different christmas...

i still remember, that 365 days ago at this very hour, i was sleeping in my company office, because i was on COS duty. well my time there is almost up, and i'm spending christmas at home again =)

so merry christmas to all... it's ang bao time!!! =)

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

you don't always get what you deserve...

really don't know what's wrong with me sometimes man. it's such an easy and obvious thing to do, but somehow it just doesn't come to my head. something so small and simple can make her happy, make her feel comfortable and go to sleep with a smile and yet i don't do it. don't know if i'm just stupid... or somehow i've become complacent. probably a mixture of both. i mean who on earth makes someone they love unhappy even though they know that they can make things so different right?

if i lose her one day i'd be the only one to blame for it...

on another note... thanks for the dinner shaun. nice to meet up with the guys again.

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

an impromptu day...

supposed to meet maddy today, albeit on a standby basis hahaha so around 4 i left my house to bugis. walked around, bought old chang kee, didn't receive any msg or call from her so i went back to raffles city. just as well joshua works there now, so he was free for dinner hahaha walked to suntec, did a little shopping, which amounted to alot of money spent, but it still was a little shopping =p then had a cheap dinner. at least josh got his first pay check already... or rather pay "cash" hahaha

tomorrow should be another impromptu day...

oh yeah and i've got a laptop to use now! WOOHOO!!!

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

timbre...

so it turns out that timbre is really pronounced as "tam-ber"... and not "timber". trust the guy who's been dealing with music for like 80% of his life hahaha salute to vig, our class' saf regular hahaha so anyway... in case you didn't know, timbre is in reference to the characteristic quality of sound, thanks to www.dictionary.com heehee

met up with josh, many, clar and vig last night to go timbre to watch koon and his band perform. for 2 weeks of practice it was really a good effort put in. but the drums was just too loud overall lah hahaha but it didn't seem so bad during the last band's performance, probably cos the boys on stage were really freaking good, and the lead was very charismatic and loose up on stage. seemed so natural for him. wonder how many hours he spends jamming at home hahaha

speaking of jams, on to another topic. the hot debate between public transport and car right now is really something i'm interested in. mainly because i'm going to study somewhere next year that's an hour plus away by public transport, but maybe 20 to 30 mins away by car.

the main problem i think is that the government is increasing the price of owning and driving a car, and public transport at the same time. erp gantries popping up everywhere, even charging 5 bucks at the gantry from the pie to cte. taxi prices recently went up, increasing the price when most people need them. so either way, we still pay more!

let's just talk about owning a car now. first of all, the price of buying a car in singapore isn't cheap, with COE making up a third of the car price, or sometimes even more. next the cost of maintaining it. petrol prices of increased about 40 cents/litre over the past 5 years, judging on just the 5000 petrol pump prices. and you can't forget of course, the increasing gst as well, which just adds to the price increase. yesterday when i filled up my mum's car's tank, i paid a gst of about 3.50, and in the next line, they so boldy wrote discount: $4.20. so eventually, the discount offered to their members covers just the gst! not much help there. parking your car where you live isn't getting any easier either. we all know that land is scarce in singapore, but i'm grateful that so far they haven't increasing public parking costs.

but what's the good thing about cars? when you need to go somewhere, you can just go! assuming you have enough money to maintain the car lah. rain or shine the car will be there for you to use. much unlike taxis. sure rain or shine they'll be there for you, but after how long?

now there are 7 cab companies out there, the last time i counted. but somehow, whenever it rains, or during the evening rush hour, there will always be a shortage of cabs. i believe that during those 2 mentioned time periods, most cab drivers in singapore will be out and about, because that's when they can make money for sure, but what actually makes the "shortage" of cabs worse, is the traffic jams. which is why they're having this debate in the first place!

and why i think there even is this debate in the first place, is because the government is pushing up bus and train prices as well! and the reason they give is because of increasing fuel prices. come on, the whole world is dealing with increasing oil prices, so how about subsidising the price of fuel for buses and trains? i know that's what the taxi company comfort is doing for their taxis! the government is always pushing for singaporeans to use more public transport, to decrease the number of vehicles on the road. but how would increasing the cost of taking public transport help? you push up the price, for whatever reason, fine i can give that to you, but then you don't increase the level of service, you don't increase the frequency of buses and trains when singaporeans need them the most, how on earth do you expect us to keep using it? i think the main problem is that many, if not most, of the ministers nowadays all drive. they don't experience rush hour traffic in an mrt station, or after a whole day of shopping, trying to get on to a crammed train home. sure the younger ones might have, but the older ones who can make the most change is actually so used to having their behinds chaffeured around in nice cars, which they can easily buy given how much bloody money they're earning now, to know the problem that MOST singaporeans are facing.

i say let them taste it! let them taste rush our traffic down underground, and do it without all the press hoohah, without people clearing the way for you and having one whole train compartment to yourself, because honestly that would only piss off even more people, especially if you do it right in the middle of the train. and don't send "surveyors" as you call them to do the research for you. because they will send you results, they will send you their suggestions, but all you end up doing is reading it, then coming out in the papers saying that you "understand the plight of commuters", and not doing anything to help it. you're paid to make change, so make a GOOD CHANGE!

but one thing that never has been a strong culture here is car pooling. it would definitely help with reducing traffic! imagine if every car out there had at least 3 people. instead of just 1 or 2... how many fewer cars there would be out there! and you all share the petrol and maintanence cost, depending on what kind of arrangement you make. but then i guess, you have to be really fortunate to have people who live really near you, and who go to the same area as you in the morning for work. that's something that isn't promoted enough in singapore. it's just suggested, but not really pushed for. but i say it'd definitely help the traffic condition.

all i can say is, that if they keep increasing prices slowly but surely, the number of cars on the street won't go down until the next big recession hits singapore. and when that does, the people who make the most money will be those who scrap cars for a living...

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

IT'S DECEMBER!!!

i haven't blogged for ages, mainly because i've been lazy hahaha phuket with t19 was probably the best holiday ever man... only thing tt ruined it was the rain. froze all our asses off on the 3rd day. but the karting, swimming, banana boating, snorkelling, treating the back of a tuk tuk likea club, and just the company was really a wonderful experience. the image of me dozing off while knocking on chip's door trying to wake them up is still fresh in my mind hahaha falling asleep while trying to wake someone up, quite hilarious if you think about it. i think i got more photos from the 4 days than the total from my entire wallaby training =p wonder if we'll be going anywhere next year. some ideas were already being thrown around even before we left phuket man hahaha but 9 was a just nice group size for this outing. oh yes and how could i forget the shopping... there was so much going on until we formed a group called the waiting men (ala the thinking man)...



this is what happens after the girls spend alot of time shopping, and the guys are just bored of shopping because after a while all the shirts and pants look the same hahaha something the army inadvertently taught us, how to wait... and wait... and wait...

anyway this week was my one and only week of december back in camp. had duty on sunday and tuesday. cleared 3 points in 3 days. easy stuff lah, mainly cos alot of regulars were out of camp hahaha and my pc quite sad. supposed to get posted to new unit, but then kenna thrown back over here coz they found out he's going to ord next june, so they didn't want him hahaha oh well... can ask him for off. hopefully he's in a giving mood next year.

classmates are coming over on boxing day for our year end gathering. should be doing steamboat bah... since bbq is quite taxing. have yet to confirm that part. looking forward to the gift exchange man! alot of funny stuff suddenly appears, especially when girly stuff ends up with guys hahaha

oh and my mum changed her car! hahaha i came back from phuket to see a blue jazz sitting in my car porch. must say that it's a hell lot better than the mazda 2. in terms of performance, drivability and fuel economy, it's much much better. and it even LOOKS better! hahaha practically everything's a plus from the mazda 2! except i haven't tried whether her back seats can fold down so that the boot can get bigger. shall try that when she goes overseas in a couple of days heehee

suddenly i've become an employment agent for a couple of my friends. got joshua and weijie a job at my mum's department, and sort of helped shufang indirectly. soon derek and his friend are going to work in my mum's hotel as well, so who wants to work at a hotel? hahaha pay isn't very wonderful, but the experience is good! just ask joshua! hahaha you get lots of free food!!! hahaha

wendy's in cambodia now. with her 3 good friends. the day she flew off, an article appeared in the papers about unrest in cambodia again. monks fighting police... and it actually showed a picture of a monk charging at a police man who was wielding a riot shield and a baton. something seriously going wrong in the place, so i've been worried ever since. but so far she said wherever she is they're not getting any effects of the unrest. well all i can hope is that she's enjoying herself over there :) she'll only be back on christmas night, so at least can join my class for our pot luck. really hope nothing goes wrong over there... =(

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

N22...

