Back To Work

1st day back at work. I'm doing night shift today. Naturally, I felt lousy. I'm on the look out for another job. For now I just got to hang in there till my wedding. Anyway, we got the balloting results today. Our queue number is 292 & there're only 164 units available. Our chances are close to zero. Or should I say it's a straight zero?

Sunday (yesterday) afternoon at about 4 pm, I met up with Jon for desserts & starbucks at Bugis Junction. Sam arrived very late, reaching at around 7 pm coz he went to Takashimaya instead. We had dinner & exchanged news. Jon met up with his date for a movie at 9 pm while Sam & I proceeded to the station. Jeff called as I was waiting for the train, saying that he was coming to pick me up from Bugis to meet up with his friend.

Jeff & I met up with his friend, Xiong & GF, Debbie for seafood at Geylang. We arrived early & Jeff took me for a walk along the Geylang streets. Lots of women, lots of men. I saw a man using a stack of cash to tap the head of the women standing in a line. They didn't stop him. I felt really fortunate to have an education & jobs that I can choose from. We tried a really weird looking red coloured crab (steamed), geoduck in XO sauce for seafood, vege in oyster sauce & black pepper venison plus 2 bottles of beer. That's $220+ for the 4 of us.

A few days ago, I tried shaving Ton Ton's underpaws & around the anus. He's just so scared & he frequently jerks around. I accidentally cut 1 of his paws & his anus. He jumped off the chair I put him on & ran into the living room. When I went to retrieve him back, I saw poo sticking halfway from his anus. All I could do was to grab the nearby rubbish bin & 'hop' the poo before it dropped to the floor. Oh well, what am I gonna do?

Shem Has Gone Home

Brought both Shem & Ton Ton down for a walk this morning at about 8.30 am. Came home at 9+ am & we lazed around for a while. Close to 12 pm, I started to pack Shem's items into his bag & washed his kibble & water bottle. When Ivy smsed me at almost 1 pm, I brought out Shem's carrier & bag into the living room. Perhaps becoz of that, he knew daddy & mummy are coming to get him. He started getting very excited, guarding his bag, trying to use his paw in an attempt to open his carrier door. Within 20 mins, James & Ivy arrived. Shem was overjoyed.

It was fun having Shem with us. Ton Ton took well to Shem & he took it hard, appearing dejected & lost the whole day even till now. He's also not responding to us playing with him or trying to cheer him up. Jeff asked me if this signifies that Ton Ton is ready for a sibling. I don't think I can handle having to toilet train a new puppy. Neither can I imagine 2 dogs sharing 1 pee tray. The only way is to outside train both dogs, just like Shem is outside trained. But financially, I seriously don't think it's a good idea.

I hurried to take a shower & went out with my uncle, 2 aunts & 2 female cousins to buy items for the wedding. I didn't manage to find shoes to go with the wedding dress. They're either sold out or they don't have my size. What I did buy was a tea set & new bedsheets with a mattress protector. I didn't know there're so many things to buy. Gosh!

Shem's 2nd Day With Us

I just came home from a 45 mins pee/poo/walking trip with them. Both of them copy each other's actions. For example, if Shem sniffs at the lamp post, Ton Ton will head over immediately & sniffs at the same lamp post. Shem has been exuding positive influence on Ton Ton. Ton Ton can now climb & go down flights of stairs without any problem. He's walking & even running without any interventions from me, persistantly trying to get ahead of Shem. Shem in the beginning was restless but now he learnt to relax & lounge around in the house, only reverting to his own active self when he's brought downstairs for a walk.

They've been playing less rough now & no more incidents of marking in the house, probably having the pack order sorted out among themselves. I surprised myself realizing that I feel no favouritism towards either 1 of them. Shem surprised me by referring to me as the alpha in the house, a behaviour probably influenced by Ton Ton.

Ton Ton is the more manja of them, preferring to stick to me whereas Shem is the more independent 1. I just saw a funny sight! Ton Ton is now lying beside my chair so I went to look for Shem. Guess where I found him? On the floor in my bedroom! My room's probably still cool from the air con last night.

I shouldn't be surprised but I am. My dad's another 1 who is fair in his treatment to both Shem & Ton Ton. If he sayang 1, he'll definitely sayang the other. He truly is the ultimate dog lover in the family.

Shem Is Here Today!

