I got more motivation to eat than to keep fit

It appears, to my horror, that theophylline is closely related to caffeine and has the same awful side effects on me... Insomnia. So a low dose of 300 mg of theophylline per day is sufficient to keep me awake the whole day! (Usually, I avoid coffee after 4-5 pm since I can't sleep well with caffeine). Plus a whole load of other side effects like heart burn, belching, diarrhea which I developed every single one of them!

I probably didn't notice it previously as I was too sick with fever for the side effects to have any effect.

Which is worse, the constricted airways or the terrible side effects?

I thought I will be writing about my first in-camp training (ICT) experience while avoiding any sensitive issues that may bring trouble to me because stuff in the army are either restricted (everybody knows but don't talk about it), confidential (need to know basis), secret (the army must conduct a background check before granting you access to these red files) and top secret (shhhh! They don't exist). It turned out that I didn't even complete my first ICT, the commanding officer should have just granted my appeal for deferment instead and not waste my precious time.

On Sunday 15/6/08, I went jogging with Sucre around our new neighbourhood, the air was bad due to the traffic by the road side. Even when I'm out of shape, I could jog for at least 1.5 km maintaining a certain pace but that day, I can barely make it to 1 km. When it comes to swimming, I'm always behind Sucre but when it comes to jogging, I'm usually ahead of her but on that day, I lagged behind by some distance. It was easy to put the blame on the poor air quality and the fact that I had a piece of bread just before jogging. But it seem that the problem could be something worse. Afterall, I jogged around Clementi road at around 5-6 pm in the past and the air quality can only be worse as the traffic is much more heavier on that road but I never suffer such a performance drop before.

Then ICT begins, I knew I was going to fail IPPT anyway given my physical conditions, but the static stations felt a lot harder to me. I could barely pass my sit-ups, a station that almost always gave me 4-5 points regardless of preparation (guess sit-up is the only exercise I get regularly when I wake up). I went from the front of the pack to the last of the pack as I needed extent breaks to catch my breath.

Friday night was book out night for the ICT, and frankly I didn't do so much in the ICT that would make me tired, but somehow I was and I rested early and woke up the next day not feeling refresh, it was the beginning of the attack. Over the day, the symptoms get worse, and by night time, taking a breath was a fight for getting oxygen in my lungs. I had such breathlessness symptoms in the past and it usually subsides within 3-4 hours, but this was different, it came with complete nose block. I couldn't sleep for most of the night and was shivering with fever in between.

Many general practitioners rest on Sundays, some of those who do practice medicine on Sunday have some kind of surcharge that will scare the sickness out of you once you know the rates. The family doctor at my old home is a nice fellow who opens his clinic for 1/2 a day on Sunday for no extra charges. Not wanting to take the risks, I decided to visit him one more time. Diagnosis, mild asthma, as posted online 2 days ago. Things seem to be better from that point onwards until I booked in to camp that night to continue with my ICT.

Another sleepless night, this time round I have some diarrhea too, 4 times in fact. By the time we were suppose to wake up at 5:45am, my fever came back with a vengeance at 311.4 Kelvins. I knew from it that I have to get myself excused from the 4 days 3 nights outfield training (in fact, those soldiers are still feeding mosquitoes in the jungle right now). The SAF medical officer seem to doubt my illness when I went to endorse a 3-days MC. Most illnesses do not require 3 days of rest, perhaps this was one of those that deserves 3 days or even more. I was ordered asked to go and have my vital symptoms checked by the medic (they didn't do it the first time maybe because this was not in the standard procedures for endorsing of MCs). The results was a fever of 311.1 Kelvin and a face mask to prevent my 'germs' from flying off. I was sent packing home from the ICT from that point onwards. I wasted a whole week of ICT training and didn't manage to clock the ICT at all so I will have to do it all over again in the future, but nothing is more precious than my health.

At this point of time, 2 doctors have certified my status. I looked as the SAF medical officer wrote down these few words "newly diagnosed asthma" on my medical note. This will go down into my medical records and will definitely downgrade my PES status when I go for FFI next time, to what will largely depends on how many attacks I get in the next 2 years.

The first thing I did after I reached home and unpacked was to sleep, I haven't been sleeping well for the past 2 nights and I really need to catch up on my sleep. The worst seemed to be over and I could start planning what stuff to do during the break as I lied down on my bed. I slept from about 12 noon to 1pm to take my medicine and carried on with my dreams. Until I woke up with breathlessness again and a fever of 311.8 Kelvin at about 4 pm, much higher than the past 2 days. I tried to sleep over it hoping that my body will take care of itself but an hour later, my temperature was shooting through the roof, 312.8 Kelvins, that is about as high a fever I ever had in my life. I got to do something about it as I tried to breath harder.

A cold shower usually works wonders in bringing down body temperature, plus it should be time for my medications soon. When my temperature went up to 313.0 Kelvins, I just had to see my family doctor one more time again. During the 1 hour period between my decision to see him and seeing him, my hands and feet were icy cold and numb, I felt very giddy and my fingers were cramped and couldn't move at all. I can't even carry my own wallet, pay for my medical bills or buckle up in my car. The doctor wasn't sure if I can go home given my condition and let me off when he knew that I had Sucre to take care of me and my dad to drive me home. For the first time in my life, I was not in control of my own body.