so ex wallaby has come and gone. in it, ex dt1 and dt2 (die together twice man...) i must say it was a very enriching experience. eating all that sand has made me appreciate singapore air more. and since the training area is 4x the size of singapore, it wouldn't be uncommon to travel up to 100km a day. in a car it wouldn't be so much of a problem, but in my noisy tin can of a toy... it can give you a real headache, buttache, earache, or whatever ache some might have experienced =p

so our vehicles got beaten up and abused. road wheels flying off during movement, broken cables, mirrors and structures, screwed up petrol gauges, breaking down during movement... it all happened to our 3 vehicles. but luckily my vehicle didn't break down. so when the others did, somehow i had to keep waiting for them just so that they wouldn't get lost

so in the end topo-ing in wallaby didn't turn out to be as hard as i thought it would. gps and bms combined, no armour vehicle can ever get lost again hahaha

the weather there was kind of puzzling as well. apparently it hadn't rained there for more than 5 years, but somehow this time around it rained every 15 minutes! so for me standing up, it's like 5 mins rain followed by 15 mins of sun! just repeat the cycle for a couple of hours and you'd roughly know how screwed up it felt. got quite alot of pictures of the wallaby experience, but for my own safety i can't put up a large percentage of them. too much classified information i guess.

so back from 3 weeks of wallaby, i've now got 3 weeks of off and leave, before i go back to camp for a couple of days, and then run off again until january hahaha this is the soon-to-ord life that i need man. managed to borrow bang's ps2 today, and quite alot of games. intending to borrow josh's ds too hahaha a couple of good new rpgs out for psp too! alot of (rather unproductive) stuff to burn my time with hahaha ok lah they're more like... additional things to do.

today, or rather ytd since it's past midnight, marked my 2 years together with wendy. went to barnacles on sentosa for dinner. it was nice!!! nice and tender lamb, and the ambience was quite nice too! except that the sea breeze let us down for a bit, so i did sweat a little hahaha gave her the whole load of hearts i made for her, glad she liked them. got another video from her for this year again. didn't seem too long ago that i got my 1st video. time flies... many things we've experienced, many ways we've grown and changed for each other. but one thing that hasn't changed is the way we feel for each other... and that's the most important thing =)

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

3 more days...

today while i was eating dinner, the thought of me booking in just crossed my mind. and then i realised that i'm on off tomorrow hahaha i think every sunday night for me now is just preparation to book in. so it just feels weird. it's like... after A levels when u're used to studying every single waking moment, that when you play AFTER your exams are over you feel guilty hahaha ok maybe not all of you felt that, but i sure did. thank goodness it didn't last more than a day =p

now thinking more about it, wallay SHOULD be an interesting experience, especially when i gotta topo to my deployment ground. there won't be anyone there who can help me man. just me, my compass, protractor and gps. just hope i can find my way...

these few days of off have been the most i've spent at home since BMT block leave. one whole week of sleeping at home in my own bed. good rest for wallaby i guess. but after wallaby it'll be even longer hahaha ahhh the wonders of clearing leave in december =) seriously can't wait for all of it to be over man. imagining how last time guys did 2.5 years of army just drives me crazy... instead of ord-ing in feb i would've ord-ed in september. really would've gone completely crazy man hahaha

josh and derek are almost done. all i can say is that they really deserve it. after all the shit they've been through. they deserve their ord the most

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

B/O, wallaby, off and leave till 121207

that's what i wrote under the remarks for my book out book today before i left camp. so as of today i wouldn't see my bunk for 1.5 months hahaha half of that time will be spent in australia in the desert, and the other half will be spent slacking at home and hopefully going to phuket with my classmates =) before we unload the damned equipment from the containers, which i wouldn't be looking forward to, but oh well... last hurdle before i can finally start relaxing.

today handed over our kit bags, so won't see them again until i'm in australia. still got some stuff to bring over. my genius of a brigade wants us to bring 3 different jackets over. gortex jacket, brigade windbreaker and the army sweater that we've been issued with. stupid? well, we also have to bring along the brigade singlet, cap, shirt and identity badge. stupid? extremely overdone and unnecessary is all i can say. just takes up space in our bags which could be much better used for other stuff seriously

well the only problems i foresee overseas is the freezing cold temperature at night, and the uber expensive stuff there. but i guess the buying of stuff can be avoided, if not reduced, but the temperature at night could just kill me. i've never been good with the cold, and sleeping in a tentage with only flaps to keep us "warm" isn't going to help much. hope i don't freeze to death over there man hahaha

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

ikea in my mum's car...

was supposed to go sentosa today for some beach volleyball, something which i haven't done for the longest time. BUT, someone up there didn't want me to go i guess, and it kind of rained the whole day, so just stayed at home and washed my SBO. it still had mud from tekong man... and one of the metal buckles is already cracked, but luckily it's still strong enough to hold the strap there hahaha had to tear apart the whole thing man. all 6 of it... such a hassle. and can only assemble it again when i'm in australia. bloody mafan.

in the evening went to ikea for dinner and a little shopping. janet bought billy (a rather tall bookshelf) and a metal cabinet. and we had a really fun time shoving it in my mum's car and trying to get sitting space for janet and wendy. my gear stick almost couldn't move, and i had to lean forward to see my left wing mirror hahaha basically 2/3 of my car became storage space, and janet squeezed into a small corner in the what was initially the boot, and wendy just sat behind my chair laughing at janet hahaha then of course we had the fun part of moving it up to janet's 8 floor flat. thank god for lifts is all i can say hahaha but it's one of the really rare interesting things that i've done with the car so far. luckily my mum's car is a hatchback.

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

cohesiveness...

had a free day out of camp today since it was my platoon cohesion. in the morning went to jurong east swimming complex, to swim (duh...) and just waste time. went there early in the morning so that could stay out on thursday hahaha after that we went to suntec for kushin bo. you know on the advertisement it sounds like fishing bowl... so yeah... all of us left with a considerable bulge from under the shirt in the belly region hahaha basically we were all damn full =p

and something interesting that doesn't really happen quite often... while on the way to pick up my mum from her workplace about at hour ago, was driving down town and was experiencing a shit hell of a jam. as i slowly (very very slowly) got down the road, saw that there was a suzuki swift broken down on the right most lane. and it was pretty new, so my guess was that he modified his engine and it cocked up. after that, the jam didn't improve! so just kept slowly rolling down, and realised that there was a BMW broken down in the middle lane just after rendezvous hotel!!! don't see a broken down BMW everyday. and the road under his car was really wet, so all i could assume was that he blew his engine hahaha but yah it must've really sucked to have your car broken down in the middle of orchard road. damn paiseh for sure...

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

of friendster and facebook...

so this is why alot of companies are banning the use of facebook in the office. it's like friendster and one of those cheap online game sites with easy to play games. so yeah if you've really got nothing better to do at night, (like me for the past half an hour), it's a great way to spend time. otherwise it's another way to wonderfully pass your otherwise would be studying or sleeping time. but i seriously don't see myself losing sleep over this. but it sure beats studying hahaha

anyway my life now is uhhh... sitting in bunk awaiting last minute sai kang to fly my way. other than that, physical training is sort of intensifying for the upcoming wallaby, and everyone is just ia jolly good off mood, with company/platoon cohesions going as fast they're coming. basically alot of people are trying to "escape" before we fly off. and i've got 4 more days to "escape" with before i fly too. and planning for leave in december is proving to be quite inflexible because no one really knows when the damned crates will be back for us to unload. oh well...

haven't met up with my class for about 3 months man. wonder how they're doing... should still be in one piece i guess. eh wait, must wait till josh and derek get back first, then i can safely say that statement.

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

some things are just unexplainable...

zen's going kind of loopy i think. first she doesn't want the bone from either wendy or my maid. then when she has it, for the first time ever, she doesn't chew it into smithereens! just holds on to it, and if any one gets near her, human or dog she just growls and makes noise. damn protective over her bone man. she even barked and scared wendy the other day. really weird behaviour from her... hope she isn't losing it man.

tags:
derek: hey bro next sat night my grandma's birthday dinner lah!!! don't know what time i'll end also...

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

AOH and wallaby packing...

burned the previous weekend standing at a booth at the army open house. being at PLC and walking around on the road, parade square, cookhouse and canteen, just made me think back about the really shitty times in charlie. running around the camp in vest and slack in the morning while all 5 other bslc companies are at the cookhouse already eating their breakfast. running across the leaders square to alpha/bravo/astw and back again and again. "charlie company 15 rows in front of the grandstand MOVE!" sweating every single waking moment. it was just so different from my times in bmt and signals course. oh well... it was, shall i say interesting (?) while it lasted.

so anyway i spent my time at AOH on my feet from 7.30 in the morning will about 8.30 at night, with only an hour break for lunch and dinner inbetween. needless to say it WAS tiring, and seriously not many people were that interested in our booth. more people asked for stick on tattoos and whether we had any freebies like badges or posters. must say i felt really useful hahaha just that weekend was burnt, which kind of sucked. but overall the turn out was really good, even though it rained EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! and everytime it rained more people came to us for tattoos hahaha

this week packing for wallaby began in earnest. going to continue next week, before the auzzie guys come by to check before we ship them over.

tags:
derek: if i had that kind of money i wouldn't have to worry so much about cheap cars man hahaha

chip: COE now is abt 12k lah. my dad recently changed his car and it was around there.

many: i didn't exactly say u'd be bigger... u brought it up first in your blog hahaha

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

cars...

hah! i'm back again... and i'm just doing a simple comparision of cars

mitsubishi lancer 1.6(M) - 46k
toyota vios 1.5 (M) - 51.5k
honda city 1.5 (M) - 56k
subaru impreza 1.6 (M) - 52.4k

excluding all those cheap china brands, these are the next best already. oh and mazda apparently isn't too forthcoming with their prices on their official website, and i'm just too tired now to look elsewhere for prices. oh well the media team has left the office, so now i can have a sound sleep till 5.45. goodnight world... again...

