kallang river - dog eat dog

"have you finished your annual review?" ah lian asked marathon man.

"going to. i have to write quite a few..... until my vocab ran out..."

"oh, i used the review assistance to help me."

"i tried, it ran out of vocab also."

"why must use so many vocabs?"

"if not, it doesn't sound professional lah."

"come on lah, we not professional review writer, let's admit."

"this year got increment, so must write properly. last year, no increment, chin-chai also can lah."

"only the big shots got a lot of bonus, we small fries, just suck up the remnants."

"no fish, prawns also can lah.... cannot complain too much, nowadays. the business cycle is so short, who can tell next qtr won't be another recession?"

as they made their turn into kallang riverbank, towards suntec city, from boon keng road, marathon man wanted to stop for a drink in a kopitiam.

"you work so long already, thinking of retiring or not?" marathon man asked.

"retire? what to do with the money?"

"invest lah?"

"how? buy shares like gambling, buy bonds, kena lehman bro, buy property, low yields.... whole life working to earn money, now want to retire also have to worry about where to put the money.... "

"do some small business lah!"

"what business?"

"kopi is the best business, though it's bitter, many people are hooked on it. when i retire i want to open a small kopi tiam."

"many people also open fnb outlets...... very soon, the whole of singapore will become a dog-eat-dog society, and everybody has to eat himself... chiak kaki..."