Category Archives: Personal Musings

Jun 15 2011
doctor

Medical Certs in Singapore

I don’t like this obsession with MCs in Singapore. I realise it’s just another consequence of the lack of trust combined with the fear of being taken advantage of that every Singaporean grows up with but I think that require MCs every time you take leave is stupid and doesn’t stop people from taking sick leave willy nilly.

Let’s say I have a common cold – an ailment that will pass with time and some rest. But because I want to rest at home, I need to see a doctor. Thus, I either see a doctor at a polyclinic if I can afford the time (or I don’t have the money) or one in private practice. Not only will the doctor give me an MC, he will also prescribe a variety of medicine aimed at tackling my symptoms but really, I know I will recover with or without the medicine. Some might even give me antibiotics for no apparent reason. Now, if I reject the medication, then the doctor will suspect that I am only there to get an MC, which I am, and might extrapolate that to mean that I am not actually feeling unwell*. So I take all the medication home and leave them in a corner where eventually, their expiry date will arrive and they will get dumped, together with the money I paid for them. Because I don’t need the medication and I’m not taking them for the fun of it. The point is that getting an MC creates a lot of waste and the whole thing is some sort of charade the patient and the doctor goes through because we need to get an MC for sick leave.

More annoyingly is when I get bad menstrual cramps – something I am able to deal with using a hot water bottle, some panadol and some rest. Unfortunately, it makes teaching very, very difficult. Either I am in too much pain to throw my voice or I am unable to stand for long periods. So sometimes, I stay at home but I still need to pay a $40 bill in order to get that precious MC and a bunch of painkillers I already have at home. And the whole thing is stupid because I know why I am in pain, I know what to do and yet I have to get my discomfort certified by someone who simply listens to me and then just hands me an MC.

The rational for all this theatrics is that this will cut down on people taking sick leave when they aren’t sick. Frankly all that happens is that people now simply pay for an MC and stay at home, sick or not. Perhaps this is how we create a market for the doctors in private practice. Does this practice of requiring MC actually cut down on the number of people taking sick leave? I can’t imagine that it does. But maybe Singapore is full of cunning, lazy people whose only reason for existence is to game the system. We already have a cap on how many sick days one can take a year and if someone wants to spend them all recklessly, then so be it. Perhaps he will get away with it. Perhaps it will bite him in the butt when he gets sick later in the year and has to take no pay leave instead.

Feb 23 2011

Singleness

Because I’ve not been single for a long time, I think I’m somewhat fascinated by it, especially the whole going out to meet guys sort of thing. So if you are one of the 5 people who read my blog regularly, I think I might actually write quite a bit about this!

Anyway, I was looking through the Lovebyte’s personals – I suppose I wanted to see what all these other fish in the sea were like – and discovered that one importance criteria I have is an ability to write in decent English. It seems that nothing turns me off more than a badly written profile, or worse, one that is done in textspeak. If you write like that, I can’t imagine how you speak.

I’m clearly a language snob.

And what’s with all these men showing how much they are like their astrological profiles?

Also, I hate the design of the website.

Feb 19 2011

Social Development Network

I’ve signed up for my first SDN activity. I figured if I didn’t just take the plunge, I would never do it so I quickly filled in the form and sent it out. Now, I’m half regretting it but what’s the worst that could happen? It’s a horse riding course and that should be quite fun right?

I wanted to try a speed dating event as well since it should be an interesting experience. However, they want me to pay by cheque and I’m not opening a bank account just to pay by cheque.

Jan 1 2011

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

Well, as it turns out, 2010 has been a brilliant year and of course, this makes me happy. At least it’s ending wonderfully, so whatever difficulties I experienced earlier in the year have all been completely forgotten (mostly).

In the spirit of the new year, here are some resolutions that I may or may not keep:

  1. Be healthier – either through getting more active or eating better.
  2. Write more.
  3. Sleep more.
  4. Be more organised – my workload is only going to get heavier so I’m going to need to do things like keep a to-do list (can you believed I’ve survived all my life without one) and procrastinate less.

I think that’s about it really. Otherwise, my life is good and I’m pretty sure it’ll stay good in the years to come.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Nov 27 2010

Teaching and making money

This annoys me to no end: stop telling me that I’m so lucky to be a teacher because of the nice year-end bonus this year. I don’t mind it if you do it once or if you are a close friend or family but to harp and harp on it is annoying. And it’s more annoying when you play the “poor me” card.

1. All civil servants get the year-end bonus. Go bug the non-teachers about their massive bonus. Amazingly, some civil servants earn more than us teachers which means their bonus is even bigger!

