Clouds of Rock in Nepal

On the plane back from Nepal, I was holding on to the thought of seeing the photos that I had just finished downloading on the laptop and my heart was pounding just at the thought of reviewing the result of these four days of photography.  But it is deception that was sitting in my computer; sadly the photos failed to capture the essence of Kathmandu …the photos were silent!

It is too often the photos I did not take, the ones that I could not take because I was in a moving car or felt too intrusive to have the courage to click that are the most amazing ones.

I wanted so much to capture the old man carrying this large weight on his head, the young children playing in a small pile of garbage while laughing and the sound and smell of the burning garbage on the streets of the Thamel area.  I so wanted to capture the vibrant atmosphere of the streets of Kathmandu, including the thick air of dust and the multitude of scents, but it is simply impossible.  I guess that just like the people of Kathmandu, my camera was wearing a face mask to filter the pollution.

Then you have the photos that you are forbidden to take.  One of them was the unique opportunity of seeing the Goddess Kumari; this young 4 year old girl that is selected like the Dalai Lama using a long set of criteria and of course, a bit of astrology.  We had the privilege, thanks to the owner of Everest Express, to get a viewing with the Goddess Kumari.  She usually comes out of her monastery once or twice a year to bless the people of Nepal and to bless the leader in place. Such a privilege was priceless so our cameras were ready, caps off and on standby. The security arrived in the courtyard where we were standing in wait of the appearance of this living Goddess, the only one in the world, and at this moment we heard the loud voices saying: NO CAMERA, IT IS FORBIDDEN TO TAKE PHOTOS OF THE GODDESS. The little girl appeared without smiling, with her perfect face full of make-up and no one able to capture the moment.  It is now in my memory for ever; her eyes on mine with both a deep sentiment of curiosity. This moment is now only pictured in my mind but I can look at it as often as I want. At puberty, this Goddess will become mortal again and will go down to the streets of Nepal to live what is said to be “a normal human life”.

So unless you experience it for yourself, nothing can render the “scent” of Nepal (as my friend Tim would express instead of using “smell”).  The noise of the hundreds of cars, motorcycles and tuk tuk, the sound of everybody talking their way through life, negotiating their rice or begging their possible, but little, hope of getting something…anything.  As my husband Pierre would say; Kathmandu’s beat is a fluid chaos where the devoted are poor and the middle class is hard to see through the dust surrounding their daily lives.  A constant dance of cars, humans, dogs and motorcycles who have learned to ignore one another.

When you have a small window of opportunity, you cross the street to avoid a pile of garbage or a beggar who has been following you for the last 20 minutes.  When you have a small window of opportunity you try to look up at the sky to search for what seems to be clouds, clouds that when you focus for a moment suddenly transform themselves in the most majestic and beautiful rock mountains of the world: the Himalayans.

Don’t read me wrong, I enjoyed every second of our three days in Kathmandu, but on Saturday, when the group of trekkers composed of our husbands and other friends of Cass left for their long 14 day journey, my friend Val and I hopped in a jeep and went straight for Nagarkot.

Nagarkot is the highest view point near Kathmandu.  At 2000 metres, it stands right in the middle of all the famous and massive mountains that you heard about in your life: Everest, Annapurna and others.

After few hours of trekking in the breathtaking rice paddy terraces, our guide brought us to our ultimate destination: the Fort resort, a hotel located right on top of the mountain and overlooking the Himalayans.  A pure feast for the eyes!  Beauty and silence was at the rendezvous.

Our first question to the front desk was:

-“Wow! What a fabulous place, do you have a spa here?”

-No Mam, sorry, we started to build one but we had to stop because of the bad politic.

What the nice man wanted to express in his broken Nepalese english, is that they had planned to open a spa but the revolution of Nepal in 2006 and the 3 years of disturbance that followed, killed tourism.  This year was the first time they started to see tourists reappear.  The Nepalese are hungry for tourists and are trying so hard to leave you with a good impression in hopes that we will tell others to come and explore the beauties the country has to offer.

So what should I tell you about Nepal?

Buddha was born in Nepal, a kingdom for the past 250 years which recently  (in 2006) became the youngest republic of the world. This land of dust, rice and poverty is blessed with some of the most grandiose beauties… starting with its courageous inhabitants. What I want to tell you is that you should go to Nepal to see these majestic mountains higher than everything else on earth which makes them look like clouds of rock suspended in the sky.

Namaste!

Can we afford a car in Singapore?

Used Toyota Corolla Altis 2006 $39,000 !!!

There are 28,000 + taxis in Singapore on an island smaller than Montreal and a population of 4.5 million.  Think about it for a second…There are 10,000 + yellow cabs in New-York City (Manhattan) for a population of 11 million!

The subway system in Singapore is simply fantastic, easy and breezy, while the overall public transportation works like a Swiss clock.  By the way, did you know that all buses of Singapore have televisions to entertain the passengers and the looped program shows sketches from the Just For Laughs Festival of Montreal!!!  Yes, when you get caught in a candid camera sketch in Montreal, we see you in Singapore on our way to work.  HOW COOL IS THAT!

Singaporeans also rave about the Cirque du Soleil show that they saw last, but this is no surprise as they are popular on a global scale.

The buses of Singapore are big double deckers with advertising on it.  Since Singapore has no billboards (except for 5 strategic spots on the island) the buses are the moving advertising giants.  At any street corner you are bound to see an ALDO bus or a La Senza Girl showing her best side.  Yes, the home grown Quebec, Canadian brands are becoming very global and are making it big in Asia (I know, I know, La Senza has been purchased by Victoria’s secret and is now American but it is still a home grown brand).

There is also a bakery that claims to have the closest imitation of the Montreal bagel and our corner store sells the Montreal Spices to make your steaks perfect.  Make sure you look on both sides when you cross the streets of Singapore, because you may be hit by a crazy delivery boy on a motorcycle from Canadian Pizza.

What does all this have to do with owning a car? Not much, except for the part on the taxi and public transportation efficiency, the rest is just fun facts.

The thing is, for the last two years we resisted owning a car in Singapore.  if you ever come here, you will notice the large number of Mercedes, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, BMW’s, Porsches, Bentleys and all other luxurious brands you know.  You will judge the wealth by your standards and your price references and form an opinion.  Well… Let me set the record straight.  In Singapore cars are outrageously expensive: A BMW 320 is in the range of $175,000, a Porsche close to $600,000 and a high end Ferrari sells for $1.2 million!  And the price of the car is not the end of it; you have the road taxes that are according to the size of your engine.  Yes, in Singapore, size does matter!

The road tax for a Ferrari is $5000 a year and the speed limit, controlled by photo radar across the city-country, is between 70Km-90Km.  Lots of status on the street, but not lots of worn tires; hence when you come to Singapore and you see the thousands of Ferraris, Lamborginis, Porshes and other luxurious brands, store your opinions and pull out your wealth calculator.

Then I got a call from my sister Claire who casually told me that her husband was looking at perhaps selling his Aston Martin in Montreal for around $150K ($115 cdn).

I thought it was a real bargain, but no thank you Claire, it is an expensive car for the 2 weeks we would be in Canada (I knew she was joking).

By the way Claire, do you know how much you would get for the Aston in Singapore (if it was a right driver seat)?

No Helene, how much? Well, according to the second hand web site I am looking at, around $700,000!

So now you understand why for 2 years we took taxis, and taxis and taxis.  The problem with taxis is that it forbids any spontaneous decisions. You decide on something and often cannot change your mind along the way and when you have no cars, you cannot get up and go for a ride in Malaysia to get away from the island fever. The problem with taxis is that you feel often like you are a tourist and you don’t belong.  This is of course to our Canadian standards and way of living.  The reality is that I have a car since I am 16 years old and never was a day without it.  To me it represents freedom of movements, it is my little space where I can put the music I choose and sing to it if I want and it means that I could leave my rollerblades or camera in the trunk (remember we live in safe Singapore) and decide where and when we will go do something fun and improvised. We can also change our mind along the way, no problem!

Still the decision of leaving the taxi world to own a car was very hard to make because the scheme of owning a car in Singapore is so complicated when you are a foreigner who was not born and raised to understand this pricing and total cost of ownership structure.  You feel intimidated by the amount of information you need to learn depending on the year of the car and the licence fee/buy back price included in your car.  It changes according to the year of the car, the cylinder size, the model and a ton of other info.   It was created by the ministry of transportation to limit the number of cars on the road.  A car in Singapore has a right to licence of 10 years and must be scrapped after (resold to Malaysia, or other Asia countries, by a reseller structure or special permits only).  The right to license is set by an auction because each year the price will change depending on the offer and demand. It can be $3000 some years and reach $50,000 to $75000 other years; and this weight is included in the total price of a car. How much are parking spaces? How much is the road tax? What is the total cost of ownership in Singapore; this is very intimidating for foreigners, while Singaporeans seem to master this scheme by heart.

Then came an opportunity!  A couple leaving for few months in New-York who wanted to rent their car for the 2 month period!

The first few days that we sat in the driver’s seat, we were hooked again: Freedom of movement and instant fun decisions were back in our lives and yes, after only few hours of getting back the feeling of car ownership, we had taken the decision: We are buying our own.

But as mentioned above, the load of information we need to know to buy a car in Singapore is impressive and intimidating. Pierre spent a good week discovering information and searching for the perfect car.

At first you look for the type of cars you enjoyed in your own country: I missed my Volvo and Pierre the Beemer. After few days of research we knew that this life style was way above our concept of spending money.  A BMW is, second hand-3 to 5 years old, no less than $150-250,000 depending on the series!! I could not stop thinking of Eddy and Claire who were about to sell their almost new Aston Martin for the same price in Montreal!  Opportunities are considered opportunities only if you are at the right place.  Let’s not forget in the prices mentioned, that the yearly road tax in Singapore varies according to the power of your car.  A luxury powerful car can easily be between $3,000 to $4,000 a year alone and the insurance premium; A FORTUNE!

So we settled for a Toyota Corolla Altis 2006, which cost us the bargain price of $39,000.  It runs very well while bringing us from point A to point B at 70-80K an hour; the same speed and time as all the Lamborghinis, Mercedes and Ferraris that surrounds us on the highway.  All you need to complete the purchase is a cash card for electronic debit, a system that is used for paying Pay Tolls, fines or any parking in the city.  With a cash card, that you recharge every couple of weeks, any gates and doors open miraculously without any interventions from your part.  Why is this system not found everywhere else in the world? Sorry, cannot help you on this one, I just know that it is an amazing system.

My friend Pauline is back in Singapore after a couple of months of vacation in Montreal and of course, the first thing we talked about was our cars.

-So Pauline, you too bought a car?

-Yes, yes Helene,  Patrick and I bought a Honda Civic?

-New?

-Are you crazy, we could not afford a new one, so we bought a 3 year old car for $55,000!

The car salesmen wanted to sell us a Porsche for $500,000 but we told him we would think about it.  He said that we should buy it now because it was a deal!!!

Wow! I never thought I would feel lucky to have found a Toyota or Honda in Singapore while considering an Aston Martin in Canada DIRT CHEAP!

At the same time my other phone rang; it was my sister Claire

-       Bonjour Helene,

-       Hey sis, how are you?

-       Well, I am afraid I have bad news, the Aston Martin is gone

-       Well Claire it was a little dream in our heart but not a reality. So, you sold it?

-       No, it was stolen by a guy who was test driving it with the intention of buying it… or so he said.

-       Oh my God, wasn’t Eddy on board with him?

-       …Yes but after the road test they both got out of the car to clinch the deal but the guy asked Eddy to give him a few more explanations so he sat back in the car as Eddy was standing next to him with the door open and the guy just took off like in the movies!

-       OH MY GOD!

-       The police said that at least 4 luxury cars were stolen at the exact same location this summer the same way (same MO) and approximately 60 around Montreal by what seem to be an organized network!

-       You guys must be devastated!

-       We are a bit shocked since we were not even convinced that we wanted to sell it anymore.  The police say they are usually rapidly shipped to the middle east.

-Hmmm!  Perhaps it will transit in the port of Singapore!!! I could just use our little cash card to go get it! In Singapore I could leave it out with doors unlock and no one would dare touch it.

Ring…. Ring…

Allo!

Helene, its Claire speaking

Hello sis, what is new?

They found the Aston Martin and it is now getting a pampering check-up at Decarie Motors.

What do you mean by “they found the Aston”

Well Imagine!… that a police officer was doing some training on containers with the RCMP at the port and saw the Aston sitting pretty in one of the containers waiting to be shipped overseas!!

