So I finally caved in and went for a mid-sized laptop. The sales guys from Funan all said that netbooks were slow. Go for a full laptop. My friend recommended Acer, so I went for it. At sub $1000 for a Windows 7 model, it seemed like a bargain.

But I hit problems from day one. I used to have problems getting my share of the wireless@sg bandwidth, but with the new computer, it was virtually impossible. After surfing for 10 minutes, it would lose connectivity and error messages will flash up. Something to do with DNS server not responding...

So I felt there was no choice but to purchase a mobile broadband device. I researched the options available from the 3 telcos, and decided Singnet would be the best for price as well as connectivity. Afterall, so many tolerate their high mobile prices because they have the best signal across the island.

When the modem finally arrived, my problems continued. I was still unable to connect to the internet smoothly. Data transfer was super slow. Gmail would not load. By then, I did not know if it was Acer, Windows 7, Singnet or McAffee.

McAffee was he first to be sacrificed. I opted for a total program delete. It made no difference.

Then I called Singtel. This is where it gets interesting. The call gets cut off before I even give them my full details. But suddenly, the modem sprung to life and worked perfectly for about a week.

Then it started to slow down again. I call Singtel again & speak to a technical adviser. He reset the modem, and tells me it's because the bandwidth is unable to support high traffic. Too bad! Shit! And when I was ordering the device, they promised me it would work perfectly! He told me to just reset the device by taking it out whenever it played up. That was last Friday.

Today, surfing was slow in the morning, virtually non-existent in the afternoon. The modem kept losing its connection with Singtel. So I called technical support again. They reset the line, but it made no difference. When they found out I was running Windows 7, they said it was not compatible. I had to download the right driver.

Ironic right? Download a program when I had no internet access?!! Genius!!

So I cart the computer home today, try downloading the update and find the computer can't read that .rar file! WTF!?!!! So call Singtel again. And their advice? Bring laptop & modem to a Hello shop. Queue up. Wait... I don't have the time! I just finished an 11 hour work day. When am I so free to go queue up to sort out their stupid system?!!

Hate Singtel. I feel so cheated by them. How dare they get people to commit to a 2-year contract when they can't deliver the service we signed up for? And when it's faulty, I have to go queue up to hope they can sort it out in one session? Ridiculous.

                  

I remember those days too. From the very young age of 3, I'd set my sights on medicine, and nothing was going to stand in my way. I was warned about the many years of study, the numerous exams. But nothing actually prepared me for medicine.

Fast forward to 2010 and ask if I'd change my mind knowing what I know now!

The first few years as a junior doctor are terrible. No one prepares you for the long hours, lack of sleep, seniors that expect you to be pychic, nurses that want you there now, all 10 at the same time. Plus studying for exams with a massively high failure rate. And for some of us, young children too.

And this phase lasts 10 years for Specialists, assuming no hiccups on the way.

I have no regrets with my career choice, but I am glad that I have had the courage to expand my possibilities. Anaesthesia on its own would have bored me to tears. Especially in Singapore where the Specialty is not respected.

So what do you say to a young innocent who wants to go into medicine without knowing what it's like to be sleep deprived and yet have to think clearly at all times? Will they laugh when I tell them I've worked for 6 weeks without a single weekend off?

My seniors were laughing when I complained about nervous exhaustion. They just recalled their own stories of how they almost crashed their cars driving home after a night on call, how one of their friends fell asleep and didn't even know he was being burgled because he left his front door unlocked...

So I'm loving Aesthetics. It's rewarding, fun, happy medicine. Some call it frivolous, but I don't really care. I take far too much pleasure in taking care of my clients and helping them look their best to worry about those who daren't go off the beaten path.

                  

It was only when I tried the OPI clear nail hardener a few months ago, that my nails grew longer and evenly. The difference was quite astounding. And just when I thought it was about long enough, I went bowling and spliced off the entire right thumb nail.

Arghhhhhhh!!!!!

So it took a few more weeks to grow out, and finally, it was time to go French!

