Work Life balance. WHAT WORK LIFE BALANCE???

My gahmen is always asking us not to put off starting a family, at 1 point trying to promote work life balance, encouraging us to go home earlier to spend time with loves one and for our case- Make babies.

Many of my peers heed their advice and gave birth, we did too except that we didn't manage to keep the baby (which my mum blames it on my being too stressful at work).

Recently as Mr Love hopped to his 2nd job in 3months, I realised there is no work life balance to speak of. He moved on to a higher position but in return spend most of his waking time during weekdays slogging away at work. Higher position is essential since it equates to higher pay which will make starting a family more comfortable and affordable.

To reach home at 8pm nowadays is a miracle. Having dinner together is as difficult as seeing Lee Min Ho upclose when he came to Singapore the other day. Making babies? The mood is as good as asking both of us to work overtime.

Now the only conversation time is during his quick dinner which I will have to prepare when he informs me that he got on to the cab. By the time he finished dinner, rest a while, take a bath we are both ready to hit the sack and sleep almost immediately. It's tiring for him and for me who is in charge of his nightly dinner.

We shudder to think about how to cope when our little one comes along. Who will have to be in charge of rushing back home to fetch the baby from nanny or child care. Who will have the energy to take care of the baby at night etc etc. Being in the accounting field means we don't take uncalculated risks. So the idea of telling us everything will work out when the little one comes along is all crap to us. The end vedict is I tried to stay on to my job for as long as I could as Mr love still need some time to adjust to his new enivironment and see whether he would be able to leave earlier on non peak seasons.

 So dear gahmen, while urging us to quickly reproduce for the sake of future Singapore (or so you claimed) why don't you try working on the issue of balancing our work and family life? I see you telling us to think about the trade offs when we wanted work life balance telling us that competitors are out to steal our lunch.

But then again, did you stop in your track and think whoever let the competitors into my country to steal my lunch? You wanted us to produce more babies but yet told us to work harder and longer during work and not dream of having work life balance. So, you expect my kids to grow up on their own, feed and clean themselves, walk/crawl home at 7pm from childcare centres?

By work life balance, I did not mean less stress but yes I need more free time. By free time, I don't mean to take work home so that I can get off work on the dot or to worry about the things I need to do tomorrow by going off on the dot today. I mean I can really get off work and go enjoy a good dinner with my hubby and maybe after that we will be in the mood to make babies.

It's like a rat race everyday for the 2 of us and many more couples like us. Look into the root cause of the problem please, not by asking us to play our part and live with whatever situations we are facing. Truth to be told, this is not the Singapore I would like to bring my child to for it would be more stressful for him or her in future as compared to us now.

Work life balance will come one day when you are not obsessed with our GDP, world rankings and competitiveness. But I guess that day will never come in my era.

This morning on MRT...

Every morning, I will have to take the train to work, its a mad rush every morning, rushing to catch the train, rushing to Q up, rushing for a seat (which is usually not available), rushing to get a place in the Q when transferring train, rushing to alight when most of the time, the door will be the most crowded area in the carriage..

Its a nightmare to take our public transport now as compared to when I was young, but what to do? Its my onli way to get to work, bus is out of the question...

Okie, I digress, the thing is, this mornin I witness a scene on the train which leaves me infuriated..There is this PRC lady standing in front of a local old Indian lady who is seated at the reserved seat. As we are reaching JE, suddenly, I saw the PRC lady giving the Indian lady a few kicks, might you, its those kind of angry kicks..

I am not sure wat was she saying as I am listening to my MP3, but they caught the attention of every 1 around them on this early slply morning..I overheard the PRC lady scolding the Indian lady that she placed her leg too far out from her seat and maybe touched her..Thus she gave the Indian lady a few kicks..

She keep scolding the auntie that she dunno how to sit properly blah blah blah...And the old Indian auntie scolded bak in Tamil..I onli can recognised the swearing word that she used (no thanks to my bro)...

You noe I realli feel like going up to th PRC lady a piece of my mind? The Indian lady is pretty old le, and of cuz she want to sit in a more comfortable position, if u r not able to tolerate squeezing in a compact train, take a taxi where you have all the space you wan...Furthermore, isnt your country more compact than ours? Why is that u cannot tolerate the compactness in my country when you all are the plp who keep floodin to my country?? The old Indian auntie is my country man despite her race..

