Project Imagine Nation "We Care"

Finally! LTB project is over! Now there is a huge sense of lost as we all break for exams and holidays before the mad rush come Jan'09. The project in general has been a massive success phase after phase. Phase 1 was our poster campaign that involve flooding the whole school with our posters, thank goodness the campus is not as huge as the other universities. haha! Otherwise we will have to stay overnight just to complete it.

Phase 2 - Computer Literacy Program. Stayed up till 4am to prepare the materials. Lots of screen shots and prepare presentation slides. It kinda hit me hard that as we computerized every system we have, many are still lack the basic fundamental skills in knowing how to use the computers. Well, I hope this program has prove to be much help because we not just equip them with knowledge, but a lifelong skill.
Phase 3 - Appreciation Week. Nothing much to mention, just a small event to reward people who gesture appreciation voluntarily to people who we often take for granted in our daily lives.

Phase 4 - Nerve wrecking! The most important concern was the turn out rate at the S.R. But there was a sigh of relief when there was a good mix of numbers from our beneficiaries and students. The speech from G.O.H one word Fantastic! Performance was entertaining and the food was good, except for that half tray of bee hoon left. LoL. Success! We nailed it. =D

Well, it all comes down to lots of fun and happenings during our weekly meetings, late nights and stressful days and the cam whoring moments (700+ shots in total). When everything just ends, it dwell on me that every waking moment for the past 12 weeks, this project has been running behind my mind on top of the other 4 mods. I will miss working with this bunch of people again. Can't wait for BBQ this friday. Weeeeeehhh!!!! Finally we meet to chill not work!

As for others... I will slowly post (not all 700!). Or just go facebook! =D

Auf Wiedersehen!

Mid-Term Break

its mid week of the mid-term break. Geez..! everyday just whisked by a million times faster than the blink of the eye. Ayee..... LTB project finally kicked off yesterday with our first ever computer literacy program. I am pretty amazed at the fact that the low level of computer skills people have when companies decided to fully roll out a information system for their staffs. I am so proud of my hand-outs la, after spending hours creating it before hitting the sack at 4am in the morning. I wish for more success..

back tracking. Mamma mia! wasn't delivering what i have expected. the storyline deviated quite a fair bit from the musical and the singing was off-key. But hey! the screen setting did make up a little adding realism to the story something that can't be achieve with stage props.

Had a gruelling exco retreat which coincides with my birthday sad to say. But work does goes on, charting plans for the next three years, new plans and initiatives for the whole band. Work is going to be crazy especially when we embark on our trip next year. We did have some fun, lunch at CHIJMES thrown in a surprise for me and get "tekan" by having to extinguish a forever burning candle flame. haha! thanks guys!

The ExCo

Well, beautiful sunday is coming very soon....

Auf Wiedersehen!

Happy Sad moment

The week gone by somewhat quickly as always and the weather makes getting to school soaking wet. The F1 race weekend meant that lots of traffic diversion but have not affected me much. But took the extended MRT service to my advantage. Haha! 4 out of 5 days caught the last train home.

So happy that the LTB skit came out quite well and i like the idea about the clash of two leaders. Of course working on the script last minute because of lots of work waiting to be completed and a few more still left undone as i type. A few run through and it was show time on thursday. We pulled it off overall except for a minor technical glitch which well... wasn't really a big issue.

Friday came about with much excitement because of Symphonia's AGM which offically see me as taking over two appoinments within the section and the band. Geez! Yes, I am absolutely delighted to take over as the new Director for the Office of Logistic and Assets management which in layman terms the QM of the band and also the appoinment of section leader for the french horn section. With an overseas trip in the books, i see heavy responsibilities on top of the heavy workload. Geez... now i wonder how am i going to manage all that..? Anyway, celebrations continued at Ice Cold with beer and games and a continuation of cam-whoring.. Look at my facebook to see the tons of photos being tagged.

Saturday came about a great tennis game and a time to bade farewell to another of a ex-domestic helper or rather a family friend. Well, she played a critical role when my late uncle was around to fight the final battle before going up to god and then to continue supporting my aunt to raise my cousin. It is almost one year now, and she has decided to head back home for reasons i didn't find out. But yeah, I wished her well. Emotions ran high as tears came rolling down as she stepped into the departure area. Well, i am pretty sure Benji will grow up to be a good kid and recongize your role in his topsy turvy life up till now. =)

F1!!! Race was quite eventful and a long one too..! Without the Safety care being activated and/or the incident at the pit area, i am pretty confident that the prancing horse will be the victor of the inaugural Singapore GP. Well, it took an unprecedented twist and became a race for the underdogs in my opinion. One thing for sure, I am going to get the F1 passes for 2009 the moment is released!

So much said, back to working on yet another assignment. *inhales!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Time really flies

The weeks are flying past real fast. Currently working my way through another 3 assignment when just last week I submitted 2. Wooo...! Okay, perhaps something brief as i take sometime out working on an assignment.

Long days and late nights in school is getting into a routine now. And will always crash out as soon as i see my bed. Home is still the best place to be where there are good food kept for me to snack on late at night. Yeah, thanks to dad for assuring me don't have the need to drop by the hospital everyday to visit mum knowing that i still got tons of work to do. Oh well, she is fine now and taking a super long rest at home.

The polar bear gang got together to mug and help each other in Alice and Java. Yes, we swear we hate alice programming even though it is a wonderful teaching tool for beginner programmers. I am not a beginner but still forcing us to learn Java would be a old-school method that works best for me! Well, we have sent her back to wonderland now.

I think its always inspirational to speak with someone who have years in the community service field and the group finally realize that our project is to large to manage and we have downscale the project to something manageable. (*exhales). this comes as part of the LTB course i am taking, to run a CSP project. On my own part, currently in the books of doing an expedition to somewhere with disable people. Shall release more info when things becomes more concrete.

The details are in!
Beautiful Sunday @ Esplanande Concert Hall

Date: 12 Oct 2008

Time: 3pm - 4pm

Performers: SMU Symphonia! <--- I am in!

Okay, do come and support the band, if not, me since i have not been playing horn for the last 2 years, i am sure some people miss my playing. muahahah! okay, just kidding! =D Yeah, we had mooncake celebration after band and the freshies did lots of cam whoring. Woot! I will post the pics at a later date.

For now... FTB pics of my favourite activity!...

Auf Wiedersehen!

Battle of a different kind

Glad to survive 3rd week of school. Trying to meet all the deadlines for assginments and a formal presentation next week. Stress...! It a different kind of war i am fighting, I rather do ATEC again. haiz...

Lots of meeting over the past few days therefore end up going home late and by the time I settle down at home its quite late so just a little touch up on the assignments then doze off. Having a little problem waking the next day. Battery was almost drained out.

Thank god friday is a short day, so can get home early after having lunch with friends, did a short run around the neighbourhood and then fell into a deep afternoon snooze. Yesterday's CIP was damn slack, suppose to walk around to collect donations in school. Yes, we did our job, just that the concourse was so empty okay! So end up slacking at Subway. And by coincidence, one of the group member was a fellow campmate. haha! we had a funny way of explaining to the girls about the hierachy of the army.

SMU, NUS, NTU = Bridage
SMU = Battalion
Faculty = Company
so on and so forth... haha!

Have 2 symphonia practices already. First one was damn shagged due to long time never touch the horn, and yes, there was a drinking session at CHIJMES after band prac k! Second prac was much better. I reckon a few more practices i will be back in shape! Wee... Oh yah, there will be a beautiful sunday performance at esplanade on Oct 12. my debut over there... haha =)

Had a great bowling session on tuesday, smashing my personal best score! Pretty excited about my good buddy's plan for the next few years. Dinner at some nice pizza place in town and end up reaching just on the dot for band prac. Opps!

The rest of the platoon officially ORD this week. Happy for them.

Okay, enough slacking away... back to work!

Auf Wiedersehen!

First week of school

Finally I have survived through the first week of school. Overall, it has been a busy week with quite a number of stuffs to do. Its pretty hard to crank up a brain that basically lay most of the time dormant the past 2 years. Yes, i did suffer a little brain block when the profs asked question that i fully understand but took ages to generate the answer. Before i knew it, someone else shoots the answer out. Damn!

Assignments, presentations and projects have been dished out this week, yeah, so looks like i have a busy time ahead. A wide spread timetable looks too deciving now.. All the empty time slots are meant for me to do work!!! oh no!!

CCA day was wild! All the clubs went all out to get people to sign up. Of course being deprived of playing my french horn for almost 2 years. I jumped at the chance of signing up with the band. they are having a performance at esplanade soon!! Weee..! I am going to crash in the next practice ahead of other freshman. haha!

Being so hardwork and on the ball during the freshmen camp, my group went on a Ben n Jerry ice cream feast after CCA day thinggy at Cathay. 4 pints of ice cream surely put on some extra pounds on us. But who cares, ice cream more important at that point in time.

