I'm at the Singapore National Eye Centre writing this. My mum's gone into the operating theatre for her second cataract operation and I have been assigned by the family to spend my afternoon here. This gives me the rare opportunity to take stock of the situation 'live' and like all duitiful Singaporeans, complain. I pay taxes what.
Number one, after we went up to level 2 and waited 5 minutes at the big sign that read 'Registration', the nice lady inside the room came told us "Operation ah? Go through the glass door and turn left." Did it look like we were tourists? Why can't they simply put up a simple sign and not waste my half-day's leave? Goodness.
Number two. My mum's got an appoinment for her surgery. So one would expect a more logical system in handling the crowd waiting to be served.
(break) A guy just came up to me to ask if this was the Heart Centre. (end break)
There is a box instead. Drop your appointment card in but we have a list of scheduled appointments, so don't expect to be called first, or something like that. If there's a list of scheduled appointments, why have a box for cards? Shouldn't there be a list of names to be called out or displayed instead? A nurse came to retrieve the cards, opened the box and failed to take my mum's card at the bottom of the translucent box. It was the only other card in the box. Goodness.
Number three. These nurses are a little too nice. In the midst of taking my mum's blood sugar reading, a 'concerned' relative of one of the waiting patients came to ask why the wait was so long. The nurse then stepped away from my mum to explain in quite an extensive degree about the appointment schedule and the doctors on staff, blah blah. What she should have done is ask "Were you here too early? That's what appointments are for. And by the way, you're too young to be taking up space while the elderly are standing around." Goodness.
And last but not least, as I sit here at the ground on a nice, hard wooden bench below the shiny staircase, I realist problem 4. No one really knows where to go. People don't get their eyes fixed regularly so most visitors here aren't quite familiar with the SNEC. 80% of the folks here are old and many don't quite speak English or read signs. But there's no one really helping. People are asking the cleaners where to go. There are also way too many counters that read 'Registration'. One old man has been walking around with too much pride to ask for directions. Couldn't they simply get student volunteers to sit here and tell people where to go? And with all these old folks, why aren't there more wheelchairs around, and people offering them to those with walking sticks? Goodness.
What's worse is that there a huge display in the foyer that showcases the technological advancements the SNEC has introduced to make work for efficient here, like a 'digital boardroom'. Oh my god, people come here to fix their vision, not apply for a job! Get over yourselves, please.
Monday 25 January 2010
Thursday 21 January 2010
Heartbreak Warfare - John Mayer
One of my current favourites. Simply awesome, smart-straight shooter lyrics. How can you beat "If you want more love, why don't you just say so?" and "How come the only way to see how high you get me is to see how far I fall?". This is good, real good.
Wednesday 20 January 2010
Word
Word up. One of the big things most people learn as they leap from kidhood to grownuphood is how important one's word become. By 'word' I mean promise or expression of commitment, and by grownuphood I mean how mature we become whatever age it may happen. As kids in school we make promises to get good grades, be nice and do out homework on time. We generally break all these promises without much worry. Carefree and fancyfree, we may have been (some of us still are). As we grow up, more responsibilities we take on and our promises mean a lot more. Like with school at higher levels. We get more serious about things and life. Commitments become more focused and in some cases, profound and less tangible. Like with commitments to loved ones and better halves. As we work, we are held to our simple promise of the terms of our employment, between worker and boss, between colleagues, between clients and vendors. "I'll send you the files later" means exactly that. Yet so often nothing holds true. Promise broken. We move on.
What I've come to believe at this ripe old age, is that the most important promises one can make are to oneself and to a child. Oneself because when you break a commitment to yourself, it is a regret that you bear. Rectifying it should be easy but hardly we think about how we may have let ourselves down. A simple example is the commitment to exercise, a promise that's simple to ignore. When the doc later prescribes the cholesterol meds, it'll be "damn I wished I had started running last year".
To a child because that's how they learn about keeping commitments. I told my sis if she's announced to her son, my nephew, that they're going to the beach on the weekend, they'd better go. I don't want him to miss out because some parent decides he/she is feeling lazy and takes a rain check on a commtment. Not good for the kid. I enforce the idea of a promise when I let the little tyke run around the house, if he 'promises' not to make a mess. Else it's a time out in the cradle.
A good resolution for the year is to stop feeling like crap and keep your word, to family, friends and to yourself.
What I've come to believe at this ripe old age, is that the most important promises one can make are to oneself and to a child. Oneself because when you break a commitment to yourself, it is a regret that you bear. Rectifying it should be easy but hardly we think about how we may have let ourselves down. A simple example is the commitment to exercise, a promise that's simple to ignore. When the doc later prescribes the cholesterol meds, it'll be "damn I wished I had started running last year".
