Story of Singapore Taxi Driver

Last weekend I managed to borrow two books from Bishan Library. First, it is called “Diary of a Taxi Driver”, written by Cai Ming Jie, a Singapore most educated Taxi driver, who holds a PhD in molecular biology from Stanford University in 1990. After working for 16 years as a researcher, he was laid off from the company and decided to become a Taxi driver. Read more about him here.

Diary of a Taxi Driver by Cai Ming Jie

He started writing his personal story as Taxi driver on his blog, then decided to publish it in a paper form in April 2010. However I couldn’t find his blog anymore. Perhaps it had been deleted.

Another book that I borrowed is “Cabbies: The Inside Story – Reflections of a Singapore driver”, written by Sam Hwang. It’s also published in 2013. It gave you a deeper insight about life of a taxi driver, based on his own and other cabbies experiences, such as: fare cheats, robbers, drunks, etc.

Cabbies: The Inside Story by Sam Hwang

You know, Taxi driver is the only job that reserved to Singaporean, which means, foreigners need not apply. This job is seen not as a fancy job. It even gives a conception that only lowly-educated society or dropout will take this job as a last resort. Well, not anymore. As you read the first paragraph above, even a PhD graduate could also become a taxi driver. So, don’t be surprised if the taxi driver who is sitting beside you is actually a Professor, Master degree holder, etc. And this book will change your misconception that society has.

The reasons I borrowed these books were because my hubby is going to become a Taxi driver. He has already attained his Taxi Driver’s Vocational License or TDVL and will join this industry very soon. He has a long time driving experience around Singapore, but zero experience as a Taxi driver and he will have to go through this, alone.

Therefore, other than me reading these books, I also encouraged him to read it as well, so he wouldn’t get shocked if he had to face many surprising experiences from various types of passengers along his journey. At the same time it could give him a clearer picture and broaden mind of what to expect to happen and what kind of responds that he could give towards different situations.

If you can’t have an access to read their books, you can also find other blog, such as this one: Diary of a Singaporean Cabby and Gintai. There, you can read many interesting stories too! :)

Actually, while reading those books, I wish I was one of the Taxi drivers. Hahaha… Not that I wanted to earn money through driving Taxi, but I was wondering on what kind of passengers that I would meet in a day and how uncertain the Taxi would bring me around from one place to another. 

Just like in a day, you can experience many things, meet different kind of people, face good and bad luck, etc. Isn’t it interesting? Then, just like Mr Cai, I would be very interested to write my experience into my blog hehehe… ^^

Well, at the mean time I am happy with my job and what I do. Plus, I don’t drive well. So, I’ll let my hubby experience it and tell me the story. Hopefully I can convert his story into one or two blog posts here and share with all of you, one day…. :)

What will you feel...?

Ice cream - Medicine for the heart

When someone you trust

said something different

to you, 

and behind your back?

When someone 

that you treat as a friend, 

treat you otherwise...

To be honest, 

I expect honesty from you.

In the beginning, of course...

Otherwise, 

It'll all be too late...

Yes, you're right! 

You lost that trust

and definitely, 

You lost that friendship too...

We are not enemies. 

We are just back to a stranger

to where we were before...

I know you won't care,

'cos if you do, 

You wouldn't do it at the first place. 

I wish you all the best in everything that you do! 

Just remember one thing! 

What goes around will go around...

One day, 

you'll understand how I feel.

My love, my accompaniment, my life time partner...

Oow… Haishhh……!!! Alamak, again???
Suddenly my heart throbs faster than usual. I look at my watch and I have already on my way out to the train station. Oh dear, no way of turning back. Calm down... Relax… I speak to myself. Breathe in… breathe out… Breathe in… breathe out... Again, I try my very best consoling my own self.

Oh man, I should have remembered to pick it up before going out!!! I must have left it on my bedside. Now I feel terribly uneasy, lost and bewildered without it by my side!!! Triste!! Inside the train, I can only take out my mobile phone to entertain my broken heart. Hiks…

Pic source: Google.com

Hm… it’s not my mobile phone that I forgot to bring, obviously. Lately, there are two items that I’ll feel sad when I forget bringing it. First it is my reading book. It’s been my accompaniment, my best friend, the best thing to spend my time with, whenever I am alone.

It takes me to many different places in the world. It brings me to many different times in life. It introduces me to many different people with different characters. I can feel the time when I'm a patient, a princess, a student, the poor, the rich, and so on. Time passes by reading is worthwhile doing.

And second, it is my journal. Although I don’t usually write it on daily basis, however, when I need it the most and it isn’t there, I will feel down and gloomy. Like something big has been missing from my life. Those two have been my list of addictions these days.

Thank you Journal! :)

My journal has been one major healing exercise for me. It is the recipient of all my feeling, my emotion, my mood, my opinion, my anger, my frustration, also my love and my admiration. Writing it out manually, with own hands and colorful pens, helped a lot in lighten up my thoughts and brighten up my day.

One day, it can be a great memoir of my past time, the best confidant whom I trust the most, and the witness of how I overcome all those challenges in life. All sad and happy moments and feelings are recorded there. Lots of time it helps me lifting up my broken soul and I can get out from the situation with a much happier mind.

Thank you both of you! You both have always been my love, my accompaniment, and my life time partner, when I needed most during my alone time. Thank you, thank you, and thank you!

