Skip to main content

this and that

Chinese New Year falls on 26-27 January 2009. So it looks like we can try to go back in Feb again (pending other co-workers travelling plans of course). Hao has just been officially informed that he will not be allowed to take more than 2 weeks off from work - just short trips. i'm hoping to be able to stay longer, maybe a month. so that i can get some quality time with everyone at home.

another long 3-day weekend due to Labour Day holiday on monday. yeps, labour day falls on the first monday of sept, unlike in sgp. here all holidays other than christmas and new year's fall on either a fri or a monday so that you get an especially long weekend. that's super great to save up on leave and go for a short vacation. from now till Feb - still a full 6 months to go - so i'm itching to go off for a short break. maybe this time, we could really go to niagara falls.

yesterday we went to the dodgier parts of town to look at a second-hand wii. was very disturbed by the state of the house and how crowded it was. there were 2 adults and 2 late teeners and at least 5 toddlers running about a very filthy and messy house. not the perfect environment to bring up kids if you know what i mean.

i've been recently bomboarded left, right and centre (sometimes also in the back) with news that so-and-so is pregnant (again) and so-and-so has given birth... BEFORE I FORGET, CONGRATS TO THE NEW MUMS AND MUMS-TO-BE! I don't want to mention names on my blog but you know who you are! You girls take it upon yourselves to pump up the birth-rate, ensure the gynaes have work and inadvertently help take the pressure of my yuppie-don't-want-to-have-kids-shoulders. You go girls!! please continue to do so for my sanity's sake. thank you a lot a lot....

guess it's a natural progression since the "so-and-so is getting married" phase is slowly passing. am just wondering whether this new spate of affairs is due to the baby making incentives being offered. my take (and 3 cents worth) is this - people who truly want children and are responsible enough to bring them up properly will have them whether or not the incentives are in place. the incentives are definitely not on the minds of those that "accidentally" have kids since they didn't plan it in the first place. so these so-called incentives will only push those who want to take advantage of a 1/3 year hiatus from work and a short-term cash injection into their pockets, to have kids. now i wonder how their kids would be like and what kind of parents would they be? hmm... will parents who already have 1 or 2 or even (gasp!) 3 kids really take the plunge to have another bawling baby because of an extra month of leave and $1000 in the pocket? hmm...

i can only imagine the dirty looks you will garner in the office for taking maternity leave twice in 4 years - the complaints from males (who only have a 2week thing every year that they don't even look forward to) and the non-producing females for having to cover for you while you did your national service. i don't know if these schemes will work. someone should track this and debate it in parliament. look at manhours, morale and productivity of workforce and track how that's changed. MOM you hear me?

Comments

siyong said…
u feel less stressed? I feel more stressed everytime I hear "so-and-so is pregnant" because I invariably get "when's your turn?" looks from the person who's telling me and anyone within hearing distance!
Joop said…
so when's your turn eh? =P
Joop said…
so when's your turn eh? =P
siyong said…
haha ... dunno leh ... when it happens, it happens ... hahaha ...

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Easter!

Busy Easter weekend! Got my screening report from the doctors on Thursday, I have to cut down on sugars, oily food and carbs.... uhoh, nothing about the lumps so i'm grateful. Marc Jacobs bag arrived in the evening, woohoo!   Good Friday was spent in Church and shopping at Sim Lim Square for Hao-e's new PC. Pilates on Saturday morning after a week's break, super out of shape.  think i should probably start doing some exercises at home and maybe go for swim downstairs when i get a chance. Chewy had a good scrubbing session at noon then off to watch Le Noir at Sands Theatre on Saturday afternoon, fun! Cousin-in-law's wedding dinner at Conrad on Saturday evening, no shark's fin which was a bummer. Easter mass on Sunday morning followed by Qingming thingamie at Mt Vernon. Sunday brunch at York Hotel's Penang Hawker Buffet, yum! Watched 1.5 movies too - GI Joe (meh) and SVFV (vulgar).  SVFV was the movie that  was banned and made the h...

dinner at swizzle inn

last night we had a most scrumptious bbq dinner at the original swizzle inn . much much much better than the dinner we had some days back with O and K at the branch in warwick. woo.... i had the char-grilled prime rib and the much famed rum swizzle, while hao-e had the margarita shrimp and strawberry daiquiri. blogging about it brings back nice memories. heh. Oh! C and i found some fresh watercress at the marketplace yesterday. so today's lunch we had watercress soup. i've been yearning for some light clear vegetable soup for some time... especially after a discussion with HL about the lack of vege variety here, and how she spotted kailan on the island! KAILAN !!! how did they manage to get their hands on kailan ?! i was joking with HL that one of the chefs must have secretly brought over some seeds and planted some in his back garden. or else why doesn't kailan appear in the vege aisle of the marketplace as well?! oh, and i bought some canned longan, jackfrui...

Forgive and Forget

it's been a long time since i've written anything of a serious nature. i try to keep this blog lighthearted but some things have been bugging me lately and i need to ventilate and detox myself. so please bear with me as i spurt and sputter some bad blood. one, because of man A's negligence, my start date has been delayed till further notice. was rather upset about it, not because i was looking forward to what i thought i was about to do, but because once again, my plans have been thwarted by things and people beyond my control. i should have been able to start in july had hao-e's permanent work permit been granted right after his first temporary work permit lapsed. BUT, it didn't happen that way cos hao-e had to settle for a second temporary work permit as they tried to sort out his permanent one. now, with this delay, i'm not sure when i can begin contributing to the "save stella" fund. [C was really cute today as i told her the amount that i ...