Underneath the Stars - Apple & Orange

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Mid-Autumn Festival

6:08 PM

I was dead tired last nite after class, actually fell asleep in the van.. n woke up with a start a few times when the vehicle stopped at traffic lights.. when i reached home i jus lay on the sofa n fell asleep immediately..

After abt half an hr, i heard my mum callin me n i opened my eyes to find a plate of cut fruits for me! hehe.. Mummy is the best.. while i was enjoying my fruits sleepily, my mum was telling me abt returning of mooncakes... As i was sleepy i didnt really pay attention to my mum n she had to repeat quite a few times..poor thing haha

Haiz.. i actually bought mooncakes for my paternal grandma who's living with my youngest uncle.. She called n said that they (my cousins) dunno how to eat mooncakes and the mooncake was too much so they can't finish and she wanted to return the mooncake to us..

Sidetrack abit, so what kind of mooncake do u suppose we should ve got back? The box tat i bought for them? or other boxes?

Anyway, den my mum said nvm la slowly eat loh (she already dun really like the idea of them returnin the mooncake that i gave them) den my Gu Gu got it from my grandma's n asked my dad to go pick it up.. My mum tried to persuade my Gu Gu to keep it but my Gu Gu said that her children also dun eat only she eats.. so no choice my dad had to go pick up..
But as my dad always comes home late so my Gu Gu bought over and passed it to us..

Guess wat? I bought them Meritus Mandarin's mooncake n they returned us Polar Mooncake!
1) you said the kids duno how to eat n cant finish so u wanna return us, we r ur rubbish bin la n hor i gave the mooncakes to them before the mid-autumn festival now so many days has passed since the festival le then u say wanna return?
2) you said u dunno how to eat how come it's Polar's tat came back n not Meritus? This only shows that you really treat us as ur rubbish bin!! those not nice things give us la

Damn! I shouldnt have been so dumb to buy her mooncakes, yes, by her i mean my grandmother.. If it was my other cousin who bought the mooncakes, she wouldnt have returned them Polar mooncakes loh..

My dad actually told my mum that he dun wan the mooncakes as it's confirm some ulu brand that's not nice.. My mum say no la should be the Meritus mooncakes tat i bought since they say they cant finish.. My dad really knows his mother well..

Lesson learnt.. dun ve to be so fillial to her..

SnOoPy

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

I am not going to live so long la...

10:24 PM

It's either I don't blog for some time or I have some many things to write about. One national issue that occupied the minds of those who bothered was the announcement by the government on our CPF. There were basically two prominent issues - the planned increase in draw-down age and the compulsory longevity insurance.

The current draw-down age, the age at which CPF Minimum Sum funds may be withdrawn in monthly instalments, is 62 years. The government estimated that the payouts from the CPF will run out before they are 82 for many Singaporeans. This is why Singaporeans are encouraged to work as long as they can and withdraw their savings later. This draw-down age would slowly be raised to 63 in 2012, 64 in 2015 and 65 in 2018.

A lot of people are skeptical about this, especially the older people. They think that the government is not sensible by raising the draw-down age. It's their own money for Christ sake! Some even think that the government increased the draw-down age so that they can continue to use our money to invest in some other areas. If that's what some elders think, I guess it's understandable. My colleague, Patrick, who is as old as me, also agrees with the conspiracy theory. Oh come on!

No doubt many would say the government is "KPO" - a lot of them would just say "I know how to take care of myself" - but these are also the same people that would complain that the government never take care of them when they are old and penniless. So the government, in a way, pre-empts this and take care of us when we grow old through our CPF. It really is a good scheme. You just need to appreciate it.

The longevity insurance came about because the government believes (of course, research was done) that Singaporeans are living much longer than before (Funny. With all the junk food and the rising pollution, it is indeed a surprise). Thus the longevity insurance. Initial plan is to be compulsory for those who are currently 50 and below. It would require them to use a small part of their Retirement Account to purchase longevity insurance when they are 55 years. It is suppose to give the member a monthly income from a pre-determined age (looking at 85 years) and for as long as he lives.

Again, controversy. People are saying "Walau! I won't live that long la. You see hah. I buy at 55 years old and suay suay I die at 84 leh? Bo hua ma!" Patrick also mentioned that in order to benefit from this (Sidetrack a bit. Patrick cannot be taken advantage of. Everything must have a ROI, then he will do. That's why I don't really like him.), he must live more than 85 years, perhaps even more than 90 years to fully reap the rewards. Patrick mentioned he won't be that lucky to live that long. I only said "What if you heng heng live up to 100? Let's take it that your CPF savings by 85 years already paid out and you have no savings. So how are you going to survive the remaining 15 years?" He turned silent.

Thing is, people are short-sighted. Look far, people. I know the day when you die is not predictable but isn't it too late, when you start preparing for it when you realise that you are going to live much longer? It is simply not possible that one could pay as little as $4,000-plus (initial proposed amount) when he is 85 years, just because he knows he is going to live past 85 years, and then hope to be paid a monthly income of $400 for the rest of his remaining years. If you know of one, please feedback to the MOM because I certainly do not know of one insurance company that will do just that.