Alright, i better get back to my books. yes, you hear me right, BOOKS!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Lead up to school

Somewhat feeling very jumpy about starting school tomorrow. Hopefully my brain will start up and get running again. Of course feeling a bit weird as the term "book in" cease to exist for this moment and there is no looking forward to returning to camp. Having meals no longer require scanning of camp pass, adhere to allocated timing for meals. Oh goodness.. i better make sure i eat regularly.

It was a God's gift. A friendly fillipino guy came walking into our tennis court and asked whether he could joined us because we were playing with 3 players. We let him join as and he started to coach us on our basic tennis strokes. We basically learn alot from him and my mood turn better after a very bad morning. A little more self-introduction to learn that he plays tennis singles matches and have the ability to smash his tennis racket. Wow! I am looking forward to this coming's saturday for another training session with him. Thank you God! =)

Convocation was an eye opener for me. Attended the event together with FTB group mates. All deck in formal attire. Of course, the pre-formal event was a little nerve wrecking because i sat along the aisle and the host went round picking their victims for a little Q&A session which was telecast live across the whole suntec convention hall we were in! And yes, politically correct answers were required! Thanks to the chairman for his little oversight, we learn a lesson. Must have a contigency plan! My mind basically got switched off a little over halfway from the Guest of honour speech, if only now i can get the whole speech to read...

Yes, symphonia played. And naturally my parents were asking. Are you joining the band? haha! YES I AM! and tennis and piano ensemble and perhaps sailing??? haha! Wee... A friend also an ex-SWO player also played with symphonia even though he is not from SMU. Digging my contact list only to find out i didn't have his number otherwise could have met up with him for a chat. And then back home, fiddle around and crashed out for the next 12 hours..

Kudos to singapore team for getting the Olympics silver medal.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Capella, the water star!

After running in and out of camp for 3 days, finally manage to get the clearance done. Can't wait to collect my pink IC! Weee...! I still can't believe how a large organisation could experience a very long system downtime. From an IT point of view, it it totally unacceptable. Irks me alot!

Anyway, I was forced to skip the morning part of FTB so i had to make my way down to OBS-ECC to attend FTB camp. Immediately started of with the tunneling activity where we tunnel through 4 dark containers filled with obstacles. All the army training really came in handy because navigating in pitch darkness was quite a breeze. A few more teambuilding activities then came the really no-brainer night games. All fun and requires no use of brain.

Rafting was damn damn damn fun la! My group finish building the raft first and manage to get it sea-worthy. Praises all around for building a damn sturdy raft. We had so much fun floating out at sea that we didn't want to paddle back to shore! haha! Damn "Zai" la! 2nd night everyone put on performances, play stage games then MAMBO!!! everyone jus party like mad la, spraying water, throwing light sticks around and loud music blasting away.. wee..!

This morning was the final challenge, played in Amazing race style. The highlight was seeing the whole section helping out our groups completing the final task and running towards the finishing line with our last group. A united section which saw us winning the best section prize. Ben n Jerry's ice-cream here we commeee.... Yummy yummy yummy..!

Convocation is tomorrow, i need all remaining energy to survive.

Auf Wiedersehen!

The actual day

This is the day that i signed up for and its all worth it even though there was an insane number of barricades to carry from esplanade area towards the seating gallery at the end of the whole show.

The night before almost the whole platoon went down to Liquid Kitchen for a few rounds of drinks, pool and to catch the opening of the olympics. Main purpose was actually to "celebrate" my "ORD". Everyone just had fun over a few round of drinks.

Dragged myself up early next morning to only find that our ride was delayed until way past sun rise. It doesn't matter, a little help in touching up what's needed to be done and breakfast! The day just went on as per preview with our nice friendly police guy. Overall, it was a great experience as it is a once in a life time opportunity. Didn't regret burning 5 weekends.

Sunday, met up with Suky at botanical gardens to catch SSO performance at symphony stage. She had a minor delay, but its okay. Everyday is not sunday. Anyway, didn't get a view of the orchestra at all. haha! I don't know if its the audio guys or the orchestra, but the bass sounds seems quite heavy. Overall, quite relaxing.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Preview, MetamorphoSIS

Hmm... alright, let me back track all the way till NDP Preview.. (*rewinds)

As always, my life have been put on the line by standing on the road guiding traffic and managing vehicle and human traffic. Stress...! Of course, its a good opportunity to be baked under the sun while work goes on and on and on and.... on! But then, at the end of the day, i am just glad everyone went to watch the show and leaving safe and sound. Not forgetting the mad congestion towards the MRT stations. haha! Everything end early and mange to get home ASAP because i got school camp the next day.

I predicted i would crashed out early in the morning, but hey! i still manage to survive the morning part of the camp. It all started out with a little more introduction to the guys who didn't make it for the pre-camp dinner then GAMES!!! and lots more games. I only crashed out after lunch for a short nap before the adventure races which see us running like mad up and down campus between city hall and dohby ghaut. At night was planning for the family night where my group was to assigned to plan a cheer for our clan. APACHE! then was this mystery night game where team members were "kidnapped" and we had to solve clues and only able to send out rescue team to search for them. With the aid of technology, the "kidnappers" use skype to show us "torture" footage of our team members. haha! I am too tired by then and really crashed out on my nice new sleeping bag.

Next day was water bomb games and then more prep for family night and at last.. family night where everyone went sort of crazy, perhaps they were cheering for the camp ending soon...? My clan did a spoof of 300 for the skit and cheer did went well, only a minor screw up. =) Oh yeah, not forgetting my group "wildcats" played polar bear game as and when, even on the 2nd day morning after waking up! haha! View Video

Academic briefing the next day. Team Wildcats decided to have lunch at pizza hut marina square before going to sch to attend a 3 hour briefing. Zzzzz.......

To be continued..

Auf Wiedersehen!

Pre-camp dinner

Just came back from dinner with my Meta camp group faci and ppl. Long queue at Marche Vivocity. Had my favourite Swiss rosti with a choice of chicken cheese Wurst.

So anyway, the seniors were sharing their experiences for meta camp and FTB. And also what's life going to be in SIS and all other stuffs about SIS. Some guys face were all stressed up and yeah, there is one that kept asking questions about stuffs going to happen in Yr 3 & Yr 4 when Yr 1 sem 1 has yet to start!!!!!

Okay, chill chill. All were warned about the possibility about spending the night in school just to rush through the tons of assignment because this course is heavily based on projects projects and projects and all other things la.. Wow Wee.... and that's only yr 1 stuffs.

Meta camp is next week, straight after NDP preview. I wonder how am i going to survive through..

Auf Wiedersehen!

One last parade

After getting a good tan the past few days doing the rehearsal it was all good to go for the ORD parade. Parents were invited to view the whole parade and other events that planned out after the parade.

Big boss gave a very very very very long speech detailing all the achievements and a very very very long final words to motivate everybody. If you do your sums, that adds up to at least 5 pages worth of speech which will be a "torture" for all of us under the sun. Haha.. But, i was quite inspired and motivated by his speech. If only i can get a copy of it.. hmm....

A pleasant surprise to be awarded Top 10 in the company. Only being notified earlier in the morning. Haha.. Initally planned was to have individual citation read out as we collect the award. But in the end it was being scrapped. Yeah, good move!

Company cheer was the last on the program and because i was "slacking" away at SMU attending a Freshmen Orientation, every thing was monkey see monkey do. Hopefully i have not made a fool of myself, obviously I have been hiding on the last row. haha! Anyway, it was great fun!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Widmung

What does it takes for one to compose such a beautiful piece for the love of their life? Originally composed for Vocal and piano. "Widmung" means dedication in german written by Robert Schumann for his wife Claire Schumann. Been transcribed for piano by Franz Liszt. Enjoy!



Auf Wiedersehen!

Clearing leave

Have been clearing leave the whole week. Out to take Final Theory Test (FTT) on tuesday and manage to passed it. Can't wait to book TP test now but have to engage an instructor first. Urgh! I thought i was going to fail the test because studied for it really last minute and was practically flipping through the pages and just memorizing a few points here and there. Well, for those planning to take the test, its best to take a few practical lessons to get a feel of what is like to drive on roads. And erm... when answering the question, pick the most logical and safest answer.

Crap! Faculty camp has been made compulsory for all freshmen. Keen to go but the day before is the preview thus the NO initially. Never mind, just have to endure and try to have lots of fun with my faculty's freshmen! Otherwise suffer an additional 200 hours of CIP on top of the compulsory 80 hours. Ouch!

Went out to hunt for tennis racquet and got some new tennis balls. The old ones are in conditions that can use to play "fetch" with dogs. Gees! Still can't figure out the numbers printed on the balls and the net seems to have no answers for it too!

Friday was looking forward to book into camp. But msg from camp says that we are to directly report to Marina Square on Saturday. That's good, another night with air-con. haha! NE 3 was a smoother run as compared to last week. Yeah, everyone is telling me i am putting my life on the line for strangers i don't know when tasked to be the point man for traffic controlling. Stress.. haha! but fun.. all ranks have to listen to ME!

Weather turned bad as the parade when on and it began to pour as the show segement started and start to get a little feverish while waiting at the bus point to dispatch the kids home. Everything ended early.

20 more days. 2 more shows.