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

a little checklist...

suddenly just felt like writing down some things i want to do after army. and yes i'm still in camp...

@ pick up playing the piano again. got alot more scores at home waiting to be played. want to find final fantasy song too
@ repair/maintain my bike and go cycling. don't think i'll buy a new one cos it'll cost way too much
@ learn to rollerblade!!!
@ go snorkeling
@ and of course to fund all this, find some tuition so that i at least will have some form of income. not used to getting pocket money from the folks anymore

and there's one thing i really don't want to do after i ORD, and that is enter uni early under the programme they got for NS guys. because that would mean i'll have very little time to do the things mentioned above =( but i wonder if they would understand...

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

the price of AHM 2007

in the eyes of a regular in my unit, this might be daunting and stressful, but at least they've done this before. for those not in the organising unit, they might just seem sian coz they've gotta run 10/21km. but for people like me (i.e. an NSF in the organising unit), it really is a whole new experience.

well basically my PS is in charge of ALL, and yes i mean ALL, the water and 100 plus that goes into AHM this year. so obviously we got roped in to help him collect and redistribute it all. all 97520kg of it. yes, that's ALMOST 100,000kg of fluid. for the 65000 participants in the run. i even managed to meet up with derek and joshua who came to collect the damn water. never felt so sick of ice mountain water in my life hahaha tonight i'm on COS duty, and managed to sneak online to post this, but after my duty ends tomorrow morning i'll be helping to pack lunch for the 2000 people who are cleaning up after all you runners. so the moral of the story is... i know you might be shagged... you might be pissed... you might be irritated... but please don't throw your cups all along the road, and for goodness sake don't waste the water that me and my guys carried around until we got bruises on our arms. we'd appreciate your little efforts greatly =)

so AHM prep is in full swing now. some of my friends have been at the bay area since 7.30 this morning. other groups have been in the cookhouse since 2pm packing and delivering rations for those at the bay area, and then there's those of us left in camp holding down the fort and printing last minute documents, helping figure out where the hell everyone is, and then there are those who just came back to camp a while ago, and will have to leave at 11.30pm. ahhh the adventures of an NSF tangled up in singapore's largest public sports event. such an eye opener indeed, and definitely more interesting than just running in it.

on another note... the last week of august is approaching, and wallaby is just getting nearer. means packing is gg to start!!! i soooo want to get an MC. i'm like such a good boy... since the beginning of NS 1 year and 4 months ago, i haven't been on a single day of MC or att C. sick also drag my ass to camp. sometimes really wonder where i get all my motivation from also. i guess it'll all vanish once i'm back from australia hahaha till then... last burst of fire i guess.

wah the phone is ringing again... sianzzz... i already sense arrows flying towards me *cue darth vadar music*

*pant pant*

tags:
koon: i'm intending to extract my wisdom teeth after i'm back from wallaby too!!! might as well lah since i need more excuses to help me disappear from camp in december

bang: not my fault leh... you give me the spoilt controller. well at least can still play ff 10. and obviously you don't like RPG games hahaha

fuzz: weekend COS sucks man!!! hahaha

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

party by the bay

ndp passed by without incident for me... thankfully, since i'm still on standby. still got rumours tt we'll be recalled on the 25, since must book in that day to prep for AHM on the 26. but the big problem is... I'M ON COS DUTY ON THE 25!!!!!!! if kenna recall will have to make alot of calls which is seriously just something i don't need man, especially on what should be a nice quiet saturday. just what i don't need man. but because i'm on duty on saturday i don't think i'll have to go on sunday, unless they're really that evil and make me rush down after my duty.

luckily i recorded the ndp man. coz the first time around i couldn't see derek! but on more careful scrutiny and the wonderful button called "pause", i found derek on tv!!! hahaha quite cool...

other happenings... not much lah. just part of my normal lifestyle nowadays, so not much to report. oh yeah i got a 1gb zen v plus from chip, since she doesn't want it anymore. and yes i did pay for it.

packing for wallaby will start soon. that'll be a hell of a few weeks. don't wanna imagine how much tissue i'd have to use on my runny nose, which would definitely come by thanks to the ability of SAF camps to attract dust.

chinese new year 2008... the best CNY of my life!!!

tags:
yuzheng: tt was my second time to chemical defence. seriously didn't look forward to it again hahaha

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

august is here!!!

i'm just 6 months away from ord... that's 180 days. i can actually feel it coming!!! but there are quite a few obstacles in the way, such as ahm and wallaby. and of course as with this unit there'll always be unforeseen stuff that decides to pop up now and then. and duties are overflowing yet again, since there aren't any corporals left behind to do COS duty. ahhh wtf... army sucks. have to wake up before 5 tomorrow just to get to PLC for chemical defence for my brigade guys. GAS! GAS! GAS! and see grown man cry... and cough and spit and curse and swear. but i guess the last 4 are rather common sights. got COS duty the day before ahm... so i'm not so sure how much part i'll have to play in it. at most go there shagged hahaha

many's coming back on the 19th... it's a sunday but not sure exactly what time she'll be back though. hopefully it's not at night so that can go meet her. i'm guessing... she'll be a bigger many, since we all know that ang-moh food is really quite... well let's just say it has the unique ability to make you bigger hahaha don't worry many i'm sure it won't have such ad adverse effect on you. and as to why black guys keep coming on to you... can ask derek lah, maybe he'll have a deeper insight than all of us hahaha

sorry ah derek can't meet u this friday since i've got duty. well at least we'll definitely go sentosa after many comes back. eh shit... the wkend after many comes back got duty and ahm, so can't go with u'll le, then september i don't wanna even think about how much more shit there'll be. nvm time can be made... i hope...

now say it with me... GAS! GAS! GAS!!!

tags:
koon: gedong ain't the camp i'm at man... it's just one of the camps i go to quite often, since it's the main armour camp in singapore. what on earth were u doing there man?

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

finally... slack...

today was seriously the best day in my past 6 weeks so far. had absolutely NOTHING to do... slept in the morning after first parade until 10.30, then after lunch at 2.30 went to the gym. first time exercising since bold titan and bold strike started. had a good time working almost all mny muscle groups there. more of conditioning than training lah, but that's really more than i could ask for. then after that played a little badminton in the atrium. used the make-shift poles we stole from 22LSG while we were cleaning it up, and the net is only a BIT higher. and we can even play tennis with it!!! hahaha but sadly our atrium isn't exactly big enough for a proper badminton game, so we invented table badminton! i.e. we hold the racket like ping pong rackets and get it on hahaha it is possible, but your hand will hurt like hell after a while. oh and today i realised i got 3 days of off left instead of my expected 2!!! hahaha one more day man... who would mind =p

i hope tomorrow goes by as peacefully as it did today =)

tags:
derek: well i'm sure u'll deserved the hard screwing man hahaha at least it's over for you man!!!

mad: waste time in school for what? quickly go home and sleep man!!! hahaha

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

never thought i'd be doing this...

so here i am on a sunday morning, when i normally would either be sleeping on my bed, at church or at sentosa, typing this entry in my company office hahaha all thanks to my friend who did a little tweaking around with some cpus, and now i've got internet in the office! just as well i didn't have much exciting things to do today, since there aren't any new and nice psp games out there. all i'm looking forward to is god of war seriously, but then it won't be out so soon, so from now till then i'm seriously having some problems figuring out what to buy!!! so just play my old games loh hahaha what to do right...

anyway the past week was yet another week outfield for me. attached to commander atec for 42. the guy actually took his few thousand dollar camera and lenses outfield to take pictures of birds man. and obviously it didn't interest me too much. the fighting was really much slower than i expected. somehow it seemed a bit less intense than the ftx a couple of weeks ago. oh and the commander is from sji and cjc too. what a small world. that being said i've finally completed my 5th consecutive week out of camp. of which 4 weeks were outfield, and 1 week was for the cao coc parade. got off tomorrow and tuesday, after which it'll most probably be back to plc for the wargames with the US

yesterday went to the zoo with some of my classmates, wendy and bang. as usual they argued and argued, but at least it made things a bit more interesting. haven't been to the zoo since primary 6 man!!! 8 whole years. but then again, how often can one go to the zoo? hahaha we were fortunate though, since there was a baby hippo which was just 10 days old. pretty good timing i must say.

man i need some new games... seriously...

