Just do it already

Oh frabjous day

2010-05-01T09:43:00.002+08:00

Its quite nice to wake up today.

It is always nice to wake up and to know that you are alive and all.

But today was a little more than that.

Yesterday, after a 5km run, I was just chilling at home cooling down when my dad came home.

He was holding the mail and he said that there was mail for me.

He handed a large brown envelope to me and I knew that it was going to be something good.

I set forth to furiously tear it open and reveal its contents.

Joyous as it was, it was an acceptance letter from NUS. Engineering.

Fantastic. To my delight there was another regular-sized white envelope from NTU!

Now i was a little more cautious with this one as this one was smaller. I mean, it just felt more sinister and more likely that rejection lurked within. Nevertheless i decapitated the envelope and there was another piece of epic loot inside. Another acceptance into common engineering. Just great.

Now I am just waiting for SMU.

There is some stability in my academic situation now. Which is great. I am not an hardcore engineer but I think that it isn't as bad as it sounds. I just don't think that many people like to study engineering nowadays, which is good in the sense that I never like to do what others are doing.

Hopefully that this is the reality of it and not a fallacy. And not that engineering is going downhill. But I do know engineering does shape minds in a very sharp manner. See how it goes.

More, when there is a little.

A

2010-03-15T16:01:00.004+08:00

I didn't treat myself well the past two days.
I didn't exercise, I didn't eat anything that did me any justice.
I saw it coming.
Like a deer in head lights.

I just ran 3.2 km on the treadmill at my house gym,
4 days ago I would have told you that it would have taken nothing to achieve.

Its amazing what I can do to my body with two days of neglect.
My right calf was so bloody tight.
Too much sitting at the computer I guess.
And it was not even entirely productive.
I need to remember..

Anyway tomorrow I will try again and fight the fight.
Now I have come back from running, I am hoping to achieve a 15km long run by this week.

Time to eat.
Milk, lettuce, strawberries, plum, grapes, blueberries and 2 eggs.
I'll probably get some ham in .

Here's to whatever needs to be done.
KM

p.s. emmaandburberry is down, its over anyway. nice memories. and a bad one. starting with a letter J.

2010-01-12T23:20:00.002+08:00

I went to the gym after overtime @ work today'.
then i spent a while typing a blog entry at another blog of mine.

i work at burberry now, and.

I have another temporary job in the meantime.
its at, http://emmaandherburberry.blogspot.com/

Just read it already. or don't.

2009-12-25T02:09:00.002+08:00

though its been said,
many times, many ways,

Merry Christmas to you.

There are so many people out there.
Some of whom I have the privilege of knowing personally, or even been an acquaintance.

Merry Christmas to each.and.every.single.one.of.you.

2009-12-20T14:34:00.002+08:00

I woke up at 2pm.
Feeling a little sick.
A little sniffly.

I went to brush my teeth, scrape my tongue, floss.
I realise I forgot to wash my face.
brb.

And then I had some breakfast.
I made a vow yesterday.
To fry an egg. On my own.

And I did. It was edible. but didn't look very nice.
Nothing like the hotel breakfast eggs that I have been eating the past two weeks in phuket and vietnam.

I'll practice every morning. Eggs are good.

2009-12-18T20:45:00.003+08:00

Goosebumps and a tingle down the spine.
When eyes are closed, whats to be seen?
A familiar place i'm in
surrounded by fiends, reflections of me.
Rise up.
Rise up?
Rise up!
Rise u-

World's tilting, time to bring it back to balance
Spinning all the time aint good for me.
World at my fingertips, a reluctant emperor.
Sooner or later, unfortunately the latter.

Rising up from the ashes, this phoenix don't quit.
Its not the first time anyway.
Knowing isn't enough.sadly.
dry.peace.

2009-12-04T20:04:00.002+08:00

I finish my serving my National Service today.
I feel fine.

Filled with exuberance and hope.
Living life.?/!

2009-11-23T20:41:00.003+08:00

Sometimes I wonder whether I should shut down this blog.
There are so many bad memories here.
And so many memories that were lost in the midst of the maelstrom that is daily life.

*On one hand, it seems that a shutdown is merely a means to an end, done for the sake that an restart in the electronic world will lead to a reboot in the real one.
*Also, there is the issue of the Internet and its ability to hold onto things for all eternity.

However, I could sally forth and trudge through all the resistance/inertia and make changes that are unrestrained and systemic.
And besides, whatever has been seen cannot be unseen.

Its been a long time since I really behaved like myself.
And it really is a shame.

***

In other news, I went for a run.
It was way overdue and I feel great.

~~~

A man.

2009-11-22T23:12:00.002+08:00

Soaring rhetoric, idealistic visions.
~~

Two more MCQ papers left to go.

Should I throw away all my notes?

Will I ever need them again?

2009-11-05T20:27:00.001+08:00

When push comes to shove,
Shove comes to ,..,?

A Certificate

2009-09-25T19:28:00.001+08:00

I took an exam today.

An exam not for my 'A' levels
but instead an ITE Exam.

ITE SKILLS CERTIFICATE
AT10112 Basic Vehicle Maintenance

1 and a half hour paper.
50 MCQs.

How I wish I could breeze through my 'A's just as easily.

I'll be expecting my Certificate in 2-3 months time,
hope it does not get lost amidst the administrative bowels of the SAF.

All these army initiatives. Quite lulzy. ITE certs.

I hope this blog comes alive.

2009-07-31T21:36:00.001+08:00

i got quite a bit of work to do

i saw the grade profiles for smu ntu and nus.

...

2009-06-18T17:01:00.002+08:00

Its been 2 weeks since I last posted
It feels like an eternity since.

Its Thursday, three days since Monday
and it feels like it just zoomed by.

I feel nice and alive.

I feel like moving my blog to a new address.
Quite tempted to do it.
I'll find a weekend to do it.
Not really a big priority.

2009-06-05T09:42:00.000+08:00

AH AH AH AH

STAYING ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE

The past 2 weeks I really kept going and going.

Kep expending all my energy doing things that I wanted.

Mentally I've managed to keep the thoughts and emotions in my head from exploding and consuming anything and everyone I know. The mind is an unstable place, but lets just say that it feels so much more directed and focused right.

Academically still going steady though I hope the pace would slightly pick up.

Physically feeling I'm feeling great. There's soreness on my body seems to alternate from one body part to another. Not the kind of soreness from bad posture or whatnot, but the one that you get when you've physically challenged yourself.

I like this state I'm in.

I pray that I have the wisdom to continue on like this, it will be good for me.

I pray that I will have the cool, rational, mind to sort out everything being thrown at me.

I don't want to crash.

Just keep on moving and find out what's out there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyway, Today marks the anniversary of my relationship with dear Seewah =)

hahaha.

Just feeling so happy and fuzzy about it.

Going out on a day of fun and gonna enjoy ourselves as much as possible.

won't say much, keeping it nice and short...

rgards

2009-05-31T18:04:00.000+08:00

Its the 201st post.

Tonight I'll have to book into camp.

Feeling quite glad actually, hoping to see how this week unfurls.

Finally, I got around to putting up the posters that I bought in Germany.

A poster each of Einstein, Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix.

The Einstein one is up on the wall.

One of the quotes on it being

"the only way to escape the personal corruption of praise is to carry on working."

We gotta keep on improving ourselves, our friends and family and ways of living.

Progress is key.

The Kurt Cobain one I put it up, then took it down.

I think I should have bought the wrong one when I was in the store.

Kurt Cobain was like crawling on all fours with guitar in hand and his neck looked like it was broken.

Kinda creepy. Maybe at the time I thought it was cool...

The Jimi Hendrix one after some thought I gave to my brother,

he is the one with an electric guitar anyway.

2009-05-31T11:59:00.001+08:00

如果我倒下

再不会起来

Sunday Morning

2009-05-31T10:26:00.003+08:00

Sunday morning rain is falling

Steal some covers share some skin

Clouds are shrouding us in moments unforgettable

You twist to fit the mold that I am in

But things just get so crazy

Living life gets hard to do

And I would gladly hit the road

Get up and go if I knew

That someday it would lead me back to you

Its a nice Sunday Morning isn't it.

Isn't exactly raining like it is in the song.

I have a version of the song with a saxophone solo and brass band feel to it.

I love it.

2009-05-30T18:20:00.001+08:00

FUCKING RAGE

2009-05-30T18:13:00.002+08:00

hey everyone. how have you all been today?

2 hours ago my body implored itself to have a nice little afternoon nap.

I wanted to open my window for air, you know cool down the room.

Unfortunately, there was constrution work going on.

Yep,

There is construction work going on even though today is a Saturday.

And I can't sta

2009-05-30T08:24:00.000+08:00

knowledge without wisdom and tact, is useless

im going for chemistry practical.

2009-05-28T08:54:00.002+08:00

just woke.

down some protein,

tuesday's gym soreness starting to kick in.

yesterday i went swimming, bloody hell my thumb hit against the skull of a little boy.

definitely hurt him more than me. he just kept on swimming like nothing happened,

while for me it re-cracked my bmt thumb injury..

the pool's is irregular shaped and

have a medical appointment in a while...

2009-05-27T18:38:00.002+08:00

I'm home and glad to be home.

So happy to be able to say that. =]

heheh.

Today marked the end of my maintenance course.

Was nominated for best trainee, didn't win haha

It was fun.

Covered quite a lot of chemistry and maths for my a-levels during the course.

When I go back for the finisher course in September I'll even get a ITE qualified cert haha.

The best part was the taxi ride home.

The taxi driver was a positive person.

Its so nice to meet people with similar worldviews and outlooks.

I told him I was on course, how I was nominated, didn't get it yet didn't beat myself up

like I did in BMT. Just carried on and made the best of it anyhow.

Mentioned like how it was just a small phase in army.

From then how he continued to say its good that you're positive etc.

The topic carried onto

imptance of positivity, knowing direction in life,

learning how to ride a motorcycle, he explained the risks,

our transport system, how it shouldn't be privatised at the citizens' expense and welfare,

how there are less feeder services nowadays, buses maker longer loops,

t.t.durai, ho.ch.ing, temasek losing $billions of dollars, embezzlement

education system, streaming, the govt failing to realise that different people have different aptitudes and different ages at which they realise their potential, elitism, educated monsters,

a lot of things that i find myself now talking to enough of people about or discussing about,

topics that i am really passionate about.

oh well.

step by step i will find a way.

~~~~~~~~~~~

2009-05-26T20:18:00.003+08:00

"klagt nicht, kämpf"

translated from German it means

Don't lament, Fight.