We had got on at the same station, while queuing up, I saw her sneezing twice without covering her mouth, how hygiene is that? And as we board the train, every 1 moved in towards the center of the carriage while she remains near the door which is a more squeezy place, who ask you, would not wan to move in? And of cuz, you will have to suffer the consequences..Had you been more thoughtful to others and move in like us, you would not have encounter the old Indian auntie who is seating nearest to the door..

I am upset that these kind of plp floods to our country, waste our resources and yet treat us as 2nd class citizens who are subjected to their rude behaviours..Singaporeans that I noe of are generally more polite...

Its when you have this kind of encounters that makes you even more angry at the government for "importing" this kind of plp to bully our own country man and yet they are try to justify their doings..

Well, if you have try to take the train at morning rush hour like us for 1 wk, you would have know what u have done to us- the commoners..This is not the Singapore I used to love and know..

Elections again...

The most talked topic during lunch recently was about the up coming Presidential Elections in 2 wks time..

I have neber voted b4 since turning 21 but this yr, I get to vote twice..whahahah

This is the most hotly contested PE in Singapore's history since 1991, with us hafin a choice of up to 4 candidates..

I was spoiled for choice, even more choice during GE..whhahha and yesh, in order to exercise my citizen's rights. I followed the news closely, beri closely..

But somehow, maybe becuz the GE had juz passed, I kinda feel that this PE is kinda of linked to the GE..The way the candidates campaigned, the way the critics viewed, even the commoners' idea were somehow still linked to the GE..

The reason that I cannot make up my mind on who to vote is, I am not able to see 1 candidate who can convince me that they are netural to the politics, they are either too pro-govt or anti-govt frm the way I see..Which are both not desirable..

My idea of our president should be a friendly old uncle/auntie, who can feel for the citizens and at the same time exercise his rights to check on the government when needed..Not a YES man or a NO man...The most ideal 1 is like our late president Mr Ong Teng Chong, whom I think is our best president so far..

Tat being said, he was once from our government party aso, but when he took the presidential seat, he did wat he is suppose to do although it didnt went as well as he wish...Still, I think he did his best...

With no suitable candidates, this time, I can only vote for the next best man, although I think plp think otherwise..hope for the next PE, we will be able to see some 1 more suitable...

Price hike..

It has been announced that the 2 transport company here are seeking to increase our transport fares by 2.8%.. Beri nice, rite after the electricity tariff...I think the government forgot their lesson 2mths after the GE. Or it is not a painful lesson enuff?

It was reported earlier, sometimes after GE, our transport minister went on trips to observe the complaints we have for our public transport. Even himself observe that the trains are packed, buses coming at irregular intervals during rush hrs etc etc.. Yet, now they asked for a hike for these kind of lousy services. Tell me how is it justified?

The transport companies cited increase operating costs from Circle Line, new buses, new employess for Circle line, higher energy costs blah blah blah..But you mean you dun charge the commuters when they take Circle line? Isnt revenue generated from the rides?

So, if the rest the of the Circle Line becomes operational, would you seek a price increase again? Damn, I didnt ask you to built Circle Line to come suck our blood kk? Heck, I dun even take the Circle Line here in CCK and I need to help to offset your rising operating costs..

The new buses that you ordered are for your fleet renewal exercise, so its ur problem!! Not ours?? These are the costs of running a transport company, you dun transfer what you need to pay to the commuters!!! Government are encouraging us to take public transport, yet the operators are trying to suck our blood dry...

They say they are committed to continue providing best service possible for the commuters but why is tat the trains and buses are as pack and late as ever? Try taking train from Yew Tee at 7am, and if train intervals are at 4min, chances are you might need to queue up for 2 trains b4 you are able to get on to the bloodly train..Not to mentioned that you are squeeze to your death inside the cabins...Is this your best service? If it is, I shudder to think bout ur worst service. If the increase are based on your service standards, I think your prices shd decrease significantly instead of increase!!!

Energy costs are said to be up too, yesh, this is inline with our SP services who had juz raised the tariff by 6.6%..If you say ur energy costs went down, I think SP services will have alot of explaination to do..But correct me if I am wrong, Oil/crude oil prices are in USD rite?

There is this 1 guy in the Sembawang GRC PAP team who mentioned that the government had strengthen our SGD rates to USD from 1USD to 1.80SGD till 1USD to 1.23SGD..He urged the residents to remember this is wat our government did good for our country...I am a good gal, so I remembered..So, if our currency is now going strong against USD, it should means the cost of the crude oil went down alot rite??Y is it tat they keep citing increasing oil prices to justify the fare increase? It is not acceptable in my view.