With over an hour to spare last Wednesday afternoon, I slipped intoDivine MedSpa and got Jam to do the necessary. As usual, the moment I sit down without my computer in front of me, I fell asleep. I got up when my phone went off to say my next patient had arrived. She was half an hour early! I looked down, and my right hand was done, but the left side incomplete! The while tips had only been painted on my thumb and middle finger! Oops!

No choice, had to abandon. And being me, I had no time to do anything about it for days. So I had a really strange looking left hand for the rest of the week. It was only when we got a bit quieter on Sunday that I was forced to sit down again. This time, Jam managed to complete the job. So I have been sporting the almost perfect French finish for the last few days. I say almost because I'm still itchy fingered and can't stop picking at it. So it's not looking too pretty now.

I think I'm better off sticking to the clear varnish. Less evidence of bad habits! )

But our new colours from China Glaze have just arrived. Jam's eyeing the gold polish for the tips! So my hands may look very interesting when she catches me and pins me down on Friday! But she has to catch me first!

                  

The man at the counter asked the older boy, "Son, how old are you?"

"Eight," the boy replied.

The man continued, "Do you know what these are used for?"

The boy replied, "Not exactly, but they aren't for me. They're for him. He's my brother. He's four.

We saw on TV that if you use these you would be able to swim and ride a bike. Right now, he can't do either."

                  

I also polled my friends on Facebook and picked at Julie's brains. The consensus was "go do it"! So I agreed.

As usual, if it's not urgent, it gets forgotten. So fortunately the e-mail came to send over the lecture slides with a 48 hour deadline. Arghhhhh!!! Talk about pressure! So everything else got swept to the side last Monday, and the lecture prepared in one night. Phew!

Yesterday was D-Day. I really did not know what to expect. And I was too busy to mull over & memorise the slides. All I had was Julie in the audience to cheer me on. Fortunately it was the second lecture of the conference, so I could get it over and done with ASAP.

So at just after 10 am on 1st March, I stepped up on stage for the first time in years, and rattled on about my views of Aesthetics & Medical Tourism. Fortunately, I have had a significant number of patients in this category, so I could just ramble on and talk nonsense. I ended to a dead silence and no questions. Oh God! Oops!!!

But fortunately, the audience were nice during tea break & said they enjoyed my speech! I was caught by one person after another, after another. Folks from South Africa, Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Taiwan came to say hello. I guess the speech can't have been that bad then! And Julie said she enjoyed it. She took lots of pictures, which I'll add to this blog at a later date.

The South African doctor was also an Anaesthetist by training, had gone into Medical Tourism and now wants to open South Africa's first medical spa. So we brought her back to see our facilities and told her more about the aesthetic business. Won't it be fabulous if we were invited over to be her Consultants! I've always wanted to visit South Africa!

All in all, it was a good experience. Something different to add into my CV. And Julie treated me to a yummy Chinese buffet lunch after to celebrate. Thanks Julie! )

                  

Honestly, quite embarassing, right?

So when I happened upon this Reverse Auction site, I got pretty excited. With reverse auctions, we spend a credit to find out the current cost of an item. With each click of interest, the price drops by US$0.25. When many people click within a short period of time, sometimes the product price drops down to zero! Yup... Free!!!

The products that are sold on the site are brand new, full warranty, and guaranteed to be lowest price online and offline. So there's zero risk, but huge discounts to gain. Products available include Apple iPods, iMacs, Mac Books, Nokia phones, Juicy Couture jewelry, cameras, laptops, etc. For the USA, they even have cars. People have bought brand new BMW Z3s for US$8000. WOW!

Now I know I'll never go the the Apple Store to purchase anymore of their items again. No point when it's guaranteed to be cheaper this way. This is why this site is growing faster than Ebay, Amazon and maybe even Google has. It's likely to revolutionise shopping worldwide in the near future.

We don't necessarily need electronic items everyday, but we do always spent on our credit cards. So it's not surprising that the most popular items are the Visa/Master/AMEX gift cards? Spent one credit (US$0.80) and average savings is $20. For a $200 card, that's effectively a 10% discount on anything and everything you can buy on credit!

