It's a month!

I've just realised I haven't wrote anything for almost a month!  It was work all the way when I came back to SG as there was this big Malaysia election and all my colleagues (who happened to be Malaysians) took leave to go back and vote.  Too bad the ruling party BN won again and it is pretty discouraging day for fellow Malaysians.

There was much update since.  I have thrown in the towel and submitted my resignation letter recently.   No more shift work for me in June 15 onwards.  A few reasons are the recent changes to my job scope and I can't find myself submiting to the constant nonsense I am facing.  Money is important but so is my health.  It dosen't help if my blood pressure keeps rising while working right? :)

Anyway, I have also started my backup plan of being a Taxi drive in SG.  Yup, me, a bloody taxi driver..hehe.  My course will commence in 17th June and it should end in early July.  If I managed to pass the test, I would most probably be back in Thailand for a month or 2 before coming back in September for my reservist.

There are some long term plans but nothing concrete so far.    Sincerely, I just want to get out of the company that has changed so much so at least after I got out of it, I will have more time to plan my next move.

Speaking of family.  The two little monsters are back in school.  Boy boy started kindergarden and seems happy to meet some new friends.  Though he does cry everytime in the morning when my wife send him in.  The surprising one is my girl.  Those who follow me on facebook (though I was wrong in the ranking :P) would have know this great news.  She was actually 2nd in Standard and 1st in Class!  Scoring an average of 3.88/4.  Hope she keeps it up!

And I finally have a long break .  4 days in total.:P  And this is just my 2nd day.  hehe...  

A bloody short week.

It's has been a week and now I'm on my way back to Land of Slavery to slave again. I was just getting used to the weather in Maesai. It's 25 during the day and about 19 degrees at night. Damn I will miss the weather.

The kids are great and they are happy I was back. I managed to teach my girl some string games I used to play with my sister when we were young and boy boy was getting better everyday in using the computer mouse... :P hunting down zombies in Plant vs Zombies. I also somehow managed to complete their own bedroom. Yup, finally bought a pair of beds and setup their little kingdom. I still need to fix the AC and maybe a table for them to study or draw but from the way the jump on their beds I know they loved it... :P One thing bad is that boy boy still sticky with mummy so my wife still accompanies them in their room while I slept alone in our own bedroom :(

I was also busy sorting out some slides I took last time and managed to copied them this time using my a900. It's actually about half a year of backlog negatives and transparencies I cleared while the kids were in school. I also managed to finish 2 rolls on my Fuji 690 and will be looking forward to develop it back in SG. I have found a new home based lab via Chiff and he did a fantastic job on my last roll. For those interested in shooting and developing slides in Singapore, do search for Lo Sheng of Analog Film Lab in facebook. Just mail in the rolls and he will work his magic. And its bloody affordable too!

Interesting way to start a year.

I'm typing this on the plane. I'm on my way back to Chiang Rai for a short break. Just only a week prior to my break, I actually tendered my resignation letter over matters of a deduction in our department's OT pay. It was actually quite dramatic. We received our pay last month just after Chirstmas and my colleague spotted the err in payment. Initially I thought it was just an individual mistake in the Finance department but later I found out the deduction was across the board. Furious with the sudden changes without any notification. I wrote a very strong worded email to my immediate superior and manager. Their response was pitiful in the sense that they don't see anything wrong in the whole fiasco. So furious was I that I decided to quit.

My immediate boss (who is also a good friend of mine) managed to persuade me to hold my letter and requested to have an emergency team meeting with the ops manager. For a very long time, all our team members came to the meeting that day and the ops manager explained that there were no changes the OT formulae. However, there was a special component that he has been giving to us discreetly ever since we joined the company. And our dear ops manager was questioned recently why he gave the special component so he has to enforced the rule.

I smell bullshit. Anyway, I cut straight to the point that we don't see it that way. A cut is a cut and if you wish to enforce this rule, at least have the courtesy to inform us before hand. This is to allow us to judge if its rational for us to do the extra OT. Not like we had done it in December and then undercut us this way.

