Saturday Blog

Its the weekends again. Just one more month to go before my return to Singapore. Never thought I'd say this but I do miss everyone. I miss the activities that I can do in Singapore like going for wakeboarding and sing Karaoke (the clean kind...) Not that I didn't cherish Singapore but I just didn't realise that I'm really that fortunate to be living in Singapore. The other thing I hate about working in Brunei is having to deal with the locals. Language barrier is one thing. I think I'll be taking Bahasa lessons soon. The country's system really needs to get some getting used to. I suppose the difference is because Brunei is under patriach sovereignity. The Sultan gives kids free education and a monthly allowance of 100 bucks for stationary! Being born in the correct family can do a lot of good for your life in Brunei. In Singapore, it doesn't really matter if you have poor parents. If you put enough effort into it, you can still make a mark for yourself.

Enough about Brunei, my stay here will be long so I'll have plenty of chances to make the comparions. Just yesterday, (was a public holiday in Brunei) I had to work because there was a briefing for the personnel in RSAF. I re-acquainted myself with the typical singaporean speech. I've noticed before while I was an instructor in Signal Institute that quite a number of Singaporeans punctuated their sentences with Oks and Ks. If I got a dollar from every ok I hear during these 'lectures' I won't even have to buy Toto to become a millionare. I'm not kidding here. I've actually done the counting during one of these speechs before (I was bored...) An hour's worth of 'public speaking' would be decorated with at least 100-200 Oks and Ks. Imagine earning a hundred bucks just for listening to people say oks for and hour.

(P.S: Noticed how my English standard have deteriorated? I've been listening and conversing in broken English regularly for a month... I hope my spelling is still intact...)