S'pore kids poor manners? What about this foreigner's kid?

Business deals and hired killers

A Singaporean woman was jailed for life in Thailand for killing a business partner. She paid a hit man to do the job. Regrets? Sure for life all because of a silly act.
At 35, she was supposed to be enjoying herself,with all the money and a rich Thai boyfriend plus 2 children.
Talking about business deals that went soured and hired killers, I personally had a bitter experience too. It happened a year ago.
One morning I had a call from overseas. A Caucasian sounding woman was on the other side of the phone. She was in distress and needed someone to take care of her 8 small dogs. She told me she was hospitalised in the Caribbeans for a serious illness while on a holiday with her family. She agreed to the fees I have asked of her to take care of her dogs. I had a pet hotel and it suits me well.
After taking the dogs in,she did not pay me as promised. It was a big hassle and after much persuasion, she sent the fees via Western Union. After a week with us, dogs had go somewhere as my pet hotel was fully booked. The woman was unhappy and threatened to sued me as well as get a paid killer from Hong Kong to kill me.
After much negotiation, I found a dog sitter to care for her dogs. Initially she paid the new dog sitter but after a month, she stopped payment and expected the dog sitter to look after the dogs for free. In total, I was told instead of paying she owed the dog sitter ten of thousands of dollars for the dog sitting fees, food, grooming as well as vet's charges(a bitch gave birth to 2 puppies). She threatened to hire a killer to kill the dog sitter and his family.
It's almost 1 1/2 years since the dogs were left with the dog sitter.
Finally, the dogs were given up for adoption but still the threat to kill via emails and phone calls keeping coming.
With the help of my friends in the force, I found out the woman and his family is wanted by the law here. Her husband was serving time for some serious crime at Changi Prison.
Sure one may hire a killer and get someone killed in Singapore but it's not gonna be cheap. In Thailand, the hired killer was paid 200,000 Thai Baths which is equivalent S$8,000. In Singapore one may have to pay about $S1,000,000 (1 million). It cost a lot cos anyone who is found in possession of a gun or deadly weapon would be caned and sentenced to many years in prison. If the weapon is being used the accused would face the death penalty.

Some crew's wives

There was a captain's wife who thought her husband was such a big shot that she would literally pushed the cabin crew around whenever she flew with us.

There was an occasion where she showed her displeasure because the crew reassigned a first class revenue passenger next to her. She took the crew to task and to make it worse, she complained to my manager about the crew. Mind you this woman travelled in the first class free of charge.

She won't even have eye contact with the crew serving her. Apparently she did not have the opportunity to meet the late Mrs. Lee Kuan Yew and learn some good manners and humility from her.

Another case was the wife of  my colleague. She was so fierce that her husband would tremble whenever she raised her voice.

One day, I answered her phone call (in the office). She was surprised I answered the call instead of my colleague (her husband). She was mad at me for answering the call as she was expecting her husband to answer. She screamed at me  and told me " Jim (not his real name) is supposed to standby next to the phone and answer my call and where the hell is he"? Politely I told her I was not her husband's keeper. She slammed down the receiver. Can you imagine what happened to my colleague when he got home that evening? 

Note: Can you imagine what she would have done to Jim if she found he  was having an affair with her ex-trainee stewardess.?

Another colleague of mine ( not airline staff but prison officer) had hot water poured over him by his wife while he was asleep. She found out he was visiting some prostitutes.

Another crew's wife eloped with her lover leaving behind two young children with her husband.

One innocently thought his wife had given birth to a baby belonging to him. Years later, he found out the daughter was not his but someone else's.

I heard one of my manager's wife would make him knelt on durian skin if he dared "look" at another woman.

One of my colleauges made a stewardess pregnant and brought her home. His wife co-lived with the pregnant stewardess but on condition she gave up her child to her and her husband(the couple was childless).

There are numerous other stories but I think the above would suffice.

In the heat of the moment........

 He was a Chinese national returning home after a stint in Singapore. He quarrelled with his taxi driver,took over the taxi and crashed it onto a cleaner.His rash act not only caused the death of an innocent cleaner but brought anguish and great grief to his family who was waiting for his arrival in China .