Tennis was a total nightmare that i could have flunk my tennis balls and racquet off to unsuspecting people down at the pool. Tuesday night's game was better even though the court was wet and slippery. Not everyday is Sunday (even thought today is sunday). haha! Next game will be better.

Auf Wiedersehsen!

Parade, Parade and more Parades

Went back to SMU for matriculation on monday. I thought it was a very quick process because i can skip some stations. Ended up being held back for talks and camp registrations and lots of bombardments of CIP programs. Top it off with a downpour thus making a mad dash across to LKC-SOB.

A full day of fun-pack packing. Target was 100+ pallets. Worked through the day and night, dead beat at the end but have to keep the momentum going when my "engine" is begining to shut down. In the end target was achieve, happy happy go back camp! Wee..! Of course while working we got treats like Pizza hut's winglets, garlic bread and a nice cold ice cream! Yummy!

Well the rest of the week was rehearsal for CoC parade. On actual day, I witness the uncasting of the unit's colors and was giving a short lesson on the importance of unit's color. A very sacred cermony not many have a chance to witness. CoC parade ended without a hitch. Next up, ORD parade. OMG!!!!!!

NE 2 kicked off yesterday. AO was reduced to a smaller area and got quite a good amount of time to roam around marina and suntec. I still don't understand the need for civilians to scold every guy deployed just because they couldn't find their way to the entrance. Well, if he was dressed in red we might have a 50% chance of knowing he is lost and would rander help. All i could do was to respones with a smile from all that verbal abuse. Haiz.. Well, this is what i signed up for, this is my job. I love my job! Had one of the best views of the fireworks in the marina bay area. Woo..! Everyone was simply awwed by it. If only i had my camera with me to capture the moments but meanwhile BACK TO WORK!

The P5 kids are a bundle of joy to work for. Even thought it was a long day, they still packed with energy as they waited for their buses to send them back to school. No matter how tired i was, i still squeeze out that tiny little bit of energy to play with them and wave good bye! =)

Alright, getting more and more chao-tar since i have been under the sun for almost 5 days now. Tennis started off quite bad, perhaps its due to the little hours of sleep i have after NE show. As the game when on, it got better and better. Now... The week ahead packed with more tennis game. Whee...!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Insane but right decision

QET was a total screw up even with all the planning and drafting before writing down the final essay. Anyway, everybody's face look stunned when they took the first look at the test paper. First time in a long while feeling so crap handing in a crap piece of essay. The world is quite small yeah, got to know a fellow guy from another platoon who will be in the same course as me. classmates next time maybe?

Alright, so i missed out the talk about reservist because of QET. Listening to my section guys updating me on what i have missed out which kind of dwell on me that when you first enlist, you thought it will be 2 years of service, nearing to ORD... there is another FREAKING 10 years of army life ahead. Oh shit!

Damn! Even with all the effort to keep the bunk a bacterial free environment there still live a little bugger know that will creep around munching on human food. Already caught that mouse peeking into the bunk from the door but in the end got chased after by me. Now, that mouse stole my last pack of oreo cookies which is nicely placed in a mug. Argh! what's next? my cup noodles? I should feed him with Tom yam flavour. muahahahahah!

The most outrageous and insane decision in my NSF life. I made the request to participate in NDP instead of being tasked to do guard duty. The latter would meant longer weekends when there isn't any duty schedule as compared to late saturday nights, extreme physical workout and a normal 2 rest days.

So yesterday was down at Marina Square since around 8am and then set up barricades along a pre-assigned perimeter and then left to wander around. Carl's Jr breakfast simply pack a punch of energy with a simple bacon and egg barito, hash brown dipped in maple syrup. Then I was introduce to shop that sells model aircraft, blah blah blah. Looked at the army figurines, it is so detailed and real! Aww at the showcase of a fire trench filled with the soldiers taking up their trench position.

Deployed at one of the exit of marina square and kept turning back people because it was blocked off. No short-cut! Gave a bunch of concert goers a good lesson for being late for concerts! haha! Plan ahead next time. and be early! Took about 1 hr+++ to disperse 27,000 ppl. another 1 hour to tear down the barricades (because all of us are super tired and want to get home quick!) reached home at midnight.

Overall, was quite an experience. Get to interact with lots of people, bump into a few familiar faces, endure a few threats from our "own" ppl. Anyway, it was free biceps training. haha! Another show next week..

Auf Wiedersehen!

Bringing the roof down

Ever since I attend that hair-raising, hang on to the edge of your seat concert a few years back I have always wondered when will they bring the roof down. Back on Sunday evening, attended my Bro's band concert, the ever fame and popular XXXXX concert band with guest appearance from their sister band.

Yes, presentation of the piece were well executed perhaps the only fault was the endurance to keep the standard the same throughout the 4 pieces. 2nd half was as usual the fun-filled, creative performance of the Singapore equivalent of the percussion group Stomp. Overall, it was entertaining and a great way to unwind before heading back to studies or work. But still, going back to the bet with my buddy on whether they will bring the roof down. Well.. Good attempt.

Dinner was truly one to remember as it was the first time I have to seek cover from the torrential rain that poured. The scene of people carrying plates of satays and sting rays, yes STING RAY!!! in to lau pasat while trying to avoid getting drenched by the heavy downpour that followed after the trickle of rain drops. Somehow, I feel its my unit's "curse" where every mention of Stingray will be the equivalent of the Indian American rain dance. Haiz.. the fish needs water to survive.

Well, lau pasat is one place where you still get to experience eating at a truly street hawker lined up with smoke filled Satay stalls and touts moving around trying to sell you seafood. Wee..! Of course for those who are weight conscious, its nice to indulge yourself once in a while for such hawker fare but don't forget to hit the running tracks after that!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Shag out week

I could do with some extra hours of sleep but somehow my brain is keeping me awake. haiz. its been a hectic week even though i have a few days of leave cleared.

Monday's leave was forced to clear but it appears that i could use the day to complete some important task. Manage to finish up the essay portion entitled "Music" for the LKY-step award application. get a photo taken and getting stamps to before mailing out the application. don't have much hopes but oh well, just give it a try as encourage by my folks. Wednesday n friday was half day each. only thing done was to doze off everytime i want to watch tv. Wiembeldon tennis match was on but my mind was off. urgh!

so back in camp started the NDP fun pack thingy. production is really crazy in my opinion. have quotas to meet and sure get a good workout from all the packing. on a separate day, have to open up all boxes just to make really minor adjustments to the already completed fun pack. serious waste of time and manpower.

later on got assigned to a production line to pack fun packs into boxes. some photographers were around to shoot the packing process and there goes some people fooling around in front of cameras. posing? or just relieving some stress? haha.

tennis was rather slow pace today, only 2 guys playing. added a damper to my racket and now my racket has an identity problem. hahaha! practicing the normal serves. could use a few more good practice but with the 3 courts occupied. its kinda hard to identify your own balls if it starts flying all over the place. okay, looking for a few more tennis players. so if you are interested please kindly drop me a message. you have to bring your own racket. balls provided.

brain hibernating again. cheers!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Seafood Paradise

I have yet to master the skill of eating chill crab. Haiz. Was called out to seafood dinner last night at the Singapore Flyer. My folks and the other folks went for the singapore flyer earlier on which i didn't want to go even though i have 2 invites with me. Okay, so i thought i was cutting concertina wire which requires 1 good cut using all my might which eventually led to splatter of chill crab sauce all over the table like an explosive charge going off, shrapnel's flying all over the place. haha! Well, a service staff was nearby to witness the mess i created and readily open a pack of wet tissue for me to clear up the mess. Maybe i should opt for hammering the hard shell next time or just order soft shell crab. =)

Early on in the day, tennis game as usual. Took a long time to warm up. Somewhat I kinda lost my temper. Haiz. But yeah, as the game progresses, it became better and better. A good 2 hours of workout and got tan to the extend of leaving an invicible singlet marking. haha!

Range was on monday n tuesday. Didn't get marksmenship. But it's okay since it was a team effort and all of us didn't want to pressurize ourselves. Sure it was exciting to help team members to engage targets, covering each others targets amids the loud bangs from the explosion of the projectiles in the chamber.

So i finally tried the shilin's night street snack stall. Ordering the classic XXL chicken chop and the tempura (tian bu la) together with a cuppa of pearl milk tea. Even though it proclaims to be from taiwan, but its standards will never match what we have tasted before. The ambiance without a doubt wasn't there. Oh well, time to visit taiwan. But with the soaring fuel prices and the hike in the fuel surcharge. I wonder when will i take off again....

Auf Wiedershen!

Kung Fu Tennis

LF on monday was a good opportunity to see other platoon in action. I am not required to do LF so i just follow through motion, help out as and when needed. Only if the concertina wire was blown into tiny bits and pieces, we would not have to go through the mess and untangle everything, packed it nicely to condemn it.

Well, everyone was talking about Kung Fu Panda, so tuesday night's out a group of us went to watch it. It was a big group so there was some kind of promotion going on, so all of us got discounted tickets. Overall, it was a hilarious movie. I can't expect much, the story line is somewhat the ang moh's perception on chinese kung fu and culture. Well, it targeted more for small kids over their hols. I still prefer Pixar's animations.