WOW! What a story !  So the Aston Martin WAS at the port…just the WRONG port! I fantasized that it would be in SINGAPORE!  I guess I will never be in the same city as this Aston.

Ciao sis and have a great ride!

P.S.  ANYONE INTERESTED IN this DIRT CHEAP  impeccable ASTON MARTIN? …no thieves please!  :)))

Hélène Blanchette

blancellen@yahoo.com

This is shown as an example of the pricing in Singapore and is not the photo or the exact model of Eddy’s car. Eddy has a Vantage

Aston Martin DB9 photo gallery 10 photos available Background Info Vehicle type Sports Built in United Kingdom Release year 2004 Facelifts done - New Car Dealer Details Authorised Dealer Aston Martin Lagonda (S.E.A) View all Aston Martin cars View the Aston Martin pricelist Hotline 68625868 Booked a new car? Get a better trade-in price here! Submodel Price Instalment  Engine cap Detailed info Coupe 6.0 (A) $706,000 (w/o COE) $6,778 /mth 5935cc Specs Features Volante 6.0 (A) $750,000 (w/o COE) $7,200 /mth 5935cc Specs Features

Here is Eddy’s car

The Girls of Asia

I have been wanting to write this blog for the last year and decided often to postpone it simply because I wanted to ensure that my thoughts and impressions would stick and not change.  After 2 years in Singapore I can say that my thoughts did not really change, but instead, it is the girls of Singapore and the girls of Asia that got the best of me.  Shall I say transformed me.  

For those of you who knew me well, you will be surprised to hear that my closet is now full of dresses, skirts and cute feminine tops, that high heels and shoes have made my closet too small as if they follow me from stores and pile up on their own at the bottom of my wardrobe.  Yes, not so long ago, I was dressed for the business part or dressed for the weather as long as it was stylish and comfortable.  Of course, even dressed for the part, style was a must. All I know is although I was a true defined woman, I had only one or two black dresses in my wardrobe and the rest were business clothes, jeans and t-shirts.

In Singapore and Asia, in general, the daily scenery is filled with beautiful legs, high heels, soft olive skin tones and cute dresses completed by impeccably manicured hands and nails, often showing designs that would make Picasso blush.  Blue, fluo pink , orange or dark cherry, you can have a manicure on every street corner with 3 to 4 girls from mainland China at your hands and feet, smiling and giggling while doing their master pieces .  The total cost: $45 Sing dollars.  Most girls in Asia would not dare to be caught without a dressed toe or thumb!  

-What do you like the most about the girls in Asia Tim and Paul (two of my single colleagues who live in Singapore)?  

-They are feminine Helene, so feminine that they make us feel like real men! Did you see their legs, toes and dresses? They come to work as if they are going to a wedding or ready for a Saturday night date.  Tim emphasized his statement by saying: They are not afraid to be women and I love that about them!

Indeed, they are very feminine and I will never forget the day I went to my first basketball game in Singapore with some office colleagues, and here comes along my friend Grace from Shanghai dressed in a white lace dress with a matching small satin purse and high heels.  The same scenery again last month when Pierre and I went to a ‘Shakespeare in the park’ play dressed in shorts and casual clothing while the Singaporean girls showed up in their latest summer dresses, jacked on high heels without a hair sticking out.

I got my first reality check about a month after arriving in Singapore. A taxi driver, the ones who always tell the crual truth to you, said to me:

-Why are you dressed in pants Mam? You should not lah, it is not feminine and men don’t like it lah! Why you need to dress like man (referring to me wearing pants and not that I literally dress to avoid my feminity)? Do not forget the beauty of a woman Mam. You can have a career without losing the feminine charm.  You should not have to give up your woman charming role for the sake of having a career.   

Of course the constant  32 degree Celcius of Singapore helps to get undressed and the less clothing you wear, the better you feel. Every time  we are about to leave the house to do an activity, I ask Pierre what he wished to see me wear? 99.9% of the time Pierre will point out one of my dresses, even if it is a day of walking in the city, a shopping day or a zoo day, it is a dress day.  If you wear a dress in Singapore, you are always dressed for the part, regardless what the part is.  

The old expression “you can’t judge a book by its cover” does not really apply because in fact, the cover transforms parts of you.  Since I dress very feminine, I feel even more like a woman, it brings more softness to my personality and it makes men more attentive to me.  They want to open doors, pick-up things on the floor when you drop them, compliment you, look at you and treat you with galantry. I like the role play that a man acts manly and a woman is feminine and no it does not mean that I am dominated, fragile or second best, it does not imply that I am not a strong head at the office and it certainly does not mean that I lost anything. On the contrary I gained a lot!

The women of Asia will probably succeed in proving that you can become the head of corporations, the entrepreneur of the year and the mother of the year signing contracts and picking up awards wearing high heels, cute designer sexy dresses and impeccable nails, while slightly bowing with a look of shyness in her attitude. Yet when they will open their mouth at the microphone, it is a powerful woman who will, without a glitch, express her gratitude. They will have told the world that womanly does not mean weak.  They are smart and yes soooo feminine.  

But of course there are many of them that are still the types who are looking for the 5 Cs: Car – Condominium – Cash – Credit Card and Club membership to select their men and love often is not the first criteria of selection.  But as they are evolving, they will all afford it on their own and will be more choosy.  In Singapore alone, there are 23,000 single women that are multi-millionaires carrying an average wealth of $4 million each.  It has yet to be seen how men will feel when women continue to gain this independance. Hopefully the beautiful role play will not be lost when they are out dining and argue on who will be paying the bill?

Until then, I have to go clean my closet to fit my new bright yellow shoes!

What are you doing in your closet Helene.. Are you ready? says Pierre 

Ready for what?  Where are we going? What dress should I wear?

Wear your jeans Helene, we are going clay target shooting at the National Riffle Club?

Oups! I guess there is still a little bit of rebel left in me and places where high hills will sink in the ground after all. I won’t wear my yellow shoes either, I don’t want to dirty them.  

Life is a Fairy Tale!

Your life is a Fairy Tale!

I must have received 25 emails after my wedding to tell me that my life is like a Fairy Tale. At first I was touched, felt lucky, I walked on a cloud looking at my prince that many of you call Big as a reference to the movie Sex and the City or Richard Geere, referring to the modern version of Cinderella; Pretty Woman!  The reality is that I am no Julia Roberts and even if Singapore is the best shopping place for shoes, I am no Cinderella nor Carrie Bradshaw.

Then I started to wonder; does life really need to be compared to fiction when it looks pretty good? Have we had it so rough that we only believe that happiness and beautiful endings are stories out of someone’s imagination or the product of a large Hollywood production.  When I say we, I mean “we” including me.  I sometimes doubt myself that it can be real or that the ending will be good.  I even caught myself being worried that something is going to fall from the sky on me, that something will come and jeopardize my happiness like a full cup of hot coffee dropped on my beautiful Fairy Tale book on a Sunday afternoon, just as I am about to read it. 

-In fact it is the other way around! Says Pierre to me while I was thinking out loud.  It is life that inspires movies or stories and too often we forget this.  

We sort of gotten use to see good stories as a quick fix of happiness while sitting in a movie theatre for 2 hours, before going back to real life. I remember the days where I booked happiness periods in my agenda at specific times because I was too busy taking care of problems.  I use to call them “Florida Afternoon” as if my head would go on vacation.  So today, I try to spend every minute (out of office hours) enjoying the best life has to offer. Of course it also means that we pay the bills at the end of the month.  We said Fairy, not Free!

But before I go further I should admit that after receiving the series of emails on my Fairy Tale life, I felt guilty, thinking that perhaps I am splashing my life to people thinking that they were ready or willing to hear it, or to see it.  I thought that perhaps it would be a pleasant moment in this depressing economy.  But now I am done with the guilt and the timidity (if I ever had any) and I am ready to continue laying the truth on the table: My life is a real tale and the truth is that I wrote and write every line of it myself, and I write it with Pierre.  Through this book of life I sometimes doubted, I often cried, I certainly faced many challenges and overcame a lot of ordeals in order to write it so today I am confident that this chapter is the most positive and happy one of my life. 

I can think of another person that seems always happy: my friend Jennie at the office.  Jennie has all the same challenges and sorrows we all have, but she deliberately chooses not to let it affect her.  She looks at all the positive things of life, she turns every statement into wonders and never let herself sweat or at least you never see her sweat. 

-I made that decision a long time ago Helene and it changed my outlook at life! Said Jenny one day to me after I asked her to tell me the secret of her constant happiness. 

- I did think she made a lot of sense, after all if you have your health, you have a job (or not, it is just sometimes better), if you have love and a home to go to at night, the rest of life is what you make of it! So until tomorrow when I get the result of my health screening check, I can fully live my life in confidence that I have it all and if my healthcare statement is all clear, I will have another full year ahead of me to organize more trips, more treks and more romantic evenings in beautiful Singapore!

Meanwhile, your testimonials gave us the idea of making our own memory book with all of our wedding photos.  A beautiful coffee table book that we will be able to consult page by page when life is less generous to us and perhaps then we will think:  WOW! This life was like a Fairy Tale.

Cheers la Vie!

A Birthday, an Anniversary, an Engagement, an MBA, Several Trips and a Wedding!

Cleaning up the sea

 

 

Do not worry, Pierre saved Nemo from a certain death!

 

 

 

 

 

OK Lah!

I admit it and mea culpa, I let you all down for the last three months!

 

Mind you, I am convinced that you were all busy wondering how much money you’ve lost on the stock market, worried about the future or scandalized by the lack of regulations of this beautiful financial structure.  Enough said, it is time for Good News and I have many of them! Take a break from your pain and enjoy the moment.

 The first good news is that last October I have reached the big 50.  How is this good news?  Well I strongly believe that it will be the best decade of my life and since the rumour is that today’s 50 is yesterday’s 30, I have nothing to fear.  On the night I reached the big fifty mark, I wrote the following:

That’s it!  Today I am saying goodbye to my forties.  I know that most people (at least women) would just lie about it, but I will tell it to the world….. Tonight, at midnight, on October 16, I will be 50 and loving every minute of it!

Funny enough, it was perhaps a big enough moment to write a blog, but frankly I am not bothered at all by this number, therefore I stopped writing right away.  I feel more alive and kicking than ever and more of a woman than I ever was and ever will be. I am 50 and yes I need more cream on my face, more vitamins in the morning, more walks not to crack bones, but on the upside, I need less sleep and I have less to prove. 

 I actually think that the fifties might become the best years of my life: I lived my dreams to the fullest, I am with the man of my life and I am full of new dreams to make come true.

 Two weeks after my birthday, it was our first anniversary together (of course I mean Pierre and me).  To celebrate both events, we went to a paradise place called Kapalai-Resort Sipadan, 30 minutes by boat from Borneo. The place was just magical.  Right there, in the middle of the sea with nothing else around, appeared this beautiful resort built on stilts!  If you wish to see this heaven, click on the You Tube link below.  Giant turtles like the one in the video use to come at our villa’s deck at night to hunt for food.  This place was a pure delight outside and inside the water.  We dove almost three times a day to see the most abundant creatures the sea can offer and walked on water at night to go for dinner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkW4WS4W4u0 

On Saturday night, we were so tired from diving that we decided to rest for a while on the long chairs of our villa… looking out at the nothingness of the sea. Pierre looked a bit worried or stressed and I did not know why since we had such a great couple of days.  I then saw him getting up, go inside the villa and come back dressed.  I was in a swimsuit with a pareo over it and looked like someone who had a rough day of fun. The contrast was quite obvious between the two of us and I was puzzled for a second or two on what he was about to say.  Pierre sat down, looked at me seriously, made me almost nervous, pulled a small gift box and popped the big question!! 

I don’t remember answering because I was so shocked, pleased, overwhelmed by emotions and so happy all at once. Of course it meant yes!  At that moment, a giant turtle pulled out of the water at our deck as a beautiful sign of longevity!

 -Let’s POP the champagne Pierre said, we have a lot to celebrate now.  How about we come back here, in this paradise to get married?

-Yes, this would be a dream place to get married… right at the end of the pier and under the big pergola.

The villas of Sipadan Resort

You may guess by now that this is exactly what we will do on March 6, 2009: Getting married in Kapalai in the middle of the sea at sunset. How is that!

So now you know about the Birthday, the Anniversary, the Engagement, so now lets clear the way for the MBA.  I have been dragging my feet for the last five years to complete my @##?#$%&!! MBA and I did finish it last weekend.  I still have a formality to do next August but overall, IT IS BEHIND ME!  I cannot be happier that from now on, I will have a life. 

