Malacca day trip

Overdued post. I went to Malacca last June for a city tour.

The most popular landmark in Malacca is the Melaka Church, situated in Dutch Square.















Other remarkable pix are:
Statue in a Chinese Temple (which I forgot the name)











Jonker Street
(reminds me of my hometown, this is how Binondo looks!)










Trails of Baba and Nonya Musuem
-these are the descendants of Portugese-Chinese. They are known for the beaded handicraft artwork (which by the way is very expensive as they are hand-sewn piece by piece). And also quite known for the Peranakan cuisine, which is as spicy as you can imagine.









Bakery (interestingly named Sha Shu Kong, meaning 3rd uncle)









On the trip back, I was watching Jet Lee's 'Fearless' movie on the bus. It has been so long since a movie has made me teary-eyed (or was it because I was feeling low and down then). Anyway, I was moved by the character of Jet Lee, of how he transformed from an arrogant fighter into understanding the true essence of winning. A lot of things in life are not what they seemed to be.

P.S. Finally back to blogging mode. I was surprised to see thousand+ hits in Adsense (although of course it only has a few cents lol). I'll try to lessen the 'emo' posts in the future :p

B-i-a-t-c-h

This is one of the most ggrrrh encounters. It feels d*mned bad when you get sh*t for a good deed.


I wont want to elaborate what happened. Here's a collection of kabwisitan thoughts:


1. I dislike people who speaks English slang in an unpleasant manner. Excuse me, it really hurts my ear to hear OVER-pronounced English letter, word, sentence. Do me a favor, shut up.


2. Don't flaunt your Fookien in front of me in aim of building a 'close tayo' mood, when I can hear clearly that your diction is not good and in fact inaccurate. I can assure you that my Fookien/Mandarin is of caliber GI level that you perhaps could never imagine.


3. What 'makapal ang mukha' means in the truest sense. I still cant believe how a stranger can act so comfortably in my room, using my things so naturally. Dumping all the trash and even sanitary napkin trash in my garbage can making it overflowing before leaving. The phone conversation was very irritable. Hell, do I look like a hotel operator?



4. I abhor girls who are OVERLY pa-tweetums, pa-cute, pa-sweet to the extremes, ma-PR, over-friendly and shows over fondliness on children, I just dont feel enough sincerity. And I
ALSO abhor stupid guys who fall for such girls and get blinded by that fact and still think that they've won a jackpot, pathetic! The useless bf who did nothing, congrats by the way for having such a wonderful girl who knows very well how to take advantage of others in the sweetest manner.


Okay enough, lame delayed reaction. I am no saint. I'm not like my friend who quit work to join JVP volunteer work to help provincial folks on ways he can to serve the country - of which I respect him but still find the logic a bit off and absurd. Probably I just simply want to do good once in a while in my areas of influence, in little ways that I can. And yet I dont know why do things like this have to happen to dishearthen earthly people and rub the goodness out of them. Hmm probably the world is just like that, it doesn't make any sense to be good after all. Nothing's gonna change it.

CNY Perks

CNY (Chinese New Year) is the only 2-consecutive-days holiday in SG. Finally had a long weekend break to relax. I didnt join any out-of-town trips. Feels guilty to splurge in recession times. Anyhow, it has been a well-spent 4 long days. Several firsts.

Steamboat Mania

My steamboat fanatic friend invited me for a food trip. Good timing, steamboat (or hotpot) is actually a tradition here during CNY. I only got to appreciate steamboat recently, aside from my craving for food, it also somehow symbolizes the warmth of a family. Guess what, I was eyeing for this 2-in-1 electronic hotpot and teppanyaki cooker that started to flood the malls during CNY season. Nice, I wanna bring one home (if SM doesnt sell such). The reply that I got from my sister, 'you wont be able to 'timpla' it as good as outside, we only go for steamboat like twice or thrice a year, let's eat outside na lng, sayang sa space'. Boo and the excitement dies. I wanna have one, (well, actual using it is another issue hehe). Motherly instincts?! Nyak :p


New thing

I mentioned I wanna learn something new. I dragged my friend to teach me but still didnt learn quite well. If I learn, then I'll blog about it. If I don't, forget it. Aja aja fighting (borrowing from Fullhouse's). I need some pats on the back. Wish me luck, despite the pasa.