On friday, i was "abandon" in camp by my section mates. lol. I rule the bunk for a day but it happen to coincide with the suspension of training order, so i was pretty much left to rot. Its very unfortunate for the 2 fatalities within the organization. Brunei weather is very harsh now having been there same period last year. And going through jungle survival means surviving on the limited food and water while the weather requires you to hydrate often. As for the other, i have no comments. I won't draw a conclusion on the cause of both incident. But, its still a mystery on how active, physically fit personnel could meet such tragedy. God Bless!

Weather was perfect for tennis today, 3 guys played today, a little uneven. But luckily the person who booked the slot before us stayed on for a while and join us in a double match. I did played a single's match with eddie. Good rallying. Felt the improvement. Shall play more and often. Now pondering for a 2nd racket. haha! and i lost quite a number of tennis balls! all courts were booked, and balls were all mixed up! Well, nvm, i will get somemore to replace what's lost!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Tennis

Only if the weather was perfect today.

Early breakfast at Bukit Timah before going back at Ngee Ann Poly today to play tennis. The game started off with balls flying all over the court so we have to practice close range before spreading out towards the edge of the court. Serves were a little hard, well.. this is not badminton. Soon after grey clouds start to form over and then it poured which lead to ending the game early. But, we started ahead of our actual booking time. Scheduled for another game next week, but before that must get my racket grip re-grip because the grip is peeling off throughout leaving my hands all black!

Okay, lunch was a simply indulgence of Secondary school day's food. Travelled back to the coffee shop outside of my sec sch for lunch. the vegetarian stall. haha! Surprised after coming close to 5 years the auntie is able to recongize us. Well the stall may look normal to any average joe who walk pass there, but its the very place that fed the hungry stomach of all the then young musicians every saturday afternoon. Memories.

The week started off with 2 days of leave. An experimental dinner celebration for my grandfather on tuesday. Experimental because its the first time celebrating it on the actual day which is also a weekday. Well, almost everyone was there except a few who surely have their valid reasons not being able to turn up. I believe so because after all, he is still the elder of the family and it will sound wrong for not celebrating it.

Booked in back to camp early that night because hitch a ride from one of the uncles who left early. Was fuming as I walked into camp after hearing a very unpleasant remark made by him. Should have took the public transport instead if i had known he has such a bad attitude.

I don't know when i will clear my leave again, so till then is back to normal work week. Coming monday will be a long day out somewhere far west of singapore. Gonna love all the big bangs!

So did you manage to solve the question on the previous post?

Auf Wiedersehen!

Brain Teasers

Think you are very smart? Or maybe would like to give your brain a good workout? Try solving the question below. Note: Do not attempt to search the web for the answer! Well.. unless you came up with a solution already. =)

There are three switches in a hallway. One switch controls a light fixture in a room at the far end of the hall. The door to the room is closed, and you can't see whether the light is on or off. You need to find out which of the three switches controls the light. How can you be certain of finding that out, making just one trip to the room?

Auf Wiedersehen!

Cholesterol . Calories . Comfort . Cubes

Its definitely sinful to drug my body with sumptuous local treats which encourage the blockage of my arteries. Oh..! I can see the cholesterol index having a bull run. While its not good news when the STI index goes on a downward trend. I certainly welcome a great dip on my calories intake.

Life have been quite relaxing back at work. Every now and then will go dip in the swimming pool, lift some weights at the gym or clock mileage on the running track. Of course, night's off will definitely lure us to the fast food chain, food court and sometimes a oily plate of prata along bukit timah. Wee! Have been working out. But i need to work out more!

Having been working on my music Dip's written report. And no other better place to work is on my bed in camp. Reference material, writing pad, my lovely iPod and in between a soft comfy pillow. When my brain is switched off, all i need to do is to drop my head and the pillow will cushion the fall and i will fall into deep sleep. Aiming at revising Statistics and all other maths stuff to get myself prep up for schoo. Oh.. can't wait for term starts.

Will be involve in NDP soon. First on the list is the fun pack packing. So if you ever find food missing from your fun pack at the parade. It may have already made its way to my stomach! haha. Just kidding. Pretty cool to be involve. Perhaps the only chance to be involve in this gigantic event even though it means sacrificing my weekends.

And yes! finally collected the full set of Rubik's cube. Latest addition is the 2x2 cube which i have been hunting for high and low. By now, manage to solve the 2x2, 3x3, 4x4 while the 5x5 sits comfortably in its packaging. haha! some day i will solve it. SOME day.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Holidays ending

End of my holiday and back to camp on tuesday. Boohoo...! But seriously, a even longer break and i will start to cultivate fungi and put it up for sale when it time to harvest. haha!

Spend lots of time getting in touch with my piano and of course a good recommendation from my friend to get music scores means finger happy on the mouse button downloading and printing piano scores. Chopin made its way into my favourite list of composers now. Currently working on his nocturne and a bit on the ballade previously posted. Oh.. How i wish i can play like him! Well, a little inspiration was drawn from "The Pianist" DVD which i got it during the week. The movie also serve as a good way to refresh and brush up my german. Guten Tag!

Learning to drive is so expensive! Just to get all the necessary paperwork done nearly killed me.

Invited to showcase at a photography exhibition somewhere in Bishan. In that area's library i think.. Post up more details once it starts to flow in. Keep watch!

Well its kinda weird going out for dinner with dad (normally its a family thing). But hey! Good food, cold beer. Nothing else matters more.

Auf Wiedersehen!

The Poet of Music

I will let the video speak for itself. Chopin's Ballade No. 1



Auf Wiedersehen!

More taiwan please...

alright. I have to truly apologize to everyone for not getting gifts from taiwan. R&R time is short and there is endless things to see, do and eat! Sorry sorry sorry. Next time k. i want to go back there again. Or if u go there before i do again, happy shopping! =) And i know its not an excuse but do pardon me for forgetting the little details about you (as in all my friends), i just need to re-adjust and update myself back here.

Outfield, lazing under the tree and somehow still get sun burnt. Talk anything and everything under the sun. The smell then the sight of a Ninja Van selling Ji Pai, milk tea and zhua bing. Oooo... yummy yummy yummy! Gave us that much needed energy boost even though we have combat rations within arms length. Of course there are times where restrictions are imposed and we can only drool as the van drive past us.

Booze a plenty when opportunity comes. A small bottle or two, chit chat and laugh at lame jokes and actions. Smoke? Nah.. i rather stick to my stand "One life, No puff".

Okay fine, my chinese is crap. Always at the food stall staring at the long list of items for a few minutes only to order food that i can pronounce like.... Ji Pai! Zhen Zhu Nai Cha! haha! Otherwise, just point point lo! lol! sometimes english found its way into my horrible chinese sentence. Communicating with the locals are even worst when i get tongue tied. Ouch! alright. my chinese is crap.

Even though i just got back after being away for so long, i am all prepared to board the plane bound for another destination. Wee..! Oh well.. that will have to wait. Urgh! Suffering from taiwan withdrawal symptoms. Pardon me..

Below shows the golden damper ball held on by hydraulic system on top of taipei 101.

Auf Wiedersehen!

36 days in Taiwan

Arrived back this morning at 12.30am then head back to camp with all my bulky luggage before getting home at around 4.30am this morning. And then..... unpack, shower and laundry. Manage to get some sleep some 36 hours later. Taipei has so much things to do and see, we rather sacrifice our sleep. haha!

31 Mar, head to the airport at night. Took the train arriving early at the airport. So bought drink head up to the viewing mall to check out the flight movement at night in Terminal 1. Soon after met up with all my friends to talk talk, take pictures and more food. First yr PC was there to send us off too. in fact most ORD personnel were there to send us off. Upon getting our boarding pass we went in to explore the terminal. Bought a short novel The Alchemist to read which makes it the 3rd book i am bring up to taiwan. haha! The other guys wanted to explore terminal 3 which i am not keen to because boarding gate is on the side other side of the terminal closer to T2. The remaining few had Sakae Sushi and laze around till its time to board.


Boarding was delayed. Well... it is not handled by the airport staffs but rather by our own people which causes a mad rush to board the plane and rush for take off. People were still finding seats when we push back from the gate for the runway. Well.. this is a chartered flight after all.

Destination: TPE (Taipei) via KHH (Kaoshiung, Taiwan)
Aircraft type: Boeing 747-400
Departing Runway: 20C
Arriving Runway: Unknown
Departure Time: 0315 hours
Arrival Time: 0645 hours
Flight Time: 3hr 40 mins

Skipped the in-flight details. All i could say was it a enjoyable flight. That's why i always prefer Asian airlines. Love it! Got some sleep here and there. Before I knew it, we were descending into KHH. Bus to terminal as there no boarding gate assigned to us. Aircraft carried on to Taipei. I believe its a ferry flight meaning flying empty to carry on it next assigned flight. Stepped out of the aircraft and we get a breeze of cool wind giving us a rough idea of the weather there.