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

of autobots and decepticons

well took a day off today at the order of my OC, so i went to watch transformers. man it was hands down the best damn movie of the year. seriously much cooler than i thought it would've been. when they weren't fighting they were transforming, and when they weren't transforming it was funny. great mix of action and comedy, and what movie is complete without a hot ass babe man hahaha 10 out of 10 for me. and watching this movie at home on a computer or tv screen seriously won't feel as good, because only in the cinema can you experience the sheer size of the whole thing. and what i really didn't expect was the short aerial fight sequence. everything was in just the right proportions =) kudos to the producers of the year's best movie! seriously considering watching it again man hahaha

on the down side... i've got cos duty tomorrow. but that just means i can spend the whole day slacking in the office. but on the up side, tomorrow i can officially remove that triangle when i drive MUAHAHAHAHA already one year gone by since i got my driving licence. but kids, driving is about responsibility. (hmmm...) yah so drive safe =)

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

my "block" leave

past 2 weeks have been filled with outfield. ex bold strike and ex bold titan. 1st week i spent in the back of a BX. 2nd week i spent in the back of a rover. 2 completely different sleeping environments. but then you realise that the human is actually able to sleep in areas so confined and uncomfortable. there are some things your cannot learn in the classroom ;)

felt kind of sick from the beginning of bold titan. but just went through with it lah. slept only 4 hours in 2.5 days, so it didn't help my condition. on thursday spent half a day cleaning the rebro bronco with just the driver, since there weren't enough tools. by the end of it, i sat on my bed and felt pain in my chest and i breathed. and when i lay down it got worst. breathing was near impossible =X honestly it really freaked me out. then on thursday evening i was told the wonderful news that i'd have to do COS duty on friday, since my csm didn't schedule anyone for that day. what choice do i have right... so just sucked it up and did it lah. according to my friend i looked like a zombie for most of the day =p

today and tomorrow is supposed to be my block leave. well it's more like just 2 days of off. since i wasn't feeling too wonderful by sunday, skipped my weekly badminton session with wendy and her friends, and just stayed home and rested. went out for a subway dinner at holland v though. it was nice and healthy. for those who know me, you would notice that it's the first time anything which has vegetables in it comes with the word NICE hahaha but it really does taste good. but then again i only add lettuce hahaha but hey, better than nothing right =) this morning me and my baby went to sentosa to watch the new cineblast thingy. quite cool leh, although the beginning was seriously wwwwwaaaaayyyyyy tttttoooooooooooo lllllloooooonnnnngggggg... after a while wendy and i just started looking at each other and stoning hahaha but the ride was good! but i seriously wish it was longer though, but it was still worth the money! you guys should try it =) then we just took the luge again hahaha since we were already up there. but somehow... for islanders there's no price for just the luge ride, so we had one skyride too. oh well... just making the most of our islander cards' discounts hahaha

got a fright from my ps today. at 5 he suddenly called me and asked me, "marcus you wanna do guard duty or not?" all i could say was "HUH???" hahaha apparently my csm didn't plan for it again, and he offered one day off for it. seriously it's madness lah!!! so many screw ups meh? planning for duties can be done in at MOST 6 hours? and he's got the whole month to do it, but somehow he doesn't. i really don't know why also. luckily he didn't call me back again, means my name wasn't drawn from the lot hahaha damn heng man...

tomorrow's badminton and volleyball day!!! just hope she's not too tired from her karaoke session tonight. but most likely she will be lah... just see how it goes.

wednesday and thursday i'll be attached to 93 SAB as a veh comd. can you imagine... being attached to a reservist unit to help them in training. really no rest man. so to derek the black commando, after atec there's no rest for me, coz atec doesn't involve me directly, but my unit's sub-units. after that they can still throw me around all they want until wallaby is over. such is my fate until the end of november. hell is beginning to open it's gates in my unit man... gotta entertain a whole lot of US soldiers next month too...

at least we're getting more pay from next month onwards =X

happy 19 baby =)

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

AAARRRGGGHHHHHH

that's pretty much what i wanted to do for the entire night, and even up till now. but seriously i'm in no mood to discuss anything that's happened this week. all i feel like doing is driving... and driving and driving. and running away... far far away...

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

short weekends...

wkends seem to be getting shorter and shorter. time really flies on weekends. this morning i got up at 6.30, simply because i completely KO-ed on friday night. fell asleep with my room light on and just got up at army timing and slacked in my room, since later was going to watch ocean's 13 at 10.30 with wendy. not as good as the first one, but still entertaining enough i guess. oh and yesterday was pay day! so now i've got money again!!! hahaha watched songs of the sea tonight too. must say it was worth the 4 bucks, since they actually use quite a large amount of pyrotechnics, so yes it was worth it =)

tomorrow i'm going to play badminton again, then will have to book in slightly earlier since monday will be leaving camp at 6+ for 4d3n exercise. 2 weeks of this shit man... and next sunday must mount over 20 rovers with signal sets. oh well, being in brigade has it's pros and cons.

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

screwed up off

thank goodness for the islander card. well let me start from the beginning. at first i was supposed to have a whole day off today, but because of ARR training, i went back to camp in the morning and changed my off to a half day. so in the afternoon i went to sentosa with wendy with the purpose of watching the new songs of the sea, and sitting on the skyride and luge. we only managed the latter because the 7.40 performace was sold out, and obviously i can't watch the 8.40 because i have to book in tonight.

while on the way to sentosa suddenly my ps called me and informed me that i'll have to go outfield tomorrow as commander's signaller, and get this, THERE WON'T BE ANY SIGNAL SET MOUNTED!!! that just highlights the point even more that signallers are like PAs when we're outfield. for those who aren't so in tune with army lingo, PAs are personal assistants. so whatever the guy you're under wants, you just do for him lah hahaha so tomorrow and wednesday i'll be outfield for the planning phase of 42 atec. involved right from the start man. most likely all the way till 2 weeks later. nvm at least my june will hopefully pass by faster. got to go bathe and get back to camp soon. need to sleep after the torture my legs and lungs went through this morning.

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

lots and lots of exercise...

i've been sweating alot lately, and will sweat alot more in time to come. on saturday i went to sentosa again to play volleyball. this time it didn't rain, but we still sat in the same playground and played saboteur again. tini and i make good saboteurs together man hahaha just that i take all the restrictions for myself hahaha like some scapegoat like that. but the weather that day was really damn good. it looked like it was going to rain a couple of times, but in the end it didn't, so no problem at all =) and because we left later, the showers were really empty!!! hahaha now we all know when to leave sentosa =)

today went to SP to play badminton with wendy and her good friend. another group of people there were so adamant about the doors being closed so we all played in a really stuffy hall. just because there might be a LITTLE wind, even though i doubt there would be since the hall was surrounded by other buildings, there were just being picky and blaming the wind instead of themselves for their apparently not so existent skills hahaha so yes i ended up sweating quite alot again. if you know me well you would know that i sweat really really easily.

and this week onwards we're going to have lots and lots of running. monday, wednesday and friday will have ARR training, and tuesday will have life run. so basically my legs will be overworked. well at least i got half day off tomorrow, so can go on the skyride and watch songs of the sea with wendy. got my islander card on saturday, since it only takes 7 visits to cover the cost of the card. plus the other discounts you can get, i'll cover already half the cost from our trip tomorrow =) so i guess it's all worth it. anyway i'd most probably be going more often since it's wendy's holidays now, and she won't be having exams until next june, and i ord next february and the card expires next june too!!! hahaha

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

2 new games i'm looking forward to... God Of War: Chains of Olympus for the PSP and Medal Of Honour: Airborne for the PC. 2 games that should make my day heehee

on an entirely different note... ARGH WHY MUST BOOK IN TONIGHT?!?!!?!?

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

500th post

so cool man, since starting this blog in september '03, this would be my 500th post. lucky blogger has a counter otherwise i would never have known i've reached that many =p

anyway this has been one of the most, profitable (?), months for me in the army so far. a couple of weeks ago i got markman at combat shoot me, which got me 200 bucks. then the government announced the gst rebate thingy, so i got another hundred bucks. yesterday i got my ippt silver for my 2nd year of service, which means another hundred bucks. so altogether, within a month i've gotten 400 more bucks hahaha but it definitely won't come all at one shot so i doubt i'd ever see the thousand dollar mark on my paycheck from the saf =p but still it feels good to have cleared my ippt, and get so much extra money hahaha but still next few months are going to be really shitty times

and i recently realised how fortunate i am to not have been born one year later. reason being is, this year my unit is only going to wallaby. but next year, end of feb they'll be going to india. then some time in the middle of the year they'll be going to taiwan, and to round of the year they'll be going to wallaby again. how wonderful is that man. yes you get lots of experience, but packing and unpacking will just kill you, and combine that with all the amber periods, i think they'll just die. but at least it means they'll have less of those little exercises, but i'm sure they'll still have to contend with at least 41 atec then. good luck to my new guys then, since they ORD december 2008 (wah suddenly i feel so good MUAHAHAHAHA)

last couple of weeks shaun wong was actually at my camp for a couple of days, and somehow both days he was there, once i was on nights out and just yesterday i was on half day off. talk about bad timing man. and tomorrow ben tay will going over too, but i'll be on COS duty and therefore i won't be able to leave the office to meet him. seriously lah, i think i'm not meant to meet my sji friends in the army or something. either meet my cj friends, or meet my sji friends out of camp. don't know why there's such bad timing also.

