SQ333

I am a passenger of SQ333, and a very unhappy one.

First of all, during the flight to Singapore, about 2 hours later, we heard a stuttering pilot talking over the intercom, conveying to us about the engine failure. His stuttering told me that he is in fear, and he did not know what to do. He made all the passengers on board panic and not knowing what’s next. Or ‘are we all going to die?’ If you think that the newly crowned Miss Singapore World speaks poor English, then this pilot is 10 times worst! If Singaporeans think that the Miss Singapore World is going to disgrace Singapore (if she ever represent Singapore), well, sad to say, Mr Pilot already does! He disgraced Singapore in front of Australians, French, Americans and people of different nations.

No explanation about engine failure has been done through the intercom for about an hour or so. Lots of passengers started making up stories, sighting smokes coming out from engine and creating more mess and fear among us. This is just not the right way to handle situation like this and I thought pilots should be educated in their schools to remain calm when such incident happened and SIA should have a protocol for the pilot to follow not just in terms of navigating the flight, but to calm the passengers, assuring us that ‘we are going to be fine’.

Although the pilot emerged several hours later to inform us that the plane works on 4 engines and one of them failed, it just didn’t really matters to us at all, cause that was what we heard from fellow passengers and all of us were already panic, these kind of information should be conveyed to us from the beginning and not several hours later.

Anyway, more unhappy things followed, in brief:
- We waited for about 1.5hours at the baggage collection area, clueless about what caused the engine failure and ‘are we going home?’
- We waited in the cold, about 17Degree Celsius for tour bus to pick us up to some hotels, note that no one told us, which hotels we are going and where! To think that I really trusted SIA so much that I got on to the tour bus. The wait was about 2 hours depending on whether we are kiasu enough to dash across the road (lucky not to get killed) and up to the tour bus. The tour bus driver drove recklessly and nearly killed us all while stopping in front of us. If getting on a flight with engine failure is not traumatizing enough, then this one is surely to wake me up.
- Reached the hotel, a representative from SIA told us to go up to put our luggage and come down to the lobby for a briefing or information update, unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Everyone is still in lost.
- I decided to trust SIA again that you will bring us home safely and so during this period of time, my husband and I remained calm. We did not pursue for any answers from SIA, we waited for SIA to contact us.
- However, I realized on the next day, a significant number of Caucasians passengers packed-up and leave the hotel, seemed to be going to the airport. I was slightly disappointed, aren’t we Singaporean given a priority in times of such incident, even if we don’t, then why can’t SIA be fair about allocating passengers? Not like we don’t need to go home, just because we are not transiting to somewhere else like the Caucasians.
- Finally, was assigned to Dubai and then back to Singapore. Although this is not our ideal flight and means more time onboard, but we accepted it willingly, because we don’t want to pose more troubles to SIA and the staff organizing all these. I don’t even want to delve into questions why some people can get direct flights and some don’t.
- The flight paper had my husband name on it, but not mine, and the staff assured me that ‘it was joint’ so I can get onboard, even my name is not there.
- Reached the airport 3 hours ahead of the flight time, just to be sure that nothing going to happen again. More disappointment! We were not allowed on flight by Air France because apparently, the flight paper which we are holding is not even confirm and even if Air France allowed us to get on board, there was no flight from Dubai to Singapore (via Emirates) and if we get on board of the flight to Dubai, that would mean that we are going to get stranded in Dubai! I don’t believe SIA let this happened.
- The group of about 20 of us, could not get on flight and so Air France let us make a call to the local SIA to ask for an explanation and guess what, after talking for a few minutes with one of the passengers, this person (not sure if her name is Marie) hang up on us and refused to pick up our subsequent calls.
- We heard about someone in the T1 office for SIA, but it was out of bound to us and when we tried to contact them, they were off duty.
- Lost and stranded again, I made long distance call to Singapore SIA for help and they did help us, but due to the distance, it was not a timely help, there were lots of ding-dongs here and there and I literally pass the phone to the Air France crew to talk to the SIA person and the gate closed shortly even before things were sorted out!
- To think that I trusted SIA so much that SIA will help us to get home, I was really disappointed, we were push around like burden in the airport, no one to help us when we needed the most, flights details were shoved to us without getting confirm and ‘we are literally on our own in this foreign land’! I see fellow passengers came very early to the airport and running within the terminals just to get an answer. Why is SIA so cruel to local like us?