The government is now gonna built a useless line across the crossway into Boleh land, so I reckon the fees are gonna be passed to us again when we are not gonna use the line. Well done, transport ministry, such a beautiful move again. I hope come 2016, my generation of voters will still remember wat you have done from 2011-2016. Will rememeber your empty promises..Till then, I will keep recording down all these for you to remind myself whether I should give you my vote in 2016. ..Well, I shall and n see wat else you can increase..Will GST be next? Screw you!!!

I neber knew...

Had a conversation with a PRC the other day and was shocked to find out that he was fully sponsored by our government to come here to studee in our university..

He told me 4-5yrs bak, our government had a campaign in which they go ard the various uni in China to look for students who would wan come and studee at our uni and offered them scholarships, along with a 500buck allowance monthly..And they will be bonded to Singapore for 6 yrs after graduation

I was beri shocked that this, for I didnt know our gov had resort to giving out monies to asked plp to come studee at our uni while all this time, the local studee had to take loans to studee in our uni..Some like me, dun even had a chance to go..Damn...

I guess some others do noe about this but plp like us who are in the work force may not know.When I relate to hubs later, he was super piss offf..

1stly, our gov deprives us the chance to go for an college education as they had filled up the places with foreign students..On top off it, they come here for free educaion, complete with lodging..To make matters worse,they are given 500bucks per mth as allowance..All these, using the taxpayers monies..Who are the taxpayers? Us..And they use our monies to breed their foreign talents who might not even stay on after 6 yrs in Singapore...

Should the gov had given this chance to local students, I am sure they are able to breed out more local talents..Why is that they choose the foreigners over our local students? And they can complain that our local talents are all going overseas to settle down..The fact is, our own country dun even appreciate us!!!

I applied for full time course bak when I was in my last yr of poly where the entry rules are stricter for poly students and didnt manage to get a place..A yr later, when I was working, I applied again but this time for a part time place as my family couldnt afford to let me go on for full time position..Got in but had to give up half way as it was simply too heavy to continue with my work, plus they had an policy of hafing an average of C while my results are always juz scraping thru during uni..I couldnt meet their expectations..

This would been different if my gov had given me tat option of applying for the scheme they had given to the foreigners..I would be happily bond myself to Singapore for the next 60years, not 6 years..500 bucks per mth is enuff for me to survive as a student..I dun even need u to provide me lodging as I have a home here..The free education is wat I am after..My dad's CPF is barely enuff for my hse loan and younger bro's poly education, let alone to pay for my uni fees...

Yet, this scheme was neber meant to be for Singaporeans..How sad...I am not sure whether how long they had this scheme or whether it had been discontiuned but I am sure this is not widely known for I had not seen reports on this..Now, I know why the younger generations this yr voted against the gov during GE 2011, not onli the working young adults, those studying are also doing so...

You deserved it PAP, for favouring foreigners over your own plp and u expect them to vote for you. We paid your salaries, we paid taxes, we worked towards nation building and yet you gave the chance to excel to an outsider who I repeat, might not stay in Singapore after serving their bond, I haven take into account of those who broke the bond and neber came bak...

And to tink I had always tot onli in work we are facing competition..Now I noe back when I was trying to get a higher education, I had oredi been abandon by my own gov..Thank you PAP for making it happen.. I hope GE 2016, you will be voted out, onli then you noe how not to bite the hand tat feed u...I had lost hope and the believe I always had till this yr that you are the best gov..Never again I am believin in you, I am dishearten...And I shudder to tink of my kids' future in your hands..

GE 2011-The Finale

Stayed up till 3am to watch the telecast of the results. Stupid, waste the 1st 2 hrs gluing my eyes to the TV where they broadcast nothing relevant to the results. I turned to twitters later where the 1st hand news are update from various counting centres.There is more like it..Finally at 12am, the returning officer started to announce the results 1 by 1..

Was abit disappointed by the fact tat PAP won CCK by quite a big margin as compared to other GRC. I always tot NSP will at least win 45% of the votes here.Seems like CCK is quite a strong hold of PAP huh, hope you dun take the support from the residents here for granted. prove urself for the next 5 yrs...

Its was reported quite early in twitter tat Aljunied had gone to WP but no 1 can confirm till it is offically announced.A big milestone for WP I should say and they get to keep their Hougang SMC too..Hope they will be able to deliver what they have promise during the election, I am not expecting miracle but still something muz be shown to us that it is worthwhile for the residents in Aljunied to give you their support, perhaps at the next elections, plp will be more confident to vote for the opposition party..