Think and reflect

Good morning everyone! What a great Sunday! Sun shines brightly out there! :)

I would like to express my gratitude for the good and undisturbed sleep that I had last night, a great cycling time together with my son last evening, a wonderful family dinner with home-cook dishes prepared by my dear hubby and mother-in-law, a great tea time with deliciousness of the local delicacies available on the table, and so on.

Enjoy the little things - Overcome Life

Believe it or not, no matter how simple things are, you still can find happiness in it.

Look at surround you. Your spouse and children beside you; your parents; siblings; relatives; in-laws; friends; best friends/ besties; neighbor; roommates; and so on. Seeing them alive, with great health, still breathing, can be a source of happiness.

No matter how small, how ugly, how simple, how big, how beautiful your current staying place is, it all functions a same purpose - to provide you with a roof and walls that protect you from rain, sun, snows, storms, wind, hot and cold weather.

Some of you live in such deserted area with no access of Internet. But you can spend plenty of time chit chat with people who live with you, especially family members. Sometimes you are blessed with spacious land to grow plants like rice, corns, etc. The cow, hen, pig that your family own and rear, not everyone is lucky enough having them.

You may just move from city to village due to job replacement. For sure, you face many challenges, especially to a new place that you had never been to before, and you don't know anyone there. It might need some time for you to adapt to a new environment.

But again, the gift of life itself is something you can be grateful with. At least you are healthy, have a mouth to start conversation with new friend, have two legs to visit the neighbor house with basket of simple gift that you can buy from your salary (at least you receive salary every month. Many people in this universe are unemployed and some resources in robbing or cheating), and so on.

Smile comes within you. How you feel gratitude upon your life and how content you are with your current condition. No matter how rich, how lucky you are, blessed with many jewels, cars, houses or palaces, but if you never feel content, you will always feel something missing in your life and therefore, unhappy about your life.

Think and reflect - Overcome Life

Think and reflect. Write and list down things that you are grateful with to start your day. I'm sure you can find more than enough and realize how much you are actually having and much more fortunate than the rest.

Wish you have a wonderful day out there! Have a walk outside and look at the beautiful natures surrounding you. The warm weather or cold weather. It may not be perfect but still many are envious with the weather that you encounter right now.

Think and reflect. It's a great way to spend your Sunday, before starting a new week all over again! Have a beautiful Sunday my dear friends! :)

Story of devastated parent

Being a parent isn't an easy task. One child or eleven children you have, it is a challenge to overcome.

On Christmas eve, I heard the news from my colleague. She was asking me if I heard that one of my colleague's daughters faced an accident and died. Since my office location is kind of deserted from the rest, I seldom receive fresh gossips and I myself seldom being 'kaypoh' or busybody in other people's matters.

At that time I only wished that the news wasn't true and it was merely a rumor. The colleague mentioned is a kind heart man who has five daughters in the family. During his break time he sometimes sits opposite my table and shares his stories, a lot related to his families. I worried after hearing the news and immediately asked someone who might know the situation better and sadly she said it was true.

What made situation worse was that he was holidaying with his wife on cruise and they couldn't be contacted. My friend also had no details on which cruise he took, which place he went and for how long. They tried very hard to get the info by asking around to many authority office and finally found out that he would be back the day after.

From Facebook, I found out that it happened to his third daughter who was only sixteen years old. From my Boss, I heard that the accident happened when she was driving at night together with two friends, and hit the tree. She died on the spot while her two friends were hospitalized.

Yesterday he finally came back to work. It's kinda hard to face him as it's just second day of new year and he is still on grieving moods. During past few days I didn't send him any condolence message as he stayed in Malaysia and we communicated mostly in Chinese. I didn't know how to write condolence message in Chinese and just wanted to give him time to deal with the loss. Although sad, he was still trying to smile as it's been his usual traits and we didn't say much words.

At 4pm plus, he finally came into my office and sat opposite my table. He just came back from immigration office canceling his daughter's Permanent Resident's status that he just got for the whole family few months ago. I still remembered how happy he was when he got it and many plans were written on his head, such as buying a condo here for his daughters to stay, study, and work, etc. And now, even before his daughter able to enjoy the status, it had to be canceled.

Luckily my work of the day had almost done. I listened to him for an hour, let him conveying his feelings. I'm sure he had to act strong at home as the head of the family, but no matter how strong you are, we're just a normal human being who grieves over the loss of the loved one. There, he told me the incidents, the loss suffered by him, his wife, his mother, his daughter's friends; showed me the photo of the wrecked car, the accident place, and the tree. He told me how he first heard about the news and how his wife was crying non stop.

Many things he shared with me this evening. He told me that he loved this daughter the most as she was the most sensible one, the most lively one in the family. He was sad over many dream she hadn't fulfilled yet; one of them was to train at our pastry kitchen with our pastry Chef. He mentioned it to me before as he preferred her to train under my place rather than inside the pastry kitchen. Just too bad, it will never be realized.

I'm glad he told me all that in person. Despite feeling very sad, he tried his best to be strong and let go. I was really saddened by the thing happened especially I'm a mother myself. It must be not easy to lose the one that you love most, the one that you put much of your hope into. But perhaps, this all has been written as fate and destiny in current life, something that you can't go against and meant to happen.

Although we all know that birth and death are part of our lives, it's still difficult to accept. He needs more time to accept the reality. He told me that he still misses her voice, her sight, her companion, everything. So much words left unsaid. Now it can only be said through prayers.

Pic source: Google.com

I only hope he and his family are able to go through this hard time and back to normal life again. Be strong Chef! May Buddha bless you and your family. Sabbe Sankhara Anicca. All conditioned things are impermanent. Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu.