Anti Social Behaviour

Dogs and Cats are in the news again.

Recently someone wrote the the ST forum commenting on inconsiderate pet owners who do not leash their dogs in public, and seat their pets on chairs/tables in public places eg seat their pooches on the chairs of eateries.

I am a big supporter of the cause that all pets should be an integral part of the family, and should be allowed to participate in as many activities as reasonably possible. I applaude pet owners who take the effort to bring their pets out to dine (where possible) and bring their pets out to the beach or other social places.

Unlike packing kids into the car, an outing to the beach for dogs involves a massive cleaning up effort after the outing. But it's all worth it :)

What I do not understand are pet owners ( in this case dog owners ) who CARRY the pets all over the place, afraid of getting their pretty paws dirty, and park their pets onto dining chairs of eating establishments. I have seen this happen at a Chinese Muslim (ie certified Halal) eatery.

What is wrong with these people?!

It comes as no surprise that these pet owners incur the wrath of the rest of the community by their selfish acts of ignorance. The non pet-owning community by far generalise us pet owners as a self-centered bunch who leave pet poop all over the place, are inconsiderate of their pet's behaviours and are in general self-serving in their own interests. (ie i sit my dog/cat wherever I like since I am paying, so shove it! )

Dogs are meant to be walked. Some dogs have succeeded in getting their owners to do the job for them. Dog walks owner hahaha.

Dogs are meant to be seated next to the owner in a controlled manner, NOT on the chair. If you are worried dirtying the dog, leave it at home. Dogs are NOT meant to dine at the same table (or chair) as its owner.

Dogs are meant to be controlled. If you cannot control your pooch, leave it at home until it graduates from puppy obedience.

I am a strong proponent that dogs should be integral to an owner's lifestyle. Dogs should not be treated like books on a shelf, browse when needed.

But surely an owner has a responsibility to ensure that the pet behaves properly when in public, and is not a nuisance to the community when brought out of its home. Surely no parent want his/her child to be looked upon with disdain when out in public. What's the difference with pets?

Dog owners, stop letting your dog walk you. Or walk all over you.
Please pick up the poo from your pet, whether there are people looking at you is not relevant.
Do not allow your dog to roam in public without a leash. Be sensitive to communities that have an aversion to dogs / or other pets.
NEVER allow your dog to sit on chairs or tables in public. If you are concerned about dirtying Fido's fur, leave him at home. You know how clean Fido's bottom is, the general public doesn't and won't care to know.

Stop anti-social behaviour that puts a bad name on the rest of the dog-owning community.

Lazy afternoon

Trooper in a contemplative mood. One of the rare moments he is not actively jumping or walking around the house.

The Journey IV

Long woke up in the sweltering heat. He wiped his brow and felt the tender area at his ear. It was hurting again.

Scratching his neck, arm and legs, he got up from his thin mattress, folded into half and slid it under the bed. He checked carefully for any bugs that might be crawling around the floor as he suspected that was the source of his persistent itch. The occupants had gone out early for their shift at the construction site. "That's good" he thought as he knew he would be able to use the bathroom without the hassle of queuing for more than 1 hour for his turn.

Long was working the night shift today, and it was only 11am in the morning. He had reached home at 2am last night after his night shift ended at 12mn. The cab ride he took with 3 other co-workers took him to various other places in Singapore he had never seen, and he was the last to alight.

4 months have passed since Long's arrival into Singapore. He had only ever ventured out to take a bus and MRT to his workplace and home. The other place he knew of was to the supermarket 4 blocks away to buy bread and instant noodles. And he had to buy the more expensive cup noodles instead of the packet noodles as he was instructed by the agent not to do any cooking in the dormitory.

Long washed up and opened his luggage bag for his loaf of bread. He ate what was left of the remaining 2 pieces and washed it down with some tap water.

Looking at his room shared with 7 other workers, he thought about his village back home, and longed for the fresh air of the fields. Here, his room mates, all construction workers smoked and drank in the hall way and at times in the room. The bedding provided was thin, dirty and smelled of stale perspiration mixed with cheap cigarette smoke.

For the past 4 months, Long had been living out of his suit case as there was no room to hang his clothes. The room was small and housed 3 double bunk beds. Long and 1 other worker slept on the floor at night. Long made sure he locked his suit case in case anything was stolen while he slept. Meals were expensive in Singapore, each meal costing easily $4 ached Long painfully. He tried to eat only 1 meal per day while at work, and sustained himself on bread while at the dormitory. He yearned for some fragrant white rice and vegetables from his home.

