I’ve Survived The Tuesday!

Some of you may wonder what I have been up to these days.  There are little updates here.  Yes, I have an excuse.  A good one.  My new hosting company wrote to me a week ago and recommended me not to update this website until they have completed the hardware upgrade exercise.  One week of not writing online is a long time.  So I publish my entries sparsely, still waiting for them to inform me that work has been completed and I can go back to my usual blogging rhythm.  No such luck as yet.

But like I said, that is an excuse.  Lately, my life has been gravitated into this invisible whirlpool called March the Eight.  That is today.  I have always been nervous about Spanish examination.  Because I am linguistically handicap.  One week is hardly enough to revise what I have learned in 20 lessons, which in retrospect, I should have studied incrementally over the duration of the two courses.  The luring of online gaming seems too strong for my not so strong mind.  The more I study, I more I realize what I do not know.  The more Spanish words I squeeze into my brain, even more seems to have vanished from within.  Some scientists say that we have tons of untapped brain power inside our heads.  God has granted us an equipment good enough to function as apes in the past, as human today, and as alien life force in the future.  I don’t know.  I am not feeling it.  Especially not this evening, when I took the Spanish examination.

This afternoon, our boss wanted to meet us in the office in town urgently.  It had something do with our performance review, new salary, and bonus reward.  I was nervous, of course.  When a new management team takes over, old timers like I are often targets for pruning.  Since day one of joining this organization – or any organization for that matter – it has been like one survival game after another.  On the 21st floor, designated for casual meeting, with a fantastic view overlooking the Singapore river and the new integrated resort, an event took place.  It was an event organized by the women, for the women.  Apparently, we have invited the first Singaporean women team who climbed the Mount Everest as key speakers for the event, to share their experience.  The entire floor was filled with women.  I could not help but to feel a bit out of place while waiting for our boss to summon us.

Singapore’s birth rate has been heading south lately, and rapidly.  Every day there are news on why it is so, what we could do.  One friend joked that if we take the iPhone away from the Singaporean women, perhaps more babies would be made?  In one newspaper forum, there was a discussion on what if one man can take more than one wives.  More sex, for sure.  More babies, I do not know.  The other day, on radio, the DJs have posted this question on air: Do you find Singapore girls attractive?  If not, why not? I think the DJs wanted to know why people here are not getting married.  I find it hilarious.  Because we always get to like what we have (quoting Doris Lessing).  There is little to do with the quality of Singaporean women, or men.  The simple reality is that some do not want to live together, have sex, may have babies, and grow old with someone else.  It appears that the singles do not mind to perhaps die alone, and die lonely.  Or maybe, the future seems too far away.  According to one international survey targeted to only women, Singapore is their first choice for relocation.  I am not sure what our government can do with this piece of information.  More women certainly means the possibility of more babies.  Our country is on survival mode.  That much I can see.

I too am on survival mode at work.  Fortunately, being average has gained me another year of work.  I hope how I did at the Spanish class today is sufficient to take me to another level of learning Spanish.  I don’t know what we can with Singapore’s dwindling birth rate.  Perhaps take the iPhone away from the men?