People, Work and the Quality of Life

I love talking to people and finding out more about them. Their views on issues, their backgrounds, their lives, their family and most important of all, their quality of life.

My favourite people to chat up are usually cab drivers. Being locked in a metal box for 30mins does not permit escape from me and my sometimes rather inquisitive tongue ( I do not mean it in THAT way, if you know what i mean ).

A cabbie's life in Singapore is pretty much standard. He/She usually shares a cab with another driver, usually a younger one who does the night driving. Its to offset the SGD86 per day rental for those old toyota cabs and SGD120+ for the faster and more powerful Hyundai Sonatas. Have not chatted up a Merc or a Chrysler cabbie.

I took a cab back last night from a bar and I had the most interesting chat with an old malay cabbie. He surprised me with exceptionally well polished manners and style of speaking. His voice was uber smooth and he spoke with an air of a person with very high self esteem, someone who has achieved something and is proud of it.

I talked to him and learnt he has 4 kids, all above 25, very well educated and successful. The oldest was offered a seat in the NUS medical school and currently works at NUH. The second is a trained electronics engineer working as a senior product engineer at Accenture, one of the world's largest tech consultation company. The third is doing a PhD in the US and the youngest daughter is a lawyer.

The conversation became awkward when i asked him why none of his kids were taking care of him. He was a really small man with wrinkles and white whisps of hair on his head. He shrugged and the car turned silent for the remainder of the journey.

It disgusted me. For all i care, his kids were not successful as he thinks they are, their failure at expressing gratitude and love for a person who had worked so hard, and is still working hard to raise them is inexcusable.

What is society coming to when morals and the value of family is overlooked in the pursuit of personal agendas and happiness?



Matrix

Playtime's Over, lets get serious

Another teary goodbye...

I'm getting pretty serious about cycling now. Was out with Sher Han on an unplanned 70km ride yesterday and the limitations of my much loved Trek was apparent on the steep slope of Mt Faber and the sluggish feeling of the frame on the sprints along LCK and in Mandai.

High time i got myself something lighter and stiffer, yet comfy enough for long rides and it musn't be all carbon fibre. Most important of all, the scrooge in me demanded an awesome bike for below SGD800. 

Behold :

2009 Fuji Roubaix RC

I located the frame going for SGD500 on the second hand market. Knocked the price down to SGD450 after weeks of thinking and trying to look for something better after which purchasing would leave my bank account at a healthy balance. The Cervelo S1 was my initial target, but with framesets going for SGD1000 second hand, it was a tad bit too rich for my taste. And besides, as I had planned to transfer the old yet reliable Shimano 105 gruppo from the Trek, the Cervelo wasn't my choice in the end. A frame like that deserves better components and future Yuva will see to that.

The weight weenie bug bit me when i went down to inspect the frame. Settled on getting a new aluminium seat post and handlebar to replace the steel bits i had on the Trek. Though a far cry from the carbon fibre stuff, u can't complain about something picked up for less than SGD35 each.

Got new blinkers too, wanted to replace the bashed up stuff on the Trek. Requested the mechanic to do a thorough degreasing and polishing of the gruppo before assembly and one of his buddies offered to do a proper bike fit for me.

As a cherry on the cake, I got matching red Panaracers. Slick ones in hopes of me going faster, though with the limitation of not being to ride in the rain. Not that I should too anyway.

Looking forward to an awesome summer of racing, riding, studying and starting my FYP!

Its awesome when you have goals to work towards.

Cheers from the,

Matrix