JB Jeyaretnam

I heard this morning over the radio that Mr JB Jeyaretnam passed away. This is not a political posting

Mr JBJ was a colourful political character in Singapore with his clipped English accent and trademakr mutton chop beard.

When I first started work as a lowly paid legal clerk in a defunct law firm many years ago, I would bump into him in court. I do remember going to his law office to exchange documents with his clerk. In those days, I think his office was either at Colombo Court or High Street Centre. I do remember the other legal clerks talking about him about his "garang" nature and how he would battle for his clients' rights and fight tooth and nail for justice. Even though JBJ had a "garang" nature, he was never rude or arrogant to all who approached him for help.

There are also memories of him selling the Hammer paper on Sunday mornings at Geylang Serai Market. I would greet him "good morning", buy a paper and go home to read his alternative views.

In later years, JBJ was "silenced" by circumstances. He had my sympathies but I would do nothing because I don't getting involved in Singapore politics by virtue of my foreigner status.

Singapore will be less colourful with the loss of JBJ.

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Foreigners in Singapore

This posting on foreigners in Singapore is long overdue with the hooha going on in the past few weeks. Before anyone thinks that I am here to blast or praise foreigners in Singapore, let me state that I am a foreigner or foreign talent in Singapore; depending on how you look at the situation but I am so localised that few people would guess of my "expatriate" status ;-p

There are two types of foreigners or expatriates in Singapore - the lowly paid work permit holders and the highly paid P1 classification employment pass holders. The lowly paid work permit holder would attract the terms "kling" or "bangla" or "cheenapek" in the most derogatory tone.

First I guess I should share my thoughts about the proposal to have 1,500 lowly paid work permit holder expatriates live in an old school in Serangoon Gardens and the brouhaha that created with the residents there. The gamut of complaints ranged from "lowering the values of the properties" to increased crime and what have you. I won't say that I am for or against these foreign workers living in Serangoon Gardens, but I would like the authorities to think about the living conditions in the whole equation.

The disused school proposed as a residence for the these foreign workers was not purpose built as a residence. IT WAS BUILT TO BE A SCHOOL so many years ago. Nobody would be living on the grounds with the exception of the caretaker. How on earth would the authorities expect the premises to cope with 1,000 people living on the grounds. The toilet facilities would not be able to cope, to say the least!! Imagine the queues of people using the toilet facilities - that would be a logistical nightmare. Yes, I believe that there will be improvements made to the existing facilities but I seriously do not think that the whole area will be able to cope.

The traffic jam to get in or out of the estate would be madness. It is already heavily congested and it will get worse with these foreign workers living there. The human congestion would also be bad.

Serangoon Gardens was not built to handle that sort of human traffic. Plus there are plans to re-develop the old cinema there into some swanky new shopping centre in future. With this "village" closing there will be more stress on the remaining facilities. As it is now, it is almost impossible to get a seat at Chomp Chomp makan centre unless you go really early or late. If you get there too early, the stalls are not opened. If you get there too late, they are closed or are closing and are running out of food. What a catch 22 situation.

Then I have lots of comments about what would be the other end of the expat spectrum. These are the high fliers who come to Singapore to and hold P1 employment passes for a start and then may "graduate" to become Permanent Residents.

These people will attract the term "ang mo" and would be held in awe by the rest of the local populace. I suppose the phrase "Pinkerton Syndrom" would be good - The Pinkerton Syndrome is a derogatory Singaporean term describing the tendency of some local Asians who tend to consider Caucasians superior, usually having a bias towards favouring Caucasians over locals.
The term traces its origins from the character of Lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton in Puccinni's opera Madame Butterfly.

So do I start with the good or bad of these angmos who come to Singapore and think they have made it in life. At the risk of sounding jealous of these people in Singapore, I beg to differ because I am not interested in their so called posh lifestyle, but I am sick of them in Singapore.

The men come out here and suddenly, they think they are God's gift to women. The local girls or the Sarong Party Girl (SPG) throws herself at him in the most subservient manner. Some of these girls think that the angmoh man is her passport out of Singapore so she will do what she can to land herself the coveted MRS title. Sigh!!

