The Honeymoon's Over...

Following last week's post, this post probably paints a bleak picture of my current feelings.

7 months into the job and I'm coming against some setbacks which are kinda demoralizing. The first 6 months, while tiring, did not seem to have many down moments. the 7th month, however, is turning out to be quite a challenge.

Firstly, I've had to balance the demands of my various responsibilities. It's frustrating not being able to do everything to the level I expect of myself. I know I'm not prepared to do substandard work... but to try and do everything at a peak performance level with limited resources is quite a stretch. And I find myself either getting fed up with myself over not being to do everything well or getting disappointed that even the basic level seems to be suffering.

Second challenge is overcoming my own expectations and pre-conceived ideas. It's challenging to try and move beyond what I think I should expect to what is reality and learning how to deal with it. heh.. dunno if that makes sense. I'm frustrated that maybe I'm not dealing with people around me in the right way. I keep asking myself if I'm dealing with the various situations that I am currently being faced with in the right way or in the way I feel most comfortable with. As a teacher, there is a natural 'gut reaction' to many issues. And I'm now constantly checking if this 'gut reaction' is right or wrong.

I don't know if I'm making any sense. Maybe not, coz I guess without context, the above two points would probably sound pretty random and ranty.

I'm gonna try my best to take the weekend to chill out and recharge. I think I'm gonna resort to some retail therapy. Maybe a new phone... or a PSP Go... or who knows... buying expensive stuff always helps. :)

It's only the first month of 2010... talk about challenging beginnings.

Unbelievable

Can't believe the proper 'authorities' didn't even bother to brief her properly....

So embaressing, some more broadcast all over the world...

Good News? Or Not..

Woke up this morning and glanced at the Straits Times. Screaming in bold on the front page was the good news that there will now be 'CHEAPER TRAVEL FOR 4 IN 10 COMMUTERS'. Wow! What great news!! And it was printed on the front page no less! Until it hit me... it meant that MARJORITY of travellers, meaning 6 in 10 or 60% would either be paying MORE or maybe the same amount (I would bet it is the former).

There has always been accusation that our media supports the government. Of course, it simply be one of those favourite past times of conspiracy theorists to propagate such rumours. But, it's distressing to read an article where it was obviously bad news for most people and yet it was spun into great news! That 4 in 10 were going to benefit! Imagine how it would have read if the headline was '6 IN 10 COMMUTERS CAN EXPECT TO PAY MORE OR THE SAME'.

Now that would have been more accurate.

Our efficient hospitals

I think there is something seriously wrong with the efficiency/organization of our hospitals.

Today, I went for some Pre-Admission stuff at Tan Tock Seng. The place opened at 8.30am... very punctual I thought. But once I was inside, the timing just went haywire. There were about three of us who were there when the door opened. I was number 3. The number you see above is my number which also reflects the time of my appt. I was pretty optimistic when I realized I was third in line. I mean, how far off timing could they go right? Well, fact is, by 8.45am, there was only one staff at the counter and the number of patients appearing in the waiting area had grown to about 10. By then, the lone nurse, who was still serving the first patient called for another nurse who was in the section behind to come help with the counselling. Why weren't there more staff there in the first place if the opening time was 8.30am?

Thankfully, when the second patient was called (around 8.50am), the nurse behind came forward to help and I got called as well. She went through the admission procedures. I've done this many times, so I kinda just nodded to almost everything she asked. I didn't waste time coz I pretty much wanted to just get the check over and done with. Even then, it took almost 20min before I was done. Now, according to what I've observed, they basically gave out counselling appointments in 10min slots. If my zippy session took almost 20mins, I wonder how much longer a normal patient with questions would take. Now, isn't that just setting yourself up to have huge delays? If they knew this timing wasn't realistic, either have longer slots or more staff.

So after my counselling, I had my pressure taken and it was unsurprisingly a little high. I'd been getting more and more fed up as I sat at the waiting area. Well, I then moved on to the next waiting area to wait for my turn to see the doctor. By the time my turn came, it was about 9.30am. Now, I know I should be thankful that I got to see the doctor so 'fast'. The last time I went for Pre-Admissions testing, it took almost an hour before I got to see the doctor. But my point was I was only third on the list. And it took me so long to see a doctor. When I left the doctor's room, the waiting area had filled up with about 6 to 8 patients. I didn't dare to think how long they would have to wait in line to see the doctor. Again, patients are already unwell. What is the point of making them sit and wait so long to see the doctor? Either have more doctors or schedule them wider apart or have a better system where the patient needn't sit there for 1 to 2 hours to wait for his turn.

In fact, the last time I went to see my specialist, I had a late appointment at 4.10pm. I waited almost 2 hours until 6pm to see him! I don't really blame him coz I know he wanted to give his patients proper attention. Why can't the hospital come up with a more efficient system to inform us if our appointments are delayed so that we can come a little later? Why make us sit and wait for 2 hours to see the doctor? Even some shops I know have started a phone sms service so customers need not sit there to wait their turn. Instead, they can walk around then received an sms when their turn is coming up.

Yeah, I am basically a bit sore about the whole thing. It's just frustrating to have to sit through such 'ordeals', especially when you are not well or when you are waiting nervously to see the doctor. I can understand that hospitals have to deal with shortage of staff, etc. But I still believe they can come up with a better system of managing patient flow. It's incredible when you have to queue for a total of 3 to 4 hours when your appointment + bill payment takes maybe only 20mins.

In that kinda mood

For some reason or rather, I've been in a kind of buay song mood over the last few days. Reading the newspapers & surfing the blogs on singapore issues just reinforce this buay-songness. It's like, there are just so many weirdish things going on in our little red dot and we littlereddotians just seem to live with and tolerature them (myself included).

One example is the silly Odex 'demonstration' where a couple of people got together and placed some toy figures carrying little banners and toy flags to protest against how Odex had handled the whole issue. I just can't understand why our dear authorities had to send police to go and 'control the crowd'.... I mean, don't they have better things to do? And what's really wrong with people just trying to make a statement? And as some blogs have mentioned, it's interesting to note that despite having all sorts of news on the Odex court case, there was virtually no reporting in our local papers about the mini-protest. It's all just messed up, imo.

Well, I believe that as a consequence of my mood, I'm a little more irritated with little things that I see around me, stuff that are less political (dun really intend for this blog to make big political statements).

So the thing which I can't understand is this totally silly road crossing between Bugis Junction and Bugis Village. I dunno which wonderful civil servant designed this zig zag crossing but I marvel at how they can connect two MAJOR large road crossings with this tiny strip between them. Everytime I have to cross this place, there's this huge clash of people moving from Bugis Village to Bugis Junction and vice versa. And there's this huge jam as you can see from the pic below resulting in people pushing and shoving and trying to get off the road before the red man flashes on.

Wonderful quirky examples in our efficient little city. My next rant... butt-rests. Be back for it.