taking a short break.......

Hello Folks, I am going overseas for the next few days, and will be back most probably by Wed. 2nd Dec. so, until then, CHEERS !

one more month to go....

Its the end of the 2nd month and I have yet to award my PROMO offer of $1/- taxi ride to anywhere in Singapore, inclusive of all surcharges for anyone who can spot me. I will now give you yet another easy clue to help you spot me, this time a more obvious one. If you are lucky enough to board my cab, look out for two stickers (photo above), one pasted on the left rear window and another one on the glove box cover, in front of the front passenger seat which you cannot miss. I am also going to shift the small miniature yellow coloured NYC taxi model onto the left side top of the dashboard to make it more visible by the 1st of Dec, so keep your eyes peeled for these very clear giveaway clues when you catch a cab the next time, you may be the lucky one before my offer ends on 31st Dec 2009. Remember to identify me as Uncle Frank and you will be eligible for my promo offer!

Everytime I stop to pick up passengers, be it along the roadside or at taxi stands, I anxiously await that surprise greeting but alas, two months have passed by and I am still not 'caught'. Be alert, have fun and keep trying, there's still one more full month to go, c u......

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......

interesting holiday excursions....

You know, most of us Singaporeans like to go for holidays overseas, to visit, to relax, to go sight seeing, to experience different life styles, enjoy flying and getting easily excited about the preparations to become tourists in a foreign land, but if you were to ask the majority whether they have been or seen or even experienced our own local attractions which are also plentiful, you will be surprised that most of us are totally unaware or ignorant as to what our own country can offer us in terms of relaxation and excitement. 
Ask yourself, have I been or discovered the enchantment of the world's first Night Safari? Experienced the exciting adventure of our zoo environment, the vastness of a national wildlife park under the magical night sky, where you can discover and watch the beautiful and unusual wildlife roaming freely in their jungle settings? What about Southeast Asia's largest bird sanctuary, the Jurong Bird Park which has more than 8,000 birds representing about 600 species? Do you know that this Aviary, with a man-made waterfall, is also one of the world's largest? Have you even seen the Musical Fountain with its magical feature of light, laser and music, synchronised with powerful high jets of water to make it truly a spectacular wonder? Just to let you in on it, this is the world's most complex laser-water system and also the first in the world to deploy a fully-digitalised video projection. You should bring your whole family to watch and be thrilled by this particular attraction. I can continue telling you of many, many more interesting places you have not heard or seen and these are all within our reach and from the way I describe them, you might or maybe consider making changes to your future holiday plans. I must admit, I do need a coffee break now because I am getting overly excited myself by just reading what I have written.

Unique Christmas experience.......

Christmas is truly a very unique experience in Singapore. I think we celebrate the seasonal spirit with more enthusiasm than many of those in western countries. Our shopping malls and stores are stocked with traditional Christmas food and a wide array of gifts. The beautiful window decorations, colourful lighting, music, together with big video screenings of movie trailers and advertisements, and also not forgetting the heavily decorated hotels bring Christmas cheer to all. Of course the highlights of the season include our phenomenal street light-up, yuletide caroling, fantastic street party and many great performances along Orchard Road. I have always enjoyed driving slowly around these lighted-up roads during this period and my passengers and I have never failed to talk and discuss excitedly about the various pretty decorations and lighting as we pass through. Indeed, it has always been the ultimate season when Singaporeans of all races come together including foreign workers, expats stationed here, as well as visitors from everywhere, unwind in preparation for the new year ahead.

lesser taxi ridership.......

Last night I started driving from usual time around 5.00pm. This was quite an unusual night because by 8.00pm I had only collected metered fares amounting to about $29.00. This amount was way too short of my daily takings and so I decided to take a break and at the same time have an early meal which lasted till 9.00pm. I resumed working non stop till about midnight and not feeling tired, I decided to do overtime after another short break. I counted my takings and it was really bad, only $82.00 I knew it would not be much because I did not ferry enough passengers from the time I started till now and also the trips involved were short ones. I had not driven overnight for quite a long time and so I thought why not continue driving and this time with additional midnight charges added and so by 6.00am, after one more coffee break I was a bit shacked and so had to call it a day. I did my usual taxi wash and clean up then headed home. The total gross income I managed to earn was only $132.00 this was very poor takings and after deducting rental, diesel and sundry expenses, my nett income was $62.00. Taxi ridership has indeed fallen drastically and the lot of us cabbies have to work extra hard to tide over this period of time till near Christmas to recover initial losses with some good bonuses, hopefully........have to go to work now, already 5.00pm.

usually the Driver only in vehicle........