After this entire ordeal, I decided to plan my own trip home, since SIA is inefficient. I booked the next available flight from Paris to Shanghai and then Shanghai to Singapore, there is only business class available, but I couldn’t care more, because I WANT TO GO HOME, I don’t want to carry my 40 kg luggage around the airport and back to hotel and wait for unconfirmed flights again.

I don’t know if SIA is going to settle this in a cheap manner, because why are we not put on flight for Shanghai, is it because it is business class? Is it more cost-efficient to make us stranded in Paris then putting us up on business class flight so that we can GET HOME?

My husband and I and 2 other mothers with their 2 5-year old kids booked the flight, the SIA staff on the phone asked us to hold, but the Air France crew could not wait anymore because the flight is not taking in passenger anymore for the next 1 minute. Ultimately, we still chose to believe in making our own arrangement rather than stuck in Paris with SIA.

I don’t take ‘isolated case’ as an excuse. It’s a shame that SIA being so established do not have a team on risk or crisis management. Coming from a public relation background and not practicing it, I cannot comprehend why there isn’t a team in SIA to work protocols in times of crisis like this? You should have the team to analyze on different situations that may happen especially when we are dealing passengers in terms of hundreds. And if you already have the team in SIA, I think you should either fire them all or re-train them again, because this is not what established companies do. There are many case studies on how big companies handle crisis and SIA is nowhere near their standards.

We booked SIA because we wanted direct flight, but we already accommodated SIA by accepting the transit flights, which is not what we signed up for in the beginning, and it brings us lots of pain to do the transit because we have huge luggage.

Mt Alvernia CHEYYY!!!!! BOOOOO!!!!

I need to vent my frustration and disappointment about this PRIVATE hospital.

About 130pm reach Mt Alvernia Hospital to register, managed to see a doctor minutes later. The doctor is a GP, he asked if we want to do a blood test for Ziv. We promptly agreed.

Waited, no blood test, took medicine. We requested for the “call-a-paediatrician” service whereby we will call a paediatrician who is on standby to come down to the hospital to see Ziv.

We agreed to pay $250 to $400 for the consultation fee (note, ONLY consultation fee).
About 3pm, was told that a paediatrician was available. His clinic was located on the 2nd floor of the hospital (parents reading this remember, avoid that floor by ALL means), so we went up there. To our horror, there were so many kids and parents waiting to see the paediatrician and there were no nurse around. I was pacing up and down the counter, waiting for someone for assistance. Finally, a nurse came out of the room and immediately I asked if I need to join the queue and the arrogant nurse, looked at me like I was from Mars and snapped, “Of course.”
Instantly, my patience snuffed out. I asked sarcastically, “We are referred from the hospital below, we called for a paediatrician, we paid $250-$400 for consultation and we have to queue, do you mean it?!” I snapped back audibly for everyone in the room to listen to our conversation. Obviously the nurse wasn’t happy that I talked to her in that way, to pissed me further, she asked, “Oh is it H5N1?” I tried very hard to control my annoyance and really wanted to give her one tight slap to ask her to shut her gap, however, I told her calmly, “NO!!” She disappeared in front of me and said she will get back, waited for a few minutes. To a mother, whose son is ill, a minute is like a day. She came out of the room and said, “You are next.”

Went in, saw the most unprofessional paediatrician ever, he hadn’t even started talking and I already know that he is a TWIT. Twit from hell. His table has no computer, no notebook, or any writing material and the table is just empty with half of his arms stretch out on top. I knew it straightaway that he is hopeless and inept, but since I was there, I decided to try him out.
He talked with no confident, dare not make any diagnose and asked if we wanted blood test. My blood was BOILING. I don’t know who is the doctor, he or me? He simply wanted to get over with our consultation and moved on to the next patient, and I asked about the medication, he told me, “See it yourself.” That’s it, I was thinking, why do I have to spend so much money to tolerate nonsense. Since his tone is not exactly professional, I reckon that I don’t have to treat him with much respect, hence I retorted, “Since you are the doctor, why don’t you tell me?” I forgot how the conversation ended, but I left the room, cursing him, hoping that his already sparse hair will drop off soon.