James & Ivy brought Shem over this afternoon. Shem immediately marked in a few places with Ton Ton counter marking. We left for the Dog Show shortly. It was uneventful, having less stalls than the previous show. All toilet rolls were out of stock too. Bad thing was, I didn't bring any thinking that I would receive 2 rolls anyway. Bad choice. Shem had very soft stools that were difficult to pick up which smeared all over the place when I tried to pick them up.

Luckily for my 2 buddies who met me there. I didn't know how I would have survived without them with 2 dogs running in opposite directions all the time. Thanks, Jon & Sam! They must have been bored when I was doing some last min shopping towards closing time. But I didn't manage to find anything nice. Spent $38 in total on 3 items & only 1 item is for Ton Ton, the White On White shampoo. I bought 1 of NANAS & ASD calander each for $10.

Shared a cab with Serene back home again, making a detour along the way to pick up Jeff. Our taxi fare ended up being $32+. Rested for a while, then brought them both down for the last pee/poo trip for the day. Shem is a good motivator. He managed to get Ton Ton to climb the stairs all the way (that has never happened before) & he got Ton Ton to walk without any fuss. Neither of them marked since we came back from the Dog Show. Probably had their share of marking at the show today. Haha.

They're really energetic, running around & wrestling with each other. I never knew it could bring me so much joy watching them play with each other.

The Realities of Working Life

At the present moment, the total staff at my work place are my supervisor, my colleague, our assistant nurse (AN), our cleaner & myself. Only SRN are allowed to do night shifts. My supervisor works office hours. So either me or my colleague will do the night shift. Usually, there'll be 4 person on the morning shift. So the remaining SRN will do the night shift. But we do get agency nurses to come in for 2 days each week as we work 5 days week but the clinic is open 24/7.

My supervisor joined just slightly over a year ago. At that time, our AN & cleaner has already been working in the clinic for many years. Our AN is actually past retirement age. So she's on a year to year contract. I joined in Feb & my colleague in April. Before me, the clinic runs solely on agency nurses. Perhaps that should have been my warning. A job that pays so well, you can sleep during your night shift, hardly any physical exertion.

I can tell you, I started to see why nobody wanted this job 1 month after joining. I began experiencing my supervisor's tyranny. Both the AN & cleaner told me that my supervisor frequently takes MC & takes money from the clinic's petty cash without returning. I didn't see it at 1st. But it really started when I started to be more familiar with the routines. She'll sms or call at 6 am & just said she's not well & hence not going to work. If I'm on morning shift, I'll have to run the clinic by myself as our AN can only attend to sprains & simple cuts/grazes that require dressings. If I'm on night shift, I have to stay back to help the morning nurse in the Dr's clinic.

The Dr comes in for 1 hour each morning during weekdays to see staff & students. It can get pretty hectic coz you're dispensing medicine & at the same time attending to children who keep coming in for headaches, nausea, dizziness (all bullshit I say). We don't get to claim the extra time we put in, mind you.

The unfair thing is, my supervisor doesn't have MC at all. But neither does she take leave for the days she's absent. Or another thing she likes to do is, come for work, see the Dr & get an MC from him & goes home. Now I did a bad thing becoz it's supposed to be confidential. Every single staff has a card alike GP clinic whereby the diagnosis & treatment are written. I went through hers & indeed, I counted almost 20 days of MC issued to her within the 1 year she's here. All of them were for URTI & I thought to myself, she must be dying from it man. Yah, I know. I'm really bad.

There was obviously some strain between my supervisor & our AN. She doesn't like our cleaner too. She went up to HR & asked them not to renew our AN's contract saying that she's already so old & it's affecting her work. At the same time, she asked them to transfer our cleaner out to sweep the school compound (classroom, roads etc). This is the extend she'll go to. There're so many more things. It just goes on & on. This is depressing enough. So I'm gonna stop here & go watch TV. :P

Some Enlightenment Please

Today was a special arrangement. I finished my night shift at 7.30 am this morning but my colleague won't come in till 9 am becoz she has to work till 9 pm. So I met up with her this morning for breakfast after I've locked up the clinic.

I've sent her an email yesterday evening telling her my side of the story about the 2.10 pm to 2.50 pm note & also my frustrations working here. She herself is already looking for another job & she was the 1 whose $100 got stolen, presumably by my supervisor within 1 month of starting work.