2. You chose not to be a teacher or work in the civil service. Suck it up.

3. You don’t say anything when you know we earn less than our peers who work in the private sector, especially those who work in finance.

4. You don’t say anything when we don’t get a bonus (see last year).

So don’t come up to me and expect me to humor you when you want to “joke” about my windfall because I worked damn hard for it and deserve every cent. It’s not luck and it sure as hell is not funny either to hear people go on and on about how I’m rolling in cash now.

Life isn’t a competition so stop comparing yourself to others. It really gets on my nerves.

Nov 1 2010

Apparently I’m on Hiatus

End of year work is keeping me busy!

I’ve been in an incredibly good mood these few weeks. It’s a mixture of happiness that the holidays are approaching, of the idea that I may be promoted, of an upcoming trip with the boyfriend and of the awesomeness that Smallville and Merlin have been in recent weeks.

Actually I wanted to write about the SGEM and the current news about various education issues but I’m tired and I don’t feel particularly inspired to write either.

So yeah, perhaps the hiatus might continue for a little while more.

Sep 22 2010

Adventures at ION Taxi Stand

If there is one thing to gather from this post, it is to never try and get a cab from the Ion Orchard taxi stand in the evenings.

JK and I were exhausted after dinner and decided, yeah, let’s take a cab home. So we popped over to the Ion Orchard taxi stand to wait for a cab. As we were waiting, I glanced at the taxi stand at Wisma just down the road and noted, with glee, that the queue there was longer. Little did I know we were the foolish ones.

So we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And the security guard at the taxi stand walked past and told all of us to call a taxi because there was no way we were going to get a taxi just by waiting at the stand. So we did since it didn’t seem like any taxis were going to pull up soon. Yet, despite draining my phone battery, I could not get a taxi. All I got was a mechanical voice informing me that there were no taxis in the area, which was ridiculous because there were empty taxis passing by the road outside! After the 4th time I heard the same “nyah, nyah no taxi for you” message, I decided to see if I would google up a reason for the complete dearth of taxis at Ion Orchard.

And here’s why there are tons of taxis at Wisma and none at ION. Basically, ION is outside the CBD so taxis can’t charge the CBD surcharge.

When I called for a taxi and gave my location as Wisma instead of ION, I got a can immediately. So now we know.

Aug 11 2010

Conflict and Resolutions

This is going to sound really vague. Don’t ask. I probably don’t want to talk about it IRL.

I hate conflict, which is why I usually go out of my way to avoid it. Sometimes I play mediator, other times I simply refuse to get involved. When put in the middle, I often try to be as non-committal as possible. If I do take sides, then I probably feel that this is an issue I care about.

Now, in a certain social circle of mine, there has been a great deal of conflict recently. Although I am in no way directly involved, I find myself being in a position where I might be forced to choose a side. This is quite upsetting as I have friends on both sides – although admittedly, I’m not very close to these friends from either side. At the moment, I feel like removing myself from the group altogether despite all the positive experiences I have had with them.

I guess I just wanted to get this off my chest.

Because I hate ending my posts with me being angsty and all, here’s something that is making me happy.

HERSHEY’S CHOCOLATE WORLD

I can’t wait.

Jun 10 2010

Why do you care what I do in my private life?

Taken from Pharyngula about how teachers often find their freedom restricted (in response to a teacher who got fired for having certain views):

And please note, I’m not talking about what you do in the classroom — there are reasonable restrictions on what you can do there, and there is also a specific set of tasks that you are expected to complete in order to do your job — but entirely outside the class, in your private life. There aren’t many jobs with those kinds of repressive restrictions. You can be a plumber or a carpenter or a taxi driver or a farmer or a Republican politician, and you can get off work and drink or gamble or vote for Ron Paul or Barney Frank, and be open about your views, and it won’t usually trickle back to your boss as a sign that you aren’t fit to unclog drains or plant asparagus. But write on a blog about social justice, civil rights for gays, or your support for public health care, and watch out — there are people who will decide that you are a bad influence on children.

Sometimes, I feel the pressure to act in certain ways or say certain things, even when I am not on duty. I know parents and others think that teachers should be the paragon of virtue, which I think is silly especially when the parents themselves are no where near paragons of virtue. Why can’t teachers go clubbing? Drink alcohol? Hold hands in public (yes, people complain about unmarried teachers displaying PDA when they hold hands)? Wear short skirts?

People should tell you that when you become a teacher, there are eyes judging you all the time so always be on your best behaviour.