It's been almost 2 months since my home caught fire. The fire report came back as an accidental fire originating from the main lighting switch in the living room. Here's an update on what has been happening since.
We have moved into a 3-room HDB flat owned by Terence, a friend of my uncle's, who has graciously offered it to us rent-free till our apartment is ready or till the flat gets sold, whichever comes first.
Being back in a HDB estate brings back childhood memories of when we were staying at Bedok South. We moved into our flat in Neptune Court when I was 8 and have been there since. I couldn't get used to sleeping in a small room without air-conditioning initially but luckily for me, the weather (up till now) was quite cooling. Also, being just 2 bus stops down from where we used to stay meant that I didn't really have to make any drastic changes to my transportation route and timings going to work.
Initially, getting a good night's sleep proved to be quite difficult for me. Firstly, having to make do with a fan after being accustomed to sleeping in air-conditioned comfort for the past 10 over years was a major factor.
Secondly, switching from a queen-sized spring mattress to a couch added to the sleepless formula.
Thirdly, sleeping in a room facing a public car park gave me a front row seat to the Singapore Motoring Orchestra. I heard every roar of every motorcycle engine, every beep of every reverse sensor and ever so often, the "melodious" chorus of a car alarm going off in the middle of the night. Throw in the caterwaulings of mating cats and the occassional but much too often for my liking drunken shouts and screams of someone living within earshot made uninterrupted sleep all but impossible.
My first act of overcoming my obstacles to a good night's sleep was to get a new bed. I got a cheap spring bed base from IKEA for just over a hundred bucks and a cheap quilt to use as a mattress pad. I also got myself some nice, sink your head in and die of bliss, pillows as well as some curtains to block out the sounds from the other side of my window.
Now for some statistics.
The bed and pilllows improved my horizontal comfort level by 100%.
The curtains blocked off about 20% of external noise but cut down incoming breeze by 99%.
Overall comfort level was still in the negative range due to a lack of air-conditioning.
In other words, it helped but not enough.
Furthermore, the weather took a drastic turn from "strong gusting winds" to "still as a corpse" with high humidity so the problem of the curtains cutting down incoming breeze was further reduced to almost 0% due to a lack of one of the crucial factors... namely the breeze.
In the end, after weeks of waking up every 2 hours, I had dark rings under my eyes that can put pandas to shame. My concentration level was reduced to... "Huh? Were you talking to me?" and I was relying on C8H10N4O2 to keep me awake... unsuccessfully.
It was at this point in time that I found the key to uninterrupted sleep... pure exhaustion.
For the last week, I slept like a log from the moment my head touched my pillow till the first buzz of my morning alarm. Even the rising humidity was not able to get me up during the night.
As for the status of our poor flat, to date, we have only managed to strip it bare of everything. Repairs have been delayed by, as our Professional Engineer puts it, BCA approval. To think that we agreed to take him as our PE cos we were advised that it would speed things up to use the same PE as the estate management.
We were told that the structural repairs will take close to a month to complete and after that, we can commence with renovation works, which will take us another 2 months and set us back a 5-digit sum of moolah.
On the subject of money, we did not have any fire insurance and most of our funds for the renovations were contributed by friends and family members. I have not had the opportunity to thank everyone individually but we are extremely grateful and touched by the amount of support (spiritually, physically, monetary, etc...) that have poured in from friends, colleagues and family members.
From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!
*sniff*
In other news, my stress levels have reached a new high since taking over my Lab Information Systems (LIS) Officer's job while he is on medical leave for a fractured hand. Most of the stress stems from the fact that I have a very very very faint grasp on networking on such a scale (I can barely connect 2 computers together without problems) and everyone keeps turning to me when there are network problems.
Some of my colleagues understand the predicament that I am facing and they have been nice enough to either put off whatever problems they are facing if it does not require immediate attention or they at least try to fill me in on the history of the problem since before I took over. Some other colleagues whom I shall not mention *deepcoughpacough* keep interrupting me when I am highly strung and concentrating hard at the computer screen to let them use my pc to access their personal email.