Birthday party, the Indian way at Riverwalk Tandoori

My Indian ofcmate invited me for her daughter's birthday party, a buffet dinner in an Indian resto called Riverwalk Tandoori. Apparently, I was the 'odd man out' in the crowd, the
only non-Indian guest, needless to say the only one not wearing an Indian traditional costume. I enjoyed the food: tandoori chicken, the yoghurty tofu steak, and naan topped my favorites that night. It's fun experiencing a total different culture.

CNY Movie

Usually there will be chinese comedy movies specially featured during CNY season. Last year I was wanting so much to watch one (so desperate because it stars Jay Chou :p). I wanted to watch that exact first showing night. It's actually not easy to drag people to watch such movies. I invited someone and it turned out she wanted to watch it 2 days after and invited some more friends. I cant wait, and I also dont want to sound rude and kj. There are these very RARE circumstances that I dont want to compromise. I watched by myself that night, then watched it again for a 2nd time with others. Waste of time, money and effort. Since then I realized if I REALLY want to do something, I'll do it now (if not now, then when?!) It doesnt KILL.

So this year I chose to watch 'Wedding Game', a locally shot movie by the most famous loveteam, real-life soon-to-be-wed artista couple in SG. Fun, light movie. The theme song is heart-warming, I am having severe LSS of that song till now, nice lyrics. Watch this video to have a feel of it, funny proposal, oops dont expect famous, good-looking singers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiFiBZ4J5XU

Segue: I was watching a last full show on CNY, alone, and I chose a romantic theme. People in the queue were either lovers or family. I dont think any normal unattached lady would be doing so, this is a killer :p. Anyway, while waiting for it to start, this somehow caught my attention. I was just drawn to the charms. Oh well, perks of having a mall/moviehouse near your house, like a 15min walking distance, humming this LSS song all the way, yeah I miss Manila.




CNY Steak Dinner at Vines

It's Ghost town here btw, most of the shops were closed. I had a memorable dinner at Vines with some friends. It was my first time to this resto. Homey ambience, and delicious food - yummy ribs, steak & gelato. The catch, it's very affordable! Probably the best place for tasty ribs. A must-try.





Yusheng

Finally my first time to participate in Yusheng, the most popular CNY tradition. Fun!

From wiki:

Today, this dish is served as an appetizer to raise 'good luck' for the new year and is usually eaten on Renri, the seventh day of the Chinese New Year. In a celebration known as "lo hei", families and friends gather around the table and, on cue, proceed to toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying Jíxiáng Huà, (auspicious wishes) out loud to mark the start of a prosperous new year and it's customary that the higher you toss, the greater your fortunes! Typical ingredients include: fresh salmon, white radish, carrot, red pepper, ginger, lime tree leaves, Chinese parsley, chopped peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, Chinese shrimp crackers (or fried dried shrimp), five spice powder. The dressing is made primarily from plum sauce

Fullhouse Marathon

Fullhouse is one of the few Korean series megahit that I failed to watch. Now I know why was there a Rain mania, he's not handsome but I would consider cute. Songhyegyo is still as pretty as an angel, my previous idol. Good chemistry. The bear song is hilarious. Funny that YJ always force her to cook and clean the house all the time that he can get a chance. I think I wouldnt mind being a 'rice cooker' if it's living with YJ under the same roof. :p

My Fortune Cookie

Your smile brings fortune to people who see it. Keep smiling. - I got this message in my fortune cookie. It doesnt tell anything about my fortune :p. Okay I'd smile if it brings fortune to you, it's also a compliment for me. :)

Mid-Autumn Festival: Mooncake Galore

September 14 is the exact day for Mid-Autumn Festival. One month before this, all malls have been teeming with so much mooncake bazaars. A typical normal plain mooncake costs around twice of Ph's price. The more famous brands are those from SG hotels or imports from HK/TW and my, these are really exaggerately priced. One pc can buy you one box (of 4) in Ph!

