“The appeal may take up to two weeks to process”. Four weeks later, after having placed called daily to the MoM, I manage to reach somebody yesterday who, after a couple of quick questions, talks to a supervisor. Gets back to me and says “Sir, how long has your company been registered for?” “Umm, about 4 months.” “Oh, then I regret to inform you that your appeal was rejected” “Uh, what? Why?” “You need to apply for an Entre Pass, since your company has not been registered for six months.” “But… but… what? It doesn’t say so on your website” “Sorry sir, that’s the rules.” And after a few more seconds of stunned conversation, me being completely confused and angry and disappointed, we hang up.

This is the latest update on Jussi vs Singapore: Met with the MP yesterday, and he was very nice. Didn’t seem overly confident that I’d eventually get my EP, but on the other hand, everyone else seems to think that if I at least have him on my side I should be ok. Spent two hours at the MoM today again, trying to talk to a real person about my EP appeal, but the woman I finally got to see was about as rude as the last one ushering me out with hardly a glance at my forms, no assurances and no visa extensions. I also found out that I wasn’t legible for an extension of the Social Visit Pass I’m on now (with, as usual, no motivation), so Ave and I will head out to KL this weekend.

In other news, I picked up my new 30 inch monitor and new aluminum keyboard (must have been the last one in town), so that’s at least nice. It’s not true that you can’t buy happiness.

After last weeks SNAFUs, things are looking a little brighter as this week begins. My colleague, friend and former teacher Patrik has written a letter on my behalf to the MoM, explaining my education at Forsbergs, which hopefully will serve to persuade people.

If that isn’t enough, the uncle of one of Ave’s best friends is in the parliament, and he has promised to look into my case and write a letter on my behalf. I’m gonna meet up with him tomorrow. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Also, I have now some money on the bank here, so we are going to be able to pay rent this month, and I might even be able to get me a few treats. Like an Apple Cinema Display… Mmm.

More news as they develop.

After the news that Latifeh went bankrupt late last week, thus basically probably screwing me and Patrick out of 150k SEK, I today found out that my application for an Employment Pass by the Ministry of Manpower was rejected. I am now working on trying to figure out how to appeal, and how to clarify that my educations at Berghs and Forsbergs are, indeed, together equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree.

God damn it! I don’t have time nor energy nor money for this shit.

Back from vacation, which has been really nice. Mostly I’ve read books (Hyperion Omnibus, by Dan Simmons – I recommend it), listened to audio books (the last bunch of the Harry Potter books, thanks Christoffer), and been working on my own pet projects. It’s been nice to have time also to get acquainted with the neighbourhood and the rest of the city.

Now I need more audiobooks to have something to listen to while I’m working!

My woes right now:

..Any conversation, no matter how depressing or gloomy, can be lightened up by finding a food twist to it.

Excerption from conversation at our house warming party last night:
“Yeah, it can’t be easy living in Indonesia. There are always plane crashes, ships sinking, natural disasters in form of earthquakes, floods or forrest fires… But hey, they have Ayan Pen Yet*, so they can’t really complain!

*Indonesian style smashed chicken in a basket.

Seeing as it took me about 15 minutes to upload the pictures to my blog, i figured there might be a better way. Here’s an iPhoto plug-in that supposedly works with WordPress (and a bunch of other blog softwares); Photon

And here’s another one for Facebook.

Maybe I should try and take some more photos from now on!

536 Bukit Batok Street 52 #05-647
650536 Singapore

Here are some pictures from our beautiful new flat in Bukit Batok (literally “Cough Hill”), and the mandatory Google Earth file. The flat is really nice, surprisingly so even, if you consider what the rest of the house looks like. Most of it is white or black, with, I would guess, 70% of the furniture originating from Ikea. Especially the living room and one of the bathrooms are nice, and we have a nice, big bed, but there is the random act of freakishness where the guestroom, which I will use as my studio, is painted orange with some hideous closet made of wood and metal mesh doors. It’s weird as hell. Maybe we can repaint it later, if we’re nice.

Pictures after the break.

is my new phone number, so yeah, we landed and we’re ok. Not sure if I’m gonna keep the number for ever, though. Pre-paid is not my cup of tea.