Happy Holidays to all of you!

I am going home in Montreal for Christmas with Pierre and will have a few things to talk about upon my return to Singapore… so stay tuned. 

Happy Holidays to all of you and we wish you the best for 2009

 

-Are you really sure Pierre? 

P.S: Did I mention that I am getting married?  3 times rather than one.  We are going to do a wedding in Montreal on December 24, one on March 6 in Kapalai and we have to remarry in Singapore to make it all legal! 

-No doubt Helene!

-Neither do I, but what date will be the one we celebrate?

We either celebrate them all or it will give us a second and third chance if we miss one over the years!

The things we do for love!

 

I DID IT!   I am now a PADI certified scuba diver in open water.  This means I can now fly high during the week and dive low on the weekend! What a contrast when you spend your days discussing business and then go see little Nemo with his clown face on your days off! But to tell you the truth, I did not get my open water certification at this time in my life because I am in a middle age crisis or because I need to prove anything to anyone… I did it for love… and perhaps as well to be consistent with my attitude of facing my fears.  But the first reason is definitely “I did it for love”.

 

 

Pierre has a true passion for diving and it is a lasting one for the last 30 years!   When I catch him with his eyes looking up at the ceiling and ask the stupid question of “What are you thinking about?” chances are he is thinking of the underwater world while his blood makes bubbly sounds!  Pierre wanted so much to share his passion with me that I was completely equipped before I even took the decision of jumping in the water to play the calamari.

 

Personally I never, never, never thought I would let myself be convinced of diving… Water is not or was not my element.  I am a Libra, a sign of air and a bit claustrophobic at times.  But Pierre is excellent in selling when he really wants something so he has been selling his diving ambitions with me for months.  When his daughter Virginie was visiting in July, the first thing they did is to go for days at Tioman Island in Malaysia, a small tropical heaven 35 flying minutes from Singapore, where they dove day and nights!!!  

 

-Pierre, do you mean NIGHT PITCH BLACK DIVING?

 

-Yes Helene and it is the best diving because some fishes are fluorescent in the light and things appear to you suddenly.

-Oh! Non merci! I am not there yet and I don’t know if I can ever be ready to dive in pitch-black water in the middle of the China Sea… or any seas for that matter. The thought of not seeing anything above and below stresses me out completely and diving is about having fun. So Pierre, I love you but… 

 

Pierre rapidly switches back the conversation to the beauty of the underwater world during daytime until one day I said: 

 

-All right, I will do it for you! 

Then I engaged in a long list of questions, fears, anguishes and all other emotions combined that Pierre bravely faced one by one with the patience of a wise man.  So much so that he went the opposite way and made it sound like diving is simpler than it really is.  He insisted on the fact that perhaps I do it for the love of him now but when the minute I will have a taste of the underwater world, I will do it for the love of diving!

 

When everything and all conditions are perfect, diving is really easy but I am not the type of person that can accept to only control things when they are going well; I AM IN CONTROL OF SITUATIONS AS MUCH AS I CAN…GOOD ONES or BAD ONES.  I need to know what are the risky situations so I can understand how I will react if and when they happen. Then I need to learn how to overcome these situations otherwise I will not relax and enjoy myself.  When I say understanding the risky situations, I don’t mean reading the PADI book of knowledge but I mean living the problems. Fortunately for me things did not go perfectly as planned during my sessions!!

 

My first open water dive went as planned and I succeeded all the exercises the first time around: Remove your mask at 50 feet underwater, lose and find your air regulator, pretend you run out of air and use your buddy’s equipment, bla bla bla or shall I say bubble, bubble, bubble.

 

My second dive was also on a good start since I succeeded well the simulation of a regulator malfunction by pressing the button for 30 seconds to freeflow the air and try to breath through the wild flow anyways.  All went well, so I got the underwater handshake from my instructor.  After this exercise, my instructor Arshad advised us with all the signs and bubbles he could use that we are going for a cruise of the bottom along the reef, for about 30 to 40 minutes. 

 

Good enough, here I follow my instructor full of trust and enthusiast to do my first bottom exploration.  After about 5 minutes of cruising I decided to look at my computer that I barely know as it will be part of tomorrow’s drill.  I may not know my diving computer well but I knew one thing:  I HAD 4 MINUTES OF AIR LEFT IN MY TANK.  It was my first time to be completely pissed off under water.  I followed right away the procedures that I had been taught when you reach a critical low air point, I grabbed Pierre’s attention and gave him the signal that I was about to run out of air.  Pierre looked at me with eyes that were enlarging every second of the minute and I saw him signal the instructor.  It was my instructor’s turn to do the big eyes with a bit of fear in it as we were 50 feet under water and he feared I was going to panic.  He signaled me to come closer to him and when I did, I started to ascend without control.  I did not want to ascend but I was inexperienced, too light on air and the combination of a low air tank and my positive buoyancy made me rise to the surface without control!!   I HATE NOT BEING IN CONTROL!!  One might think that when you are out of air, the idea of rising to the surface is a good one but it is your last resource and not your first one due to the possibility of decompression sickness.  Further more, you should do it with control and not because you have become an out of control air balloon.

 

 Of course at the surface the two guys had to hear me ventilate at them and making them responsible for the almost critical situation I was in.  They were the experts and my instructor should have known that the freeflow exercise would empty my tank!!  But after we finished shredding each other apart, I felt good about the event because I knew now what I should have known then.  Trust me, I will look at my computer every 5 minutes of a dive and I will insist on recreating situations that I must learn how to overcome. I also know that you are lighter at the end of your dive; hence you need to calculate your weight accordingly.

 

 The other dives were easy and great so I left with a smile on my face, certification in my hand and looking forward to another trip in a month’s time. Our next trip will have two celebrations: My 50^th birthday and my 1^st anniversary with Pierre, but this time in a paradise called Sipadan.  The Kapalai Resort of Sipadan, close to Borneo, is a resort of small luxurious huts on the water… in the water… nothing else around!!  You dive from the deck of your room… how cool is that!

 

 Malaysia, away from Kuala Lumpur, has some real treasures where you see as many things above the water than underwater.  In Tioman Island, the nice walk from the pier to the room was accentuated by the encounter of monkey families, big monitor lizards, bats the size of your cat (if you have one) and tons of gorgeous butterflies.  The virgin jungle of the rain forest is as wild as it gets and as rich in life as you can find.  At night, the sky was so black and the stars so many that it looked unreal.  At this moment Pierre turned around and said:

 

 -You see Helene, if we were diving right at this moment, you would be able to watch this magnificent sky from the sea while we would be floating in the sea water like two love fishes.

 -NON MERCI! I use to be a French frog, now I am a certified frog in Asia but I am still not ready to be a frog at sea waiting for a predator to order frog legs for his late dinner! I love you Pierre but….

Now I do it for the love of diving with you!

 

 

LN

 

P.S: My great friend Lorraine Klaasen is going to do a concert on September 25 at Club Soda.  DON’T MISS IT

http://www.yesmontreal.ca/yes.php

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I smell a blog!

-I smell a blog here Helene. I am sure you are planning to write about this!  Is the first thing Pierre said when I related to him the conversation I had with my colleagues at lunchtime last week.

At the table were my Thai, Taiwanese, New Zealander women colleagues and my Korean, Australian and Canadian (born in Arab countries) male colleagues.  The discussion turned around the fact that in most countries of Asia, the passport and your identity is not a matter of privacy.  In Singapore for instance, your passport and work permit numbers are required for just about everything: buying a phone card, getting your electricity or cable services, opening a bank account and even buying a television.  Anywhere you are interacting to consume, you are likely to be asked to provide these two pieces of information.  Anywhere in Asia they will take away and photocopy your passport when you check-in at a hotel or a resort.  These daily practices are enough to give you goose bumps when you are a North American born and raised in a world of privacy protection.

But in Asia discrimination is not a taboo and asking for your age, nationality, race and religion are standard questions in any forms you fill… even at work.  Are you married or single? How old are you? How much did you pay for this? What is your salary? What is your religion and race? are accepted standard procedures and no one gets offended by it.  Of course, at first, you are completely enraged that everyone practices such intrusion of your private life and if you don’t want to answer the questions, tough luck buddy, you won’t get your service or your goodies.

-I don’t think I can get use to this Helene! Said Pierre the first few times we traveled together.

-Oh!  Yes you will my dear, we all do and, believe it or not, I no longer get offended anymore.  So many people have photocopied my passport that I probably have clones all over the world by now!  And you know what? I really don’t care anymore… so be it.

Yes these sorts of culture clashes are found in your daily life on this side of the planet and you deliberately choose to make sense of it. When you see that the gorgeous girls of Singapore airlines are all under 30 years of age and have perfect figures, you enjoy the perfection part and you wonder what happens to their career when they gain weight, get pregnant or age?

-But Helene, they are the icon and the marketing brand of this fabulous airline company and quite frankly, as a client, it is very enjoyable to see these beautiful girls.  I would not want to be served by an out of shape old lady with an attitude like many airlines in Canada and the USA!

 This comment from my old colleague Patrick (did I mention that there are no women in the leadership team in Australia) made my skin crawl the first time I heard it; until I remembered how badly treated I was for years as a customer of Air Canada and thought perhap he had a point.

 Don’t worry guys, I am not totally brain washed and I still get chills in the spine when I think of discrimination, but I must admit that I do enjoy flying on the wings of the best airline in the world with the most fabulous competent women serving me with a large smile. I have stopped wondering how long they hope to work for the company, how they fit in this made to measure dress every day and how they do their hair buns so perfectly!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Girl

In Asia, you must always remember with what eyes you are looking at things and prioritize in your mind the reasons why they are there or the reasons why you are here!  I am here to learn and discover the wonderful Asian culture, to experience the Asian phenomenon of rapid growth that is about to dominate the planet, to add a valuable international fold to my career and to live winter free.  Quite frankly Singapore and Asia gave me way more than what I bargained for.  It gives me a new outlook to life, it grounds me, calms me and teaches me that things can be accomplished with kindness and dignity; that humility is often more intelligent than boldness. It also taught me that dreams could come true.

But of course you cannot erase your fundamental values and your culture so it is an immediate shock when your profile is laid out to select or eliminate you as a candidate for a job or to get the right price when you purchase something. You are Caucasian, you pay a higher price…. period! On the upside, my negotiation skills have gone way up!

To my amazement, the minute I mentioned at the table that it is completely illegal in Canada to ask such questions openly to people, it is my two women colleagues that gave me an argument:

- But Helene, how do you eliminate the people you don’t want before you meet them?? Why would you select a woman or a gay to be a manager, it is terrible, they would be too emotional to do the job correctly and men would not want to work for them!!!! They could not take rational decisions.  It is good to know in advance if they are Muslim, Jewish, Catholic or Buddhist to know if they can fit with the team!!!!!

- Oh my God! Girls, I cannot believe I hear you say that.  I am an executive in this company and do you think that I cannot make rational business decisions?

-Ya! But you….

 -No ya but me here girls. And you tell me that you ask “single or married” to try to see if people would be gay?? Who cares whom this person sleeps with at night?  If I can do the job, I should be hired regardless of my personal profile. So you tell me that you prefer to work for gays that got married and live a double life so it is acceptable at work. Don’t you think that his (her) chances of being emotional, depressed or unhappy are greater if he (she) cannot be himself? 

- Yes I prefer, I could not work for a gay guy or gay women, it would disrupt the team and our work!!!  

My girlfriend from New Zealand barged in and reinforced my thoughts with the fact that this would also be illegal in Australia and New Zealand.  I was glad to hear that but I do not see women in the leadership team in these countries either, so I can only guess that it is an unspoken rule.  At least in Asia, it is “no hiding” the truth!!  More so in a Japanese culture base company. It is not a glass ceiling that you have when you are a woman, it is a solid black roof above your head. Thank God I did not come here in hope of becoming a vice-president because I would slightly be disappointed. Even if I am in Singapore, I work for a Japanese company. When you talk about having women in the leadership team, they start laughing nervously and say “nooooo” cannot! 

-So! My dear Korean colleague, what is your thought on this?  Last time I was in Korea, I did not see more than 4 women in the office, out of a couple of hundred peoples!  With a shy smile and a very polite tone, the Korean man answered:

-Ohhhh!  In Korea, it is still a very male dominating culture and women are not considered for long time work and are given smaller jobs because they will get married.  A woman’s place is still at home, like in Japan. 

-Would you work for women?