These men come out with a full expat package - international school paid for, Volvo xC90 as part of the car package, an accomodation package that would be an apartment or a house in the expat enclaves of Holland Village, Orchard Road, Bukit Timah or where there are the posh supersmarket, maid allowance, two trips home to their home country, entertainment package and all the trappings of luxury that seem to go with the job. The package could be something in the region of $30,000 a month for the low end posting.

These people who come out here are SO BLOODY RUDE that it is sometimes quite impossible to tolerate them. Last month, the office was shooting a series for a TV show (watch out for it in October 2008) at Turf City. We were there for 4 Saturdays, so I think I am good authority on their idiotic behaviour. The angmos use the fields at Turf City for some recreation on weekends - there is football, rugby, cricket, baseball - all in little enclaves. They drive to Turf City and then start behaving badly. They park and refuse to give way. They cause traffic jams with their inconsiderate ways. In a traffic jam situation, they do not give way or drive in the most inconsiderate manner. They cut you off most rudely . They act arrogantly like Singapore owes them a lot. This is just at Turf City where we encounter their rudeness.

Elsewhere they cut queues at the check out counter at the supermarket, they cut you off at the MRT escalators or on the roads or at the lifts, they show great impatience at "slow" service or having to wait a little longer than what they deem acceptable as waiting time.

They think their money is very big - to use a very SINGLISH term - but they are nothing big, just assholes who come out here. When I was a student in England, I was told to blend in, be like them but to hold onto our Asian manners. So what happened to these people when they come out from England - do they try to blend in?? Not really - they acquire more airs and graces and think that they have arrived by virtue of their expat posting. From the sound of the accent they utter from their mouths, I can tell that back home in England - they were from some village or council estate.

To the Singaporeans out there, please remember that some of these people have never travelled out of their village or country until they got a posting to the exotic Far East as a reward for their hard work. They would really be considered "kampung" folk or country bumpkins. Back home, they would be watching their budgets, shopping in Tesco or Sainsbury for their groceries, taking the bus and train to work and are ordinary folk. The sudden grandeur of wealth has gone into their heads and they have puffed their egos.

So do I sound disgruntled??? I am just sick of their rudeness, arrogance, patronising and condescending manner.

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First Night Race

This evening, we came home early from dog training and found all the car parks lots in our regular area full - and it was really early around 7 pm. We wondered the event and realiased that it is exam week starting tomorrow and tonight is the first ever NIGHT RACE for the Grand Prix.

So we just eat fruit for dinner because we are just too hot and tired to think about going out for dinner or to cook - and turned on the TV for some "excitement" from this Singapore Grand Prix.

Nothing exciting except for 2 guys talking away about the race. Then the race starts and we have these cars racing around the track - I can imagine the noise, the heat, the dust from the TV screens - but I am strangely detached from this event. Yes, there was some excitement when some guy crashed his car against the side barrier, then there was his voice to say that he is OK. Then the safety cars come dashing out to the rescue. I am little anxious for his safety rather than excitement of this race.

Sigh! I guess AGE is catching up with me.

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Beta Torrent

This is BETA TORRENT our West Highland White Terrier who came to live with us on 5 February 2008. He was born on 27 September 2007 in Australia. This slightly late post is for his birthday as he is now a year old.

Papa came up with the name because BETA means NOT ALPHA and also something about beta versions of software being the first version. TORRENT because he comes at us like a torrent of energy! He is called Torrent or Torri for short. So far, we have received some incredulous looks and queries about his name, but this is what happens when you get a computer tech guy to name a dog.

Do not be deceived by his sweetie-pie or cutie-pie looks – HE CAN BE QUITE HORRIBLE. Torrent harasses Junior non-stop till he is tired and goes off to sleep. Torrent has boundless energy till we are tired. Junior now seeks refuge from the torrent of energy by getting onto the sofa or hurrying to our bed. He also looks at us desperately to put Torrent into the play pen so that we can all get some peace.

