Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri To Muslims On WordPress

In lil red dot today, muslims celebrate a special day after one month of holy Ramadan.

I warmly wish all muslim readers a happy hari raya celebration.

Today they will wear new clothes, visit families, friends and feast!

Yes…food such as festive cookies and snacks will be served.

I admire their ability to fast the entire month whilst at work. They must feast up to pile on lost weight haha!

As I have been swamped at work and not catching up with my folks, I made the effort to see them at 7pm last night, though I was dead tired.

I rushed from work to get a haircut for my ugly mop and forgot some documents I needed to do today and had to drag them to my office before we moved on to the airport for my dinner.

By the time I sat down to eat it was 9.30pm. Thankfully I told my parents to eat first before I picked them up as I knew my work schedule was erratic.

In the 2 hours at the airport, I managed to get groceries, eat dinner whilst my parents had desserts and their favorite apam (Indian rice flour pancake) with brown sugar and grated fresh coconut.

I also got dad a chendol, shaved ice with gula melaka (*palm sugar or brown sugar), coconut milk, sweet red beans, kidney beans and green starchy strands. His favorite.

I got mum barley gingko but she did not like it. I boo booed on this choice!

By the time I reached home it was 12.10am.

Though today is a public holiday, I worked the whole day from home.

Monkey Lord and the Board Members tasked me to deliver key performance indicators by 10 August for the entire company, develop an orientation for new board members with insight into last 3 years board papers, develop HR SOPs and policies and give an overview of current organisation structure.

On top of this I have a HR department to run for 160 staff located in 3 different countries.

I have not been this stressed in my entire life as targets are unreasonably short and I only have self plus another assistant.

Lots to do and I have to handle the difficult wife of a 38 year old staff who had a stroke from overworking.

Loads of clean ups and I hope I survive. I woke up puking my guts out from stress and had to drag self to work still.

I don’t know if I can survive this job as it is not a bed of roses. The thorns prick me badly and Monkey Lord wants me to prove self before considering more headcount for me as my last 3 HR head honchos did not survive 6 months. They left in 3 months.

Sigh…I have bad luck indeed! I hope the darn Gods will help me.

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What Is Going On In Lil Red Dot?

I am relieved that the traditional rains have returned. It cooled off some areas and it is nice to have clean crisp air to smell after.

I am unsure if there is any truth in this but I personally feel that after a good rain fall, the air smells cleaner! LOL! Maybe it is just me, associating water with cleaning.

Lots of thought has been going through our government’s mind lately because with global warning, we have had flash floods that never happened before. Hence, the need to widen the Stamford canal and create connectors for the rain water to be diverted into our reservoirs and or in underground caverns. This way, we will also have a good water collection system for our daily usage.

Lil Red Dot is tiny and land scarce. By using the underground for electricity stations, gas and other utilities, it frees the surface for more things such as parks, housing and usable land area.

I wonder if in the decades to come, we will have an underground city? I visited Atlanta, Georgia’s underground city once whilst attending a forum and was really impressed at the amount of shops and vibrant life happening.

I visited the plant for Dr Pepper’s, Mountain Dew and its other labels as they had an area for visitors to their plant to taste the different drinks on tap there. It was fascinating.

The underground city was not stuffy nor claustrophobic as I supposed the whole area was air-conditioned. Lighting was normal, although the cobbled stones gave off a reddish hue.

As the world economy progresses, so does Lil Red Dot as we find smarter or better ways to get things done.

Our Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) *see photo I took below* system is an icon and serves us well. But with a new generation tracking system coming up, we will be getting satellite tracking of our road usage and this translate into chargeable road tax.

These ERP gantries are placed at locations where traffic is heavy and each entry can cost $0.50 to $8 per time depending on time of day usage. It can burn a hole in our pockets.

But it successfully curbs traffic jams.

For me who uses the road only to work and back, take my parents out for an outing or their doctor’s appointments and groceries, my usage of the road is negligible compared to those who run around doing sales or marketing.

I for one, should benefit instead of the current one price for all cars of the same litre size capacity.

Anyway, our government is curbing car population and so there will be ways to penalize us as car owners.

Someone has to pay else we cannot have a country…so we all do our part with taxes and levies etc. Such is life in our lil red dot and we are Singaporeans LOL!

Orange Man & Rocket Man #6 – Finale

I woke up at 2am this morning from the buzz of my cell phone.

It was a live news feed update saying the Orange Man and Rocket man will not meet at the summit in Singapore on 12 June 2018.

Sigh! It was too good to be true really. So much for a world peace opportunity between the two forces that I was hoping for. In fact, I think the world wanted a summit to happen although many felt that it would not happen.