He lowered his eyes and started laughing in a cute shy way.  He did not have to answer the question because I already knew the answer but I wanted to see the cute shy smile. It reminded me of the Japanese marketing manager in Malaysia who reports to a woman.  One night I asked him how he felt when he landed last year and found out he was going to work for a woman?  His answer surprised me because his boss (the she in question) was sitting right next to him when he said “she’s cute”!  I then told him that she was very intelligent as well but he could not admit it and kept on repeating that she is cute and that he talks directly to the managing director above her. 

CULTURAL CLASHHHHHH!  Is what was resounding in my mind and I could see the same thought in the eyes of my Canadian fellow.

Yet Chinese people in Singapore, Shanghai and Beijing treat women and men pretty equally like we would in Canada and we increasingly see women in management positions. They are very entrepreneurial, quick in business and very “go getters” once the trust and relationships are established.  During my recent trip to Shanghai, I was stunned to see how many women were in leading positions (thought it was unique to Singapore) with a bright smile, a witty brain and an affirmative personality.  You go girls!   They speak English, Mandarin and many other Chinese dialects, so I could just imagine what a brilliant future they will shape for themselves.

After lunch, my Thai and Taiwanese colleagues were still shaking their heads saying “they cannot imagine a world where you cannot discriminate to make your choices” and they completely accept this fact with the conscious knowledge that there are other ways.  Quite frankly I am surprised of how I even accept many things and many discriminations that I would have never tolerated while in Canada.

Open discrimination is so much more powerful than you that you stop fighting after a while and adapt.  It is a bit tiring to stay on the wrong side of the road all the time without changing lane.  It is now normal for me to have my photo, my electronic finger and iris prints taken at many customs in airports and it is business as usual to give my passport number to the point where I carry a photocopy of my ID at all time.  How many of you know their passport number by heart and its expire date.  Go ahead, don’t look and say it out loud!

Then I faced my own concept of discrimination.  Last week in Germany I was taking care of a few clients when came this couple from Indonesia.  He was dressed in a traditional Muslim costume and her, completely veiled… you could only see her vivid eyes.  I saw many veiled women in Indonesia and Malaysia before this one, but I never had to spend time and discuss business with them. My past interaction with veiled woman was to watch them walk by and look at them with amazement that someone would be kept in a state of hiding for her entire life. Every veiled woman was to me a sign of repression and domination and I must admit that it is still hard for me to admit that women would be covered and can never live the pleasure of being looked at by anyone else than her husband and immediate family… to get the look that boost our ego and helps us build some of our self-confidence.

I deliberately sat next to her at dinner and to my pleasant surprise, I had the greatest time.  She was a ball of energy, a true businesswoman, sharp, funny and full of self-confidence.  She was very open-minded and I felt with her the same as I would feel with any of you.  My mind was constantly going back and forth fighting my prejudice and at the end of the night, I wished I could spend more time with her.  Walking out of the restaurant we were still laughing while I watched all these eyes staring at us with a puzzled face. You cannot see two greater extremes than me and a veiled Muslim woman walking and almost hugging on the streets of Dusseldorf.  

I had not ask her age but her religion was obvious, I did not know her salary but her nationality was written on the guest list, I did not know her passport number nor her address and yet my Canadian eyes had started to cheat me the minute I saw her and almost discard her prior to even speaking with her.  Then I thought: Discrimination comes in all shapes or forms and perhaps the worst kind is the hidden one; the unspoken one, the one we veil in our daily lives and pretend it does not exist.

 

Fun facts:  This morning when I was reading the daily newspaper of Singapore, I saw this very “a propos” ad in the classified:

Urgent, for sale, condominium 1000sq feet, 1.8 million, any races accepted  !!!!!!

Santé! The joy of being sick in a 5 star health care system.

Pauline Chan, my gorgeous Montreal-Chinese now Singaporean friend who I now almost call sister, wrote to me the minute I posted my blog last week.

-Helene, you mentioned that you would speak about the health care system of Singapore and this time I wish to contribute to your blog. I will call you later to discuss this because I don’t have time to ellabiorate; I have to have a surgery this morning. They offered me last week but I was too busy so I chose this Monday instead! Oh! And by the way Helene, I am the one who told you to go to the International clinic and not your colleague Paul at the office.

-Oups! Sorry Pauline, you gave me the phone number of the international clinic, but in fact, Paul sent me there. I guess health is a serious topic with a “0″ tolerance in your family.

-But Pauline, I am surprised you want to talk about diseases and hospitals when you switched to text message instead of live phone calls on the day you found out I had mononucleosis and pneumonia! As if you could catch it talking to me over the phone!!

-I know Helene, isn’t that strange that I acted this way?? Anyways I got to go, the doc is waiting for me.

You might find it odd that we can actually choose the day of our surgery in Singapore or perhaps think that Pauline got lucky to have her surgery date so quickly, or even think that she has special network connections in the medical domain, but no… for us in Singapore it is business as usual.

My amazement with the health care system of Singapore started last September when I needed to find an Endocrinologist as a follow-up to the surgery I had in July, just before I left Canada. My only reference on the finding of such a specialist was in Montreal, two years ago, when I became ill and my GP suspected it had to do with my thyroid or parathyroid. He then told me:

-I will refer you to an Endocrinologist and my secretary will call to get you an appointment.

-Thank you doc! This seems simple enough.

The secretary was a bit more explicit:
-I will call to say you need an appointment and they will call you back within 10 months to a year to get you an appointment, which could take another year!
-TWO YEARS BEFORE I SEE THE SPECIALIST? What do I do if it is a tumor like they suspect? What if the current decalcification of my bones gives me osteoporosis at an early age if it is not stopped soon? What if…
-Sorry Mam but this is a” take it or leave It” sort of thing so what do you want me to do; call or not call?

10 months later they still had not called me back for an appointment and my health was deteriorating. I went back to see a doctor for something else and begged him:
-I am leaving for Singapore in two months and I am so worried, I don’t know what the health care system is like over there, I am afraid that it will not be of quality and If I need surgery, I will have no one to help me in Singapore, no support.

He felt very sorry and pulled a couple of strings. He sent me to his great assistant Natalina (cover up for the real name because I don’t want her to be blamed for helping me) who knows the who’s who of the hospital:

-Ms Blanchette I can get you an appointment next month with an Endocrinologist because I know the girl who takes the appointments!

-You are my savior Natalina and I will never forget you (I really won’t).

A month later I was sitting in what looked like the office of a war hospital with furniture of the fifties and the  “salmon and green paint peeling off the wall look”, which characterizes most Canadian hospitals. Piles of non-filed papers were lying on the desk of the secretary who did not dare to look at me once, even though I was the only one in her office. All I could think of is: How could I get my file on top of the pile?!
The entire place looked filthy and yet, I was in the biggest hospital of Montreal. For a reason I still cannot figure out, the girl hated me before I even opened my mouth. She wanted to let me know that she has power in this hospital section and she will certainly use this power if she has the opportunity. I was the opportunity: after all, I was sick and weak and, dam me, I needed her help.

Good enough, after my Endocrino doc told me I needed surgery very soon, he said:

-Go see my secretary and she will try to use magic tricks to get you into surgery before your departure for Singapore.
-YOU MEAN HER???
-Yes!

I felt as if I was in a TV show such as “Twin Peaks” or a Hitckok film; the machiavellian secretary who will try to kill me before the end of the movie!

Good enough, while the doctor was in the vicinity, she smiled and said that she will call her connections and advise me on Monday of the surgeont’s availability. She never called, never returned any of my 6 desperate voice messages and never took care of it. Power she had and power she used… just the wrong way. Three weeks prior to my departure for Singapore I was panicking, a tumor hooked on my parathyroids and now almost two years had gone by without getting the proper treatment.

In desperation I called Natalina again and begged her for help… and she came through! I had my surgery one week before I left. But a few hours before surgery, a medical error caused by the preparation team of the hospital forced the doctor to perform a more serious operation than expected. Never the less, the tumor was out and a week later I was leaving for Singapore.

So here I was, 2 months later in Singapore having to repeat the same trauma: FINDING AN ENDOCRINO THAT WILL BE KIND ENOUGH TO ACCEPT ME AS A PATIENT. Here in Singapore I have no connections and no Natalina, but I had also no choice.

My friend Jennifer who lived in Singapore and also had thyroid problems told me that she had found one of the best specialists of the country (or city).

-Go see a GP and ask for a referral for this endocrinologist.

Hearing that made me think of the long process and frustration I will need to engage to carry this mission, but I have no choice so here I go to the nearest clinic to take a number and wait in line…. for 2 minutes!  May I remind you that Singapore holds 5 million people?!

-Hi Doc Wong! I am here to get a referral to see this great Endocrinologist so can you help me?
-Sure says the doctor, let me call for you.
-How is tomorrow 9h30 am for you Miss Blanchette?
-Tomorrow? What do you mean tomorrow? I cannot make it at 9h30 tomorrow.
-All right then, when would you like to go?
-When do I want to go??? Wow!

2 days later I showed up at the Gleneagles hospital. I was first impressed by the surroundings and the clean well kept look of this older hospital. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleneagles_Hospital_and_Medical_Centre

The first thing I hear at the doctor’s office is this joyful and smiley nurse saying:
-Hi Ms Blanchette, we were waiting for you so please come and sit down and another nurse will come to you, take a sample of your blood and the doctor will see you in 90 minutes with the results in his hands. I think it will be a better use of your time this way. You can leave and go walk in the park, but please be back at 11:00 am. Where are you from? She genuinely asked with the largest smile available.

-From Canada.

-Ah! that is why you have a French accent, are you from Montreal? (How do they know so much about the other side of the world??)

At 11:00 am, after a beautiful walk in the botanical garden of Singapore among swans and palm trees, I walked in the office again:
-No time to sit, Ms Blanchette, says the smile on two legs, the doctor is ready for you!

The doctor, a very competent one too, had my blood test results in his hand and was in deed waiting for me, shaking my hand as I walked in. After examination, he completed the visit by:

-Please go see my secretary; I want to see you again in two weeks and she will also help you finalize the bill.

Ouch! I forgot I have to pay; it is free in Canada!

-How much do I owe you miss?

-Well today is your first visit so there is a file preparation fee, the blood test and rushed results and also the doctor’s fee so it will be more expensive: The total is $200 Sing dollars ($160 cdn) + 7% tax.

I must have heard wrong, this is not expensive enough, in Canada the health care system cost the government (hence its citizens) way more than this. This cannot be!

Two weeks later, I showed up on time at my follow-up appointment. Again; the smile, the doctor waiting, etc. and the bill came to: $26.95 ($20 cdn) for my visit with the specialist.
-$26.95?????
-Yes miss Helene, we made a special for you today because the real price is $56
-You mean that in Singapore Doctors go “on sale”??
-Do they have seasons, or boxing day too?
-No, we just like you.

Her smile got even bigger and just burst out laughing:
-Can your insurance reimburse you?

-Of course they will, but quite frankly I won’t loose sleep if I misplace the receipt!

-Why, is Canada’s health care expensive?

-Actually no, it is free, but the price to pay is high: You wait in emergencies for 8 to 12 hours on a good day, you stay in corridors for days with no dignity, trying to see a specialist can take months or years, getting surgery is a lottery ticket and if you come out of it OK, you may have contracted the C-difficile bacteria that is everywhere in hospitals. You don’t want to be sick in Canada or at least, not in Quebec. It is full of good people who have lost their faith, laughter, ideology and passion. The equipment is old, hospitals are really badly kept, often dirty and you have to go to private clinics if you wish for a bit of efficiency. Even there… a treatment can take up to a month or two and the cost…well more than here let’s say!
-Too bad for people there! But anyways, when do you want to see the doctor next?

I just love hearing that! It is music to my ears.

My recent health challenges of February and March with Pneumonia and Microplasma infections have lead me to many hospital visits. The first of these visits was in Canada for a prescription renewal and because I am no longer a resident, I had to pay $65 cdn ($100 SGD) to see a tired and stressed doctor for less than 5 minutes, after waiting for 3 hours.
Yet, back in Singapore I went down a long list of tests recommended to ensure they will carry the right diagnostic and all of it in the fastest turnaround time ever. I never waited more than 2 minutes in a waiting room (too bad because the waiting rooms are luxurious, comfortable and all equipped with internet stations to continue your business while waiting. See photo above).

At the Raffles hospital, a full annual screening test cost $425 SGD ($340 CDN ) and a hotel like buffet is available “for free” when you have your half time break in the morning. You have a choice of croissants or bakeries accompanied with freshly squeezed orange juice or apple juice.
-Coffee? Latte or Espresso?

