22/3

Phew... finally done with the house chores....

Yesterday night I was waiting at a bus-stop for bus 113 to arrive so that I can go home. A vehicle drove in and parked at the bus-stop. 2 men got off the car and they started sweeping those leaves on the ground. It was around 11pm at that point in time.... I am amazed.... it's pretty hardworking for them to work at this timing. They must be hired by the government to keep our environment clean. But thinking back, I kinda think that it's useless.
You see.... everywhere you go, you see leaves falling on the ground. You see more leaves on the ground during rainy days. Is it possible to throw all the fallen leaves away? I don't think so.
They can sweep for a day.....a week.... or even a month. But the leaves will keep falling.
However, it's still their job to gather and discard those leaves. To clean up as many as they can.... that's their purpose.
Speaking of environment, are you saving the earth? Everyone has a part to play in saving the environment. There are many ways you can save the environment. For example, turning on your fan instead of air-con.....energy saving light bulb.
Well... I think the most fundamental stuff you can contribute to the environment is by throwing your rubbish into the rubbish bin. Do not litter.

This is the reason why chewing gum is not allowed in Singapore. Long ago, chewing gum was allowed but people started littering them. After chewing for minutes, they would spit out the gum on the floor. Worst of all, they spit on chairs and tables. When people are careless, they would step on it and omg... it's so sticky. We shouldn't care only about ourselves. We should care about others too.
Also, pet lovers..... I don't have to say it out....you know what I mean. If you own a pet then you are responsible for it. Do not ignore it.... kindly take a plastic bag to pick it up and throw it away.

Let's talk about other stuff.......
Hey hi there, what's your name?
Erm.... Crystine?
How do you pronounce it?

Yes, I am talking about unique names here. Recently I found out that people are having more unique western names. It's so unique that you barely get to see this name at all. My brother's name is Riyan. Some of you may have heard it before. But it's a pretty unique name still. Most people can't pronounce my brother's name correctly. You don't pronounce it as Ryan. You pronounce it as Ri-yan. It has 2 syllabus. Another name close to it is Raiyan. Seen it before? Weird isn't it...
There is a difference between unique and weird. Long ago, people are called tan ah gao... tan ah jiao. These are what we known as weird names... tan represent the surname. Ah gao means dog and ah jiao means bird. Some names have meaning.... for example, 'yu' means jade. Tom,Harry,David... these are common names we may get to hear daily. But are unique names cool or strange? It depends.... People like western name because it's short and nice. But people don't want common stuff anymore... they want names that are special... to make that child a special one.

I was reading the newspaper today and it says that 30% of maids hired by Singaporeans are sent back within 2 months. This is because the performance of the maid did not meet the expectations of the employer. Well... there are 2 types of maids in general. Filipino and Indonesian. I used to have maid when I was young. Singaporean hire maid for some reasons. One of the main reason is because both parents are working. They have no time to take care of their baby....pet.... and the house chore. Long ago, there are cases of maid abuse. It's said that employers are abusing the maids. When the maid did something wrong, some employers will torture the maid. But that was in the past. Currently, things are happening the opposite ways. It's the maid who is abusing the employers. There are several cases reported of maids abusing babies. When parents went out to work, the maid is supposed to take care of the baby with care and love. However, as maids are humans who have feelings too, some choose to abuse them. Babies are hard to take care of.... this is due to the fact that when babies want something, all he do is cry...cry cry cry.... when he is hungry, he will cry. When his diaper is wet, he will cry. But we can't blame him.... he don't know how to speak any language yet. I remember there was this mother who saw her baby full of bruises. She decided to install a camera in her house to see her baby when she is at work. To her surprise, she saw the maid pinching and beating up the baby...
Ouch...that's painful...

Another reason is language differences. People from Philippine or Indonesia understand their own language only. To be a maid, they must sit for an English language examination. However, passing the test doesn't mean that they understand English fully. Some Singaporeans....especially the elderly, don't understand English. They only understand mandarin or some dialect such as Hokkien. So sometimes... communicating with each other can be difficult. If the maid don't understand what the employer want then she can't do what the employer want. On the other hand, if the employer can't tell what she want the maid to do then she can't command the maid to do things like cleaning the tables.

Last but not least, having a maid can be fun. We get to exchange our culture. We get to know the history of their country and we also get to know other language. That's how I learn Indonesian's language.