one more day of leave...and a past week of indecision.
i have exactly 24 hours left until the end of my leave. *sigh* why is time relative? why can't it be longer some days and shorter others i.e. holidays & leave vs. work. why can't the day take a longer time to pass when you get the opportunity to wake up late, such that waking up 4 hours later means you have 4 hours more to spend? definitely on the more important things in life, like eat, drink, play and make merry?
made and committed to a decision within 4 days. remember that it took me 17 mins to drive via the PIE to a mobil station along stevens road to reach orchard. remember that it took me that same drive and pit stop to fill petrol to make up my mind to send that sms. remember that the sky was slightly filled with gray clouds, and the petrol station had 3 cars to the side ready to go through the wash. remember that all the decisions in my life leading up to that moment rushed through me within that 17 mins it took to reach mobil. ok maybe not that drama but i think that it was a definitive pit stop at this point. and i do remember myself saying "i will look back at this moment..."
was the decision already made when i typed out the sms prior to driving off from my place? was the decision already made when i sent it through? was the framing of the sms so indicative of the response that i received?
some questions in life need no answers. but this one request made, i pray that it leads me to the conclusion of the calculated risk undertaken; that it leads me to new chapters and a brighter shade of green and jumpstart the 5 year plan that i am still currently on.
it's been some time since i last had to think so clearly and precisely. please gut do not be wrong.
i am on leave!
*grin*
i am finally on leave - 3 days of doing nothing, sittin',chillin', meeting up with friends and just playing FIFA on the xbox..ahhhh*contented sounds*...
have done the handover, told irene what to msg me if she is really really really in deepest darkest shit and turned off the PC.
created a counter to see how many work-related communications will i get in the 3 days that i am on leave. it stands at 2 phone calls, 3 smses and 3 emails...for now.
update again tomorrow morning. still happy that i can chuck work away any time.
Firms 'slow to adopt' variable part of pay reported in the Straits Times
May 18, 2006Firms 'slow to adopt' variable part of pay
By Lynn Lee
COMPANIES are making their wages more flexible to ensure they can reward workers well in good times and stay afloat in bad times, but such reform is not happening fast enough.
Taking this view, the National Wages Council (NWC) singled out the monthly variable component (MVC) as one change that companies have been slow to implement.
The MVC is that part of a worker's salary which can be cut in severe downturns to help save jobs, and restored quickly when a company does well.
In a statement yesterday when it released its annual wage guidelines, the council noted 'with concern the slow progress' in introducing the MVC. It wants more firms to implement it and those that have done so, to quicken the pace to reach the national target of the MVC forming 10 per cent of a worker's pay.
Non-unionised companies have been especially slow, compared to unionised firms, in adopting wage reform, the NWC said.*****
the rest of the article can be found in today's copy of the straits times or
online.
what utter bullshit this whole MVC thing is man!! this just gives your company the opportunity to pay employees less and claim that they are working for the employees' benefit. let's be honest here - the ONE thing that all employees, regardless of earning capacity, current salary or potential growth, want is more cold hard cash. CPF we have to live with,
bo bian, since that is a government-led effort. we are still pissed that they recommended cutting down their portion to 13% with no view in sight of that increasing although we get "reassurances" all the time.
so now the NWC or National Wage Council in case you didn't know, comes full out and highly recommends that we incorporate this MVC. the only people this will benefit is the SMEs that will become less worried to pump even more money into this economy. which by the way doesn't seem that robust. the economy needs money pumped in to make more money move around. does this benefit the employee slogging until 11pm at night, 5 nights a week, 20 nights a month? i honestly do not think so.
NWC! just recommend that employers raise the basic salary and let companies deal with wages internally. set the recommended minimum and let market dynamics do their job. why experiment with a society that is already rebelling against tighter restrictions and controls? stop contributing to the ideal of
1984...
analogy time - again from the same article.
One of them was a logistics company that began MVC cuts in late 2003, after continuous losses for over a year.Management staff faced the deepest cuts which took effect earlier. Senior management took home 12.5 per cent less pay. Workers who earned $1,001 to $1,799 got a 2 per cent cut, but the wages of those who earned $1,000 or less were left intact. In July 2004, the company's business improved and all employees received a 3 per cent wage increase.impressive. they got cut 12.5% and received a 3% increase. think it must be good to be a non-executive employee in that logistics company. of course, they will argue that 3% of a management person's pay is probably more that the 3% of the non-exec but this just proves that "what the hand giveth, the hand can also taketh".
use your bloody cow sense and recommend actions that allow employees to be rewarded amply for their contributions and not just focus on the 'bigger' picture. for every 1% that goes into that MVC, that is a figure operating from $12 and upwards (for a person earning $1200/month) being taken away from the employee that could go towards life, family or debt.
so what if the money does not get pumped back into the economy? can we depend on the cash poor to ride high in a booming economy? where will they have learnt the intricacies of threading through a power economy that requires more time and effort out of the working employee - while getting paid less? wherein lies the motivation?
you will never walk alone!!; happy mothers' day mummy!
yeah!yeah!yeah! pool won the FA cup!! after a gut-wrenching finals performance, the cup belongs to liverpool once more. *grin* west ham put up a great fight and there were moments when i'm sure there were collective sighs from the pool audience...but we won. there is no more to add. there can be only one. **********************happy mother's day mummy. *smile* hope that you are happy wherever you might be. words cannot describe the days that went by, or the times that i wish had but never actually stayed still. but memories are like script engraved upon the heart and neither days nor time can wash them away. love you.