In blood red lettering, it hangs off a black canvas strap attached to my bag.

At that time, motivation was a little down and I bought it, just to give myself a little push.

(story unrelated)

Once, 楊文仲said that humans are the most pitiful creatures.

For we are constantly struggling to win the battle against ourselves.

There's no way around that except to win.

Win we shall.

~~~~

Back from the gym.

Had a real nice workout.

Haha one of the trainees under my charge today said this really peculiar thing.

Trainee A: (horsing around, slaps my chest)

" Woah you quite big size ah?"

(slaps again)

"Hey you are American-sized"

Me: lol wut

Trainee B: "Ah? really big ah?

(comes over to sample the goods)

"ya really big"

what the fuck

anyway gym was good.

thinking of sweeming tmr.

tmr will be the last day of course. have to be back in gedong soon...

wonder how thats gonna work out

I left the house, I ran, I enjoyed myself

2009-05-25T23:13:00.001+08:00

Just finished with a run around the neighbourhood twice.

Life is about getting out there,

doing what you want,

nobody to tell you what you can't do,

nothing standing in your way.

As you stride over all your obstacles,

feeling good along the way.

I love running.

2009-05-25T21:04:00.001+08:00

Hi people.

Long time no blog.

It feels good to be back.

I've been on course recently @ Sembawang.

Some course about maintenance.

I feel like its really useful, knowing all the components of a vehicle,

how to replace the ones that need periodic changing.

Especially the parts on troubleshooting.

So you won't like oh shit fuck my car won't start wtf should I do and all.

Some basic operator level stuff that I could actually use in the future when I have a car of my own.

Speaking of car of my own.

Or rather, vehicle of my own.

After I ORD I'm gonna start learning how to ride a motorcycle.

Its gonna be great and I can't wait.

A short post for now.

2009-04-15T16:54:00.002+08:00

Flying off to Germany =)

Hopefully it'll be fun.

Back on the 6th.

See all you guys soon=)

2009-04-14T21:42:00.002+08:00

Packing for my trip to go to Bundesrepublik Deutschland...

2009-04-10T01:30:00.003+08:00

A new template =)
I LIKE.

2009-03-29T15:13:00.003+08:00

Do you guys know I'm retaking my A-levels?
The reality of failure only sank in too late.
Thing is, this is really one mistake i have to correct.
Lucky for me, 2 years of National Service allows for this blow to be cushioned,
in the sense that I can re-take it now, without having to waste time studying full-time again.

Its not going to be easy, no one ever said it was.
For most people, they would really dread studying etc,
but now when I really focus and really learn new things, grasp new concepts,
its damn satisfying.
When my mind is set on it, its really a joy to be really able to learn stuff.

Another mcq,
Another structured question, essay question,
Closer to the goal.

I'm retaking
3 H2s,
1 H1, and GP.

I'm aiming for all As.
I know I can do it.

Come on, are you with me?

do try and read.

2009-03-16T04:44:00.001+08:00

http://twitter.com/teokiameng

2009-01-18T22:18:00.003+08:00

Cleaning out my room.
Having to move house soon.
En-bloc fever struck my estate,
everyone is cashing in.

Digging through time.
Good times and bad.
Just wanna fucking delete everything sometimes.
to start afresh.

Its frustrating.

I hope with a new place to call home,
I hope with a new year,
I hope with all of me,
that i will get out.

Surrounded by mediocrity,
reaching out to a friend never seemed so nice.

Lets hope a new environment changes things.

~

Learnt to operate this monster.
Was fun on 8 fricking wheels.
8 speed gearbox.

2009-01-11T11:27:00.000+08:00

come on. let's do this. strength.

2009-01-03T19:16:00.004+08:00

Relationships. a wonderful thing,
yet something I have not fully held onto and cherished.
The past few months sped past,

"I haven't seen you in so long!"

"where have you been?"

-ouch.

There are some things I've done that I'm not
proud of, not big things, but its the little things that matter.

Been stuck in a mindfuck for some time.
& Decisively work through things.

More.Soon.

its been a ok year.
-to better times ahead.

p.s. countdown with the class guys was great. i especially loved the orgasm when the fireworks came.

2008-12-28T22:10:00.001+08:00

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
’this could be heaven or this could be hell’
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...

Welcome to the hotel california
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the hotel california
Any time of year, you can find it here

Her mind is tiffany-twisted, she got the mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

So I called up the captain,
’please bring me my wine’
He said, ’we haven’t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine’
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...

Welcome to the hotel california
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
They livin’ it up at the hotel california
What a nice surprise, bring your alibis

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said ’we are all just prisoners here, of our own device’
And in the master’s chambers,
They gathered for the feast
The stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can’t kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
’relax,’ said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!

2008-12-08T21:50:00.003+08:00

Time can certainly seem to fly by sometimes.
One year of army life has passed by.
Have I moved along as the world has, or have I
been left behind as a fleeting memory.

where am i right now.

2008-10-27T06:24:00.002+08:00

I'm in Australia with the army.

Having the time of my life.

The place, the people, the peace.

This is really one of the happiest times of my army career.

Now where did I leave my camera.

-not a care in the world.

2008-10-06T05:37:00.003+08:00

"Focused attention and a lack of self-consciousness.."

Really found that this is really the way to go.
Feeling free. Doing what I want to do, being where I wanna be.
=)

2008-09-07T11:49:00.001+08:00

080907.

Sucks to miss MAF.
Sometimes in an crowded place, things can get lonely.
To make a connection, its tough.

2008-09-05T00:36:00.002+08:00

Journal Entry for 080821

1322hrs@ADC

-Listening to Radiohead's 1993 debut album "Pablo Honey"

I've always wanted to get to know Radiohead better.

When I first heard "Creep", I knew they rocked.

The album is such bliss.

Sound a little like Nirvana, which I also adore.

i just sent out a message to a friend:

Listening to Radiohead in the jungle is like I've found nirvana.

Journal for 080822

0851@ATI Veh Shed.

Heh covering safety for ATI and reservist dudes again.

Yesterday was fun, got to meet The Zhexi at the armor circuit.

Played ping-pong for the first time in my life yesterfay.

Played till half past midnight.

Lolz. People couldn't believe it was my first time haha.

So fun. Olympic spirit woot.

1203@ADC

-at the armor cicruit.

I've heard things about me in the office.

Good things.

That they are going to delegate more responsibilities to me.

They're gonna gimme a job that usually only the rank of CPL can carry out.

But I think they see that I can get the job done. That I am capable.

Thus the confidence.

I heard the only thing that is preventing me from becoming CPL is that I am not a 15 month soldier yet.

I shall eagerly await that time.

I want to be 3SG by attending transport supervisor course.

If not, at least CFC.

All these things came as a real surprise for me.

My promotion to LCP was fastest I know of among my peers,

so I know that the management recognized my efforts.

But to possibly given the role of Duty Specialist is way over what I imagined. Seems that they really appreciate and acknowledge my work, more than I imagined.

I relish the challenges ahead.

I hope to make them proud.

All I'm waiting for is official confirmation.

Even if they don't give me the job,

i'll be glad to be even considered for it, considering my relative inexperience.

KiaMeng up!

hahaha. I love Radiohead~

Journal Entry for 080901

1706hrs in the jungles of Lim Chu Kang.

Heh. Feeling fine.

Waiting for dinner. Hungry. Growwl.

Saw Martin, Francis, Darryl, Nicholas and Marcus.

Haha called out Martin's name and all the rest all rushed me.

Didn't expect to see them in Sungei Gedong lol.

Glad to have em around.

its Nyce.

Journal Entry for 090802

Well its been a nice and long first day into my 3D2N outfield detail with the OTW.

Nice guys. bmt bunkmate as one of the cadets.

Look where he ended up.

just took a quick trip back to camp for a bathe and freshen up.

I didn't sneak in any naps during the day.

Wanted to keep my energy level up high all the time.

Hope I can sustain it throughout the detail, and the rest of the week to come.

focusing on a lot of positive things. Like my loved ones and friends. Really helps.

Last week was kinda lonely and one of the lower points in my national service.

gotta move out.

Jounal Entry for 080903

0826 in the Jungles of Lim Chu Kang.

Heh was just adding up my mileage.

I have 2281 km under my belt. Very nice =)

I need 3000 to get my first bonus of 150,

7000 for license,

10000 for safe drivers's award.

...

Oh and btw i just got confirmation,

that I am going to Australia this october!!

Wahaha so shiok.

Not for holiday as you should know, but rather, with the army.

Still, feelng v v excited. Just hope my dear stays tasty=)

1913hrs @ ATI Veh Shed

Was talking to Bob.

Same bunk, one a driver, one a cadet.

Btw i got word that i got an assignment this saturday.

Which prevents me from going back to hwachong for the Mid Autumn Festival,

also missing the chance to see my beloved teachers.

makes me kind of frustrated.

080904

2026@CCK Bus Interchange.

Its not the best thing to be unable to go to MAF.

It really isn't.

The manpower shortage at my node is startling.

I used to have to do duty once a month. Now its two or three for some people.

I took over someone's duty at the request of the management.

I didn't really have a choice in the matter though.

The duty is from Friday 5pm. Till Saturday 5am.

I'm okay with doing that.

Thing is, I've been assigned a job that starts on 6am Saturday.

Usually there is duty rest for the duty driver till 10am the next day.

As seen, something ain't right.

The vocation 'Driver'.

Its brings upon images of

gross obesity

sedentary lifestyles

uneducated background

lungs filed with tar

unfit PES status

high tendency to go DB

hokkien peng attitude

improper bearing

There's also,

slack job,

indifference towards their working environment,

'fuck care'

Everyday I strive to bear away from these horrendous stereotypes and do the honourable thing., whatever scenario.

I will remain a beacon of righteousness amidst the darkness.

It is difficult. But i am strong.

0050hrs

Just came back from a nite with junwei. He rocks.

2008-08-20T12:59:00.002+08:00

Journal Entry for 080805

0455hrs@Guardroom

In the wee hours of the morning.

Just thinking of weird things and people and concepts.

Quite thoughtful of me yeah?

1630@Pulau Tekong

"Many people are alive only because their seat belts protected them in a crash."

Saw this line on a poster while I was at Tekong.

Hilarious.

1720hrs on the ferry back to the mainland.

I'm on my way to mainland Singapore.

Initially the plan was to have to replace a driver,

but turns out I didn't have to.

I consider myself extremely lucky.

Gah.. Don't like typing on the ferry.

Super hungry now.

Only thought on my mind is

FISH AND CO'S NEW YORK FISH AND CHIPS!!

SOMEONE GET IT FOR ME~~

Ah just super hungry. Hehe.

Journal for 080728/29 FoundMyBees

2008-07-29T19:42:00.002+08:00

I'm home for the evening.
Back in camp by 10.
Wonder how everyone is.
Its been a while since i blogged.
Actually will be blogging more often since i got a new phone.
The Nokia E61.

Enjoy the two entries~

Journal Entry for 080728

1250hrs on the MRT from Simei to Choa Chu Kang

I just left Changi General Hospital.
I'm all set on the Carpal Tunnel Release surgery.

Here's what it's gonna be like.
-Day Surgery.
-Duration of 20-30 minutes
-Anaesthesia
-Associated Risks:
1. Anaesthesia could trigger a heart attack or stroke.
2. Infection from the resulting scar.
3. Nerve Injury if they whoops accidentally nick my nerve.

well all these risks aren't usually prevalent in a "healthy young man" like me to quote the doctor. :D heheh.
Then again he also said that I am the youngest person he has ever seen to have Carpal Tunnel... Lol.

Met Ryan Tan from the Good Ol' Hwa Chong Days.
Got the usual "Kia Meng you look like a starved supermodel!!!" conversation opener from him. Hahahah actually its more like "Woah you lost a lot of weight" conversation opener hahahah. Yeah. Talked a litte. Interesting.

How do i feel about surgery?
I feel assured that I won't go into cardiac arrest, get a pulmonary embolism or a stroke, all of which are the same thing, just occurring in different parts of the body if you know what I mean. Infection I can handle. Just hope nothing will aggravate the condition. There's a chance that the surgery will do nothing at all.
Heh I love watching House and all the medical stuff !!!!! House RAWKS ZOMG!!!!

On a side note, I was expecting a MC of 2-3 days for the surgery.
it turned out to be 3 weeks instead of 3 days like woah.... To be truthfully truthfully honest. With no sarcasm, I hate MC unless absolutely necessary... More on that later =\.

Time to listen to some tunes.
Btw just gave up my seat to an man holding a kid.

1518hrs@MTLine

Well, I'm back in camp.
Feels kinda weird when I've been gone so long.
Well. That's that.

Had a flashback.
Earlier at Changi General,
Ryan did say something besides about me losing weight.
