oops boxing day is already over...

sure feels good not being back in camp right now. if i didn't have any leave, i'd be spending this night in camp hahaha but somehow tomorrow i'll be going to church and helping out with some computer work for the new projector system. hoepfully it can be done quickly so i won't have to go back on another day to help out.

christmas this year was like every other year for the past couple of times, so nothing new for me lah. got a couple of nice shirts, a nice belt (which sadly doesn't really work somehow), and lots of hongbaos as usual hahaha the older you get the less people know what to buy for you, so they just give you hongbaos. wondering when that phase will end though. because obviously getting money is alot better than getting actual gifts heehee since can use it in other ways. but the 2 shirts i got are really nice =) won't have to buy clothes for a couple more years again hahaha

well it rained the whole day again today. god was nice and gave us a rather clear day on christmas, so lots of visiting could be done. and i'm glad that wendy managed to make it back from bangkok all fine in the end, even though she had to pay for another air ticket, but at least she emerged fine from staying at the airport for one night. i think she didn't sleep even though she was probably real tired. but the main thing is that she's FINE =)

i'm just praying that the rain subsides by saturday so that i can have a nice bbq, otherwise i'd just end up cooking in the kitchen old fashion style hahaha but it should be a fun event. just a pity tt koon, cheryl and chip can't make it. always more fun if they're around. laughing at koon and chip, and just plain arguing at cheryl. oh and laughing her ear too muahahahaha...

we're all waiting for something... something to come our way

it's the weekend before christmas...

it's just 2 more days to christmas, and just like the previous years, the joy and happiness that's supposed to come with the christmas spirit isn't with me. for the past 19 years of my life (this being the 20th if you think about it), christmas always came with a 1.5 month long holiday and lots of celebrations and joy all around. this year however, was lucky to be able to take my 8.5 days of leave, and tomorrow i'll be spending the day in camp, sitting in the office, and talking to... well... myself. well at least i won't be the only one in camp. josh is on standby in his camp. but he's got it worse off than me. i mean he's stuck in camp for the whole week! great sacrifices are made by those who don the red beret, but then again that's why they wear it. time to have a shower, finish packing my bag then it's off to bed. most probably will blog again after christmas. merry christmas to you all...

we're all waiting for something... something to come our way

2 completely different experiences in bangkok...

so here i am in bangkok, going home tomorrow and preparing for COS duty on christmas eve. so far in the past few days, i've been a porter and a rather bored person. nohing really made me smile and laugh out loud. well personally i bought 4 new computer games. helped derek get a couple too. wanna get a few PSP games before i leave as well. and i bought a pair of leather shoes, since i've outgrown my old pair. that's all i've bought for myself in bangkok. no new clothes at all. don't really need them lah. helped my parents by carrying most of their christmas shopping yesterday. all the route marches in army seriously helped lah. if i was doing before army can so imagine myself complaining already. so yeah that was alright i guess. can understand the reasoning behind it. today... went up and down the chao praya river to have a look at the grand palace and the reclining buddha. must say the buddha is really damn freaking big. and gold plated too. the decorations on his feet are really cool, although i think he's experience some foot rot hahaha but otherwise... it was rather disappointing i guess. halfway through i couldn't really take it anymore and took out my mp3 player and keep myself going, otherwise i might've just gone crazy.

couldn't get to see wendy though, even though she's like 4 sky train stops away from me. when she's shopping i'm sightseeing and when i'm shopping she's eating. not fated to meet her lah i guess. will just have to miss her all the way till tuesday. but i'm glad she's having fun. working so hard for the past year doest warrant rewards lah. but i'm just upset that i can't be with her as she's having the time of her life here. just feel really f-ed up tt i can't be with her lah. so sickening =( i mean not everyone can safely say tt they always make a person smile and much happier everytime they see that person right? the satisfaction is really a wonderful feeling that i can't really describe, but somehow some people seem to be trying to deprive me of that satisfaction, and i can't really figure out their intentions fully. all i know is that i miss my baby alot and can't wait for tuesday to come...

tags:
bang - yah u quickly go get ur licence from the police then can drive me arnd too hahaha but then u quite gungho so might be a bit scary =P

looney - yo u must be really damn bored hahaha see u at the bbq next sat

cc - u don't need to charge me lah... u never realise coz u help me take care of her i never bully u as much meh? =P and u can bully her loh... she might be big but doesn't mean she can't be bullied. she's very sensitive hahaha

we're all waiting for something... something to come our way

sometimes... just sometimes...

today was both a good can bad day, so overall i guess you could call it an ok day. spent most of the day with wendy, my weekly dosage =) caught casino royale at cathay. craig is definitely better than brosnan man. hopefully he makes many more bond movies. and i was really happy when he finally drove the aston martin, but it lasted for like less than a minute... what an anti climax that was.

after the movie i was initially intended to go for my platoon bbq. but after the movie i changed my mind. first of all it was at pasir ris, and i really wasn't in any mood to travel all that way by myself. second, i was never really very closely knit with my platoon, as compared to sispec and bmt. at least then i really felt like i could talk to my section. but this time around, there's really no connection man. bmt there was the randomness that i could connect to. sispec, daniel and a couple of others were really easy to talk to, but here, let's just say they're not my kind of crowd. sure they're all nice guys, but i just can't communicate with them. so i saw myself spending most of the time stoning at the bbq, or maybe just cooking or eating. and since i've got this cough now, decided to skip all the unhealthy oily bbq food. i know i'll never see most of them ever again, and this was the longest course so far, but like cc said, i place my standards too high, and maybe this time for good reason, but i just kept being disappointed. that being said, i've still gotta unpack and repack my duffel bag for monday. ah that can be done tomorrow i guess.

