Rambings of a madman

So, a little info since my last blog… Finally I got my car… received on the 9th November. Was a little rushed, because the company I bought it from claimed the delay was because I changed my loan.  Indeed I did, for some reason the company applied for a S$67000 loan and the cost of the car was S$65000, not so sure what’s going on here, but the bank said that $64000 had been approved.  Something still not right, as I gave a $3000 deposit, so I got the bank to change it to S$62000. But anyway, despite the little delay, all was received on the correct day, at least. Insurance in Singapore is expensive, to say the least. S$1900 for a year, so I’m shopping around for something new.  Already my car isn’t even a week old and it’s got 2000 km on the clock.  On the 10th I came back from an indian flight, so I drove up to Ipoh to see my parents.  Original plan was to go straight but one of my good friends wanted a lift, so I went home and slept.  1pm I drove all the way to ipoh, tiring, but thankfully I had Alex (my friend) and my wife to help me drive, as far as KL anyway.

Reached Ipoh to inspect my parents’ new house… weird, I always thought that people when they get older move to somehwere smaller, my folks seems to be going in the opposite direction, they’ve gone and bought a 3 storey house with a large amount of land.  At least Ipoh gave me time to relax and enjoy the good food. Came back 4 days later for my SEP, stopping at Tambun to buy Pomelos, one of the many things Ipoh is famous for, as well as the pretty girls… one of which I know reads my blog

Yesterday was SEP, standard jumping and testing nothing to talk about there really, pretty much the same every other year, however one of my colleagues was doing the same test, so I gave him a lift.  The conversation was really interesting though, and he mentioned along the line somewhere he’d taken a secon wife recently….

Guys… could you cope with 2??? I have my handsful trying to keep 1 happy.  My lovely wife hass just gone for her SilkAir water confidence test… hope she passes, she’s not exactly the world’s greatest swimmer.  Here I am waiting for her to finish, so I’m up in the Union office blogging.  This evening is Christmas Island so I’ll blog when something interesting happens, which knowing my life will be sometime after Christmas (just kidding)….

As I predicted, my blogging ability seems to be waning, last week I did
indeed go to my wife’s hometown, by car, unfortunately not mine.  The
goat from Bright Auto rented a car for me.  My wife went to JPJ in Muar
to get the transcript of her Malaysian driving licence so she could sit
a singapore one.  We were informed that according to the Road Transport
Act, you can’t hold a Singapore and a Malaysian licence, and they’d
have to cancel the Malaysian one.  The did issue 2 copies of the letter
for the Singapore one though.  We wanted both, I mean, it seems silly
to give up one for the other, as I wouldn’t be able to insure myself
for a malaysian car - should I have one, if I’ve only got a Singapore
licence.  So we pondered ways to get things done.  A quick trip to JPJ
in Pasir Gudang hailed with the answer.  We met a very friendly
gentleman who agreed to help us get things done - Malaysian style.
So’s not to incriminate myself, I won’t go in to details.

The rest of the week has been pretty uneventful, the usual drone of work, nowhere exotic and nothing new. Having said that, I did go down to the car shop last Sunday to pick the colour of my leather and what rims I would like on the car.  God willing, I’ll pick up the car tomorrow.  The girl from the shop called me to say that the finance company informed her I changed my loan, which I did. from S$64000 to S$62000.  The cost of my car is S$65000 and I’ve left a S$3000 deposit, so it seems logical to me, why a $64 k loan was approved I have no idea, so anyway, i reduced it because I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t get anything back if the cost was over.  I’ll find out tomorrow if this proves to be any trouble.  Last Monday my wife and I dropped over to Aileens place to have a chat.  Funny thing happened, Aileen’s housemate came in, and she brought a friend, who recognised me, and old family friend who I haven’t seen in at least 15 years…. Dunno if they’re an item, but they’re both really nice people.

Yesterday I went to the zoo with Aileen and my wife, actually we wanted to rent a car, but today being deepavali, all the car companies have caught on and said i couldn’t rent a car for only 1 day, 2 days minimum, so we didn’t bother, just went by cab.  The zoo itself was pretty standard, the shows not bad and alot to cover, making my legs ache like mad.  The white Tigers and the Pygmy hippos are real cute though, I could stay all day and just watch those 2 animals.

As if 1 meeting with a family friend who I hadn’t seen in a while wasn’t enough, today I went to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, yet another family friend was on my flight, but he never said hi to me until we landed at Siem Reap.  All I can say is thank god I never screwed up the landing, I did try and persudae him to write a compliment letter but he says that pilots shouldn’t get them, only the cabin crew. So sad, but the weeks coming to an end, I’m getting my car so things are looking up.. Hopefully no more surprises, the world is rapidly shrinking, and I just want to be able to sit back, relax and take it easy….