On the same day, another Chinese national jumped to her death from her flat in Singapore in front of her 8 year old son,husband and aged mother. She was apparently upset with her mother over a trivial matter.

An ex steward friend of mine was stabbed to death when he tried to beat up the bar manager over a disputed bill.

Once, I was almost killed by a young and hot tempered car driver all because I overtook him. He chased and stopped me, exited his car with a steering lock and almost hit me.  He was angry and instintively, I apologized profusedly and calm him down. He would have killed me and then what will happen next? I am an old man but he is a young man who had more to lose. Or what would happened if I challenged him? I may have killed him right? See but I was cool and could envision what comes next. So what is an apology? Just mere free words spoken with humility and in the end save the day for both of us.

In the heat of the moment, people could act rashly and regret for their actions.
A senior co-pilot hit an old man because he kept blowing his car horn at him. Irritating he might be but the pilot has got no right to beat up  that old guy up. As a result of the road rage,the pilot was sentenced to 2 weeks in prison. He was never made a captain although the airline reinstated him after his imprisonment.
A passenger, hit by a meal cart, spat at the stewardess. He was sued and had to eat the humble pie by settling the matter out of court with the stewardess.
Another punched a steward over a small matter was also charged in court for using criminal force. A few male passengers molested some stewardesses in the heat of the moment were also hauled to court and prosecuted.
I am not in a position to advise anybody but due to my experience and age I can safely say some of these things work. Consider what I've said  before you do anything stupid at the spur of the moment.
1. Before we act rashly, think of our loved ones. Think of the miseries we would put them in by our stupid and impulsive behaviour. Can you imagine how the little children who were eagerly waiting for their father felt when told daddy is not coming home because he killed somebody in Singapore? Do you recall the slogan along our highway put up by LTA that goes like this " Drive carefully think of our loved ones"?
2. Before we act impulsively, think the horrible time we would spend behind bars?  Prison life is real bad. I know exactly what life behind bars means because I used to work as a prison officer many years ago. Outside of prison you may have hit somebody or raped a woman or think you are a hero but once inside you may be sodomised and treated like a scum.

3. Forgive because we all make mistakes. Remember the saying "To err is human to forgive is divine "?   Life is short so don't mess it up by acting impulsively.

4. Think of ourselves as a "nobody" because in reality we are nothing more than some kilograms of dust which will return to dust or earth.

Anyone has some more to add?

Retired Capt Peter Leo's take on the B747

This captain (Peter Leo) was one of my favourites amongst the others like the late Capt Gurum B S (nicknamed Big Daddy), Capt Low S.H., the late Capt M.S. Leong. These captains were dedicated, caring and worthy of our respect.

A step backward for Blogger.

Recently, Blogger (owned by Google) has introduced the compulsory word verification (above is a sample) for people who want to comment about a post. The motive is good because Blogger wants to prevent advertisers from spamming the blogs. However, Blogger should make it simple to read those two verification words. Blogger should also gives us a choice as to whether we want to turn the verification off or on.
Due to this cumbersome system, people are now less inclined to comment.
I have seen almost zero comment in my blogs since switching to this new Blogger interface.

Retired IFS Heng, a kohyok man now ( medicine man)

Heng on your right and unkle left side

Bottles of ointment
Ex- IFS Heng is a Chinese martial arts (kung fu) exponent. He is 65 years old and still active in martial arts. Besides practising martial arts, Heng also gives massages to those who has backaches,muscle aches etc. He has given hundreds of free massages to his ex colleagues as well as many Filipino maids. Best of all he does not charge them a single cent. He also makes ointment for muscle injuries as well as sprains,internal injuries,insect bites etc.
I met up with this affable ex colleague of mine because my wife who is a great believer in Chinese medicine needs the ointment for her injured knee. It works on her injury but she has run out of supply.
We met at Hougang Heartland Mall Toast Box and drank kopi. Heng lives nearby.
Heng gives the ointment and massages free of charge. At one time he would make 400 bottles of the ointment. He told us he has taught his daughter how to prepare this special ointment to carry on his tradition even after his demise.
I suggested helping him market his expertise and products by creating websites for him and make some money but he declined. He simply wanna to do it for free.
Thank you Mr. Heng and may God Bless You.

