I HATE CHINESE NEW YEAR IN KUCHING CITY!

It is a girl’s nightmare to marry a wrong husband and an employee’s nightmare to work for a heartless boss!

Written by Miss Yellow

When I write this article, I think I am on the verge of getting crazy, imagine a Chinese new year without any extra dime in your pocket when you husband’s boss didn’t yet release any money, and it only remains three days before Chinese New Year. Worst still I have been jobless for ages!!!!

   For a rich Datuk businessman, everyday is his Chinese New Year, that’s why he wouldn’t understand his poor employees why they insisted to celebrate Chinese New Year and must have bonus released to them only on Chinese New Year.

What a fateful life in this Kuching city? I came here with full of anticipation but in this eve of my stay here I would tell you why I think I don’t belonged to this city Kuching!

    

   I am still not bowing down with my tough life yet, past three years I gained more white hair on my head more than ever, I gained more weight more than ever and I am getting darker in complexion more than ever! You know who I would curse, when my prayers were not heard by my God?!  No woman likes her husband or children being bullied right?!

About three years ago, my husband returned home announced to me happily that he signed up a project with a handsome, young and a professional boss, a lawyer. And three years later he told me that I have a crow mouth. Well I am a modern Cassandra, he didn't take my advice!

   I poured cold water on him, ‘Do you know that a lawyer won’t know anything about your work nature? Does he know that you can’t build road when it is raining? Does he know that every day when you worked on his project, you are involving in lots of capitals? Does he know that you have to pay trucks, mechanics, workers etc and etc.? Will he pay you the full amount of the periodical work done like those established companies like Naim Cendera instead of just 40%? (This kind of bloody contractor really thought that every subcontractors earn more than him!!) Does he know that you have to pay for all those suppliers? Do you know lawyer can “chop you here and there in a ultra unreasonable way and at the end you won’t earn any dime, yet he will show his Buddha face telling you that, “Look, I am always helping you, am I?” Does he know that if he delay paying you but you have to sell off your shop lots and other capital assets?’

    

   So since my husband signed up with this lawyer-contractor boss, my life is in hell for three damn years in Kuching too. It is a girl’s nightmare to marry a wrong husband and an employee’s nightmare to work for a heartless boss! Let me tell you this, I am the victim of this issue, I have a “wrong husband” and he has a “wrong boss”, my luck is betting zero, and yet I am still holding my chin up grinning bravely.

There are many simple-minded sub-contractors (usually engineers) never thought twice when signing up project with a main contractor. I hear a lot of information past three years when I stayed in Kuching of who are the best contractors, who are the mean contractors and who are the worst contractors. I warn you that you have to watch out the following kind of main contractors when you sign up to work as a subcontractor for them.

(1)      Make sure he is not a second generation of a fairly rich businessman’s son, he was probably one of the smartest siblings amongst many others, that mean he would never need to let his finger getting dirty, arrogant in nature, thus he won’t have any compassion for those people who work hard for him under the sun, instead he would think that they are stupid that’s why they work these kind of dirty jobs, or else they would be like him sitting under the cool air signing billions of ringgit projects with the government sectors.

(2)      Make sure he is not a lawyer. The reason is he doesn’t know any shit about construction works, but he knows laws. Unless you have your own corporate lawyers’ team, or else if you are just a little subcontractor, he may “swallow you up” without a single noise, you won’t dare to make any noise, all because he is a lawyer. He thought that his subcontractors could “steal materials” to undercut cost but actually these subcontractors are always under stringent surveying by JKR engineers and consultants. So he thought his subcontractors actually earn more money than him, so he starts to cut here and there very unreasonable. He didn’t know that his subcontractors only were the winners to win contracts from him, when they bet their LOWEST!!! If a person plays dirty to win a contract, he will think the whole world would act like him! So don’t expect his fair treatment to you “employees” (or slaves)

(3)      The contractor-boss hardly accepted even “minimum religious education” (no use if his wife is as holy as a monk!) as a Chinese-Malaysian if he was not taught any Confucianism or Taoism, but if he is purely English educated. So don’t talk about compassionate, love, cherish and patient to him. He would scold the whole office staff yet no one dares to retaliate and challenge him, even if he was so unreasonable and acted like a barbarian. He usually has foul temper, the whole office staffs scared the shits pout of him, especially if he becomes a datuk now!!