The new craze these recent years in Oriental countries is the Snow Skin mooncake. It took TW/HK/SG by storm as everyone seems to be going gaga over this refrigerated, flavored, colored, not-your-typical-traditional-ovenbaked mooncake. The more popular flavors are green tea, taro/yam, strawberry, pandan, durian, coffee, chocolate, banana. I have attended a mooncake workshop, sharing some pix of green tea snow skin mooncake.



During my last September trip back home, I had so many of these mooncakes. I got 4 boxes (1box=4pcs) for my family and a friend asked me a favor to take home 2 more boxes. My goodness, it was really one heck of a big &^%!. 6 boxes weigh around 5kg and i have another handcarry bag of 6kg. I felt like my fingers were disconnecting from my hand, my arms were disconnecting from my shoulder.

English lah

I have an Indian officemate who is very funny (even if he does not exert effort to be funny). Here are some of the humorous quotes

-'My one is missing'. He went to my seat and murmured those words with a worried look. I said 'what?'. He replied again, 'my one is missing', pointing to my monitor. I then figured out he has some files missing. After checking I found those missing files and told him, 'no, your one is there, it's not missing'. 'Oh thank you'. See I'm a fast learner, copycat. :)

-'There was one time when he was browsing on some bank's websites. Suddenly in a loud voice, he asked, 'hey what's TT?' I said 'where did you see that?'. He replied several times, 'TT', 'TT'. I had to control my laughter, what in the world is this TT thing (not that I'm green, but my top recall of those 2letters is a Filipino word). It was only by chance when I got to ask my sister if there is such banking term TT, and she said yes, telegraphic transfer that is :p

Other funny terms: Singlish / Hindi-ish. :

'upgradation' of contract - upgrade

my aunt 'expired' ---- past away

scheduled pronounced as shedule

I shall send you this email and print the same - 'the same' appears so many times

#1 --- it's not number 1 but hex 1

' --- this is not apostrophe but inverted comma

this one can, this one cannot - everything is can and cannot. can help check this issue. can do this can do that.

*To be updated when I learn more. :)

Definition of Stress: Lost in Translation

Working/living abroad would normally mean preparing yourself for taking the public transportation, expect this to be a part of your daily life. Forget about your Toyota or Honda. If you intend to buy one here, it takes approx 3x of the normal price in Manila, every car is 1.5M up, it's like only buy one if you really plan to settle here as PR (permanent resident).

When it comes to commuting, generally i prefer MRT than bus. Recently I went for dinner with some friends in a resto near Paya Lebar MRT. We finished eating at around 10pm.

My idea of a less stressful way of going home is this route:
Bus from resto to Paya Lebar MRT (or walk is ok) - Paya Lebar MRT to Bishan MRT - Bishan bus to home. All will add up to around 30min.

However, the 3 other friends I was with have a different definition. They prefer taking bus over MRT, for the sole reason that they feel more 'relaxed' riding a bus since there is more probability of empty seats. Also, usually there's TV. (Note that buses and MRTs here are both air-conditioned and well-maintained, they are not like the shabby types back in Manila. In terms of cleanliness and temperature control, I would say they are 'at par' with each other)

Dont take me wrong, I also ride buses. I'd go for a bus if it's a direct bus (same bus all the way). In fact, I sometimes do wake up early intentionally to catch the company shuttle that takes me all the way to office.

Anyway, going back, here are my reasons for taking the MRT:
1) Anything that gets me home the fastest is the 'less stressed' way.
2) I don't mind standing in MRT, and 10pm is not part of peak hours at all, there is a high probability of empty seats.
3) I don't prefer buses because in almost every bus stop, people are alighting/going up, there are so many pauses/distractions/interruptions. It takes a longer time to bring you to your destination.
4) I don't like waiting indefinitely for a specific bus number to come, sometimes the intervals would take more than 15minutes. In MRT, probably the max waiting time is 7min
5) I don't like the feeling of so many 'jerks' every now and then -- yun umaalog-alog literally when a bus comes to a full stop.

