Moving to New Place

My son and I spent the past 2 days moving to our new place. We were also able to talk to my wife via the Internet and tell her about the move. We told her about what we were doing so she can get excited as well. The fridge, washer, dryer, cable and Internet connection were delivered and installed last Saturday. We also bought an LCD TV because all the transmission done now are in digital. The TV coming over from Singapore may not be HD ready. We also set up the air mattress so we have a place to sleep. I think that our stuff will arrive in a few days hopefullynext weekend so we can arrange the furniture. It was a good week and the planning came into place.

I also got the government document so every thing is all set for the 'new life'. My son was not able to pass the driver's permit last Friday but I think he will pass it after a few more tries. This is the main challenge for me: to help adapt my wife and sons to the life here. One of the main thing is get them a driver's license so they can start driving. Nothing can move here without an automobile. So they need to know how to drive well so they can drive to school, drive to shopping centers and give them some confidence in life. I hope that this will make them confident to look for work. This is one of the great things in living here; the sense of freedom and independence that the society brings.

My wife was able to sleep well after we had our first video conference last Saturday. I hope she gets better in the coming days. Her sister will be arriving in Singapore in 4 days so she will have some company in the next few weeks. My friends have been helping out, some have visited herand gave her fruits, while another sent his maid to help in the weekends. I appreciate their support because I am so far away and I cannot do anything from here. All I can do is to make phone calls and try to arrange the support from here. I even had to call my property agent and the bank where I made the loan so I can  help close the sale. I am glad that it is working so far with the sale.

I guess I am paying the price of moving here if ever there is such a penalty. I should have thought about my wife and the stress of the moving. Relocating is 3rd most stressful event according to some surveys so I should have placed more emphasis on preparing my wife. But I may just be making a big thing about it. The sad fact is that my wife needs minor surgery to cure the problem in her liver. We will schedule the operation when she gets here in 21 days. I hope everything at home will be settled when she arrives like my son's driving lesson and school application so she won't worry too much. According to the the relocation staff, it's always the trailing spouse who is affected the most.

My friends here in the office have been very helpful in helping me adjust. They gave me a lot of information like where to buy things, the places to go, how things work in the office and so on. Without them I would not have adjusted so easily. There is always someone out there willing to help people in their journeys. I guess I will be called to this mission when it is my turn to help someone adjust to the new life. Life here works in a large scale and one will be judged by the efforts and choices his makes. It's difficult but also fulfilling. I think living here is a privilege and a responsibility as well. It so much easier to accomplish things here than anywhere here else in the world. 

Food Trip

Last Sunday we had lunch at Jalan Kayu. I rented a car for three hours and we had lunch of mutton briyani, chicken curry and roti prata. It's a place famous for prata so we went there and tried it out. It was quite good, a little sweet compared to the others. Afterwards, we drove around the Seletar airport and army camp. The driving range where I used to practice was no longer existing. The grounds where we used to tee off have been bulldozed over. There were a lot of nice quaint homes which I believed where the former British officer homes.

I thought of these drive outs to try the interesting food in the nearby places to eat. It was fun and the total cost is less than SGD $ 70 which includes the car rental and the food. A good way to bond with the family, practice driving to prepare for our new life and the enjoy the food that we could not usually try. I think it is a fun investment to give them a different perspective of life here instead of the usual view riding the train or the bus. It will be an entirely different lifestyle in our new home with driving an important part so need to practice. My eldest son seems to be settled to the move and he is not that rebellious anymore.

I went to the private hospital last Saturday morning because I was afraid that I could not schedule an operation to remove the K-wire in my arm. The K-wire was clipped to the metal implant to keep it from moving. The doctor in the hospital immediately scheduled me for an operation in the 3rd of March which is next week. But I visited the public hospital this morning for my usual weekly physical therapy and the therapist was able to schedule me with my usual doctor. I missed my appointment last week and the next free schedule was 22nd of April. I would be long gone by then so that's why I visited the private hospital last Saturday. The price of the operation was quite high in this hospital so I may return to the original public hospital.

I just finished listening to Murakami's 'After Dark'. It's not a bad book as it contains his trademark quirkiness. But it's not up to his better works. I am not listening to Alan Greenspan's 'The Age of Turbulence.' It's a good book though the author seems to be discredited these days as most people blame him for the financial crisis. But he writes in a good style and shows how the mind of a first rate economist works. He is, of course, a world class thinker who thinks in broad strategic terms but willing to back his observations with clear detailed reasoning. He is a first class thinker despite what people say of him these days.

I had some arguments with my wife as we try to settle the plan moving forward. The main issue is the education of the kids. I hope we find a solution that will be good for all. But I feel that the kids are growing up very fast. Soon we will not be able to be part of their lives as they strike out on their own. I wonder how our lives would look like after 5 or 10 years. I told my kids that in the future, one key for success is mobility and they should be able to move to different countries and adapt. They seem to agree. It is the difficulty of relocation that makes it a stressful and heart-wrenching exercise especially if you leave your good friends.

The snake departs ...

Yes there is problem recording the time sheets for the development team and myself for our work with the boss man's company. The solution seems to be simple but funny. We just don't record our time in the new time sheet program for our work for this year. Perhaps use the old system which was suppose to stop this year. What a mess!

It seems that the global customer manager for the boss man's company should have placed the budget under his purview. This was the procedure last year. But he claims the it should have been the customer manager in the Asia region who should have done it for this year. The local manager claims that it should not be so. So it is turning out to be a problem.

The snake knows nothing about it or so he claims and we called him to discuss this problem. He was pointing to the manager who replaced him in the old outfit. There seemed to have been a meeting where this topic was discussed last year and the budget for this type of work was discussed. Apparently the budget for this work was removed without any thought of the consequences. But this is typical of the snake who tends to point fingers. It just shows that no proper transition was done with his successor.

But it's only a problem in our end with regards to using the new application to report our man hours. I spoke with the accountants in the boss man's company and they said the budget was approved by head office. So the mess only belongs to our department and the new French accountant in our department did not do any thing to help us. What a waste!

It is good that the snake man is leaving this week. He is moving out of his apartment and he will stay in a hotel until he departs for headquarters for a 6 week training. But it seems to be more of a cover story and he may be leaving the company soon. His family is moving back to their home country so it looks like this story may be true. Let us see.