2 hours bus ride to camp near Heng Chun city. [*Editied]. Just to get used to the terrain a.k.a MOUNTAINS! [*Editied]. Climbing up mountains will encounter Mango plantations which tempt me to pluck and eat. haha! View from up there Wonderful! Love the view especially in the early morning at first light the sun cast golden rays on the mountain side. Priceless. Sorry. No photos due to camera restrictions.

Evaluation did extremely well. [*Editied] Get the job done and did well overall.

Had a short R&R. Dinner at one of the local resort where we drown ourselve with lots of beer. I only had 1 bottle but the rest... let the picture speak for itself. Visited the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium and also Heng Chun Night market.



[*Editied] Night can be very cold but often i am found alseep soundly without much additonal layers to keep warm while others struggle to keep warm. haha!

So here comes the long awaited 3 days R&R in taipei. We bus up north about 9 hours ride. First stop was JanFuShan Theme park. I don't where i found the guts to hop on the free fall thinggy and the bottomless roller coaster that twist and turn and goes 360 deg.


Upon reaching Taipei didn't have much free time left before being confined to our hotel room. So we quickly cab to the nearest night market Huaxi Street Night Market famous for its Snake meat (Read Ewwww....!) haha. then next was Xi Men ting! Fame for its trendy street wear.

2nd day went to Windows on China and Leofoo Village. Windows on China is like a small world with its many scaled replica of famous buildings around the world. Took too many pictures that my battery went low before lunch! argh! Okay. Next stop is Leofoo Village. Considered to be the best theme park by the locals. Didn't try the rides since i had enough the day before. Night's free and easy head to Xi Men Ting again! haha! Spend more time there and got more clothes. then we go to Shilin Night Market. Suppose to eat la, but don't know why we end up shopping again.

Interesting thing happen was how illegal vendors manage to clear the streets in matter of 2-3 mins when they were alerted of police patrol. haha! You have to be there to experience it yourself.

Last day was a full day free and easy. Rained in the morning, average day temp is 16 degC. Went to Taipei 101. tallest building in the world. Visited the observatory. The mall down below is very very very very high end with all the branded products. Place is squeky clean and shiny. Only unsightly thing is some of our superiors dressed in T-shirt, shorts and slippers doing shopping. haiz..! Viva Singapore la! Time is short, made a bad decision to visit SOGO departmental store area. Not a place for us to go. So for the 3rd time we took their MRT to Xi Men Ting again! spend like 30 mins there before rush back to hotel pick up our bags and head to the airport catch the flight home.



Destination: SIN (Changi, Singapore)
Aircraft Type: Boeing 777-300 ER
Departing Runway: Unknown
Arriving Runway: 02C
Departure time: 2020 hours
Arrival time: 0030 hours +1
Flight Time: 4 hours

One of the many flights i don't wish to board. Coz i am leaving taiwan when i am not even done with it! But quite excited to try the 777-300ER, heard many reviews and praises for this variant of the Boeing 777 family. In-flight entertainment kept me awake through out. Got myself a Herpa model of the same aircraft i am in. Happy! =)

Landed early morning. Did duty free shopping. Got more wines to add on to my collection. =) didn't manage to leave airport until 2.30am because of transport problems. Anway, happy to be back home after being away so long. Currently on 2 weeks leave.

Hmm... Next trip overseas looking at Perth, Australia or Taipei! haha! Somewhere around the december holidays.

P.S - Remaining Photos will be upload @ my online album

Auf Wiedersehen!

See you in May!

Alright guys! Heading to the airport in a couple of hour time. Still can contact me in taiwan through my mobile. But no prank calls or don't call to tell me a joke or something like that. I make sure you will pay for that few DOLLARS of talk time. Best way is to message me and wait for me to call back.

Auf Wiedersehen!

The final battle

Past few days have been listening to high ranking officers giving us motivational talks and giving us thanks. The push for the final battle begins in a few days time. Today we all did a reflection. A reflection of the days that have flew by probably faster than the concord.

1 year 6 months begin with training in BMTC before joining my current unit. Much have been done since then for example Army Open house and Bilatral exercies. Ops duties are part and parcel of a combat unit. Of course we have to stand up and respond to the call at the sacrifice of time spend with all love ones.

Training no doubt is tough. Injuries never seems to be recovering. My sprained ankle and knee hurts most when aggrivated. But can never avoid to aggrivate it because i need my legs to walk, to run. So endure through the pain.

With so much encouragement and good comments coming from people all the way from the top. And i really mean the TOP! A reputation built from zero to something takes no mean feat to built. As the final battle begins soon.

I begin to wonder, has all that i gone through the past 1 year and 6 months. is it all worth it? all the sacrifices made in and out of camp. 36 days is a long trip. Of course i am always looking forward to the R&R, a chance to see taiwan in its asian glory as a high tech city.

I will leave it up to the day when the jet aircraft touch terra firma in Singapore to tell the answer to all. The final battle... Let's see what all comes down to. All i know for now. I am just a citizen soldier.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Take it with a pinch of Salt

Let's take it with a pinch of salt, leading two seperate lives as one is difficult. Everyday is like treading through a minefield. I will never know when i step on a mine, big or small.

Quietly, i saw it coming. Didn't want to say it out because of my promises. Gave the trust but was betrayed. For those who still don't know me well, whenever i am committed into something, I make sure i see it right to the end. I will get pissed and/or annoyed easily when i don't see it finishing. And also trust is one thing that is hard to gain from me. Never one day i will simply give my trust to people just because they need it. Either you earn it or you find it somewhere else.

Seriously, i have to admit my actions have a part to play in all that has happen, i don't hold blame to anyone for it. But its hard to accept apologies and forgive. Give me some time. For now, there is a void inside me. 2 in fact.

At the end of the day, I will take it with a pinch of salt. I leave for taiwan with a few questions in my mind answered. A little unsettled still, hard to give it all up, all the hopes and dreams I will still hold dear to me, let it linger in my mind perhaps as a source for motivation during the tough 30 odd days there but work will still go on. Be brave and strong as there are more things in life awaits me! =) Thanks Joel for being there when I am most down and out. Truely blessed to have this friendship, brotherhood. God will continue to bless us!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Missing everyone!

What have been a month to relax and prepare for taiwan became a very busy moment for all. I shall spare the details.

All i know is that i truely miss sleeping on my bed over night at home even though i do get time off every now and then to rest and do a little laundry and ad-hoc work at home. Not forgetting to perfect that Disney classic "A Whole New World" for my dearest. Balancing time between Suky and family too! Aww... I miss you so much!

Sorry to Joel and Eddie, shall meet up with you guys someday, hopefully before taiwan. Thanks for the appreciation phone call. Your backside is safely guarded. =)

Shots from the Singapore Airshow is out! Got a few decent shots of the Black Knight's formations with the classy grainy effect from traditional Film. It does give me the feeling of F-16's are aircraft from the 70's - 80's. All are done in manual focus because of the slow Auto Focusing my lens has. But still all shots turn up clear and sharp.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Survivor Tekong

It was a mad dash for home and to book into camp by 9pm last sunday. Anyway, I was at the Singapore Airshow 2008. The flying display was damn cool especially the Black Knights. Compared to the previous airshows, this time round we are closer to the flying display so my cam can capture it up close. Pics are currently being sent for processing. Down side was the long waiting for buses to get in and out of the venue. Not a good plus point. Unless you intend to take the limo taxi for $45 to any destination of your choice or the additional $8 surcharge on top of the prevailing rates for normal taxi.

So we have to book in early to make final preparations for the so-called last oufield in Singapore. Lots of things to pack especially food into my LBV. haha! Moved out to seletar for harbouring 1 night before we are troop lift to changi beach for assualt boat ride to tekong. So we were preparing, waiting and eating in a public area. Certainly raises a few eye browns for the civilians to see a large group of NS guys. haha! Anyway after a long wait, higher HQ got fed up because the waves of boat are taking too long so we route march to SAF Ferry Terminal for fast craft ride over. But i certainly do enjoy lying down on the grass patch seeing aircraft taking off especially the beautiful 747 and 777's.

Embark on 2 missions without re-supply of water and other essential items for 3 days. Until FIBUA village we get our re-supply. Saw the recruits doing FIBUA training. Walking past them with our shagged out faces scaring them how tough it was our mission but actually we just woke up from a short nap. LOL. So when doing our last misson the recruits kept looking at us building up obstacles, enjoying sips of 100 plus and bottles of cordial eating tibbits. Sure remind me of those days were commerical items are forbidden.

Exercise cut and we return back to BMTC parade square. Making a mess at the boot washing point, flooded with sand and mud. Enjoy the use of Staff toilet at one of the coy (hey! it was a forbidden ground during BMT k!). See recruits doing their 5BX with run in the early morning when i just lie down on the bench sleeping. Canteen break for the famous Roti John, but it was close. Bump into my friend who is a perm staff at BMTC.

Attended Touch 2008 by NUS Piano Ensemble after book out at UCC. At the invitation of a camp mate's girlfriend who will be performing. Overall the concert was very nice, enjoy it very much. Most of the repertoire are transcribe pieces so it gives a different feeling to the pieces as compared to the original composition.