I left the room, without paying a single dime and I said loudly for everyone so that they didnt have to eavesdrop, “The doctor is a joker.” And I left. All the human beings in the clinic heard me, saw me and they feared/hated me. But I don’t care because I was cheesed off.
I went down, ticked the nurses off and asked them the definition of “call-a-paediatrician”. No answer. I told the Head Nurse my very own DEFINITION and she agreed. And I told her, why is it that they didn’t do a check before asking us to go up there and furthermore, the clinic is still in operation. My definition for “call-a-paediatrician” is that a paediatrician who is at home, in the midst of a movie, sleeping on bed, bathing half way through, mending his/her own kid to stop whatever he/she is doing and rush down to the clinic as soon as he/she accepts the call.

But that didn’t happen to that twit up there. He seemed to be “moonlighting” in the daylight. And I am not very happy with that.

We were given a bed to let Ziv lie down, but it didn’t help, Ziv is a particular boy who doesn’t like to sleep on foreign beds except our bed and he is not having his milk, his lunch, his dinner, his sleep, his shower, his rest, cause of the torturous moments in the hospital. I felt sorry for Ziv as his fever got worst.

Finally did a blood test and called a paediatrician in. Blood test/urine test took 1.5 hours to generate report and hence the paediatrician would come in later to see the report and see us. He reached at about 6pm.

Got everything done, and was asked to wait for Ziv’s medicine.

Antibiotic ran out and the nurse said that she needs to send someone to the main pharmacy to get it and it will take 10 minutes. Well, 10 minutes becomes 30 minutes and I told myself to CONTROL my temper. While waiting for the medicine, I saw someone that looked like the twit, he came specially down to see me and asked me to PAY UP. He should be a beggar not a paediatrician, cause he certainly has got the quality to beg shamelessly. I told him, I will ask the hospital to settle the bill, not me.

We reached home 8 plus, tired, angry, hungry and HOT. Ziv’s fever shot up to 40 Degree Celsius. On my way home, I already swear to God that if I don’t complaint this to the hospital and medical board, my surname will not be WONG and I will call myself BASTARD. And if Ziv is not going to get well, I will issue out lawyer letters to ALL those who cross my path while I was there in the hospital.

Damn, we reached the hospital in day time and we exit the hospital in dark night.
I swear that I will not go to Mt Alvernia anymore. Not even there to go see a friend’s newborn (if any). I abhor that place.

Maybe the hospital does not understand what is "Emergency". If I were to go KK, despite the number of patiences is significantly more than in Mt A, the waiting time to see a doctor is still so much faster, each time we went there, it takes us less than 3 hours to settled everything. I was so naive to think that private hospitals are better.

If its you, will you complaint?

Who needs Olympic Medal?

Heard from Class 95 that we may have a chance to win a Olympic medal. But seriously who needs it? Certainly not me! Who's paying the medal winner? I just hope its not me too!

I don't falom the need of getting a medal. Yeah, I may not appreciate sports but, how proud can I get if its a non Singaporean winning the medal?

The thing is, I don't see any economical value in getting the medal, and not that we have a day off from work or what. So why shall I be so enthu about winning the medal when the fame and glory goes to some one else and the money is not shared with me but maybe I contributed a share of it.

Think again. Not that I am not patriotic to my country. But sso what? Is just a medal. I donlt care!

Kids are MAD

Don't misinterpret me for the blog title.
I love kids. I love obedient kids.
But I abhor kids that behave like they are from the asylum.

This is why.

Went to Gogobambini for the second time last Sunday. I reminded myself that they closed at 8pm on weekend and hence, decided to go there earlier to make sure that Ziv has enough fun time.

The moment I was at the vicinity, I was welcomed with the loudest scream and shrillest shriek ever, like there were ghosts inside the play area. It was hurly-burly!!!

When I entered through the main door, I envisioned myself walking through a thick jungle full of monkeys hanging on the trees, yelping non stop. Its too late to back off. Ziv already looked all excited and ready.

So then, we found a seat and quickly ordered cakes and juices to calm myself down. Kevin then brought Ziv into the "jungle" to play. He came out of the "jungle" 15 minutes later, shaking his head. "It seemed impossible for Ziv to play in the play area cause the kids were all running wild and they could step on him any time," I could hardly hear Kevin as he spoke. Then I thought, no wonder babies under 1 is FREE cause if not, parents will be cursing and swearing while stomping out of the place.