The total vote share for PAP has dropped to 60.6% and is by far the poorest performance since independence. I tink this should be a wake up call to them. This shd be also the most accurate number as neber before in Singapore we had so many seats contested by the opposition, nearly whole Singapore goes to vote with the exception of residents of Tanjong Pagar GRC.

Then again, I am not overlookin the things you have done for us, but juz wish you can do a better job. Afterall you are getting well paid for this job and it is onli rite of us to haf high expectations from you. Else y take the high salary?

With all the results out, and the dust settled, PAP must now proved to us that they will also delivered what they promised. We shall be watching your performance in the coming 5 yrs...

GE2011-Cooling day

How ironic, today is cooling day but the weather is anything but cooling..Gonna melt under the hot sun.

The past 9 days had been interesting, to see the various parties campainging for this election, it should be by far the most exciting election is Singapore's History and I am not sure whether we will have another such exciting election in future or not.

PAP has announced that they will aso focus on the sandwich class and the youngesters (21-35yrs) group. Our PM had apologised on behalf of his government. I am impressed that PM is now eating the humble pie. But you know what, it would be good if the apologies comes from the person invovle not the big boss.

I notice that PM is more humble, more willing to listen more than his peers. When some of the ministers speaks, it still strikes me that they still dunnno wat went wrong..If you dunno what went wrong, and dun listen and dismiss our complaints as noise, den you cannot blame us for wanting another voice in the governement.

One of the new candidate for Sembawang GRC commented that when he was young, the exchange rate for Greenback to us is USD 1 to SGD 3, now the exchange rate is USD 1 to SGD 1.22. It shows our currency is getting stronger blah blah blah...But why is that our inflations are aso getting higher? A stronger currency should results in a lower import cost and thus inflation should be able to be controlled and not getting as high as every where in the world. Isnt it the case?

But it is not, isn't it? When we buy crude oil, we are using USD rite? But when the oil prices rises, all petrol, electricity rises too. If our currency is strong as compare to 20yrs ago, den we shd be able to absorb this rises rite? How come the prices of the necessity still rises? It onli goes to shows that it is the Greenback tat is getting weaker, not SGD getting stronger. In fact, alot of countries are at their peak on the rate VS the greenback. This are the comments of the people who cannot convince me. Try harder next time.

Not only the PAP brings up invalid points, the opposition does that too. I mean, it is good to have another voice in the parliment but I am not asking you to oppose to every other thing the government had. For instance, there is a call from NSP to either reduce or scrape our GST. I mean, get real! How is our government gonna generate their revenue from without GST? It juz sounds so tempting, but then it is not pratical at all..I would be grateful enuff if they are not going to hike it up anytime soon..In fact, our country has 1 of the lowest GST in the world, look at Msia, I think their government tax is at 10%...not to mention the 17.5% VAT of the European countries..I am oredi counting my blessings.

Also there is this party who wanted to use 60bil for some project they suggest...I mean, HELLO u wanna touch the reserves?Haven get elected and you are toking on our reserves...This is what my mum always scold us when we are young, 还没有学赚钱就要学花钱。。。This is totally unacceptable...This is a dangerous concept to be frank, a dangerous thinking..

The topic of the length of our national service has been touched on, to reduce to 15mths. As I did not went through it, I cannot comment much, but for my 5 cents worth, we should not reduce it even further, this will not allow ample time for the soldiers to get trained properly. Yes, it may seems to be a waste of time, but then in times of emergencies, proper trainin will realli get us far..Defence is an important issue to our tiny island surrounded by the many big countries. Defence budget shd nt be cut too. This is not a matter to be compromised.

At the past few rallies, quite alot of tears flow, you get the old PAP uncle crying in the rain in midst of his speech, you get the young NSP star crying while doing her walkabout and relating the sob story during the rally...

Seriously, I dun find all the tears necessary, it may due to ur real reactions but still to cry on national TV is abit like 博取同情。。

After hearing so many talks, interviews, speeches from both sides, tomorrow is the day we would make our choice. I will be waiting anxiously for tmr's outcome. No matter how grateful, impress I am with PAP, I do hope that WP will get their 1st GRC seats tmr..This, will be a milestone for Singapore's politics and will be a wake up call to the arrogant chaps..Good luck to all tmr!!

GE 2011-NSP Rally for 2011

Attend NSP rally with Mr Love and bro yest at CCK stadium despite the rain. Wanted to see what they are gonna tok about the plans they have for CCK GRC...

