Fighter

My dad called me to the kitchen today right after I came home from work. With his usual solemn face, he told me he had just quit his job after his boss threatened to reduce his pay by half because of the recession. I didn’t really know how to react to this confession, except to ask him if he is okay and what are his plans. He just shrugged and said he’ll take a break first, before returning to his orange juice.

This world is hardly fair to my dad and his peers – modest folks born in the 50s with minimal education, yet chased the singapore dream with all their heart. There was a time when they were all in their prime, working proudly for their companies. Some made it big and bought big fancy cars; others make do and provided adequately for their families. They were wearing suits and ties, flying round the world selling this fledgling country to the world. It was an era of opportunity, a brave new world of riches. Everyone was chronically fatigued but there was sometime that kept them going – the belief that your job defines who you are and you are obligated to give it your darn-est effort.

It was sweat out of every pore kind of days.

Yet somewhere along the line the appliances gone berserk and they couldn’t keep up any longer. Looking back now, that inevitability was so obvious – something which burned so fervently is bound to burn out sooner or later. They ran so fast they were bound to fall.

Even as a kid then I could feel the pride my dad had when you received his awards from his company’s annual dinner and dance. Everyone in the photos looked drunk and happy to be dancing round their office siblings who they actually spend more of their waking hours with then their real families. Sadly those days have passed on and now they only occasionally run into each other in the old coffee shops they once claimed their own, exchanging updates on which upstart company they are working for now.

I don’t think my dad has left anything to regret. Despite his humble beginnings, he managed to work for big multinational companies in his hay days, was responsible for numerous subordinates and travelled all over the world. Far more significant is that no matter the climate and which way the world turned, he was always there providing, giving my brothers and I the life and education he was never privileged with. Decades and a few companies have come and pass but my dad has never stopped being a fighter, in a world that has let so many followers down.

You are right dad, it is time to take a break – but this time onwards, please to pick your own battles to fight. Because you know you deserve the best. You are the best.

Filed under: Space , Family, Father, Recession

Crossroads

After almost two years wearing green at the camp providing bare-bone primary health care, I’m thankful that my time at the helm is coming to an end and I’ll be clearing leave in few months time. Despite many wonderful memories, especially during the overseas exercises, this two years has definitely been a trying time for me professionally. Not to mention financially crippling and socially isolating. I am proud to sacrifice these years of my prime to serve my nation but military life has never been my cup of tea; sometimes it feels like we are patriotic in spite of ourselves.

Looking forward beyond this sometimes endless tunnel, the light ahead is like a kalaidoscope of colours. There are films to be read, exams to be taken; there are research to do done, there are papers to be written. We have people to meet, business plans to be presented, wealth to be shared. New families to live with, new responsibilities to be managed, new places to visit. Times are changing, music is changing and most of all ideas are changing. In the eye of the storm lies a dirty cross junction, on it a journeyman holding a faulty compass trying to follow his instincts.

It is hard to stay calm when the needle keeps spinning.

Filed under: Space , Change, NS, ORD

Fear & Loathing in Singapore

“You could light sparks everywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, and we were winning.” – Hunter S. Thompson.

In a city with an incredible number of road signs per square feet, it is so easy to lose your way in this town. Sometimes I look up to seek the northern star, only to remember the city lights has long flooded out the night skies.

Yet there is a sense of thrilling unrest in the air these days, so insidious nobody knew where and when it started, so obvious now the million hushed whispers are deafening. Change is happening and we have no time to waste. We could literally set the city on fire, illuminate the streets, passion and guns blazing. Forget the toothache, this is the place to be right now.

Filed under: Space , Hope, Rambling

Ratatouille

Bill & Steve would be pleased.

I have been lusting over one of these babies ever since someone posted a pre-release picture on HWZ forum. It took only half a year for me to succumb to the temptation and get one for my MBP. I know it is a period of economical recession and spending so much on a arty-farty mouse can be considered insensitive and ill-judged but on my defence, I do use this mouse everyday. Can’t say the same about french cooking.

Filed under: Cydonia , Gadgets, Le Cordon Bleu, Mouse

Solemnization Ceremony

A Gazebo in Mandai Orchid Gardens

On a sunny september sunday morning, we exchanged our wedding vows in front of our loving family and gracious friends. The weather couldn’t be finer, the garden couldn’t be prettier. And I would never have imagined the best wedding I have attended to will be my very own. Everything worked out so well (music, petals, food, last minute wedding vow additions) that till today I still dare not believe it, much less understand how I, an earnest freak show at best, actually deserve such bliss and fortune. Maybe the old chinese saying is true – Silly people have silly luck. So grateful that all the people I care about are around me, sharing in our joy. Thank you all. :)

Filed under: Wedding , Mandai Orchid Gardens, ROM, Solemnization, Wedding

Invitation Cards

Our invitation cards!

After some trial & error work on my mac, printed with our trusty home inkjet printer. =)

Filed under: Wedding , Cards, Invites, Solemnization, Wedding

Housing Woes

Where I Stay Currently

Over the last six months since the proposal, we’ve managed to obtain most of the wedding services we need like venue, wedding boutique, photographers and even secured the help of a well respected (and our favourite!) surgical professor to solemnize our matrimonial vows. Everything has been pleasantly smooth sailing but one stand-out problem remains unsettled and that is the most basic issue of housing.

Property in $ingapore as we all know is broadly divided to cheaper public Housing Development Board (HDB) flat apartments and expensive private properties in the form of condominums and landed housing. In the typical scenerio, private property is financially beyond reach of a young couple starting out (sans generous parents & blank chequebooks), so the singular choice is only public housing. Now while our award-winning public housing policy has managed to allow most $ingaporeans to at least own their own roof, it is a flawed system that is an omnipotent ulcer in every young salaried $ingaporean couple.

There are two methods of obtaining a HDB flat – either a new flat from the HDB or 2nd hand resale from a previous owner. Paradoxically an old resale flat is more expensive than a new flat due to the standing policy to match resale market prices to private sector sales. On top of that, older flats are usually found in established mature towns and resulting high demand, thus causing the prices to shoot up to unrealistic values. Though there is a policy to subsidize new couples buying expensive resale flats, the subsidy comes with many stipulations and is usually insufficient to offset the high prices demanded from the previous owner.

The more favourable path is to buy a new flat that is not only brand new but also cost efficient. The catch is that purchasing a new flat requires you to toss your name in a hat to ballot with the rest of the country and the odds of success is usually 1 in 5 (we’ve personnally tried more than 5 attempts over the past 1 year and the trend is recurrent disappointment). New flats also take about 3-5 years to build which means unless you start looking for a flat once you start dating, chances are you’ll be standing right in my homeless shoes now. There is another option of privately-build public flats which take an accelerated 2 years to finish building but again, they seem priced for profit of the construction companies rather than policy of cheap housing for the citizens.

What this all means is that our options are: 1. Take up a high loan to buy a ready resale flat. 2. Take up a high loan to buy a private-contract flat 3. Keep waiting for a new cheap flat and bunk in with your parents in the meantime, inviting ridicule and over-crowding tensions of the family. 4. Keep waiting for a new flat and pay exorbitant rentals in another place temporarily 5. Don’t get married at all. Okay the last point is pretty irreverent.

We are currently still exploring our options between a point 1 to point 4. Even though there is still more than year before our actual wedding, this problem is like a invisible mini-bomb constantly ticking at the back of our minds. Some days, just some days, you wish you had richer parents.

Filed under: Wedding , HDB, Housing