(4)      Usually his dad has at least two wives, to show that he was from a problematic background already, lacked of fatherly figure since young day to coach them to behave like other ethical businessmen.

Just few weeks ago, people in Kopitiam kept gossiping a contractor,  this contractor didn't want to pay after a company removed all the heavy equipments out of the scene of a building for its open ceremony. I learned that he was a famous contractor in Kuching city who would not pay his subcontractors but would tell them to continue his next project, if the subcontractors pull out, they would be afraid they would never receive any more money, but if they continue to work for this company which shares a name like Barbie’s best boyfriend, their poor families would be having Chinese New Year like mine, no traveling, no good foods, no good clothing, poor in cash for years.

   The other kind of above mentioned boss would treat his office staff like slaves, one staff has to work for five staff’s works to cut down his employees’ expenses. These staffs were always working overtime, some of them even have to work during Sunday, during Chinese New Year, and the most they could get is RM500. What the staff didn’t know was the accountant was the one who got scolded badly by her boss, “I don’t understand why you all need to get bonus during Chinese New Year, I thought of giving you all during year end!” (Dubs… year end was just a month ago, did you give last year end’s bonus to your staffs?)

   

Bad bosses are like bad husbands, lucky employees need to look for good and kind employers with compassion. When I stay in Northern Sarawak for almost two decades, I know of a good employer, he was an engineering consultant, he and his wife earns a lot of money, yet they would credit those staffs and engineers who worked for them, they would bring the whole company staffs to tour England and Australia, during the trip the staffs would have extra expenses given.

  

   Some bosses are just greedy, they only think of if their own pockets and bank accounts are loaded, they didn’t care a shit of what other people suffer, the best is like my husband, sold off his shop lots and capital assets to “pay” for his contractor-boss’s project.

Lastly, I met a woman kept telling me how capable is her relative, but does she know that what is the use of a capable person without any compassion, his standard of kindness is different from the rest of the populations, if he donated less than a 10K he expected a big photo taken posted on newspaper. He didn’t pay his employees well, make them overworked. He didn’t pay his subcontractors fairly and also slowly.. or dragging the payments so that he could use the money to reinvest in European share markets …. yet when he talked to them, he would say, “Oh I always help you, am I?” That’s mean he thought all his subcontractors earned lots of money from his projects, he didn’t know yet now he has become very notorious in the civil contract works that he likes to cut and chop a pig, and the subcontractors at the end not even sharing a pig tail, and I think I heard I cursed, “SHITS”

   

   If you are main-contractors coincidentally fallen the above points that I mentioned but with true generosity, fairness, kindness and high conscience, then I am not talking about you!

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN LIP BALM?

A Christmas gift for your own when you won't receive any!

Posted by Poor Money Tai Tai

This year end marked my 5th jobless year in meow city, I learn to live more stingy than ever and learn like those majority poorer local residents live their simple lives.

   Hardly anything that I did here for the past few years could get any positive response.  To gain new friendships by doing charity? Never in my life I become so negative, why it makes me felt that it is a city that welcomes tourists but not a migrated resident from other smaller town? 

   The spending power of the people  here are not like the oil city, I only learn that they save their money to get out of meow city during school holidays, last Saturday night I witnessed meow airport was packed with people, queued up a more than a kilometer in both departure and arrival halls. 

First Christmas when I was in meow city, I  was so cheerful and full of positiveness, and the life here gradually pushed me to the bottleneck, now I wonder if this will be my last Christmas here! 

    I went to a pharmacy, there was no lip balm under RM5, but the cheapest was more than RM10. What's going on here? 

   I saw the rich ones become richer, poorer ones become poorer, unfortunately I become the later one. 

   Poor people become more resourceful and they really bargain hard. Usually a lip balm with RM10+ lasted me for 4 months, so I returned home prepared a whole year supply of lip balm that cost me less than RM10.

New Zealand bee wax, a piece of that cost $7 (RM19), but I just need 1/6 of it.

I bought lemon infused extra virgin oil during clearance sales, 50% off, cost me a bottle around RM11, you just need a quarter cup

Bought 10 plastic empty containers from pharmacy cost me RM2

Put  bee wax and olive oil together in a bowl, heat them in microwave at 90 degree until the bee wax barely melted, then stir the bee wax until melted.