He said that I looked very calm, like I had attained Nirvana.
Oh yeah... Although I know how I've changed, its good to hear some confirmation heh.

Another random thought:
I wonder how Vinci is...

1545@Restroom

Listening to two guys talking~
One guy tellling another about his sexual encounters.
One involves his mom walking in while he was doing this girl doggy-style ZOMG.
One was a real-life sex on the beach, in Sentosa.
They're now discussing how to get Don Juan laid again,
this time with another girl he just met.
Haha they can't use his home because his mom got tired of seeing him bring different girls home everytime. Like that's what I call dysfunctional.

to quote him...
"Aah I need sex man! Use hand damn sian!"

Ahahaha its so ridiculous!!!!eryeyryrty

Journal Entry for 080729

1246hrs@MTLine Restroom

It hasn't been the greatest day today.

Today I woke up at home.

Got to sleep at home because of my follow-up

medical appointment at the dentist today morning.

At the dentist it was ok.

Doctor said that the wounds in my mouth were healing well.

He mentioned that didn't recognise my formation badge. Strange.

Met my bunny for lunch and Lot 1.

It was such a nice feeling. So nice.

We originally intended to eat at Ajisen,

alas, it was too early in the morning, and it was unopened.

We had lunch in the foodcourt.

It was still early in the day.

The foodcourt was still quite empty.

The air was cool,

the place was quiet,

it almost felt like it was just the both of us there.

Awesome.

Now I'm back at the MTLine.

Got some acclimatisation to do after such a long leave of absence from the 2 oral surgeries

Gotta do the right thing. LOr.

2008-07-18T15:20:00.002+08:00

How my brain is working most of the time:

like.a.million.buzzing.bees.
buzzing.non-stop.!>@!#>

I've so used to being under pressure!
Its a sad fact!
Without the pressure, the million buzzing bees all go away.
And all that is left is this primal beast,
bent on satisfying.primal urges.

I gotta admit it.
I.am.a.pressure.junkie.
When given free rein, everything falls apart.

Its the reason i like NS.

MORE ON THIS SOON!!
I gotta go find my bees.

2008-06-15T16:10:00.000+08:00

1559 @ Desktop

Heh.
Was tidying my room, then recalled that a few days earlier i had
lost the pouch for my iPod.
Not just any pouch, but the pouch for my old Creative Zen 20GB.
I had fostered an emotional attachment to the old Zen when it was around,
The many times that it had provided me with sheer musical enjoyment,
for times that i was down,
for times when i was up. and all the times in between.
So of course i felt a little sad when i realised the manner in which i had lost
the pouch..

I had left it on the bus.
Sigh, yes.
Was not in the most alert state of mind, since i did not get enough
sleep the day before.
So yeah, things tend to happen.
The last time i left my phone in a taxi, i also failed to get enough sleep the previous day..

Oh well.
Can't explain the emotional attachement.
Heh. In fact i did not throw away the old Zen,
its defunct shell lies in my iPod Box.
A memory. heheh.

Another thing.
My ipod earphones are a little spoilt on the right side,
the sound's coming out a teeny bit softer there.
But still, I couldn't bear to change them,
Just because the were IPOD earphones.

A hint of fanboyism? Maybe? Yeah most probably.
Just dying to let everyone know i am using a iPod.
Could be also that another pair of IPOd earphones
cost a staggering $55 dollars. Quite sickening really.

Well..
Just a random quick tech gadget entry.
Have many more things to say..
Just that i have not been able to get time for myself.
Well... Then i shall just have to make the time i guess.

Adios.
Seeya guys soon..

-back to tidying the room.

2008-06-09T23:26:00.002+08:00

Will update my Journal tmr, as well as my Compendium.
Had nighttraining that ended at 9. Reached home at 10.30pm.
Its kinda late. I'll update tomorrow.
Stay happy people.

afterthought:
Its times like this that made me wish that i have a Blackberry.
I write all my thoughts down in my notebook, only to have to type it out all over again
when i reach home. Redundant isn't it.
I am so determined to get my hands on a Blackberry 8820.

2008-06-08T23:15:00.000+08:00

2126 @ Desktop

Pretty Much spent the whole day at Bunny's=)
Woke at 830. Left house around 9.
Went to Bukit Timah Food Centre Just to get her
her bean curd tangyuan=)
It feels nice to do nice things.

Went her house,
So nice to see her always. Haha.
She ate her tangyuan and gave me some.

Nizam called,
it was about time.
well according to him he had
already transferred the money back to my acc.
Which is great.

Bunny gave me the idea of borrowing without expecting any return.
I guess I will do that,
However much he wants to return, even if its just the base cost,
I will be satisfied with it.

Chatted with many people throughout the course of the day.
Junwei, YQ, KB, Lauren.
Organised my movies, got the subtitles etc.

Feeling happy.
Tmr will be at Sembawang.
Feeling a sense of zen, order.
At one with the world.

See you guys soon.

2008-06-08T01:34:00.001+08:00

Heh.
I'm back from the class dinner earlier,
not to forget the unmentioned trip i made to
the Salvation Army - Praisehaven Store.

I'll talk about the
Salvation Army thrift store first.
Seems that they have a thrift store at IMH as well.
Curious.

Anyway i went there on impulse.
Got off the 171 that i was on and just walked in.
Not knowing what to expect.

Opened the door to moderately loud upbeat music.
The initial feel was like, ok this seems like an
ok place but that soon changed.

Alot of old stuff. Alot.
A really big compound there.

They got everything.
When it comes to quantity they got it made.
Old artwork
Old teasets
Old clothes (from blazers to dresses)
Old toys
Old CDs (movies, anime, nothing exciting though)
Old household appliances
Old shoes
Old cameras and camera equips.

The list is endless.
But notice the word old in front of it all.

At the back of my mind was the constant thought of:
Someone used this before.
His or her lips touched this mug before.
His or her armpits were in this piece of clothing.
His or her (insert body part) ...

You get the idea.

Some of the things there really make me sick.
I'm not disgusted by the fact that people donate.

The key thing is, why even buy something that you do not
intend to keep?
Some of the things there, for which I am not afraid to say,
are absolutely hideous.
I saw some toys that invoke the kind of feeling in me, which
is similar to what Americans they call 'Evil clown'(Coulrophobia), where something
usually attributed to fun, such as a clown, can sometimes appear horrifying.

There was this particular toy, quite large in size.
It looked really weird and off.
Can't really describe it. Just did not like looking at it.

No place is without merit.
The place is actually a very good place for art pieces
or ornaments to beautify the place.

Otherwise, the place to me could have been better organised
and the assortment is rather eclectic.
One does not expect to expect to find anything there.
You'll seem organic blueberry ice-cream topping going for 3 packs for $10
and a few metres away you'll see musical instrument cases, broken frogs.

I didn't make any purchases, though i may come back to buy some artpieces.

Nice to see it once to make you appreciate what you have.
And most importantly, to make sure you yourself don't buy any junk.

Now to talk about the class outing.
We had dinner at:

What can i say, its the culinary icon of Bukit Timah Road.
Where students flock to the celebrate every occasion.
Be it,
test just ended, did well
test just ended, flopped
class just ended,
cca just ended, the list is endless.

The Curry Wok just emanates that kind of warm feeling
that attracts people to go back again.
The word i would use is homely. yep.

Curry chicken is outstanding.
Cold tofu, otah, kangkong, curry fish head
are all notable dishes.
Hard to go wrong here.

Price-wise, affordable even by the impoverished students.

The class dinner was really nice.
Heh most of the girls and guys really dressed up even though
it was just Curry Wok.
Heh all i wore was the HwaChong pe t-shirt.
Nice to see everyone again.

Good food with good company, what else can i complain about.

Everyone seemed about the same.

But somehow i felt as if i had been changed monumentally.
Can't really put my finger on it. But yeah.

Its so nice to be complimented about my physique.
Makes you glad about all the effort that i had put in.
And makes you strive even harder.

After curry wok the class adjourned to
the Island Creamery, only to find it packed.
We chose a less crowded ice-cream place called Swirl.

Swirl was ok.
I didn't really taste anything besides YingQun's Rum and Raisin.
More another time.

A friend made a cryptic remark.
I didn't know what to make out of it.

Sweet treats, a cake and celebration.
We should do this more often...

I am thinking of a house party.
One before the girls start uni.
Barbecue at my place beside the pool. Sound good?
I love house parties.
Especially organising them.

It was nice meeting up.
Waiting for pictures to be posted so i can post em.

2008-06-03T23:43:00.002+08:00

self-aware of it,
yet,
spiralling into a blackhole vicious cycle of pangs of regret combined with negative conditioning and environmental factors, exacerbated by the unsurmountable inertia of doing what is correct and necessary,
all this while i skeet and waste time away, whittling at the little sleeptime i have,
ensuring tomorrow will be as screwed as this.

temporary this feeling, but oh so damaging.
............................................................................ like im high on denial

2008-05-30T20:09:00.002+08:00

Just got back home from kaki bukit camp.
i.am.so.sore.
sore in my shoulders. all the working out.

fatigue can be a terrible thing.
i woke up from a short nap while still on the bus.
started looking at the scenery,
was ok at first,
till i passed my old school.

being in a fatigued state of body and mind,
i thought about the regrets of the time in school.
academically, socially and physically.
i quickly realised this train of thought would lead to a one-way road to mental despair,
so i got off quick.

just told myself that i dont want to leave any regrets anywhere, anymore.
so that whenever i pass any more other places where i have used to been,
pangs of regret wont even try to latch onto my psyche, let alone get a grapplehold.

blog again soon,
tmr i have to go all the way to camp, report there, then come back home,
so i think im staying over at my aunt's house, save me the long bus ride in the morning.
maybe ill go the gym at her house or something..

the night is still young.
there is still so much i want to share.
but for this current state of mind,
this will suffice for now.

~.

2008-05-29T22:17:00.001+08:00

Heh.
Finally passed my driving test.
Ecstatic.
But now at the end of the day, kinda tired.
Just happy for now.

Going Back

2008-05-25T18:00:00.002+08:00

Had a chat with an old friend. a fair beautiful one. Got some encouragement.
Went to a Buddhist meeting with my mom who is cheery and cute. Got some insight.
Went out with a tall lanky dark handsome friend. Pool. Great.

Overall...
I am feeling so much better.
Just want to say more but i wish i had more time.

I know everyone says that they have no time to do this or that etc and most of the times they are just procrastinating.
But for me...

I have big things in the works... so just hang in there.
Will be out soon again.

Back in Blue

2008-05-24T19:25:00.002+08:00

Here's a hi to everyone.
Not exactly a 'hi' that is extra warm and amiable,
But just a regular one.

I just got home 8 hours ago,
freed from the confines and restraints of the SAF doctrines for one night.
The feeling of booking out just didn't have its usual high.
The high that came from the anticipation of good things that could be done during the weekend,
such as going out with friends and loved ones, and going places.

My girlfriend is in taiwan on holiday.
Its such a nice thing to be on one.
I too want to see places that i have never seen,
taste foods, see faces, listen to new sounds.
Anywhere will be nice.

Right now a class outing is underway.
Some dinner of sorts.
Unable to attend, because i'll be going to some Buddhist meeting with my mom,
Just doing something to spend some time together with her, make her happy hopefully.
Not that i am a Buddhist.

Just a short post.
Have many things to say, to be cut off would not be very nice.
Blog when i am back.

2008-05-11T20:16:00.002+08:00

hey people.
i am out for the weekend.
going back in, in about 15 minutes.

holding it all together. barely,
missing out on things.

letters remain unwrtiten,
blogposts remain as drafts,
movies unwatched,
music as mere files,
mails left unsent,
calls left cold.
people left distant, drifting away.

things left to do.
better not to think about them,
for it would only frustrate me more.

see you guys around.

2008-04-27T17:55:00.001+08:00

Bookout time if fucking short.
Trying to do everything that i should have is impossible and only serves to make me irate.

Now that i have come to this realisation, i have pushed everything. and i mean everything till my course ends.

Only doing the absolutely necessary during my free time and i already find it hard to squeeze time to do it.

Time management (or rather the choice to forsake time management) aside,

1. Its always nice to receive thanks from people i have written to. i started this cardwriting thing.. and yeah. the reactions i get are priceless. I usually send them in pretty late, as army bookout time is limited. more on this in future entries.

2. Gym is great. my body gettin toner and 2.4 timing getting better, 10.54 now. still a way to go. but no worries.

3.Driving is great. Hope to get the Best Trainee award. Seems very likely..

