Wednesday, June 21, 2006

With greater power comes greater responsibility said peter parker's pop.

Just copped a whole lot of shit at work and with the recent promotion, I can't turn a blind eye anymore. But then again, work life's always like that. There's shit everywhere.

Pity my tai tai ambition looks even less attainable.

I suspect the boyfriend is the sort that not now or would ever condone the idea of a dependent spouse so unless I start hunting around for a new one, I'd better get used to the thought of office politicking in the office and serfdom at home for the rest of my life.

-_-'

Chatting with Marissa the other day and the topic of tai tai~ism came up.

I told her how Marty did not take to the idea of having a housewife and she said... "aiya... you should go out with a singaporean!"

Ouch....... and I feel like such a hypocrite sometimes.

Maybe it's a cultural difference... but i think Marty's school of thought seems to be more "you take care of your own shit and I take care of mine, after which, we'll just hang out and have fun with each other" but this is not how I was brought up.

I believe in a family unit. Not in the individual.

Plus it just feeds my aforementioned uneasiness when all my asian friends never fail to remind me how individualistic white people are.

I guess for now, I'm just going to go with the flow... I think it wouldn't be long before I feel like leaving Sydney. As it is, I'm starting to feel frustrated with this city.

Just yesterday, I spent more than an hour waiting for the bus to come. I was sick with a pounding migraine, it was cold and wet outside and the bus stop had no shelter. Just because it hardly rains in Sydney (an average of about 32 days in a year), the state government obviously saw no need to have sheltered bus stops. Buses are supposed to come every half hourly but sometimes when bus drivers to a no show, there are no replacements. What with the world cup happening and all, I'm not surprised that the drivers have chucked sickies.

It's really appalling how fucking lousy the public transportation network is here. You'd think that such a cosmopolitan city should have really good infrastructures in place but Sydney disgusts me that way.

Roads with portholes, road markings old & defunct with new markings along the roads causing confusion, inconspicuous road signs making it impossible to find your way around, poorly lit roads, buses that are horridly late, trains that are never on time and breakdown causing massive hold ups, new road tunnels that are poorly planned and hence unused AND MUCH MORE...

I just can't understand how the public can accept this kind of service level. I mean, if this was a backwater town fair enough but it's not!

The state government has said that it intends to spend $40billion on improving public transportation. $40 fucking billion.

First of all, short of blasting this city to the ground and rebuilding it, I don't really see how any improvements can be made without inconveniencing everyone who needs to commute to the city.

Secondly, $40 billion? Geez... that's a hell lot of money. After the horrendous cross-city tunnel boo boo (Background: the state government spent about $800 million building a tunnel that is now under utilised because Sydney siders have decided to boycott the tunnel due to several reasons, one of which, the compulsory installation of an e-tag much like our ERP machines. And because the state government promised the private contractor who built and owns this tunnel a certain level of revenue, the state government will now have to pay the private contractor the revenue shortfall and guess where this money comes from - TAXES), all I can say is, the $40b better be justified.

Thirdly, alot of the inefficiencies of the public transportation is due to the plain nonchalance and laziness of the bus drivers and train drivers. They get paid more than 60 grand per annum. Hell of alot for a pretty brainless job in my opinion. I'm pretty sure lots of people from third world and developing nations would gladly have half that amount.

So why aren't these lackadaisical idiots fired? For fear of incurring the wrath of the trade unions.

Fucking bunch of spoilt brats really... if the governments would loosen immigration laws and allow a much more competitive labour environment, not only would it lower costs for everyone, it would also teach those lazy bums a fucking lesson, to either take their jobs seriously or shove off for someone of that would.

Grr.... it just makes my blood boil

Scoff at the propagandistic style of the Singaporean government, the yearly composed nationalistic songs in celebration of national day, the seemingly apathetic ignorant population (which i feel is entirely the success of governement propaganda so why the hell are they blaming our generation for being indifferent i wonder), the ugly government housing, the lack of creativity and vibrancy in the arts et al BUT give me the law and order, dependability of public transportation and well-maintained roads any day.

Unless of course, i'm rich enough to afford my own car and never ever have to worry about public transport ever again.

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Anyway, Aussies vs Croats today at 5am. another late night party at Mart's with beer, nuts, lollies (read: sweets), cookies, potato puffs (maybe) coffee coffee coffee then it's off to work immediately

for now, i'm off to pick marty up from work and cooking paprika chicken for dinner tonight. A dish my slovakian colleague has imparted.

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