Can buy this from Cosway, half teaspoon mixed and melted with little water.

Mix everything together, keep mixing and stirring under room temperature

Before it gets thicker, make sure you already transfer them to  containers.

There are 10 small cases and the big one sure lasts me to the year end. How about I sell you those small containers each for RM3? I GUARANTEE you won't get dry lip in England during winter!

It is not soft, edible. So why buy those lip balm made by petroleum gel and all those chemical?

MY FIRST POLITICAL SCIENCE LESSON

It was lectured by my ever mean mommy!

Listened by: Little Coins

 

We often made a lot of noises just like little coins that really could  irritate our mom who would always burrow in her work for more than 4 hours without making a move or noise,  that was usually the time she left us both taken care by the our best babysitter in this world, the computer. 

  Mommy has forgotten that our school break would last for two weeks so she sent us again by excellent MAS children delivery service to our maternal grandparents, and we returned a week earlier, she felt that her work schedule has interrupted by us, and she would especially got irritated when she was absorbing in her work, we would answer the telephone subconsciously and she would get mad when the telephone was looking for her. She would nag, ‘Where those stupid backward people who think they are still living in 19th century to get that idea that as a housewife I would be so idle? If I wasn’t fool by your dad to quit my hard earned career, now I would have earned at least two times of what your dad could give me every month! But why all those narrow-minded “Chinawomen” think that the best things in my life did was to get married and have two of you annoying noisy idiots! Oh yeah, they could only earn RM1500/month before getting married BUT after married they could receive RM3000 or 5000/month from their husbands besides those nice gifts, oh yeah that's why those women would say life is so good being married and have precious little cute kids!..?" Then she threw us a challenged glance. Aye we all know mommy prefer cats more than kids!

    

   Obviously mommy didn’t like being interrupted half way during her work, especially when someone had asked her ridiculous kind of request, she would nag and nag until  her friend would be convinced that mommy has “depression”! But actually it was her "bio-rhythm" of  more than three decades working ethic was disturbed!

  Also under this kind of interrupted situation, mommy would start to raise her voice and nag at us too, ‘Hey dubs, I don’t want you grow up without any sensitivity, when your parents work so hard from 7am until 7pm, and you are already 15 or 21, but you expect your mom or other people to prepare your dinner when they return late and tire? ... While you basically spent your day just studying, flirting around with opposite sex, playing your hp and computer?!’ Mom said if one day we grow up like this kind of hopeless useless insensitive senseless kids, she better goes jumping down from Kuching city council tower too!

     

   Tell you a secret, I found out our grandpa is acting exactly like mommy, he got irritated too when we made noise, he would get disturbed as easily too, especially when he was concentrated in his reading but our daddy only got irritated by us when he sang karaoke or watched TV, but he was noisy too, we don't understand why he would get bothered by us?

 

When mommy was in good mood, she would "give" us lectures, she said that every professional was trained differently, some have to be fostered since very young age like athletics and classical musicians, she said they are the two known groups of people that since young they have to immerse in long hours (at least 5 to 16 hours daily according to age) daily routine intensive training and diligent practise alone in a small room for more than three or four decades, and when they mix with new friends or even relatives who are “play-oriented or privilege –oriented” who didn’t know the situation, they would think such person is weird, loner and antisocial. They never learn to respect those hard-working people and they would instead think those hard working people are idiots as life is short. Mommy said this people is like those ancient Egyptians aristocrats, as during their parties, the servants would take out a mocked coffin and mummy walked around to show their guests, “enjoy yourself or else soon you will end up like this!”

   

   Mommy said if “work-oriented” person who married a “play-oriented” husband or wife, for sure he or she wouldn’t be able to cope such “play-oriented” spouse. Mom said the person who trained since young to get immerse in a long hour training or practise session is like someone in Chinese Kung Fu who could immerse quickly in his/her concentration quickly, and he/she won’t comprehend why other “play-oriented” people are wasting too much time in “playing” or “sitting in the kopitiam chatting with a group of friends who are never better than him so that he  never would get inspired to know what is really called “hard working” and when they worked slightly harder they would let the whole world knows that “they are working very hard today” and expecting “rewards” for themselves  like going to massage parlor or having a big feast with a group of as equally “play-oriented” friends. 