Today is Monday evening, or rather it will be Tuesday morning by the time I post this. As my last blog was on Saturday, I’ve got Sunday and Monday to catch up on.

My poor wife is sick.  As yet not too sure what’s wrong, all I know is she has a fever and is vomiting, I know it’s not morning sickness… that much I’m sure.  So whilst waiting for the kettle to boil for her hot water bottle I’m making a start on my post.

Let me see… umm… Sunday, yes, went to the airport, for my Balikpapan flight, the stupid twat of a taxi driver took the wrong turn… then when i asked him about it he said he had never been to the airport before… somehow i don’t quite believe him, and even if he hasn’t then what’s he doing driving a taxi?? I would have thought the airport was a pretty easy destination to get to.  The flight itself had a set of crew I never expected.  The captain had been changed, probably because with the silkair planning the guy originally rostered ran out of hours.  The cabin crew was also not quite the composition I’m used to.  2 crew in charge, Samantha and Sheila, both lovely girls, sarcastic but fun.  Seems more of Silkair’s great planning has struck, the flights are full but all going with minimum crew complements.  Silkair apparently is letting some of their crew go to SIA.  Great… especially at a time where they need crew.  That’s intelligence for you.   Got home and zipped off to Irene’s place to collect my wife.  Sad to say that since they went to Irene’s relatives’ house, then I never got any Tiramisu.  Sad.

Today I went to Kota Kinabalu, with an elderly captain, highly experienced, ex Aer Lingus, Swiss Air, Cathay Pacific, and Dragon Air.  Also major unionist in his time.  He was telling me how being in the pilots union he was frequently threatened by management and was even hospitalised for stress. He’s not as happy a man as we  usually meet nowadays.  Silkair just had a payrise, well sort of , more a repackaging of our pay, but whatever it is there’s a little more.  However, Singapore Airlines have implemented a 10% wage cut for those over 60, so it sort of gives the senior guys almost no increment at all.  This particular captain seemed a little forgetful today, forgetting to turn on the Auxilary Power Unit (APU, which provides electricity for the aircraft when the engine’s aren’t running) on landing, the aircraft plunged itself in to darkness when we shut down the engines, luckily it was daytime and we could still unload everyone.  Coming back to singapore something else was forgotten (I won’t say what), but it was at that point where the captain said maybe he should take an early retirement.

This afternoon my dear friend Eddy from Bright Auto called, no news on my car, but he said he’s arranged and Altis for me to use for a few days.  Tonight I have a flight to Cochin in India, so it’s a rest day on Wednesday and Thursday / Friday are off.  Plan is to go back to my wife’s hometown and visit the inlaws, so sorry guyz, no postings at least until Saturday.  Till then, Ciao

I’ve decided, unofficially, of course, that I’m not a great blogger.  Maybe it’s time for me, instead of rambling everyday, just do a weekly update and tell everyone what’s happening.

People are reading my blog though… I have no idea who, why or when, but I did put a counter up and it seems to be clicking along nicely, so someone is…  I’d appreciate it if someone somewhere could possibly leave me a comment or something after it’s been read, even if it’s just a hi with your name, then I’ll know whether or not i’m doing something worthwile.  For all I know the hits were accidental.

So, as usual, I’m going to start at the beginning of my day, with my flight, today being to Lombok in Indonesia.  A beautiful day, superb weather and the usual completely uneventful flight (As I’m sure I mentioned, that’s the way I like them), This is why I think I’ll start leaving the flying stuff out, sort of boring.

Anyway, came back home and whizzed off to a kiddies party.  Was invited by one of our lovely cabin crew, the party was her nephews.  She’s always been good to me, served me drinks when i wanted them, pleasant to talk to, and on top of all this, as far as I know, never spat in my food.  So I thought I’d oblige.

Crystina thought it’d be a good idea to bring Hiroshi (Irene’s son) along, so we stopped off to pick him up.  At the party, as the way parties should be, plenty of pretty good food.  It was a muslim party so no alcohol, having said that I’m sure no one wanted to see a piss drunk clown anyway, maybe I’ll be funnier, I don’t know, something I’ll have to write on my "To do" list.  Usual stuff there, balloon sculpting, and a very limited amount of magic.  I love small kiddies, they really don’t question anything… it’s great, they think I really can do magic, and as for the balloons, they seem not to realise that a dog, cat, giraffe, elephant and mouse are all exactly the same, just different proportions of the bubbles.  If only everyone were this easy to keep happy.  Our dear Hiroshi seemed a little shy to start with, scared of me the clown too.  Good thing I didn’t do my chuckie impression with the carving knife, I’m sure I could have traumatised scores of children.  Upon leaving the party we realised how close we were to Irene’s house so we walked back.  Hiroshi seems like a little spoilt, I know I spoil him, he wouldn’t walk, just wanted to be carried.  If nothing else I’m getting some form of exercise.