Sometimes, you can strike lucky and have a much bigger saving than that. But with gift cards, I think most people just grab them once they get enough value. I know I'm going to be buying a ton of these in future, just to save a bit on my daily expenses.

Bad news is, this site's not going to be available in Singapore for a few more weeks (the global launch is just over a month away). You can still check out the site and register for free now. For more info on how this works, just watch this video.

And if you'd like me to send you a couple of credits to get you started, just drop me an e-mail through the contact form  (or call me if you know my mobile number) and I'll send you some with my compliments.

And yes, you'll be able to use your giftcard at Simply Aesthetic & Divine MedSpa. I'm more than happy to give you a discount that way! )

                  

All jokes aside, being a civilian in Singapore is not difficult. As long as you know the myriad rules and stick by them, you're fine. There are so many benefits to living in this city, that minor inconveniences like looking for a dustbin rather than dropping rubbish at will is really not a problem. Especially when the resultant effectis a clean city.

But running a business in Singapore. Now that's a totally different story. I have been self employed for over 6 years now. My first company was a sole proprietorship for private anaesthesia services. Keeping my accounts organised and finding a good accountant was the hardest part of the whole thing. This was converted to a Private Limited company in 2006.

The other two companies were a different story. With bricks & mortar, staff and other overheads, the stress levels were of a different league. Now we had to look at regulations in great detail, making sure we kept to them even if our colleagues did not comply.

Working in Aesthetics in Singapore has certainly been "exciting". I love the new innovations and advances, but the  many changes in regulation has meant services suddenly terminated, stocks wasted. I dread to think how much money has been wasted in this way.

Dealing with the various government bodies has been the most trying. This includes trying to get work passes (appeal after appeal, after appeal... then the staff resigns after a few months), the tedious licensing procedures, IR21 forms for foreign staff who take their time to give me the information IRAS requires, etc.

It's all painful even if the process goes to plan. But when they don't, the business is the first to be penalised. A recent example is the Australian nurse who walked out without notice. Her resignation was planned for end February. She walked out after her January salary was encashed. Now IRAS is hounding us for her income tax, which we were to pay out of her witheld February salary.

An older incident was where we overpaid CPF to a terminated member of staff. She had the employee's contribution refunded to her, then ignored the letters from CPF board, so has kept the contribution, plus the refund. We can't do a thing, and the police aren't interested at all, despite 3 reports about other far more serious matters being made already.

I was discussing this with a patient this afternoon. She's the HR manager of an MNC, and she's faced similar problems before. Employers aren't allowed to withold salary on the off chance that the workers can scarper off and we're just forced to take over the responsibilities. It's extremely frustrating.

So tomorrow, I have to contact IRAS and try to explain the situation to them. I hope they'll do the right thing and look for the individual who really owes the tax, not me. What's the chances of justice prevailing in Singapore??? Or will we be fined for not paying up on time...

                  

Still, it's pretty sad, as some ofthe girls have been with me for many years now, and we've had a good working relationship for the most of it.

So our regular clients have been noticing many changes, old familiar faces gone, new ones in. Bad energy replaced by new, vibrant energy. By the end of March, the "oldest" member of staff will be young Candy, who's only been with me since October 2009.

But all is good. Along with the staff movement, we've had some really good people come in. The core team is now led by Julie Lee, our new Spa Director by name, overall in charge of staffing & operations by duty. Hugely experienced, having built the NTUC spa single-handedly, plus helped her sister set up the Jurlique Spa in Hong Kong, Julie's arrival earlier this month has been a breath of fresh air. Her no-nonsense approach and stringent standards, plus fast work pace has resulted in trememdous leaps in Divine MedSpa in less than a week.The entire look & feel has changed in this very short period of time, so returning clients should be pleasantly surprised.

Next week, she starts on cleaning up the clinic operations. All unnecessary clutter will be removed. The overall feel will become softer, less clinical. Together, we will work on making aesthetic treatments an experience, attempting to reduce anxiety and discomfort.