After 10 minutes of eating and doing nothing, Kevin nudged me, signaled that it was MY TURN now (to bring Ziv back to the "jungle"). Reluctantly, I did what I was told.

Those who know me, will know that I am no timid mouse, and I can be a TIGRESS if I want to. And while I was playing with Ziv at a quiet corner, this girl about 6-7 years old came running and almost going to knock Ziv down. Guess what? I scolded her. She asked for it. I mean she is so old (oldest there I bet!) already and still not using her brain, can't she see there's an infant trying to play within his own quiet area? Damn.

Seeing those kids, drenched in their own sweat and running frantically like they were supposed to be escaping from some jungle fire or something, really triggered me to really look after Ziv well, educate him well, and make sure he doesn't behave like morons. Yes, some people say kids will be kids, they like to play and have fun, but I guess, at least they must have the sane to know that they are only playing not tearing down the house, so no need of such wild acts that they literally ignore the safety of themselves and others.

Ok, back to play time with Ziv, I decided to let him crawl through a tunnel and took a slide down together, while crawling in the tunnel, a little girl tap my buttock (see, how rude she is to touch my sensitive area, if she is old enough, I will consider to sue her molest!) and signaled me to speed up. Again, asking for it. I took into consideration, that she could not understand what I was trying to tell her and hence made an effort to speak in broken English. "Cannot wait ah!" I snapped. And she ran away. I never see her appearing around me again. I am that BAD. I know.

But that is how I handle wild kids.

Anyway after a while, Kevin brought Ziv to the ball pool and he played for like half an hour. The thing is babies, toddlers, kids they are never tired when they are playing. I told Kevin, perhaps its time that we leave Gogo and proceed to Jumbo which is located opposite, to have a hearty dinner.

That was the best part of the day. Seafood platter, 1kg crab and mee goreng. 1.5hours of indulgence. Ziv somehow knows that its Mummy's and Daddy's turn to 'have their own time' and throughout the 1.5 hours, he quietly nibble on his biscuits and see us eat.

What more can I ask, when I have Ziv, so considerate, sweet and obedient. I will still go back to Gogo, but for Ziv's sake.

His Mother

Was contemplating if I should blog about His Mother. What if someone sees it? What if…

I could hardly contain my anger and deemed that only through blogging, where I could release my aggravation about His Mother.

I have planned to go Bintan with Kevin and Ziv. Therefore, for the 3 days (actually lesser than 3 days) I have decided to leave The Maid at her house. As compared to leaving The Maid at our house alone, it would probably be a better option to leave her at His Mother’s house where at least, someone is at home. Since The Maid has history of STEALING.

To my utter disappointment, His Mother told him that it was ‘inappropriate’ for The Maid to stay at her house due to several reasons which I reckoned invalid.

The excuses she gave:

- “No one is at home.” What the hack! His Father went to work at 11am or later and she returned home from work at about 6pm. And she said no one is at home?! She must be either questioning my IQ or testing my patience!

- “There are important documents at home.” I nearly died of laughing. She can jolly well lock the doors of rooms which have so-called important documents and then problem solved! And somehow, it makes me wonder how important those documents are to her and to The Maid.

- “Inconvenient.” I have to applaud for that brilliant excuse. One word, settles it all. I wonder if is it still inconvenient if I employ a maid for her, pay the salary for her and the maid does things for her.

Those excuses are obvious self explanatory of reluctance to take in The Maid. How can I not be gnashing my teeth?

I don’t understand which one is more ‘serious’, leaving The Maid at our house alone or leaving The Maid at her house?

I should not be frustrated over this issue as His Mother has a history of in-cooperativeness.

This is why...

My mother is weak due to health reasons, and yet she has to take care of the restless Ziv and I can tell, from her eyes, each time she talks about Ziv that she really loves him loads. Despite having backaches every now and then, she still takes good care of Ziv, although often accompanied by lots of nagging. Nagging, about her health, how tired she is. That is understandable. And I feel guilty for not letting her enjoy her retirement age.

