Blogging went off my radar for the past month as I focused on getting my book published last week and also struggled with a cough that wouldn’t go away. On top of that, the school that we wanted to enrol Zoey in wouldn’t let us complete her enrollment, our home almost got broken into and my laptop crashed so I had to get a new one.
So yes, writing was very far down on the priority list. I didn’t quite get to my goal of 150 blog posts in 2015, but that’s ok because I did accomplish some other things. Just this last month, there has been some good news, such as Zoey’s dependent pass renewal came thru, I’ve published my first book and we celebrated our first wedding anniversary, so it’s been a good month.
After my last post about difficulties in finding a school for Zoey, a number of people actually suggested some options to me. At the same time, the government announced the Partner Operator program where they will subsidise some childcare centres to make childcare more affordable for families. I was really excited to see this as the school we had our eyes on was on the list. So we quickly went down and put a deposit for Zoey to start school in 2016. Unfortunately, we have now been informed that a) Zoey does not qualify for the subsidy (the subsidy is not for all school fees to be capped, but rather school fees of Singaporean children) and b) because Zoey is on a dependent pass, the school will need to get a letter of consent from ICA before she is allowed to be enrolled. We are still working out the details, but hopefully when school starts in January, this is resolved. If not she will just have to stay home until it is.
On the bright side, her status in Singapore has been resolved for another year. Since my last post about Zoey’s immigration status, we have finally managed to get her dependent pass renewed for another year. I know that IF we were a straight couple, Zoey would be a Singaporean and thus we would not need to struggle with both the ICA dependent pass renewal process and now the school enrollment situation. Both are issues that require time, money and effort on our part. So when the government goes around making statements such as “However, the report emphasises that Section 377A is not proactively enforced – members of the LGBT community are not discriminated in schools or the workplace.” and that “All Singapore citizens, regardless of their sexual orientation are free to lead their lives and pursue their activities in their private space without fear of violence or personal insecurity,” the report states. “The Government does not discriminate against persons seeking a job in the civil service on the basis of their sexual orientation.” I hope they realise that LGBT families do exist in Singapore and we are definitely being discriminated against. There is a lot more I want to write about this topic, but for now, let’s say I find this statement absolutely ridiculous and whoever came up with the report must not have done their due diligence.
Anyway, something else happened to us that made me feel unsafe in Singapore. A couple of days after our helper got back from home leave, she called me and said she couldn’t unlock our padlock. Further investigation led us to realise that someone had tried to break the padlock. Eventually she did managed to unlock it and bring it down to the shop. The shop owner confirmed that someone had tried to break in and advised us to change the padlock. We have done so. It is a real reminder of how even though we feel safe in Singapore, we still need to be aware of potential crime.
On the bright side, I know SES brand of locks are reliable as someone tried to break in but failed!
The other annoying thing that happened was my laptop suddenly started doing a strange flashing thing after logging into Windows. It also wouldn’t let me run any programs or open any files. After staring at it for 2 days while trying to fix it, I think I was about to have an epileptic fit! I finally gave up and got a new laptop. A beautiful ASUS Zenbook that I’m really loving right now.
I love ASUS because of the great value for money and durability of their products. Each of my ASUS gets a minimum of 3 years usage, more if I’m not fussy. My last upgrade was to go from a heavy desktop replacement model to a more portable model. My netbook from 2010 is still alive and I actually installed Windows 10 on it recently. So I am looking forward to a great experience with this new laptop.
Finally, the thing that I am most proud of this month is the launch of my new book – The UnBusy Entrepreneur. It took me 40 weeks to get it out and you can read about how I did it here.
If you are interested to buy a copy to gift to an entrepreneur or business owner that needs to be unbusy, I am providing free shipping worldwide right now, so grab a copy on my website here.
It’s been a very productive month for me and I’m looking forward to relaxing for the rest of December and doing planning for 2016. I started with celebrating our first wedding anniversary last Saturday at Pregos. The food was yummy, the service was great and the company was awesome. Both Irene and myself enjoyed the evening very much.
The final part of this year will be used for making plans for 2016. There are some pretty big changes coming up and as I wrap up an awesome and productive year, I am looking forward to see what 2016 will bring.
In the meantime, enjoy this video of Zoey fearlessly jumping into the water and remember to approach 2016 with the same sense of adventure