She is the kind who's assertive & isn't afraid to speak up. Perhaps that's why my supervisor & her can carry on a conversation. She was sharing with me what my supervisor told her about me. She told me not to take it negatively & that what's over is already over, no point worrying about it. If you don't know her, you'll probably think she's trying to be the goody in between, siding with me when with me & siding with my supervisor when with her. But she isn't that kind of person.

Apparently, my supervisor thinks that I'm making mistakes on purpose so as not to sign the confirmation. Now, what kind of bullshit is that? If I get confirmed, I get $100 more per month. & whoever in their right mind will want to find trouble like that? She also said that I've slacken in my work again. Hello? If I'm slack, then can someone please enlighten me on what will she be? Actually, she can count herself lucky that I make a mistake once in a few months from all the shit & work she's dumped on me.

At my previous appraisal, she told me to think about whether this job is suitable for me. Yet at the same time, she's been telling my colleague that I'm too quiet & she's afraid that I'll drop the bombshell on her by quitting. Well, it's gonna happen & she only has herself to blame. But of course, she won't think of it that way. When I leave, it won't matter any more. What I don't know won't hurt me. Let her spread bad things about me.

Bad Time At Work (Again)

This really sucks. I feel like all my strength has been sucked away from me. I feel like shit & I'm appalled by myself that I allow it to happen to me. All these while I've been biding my time, as if waiting for things to happen becoz they definitely will. & of course I'm dead right on this.

A student came in complaining of nausea & requested to sleep for a while. She's probably faking coz we get such things all the time. (Our top 3 complains are headache, dizziness & nausea.) Knowing she's faking it, I told her I would only give her 30 mins.

Our paper work is such that, when a student comes in, he/she has to fill in her name & grade on a form & we, the nurses will fill in the complaint, time in & time left. So I wrote it as 2.10 pm on the form since she came in at 1.35 pm. Subsequently, we'll have to enter all these details into the computer, into a special program. Before the student leaves the clinic to go back to class, we'll have to issue a note saying this student rested in the clinic from what time, to what time. This note goes to the grade secretary & then to the teacher. & we usually write the note with the time in & time left on the spot so we don't have to write it as we're rushing to discharge the student.

I seriously can't remember what happened on that day. But a teacher came, asking us to verify the note. Becoz, the 2.10 pm has been changed to 2.50 pm, with a slash on top & an inverted c below the 1, if you get what I mean. So now, for the life of me, I can't remember if I changed the time becoz it wasn't reflected in the form. Worse, I didn't key this student into the computer.

But what I do remember is, that was a very busy day & a few students overslept coz I simply didn't have the time to go through the form to see who needs to go off. I don't have to go upstairs into the bedroom to wake them up, our assistant can do that. But for her to do that, I have to ask her to do it. But I was swamped with students from 2 pm onwards. (School ends at 2.55 pm.)

Where was my dear supervisor? In her room doing God knows what. She probably has her own paper work to do. I don't know. & everyday, at the end of the day, she'll tell my colleagues that it's been a very busy day. I know sometimes she has to deal with emails & some bills to endorse. But no matter what, she can't be as busy as me right? She never attends to the children who comes in. Sometimes, she makes me endorse the bills for her even.

Perhaps this is fate. Perhaps I'm not supposed to stay in this job. Becoz I truly truly believe that when I'm not supposed to take a certain path, all the signs will point it out to me. I have countless accounts. Once I overslept & was going to be late for work (I was still working at OT). At that time, I had this strong sense of dread. But I ignored it & asked my dad to give me a lift. We met with an accident on the way there. In the end, I had to go to A&E, have x-rays, tetanus & painkiller jab along with a MC. But there were times I heeded the signs & adverted disasters.

The last time I was supposed to sign my confirmation, the thing with the student happened in May. She got very angry with me & extended my probation for 3 more months. This probation should have been signed in August but she delayed it till now. She was just telling me last week that she's going to sign the confirmation with me & now this happened. I really don't know. Perhaps I'm digging my own grave here...

2 Videos of Ton Ton

This was recorded just 30 mins ago. I was just experimenting with making his ears fall back as I call his name.



This was recorded during our Sentosa trip in July with 2 of my close friends. We were waiting for Jon's friend to arrive with Whiskey, her westie when I noticed Ton Ton pushing the sand with his nose into a 'hill'.