Now we have 2 PCs which are for common use and these are the ones which people use to check their emails and stuff. Since there are multiple users, one can expect the PCs to not operate as optimally as one say which is dedicated for... I donno... THE LAB INFORMATION SYSTEM.
Just because the incumbent LIS officer allows certain people to use the machine doesn't mean that I will be willing to do the same, especially when I am in the middle of my work. Some people are just so low in their emotional quotient that I wonder how them managed to survive till now without having people bonk them in the head everytime they soil our breathing space with their presence.
Another gripe I have is with medical staff. Be it a doctor or a nurse, they seem to think that they are the foundations of the hospital and that all other people working around them are inconveniences that they have to put up with.
I understand that they have a difficult job of maintaining lives but they should spare a thought for others who are trying their best to help them. For instance, these people are mostly computer idiots and so, this being a IT forward country, they have been given new fangled idiot-proof computers to use.
I personally think that all this idiot-proof technology is kicking IT personnel in the face because now, the idiots whom they are designed for think that any idiot can mess around with it. I mean they have absolutely no idea of the amount of back end programming, hardware and software it takes to make whatever they see on their screen "easy to use and understand".
One case I have in mind happened just recently. When I took over as stand-in LIS officer (without any monetary or hierarchical advantage I might add), I noticed among the tons of tasks forwarded to me (most of which were sitting there untouched for months), a request to input a bunch of text to be displayed in the lab results of a particular test. Simple enough I though and I proceeded to do it.
After using my super limited knowledge of programming/htm language, I managed to do it and as thanks, I was called long winded while a doctor proceeded to cancel about 90% of the text which I have painstakingly juxtaposed in the program.
I mean... I was told to insert a specific bunch of text.
I was a big boy and I let the verbal abuse slide around me. I made the changes.
A week later (yesterday), the same doctor suddenly threw a printed report in front of my face and berated me for messing with a test without approval. It turns out that the line of text I put in mentioned a reference range for the test in question and unfortunately, it was in a different unit from that of the result. The recommended range was in "mg/mg" whereas our results (since back before I joined) was in "mg/L".
Now... being a doctor, you would think that they would just do the necessary calculations, considering that they have been using this unit for... let's see... THE PAST FEW YEARS? Add one line of text suggesting a slightly different unit and apparently all hell breaks loose.
So I was told to make changes to the entire test to recalculate the results to mg/mg. I tried explaining that it's not as simple as you'd have to give the program instructions to do a relatively complexed calculation IN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE. However, I could hardly get more than 3 words in the entire conversation as the doctor continued to berate me for not using my head to think, for causing confusion, for not printing out trial test reports before implementing the test code, etc... I mean... I was instructed to insert a bunch of text which I reproduced faithfully. The test itself was not changed and besides, I did print out trial reports of the test to see the appearance of the text which got the approval of the assistant manager (the originator of the email request).
Now in order for me to do a trial run on a code, I'd have to save it in the system first. Ordinarily, we'd set it such that the code cannot be ordered while it is still in the testing phase. Unfortunately for me, this code was created long before my time and was already in use. Disabling it for testing would affect previously ordered test records. Another unfortunate thing for me is that, faced with a rapid fire angry doctor, I am unable to put into speech what I just put into words in this paragraph.
To cut a long story short, I was almost in tears at the end of the conversation. She also insisted that whatever she wants done has to be achieved in 15 minutes as she has limited time in the lab due to her busy schedule. So there I was, hopelessly clicking through page after page of alien text, just to bade my time till she comes out to scold me again after the 15 minutes was up.
Thankfully, she had to rush off for her next appointment and did not even bother glancing in my direction as she left the lab. During this time, I managed to contact the LIS officer who looked through the codes from home via a remote connection during lunchtime and when I came back, helped figure out the corrections to be made.
When the doctor came back, she appeared to be in a better mood and seemed satisfied with the results. She then told me that she did what she did as she wanted me to think about what I was doing instead of just giving me instructions to "do it mindlessly". She then bonked me on my head playfully with the pen she was holding (mine) and then left the lab with it.
