My new workplace!

It's been almost a month since I started work at my new place at MOE. I'm very happy to be here and would like to show my readers how my new work place looks like. It is a large canteen at the MOE(Ministry of Education) building in Buona Vista catering to the staff as well as workers in the area. However, outsiders have to obtain security passes to enter the canteen. For some reasons, the security is tight here. Nevertheless, the crowd is good, the business is good and I am sure my boss is a happy man!

Work begins at 6.15am. My boss made me in-charge of the keys so I have to be the first one to be there and the last one to leave. I leave my home at about 5.30am to take the first train from Bedok MRT to Buona Vista MRT and usually get to work at about 6 to 6.10am. I usually leave work at about 6pm when the canteen closes.

While this is still a 12 hour day, the hours and place are fixed so at least I can plan for my own private life. For example, I can plan to meet some friends after work or even buy some groceries. The 12 hour work day is not even an issue as I have been working a 12 hour plus day since I first came to Singapore more than 2 years ago. Believe me, life in my hometown in China is much tougher. Besides a 12 hour plus day, we have to cope with poor and unreliable public transport and road / weather conditions and most of all, a rather insignificant pay package of less than SGD200 (USD165) per month. In my previous work place, it is almost impossible as the boss will hold me back or change my schedule at the last minute.

"Any recommendations from my readers ... will be most appreciated."

We also do not work Saturday and Sunday. This leaves me time and I intend to use this valuable time to take up some courses (once I have saved up enough money). First on the list will be an English course and second will be some IT courses that will help me to use the computer more effectively. Any recommendations from my readers on English courses and / or IT courses (use of word/excel) will be most appreciated. I also hope to buy my own computer once I have enough money. Currently, I have to use the cybercafe near my home, which can be a little inconvenient.

Enjoy the pictures I had taken for you!

Finally made my 10 rounds in jogging!

Ok this is going to be a short one. Yesterday (Saturday), I was kind of bored so I decided to go jogging again in the evening at the Bedok stadium. Well, I finally made my 10 rounds target! Not a big deal really, it's just 4 kilometers but still it was tough after having been out of shape for so long. But it does really feel good after the run... a little dehydrated but nevertheless, a good feeling. See the picture on the right... I was pouring wet after the run.

So what's next. Well, I'm going for 5 kilometers and thats another 2.5 rounds making it a total of 12.5 rounds. That will be my final target because I don't want to have knee problems when I get older. I'm going to get my pay soon (2 Dec), so I'll go buy a pair of running shoes. We'll see!

Wonderful healthy porridge!

Last night, I came home but decided not to have dinner. However, by 9pm I was starving and for some reason, another of my room mate was also starving. We decided to take a stroll out for dinner. Well the stroll turned out longer than expected. We took a train to Tanah Merah MRT and walked to Simpang Bedok where my friend knew of a good porridge stall.

While we eat a lot of porridge at home in China, I had never had the opportunity to have porridge here. Firstly I don't know where sells them and secondly, it's difficult to order for one person and I often eat alone. Also, it probably does not make economical sense for me to spend anything close to four or five dollars for my dinner. I don't eat much and usually a bowl of SGD2.50 noodle or rice will serve me well for almost a day.

In any case, we were really starving so we ordered three dishes and a soup and two bowls of porridge. It was wonderful, very refreshing and I would think, very healthy too as there was hardly any oil. The soup was good too... black chicken soup. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, we vowed to be back the next time there is reason to spend a couple of dollars more for dinner. The total bill for two came up to SGD8.50... costly (by my standard) but good and in my opinion, worth every cent!

My Pigtails!

Today, I got a little bored, so I decided to try a little something different with my hair! They are long, so tied them into two pigtails! I thought this is quite convenient because they are easily controlled and do not look messy.

At my new place of work, there is a regulation that says that all females working in the canteen must have their long hair neatly tied up for hygenic reasons. This is to prevent their hair from falling into the food or even just taking a an unwelcomed dip into a bowl of soup or a cup of coffee! Makes alot of sense actually. Fortunately, we are not working in a factory environment where you hair can get caught in the machinery and pose a safety hazard.