watched pirates 3 last sunday. the fight scenes were really well choreographed i must say, and they threw in just the right amount of humour, but there were some parts where it got a little too draggy with all the pirate talk and all. and the sudden introduction of so many new characters just threw the movie off a little, with the star jack suddenly sharing the same amount of limelight as barbossa and turner. but oh well at least it was all fun at the end of the trilogy =)

she's off to malaysia with her parents today for a little tour. hope she has fun and nothing bad happens. will be going to bang's house later to swim. alot of exercise over the next few days i guess. saturday volleyball, sunday badminton, monday ARR training. what a good way to stay fit hahaha

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

crappy week but a good weekend =)

another week of army gone by. monday had to set up our rebros again just to help ccp test their comm box. tuesday had COS duty. wednesday went to TP4 for a whole day. set up our rebro 3 times in total. 2 in the afternoon and once at night. it's hard when u can't see anything at night, since we had to practice light discipline, but wallaby will be worse if there's no moonlight at all, so just got to pray it won't be so bad when i'm there, but u never know. went to bed around 1 after cleaning my boots and cleaning up. thursday had to wake up early for muster parade. got up at 6 to set up the PA system. in the afternoon had to unpack our stores and transport them further since our broncos weren't parked right in front of our line store, and clean all our stores. the sun was really mad at that time. on friday went to gedong for half a day. managed to get a look at the new leopard tank. it's really damn wide, but very very low. just what you need to prevent the tank from overturning i guess. and the SM1 barrel probably can fit into the leopard's barrel hahaha and on friday to top it up had guard duty. was quite an eventful one lah. one guard from my company didn't know he was on duty. DO pulled a couple of stunts, and really had to clean up since 41 was having their family day on saturday. FSM was coming lah, so it's another matter of wayang.

so after just 3 hours of sleep on friday night, went to sentosa with my classmates and wendy. bought a new vball and flying ring (it's something like a frisbee), and learnt to play a new game called saboteur. one of those cute card games that josh happened to buy. the new ring can really fly man... put a litle bit more strength in it and it really FLIES!!! quite stunning. and the new ball is nice. actually we bought it coz i totally forgot to bring my own hahaha i actually brought the ball pump but somehow forgot abt the ball =p after that went to vivo for dinner, then sent wendy to marina south. oh yeah and i did alot of driving since my dad's away in china. drove to camp on thursday night, and from there drove home, to vivo, to sentosa, back to vivo then to marina south. really alot. feels good to drive, even though it can be tiring driving a manual car, but for rather short distances it's alright

today had billy bomber's for lunch, watched pirates, and ended the day with a hog's breath dinner. really too much fried western food for a day hahaha

gotta bathe and get ready for another week. it SHOULDN'T be too eventful, but some things can never be confirmed. till next weekend then...

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

$$$

this week passed by rather quickly i must say. monday and tuesday was spent training the new guys. basically just keep setting up and tearing down the rebro, and putting up the camo a couple of times. when u're in it time just goes by really quickly. wednesday went to IMT for combat shoot on friday. that passed by rather quickly too. spent like 4+ hours waiting, and was only in the simulation room for 10 minutes at most hahaha

thursday and friday was spent at range. on thursday i basically helped to cover safety for the entire day and night shoot. time passed by quicker than usual for a live range since u were busy for every detail. but friday was kind of boring, since we arrived around 10 and could only commence the night shoot at 1930. so spent like 4 hours waiting for it to get dark. really a waste of time. but still, i got 200 bucks in the end, so it's sort of worth it i guess. when i fired my rifle for the combat zeroing target, i thought i'd have a really hard time, but it turns out tt i didn't have to zero it at all! it was perfect!!! hit every single target, so i felt really good. during the combat shoot itself i missed 1 in the day and 1 at night. the day one was really stupid. scolded myself after the shot.

today got a letter saying that i'll get 100 bucks for some GST credits for ns guys. so cool man hahaha so it's like a 300 bucks bonus out of no where. then from july onwards will get 50 more bucks until i ORD. so i got an extra half month's pay suddenly hahaha i guess the government has realised that army guys do want to spend more on wkends, so they're in a way just helping the economy =)

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

a new many?

yesterday went to the airport to send many off. met josh and derek too! since they came back from taiwan in the middle of the week. good to see they're fine. anyway many will be in the US for 3 whole months. a really wonder what she'll be like when she comes back. fatter? more ang moh? talk with a funny accent? we'll never know. whatever it is, when she comes back, i'll still be busy since it's like the beginning of my amber period. such a wonderful feeling man... she leaves i'm busy, she comes back i'm still busy hahaha but at least it's only for 3 months. can have mahjong and bridge sessions at her place when she comes back =)

after that went to shufang's house, apparently to watch saw, but in the end the quality of the dvd was so damn lousy, that we ended up watching cars hahaha since josh and chip hasn't watched it yet, and shufang forgot the story alr, it was alright. i just ended up dozing off on the chair. then shufang got back at me for the 2+ years of poking by giving me a hell of a massage. it hurt so much that when i lifted up my shower head at home yesterday night, it felt sore. but it's ok now =)

hopefully she does well for her 2 papers this week. her econs was a little bit of a problem. really hope the rest go alright for her. best of luck dear =)

got another chance to get 200 bucks this week...

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

my life until december...

my schedule with my brigade has become amazingly clear during the past couple of weeks. suddenly, the word "busy", which my S3 and OC and CSM all aptly chose at the beginning of the year, comes into focus. just a simple run down...

may:
just for next week, got ex bold arrow at plc from monday to thursday. will be staying over there, which equates to sleeping in some corner on the floor and attending countless boring briefings just so that i can pass information down. on top of that got guard duty on monday and friday, which means i can't go for many's farewell and josh and derek's welcome back dinner combined. but at least saturday i can send many off. the following week, my PS has come up with a 5 day training programme to cross train the 5 new CCIS guys. 6 week course compressed into 5 days, which means packed to the brim with no space to breathe. after that i've got to prepare for 42 atec. definitely will have to support them. oh and i've got combat shoot on the 16th!!! ANOTHER CHANCE FOR 200 MORE BUCKS!!! but this is more difficult

june:
3 weeks will be burnt for 42 atec i think. then after that will have to plan the brigade anniversary. as if sig coy isn't busy enough already, planning christmas, cny, deepavali etc. THEN!!! have to prepare for another wargames exercise which will happen in july. joy to the world. this time will be more xiong, since it's with the US marines i think.

july:
wargames should burn at least 1.5 weeks, and the bde anni will burn a couple of days. after all that is said and done, have to prepare for AHM and amber in august.

august:
yes it's amber round 2!!! means mounting countless radio sets onto the broncos and BXs, and testing them every single day just to make sure they're still working. amber this time around will cover national day... all the way till the end of the month. and ahm will fit somewhere towards the end.

the forecast for september is not out yet, but what's going to happen in october is pretty obvious. PREP FOR WALLABY!!!! i can hardly contain my excitement *bangs head against wall* i'll be gone for 3/4 of november. running around in a sandy wasteland, fighting for space with kangaroos, praying i don't get lost amongst all the sand, sand, and oh guess what? sand...

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

just another weekend...

since i slept at 4.30 last night, only woke up at 11 today. left soon after to cut my hair and went to surprise her at her house. same reaction as usual. but at least this time i managed to bring her away from what would've definitely been a scary experience for her. haven't gone to meet her at her place for a long time now. just hope it works now as well as it did that while ago. after that went to PS, supposedly to eat at the kopitiam, but we ended up eating carl's junior. it was like 90% my fault hahaha but at least i still enjoyed it, although it was definitely more pricely than say a bowl of yong tau fu hahaha

after that accompanied her to cc's new house. really quite nice i must say, just that... really alot of glass hahaha yes it may look aesthetically nicer, but it'll definitely be hard to clean and maintain so much glass, and the amount of heat that'll be trapped in there during the hotter periods of the year can already make you sweat. overall i would say that the house will need alot of maintanence hahaha

no formula 1 race for the next 3 weeks. and by the time the current season ends, it'll be the end of october, which basically means that when this racing season ends, i'd be pretty much neck high in wallaby prep. soemthing to look forward to, since after wallaby it's ORD LOH!!! hahaha

really hope she likes the presents i got for her...

