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Living in JB 3 (Johore)

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ginfreely

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Damn funny, I don't even know when exactly but I know by now I have been slandered by a defamatory post here two or two and half years ago, along with one or a few other forumers. I never see the post before it was deleted. Anyone who has a copy please PM me as I would like to make a police report.

Anyway I take this opportunity to state that whatever said about me was not true. I am not sure what exactly was said as I never see it but I saw from the response late at night was about sexual immorality. Never think that I am implicated so didnt ask then and never thought much about it since post already deleted. Unfortunately many morons do believe in slandering without any proof and have been harassing me and so my post today.
 
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Dora21

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Great to hear you( bro wuqi) back in the forum. Thank you to all that contributes their help and suggestion in the forum. I have learnt a lot here. Huat... Ahh!
 
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FHBH12

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Don't let hawker fare disappear

Han Fook Kwang
Monday, Nov 16, 2015

Did you notice how blue the sky was last week when the haze disappeared?

The air seemed fresher, and even the birds sounded chirpier.

It is true - you don't appreciate the little pleasures of life until they are taken away from you.

Then you miss them like the earth and begin to understand what they mean.

What else do we take for granted that might disappear one day?

Here is one that tops my list - good old hawker food as we know it.

If present trends continue, they will disappear in 10 to 15 years.

That is char kway teow, laksa, carrot cake, mee goreng, popiah, Indian rojak and many others.

It is not just the dishes themselves you will miss, but being able to tuck into them at almost all hours of the day and at down-to-earth prices.

This delicious combination of lip-smacking goodness, availability and affordability is the result of a unique set of circumstances never to be repeated.

An earlier generation of Singaporeans, unable to make a living otherwise, mastered the art of cooking street food at low prices.

When they were moved from the streets into government-built hawker centres in the 1960s and 70s, it coincided with a public housing boom which shifted almost an entire population to within walking distance of the nearest char kway teow stall.

It was the perfect recipe for success, and helped make hawker food the uniquely Singaporean experience that has become a part of our lives.

The next time you are at a hawker centre, slurping your favourite kambing soup, take a moment to savour how all the different ingredients came together to make it happen.

The Government built the infrastructure, but the idea grew from people making a living out of necessity and excelling at it, to satisfy the multiracial appetite of a growing Singapore.

A hawker centre experience isn't perfect - often hot and stuffy, uncleared dishes everywhere, and not all the food is worth the visit.

But for what you pay and with the variety available, it is hard to beat.

Now, it is in danger of disappearing like fresh air during the dry season.

With hawkers, though, the loss will be a permanent one unless drastic action is taken.

Singapore's rapid progress and transformation have produced a new generation with many other career choices who will not do the back-breaking work for the sort of wages their forefathers sweated for.

Who will take over and continue to fry Hokkien mee like his life depended on it?

I put this question to Mr Douglas Ng as I dug into his mee pok at his stall called Fishball Story at Golden Mile Food Centre.

At 24, he represents a new generation of hawkers who have new ideas about how to make this old profession work.

But they are up against frightening odds.

Everything is stacked against them, he says. The hours are long (he wakes up at 4am to prepare the food), prices of food ingredients have gone up, hawker assistants are almost impossible to find and are expensive to hire, and the public refuse to pay more, so accustomed are they to low prices.

When Mr Ng raised his price from $3 to $3.50, business dropped by 40 per cent.

It has slowly recovered as Fishball Story became more widely known, partly a result of his social media skills (check it out on Facebook) and the freshness of his homemade fishballs.

So, what made him work at a hawker centre rather than in an air-conditioned office?

He grew up loving the fishballs his grandmother made, and his father used to take the family out to hunt for the best hawker food.

These early experiences made a deep impression on him.

He says he wants to do something to keep the tradition alive, and he gets a big kick when customers tell him how good his dishes are.

You need passion to be doing this because the economics is all wrong.

I asked another friend in his 40s, who runs a fish soup stall, how it all added up for him.

His account:

Monthly takings: $12,000

Cost of ingredients (fish, rice, vegetables, etc): $6,000

Rent: $3,000

That leaves $3,000 for his monthly income, assuming he does everything himself. If he hires an assistant, he is left with around $1,500 - half of what a taxi driver might make.