Was pretty surprised at the turnout of a huge crowd.I guess most of us are residents in this GRC..unlike WP's rally, where plp frm all over SG flocked there to listen what the most promising opposition have to say..

After days of listening to both side, I must say I am realli not sure till yest wat the opposition will do if they are voted in. No, I do not want PAP to be toppled, I juz wish there are some opposition in to help to keep them in check.

I muz say, I'm pretty impressed with NSP's rally last nite, they did highlight their plan for us, they did bring out valid points to argue on. But I dun realli agree with all their suggestions they brought out.

PAP muz noe that I, as a citizen of this country didnt forget what they did for us to bring us forward to the current standard, but they muz aso noe at the same time as we are moving forward, we do have higher expectations of the government. Cannot be country moving forward but government is doing henta daki rite?

Moreover, I find tat some of the younger PAP candidates strike me as arrogant not to mentioned that they ride on the higher posts ministers' power to get voted in unchallenged. This, makes them thinks that they are invincible..



At 7.30pm..All in for shelter due to rain, onli a handful stood by the stage to watch



Stands are full at 8pm

Crowd start fillin in at 8.30pm

After the rain

This time, I think we shd realli have some voice inside to keep them in check, to remind them to put the citizens as their priority. The next 5 yrs will be watched by the younger generation.They muz remember that the older generation, are slowly ageing and we the younger crowd will rise to be future owners of Singapore. Plan something, say something, do something to let us think that we can still trust u like our parents' batch. Else, dun blame us for choosing the other players, this is nothing against any party, this is for us to decide our fate, our children's fate.

Confessions of a Middle class child-Part 2

17-20 yrs (Poly days)

During these years, my dad left our family, making my mum the sole breadwinner in the family, during these days, my housewife mum went out to work for the 1st time in her life in SG..

• After my O levels, for every vacation I get, I would find any temp placements to work and to earn some pocket money, be it for my new sch books, clothes or wat so ever expenses I need...Mum say u work for wat u wan, dun expect her to give monies for your wants..
• During my sch terms, I would give tuition at night and hand my mum half the fees for our hse hold expenses.
• After graduating from Poly, I am not able to get into NTU when I applied the 1st time, reason being, the government onli allows the top 5% of the cohort into Uni, with a GPA of 3.4, I am no where near the 5%..Thanks man, my family is unable to send me to overseas due to family constraint..
• Started working and part time studee..it is no easy feat, nearly wanted to kill myself every now and then and sch n work got busy althogether..

21yrs and above

It is lucky that I started work early at 17, having quite an amount in my CPF, neber in my dream I know this will come in handy.

Hubs and I were both the middle child coming from lower middle income family. Parents were neither rich enuff to provide all for us, nor poor enuff to let us suffer much..Juz having alot of restrictions here n there..
When we planned to get married in 2008, we know we need a flat, at the tender age of 24 & 25, we were unable to fork out the ridiculously high COV or our parents have enuff to lend/support/sponsor us. We took things into our hand and applied 1 thru balloting.

Luck was on our side, I shd say. The hse prices were rising, but nt that fast, and my hse is the last batch tat HBD sold under the bi-monthly sales at a lower price. The catch is, this is a 14yr old hse, in 1 of the most ulu place in SG-Yew Tee on a 3rd floor. Some of my fwens tot I was crazy to buy, but we tot this is our only chance on owning a hse on our own..

Took the plunge and neber look bak since, shifted in without any renovations, rented out the rooms to fund for our weeding/ expenses for the hse and future renovation..This is how we manage to get thru all these yrs.. Within a yr after I got my hse, I saved enuff to hold my wedding, took our weddin photos and went for honeymoon..All these are done on our own. We were the lucky 1, as many of our fwens are not able to even get a flat.Some, might but the price is a whole lot higher, some did have the support from parents but there are others who are in the same situation as us and are still waiting to save enuff for onli a wedding..

This is the real life experience of a child from a lower middle class family with maybe a little more lucky den some others. Where the government seems to forget about us, living us to stuggle on our own with the ever increasing prices..

Tell me, how many of our leaders went thru these during their growing up years? Not many I dared to say..Only if you are able to feel for us, understand our difficulties and stop acting arrogant, den I will be able to be convinced that the government looks out for the citizens..For the time being, you are juz looking out for yourself and watever you mentioned are all excuses in my humble opinion. So stop bullshitting and get your asses down to work!!!