   Mommy said to live in this world, it is our duty to work hard, and if we are able and have such unbeatable talents then we have to work hard to bring some contributions to mankind instead of just for self-benefits. She said she would feel guilty whenever she was left idle by doing nothing, so she would always find something to do.

Mommy got very mad at our studying ethic, she said we are very lazy due to the atmosphere and influence, she said if we are surrounded by too many “play-oriented” and privileged people. She said their working ethics are very different from those who have no social status, no luck, no help and no privilege. But for those privileged people, their parents, grandparents, uncles were either the famous generals or politicians, and they would have scholarships, study or job opportunities and all sort of privileges waiting for them,  unless they really are stupid and hopeless idiots.

     

   Mommy said a citizen without much privilege from a country, he or she is not so eager to return working in his/her third world homeland after his/her studies in a western country, only those people who are privileged would be eager to return home where high ranking government positions or very good prospect kind of job opportunity opening or waiting for them, and their wives would similarly allocate to work as one of the head sections in a university.  

   Mommy said that in some third world countries in Indo-China that she heard of, some Chinese students were always considered as aliens even though they were born and raise in such a country, they even scored the highest A-level result in the whole country but such third world countries policies would only let those under-privileged “alien” students studying in their liberal arts college trained to become a teacher, because as a overseas Chinese, especially in older days most of them are rated as third class citizens in third world Asian nations, now most third world nations would think twice of how to dispose Chinese when they realize China has becoming rich and strong, mommy said, “Not only got snobbish people existed in this world but also snobbish government!”

   Mommy told us we are considered as an “alien- citizen” living in such a country without any privileged background, thus we have to work harder than anyone surrounded us,  they won’t understand us, they are like kids born with silver spoon, but we are just kids born without any spoon. Mommy also said that amongst those privileged group, it also separated into many different groups too, the most privileged would be the politicians’ kids, then down to lowest ranking on its own so called priority race.  We actually still don’t understand what mommy was talking but we just learned from her that we are the third class citizen in the country that she and dad were born in, she said that we should thank her that we were not born in this country, so we still have better fate than most third class citizens like her and dad. 

    

Then mommy poured cold water on us again, she told us to “get real” as we are not a genius like our cousin R, so don’t expect in the future we could receive a scholarship to study in our national university, she said if we are in western country if we work hard at least we would be offered a scholarship or even like our EE who could even win Singapore government scholarship, we would be treated there as a second class citizen. She said if we are genius living in a western country with less racial discrimination, we will be treated as first class citizen sooner or get accepted by people faster than the current country that we reside in, but as a genius we still have to work harder than any geniuses in western country so that we could stand out.

   

 Mommy said she read an article about a Chinese-Australian brain surgeon working in USA but initially nobody in Australia would offer him any good position, thus he worked very hard to get famous in USA first before Australians medical institutions appreciate his achievements. She said such same theory like this hard working Chinese-Australian brain surgeon will apply to us exactly. (http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/australia-day-2012-address-full-speech-20120123-1qdh9.html)

   

   Mommy said most PhDs holders in USA are foreigners, thus foreigners would give another foreigners opportunities. Mommy said all American professors that she met were also having very big heart, they were always willing to help and impart knowledge to foreigners too, thus most foreign scholars would think that Americans are not as discriminated, mommy said just like Singapore government, the western countries are also as equally smart, they would keep the first class honor foreigners in their country by offering them PR, suddenly one day the PR application forms reaching such person mail box out of his surprise, that’s what our another smart cousin S experienced. 

   Mommy said only short vision stupid third world countries kicked off most talents by keeping a group of special privileged professionals  in their country, and nepotism is apparently the prevailing picture, so why the countries are not badly corrupted when ruling by this kind of leaders?

“POTATO- RELATIVES”

In a small town if someone became rich, soon he would become famous too, soon every out-of-towns potato-relatives would want to claim their relations with him!

Written by Money Tai Tai

I have a friend who grew up in a very small town, eventually she ends up in meow city. She told me whenever she met someone especially from the bigger cities in our state, they would ask her, ‘Do you know so and so in your hometown? He is my uncle!’

    When my friend asked them for more details, she found out all of them are actually not that “close” to each others, they are merely “potato-relatives”, usually ended like this, ‘He is my mom’s cousin!.... Oh due to my mom and him have same surname, thus they recognize each other as cousins!’

