Today is the workers' pay day. It came late 15days. At least it came right.

When my burmese supervisor handed out the envelopes of money to the workers, we can see the joy through their tired and weary faces. The meagre amount of money is wad they have been working their lives away for.

I didn't mention that they're getting paid for March. Meaning almost 2 months late. They've been working 8am to at least 10pm everyday. Sometimes even through to 12am or 2-3am even. They dun even get Sundays off.

When we were giving out the filled envelopes, i told the workers that i haven't gotten my pay this month also. They jokingly gave me back the envelopes.

I told them (in construction english), " Boss no ali baba(steal) worker's money. No have worker, i die only. How can take worker's money?"

How true is that. Without these skilled workers, i am nothing.

One of my bangla workers said, "No problem. Boss you Singaporean. No problem." He didn't even get his pay today. He's a manpower agent men. Not directly under my company.

That only goes on to say how fortunate i am. These foreign workers are working their lives away for the small sum of money. Some of them may never even earn back the money they paid to come to Singapore to work. How difficult is it for them to work work work and just work, in a foreign land away from their family and loved ones. Through break-time talks with them, most of them have wife and children waiting for them to send money back to their hometown.

Here i am, sitting in the comfort of my room, back from work, typing this blog post.

I still remember one of my bangla worker named Apon. Now he has went back to bangladesh. He was just 21 years old when he came to Singapore to work as a construction worker. Positive attitude, willing to learn. He learnt how to operate machines and skilled work. He was a good worker. Only thing is that he's easily bullied. Nua Nua type.

When he was here he had to send his money back for his sick mother. Once, he borrowed my phone to call back to bangladesh when he found out that his girlfriend was going to get married to another guy on that day. I gave him the rest of the day off to sort his feelings up. Luckily work wasn't so rush on that day. He always say, "Boss, you say wad i working wad. You help Apon, Apon sure can working."

He's still young. Coming to Singapore sure made him grow. With such positive attitude he'll surely succeed in life. Thats a good worker.

I'm lucky to be born in Singapore. Not wealthy, but no problem with necessities. Learn to be contented. That's where happiness lies.


Cal found sought peace at 19:08.

Monday, 17 May 2010

New found hobby: Speeding.

I think i have a different reaction with driving from normal people. As far as i understand, they'll feel pressured at the wheel of the car and get nervous when they drive faster and faster. They get more stressed when there are passengers in the car looking at them when they drive.

I don't get that feeling. I feel very calm when i drive. Unless there's heavy traffic, of course. Maybe thats the feeling that people say in the movies, to be one with your blade. To be one with my car. Its like i understand wad the car can deliver, how it would respond when i wanted it to do something. Its that feeling that i know wad i am doing and the car is able to give me wad i want.

Speeding, especially at night on a clear road, looking at everything rushing back, leaving everything behind, i feel very relaxed. I am able to clear my mind of stress and burden. I feel like i'm able to leave my thoughts behind, and think about the things i want to think about. You can say emo. But its that feeling. Its magnificient.

Maybe thats the reason why i tend to drive fast. A friend who sat in my car for the first time commented, "Calvin, you really dare to chiong hor?" I forgot wad i replied already. Why not? When i know wad i'm doing and i am confident that i can handle the situation then why not.

Thinking of things while driving fast does not make me any less alert than normal.

To stop when i have to stop. To anticipate wad would happen before they actually happen.
That makes a good driver.
To leave when i have to leave. That makes a good man. But i just can't do it.
So many things on my mind. Maybe i'll blog about them another day.

Being mature is not about the numbers. Its about the acceptance of more responsibilities.
Construction has definitely made me grow.

People say boys grow up in the army to become men.
Thats rubbish. Try construction.
Thats the real world.

There's so much to learn. I meet people of all walks of life in there.

The super rich bosses/ entrepureners
The poor foreign workers who slog their life away for such a low pay.
The so called "normal" people like me.
Many many more. Young and old.

Enough for today. Another emo post. Damn!


Cal found sought peace at 20:05.

Saturday, 15 May 2010

I have no mood to blog about anything. This blog is terrible. All the emo stuff. There will only be more emo stuff here in days to come.

I believe not more than 5 ppl will read this blog. So be it. It just goes on to show how few close friends i have. Looking back in life, i can't say all, but most of the mistakes i committed is because i am too nice or i'm just too useless. Maybe too boring.

Good guys die early. Why should i be a good guy?

"I would rather be the bad guy if i need to protect myself" - Melvin Huang

I kinda agree with that to some extent.

Never mind.
Fuck. History is repeating itself. I swore not to do it again. How? FML



Cal found sought peace at 19:25.

Wednesday, 12 May 2010

Haha. Never thought that i would start the miraculous disappearing act so early. 6pm means its time to go home. Off the phone and RUN! Hahahaha. 12missed calls after i turned it on at 7plus. Nice. Bloody Japanese Penta dog. Not i wan call them dogs la. Their mascot is a Dog. So they're Japanese Dogs lor. Haha.

No men means no men. Who wanna do defects when there's BCA Quality Mark inspection to do? A low QM score means money loss. Defects wait for the house buyer to inspect the house first then rectify la. If the house buyer not happy with the quality i would gladly replace timber even. Thats why i say Penta dogs have no system. Even when doing preparation for QM my worker fought with another subcon's worker. Can't be helped la. When we're doing floor varnishing, nobody can work in the room anymore. They have to wait few hours for the varnish to dry. Wad if they refuse to get out of the room? Either the Main Contractor does something, or the workers fight. Finish the work early also problem, lots of damages, unable to finish on time, get fucked. Everything falls down onto the floor. Dents, scratches. Screw them all.