A nice helper follows you around while you go through your tests to ensure you are not wandering around everywhere to search for the right doors.  Along the way, she introduces you to all the different staff that is joking and exchanging with their peers, WAITING FOR PATIENTS. Yet, we were hundreds of clients that day, but they succeeded to process us with grace in such an efficient way that they had time for a couple of jokes between two patients. An X-Ray is $32.50 and takes “in and out” of the hospital less than 5 minutes, the equipment is always the latest technology and the decor is worthy of mention.

The Raffles hospital (http://www.raffleshospital.com/virtual_tour_location.html) is one of the  private hospitals of Singapore and displays an automated Grand piano in the middle of its gigantic marble lobby. It is there to entertain passing by patients and visitors; the decor is the equivalent of a 5 star hotel. As for the staff, they are always available to help you in the most professional way. The process works like a clock; here you don’t feel sick, you feel important! You are not a patient… you are a client!

If you ever get tempted, they have an international section and people from all over the world are flying-in to get treated like real human beings.

I experienced dozens of tests, met at least 5 GPs and 4 specialists, always at the time and date I chose. The last one was an urologist and I booked the appointment 24 hours ahead of time. He too shooked my hand as if it was a business meeting and thanked me for my trust. At the end he asked me if I was pleased with his service. Oh! I almost forgot to mention that 24 hours after any treatments or visits, you receive an SMS with a satisfaction survey question: Were you pleased by the efficiency and the competence of the service you received yesterday?

-So Miss Blanchette, is that how I should pronounce your name?
-Yes, you are good.
-So the total for: the 5 X-rays of this morning, the urine tests and blood tests, the doctor’s visit and the 3 weeks of antibiotics is $358 SGD.
-Thank you, where do I sign?
-Can I shake the doctor’s hand again?
-No worries, the doctor will call you tomorrow if the other results have something to show.
-I have never been worried one minute; I know very well that I am in good hands here.

Many of these great doctors called me at home at night, discussed my situation with me, apologized for disturbing me at home and carried on with a comforting attitude to explain some of their concerns while offering detailed possible solutions to my problems.

Seated in a Singapore airline Boeing 777 on my way to Shanghai, weeks after these experiences, I am still impressed by their attitudes and the way they made me feel I was in great hands. They demonstrated many times over how much they cared for human beings.

The non-private hospitals are as good here, so the less fortunate are not left behind. The government of Singapore has recently launched a new comprehensive health care program that should make everyone else think twice. It is a progressive coverage aligned with your income level. For example, if you earn less than $30,000 a year, health care services are completely free; coverage will reduce to according to your level of earnings and your choice of treatment. For expatriates like me, it is either my work insurance that covers it or I pay directly the hospital.

Last week, trough a yearly routine check-up, doctors suspected Annabelle (my house keeper) to have been exposed to tuberculosis as a young adult and that the virus is still dormant in her blood.

-She is not contagious and cannot transmit the disease the doctor says, but one day, when she is older and weak, the virus could reactivate itself and she would be very ill, likely to die from it if she does not have the proper care.
-We can thoroughly test her and engage in a preventive tri-therapy for 6 months to ensure she never develops the disease for the rest of her life, but this will be costly miss Blanchette
-I don’t mind, Pierre and I will pay for the preventive treatment because we both know that she will never be able to afford it later, when the disease decides to activate its destructive path.

The 4 major tests she needed to follow at the Tang Tok Seng Hospital totaled $650 SGD and she now needs a daily-supervised treatment at the clinic where they administrate the medication. The pills are free, paid in part by the government of Singapore. She will need to see the specialist every two weeks for $80 so all together, in six months, it will have cost us about $2500 SGD. Not that much for a human being’s future.

Meanwhile, in Canada, a friend of mine needed surgery, but the wait list was very long. He turned to the private sector and was willing to pay the $16,000 required. They could operate on him within 2 months. My friend was ecstatic about it. Unfortunately, last week he found out they could not do it at the private clinic and needed a hospital environment to pursue this surgery. He is now on a waiting list and hope to get his operation in 18 to 24 months!

A week later my mom was hospitalized for 4 or 5 days. When I tried calling her over Mother’s day, the phone would ring endlessly. I found out that it was because the phones are old, the cables dried and wires were badly connected. My brother fixed the phone and when I finally spoke to her and realised she was getting better, I could not resist to ask her:
-Mom, could you describe your hospital room for me?

With her happy but weak voice, she answered:

-It is filthy, old and the walls are peeling off salmon and green large chips of paint. But I have a new cotton curtain between my neighbor and me!

When I hung up the phone with my mom, I called back Pauline to ask her what she wanted to say in my blog:

-Well Helene, the service is fabulous, the facilities are gorgeous, the doctors are competent, the staff is smiley and not stressed and it was a very enjoyable and surprising experience.

-Well Pauline, you just resumed in 3 lines what took me an entire blog to describe! I like the way your mind works.

-How is your mouth after the surgery?

-I am fine, thanks for asking. Right now I have a swollen lip like Angelina Jolie.

-Pauline, weren’t you gorgeous enough as it is?

-It was not plastic surgery Helene, it was a cyst, and please don’t make me laugh, it hurts.

- All right then, I will send you a text message, in case laughing is contagious!

Sante! Cheers!

The World is Small When your Taxi is a Boeing 747 or an Airbus 380!

 

 

Sitting on the upper deck of the Airbus 380 en route for Singapore from a week of business in beautiful Sydney Australia, I cannot stop thinking that life can really be what you make it when you have your health.  Next will be Shanghai after landing a couple of days in Singapore, then Tokyo, Düsseldorf in Germany, and then…. Canada for my summer vacation!  Yes I am planning to spend 20 days in Canada (from June 28 to July 17) for a well-deserved vacation prior to coming back with Pierre who has taken the brave decision of leaving everything behind him to move permanently to Singapore. Dreaming of a new life has something so exciting and motivating, yet doing it for real takes courage and determination.  Pierre is a man of real substance.

 

-Pierre, perhaps you should go for few days diving in Malaysia or Indonesia with your daughter Virginie while I go to Korea for a few days on business at the end of July.

 

Spontaneously Pierre answered:

-You will go on a business trip while I am in Singapore? 

-But of course Pierre, you will always be there so I guess I will have to continue doing my business trips even if you are around!!!!

 

He burst out laughing as he realized that, for a moment, his mind had played a trick on him forgetting that he will be in Singapore permanently and not just for 2 weeks as usual.

-You won’t be leaving this time and that is such a cool thought! 

 

Since the last time I wrote to you I traveled a lot:  Hong Kong was a fantastic highlight for both Pierre and myself and if you happen to go there, don’t miss the symphony of lights at night.  To see an entire city vibrating with music and glittering with lights to proudly introduce each building that compose its core downtown area, is really something.  Hong Kong is a beautiful vibrant city; too bad for the heavy air pollution that would keep me up coughing at night if I ever lived there.  

 

A weekend of indulgence in the Banyan tree resort in Bintan Indonesia was also a “nice to have” in our busy agendas.  The real beauty of it is the fact that all we need do to get to this paradise island is to take a 45-minute comfortable ferry ride from Singapore and there you are!!  A little paradise island with beaches and villas, a place where you do not have to stare at hundreds of gigantic ships parked at sea…a great relief for the eyes of Singaporeans.  A banyan tree is this magnificent big and wide tree that keeps growing roots from its branches and connect back to the ground.  It is also called the eternal tree because it keeps on growing while the roots are supporting the new branches.  Yet, the latest horrible disaster to hit Burma and took the lives of 100,000 of those gentle smiley people has also seen giant Banyan trees being beheaded by the strong winds as if they were toys; so I guess eternity can come to an end when God breaths too hard. 

 

In February, without telling many of you, I did a surprise trip to America.  After all, it was my turn to visit with Pierre, so California here I come.  I landed in San Francisco and stayed a few days, but not without experiencing a bit of a cultural shock.  Surrounded for many months by the kindness and peaceful approach of the Asians, I had grown accustomed to soft talks and friendly service and there I was landing in the heart of the loud and aggressive talkers: North Americans can be stressful in their approach to every day life, even in San Francisco, one of my favourite cities in the USA.  From the staff at airline companies, the client at the rent-a-car service who banged his fist on the counter thinking he owns the world and almost ready to pull a gun to teach the clerk a lesson, to the people walking on the street with stressful looks, I kept on wondering why they had to have an attitude.  Perhaps unions and individualism are to be blamed for it but it seems that they forgot they are in the hospitality business, that clients are their bread and butter or that things can be accomplished without screams, condescendence or arrogance. 

 

The guilt of being on the same continent as my family and friends without visiting them took the better of me and before long, Pierre had planned to hop on a plane to Montreal where we stayed for about 5 days before heading back to Sausalito and the fabulous Muir forest with its tall and peaceful redwood trees.

 

I must admit that it felt really great to see my family and friends, but also very odd. It was so easy and comfortable that I felt as if I had never left. Something in me started to grow afraid that I had just awakened from a dream, that this whole thing of Singapore and Asia was gone.  Suddenly I felt as if I was back in time and had dreamed my last 8 months.  But fortunately, seeing for the first time the small cute yellow ski house Pierre had recently rented in Sutton for his daughter and us made me realize that this was not my past life but rather my future.

 

Upon my return in Singapore I started to feel ill, a bad cold the doctor said:

 

-You are no longer used to this cold weather of Canada, I guess Ms Blanchette you will have to stay in Singapore from now on!

 

-That is a cool thought too!

 

But after three weeks of loosing strength and being really sick, I could see my general practitioner becoming as worried as Pierre who could witness my health deteriorating daily via Skype, feeling helpless.  But Pierre insisted on me changing doctor, going to get tested at the hospital and my colleague Paul at the office sent me straight to the international clinic when he saw me trying to work in this condition.

 

I ended up having a full package of diseases: a rare case of mycoplasma pneumonia and mononucleosis along with an e-coli infection.  A nice soup of germs and virus had invaded my body and were slowly taking over my health, killing me slowly for weeks without being detected. 

 

-The remedy for the soup of germs  is a cocktail!  Says the very competent Dr. Ru, a female doctor at the Singapore International Clinic. A cocktail of antibiotics that made me very sick while I was curing. 

Now, after 8 weeks of thinking I will never get better again and never be able to enjoy life to its fullest, thinking that life was going to take me away because I had made my dreams come true as if I needed to be punished to dream high and make it happen: I kept on thinking that I have many other dreams that I must realize before I go and that I did not want my friends to be saying in my Eulogy: She followed her dreams and at the moment she was about to taste it to the fullest she got sick.  I was thinking to myself that I had just started this fabulous relationship and that it cannot be taken away from me before I truly experience it

 

But now I am alive and kicking better than ever.  My health, my strength and my appetite are back. I know that without health, no dreams can be lived, but with it the world is yours.  I also know that without the great moral support Pierre gave me on a daily basis from the other side of the planet, I would have just laid there and be good for garbage. I also know that when he landed in Singapore in April and we left to Phuket and Phi-Phi Islands for a nice rest, it made my spirit shift for the better and that day I was on my way to recovery.

 

I also remember precisely how I got so sick: I was sitting on a plane from Korea next to a woman from Delhi who was so sick that I wondered how she succeeded to get on board the plane from California to Singapore (the plane from San Francisco hubs over to Seoul where I got on board).  The woman was coughing constantly without a mask.  She was weak to a point where I felt really uncomfortable to be next to her and moved to another seat… too little too late! As for the e-coli infection, remember the beautiful Bintan resort?  We used the whirlpool under the stars or should I say we bathed in a soup of germs under the stars!!  I know I should have not, but your words are too little too late!

 

Through this ordeal, I had the privilege of being sick in the amazingly efficient health care system of Singapore: A 5 stars system worthy of dedicating an entire blog article.  I could not stop comparing the system and treatments to the ones of Canada.

Human beings accept situations when there are no comparisons and believe politicians and health care authorities when they blame and shoot at everyone to excuse the conditions of our hospitals and its management.  Let me dedicate my next blog to this topic of hospitals and health care comparison. Trust me you will feel sick knowing how you have been treated like #@$???!! (censored) all these years and are paying a high price for it. 

 

Since I neglected you for months and have let down my readers, I will give you a double treat and post my next blog within few days of this one.

 

Meanwhile I will leave you thinking that the world is small when your taxi is a Boeing 747 or an Airbus 380!

