Jump to content

limbssg

SRC Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    589

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by limbssg

    Young, successful - and in search of a dream

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    there are so many deterrent factors that make it not easy to migrate. Some are things created by govt (be a Stayer / Quitter as said by a minister), some are personal reasons like the fear of unable to adapt well in another country etc. Since young, most pple do not have the adventurous spirit make a breakthrough in another enviroment. We are easily satisfied with material things and thus willing to be a slave just to get them. At the end of the day, can it bring you happiness or it creates more problems?

    Pet crab business!

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    there are suckers born every minute....

    $100,000 savings to start pet crab business

    By Tay Shian

    October 28, 2005

    SINGAPOREANS love their crabs - especially if they are cooked in chilli or black pepper sauce.

    But other than eating, would such passion extend to keeping them as pets?

    Ask Ms Celestine Chong.

    She hopes that the small and 'cute' hermit crabs will soon become a fad.

    The 29-year-old entrepreneur was so convinced about these crabs becoming the next 'crazy' thing that she sank her entire savings of about $100,000, roped in her father, and opened a stall selling just hermit crabs.

    The 'crab nanny' had accumulated that money over nine years.

    Ms Chong, who is a stewardess, got the idea to set up Ha Ha Crabs, when she spotted a similar shop during one of her trips to California at the beginning of last year. She got hooked.

    It's now their family business as her father and an assistant look after the stall most of the time.

    It is the only company here that can import and sell them as pets, said the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA). The company got its licence early this month and opened the stall at Bishan Junction 8.

    The first-time businesswoman said: 'I love flying, I love the lifestyle, but I will grow old one day. So why not give it a shot, do something interesting.'

    So far they have sold about 500 hermit crabs.

    They are priced at $25 for one, and there's currently an offer of $45 for two. They can live up to five years or longer.

    There are also packages worth $60 and $67, which include two crabs, a tank, two extra shells, and other accessories.

    When The New Paper visited the stall earlier this week, there was a constant stream of curious shoppers.

    What do they think?

    Ms Angeline Wong, 27, who had bought two of them, said that they are easy to maintain, and 'it's been very interesting having crabs as pets'.

    She said her two crabs like to 'surprise' her by exchanging shells. She can distinguish between the two because 'one loves to climb the tree (a tiny plastic tree accessory), and one eats a lot'.

    Samantha Lee, 14, a student, was there with some friends.

    She said they were cute and she liked the colours of the painted shells, but they were 'a bit too expensive'.

    She joked to her friends: 'Get me one as a Christmas present.'

    Ms Chong admitted that starting up wasn't easy.

    Even though the stall looks modest, there are a lot of 'hidden costs', such as renting storage space for the accessories and the crabs.

    Also, they had to hire someone to feed and water the crabs at the storage area regularly.

    'People think it's innovative and easy, but there's more behind the scenes,' she said.

    Obtaining the licence from AVA also took about a year.

    'It's not easy, you need to convince them and come up with proposals that you have the ability to house the crabs and treat them right,' she said.

    She did extensive research and held meetings with AVA.

    'That's when the people skills I learnt at the airline came into play,' she said.

    'I was also very lucky, I chanced upon the right people at the right time, like people in the industry or who study the crab. Without them, things would not have been possible.'

    Ms Chong is allergic to seafood. 'I can't eat prawns and crabs, though I eat oysters,' she said with a laugh.

    But she has no problems handling the hermit crabs.

    'Maybe I just can't eat them. So strange, 29 years down the road, I am doing something related to them.'

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Painted shells safe

    HERMIT crabs move from shell to shell as they outgrow them.

    Some of the crabs sold by Ms Chong live in shells painted in bright colours.

    But is it safe to keep them in painted shells?

    Ms Chong said that the shells are imported from an established source, which has been supplying them to pet shops in the US for several years, and that the paint is non-toxic.

    She added that the shells are painted while they are empty.

    Mr Madhavan Kannan, Head of AVA's Centre for Animal Welfare and Control, added: 'Painted shells are not hazardous if the chemical is not poisonous.

    'Ha Ha Crabs has the knowledge to look after the crabs.'

    He added that AVA has a 'stringent' process for those applying for licences to import and sell animals as pets.

    Applicants should display sufficient knowledge and ability to look after them.

    They should also educate buyers to do the same.

    Ha Ha Crabs import hermit crabs from Indonesia.

    They are already kept as pets in countries such as the US, Australia and Japan.

    They are omnivores. That means they eat food of plant and animal origin. They need a warm and humid environment and co-exist in pairs.

    IPPT

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    Weekend NS, thanks to my company

    It wants employee to attend remedial training session on his own time

    Wednesday • October 12, 2005

    Letter from Yeo Suan Wei

    I have been working with a small public accounting firm since May. In June, I received the Ministry of Defence's (Mindef) notification (SAF100) to report for remedial training (RT) during the months of October and November.

    I promptly forwarded a copy to my employer.

    Before the first RT session, I requested that I be released early from work at 5pm so that I could make it to the centre in time for RT which starts at 6pm. My official working hours end at 6.20pm.