After reaching Irene’s place, we all went to Hougang mall for dinner, Irene has this idea of making Tiramisu tomorrow so she needed to buy ingredients.  Crystina intends to join her, so I’ll just come back from flight and try it… thus avoiding all the washing up.. God, I love flying!!! An so this brings me to the close of today, dead tired from the flight and the clowning. Had a nice hot shower, the clown makeup is really horrible stuff, sometimes I don’t know why I allow myself to do it.  Oil based makeup, which only really seems to be able to come off with baby oil or rubbing alcohol… and people wonder why I use SK II products, wouldn’t you if you apply this sort of crap to your face?  So ciao guyz, time to hit the sack, see if tomorrow is any more or less eventful than today… Balikpapan (Indonesia) tomorrow….

Oh my god.. seems like I missed a post… maybe I’m not quite the blogger I think I am, should be more disciplined, right?

Anyway, update since yesterday…. went to CASE (again) and explained everything to them.  Seems the best they can do is write a letter, so I guess that would have to do.  Later in the afternoon my wife had an idea, why not ask her friend to call and see if the car dealer would pick up the phone… Surprise surprise, he did. So she made a fake appointment, and I planned to go down and see him in his office.  Wifey gave me her phone and I tried to call. The guy answered, I suppose he didn’t know my wife’s number.  Anyway, sometime during the conversation I hung up, then redialled with my own phone, - it has the ability to record telephone conversations.  I told him I made a police report and told CASE about it, he seemed a little shaken but told me not only will he do his best, but also rent me a car if i need it.  He kept referring to me as his friend, to which i replied all we have is a business transaction and nothing else.  Anyway I have it on tape him agreeing to refund my deposit or give me my car before the 10th.

I phoned one of my dad’s friends, an ex policeman to ask him about all this, he told me that there are alot of companies operating under a loophole in the law.  In Singapore you can set up a company, then sign agreements with people and take a deposit.  If the total sum of whatever I’m providing is more than S$20000 then small claims court can’t help.  The police can’t do anything either as it’s a civil matter - breach of agreement, and all CASE can do is write a letter.  Seems that in the long run most people don’t even resort to legal assistance as it would cost more to reclaim their money….

After all this went to Irene’s place, - another one of my (ex cablin crew) friends, went over to play with her kids chit chat and generally waste time.  Took a walk to a nearby shopping complex where I had a very nice mango smoothie. Went back to her place and then around 8 pm went to have dinner with one of my best friends, Alex.  Came home and was dead tired.. slept almost immediately as my head hit the pillow.

So that brings me to this morning, well, more like lunch time or just before, when my wife suggested we go and disturb Aileen.  Dragged her out of bed and started wandering around, aimlessly as usual.  For lunch we ended up at Swensens in Pasir Ris,  I don’t know what to say. I have never come across any other place which universally has bad service.  Everytime, with no exception the service has been bad. Possible if it was only once or twice, even possible if it was just one place, but this chain **sigh** no exception EVERY time I’ve had some form of bad service. You would have thought it would be better as Singapore only has service to offer, but alas, so far it’s not true. As usual wandered around, letting the wife browse and shop.  Ended up at the SIA sports club, with the eintention of going to Karaoke…. Had to sign Aileen in as she’s not a member, then went to the room to find it was closed.  SIA policy is they can’t even refund my guest fee. that sucks, I’m going to complain to them later… who knows even write to case for unfair business ethics (but i doubt it.. interesting idea though).  The new bar was apparently torn down as the person in charge of the project didn’t like it…. I actually can’t wait for it to open, it’s modelled on the interior of the A380, with the windows, first class seats and everything.

This morning, as usual, i woke up for my flight (Phnom Penh).  Yay… for once I did a really smooth landing, - truly worthy of a senior first officer, not like the usual thud, and occassionally the feeling of being shot down.  It’s funny, but one of the few places I can constantly get really smooth landings is PNH, - Don’t know why, as far as I know it’s always the same technique I use for landing.  I think that’s my really good landing number 2 this year, best being in Chiang Mai a few months ago.

So back to Singapore, and it’s time to go to the courts to make my claim for the car deposit.  Upon getting there, I see this registrar, who tells me that since the car is worth S$65000 that it’s out of the purview of the small claims court.  No joy here, so tomorrow off to case again, hopefully they can do something.  Seems like something is amiss here, seems like no one can help me.  The dealer still isn’t answering his phone.  I wonder if he’s still alive, seems odd, but even his office can’t remember when the last time he came in or contacted them was.

Came home to watch a movie, infact surprisingly managed to persuade my wife to come to the cinema with me.  Superbad is the movie, and it really isn’t superbad… infact i think it’s pretty funny, at the very least killed some of the usual boredom.