I hate my life.
We have moved into a 3-room HDB flat owned by Terence, a friend of my uncle's, who has graciously offered it to us rent-free till our apartment is ready or till the flat gets sold, whichever comes first.
Being back in a HDB estate brings back childhood memories of when we were staying at Bedok South. We moved into our flat in Neptune Court when I was 8 and have been there since. I couldn't get used to sleeping in a small room without air-conditioning initially but luckily for me, the weather (up till now) was quite cooling. Also, being just 2 bus stops down from where we used to stay meant that I didn't really have to make any drastic changes to my transportation route and timings going to work.
Initially, getting a good night's sleep proved to be quite difficult for me. Firstly, having to make do with a fan after being accustomed to sleeping in air-conditioned comfort for the past 10 over years was a major factor.
Secondly, switching from a queen-sized spring mattress to a couch added to the sleepless formula.
Thirdly, sleeping in a room facing a public car park gave me a front row seat to the Singapore Motoring Orchestra. I heard every roar of every motorcycle engine, every beep of every reverse sensor and ever so often, the "melodious" chorus of a car alarm going off in the middle of the night. Throw in the caterwaulings of mating cats and the occassional but much too often for my liking drunken shouts and screams of someone living within earshot made uninterrupted sleep all but impossible.
My first act of overcoming my obstacles to a good night's sleep was to get a new bed. I got a cheap spring bed base from IKEA for just over a hundred bucks and a cheap quilt to use as a mattress pad. I also got myself some nice, sink your head in and die of bliss, pillows as well as some curtains to block out the sounds from the other side of my window.
Now for some statistics.
The bed and pilllows improved my horizontal comfort level by 100%.
The curtains blocked off about 20% of external noise but cut down incoming breeze by 99%.
Overall comfort level was still in the negative range due to a lack of air-conditioning.
In other words, it helped but not enough.
Furthermore, the weather took a drastic turn from "strong gusting winds" to "still as a corpse" with high humidity so the problem of the curtains cutting down incoming breeze was further reduced to almost 0% due to a lack of one of the crucial factors... namely the breeze.
In the end, after weeks of waking up every 2 hours, I had dark rings under my eyes that can put pandas to shame. My concentration level was reduced to... "Huh? Were you talking to me?" and I was relying on C8H10N4O2 to keep me awake... unsuccessfully.
It was at this point in time that I found the key to uninterrupted sleep... pure exhaustion.
For the last week, I slept like a log from the moment my head touched my pillow till the first buzz of my morning alarm. Even the rising humidity was not able to get me up during the night.
As for the status of our poor flat, to date, we have only managed to strip it bare of everything. Repairs have been delayed by, as our Professional Engineer puts it, BCA approval. To think that we agreed to take him as our PE cos we were advised that it would speed things up to use the same PE as the estate management.
We were told that the structural repairs will take close to a month to complete and after that, we can commence with renovation works, which will take us another 2 months and set us back a 5-digit sum of moolah.
On the subject of money, we did not have any fire insurance and most of our funds for the renovations were contributed by friends and family members. I have not had the opportunity to thank everyone individually but we are extremely grateful and touched by the amount of support (spiritually, physically, monetary, etc...) that have poured in from friends, colleagues and family members.
From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!
*sniff*
In other news, my stress levels have reached a new high since taking over my Lab Information Systems (LIS) Officer's job while he is on medical leave for a fractured hand. Most of the stress stems from the fact that I have a very very very faint grasp on networking on such a scale (I can barely connect 2 computers together without problems) and everyone keeps turning to me when there are network problems.
Some of my colleagues understand the predicament that I am facing and they have been nice enough to either put off whatever problems they are facing if it does not require immediate attention or they at least try to fill me in on the history of the problem since before I took over. Some other colleagues whom I shall not mention *deepcoughpacough* keep interrupting me when I am highly strung and concentrating hard at the computer screen to let them use my pc to access their personal email.