If you are always on the road like I am, you will notice, especially along highways whether traffic is heavy, slow, moving or plain smooth, that inside most vehicles, most of the time, there is usually only one person in it.... the driver. So, when there is a long stretch of vehicles jammed up, not many complaints are heard from the bulk of the general public but only from the motorists themselves. They drive their vehicles mainly for their own advantage and convenience as well as to flaunt a bit of their wealth. Of course, sometimes it becomes a necessity although it is expensive to own and maintain a car. But, why not, if you are doing very well and can afford it...

Singaporeans love to complain and complain on whatever there is to complain, this is because we truly love and enjoy making complaints. Public transport like the MRT is cheap and travelling in one is a breeze, no traffic lights to wait and no traffic jams at all, very speedy clean and efficient. The buses are no different with the responsible Authorities continuously trying to upgrade and better its present system. Our taxi fleet consists of more than 24,000 taxis from 6 operating concerns and I dare say our services and fares are reasonable and comparable with nothing much to gripe about.

Water, water everywhere........

Yesterday and today have been quite slow moving and it therefore makes me easily tired when nothing exciting happens except for the sudden bad flash floods and vehicles getting bogged down, here and there. Lucky for me I don't happen to be or near those disaster areas as I ride out the rainfalls in kopitiams, either eating or drinking coffee till the rains subside.

Talking of floods, it has been a long, long time since, when regular floodings occur during heavy downpours along many, many roads. I remember times when my friends and I during our school days, would wait and anxiously watch for cars to be stalled and stucked in flood waters and then offer our services to push their vehicles to safety for a bit of pocket money. It was part time work, a lot of fun and getting well paid for just pushing cars out of the flooded roads. When rain falls, the heavier the better, we become rich kids. Those were happy days for us school boys to make money until the Authorities began putting plugs and improving drainage to do away with future floodings. Still, all kinds of 'catastrophies' will befall us at any time, anywhere, without warning causing untold heartaches, tragedies, loss of properties including loss of lives when an 'act of God' occurs. With all our superior high tech creations and inventions to try to prevent or to fight these calamities, we must acknowledge and be humbled by what God can do.

about wakes and weddings

The difference between attending wakes and weddings is that you attend one without any invitation and the other you need to be invited to. During both these solemn functions, you get to be reunited with relatives and friends whom you may have lost touch with for quite a long time and its true we unashamedly hide our eagerness to meet up, and at the same time look forward to the dinner waiting for us.

The first type of get together always occur suddenly without any early notice and usually lasts for 3 or 5 days, whereas the other gives you early notice of its coming and only last one day culminating with a huge dinner party. Of course, when we want to make our presence felt during these functions, we need to also show respect to the families involved by way of giving certain monetary amount or gifts.

In the course of our daily lives, these important events create a kind of 'wake up' call for all of us, in that, we tend to take many things for granted, become selfish and only think about ourselves all the time. We need to find time to get together more often to share and enjoy fellowship instead of letting these two types of events to happen before we meet up. 
Many a times my passengers would confide in me their sadness of the steadily corroding family unity in our present day environment, and what is to become of our future generations....

In the meantime, life goes on... getting a bit hungry now, wonder if there is any sandwich in the fridge......

The 3 C's

I have often had the pleasure of ferrying passengers who are easy going and possess conversational skills and thereby we enjoy the whole trip. We would chat and somehow talk as if we had been very old friends. If we were in the same age group, then there's even more enthusiasm and excitement in our talks as we can relate to past subjects known only to us. Sometimes when I engage talks with passengers in respect of the 5Cs' which most younger ones have, I never fail to tell them that there are also the famous 3C's that should be taken into account. If asked to explain, then I would tell them that these 3C's are for those more well-versed in the Hokkien dialect.

"Kia C", "Tan C" and "Chay C". I shall explain as thus, the 1st 'C', we say "Kia C" meaning "afraid to die", these group of people are those we see everyday doing all kinds of exercises, such as the popular 'jogging' stuff we witness everywhere, day in and day out, involving the elderly as well as the young, they are the ones who will always be very picky about what they eat, "too oily", too much "sugar or salt" or those with an array of health foods and pills they conscientiously consume each day, they are all afraid to die.

The 2nd 'C', we say "Tan C" which means "waiting to die", now these group belongs to those who are typically boring, without sense of adventure, no interest in anything, will never venture into any new ideas or vocations even knowing that they are more profitable or better than what they have now. But they will still prefer to remain what and where they are indefinitely and live a daily dull routine lifestyle. Don't you think they are just waiting for their 'time' to come'?

And last of all, the 3rd 'C' we say "Chay C" meaning "seeking to die" this particular group of people indulges, engages and gets involved in anything they like, whether its legal or not, dangerous or not or even if its very bad for their health, they could'nt be bothered. Don't you think they are reckless, could'nt care less bunch who knows what they do will get them into very "hot soup" and yet continue to pursue their undesirable destinies?

Well, thats all for now, time for my coffee break and puff, oops, 3rd C!