Was it really the egos that tore this golden peace opportunity apart?

Or was Rocket Man unreasonable in that sentence which Orange Man quoted, that the “summit was requested by N Korea?”

Whichever or however we read it, we will never truly know as the rhetoric may be misunderstood or the agendas of both men are only truly known to themselves.

As for lil red dot, life goes on.

It is a shame that the much awaited summit did not happen and that the lil red dot could not play a role in fostering peace between the two of them.

Right now the tempers are flaring between Orange Man and Rocket Man, with citations of Rocket Man ending up as the Libyan Prime Minister being assassinated – Muarmmar Gaddaffi.

Sensitivities of men, generic for male and female genders, usually erupts in miscommunications and misunderstandings. Such is life I feel. It is all about relationships and how we interact with others, including family members.

I tend to be caustic with my 2 siblings as I gave up being the docile and ever on the receiving end sibling 4 years ago because I got fed up with their bullying and selfish ways.

I always told self that these were my blood relatives. But I have come to realise that despite the blood that course through our veins, there never was a sibling bond amongst us.

I gave up trying. I gave up being nice. I gave up being generous.

So, I can imagine when the weight of countries’ citizenry lies on the respective shoulders of Orange Man and Rocket Man, they each have their own perceived right to be selfish for their own “good” the way they perceive it and not how we perceive it.

As to if Orange Man’s threat will materialize, it is left to be seen. But if war breaks out, it will spell the doom of Asia and if nuclear fallout happens, for sure lil red dotters like me will be fried – not steamed nor broiled, but fried with nuclear radiation.

Are the doomsday predictors right? Are we in end times?

Sigh…..I fear of my inanimate furball Garfield’s life!

 

 

After Tuesday’s Ramblings, It’s Tuesday Grumblings….

We all have our daily struggles in life or to be more positive, I was taught to label these as “Challenges” – but the truth is, I prefer to call a spade, a spade and to me, it is a real struggle.

Not in any order of severity, my daily struggles have been, health, job and family. Nothing new, as this is typically the same with people I know, though some do not have health issues.

In our local slang, we always quip, no health, no wealth. This is true, because when someone has health issues, it means earned income is affected and this truncates into no wealth or all the wealth accumulated gets spent on health care. Lil Red Dot does not have a welfare system. We are taught since young that we must be responsible for our own health and finances.

There are no handouts as we must learn to rely on selves. For those who really need a hand out, a rigorous process of means testing is carried out and only families with total earned income of less that $1,500 can qualify for welfare. The process to get a few hundred dollars a month is a tedious one.

For as long as I can remember, I have been battling health issues. Why? I really have no answer but I could easily allude to an old adage that I must have been really evil in past life, to suffer this karma in present life. Seriously, whenever a doctor does any tests such as scans or MRIs, they usually find a misbehaving bone part. LOL!

I have come to accept it in stride and tell self that que sera sera. If it is badly affecting my mobility and it needs to be fixed, then it has to be.

I have never let my ailments dictate my life. I still work and during my hardest and darkest time in life, with all the pain and agony, I still worked hard, doing easily 12 hours a day.

Arenalin helps to alleviate the pain and once I am in the thick of work, pain is forgotten. I work to forget pain.

As I age (we all do really. I checked and unfortunately I am human), I now worry about old age. Is my squirreled away funds enough? Hardly! As a lil red dotter, we all tend to feel that saving for old age is never quite enough as health care is the biggest worry.

Health care can be costly in lil red dot unless one is savvy to outwit and outplay the system by opting for lowest bed class and without selecting your choice of doctors. Doctors will then be junior trainees, starting from medical officers, to registrar and overseen by a Consultant or Senior Consultant. It then goes to the luck of the draw.

But then, all doctors are good doctors – so long as they are not overworked and you help them think.

Property prices in Singapore has been escalating and as apartment units get smaller in size so that it becomes more affordable for people to buy them, this leaves us with little extra room. No hoarding and not much space other than your teeny tiny rooms, dining and hall both collapsed into one and a shelter for you to return to at night, to sleep and get out.

With foreign talent stopped from entering Singapore through tightening of work passes – because our locals clamored for saving our jobs, passive income earned from rental for retirees who invested in property are almost negligible as properties remain vacant with no or little take up rate.

With supply more than demand, it is a buyer’s market.

For those who qualify for government housing, brand new built to order flats can range from $450,000 upwards, depending on location and size. For those who do not qualify for government housing, will resort to private housing and such tiny condominiums can range from $800,000 upwards.

I once saw an advertisement for a condominium priced at SGD13 million!