while watching the movie, both derek and josh msged me to ask if i was free, then i told them i had the platoon bbq, but after that since i wasn't going i asked them what they were planning. then josh told me something about lan, but in the end it didn't materialise. as expected, it's getting harder and harder for the remnants of t19 to meet up nowadays, but this is the one bunch of people i hope i never lose contact with. they're really the people that made life bearable in cj man. honestly don't know how i would've survived without them. we shall see how christmas and the 2 new years go.

drove quite a bit tonight too. to be honest felt a bit unconfident of myself driving my dad's car, coz it's manual and all. but that doesn't mean that i've forgotton how to drive! just didn't feel sure about myself. but by the end of the night i felt all fine again. back to the old marcus tai who can confidently drive any car in singapore hahaha

but what really made my day suck was when i left her to come home. don't know why but really felt damn sian at that point of time, and i just couldn't think of anything to do with her for those 2 hours, so she went home too, only to come out of her house 1.5 hours later to meet her friends. knowing myself, i'm just too uptight and inflexible at times lah, and downright uncreative. bet the MOE would be proud of how stringent and stiff they've made their students with their ancient system. and now i'm wondering if i'm too clingy. right now as she's out with her friends, i've msged her on 3 different occasions, and all 3 times after i said something along the line of "i shan't disturb you, let me know when you're going home". but somehow i keep messaging her lah. am i just bored, or am i just insecure with myself, or am i genuinely worried? this is one of the reasons why i'm not in ocs man, because of my indecisiveness. not as if being a spec means i don't have to be decisive. there are still many improvement i can make on my own side, and many things i've still gotta figure out. can't place my finger on them yet, but i'm sure they'll come to me eventually. but all i know is that i'm very protective... but what's important is, am i being over protective?

oh and derek, armour MIGHT mean no more route marches, but i'd definitely end up rolling around in some desert down under with kangeroos around me hahaha

we're all waiting for something... something to come our way

it's finally over!!! but never would have thought...

SOTC 2 02/06 IC2 Spec course is finally over. 14 weeks spent in stagmont camp. many people have proclaimed that it's slack-mont camp, but definitely not in this course. 34km route march, super high standard stand by bed 3 times a week, drawing and returning radio stores as if it's free labour, exercise VHF, AHF, ocean, jupiter, mercury, endurance and line and CCIS summex. that's just the radio and line packages. throw in the notorious CCNA and u've got one hell of a course. 14 weeks of fun. 5 rats caught and killed. ok 4 were caught and killed, one was just killed (squashed) by a flying frank. countless tao-poks and wedgies. throwing biscuits at each other in camp. going crazy over teriyaki boyz on stage. scrambling like mad to clean the bunk. actually exclaiming after ex endurance "huh so early? can we book out later? like 8pm?" (which is obviously something one would never thought he'd hear). now i actually listen to SOME chinese songs thanks to my bunk. kicking down a door under the influence of a tao pok. carrying radios up and down 5 stories. reeling back lines for close to 10 hours. running around stagmont like clowns trying to untangle the lines. going around singapore in a rover with 3 antennae sticking out like pricks. being scolded by cc countless times. my extremely gay bunk. the list can go on and on... like seriously...

if you wanna hear stories of what my bunkmates get up to in the middle of the night, or any other time of the day for that fact, let me know separately. i'll probably be reprimanded for defaming the saf by typing it all out here hahaha

actually i never thought i'd miss my course as much as i do now. whether it be because i'm about to be thrown out into the real world of the saf, or because i seriously did have an enjoyable time at SI. sure times got really boring because we normally ended up sleeping through most of the ccna lectures and getting answers off the internet for most of the tests, but that only meant that we had more energy at night when we were free to do our own things. that being said, we never really switched off our lights at 2230 for the entire course hahaha we always dragged it till like 2300 or something. arguing over numerous mindless issues, reading magazines, eating cup noodles and any other titbit u can find out there, running after rats, and basically just testing the system.

so now my bunkmates are going their separate ways. yinren got his guards. khaki beret for him soon i hope. joseph got some weird posting at HQ sig. daryl gg SIB i think. nic got 8 sab. marcus got hq 7 SIB. nixon got hq sig, eugene got his keat hong camp hahaha kenneth's going SIB too. sam gg arti, and justin's going to 8 sig. his poor soul hahaha regular going to 8 sig. waste of his 3 years man. apparently everything we learnt in the couse is useless at 8 sig. good luck to him man. oh yeah and i'm going to 4 SAB. that's at kranji camp. so i'll most likely be changing my brand new blue beret to a black one soon. i always thought black berets looked cooler somehow hahaha maybe because i've seen too much blue and green in sji during my uniform group days

oddly enough, i think i'll actually miss my course commander as well. he's really got an unorthadox method of training us, but then somehow it worked! and the coolest part is that he didn't necessarily spend alot of time with us, but somehow he can read our characters. maybe because he's got a background in psychology, but then what he told me during the end of course interview today really struck a chord. he was really dead accurate in reading my perception of things. i think it'd be much better off if i took his advice seriously and tried to work on things.

so monday off to kranji camp for me. supposedly a 10 minute walk to yew tee mrt. if that's the case, then i'd actually might be able to get home faster than at stagmont camp hahaha oh well we shall see next wkend. next sunday supposed to be going for paintball with classmates. best time to see what the commandoes can do hahaha don't expect too much from a signaller man =P and next year i should be going to australia for exercise. cool man get to dance arnd in the desert with the kangeroos hahaha

we're all waiting for something... something to come our way