Goodbye Singapore Driving License!

today, i finally received my GB driving license in the post. it has replaced my Singapore Driving License for good. Forever. yes, in order to drive here in Britain, I have had to surrender my Spore driving license to exchange for a British one. It made me sad to give it up for good as it is something that connects me to home. After all, I am still a Singapore citizen altho i have moved to England. And so they sent my Spore license back home to the authorities (traffic police i guess) and issued me a picture card one for here. Turns out, i do not have to re-sit a theory or practical test here after all! yay! I could almost jump for joy as I dreaded having to learn all the highway codes here all over again, and just as well, cos the speeds here are all in miles and I would probably have failed the practical if i had to take it again. Now, i can sotong my way through on my own and with Andrew and still be able to drive on the roads. I am sure the other drivers will know none the better, until i start to hold up traffic on roundabouts that is.

This is another new subject. I started work this week at the Birmingham City Council's office at Birmingham city centre. pay is only so-so for a temp job scanning documents and uploading them to save in the system. Maybe the pay reflected the amount of brain power needed for the job. But hey, a temp job with some money is better than me on my bum watching home makeovers on telly all day. Working in Uk always amazes me how different the work environments and cultures are from back home.

Did you know that here, the total number of working hours a week was 36.5 hrs? it may be birmingham specific or govt bodies, but that is way way lower than 44 hrs back in Spore. My current job is rather flexible regarding start and end times, so anything between 8-10am start in the morning to end between 4-5.30pm at night. you just have to manage yr times yourself. It is a must to leave by 4.15pm on a friday though cos their full time staff all do and they will expect you to do so as there will be no supervision. so much emphasis on family quality time as compared to Spore where it is not uncommon for one to work till 7 or 8pm on a daily basis. Except for "some people" who DO leave on time, you know who you are... Nothing to feel guilty abt, all i am saying is people here do not feel guilty abt watching the clock for their time for breaks, to go home etc. But they can be very particular in the wrong way too. Correct me if I am wrong, but most companies, at least 90%, in Spore do not really care how many times you get out of your sit for toilet or to make coffee, right? There is generally no hard and fast rule about breaks nor empahsis on health and safety entitlements in Spore.

But here, esp where i work now, they seem to be watching how many times you make your tea and coffees and how many times you move away from your desk. Well, you see in UK, they are very pro employees welfare and so they have things like compulsory 15 mins break must be taken for every 4 hrs of work. so in the morns, from abt 10am onwards, you will take a 15 mins break as and when you wish. relax and have a cup of tea, read the papers in the rest area and then come back to your desk. 2 young and very chatty colleagues of mine (who do talk a lot at work) took their 15 mins break and then shortly not long after decide to make a hot drink for themselves cos the power was down and the fan heaters were thus cut-off for a while. Manager guy came round and could not see them, marched to pantry and told them off for making a drink so soon after their 15mins break. they then spent rest of the day grumbling and talking abt the tick-off. that is extreme if you ask me. I mean why so anal abt the time keeping, afterall, one who does not move from his PC is not always the most productive right (altho those 2 chatterboxes were not very productive either)? i mean others could be sat at desk, but day dreaming or clicking really slowly, so i don't see the point in restricting how many times you can get up to make your coffee.

Imagine that kind of scenario in Spore, where pple leave the offices freely for smoke breaks, Starbucks visits, even a sit-down breakfast of nasi lemak or prata DURING working hours in the mornings? I wonder which system works better...

Speaking of the heaters earlier, we are sat near very big glass pane windows and altho they are shut, there is a distinct draft around the area which explains why we had a few fan heaters plugged in to warm us up. but NO, circuit breakers tripped each time too many were plugged and so reduced us to one heater for the whole area/stretch. Those who hv ever used a fan heater will know that one heater is only sufficient to warm one person or 2 max comfortably. so you can imagine how cold that is for the team when they reduced to one heater AND not allowed to make hot drinks too frequently as well. so that created some unhappy staff who mentioned that they can actualy walk out if the room temp is below the acceptable range, once again Health and Safety regulations. I was just shocked/surprise to hear and sat in my chair mumbling inaudibly to no one in particular.

Maybe they could learn a thing or 2 from our Spore system and just let the employees stroll to the nearest coffee shop for a teh tarik, increase the morale and stay a little later at work perhaps?