 

 

 

Terima kasih Bali – Matur Suksma Ubud

MISS BALI et Madé, melting-pot-blog.jpg, Julie and Helene Bangkok, darling-port.jpg, signage at temple, children dancers Bali, Boat lady in Bangkok, bali-temple.jpg, hbconference2.jpg, rice-fields-bali.jpg, hbconference-1.jpg, bali-hb-and-volcano.jpg, basket-lady-bali.jpg, beach-boats-bali.jpg, best-pad-thai.jpg, Sirroco Bar, brother-and-i-sunset-bali.jpg, cheers.jpg, flood-bangkok.jpg, fete-low-rez.jpg, market-bangkok.jpg, Monk introduction, temple in Singapore at night, pb-low-rez.jpg, pierre-helene-self-picture.jpg, Helene praying Bangkok, purification in water bali, dancing-children-bali.jpg, sarong-colours-bali.jpg, rice-pate-fields-bali.jpg, smelling-flowers.jpg, tean-with-i-made.jpg, the-glow.jpg, Aboriginals Sydney, bridge-of-sydney.jpg, circular-quay-sydney-1.jpg, downtown-view.jpg, My current boss is leaving to Australia, Singapore team in Sydney, Famous Opera house of Sydney, walk-in-sydney.jpg, signage at the entrance of temple Bali, circular quay-sydney-1.jpg,

Before I start this new post I owe everyone an explanation on my silence for the last 2 months:  I had a major hardware problem with my new laptop that was followed by a complete crash of my operation system. I know many of you wondered what had happened to me and kindly sent me emails to request new postings, so I have to explain that my technology challenges made me lose my computer for a month.  Then…. I went for 2 weeks on vacation in Bangkok and Bali with my brother Pierre, followed by another special visitor (also called Pierre), a fabulous week of business in Sydney Australia or shall I call it “temptation island”!   Through out my technical challenge, I lost the entire blog I had just finished writing on being a “Big Tall Girl in a Girly Girly World”.  I got discouraged when I saw everything wiped out and decided to redo it at a later date.  Anyways, what I have figured out through this “chill out” period gave me a new perspective on the girly topic and my opinion evolved during this two month period.  I will put the “girly world” post on the ice for the moment and will resume it with a better analysis later on this year.Meanwhile I am full of fabulous images and memories of my trips to Thailand, Indonesia and Australia. So much has happened in my life in the last 7 weeks that my head still spins.  They are all good things that I am very grateful for, so I decided to call my new post: Terima kasih Bali and matur suksma Ubud. Terima kasih in Indonesian (language very close to bahasa Malaysian) means “thank you”, but in Balinese, the local language of Bali, thank you is: Suksma and Matur Suksma means “thank you very much”.  In Thailand, the same expression is khorb koon ka. Regardless of the country you are in, these grateful words should be accompanied by a gesture of your two hands joined at the chin and a humble salute from the head.  This peaceful custom of many countries of Asia is one of the elements that make the Asian peoples so down to earth and so lovable: they are everything but arrogant! It is also what will get you around and will get you the gratitude of these amazing peoples. What I want to thank Bangkok for is for showing me crudely and without shame some reality of Asia. A cultural chock that I had not yet experienced. The worst and the best all at once.  Also I am thankful for the exchange of an outstanding amount of energy: Every day, Bangkok ruthlessly sucked my energy and generously gave me back as much in return through its beat and kindness. The J.J. market (as the locals call it) is one of the most exciting shopping experience I had the privilege of living: You can buy a decorative basket, a Buddha, furniture pieces, art, the best freshly squeezed orange juice of your life, clothing or the fur skin of an endangered tiger specie, all in one of the many lanes of this huge local market.  It can easily take up to two days to visit all the stalls of this outdoor market and since two days is all you have, you promise yourself to come back again…. and again! The Jatuchak (J.J. or Chatuchak) is a market that is built and teared down every weekend was originally created to encourage local handy craft artists.  Although the market still counts an impressive amount of local craftsmen, it has evolved to become a shopping heaven for designers and people like me.  Thanks a million to my friend Julie for giving us a private tour of this shopping jungle and to have brought us to eat the best Pad Thai I could dream of.(http://www.bangkokpicture.com/pictures/jatuchak05.php)   Spending 3 days in Bangkok was a rich lesson of humility, and a fascinating understanding of the intertwined communication system that was developed through time as a survival tool for its population.  Each person on the street from the tuk tuk driver, the official guard at the King’s palace gate to the rich merchant of emeralds  is interrelated. A splendid supply chain to generate business to one another. Bangkok will gently extract every loose Thai bat a tourist has, but will do it in a kind and informative way, using an intelligent choreography of eye contacts, gestures, pre-negotiated patterns and interconnection based on human solidarity. As my brother Pierre would so rightly say: If you have a problem with this intelligent survival extortion system when you are a wealthy North American, go see “Doctor Get-over-it” and move on. Bangkok is a city of extremes: In one day, my brother and I witnessed the greatest poverty I had seen in my life (I know India is worst but I have not seen it) and finished the day in the most spectacular bar restaurant (Sirocco, also called “the Dome”) located on the roof of the tallest building of Thailand (Estate building).   http://www.thedomebkk.com/web/corp_about.html Kindness, gentle smiles and beautiful people who successfully kept their dignity through the challenges of life is my in-printed image of my recent trips. In Bali, a simple “Thank you”, “Hello” and “Good morning” in their language will bring you the world and as a bonus, if you want to bargain the price of the world… they will love you for it.   My brother (contrary to me) does not like to bargain, particularly when the people he is trying to buy from hardly make a basic living. -How much for this bag?-$200,000 rupiahs ($25) - OK! says my brother - No Sir!, answered the lady who hand makes those beautiful batik bags, I say a price and you say one than I say another price, we go like this until we agree on a price! - I am OK with the price answered my brother, I don’t want to negotiate. - Ya! but Sir it is the game, this is the way we set prices in Indonesia. This is where I barged in and said: - OK, I will give you $30,000 rupiahs for the big bag. - Ah! no Mam, it is too low, they are hand made by me and it takes a long time.   -OK, I will give you $40K, final price. - All right Mam, $50,000, but I will make no profit on it.   My brother looked at me savoring my victory with a smile on my face, I was proud of my bargaining drill, when I heard him say: - $50,000 rupiahs is $5.00 Canadian and I don’t understand that someone can live selling her hard work for so little.  What is $25 (the original price) worth to you Helene? For a moment I felt he was right and I did feel cheap, but the lady was happy to have sold 2 bags (each $5.00) and 2 belts (I negotiated as well).  I could see in her face the satisfaction of having played the game and the legendary Balinese smile made her face glow again.  We then went next door to a good French restaurant where we blew a small fortune on wine and great food. I don’t remember well the taste of the wine, nor the flavour of the Tuareg couscous we ate , yet I love and see the $5.00 bag I gave to Annabelle every day and it is a reminder of how people of Bali know more about kindness and generosity than I will ever do. My next visit in Bali will be in April for my boyfriend’s birthday, and I already know that I will play the game again just to see their beautiful eyes and smiles light up the room, but I will ensure that I stop before I ruthlessly eat the shirt (or the sarong) off a poor woman’s back or get a carved wood piece of art for $7 when the man took almost an hour to carve it before my eyes. Bali brought peace to my hectic life and I could not get enough of its beauty.  My brother Pierre and I hired a private guide called Madé, to visit the entire island from left to right, from North to South. The rice fields surrounding Ubud become pieces of art when mixed with the end of day sunlight and each village has its own specialty of Handy craft: a village for the stone carving, one for the wood carving, one for the bricks in which houses are built and one for the roof tiles.  There are as many different crafts as there are villages and my brother had such a good laugh when we saw the village specialized in fake antics.  They are really good at it! Our private tour guide Madé is the second child of his family. In Bali a first born child is called Wayan, the second: Madé, the third: Nyoman, the fourth: Ketuk and at five, you start over the list adding Balik to the name Wayan.  The fifth one is therefore called Wayan Balik and the list repeats itself.  Women and men are called the same and all you need to add to the name is “i” (or “e” if you pronounce it in English) to the man’s name and “ni” (pronounced knee) for the woman: Ni Madé and i Madé for the man. -So Madé, what do you do with your beautiful family on the weekend?   I always ask because I am curious to find out the resemblance or the difference of life style when visiting other countries.  I want to know everything about cultures and traditional customs. -Do you gather with friends over dinner or you bring the kids to the park, tell me about your free time with your family? I followed to say. Madé looked at me with a puzzled face and answered: - We work every day of our lives and we don’t have weekends or vacations like you do in America.  I am tired and when I come home, the little time we have we use it to take care of the necessary things for our house and family. Madé’s wife takes care of a silk and batik boutique in the centre of Ubud.  I bought a silk sarong from her and did not try to bring the price down this time around. She is a stunning beauty with a smile and a personality bigger than life. My expert brother Pierre kept on telling Madé that he married Miss Bali and that no one comes close to the beauty of his young wife, anywhere on the island of Bali.  Madé was rightfully very proud and we could not resist to capture this beautiful family in photo.   Hopefully, one day, Madé and his gorgeous family of two kids will make their dream of owning a boutique come true, but meanwhile if I can tell enough people to use Madé as a private tour guide when visiting Bali, I will have succeeded to contribute a little bit in shaping their dream. I know what it is to dream and to make it happen.  It only takes a magic wan and I am lucky enough to have found one!    Now Australia! I cannot say enough about the beauty of Sydney.  If the rest of Australia is populated with as many beautiful peoples as Sydney, I can only think they should have called it “temptation island”. From the moment I took the Airbus 380 (yes I did!), I felt like a 4 course gourmet meal to their eyes.  As much as Singapore men are shy and will not directly look at a woman, Australians are the complete opposite. If any single girls feel discouraged with men in their part of the world, spend the money on a plane ticket to Australia, the land of Marlboro man!  The best ego booster a woman can get. Let me clarify something, the adjective “Marlboro man” does not mean that they smoke cigarettes, it means they look like the man in the advertising.   If I wanted to put a ratio figure to the ad, I would say that 25% of Sydney’s population is absolutely gorgeous!!    Women too (especially when they are young).   The minute I would step out of the hotel, the interaction would start: - May I help you with anything? Perhaps you can tell me where you wish to go and I will guide you Miss.  Says the Marlboro man with a look that revealed he was also a surfer when he was off his advertising billboard’s duty.  He looked at me straight in the eyes and I knew he was not kidding, nor working for the city. - I’ll be all right, I am just looking to understand the schedule of the ferries to go to “Manly” beach (real name of this beach and perfect name too).   Now I can hear all my girlfriends wondering why I pushed him away the way I did and perhaps one could think that there are so many gorgeous man in Australia that you can afford to think “I will start flirting tomorrow”. The truth is that I had committed to a serious relationship the month prior to my trip to Australia and this was the ultimate test to see if my decision was the right one. I survived the test of “temptation island” and my boyfriend Pierre was a real man himself to have survived my business trip to Australia, while he was traveling himself to Los Angeles and Denver. There was no doubt that he had a few sweat while hearing me savoring all the details of my multiple Marlboro interactions during the week. But Sydney on its own, is just breath taking. I had a night cruise with customers that I cannot erase from my mind and over a week’s time, I had the opportunity of walking many portions of this fabulous city. I felt as if I was in Canada: very similar in climate (except for our vicious winters), in structure and in mentality.  I felt like home in Australia!  It was a great feeling.  I could live there tomorrow.    I was also pleasantly surprised to see that my work was well known in Australia and that they where waiting for me to help them implement my strategies.  I also was the MC of the worldwide Premier Partners Convention and a speaker at the event.  During this conference I heard one of the most inspiring speech from Li Cunxin (his book is called “Mao’s last dancer”), the most fabulous story of how determination, work and focus can break the greatest barriers of life.  After his speech, you could have heard the tears dropping from the 300 peoples in the room. I had the pleasant job of going back on stage to break the ice and continue the conference. This was a small barrier compare to his.  Overall it was a fantastic trip and at a certain moment, I felt a bit euphoric: I was in Australia, for myself and not for anyone else, at the other end of the planet, living my international dream and being recognized for my work, all at once…with Sydney as a background.   Laying on the beach of Bondi with my ipod in my ears and surfers running around me, I thought to myself: Terima kasih life, matur suksma la vie! …..then, I text messaged Pierre because happiness reaches its peak when it is shared! Here is Madé’s phone number in Bali if you decide to go live your own trip.  Madé: 08123910231 Once you are in Bali, you dial it the way it is written above.  P.S: Some of the pictures are mine, some are from my brother Pierre as I lost many of mine in the wipe out of my computer.  He is a much better photographer than me anyways.  Some photos of me are from Pierre Rouleau.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvoqgSG9eWI  (opening of Bangkok’s locks with boats coming out.  Really cool!), (this is a tuk tuk ride in the streets of Bangkok)

Won Ton, Sushi, BBQ, Earl Grey and Maple Syrup… OK Lah!