GE 2011-Confessions of a middle class child Part 1

As GE 2011 begins the campianging process, 1 can keep hearing PAP promising they will not forget the lower income group and make sure they will progress with the whole nation..How nice, that is veri nice of you..But did you juz forget the sandwich class(middle class) plp?? Yes, you certainly did..Afterall, our combine household income exceeds the limit governement had set for qualifying for a low income family..We are too rich to allow the government to help us, too poor to lead a better life..Its a case of either here nor there..

Let me as a child growing up in a middle class or lower middle class family shed some light on my growing up years...Might Need a few posts..Whahaah

My younger days (1-16yrs)

I have 2 silblings, 1 elder and 1 younger brother. I was born to a construction supervisor dad and a housewife mum. Dad was the sole breadwinner in the family, taking home SGD 3,500 per month. House was a 3room flat in clementi. There was no car to dream about. You might argue, 3.5K was alot during that time. Beri true, but its for 5 persons' usage. Average is 700 per person, do u still think its enuff..

Here's how my mum managed the household:

1. School:

• There was no new uniform, all were hand me downs from neighbours whose kids were olden than us and had outgrown the uniforms.It helps that we were quite pettie back then, uniform can last average 3 yrs..
• 2 pair of school shoes per yr if you haven outgrow the pervious pair..And mind you, its from Msia Bata, where we will buy in mum's hometown when we are back during holidays. Its cheaper as compared to here.Even show white was brought there and each 3 of us gotta lug it back from Msia. Mum say she cannot be carrying all our shoes, so we are responsible for them ourselves.
• Textbooks were never new in my memory unless syllabus is updated. My bro would received hand me down from neighbours and will pass to me and finally to the youngest 1..The only thing is workbooks and excerise books..
• School bags will onli be replaced if your currently 1 prove to be utterly unusable..I remembered I once cut a whole in my bag so that it will wear out quickly juz to make mum buy me a new 1...In the end, she help to sew it bak..Thanks lo...
• Pocket money was 50 cents from P1-4,1 buck for P5 & 6, lunch was always at hm, not to mention dinner.
• Got 4 bucks a day during sec school that is inclusive of breakfast and lunch or tea break when schools onli ends at 4pm...
• No pocket money on wkends.you are suppose to stay at home whole day while mum provides you with all the meals..You can buy abit of snacks however, IF you manage to save any thing from the miserable amount you have..
• Never had tution as mum thinks its god damn expensive..Everything is on our own..You are suppose to listen to your teacher who is suppose to teach you watever you are suppose to know..This is good you know?No extra work..whahaha
• You know there is this craze on who brings the most colour of colour pencils to school? My mum will onli buy us the basic pack consisting of 12 colours. She say will be enuff..Juz colour everything the same colour will do..No wonder, 3 of us are bad at art class..whahah

    2. Luxury items:

This is abit ambiguous, for us back then, everything was consider luxury..wahahah

• Depending on how many days there are for CNY holidays. this is exactly the same number of NEW outfits we will get for a year..Anything else, is always hand me down..At 1 point, plp tot I was a boy, cuz I use to take my bro's clothes n wear...whahaha
• Toys were scarce, mum always have her way to find plp's hand me down for us.Especially me, as I am the onli gal at hm, it is quite wasteful to buy toys for me as the 2 other guys would not get to play.. I remembered, sometimes we will visit our neighbours to play their toys n smtimes get cold shoulder..Afterall, which kid will wan to share their toys with outsiders?
• Macdonalds was taken once in a year, every 1st day of CNY, dad will bring us there for breakie as all coffeeshop will be shut for the festive..
• Overseas holidays means going on short trip to Msia.Monies will come from our savings,Mum seriously keep a record of our savings and a detail deductions on everything we brought..Even my study table was brought frm my own savings..
• Mum will bring us to shoppin trips once in a month, by shoppin, I mean window shoppin..whahah.. We will take the train to Dhoby Ghaut and there is a mall store there name "IN KIDS" where they would have toys for us to play..She would bring us there n play but will make us promised b4 hand that we will not ask her to buy anything.True to our promise, we did not for fear that we will lose our only chance to get to go out..
• There were no extra CCA or interest lesson or watever you called it..Monies was the issue again.
• We brought a PC when I was in P5, bro need it for project for sch..1 hr per day per person is what we have.No extra, this is to save on the electricity.
• Tv time is frm 5-8pm.Save electricity again.Its bedtime after tat, where we will get into pillow fight almost every night for an hr due to boredom.
• Mum brough a super la po ka air conditioner for us, its onli from 8pm-7am. Not allowed to on during the day, by 7am we gotta wake up for breakie...
• Dad brought us a gameboy which we had for ard 10yrs and still in good condition as mum had warned that there will be no replacements..whahaha Limited to 1 hr play per day per person during school holidays onli. Batteries are expensive too.
• You will neber find snacks/ soft drinks in our hse unless its Chinese New Year. Its plain water and bread whole yr round.Even during CNY, you gotta see Mum's mood to depends on how much goodies you get this year.
• CNY angbaos is for looking purposes onli. Mum will consolidate all, deduct whatever she give out to others, and divide it by 3 and bank into our accounts. I seriously lost the happie feeling of receiving ang bao after the 1st few years..is basically touchin it onli.. This customs remains till today where the 2 brothers still following it. I am not entitled to collect le..whahah
• School holidays is always spend in Msia with mum's maiden family as the cost of living there is lower as compare to SG and mum need not have to put up with our nonsenses whenever we r bored here.And mind you, she onli send us bak, she is not with us there, and we will be following which ever Auntie/Uncle we liked..Mostly, we spend our time separated except during meal times..
• I will take bus where ever I go during my sec school days, even it means to need transfer 3 bus before reaching hm and the whole journey would take 1hr 30min.Reason being, Dad onli gave monies for bus concession not the hybird 1 where you can take the train too.

