My Last Day

Today is my last day working at the school. I went up to the office to drop some document for HR then to hand over my name tag, my canteen card, my whistle :-). I also had some Swiss chocolates that I put in a gift box and gave it to one of the girls in the office.

After the bell rang, my colleague asked me to accompany her to a bookstore, we drove to Orchard and went to Wheelock's Borders. It was 10 minutes before the store was opened at 9 am. We wanted to have our breakfast there actually but since we had to wait then we headed to a coffee shop nearby to have breakfast and tea.

She's talking about many things. One thing I like about her is that she's honest and open but still have a decent way when talking about private matters that will make you feel easy to listen too and not feel embarrassed. I think I've missed womanly chit-chat that sometimes Asian women tend to secretly put in their closet. We're adult and I think sometimes we needed other woman's opinion about things in our life. Sometimes people took a glance on us when we're laughing on something, while my blond and dare friend here just didn't care.

11.15 am we're finished our trip to bookshops and cosmetic outlets, all I did was just to make sure she's not getting lost somewhere in the mall. Back to her car the valet parking guy pointed out that the car has a flat tire. Luckily we still got time to change the tire in a tire shop near the school.

After the school's finished I went up to attend an invitation from the primary headmaster, she said thanks for doing an "excellent job" during this trimester and that my work was "impeccable" .. oh wow!, thanks ma'am! .. but why you didn't mention it in the reference letter? .. :-)

Good thing comes for those who fight for their rights

Just a fast and brief little note to let you know about the good news from tax office:

I can get a refund tax from the sum of money that my employer deducted from my last salary in Dec 2010. I just need to fill in a reassessment form and send it back together with copy of my passport to the tax clearance office and they'll send me a cheque within a month.

I felt relieved and grateful for all people who supported me during the difficult and confusing times. May God returns all your kindness and give all of you happiness ...

"A l'occasion du Nouvel An, je vous souhaite une bonne et heureuse année 2011, une excellente santé et le succès dans tous vos projets !"

sincelery,
xoxo.

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 ;-) ..

Just between girls ;-)

It's the three of us. Some said that it's not a good number to bind a friendship, because you could keep one feels left-out, but I don't think so. I think, It takes three to have a complete lunch together, so when one couldn't make it, there are always two. I never said it's a perfect friendship, it happened just by chance, because we happen to be in the same job although we don't have the same time slots. That's why the only time we could stay together is during lunches.

Maybe it's December, the time when most people here thinking about holidays, or having a party for xmas or new year .. and that's when my two friends have beside their hungry stomach that need to be fill in during lunch time, they have this shopping urge they need to fill in too .. So since last week we all went to those shopping malls around .. where? you guess!, yes where else: Orchard Rd. We have long lunch hour from 1pm to 2.30pm, so one of us who happened to drive the car will speed up through CTE, parked and we all grabbed something to eat and then ... swoosh! ... they're all gone and back with full shopping bags in their hands.

Let me tell you, Liesy she's loaded. She didn't care how much she have to pay for the things she likes. Lieny, a bit careful of what she gonna buy .. mostly she bought stuffs for her kids, scarfs from Pull and Bear for her teenage girl, T-shirts for the younger one, etc. While me? .. ahem, looking for bargain stuffs .. and collecting discount vouchers ;-D

"Hey, that looks good on you" -- that's the line we should all be aware of! .. I never trust it. "Why don't you buy now? .. you need those for winter time .." -- yeah, right .. they really sound like the sales assistant but worse. To me, it's clear: "I don't need those stuff now, I can buy it there when it's on winter sale in February .. beside you all know that I'm almost bankrupt because of the tax!" -- and they all would laughed .. and then swoosh!!! ... rushed back to our post, feeling content ;-D

Life just doesn't come with guarantees ..

Hubby has gone to Geneva again. This trip actually for a "familiarization trip" and he should be traveling with family, but since the kids school is not on holiday which also means I also still have to work until Dec 17th, husband had to go on this trip alone.

He didn't expect winter is so harsh in Europe this time, winter snow came too early .. The day he arrived, there's a snow storm, the snow is very thick that the airport in Geneva had to be closed. He had to take a train from Zurich to Geneva, and when he arrived in the airport to take a rent car and drove, it got stuck in the middle of a road. Luckily there were some cars passed by and people were kind enough to help him out. Once the car could move, he parked it in the airport parking lot and took a cab to his hotel. What an adventure! and what a strange way that Europe is welcoming him .. it made me think, maybe this rough climate warned us to be tougher than ever :-(