Knowing that my mother’s health started to deteriorate, it left me no choice but to request for His Mother to take care of Ziv. For your info, His Mother is a very healthy woman. As expected, she declined and brushed off the topic each time we brought it up. I was extremely disappointed in her. I was so infuriated that I hoped that Ziv will never call her or even let her carry. I saw her true colors. I thought it was thoughtful of me that from the beginning, I respected her passion for her work (she was lowly paid and still continue working very hard for the job) and I did not want to take away what she enjoys by asking her to take care of Ziv. However, due to current circumstances, it was really beyond me to resolve this problem and I have to seek her understanding and help to let my mother recuperate. And note that I am offering about the same pay package as what she is receiving now.

She heartlessly declined my offer.

I kept asking myself questions as of why she refused to take care of Ziv.

Was he naughty? Was he noisy?

And the answers are all NO.

I tried very hard to talk to her while she attempted to chat with me today evening. I realized, I cannot bring myself to be a hypocrite. I really hate her to the core and each time when I talk to her, I feel like chiding her. She must be thinking why I am not looking at her when I talked to her. I really can't look at someone whom I hated so much.

So, if my mother is unable to take care of Ziv, the golden question now is WHO? If it is not His Mother, it will definitely be ME. I asked Kevin to do some simple idiot-proof calculation on our salaries (mine and His Mother) and a 2 year-old toddler who briefly knows Math will be able to identify who should quit, since our salary is approximately 5 times difference!

I told Kevin, for Ziv, I can quit my job, stop shopping altogether, stop thinking about Chanel and loathe His Mother eternally. And frankly speaking, I don’t mind being a SAHM because every minutes and seconds spend with Ziv definitely worth more than what I am earning and the joy of seeing him, first hand, achieving every milestone is priceless!

I know Kevin could not come out with any conclusion cause this problem has been around for the past few months and my mother is still trying to cope with her health and taking care of Ziv.

One day, perhaps, when I mastered enough courage, I will never let His Mother see Ziv anymore. I can do that and I will do that.

I was infuriated that I COULD NOT even sleep! Hopefully after venting out my anger here, I can sleep better. But, its already 6am in the morning, how much longer can I sleep when Ziv is going to wake up at 8am.

I really hate her.

****

Here's a typical conversation between me and her, shortly after Ziv was born.

His Mother: Who is going to take care of the baby at night?
Me: Either me or Kevin.
His Mother (looked at me in awe): Then how is Kevin going to work? He needs to drive.

I could not believe she actually says such things to me. Ain't I working too? If she is the kind of traditional woman who does everything for her man, sorry, I DON'T PRACTICE that at MY HOME. Blame your precious son for choosing a WRONG wife then.

Me: But... Kevin is Ziv's father. Isn't it also his DUTIES to look after his own, very first SON??!!

His Mother stopped her mindless nonsense and looked at me.

I rolled my eyes and walked away...

I hope that is obvious enough to express that I HATE HER.

****

Did you realize that they are all around us?

Not being racist here, I realized, there’s an increase of Filipinos working in Singapore. I see them in hospitals as nurses, see them working as maids, see them working at Carrefour service counters, Sakae sushi waitresses, Subway sandwich artists… they are practically EVERY WHERE.

With all due respect to the industrious Filipinos out there, I am not biased against any of you. But I feel UNCOMFORTABLE. I used to work in Manila, all of a sudden, eating at Sakae sushi makes me wonder, “Am I at Singapore now or Philippines?”

No doubt their service standard is much higher than the locals which I really respect, in fact, they are ten times more courteous, attentive and respectful to the customers, but where are the Singaporeans and I truly missed the Singapore culture, the Singapore way of service and the singlish way of asking, “CUE-ME, CAN I HALP YOU?”. That is what I like about McDonald’s. As far as I know, they seldom hire foreigners, mostly local students and aunties, uncles.

In other aspect, I wondered, why are the local companies, like Sakae sushi employing non locals as their service staff? I believe Singaporeans are very willing to work as waitresses and waiters, unlike rubbish collectors, which I think we definitely need foreigners’ help. Why are local companies, not even helping the locals to secure a job to ease the unemployment situation? Fine, in business point of view, these foreigners are indeed cheaper than the locals and definitely less demanding, in other words, CHEAP and GOOD. Maybe I am not a business person, and I fail to comprehend and value the benefits of employing foreign workers, but I can’t help but wonder why are we not helping the locals, but investing money on the foreigners, perhaps even offer them courses to attend to upgrade their skills. In kampong last time, Teochews used to say, "Ka Ki Lung", this logic doesn't apply in today's world. Earn money seems to be the most important thing.