My colleagues thinks I am trying to look young or cute! That wasn't my intention. There are a few reasons I keep my hair long. Long hair gives you many options of doing up your hair and if you really do not feel like it, you can literally "let your hair down"!

The other reason is that it cost alot to have your hair cut in Singapore and I am not sure what hairstyle suits me, so I rather not take the risk during my two years stay here. Two years isn't a long time and can pass at the blink of an eye. So I've decided to take the risk back home when I get back to China. At least when I mess up my hair, I can still choose to stay home and help my mother do the farming, feed the chickens and ducks, plough the land, harvest the crops... where nobody will see me! Even a country girl can be vain you know?

Squabble at home...

The other day, I returned home to hear my landlord and one of the tenant squabbling. The subject of the squabble was the washing machine (picture on right). The landlord claims that the washing machine was damaged because when the tenant wash her clothes, she did not ensure that everything was removed from the pockets. This resulted in the washing machine being damaged that day. He then said that he wanted each tenant to pay SGD5 for each tub of washing if he gets us a new washing machine, until the machine price is paid for.

The tenant, a teacher, was very unhappy over this and insisted that it was the landlord's duty to provide the washing machine. The damage was coincidental and there was no way to prove that it was caused by items in the pockets of the clothes being washed. She claims the landlord should look at it as just a cost of doing business. Afterall, we are all paying him SGD210 per month for bed space in a room packed with 4-6 persons. That's alot of money!

Well, she has a point too! The landlord once told me he rented the place for SGD1,600. Currently we have 9 tenants and that means he's collecting SGD1,890 from us. Plus he gets to stay for free... so he makes an extra SGD290 a month, some of which goes to pay the utilities etc... Not sure if it makes good business sense??? Maybe it does... if you take into account his own stay... it adds up to almost SGD500 extra a month after deducting about SGD100 for utilities!

I really don't know who is right here because I don't know the cause of the damage. Thankfully for me, I usually wash my clothes manually when I have my shower at the same time. I try to wash a set everyday so I don't end up with too much clothes to wash over the weekend. And it just does not make sense to use the washing machine when I only wash one set of clothes. The only time I used the washing machine is when I have to change the bedsheets!

In any case, my landlord (on the right) bought a second-hand washing machine the last time for about SGD120 and it had lasted till now (that's almost 2 years), not bad or a second-hand washing machine! And I am quite sure he will not buy a new washing machine for us anyway! But for most of us, a washing machine is a washing machine.... used or new!

A friend once told me that I could get a room for 2 persons for about SGD450 to SGD500 and avoid the "congestion". Well, I did get a room for SGD450 in Punggol for two persons but in Bedok, it is alot harder as Bedok is a crowded town and demand is higher than supply! If I could get a simple room to share with a friend for SGD450 to SGD500, I would because it would just mean SGD15 to SGD25 more each month for me... a price worth paying for the peace, privacy and not having to queue to use the toilets!

Incidentally, the next day, I decided to wash my bedsheets and gave the washing machine a try.... and.... it was working again! So the squabble was all wasted effort.

Can somebody help find a job for my sister?

Ever since coming to Singapore, I have been calling home on a regular basis; every few nights or so. Most of the time, I call home to speak to my mother, just so she is not unduly worried about me being so far away. My parents have been country folks all their life. They've never traveled out of their city, not to mention the country and to them, any foreign place is bad! How can I blame them?

The other person who is always eager to talk to me is my sister. She's been bugging me to get her a job in Singapore. I guess she does not know that the government is reducing the number of foreign workers (at least for now) and it is really really difficult to find her a good job. She knew that I changed jobs and she thinks that it must be very easy for me to change my job, so why is it that I am taking so long to find her a job. Before I left, I promised to help her look for a job and since I came, I have been looking at the papers almost daily and calling prospective employers. Most of them just want PR's and "S" passes.

My sister is so eager she is all packed and ready to come. She even made me give her my bigger suitcase. That's how determined she is.

I kind of dread calling back because I know she will snatch the phone from my mom and ask me about the job and I have to keep giving her the bad news (that I have not found a job for her).

