First Week Or So...For Yolande

While Daniel gets to sleep in whenever he feels like it, Yolande has resigned to her fate of having to wake up at an unearthly hour (6am) to prepare for work. However interesting Security Trade Control (FYI this is what Yolande does at work - ensuring that businesses are carried out legitimately and telling people that they might end up in jail or have their faces printed on the front page of the newspaper) may be, Yolande dragged herself out of bed on the 6th of Jan 2009 at 5am feeling as though it was 9pm (i.e. time for bed). The first week was definitely quite a chore and challenge to get to work. However, Yolande was overwhelmed and is still overwhelmed with joy and excitement about life in Singapore together with Daniel. It was a shame that Daniel was not feeling peachy during the first week because he now no longer remembers the way to the coffeeshop 5 minutes away (he is contesting this statement at the very moment Yolande is typing this blog entry).

On the 10th Jan 2009, Daniel and Yolande had an important mission to accomplish - submitting the 1 year Social Visit Pass Application form to ICA. It was no surprise for Yolande that they had to wait for hours (4 hours!!!) before it was their turn to submit the forms. However, what was appalling and unforgivable was that the Officer who served them was outrageously rude, unprofessional and badly spoken. Yolande ended up writing an A4-size complaint letter on a tiny feedback column, signing off with "Yours Sincerely". Daniel has nothing but praise for FINE Singapore (pun intended), but Yolande feels that Singapore can do much better. Service, regardless of whether the person wears a government uniform or not, should be of a high standard and carried out professionally. So much for the notices pasted on the white walls of ICA about "Mutual Respect"-Yolande feels that such policy statements are nothing but empty talk with no substance, especially so when their employees fall short on being professional. Anyway, Daniel and Yolande were glad that they got that sorted out in the end.

Evenings have been packed with activities with Daniel around. Tennis, dinner, movies, studying Chinese, shopping...Yolande swears her "doing overtime till 10.30pm" life is over! She has finally got a life!! (Yolande singing this tune in her head - "It's my life~~ It's now or never, I ain't gonna live forever~~~~"). OK, composure... It was not too long ago that Yolande would call her office her 2nd home. These days, she simply cannot wait to knock off to meet Daniel and spend some quality time together.

Yolande will try to keep everyone updated next week from Seoul and Tokyo (she hopes Daniel will survive not only on burgers!!!).