Kids at Home???

Some things never cease to amaze me.
I have been staying her for almost seven years yet I can’t get customized with ways of “modern people” thinking.

Singapore is having an outbreak now, well actually, every year there is this disease called HFMD, hand-foot-mouth, somethinggg like that. In the peak, year 2000-2001, 7 kids died from that disease. It affects children, although it’s also contagious to adult, but children are more prone to that.

This year, the quantity of the cases reaches serious number, trigger the closure of some schools and child centers. Well, so far I hope I get all the info right.
If I’m wrong, I have to warn that blogs contain crappy information, stories and grumpy grumpy, so don’t rely on the info you found on any blogs…

With the closing of schools and child centers, comes the news and parent’s concern.
“What am I going to do with my kids?”
“How do I find someone to take care of them?”
“Worse comes to the worst, I have to take turn with my wife to take leave from work.”
“Government/schools should provide us a way to keep the children.”

What the-

I was reading newspaper, perhaps last month, that there is a mysterious flu in Hongkong and they were closing school for safety, trying to prevent the spread among school children. The parent’s responses? It’s the same with Singapore.

I know, I have yet to be a parent. What do I know? By right I should run away Kaing kaing kaing since I supposedly don’t have the right to talk. However, he..I like this word..
Even though I’m not a parent, I know many, my parents, my friends etc etc..
I know they won’t act this way. My mom for example will welcome the closure wholeheartedly. She even sometimes gives idea to us to take break from work to rest at home. Once she shows up in my Uni trying to drag me home while I was down for a week, I think, from malaria. But I resisted and she was pissed. That’s because she was worry, that is the normal reaction from parents, because they always want to protect their children.

Here, I copy it again.

“What am I going to do with my kids?”
“How do I find someone to take care of them?”
“Worse comes to the worst, I have to take turn with my wife to take leave from work.”
“Government/schools should provide us a way to keep the children.”

I'm pissed and shouldn't judge because I don’t know the Singaporean or Hong Kong’s parent’s reason to give the (crap) reasons above. They say they have their reasons. Work. Money.
Fair enough. But not over.
If I have to be not biased, I won’t write here. Reason that I write here is that because I’m free (I guess so!) to write whatever mind that I have without the need to please anyone.

Back to the topic…. What the heck, what reasons can justify it? No maid? Nobody to take care? There are ways…and if everything else fails, look at one way out. Let the kid stay at home.
Here, I guess, people underestimate kids.
Alone in the house? No problemo.
I’m talking about the ‘dangerous’ country that I come from. In Singapore, it’s most likely to be the safest place on earth. People kick you, you kick them back. It’s still quite fair here. Anything happens, accident, robbery, people around will help, not stay quiet for their own safety and not robbing you while you are dying after the car crash. So what seems to be the problem of a kid stay in the house? I’m talking about school kids, primary and above, of course not toddler or babies.

Stay in the house beats the possibility of getting contagious disease. The worst is not that one parent have to take leave, but if the kid go down with the disease, have to be treated in hospital, or something fatal. How do they compare the ‘worst’?
Why don't the embrace the opportunity to protect their kids and grateful that they are okay? Why treat them as nuisance and disturbance? Why blame or ask for other parties about what to do with your kids? Who is talking what?

What reasons can beat the risk of the kids catching disease that is so preventable? Why instead of feeling relieved that they are given chance to avoid it, the parents nag about what to do with the kids when they are not in the school? Are they confused now why they actually have little people stay with them in their house?

Uh…. What about those drunken nights or happy night years ago?

Okay, perhaps a bit of judgmental and drunken post.

But still..
Huek....!

A for Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhh

It has been seven months since the last time I went diving, it has been nine month since the last time I dived overseas, it has been one year since the last time I dived long/one week trip.

The anxiety has built up high, especially during these few days where there are abundant dive magazines around the house. A friend is being nice and he suddenly bought us few magazines that contain special feature of pictures taken with fish-eye lens and of course other pictures that made me droooooolll…

As I have new friend who is interested in wild life, I will bring her the diving dvd that I bought, so when I finally found it, I was stupid and watched it again. Argh, it’s like..like being fed something that will kill you if you eat it because you can’t eat it. Somethiiiing like that.

This DVD was made by a guy we met in Mabul. I think he sort of staying there and earn a living by doing underwater filming around the Sipadan and Mabul. In 2005 when we stayed in Mabul, it was an island that flourish after Sipadan island was closed for tourist. A typical dive resort, divers stay in bungalows and there is a big gathering area for meals and entertainment like library, pool table and the only TV in the island was located in that very room.

The activity in the island is nothing but diving, eating and sleeping. At night after the meal we would gather in the area for a while before we knocked off at the latest..uhmmm..nine o’clock… seaside wind make you sleepy, I swear. So there was not many things to do. This guy will play his DVD footage for marketing purpose. It’s a really nice DVD for somebody who doesn’t work for those cables like National Geographic etc.

He was actually available for charter also. So we could hire him for doing group filming. By majority of us were just holding our freshly made advance card, so we were not confident yet. But we happened to share the same boat with him and a group of Japanese who hired him. I think he is very committed to his passion of filming, and it’s a bloody interesting job to do also. After the morning dive, when we made a surface interval at Sipadan island, two turtles were mating, floating on the water surface between boats. He just grabbed his video and jumped down to catch the rare opportunity.

Looking at the DVD again, it reminds me of the time…

It’s killing me.! It’s killing me more because the quickest time we will be able to dive again will be more than six months away. Quitting job, no money. New job, no leave, that sort of thing. And I have promised, and I swear to it that I won’t dive before I bring mom and dad for holiday first. Been delaying that for more than a year… so it might be next year before we touch water again………huaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…….