~~~~~

till the course ends, and my bookout till increases from the current amount of 33.5 hours a week.

Will definitely give a big one then.

till then, the posts will remain short.

no more fear in me.

seeya guys soon.

feeling mellow neutral and happy all at the same time.

its like achieving nirvana.

great.

watched Blow and Hotel Rwanda-nice mellow movies

( .)(.)
[___]

2008-04-20T20:11:00.000+08:00

see ya guys soon.

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering

There is fear in me right now.

2008-04-13T09:22:00.006+08:00

Heh.
Just finished playing badminton with my girlfriend.
Fantastic.

The last time that i played badminton was during Phys.Ed when i was a student.
Playing with John,Rifeng and Zhexi.
Each of them with varying playing styles, skill levels and attitudes.
John was like a charging beast. Merciless. He knew he was good and he would beat you down.
Zhexi was like a teacher to you. You'd (actually just me) never be able to score a point against him, he'd deflect everything you had to throw at him, and the points he would score would be beause you screwed up. You learn your mistakes with every stroke.
Rifeng was someone that was unpredictable, some occasions he'd be like a little on the slow side and on other occasions, you would be caught off guard by his sudden change in attitude.

Always nice to play and see.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Friday marked the beginning of my driver course.
Saturday i booked out.

The driver course is somewhat demanding.
Rather tight syllabus.
Good thing about this course is that i saved $1500-$3000 on driving fees.
Yeah.
I'm in a group of 52.
4 are chinese.
1 of has the education level of 'A' Level - Me.

This time round,
its getting harder to mix in with the crowd, as much as i want to.

Back in BMT, with good ol' Gryphon Company,
the races where more or less one-third of each Chinese, Malays and Indians.
Could mix around easier,

Now in this new environment,
You know that thing you do when you listen in on people's conversations, get to know about what kind of people they are?
I can't even do that man.
Most, if not all of the conversation are usually carried out in Malay.
This seriously impacts the chance of me getting a word into any conversation.
Well i'll try to do my best.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

I hit the gym the very first night we enlisted.
The gym was closing in ten minutes,
so i just hopped onto the treadmill and told myself:
ok i don't got much time here, so i gotta speed things up a little.
Ran as fast as i could.
2.4km in 11min34seconds.
My personal recorded best in army.
109 seconds from my target of 9.45

I will keep working on it.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

My weight has been stagnating around the 80~82 region.
Note that 81 puts my BMI at exactly 25. In Singapore, anything over 25 puts you as obese.
so yeah. I am still teetering in this region.

I got a little complacent after losing like 13kgs during BMT.
Complacent as in looking in the mirror and going like: hey there you good looking thing.
ahaha.
Then a while before the driver course started, i went like : even though i look way better than before, there is still a lot of work to be done!

I told myself i would work my ass off.

Lets see how much faster and stronger i can get.
I want it all.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

This thing has come to my concern lately:
Observe:

First occasion
(this was when before i started the driver course)
Two officers come from the headquarters in charge visit my camp,
they are eating biscuits, having their tea break etc.
I go over to ask officer A, he gives me a reply.
As i start to leave, officer B asks: Hey what is your educational level?
I reply : "A-Level Sir. Why do you ask?"
Officer B: " No lah, you look very smart"
-WTF

Second occasion
(during the pre-briefing for driver course)
I was the first to arrive for the course briefing,
so i sat in the front row.
being the first to arrive and the only one from my camp,
i waited there alone.
i took a nap.
~~

i woke up to the room filled with trainees and the course instructor
Instructor: Eh why you sit alone? Chinese cannot sit with malay, indian ah? Mix around la! Get to know them better can or not?
PTE KIAM: speechless.
-WTF
next time i should fall asleep next to others, so as to not appear antisocial.LOL.

the same instructor.
this occasion he was asking us where we lived, e.g. Toa Payoh, Bedok etc.

My turn
Instructor: You? (as in : where you stay?)
PTE KIAM: Bukit Timah
Instructor: From your face you look like you stay in private housing! CORRECT OR NOT?
I was amazed by his powers of deduction, as i believe anyone would be hardpressed to name an non-private estate in Bukit Timah. I know i am.
PTE KIAM: Ya i stay in private housing.
Instructor: See, i know.(in a cocky manner, like he knew he was right all a long ahaha)

The scene was hilarious, the guy was so judgemental, yet so smug about it.

~~But seriously.. is "A-level student who lives in private housing" written all over my face? :X

Hahaha..

see you guys soon.
All the best in whatever you do~

2008-04-10T23:34:00.001+08:00

Hey guys i'll be going for my driver course tomorrow.
Heh. Wish me luck.
See ya guys soon.=)

Note to self: projected look. wake up.

2008-04-06T16:31:00.001+08:00

Hey people=)

Heh.

Right now i am feeling completely happy.
I am driven.
I am motivated to do all the right things.
I am unstoppable.

Right now in camp i can't stop smiling.
Even though i am piled with work, or whatever,
i always find it easy to smile like the happiest man on Earth.

On Friday, my bunkmate woke me up(cause i asked him for this little favour and he very nicely acquiesed)
I woke to the nicest sunrise i had seen in aeons.

The lower one third of the sky was illuminated in the warmest shade of orange,
while the middle section glowed with a lighter shade of blue,
the veil of darkness still remained over the upper section of the sky, and it was sky still remained as if in night-time, in a deep, velvety blue. Aesthetically Magnificent!

I just felt lucky to be able to gaze upon such an majestic and beautiful scene,
while being in an army camp, which is supposed to remain stoic and discipline, devoid of scenes of such a nature.
This was not the first time i had experienced this exquisite contradiction.

Many times during my life as a recruit on Pulau Tekong, i would yearn to gaze upon such scenes.
I found them in the form of the beautiful beach scenes, be it during the low or high tide, whenever i was booking out for a medical appointment or just for the weekend.

The little flora and fauna that was everywhere, the more exotic insects that we probably would not see in our homes.