Going to take a good rest for the next 3 days.

Auf Wiedersehen!

CNY & Outfield 1

Ok. Where have i left off?

CNY was again very routine every year. Booked in on Tuesday afternoon. then went to 30SCE to send our bridge for servicing. Met up with our platoon mate that got posted out. at night was a chill out session at the mess with the whole platoon. i shall spare the details. CNY eve morning was games and celebration in camp. We were suppose to play games to earn cash to bid for items during the celebration part. So after the games, we can place bets to double our earning by playing "Big Small". Later is the bidding part for bowling vouchers, movie vouchers, TV sets and fussball table. cool eh!

Reunion dinner then the next day all the visiting. Mahjong session at my grandma's place. See only, i don't know how to play even though i learn before. Too chim. Saturday went to visit dear's parents. Treated with good food and liquor. haha! thanks dear! Caught Kung Fu Dunk because dear wanted to get out of her house. Hmmm... the movie i think overall is to make Jay Chou look cool only la. but Kuddos to Eris Tsang's acting. Old Ginger is still hottter (translate to chinese).

I went out for a 5 days exercise. walk a very long distance. south to the north of western singapore. cutting through vegetation, skirting pass NIE, into the cemetry (which was a little freaky to walk at night) into a pandan leaf farm i think coz there were pandan leafs all over. and hit the objective la. Sprained my ankle which left me staying in the ambulance for 2 days. missed out the fun part of the exercise. i can only watch from afar. Nvm... the next one is coming up in a week's time at Tekong. hopefully can recover by then.

Dinner and lau yu sheng at my place last night. as usual again every year. got birthday celebration also for a birthday boy. then accompany dear back to hall.

Auf Wiedershen!

Whizz Kids

Gone were the days were homework just came in worksheets and workbooks. Handing it into teacher or risk getting punished. Homework return back with ticks and crosses. Stamps of stars or smiley face and the ever horrifying words "See Me!".

Kids are getting online to do their homework. 2 of my younger cousins just 4 weeks into their life of a primary 1 student logged onto a portal checking out any new task. Now look, homework are called tasks. Check that out! They did their test online, reading aloud passages beside their parents and selecting the correct answers by clicking on the corresponding radio buttons. Submitting homework or task is done by clicking on "Submit" and no longer called Hand-in where we will pass from table to table up to the front or personally hand it up to our teachers.

I really wonder what's next for the future generations to come. With the introduction of Wi-Max and roll out of more PDA phones with Wi-Fi capabilities, are we going to see young kids doing homework at the playgrounds? 3G technology will perhaps push homework to a more interactive level, primary school kids are going to stream videos and answer questions. I won't be surprise if kids are going to have video conference with their teachers while at the playground.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Cakes, Camo and 30 guys

Chinese new year is coming. but i am not in the mood for it. searching for an answer, tuning myself into the mood. well, days go by and i will just live with it like any other. So i was out with my parents early on Sunday afternoon. Shopping. I don't know what i want so i just grab and go. its nice to have tea break with them. I really missed those days when we were out shopping as a family. Now all grown up, we have a life of our own. Especially when i am caught up with NS and busy loving my dearest. I don't know if they walk around the mall to look at other things when we finish shopping or just to kill time waiting with me for Suky. But they left soon after going to my grandma's place for dinner. without me of course. I waited.

Met up with Suky not before she went to collect my jeans (thanks alot darling!), had dinner at crystal jade la mian xiao long bao. i refuse to order spicy food because i scared that my stomach can't take it and coughing. i just want something plain. hurried for time we forgot the ice cream. Cab back to Suky's hall before leaving for camp.

Training is ramp up with SOC, fast march and stairs climbing. in addition i went running and gym a few times on my own to train up myself. Suffered from many blisters which erupt into open wounds that bled. ouch..! ATEC 2 is coming very soon. so outfield and outfield and outfield. before i know it.. i am flying off..!

Platoon is 1 men less, this guy named jeremy posted out. So we had a dinner gathering at Botak Jones at Clementi on tuesday night. Cake smashing party on Wednesday night. Bought a cake, made him say a speech. Commented something to PC about me. haha! that made everyone cheer! then cake smashing begins. I DIDN'T GET TO EAT THE CAKE!!!!!!!! lucky, you get away with a small patch of chocolate cream or camo, unlucky ones will get palm print using cake and black or green camo all over your body. anyway, wish him all the best. ORD soon... 8 more months to go.

Auf Wiedersehen!

fruitful week!

this week have never been better. well, basically monday was actually an off day from the last duty on jurong island. did lots of running today.

so i booked in on tuesday morning with a premium cost added to it. guys from my section booked in the night before without me knowing. so i barge into bunk with all guys still sleeping. haha! Well, being nice i decided to unpack all my stuffs in the dark and continue my sleep too since i woke up at 5am not with a little help from dad n mum. Claim back my stuffs from jurong island later on that day before booking out. first and hopefully not the last 8-5 feeling. haha.

Wednesday i totally slack around. too lazy to get out of the house until dinner time. deliver dinner to hall. Dear's hall. MOS Burger. okay, i understand you are tired. should have let you sleep more. but food is getting cold since it was packed from jurong point and not nice to have it cold. saved in the nick of time by her roomie otherwise i am facing the death of the hair picker. ooppsss! after that went home. she passed me a NTU t-shirt she got from her hall's fun fest. "Wake me up when i reach NTU" Thanks dear for the t-shirt.

Thursday had a follow-up appointment with the dentist 5 mins of crapping from him and cost $33 bucks. Wow! good thing is, i will be seeing him in a year's time instead of 6 months. I think i gone a little crazy at that point of time to fix appointment for dental therapy. jus want to get some cleaning n polishing done. but its by POLY students... hmm... appointment is quite sometime away, so.. let's see..! (perhaps going to private clinic will be a better idea). okay, Ikea was next to pick up some plastic bag dispenser for my dad and got a cushion for myself. bringing back to camp to see if its useful otherwise i will jus leave it at home. Pouring heavily at that time but nothing beats a nice hotdog sandwich from ikea. wee..!

Friday, went for a run. again. then afternoon with those sleepy eyes went for medical checkup at raffles hospital. no appointment needed. jus walk-in. perhaps my mind was asleep, i feel so lost when i get bump from station to station to get the test done. haha! i have a picture of my RIBS in my cupboard! haha! met Suky at boon lay after that. with a little waiting sent her home. don't worry darling, i don't blame you for the alarm not ringing. =)

Today, accompanied Suky to Swee lee, send in her trombone for repair. screw dropped out of the rotor valve. hopefully it can be fixed otherwise got to think of other ways out. Went to this fantastic place for lunch at Simei Eastpoint. Eighteen Chefs. Great food, Great chef. Big size guy who trained from or with Jamie Oliver, know as the naked chef. Well.. this small cafe is open to help deliquent ppl. so its more than jus serving good food, its helping the community. call me if u need directions to this place if u are interested to taste it out!

Resuming normal training very soon. prep for taiwan. haiz..... (*heads bow down)

Auf Wiedersehen!

The Will to learn

Copied this during my engineer course about a year ago. haha! Well.. its still not too late to share with all! =) Source currently unknown but i do acknowledge whoever wrote this!

1. Take time to reflect on a problem before you begin work
2. Get all the facts of the problem clearly in mind
3. Work on the problem in a planful way
4. Keep an open mind. Don’t jump to conclusions about the answers to a problem
5. Think of many ideas for solving a problem
6. Try to think of unusual ideas
7. As a way of getting ideas. Pick out all the important objects or person and think carefully about each one
8. Think of several general possibilities for a solution and then figure out many particular ideas for each possibilities
9. As you search for ideas, let your mind freely explore things around you. Almost anything can suggest ideas for solution
10. Always check each idea with the facts to decide how likely the idea is
11. If you get stuck on a problem, keep thinking, don’t be discourage or give up
12.When you run out of ideas, try to look the problem in a new and different way
13. Go back and review all the facts of the problem to make sure you have not missed something important
14. Start with an unlikely idea, just suppose that is possible then figure out how it could be done
15. Be on the lookout for odd or puzzling facts in a problem. Explaining them can lead you to a new idea for solution
16. When there are several different puzzling things in a problem, try to explain them with a single idea that will connect all together

Auf Wiedersehen!

Hello 2008!

Wee... 2008! okay, the past 2 weeks have been deployed to Jurong island. Quite cool actually to stare out into the sea watching vessel's of all size sail past with an occasional LPG or Oil tanker sailing into your vicinity without any marine pilots. Okay, a little extra information here, ships in all ports are guided with the local pilots to make sure they don't run aground or get into some form of danger that threaten the operation of the port.

I did manage to catch our Black Knights practicing their maneuvers for the Singapore Airshow. Yah, so free preview la! haha. while on night shift i wake up to see sun rise every morning without fail. Its so beautiful! Gosh I wish Suky was there to catch it with me. And also to snap it down and show you guys. And yah, the refineries looks damn futuristic and cool at night. Like a industrial city on its own. Night is cold and freezing. 24 hours of breeze like fans that does not have a switch. At times i really want to switch it off.