So, back to my proverbial question of how do I retire? How can I retire? How do I survive beyond retirement?

Do I do what others do? Buy a second property and hopefully see it as a future source of passive income? Buy stocks and shares and pray the market does not collapse? I hate risky instruments!

Or buy an annuity that pays a monthly income till age 82 and pray for 2 things, that I keel over and croak by then and curse if I live beyond that as penniless and pray that the insurance company does not belly up or else it is game over!

Tons of unanswerable questions and I am none the wiser as to how to retire!

Ah well, back to the drawing board to redo my retirement sums again!

 

News In Asia & The Homefront

Lil Red Dot is still planning for the inagural summit in June 2018.

Orange Man has not outright said “No” and Rocket Man has kept silent since the last outburst.

I hope for the sake of the world, sanity prevails for the 2 naughty “boys” and world peace is achieved.

Datuk Tun Mahatir, the 92 year old PM of Malaysia has succeeded in getting the royal pardon for Anwar who was imprisoned for 20 years for sodomy. He has since been released and at age 70 is the de facto PM.

Anwar has shared that he will travel, spend time with family and do speaking engagements before getting to Cabinet. His wife is currently the Dy PM and his daughter, an MP.

Tun Mahatir said that he will be PM for 2 years as by then he would be 94 years old. Many shared that he looked 70 years old and I agree as he is both witty, sharp and dapper!

Meanwhile Ex PM Najib’s future is looking bleak as police had raided his homes and found towering orange boxes of Birkin Bags costing up tp tens of thousands each bag. There is even one Birkin Bag touted to be encrusted in diamonds.

Media reports said that a money counting machine was brought to count staggering amounts of cash in his raided homes.

I think that Najib is in a spot of trouble and that the 1MDB matter will be reopened for misappropriation of state funds.

On the home front in lil red dot, we have 2 big bazzaars for Ramadan held at Geylang Serai and 1 Tampines Hub.

Loads of yummy malay treats including novel ideas of Tulang in a plastic tub for sale with noodles.

Tulang is a bone marrow soupy dish of mutton or beef. I have not tried it but many fans of soup Tulang enjoys this dish.

I was tired out after half a day with mum. She was chided by a fellow patient waiting for their turn to stop whining about doing a urine test. She was advised against being stubborn and use a proper walking stick.

Yes, mum has decided to stick with a flimsy plastic umbrella as her walking stick and refused to use the red orchid one at the Botanics. I failed miserably in trying to get her to go to the shop there with her to buy it.

I am tired of her whining and she left the clinic’s doctor after he said that she probably had muscular spasms. The same opinions of cardiologist and family practitioner.

She said that her family practitioner is a “useless doctor” and is paranoid that she is having the same cancers of her late sister (liver cancer) and friend (lung cancer).

The mind is a powerful tool and if she wills it for cancer, then it will happen.

Come August, I will take her to see a geriatrician and subject her to the myriad if tests she wants to hunt for cancer.

This will not do her any good but if it is to feed her paranoia, I have to do it and in August I will be swamped with plenty of her ridiculous medical tests to find what she wants.

I just hope that my new employer will allow me to attend to her silliness.

I wanted to ask mum…so what if we find the cancer you want? What next?

Mum has very poor threshold for pain and all because of her fall and muscular spasms she alludes to similiar severity of pain as her sister and friend in end stage cancers of liver and lung.

I am frustrated with the personality changes of mum and her changes to cause her to swear at me in front of a crowded hospital area that I will face own suffering and cancers as her because I will not back down on wanting her to practise good hygiene after toilet and using a proper walking stick. She told everyone that I am a very bad daughter.

I stayed cool and told the same audience that my mum need not swear or curse at me as I am already suffering pain everyday since 18 years old and that my pain never lets down. Plus I am single and so my karma is a wicked one as I will not have the luxury of a child or sibling to care about me when I grow old.

I then smiled at mum and said…”satisfied now?”

Nemesis

To learn about my nemesis,

I need to write a thesis!

My nemesis has severely affected me and my outlook of life. I have come to know of a dark side of the world that I never knew existed in my journey of life.

I started as a friend to my nemesis.

I gave friendship generously and believing that my nemesis was a genuine good guy, trusted and built a good foundation for a loving but honest relationship.

Nemesis lies. But then as Gregory House of House MD would quip, ” everybody lies” LOL.

Nemesis not only lies but is practically a proverbial or habitual liar that makes a living out of lying! I applause with aplomb to his antics.

Nemesis tells me “we are friends. Friendship has no contract”

One word I told him – Buffoon!

Friendship contracts exist. There is no prescribed form but they are essentially social contracts!

