Taking Ricko around in Singapore..

Since Ricko had arrived in Singapore from Bali, he told me that he would be going back to Bali this coming Tuesday for 2 days before he would head to Bangkok. As I have read about the volatile situation in Bangkok when the day draws nearer to the voting days, I become worried for his safety in Bangkok. Fortunately he has a Thai deaf guy who could spend his time with Ricko. Hope that Ricko would have a safe time before he heads back to Paris. Again, Paris is still besotted with the riot cos of the labour law which allows the employers to sack young people who are below 25 years and have worked for 2 years. Ricko had explained to me that nowaday, there would not be any "iron rice bowl" given by the French Government and wanted the French people to be more self-reliant and entrepreneurial. However, the French people, who stil have not shaken their old belief that they have to re-learn their new ropes, or to learn to deal with fast changing situation so as to move on quickly. It is like in US, or Singapore where the employers would retrench semi-skilld or low-skilled workers who are deemed to contribute little to the companies. It, thus, raised a big controversy in Singapore for quite sometime but we never had any riot or demonstration demanding the Singapore government to step in to pick up the pieces. Instead, Singapore govt would encourage the older workers or lower-educated workers to upgrade themselves with new and marketable skills so as to be re-employed in other sectors which need more workers. There are some people who are still complacent about their skills or refuse to give themselves a chance to learn new skills, would find themselves jobless or their uncertain job prospect.














Coming back to the topic, on Saturday, I took him to Orchard Road after meeting Tracey. He remarked that in retail lines, Singaporeans are still working till 10pm unlike French who only work from Monday to Saturday. The French would not work on Sundays and they have more public holidays than Singaporeans. And according to Ricko, the French is still demanding lesser working hours without compromising their pay and they want to have more life for themselves.

I have searched thru the Google website.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/27/60II/main704571.shtml
And I have extracted the snippet of the article to corroborate the above information.

Like most Frenchmen, Marchand has no guilt about taking so much time off. In fact, it’s the law: full-time workers in France are guaranteed at least five weeks vacation -- guaranteed those long lazy days in the sun, and leisurely lunches in outdoor cafes.

On top of the five weeks, there are another dozen public holidays, and a maximum 35-hour work week, with no paid overtime allowed. Managers like Marchand, who work more than 35 hours a week, get more time off.

As for me, when I went for my long expedition, I had to apply for no-pay leave in lieu for my 4 months vacation having my pay being with-held before I returned to work.

Then we continued to saunter along the Orchard Road until Jane met us later for lunch. We ate famous local delicacy - chicken rice and vegetable in oyster saunce and ordered local favourite drink - soya bean drink. Soya bean is made from fresh soya beans which would be crushed to release the soya juice. I am not too sure about the actual process and Ricko suddenly loved it. For few days, he always kept on asking for "soja" - French word for soya bean. After that, we continued to saunter along the Orchard Road and Jane, most of the time, entertained him with her experience with her french deaf friend. Then we took MRT to City Hall MRT Station as Jane wanted to exchange the damaged item for replacement at Carrefour. Carrefour was one of the major French departmental store which has many branches over the world. We also dropped by Kinokuniya, a Japanese bookstore and we lead him to the French section.

Along the way, Ricko told us that in Bali, he loved to buy printed tee shirts from Giordano and he wanted to buy more tee shirts from Giordano here. He went around Giordano shops and he wanted to look for tee shirts with "XXS" size. This size was quite hard to find and I had to request the counter staff to call other branches for any availability. Finally, we managed to find Giordano branch which met his request and asked her to reserve 3 tee shirts for us. After we arrived at Carrefour, we met Ann and Joy who were waiting for Jane there. Then i introduced Ricko to 2 girls and teased Ann a lot in front of Ricko.

After that, we left Carrefour and took bus to Plaza Singapura to collect the reserved tee shirts. As we arrived there, he tried them on to see whether the size fitted him and he liked them. He finally bought them and then we headed back to the hotel. We quickly changed into clubbing attire and then I sms-ed Kelvin to meet us at Far East Square. I was feeling apologetic to Kelvin for waiting patiently for us so long and we finally met him at the bus stop. Kelvin, donning red and baggy t-shirt, introduced himself to Ricko and began casual conversation while we were on the way to 5th floor to try famous Indonesian chicken rice at Indonesia restaurant. We, especially Kelvin, chatted a lot till Kelvin told us that other 2 deaf guys went to Mox. We left the Far East Plaza in bus and along the way, Ricko was enjoying his animated and lively conversation with Kelvin. Finally, we disembarked at a bus stop which was quite a stone's throw away, and we ambled on our way there. Suddenly a deaf guy accosted Kelvin and I did not know him. That deaf guy introduced himself as Danny and he explained to us that he is working as a tourist guide in the trishaw. I suggested to him why not he took Ricko around this Tuesday before Ricko flies back to Bali. An agreement was sealed before we continued to make our way to Mox.