While traveling, I often pay special attention to the service staff in whatever countries that I visit, just a habit. Generally, our neighboring countries service staff is rather inattentive and slow in reaction, they like to chat with their colleagues while on duty as for Hong Kong, the service staff are rather impatient and easily irritated, as for Taiwan, the service staff are pretty helpful and they greet you as soon as you step into their shops, as for Japan, the service staff are extremely courteous and helpful. I don’t want to have no memories of the service staff in Singapore. I may be exaggerating about the situation now, but who knows, 20 years down the road, no more Singaporeans are working as service staff. Perhaps, our country will be flooded with foreigners that one day, we lost our Singaporean cultures, the homely feeling. Perhaps in future, we don’t need to travel to gain the experience of the foreign cultures, cause Singapore may then be a multi-country country by then.

Banks and loans

If you are a credit card holder, you probably receive calls (average 1 mth once) from the customer service officers (or whatever you want to call them) to tell you they are offering an exclusive offer to you, whereby they are offering LOAN to you at a low interest rate. I paused for a while and I was like, “WOW, so exclusive. A loan!” Normally when I receive such calls, I will decline politely and can’t help but to feel extremely put off by them. I was thinking, “Do you think I am so desperate that I need a loan?!” Imagine, an anonymous loan shark call you one day, asking, “Oei, ai jio luii mai?” (Want to borrow money?, in hokkien) It’s so weird. Do you see any differences among the two? You decide. Having said that, what have this world becoming into? I remembered reading one article from the national daily that “Debt” is no longer the BAD word, as everyone is in debt, be it housing loan, bank loans or even credit card loans like installments. Maybe I am still living in the Flintstone era because I am seriously perturbed of the word “Debt” despite it being widely accepted. Here comes my question, is it ethical of banks to call customers up and offer them a loan (at low interest rate)? Is this a temptation? Are people today able to resist the offer?

I wonder what will happen if everyone adopts this mentality: I just spend my money, and if I overspent, I can go to any local bank and ask for a loan. So easy! Like ATM. (That’s what XXX bank told me, “Like ATM! So easy!”)

The rise of the bankruptcy petitions is significant and menacing, to me. In fact, from the newspaper we can see that the figures have increased progressively throughout the years. I wonder what will happen a few years later with all these exclusive loan offers. Are youngsters these days able to curb their spending tendency and stay away from the enticing loan offers? I don’t quite think so.

Who is culprit for the increasing number of bankruptcy cases? The bank? The loan shark? People like us? The credit cards? Its hard to tell. All I can say is, there’s room for more research.

One Billion... WOW!!!

Imagine you are earning one billion… would you want to earn another billion? Some may say yes, some may not. I think money is never enough for people these days, you can be earning two billion now, but I believe your new year resolution next year will be to earn three billion.

I think that all depends on who are you earning the money from. If I am a public sector, and OBVIOUSLY my only objective is to serve the nation, then, earning one billion is definitely TOO MUCH. However, if I am private limited, then it is fine and well to earn one billion and still aim for more next year. Afterall, it is your hard work that leads you to what you have earned today.

Of course, I didn’t mean that the public sector should be losing money; in fact, they should be contented to be earning that much and no one is complaining and shouldn’t aim to squash more money out of the public like us.

Aye… Anyway, I seldom take bus so it doesn’t matters to me.

Oh, are you a doctor??

How to trust a doctor? I wonder what makes a person a doctor? What it takes to become a doctor?

Proper training? Memorizing all the medicines or theories?

I started to lose trust on doctors now. I was disappointed, not once but three times. Let me tell you my painful experiences.