Puhlleeese Nemesis can never be a friend as he is clueless about friendships.

To Nemesis, the equation to friendship is $!

The >the $, the better the friendship.

The < the $, the lesser the friendship.

What makes one a good friend?

Are good faith, trust and honesty, the cornerstones of friendships?

Thoughts anyone?

More On Dr M’s Swearing In Ceremony As PM of Malaysia

I have been following closely the reports leading to the swearing in ceremony of new Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. I am not a Malaysian but I am interested as Malaysia is our closest neighbor and having a lot of Malaysian friends.

Chicken who is holed up in her workplace is fueling my interest as she shared that her colleagues there were equally excited and seem to know the events faster than it was being reported on social media or a formal news announcement.

Outgoing Mr Najib commented that since Dr M won as part of a coalition, the constitution does not automatically allows him to be PM and that a decision to announce who is PM is to be made by the King.

Supports of Dr M immediately went off to the King with a supporting letter for Dr M to be sworn in. He is now with the King, at the appointed time of 5pm.

I put myself in Najib’s shoes and really feel his lousy state of mind. He never expected this as he has been riding high on the waves of his power. So, this is a huge blow to him, his ego and pride.

I suppose there will be an investigation and there are rumors suggesting that Najib may fly the coop and disappear into a country such as Switzerland to get away from any prosecutorial actions by the new leaders.

Anwar must be happy that he will finally get a royal pardon and be released from his jail sentence and take over Dr M as PM.

Dr M has guts I must admit as to run an election at age 92 requires a lot of effort and stamina. He has it all and is surprisingly witty and sharp to address media questions.

I am watching this as it unfolds and how Dr M will take Najib to task and account for the 1MDB matter.

Frankly, I never expected a 92 year old could pull the rug under Najib.

Let’s see how it pans out and I will keep you all posted on the state of affairs as it can impact my lil red dot too. I remember how feisty Dr M was towards our late PM Lee Kuan Yew and because of their differences, a crooked road exists, causing our Woodlands Checkpoint to be really awkward to drive through.

Dr M has threatened us with a crooked bridge before if the causeway link needs to be rebuilt and he may well make that happen. Peace and co-operation is much required given such tense times and I hope this Najib matter will quietly resolve and not add a new dimension of concern to trade or business between other ASEAN nations.

 

With Mahathir Mohamad Winning Elections, What’s Next For Malaysia?

Singapore is at the end of Malaysian peninsular and was once upon a time, a part of Malaysia till we became independent on 9 August 1965. So, it was natural of me to be nosey about how the elections for a new government would result in.
There has been much scandal surrounding then PM Najib, The 1MDB alleged wrongdoings, how his missus is flaunting wealth and their high standards of living have alluded to corruption in his government.
So much so, Dr Mahathir at age 92 came out to contest the seat for PM and won it well. At age 92, he has got to be world’s oldest Prime Minister ( I think Churchill was old too, but not this old!) to take this on, is no joke and I am impressed with his beliefs to set things right. He has said that he will use the law and take on PM Najib for alleged wrongdoings. Hmm if I ever lived to age 92, I wonder if I would be senile or loopy! A shout out to all seniors here that if Mahathir can do it, why can’t you! Live, love and carry on…who knows, you all might be the world’s new leaders! LOL!
I received a video joke from friends who recorded a picture of Najib speaking in Cantonese asking “Tony” if there is an available plane for him to fly out and take cover! The creativity of netizens never cease to amaze me!
There were also allegations of corruption during his term in office for Dr Mahathir but I suppose no proof were obtained.
It is common knowledge that corruption can be rife in governments of countries. But I am hazarding a guess that there is what we call, “organized corruption”, versus “disorganized corruption”.
The former refers to governments who take but do share some of the spoils with its people. Not too much is taken but a moderated amount. People and those involved in corruption are reasonably happy.
The latter, which is disorganized corruption is dangerous as it means, it is free for all and none for others. This makes economic progress for the country difficult and its people tend to suffer with low standards of living and the rich and poor divide getting wider.
Then PM Najib did not do very much for its people – this is from what I have read in the news or received feedback from friends of mine who are Malaysians.
I hope now that with Mahathir, things will get better and that he will keep the seat warm for Anwar.
I wish the best for Malaysians and its future and that Mahathir will continue to cooperate with Singapore for the High Speed Rail between Singapore and Malaysia.
May both countries continue to cooperate and grow in strength as Malaysia and its people strive for better growth!

Tide – One Word Prompt

Time and tide waits for no man…this is my advice for all children with elderly parents.

Please spend as much time you can whilst they are alive.

