some occupations, such as this one, can be paid as low as $10/hr and as high as $31/hr. Now I get a fuller picture.

To get into some occupation such as Boilermaker (we call it Fitter in Singapore), you have to go through 4 years of apprenticeship in Australia. After which they recognised you being qualified, trained as well as capable to do the job. All Boilermakers I've seen here can work by themselves and you will be surprised to see the kind of monsters one single man can build all by himself. A point to note that these students going through apprenticeships are paid 'lowly'. Those $10/hr rates are most likely to be apprentice data.

Another good point to note that no company in Australia will hire you as a Plumber or Welder even if you are willing to do the dirty work that many aren't prepared to do so here. You have to be certified and that could mean apprenticeship for many trades. If you noticed, that served as a barrier to entry to your occupation against that foreigner who simply walk in and steal your job like somewhere else. So unless that foreigner is willing to go through hard years of training and being lowly paid, he would not be able to get into your trade.

If you are thinking of migrating to Australia and looking at salary comparison, you may want to do something like I did:

1) Look for the occupation and title that fits your occupation in Singapore the closest. Do some research to find out if that title means the same thing in terms of jobscopes in Australia.

2) Click on the title and check out the average wages. You don't want to be too optimistic and look at the maximum wages you could get in Australia since you probably don't get paid at the highest bracket of your job in Singapore. So take something in the middle.

3) Less the tax. And that's not 45%. Do some reading up ffs.

4) If you want, multiply the end result by 1.3 (or whatever the current currency rate is) because AUD is stronger at the moment. I don't usually do that but if you want a more accurate result, maybe you will want to.

5) I normally take my SG gross monthly pay, including that extra 16% employer's CPF contribution as a comparison. Though you and I know CPF is fast becoming phantom money that we may not be able to touch much of it at all in our lifetime. In the Australia side, I purposely left out that 9% superannuation contribution by Australian employers (their version of CPF) to make sure I do not make myself over-optimistic about the Australian side.

6) Remember to check out the Australian salary by the city you are interested to go. You may get paid significantly more or less depending on your occupation and the city you are going.

7) Also check out other occupations, such as cleaners, maids, painters and other interesting occupations and look at how much they are paid. You may be quite surprised at some.

8) If you bothered to do all these, tell me how does it match up.

I hate Tuesdays and it's true. Today was just another one. As shit as ever.

Monday was bad as usual for everyone, probably me included. I did yet another legendary 12 hour shift and slept as early as I could. I had enough sleep but the moment I woke on Tuesday I knew it was not going to be my day. I was not even in a mood to write anything, which was rare.

Nothing went well. My appetite was mediocre. I didn't felt like going to work. My neck felt stiffer than usual and every muscle in my back hurt. My fingers had yet to recover from its strange condition. I felt grouchy on the way to work.

During work, nothing went my way either. I was not 100% at work. Every of my hoisting was horrible and awkward, leaving witnesses gaping. One of the giant plates fell midway when I was lifting it with a magnet. Work was grueling and I found that I was slow compared to my peers despite putting in my best. A quick wonder when I was getting sacked came and went.

During my breaks, no one wanted to talk to me on watsapp. I ate my sandwich alone in my car because I was sick of the kimchi smell in the common room. Then the wife sent a msg via watsapp saying a Wolf Spider of the size of a palm got into our room. If you do not know what a Wolf Spider is, it's better not to. Eugene flushed it down the toilet in the end.

At the second break, I asked Steve the supervisor how does Wolf Spiders get into houses where flies could hardly even get in. He laughed and said he had absolutely no idea. I concluded that these buggers has the ability to cast some kind of etherealisation spell or teleport.

I literally ground my way to 4am and was ready to get home to see off crap Tuesday. When I turned my ignition, Barry White reversed and crashed into the gate behind me and realised I stopped the car in reverse gear. I cursed and drove home. On the way, I imagined how my boot looked like now. I'm a negative (and I still haven't finished the post about why) person so naturally that image didn't look too good.

When I reached home, I could not see the extent of the damage in dark dawn with my mobile light. It certainly looked much better than I thought. The boot was intact with no damage at all. The bumper had almost negligible scratches but one side of the bumper was bent slightly. I reckon I could get it back looking good with some mallet work without hassle.

Too tired to think about it now. I will inspect Barry White again when I wake. It could be me hallucinating. Barry White could be crushed totally at the back now in reality. After all it's bloody Tuesday.

Tuesdays hate me. The feeling is mutual.

There wasn't enough rest over the weekend which I really yearned for over the week. Sadly, it will be a torrid week ahead without rejuvenation. We woke early on Saturday to lend a little helping hand to Eugene's friends living nearby at Southern River. As a token as appreciated we were invited to stay for lunch.

It was a couple from China with one daughter. The lady of the house was pregnant with another child as well, due April. I could see that she was a seasoned cook the way she managed her procedures during cooking. She didn't prove me wrong, the output was quite fantastic like what Patrick my fellow Singaporean mate would have churn out.

There was a big bowl of abalone soup. Her husband from Fuzhou, caught 100 of them earlier on and we are reaping his efforts. Hongying, our hostess from Szechuan, encouraged Jen to have more soup as it was good for the baby. I was busily picking tofu, home-made sausages (not shown in pic) because they tasted real good. She also served us homemade preserved vegetables.

The Saturday lunch spread and the little girl of the house

Sunday was packed with activities as well. We had to drive to Melville to borrow the big van from Scott, the boyfriend of Grace the Singaporean nurse, again. Then we drove that van back to Hongying's place and the guys loaded the refrigerator which Eugene loaned them some time back. Then we unloaded the fridge at Eugene's.

From now on, we have our own fridge to use for the first time instead of sharing. It's a very important event because we really need that space when the baby comes. No - not to freeze the baby but to store food and breast milk and stuff.

Right after returning the van, we went straight to Patrick's place for another great meal (pity I didn't take the pictures) and a long chat. We returned home late and slept immediately. I didn't get to sleep as much as I wanted though for it was Baby Appointment Day early this morning again.

Woke at 7am and we went. Everything seems ok. Jen was pleased and bought 8 Magnum Ice Cream for $10.00 despite my protests. There are 7 left now. Burp. I could sleep for an hour and a half perhaps, before I go to work?

Meanwhile baby's has grown bigger. She has finally outgrown the Ikea measuring tape.

Eugene's sunflowers bloomed and the remaining hen in his garden laid a few eggs. Little things that delighted me. It's all calm now but the next few weeks will be calamity. Eugene's dad is coming, so will my mother-in-law. With Eugene's mother-in-law already here, there is not enough rooms for everyone. We were contemplating renting the rooms from Hongying instead. Just a thought.

Before long the baby will come, I hope we'll cope and get things settled down before that. Hopefully my mother-in-law is ok with room sharing. We'll probably stay put then.

There are 4 corn cobs behind the Sunflowers if you can recognise them

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