First Experience: A doctor from a well known reputable chain clinics, which starts with the alphabet “R”. That was a real bad experience. The doctor is from HELL. He is obnoxious, rude and dishonest. He is definitely very unprofessional, unethical. I shall not elaborate on what had happened, because that will start the fire in me again. Let’s just put it in a way that he gave me a wrong diagnosis, saying that what’s on my face was acne and not allergy, despite me telling him that he could be wrong. He insisted he was right and me, trusting his professionalism and the fact that that is a reputable clinic. I trusted the wrong doctor. My condition got worse and I complained. Here comes the best part, I called him up and he yelled at me. Literally screaming at me, in his pathetic Compass Point branch clinic. BTW, he is the head doctor there…. *puke* How can a doctor from hell become a head doctor? He should be the head of all ghosts. He said that refunding me is a small issue and he will not refund me a single cent. He even threatened to call a lawyer to sue me for harassing him. Hahaha…. A doctor who likes to joke. I don’t even know since when I am harassing him. And I didn’t know that doctors can sue their patients for their own wrong diagnosis. He was constantly shouting at me and I thought he has gone berserk. What to do? I am just a patient who visits a gangster doctor. I want to emphasize this, you know what he said? He even told me refunding me is not a problem because the amount he is refunding me is PEANUTS to him. I don’t understand why a doctor will say that. At least now I know, doctors are earning more than peanuts. How it ended? Another R clinic doctor called me and willing to refund my medical bill to me out of the goodwill of the clinic. Goodwill? Haha… nice word to use. Anyway, I will complaint to the medical board if I have the time to deal with gangsters. I don’t understand how that hooligan can become a doctor. Perhaps medical board should make doctors go through mental and emotional check before letting them out to become doctors. If they fail, they should be kept in cages and make sure they dun come out and bark at ppl.

Second Experience: From a small clinic. I just want to get some hormones medicine. She gave me a particular medicine and told me I should not have any side effect. And guess what, there is a side effect, outbreak of acne on my face. I wonder she knows what it means by SIDE EFFECT. Anyway, I think I am not going to lodge a complaint against her, since she is already old and she looks like she is suffering from Parkinson disease.

[Most Recent]
Third Experience: From the well know Skin specialist in Singapore. Happened last Thursday. I trusted this specialist center a lot. And now, I am disappointed once again. Maybe it’s the doctor. I dun know. My rashes got worse after the first set of medicine he gave me. And I called the center to ask for the same doctor again. So coincidently the center closes at 5pm. And I called them at 445pm. I talked to the reception that I was allergic to the medicine the doctor gave me and asked to set an appointment with the doctor at 530 or 6pm (they only see patients by appointment only). Guess what the reception told me, she said why not I just book an appointment with him next week. I was amazed by what she said. Did she bring her brain to work? Or she is suffering from some mental disorder? A patient who spent 100bucks on medical bills calling to see the doctor due to allergy to medicine was asked to make another appointment next week?! I confirmed that she is having some mental disorder. CONFIRM! I ignore her wise advice and I go down to the center. And yes, I was given priority to see the doctor again. This time the doctor promised that the rashes will subside within 24 to 48 hours. Cool huh… Now, 60 hours have past, here they are, my rashes are still stuck onto my skin. Promises… promises… So funny. The worst thing is, I see another trusted doctor and he told me the medicine given by the doctor at the specialist center are used to treat acne and not rashes. My god! Now, I am eating the right medicine and let’s wait for miracle to happen.

University vs Polytechnic

I am definitely pissed of by some of the comments on some websites regarding how useless and losers poly students are as compared to the arrogant and supercilious university students. I am not afraid to tell you that I was previously a poly student and I graduated from that, plus, I am proud of it. I am currently perusing a US degree but that doesn’t mean that I regretted going to a poly. To further my studies is merely for job requirements. If given a choice, I rather not to further my study again.

I am definitely not pointing finger at all University students here, and being a poly student, I do have friends from University and they are nice people that are civilized and definitely not obnoxious. I just can’t tolerate those university students who think they are the best in the world and they belittle those who are not up to their education level.

Firstly, I don’t understand what is wrong with opting for poly rather than JC then to university? University students are not necessary to be the most brilliant bunch of people, even ITE has successful examples. I think Singaporeans especially those studying in University has the misconception that they think once they get the University certificate they are superior to many of the locals, those without certificate or those with “merely” a poly certificate. I tell you guys out there, certificate may gain you a better job, fetch you a higher pay but I don’t think that will also improve your mentality on things.

Recent case, a university student dumped her new born child down the rubbish chute. Many people will go, “Oh, how will a university student do that? Sure or not?” or “How come university student will do that?” Imagine the scenario has changed, instead of a university student; we changed it to a school drop-out. The response of people to this incident will be, “Oh, normal la!”