Can any of my readers help her? She is good looking, hardworking and smart too. Unfortunately like me, we never had the opportunity to further our studies due to financial reasons. However, I know she is willing to pick-up and learn just about anything.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Took a long good bath before I came to Singapore

When I went back to China at the end of October after resigning from Bread Junction, the weather was beginning to get really cold. Most days, we were experiencing less than 5 degrees celcius and together with the rain and wind (wind chill), it can be absolutely freezing. It's that time of the year again, when taking a bath is a big big chore, much as we want to keep clean! To make matters worse, the rain was pouring almost everyday and many parts of the region were experiencing their worst floods!

As I mentioned in one of my older post, when the weather gets really cold, taking a bath becomes a real problem for us country folks. We do not have hot water or even a heating system in the house and we have to walk out of the house to take a bath as the bathroom is located outside the house about 20m away. We can boil hot water but imaging having to cart them 20m in the cold to take a shower?

So this trip, I intentionally made a trip to the bath house just before I came back to Singapore. I wanted to take some pictures of the inside for you readers to see what it is like. Naturally I cannot take pictures in the actual bathing areas as most of us will be in our "birthday suit", but the general area is fine for picture taking. So here are some pictures for you to enjoy. The one on the right shows the price list for the various services as well.

One of my Singaporean friends saw it, and he said that it is quite similar to some of the "men only" spas in Singapore. Well, I have not been to one of these, so I really don't know. But I can say that they are very popular in the winter in the colder parts of China for both male and females. We have separate areas of course and some of these bath houses are quite luxuriously appointed that we actually spend quite a few hours there each time. Enjoy the pictures!

Jogging to better health!

With my current job, I have more time than I am used to. I work from 6am to 6pm and thereafter it's back home and I am free. While it is nice, sometimes, you are at a loss as to what to do??? For a few months now, I've not had a life at all, it's work, work, work from dawn to dusk... so now, I had better start thinking about how I can best use the little extra time I have.

For a start, I went jogging last evening. I love to exercise but I have not had much of an opportunity to do much of it in the last few years since I started work in Singapore. So I decided I must start jogging again. My place is quite near the Bedok stadium and that's probably the best place to start. I'm still not too familiar with the roads, so I don't want to get lost in Singapore. I know I won't get lost running round the Bedok stadium! I was wearing a cheap pair of China made shoes which I used for work. I will try a few more times jogging and if all goes well, I must get myself a pair of proper jogging shoes... maybe after my first pay day at this new job!

Well, I jogged 5 rounds for a start yesterday. That's about 2km. Not a lot but for a start and after letting my body rust away for so long, that's not to bad, I think! I intend to build up to 10 rounds, so that's about 4km by in a couple of months time. When I was in school, I used to run the 1,500m... so I still think I have a little of that running genes in me still. Hope they are not all lost to age....

I was a little surprised at the number of people jogging last night. The track was quite full with people of all ages who seem to be keen in keeping fit. I saw an old man of about 60+ and I saw kids as young as 8, I guess, together with their parents. It's nice to know Singaporeans are keeping fit. We need that in an ageing society!

Went to Church on Sunday

Some time back, a friend of mine staying at Bedok brought me to a church on Sunday. Since my friend left, I've not been to church. However, last weekend, for the first time, I had 3 full days off. I never felt so restless as I've had almost no day off (well actually once in two long weeks) while working at Bread Junction... So all of a sudden, when I don't have to work weekends plus the long Deepavali holiday... I felt like a free bird and at a loss as to what to do!

I spent most of my time at the Bedok library... for the air-conditioning, peacefulness as well as to read some books. I was looking for some Chinese books that teaches English. I figured that if I had some free time, the best thing to do is to brush up my little English! Also, home in Bedok is just way too crowded and noisy, and sometimes I enjoy a little peace... so it's nice to get away from the house for a while.The Bedok Library has always been my sanctuary... a place to get away for a little peace and quiet!

God works in mysterious ways!

I decided to go to church on Sunday too... on my own.

