interesting 'signs' on the road.........

During a visit from a friend of mine from Canada, he did mention that our local traffic lacks interesting and funny signs advertising their business, unlike those in Canada where one truck has the sign that says, "Our business is BLOOMING.....(Blooming Flowers Supplier)". Another has on its sides that says, "G.O.D.".........(Gordon's Overnite Delivery), which he noticed along the interstate highways in New York state. Another truck that says, "We deliver on time, it's not a FLUKE !!!".......(Fluke Transport Co.), and finally, another that says, "We love your stinky biz.".......(Thomas Bros. Sewers specialists), and so many, many more lively ones to keep your spirits up and laughing as you travel to work everyday.

How true, in fact, with the constant slow moving traffic and jams that we encounter everyday on our roads and highways, it would be a nice distraction away from our daily stress and frustrations on the road. My friend also told me that many motorists drive their cars with personalised vanity licensed plates in his country, such as, "I EARN" (the husband's car), "I SPEND" (the wife's car), and a list of other interesting name plates like, "MBA PHD", "OK LAH", "TAXI MUM", "I LUV U", "JOHN LEE" and "MARY LOU", he added that these names are restricted to 8 letters or digits and must not be derogatory in nature. I bet most Singaporeans would love to purchase such personalised licence plates for their autos and our govt would also get to make tons of money.

state of affairs of Churches and Churchgoers......

Picked up a Canadian gentleman from Hyatt Hotel who wanted to go to Costa Rhu (Tanjong Rhu) at about 11pm. Along the way, he told me that he noticed great numbers of churchgoers, young and old, attending churches here, unlike in Canada where only senior citizens and maybe a handful of grandchildren attend churches. Nowadays, many Canadians are just not attending churches there. Most Anglican church members are against their church giving blessings to 'gay' marriages which is legal in Canada and this has caused breaking up from 'mother' church into starting their own new Anglican Church of Canada. 
He told me that there are about 300,000 Anglicans presently in Canada but due to dwindling membership, he thinks in about 30 years, the Anglican Church will become obsolete. He said, as it is, many churches have gone bankrupt or had to be disbanded as attendances keep falling. The Catholic Church has its share of problems with child molestations and child pornography and is losing many church members. Its Church has paid millions in cover-ups, denials and settlements and, imagine, only last month a Roman Catholic Bishop was arrested for illegal possession of child pornographic materials, this Bishop travels frequently to Vietnam and Thailand in search of children, how sick can he be. 
Many churches have gone bankrupt because it cannot keep going without enough churchgoers and some had to be sold off to become restaurants, hardware stores or even converted into nightclubs with strippers performing at the altar.

"Good Lord!" he exclaimed, and continued, "Sad, very sad" he said, the state of affairs of churches in Canada with its dwindling and continuous loss of followers have caused great concern in the country. He said he has been here for almost two months now and will be going home next weekend, he added that Singapore churchgoers are very staunch, active, vibrant, and most times the churches here are packed and crowded unlike back home in his country. 
All the way to Costa Rhu, I just listened quietly and when we reached his destination, he paid the metered fare and said "Thank you for listening to my talk, take care and God bless" I thanked him at the same time as we bade farewell....

Phew!!.....that was indeed a long "talk" and now, its time for my favourite "Teh Tarik" at Geylang, Lorong one......

maids get 2 days off per week in......

Last night, about 8pm, I picked up a Philippina woman at Lucky Plaza taxi stand. She was going to Flora Road (off Old Tampines Road) to meet her cousin. I asked if she was living and working here and was surprised when she told me "No way, Singapore is the worst paymaster, my cousin works here as a maid and her pay is only $400 plus, she only gets one day off every week and have to work long hours, including washing her employer's car."

"Oh, so you are holidaying and visiting friends in Singapore?" She said no, in fact she will be going to Ontario, Canada, to work there, job confirmed, taking over her elder sister's job as a maid. Her sis wants to continue to study and become a nurse and her boss has accepted her as Paula's replacement. She continued telling me that her sis, Paula, gets paid Canadian $1,600 per month and after deductions for lodging, insurance for health and employment and contributions, like Singapore's CPF, she still gets more than Cad$1,000 and on top of that, she only has to work 8 hours a day including having saturdays and sundays off every week.

"Wow, is that true?" I exclaimed, and she said "Of course its true, my sis Paula works there for the past 3 years already, she got her PR after 2 years and can get to become a Canadian citizen after 3 years, which she has already applied, its their law there. Do you know, a maid there is not required to do housework but only looks after the employer's children?"

"That's fantastic, hey, you speak perfect English and by the way what's your name?"

"Dionne, thank you, I studied English in Manila and you know, Paula's employer treats her very, very well, even buys her a brand new bicycle for her own use and allows her to take driving lessons too. Paula's boss is a bank officer, his wife is a nurse and they have 3 children. Once Paula's citizenship is obtained, she can sponsor our whole family from Manila to immigrate there. Maids are entitled according to the laws in Canada, I am happy and looking forward to work there, thats why I am visiting my cousin here to tell her about all this and ask her to join me when her contract ends. Okay Uncle, can stop at the condo on the left, we're here."

She paid her fare and thanked me and I said "Thank you very much, you are so kind and I really enjoyed listening to you, my best wishes to you and God bless. Good night."

Well, that was very refreshing and interesting don't you think? As I have said before, we keep on learning everyday. Its now approaching 9pm, ah yes, there is a 24-hour coffeeshop at Drive 6, Pasir Ris, yes, thats right, that's where I'm heading to......

this is true...

This will come as a surprise to you. Do you know that if you were in Toronto Canada, and if you happen to take a taxi, that Indian taxi driver can easily be a qualified doctor/surgeon/dentist/engineer, who emigrated to Canada, but was from India or for that matter from any country in the world, yes, even from Singapore. 
This is because, the Canadian authorities DO NOT recognise any foreign degrees (other than Phd) earned by anyone abroad and he/she has to be re-trained to perform his/her profession in Canada.

This leads us to why so many qualified people ended up as cabbies/pizza deliverers or something else just to make a living there. I was told from a very reliable source that a woman selling insurance in Toronto was formerly a Professor of Dentistry in Singapore University before she emigrated to Toronto. She was only allowed to work as a dental assistant, which she turned down. Then, there was this friend's family doctor who had his own medical practice in Singapore and with degrees from Singapore and England, but had to return to medical school for 4 years in Vancouver before being allowed to practice medicine again. There are doctors from Australia who likewise had to be retrained when they go there. AND yet, Canada is severely short of qualified doctors. Many of these overseas-trained doctors/surgeons who emigrated, are cabbies or pizza men or something else in Toronto. These too, include overseas-trained engineers. Sometimes we learn that to ignore the facts does not change the facts.