The problem this time round was hyperventilation. It appeared that during my sleep, the build up of phlegm and my shortness of breath tricked myself in breathing in too much for my own good. And I managed to see the doctor at the nick of the time for if I waited any longer I'm certain that I could have fainted. I was given some gas treatment for my asthma to reduce the wheezing I have for asthma and the plastic bag treatment for my hyperventilation. I was sent home after 20-30 mins but nothing was done to bring down my fever as it surged to 313.2 Kelvins and beyond according to Sucre. By this point of time, I was so cold and so sick that I couldn't find the energy to look at my own temperature anymore. For those of you who are challenged 'physically', 313.2 Kelvin correspond to 40 degrees. Essentially I had my first high-grade fever of my life, 24 hours ago.

Sucre put me on the ice-treatment to reduce my temperature and came poking my ear every 15 minutes to make sure that my temperature dropped. It did, eventually, after a few hours. Right now, I'm still accessing the damage asthma has done to my health. It definitely had affected my stamina a lot, caused me to lose quite a few pounds (now I'm about 74 kg, 2-3 kilos less than before) and it may have affected my 中气 (zhong qi). Now I may not be able to project my voice and speak like I used to without feeling breathless. Hopefully I will heal slowly because the last medical advice I got from my doctor was to go to A&E if my asthma attacks again for a complete checkout (it may not be that mild after all).

I will have to monitor my health closely, especially after my Theophylline runs out tomorrow. If you see me in school on Thursday, it's good news. Otherwise I may have to go for another 'first' in life - hospitalization. No matter what, I have to pull through with so many important things happening in life right now. If it doesn't kill you, it will only make you stronger. Isn't it?

Doctor says I may have mild asthma... could it be the air around my new home or the air in the army bunk? (Or the heavy artillery vehicular smoke that I inhaled recently.) But man was it terrible not to be able to breathe freely yesterday night.

Anyway, congrats to 5C31 for good results as a class. You guys and gals did well generally for your common tests... Sure can make it! Now I'm looking forward to promos.

Almost time to gobble up 6 types of medication and get some rest...

Woohoo... who needs the internet when you have games like Dynasty Warriors 6. Sure beats Kung Fu from my Nintendo Entertainment System from almost 20 years ago.

is coming... I won't have internet access for up to a few weeks from now onwards...

May be popping a pic now and then just for update but definitely no longer than few words posts till I'm more settled.

Recently, HDB announced a change (yet again) in the system for 1st timers getting a flat. The main reason is that sales for some of the Build to Order at 'prime' locations in Seng Kang and Punggol, just to list a few, was meet with poor response (with a take up rate of less than 50%) when many applicants applied for the flats. So they decided to remove the 1 year 1st timer priorities if home seekers reject the chance to book a flat 2 times after getting a good ballot number. See press release.

I felt that HDB is tackling the wrong problem when they decided to take such 'knee jerk' reactions to the poor response when they should be reflecting on the reasons why people do not take up the flats instead. And here's my reason why I find such BTO flats not desirable at all.

1.) Deliver date 2012 - It's 4 years from now and who knows what will happen to the price of flats (maybe able to get it cheaper in the future if economy is bad) or what might happen to the relationship between the couple if they are not married. The housing demand is now, and HDB's response to the demand now is to offer flats in BTO scheme mostly and will take 3-4 years at least to complete. No policy change now will affect the demand now. If you include collection of keys and completion of renovation, that could mean 5 years before moving to your new home!

2.) Only 5-10% of the units are truely desirable units - If I'm going to pay for a flat that will be delivered in 2012, I will want only the best unit to justify my waiting time. Best unit to me is a unit with view, highest floor, no afternoon sun etc.. only a few % of the flats will fit the criteria and once those units are snapped up, I may rather spend the 4 years searching for resale or waiting for another chance.

3.) Location of the units (too near schools, not so popular LRT system servicing the areas etc, many proposed developments but as Singaporeans realized, may or may not be developed at all).

I believe the demand is real, but the supply fails to meet the expectations for demand. For many couples who do not date for more than 4 years before getting married, there is no way for them to book a flat 4 years in advanced. And for those of them who are ready to get married, they will want to book a flat that is available now. BTO is meant to solve a problem of building too many flats that nobody wants. But we can't blame Singaporeans for being picky, after all for most Singaporeans, a flat represent the largest investment we make in our life.

"Foreign talent" is a dirty word and it is associated with many negative traits nowadays, and in my previous post on "Change, for better or worse" I used the term freely and I described the experiences of average Joe in Singapore about the issue

A more appropriate term to use in replacement of "Foreign talent" should be "Global talent", as I'm pretty sure that Singapore do contribute to the global talent list overseas. I know of at least two "Global talents" plying their trade overseas now. To generalise the effects of all global talents on locals like what I did earlier do not do justice to the talents at all. I'm sure that it takes mighty lots of courage and sacrifices to leave their homeland to work in a foreign country, and most of them do it alone. This reason alone deserve some level of respect from us.