To a child because that's how they learn about keeping commitments. I told my sis if she's announced to her son, my nephew, that they're going to the beach on the weekend, they'd better go. I don't want him to miss out because some parent decides he/she is feeling lazy and takes a rain check on a commtment. Not good for the kid. I enforce the idea of a promise when I let the little tyke run around the house, if he 'promises' not to make a mess. Else it's a time out in the cradle.
A good resolution for the year is to stop feeling like crap and keep your word, to family, friends and to yourself.
Monday 11 January 2010
iPhoned
So after many months of mulling over, analyzing data, checking updates and upgrades, toying with other people's devices and contemplating switching networks, I have purchased the Apple iPhone. I was warned many a time that it's not a phone but a computer with a phone application. How true is that. I've not called anyone but have added apps, checked where I live on Maps, sorted my Contacts and adjusted settings. And the battery is down by a third already. I was warned abt that too, a bugbear among even Mac evangelists. Well, it's the beginning of a new and wonderful relationship.
Sunday 10 January 2010
Sat Night A&E
I never liked going to the doctors, and less so, hospitals. Somehow the whole idea of being sick was never quite appealing. I also never was the pill-popping type, enduring headaches to the point to throb before taking white, god-sent pills of pain relief, contextually of course. Painkillers don't go to the source of the problem but numb the whole body when the whole body doesn't need the attention. So that bothers me. Tonight however the situation was different. I started having my strange chest pains on the right side once again, after a heavy meal on Friday night. The next day, the pain was still there. It sort of dulls when I just breathe, hurts way more when I laugh, get out of bed, or carry the 2-yr old monster of a nephew. By 9pm yesterday, breathing was a little laboured and apparently I looked pale. My friends at dinner commented the same after a round of Taboo on Friday night. So to quash all impressions of my stubborns and to appease the increasingly worried mother, I went to Tan Tock Seng's Accident and Emergency at 11pm.
As it was a chest related matter, I was served pretty quickly. ECG, blood pressure checks and preliminary assessments done in half hour. Then I waited to see the doc. He was a very skinny young man who looked slightly malnourished. He was very nice and I applied my jovial chat skills to good use. I learned that the everyday background radiation we experience is higher than the intensity of x-rays used for radiology. He listened to my front and back, squeezed by calves to check for Deep Vein Thrombosis (he said, just to rule it out), and made me stretch out my arms. An x-ray followed then some more waiting. There was a flat panel TV perched 2 meters in the air locked on to Channel 5. There was Star Wars earlier but I missed the scene when the Death Star was blown up, and got back to watch Privileged, a strange show with pretty Californians.
Called in some time later, the doctor told me, get this, the x-ray of my lungs was "pristine". His words, not mine. So in the end, he prescribed 40 pills of Anarex and wished me good luck, just as I had wished him when he took his strange assessment of Gurmit Singh Kullar to his senior doctor for a confirmed opinion and approach to this pain problem at hand.
That's it. Another receipt to claim on Monday and more pills to take, more fingers to cross. I was a little upset that I now am now in the hospital records. Like being tracked on the grid.
As it was a chest related matter, I was served pretty quickly. ECG, blood pressure checks and preliminary assessments done in half hour. Then I waited to see the doc. He was a very skinny young man who looked slightly malnourished. He was very nice and I applied my jovial chat skills to good use. I learned that the everyday background radiation we experience is higher than the intensity of x-rays used for radiology. He listened to my front and back, squeezed by calves to check for Deep Vein Thrombosis (he said, just to rule it out), and made me stretch out my arms. An x-ray followed then some more waiting. There was a flat panel TV perched 2 meters in the air locked on to Channel 5. There was Star Wars earlier but I missed the scene when the Death Star was blown up, and got back to watch Privileged, a strange show with pretty Californians.
Called in some time later, the doctor told me, get this, the x-ray of my lungs was "pristine". His words, not mine. So in the end, he prescribed 40 pills of Anarex and wished me good luck, just as I had wished him when he took his strange assessment of Gurmit Singh Kullar to his senior doctor for a confirmed opinion and approach to this pain problem at hand.
That's it. Another receipt to claim on Monday and more pills to take, more fingers to cross. I was a little upset that I now am now in the hospital records. Like being tracked on the grid.