Assisting her is Amy Soimalee, our Thai Therapist, who was trained by her at NTUC previously. Amy's been with Divine MedSpa since November 2009, and will be starting her secondment to Simply Aesthetic soon. She's really excited to have the opportunity to learn more about medical aesthetics.

Also coming into the spa next week are a couple of girls previouslytrained by Julie. One will head the reception desk, the other will add to the Therapy team. The latter is an expert at Malay pre-natal and post-natal massages. So that'll be a welcome addition to our skill set.

All these changes have been unsettling, but as it's all been positive, I've actually been much less stressed as a result. The chronic shoulder spasms that have plagued me for months seems to have disappeared, which is a great relief. And each day, I go into work and see movements in the right direction, so I'm finally relieved that my dreams are coming into reality with the right team of staff. For the wrong team on board, as I've discovered, is a sure route to rapid disaster.

                  

Straits Times: Nov 17, 2009

Burned at slimming centre

Fat-burning procedure goes awry; 83kg housewife left with welt on belly

By Kimberly Spykerman & Amelia Tan

Housewife Rose Lee wanted to burn off her excess fats but ended up being burned instead.

SHE was undergoing a slimming treatment to burn off her excess fat, but she ended up being burned instead.

Housewife Rose Lee now has a 20cm-long welt that stretches across her abdomen, and had to be on painkillers and antibiotics for several days.

The 35-year-old had gone for a slimming treatment at the Geneva Face Body Spa outlet in Ang Mo Kio Central on Oct 28. The treatment, which involved igniting an alcohol-soaked towel on her abdomen, cost $250.

Madam Lee, who stands at 1.58m and weighs 83kg, had not heard of such a treatment before, but she decided to try it anyway. 'It sounded safe and I thought it was a 'purer' way of losing weight,' she told The Straits Times in Mandarin.

It was her first visit to a slimming centre and it was prompted by her children calling her 'da fei' ('big fatty' in Mandarin). There, she was led into a room where an employee lay an alcohol-soaked towel on her abdomen. 'They didn't really explain the procedure in much detail,' Madam Lee said. She did not probe further.

It was only when the therapist whipped out a lighter that she felt slightly alarmed. 'But the employee kept telling me that she was here with me, so I shouldn't be scared,' she added.

Nov 17, 2009

Burned at slimming centre

Fat-burning procedure goes awry; 83kg housewife left with welt on belly

By Kimberly Spykerman & Amelia Tan
		Housewife Rose Lee wanted to burn off her excess fats but ended up being burned instead. -- ST PHOTO: WANG HUI FEN

SHE was undergoing a slimming treatment to burn off her excess fat, but she ended up being burned instead.

Housewife Rose Lee now has a 20cm-long welt that stretches across her abdomen, and had to be on painkillers and antibiotics for several days.

The 35-year-old had gone for a slimming treatment at the Geneva Face Body Spa outlet in Ang Mo Kio Central on Oct 28. The treatment, which involved igniting an alcohol-soaked towel on her abdomen, cost $250.

Madam Lee, who stands at 1.58m and weighs 83kg, had not heard of such a treatment before, but she decided to try it anyway. 'It sounded safe and I thought it was a 'purer' way of losing weight,' she told The Straits Times in Mandarin.

It was her first visit to a slimming centre and it was prompted by her children calling her 'da fei' ('big fatty' in Mandarin). There, she was led into a room where an employee lay an alcohol-soaked towel on her abdomen. 'They didn't really explain the procedure in much detail,' Madam Lee said. She did not probe further.

It was only when the therapist whipped out a lighter that she felt slightly alarmed. 'But the employee kept telling me that she was here with me, so I shouldn't be scared,' she added.

                  

To be honest, out of all the couriers, I had always favoured DHL before. But this was disgraceful! How can I ever trust them to deliver anything again? Dumping a parcel that requires recipient signature is bad enough. To dump it when the business address is obviously incorrect is pure disgrace!

So we had to waste our time trying to contact DHL, to inform them to come get the stuff back. We don't want it! Enough junk for the previous tenants in the mail box already!

But DHL... never will I use them again. Can't trust them after this lot.