These people never seem to understand the more they call The Boss, the more things wouldn't work out. The Boss will only "Okay Okay, No Problem No Problem" at them, the call us to screw us for not putting men to do the defects. Never increase man or wadsoever. They never seem to understand that even superman is vulnerable to kryptonite. Call boss also useless one. LPPL. Dragages understood, Poh Lian understood, even Wee Hur sort of understood. Penta Japanese Dogs will never understand. They're of too low intelligence la.

Rants and rants. Lousy main contractor. Pity those who bought The Orchard Residence. So expensive but low quality work due to lack of control by the main contractor.

I'm moving on to Nassim Park Residence soon this friday. That's say say only. I'll still in in charge of everything under the sun. Luckily there's another Myanmar Project Supervisor to share troubles with now. Nassim Park Residence's main contractor is Shimizu Corporation. They better have higher intelligence than penta dogs.

BaoWei once said, " We all start with sturdy shields and strong armour, thats when we'll be blocking everything thats thrown at us. Shields and armour will get damaged, so there must be some time for us to repair and rest. If not, no matter how sturdy and strong the shields and armours are, they will break. Thats when we'll start to run, escape and hide. If we run out of space to run, escape and hide, thats the end. Give up."

I find that very meaningful. Don't you?


Cal found sought peace at 20:34.

Monday, 10 May 2010

Construction workers are superman. At least my workers are. They just have to work non stop. Sometimes i just feel bad for them. They have an endless pile of work waiting for them. They don't even have Sunday or Public Holidays off. Its just work work work and all work. They're foreign workers. So they dun have any choice. Life of workers. Paid by the hour but sometimes dun even get the pay they deserved. Minus off levy and accomodation and food they earn an average of $23 a day working 8am to 10pm. Sometimes they don't even get an average of 4 hours of sleep a day for the whole week. They cannot even fall sick. How to survive? They're all superman.

Great leaders have to be ruthless. Gengis Kahn, Alexandra the Great, Qin Shi Huang, blabla. Thats why i'm never meant to be a natural leader. I just cannot be ruthless.

Sometimes i think that its not that we want to do such things to the workers. Its just that we have no choice. Once we let them rest, the work stops and we'll get chased like crazy. One phonecalls after the next, the phonecalls will reach The Boss. After that, the phonecalls will come bouncing back to us again. Not enough men means not enough men. Sometimes i think bosses will never understand that. Site personnel are all in the same boat. Office personnel are on another.

Screw it la. Who understands wad i'm saying?

We are all humans. We all make a living. Life's just unfair.

Honestly i never expected things to heat up so quickly. I thought can still slack a while first. Plus its 4 supervisors on 1 site. Still, all of us get our share of rubbish. Some overlapping of duties, but overall quite different. That shows that i came back at the wrong/right time anyway. Right to share the burden, wrong to put myself into such suffering.

Anyway The Boss says that i'll be out to another site nearby in Orchard soon. Nassim Park Residence at Tanglin Rd. Looking forward to it seriously. The main contractor is Shimizu Corporation. Its another Japanese company but i dunno its good or not yet. I think it won't beat Dragages Singapore on my number one Good Main Contractor list as yet. But hopefully it will be a happy working experience for me.

The pay comes next week. Soon there'll be some relief of my sufferings. Shopping. Yay!


Cal found sought peace at 21:41.

Saturday, 8 May 2010

Early in the morning get fucked by boss for calling back to office store to ask for more machine cuz never go through him. After that get fucked by the Penta-Ocean Japanese senior engineer. No more available man to work. Run up run down. Answer phonecalls when super sweaty. Soaked in water, phone button spoiled. Take tools and work hands-on Still get fucked while working. "WHY NO MAN? WHERE ARE YOUR MEN? WEDNESDAY SHOULD FINISH TODAY ALREADY SATURDAY. CALL YOUR BOSS!" Nice. Ran away at 6.30am after i finished my work. Super lots phone call after that. All missed calls. HAHA. Screw them all! HAHAHA.

Its a Saturday.
SERIOUSLY I HAD ENOUGH.

I'm not going to answer that blardy phone for the rest of today and tml. HAHAHAHA!

Thats working in construction. Those who're studying civil engineering, GOOD LUCK. Everybody in that industry is telling me never enter it as a career. Thats why i'm studying Chemistry. Damn.

Think my money easy to earn? Think again.

*update* my phone lived again. I think the sweat that entered the phone dried up and it somehow worked again. Phew. Gave me such a bad scare. Was thinking of where to get the money to buy a new phone already. Nokia X6? Maybe end of this year. Cannot remember when my contract ends also. Oh well. My phone better survive till then. =)


Cal found sought peace at 18:49.

Wednesday, 5 May 2010

Working construction sucks. When the site is rushing, everything is in a mess. Ion residential project plans to obtain TOP (temporary occupation permit) on 19may. TOP generally means building is "fit for people to live in." Meaning most of the construction works are to be completed and basic stuff like water and electricity has to be up.

Now everything is in a MESS. Screaming and shouting during meetings. And most importantly working hours are in a mess too. Sometimes it sucks when your boss is forever working. It sucks even more when he expects you to be there late at night way after working hours to help out. Can't be helped la. Rushing ma. Its not so sucky when he pays for food and drinks and shoves you notes when you're there working "extra" to sort of cover for my expenses. Working is for the money. Thats my life after all. Since i have nothing to do anyway.

Guess wad. I'm heading back to site to help check on the workers now. Life sucks. But at least its Orchard Road. Can go shopping. Yay.


Cal found sought peace at 20:00.