He felt a tickling sensation in his ear, and pressed the tender area gently. It hurt badly. Long felt some liquid ooze from his ear, and thought that it smelt off. Long suppressed a small wave of panic. What if a bug had crawled from the bed into his ear at night? Would he go deaf? How much would a visit to the doctor cost here? Oh no...

Long tried to nap, but the persistent ear ache would not go away. In the sweltering heat of the room, the concoction of pain and stale odours made Long feel giddy. Was it fever?

Long got up, dressed for work and left for his work place. He arrived 2 hours ahead of schedule. In fact, Long was never late for work. Partly because he knew being early for work was about the only thing he could do better than his co-workers, and partly because he wanted to escape from the oppressive dormitory environment.

************************

"It's an infection of the outer ear, and should clear up after a week to ten days. In the mean time, no swimming, no contact with water for the affected part. Use cotton wool while in the shower. Avoid baths." Dr Lingam advised Lucy.

Lucy repeated this in Mandarin to Long who nodded silently. Long then asked Lucy there was any bug found in his ear. Lucy translated this to Dr Lingam who smiled and said, no no there were no bugs, not to worry. Just a minor infection. Remember to complete the antibiotics, and take the paracetamol if the fever persists.

Long wanted to show his bed bug bites on his back, shoulders, arms and legs to the Doctor, but hesitated. He didn't want to appear rude or demanding as he didn't know if he could ask this many questions. He hoped they would subside soon so he would not have to live with the itch.

As Lucy and Long walked back from the clinic to their work place, Lucy asked in mandarin "Why didn't you see a doctor about your infection?" Long explained that he didn't know how much it would cost, and also he was worried about what to say to the doctor. "My English is bad." Long said.

Lucy smiled "There are many doctors who can speak mandarin too" and then she stopped. What if Long met with Dr Lingam by himself? How would Dr Lingam or Long cope with each other? That would make an interesting doctor-patient relationship.

Back at the staff room, Lucy made Long write down in mandarin the dosage and frequency of administrating his medication. She also helped him report his Medical leave to his supervisor, and processed the medical claim of $25 from the company.

Long noted all this in his notebook, and was relieved that there were no bugs in his ear. He had heard that these bugs will live in one's head and cause one to lose their minds when they grow old by singing high pitched tunes constantly. Long still had to look after his parents and little sister, and did not want to lose his mind. No, Long had to be strong.

Long thanked Lucy profusely for her help. If not for Lucy who detected Long's pale lips at work, he may have had to live with the bug in his head for a long time.

"How are things for you so far? Have you settled into your dormitory nicely?" Lucy asked

Long went on to tell her about how 24 people share 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms in the rented HDB flat. And how these workers from different countries speak different languages, smoked and drank in the rooms, and how they fought to use the bathroom daily. Some used camping burners in the room to make their own meals as they could not afford to eat out, adding to the smell of the already squalid living conditions.

"Have you considered moving out?" Lucy asked, apparently taken aback by what she heard.

"I've paid 3 months deposit to the agent already, so I'll have to stay here. Besides I don't know how to go about getting another apartment." Lucy did the maths and realised that Long had been paying far too much at $250 per month for a floor space to share with 7 other people in the room.

Long needed money if he were to move out on his own, and he would do best if he could pool together 3 others to share a room with him. And he needed money to pay deposit for rental as well as agent fees. Earning $1000 per month doesn't leave Long with much savings at all.

Suddenly what the demi-goddess said to him back in China hit him hard. But he felt cushioned against the impact as he had been warned. But little did he expect his living conditions to be so bad, it was worse than his village back home. And he craved for a good decent meal too.

"Have you called home lately?"

"Yes, I called my parents when I reached Singapore."

"What about lately? Xing and the others have been calling home nearly everyday. Don't you miss your family?"

" No need, as long as they know I am safe, I will work hard, that's ok. Not good to let them worry about me."

Long was steely about his stance on calling home even though he knew that calling rates for long distance call was extremely cheap here in Singapore. It costs something like 5 cents a minute or possibly less. Xing and Jiang would know all the rates quite well.

Space

I wrote about my trip to Ikea and carted back 2 chest of drawers.