But one thing that maybe MOM can review is the age to purchase. It is now pegged at 55 years, which I think it's too early. Maybe an age of 60 years or 62 years, a few years before the draw-down age, would be a better option.

In short, these announcements are really not as bad as most people think. This reform must be communicated clearly to the public to let them understand the benefits, even though it might take some time.

Chipmunk

欠钱还钱!

9:21 PM

I am in debt. Recently, there were reports that National Library Board (NLB) incurred losses of up to approximately $3 million dollars from those people who refused to pay the fine after returning the book late or even worse, not returning the book at all. This prompted NLB to send out reminders to these people (800,000) that decided to cheat the system.

Unfortunately, I am one of them. I owed a sum of, hold your breath, $3.05 for a book that I returned late in 2005. It really is a small sum and I intend to play the part of a good citizen and pay the fine this time. There were fines that were much lesser than me, so much so that they actually complained on national newspaper, saying "Why is NLB now asking me to pay a fine of 30 cents that I incurred years ago?".

When I saw the "complaint", I thought to myself "Because you simply refuse to pay the fine at that point of time when you returned late? Duh." I mean if you had paid the fine at that moment, would you then have received the reminder of such a petty fine? If it's your own fault, then learn to shut up and just pay the fine. And that's what I'm doing.

I am glad that NLB is a non-profit organisation. Can you imagine if it's not? NLB would be rich, with all those interest charges going as far back as 1998! Phew.

Chipmunk

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

I have been abused!! (late entry haha)

11:24 PM

Day 1 - it turned purple within half an hr..

Day 2 - it has spread

and i present, the culprit

stupid table fell on me.. sob!

SnOoPy

姐姐 n 哥哥..

10:26 PM

This entry is to "correct" dardar's previous entry.

1) i didn't lament tat they were starting to be rude to me..i'm not grieving over it, just statin a fact

I brought it up cos i was talking abt their family.. n i mentioned that they do not greet me 姐姐 anymore.. not only to me but also to another cousin who's the same age as me.. i didnt say they didnt greet me.. i only said they didnt call me 姐姐.. actually they either nod to aknowlegde presence,wave or mumble a hello.

2) Not only the 2 boys were taught to be polite. What i meant was all of us children were taught to be polite n tat we ve to greet our elders.. therefore by not greeting.. it's rude

of cos it also depends on individual families.. n in this case i'm refering to mine

3) i tink it's rubbish.. when guys reach a certain age they find it hard to call others 姐姐? or 哥哥.. RUBBISH :p

lastly.. gers may not necessarily be more well-mannered.. BUT gers do not greet others 姐姐 or 哥哥so as to feel young.. otherwise.. might as well greet ppl as uncles n aunties..

Labels: lame excuse for rudeness

SnOoPy

Greetings

12:13 AM

After class tonight, there was a mini jam at Little India and I was starting to get frustrated as I was quite tired and had wished to go back home ASAP to bathe and sleep. In the end, I was actually quite glad that there was this jam as Baby and I engaged in a debate, which I found it interesting to share.

Baby lamented that her cousins are starting to be "rude" to her nowadays. What does she mean by rude? In this case, she mentioned that they, both guys aged 24 and 21, used to call her "雪玉姐姐" and now they simply don't greet her. Upon hearing this, I gave my two cents worth. I told her that it was a guy's thing. I don't know about you guys but for me, I never called my older, female cousins "姐姐" as I grew older. When I was a cute little boy, yes. In secondary school, maybe. In poly, unless forced, I guess not. During army times, no way. It feels kind of weak if I, 21 or 22 years old, called my cousin, who is just 1 year older than me, "嘉雯姐姐". It just doesn't sound........... man. Note that it only applies to cousins. I still call my sis "姐姐", though somewhat reluctantly. Haha.

Baby kept insisting that her two cousins were taught to be polite and greet their seniors when they were little kids. Most importantly, it's not as if they didn't called her "雪玉姐姐" when they were young. I rebutted her by saying "So since you emphasised on upbringing, do you expect the cousin who is 1 year younger than you to even call you "雪玉姐姐" when he hits the age of 38?". I forgot what's her answer to it but she did brought up the point that her brother still greets the elder cousins "kor kor" or "姐姐". I said give him a few more years, especially after his army days. I don't know but I'm really interested to find out, though whether would I even remember about this issue is totally another matter.

So this was the interesting debate that we had during our journey back home. Of course, beside the guy's thing, I also cannot rule out the possibility that the boys have lost their manners somehow. Only they themselves will know what's the real reason, though I have a sneaky feeling that I might be correct. =)

Afternote: While I was bathing, I realised that my female cousin who is 2 years younger than me, still calls me "Alvin kor kor" up till now. At first I thought, maybe girls are just better-mannered than guys. But all of a sudden, I realise I may have uncover the real reason behind it. Girls are notoriously famous for not admitting that they are old, so by calling their elder cousins "kor kor" or "姐姐", it will make them feel younger as in their mind, there is someone who is older than them. Evil.

Chipmunk