Gilbert sms-ed me that he was waiting for us there and has already reserved a huge table. He said that we had to come quickly before other people took the table. I told him that we would be there very soon and then we met Kelvin Ong outside the Maxwell Market. 4 of us went together to Mox while Kelvin Ong started his conversation with Ricko. Finally, we arrived in Mox and I quickly went in to find Gilbert. But I could not find Gilbert near the black piano and Kelvin Ong beckoned me to that place where Gilbert looked disappointed sitting on the arm of the chair quietly. I rushed over to Gil and apologised to him for being late. He slowly lit up and told me that his reserved table has gone because he has been waiting for us too long. So, we had to stand around and other 2 deaf guys spent time chatting with Ricko. I chatted with Gilbert most of the time and then 3 deaf guys went to the empty table. Then Daniel came over and joined them.

Until around 12:30am, we decided to go down to Happy and I said good bye to Gilbert. Before we entered Mox, Ricko was pleased to see that there are many Asians dating other Asians not like in Bali where the Asian would date the Caucasians. And he could feel the pulsating night life in Mox and he enjoyed it. Then we went to Happy and it was as usual packed like sardines in the can. Mostly, the Asian clubbers were there, dancing crazily away there. Ricko was visibly impressed with the decor, flashing lights, and many other effects. He highlighted that it was quite similar to Paris and we explained that Happy is one of the best disco in towns and there are some other clubs too. I saw a full catalogue detailing the whereabouts of pubs, saunas, restaurants, and other interesting places and handed it to him. We groped around through sweaty bodies and found a tiny place which was sufficient for 5 of us. Them we lost our sight of other 3 guys and tried to look for them by walking back to the entrance. Again, we could not find them and walked back to that tiny place. Alas, we found them and Kelvin Ong suggested we all went down to the dance floor to have fun. We danced crazily, soaking ourselves in the atmosphere and one guy who was on the top dance floor, trying to pull Ricko and me onto the dance floor. Initially, I tried not to accept his persuasion to come aboard on the dancefloor. Ricko pulled me onto the top dance floor and danced among three of us.

Finally, we stopped dancing and we ordered free drinks from nearby counter and went outside to have a quiet chat. Ricko shared that he was immensely surprised that Singapore has a vibrant and pulsating night life and what is more, we have night shopping scene that would not close before 4am. I told him that not only Singapore does not sleep at night, Tokyo, Taipei, Hong Kong and other major Asian cities share this "city-never-sleeps-at-night" life.

Then after, we went to the nearby Maxwell Market to have a quick supper. Initially Ricko was surprised that Singaporeans still continue to eat after midnight unlike French who has 3 square meals a day.

After that, we retired before the next day, we arranged an appointment at East Coast Park for rollerblading. We woke up late and had to rush down to Bedok to grab the bus 401. We finally reached there and other guys had already left. I sms-ed Queen Mother where they were and he sms-ed me that David would be there at the Coffeebean. We rushed down there and met him. I asked him to help to call Queen Mother to meet us at the rollerblading station as Ricko and I wanted to blade before we headed to Ethan's house for party. We paid for 1 hour's rental of roller blades and other guys finally came back to the station. Ricko amazingly bladed very well and his rollerblading manoeuvre was simply smooth and effortless. All of us had their jaws dropped to the floor while he bladed through the air like a professional Olympic skater. We bladed for 1 hour and we reached Bedok Jetty where we took photo together.


Finally, we bladed back to the MacDonald where other guys were waiting for us. Then we went off to Kembangan for the party. It was raining heavily and we cabbed down to his house. I sms-ed Gil and Sunny that we were on the way there. We met Ethan who is currently serving NS after he completed his medical practice in the hospital. We went up to his room and there were around 15 people there. I introduced myself and Ricko to them. Later on Gilbert came over and we started photo slideshow on their ADLUS' trip to Terranganu. Ricko asked quite a number of questions about Malaysia and Kelvin and I explained to him.



After 2 or 3 hours, Gilbert needed to go off for his auntie's dinner while we left Ethan's house to have dinner at Katong. Kelvin was drunk as he took quite a number of cups and he complained of his splitting headache. To add to this problem, he could not finish his dinner and later on he vomitted in the toilet. Other guys wanted to move to other stall for dessert and coffee and Ricko and I went back to the hotel.

At the hotel, I explained how he would go to Sentosa and after that, we would meet up for dinner with American deaf guy for chat. I left hotel and reached home around 12midnight.

Wow....so busy weekend for both of us and I hoped Ricko would have an enjoyable weekend in Singapore before he leaves Singapore this Tuesday.