You know what I mean here. That shows the mentality of a typical Singaporean. I wonder what makes them think that university students are saint and that they won’t make any mistakes. Then again, what makes them deem that, school drop-out are bound to make mistakes like that. It is saddening to hear that blurting out of the mouth of a Singaporean.

I personally feel that poly students tend to learn more things like communication skills and they are more specialize in their studies. We learn things that are going to be useful to us for our future jobs and at least, we read newspaper. Some university students are really ignorant. Their world is so small that all they know is what they are studying, they hardly read newspapers. Their world revolves around their school, what can they say to poly students to prove that they are superior, their exam etc…

This is a real case example.

Their world is so tiny that during an interview, I remembered when asked about who the current President of United States is, some blurted something funny, and one UNIVERSITY student said, “Kennedy”. I almost fell on the ground.

University students are “supposed” to be better than us right? What happened? Has he forgotten to memorize the History? Oh…. he shouldn’t have...

The example the brainless university student could be too obsessed in studying that he had forgotten to update himself with the current affairs and politics. Sometimes I think, poly students are more street-wise as compared to University students. Imagine we already started working at the tender age of 19, earning our own salary and we have seen much more than university students and I cannot comprehend, why university students have to be so proud being one who has no working experience and still using their parents’ money at 20++ yr old. I personally feel so ashamed of still asking money from my parents when I left poly.

Now, who should be inferior? I am not trying to make someone look inferior here. I just want the university students to know, we are all Singaporeans and that we should not look down upon our own citizens or judge among ourselves by the educational level. This is not fair. There are certainly good reasons behind studying a poly or university.

After all, successful or not will never depends on which certificate you achieve, it has to be based on hard work and perseverance to work towards a brighter future.

Taxi Drivers from HELL

Where can I get bad-mannered taxi drivers? Right here in Singapore. I guess I might be the best person to answer this question because I took cab everyday from home to office, vice versa and anywhere I go.

If given a choice… I will never take TAXI. This is just 2 examples out of approximately 62 taxi drivers I meet for a month.

Hell Driver 1
Recently my colleagues and I decided to go to Holland Village for lunch. After much waving of our hands, we managed to get a cab and 4 of us hop in. We told the driver where we were heading, straight after we told him the destination, he apologized to us. He said, “I got a call.” [On Call] What the hack!
He stopped the damned taxi when we flagged and now he tells us he has a call?! I was pissed off. Apart from that, he is also obstructing the traffic. There is a long queue of cars waiting for him to shift his damned taxi.
Then I realized his so called “on call” is actually the road in front of us. How can a taxi be so irresponsible?
Imagine we have missed the other on-coming taxis just because of his greediness and hunger for money.
Imagine having this kind of drivers on the road… it will definitely be painful to drive on the road.

Super Hell Driver 2
This one I filed a complaint to the Cab company.
Credit cards companies have actually come up with lots of promotions or discount treats for their card members, taxi fare discount are actually one of them. I got on to a cab feeling great about getting the discount because I travel from work to home everyday, usually taxi fare cost me $13-15. That means I could actually get up to $1.50 off the meter fare. This is a good saving for me if you wanted to calculate it in a long run. However, when I told the drivers about my discount, the drivers’ face changed. It was so OBVIOUS. Their service attitude changed 180degree. A few drivers even made sarcastic remarks to me that:
1. I should not ask for discount if I claiming the fare from company
2. I should not ask for discount if since it is only “a few cents” – as a matter of fact, the meter shows $13.60.
3. Some even told me, it is not worth claiming unless I took cab from the airport. - This is absurd! The credit card newsletter told me I can claim anytime, anywhere.

I don’t understand. If it is only “a few cents”, instead of giving me the discount that I am ENTITLED for, they made such sarcastic remarks to make me feel as if I am a stingy housewife bargaining in the wet market.

What has happened to the friendly, responsible taxi drivers in Singapore that we used to have? Is the bad economy that makes them penny-pinching the wrong way? However, I still believe there are still polite and reliable taxi drivers out there… as I have met quite a few handful of them. I can’t imagine if it is acutally tourists that hired the cabs I mentioned above, how will they think of Singapore?