So after some haggling, they gave in and return us the special component for the time being. For how long this will last? I really don't know but at least they promised to inform us next time if they play such stunts.

So actually I was going to be free and jobless in Feb 2013 but I guess I will stick around for the moment. Since the ops manager did personally asked me to withdraw my resignation letter (actually money is still the factor ... :P) So just this once, my principle was set aside.

2012 - A boring year.

Technically we have not reached the end of 2012 but by the counts of my post this year.  It's actually quite a boring year for me.  The year never ended on 21-12-2012 as predicted and nothing really major happened (aside to the scandals in Singapore politics and the SMRT strikes).  Maybe only the first half of the year when I came back to Singapore to work and resumed my shift job.  Other than that, it's just work, sleep, buy stuff, fly back to Thailand to spend time with the kids and etc.  Nothing eventful in my personal life.  

Which brings to one point, how long can I last in such a situation.  Again, I have managed to save up some money and gained some through our stock exchange in lovely Singapore.   So 2013 will be an interesting year for me again.  I have that option to leave my job in Singapore (for good this time) and return back to Thailand to work on something.   I also have some plans that involved in a room of stuff left by my late father that I promised my mother that I will sort them out eons ago.  Initially I planned to sort them out when I'm on my day offs but I just do not have the energy to do so when I came back from work.

And recently, I just feel "old". hahaha.  Being physically of course and I do have to admit, once you hit 35 and above, its going to be downhill all the way.....   

So Happy Holidays and see you all in 2013.

Siblings.

Just a small update.  Got a call yesterday from my missus informing me that my girl's 1st mid term exam results.  Out of 41 in class, she was 6th in position!

No need to be top 3, just in the top 10 I'm happy and proud.  Why?  Because I'm not like other Singaporean parents that blindly chase the best results and force thier kids to study to get good results to boast or cliam they will have a bright future.  I'm not beside her constantly to guide her and my wife has learning disabilities so she could not guide her too.  (only some basic Thai but sometimes she writes them in the wrong direction :P)  

Education to me, is all about the joy of learning.  How to reap new knowledge everyday.  Yes, they do practice rote learning in Thailand but at least my wife and I are not forcing her to go to her books everyday after school.  But I do ask her everytime on what she has learnt in school.  At least once per week when I'm calling back home or daily when I'm in Thailand.   And each time I would encourage and sound surprise if she say she is learning something new.   This some how reinforces the importance of learning to my girl and kinds of spurs her into action.  Yes, she's P1 only but I believe in starting a good foundation.  Hope she will continue to work hard and maintain her results :)

The photo on the left was taken by wife's friend and posted on her FB.  My wife does not know how to use the computer so I was happy that her friend started learning how to use facebook.  So now quite often I can see some photos or post of the family on her wall.  Girl was playing with my wife's friend Iphone while her brother is looking on beside her.

They play with each other and fights a lot, (well which siblings dun do that huh :P).  But they are close.  I can tell.  The term break ends and Jie Jie will go to school, leaving poor Didi all alone at home and he will start to throw tantrums, asking where is his sister and he wants to go to school with her.  Jie jie also very thoughtful one, everytime shcool ends she will buy extra ka-nom (sweets and candies) and share it with her Didi (I think she bought extra because she scared Didi will snatched it all away.. huhu)  If I scold either one of them or threaten to whack them, the other will stand up and whack me back.  Same thing when they are playing with others in a group.  Recently while I was back and we visited a ball park playground.  Another girl around the same age as my girl shoved and pushed Jiejie. Trying to pick a fight.   Didi protectively went up and shoved the girl back and stood in front of the bully, even though he was a head shorter. Hehe! 

So the 2 of them now reminds me of my own relationship with my sister.  I think I really need to spend more time talking to my sis again....  Not sure when our conversation starts to dwindle but I guess we share the same blood.. Hell yeah.  Whoever dares to bully my sis, I'm gonna hurt him/her bad! :P