The IPA and The Med Check-Up

Two days before my stay in SG turned into a month, a company called for a job interview. Things went fast-paced when otherwise it could have been slow. Final Interview, Contract Signing, Orientation on Employee Benefits, to Application for an Employment Pass. And then came the days days days of waiting. It turned out that the employment pass was applied and approved at the same day, 8 days after I signed the contract and submitted the required forms. And then, it still took 4 days for the company to call. If I hadn't emailed and banged on their door, I feared that I would have waited long. Thank God, that part is over and I've just had HIV and X-Ray Test. The result will take about 5 days. And there's this background check where I have to submit Certificates of Employment and of No-Criminal record. Little things that I have to take care of.

on the train in the way back to Block 123

A Regular Day in SG

For quite some time now, let's say, for about 4 weeks, this is how my regular day in SG is;

About 9 10 AM > wake up, use the CR, have coffee, cook dry noodles (pancit canton), toast bread (if there is)
10-11AM > Laundry Time (every Mon or Tue) (consist of hauling dirty clothes, tossing them to the washing machine, turn on power and press buttons) after about 22-26 mins, take out the washed, rinsed, spinned clothes to hang and dry (so hard! hehe)
     *This varies if there is a walk-in or job interview to go to
11AM-3PM > ONLINE time (chikka and YMs, job portals, facebook, youtube, flickr, google news, wikipedia, AE, and lately the blogger)
3-6PM > walk time, if the weather is fine, I sometimes take the stairs from the 12th floor going down and going back up) I go and walk around the Tampines Fitness Park. Sometimes I go to hawker centers to eat or go home and eat whatever I have.

6PM-3AM max > ONLINE time again and watch downloaded movies (so far have seen Alice in Wonderland, District 9, The Hurt Locker, The Book of Eli, Up in The Air, The Blindside, and many mores)
3AM-10AM > zzzzzzzzzzzz........

I am a Fan of Liz Clark

Here is this person in the world that truly embodies the ideals of living a simple-life, free-spirit and adventure. Liz Clark. Read her biography here. She is currently in a boatyard in Tahiti, fixing her boat, Swell.
This is a movie trailer of Dear & Yonder where Liz appeared together with other female surfers. And here's a funny video, it looks like Liz made this on her own. She is seen surfing and working around and living in Swell. And another video by Liz's sponsor, patagonia.

"Every day, I consciously try to minimize my impact on the earth. I do my best to eat and live sustainably by utilizing the resources that are closest to me. I use mostly solar (and soon wind) energy to supply my electricity. I pull up my sails and use the wind to push me around the world rather than jet fuel.

Seeing places that are still largely unaffected by human impact has made me realize just how much of the earth we have altered. It is my hope that through my travels and writing, I can help people understand why we must fight to preserve what's left of our environment and invest our collective human genius to work towards implementing sustainable solutions for humanity to live in harmony with the earth."

Philippines Caves and Falls I've Been To

Balantac Falls and Sohoton Cave in Basey, Samar. Visited Aug 2006

Cambugahay Falls and Cantabon Cave in Siquijor,Visited Oct 2006

Bomod-oc Falls and Sumaguing Cave in Sagada, Mt. Province,Visited Nov 2009

Nothing To Do

Today it is exactly 1 month and 1 week from the day my friend and I boarded that flight form Cebu to Singapore. Singapore, the city of promise. We came here for WORK. There are forums full of to-dos, suggestions, recommendations, real-life experiences (success and few on failures) and I read and gobbled them all. The money, the precursor was obtained by a loan. Passport, documents, noodles, clothes were packed tightly.

Jobstreet, jobsdb, jobscentral, monster SG; these sites became my bookmarks. Frustrations crept in after 2 weeks of nothing to do. To pass out time, we went to some tourists destinations; The Merlion park, Raffles Place, The Esplanade, Bedok Reservoir park, Sentosa.

And then came a blessing, a call from one of the premier entertainment, hotel, casino-destination in SG. They offered me a job similar to my previous post in a call center in the Phils. But the quest is far from over, since before I could work, the government has to issue an employment pass. To be continued...