Its the little things like this that make me smile, despite being 'forced' to do my National Service.
I never complain about National Service.
I don't find that anyone is forced. If you don't like it, migrate.
I find it pointless to complain about anything.
I just find that we should stay positive no matter the situation.
If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
Find the little things and draw laughter, peace and comfort in them.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

I have just read my friend's blog.
We are of the same age.
We have both been posted to units as men. ie. not commanders (sergeants, officers)
I am a driver, whereas he is a armoured infantry trooper.
I chose yes and he chose no for being a commander during Expressed Interest.
I, due to being on status for 80% percent of the time during BMT, because of fractured finger before enlistment, dengue and my Carpal Tunnel Syndrome missed the Sit. Test.
I therefore had completely eliminated my chance of going to command school, due to my missing out on this critical prerequisite.
So i knew ever since i missed the sit test it was life as a man for me definitely.
While he, had a sliver of hope and possibility that despite expressing no, ending up in command school.
At least he had a chance.

While waiting for his posting, he was nervous.
While i was waiting for my posting, i was excited even though i had no idea in hell where i would be going.
He got tank driver, all i have to say is that in life, not just in the SAF, don't bank on luck and uncertainty. Only the definite.
I got driver.
I didn't know what to expect, because i had the perception that only those people with a lower standard of education would be posted to such a vocation. I made a rough mental assessment of the perks of being a driver, and just smiled to myself, thinking: "hey, this ain't bad. i get to drive, free license, plenty of free time to my own, i can study for my re-exams or whatever. Let's go"

I initially had such big dreams as all of you know, about command school, as you guys know,
when they were dashed because of my medical conditions, i learnt to accept it over time.
I hope that he can also come to terms with this.

I am a driver, and i don't feel inferior at all to anyone even with the stereotype that drivers are uneducated fatfucks. i will defeat this stereotype.

Being a driver means being attached for exercises, some of them overseas.
I am glad to know that i will have a chance to go places like India, Taiwan and Australia.
I was so happy to know this. I always thought only people in command school were posted overseas. Just glad.
Another added plus point was there i could also be part of the National Day Parade, whether i will be an actual driver or just helping out in the logistics i don't know, but the idea of helping out was so exciting.

Now about the army camps.
My friend is describes his camp looking like a prison.
I mean, which army camp doesn't look stern and unfriendly?
Every camp i have seen so far seems so less cheerful compared to tekong.
Learn to see the little happy things.

About bunkmates and company,
for myself, i had already my share of tattooed, brash people in BMT.
He was not in an obese company, so he did not get the chance to mingle with people of lower education levels. Well i did.
I mingled, made friends and connected with these people.
Nothing is impossible.

EVERYONE in my bunk smokes. except for me.
They seldom give a crap and just light up in the room.
If i'm sleeping i'll just try my best to ignore it.
If not i'll tell them off, sometimes they go out.
But by then the room is filled with the putrid scent of cigarette smoke.

The things they talk about, prostitutes and motorcycles,
asking me to introduce them to JC girls, which i refused(of course)
it seems like the worse off the people are, the more desperate they get.
You want JC girls? fucking go study.

But still i get along ok with these people.
Just laughing at their foolish antics.
Looking at them, sometimes makes you feel lucky to be what i am.
Their viewpoint of life is always so, different, never wanting more.
Smokes, girls and more smokes thats all they ever think of.
End of the month, one of the people who got posted there, a smoker called me just before i was going out of the camp for the night.

him: "Eh can help me buy cigarettes?"
me: "Dude didn't you call the rest of the guys?"
him: "I got, but they all no money"

No sense of saving?
Lucky he didn't ask me to buy for him.

Well i am going back in tonight.
Gonna work out at the gym, and continue running.
I have got big aims.

IPPT GOLD. i can do two pullups already.. cmon.. plus you get $200 bucks.
No extra duties/punishments until ord. My camp is famous for this. I will be godly to pull this off.
Study for my SATS. i am aiming for the 2100-2300 range. My efforts are going well.
got lots of free time, getting the word lists into my head.
Redoing my Alevel homework.. Progressing a little slower because focusing on SATS.

Just alternating between academic and physical achievements.
Keeping my life in order.
I want to be the best that i can.

~signing off. KiaM

Quote from my FM (Fleet Manager, equivalent of OC)
" Fools Learn From Their Own Mistakes,
Whereas Wise Men,
Learn From Fools."

Rather meaningful.
Especially for a driver, any accident that is your fault could get you in big trouble.

2008-04-06T00:18:00.003+08:00

Back from a night out with my classmates from good ol' 06S66, followed by watching <<>> with my dear.

I am in the midst of typing another entry prior to this one, and this one is just to keep you guys updated.

I was not really in the best physical condition when i left the house to go for the outing. Feeling kinda lethargic and spent. Maybe i am still not getting used to doing whatever i am doing to the best of my ability.

Fell asleep on the bus. Gotta get more rest. Got off at Marina Square.
Saw rimmel and chen zhuo. they kinda know my face and i know theirs. just looked at each othere while we walked past.lol. awkward.

The class ate at this place called Hotpot Culture.
Somehow i didn't really get a nice vibe about the place.
Couldn't really put my finger on it. Just did not feel right.

Went to the arcade, played some BishiBashi, some guys played daytona.

Took a picture, left the place to find my dear.

We watched The Leap Years.
I liked the show.
Made me think thoughts that i usually would not think,
but by the time we were on the bus home i was already back to normal.
My dearest dear as usual, teared quite a bit.

I was tired.
Gonna sleep quick

I have big plans and aims.
So many plans and aims.
I want them all.
I gotta start prioritizing.
Yep. Otherwise i will end up with all halfdone things.

ill post the earlier entry that is still in progress on Sunday. Seeya guys soon.

Vroom.

2008-03-30T19:24:00.003+08:00

Hey guys.
I'm a Driver.
VOCATION: DRIVER
Thats what it said on the posting website.

I wanted to get posted to Maju Camp.
a singular 20minute long direct bus ride to get there from my house.. service 61.
That would have been nice.

But no, I got this place --- Sungei Gedong.
Where's that you must be wondering.
Well let me tell you.
I also didnt know at first. No one would.

Because its friggin in the middle of nowhere.
Heh.
Its somewhere at Lim Chu Kang.
Past all the Chinese and Muslim cemeteries, a Goat Farm, Chicken Farm, a runway.
Continue down the path really long.
There it is.

Woah.. to say it is Isolated is an understatement.
a singular bus service ferries its occupants to Chua Chu Kang MRT.

That's all i have time for.
Will find you guys soon.
Think u guys are irritated by the blog music also.
Will change.

The Next Step(s)

2008-03-23T21:27:00.003+08:00

serene: ooh yeah. i received it. heh thanks for the reply. like i always say its nice to receive good old conventional snail mail once in a while.
rife:Pop lo~ hehe. POP special coming right up.
Macho Leng: You leave me speechless. More on you later.
qk: No giving up now yeah.. just taking the steps.

19 March WED
POP.

I actually was on MC for Fever from monday evening till tuesday evening.
I booked in to a great feast at my company line.
Roti John~ okay~
The last night in bunk..
The cleaning of the entire coy line...

Traaaaained Soldier~~

my fahmilee.

sergeant that sent me to get my carpal tunnel checked out, got like 2 months att b.
changing my army life forever.

the sergeants from my platoon~ fantastic people.
life changing experiences and lessons they have all given me.
different styles of leading and commanding, but all in our best interests.
none of them overtly demanding or unreasonable. always reasonable.

my pc and ps. plus platoonmates.

just glad that even though i wasnt in the formation, i was allowed to run in, in the end.
such an electrifying experience.

will miss all the army guys.
G COY~

20 March.

Had breakfast at al-ameen with mr leng..
junwei had some hangover or smth.

ate.
then played lan..

i have a certain level of skill when it came to playing counterstrike,
as my friends can attest to..

i havent played more than twice a month in like 4 years,
i know, skills get rusty,
but even after you factor in the rusting of skills,
mr leng was like totally owning me.

can u imagine the shame, the humiliation, the unimaginable sense of defeat?
losing to a middle aged man thats already one foot into the coffin?
a living fossil..

but yeah.. for counterstrike i barely managed to scrape a tie even after many rounds..

then we went on to try unreal tournament 3,
a new game we both have not played before..
i totally pwned him.

my forte when it comes to fps lies in those kind of faster paced games,
games where it usually comes down to pure reflex,
games where you dont have to wait to respawn etc.

glad i at least managed to win him in that..

nice meeting up with him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
later in the day met the army guys for dinner at Kuishin Bo.
fantastic food..
the pricetag kinda high too.
fri sat sun will set u back 47 dollars nett.
kinda killer.

variety is amazing though.
Wide spread of food from sashimi, seafood, sushi, tempura, teppanyaki, yakitori, mini paper steamboat to soba. The complete meal includes starters, desserts, soft drinks, coffee and tea.

dont forget chocolate fondue. oh yeah.
orgas.

heh i lost the group photo.
i tink the guy that we asked to take it didnt really take it...

yeah. most of the photos are just a blurred mess of me trying to catch people in unglam shots...
one of my newer hobbies.

March 21.
i cant really rmb what i did today.
oh yeah.
watched sweeny todd with my dear.
it was really good.

the kind of flick i like
like the part sacha baron cohen played.
kinda meaningful for me.

dinner was ok overall.. atmosphere kinda lacking but still great to get together again.
heh.
compliments on my weight loss.
heh someone told me that they could finally see my jawline.
well i gotta admit it has been in hiding for quite a while.

<3 ya dear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

by the way guys.. i am a driver.
woot.
for ns.
i predict: free driving lessons, slack life, spending hours in the driver seat playing psp (which i am going to get very soon). army guys know that every driver has a psp..

alright.
getting damn late.
i tink i can come home tmr after reporting to jurong.. according to my driver friend.yay.
i will blog very soon.
heh.
love all u people.
hugs.

2008-03-15T16:32:00.006+08:00

.

Hey everybody.

Didn't blog last week during the bookout.
Well i guess i wasn't really in the mood.
Is there anyone out there?

Last Week
Went back to school as a J3, a senior.
Felt like a pro and all the little people still in khaki were like noobs.
Always nice to see the flora and fauna of HCI once again
Schoolgirls will always have that kind of appeal.
Hawt.

I knew roughly how badly i was going to do.
My estimated grades were quite similar to my actual grades.
The thing that i got wrong was , how well everyone else actually did.

7 out of ten with 3As.
8 out of ten with A in math and chem.
Me no fall into any of these categories.
Must be really low down in the rankings in my school.

No matter, i had already prepared myself for the results that i got:
GP : B
Physics: A (thank you mr koh)
Chem: C
Maths: D
Econs : E

ABCDE then ladies and gentlemen.