I dedicated 2 days to clearing out the old stuff from my open shelves, rearranging them into the drawers and rearranging the furniture in the house.

Its amazing how much clutter emerges from hidden nooks and crannys of your storage space. And what a relief when they emerge to see the light of day, and for me to discard them.

Anything that I've not seen or used in the past 3 months gets junked into the bin. Stuff that probably can get reused or be useful to someone else, gets given away within 2 weeks else they get junked too.

I cannot understand how people hoard stuff for years and years. While I understand we keep stuff "just in case" we may need them at some point in time, or we just cannot bear to part with them. But there comes a point in time we make a decision to continue hoarding ( in which case storage facilities must expand ) or we part with the item(s).

Personally, I like to clear clutter. Continuous clearing means I can continue to acquire new items, or acquire more open spaces in my otherwise tiny apartment. I like new things and I like open spaces, I also like to keep things of sentimental value. But I refuse to let my life get cluttered or limit my ability to enjoy new things because of old clutter. Time to let go and move on.

My bedroom is a lot neater. No more open shelves to trap dust. My study is also cleaner after the wipe down. And I have space for 2 potted plants in the study which gets plenty of sunlight from balcony. Yea!

I just need to clear the clutter that I've added to the spare room from clearing my 2 other rooms! :)

Beautiful Angel

God mum has put together a collage for you!
When I next see you, you will be trottering along and we will play
hide and seek. Wouldn't that be fun?

In an industrial estate

What development is this I thought as I approached this building.

Woa, trendy gray slate and glass facade. Too bad, no balcony. Looks a little claustrophobic.
How to sell at this location? Aiyo, whose project might this belong to? Dum Dum!


Upon closer inspection, haha, silly me, this is a flatted factory.

Located in the industrial estate of Kaki Bukit, this spanking new building smells nothing like what flatted factories are suppose to even look like!
Wow, me impressed.

To me, flatted factories are suppose to look something like this :-

Or like this :-

Then I realised that JTC has divested a portfolio of their flatted factories to Mapletree, who will become the REIT manager for this project. Ie privatised the management of flatted factories. You can read more about it here.

Built in the 1970s, flatted factories were built to house light industries (ie not heavy pollution causing industries) near to housing estates. The rationale was for these factories to gain access to a ready pool of labour residing in the housing estates nearby.

They were flatted so as to maximise land area usage. Why build only 1 factory in the same land area when you can house factories like you build HDB flats? Build more factories so the business can grow and the economy can flourish! That was the drive back in the 70s.

Erm, so what am I doing in the middle of an industrial estate?

Took this fellow (below) for a car wash. This special car wash is suppose to be good for the paint work of the car after it's undergone a special high-heat sealant treatment to seal in the gloss of the paint. So no need to polish car for the next 1.5 years bla bla bla.

Of course that wasn't my idea, but I must admit it was worth the price paid. The car looks perpetually polished and shiny without being overly glossy. I don't like dull paints on cars.

But car paint work isn't on my mind as I write this.

With Mapletree taking over the management of the flatted factories, I wonder if they will jack up the rental for the paint sealant company who already has numerous foreign workers doing the car wash job. Even the receptionist is not local. She speaks accented English, but is polite (to a fault), knowledgable, patient and efficient on her job. And she speaks without grammatical errors. So polite was her service that I wondered if the company had sent her for customer service courses!

The car washers are not local either. Only the technical guys in charge of performing the actual task of sealing the paint are. Ie the locals take the more tech-savvy, higher value-added jobs.

What to do, the boss said. Nobody wants to do manual work in Singapore, and everyone demands high pay. Foreign labour has been a boost for him, just that he is fussy about who he selects in the vast pool of foreign labour. The receptionist sure was a gem. But his hands are tied as there is a limit on the total number of foreign workers he can hire (fixed at a % of his total workforce) so his workers often have to work long hours to make up for the lack of labour, and also to keep his business going. "How to turn away customers who drive here all the way? And they are usually only free on weekends."

Mr Boss is not without a heart though, he keeps the first Sunday of each month free so that his workers all get a day off.

And now, he is unsure if the rent on his factory space is going to go up further. He set up shop in this industrial area under assistance from the government under the JTC scheme. He knew it was going to inconvenience his customers as they had to drive all the way to this industrial estate, leave their car and wait while the cars are serviced. There is absolutely no recreational area here (not even a coffee shop) that one can go to kill time.