Majority wins so we took the 'bus' route, here's the route:
Bus from resto to Paya Lebar MRT (+walking for 15 min to cross some skyway and find the bus stop) - bus from Paya Lebar MRT to Toa Payoh Bus Interchange - bus from Toa Payoh Bus Interchange to home.

Guess what, it took us 2 hours, the whole trip + waiting/queueing time! We reached home at 12midnight. The bus fares were not cheaper than the MRT way because there were 4 of us in this 'joy ride'. AND after all, we should have taken taxi right from the starting point.

So a total of 1.5 hours lost in translation. Whew!

Working in SG!

For IT people who are considering to work in SG, here are some tips.

Hunting: Post in jobstreet, jobsdb and monster. Check for agent contacts.

Resume: If you're given the job description, tailor-fit your resume to suit the reqts, you have to pass the screening at the very least to earn a phone interview

Interview: they normally hire people outside SG for their technical skills. For those working in pampered environments, unfortunately the bibo skills in managing, leading is not that 'mabenta'. Usually 1-2 rounds, max of 3 rounds would be enough.

General types of IT work:
Project Managers - there are technical PMs and process PMs (usually the PMP-certified). For both, the minimum requirement usually is at least 8 year work experience. PM job here is not the pampered type in Phil, here you managed resources, budget, timelines of a project but remember culture is different - mostly Indians, Filipinos, locals, etc. PMs I know here are usually 'puno sa konsumisyon', mahirap pasunurin mga tao lalo na ang Indians. :)
Business Analysts - Minimum requirement again is at least 5 year exposure to a specific industry. Most mabenta are: banking, insurance.
Quality Assurance - Process QA, testing QA, documentation. You have to know several in-demand languages, most common of which are SAP, Peoplesoft, Informatica, Cognos, Datastage, Java, etc. Unix and Oracle have become baselines.
Developers - programmers. Same as the statement in QA.
Others - sometimes you get some systems analyst roles, support roles, but they are not as common as the 4 ones stated above.

Job types:
Contractual - 80% of the time. Check the terms if you terminate a contract. Usual bond is 1 year and if you fail to finish it, sometimes they'll require you to be working for free for 1 month or 2 months (notice period). And oh, we're talking KKs pesos going to charity here.
Permanent - 20% of the time. But they say you can haggle more in a contractual position (however you have to take the risks that they can also terminate you once a project finishes, by then you will only have 14 days to find a replacement job, or else you have to go back to Manila)

Pay:
Normally you'd be given an offer based on your years of working experience.
Average monthly expense is roughly 1500SGD (kasama na gimiks yun 1.5K, kung ndi ka magastos 1 or 1.2K should be fine), so dont go lower than 2500SGD at the very least. Usual range is 3K-4KSGD. You can also go as high as 5.5K (extremes), depends probably on your skillset and your bargaining skills.
Tax - in my case is initially 15%. After 6 months it will go down to 7%. Most of the time you have to file your own tax. So you get the whole amount every month.

Watchouts and Horror Stories:
Almost no training and orientation whatsoever. Remember, they hire you for your skills so they expect you to know everything (which is kinda crazy.). In my case, I was told on Day2 to QA a project that will be released on Day4 to user environment! Hehe buti na lng may tumulong sa kin, dasalan na lng ito. :) So far I only encountered this one.

Below are horror stories shared by some friends:
You actually have to have an employment pass to be able to work in SG, and this is tied to your employer. If you plan to quit your present job but your employer or sometimes your agent (contractual) does not want you to quit, iipitin ka nila. If they wont release your EP, there's no way you can work for another company because you have to surrender your old EP to process a new EP. (But there's a new PEP coming up meaning Personal employment pass, which is not tied to a certain employer anymore).

They say people here are generally workoholic, uptight, unforgiving. Different races have different work habits. Even if you've tried working with different races for multinationals in Phil, somehow there's still a huge difference.
A friend related sort of pinapahiya ng boss (Indian/local) everytime whether he does or does not commit a mistake. He was told to resign dahil they dont need his service. Another one related pinapagalitan na cya during his first week, even for small reasons like coming late to office.