When they age, so will you.

When they fall ill, be there for them.

When they pass on after living a rich and full life, we then have no regrets to rue over.

No point banging heads to say “oh why didn’t I do this or that!”

No use as your time with them are finite. We are all not infinite.

My mum is doing better and has been discharged as I do not wish for her to get cross infections.

She will continue on with medical care as an outpatient.

For now it is vascular and muscular issues and there is little that can be done other than watchful monitoring with local embrocations or rubs.

I am challenged as with the new job, I will need to undergo probation and with the many days I need to escort my elderlies for medical checkups, I pray the new employer will be compassionate. I honestly declared I need this.

I hope and pray they keep their words.

Meanwhile, I really need to rest as I am so tired. Now that mum is settled, I am feeling unwell.

They say that adrenalin gets one going regardless of being unwell and so I did.

As I lie down, I realise just how tired I am.

Gaarrrfield…where are you…I need a hug!!

And some laughs…

Observe – One Word Prompt

I was shocked when I arrived at the hospital to be told by my mum that she had another ‘attack’.

She shared that it occured at around 8am in the morning.

I scurried as fast as my legs could take me to the nurses’ station to find answers.

A very junior trainee doctor who was at my mum’s bedside started explaining about a colleague calling and making a mistake.

I was clueless as to what she was trying to share with me and so I led the conversation by asking just what was she talking about.

It was as if Junior Doctor was from Flintstone era and I was from Simpson’s era.

My mouth silently screamed..” Focus Junior Doctor…Focus…listen to my voice and reply to my questions!”

But I was no Chris Angel or illusionist! Sigh!

I then put on my best imitation of Duke of Yore and asked her point blank about my mum’s condition.

She then told me that after a heart medication was given, my mum was ok. ECG was normal.

Hmm…I observed that this junior doctor was incoherent to begin with and did not make sense.

If medication was administered during an ‘attack’ and ECG followed after medication and it was normal – wouldn’t it mean that the drug worked and of course ECG would be normal right?

What about during the “attack”? Was my mum’s ECG normal before the drug was administered?

Junior doctor could not answer me.

On asking if a consultant could speak with me on my mum’s condition, Junior Doctor said everyday there is a different consultant! No point talking to them! Huh?!

Hoo boy! Now Junior Doctor is bizarre. I know enough about hospitals and that medical care is led by a team leader consultant. Patients are not pushed from pillar to post.

Off I went to look for the nurse manager…maybe she has better answers for me and could help me get the consultant in charge to meet with me.

I offered to camp there from 4am tomorrow if required to catch the elusive Consultant. But I need to leave by 5pm as I had a meeting with Duke of Yore at 7pm.

I asked the Nurse Manager as to why are Consultants putting selves in ivory towers and not allowing relatives to speak with them?

I find it unacceptable and told the Nurse Manager firmly.

My firmness paid off as I observed the seriousness of my tone woke up the Nurse Manager to realise that I can be a royal pain in this ward’s ass!🤣

Next thing I knew, the Registrar or doctor in charge of Junior Doctor showed up to speak with me. Hurray!

Good news is that my mum’s tests for Holter and Echo were “normal abnormal” for people of her age.

MIBI test results will only be available tomorrow. I asked if being at the ward by 7am will get me answers?

Registrar said it may not be ready.

But Registrar assured me that he would call me once he gets the results tomorrow and a face to face meet up can also be arranged. I did not need to be there at 7am.

The “attack” was not a heart attack but “could be” a vascular spasm by smaller arteries.

It seems that for a person who has been stented before, over time the smaller arteries around the stent could develop vascular spasms.

My own take on this is that it could be a mix of vascular and muscular spasms.

Mum being old and when prodded would feel pain easily and mum mistakes this as a ‘painful lump’ when it is actually a bone.

But if pain is localised, I asked the Registrar if it could be stomach or intestinal blockage or “cancerous tumor?” if the heart is discounted.

There are no red flags like anaemia or weight loss or a hardened stomach.

I am praying hard that the MIBI tests plus stress tests tomorrow shows my mum’s heart functioning as best for a person of her age.

If not, then an angiogram is required.

I hope not. I hope all is good for MIBI and that mum can be discharged tomorrow.

Meanwhile my blood pressure is through the roof with all this stress.

I am tired….oh soooo very tired….

Gaaaarrrrfield where are you…..I need a hug😊

I hope to update all my dear friends on WordPress tomorrow on good news.

Thank you all for your kind wishes, prayers and thoughts.

You were all better than my siblings who did not offer me any sympathy or compassion.

I am deeply grateful for your kind care and concern.

Good night from my end.💕💕