You make my world so colorful ..

You make my world so colorful, I've never had it so good, my friends I thank you for all the love you gave to me ..

I haven't wrote down anything about things that had happened to me this week. I had a very lousy week actually. I had no mood for almost anything. I didn't bother to cook meals for dinner because hubby was in Geneva until last Thursday, so I only cooked simple meals for the kids and I eat whatever left on the table. I still go to work, because I have to take the kids there anyway .. that's how it is when you're working in their school.

I wasn't in a good mood since I received a letter from the tax office and saw how much I have to pay for the tax clearance, and that the school will deduct the amount from my last salary! .. My salary is bellow SGD 22,000 a year, why they still need to file the tax to the tax office in the first place? ...

I feel like being robbed. They never gave us any information about taxes and that if a foreigner work more than 60 day but less than 183 days (calendar date) they'll pick 15% from your total salary within that period. So, if you work less than 60 days OR more than 183 days you don't need to pay tax clearance! there's a hole in the tax system here and nobody gave information about this. So I feel trapped in that hole! I fall into that hole in the system, because in my case, I worked 4 months (120 days). How could they're not looking from the total income first before looking into the working days?!

I felt so hopeless when I came back from my morning shift today .. I just took a bus to go home when my phone beeping, it's an SMS from my colleague, one of the girls that I wrote about previously, she said: "hi Wati, do you wanna go shopping with me? I'll pick you up at 10" .. and I said to my self, maybe I do need a break .. so I SMSed her back: "okay" ..

I told her the whole story that I talked to the head of accountant this morning and what's her response about the tax matter. We just talked and drove through the CTE to Paragon as she needed to exchange her son's jeans there. I bought a mag and just wait for her to finish her shopping then she said "I want to go to M&S" and I just followed her there .. then I saw some pretty nice boots that I couldn't afford to buy with my deducted salary, but I just tried them on anyway then I tried some scarfs and fell in love with the scarf, it cost SGD 33 and I asked my friend: "should I buy or not?" she smiled and said "just buy it my dear, it's a nice one and 33 dollar you can still afford, right? don't punish your self .. give your self a break" ... I bought the scarf in the end and I felt a bit lifted.

I wore the scarf in the evening when the three of us went bowling together. We had dinner with all of our kids, while my husband went to have a farewell party with his grad school friends. We went home around 10 pm, bathed the kids, gave them milk and sent them to bed. Then I wrote this entry.

It's easy to think what went "wrong" with a day, but I tried to think of what went "right". It's not about being positive all the time, it's about choosing what to focus on and knowing that you have friends who care for you and how to enjoy life's happy moments ;-) ..