Now we have 2 PCs which are for common use and these are the ones which people use to check their emails and stuff. Since there are multiple users, one can expect the PCs to not operate as optimally as one say which is dedicated for... I donno... THE LAB INFORMATION SYSTEM.
Just because the incumbent LIS officer allows certain people to use the machine doesn't mean that I will be willing to do the same, especially when I am in the middle of my work. Some people are just so low in their emotional quotient that I wonder how them managed to survive till now without having people bonk them in the head everytime they soil our breathing space with their presence.
Another gripe I have is with medical staff. Be it a doctor or a nurse, they seem to think that they are the foundations of the hospital and that all other people working around them are inconveniences that they have to put up with.
I understand that they have a difficult job of maintaining lives but they should spare a thought for others who are trying their best to help them. For instance, these people are mostly computer idiots and so, this being a IT forward country, they have been given new fangled idiot-proof computers to use.
I personally think that all this idiot-proof technology is kicking IT personnel in the face because now, the idiots whom they are designed for think that any idiot can mess around with it. I mean they have absolutely no idea of the amount of back end programming, hardware and software it takes to make whatever they see on their screen "easy to use and understand".
One case I have in mind happened just recently. When I took over as stand-in LIS officer (without any monetary or hierarchical advantage I might add), I noticed among the tons of tasks forwarded to me (most of which were sitting there untouched for months), a request to input a bunch of text to be displayed in the lab results of a particular test. Simple enough I though and I proceeded to do it.
After using my super limited knowledge of programming/htm language, I managed to do it and as thanks, I was called long winded while a doctor proceeded to cancel about 90% of the text which I have painstakingly juxtaposed in the program.
I mean... I was told to insert a specific bunch of text.
I was a big boy and I let the verbal abuse slide around me. I made the changes.
A week later (yesterday), the same doctor suddenly threw a printed report in front of my face and berated me for messing with a test without approval. It turns out that the line of text I put in mentioned a reference range for the test in question and unfortunately, it was in a different unit from that of the result. The recommended range was in "mg/mg" whereas our results (since back before I joined) was in "mg/L".
Now... being a doctor, you would think that they would just do the necessary calculations, considering that they have been using this unit for... let's see... THE PAST FEW YEARS? Add one line of text suggesting a slightly different unit and apparently all hell breaks loose.
So I was told to make changes to the entire test to recalculate the results to mg/mg. I tried explaining that it's not as simple as you'd have to give the program instructions to do a relatively complexed calculation IN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE. However, I could hardly get more than 3 words in the entire conversation as the doctor continued to berate me for not using my head to think, for causing confusion, for not printing out trial test reports before implementing the test code, etc... I mean... I was instructed to insert a bunch of text which I reproduced faithfully. The test itself was not changed and besides, I did print out trial reports of the test to see the appearance of the text which got the approval of the assistant manager (the originator of the email request).
Now in order for me to do a trial run on a code, I'd have to save it in the system first. Ordinarily, we'd set it such that the code cannot be ordered while it is still in the testing phase. Unfortunately for me, this code was created long before my time and was already in use. Disabling it for testing would affect previously ordered test records. Another unfortunate thing for me is that, faced with a rapid fire angry doctor, I am unable to put into speech what I just put into words in this paragraph.
To cut a long story short, I was almost in tears at the end of the conversation. She also insisted that whatever she wants done has to be achieved in 15 minutes as she has limited time in the lab due to her busy schedule. So there I was, hopelessly clicking through page after page of alien text, just to bade my time till she comes out to scold me again after the 15 minutes was up.
Thankfully, she had to rush off for her next appointment and did not even bother glancing in my direction as she left the lab. During this time, I managed to contact the LIS officer who looked through the codes from home via a remote connection during lunchtime and when I came back, helped figure out the corrections to be made.
When the doctor came back, she appeared to be in a better mood and seemed satisfied with the results. She then told me that she did what she did as she wanted me to think about what I was doing instead of just giving me instructions to "do it mindlessly". She then bonked me on my head playfully with the pen she was holding (mine) and then left the lab with it.
I hate my life.
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