FA Cup final night; house sitting in singapore; fulele at velvet
it's CUP final night and pool are lined up against west ham...pool has gone all the way beating the likes of chelsea (woohoo!) and man u to reach this point. going to catch it from sam's pad with the big screen in the living room (tks sam!) and the surround sound boxes facing the sofa. that's a nice set up! barcelona at robertson is going to be packed - sorry ain't there bros; too much crowd on a Cup night can get frustrating but will be supporting pool from anywhere! caught jamie redknapp's intv on "the path to glory" programme on ESPN - agree with his opinion that pool will win (duh!) but i think the scoreline with be 3-1(fingers crossed!). more to update when pool wins at the end of the evening. ****************************************************baby and i are house-sitting for sam this weekend - and it's been great (tks sam again!)! we were thinking of taking up a 3D2N package to fly to Bali but i baulked when i realised i was going to pay $500+ to leave on a friday night and arrive back in SG on a sunday afternoon. crapshit! i get to stay in bali for ONE full day. fwah. was also reading the straits times today and found out that Bali is playing host to an Islamic conference with the developing muslim nations or something like that. so it would have been high security, high cost, high difficulties and low fun. what's the point man...so going to have to stave off the holiday trip with my baby until later this year. no worries, will defintely find that one week together somehow through our schedules. ****************************************************gary and i were at velvet last night for the new man new woman 2006 party (tks mayo for inviting!). it was an interesting way of doing the stage on the dance floor and kudos to the chivas drink sponsor. that hit the sport straight away. but it was really crowded and as all magazine parties are - filled with young kids who normally wouldn't get into velvet (read: ns boys). but yups, i been through that stage myself before and they weren't really rowdy or rude just irritating but that's not a crime punishable by death. yet. met this crazy dude called fulele (yes that's the guy's name). he's a regular at velvet and knows the wait staff well enough. was sitting next to him at the bar and we were soon talking about his work (he's an artist), his properties (he owns three studios) and his friends (had a couple of hanger-on types around him). so yeah G and i just sat there and got free alcohol and free entertainment. that's a good night in my opinion. right on to the match now..!
66.65 mandate; pool finish in 3rd place; Nokia Defend Your Turf Grand Finals; photos from indochine
guess what?
our dear friends have swept back into power with a 66.6% (or did i get the per cent wrong again?) mandate. wow. 66.6%. no sars, 9-11 or malaysia to scare the crap out of us and...they drop percentage points. of cos it's claimed that everything is as expected.
that they would cede nearly 30% of all their votes. so technically 3 out of every 10 singaporeans want a change or a bigger opposition voice in our government. so if we have 4 million citizens, or let's round it down to 3 million citizens with a valid vote, we have nearly 1 million of them asking for a stronger opposition represetation. isn't that a hell of alot of people? what was the point of that word-y exercise? simply that stats can always draw conclusions both ways; that the glass is never half full or half empty and finally that stats can mislead as well as hide critcal facts (thanks to psychology stats class 1101 - finally get to use what i learnt in uni. hah!).
but as always history belongs to the victors and this victory will go down in our social ed and history texts as a good and well-fought battle for the hearts of singaporeans. let's see how 2011 shapes up to be.
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now more importantly, liverpool won portsmouth 3-1 but mathematically still remain in 3rd as manchester united retain 2nd as they sweep 4-0 over charlton. cmon honestly, were we expecting that to not happen? it was but a hope and a faint smell of victory in the air that kept us pool fans eager to see us move up into 2nd position. maybe not this season, maybe the next?
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sentosa on Nokia Defend Your Turf day was rockin'. we must have had like about 8000 people throughout the whole day, come over, stop and watch the matches as they unfolded to reach the grand finals where we had our top 4 local teams - Team Vanuatu, On the Run, Team Play Cheat and Toa Payoh Rangers - battle it out on the pitch with the Boys From Brazil.
contrary to expectations, our boys kept the Brazilians at bay for the majority of the matches. i am sure that there was lots of frustration from the opposition as they tried again and again to better the local defence. truly there were lots of 'defend your turf' moments.
in the end only Team Vanuatu held true to the ideal and beat the Brazilians 1-0 in a sudden death penalty shootout, having held them earlier to a 1-1 draw, and having taken the lead in the beginning, i must add. the other teams lost by small margins of between 1-3 goals each.
Team Vanuatu
On the Run
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for the LT10 group, i have invited most of you guys into a flickr group, please register and then log on to
http://www.flickr.com/groups/lt10/ to get the photos from indochine wisma the other evening.
any suggestions for the last friday of may? i will be taking leave from the 25 may - anyone wants to take together then can go plan the day? let me know.