Torrent gets along with the cats – Fat Boy, Bandit and Easter. Fat Boy is extremely tolerant and will indulge his attacks. But Fat Boy also has his limits too and will slap Torrent when he is fed-up. Bandit maintains her distance and has only hissed and raised her fur in anger. She spends a lot of time eye-balling him from her lofty perch on top of the furniture. Torrent is smart to keep out of the way till she can accept his invasion of her apartment and spaces. Easter has raised her heckles, smacked him and now walks around ignoring his advances and requests for play.

In his first year (or 9 months or so with us), he has learnt more than basic obedience and can be quite well behaved, although he has his lapses. He goes to the training ground and has plenty of fun running around, chasing his squeak toy and making friends with other dogs. Torrent is sometimes used as a demo dog at training to show what a small doggie should be able to do. BTW, he has never been to formal dog training school - totally home schooled by us. This is so unlike Junior who now has a PhD in obedience by doing the conventional dog training school thing.

Torrie is totally food driven and will do anything for his dinner, treats and snacks. He will sit, shake hands, down, wait, drool and then attack his dinner with gusto. After he is scoffed his meal, he will disturb Junior for what's left in the bowl - NOTHING!!

Torrent sleeps with us on the bed too - he will sleep next to me, rest his head on my foot or some part of my body. He will also sleep between us with his four legs in the air on the pillow. Sometimes, he heads for the top of the bed at the pillows where he cozies with FatBoy. He is a noisy dog for sleeping - he grunts, groans and SNORES in his sleep. He wakes up when he hears the radio, and starts his grunting and strange howling and licking our faces for his breakfast.

Yes, I do think Torrent is adding to the fun at home.

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Singapore Grand Prix

There is a lot of buzz in Singapore these days with the F1 coming later this month. The newspapers have reports, Mediacorp has this dumb show called Singtel Grid Girls - full of bimbos, the bars have concocted all sorts of boozy drinks - all to make people spend money on a whole lot of hype.

OK, I went to the Singapore Grand Prix years ago!! Huh? What Grand Prix in Singapore?? OK, this post will show my vintage somewhat. Years ago in the 1970's, I went to the Grand Prix races in Singapore - YES, SINGAPORE!!!

So this one coming DOES NOT get me excited - this is part of my droll "been there, seen that and done it, so what's new" attitude.

The race track was up at Upper Thomson Road near Casuarina Road where the roti prata shop is located. The track was some long winding road with lots of twists and turns. There was this turn called the hair pin turn. The race track still exists today beside the jungle or bush of Seletar Reservoir. It is a favourite haunt amongst lovers looking for a quiet spot to have some nookie. The

HH and I have driven along this road a couple of times just for the fun of a car ride with our doggies and we have spotted cars at quiet spots with newspapers covering all their windows.

My godfather was a journalist with Nanyang Siang Pau and he had these tickets to the GrandPrix. I don't even remember if these were grandstand tickets, but we were seated at some stand with lots of seats and had a good view of the race track and the finish line.

I don't really remember much - Loong had been to one the previous year, so he was seasoned. He told me to get my notebook and to write down all the car numbers that zoomed passed us. Loong also told me to try to count how many times we spotted a particular car going around where we were seated. What would you expect from kids? We had absolutely no idea how many laps the cars would go around the circuit. We had no idea who these drivers were. We were just so excited to watch all these cars zooming past our seats. We jumped up and down and cheered lustily and loudly everytime some car we identified as ours came by. It was excitement when the chequered flag went down.

There was the smell of burning rubber and petrol fumes and the dust swirling in the wake of these cars that kept the excitement going for us.

I remember we spent the whole day at the races and had great fun as we could eat and drink all the junk food galore around. There was soda pop and yummy chicken sandwiches and cocktail sausages and all sorts of things to munch on.

This Singapore Grand Prix does not hold much excitement for me - the tickets are overpriced and the whole event is over-rated with hype.

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Singtel Grid Girls

There is this new show on Channel 5 in celebration of the F1 race in Singapore which starts in September 2008. It is called SINGTEL GRID GIRLS.

It is the most dumb show I caught on telly in a long time. I think it is some reality show sort of thing featuring a bevy of girls - actually they look and behave like brainless BIMBOS - doing all sorts of stupid things on TV. I cannot remember how many of them are in this show.

