ranting thoughts
i love wkrz91.3 music! ever since they stopped the ah beng techno music crap, and switched to Top 40, slow rock and 90's music, it's been great! they have this streaming application so i load it at work and let it run the whole day(tk God for broadband!). at least it beats FM99.5 sometimes, especially when they do the slow trance mix...the latest in the house saga up until last sunday weekend can be found in my baby's blog under
"feeling like the first day of school" post. and to top off the anal, unprofessional lows that she can stoop to, i spent the last 3 freaking days trying to get her to email me a BLANK form over sms and phone calls. i needed the form to get my bank loan application approved by the bank. in the end i had to call DTZ on their main line to get them to fax me the form. and then the bloody agent emails me today and then asks me for the 4% to complete the transaction.
i swear i am not letting her earn her commission that easily. DTZ's comms dept will have a good week coming up if not well the papers' forums might have another article to publish.
work is piling up. i went on leave last thursday and friday. before i left, i had 2 events slated to end by 7 Dec. i was planning to go on leave from the 8 to the 15 dec. by the end of monday, i figured i have 5 events to finish by the 10 dec. one tmr, one next tues, wed, thur and possibly one over the weekend. and i am out for meetings the whole of monday. i have no idea how it all piled up suddenly...
now you can guess why i don't like going on leave so often. 2005 was the year when i was called back from leave all the time cos of work. 2006 is the year that i get punished after clearing leave.
what would make my evening tonight would be for pool to beat portsmouth 2-1 or 3-0 and everton to beat chelsea 2-0. *fingers crossed*
GST may go up to 7%...*SIGH*
here's part two of the ATM update. remember that ATM picture that i took which had the addresses of the other ATMs nearest to it? check this out...the same ATM one week later on a sunday evening around 7+ pm. 
how does the bank expect me to want to remain a customer if their ATMs are on downtime so much? yes! sometimes i do not want to use the freakin' internet to settle my transactions. i happen to like getting little slips of paper that reassure me on how much money i actually still have in my savings account.
oops. wait a minute. i remember something. i actually closed my savings accounts with that particular bank some months ago. i figured i didn't like driving to 4 different locations in one hour, around 1am at night. not my fault that my personal time happens to take place late at night.
and besides, i always thought personal banking meant that they would cater to MY time; not theirs'. that's why we are paying so much money, or even saving money in a bank for right? okay so maybe i might be overly optimistic.
anyways, i need to rant. 7% farking GST!!! those idiots in the government think we are all swimming in gold is it?
"dear, where you going?" the wife asks.
"oh, don't worry about me dear. i need to go jump into the gold pool after a long day of work." comes the reply.
they want to use the extra money earned to push it into budgets for taking care of the needs of the elderly, since singapore will have a larger population of older workers, citizens in the next 20 years.
who the fuck are they trying to fool??? c'mon, they haven't even released the results of any studies done to show the needs and potential costs of fulfilling any of those needs for the ageing population. and ALREADY they want to collect money. today's sunday times very nicely places a interview with some unsatisfied Finn who didn't like seeing HIS money go to paying for a welfare state. DUH. your money goes into someone's pockets you like??
but at the very least compare apples to apples, some European states actually give out FREE education, FREE healthcare. unlike some of the educational insitutions that i hear only bargains with the banks to give interest-free loans to the students, for 4 years. once you walk out the doors, you pay money. and there is a mentality here in singapore, a person would rather DIE than go to hospitals. i blardy wonder why.
so GST goes up to 7%, maybe 10% in the next couple of years, but will we ever see personal income tax go down? probably not. and this is why I think not. remember ERP? that brillant mechanism that was implemented against popular opinion? it actually had a purpose, to reduce traffic flow and make drivers less inclined to enter the CBD zone and therefore reduce traffic congestion in the business districts. somehow it evolved from CBD to all congested areas, now it sits before every major expressway. mornings, evenings, and we all know weekends too!
now remember the COE? of course, who can forget it right? well guess what, it's original rationale for existence was to raise the cost of cars so that buyers would refrain from purchase and the overall net driver numbers would remain low therefore keeping the traffic congestion down in major city areas.
that sounds suspiciously to me like what the ERP is for now...so why don't they pick between one or the other? oh but of course, if they do, then revenue is cut by x%. silly me.
btw, MCYS recently released a initiative for business to get seed money from them to start on ideas & services that aim to encourage the 'singles' market by creating opportunities for fun activities and opportunate gatherings. by this i mean that businesses are getting seed money from the government to pay them to think and focus on ideas for the singles out there to get laid, married and procreate (sometimes not necessarily in that order).
i wonder where the money for this initiative came from.
Christmas lights are already up in Orchard...
you would think that we would learn from our mistakes every year. but no we don't. christmas lights keep getting set up earlier and earlier every year. that stupid horrendous christmas tunes start blaring out from departmental stores...driving me to want to smash the inhouse CD player or go home.
if spenders like me go home, driven away by the early start to christmas then maybe they will learn not to start the 'jolly' season so early.
wassup with beginning 6 weeks ahead of schedule? look, 1 Dec with the lights and all? forgivable. 10 Nov with the light up? why for goodness sakes? and besides whose money is being used to pay for all the electricity and such. i can feel my pocket getting lighter already.
some of those caught in the act...
also check this out; 'unnamed' ATM has list of nearest ATM outlets by proximity to location. it raises the question; 'does the ATM break down so often that enough people have called and therefore the bank provides the list of nearest other ATMs to this one?'
congrats Janice & John!
...and many many joyous and lovely moments to you both for the rest of your lives. *grin*
the happy couple
tks for the invite to a wonderful wedding at Snappers@ the Ritz.
View from the 17th floor of the Ritz
Michael, Dawn, Janice, John, Me
KL biz trip - day 3
Today was a rather slow day; spent most of it clearing and finishing up my SG work. Had lunch at this place called La Bodega – check out pictures of the beef pie and the roast chicken that ML had. It is like this small café cum deli that serves alcohol in the day time and tapas.
Decided to do some walking around after work at the mega-mall next to my hotel. Realised that after walking around the place for the fourth or fifth time, that there really isn’t anything that interesting anymore. Bought another long sleeve round tee at Zara. Wandered around the lower ground (LG) floor. This is like their basement just above the carpark. It’s where all the food, supermarkets and bakeries are. Dunkin’ Donuts too!
I had dinner at the “All Sports Bar” after that. The experience reminded me of this module I did in the university titled “Sociology of Food”. Humans are such social creatures that they do not want to eat alone. Since my colleagues all had something on, I was eating alone. I remember part of the module required us to record a notebook of the feelings we experience when we sat alone in a public place and ate. There was this flashback I had earlier today when I remembered becoming more acutely aware of the diners at the next table, that the only source of distraction became a focal point (in today’s case, the large screen showing soccer) as well as how observant I became of my surroundings. Waiter picking up a knife two tables down? Noted that. My food coming from around a blind spot? Aha! Gotcha!
Well it’s the last night here in KL for this trip. Cannot wait to get back home…*grin*