The only thing that i did not expect was the E for Econs.
I did pretty good for hc standard during the prelim.
and its my favourite subject and all.
Econs was even my top choice of study in uni. But i guess now that is out of the question.
Maybe the broken finger and sprained ankle just 5 minutes before the paper started had something to do with it.

Took the results, didn't feel like hanging around much.
Left pretty soon.
Before i did leave, the most common sentence spoken to me was:
"Eh, you OK or not?", like they were expecting me to break down etc.
After all i had did very badly compared to most in hc and singapore.

I'm ok.

Can't let the stuff in the past haunt me.
I'm over it .
Just gonna apply, and really spice up my application to the best of my abilities because my grades really aren't the best.
can't get,
then depending on whether i get a 8 to 5 for my posting during National Service,
i will retake it either during NS or after..
Pretty much laid out.
I'll take the SATS during this period. That'll help a little.

During that weekend i ate at places with food that was value for money and
more importantly, extremely tasty

1.Sizzler

Had a steak while my dear had the chicken.
Magnificent and exquisite.
The unique thing about sizzler is that it comes with a free flow salad bar with every meal.
The bar includes everything that you need to make a fantastic salad, ice creams with toppings, pasta, noodles, soups (and CROUTONS!)
all free flow of course.
Just great.
Nice place to go and have a nice meal with someone nice and have a nice chat.

2 Outlets.
@ Suntec City, and
@ Toa Payoh.

2.Botak Jones.

Just pure big and tasty.
Only the freshest ingredients and most generous portions.
Me and my dear had the Fish and Lamb.
What can i say? It was good =)

I hadn't eaten at these two places in a while.
It was nice going back.
Paying for my own meals as a working adult sucked though.

Want to thank everyone that was very supportive before and after the release of results.
1.Parents hope i haven't let you down too much. thanks for not going beserk.
2.Dear, for making you look a little bad, though i know you would never look at me that way.
3.Friends, though everyone did better than me, thanks.
4.Relatives. Janice and wanlin. thanks.

This week.
Kinda tasty.
Gonna POP on Wed.
Will know my posting on Fri.
Reporting to my new unit on Mon.
Obese intake people get one week less block leave than others yeah.

The past week i just really did the usual stuff.
Rain was kinda heavy.
So for some of the days we totally just stayed in and came out only for meals.

By the way i won't be taking part in the actual parade because i am still on status.
Another thing i will miss.. ***
Never mind.

Did something nice for my dear
Bought her a nice Easter Surprise and a little something else.

Haha. Just feel good to do something nice for her. heh.

Alright gonna go back in..
see you guys soon. Pop lo~

Lalala..

2008-03-02T16:05:00.004+08:00

First up,
I kind of gotten over the whole
"can't get into command school thing.

Its not like i didn't try,
Its not like i didn't want it bad enough.
But sometimes no matter how hard you tried, or how badly you wanted something,
you might not even get it.

Maybe this is one of the times.
Kinda feel helpless.
But when ailments strike, just be glad they were not more severe than they already are and hope for a quick recovery.

My carpal tunnel syndrome is getting better.
Can feel it.

Went to CGH during the weekdays for my EMG (Electromyograph).
Whoo the nurse was hot.
The test basically involves running electric shocks down both my palms to compare the differences in the speed of electrical impulses in both hands.
Some of the jolts really hurt.
The machine was like some kind of BDSM equipment..

She wasn't a trained doctor but she said it most probably a mild case of CTS.. yea.

Initially wanted 2 places, either ocs or a 8 to 5 job.
now that ocs is out of the picture, since i missed the sit test and re-sit test.
i can only hope for the best (8 to 5), since there most probably will not be a down PES.

Fri~

Booked out.
Bought my Ipod lalala.Ipod classic 160gb.
Feels great.
Felt like Christmas.
Used my own cash. Ow.

Heh i just feel so good carrying it around.
so shiny~~

Finally i have been saved from a musical drought ever since my Creative Zen 20GB died on me
months after its screen cracked during that basketball match with John..

There's just so much to do with it. HEE~~
Shall spend some time organising the music, album artwork etc~~~ lalala

Then went to grandmas
always nice to visit.
glad my gf can gel well with relatives.
Noticed alot of impressive cny decorations..
asked people when they were put up cause i didnt recal them being up.
then everyone told me they were there since a long time ago..
only then i realised how blur i was during cny because of dengue..
just glad that episode is over.

Saturday~

Went SAF band audition with good ol' junwei.
met jianhui kb and a few other hcband people there like ivan damien.
saw doug and firdaus too~

Got to play Air by Bach.
Fantastic.
I thought this song should be easy, i had been listening to it for a while now, such a coincidence that i got to play it.
was like grinning to myself.
heh it was fun picking up the sax and playing all over again with my bandmates,
only thing that sucked was the part where i royally screwed up the audition.
heh nvm.. rusty already la.

Then went Beauty world for shopping with my dear..
shopped for her mom's gift.
heh. gold.
then bought dinner, went home, watched balls of fury.

yingqun called midway, so poor thing to be confined.

~
Sunday,
met up with hx so that she could pass me the army bottle she so nicely agreed to buy on my behalf.. mine was spoilt.
ate a little breakfast,
chatted about the stuff we do.
heh always nice to meet up with old friends.

packed my room.
looks much better now.
neater.

alright..
gonna book in again tonight..
see you guys soon.

17days to pop
643 days to ord..~

2008-02-24T15:00:00.003+08:00

on status till 31st march.
missed sit-test because of dengue.
missing the upcoming re-sit test because still on status.
not taking the sit-test = no chance of command school. no sispec/ocs.
no ocs/sispec = no target to work towards.
being in the army for me now with no target really makes it harder for me.

right now its such a drag to go to camp.
i lost my motivation.

24 days to pop.
650 days to ord.

2008-02-24T13:40:00.002+08:00

Hello.

Hand's feeling better.
Less numb. But still tingly.

Basically,
I am excused from physical activity till April.

ah crap.
dont feel like blogging.
nvm.
blog next week.

notes to self:

doc,
no cmd sch.
ntu,
cards,
aimlessness,
nxt appt,
choices to be made,
..

2008-02-17T10:57:00.004+08:00

Hey people.
Its me again.
How have you been?
Are ya guys working? If so how is your work?
Ya guys in army? How is life on the island of recruits?
Somehow wish i could reach out to every single one of you with greater ease.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The past week in camp has been somewhat uneventful.
I have been on status ever since i have been to the hospital.

My right hand with suspected Carpal Tunnnel Syndrome (CTS) is still numb and throbs with pain intermittently..

Stuff like cutting the fingernails on my left hand has become somewhat impossible.
My right thumb and index fingers are so numb that i can't exert much force with them.
I now use my thumb and ring finger.
Kinda weird combo, but i gotta tell you that the thumb, index and middle fingers are quite lacking in sensation already.
The ring finger is numb, but not as much.
Small finger is completely fine to my surprise.
This is due to the fact that the carpal tunnel only carries signals to four of my fingers.
And since it does not supply my small finger, it remains unaffected.
Cool.

Everything about the CTS is pretty much the same, if not getting slightly worse.
Numbness is getting more obvious.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Only thing that has changed?
Its the appointment date.

I brought it forward and it landed on the 18th Feb.
Yeap. Its less than 24 hours away.
Soon all will be revealed

Not that much will be a surprise or a great revelation will be made.
I say this , because there can only be two outcomes. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A little prologue on my entering army. I had goals, ambitions, wanted to be the best that i could be. Officer Cadet School that sort of thing.
I wanted it.
I was driven, i could have gotten there.
You know?

Sacrifices i made,
free time at night spent running on the track, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes running my heart out.
time i could have spent talking to my family, my girlfriend on the phone.
time i could have spent bonding with my platoonmates,

every single exercise that i did, giving my all, doing my best.
every 5bx, doing it properly
every run and jog, running to the front of the pack.
every pushup, doing it standard.
never punished for not doing my duties properly as a platoon i/c.

I forgot to include this detail in the previous blogpost.
btw, i was relieved of my platoon ic post the day i left camp when i was struck with dengue.

<<<<<<<<<
I was ready.

Ten minutes after i was appointed during the field camp
We were all holding our rifles, load bearing vest and field pack.
For those people who know -- all those things add up to quite a bit of weight.

We were told to sit down with all the stuff.
I underestimated the weight of all that stuff.
My right thumb hit the floor first.
I hurt it bad. and it hurt like hell.
I thought it was just a bad sprain.

that night, back in the bunk.
staring at my thumb, it was swollen like crazy.
there was all the inner bruising, characteristic of either a very bad sprain or fracture.
i should know because i have sprained my ankles countless times.

hurt like hell. sucked it up.
didnt report it to anyone.

it was my chance to be the ic and show what i could do.
was not going to allow just any injury to stop me.

Here's the thing.
When i went to the hospital last week,
i took x-rays.

there it was on my thumb.
A fracture.
I had broke my thumb during training.

The doctor spotted it out pretty much quickly.
I was there for my CTS, and not the fracture,
he said it was a childhood injury.
little did he know how recent it was.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Naturally, after all i had done,
and now it had amounted to nothing.
the feeling of loss of not being able to get to the top sinks in a little.

My guiding principle in National Service:
OCS if i can,
if not,
get me a desk job from 9 to 5.

in fact right now i hope to get a desk job.
for me its all or nothing.
well. we will wait and see.
i sure as hell dont want to caught in between my options.
either the best of the best, or best of the worst.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

supposed to book out on fri night.
but confined till sat morning becos of some reason i shant disclose.
anyway.. still glad to be out.

yesterday spent with my love was wonderful.
spent the day watching Juno at home.
fuck that movie is nice. go get it.
a very good couple movie.
then we took a nap.. wonderful fuzzy cozy warm feeling.
ate cookies, went for dinner.
ate Italian food nearby with my younger brother
pizza, lasagna.. wonderful stuff.

such a wonderful day.
everyday i see her, she seems to be getting more beautiful.
days are never boring with her around. such a bundle of joy.
happy valentines day dear. i love you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
thanks for the encouragement people, esp vinci.
ill let u guys know... see u soon people.
just nice to have people tagging at the board.

2008-02-13T09:33:00.002+08:00

Aye people.. how you all?

I am booked out!
Yesterday i reported sick for my hand.
I got sent to Changi General Hospital Accident & Emergency department.
Got checked out and everything.

Doctor thinks i have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Basically there is a nerve that supplies electrical signals to my hand.
And the passageway that it lies on is being compressed, leading to numbness and pain.