 

 

Integrating into a new culture is one thing, but integrating into many at the same time demands a high capacity of adaptation.  I can all hear you saying: Ya Ya Helene, but you are so flexible and adaptable that it is easy for you!  You are right and wrong or shall I say wlight and wlong!!Although Singapore is mainly composed of 80% Chinese and Malay, the 15% of expatriates makes it an interesting soup of British, Australians, Americans, Japanese, Indonesians, Indians and of course, the French Canadian that I am.  -Why are you calling yourself French Canadian?

Is the first question my Australian co-worker asked me!  Aren’t you all Canadians?   (expressed with his lovely accent that emphasises and stretches the second “a” of Canadians).

-But of course! I answered; we are just not from the same background; the English originate from British and the Irish descendants while the French Canadians originate from France. We say French Canadian because our mother tong is French.    

He looked at me a bit puzzled and then turned around to look at the office and said: Welcome to the Fuji Xerox United Nations, we are all from a different background here so you may stick to Canadian only and no worries!  

“No worries” is a British expression for “no problem”, the words “Hi! Hi!” may mean “Hello” to English people, but it is yes! yes! in Japanese.  “How How” means “Good! Good” in Chinese, while “shay” is the Chinese “thank you”, yet  for a French Canadian it is pronounced the same as “chez” that means “at”.  Are you confused? So was I the first few days!  

So the melting pot of conversations we witness in the open concept of my office is quite colourful.  I have three Japanese, two Australians, my immediate neighbour is a Singaporean Chinese and we complete everything with two British gentlemen, my great American colleague Jennie, Honey who is Korean and then Terry, a Chinese Australian. 

-Why do you say Chinese Australian?  Aren’t you all Australians? 

-Yes, but as you see Helene, I am Chinese! By the way Helene, what is this bottle you offered me, is it wine?

-No, it is maple syrup and this is what I am made of! I am a maple syrup Canadian; sweet at first but I can be processed in different things… if you make my blood boil! J

In a typical day at the office, you hear my Japanese friends say “Hi!”Hi!” every two seconds over the phone.  The first day, I thought they were saying “Hello” every two seconds and had communication problems, but I quickly discovered that it means; Yes!  

-Why do you always say yes to everything the other person says? You agree with everything they say and just take orders over the phone or what?

-No!  She answered.

-Aaaah!  I got a “no” from you!  

-Yes you did!

-No, please don’t say “yes” again!!!! 

In Japanese, saying yes does not mean that they agree, it means: I hear what you are saying. 

-So, will you do what they have asked? 

-No, not necessarily! (pronounced necessalely, in Japanese “R” and “L” are the same sound and have no differences in pronunciation)

-What do you mean no? You told them yes!  How do you Japanese get clear messages? How do you say no? How do you read each other?

-We use a long detour and a chain of people to finally let the person know that we don’t agree with what they said. Saying no is not part of our culture.

-Wow! This must be complicated, I replied. 

-Hi!  why do you think I am here Helene?  I want to work in a more straight forward way like you guys! 

-What “us” are you talking about?  “Us” is a broad statement in a United Nations’ environment, but I understand clearly: “hi!”.   

Minutes after  I hear my Chinese colleague switching from English to Chinese depending on the person he is speaking with and he kept on repeating: How, how… Howww, howww! 

-So Philip, did you find out how?

- What do you mean Helene?

-Well you kept on asking how, so did he tell you? 

-No, I meant in Chinese:  Good, Good!  In Chinese we repeat words twice, it is simple no?!!! 

-Yes, very simple and “Shay Shay” Philip, “Shay Shay”!    Actually I understand, OK lah?  OK lah! (pronounced “law”).

The most colourful part of Singapore is its “Singlish” language, a simple cross between Chinese and English.  It is English in a very simplified Chinese grammar structure.  In Singapore the official business language is English and if we say “official” it means “government law” and we all know that the government of Singapore means business.  Everyone who has a job must speak English and unemployment rate is very low, at about 3%.  So just about every person in Singapore speaks English or shall I say: Singlish! My thrill of the day is always the conversation I will engage with the local cab drivers on my way to work or on my way back home. 

Taxi drivers have a mind of their own and they are to Singapore what the yellow cabs are to New-York.  You cannot live without them because a car here is the most expensive toy a man can buy.  A mini cooper is close to $100,000 (Sing dollars or $70,000 cdn) and to get the right to drive your toy, for a maximum of 10 years, you must apply “on-line” and bid for a permit.  Although you have all the chances on your side to win the bid, this “right to drive” can cost between $15,000 and $50,000 depending on the demand. Then come the road taxes that are calculated on your engine power (between $2500 and $6000 a year) so guys beware that bigger is not better here unless you are rich and did I mention the pay toll for using the highways?  A Porsche is $500,000 and a Ferrari around $1.4 million.  Most cars on the roads are BMW, Mercedes and all the other luxurious cars you can think of.  I have seen more Bentleys in the last week than in my entire life before.  I must tell my friend Joel who owns Decarie Motors (Bentley dealership) in Montreal that here is where he should be.  I know I am selfish because it also means he would come with his wife Suzan, my friend of over 25 years.   When someone says here that she owns a Toyota Camry, I almost bowel I know she is rich or in debt! Yes you can buy a second hand car, but the right to drive is linked to this particular car, so since a permit last 10 years, your 5 year old car has 5 years left on the “right to drive”.  This means that after 5 years you will scrap the car and reapply for another permit.  

All this to say how powerful cabs are in a situation like this. They rule Singapore! They can and will ignore you completely on the street, rudely refuse to take you by waving aggressively their hand when they pass by you, even if you look desperate to get to destination. If they stop and ask you where you are going and leave in a flash when it is not where they had planned to go (leaving your skin on the door handle of the cab), don’t feel it has something to do with the colour of your skin and don’t take it personal. Cabs also have a tendancy to wait to get a call because there is a $2.00 to $4.00 charge if you pre-book a taxi.  If it is a Mercedes, it will be a booking fee of $8.00! Sometimes you stand on the street or in a taxi queue for 20-30 minutes to wait for a taxi and you simply give up. You call the company and book a cab!  Within 30 seconds to a minute, a cab arrives from the corner street (the same one who refused you before) and the meter is ready to go with a pre-charge of $4.00.   When they stop and let you in, rude man becomes a charming service provider with a great sense of humour who will let you into his too cold taxi only to project his warmest smile while saying:

-Yes mam, “nee how” (how are you?)  Siglap load hein? Siglap road Hein! OK lah!  Can! Can! Because you go to Siglap Hein! We take ECP* Ok lah?  (*ECP is the highway with automated pay toll)

During the cab ride, a moment in time gets captured; the cab drivers and I have the most interesting conversations in “Singlish”.  I listen carefully because I love to imitate languages and it is a real treat for me to hear this simple colourful language that British people seem to find ugly, except for my colleague Steve who enjoys and embraces it as much as I do!  Most of the sentences in Singlish will start with “Because” or “Actually” and you will always have Hein! And OK lah in it.  “Lah” in Chinese has the signification of finality so it makes sense that it ends sentences.  Over time it became a language crutch like the “Ay” in Canada and the “Euh” in French. They say “can” instead of “yes” and “cannot” instead of “no”, even if it does not make sense to “us”.  You call a restaurant and ask: Do you have a table for four at 7:30 pm?  The person will answer “Can” or “cannot”. 

Now let me relate to you a snap shot of one of those cab conversations:

-You going to Anson Road Fuji Xerox Hein?  -Yes!  -Ok Lah, can! can! Fuji Xerox Anson road Hein? Can! Take ECP Hein?  Fuji Xerox Hein? Use to be IBM building hein? OK lah?

-Yes Sir!  I know it use to be IBM, but the sign has been changed to Fuji Xerox 6 years ago, we pushed over the big blue and it is our sign now OK lah? Hein!

-You flom where?

-Canada

-Ohhhh! Hot here in Singapore! 

-Yes but I like it very much. Singapore is a fabulous city, clean safe and beautiful. No billboards, no electrical wires, no pollution and always hot. Each night is a perfect night with no wind and no rain, just a perfect night every night!

-Actually because you say come flom Canada, I say cold Hein?  I think cold OK Lah?

-I know you think that but we have four seasons and summer can be hot there too. Did you work all night and morning Sir?

- Actually because I work hard, because I have daughter.  She say she go to “U” so need to work all the time for next 2 to thlee years actually, OK lah? (“U” means university)

-OK lah SIr! Ooups! you need to turn left here Sir!  Sir, Sir, left Sir, left I said, left OK lah Hein?  Then the car steers on the left. 

-Left here Hein? Can!

-Yes Sir, Ooouf!  OK lah! Here is Fuji Xerox Sir, Fuji Xerox here Sir! Here OK laaaaah!  

For some strange reasons, everything must be repeated a number of times before they are understood.  I know and he knows that we both understood the first time around, but the game is played every time with different drivers.  That is the colour of Singapore!Cab drivers are usually pretty knowledgeable on what is going on in the world.  Many will mention Calgary, the petroleum extraction from sand in Edmonton; they understand the economics of our timing in the fight for natural resource and globalization.  They all have a cousin or a relative living in Canada somewhere, mainly in Hongcouver and Edmonton. 

-Beautiful countly Canada, like you Miss!  (the only men in Singapore who dare flirting with me are the cab drivers. )

-You have been there Sir?

-No! But my cousin …………

-Ok lah! I know!  “Shay Shay”, how much do I owe you? $ eight dollars and folty Mam! Can.

-Mam!, last week I was a Mom!  Is this an upgrade? Anyways, thank you Uncle.  

P.S: I dedicate this article to Claude Thibault who has trained me on Asian culture before I left.  She was 100% right on her interpretation of the culture and the challenges of integration.  If ever you move to Asia, call her (I think she is working for Transcontinental Direct in Montreal now).  It is worth it and it helps set your mind to identify where you will be different and challenged. Thank you Claude, I often smile when I think of you.  I love every second of the learning and have a great time with my multicultural friends when we have a beer in an Irish Pub or a New Zealand club!  I know you will think that you all have multiracial friends in Canada and that it is the same as here, but no!!   Cannot!  In Canada, they all come from different countries to start a long integration in our cultural environment and values.  Here, the foundation of the culture is Chinese and Malay (60% Chinese and 25% Malay 15% mixed expats) and I am the one living in their environment.  The expatriates, in most situations, are here for two years and don’t really need to adapt to their new country, they are in transit!  I chose to dive into their culture, watch and learn!  It is quite an enjoyable ride, OK lah!

Now, many of you have asked to have news about my health and I am touched by how many people care about me, so here is a public statement! 

I am doing great, my health is really good and I sleep so well since I am in Singapore.  I completely recovered my voice after 6 weeks even though the verdict called for permanent damage and partial recovery with a one year therapy.  I did my therapy religiously twice a day and forced myself in delivering conferences even if it sounded like I had laryngitis. Now I am alive, loud and kicking.  I have a nice scar as a trophy and rub it with vitamin E every day (Thank you Sharon).  I did not gain an ounce or a gram even if the cuisine is simply exquisite everywhere, even at home (thanks to Annabelle).  I am a bit out of shape “because cannot find good exercise routine here yet” but this is my next focus.   My brother Pierre will arrive in two weeks and we are planning to celebrate our birthdays (October 14 and 16) in Bangkok, followed by one week in Bali.  In November I have a business trip to Australia and will try to plan a weekend in the wilderness of Borneo with friends for December.  End of December, my great friend Nicole and her husband Dan will come to celebrate New Year with me and will stay two months PLUS, on and off.  I will certainly meet them here and there in their travelling. Meanwhile, I am busy at the office and will travel to Kuala Lumpur next week. 

I say two months PLUS because it is another colourful expression of Singapore.  When they want to say “more than” or “over”, they will say “plus” instead.  Lost in translation, it means that I will be 40 plus in two weeks plus and that too is a 10 year permit!

Fun blog stats to share:  I had 1,035 peoples who visited my blog last week and a peak day of 300 last Saturday.  Thanks for all the kind words and the encouragement.  I am doing OK lah!

Next week’s topic:  I am a big tall girl in a girly – girly world!