Interestingly, after so long not being there, I was surprised that some of them still recognize me and were pleased to see me there. I felt good too, especially when they said that they prayed that I will be back in church to join them. I've never been a regular anyway, as my friend was not always around to take me there, so it came as a pleasant surprise that they still recognize me.

It was a nice experience and I even had my lunch there. Somehow, I felt at home. God works in mysterious ways!

My first taste of "real" Roti Prata!

Recently, my friends suggested that we try some Indian food and I agreed. I like hot, spicy and sour food, especially hot and spicy noodles and curry.

My work starts at 11am on this day so we made our way to Sembawang where The Prata Place is known to serve some of the best roti prata in Singapore (or at least thats what I heard) at about 7.30am. This place is really quite far away and I would never have found it on my own! We ordered one Banana Prata, one Cheese Prata and another Paper Prata together with some fish curry together with the almost mandatoryTeh Tarik (milk tea made the Indian way with a foamy top just like bear!).

One thing that surprised me when I got there was that while I understand that Roti Prata is Indian food, the whole shop was filled with Chinese... or is it just that Indians do not take breakfast? Maybe we were early but the shop was already quite packed, with barely any empty tables.

In any case, the Prata was excellent. 很好吃！It was crispy and dry. While this was not really my first taste of Roti Prata, this was definitely my first taste of really good Prata. I tried Prata once in a Punggol food center near where I stayed but the prata was cold, soggy and oily. It was all ready made. This one was really different and the long journey from Punggol to Sembawang was definitely worth the extra effort. And the bill for 3 persons only came up to $8.70. That's quite reasonable considering that it was air-conditioned and we all had Teh Tarik too!

If you have not tried Roti Prata, you must try this place!

Farewell my friend!

Sunday was my friend, Jian Wei's last day in Singapore. On Monday, she will be flying back to China and she has no plans to come back to work again... at least for now. Besides being a great friend when I had the opportunityt work with her in Chai Chee, she is also the reason I am able to come back and work for my ex-boss again. Otherwise, I could have been stuck at Bread Junction for the next two years. I had always wanted to continue to work for my ex-boss and I am really really happy that this opportunity has materialize. I will cherish this job for sure!

Please don't get me wrong! I'm grateful for Bread Junction for offering me a job but I really felt like I was pushed around like a... like a... "spare tire". I'm OK if the company compensates me for all the transportation going back and forth, sometimes twice a day to different locations... but then again, that's a subject for another post!

I met up with Jian Wei on Sunday to bid her farewell and had a good steamboat dinner with her near the Kallang MRT. The place was crowded with Chinese Nationals. Somehow, we Chinese have a habit of congregating together, don't we?

We caught up on old times and she gave me some tips on working at the new location located at the Ministry of Education on North Buona Vista Drive. I also thank her for the opportunity she had opened up for me and I sincerely hoped we will continue to keep in touch as good friends are not so easy to come by.

Thank you Jian Wei (if you are reading this)... I wish you well, I wish you a pleasant journey and I hope to see you again!

I'm back... yet again!

Saturday was a tough but satisfying day. I had to make my way to Shenyang Airport which is about 2hours bus ride away. The weather was freezing cold now in this part of China averaging about 5 degrees Celsius not counting wind chill factor. My flight was at 6.30pm from Shenyang to Beijing and thereafter, I have another flight to catch at midnight to Singapore after a 3hr transit in Beijing. The picture shows me in a bus on the way to the airport.

I reached Singapore at 5.30am in the morning at Terminal 1... what an unearthly hour. I still have to make my way to Bedok but in the meantime, I was really starving...

As I write this, I am now back in Bedok. I will take a good rest and on Monday, I have to go for my medical check-up again before I start work at my previous boss location near Buona Vista. I'm really looking forward to working with my previous boss and colleagues again. Later today, I will meet with my ex-colleague who will be leaving Singapore tomorrow. In fact, it is because she had chosen to leave Singapore that I managed to get this job, so I am going to buy her a good dinner, thank her and bid her good bye! I'm going to miss her but I am sure we will keep in touch!

Great News!