Well nothing can be said for sure.
A nerve conduction test would have to be taken at a specialist.

Then the appointment is on 4th March..
Quite acceptable la.

Quite glad i got things rushed a little and got a little closure...

If it really is CTS,
treatment options
1. Wait and rest the hand.
2. Injections for temporary relief.
3. Surgery to widen the tunnel so the nerve will not be compressed.

"In general, milder cases can be controlled for months to years, but severe cases are unrelenting symptomatically and likely will come to surgical treatment." - Wikipedia.

*********
Right now about this thing,
I am cool with it.
I know that whatever i have,
it will not heal in a matter of days that kind of thing.

One of my friends said i was lucky to get time off after visiting the hospital.

I told him, i am sacrificing long term options (OCS etc...) for these short term gains (a day out of camp)

In return, he gave an nice new look on my state.
He went even longer term.
Better to treat the problem now,
when i am young and not working or studying.
Also, its completely free as i am under the Singapore Armed Forces now.

So either way i look at it,
its a win-win situation yeah.
Not like i wanted this upon myself.

No matter the diagnosis, the outcome.
just chill and all will be well.
~~~~~~~~~~

By the way, all the worry about having to go back after so long was unfounded.
Heh. The moment i saw my platoonmates at the Bus interchange it all just faded away.
A welcoming back into camp.
Sweet.

Just a little downside
Don't know if its because of recovering from dengue,
or its because i have not exercised in two weeks.
But just feeling lethargic.
Hope the feeling passes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the way the word is going around that A-level results are coming out soon..
Just waiting.
Not anticipating.
Not brooding.
Either a bonus or expecting it.
Lets wait and plan.
For worrying now will only serve to do nothing.

"All the worry in the world never changed anything. Why worry?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About Sicko
I was glad i showed this movie to some of my classmates when they came over during CNY.
It really opens your eyes to the evils of capitalism.
I really don't think that highly of America now..
Wonder if all that i see in the movie is true.
i dont know, but just these few weeks i watched 2 documentaries by Michael Moore

1. Fahrenheit 911
2. Sicko

Totally changed my perspective about the US.
Its sad. Talk about freedom? complete bullshit.

The best way you guys can understand is by watching these movies with your own eyes.
Try to get your hands on a copy.. Please do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
See you guys soon.
p.s do u guys like the background music? i know i do. heh.

2008-02-10T16:31:00.000+08:00

Hey people.. How you been?

Right now for me..
I've got to book in a few hours time.
I have not stepped into an army camp for ten days, 13 if you don't include the time i went back to camp to endorse my MC.
Its a little daunting for me to go back after such a long while.
Cowardice? More like uncertainty ...
Feel out of touch with the army life u know.
13 days is like 2 weeks man. That's long.

Ah to put it simply its like missing class for 2 weeks man.
When ya gotta go back, its like butterflies in your stomach man.
At least in my stomach.

I left camp with a

Dengue Fever,
Numb hand,
Cough.

Now the Dengue Fever is dead for sure.
Heh. A Lot of my friends were like are u the guy that got dengue?
Well screw you because of u i had to put mosquito nets in camp because of you man screw you lalala.
Heh well yeah the truth is that in my absence in camp they all now gotta sleep with mosquito nets cause I, yes the great me got dengue..
And they all think its a hassle to put it up..
Heh. Live with it.
The Cough is gone.

BUT~. Hell yeah there is always a but.

My hand. Its getting bad i tell you.
I won't get into an entire rantfest on it,
but i just wanna say that instead of just being numb and inconvenient,
it now starts to hurt when i use my hand, picking up stuff, opening cans, pushing buttons, opening wrappers etc.
Makes me wanna be a leftie,
and i can visually see the parts that are numb.
Normal pink flesh under my fingernails is turning white like faded yeah.

Question:
I mean, for this kind of problem, where its not exactly an emergency like life threatening and all,
but its getting progressively worse and shit.
I can't afford to wait in the National healthcare system for months for a specialist appointment.
Is there somewhere i can go to like fasttrack the process due to the degenerative nature of the condition?
I got an appointment with a Neurologist.
But who can be sure this thing is something to do with the nerves man?
Argh damnit.
If i go private sure it will be fast but the bills like fuck. Just to see the guy would cost be $200.
Without procedures or medicine man...
Goddamn.

Then i gotta think about the future in army due to this hand thing man.
Like shit my options are down.
Like if i cant do shit now, i am gonna have to like recourse man.
No way in hell thats good man.

The sinusitis infection..
The yellow mucus is still there ..
Leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.
fk that.

By the next book out i am gonna get a definitive solution to my problems man.
Can't wait.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyway things on a happier note now that i have got all that off my chest.

The last few days have been quite great.

Visiting my maternal relatives on the first few days of CNY was not as great as i thought it would be.
Its all about being sick and recovering and shit.
I just can't turn up the spirit and be all high and chatty.
Its tough when i just slept 12 hours the day before and the moment i start visiting,
all i wanna do is jump on a bed.
So besides the first like one hour i enjoyed myself,
after that it was like being led by the nose from house to house
collecting angbaos like a machine.

Speaking about angbaos, this year's harvest was goood.
Like many newlywed cousins and stuff, and woot~
yeah the newlyweds are generous yessiree they are.

Yeah visiting was brief..
did it only for one day.~
Not that i am a sociopath or recluse by nature..
But recovering from sickness just puts you out of the mood yeah?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The S66 gathering at my house oh yeah.
I din take any pictures oh yeah.
Cause i forgot oh yeah.

Basically it was the first time i was hosting people over for anything.
I have not invited a bunch of people to my house for like forever.
So naturally i was nervous.

Woke up in the morning,
went to shop n' save. thats a supermarket vinci.
then yeah i just went in thinking,
what do i like to eat and just went on a frenzy,
anything that looked tasty enough just went into the basket and stuff.
soon one basket filled up
i had to get another one then both were filled.
then when i had to haul all the stuff to the cashier
i was like "fuck i bought A LOT of stuff"
then it was like eighty bucks
in retrospect it was money well spent heh.
impt to keep people happy and well fed and well snacked.
then i had to haul all of it home.
lucky i live near the supermarket.
so the cab fare was like 3 dollars plus only.

People came early
People came late
People came for like half hour then left like ahem~
People ate
People said that they could not make it
People were like "HOW TO GET TO YOUR HOUSE?"

It was a great experience.
wanna zhexi for bringing the dvd player and rifeng for the mahjong.
thanks .
Heh.

I personally enjoyed myself a great deal and stuff.
Really dont mind hosting all over again =) heh.

ah i just got word that my parents wanna eat dinner..
so gonna cut it short.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One last piece of news.
Ah Meng, the grand old lady of the Singapore Zoological Gardens, is dead.
Read more here.

Felt kinda sucky that she's gone.
She was the one this blog is named after and all..
So, a moment of silence for a wonderful lady.

Pity last year i went to the zoo i didn't get to see her..
aww..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

alright i've got to get going.
i will miss slacking outside here in the civilian world.
but yeah i've always liked army. hope things inside haven't changed much.
i miss u people.
i miss u dear. love you <3
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note to self.
Upload prom pics (does anyone still care)
blog about sicko, fahrenheit 911 and america.
facebook

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAH~~

2008-02-07T00:12:00.000+08:00

Heh today was fun.
Woke early with good ol' JunWei
Went Macs for breakfast.
Heh its the first time i ate fast food since i enlisted.
Tasted the same..

Then.. Went to skool
Quite a low turnout from our year.
Ladies gotta work and guys gotta defend the nation i guess..
At least for my class this was the case.
Heh.

Went to visit teachers on both sides.
Heh. I got the pictures in my photobucket.
Always nice to see em' =)

The atmosphere was quite ok.
Coming back as a senior... Feels refreshing.
Hahaha looking back on myself when i was in school.. i was a total n00b man.
Now i tink i could have totally done better.
and for those who are in the know, theres always cutecute to liven up things,
ya know, thats always nice ahahah.

Went with the class peeps to yong chye.
Mmm... Nice oily chicken rice thats cheap.
Haha curry wok was closed.
Then went island creamery.
Heh the class people are always nice to hang with=)
heh.

After that i went my aunts place for reunion dinner.
Quite tasty yepyep.
First time spending CNY eve at someone elses house.

Talked to junyu on the phone hm yes indeed.

Alright..
See you guys tomorrow maybe.
Ah i gotta tidy up the place at home.
People are coming. I think.
Ahaha.
Nights~
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAH~~

2008-02-05T10:36:00.000+08:00

Feeling much better =)
Dengue is dead for sure.
Just a little nagging sinusitis left.

I FEEL SO GREAT.
SO ALIVE.

I got a little cash in the bank.
I lost weight, looking good.
My body is feeling fine and in tip top condition.

All the next few days no army no disease no shit to screw it all up.

What else can happen except having fun?

On a scale of one to ten where ten is estatic.
I'm like a 52.
Hahahaha. k ill go have fun now.
Find u guys around.

2008-02-03T14:11:00.000+08:00

Recovering is a torturous process.
Thinking you are ready to be yourself again,
then the drowsiness of the meds begins to kick in once again.
Its back to the bed for you again naughty boy.

Yesterday i went to the polyclinic.
3rd blood test in 3 days. a urine one. and a x-ray for my nose.
blood test showed that the platelet levels are rising. hooray.
In short, dengue's gone.
urine's fine.
x-ray says i have sinusitis. basically my whole nose is clogged with mucus.
the yellow streaky sticky kind. the blood is gone. thank god.

the cough is almost dead. i barely cough now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

since the 28th till today its been 6 days.
didnt have many proper meals.
lost a crapload of weight. crapload as in visible loss in mass.
like 4kg.
its like because i haven't been eating for so long,
i didnt really use my senses of smell and taste.
yesterday while waiting for my results of the x-ray,
i ate a whole Breadtalk Nacho Cheese Bun,
trying to taste the cheese,
not a little of that salty sensation was to be found,
i couldnt smell it at all as well. even when i brought it to my nose.
i ate a Subway tuna sandwich.
at least i could taste the tuna in this one.
phew.

ytd night was reunions at maternal grandmas.
i was ready to go.
had just woke up from a nap and thought i could handle it.
when i arrived we were like the second family.
by the time half the families arrived it was too much to handle,
too cramp, noisy , too much for my battered head.
got bro to take me home.
saw a cadbury bar in the kitchen.
ate it.
couldnt taste a shit.
worst chocolate bar i didn't have.

my senses have been under the influence of drugs for way too long .

my eyes seem to have lost some degree of depth perception.
slept too much?