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

that was cool...

well performed for my grandma's birthday dinner tonight. must say that... even though i thought i was prepared for it, i still made quite a bit of mistakes hahaha but at least i didn't stop! the most important i guess. being able to play a piece and allow others to enjoy it is really a real pleasure. maybe i can do it more often! just need to find a singer though, and really need to take more time to practice all the songs for sure

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

screwing with the mind...

quite alot of changes are happening in my brigade suddenly. guard mounting is back, roll calls on sunday, tuesday and thursday nights, staff parade for COS, RT on saturdays for those who can't pass ippt. basically it just makes our life that much harder. because even though i as a sergeant can pass ippt, i would have to stay back and train those guys who can't. no one expects a S3 to do that right. and flag lowering will never be as easy as it used to be anymore, and no more slacking at night while on COS duty. such things have't existed in the brigade for a really long time, so i'm wondering how come they're suddenly bringing it all back. as my friend mentioned, it's probably all part of wayang. i think being an army regular is the best occupation on earth for you to wayang. because promotion is really quite easily earned here, if you suck up to the right people and work properly, it really is quite easy. but that doesn't mean i want to be a regular, because the politics that results can really kill you. there really is quite some conflict present between senior specialists and junior officers, in terms of opinion and experience. obviously the senior specs know more than the junior officers (i.e. below the rank of major), but the officers always have the final say over the specs. like my oo said, the army cannot trust specialists, only officers. we're just the higher level grunts who help the officers get things done. just compare the number of officers in my company to specialists. it's like 3 to 16 hahaha the army is really a very confusing place.

past week been spending my time attending a bms course. thought i'd never touch this shit again after i left SI, but low and behold here i am again, sitting in an aircon room in front of a laptop learning the mechanics of the 3G army, and playing solitaire, minesweeper and freecell while listening to lessons taught by ST engineers. it's actually here that i finished my first freecell game hahaha honestly before this i didn't bother to try to complete it because it just put too much pressure on the head, but somehow this time around i've finished it at least 10 times over the past week. ahhh the things you can do when you're learning something that's 80% not related to your jobscope =p

something weird is happening to my computer... somehow it's running at 100% on both cores for i have no idea what reason for... it's quite scary. but then again this computer has been kind of funny since we got it. i'm guessing it's not completely fixed up properly yet. but this problem is making my music lag man... sucks to the core (pun intended)

was going through my friends' friendster profiles the other day, and i just had a look at some of my CI friends' profiles. then i thought back on the times i went to ATC with my area. it was both really tiring and really tough at the same time, but at least i was interesting.

hmmm my dad just came home and my dog was running away from the car like she's never seen it before... right...

anyway about ATC... was thinking that if i went back now, honestly i'd feel really compelled to wear my army slacks and boots, simply because that's the way it should feel when you're out in the jungle, now that i've gone through the magnificent 3G army transformation. of course i won't wear the full no. 4 lah, that'd be completely insane, but must admit much better equipped to survive out in the jungle now hahaha but then again ubin isn't much of a jungle anymore, with all the urbanisation going on thanks to the PAP. maybe after i ORD can go back for one last time, but that's only if there are enough of my friends who can make it back with me too. oh and speaking of npcc, i'm hoping i can go back to sji this year to catch the annual parade. don't know what to expect anymore honestly, but i won't be surprised if the standards aren't as up there as they used to be (did i just contradict myself totally???) but i wouldn't mind catching up with some teachers, provided they remember me, and just relive the atmosphere when the national anthem is played, and when the bugle is played for the outgoing sec 4 batch. hopefully on 7 august i'll be free, since it's a saturday.

unfortunately this time around my amber period starts on the 7th! coincidences abound! lasts for 3 weeks till 28 aug. and another coincidence... the last time i had my amber manning, my sister had a short break from school and went overseas with my parents, and this time around, during my amber period she'll have a break again and i think they'll be going overseas again. oh well, just bad timing i guess. life goes on

got quite alot of things to do this weekend. got to practice the song i'm supposed to play for my grandma's birthday dinner tomorrow night. far from good enough i must say, need to cut my hair for muster parade next week. need to exercise. need to... rest hahaha yeah that's all for now. till next time then...

tags:
many: with webcams? going to be really... messy hahaha but yeah that'll be interesting, assuming you actually come online the same time as we do hahaha US and singapore quite different timezones =p

fuzz: good to hear from you man. linked your blog to mine again =) take care man

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

fair share of fun and scares...

feel like going to church now is becoming more and more of a drag... maybe it's the environment that i'm in nowadays. spent 6 years in catholic schools, where they pray every morning and where people who are non-christians also pray at times, like at sec 4 where most of my class went to the chapel to pray before the start of Os. the religion influence is there and majority of people can feel it. but now in army, people never talk about religion, so maybe religion for me is based mostly on the environment i spent the most time in. or maybe because the army is simply a place where religion is non-existent, since in the local context, wars are fought not because of religion, so there isn't much mention of it in any army related document or strategy. guess it's more up to me to put it more into perspective

in the afternoon met my classmates for my belated birthday lunch. had it at fish and co at wheelock. for the first time in a long time, more guys showed up than girls hahaha mainly because the girls are all studying for exams. many and cheryl came for a while and left early to study somemore. must be really stressful. the only girl who was relatively carefree was chip hahaha since she's working now =p at the end they brought out a cake and honeslty, i was really surprised. didn't know they had bought a cake, many was really stealthy about it... should sign on with the army hahaha since she is half MAN. thanks alot for the cake guys. really appreciate it =) see you'll on 5 may for sentosa =)

after that just walked around town a little bit. dropped by the NS40 exhibition... not much lah, since i'm in the organisation hahaha walked through taka and heeren, where jerome bought a belt and vig bought a cd (again), while chip and i just followed them hahaha bumped into tang shangwei on the way back from all the shopping the the NS40 thingy. last time i saw him was in sispec. arti spec... good to see him again. but for 4 days of work they only get 1 day of off hahaha what's new =p

didn't meet her today, and that resulted in another argument. sadly they're happening more and more often nowadays. not that i want them to happen, but somehow misunderstandings between us keep coming up. i just hope she doesn't think that i'm better than the person i am, and as a result keep feeling disappointed. i'm just doing what i think i should do, but i have to admit, i've got to do something about my memory. i'm not remembering stuff that i should be, which is somehow causing conflicts between us. really need to do something about that man.

anyway for now, saying so long for now to josh and derek as they head off to taiwan early tomorrow morning. take care of yourself guys. it'll be tough, but after that ORD will be within sight. just look forward to that and don't let your unit down man. see you'll when you get back =)

tags:
bang: i hope you get wassuped by all your guys man hahaha

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

my fingers need a miracle

next saturday night is my grand ma's birthday dinner. thank goodness it's not the same day as the t19 sentosa outing. but the thing about the dinner is that the cousins are supposed to sing a song for her, and i was chosen to play the piano! don't know why they chose me seriously since amelia is seriously a much better piano player than me. so i've got one week to work out the score, get used to playing with an organ and then play it in front of a bunch of relatives. sure playing my immortal would've been harder at rockafella, but then i'd been playing my immortal way way before rockafella came around, so in a way this is harder since my confidence level is far from up there where it needs to be. and i don't know how much time i'll have to practice this week, since i don't know when that bms course is supposed to start and how many nights i can come home this week to practice... don't think it'll go very well though. just have to try my best

and my hands are itching like mad!!! looks like i got some bad skin infection or something...

tomorrow having another class outing, since josh and derek will be going to taiwan early monday morning. hopefully fish and co is still nice hahaha

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

happy birthday with bites...

i'm 20!!! my god!!! i don't feel a damn thing hahaha seriously alot of people say that reaching 20 is like some milestone in life before hitting 21 because your age now starts with a number 2, but i guess i'm numb to the whole thing or something, because i'm seriously unaffected by it i guess hahaha i just used it to get half day off today hahaha

was involved in exercise tiger balm from monday morning till thursday afternoon. was attached to ops wo for the whole thing. his main job appt in this exercise was area management oic. by that, he mainly opens and closes gates and overseas more important areas used for training, like the heli insertions on the 2nd night. quite cool lah, see super pumas and chinooks do blind landings in the dark. as usual bumped into 3 sig doing trg again. every time i'm on exercise they're out there training lah! best signal bn doesn't come easy i guess. first 2 nights slept a total of 3.5 hours in the back of a rover, mainly cos i had to man the radio and we were moving around alot. only on the 3rd night when everyone rested had a rather solid 5 hours of sleep. was only interupted now and then by the rover parked next to mine, since they left the radio on with speakers on full blast with no one in the damn rover!!! pissed me off so much, but i seriously couldn't move from the floor of the rover.

the weird thing about gedong is that... in the day there are no mosquitoes, but you get swarmed by flies. but at night the flies go away and the mozzies come out to wreak havok. i guess in a way the mosquitoes are smarter, working at night when it's cooler hahaha but at least flies don't bite. they just keep hovering around you =p

no one knew it was my birthday on wednesday. in a way also good lah, cos i don't wanna get any special treatment outfield. not fair to the rest, but like i said, i just used it to get half day off today hahaha i feel so evil. anyway thanks to all the people who msged me on wednesday night. that was the best night of all the 3 nights there, since i managed to get the most sleep, and all the well wishes made me feel better even though i was already half asleep.

somehow over the past couple of weeks been feeling like i'm falling sick. but just keep taking medicine every time i feel even a little bit off. during the past exercise was really bad. nose kept running at certain points. don't know if it's my sinus acting up or i really am falling sick. but can't afford to leh... so busy nowadays. if i fall sick i'd be really screwed. on another note... i haven't shaved since saturday... really hairy on the face now hahaha

actually realised that i've spent my last 2 birthdays away from my family. last year this day i was in the army for the 3rd day. being bald and running around on tekong like a dog, and now one year later i'm a spec at an armour brigade. honestly it was the most interesting year in my life so far, going through bmt, sispec CHARLIE and SI with the infamous 1WO John Andrews. have i changed for the better over the past year in the army? only you can tell me...