Wednesday 6 January 2010
Not A Fine And Dandy Start To The New Year
On the morning of January 1 I woke up with a stiff neck. I couldn't really gain full motion of my chin to my left shoulder. On January 2, I woke with a funny pain in my lower back. It was not the same old pain I had pre-yoga, that awful pinched nerve that could essentially paralyse me. This one was a lower done the pelvic bone, sort of muscular or skeletal in nature. I still made myself attend 90mins of sweaty bending that afternoon. Then I had a cider. Ah. Then I went to buy new pillows.
Today, I still can't really turn my head to the left. Worse still, some of pain has gone on an adventure to scope out other regions of my torso to take hostage. I felt a twinge on my right back near the shoulder two days ago. Today it moved to the top end of my ribcage. It hurts when I take a full breath (bikram yoga pose 1) The back pain is almost gone. It's there when I think about it.
Yoga yesterday was a surprise. I made through another hour and half of great physical strain. I have been doing the same 26 postures for the past year plus and yesterday felt like my first lesson. My legs were on the verge of buckling during the the 'powerful pose', the 'heels up' pose and the 'thighs together and bend your knees' pose. Aiyoh. Pain in my thighs like they were metal being stretched out in a furnace.
To add to the assortment of pain my body is trying to endure, I have been at work with a bunch of ill colleagues. One lady came in with a raspy throat with volumes of phelgm trying to leave her windpipe. We could all hear it. The next day she was better but her colleague who was down with a fever popped in for a full day's work not fully cured of his ailment. I think I have caught a mix of their rojak viruses and bacteria. I have a headache as I bash away at the keyboard, and I can feel my temperature rising. I took a Panadol ten minutes ago and a Vit C pill an hour earlier. The only highlight of the evening were the extra cute, extra adorable Golden Retriever puppies on Greatest American Dog.
I am off to bed now. I feel the Paracetamol kicking in.
Today, I still can't really turn my head to the left. Worse still, some of pain has gone on an adventure to scope out other regions of my torso to take hostage. I felt a twinge on my right back near the shoulder two days ago. Today it moved to the top end of my ribcage. It hurts when I take a full breath (bikram yoga pose 1) The back pain is almost gone. It's there when I think about it.
Yoga yesterday was a surprise. I made through another hour and half of great physical strain. I have been doing the same 26 postures for the past year plus and yesterday felt like my first lesson. My legs were on the verge of buckling during the the 'powerful pose', the 'heels up' pose and the 'thighs together and bend your knees' pose. Aiyoh. Pain in my thighs like they were metal being stretched out in a furnace.
To add to the assortment of pain my body is trying to endure, I have been at work with a bunch of ill colleagues. One lady came in with a raspy throat with volumes of phelgm trying to leave her windpipe. We could all hear it. The next day she was better but her colleague who was down with a fever popped in for a full day's work not fully cured of his ailment. I think I have caught a mix of their rojak viruses and bacteria. I have a headache as I bash away at the keyboard, and I can feel my temperature rising. I took a Panadol ten minutes ago and a Vit C pill an hour earlier. The only highlight of the evening were the extra cute, extra adorable Golden Retriever puppies on Greatest American Dog.
I am off to bed now. I feel the Paracetamol kicking in.
HDB Didn't Build Enuff Flats
This is the email I sent to TODAY newspaper on Sunday 3 Jan 2010 in response to reading about an article on how a HDB is an asset with an interview with Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan.
I am writing to give my opinion of the article "Asset that keeps growing" published on 30 December 2009.
From 2001-05 the HDB built over 50,000 dwelling units, an average of 10,000 units a year. However from 2006-08, only an average of 3,650 were constructed annually, a reduction of 63%.
Given that the number of marriages over the same period remained steady at about 24,000 annually, additional factors, like the influx of PRs and greater investment in property after the financial market crash, added on to the normal demand for HDB flats. It was inevitable and forseeable that the HDB's reduced flat supply from 2006 onwards has bearing on the housing market situation today. A simple case of supply and demand. In fact, the situation was obvious much earlier with price increases causing a steep uptrend in the Price Index of HDB Flats from since the start of 2007.
In addition to the BTO sales planned for 2010, perhaps the HDB should look into two current policies that frustrate some flat buyers.
Firstly, some cash-over-valuation (COV) demands for flats in the resale market have gone into ridiculous excesses. One housing agent I spoke to was asking for $90,000 over the valuation price of $460,000 for a 5-room flat. I am not sure how this expectation that buyers have lots of cash sitting around came about. This situation is putting buyers who do not prefer to wait for BTO units to be completed in 3-4 years' time under great financial pressure. The Balance of Flats sale conducted in October 2009 (where buyers do not need to fork out any COV) was 10 times oversubscribed - an indication that buyers do not wish to be subject to the whims and fancies of property agents and their sales commissions. Perhaps the HDB should introduce guidelines or even curbs to limit cash-over-valuation requirements.