In the first episode that was televised, these girls were given a list of things to "treasure hunt" for. They had to convince the public to part with their items (shoes, clothes, accessories etc) that were in RED.

So you have this bunch of bimbos running around in teams grabbing whatever they can in RED from members of the public - they managed to swipe a watch, a skirt, handbag amongst other stuff.

These girls sure know how to act like simpering idiots and brainless bimbos. They don't speak well - some of them speak with some sort of fake accent with a marble in their mouths. Otherwise they speak in the typical Singlish manner of half finished words and bad pronunciation.

They cannot act and they try to ham it up for the cameras. Yeah, I know it is a TV show and they are supposed to be GRID GIRLS, but such behaviour??

What are these girls trying to proof - they are bimbos or Sarong Party Girls or what??

I seriously believe that these girls give women bad press.

Please Singtel - I am sure you have better stuff to sponsor than to waste your shareholders' money on such a brainless show.

If I want such bimbo type of action, I will head to the pick up joints frequented by the desperado women for the insecure ang mo man who thinks he is God's gift to women in Singapore.

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Telco Customer Service

Sometime last month, I was instructed by Dad - please get in touch with Singtel to fix the problem with my pre-paid SIM card as it cannot be recognised by the phone.

I also had a problem with the collection and/or delivery of a broadband device from Singtel.

So I decided that I should get in touch with LHK who is with Singtel and so far my only saviour for sanity in dealing with Singtel.

This is the story of my woes:

My client asked me to sign for broadband services and this stick USB connection for the office. He was busy, so I signed for it. I provided the business profile, completed the form and signed for everything. Some human delivered the wireless modem router to the office and installed it for us – no problem. Then SingPost was tasked to send that USB stick to us. In the midst of moving we could not find the company rubber stamp. When SingPost came the first time, we weren’t in. When they came the second time, I could not find the rubber stamp. I offered my IC to the delivery guy to verify that I am the person who applied for the service. He said: No letter of authority, no rubber stamp – NO MODEM. I told him to go back and decided to take the matter with Singtel.

Then of course I had that SIM card problem so two "problems" warranted disturbing LHK.

Shortly after that email to LHK, I received a phone call from his colleague Y. Y said that she would arrange for a new SIM card to replace the faulty one and for us to keep the number. Y also said that she would look into the matter of that broadband devide and I could collect both at the same time. On the day agreed that I would go to the Singtel Shop at 31 Exeter Road to get the new SIM card in exchange for dad's faulty card I started my headache.

OK, this is why I started the blog - to rant about stuff that bother me.

I arrived at the shop and went to the information counter - I told my story of the faulty SIM and collection of the modem. The guy asked for my name and the mobile number, looked at his computer screen and said - Yes, it is in the system. Hooray - no hitch there. I took a queue number from him and waited for the 5 persons in front of me to clear. When I was I turn, I went to the counter and told the young man there my story of the SIM card - his first answer to me was: CANNOT, YOU NEED TO BUY A NEW SIM CARD AND YOUR STORED VALUE WILL BE GONE.

I told him that I had made arrangements for a replacement SIM and he was adamant that it could not be done. I stood my ground but my blood pressure was already going up. The customer service guy at the next counter then told this young man - better check behind for that special SIM. So this young man went behind to check for the special SIM. Lo and behold, he came out with the replacement SIM.

Then came the registration of the SIM card - they insisted that I needed to give them my particulars for this SIM because they need to register it to someone. The number was registered to dad - they have his particulars, but the idiots insisted that the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) want to have mine. OK, to avoid my blood pressure going up anymore, I let them register the SIM in my name. I am going to take the matter up with IDA on how stupid the system is.

Then came the problem of that broadband device. There was a mix-up in the communications and the modem never made it to the Singtel shop. The poor store manager spent about 15 minutes hunting all over the store room at the back for a huge box (for a large modem) but couldn't find anything. I finally received the modem from the girl who had signed for our line. I had been at Exeter Road from 10 am to 12:15 pm and was late for my lunch appointment.