From what I observe, we can classify global talents into 3 distinct categories, blue collar, white collar and highly qualified professionals.

The highly qualified professionals are sought after everywhere. These are the top bankers, researchers, doctors, and other experts in their own fields. There is no doubt that they contributed a lot to Singapore's economy and it is hard to replace them with locals. At times we may find some with reputations far greater than their abilities, but we need loads of them to be the regional or global hub of anything meaningful. They can set the benchmark for Singaporeans to follow, aspire and achieve in the future. Their presence here may create new jobs for Singaporeans. These highly qualified professionals are usually out of sight from ordinary Singaporeans hence they are hardly responsible for the global talent issue that most Singaporeans complain about.

These professionals do come at a price though. They usually demand a high quality of living hence they usually stay in private condos and drive luxury cars. This does have an effect on the COE prices and drives the demand for top tier housing in Singapore. Though by how much it is hard to tell.

White collar here is not limited to just clerical based jobs, but jobs that locals would want to fill in. They can be global talents here to study in local universities under subsidy or scholarships hence they have to work in Singapore for a few years. They compete directly with Singaporeans in the "not so level" grounds, they would rent HDB flats, or even get PR and settle down in Singapore. We need them here to boost up our educated work force and make Singapore more attractive to investors. But at the same time they pose a great challenge for locals to compete with. Most often, these white collar talents come from neighbouring countries and willing to work for less pay given the same work compared to locals. Afterall, getting the same job in say India will pay you perhaps less than half of what you get in Singapore so to them, it is a lot more. They can work hard for a couple of years, save up some money and return to their homeland. But for Singaporean who has to pay hundreds of thousands for a HDB flat, they can hardly afford this pay cut.

Just for fun, if you have to pay off $0.5 mil for a HDB flat and would like to do so with ease (means spend 20% or less of your income to service your housing loan) within 30 years, it means you need to earn up to $2.5 mil in that 30 years, or an average annual income of $83000, monthly income of $6944. (Mind you some design and build HDB can cost up to $0.7 mil or about $1 mil including interest). Which is enough to buy several condos in our neighbouring country depending on location. Nonetheless, I will stand to benefit a little from these foreign talents when I rent out my old home to these people.

Finally there's the blue collar global talents. They performed the task that Singaporeans would normally not want to do themselves. They stay in less than ideal conditions inside hostels. They get featured on TV regularly for abused by their employers. Singapore owes a great deal to them but Singaporeans hate to see them. Their presence benefits most Singaporeans but at the same time has the greatest impact on local low-skilled workers. These global talents effective keeps a cap on the income of low skill workers. Why should a company pay you more than a couple of hundreds when they have a ready supply of workers who are willing to work longer hours and at a cheaper rate. Would locals be able to afford food, transport, education for their family with that amount of income?

Perhaps our government missed out an important point when they dish out work fare packages year after year. It is the self-esteem of these lower income earners.

They are willing to work hard to earn a living in Singapore. Yet by taking up a job as a labourer or cleaner, they still have to depend on work fare packages from the government, NTUC vouchers for the needy, financial aid scheme from the schools etc just to get by in Singapore. How degrading can that be?

There's no doubt that Global talents contributed a lot to Singapore, especially if you look at the economics figures that our leaders are churning out day after day and you read about from newspaper day after day. For example, I remember reading a forum article by a grassroot leader saying that local complaining to him about Chinese national taking away jobs from this poor worker and he commented that they didn't realise that they help create a lot of jobs. But the big question is, what kind of jobs are created and why aren't the locals filling up those jobs?

For every solution to a problem, the solution brings a set of its problems to the situation.

(I started writing this 2 weeks ago but stopped due to busy schedule. Picked it up again since my desktop crashed on me and I don't have any pics to post)

Image taken by Sucre (or did I take this with the A100?).. I liked this composition and she likes the polar bear. Somehow she thinks that I belong to the Singapore Zoo because I like to lie around naked slacking.

Just came back from a wedding dinner attended by quite a few teachers yesterday night. Teachers from RGS, NUS High, TJC, NJC and more. There are teachers from less prestigious schools nonetheless but what is interesting is to find out the attitude of these teachers whose contracts are going to end soon next year.

One wanted to be a classroom teacher for life, one wanted to quit and go for his PhD overseas. Some complained about not worth giving it all as a teacher as the performance bonus is not proportional to the effort, better to moonlight as tuition teachers especially if you come from top schools. One considering quiting but will wait till he finishes his Masters in Education first. There's also a story of an Architect graduate who wanted to teach Secondary school, who taught (as an untrained teacher) passionately in two top schools and wanted to go into NIE with expenses all paid for (not by MOE) but was refused cause they don't want to set a precedent but this has nothing to do with this post whatsoever.

I felt so out of touch and out of sync with most of them as I never thought of all these stuff at all as I'm always too busy preparing for the new challenges ahead. Is it because I'm in a different environment compared to them now? I wonder...