Just before I quit my job and came home to China, I received great news from my ex-boss while working at Chai Chee. They called me to say that one of the Chinese girls working there will have her contract coming up for renewal soon, and she (the chinese worker) had decided that she would like to go back to China to get married and will not be renewing her contract. This Chinese worker also happens to be a good friend of mine as well.

My ex-boss wants to hire me to replace her, now that he has one headcount freed up and of course I said "Yes" immediately. Today, I received good news that the application to have me come back to work has been approved and they want me to start work on 1st Nov! Wow!

So I guess part of the secret is out. One of the reasons I decided to quit was because my ex-boss wanted to hire me and I much prefer to work for my ex-boss as I am more familiar with the people and job and I will not be pushed around from one location to another almost on a daily basis. It's really not a big problem but it adds alot of additional cost for me to travel back and forth.

I'm looking forward to coming back to Singapore again. Yes, I incurred some cost having to come back to China and then back to Singapore as the system does not allow me to remain in Singapore, but I had to make that sacrifice for the job I want. These two pictures were taken some time back in Singapore but that is exactly how I would have looked if you can see me now... HAPPY!

See you soon!

We have to pay for a missing ladder!

Recently while working at the Tampines branch of Bread Junction, my boss discovered that an aluminium ladder he had in the shop was missing. He had kept the aluminium ladder at the back of the shop and it is used when we need to keep ingredients, bags etc... in the upper storage areas. Since starting work in the shop, I had never used the ladder before. In fact, it was mostly used by my male colleagues at the back, almost never at the front which is where we work.

What was most interesting was that my boss told one of the guys to go out and buy another one as it was needed urgently. Well, I thought that was it... why kick up a fuss over the loss of a ladder? It must have been either kept away somewhere in the shop or someone must have borrowed it and have not returned it yet. So either borrow one for the time being or buy another one like he did.

It was therefore a big surprise to me when our shop manager announced the next day that she will be collecting eight dollars ($8) from each of us the following day. I told her I did not have any money and if they want me to pay, they will have to deduct it from my next paycheck. The ladder cost $40 and there were five of us working in the shop and hence the $8 each. Needless to say, I was not very pleased with this at all!

"How can this be?" I thought to myself. So if the boss loses money when his business is bad, does that mean we have to pay to run his business? Does he share his profits with us when he makes lots of profits? I bet not! What if after a few days, he happens to find the ladder somewhere in the shop, then what? Would we get a refund of our $8? This is really unreasonable.

Hmmm.... well, beggars cannot be choosers! I'm just voicing my thoughts here and to let readers know what working as a migrant worker is like... the perils we have to go through every day. As I said before, its not all a bed of roses. But if we want to choose to work here, we either accept that we will be $8 poorer the next month or we have to find somewhere else to work!

Bye for now!

23 Oct was my last day in Singapore... for now at least. I have to head to the airport at about 9pm, so I will be busy packing most of this day as well as run some necessary chores. I had a really busy day moving my stuff from Punggol to be kept at my previous landlord's place at Bedok. He had become a good friend after staying there for so long in the past. However, when I first went in to his flat in Bedok, I got a big shock... the place was a complete mess. He had taken in more chinese workers (and I thought the government is clamping down on this) and now there are more than 10 people living in a little 2 bedroom flat. Look at the amount of clothes hanging in the living room!

At lunch, I went to Bread Junction at Punggol to bid farewell to Wen Wen, my new found friend. I was so sad to have to leave her for now at least. We had a good talk and I also bid farewell to some other people I knew from next door, the barber shop. We had become friends too. I was almost reluctant to leave but I had to make my way to Tampines to see my boss the last time to collect my documents and paycheck before I leave.

That's Wen Wen in the picture on the left, taken just before I left. Ha ha, she is a little shy...

I went to Bread Junction in Tampines at about 3pm to collect my last paycheck and my Worker's Permit cancellation letter as well as my passport so that I can leave the country. My boss had refused to give it back to me earlier. And to my surprised, he deducted $85 for three Bread Junction T-shirts which was supposed to be our uniform. How can this be? I even brought the uniform back to return them. Should this not be part of his operating cost? And even if he charges it to us, $85 for three shabby T-Shirts is definitely too much! This is a rip-off! Even Giordano charges less for their nice branded T-shirts. Obviously, I knew he was going to pull something out from his sleeves at the last moment, so I was prepared not to be upset. He wanted me to collect my pay and passport on the last day, so that if I were unhappy in any way, there is nothing I could do as I will be leaving the country... dirty tricks just like what the Skye Imperial Hot Pot City did to the old lady and the younger singer I had wrote about before.