Wild dogs a plenty at our area. Interesting thing is that they don't bark at NS guys. Civilians they will run after and bark at them. Of course we fed them and they clean up everything. No a single grain of rice left. haha! Now i wish i have on sitting at the entrance of my room. Hmmm.... what will i do with it....? hehe!

Looking ahead...
1. Taiwan (April)
2. SMU (18 Aug)

Excitied with what's going to happen this year. Finally getting my ass out of army. I am totally drained out of energy already. I just want to finish it. NO MORE GREENS! More things to come progressively.

Start to go back to church. Hopefully i don't slack and always skip again. haha! Active participation perhaps?

Auf Wiedersehen!

One last post for '07

Finally! another 365 days has gone by.

this year was quite busy and many things happen. Especially in army, lots of training jam packed together and doing lots of crazy stuff, unimaginable too.. Like climbing Mt. Biang. My bet is no one will ever forget that 3 weeks in Brunei suffering the harsh terrain, enduring the elements. it rained everyday ok! AOH or Army Open House was once in a life time experience, i will look back at this AOH knowing hey! i was part of it if i ever visit the next Open house. Of course not forgetting some skills training like coastal hook on pulau seletar and 32 km route march truelly round pulau tekong. 24km was jus a shorter march around the island.

Personally, i met this wonderful girl whom later on became one important person in my life that i don't wish to ever let go. Her name? Suky of course! My darling. Candle of the Soul campfire was hmm... an unforgettable one, all the days and hours spent to put it together. Hopefully in time to come, more such projects? Officially a part of SMU now. can't wait for school to start. All good things aside. Lost a GREAT uncle to cancer, still gripping with the fact he is no longer around =( i really miss him alot. God, take care of him okay? i need to find a closure.

Moving ahead, i will be in taiwan for training for a month, the last fight before ORD just before sch re-open for me. I know, all the kids are starting sch in 2 Jan. And slowly, i will take up piano teaching. and re-take driving lessons and perhaps work towards a music diploma. well.. i leave it up to next year to slowly plan for everything.

Final note, I heard about the last guard leaving SQS band. That's the end for alumni band and main band. So breaking all contacts with the school. Hmm... I need to play in a band somehow otherwise... good bye to french horn. What really happen, i am not too sure, but going to find out the truth.

Well! I wish everyone a blessed and joyous new year ahead. I leave you with a picture taken during the Sentosa outing on Christmas eve.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Blessed X'Mas

First of all, Wishing Everyone a Blessed Christmas and a Joyous New Year ahead.

Since everyone has flew down under to enjoy themselves with the Kangaroos....

Suky and myself decided to spent X'mas or rather X'mas Eve at Sentosa. A day of digging, scrapping and moulding sand. Head down to Vivo to catch the usual Sentosa Express, long queue for the tickets. But luckily 2 ladies bought extra tickets for their friends who couldn't make it sold us the tickets. haha.

Got down to the beach, changed and picked up a few sandcastle building tools then picked a nice spot to start building. Decided on building a plane, so slowly we moulded the fusalage then the wings, the horizontal stablisers then the tiny vertical stablisers. Suky added a few details such as the engines. I dug a trench around the plane and wrote our names on the sand.

Weather was nice and sunny. With an occasional dark clouds that never saw any rain coming. Cool! tried to get a little tan to no avil. Or maybe there is but can't tell the difference. So..! after sandcastle we went down to the water. but from where we were, seaweeds line up along the shore so, well... abandon plane! move to another spot where the seaweeds don't block the path. go inside, play water. then later play a little vball.

by then... stomachs are growling. hop onto the sentosa express back to vivo. On the way back, saw this gigantic x'mas tree on top of vivo. reached back then go see the tree up close then dinner was at SuperDog. American HotDog. Another nice fastfood. Highly recommeded their Chill Cheese Fries. Not spicy at all even when the name suggest Chill. Dear shopped for her mum's gift then home sweet home!

Thanks Darling for this wonderful day. and the gift was great. I will use it when the opportunities comes. Nothing beats celebrating christmas with you this year. =)

Auf Wiedersehen!

random photos 2

Same picture in Black & White

Auf Wiedersehen!

Enchanting Gold Class

ever want to know what's like to fly first class? or perhaps a prelude to the services airlines offer without leaving the ground. okay, was out with Suky to catch Enchanted at GV Gold Class Vivocity after having lunch with my family to celebrate grandma's birthday.

Was actually late in meeting Suky before the lunch. Sorry my dear. well.. thanks to the whole family fighting for 1 bathroom. Anyway, lunch was pretty good, lots of food as usual. Got to try self-made popiah, pretty fun. Always see people wrap for me, now i get to try. So after lunch, zoomed down to Vivocity.

Okay. Gold Class. What was it like? Upon entering the door, you will be treated as a previllage customer of GV. the staff awaits your arrival. Greets you upon first contact and guide you into the cinema. The cinema itself is jus like any regular cinema minus the rows and rows of seats. Seats comes in pairs with a table in between. Pressing the call button, a service staff will attend to you orders for snacks and drinks. Curious enough to try, we ordered 2 glass of Ice lemon tea @ $4.00 each. Wow..! Food are pretty expensive and most of the patrons are the expats well to do enough to splurge on such luxury for their family. $30/seat mutiply by 4 (2 adults n 2 kids). do your maths.

Seats came in pairs but were spaced far away, so we snug into 1 chair, lift the leg rest up and get ourselves cosy to enjoy the movie. Each seat does come with a blanket to keep you warm. Now now, where do you get such service for a regular ticket to the movies. Not forgetting to mention that there is a lounge within Gold Class for you to sit in, snack a little and wait for your movie to start if you arrived early.

Gold Class. A Great Way to watch movie? You get my thumbs up.

After the movie, we had dinner and shopped around vivo. dear gets a top from Zara (hope you like it), while i got a classical music magazine from the bookshop PageOne which includes a free CD in almost every issue i think? Well, that's all we had for 1 day of fun and pampering... I will post on other days event shortly.

Auf Wiedersehen!

random photos

once again, i will upload some fav images captured when i was free to wander around with my cam. location should be familiar to all musicians. one day n one night. the second image's effect was created using the long shutter mode without using flash as it will cause overexposure of the image. Use a tripod or place camera at a stable place to avoid handshake.

Auf Wiedersehen!

End of another hurdle

quite a busy week. with lots of outfield and little sleep.

Sunday - took up last minute guard duty. so morning with dear was cut short but still manage to cook a little then i rush home to pack and head back to camp. saw no one at home when i got back for a brief pit stop. shift duty was jammed pack because next day got "mission"

so the next day was very irritated with people in camp. i am trying to get some much needed rest when ppl shout to collect some outfield equipments, then returning to bunk, lie on bed not more than 5 mins ppl call again.. this time i gave up sleeping. pack, change, lunch, camo on and out i go! soaked in rain when i reach the start point. its pouring like crazy so i got wet real fast. then came the sun then the mud, lots of them in fact. okay, this is actually my one and only exercise with the TNI.

next 3 days is preparing the targets for live firing. at one point got really angry when i got accused by ppl for something that i have not done. haiz, i can't stand the tone of it especially when it comes from someone that sits around and does nothing all day long. oh well... climbing up knolls and from a high vantage point i overlook the western area of singapore. pretty cool to spot a few familiar places e.g. NTU. windy up there too! in exchange for being sunburn. i didn't get to sleep much these few days, moving out was really early, breakfast was late and stuffs..

no doubt 1 of the few busy weeks in army, it jus makes me want to be home more to be with everyone like dear, parents and all uncles and aunts. losing 1 is painful, missing all makes it all worse.

next week on leave. have not much plans yet, a few movies to watch. long time never been to the movies with dear already. time to catch up with what's on the silver screen.

Auf Wiedersehen!

can't wait to be in SMU

i am going to uni! weeee...! NSmen Jamboree was interesting. a few dance performances, i don't know if they did it on purpose or what, the dances was seductive. maybe to seduce all guy in the auditorium? haha. a little self introduction from the President, Dy President and Deans from the various schools.

then later on had a breakout session with Dean of SIS in a classroom setting. Saw a few guys previously from NP ICT. i think the session was about an hour long la, with the seniors Yr2-4 sharing their life in SIS. what interest me is the overseas exchange programs and business study missions, get to visit google, mircosoft, apple and a few other big IT coporations. hmm.. i really want to go whenever there is a chance to.

really getting into the culture of SMU where for every questions there are no fix answers and challenge any ideas you want. it a flexible approach to learning unlike the other schools where A is A. anyway, i can't wait for school to start now! another 9 more months i think.

Auf Wiedersehen!

crazy work weeks

sorry for the lack of updates for the past 2 weeks. let's roll back until the last entry.

finished ATEC stage 1 already. scored pretty well, the highest score the umpire would give, but sad to know it doesn't please the higher ranks. okay, in the first place, my section was suppose to take part in 1 evaluation but quote from my PC "i don't know if you are lucky or unlucky" we went oufield for 2 days in a row while other did 1 outfield. doing 1 extra evaluation that we weren't really prepared for. we just did our best because its a last minute thing from higher command.