This is what he says: "That's it, for all the work - morning market run, preparations, cooking, serving, washing, all in a hot environment, 12-hour days - my stall closes every other Saturday, so that is only two rest days a month. And when costs go up seasonally, bad fish haul, vegetable prices up due to bad weather... the price of hawker food is the only one expected to stay constant. People will complain if it goes up 50 cents."

Mr Ng told me that since he started, he has not paid himself more than $1,000 a month.

No business operating with these numbers can hope to survive for long in Singapore.

The reason large numbers of the older generation of hawkers are able to carry on is that they enjoy heavily subsidised rentals from the Government, and so can charge $3, even $2.50, for a bowl of noodles.

But they are getting on, and many will retire soon.

Very few of their children are likely to want to take over, which leaves people like Mr Ng and my fish soup friend, but they will need more than passion to pay those market rentals.

Should the Government do more to support and save this dying business?

Can they be offered subsidised rentals, or grants, in the same way other start-ups and SMEs are helped?

If these independent operators cannot make a go of it, hawker food might still survive, but it will be dominated by food businesses dishing out mass-produced mee pok in air-conditioned foodcourts.

Even with financial assistance, people like Mr Ng have to find new ways of working the business that are more in sync with the times, with new ideas that appeal to their generation.

I do not know what a hawker centre might look like in 20 years, or who will be the people running it.

I do know that the answer lies with younger people doing different things as they try to reinvent the business.

Hopefully, a few will find the right business model and pave the way for others.

But they need help now.

- See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/soshiok/dont-let-hawker-fare-disappear#sthash.tpe71qn9.dpuf
 

Bubble

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Our tasty hawker fare is diminishing in Singapore. Johor's food industry will be doing a roaring business.


The rental is killing this people.Then landlord are too greedy.Even car parks are xpensive.do they really have to charge so expensive???

Three of us ate at swenson Singapore end up having to pay $80+. Three of us ate even abit extra at Puteri harbour for only $35.yup the food are not exactly but almost same
 

FHBH12

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The rental is killing this people.Then landlord are too greedy.Even car parks are xpensive.do they really have to charge so expensive???

Three of us ate at swenson Singapore end up having to pay $80+. Three of us ate even abit extra at Puteri harbour for only $35.yup the food are not exactly but almost same

Swenson is branded :rolleyes: It is good to keep away from these unhealthy (sugar laden and potentially cancer causing) and expensive food.
 

Bubble

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Swenson is branded :rolleyes: It is good to keep away from these unhealthy (sugar laden and potentially cancer causing) and expensive food.

Agree wholeheartedly Swenson is branded.restaurant in a mall,still not justifiable to charge so expensive.Puteri harbour not at all hawker centre also.similar ambience as Clark quay or sentosa.
 

wuqi256

Moderator - JB Section
Loyal
Public service announcement, i have said this for many years. No apps exists currently for an instant bike/car/truck/bus/cement mixer shield. Please take your life seriously. I know you have your latest ixxxxx device or the Sxxxxxx device, more power to you but many people however poor they are (much like myself) can still well afford phones so please take your very important conversations off the roads.

I observed that any people are right handed and hence using it with their phones glued to their right ear, they often cross and do not look at the right where in many countries the incoming vehicles are at. Again, i would like to state here, even if you were in the right, you were crossing on a zebra crossing/green man crossing, etc and that SURELY the driver will be held responsible/fined/sued/jailed. Who is going to answer to your family/relatives/friends if you end up injured or worse? The driver may still go home at the end of the day, but you will likely be going to either a hospital or a morgue. Who is going to be the one sorry then? You can argue all you want and win any arguments all the time but please don't argue with an incoming chunk of metal coming right at you. Your phone may be made of titanium but you are made of flesh and blood. Please, i have seen too much deaths/accidents for one life time. Please treasure your life.

