the singapore sling..

I came into work at 7am for a conference call meeting only to find out that it has been rescheduled to 9:30am. That's almost 2 hours of lost sleep. Now I am here all alone in a Singaporean office. Who would have thought, I know I didn't think that I will one day be here in Singapore working. So far not all has been bliss but neither has it been bad either. First day of worked really sucked big time. I come into work, the dude I was suppose to meet up 9am doesn't come into work until 9:45am, so that's almost 3/4 of an hour of waiting and when I was finally shown my desk, it was in a HUGE MESS!!!! I was like, are you kidding me??!!! Those people around used my desk as a storage area but never bothered to clear up. I ask those people if it's their I stuff and where can I put it? I didn't even asked them to clear up and all I got was hostile answers like "There's no where else to put it..." when all I asked where can I put those stuff in the most gentlest manner possible when deep inside me I was already starting to boil. Anyway, what's worse, I look over, there's this empty desk next to mine.. and guess what..!! No one is sitting there.. so I can't understand why is everything dumped on my desk when they have one HUGE empty desk next to mine...!!!! So, me in my I couldn't be bothered anymore attitude just took everything and dumped it there and was ready to bazooka anybody who dared to object. Summary, Singaporean office workers are hostile... Malaysian people who worked here are right. Singaporeans offer no help at all. Those that actually took the trouble to make sure I am okay and all are fellow foreign workers like me. My immediate collegues are fantastic people and it's no surprise, one is from Sri Langka and the other from Malaysia. You see, fellow foreign workers. The work environment here is the worse I've ever seen in my 4 years of working. I mean, it looks worse than a 3rd world country office. The first thing my director asked me when we met up for Jazz music was, "did you managed to find a decent chai?" and what a right first question to ask because the chair I got was worse than the chair I used in my room in Adelaide. Again, with my I couldn't be bothered attitude, I took the chair next to me which had no occupancy and was one of those contour back care chairs. I don't know how long before people start hating me here.

That on the above is only incident #1. I go up to the 8th floor to collect my temporary laptop. I had to wait like 2 hours for my laptop because the desktop support dude couldn't remember who I was and couldn't find my request form. That was really 2 hours of keeping my cool and biting my tongue considering the episode I went through earlier on. 2 hours of waiting and finally he finds my form, where does he find it?? From the pile of mess on his table. So, I open up the case to find an old 6++ old P3 laptop running on 256mb of RAM... in my mind I was thinking.. OH NO!! This laptop is stoneage!!! my work requirements require me to have a laptop with at least 512 MB or RAM and that too I've got to wait ages for my applications to load up.. and now a 256mb? I thought in my mind... it's only temporary.. I should have enough patience for a month.. so I casually asked the desktop dude.. this is "temporary right?" Dude said "NOPE!!" and Mark Tan gets pissed again... When I was in KL, I used a P3 with 768MB of RAM and my senior is saying sorry to me everyday that I have to put up with a laptop like this... and now THIS!!!!! Again... in my I couldn't be bothered attitude, emailed my director straight telling him that he's got to wait until cows come home to get my work because the laptop I got walks slower than a cow and thinks slower than pig... I'm really not joking, this laptop is cow cow slow!!! Sometime it pays just to take a I couldn't be bothered what people think attitude and ask for things because my director email back and said that he signed off a request form asking for a new laptop or at least one that can run as fast as a horse.

After the whole was gone, I thought back.. why was the day so sucky!! That's because I didn't pray for a good day. Like today, I didn't pray for a good day.. that's why my day sucked. I pray very hard for things to be good on the first day of work in KL, and everything was a breeze.. I even got my own room on the first 2 days of work, my laptop was even delivered to my by my senior. Than as I began to not pray so hard I saw my room became a cubicle and subsequently a desk. I guess, this are small lesson that God still teaches me that reliance and strength comes fully from Him. God brings us to situations like these to always remind us that we are to fully rely on Him and let Him take control of things. That's how our faith is built everyday. We need to see God work in the supernatural. And I realise it is also not my super "I couldn't be bothered attitude" that got me my new laptop, it's God letting us find favour.

I prayed and asked God for a strength and to let me have a better experience here and I could see doors starting to open. I had drinks with my director on Tuesday night in this fantastic Jazz Bar (thank God music in Singapore is rocking)and he told me that anytime I feel homesick or what.. just pack up and go back KL to work a couple of days to get over my homesickness or what not and that he will fund 4 official trips back with air ticket and full allowances. He even said, I don't have to inform him of those unofficial trips back to PJ, just as long as work is up to date. How much more of a flexible boss can I get, I thank God for a boss like this.

I've also found a place to stay, thanks to Fiona who went all out of her way to call up agents and all and going to appt after appt, putting up with grumpy old ladies and weird real estate agents. I owe her a great amount of thanks. The only Singaporean that cared for the welfare of a poor Malaysia.. Anyway, the place is nothing fantastic, I've got to go back to old school squatting style toilet and "tahan" having a store room as a living room. But, I get almost total freedom to the place because the landlord stays with her parents and her husband only comes in during the day just to some data entry work in his office (which is the other room). So the price I am paying for a master bedroom is already worth it but to have the place almost to myself is something else. And what's best, the landlord said make the kitchen mine and cook all I want (most other landlord doesn't permit cooking) and I'm allowed to have friends stay the night (but not often which is acceptable). The best thing of all, the unit is right opposite the MRT station and just infront of the lift is a bus stop with a direct less than 10 minute bus to my office. God is good. And another good thing... the landlord is open to short term stay.. so if I really can't take the squating toilet bowl.. I can still bail out in 2 months. God really really is good. You can have a glimpse of my soon to be new place.

The Room

Where I'll be spending most of my time

The Living Store Room

The Squat (not for the tempangs)

*pictures courtesy of Fiona