Take care!Helene (or as they write here: LN)  

References: Photos of the cactus graffiti, botanical garden, orchyds, Dempsey road store, Sharon and I are all from my friend Jacques Giraud (husband of Sharon), a great photographer who kindly took pictures when I asked, because I had forgotten my camera that day!      

I do marketing in the afternoon Mom!

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You may also see other photos by clicking on these links!

Me in the bird parkBird, Park visit Blue Bird, living room, DInning room area, Second half of Patio, First half of my Patio, Chambre1.jpg, Dragon iguana, Sentosa beach Singapore, Birds parrots in the park, Port of Singapore

 For those of you who know me well, you will be surprised to hear that I am now a Mom!! I still have no kids and I did not adopt one either, but I must admit that I have adopted the Asian life style: I now have a full time domestic! Call it “Home Maid”, “Maid in China” or female buttler, she is a domestic helper living full time with me, and she calls me Mom or Mam with a British accent! All maids call their employer Mom or Sir, the cab drivers “Uncles” and a lady working in a store or anywhere else: Aunty! We are all a happy family and probably all related to Buddha.

As I mentioned before, living in Asia is living with different standards and domestics are part of life here. I knew I was a full time job for myself, but I never imagined I could become a full time job for someone else! But I guess I am, because Annabelle (that’s her name) never stops a moment to take care of me, day or night. If you are already in chock, sit down; take a deep breath because you are in for a ride.

 

When I visited the 17 or 18 apartments with my real-estate agent before selecting this one, I kept on asking him if there were smaller apartments available. I thought they were all too big for me: 1400 to 3500 sq. feet with 3 bedrooms are the standards in Singapore (opposite of Hong Kong and Tokyo). I said to him: These are for big families and I am alone and by the way, why do they have these ugly laundry rooms with lockers? He replied: These are the maids’ quarters and all apartments (90% of them) are equipped with maids’ quarters! I know that for you Americans it sounds like slavery, but here Madame it is a standard!

 

These tiny maids’ apartments are usually attached to the kitchen, no air conditioning (it is very, very hot here), no windows, and when there is one (mine is equipped with one) there is no glass in the whole of the window. It is usually located next to the washer and dryer… with the garbage trap as a bed head. What should play the role of the bedroom is smaller than any of the closets you have: 4’ X 5’ room closed by an accordion plastic door (worst than a prison cell). It looks very much like lockers you would find in condominiums, except that here, it is 90% humidity and 32 degrees at night. Did I mention that the “no glass window” is overlooking the garbage main trap of the entire building? A heaven for cockroaches and other tropical pests that you don’t want to hear about. Most people put a crib mattress on the floor or a small bed in the room. Yes, 99% of the domestics sleep there.

 

Many of my colleagues at work (Except Jennie, an American with the same standard as me) told me that they don’t feel bad about this situation because in maids’ country (mainly Philippines and Indonesia), they sleep on the floor without a mattress. This is an upgrade apparently! Agencies through whom you hire Foreign Domestic Workers tell you the same thing and I guess most people tend to feel better about it, knowing it is the norm. I say most people, not everyone and you have guessed right, not me!

 

At work, and in my social life, everyone I know have a maid. I must admit that it is amazing to have someone doing all the work for you and she even irons my smallest clothing articles, my bed sheets, etc. Life in Singapore means long hours and when you come home at 7:30 or 8:00 pm and you have not done the grocery, nor did the laundry and still need to cook dinner, you feel that your life is all about work and chores.

 

Of course I want to live a little this amazing life here and since I can afford more because (sorry to say) income taxes are very very low in Singapore; why not adopt the life style. So I joined the club and adapted well to Asia.

 

Annabelle is amazing and a fabulous cook who cuts exotic fruits for my breakfast and times the perfect moment to bring me my coffee. While I eat, she makes my bed so I come back to a clean neat bedroom to get dressed for work, she makes me choose the recipe she will follow for the dinner meal and I only have to say that I will have few people over for dinner for her to run to the market. This leads me to explain to you the title of my blog!!

 

When I interviewed Annabelle, she got me at Hello, but I pretended to conduct a full interview anyways. When I asked her to describe a typical day in her current position, she proceeded with enthusiasm to say that she prepares breakfast in the morning and cleans for few hours and then said: I do marketing in the afternoon Mom! I looked at her stunned! Here I had worked all these years to build my expertise, studied at night and weekends to do my MBA and earned every piece of my life, built a career and yet, my maid does the same thing as me! Was this a match made in heaven? Could I also use her for doing some of my work and reduce the long working hours of Singapore (8h45am to 7:00-7:30pm with a lot of non productive time, but this is another topic). I rapidly asked Annabelle to explain to me what she does for her current Mom in the marketing department? I go to the market mom, I do marketing of fruits, meet and all the things you need! I nicely smiled and said: This is really good Annabelle and since I am a marketing specialist, we will get along just great! Can you start tomorrow?

 

Annabelle moved in the day after. We use the maid’s quarter as a storage room for the ugly furniture that was supplied with the apartment, we put a screen in the large “No glass window” to prevent any pest intrusion (she knows how crazy I am about anything that crawls) and we use the maid’s quarter as the laundry room. We laugh every time we open that door and think it should be her apartment. You must know that Annabelle is in Singapore working for Expatriates since 14 years and she usually had to live in the maid’s quarter (except for one British couple who moved to Barcelona and treated her well too for a couple of years). I gave her the third room of my apartment (should be an office) where there was a built-in bunk bed. I bought her a TV and gave her a large closet. The room is large and air conditioned, pretty and comfortable. We went shopping together for her to select her bedspread; she picked a bright yellow comforter with large flowers on it. She placed her stuffed animals in all the little squares of the bunk bed walls and the first night I gave her a copy of the “Little Prince” that she red in two days. A large window with a view on the garden is taking most of the outside wall of the bedroom. When she first saw her room, Annabelle started to cry and hugged me. She kept on thanking me for treating her like this: I prayed God every day for a Mom like you!

 

Annabelle is a 42 year old mother of an 18 year old girl. She had to leave her baby behind in Philippines when she was 2 years old!

Annabelle goes to church every Sunday and does volunteer church work in the afternoon. I give her every Sunday off and the agency told me that I am spoiling it for all the other Moms she will have in the future. What you are doing is bad Madame Blanchette, the government only requires for you to give her one day a month and you could demand to never let her out!! You just have to pay the day off she would have taken and demand that she stays in. Like this she will have no time to do bad things.

 

When you hire a maid in Singapore, you have a responsibility: you must have an orientation class that you do on-line. The government explains their rights and your duty as a Mom. Their rights are the basic things of life and you are stunned that they have to explain to people that they must provide proper meals and a minimum 4 inch mattress to sleep. They try to protect the workers by teaching you not to demand for her to hang from the 22nd floor of a building to clean your window (a maid died doing that last month and the mom went to jail for 6 months with a fine of $15 000). They give you serious warning on what is acceptable and what is not. Yet some people abuse the workers. The government also requires a $5000 bond that you lose if the worker leaves the country, gets into trouble or gets pregnant. You must go through a certified recruitment agency to do all the paperwork. Annabelle sends most of her salary to pay for her daughter’s schooling and to help her family of 9 children. She looks like she is 20 years old and is such a great woman. She is now with me for one month and we get along well. She does not try to play the role of a roommate; she is very discreet and disappears after diner in her new quarters to read the newspaper and watch her favourite TV shows. She has gained so much confidence in a month that it is fascinating to see her evolve: she now takes initiatives, she goes shopping for me and negotiates well (you get charged way more when you are a white Caucasian woman). She is excited at night when I arrive because she can show me all the initiatives she has taken to fix this or that, to improve the way the garden is or to have made the landlord replace my shower. Annabelle has transformed into an adult in a month, discusses at diner about the economy of Singapore and tells me the last horror story on maids who died from bad treatments or killed their Mom (I think she is trying to keep me on my toesJ).

 

My friend Sharon and her husband Jacques spent 10 great days with me in Singapore and she catered to them so well that there was a big hugging session when they left for Dubai. The day after Annabelle made it clear that she misses Mom Sharon and Master Jacques. I hope they will find a job in Singapore she added. I laughed and reminded her that we have a contract and that she is stocked with me for 2 years. She smiled and insisted on how much God was good to her. When she laughs at me for wanting a pest free environment (a challenge in tropical countries), she tells me her story of the 22 feet python that was curled up under the dining room table of her last Mom’s apartment (a year ago). He had just eaten a big animal (she says a pig but I suspect a dog) and had crawled from the patio opening to the dining room table to try to digest his meal. The body of the snake was about 8-10 inches in diameter. Although more frequent when you live next to the reservoir, the bird park (a must see) or the zoo (with its fantastic night safari), I will not take a chance and leave the doors closed! She then completes her story by asking me: Did I tell you about the snake tail that was sticking out of the air conditioning unit and that my master has pulled suddenly? No Annabelle I don’t want to hear the story from you, but if your old master is still in Singapore and free tonight, he could tell me himself!! J

 

The mysterious garbage island!

Living in Asia means different standards.  Singapore is definitely the easiest city you can find in the Asian land to arrive and discover this part of the world.  Yes Singapore is as clean as the legend says and yes it is true that you cannot buy chewing gum,  but no one will bother you if you do chew it, as long as you don’t throw it on the ground!!  So please when you come and visit me, bring me a stock of chewing gum.

Anyway! The city is so clean that you instinctively want to participate in keeping it this way.  The first few weeks I was trying to figure out what they do with garbage.  After three weeks, I had not yet seen a garbage truck or a garbage bag.  It became something I needed to uncover, WHERE DO THEY PUT THE GARBAGE?  How could I be in a city of 4.8 million peoples and never see a green bag in a back alley, even in the middle of the night?  I imagined a major underground system that everyone is connected to, even restaurants.  I thought of a sophisticated belt carrier system that brings garbage out of the city without human intervention.  It would have not been a surprise since everything in Singapore is the latest high-tech system, that allows the government to give you tickets and to control speed, trouble in the city and any other daily activities that is going on.  you give your passport number and your visa number for absolutly everything you hire or purchase. It is a fascinating high-tech city.  No need to open doors in most places, the water faucet or the toilet will also run and flush on their own almost everywhere and rarely will you need to physically touch something.  This amazing modern city has embraced technology at warp speed when SARS happened and people became freaked about germs.  You never see a police car on the streets or highways (I saw one in two months), no need because cameras and scanners monitor absolutely everything.  When a cab driver speeds up, he gets a call to be told it is not acceptable!!!  

But really, what do they do with those ugly garbage bags that are placed on the streets, in piles, everywhere else on the planet? After all, the city is so clean that they must have a garbage bin somewhere?  After 2 months, I saw twice a garbage truck at my condominium complex (which is so clean that I think they repaint it every day).  They come early in the morning before most humans get up (they all get up at 7:00am with the sun).  Garbage bags are hidden in the basements in containers (everywhere in the city) and they only come out for few minutes to get into the truck (helped by the flashy lime green little workers, usually imported from Malaysia and India). This is the moment where the garbage bags start their journey to a remote mysterious island between Indonesia and Singapore.  Their second life will be to serve as ground for the reclaimed land that Singapore keeps on needing to expand.  Indonesians and Malaysians feel that Singapore is getting closer and closer to them and they do not really appreciate it.  So, no matter where you are in the world, someone loves to hate their neighbours, particularly when they are successful and clean to a point where they manage their garbage to be your backyard! 

From my office, on the 36th floor of the Fuji Xerox towers, I see Indonesia like you can see the south shore from the island of Montreal.  I see tons of islands and at least 1000 ships a day parked in sea waiting to unload or pick-up their container cargos.  I know that one of those islands is a garbage paradise island, where bags tan under the hot sun.   Which island serves the purpose is still a mystery to me, but I know for sure that within the next 5 years, Singapore will have grown to reach this island and a beautiful human paradise island will immerge from it! This is the only recycling being done here.  The government teaches you how to recycle, but have no programs in place to do it.  Probably because people would not support the scenery of the blue bins, full of garbage, on the beautiful streets of Singapore.

As last garbage thought to leave you with, now think for a moment of what ships do when they are parked for a while in the bay! Then ask me if I would swim in the water!

Getting started in Asia land

Hello my friends.  Again, for those who have not received a note from me, I will start by stating that I will write my blog in English.  If I have to write in French and in English, I will not be able to keep the blog going.  Since 99% of my French friends and family are bilingual, the chosen language will be English.  Stay tune for a real update on my adventures in Asian Land!!

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