I have come to the conclusion that Singtel maybe good at the services they provide - basic telephony, mobile, broadband and whatever else, the people individually are wonderful, but they are so big and large that they have absolutely no idea what is going on around them. Do they live in outer space??

Shankar

You must be wondering what this post is about and why it is labled "Shankar". We had this young man from Myanmar come join us in the office in March 2008. His name is Shankar. He is of Indian origin but hails from Myanmar. He joined the office as a junior software programmer.

I guess I have to ventilate my woes about Shankar and one of the reasons for starting this blog was so that I could rant in cyberspace.

SHANKAR IS TOTALLY IDIOTIC!!

Let's see - I shall start with his posture. Shankar is tall - over 6 foot tall. He cannot walk straight because he hunches and slouches. He looks like a hulking gorilla because of his bad posture. I have told him to straighten up - he makes a conscious effort at that moment, but he goes back into his slump almost immediately after. OK, I cannot change his posture but I have made the effort to make him look better (somehow!), I think. Shankar agrees with me that he looks better standing straight, but his excuse is that he cannot remember.

The next part of his idiotic ways - he cannot come to work on time! From the time Shankar started with us in the old office till today, he has not been able to come to work on time. He started work on 10 March 2008. The official office hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. - just like any other regular office. Shankar's excuse for not coming in earlier or not being able to make it on time is the bad bus service. He told me that he has to wait up to 40 minutes for the bus that takes him to the interchange for him to take the MRT to the office. His routing is something like this - bus to Clementi MRT station, train to Outram Park, change trains for Potong Pasir and walk 20 minutes to the office.

I showed him the bus timings on the SBS Transit website which stated that buses will be at the bus stop every 7 to 10 minutes during peak hours. So who is he trying to bluff?? I may drive, but I do take buses too. I have complained to the CEO of the bus company when there was tardy bus service.

Shankar informed me that he gets up at 6:30 am and leaves home at 7:30 am and a lot of the time is spent waiting for the buses that come late. When I told him that he should sleep earlier so that he can wake up earlier, he informed me that he cannot sleep too early because it interferes with the digestion of his dinner. He also informed me that the body needs 8 hours of sleep to function properly. Haha!! What about the rest of us who do not get more than 6 hours of sleep every night? We cannot function properly, right??

I told Shankar that all of us have the same stuff to do - get up, get to work, do laundry, make dinner, do ironing, tidy or whatever, so what excuse does he have for not being able to cope? I know lots of guys and gals who live away from home and have to cope and still make it to work on time plus work overtime to boot.

CIO told Shankar that we are in the office by about 8:30 a.m. and asked Shankar what time he considers that it is OK to be here in the office. Shankar told CIO - I will be here by 9:30 a.m. When CIO asked him how long he intended to stay till to make up the shortfall in the official working times, Shankar informed CIO that he would stay till 6:30 p.m. So does this mean that we all have to stay till 6:30 p.m. to lock the door after him??

Sometime back in the old office, I told Shankar that the Employment Act states that a work week is 44hour week. I informed Shankar that the office only works a 40 hour week. Since he is always late for work by about 1 hour, he only works about 35 hours a week. He kept quiet. He must have thought about my statement and he came back with this rejoinder: boss told him that his performance is not measured by the hours BUT BY HIS OUTPUT AND WORK. OK, point noted but can we look at the standard of his work?? I noticed that he could not even follow the instructions given by boss and that he's slow in giving the completed task to boss. So the least he could do would be to try to make it on time to the office.

This is an example of how Shankar cannot follow instructions given to him and cannot handle stress. He was told by boss to demonstrate to me some website that he had designed and explain the functions on the site. He gave me the web address for me to look at it. So when I started "torturing" the site as a dummy, I noted some bugs. I told Shankar to fix the bugs and not to put in any other enhancements. Boss told him to fix the bugs and make sure that the work is consistent. BUT THE FELLOW CANNOT DO THAT. He was making more enhancements without knowing what the hell he's doing - his enhancements were some flashing bit on the front page which were meaningless sentences. When I asked him what those sentences were - he could not explain to me. The work was not consistent and boss already told him THREE TIMES where the errors were. I spotted these errors without boss telling me what to look for.