This basically sums up the life I had during my schooling days.Seriously, it is not as bad as those lower income family. But judging from the way my mum brought us up, it is no where near good life either. How much does the governement knows about what kind of life we lived?I seriously dunno, from the way I see, their candidates all had better backgrounds, they would not be able to empathised with our experiences.

My 1st time attending a Rally

I attended rally for the 1st time in my life yest at Serangoon Stadium..Its the Worker' Party Rally and after missing the 1st nite as I was in Msia, I decided to go for this while Mr Love is away in Sch..Msg my bro and asked him whether he wanna go with me, to my surprise, he agreed! He seldom wanna go out with me frm young..Guess this is a trait of all elder bro, seeing their younger sis as brats..

Reached the stadium at 6.30pm and I had previously was naive enuff to think we would get a sit, so i wore a demin skirt, but to my dismay, the seats were all taken up!!No even any space to go up to the stands lo...Even the field is starting to fill with plp..So in the end, we found a spot and stood at the edge of the field, allowing us to sit on the track..


Stands full at 6.30pm...

Luckily I brought papers with me and was able to sit down and make myself comfortable while waiting for the Rally to start..Rally started at 7.15pm and the 1st speaker was abit boring.He was not able to stir up emotions among the crowd and seriously I wasnt really paying attention to what he was speaking..


By 7pm, crowd becomes more packed...

2nd speaker was Png Eng Huat for East Coast GRC..This, is a better speaker, his speech on the various issues that the citizens faced where precisely what was on my mind..The FT issue, our over crowded public transport, even on the point of differeniating citizens and PRs was raised..He got the crowd cheering in between his speech when he hit some raw nerve..

He is right, before 2009, there was not much of a difference if you are a citizen or a PR here, maybe except the PR dun get to buy 1st hand flats and the get the Growth Dividends (if any). Other than that, they pay the same school fees as us, they enjoy our medical subsidies, and heck, they even get the same chances to get into the choice of sch as us..So what is the difference between a citizen n and PR? Moreover, after njoying all these benefits, these plp packed their bags after a fews here n goes back to their country and njoy life and we are left struggling here..

Some supporter self made cards aiming at Mr Mah Bo Tan..

Remember the co driver that PM Lee mentioned? This is WP driving license..

 

Supporters waving their flags in agreement to show their support

 Speaker after speaker, I waited patiently for Mr Low Thia Kiang to come on stage to deliver his speech. The previous day, he made some interesting comment, witty and smart to counter attack the comments by PAP. I have to admit, he is the reason why I choose to attend WP's rally. Afterall, WP seems to be the most likely party to win the oppositions' 1st GRC..

At 8pm, the stadium was even more packed den out MRT...  

 
However, as they brought out the various issues, the disappointing is they didnt offer the solutions also..As I discussed this with Mr Love, he made a good point on this, they have not been elected yet, perhaps they just do not wan to make any empty promises? Come to think of it, it maybe rite at this point of time..I guess, we muz vote them in and see what they can do..Else,  5 yrs later kick them out..Afterall, we the Singaporean are empowered with this right to vote..