   My friend of course kept quiet whenever  she saw her out-of-town friends declared proudly as a “potato-relative” of such rich businessman from her small hometown, but deep in my friend’s heart she sighed, ‘Snobbish and ignorant idiots! He is my “potato-relative” too but I don’t even dare to tell anyone about it, lest that I embarrass myself.’ 

    

Such businessman became rich due to he did smuggling business at first before he got into decent business, he was neither too decent of his character, in the dark closet such small town people knew that he attained to rape his sister-in-law and he had mistress but all his follies were all covered up by his “Chinawoman” wife, when someone informed her what her husband did behind her, she would tell them, ‘Oh no, that’s not my husband, my husband is a very good man he wouldn’t do such bad things and he wouldn’t do that to me!’

    

   And like most stereo-type “Chinawoman-wives”, his wife of course produced some highly educated professionals and successful bussinessman-sons to make small town folks zipped up their itchy mouths to reveal the truths,  instead they would keep quiet but admired his success without being caught red-handed by any authority. Diplomatically they would tell everyone, ‘He is a rare talent!’ thus whenever people from out-of-town heard such remark, indeed they would feel so proud that they are his children’s friends or as his “potato-relatives”!

    

   Any successful “Chinaman” must have a very forgiving and very “big heat” “Chinawoman” wife behind him, of course she admired him like a demigod, or else she wouldn’t tolerate and spoil such a pervert-husband. The “Chinawoman-wife” usually was the one who would boost and assure her husband’s confident, esteem and pride, so her husband would really think that he already had achieved his social status in the small town with his financial success, occasionally when a politician came to the small town for a social function, he would suddenly pop in the function hall sat next to the politician without approval from the organizer, actually that was the seat belonged to the organizing chairman and when there was a photo session, he would sit right next to the politician again, and actually that was the seat belonged to the organizing chairman too, this happened frequently that it became a very embarrassing joke amongst small town insighters!

So after you hear this story from me, when you want to inform your friends proudly of a rich man’s connection with you from her hometown, please think twice! Because you are an outsider and you are just a "potato-relative", you could truly embarrass yourself unknowingly to yourself even up the day to your coffin, because your friend would never tell you the truth of your “rich and famous small town potato-uncle” is actually “not that marvelous” in her and other insighters’ eyes …..  yet you felt “so proud” of him!

HOW TO PICKLE FOO CHOW'S ANG CHOW CHOW CHAI 福州紅糟菜

(Foo Chow's Ang Chow Pickled Sour Vegetables )

Written by Money Tai Tai

 I learned how to make Foo Chow 's Ang Chow Chow Chai since primary school, eventually I had to take over the job when I got older, often in old days I would silently protest when dad asked me to do it alone all the times instead of asking any of the rest of my 7 sisters, but now I realize it whatever thing you learned since young days eventually one day you would become a "master"!!! For an example, when I was merely studying in primary school, dad would give me a puff whenever someone hanged him a cigarette in kopitiam.

   Two decades later it became my weapon, when I joined in civil defense, I would puff like "a cool smoker too" deliberately with those "compulsive smokers" in order to provoke a nasty "friend" (I treated her as my very good friend, but eventually I found out she would use me and consider me as her secret enemy instead!) and I was watching shows all along to witness how a jealous woman could bring along "sexual harassment" and many other problems to her  "secret enemy" when she couldn't control her bad mouthing!

I realized that dad has aged since the day I ate his Ang Chow pickles with sand, but none of his 8 daughters would dare to make a single noise, we would look into each other eyes smiling silently, next time make sure we wash those pickles ourselves before cooking instead of letting old mom to do it! 

   We treasure his vitality at this old 80+ age who would plant vegetables, harvest and pickle his ang chow chow chai. "Yummy!" That's what we would tell him.

 You can use bitter taste green vegetables like mustard or another mustard family Asian radish (daikon) leaves. 

Wash and clean the vegetables, cut into half, hanged them under the sun for a day.

You can use the sea salt to knead the vegetables first before kneading the vegetables with ang chow

Another secret I teach you here: 

Add in a spoonful of cooked rice, knead the whole thing again, OK this is not taught by my dad!

Preferable to store in a glass container, leave it in the refrigerator for three months before you want to use it to cook ang chow chai  fung ngang!