Then when I told him about the bugs and the errors that he was supposed to fix, he got stressed. He set his own deadline to fix the problem when I asked him how long it would take to fix. He told me within 3 hours, so I asked if he was going for lunch. He said NO PROBLEM. Then before the 3 hours were over, he came and told me that he was not able to fix the problem and would need more time.

When I "scolded" him, he got stressed and got a huge headache and went off home to sleep it off. Shankar cannot work under pressure. When he is stressed by the "enormous" task put in front of him, he will have a headache and have to go home to take medicine. We do have Panadol for aches and pains in the office, but he cannot take that. Shankar has to take his special medicine from Peninsula Plaza.

SHANKAR IS IRRESPONSIBLE!!

Shankar is also capable of going AWOL and being irresponsible. On 1 August, I had a client meeting in the morning. CIO came to the office to give him some work to do and left him with the workmen all around. I came back to the office around lunch time to tell him to go for lunch and to check on the progress of the renovation work. When I got to the office, Shankar wasn't in. The electrician informed me that Shankar had gone for lunch. So I waited an hour for him to get back and started making phone calls. Then I decided that I should drive to check out the power supply connection with Singapore Power. On the way to Singapore Power, I called Shankar to tell him that I was going out and would be back. I asked him where he was. He told me that he had gone to Peninsula Plaza to have lunch. I asked him why he had to go there for lunch - BTW we are out in MacPherson Road. He said that he went to Peninsula Plaza to have lunch and had hurt his back so he had to get his medicine there. I asked him if he had informed anyone that he was leaving the office - he said NO, he was going to do it later. I asked how late and he said after lunch and taking the medicine. I told him that he was fired for leaving his post without permission. He quickly telephoned boss to tell of his "sickness". Later boss called me to check on something, and I casually mentioned about Shankar leaving the office. Boss said that Shankar informed him, at 2 p.m. and that was after I had yelled at him. SIGH!! I told Shankar that in Myanmar, the military junta shoot soldiers for leaving their posts without informing their commanders. I think he understood that bit.

SHANKAR HAS AN EXCUSE FOR EVERYTHING that you tell him where he went wrong or committed some error. He cannot come to work early because he has to wait 4o minutes for the bus. CIO told him that we should move the office closer to his home so that he didn't have to travel so far to work. It would be better if we moved the office to Myanmar to his home so that he doesn't have to leave home to get to work.

I told him that he has to work harder and faster and apply his brains more to the work at hand. He gave me the analogy that the work is like a big pot of rice. You cannot eat too fast because you will be sick, so in the same breath he is working but it cannot be done too fast because he cannot apply all that he has learnt.

He told me that he was a web developer in Myanmar, but I noted that he had problems with his web design. He then informed me that he was the project lead. I told him that if he were the project lead, he would know what the hell was going on and he would know all the steps. However looking at him now, he is floundering and drowning in the work.

Shankar has a problem understanding English. When you ask him something, he will answer YES if the answer is meant to be negative. He will also answer NO if it is meant to be YES and then totally confuse all the people around. It is really comic - I cannot describe it because it has to be seen and heard to be believed!!

I have been counselling Shankar about his lateness and his work performance. He has always told me "Yes Didi, I will improve", but so far to no avail but great dispair for us. Sometimes I think it is no use being kind or understanding or trying to motivate a person who has no drive.

I have been given instructions to cancel Shankar's work pass and get his tax clearance. Hooray!!

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Goo Problems

Sometime last week, we started smelling fuel somewhere in our engine compartment whenever we switched off the engine. We didn't know what the smell was and there was also a strange rattling which we couldn't quite identify.

Earlier in July we had changed the fuel tank float. The fuel tank float had been giving us problems intermittently for nearly a year. Occasionally, the dashboard display would show that we were driving on reserve when we knew that we had something like a 3/4 tank of diesel. We monitored our fuel tank by checking our trip meter which we reset at every diesel top-up. It served us well enough until we got too busy and sometimes just put in $20 to keep going till we had more time at the station. Then I would worry that I would forget and drive the tank to empty - which is disastrous for a diesel engine.