After collecting my stuff, I took the opportunity to say goodbye to the nice lady from Shenyang working at the food court. That's her in the picture on the right in pink. Isn't she a nice looking lady? Unfortunately the toilet auntie had not arrived, otherwise I would have loved to see her one final time as well.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I headed back to Bedok to do my final packing for the trip tonight. When I came back, the Bedok guys and gals were playing mahjong and it was another big mess, but I had to slog on and not be distracted as time continued to tick away.

20 October 2010 was my last day working for Bread Junction

Yes, I finally told the boss that I have decided I did not want to work anymore. Some of you may have recalled that I had fought so hard to have a job in Singapore and was elated to have finally got here. So why call it quits? Well, it's too early to tell you why but as a minimum, I have to tell my readers that I have decided to quit. I will be leaving for China on Saturday evening.

However, I will continue to update my blog, Facebook and Twitter account so that my readers will know what is going on. I look forward to being home and taking lots of new pictures.

While this particular stay is short, I have made lots of good friends. The old lady looking after the toilet is one of these and there is another lady selling rice at the coffee shop round the corner. They both have been wonderful friends. I've also got to know the lady clearing the rubbish on the right. Also I must mentioned Wen Wen, my colleague in Bread Junction at Punggol. She's been a motivation for me and a great help as well. I always look forward to being in Punggol so that I can be with her. Interestingly, on my last day, one of my readers nicknamed "Cucumber" came to visit me and we had a small chat as I was also rather busy. It was a nice feeling to meet some of my readers! Thank you "Cucumber", for visiting!

Yesterday (21 Oct), I went back to the see the Old Lady at the Toilet and the Coffee Shop lady and I bought them both a small packet (300g) of Bee Cheng Hiang  barbecued sliced pork. They were both so grateful. We exchanged phone numbers and I promised to come back to see them should I be back in Singapore again. I also took the opportunity to go back to my old work place at Chai Chee to see my ex-colleagues and friends. Many old customers recognized me! It was a wonderful feeling!

So do keep in touch readers... I'll be back!

No Regrets! 不要后悔！

今天我的心情很糟糕，也很内疚，好像有一块石头压在我心理叫我喘不出气来，我想起我婆婆讲给我的一句话，世界上什么都可以买就是买不到后悔药，过去的事情和时间是无法挽回的，我现在要加油去做我喜欢做的事情，不管是成功还是失败我都会坦然面对，哈哈！加油！加油！我一定会成功的，因为。。。。。。

哈哈！我是一位辛福的人

Is this true?

When I first came to Singapore about 2 years ago, my chinese colleagues warned me not to get too close to our female Singapore colleagues. Their experience is that many Singapore women do not like mainland Chinese women. Naturally this piqued my curiosity and I asked them to elaborate.

They told me it's just a feeling from the way they were treated as far as work is concerned. The few Singaporean female workers seem to behave more "bossy" towards them and tend to load them with work, even though the boss has clearly defined the roles.

Personally, I have not experienced such bias towards us Chinese female workers and in fact, quite often, I do get a strange look from my own Chinese colleagues. My personal experience with local women so far has been very pleasant. Most understand that we are far from home and are usually very nice and sympathetic towards us (or me at least).

About half a year into work, I was still curious to know if this was really true, so I gathered up my courage to ask one of my closer local friend whom I met while working.

She explained that this is generally untrue but in some cases, it could be because there has been many stories about how mainland Chinese women "snatched" away the husbands of many local women. If they did not literally "snatched" them away while in Singapore, they "stole" their hearts while they (the husbands) were on business trips in China. This may be the cause of the occasional "hatred" some of us may have experienced.

This is certainly interesting... and I guess it was only a woman's point of view. What about the man's point of view? Is this true, my male readers?