just the other day i was telling my bunkmate how much better it would be to get 50 more bucks in our monthly allowance so that we'll have 710 instead of 660. at least got a 7 in front lah, and today it came out in the papers that from july onwards we'll each get 50 more bucks!!! WAHAHAHAHA so cool man... 50 bucks can do ALOT of things man. transport is more than covered for the month already. shiok!

got really nice presents from my parents and wendy. they got me a nice shirt while wendy got me a really cool pendant (if that's what it's called) and a nicely decorated box. thanks folks and wendy. hope she does well for her exams man. been studying really hard, making up for lost opportunities in jc, but better late than never i say. good luck to the t19 girls too. uni life is stressful i agree, but it can't be as bad as the A levels hahaha so RELAX! YOU ALL CAN DO IT! =)

lots of people are flying recently. 4 of my guys went to brunei for attachment, another friend will be flying to thailand for attachment to crescendo, xuanrui is in taiwan now, josh and derek will be flying on early monday morning for atec in taiwan, and many is flying the US in may for 3 months. she'll be really different when she comes back man. the US is a very... influential place. just hope she'll be fine.

will be going for a 2 week BMS course soon. thank goodness it'll be held in my camp, otherwise i might just well go crazy. next couple of months will have major activities as well, so good enough to keep me busy. might have to settle one thing in camp though, will see how that turns out

tags:
bang: yeah man god of war 2!!! quick go buy leh!!! wanna play man! hahaha

derek: seriously... very appropriately chosen words for the situation hahaha although they do have some other really funny codewords. they even use condom man!!! hahaha just that maybe you haven't seen it before =p

sis: just goes to show that heaven does exist on earth hahaha

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

it's a good day

today went to area D again expecting to stay there until about 5 again doing sentry. so after the first round of firing, was prepared to eat lunch outfield and endure the increasing temperatures and moments of absolute sian-ness. then neo called me, and said the ever pleasant word to my ears...

neo: "hey marcus, paradise now."
me: "huh? don't lie to me leh!"
neo: "no serious can go back already."
xxx
me: -hangs up and bursts into laughter-

couldn't believe my luck lah. can actually have lunch back in company line, even though it's packed, but still got a nice chair and fans to cool you down. and tomorrow will be a full day like friday, but i don't need to go tomorrow!!! can relax in company line, since there won't be life run tomorrow morning... but somehow i have a feeling that there will be ARR training =( shall have to see tomorrow.

not with her tonight because she has to study. really happy that she's taking her studies so much more seriously now. hopefully i can study as hard as she is doing now. can't wait to see her tomorrow. for now though, time to bathe and head back to camp.

oh and, hopefully i can get my mum's car so that i can drive home tomorrow. it'd be so much faster hahaha some things in this world are just for wishful thinking.

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

16 months and still going strong

alot has happened since my last entry, which wasn't much. yes we are having problems no and then, and more often than not it's my fault. really not treating her the way she deserves to be treated, and as a result i've had my fair share of scares recently. but i do want this to work, so i've just got to keep trying and trying and trying, hoping to high heaven than i don't screw it up big time for myself one day, then i can really kick myself in the balls and jump off some cliff

couple of weeks ago had a week long (almost) deployment to test out some systems for auzzie later this year. going to have week long deployments every month now until wallaby, since armour is the highlight of this year's annual exercise. means i'll have my work cut out for me, and my new guys who should be coming in around may would have to work really hard too, since most of the senior men are going to ORD in june. next 2 days will be sitting at some spot in lim chu kang doing sentry for a live firing exercise. quite cool actually, the way it sounds. never heard our armour actually firing their guns before, so it's yet another new experience in armour. only problem is that i gotta wake up really early during these days, like 5 just so that we can leave by 6 and get to our sentry positions.

yesterday i got a new comp!!! after 5+ years hahaha at least my previous one survived for that long. hopefully this one will last that long too, since my dad really souped it up, so it should last. wireless mouse and keyboard, 20" screen, vista ultimate with dual core processer. it should lah. if it doesn't then we'd be really screwed. and the cpu looks really cool too hahaha

friday after doing sentry rushed home to change and rushed out again to avoid the rain to meet her at ps. made reservations at giraffe. the ambience is really nice for a drink and a long chat with friends, provided you have enough money, but for a filling meal, please avoid it unless you really have too much cash in hand. just bought a main course each, and that already cost us 60 bucks! and i was barely full. so after that walked to billy bombers at cathay and ordered fish and chips with a milkshake hahaha after that i was full, luckily :p bought tickets to watch ninja turtles on saturday with her and her 2 little cousins. the movie was alright, childhood memories on the big screen, just that no more shredder, but still those green things are coooooollll hahaha can't wait for transformers. expect that one to be way cooler, just hope i'm not disappointed

could've spend the day with her today, but then i couldn't wake up and made her waste time waking up early and waiting for me. really felt like shit. no excuse at all for my behaviour. just felt damn sorry for her having to wait for me (yet again). just hope she enjoys her dinner with her family tonight. will be seeing her less nowadays since her exams are coming in about a month plus. just hope she does well for them.

tags:
derek - yeah man emo indeed. really don't know what's up with u and 8 pac man hahaha so funny seeing u 2 together, since we both laughed at her like mad before =p

(yes i know who) - so do you still want the ring? hahaha

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

last night, for the first time in my whole life, i cried until i had nothing left to cry... simply because i love her.

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

bye bye feb...

february is over!!! well it's the shortest month in the whole year, so mainly it means that i'll get my pay 3 days sooner than usual, that plus the hong bao earnings over the cny period means i'll have more money. but more money doesn't mean more spending, it simply means more options hahaha

training now is probably in the more intensive period of the year. training for ippt and arr are getting quite "firece" right now. SOC trainings started in january but somehow they died down eventually hahaha this month i've got 2 weekday cos duties and one wkend guard duty. really much rather do COS on a weekend man. so much more peaceful hahaha

went to gedong for what was supposed to be volleyball training. but just played game after game after game. and i can't spike anymore!!! like shit man. really damn throw face there. the best parts of the game was when i actually managed to set some nice balls which ended up with nice spikes. but i'm not supposed to be a setter damn it!!! so screwed up... and the tournament prelims will be clashing with a week long exercise for my company. i really feel kind of stuck right now. go for tournament and try to win something for armour, or help out my unit for this exercise. it will be a taxing exercise that's for sure, and somehow i don't think i'll be able to contribute fully towards the exercise after the games because my body will be sore. my whole body was somewhat aching after the 3 hour session we had, but that was maybe because i haven't played so intensively for such a long time. will have to decide soon which one i'm going to dedicate more of my time and energy to.

my amber period ends next tuesday, but they haven't recalled us yet, so i'm just praying they don't do it tomorrow, since i'll finally have a chance to drive by myself across the island to pick up my dad. basically i'll be clocking alot of mileage tomorrow in my dad's car, since he said might be sending a couple of his colleagues home. should have my fair share of driving for the weekend tomorrow heehee

i need to perform better as a spec. i know i can perform better...

tags:
derek - not my fault if commandos don't believe in volleyball right hahaha go complain to ur HQ abt the lack of sports and the late bookout timings man

guanghao - really supposed to be like tt ah? hmmm ok i didn't know that hahaha guess the lake (reservoir) was really shallow there

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

the great chinese new year...

well today's the 7th day of chinese new year, and according to my parents', this is everybodies birthday. never knew that, and don't even know if it's true. anyway the past week has been eventful indeed.

spent the 1st day of cny in camp doing COS duty. basically i sat in the office the whole day and played my PSP, luckily i bought 2 new games. brothers in arms: d-day and sonic rivals. kept me busy most of the day. oh plus ridge racer too of course. only got 1 (ONE) phone call the whole day. S3 and S4 came down at 9 in the morning, causing a huge stir among the 4 of us who were on duty in the whole brigade, just to with us happy chinese new year and shake our hands. really a very nice gesture if you ask me. 2 majors coming down early in the morning to greet us, not everyday you get things like that.

on wednesday and thursday, basically did last minute preps for amber. set up the radios in the bx. besides the fact that it's really cramp, it's cooler than a bronco to a certain extent. at least they install fans in those things now, so it ain't as bad as it used to be. oh and i think i know how to drive it! just like a car lah. steering wheel, 2 pedals and a gear stick, how hard can it be hahaha just like a car.

news is coming in that i might have to go taiwan between mid march to 2 april. very high possibility that i'll be going i guess. but the good thing is that don't have to bring our uniform, since we're all issued taiwanese ones there, so just underwear, socks and boots hahaha and of course some civi clothes too lah.

oh yesterday i got a call from some SSG from 41. and to my great amusement, he said that i had been picked to represent armour in a volleyball competition! hahaha my eyes just grew damn big when he told me lah. didn't think there actually was such a thing in the army, since vball is not exactly recognised in singapore that well. trials will be on wednesday. really don't know if i can make the team man. but i guess i've got a better chance, since there are fewer guys than girls who can play volleyball =) shall see how it goes. but the trainings and competitions will clash with many things man. just hopefully it doesn't mean that i can't play IF we actually manage to make it through the prelim rounds. anyway trial will be on wednesday at gedong camp. die man, don't know how i'm going to get there myself. most probably got to take cab lah.