Secondly, I feel that the sale of flats to singles from the age of 35 onwards is no longer relevant. If the intention behind this policy was to encourage marriage and subsequently an increase in the birth rate, it is clear that it has not worked. The number of marriages has not greatly increased and our total fertility rate remains well below replacement levels. Since most Singaporeans enter the workforce by age 25, extending the responsibilities of adulthood should include finding a financially-viable roof over their heads. It is also quite plausible that that singles with a home will pursue marriage and start a family more readily. The HDB can extend the concept of 'growing an asset', an important life lesson, to young adults here by allowing them to purchase flats perhaps after 5 years of steady contributions to their CPF.
Gurmit Singh Kullar
References
- HDB construction stats from the HDB Annual Report 2008-09 at http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10221p.nsf/0/d4a0f107613b79944825766200236310/$FILE/index.html
- Price Index of HDB Flats seen at http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10201p.nsf/WPDis/Buying%20A%20Resale%20FlatStatistics%20-%20Resale%20Price%20Index?OpenDocument
- Marriage stats from http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/themes/people/marriages.pdf
- Population growth rates calculated from data at http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/themes/people/hist/popn.html
- Fertility rates data from http://www.nps.gov.sg/files/news/Population%20in%20Brief%202009.pdf
- Workforce data from http://www.mom.gov.sg/publish/etc/medialib/mom_library/mrsd/ms.Par.95462.File.tmp/mrsd_singapore_workforce_2008.pdf (Slide 8)
I am writing to give my opinion of the article "Asset that keeps growing" published on 30 December 2009.
From 2001-05 the HDB built over 50,000 dwelling units, an average of 10,000 units a year. However from 2006-08, only an average of 3,650 were constructed annually, a reduction of 63%.
Given that the number of marriages over the same period remained steady at about 24,000 annually, additional factors, like the influx of PRs and greater investment in property after the financial market crash, added on to the normal demand for HDB flats. It was inevitable and forseeable that the HDB's reduced flat supply from 2006 onwards has bearing on the housing market situation today. A simple case of supply and demand. In fact, the situation was obvious much earlier with price increases causing a steep uptrend in the Price Index of HDB Flats from since the start of 2007.
In addition to the BTO sales planned for 2010, perhaps the HDB should look into two current policies that frustrate some flat buyers.
Firstly, some cash-over-valuation (COV) demands for flats in the resale market have gone into ridiculous excesses. One housing agent I spoke to was asking for $90,000 over the valuation price of $460,000 for a 5-room flat. I am not sure how this expectation that buyers have lots of cash sitting around came about. This situation is putting buyers who do not prefer to wait for BTO units to be completed in 3-4 years' time under great financial pressure. The Balance of Flats sale conducted in October 2009 (where buyers do not need to fork out any COV) was 10 times oversubscribed - an indication that buyers do not wish to be subject to the whims and fancies of property agents and their sales commissions. Perhaps the HDB should introduce guidelines or even curbs to limit cash-over-valuation requirements.
Secondly, I feel that the sale of flats to singles from the age of 35 onwards is no longer relevant. If the intention behind this policy was to encourage marriage and subsequently an increase in the birth rate, it is clear that it has not worked. The number of marriages has not greatly increased and our total fertility rate remains well below replacement levels. Since most Singaporeans enter the workforce by age 25, extending the responsibilities of adulthood should include finding a financially-viable roof over their heads. It is also quite plausible that that singles with a home will pursue marriage and start a family more readily. The HDB can extend the concept of 'growing an asset', an important life lesson, to young adults here by allowing them to purchase flats perhaps after 5 years of steady contributions to their CPF.
Gurmit Singh Kullar
References
- HDB construction stats from the HDB Annual Report 2008-09 at http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10221p.nsf/0/d4a0f107613b79944825766200236310/$FILE/index.html
- Price Index of HDB Flats seen at http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10201p.nsf/WPDis/Buying%20A%20Resale%20FlatStatistics%20-%20Resale%20Price%20Index?OpenDocument
- Marriage stats from http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/themes/people/marriages.pdf
- Population growth rates calculated from data at http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/themes/people/hist/popn.html
- Fertility rates data from http://www.nps.gov.sg/files/news/Population%20in%20Brief%202009.pdf
- Workforce data from http://www.mom.gov.sg/publish/etc/medialib/mom_library/mrsd/ms.Par.95462.File.tmp/mrsd_singapore_workforce_2008.pdf (Slide 8)
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