Bro's birthday was the weekend after ATEC. good to see everyone because long time never see them already. everything seems returning back to normal but there is still that sense of something missing. i know what is it, but i shalln't mention. kind of hate a no-brainer from my father's sister-in-law for mention something right in front of me with a SMILE. you see, i used sis-in-law instead of acknowledging her as my aunt. really a no-brainer. overall, it great to everyone, truely missed them so much.

over the same weekend, platoon outing to Seoul garden to celebrate PC's ORD! great fun to eat, talk and crap a lot. they headed to Zouk after that, i didn't join them even though i heard many fun stories. well.. i am not the clubbing type of person. so yeah, count me out. crashed out at home after that crazy ATEC. remembered how black face i was before and after i went outfield, i am not angry at stuffs, i am just tired. haha..!

last week was a short work week, but deepavali ended up doing guard duty. this is what happen when no one volunteered and so i was kindly asked to do it. but never mind, to save one's self from spinning in circles asking around to volunteer, i took up the job. 24 hours shift, but have a rubiks cube to keep me entertain when i was bored. haha!

10km run before the guard duty at ECP. finished the run but didn't meet the timing required. i don't care, i ran and i finished the race. try again next time bah......

okay, booking in camp tonight. that's all for now.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Ratatouille in Reality

It was just another normal Sunday where all men from my company booked into camp, except timing was no longer the usual 2200. We have been given an extra hour to hang around outside in the civilian world. Even though we were tired because it is already way pass bed time, we were still upbeat and joke around and poke fun at one another. Well, perhaps it just a way to conceal the fact that we are stuck in camp for the next 5 days.

Lights off! time to hit the deck and doze off to a very cold night as the sky began to pitter patter and rain through the night. All were like spring rolls, wrap in our "thick" blankets. Night time do really fly pass really fast and soon phones and alarm clock began to rang. Wakie Wakie! Droopy eyes, slowly one by one drag themselves off the bed, grab toothbrushes and toothpaste and walk towards the toilet. The walk seems so long but soon, we reached!

Back in Bunk, we prepared to fall in. In our t-shirt, shorts and shoes. But wait, something gone missing. A good buddy began to shine his torch in the mist of darkness so as not to wake the others up who are trying to catch that extra minutes of sleep in search of that something. One by one, we started to do the same and all looking for a common item. Socks! Our socks mysteriously gone missing. Time and tide waits for no man, quickly we grab another pair of socks, cutting short our early morning discussion.

The whole day left us puzzled... Who stole our socks? Was it a prank? I concluded that it could have been a rat though, and its looking for something comfortable and able to keep him warm. It was a cold night after all. The day went passed, night falls, lights off, hit the deck!

The next morning, as I dragged myself out of bed, i saw a little creature running acrossing the room, it was a mouse i concluded. The same situation happen again! Oh no! if its a prank, it was a nasty one. This time round, we were rushing for outfield and we were preparing our gear to move out. Until a fellow platoon mate came in to investigate, well, he was curious. Silently, he squeeze in to a tight corner of our bunk, were we stored extra beds and mattress. And hit Jackpot! we found the pile of socks. Our missing socks! we swept the pile out to clearly identify it, and within that pile we found 3 baby mices. Poor mices, wonder where is their mummy? Sorry that we have to destroy the nest, it was a nest nicely stack with socks and roof made of a running vest.

To be continued....

Auf Wiedersehen!

getting back to school

hmm... quite a routine week other than one day outfield. well, actually was half a day la, the other half was suppose to go on recce mission, ended up spending the whole afternoon sleeping in 5-ton. rain was the cause of it. so basically in the 5-ton is i stare at you and you stare at me. haha!

did lots of singing. got to learn a new song. army song la, written in bahasa indonesia. tongue tied, having problems pronouncing those words. so when singing as a group i will jus go blah blah blah blah and hope that the singing session would end super fast. got hari raya celebration in camp. overall was fun except that my coy is a bit wet blanket la. haiz... never mind.

i am so addicted to Sudoku now. after playing on my friend's DS. very fun and challenging even though it drains lots of brain energy. getting a hang of it, now is to work on my timing. my first puzzle took about 30 mins plus though... haha! anyway it was found within a game to train the brain, created by a japanese professor.

Oh.. got email from SMU, its about the NSmen Jamboree. wee.. looking forward to that event la, its suppose to be a matriculation exercise plus a little performance by the undergrads and interaction with the Dean and Profs. my first step getting back to school and kiss good bye to army. 11 more months to go...! argh!

Auf Wiedersehen!

oh no! i am older..

last sat celebrated my birthday. this year, quite tone down. Morning received a few greetings, 1 from my late uncle, oh well.. it was actually my aunt using his hp to send. it was the first message i read when i jus woke up, lying on the bed half awake. one moment i thought i was up there! haha.. well.. can't thank you enough uncle pat! =)

Dinner with Suky and my family, food portion was HUGE!! thank god we didn't order a set meal each of us because we ended up having trouble finishing what we shared. haha! oh yah, there is this waiter who serves dishes with his super large arm that can bear the weight of 4 large plates. hmmm.... i rather not build those arm size. otherwise look out of proportion. So after that, finally after soooo.... long we got Donut Factory! Wee.... Still got to queue but quite fast to get our nuts!

Thank you Dear for the present. it was beautiful.

Sunday was dragged out by my 2 ever "wonderful" buddies for breakfast. and then a pool session following by lunch. nice catching up with them, hearing their ever scandalous life. hehe! hey bros, reading this, u know i am just kidding rite! =) borrowed a few CD in fact is many cds from joel, Dvorak, Mahler and Beethoven DVDs. Cool! slowly listening to it. oh.. Dvorak no.8 is nice!

back in camp, busy with revision for our evaluation stage 1, stage 2 will be in Taiwan next year. Ooo.. can't wait to go there, but haiz... its 1 freaking long month i heard. nvm.

Spent the whole of yesterday stripping the horn and scrubbing it. i mean whole day. took some pictures to document the whole process.. looks cleaner now, jus need to season the horn now. its MINE for NOW!

from left is the valve that just took out from the horn, middle is half way scrubbing it and to the right is a cleaned valve. yah, u still can see some alge on it. best way i think is still get it to chemical clean it professionally. a short horn stripping lesson after alumni band on friday, that's why i ended up getting home late. so to all dearest horn player what you been playing are horn infested with alge unless! u regularly clean the horn.

Auf Wiedersehen!

amazing grace

Auf Wiedersehen!

A good fight, a finished race

this week i learnt a lot about a great man's life. have been running in and out of camp for compassionate reasons. well, my uncle called home to be with the Lord. surely going to miss him a lot since he was one of an inspiring figure in my life. He is no longer around, but the memories will be kept locked within me. Someone once told me, don't just remember him, remember the memories and the moments together.

"You have fought the good fight,
you have finished the race,
you have kept the faith.
Now there is in store for you the crown of righteousness,
which the Lord the righteous Judge,
will award to you on that day-
and not only to you, but also to all who have longed for his appearing." 2 Timothy 4:7-8

Till we meet again in the house of the Lord my greatest Uncle! =)

Auf Wiedersehen!

Post AOH

last wed a post AOH celebration was held. Quite a simple affair la, some speeches by highest rank personnel. thanks here and there, then there was food. lots of food. espically my platoon who took a mountain high of cheese hotdogs and i was the "choosen" one to carry it.

every pair of eyes stared at me as i walk around carry that plate, ready to serve the ever hungry platoon. haha! so after that, nights out! wee.. went to jurong point. kinda felt like an ass for not going home since it was so near. went to toys-r-us and drool over the boxes of board games. yah, board games.

over there also got those foam swords, squeeky hammers and plastic helmets. fooling around with those toys la, reliving our childhood days. see... how much stress we can get in camp, and this is how we release those stress... haha! ok, got to admit we are crazy. but it helps to surpress the pain and fear inside me.

other than that... nothing much, head back to camp for more Risk and Scrabble... Wee...!

Auf Wiedersehen!

AOH 2007

coming to the end of my long break from AOH '07. last weekend was a quite busy, but manage to see my loved ones at AOH even though weekend burnt! yah, 5 days of standing, bending, teaching and explaining people how to play computer game. sometimes have to endure girls screaming and yelling when they got 'shot' and whinning when they are not winning at all. haha...

most of my time spent is teaching small kids la, all my friends prefer to teach young girls. haiz.. can see them flocking towards them when they are playing, clearly seen all the wolves tails coming out of them and the sharp edged teeth and claws ready to pounce on them. you know what i mean la. i can't be bothered. there are many other people needs to be served.

the young kids quite fun to play with also. i will never forget the expression of this small boy who burst his balloon while the father is enjoying the game, ignoring his son when the son calls for his attention. so... to up hold the image of SAF, be service-oriented and friendly, i play with the kid lo. he is so cute....

once in a life time experience. never to do it again for a second time. sure to be something that i will missed greatly.. oh by the way... 1 YEAR TO ORD LO!

Auf Wiedersehen!