X new year

Everytime i meet my cousins it feels like Chinese New Year, but this time round its not Chinese. I tot i'll be bored to bits but if you have both active cousins and brain activties, nothing is boring and finally we had more than enough drivers and cars! For the moment, I almsot forgot whats work and study, like they didnt exist in my dictionary.

Spent the whole afternoon with the aunties buying mooncakes, teabreaks and discussing 台湾龙卷风 (i almost died), huge dinner at home and then at night I drove the kids teenagers out for some fun. Wanted to catch a midnight movie but it was all sold out, and then we went for nice bubble tea and lots of street-side supper.

Saturday morning we had booked 2 tables to Bah Kut Teh at Kota Tinggi, a 30 min ride and it was like in the middle of the highway, in the middle of the forest and crowded with people in a saturday morning!! It's at such an unbelievable location and people can still make their way there. The taste is unbelievable too. It's one of the best Bah Kut Teh i've eaten. Its not the peppery kind, but the chinese herb kind which makes a fantasic soup base, a generous portion of ribs and meat, pig intestine and mushroom. Its was MMMMMMMMMMMMMPPHHH heavenly! ok my saliva's dripping just thinking about it.

and then it was all eating and walking all around, and then at night the main-purpose of the trip: the party. It was somebody's birthday (one of our inifinite family friends).

Surprisingly its was a smooth ride to and fro, no jams across the borders with only slight rain.

As the adults are comparing Singapore and Country X, my analytical mind came online subconciously.

After listening to all of my relatives and friends, i can only conclude, to do well and get rich in Country X, you only have a few options. If you are race X, become a government officer. If you are Chinese, one way is to make an honest living in Singapore, another is to gain connections and do illegal jobs. There is absolutely no way to get rich without doing one illegal job or another in this kind of political scene. I have too many live examples.

Whereas in our country where nothing illegal is tolerated, the law will be knocking on your doors the second something is amiss. Famous examples: Sunshine empire, a certain City Church, the NKF saga. Corruption is not heard of, because they do it legally.

I read on the discussion section in the papers in Country X, some of them didnt like the elitist society and high cost of living here. I do have to agree on the elitist society where our democratic society rewards those with better results. It makes sense - the ones with better brains/talent/abilty yield better.
For high cost of living, its how you look at it. Off-the-roof property and transport prices, rising cost of public transport and food, those are crazy and i really hate that. But hey, education, property is heavily subsized to help the not-so-well-off, GST packages, strong economy and eco-friendly environment are some of the advantages derived from them. In any case, there's always the neighbouring places to avoid the high costs. haha.

Well, of cause i'll choose here anytime. I see safety as a very important factor. who want to fear losing your life when you walk on the streets? who likes to fear burglars in your every night? Education and transport is definitely better here too. I'm not being patriotic but sometimes i think i'm more fortunate than some of them and how my life would have been if i wasnt born here.