I was at a red light crossing today, a young lady crossed the road by looking at the wrong side, she was so busy yakking that she was unaware that she was almost ran over by a truck as she was passing the front of my car. I honked (so surprised to see my horn still working), the truck stopped just in time and the uncle inside waved at me, the young lady did not know what happened and stared at me as i interrupted her conversation. So many times in the roads back in Sg i encounter this, as if no one wants to be responsible for their own safety. Its not just drivers who should not drive with phones, pedestrians as well as cyclists should also not use the phone especially at junctions and zebra crossings. I have emergency braked so many times when people ran out looking at the wrong way. One time, i had e-braked so hard that my wife became crossed at me but what could i do? Run the kid over? He was so frightened that he dropped his phone. His mother, also yakking on the phone arrived and pulled him to one side. I got honked at by the cars behind me as the light was still green.

https://www.facebook.com/697238900/videos/10153759917518901/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEech1lwLLY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5L7jKniKXQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDsOlErDG0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpgOv4XRwbo
 

ginfreely

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Damn funny, I don't even know when exactly but I know by now I have been slandered by a defamatory post here two or two and half years ago, along with one or a few other forumers. I never see the post before it was deleted. Anyone who has a copy please PM me as I would like to make a police report.

Anyway I take this opportunity to state that whatever said about me was not true. I am not sure what exactly was said as I never see it but I saw from the response late at night was about sexual immorality. Never think that I am implicated so didnt ask then and never thought much about it since post already deleted. Unfortunately many morons do believe in slandering without any proof and have been harassing me and so my post today.

I need to amend my statement. It is not morons harassing me but low life with an axe to grind who are harassing me.
 

wuqi256

Moderator - JB Section
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Hi ginfreely, my apologies to hear this. I think i just saw some of your messages. I have deleted some which were extremely rude a couple of years ago before my hiatus. Hope all is well with you.
 

Crept

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Been away a long time and things were really tough for a while. Just to share that the MACS counters are closed at all the border checkpoints (1st & 2nd links)
Now one has to go to Orchard Parade hotel and go to the third floor to apply. Even renewals are considered new applications.

Details:

$35 SGD, yes its SGD now
1 colour photograph with white background (yes even for renewals)
1 photocopy of your utilities bills (SAJ/TNB) for EXPRESS Service on the same day (no difference in cost, just that you will get it after 7.30pm on that same day)
Normal service is next day after 7.30pm, they will refund a portion of the fees if the MACS application is not approved.

Just for add, if you own a property in Jb, u can still do it at IRDA for RM$30. Need to bring the property SPA as proof together with photograph. If SPA under wife's name, need bring marriage cert too. Best to photocopy these document eg. SPA cover page.
 

Mummymoo

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Just for add, if you own a property in Jb, u can still do it at IRDA for RM$30. Need to bring the property SPA as proof together with photograph. If SPA under wife's name, need bring marriage cert too. Best to photocopy these document eg. SPA cover page.

Thanks. Do you have the address please?
 

Whats4

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is it true that foreigners can only buy jb properties that cost 1 million and above? another thing is can I buy a foreign properties first before I buy a hdb?
 

wuqi256

Moderator - JB Section
Loyal
Just for add, if you own a property in Jb, u can still do it at IRDA for RM$30. Need to bring the property SPA as proof together with photograph. If SPA under wife's name, need bring marriage cert too. Best to photocopy these document eg. SPA cover page.

Thanks a lot, when we went to the 2nd link, we did ask, the customs chaps told us no more. I guess wrong information as everyone went to the Orchard place. We even asked the folks in Orchard, they said no more as well.

http://www.thirdlink.com.sg/macs.html
 

wuqi256

Moderator - JB Section
Loyal
Just for add, if you own a property in Jb, u can still do it at IRDA for RM$30. Need to bring the property SPA as proof together with photograph. If SPA under wife's name, need bring marriage cert too. Best to photocopy these document eg. SPA cover page.

Thanks a lot, when we went to the 2nd link, we did ask, the customs chaps told us no more. I guess wrong information as everyone went to the Orchard place. We even asked the folks in Orchard, they sa no more as well.

http://www.thirdlink.com.sg/macs.html
 

wuqi256

Moderator - JB Section
Loyal
is it true that foreigners can only buy jb properties that cost 1 million and above? another thing is can I buy a foreign properties first before I buy a hdb?

Yes, but for properties launched before May 1st 2014, it is still ok. Yes but you need to declare to HDB and they will not allow you to buy unless you are able to show you are going to sell it within the 6 months period.

http://www.stproperty.sg/articles-p...rant-flat-buyers-face-stiff-penalties/a/58378

http://www.hhq.com.my/2014/03/minim...-interests-acquisitionin-kl-penang-and-johor/
 
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