Another one told me he dislikes attending meetings, para bang parati cyang sinusubukan kung may alam cya sa ginagawa nya.

One said the Indians wont listen to instructions given out, they sabotage your plans.

Anyway, still look at the bright side. 3 things probably to look forward to.
Saving is easier.
Learn a lot in life and work
Work-life balance. In my case, I arrive 930am, lunch break 11:30-2pm (they have long lunch breaks), then leave before 7pm. Latest probably is 730pm.

What to Expect in SG!

Here are some of the things you need to know if you plan to stay in SG:

Weather:
Everyday is moderately cool. Sometimes it rains, but no strong winds or typhoons whatsoever. The sun sets very late, it's normal to see sunlight even after 7pm.

Transportation:
MRT - most convenient, a lot of stops has a mall beside it. The more famous lines are the Red line (where Orchard is), Green line (most of the offices are in this line), the Purple line (going to Sentosa)
Bus -good airconditioning system. They have this button in several poles for you to push if you want to alight. Be sure to tap in and tap out your Ezlink card, or else you'd be charged the whole trip.
Taxi - very safe. Though fares can go double after 12midnyt.
Get an Easylink card, it can be used for both MRT and buses, (I think even taxis).
Dont eat inside an MRT or bus, you'll be penalized!

Food:
Hawker - is everywhere. The cheapest option. Each meal would cost you 2-5SGD. The most common of course is the Hainanese or Roasted Chicken rice, Asado rice.
Food Court - all malls have food courts, around 4-8SGD
Restaurant - all set meals will definitely go higher than 7SGD, averaging 10+ to 20+.
Types of food: Chinese, Indian, Malay
By default: usually they will put sauce on top of your rice. (which I prefer hehe) But I always just order 2 dishes (meat+veggie) for rice toppings, so if you order 3 dishes they're also going to pour the each type of sauce all over and it's not so desirable to see/taste sauces overlapping.
Take-out is take away or ta pao. Dine-in is for here or having here/eating here.
There is no tissue provided, bring your own.

Rental:
HDB - government owned, averaging 400-600SGD per room. A whole unit with 3 bedrooms would cost 2K.
Condo - averaging 500-800SGD per room.
All rental fees either HDB or condo have been rising since last November.
All units for both HDB and condo are furnished (most of the time), there should be a washing machine, sala, beds, closets, some tables and chairs, aircon, water heater, sometimes even TV. If none, negotiate for one.
When you start renting, the rule is expect to pay 1month advance+1month deposit + additional 50% of the monthly deposit for your agent's fee. Assuming it's a 3bedroom condo worth 2K for a 1yr contract, each person will be shelling out (2500*2.5)/3 = 2084SGD per pax. It's on contract basis usually tied for a year or 2 years.
It's not so easy to move out, the ethical rule is that you find your own replacement. Your housemates wont be paying for your share.
As much as possible choose housemates of the same race, for convenience, less adjustments.
Normally, no maids, so do your own chores, laundry, ironing, cleaning and cooking.

Shopping:
Orchard - huge chain of malls
Bugis or Chinatown - for tiangges
Bargaining is not 'in', pirated stuff are not allowed.

Race: (roughly)
50% local Singaporeans
30% Indians
20% Filipinos+Malays+Chinese(Mainland)+etc.

Culture/Traditions:
Disciplined, no singitan in queues.
The elders are called 'uncles' and 'aunties' (for tindera, drivers, etc)
Singlish (singaporean english) - 'can can'.. they like that expression meaning 'pwede'.

Cost of living:
Food and Transpo: Low
Rent: High
Pampering stuff: High as well! Cheapest haircut sa tabi-tabi by unknown barbero is 10SGD. A facial or spa will cost 80-100SGD. Dental check-up or tooth extraction, medical consultation - at least 50SGD.
For your 'start-up cost', bring enough money to tide you over your first month. 50K php should be more than enough. If you can stay in a friend's house, then 20-30K probably should be fine.

Hope this helps!

P.S. I'll write another one about work.