After Mr Low's speech, bro and I left as we do not wan to be caught in the human jam, even leaving the stadium was a chore itself..Took us a good 10min to squeeze our way out..There are still alot of plp who do not have a chance to get into the stadium, instead, they stood outside and listen to the broadcast..Brought their hammer newsletter at 5bucks, I rememebered distinctively, when I was beri young, maybe at 6 or 7, I brought 1 copy for JBJ in West coast market at onli 50cents or 1 dollar..whaha Dad haven given me the monies to ask me go buy..Talked about inflations...I shall attend other rally when I got the time..heheh

As we left the stadium at 9.30...



GE 2011-On the issue of FT...

Opps..seems like I made a mistake, it shd be NSP contesting in my area instead of SPP..NSP is the party where Nicole Seah is from, the girl who is drawing becoming a big sensation among the young community..Juz watched a video on her last nite speech during NSP rally.. I am pretty impressed by her confidence as she speak I muz say..In my humble opinion, she speaks better than Tin Pei Ling..

On the other hand, I had received my polling card last nite when I came back frm Msia..Woo..1st polling card of my life..The fight between the parties had began, with all the posters from both side are fully decked out along the road on the lamp post...

Vans with those loud speakers promoting their own party also made round in the neighbour hood..To be frank it felt good to soak in this kind of atmosphere..This, will make PAP sit up straight and listen to us, hopefully when they are able to win this coming election as a ruling party, they will reflect on what they have been doing and listen to the commoners' woes..

Personally, I feel connected on what the various opposition parties raised as the issues of the government. Yet, PAP seems to be findin excuses when these issues are raised, instead of reflecting them..This to me is called 执迷不悟, dun wait till u lost more than wat u expect den u start to reflect..U will need the next 5 yrs to regret...

1 thing cannot be denied, PAP is a good ruling party, for so many yrs, Singapore had progressed well..But, as we progressed, as we lend the support to them, it makes them forget their roots..especially the younger generation leaders, it makes them take our support for granted.It makes them forget bout the people's well being..I dun doubt they really wanna make our country a even better econmony, a better place for foreign investors, a stronger country. But during the course, they did sacrifice the citizen's rights didnt they?

Take FT for example, it is argued that we need this people to come so as to make us a more competitive country, fill up the space of the jobs the local dun wan or not qualified to do..Yesh, I agree, but do u need to allow SO MANY of them to come or not??We are over crowded now!!I dun even feel like visiting the malls nowadays becuz of the crowd..Taking public transport had become a nightmare to me, not to mention I need to take it everyday to n fro work...

I have ex colleagues from our neighbouring country coming here to work as the same position as me, tellin me, they are onli interested to come here n work n earn our money and ultimately they will retired and go bak to their country when they earned enuff to buy a big hse, car or other assets there for them to njoy their old days..These, are the same plp who took up space for positions I am working in, the very positions which can be offered to locals who will earn their living and lived in Singapore forever..Who dun have any other place to go after they retired, who had to deal with the high living costs here and yet have the competition from these counterparts and sometimes lost to them as they are willing to recevie a lower pay as when they exchanged back to their currency, its enuff for them to cover their expenses...

It irks me every time when I hear these people telling me this, I onli come to your country to earn money den I will go home..Den dun come in the 1st place, you are depriving my peers in landing on the job, depriving us from earnin a better pay juz becuz u are willing to accept a lower pay as ur currency is so damn lower as compared to mine..On top of that, they will criticized every other thing about Singapore..The high cost of living, how the food here tastes so badly as compared to their country..How rude the plp are, how squeezy our public transport are, how arrogant our plp are as we are a english speaking country, think we are 1st class citizen (which we are!!)blah blah blah...So unhappie, den go back to ur country and work there and all these problems will be gone for you n me...

You see, our government didnt realised this, the FT they had allowed to come here are having these kind of tots..They are sitting in their own office dreaming of how to make Singapore to top more charts while we are working side by side with these FT and had to put up with these kind of remarks which makes me wanna kick them bak to their countries on the spot..Not onli I have these encounters, many of my fwens shared with me similar stories..

In this coming elections, when the opposition bring up issue of the FT, the government try means and ways to find excuses for their decision.Yet, they do not realise they will push the voters more towards the opposition as many of us have the above mentioned encounters..They shd instead, be thinking of how to solve this problems..I am still feeling neutral on how to cast my vote, but seriously I would lend my support to which ever party who can addressed this issue more closely to my heart..This problem, must be solved else, we as Singaporeans will suffer the consequences of it..