    My employer's position on early release from work is either to make up for the shortfall in working hours on days that I do not have to do RT, or to offset the shortfall against my accumulated overtime.

    As there are 11 weekdays of RT sessions, this would mean that I would need to forgo 11 hours or approximately one day-off.

    Given that RT is considered a part of National Service, my employer seemed to be penalising me for attending it. I therefore wrote in to the Mindef eServices Centre (MEC) to ask if I could claim Make-up Pay (MUP).

    MEC's reply was that it was "mandatory for your employer to release you early for RT sessions. As for a MUP claim, your employer can file a claim for you if you suffer a loss in civilian pay".

    I also called MEC to confirm this. The customer service officer told me that the Mindef's policy for a MUP claim was for a minimum four hours. (My claim was just an hour and 20 minutes.)

    As my employer did not want to go through the hassle of submitting MUP claims, they called MEC to ask if weekday RT could be changed to weekend RT instead.

    MEC confirmed that this can be done. So, my employer asked me to switch to do my RT during weekends.

    Anyone who has attended RT sessions will know it is a physically gruelling conditioning session. To attend two consecutive days of RT is sheer torture.

    I am now caught in a no-win situation: Put in the additional hours at work and forgo the accumulated overtime hours, or attend two consecutive days of RT during weekends.

    Given that I only have two days in a week to spend quality time with my family, my employer's stand is not in sync with the Government's policy of being pro-family oriented.

    I had never encountered the same problem with my previous employers.

    I sincerely hope that mine is an isolated case.

    http://www.todayonline.com/articles/77679.asp

    18,000 dead in Pakistan from quake

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    Diary: S Asian quake aid worker

    Shaista Aziz, 28, is a UK-based Oxfam aid worker. She has worked for Oxfam for nearly two years and has previously worked on Oxfam's emergency response Aceh following the tsunami.

    She is keeping a diary of the South Asian earthquake disaster for the BBC News website. Here she writes of how she reacted to news of the quake:

    SATURDAY 1600 GMT: OXFORD, UK

    I woke up a bit late this morning. As a Muslim I've been fasting for Ramadan and it's exhausting. I woke to find my phone buzzing annoyingly by my bedside and, more worryingly, my mum crying outside my door.

    "There's been an earthquake in Pakistan," my mum told me. My family are from Pakistan and my dad is there at the moment. She hadn't heard from him or any of our relatives. I could understand why she was worried.

    I checked my phone to find out if any of my messages were from him. There were lots of messages but none from him - in fact, they were all from my colleagues at Oxfam asking me to come into the office so that I could help in the response to the disaster. I called them back to tell them I'd be in as soon as I had calmed down my mum.

    Luckily, after a tense few hours my mum managed to get through to my dad and he was safe. He told us that around him there were dozens of buildings that had collapsed.

    I went to work straightaway and learned that my colleagues in the region already had Oxfam's response well under way. We have a head start as we have worked in the region for years and have staff and partners in the worst-affected areas. Our emergency response team was already on its way to the worst-hit areas.

    According to our emergency response co-ordinator in Islamabad, in the five worst-affected districts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir we have already begun assessments in three of these and some aid is on the way.

    After just two hours in the office I got a call asking me to get a visa and get on the next plane to Islamabad. I packed in a rush, forgetting everything I'm sure, and drove to the airport. I made the plane in the nick of time and tomorrow I'll wake up in Islamabad, hoping the scale of the disaster isn't as bad as we fear.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4323212.stm

    18,000 dead in Pakistan from quake

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    Time is GMT + 8 hours

    Posted: 09 October 2005 1019 hrs

    Over 18,000 dead in Pakistan from quake: army

    ISLAMABAD - Over 18,000 people have been killed in Pakistan in the huge earthquake that shook parts of South Asia, military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told CNN.

    He also told the American broadcaster that some 41,000 people had been injured in Pakistan in Saturday's quake which measured at least 7.6 on the Richter Scale. - AFP/ir

    http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp.../172476/1/.html

    001.jpg

    010.jpg

    bomb blast in Bali again.

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    Posted: 02 October 2005 1325 hrs

    PM Lee to go ahead with his trip to Bali

    By Farah Abdul Rahim, Channel NewsAsia

    SINGAPORE : Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has condemned the Bali bombings, and extended his deepest sympathies to the families of the victims and all those injured in Saturday night's terrorist attack.

    Mr Lee is scheduled to meet Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Bali on Monday for informal talks.

    He said the leaders' retreat would go ahead as planned.

    Mr Lee said: "We have to carry on with the retreat. I have been in touch with Yudhoyono's people, staff and they agree we have to continue.

    "To change our plans and not to meet is really to concede. We will go and continue with the retreat and take the necessary precautions and I am looking forward to meeting the President (tomorrow afternoon)."

    The talks will cover bilateral and regional issues, including the fight against terrorism and ways to strengthen security cooperation.

    Mr Lee will be accompanied by Mrs Lee, Foreign Minister George Yeo, Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang, Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean and senior officials.

    The Singapore leaders will also meet members of the Indonesian Cabinet.

×
×
  • Create New...