mumusings,
Your shishamo looks delicious. The issue is not about being a scrooge, it is about getting good value for money. I told my daughter this morning, a latte at starbucks cost $5.50, a kopi-si at Toastbox costs $1.60. Does the latte taste 5 times better ? Definitely not. The difference is starbucks is more high class lah, and the coffee has an Italian name. My girl say so what ? I should always drink kopi-si.
pink gerbera,
I only read a few of the posts on limpeh blog. I read the blog post you posted, it is really witty. I like the way he writes, frank and straightforward, and does not care to be nice.
I was previously in the private sector for many years, got retrenched by an american company. I was really hurt back then. Actually i was well rewarded for simply doing my job well while in the private sector, did not need to do anything else. After so many years I got sick of looking at the computer for 8 hours a day, it became so meaningless. Teaching is so much more meaningful, I encountered students and parents who show that they are so grateful to me for helping them pass or do well. However, my job requires me to walk long distances, climb up and down with a heavy laptop, that's why I thought giving tuition is easier.
thenun,
Welcome and glad to know that you find my blog useful. I have been posting in this thread long before I started blogging !
How many kids do you have ?
yawn,
I plan to teach tuition JC or upper secondary. Not sure what are the rates now.
snowball,
I just remember that I heard of an engineer who became a car park usher for one day for a big event when he was working in the public sector. Civil servants were sometimes assigned such part time jobs. The gahmen is really very smart, this way they don't need to spend money to employ temp worker.
helen,
Today there is a news report about kids attending 2 different kindergarten. One in the morning, another one in the afternoon. I think that some Singaporeans are the most hardworking people in the world. They cannot even let their young children do nothing for half a day. I am a slacker in comparison. When my kids asked :"Mommy I have nothing to do". I told them to lie on the bed and stare at the ceiling and daydream hahaha. After a few times they stopped asking me and the result is that now both kids love to read books, and have no problem thinking of small creative projects to do at home.
Just had a small plateful for lunch. Terrible! I now keep assortment of noodles in the fridge since it only takes less than 10 minutes to do one plate of hawker food! The only thing 'healthy' is that I put little oil and no pork for my own portion. 