  2 days off now, at least some of tomorrow will be wasted at CASE, then hopefully off to Orchard Road to do some shopping with my wife…..

This is it, a Toyota Rush, the car I hoped I’d be getting, but causing me endless grief.  Last month, or rather in September, a little after my wife had a miscarriage, we decided to buy a car, I mean, it’d make more sense if she was pregnant or we had kids.  So off we went to Turf City, the only place I know for cars in Singapore (I’m a little wiser now).  Anyway, we met a convincing (aren’t they all?) salesman at a shop called Bright Auto.  The way he talked pretty much got me sold, 4-5 weeks for delivery, gps and all the extras.  So I left him a deposit of S$3000. 

That brings me up to today, 6 weeks on, no car, and no sign of the dealer.  I went down to his office in the hope i could see him, but the girl there said he rarely comes in.  He hasn’t ever called me back, and since the 15th October stopped answering my calls.  What am I to do?

So today I went to the police station to make a police report then went to CASE (Consumer Association of SingaporE). Case was a basket case. Not only did I wait for almost 2 hours but they told me to go to the small claims court to submit my claim.  Hopefully something will get done.  That’s what I’m going to do after my Phnom Penh flight tomorrow.

Apart from that.. err. yes.. my lovely rosterer called me up, saying he realized there was an error in my roster…. That’s funny, coz i realized it weeks ago and told my friendly union chairman.  The Air Operators Certificate in Singapore says I have to have 2 consecutive days off in any 2 week period… I didn’t…  so that’s what they corrected. I now get an extra day off on Friday instead of being on standby…

Lo and behold!! this evening I get a call from my Union branch Chairman, telling me that he gently "reminded" the company that I didn’t have my 2 days… **sigh** to think I actually believe the company spotted it… seems like I’m being conned alot lately.

But the day wasn’t entirely wasted, went out to meet one of my best friends, Aileen, (absolute babe for all you single guyz out there.. she’s a Leading stewardess with SIA), myself and my wife chatted with her and her house mate for a few hours before coming back…  what a nice end to a hectic day

Woke up to check the Formula 1.. Damn Lewis Hamilton didn’t win.. Bad week for me and sports, maybe I’ll just stick to the sports on my Nintendo Wii, at least I’ve a little control over them. 

A typically uneventful flight to Xiamen today.. actually, come to think of it, most of my flights are pretty uneventful… Thankfully, had too many events in all my previous companies.

On the way back, I decided to forgo the standard SilkAir chicken or fish, I’ve come to the conclusion that actually all the food is the same, just under different names.  When you fly for weeks on end it all becomes pretty tasteless… So that’s when I had a flash of inspiration to have some nuts.  Along comes our Crew In Charge, then she asked a question about how things would be handled if a passenger has a nut allergy.

I know SIA has an announcement for it, but for some odd reason Silkair doesn’t.  So I offered my assistance to help write one which she could read if she was aware of any cases on board.  As far as I know, the company needs to take steps to mitigate the situation (no nuts on board), and then they need to advise the passengers so they too won’t eat nuts. Basically leaving the company lawsuit free should anything happen.

So here’s how it went:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Due to the carriage of passengers with nut allergies, SilkAir will not be serving nuts on board this flight.  We would also ask all passengers not to take their nuts out, and should you need any further assistance, please do not hesitate to ask our flight crew to hold your nuts until landing…."

The crew in charge later refined the last line of my thoughtful speech to "the flight crew will be happy to take care of your nuts until landing"

She did say she’d hand it to the crew department with my compliments, assuming she’s going to hand it to who i think she’ll hand it to then it’s ok, if it’s not then i sincerely hope whoever it is has a sense of humour

Well, here I am again, starting to wonder what to write.  It’s pretty difficult since the flight was pretty uneventful, as I mentioned yesterday I was babysitting a new first officer, so not much for me to do inflight.  Flight was real full though, first time i’ve seen it so busy… Kunming, - haven’t been there in a while.. forgot to place my advance order for flowers which are dirt cheap there.. hopefully my wife didn’t notice, I’ll have to make it up to her next time I go.

Came back home and slept, woke up only long enough to order pastamania, and now going back to bed. Yet again I’ve an early flight tomorrow, and I’m still recovering from today….

Well, as I said I would do, I was up at 3am.  Man did I get disappointed, sadly England lost.  Some disputable referee decisions I would say, but then again I’m not going to bitch about it. South Africa played a good game, but if anyone ever saw Jonny Wilkinson’s face after, it said it all.  So sad… I enjoyed the rendition of "World In Union" at the end, one of the greatest songs ever written if you ask me. Words are great.  Now I’ve got to go and get ready for my (long) flight ….