My estimated waiting time according to the polite recep was 3 hours.

But the boss had no choice. Rent, his biggest expense, was affordable under the scheme. So he had to grow his business through competitive rates, offering innovative products, market his services to car owners, and ensuring that service was friendly and good to keep customers coming back.

When I told him about the spanking new factory pictured above "woa very nice hor? So impressive!" he said "Aiya, for a business like mine, no use to make the place so nice! Clean, big and airy can already. Air con for what? Must pay and pay for everything - aircon water electricity salary rent...... And gow-ment don't allow me to hire more foreign workers to help me. Must work till I die la." he said as he pulled his industrial safety mask over his face.

Me? I just hope he keeps his prices as reasonable as they are 12 months down the road. Else I'll just live with dull paint.

The Dentist

"Bruno, I think it's time to visit the dentist."
"Arrrr....."

Look at what we made!

These are the tarts we made from fresh pineapples!
And the Hershey Choc Chip cookies made from beating the mixture by hand.
They don't look too bad at all :)

Gorgeous

Browsing through my albums and chanced upon this photo. Isn't he gorgeous? Hope his mummy will come back and drink teh tarik with me soon!

Ikea

Went to the new Ikea over the weekend. I brought the camera along just to experiment with a few shots.

A random shot. I like the contrast of the yellow peeking from behind the bag.

Huge expanse of land, and here's Ikea!

I like how the place is laid out, completely flat with no multi storey carparks. Makes the buildings stand out even more. Just reminds me of Southland and Chadstone where the only tall building you see in the vast expanse of land, is the beckoning shopping centre.

That's how building should be, beckoning and inviting, with LOADS of parking space. Wide parking space.

This is the Ikea carpark. I should have taken how they painted pedestrian paths along the road in the car park.

Lamps and Lights

How nice to know that this is what greets you at the entrance.

I know I'll always stay beyond my estimate time of departure each time I walk into an Ikea store.

I bought 2 units of chest of drawers, cleared out the open shelves and now everything in the room looks neater.

Next stop, the study.

Heat spell

The heat spell is proving unbearable for both me and the 3 dogs. Here's a shot of them huddling for a conference on "How to survive a Heat Spell with fur coat".

Murray gave up in the discussion after a while cos Bruno and Trooper suggested swimming and sleeping with bellies up to cool faster in this heat. See Murray, napping in the midst of discussion.



Here's a shot of Murray with the halo effect behind his head. Nice? Actually he just woke up, and is a little dazed.

Bruno and Murray decided to lick each other's ears. Murray wasn't too interested in this activity.

Murray asked Bruno "So what's the outcome of your discussion? What do I do to get out of this heat spell? "

Bruno replied " I dunno, really, we got distracted cos you fell asleep, Trooper's busy with his nails and I gave up. Hmm..."

So Murray decided it was time to nap again, and placed his head on Trooper's butt.

I think the tropical heat spell is making them lethargic...

While the puppies are napping, I made iced green tea. Just boil 5-6 tea bags of green tea in a kettle, cool, and place the mixture in the fridge. Drink when it's really really COLD and it's really really refreshing. Beats cold Ribena anytime (no sugar too!)

I'm taking this organically grown japanese brand. Tastes different from the Pokka brand that I usually buy. Think I'll stick to this for a while.

Crustaceans of the East have been working out!

Visited this place for an early dinner tonight under someone's recommendation.















This is the signature crab bee hoon.
Somewhat like the wet type of fried bee hoon infused with the crab flavour.















The crab was BIG and MEATY - like those that work out at the gym! Yummy!

Guess I'm pissed by huge crabs with empty shells haha!
















The bee hoon was done nicely, infused with the sweet flavour of the crab without being soggy.

I thought the crab itself tasted bland, but realised later that the natural flavour of the crab had been overpowered by the bee hoon. It was after 2-3 bites of the crab that I slowly tasted the sweet aroma of the muscular crab.


















The Sambal Kang Kong - loads of dried shrimp (haybee) with the sambal. Tickled my taste buds nicely!
















This is the King Pork Ribs. (get it? haha!)
It was ordinary at best. A tad too sweet for me.

Overall a reasonably priced tze char place with friendly service that is not pushy. Crab and Kang Kong get my thumbs up. Will try other stuff next visit.


Blk 466 Pasir Ris Dr 4. Cooks United (Tze Char)