AirAsia and the lot.

AirAsia according to the report is discontinuing it's 4 times weekly flights to New Zealand. It is also suspending its flight to London, Paris and India. CEO Tony Fernandez is quoted as saying the rising cost of fuel and high overheads are to blame.
Hip hip hooray, now SQ and SCOOT would have one less fierce competitor to contend with.
SIA share opened 7 cents higher as we speak ( S$10.90). However, it's still below the price that most of us bought a year ago. Slowly slowly catch the monkey SIA hor? Good la that ah Pong wanna consider selling its 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic. Hey sell that office at Shenton Way would be bestest la. It's worth what? Perhaps hundreds of millions, maybe close to a billion hor? Sell sell sell even sell Airline House better still. Inflate this year's earning and push the share's price up and up ok?
SCOOT in my humblest opinion can do better than other if not all the other LCC. Wah SCOOT got Biz class too...stylo milo la.....I support SCOOT la!
Some Indian airlines like Jet Airways, King Fisher etc are all in financial difficulties. Blame it on the Arabs for the high oil prices or izzit? Maybe it's the Wall Street Jews who are manipulating and controlling the fuel prices......unkle dono  much about it la cos didn't study hard when young.
Aiya who really cares whether who doesn't fly where and nowhere....as long as SQ shares go up and up la, that's all Temasek and I care....so easy one.
Gambatte ah Pong, SQ and small brother SCOOT!!!

Ex A-G Tan Boon Teik as my passenger.

  Former Attorney-General (AG) Tan Boon Teik died on Saturday. -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSON CHAN

In the early 1970s, I had served Mr. Tan Boon Teik twice. He was our first class passenger who showed concerned for me and my cabin crew. He was also our company's board director.
On a second flight with us to London on the B707, he told me SIA has too many transit stops on the way to London ( 3 transit stops in between S'pore and London). Personally, he told me he prefers a non stop flight to London which was almost impossible at that time. No commercial plane had that kind of range in the early 1970s.
He spent most of his time on the flight sitting in our 4 seater Silver Kris lounge opposite my first class galley. That was where we started to talk more. He asked whether I was happy with my job as a chief steward. I told him I was happy doing what I was doing except for a few things. He asked me to elaborate and I did.
Not long after that flight, my manager was called up by our managing director. My manager was chastised over the complaints written by Mr. Tan. It was regarding my feedback pertaining to many things in cabin crew. One of them was the unjustified reason given to my steward for not promoting him. This steward was involved in a car accident and as a result had a small scar on his face. The manager used it as a reason for not promoting the steward. The steward was working on that same flight where our Attorney General was travelling. He had a good look at the steward and shook his head indicating that the reason for not promoting him was unfair. A month later, the steward was promoted to the leading steward rank.
I have not flown with Mr. Tan since that flight. I will always remember him as a kind and caring person. We will miss our beloved former AG and may his soul rest in peace.

Medical check up in Johore.

Fortunately, my medical results were good. This included the treadmill test which could tell you whether you have clotted arteries which can lead to strokes and death. The treadmill test was really tiring and taxing for a old guy like me but it's worth the while.
BP was normal (120/80), total cholesterol was fine and no diabetes. Hearing and eyesight was ok......ayia in short quite healthy la and to those who wish me bad health, sorry man cos unkle should be around for a while more...hehehe. Hey,the only minus point is me having an early stage of osteoarthritis in my left knee ( wearing of the joint due to ageing). No problem to that la cos I found out regular consumption of green lipped mussels could cure the problem.
The Maori in New Zealand seldom have joint problem and it's all because they eat lots of mussles,I was told. Maori are big and many are obese and yet they don't suffer from arthritis.

My blood pressure was fine and I believe I have got healthy genes plus my daily exercises. I brisk walk for about 2 to 3 kilometers a day. I have given up swimming cos it's too mah fun la. I even tot of quitting from the SIA sports club which I am still a member cos I seldom swim there anymore nor uses its facilities. Anyway it's no big deal cos the monthly sub is only $12 for me and my wife and may keep it for a while.