Over The Weekend

Internet has been down at my workplace over the weekend, hence no new posts as I usually update my blog during my night shift.

I didn't step out of the house on Mid-Autumn Festival after I got home. I didn't even cut the mooncake with Ton Ton coz I really really wanted to share the moment with Jeff as well. By 11 pm, I had dozed off in bed with Ton Ton beside me. I was waiting for Jeff to get home from his afternoon shift but he didn't get back till 12.30 am. Even then, he told me he came down with bouts of vomitting & diarrhea. The very next day, he was diagnosed with gastric flu, given IM Buscopan at the GP's clinic & had 2 days MC. The lanterns & candles has been sitting outside in the living room since then.

I'm having mixed feelings about my choice of 'career' if you can even call it that. I'm definitely not cut out for it. How do you learn & grow to be assertive when half the time you don't even know if what you're doing is right? Perhaps what I need is confidence. But to gain confidence, 1st I have to gain knowledge. To be frank, I've forgotten 80% of what I've been taught in school. To be even more frank, I hate dealing with people. I prefer to work in the background & to go un-noticed. A job whereby I don't have to meet or deal with people. Impossible isn't it? I'm just an inch short of becoming a hermit!

Mid Autumn Festival

Today is the Mid Autumn Festival. We have started calling this day as the Lantern Festival & the Mooncake Festival. But in Chinese, it's 'Zhong Qu Jie' so the correct term is Mid Autumn Festival. MAF falls on the 15th of August of the lunar calender every year. But if you've noticed, the moon is always the fullest (roundest) on the 16th which is the following night. I'm not too good with Chinese folklores so I'll try my best to narrate the best known folklore on how this day came about.

Once upon a time, there were 10 suns in the sky. It was way too hot. People & livestocks died from the heat. Rivers & seas dried up. Nobody could do anything until a man named Hou Yi, using a bow & arrows to shoot down 9 suns. He was the king & he had a beautiful wife, Chang Er. But like many other kings before & after him, he was afraid of death. He came to possess an elixir which will grant him eternal life. However, that will mean that his tyrannic rule over the people will never end. So on the 15th August in lunar calender, Chang Er stole the elixir & consumed it. Immediately, she started floating into the sky & finally landing on the moon. So people celebrated this day as the day Chang Er saved the world from Hou Yi.

An idea came to me just a few hours ago. But I wonder if I have the resources to carry it out. This is Ton Ton's 1st MAF with me. I was thinking of getting some paper lanterns & going out for a walk with him. But I fear that kids will scare Ton Ton for fun or accidentally burn him. Until it came to me that I can go to the highest floor of the multistorey carpark next to my block. I can probably bring a mat or something to sit on, doggy & human mooncake & of course the lanterns. Then we can just relax & enjoy the view. I hope Jeff gets home fast so he can join us.

More Pictures of Bad Grooming

My pictures are a bit out of order. But I'm really too tired to redo the whole thing. If I still have the strength later on, I'll update on the unlucky day I had.

Bad sanitary clip/underbelly shave. Long hair on 1 side of his scrotum.

Long hair on 1 side of his penis.

The other side is short.

Pictures of Bad Grooming

After reading Enrica's post on their bad grooming, the 1st thing I did when I got home today is to check Ton Ton again. Sure enough. This was what I found on all of his white nails. Some are longer. Don't know if you can see it. But it's nail clipper marks. It has punctured the quick & left some blood stains on the surface on the nail. I couldn't see any on the black nails though. Quicks are the easiest to spot on white nails. I don't understand how he can do this. He did clip on the quick on 3 of the nails & all 3 are white nails. I can see the red blood spot on the tip of the nails.

Can't really tell his ugly grooming by this front view. Sorry he's a bit dirty coz I haven't groomed him for today.

Side view. This is really awful coz the side of his face has no fur. & yes, that's the shaver cut on the inside of his ear. He has another 1 on the other ear as well. Not only that, the groomer failed to pluck his ear hair. He just shaved off what can be seen from the outside resulting in the cut. You're supposed to pluck, not shave! Even I know that. On top of that, he failed to clean away the ear powder. So there were clumps of powder in his ears.

His ugly skirting. I don't know how to describe it. But I feel that the skirting should start from higher up on the sides, gradually becoming longer. Not botak & suddenly there's skirting below.

His legs & side.

That's the chest area. Uneven length of the chest hair can be seen.