15 months and counting =) i love u baby

tags:
daren - how come cannot fire? oh yah hoh only used gpmg and co-ax to fire blanks hahaha nvm lah better than nothing hoh? at least manage to kill some guards =p

guanghao - hey i think i know who you are... at least got a rough idea lah hahaha you'll purposely never bring the float nearer to the shore right. make us get our socks wet hahaha

i know you indeed - happy to you too =) hope the jc students don't stress u too much

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

the most sickening things...

it's 1 am in the morning, and as i tilt my head up toward the heavens, the sky glittered with stars like sand scattered across the floor. i took my time to study them as the breeze brushed against my face, so cold that i had to put my hands in my pockets. as i looked ahead of me, the lake spread out in front of me like a table cloth. the surrounding trees reflected perfectly over the rippling crystal surface. the moon looked the same from the water surface as it did in the sky. and as i looked down i could see my reflection, looking upon myself. all that was running through my mind was how peaceful and serene the place was, and how fortunate i was to be there to experience it.

then suddenly i was jolted back into reality with the cackling sound of my radio set in the rover. and it's just me in my long 4 staying awake tending to the radio comms while my commanders and the driver sleeps. antennae sticking way up receiving information from the brigade as the mission continued through the wee hours of the morning, and i have to stay awake to monitor for any activity that might concern us.

such an irony that the most beautiful, natural places in singapore are in military training areas. but then again i guess they're the best places because they're left untouched by the NEA and picnikers like those along east coast park who fish and eat and leave their rubbish behind, which as a results attracts more birds and bugs who just mess up the place even more. this place is seriously untouched! the only thing done is rocks placed along the banks to prevent erosion, and as a result swimming tanks, but that's all! really so amazing how huge the contrast is between the environment and what it's used for. most of it is green and brown, but one is life, and one is, to put it simply and bluntly, training for death...

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

voyager...

went on my first exercise last week. was attached out as CO SOA signaller. quite an easy job lah, except for the fact that i had to hunt high and low for either a g-10 or retrans on the first day coz my radio was brought directly from brigade, so didn't have the essential information inside it to allow us to listen to the command net. managed to get it around lunch time, and from then on it was smooth sailing. felt good that the equipment didn't screw up on me.

the exercise was basically infantry and armour vs guards and airforce from what i could gather, since the damn choppers were always hunting for our tanks. but it was really interesting to see how the armour element operates in the field. bashing under trees for cover, putting a bloody big pandan leaf along the barrel to conceal it, and how the choppers hunt! even managed to catch a slight "conflict" between our tanks and the guards. one moment the tanks lit up light christmas trees, due to the lasers, then once the guns started firing, the guards lit up, since they were all wearing the new laser training system. quite funny actually. and quite realistic too. but don't see how an RPG can do anything against a tank hahaha some glitches in the system i guess.

all in all it was a really exciting and new experience for me. was tiring at one point where i had to stay up the whole night manning the radio in case our armour element was called upon. being an armour signaller rocks man!!! that's all i can say =)

tags:
koon: hey i don't believe in zodiac stuff either man, but since kwee bought it for you, cannot leave it with me right hahaha

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

COS duty ain't so bad after all...

just got home from watching apocalypto with wendy at cine. a really good movie, but i wouldn't watch it again, simply because it's too draggy. but it really makes me wonder if someone can actually keep sprinting for more than 24 hours, and still have the ability to fight. i guess if you grow up in that environment it might be possible, but it's just really unbelievable.

took 111 to buona vista since 7 and 77 had already stopped running. luckily there was still a bus, otherwise i might've ended up walking home. knew my dad wasn't too happy with me, but i guess he couldn't say anything to me, since my sister wasn't at home either. so me getting home earlier simply made me the lesser of 2 evils. sure she's older, but i've been in singapore for almost 20 years of my life, and this is just one of the handfull of times i've actually been out beyond what... 12.30?

and the main reason he's unhappy is because i chose to watch the later movie which started at 10 instead of the 8.30 one. yeah sure there were seats in the earlier one, but like in the 1st 2 rows? so decided to watch the later one loh. and he wasn't too unhappy about it. at least i pay for most of my own things now right. the only thing i don't pay for now is my handphone bill. all my food, movies, transport i pay by myself. don't ask them for a single dollar anymore. if i was spending their money on the movie then yes, they'll have a reason to control me, but it's my own money, and i'm still saving alot of what i earn now in the army. still don't know what they expect of me man... seriously... at least in the army they trust me to look after myself and do my own things.

tags:

derek: got more than that lah, depending on how many duties i get on public hols hahaha and how many i get rewarded with, but should get more than you commando ppl lah

bang: you in boon lay now a bit far from my camp right hahaha u drive your police car to my camp maybe can lah, go visit your police k9 unit, but that's as close as you'll get to me

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

ALMOST the end of january...

well it's the last week of january, and quite alot has come my way since january 1. definitely gotten more acquainted with the workings of the unit, the sometimes not so pleasant politics behind it, and what unit life is really about.

got dragged into the PA team. basically us signal company people are somehow in charge of alot of things. in the case of the PA team, we're in charge of the PA systems for the mph, theatrette and the LT. basically that's everything. and like last thursday when i had muster parade, had to wake up slightly earlier to set up the PA system as well. not much different from when i was in primary school and a good little prefect, except the technology's gotten a bit better, well one would hope so.

the last activity for the day was kind of... interesting. since there were 4 days of chinese new year, well if you count eve as well, then there 17 to 20 feb. so obviously need guys for COS duty right? so to be absolutely fair, csm decided that us specs draw lots to see who would do each day. and i drew the 18 of feb, the 1ST DAY OF CHINESE NEW YEAR!!! how cool is that man... when everyone will be out getting their hongbaos and becoming just that much richer, i'll be stuck in camp with me, me and well... me. probably will be the quietest duty ever, since i doubt anyone would want to call camp of all places on chinese new year.

ah well... february beckons... another busy month it will certainly be

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

not everything is within our control

just got back from a failed attempt to surprise my baby, simply because she suddenly decided to go out with some friends and sing karoke after she helped out at some friend's cafe for the grand opening. initially she said she would be going home first before going out again this evening, so since i'd gotten a little bored of playing computer games i thought i might as well go and surprise her, but i guess it wasn't meant to be. afterall last night i guess i did piss her off. didn't mean to do so intentionally. had a screwed up nose all day long, at night eye suddenly got damn red and itchy, and the internet connection went down again. so hardly used the internet for the past 2 weeks. the flu medicine knocked me out when she was still here, and she got really irritated with me. guess i took it for granted that she would be there always, so she left my house, for the second time, being upset with me. still keep the note from the previous incident, but somehow history seems to repeat itself. at least i managed to get home before it starts to rain. well i guess i can slowly pack my bag and figure out what other stuff i need to bring along to camp. maybe go back in a bit earlier today and sleep early. hope you enjoy your karoke session.

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

an interesting start to the new year...

haven't blogged for about 3 weeks, mainly because i haven't felt like blogging for quite a while, and i've been keeping a journal in camp, so don't really feel like writing it all here again. so i'll just write the highlights. first 3 weeks have been quite eventful for me i guess... but not as eventful as others in my unit.

first week back in unit was really slow. got the new year hangover and alot of people were still clearing off, extending their new year celebrations by a couple of days. second week back in unit and i went off for bronco course. it was supposed to be a 1.5 week course which would give me the full licence to operate and drive the vehicle. was really looking forward to that one since i already know how to drive a car, so an armour vehicle would be a cool thing to add to my collection of things i can drive =) anyway this is auto, so not that difficult lah. in the middle of course got pulled away to go for range. screwed myself during the day shoot, and during the 2 rounds of tests, test and retest that is, i got 4 and 6 IAs respectively. but on my re-re-test, i got 15 out of 16. bloody rifle. anyway it wasn't my rifle, coz i wasn't informed that i was going for range until the very last minute, so used someone elses rifle. couldn't even check it was cleaned properly. the night shoot was just lousy, coz the laser on the sar 21 isn't the most accurate thing on earth. so didn't get my badge and the 200 dollars, and only got a class 4 licence for the bronco, because i missed the public road test and the flotation test. yes this 2 ton vehicle can actually float on water and SWIM DAMN IT!!! albeit really slowly, but it still swims... much cooler than any car out there hahaha

if i hadn't gone for the course, i would've been sent for exercise maju and atec the following week. overnight outfield for the former, and 5 days outfield for the latter. much worse than course and range i guess. so that's the time i've spent in unit so far this year. next week originally planned to go to chalet with wendy, but last minute i was told that i would be going for CCAC, basically there i'll learn to give drip to people, which would've probably made my sister really proud, or really worried. but anyway, postponed the date for the chalet, seeing as how i wouldn't have been able to make it, then the following day they said that i'd go for the course another day. so i just stared at my pc lah, since they can't make up their minds. nvm lah i'll just keep my off until next time so that can have a longer weekend. april will get one day off, and inbetween hopefully can get one or 2 more lah

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