Then we had problems with the alternator dying on us in August. We managed to get it to the workshop for it to be repaired before I went away for the National Day holidays in Singapore.

So imagine us being puzzled by the noise and smell in the front section last week.

I decided to drive the Goo to the workshop on Thursday for it to be checked out. The Goo had other ideas - it spluttered to a halt along Upper Serangoon Road on Wednesday night around 10:30 whilst we were on the way home with V and Junior and Torrent packed in!! HORRORS!!

HH called K for help - to transport V and Junior and Torrent home. We then called the tow company run by Jeannie (I think AutoJag) for help to tow the Goo to Renault at Leng Kee Road.

Jeannie's tow truck came and the very efficient tow Uncle loaded the Goo on his hoist and took all the details. K came just after to the rescue on his way home from work and sent V and Junior and Torrent home. Junior and Torrent were not happy to go into the doggie cage at the back of K's SUV - strange smells and strange car. Anyway, they made it home.

HH and I jumped into the tow truck and went for a ride to Leng Kee Road to settle the engine problems. The ride to Leng Kee was uneventful - the tow truck uncle told us about haunted houses and spots in Singapore and it made the drive interesting. We did agree that driving slowly and steadily was the way to go these days - no need to rush and get all worked up.

The next morning, the workshop called us and asked "what happened??" - so we said something about the fuel pump and the fuel line and the alternator (we had figured it by then) and asked them to check it and solve the problem. They could not promise us that they could resolve the problem so quickly after they checked.

Anyway, Woei Lee our very sweet service advisor said that the Goo would have to stay in the workshop for the weekend as the problem could not be solved by Friday evening. However she made it easier for us to live without our Goo by letting us have the use of the Renault F1 Kangoo till the workshop returned our Goo today.

So on Friday evening, I made it down to the Renault service centre and collected the zippy F1 decorated Kangoo. What a breeze to drive. It is new (below 6 months and ran about 12,000km only) - our Goo is approaching its' 8th vehicle inspection next month and has done over 230,000km. The engine is some turbo charged 1.5 diesel thing - our is just 1.9 diesel, no frills basic engine.

We managed some F1 driving stunts because of the lighter clutch and steering. We stepped on the gas and the F1 Kangoo surged forward. We nipped in between vehicles and switched lanes with ease. We overtook slow laggard weekend drivers and incompetents with ease. The reverse sensors made parking easy. BTW, I don't have problems driving a van with blind spots - I can park the vehicle with just the mirrors for assistance.

There were leather seats. There was also padding along the side panels and the top so the whole cabin was quieter. Such refinements compared to our Goo the work horse water buffalo. It was tempting to consider getting the new Kangoo, but we do love our Goo - warts, spots and scars!!

I think we must be the oldest agent maintained Kangoo still going to the workshop for services and parts and repairs. The Renault people are always trying to get us to buy a new vehicle, either car or van but we see no reason to change our Goo at the moment as it has served us well over the past years.

We have had a lot of fun with our Goo and has served us well - it has made numerous trips to Malaysia and even got booked for driving 133km/h on the North-South Highway. We still haven't paid that outstanding speeding ticket - naughty!! We have hauled plants from PJ to some land along the Karak Highway. We have carted home many bargains from Ikea and save the $40 delivery charge. We have played driver to many friends who needed a ride or a tumpang if they didn't mind the van. The Goo has also helped friends move home or office and been packed to the gills with stuff.

We once stuffed the Goo with 3 humans and 8 doggies for a dog show. Us and Junior and Buzzi, then we swung around to pick K with Quanto and Xena and forward to LHT's home to collect his 4 GSD puppies for the show. Imagine the crowd in there that tumbled out when we arrived. There was also all the bits and pieces for the show so it was really stuffed.

It was a real relief when I heard from Woei Lee last night to say that our Goo would be ready this morning for collection.

Many thanks to the wonderful people at Renault at Leng Kee Road who keep us on the road!!