not worried about eyes.
as for now my vision is tip-top.
eyes have been rested.

nose is down.
tongue is down.
skins alright.
ears are alrite.

thanks for the rant.
just want to let u know what its like to be me.

i have not been anywhere else since i got sick except
Tekong
Medical Institutions ( Tekong Medical Centre, Polyclinic, my GP, NUH)
Home (my sleeping place. Zzz)

today was the first time i went out, to my girlfriends house.
I slept right before i left.
by the time i reached her house i had to sleep again.
LOL.
k now i just woke.
gotta rush quick to get a bite and west mall before my energy drains out.

seeya people,
im hungry.

A Slight Reprise

2008-02-01T20:25:00.000+08:00

Hi people.
For those people who usually breeze through,
...
..
.
I've got dengue.

Today i went to the hospital to get my 3 ailments checked out.
Just walked into the NUH walk-in A&E dept alone,
stated my symptoms..

Then i was transferred to the Fever Facility.
Did not even know that such things exist. But it sounds logical to have one yep.

The hospital is such a clean, sterilised and pure place.
Some of the qualities that i like about hospitals.

I was put into an isolation room.
A square room 3 by 4 metres.
Whitish-yellow walls.
A bed, sink, dustbin, vital signs monitor and a chair.

Soon the doctor came then i repeated my entire story that i told so many people the past week about my cough, fever numbness etc.
"Let's do a blood test" says the doctor.
Haha its my second blood test in two days.

Someone came to draw my blood.
i was pretty dry.

Results came back and doctor says
" we think its dengue or you are recovering from it"
My suspicions confirmed..

My platelet count showed it all.
Finally.
Next time if i'm ever so sick ill just go straight to the hospital.
Really learnt my lesson.
Did not have to pay a single cent because i am a NSman yeah.

About my numb hand, an appointment with the neurologist has been scheduled April 16.
Kinda too long.
Seriously thinking of private. Anyone know a good neurologist?
Sigh.
Hand getting more numb, but yet reluctant to pay for the speed.
Howhowhow?

Yesterday i had to go back to camp to endorse my MC
i never knew MCs had to be endorsed.
If you take an MC that puts you away from camp for more than 3 days you will have to get it endorsed AT TEKONG.
It was quite a hassle for me to go all the way there especially when halfway the fever started to trigger.
Cold sweat, massive headache and i had to drag myself there just to get a chop on the MC.
Took a chest x-ray and a blood test but dont know the results yet.
One more reason i would rather go to a hospital, its faster than in tekong.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The thing about dengue is that your temperature is either always rising or falling.
Before i knew it was dengue and my temperature went down, i always thought hooray my fever is gone.
Then it decides to come back.
Kinda sucky feeling.
Now i just go to sleep when the fever starts and wake when it ends.
Still got a little blood in my phlegm but its ok.
Coughing a lot less now.

Thanks to all the well-wishers.
Nice to receive greetings when you are down=)
See ya guys soon.

Down with the sickness.

2008-01-30T21:24:00.000+08:00

Hi people.
How have you been?
How ironic that i was wishing everyone the best of health in my cards and previous blogpost.

I say this because now i myself have fallen prey to 3 ailments..

1.Cough.
Chronic Cough. Its been 4 weeks long already.
My throat is never free of phlegm.
Thick yellow phlegm with streaks of blood.
Its the infamous Tekong Cough
My doctor told me that its 2 factors that make a cough that starts during bmt a hard one to cure.
usually people dont recover till they POP(passing out parade- it marks the end of bmt)
Firstly its the dusty environment.
those who have had standby areas will know how fast dusty the place is..
also, when a tonner zooms past, all the dust goes airborne.
second its the lack of rest during the training. every day the cough remains untreated and grows worse.
the coughing was so bad i could not sleep at night for at least an hour. tossing and turning in bed,
tearing uncontrollably as my body screamed for solace.
everytime a bout of coughing started, the force of it would heave my chest of the bed, it would stop only 7-8 seconds.
i would cough with such intensity that i had to take a deep breath in between the bout of coughing, then start coughing again.
taking naps during the day were also out of the question, given the amount of time it took for me to fall asleep and break times are usually never that long.

2.Fever.
28 Jan 1500 - 36.5 C
1730 -37.7 C
1800 -38.0 C
1830 -38.4 C
2100 -39.0 C
29 Jan 0700 -39.4 C
2100 -39.6 C ***
30 Jan 0700 -36.9
1600 -38.0C

The fever came literally from nowhere.
On a sidenote. My book in timing for sunday 27 Jan was initially 1910.
But there was some mixup and the timing was pushed back 2 hours to 2110.
So my company ended up having to burn two hours by just hanging around white sands.
Just hope that recruits' will be better taken care of next time.
The fever's got me aching everywhere, my skin is super sensitive now. a tingly feeling.

3.Numbness
My entire right hand, save for my small finger is becoming numb.
i first noticed it on the 21st.
it was initially a slight tingly feeling on tip of my index finger and tip of my thumb. and also my two big toes.
fast forward to today, the areas of numbness have spread and so has the intensity. can hardly feel my index and thumb. the toes still remain numb but it isnt spreading.
I've seen two different army doctors, my GP and all three can't conclusively decide what is the problem. some say its carpal tunnel syndrome, some say it isn't
I am worried about the wait at government hospitals for specialists.
At this rate of progression, who knows what will have happened.
Then again, my GP said that seeing a specialist to get the relevant tests done will cost at least $400.
I booked out on the morning of 29 and was supposed to go back in on the night of 30 Jan which is tonight.
But the fever still wasn't subsided so i went to my GP.
tmr morning i will have to go back to camp to get my MC endorsed and i will come back home.
ill go back to camp on the night of the 1st.
ill be booking out on the 2nd.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Although all these mishaps have happened to me,
i am just taking everything in my stride.
I have dreamt big for my future in the army, OCS and all that.
When the Medical Officer told me there was a chance i could be taken out of course because of my hand, my heart sank.
It took me like 5 seconds to rationalise this reality
and before i knew it i was alright.
The sickness was just waiting to happen.
Some things in life can't be avoided. like whatever is going on with my hand.
Even if i do not make my dream of OCS because of all this, its alright.
ill just go with flow, for i have come to acknowledge and accept these things that have happened to me.
when i was waiting at the medical centre, i was talking to one of the medics about my condition and how i wanted to give my all and go places.
he told me
"can you type?"
i replied "yes."
he said " then give your all as a clerk"
i took the joke well=)
hahaha.
no matter what happens to me in the future or which unit i am posted to,
ill learn to appreciate and embrace it.

i want to thank all those who have shown concern.
My platoonmates, sectionmates, my bed buddy, parents and my dear.
my buddy is really the best.
he remembered my locker combination and called my parents for me when i went to the sickbay.
Sorry dear i couldnt keep you updated throughout the ordeal.
Note: i spent the night of the 28th in the sickbay and wasnt able to reach her, making her worried sick..
Not to forget the medics, although they were apprehensive of my actions

When i woke up on 29 morning, my right hand was swollen like a 1.5L bottle
Oh ya did i mention i was put on an IV(intravenous) drip?
it was inserted into my right hand but it somehow missed the vein and the salt solution just flowed into my arm LOL.

Another thing. ill be missing my Sit Test (Situational test)
its one of the important benchmarks for getting into Command School ( Sispec School of Infantry Specialists to become Sergeants or OCS Officer Cadet School to become Officers)
ill be taking it with another batch from another company as well as those from my company that missed it as well.
kinda relieved to hear that.

alright people.
maybe ill update when i come back from camp tmr.

all the best.
love ya guys=)

Ha! Its my birthday.

2008-01-27T09:27:00.001+08:00

My Birthday is on the 26th of January.
Which was yesterday.
Hahah.

I just don't know how glad i am.

Let me blog a little to try and give u guys an idea of how glad.
Haha just grinning like a fool to myself when i type.
(i recently realised that i grin to myself a lot)

The days that i spent in college really were years of awakening for me.
A sense of clarity was found. Although it was found a little too late, only at the end of my college life.

Now everyday i live each day fully.
Not being complacent, striving onwards, trying to be the person i have always envisioned becoming.
And as with this birthday, i can honestly say that i have come one step closer to becoming that person.

Mentally,
I am more matured.
A lot of 'this can wait till tmr' and 'ah nevermind next time then do' mentality i have done without. No more feeling daunted by seemingly hard to achieve tasks. Instead these tasks are now being viewed as a challenge.
Having a constantly positive mindset now is one of the most important things that i have learnt and accomplished.
Every simple little thing can be transformed.
from the greatest catastrophe into the most trivial problem
from the most minute simple pleasures of life to become an overcoming feeling of joy(grinning like a fool)

Physically,
NS is helping me get there and with extra hard work on my part,
i believe i can get there.
I don't really have a clear and obvious target for this category... Its kind of unrealistic to base it on a arbitrary number like weight.
All i can say is that i am getting there.
Still got plenty of fats on my face lol.
i've been doing 20,30,40 minute runs during my free time in army, as yingqun can give testament to.
Just wanna look good feel good.
The amount of weight that i have lost since enlistment have really given me a little boost.

With my loved ones..
I have really learned to just say that i love you to them.

To everyone,
I have learnt not to be restrained in your conversation.
Just saying what you feel, saying what you really think.
Showing my huge appreciation for the little things that they do.
Sharing with them your experiences, while finding about theirs.
Asking questions about people that you have always wanted to ask
Its just opened doors for me.

To my family
I have really cherished them so much more these days.
My immediate family,
My both sets of grandparents, and a few noted cousins
NS had that effect on me. You just cherish em more.

To my friends
I have formed closer bonds than i have during the school time with one or two of them.
These friends i believe will stay with me for a long time to come.
To enjoy their presence and companionship.
To the one or two,
I really thank you so much.
You've put countless smiles on my face.

To my love.
Yesterday marked the 600th day of our relationship=)
It has been a wonderful journey
and i can safely say that it was one with many more ups than downs compared to other couples.
Can't think of a definitive reason why this is so, but i am really thankful for it.
You have tried to become a stronger person mentally and physically, for the both of us.
I thank you so.
NS has not created a huge rift between us. For this i am blessed.
i love you

Life is getting better.
Getting there.
Almost.

Just wish everyone and myself the best of health,
to maximise the enjoyment.
For without health, we would not be able to savour all the pleasures.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday morning on the morning of my birthday i awoke in my bunk on Tekong.
Woke to sound of birthday greetings from my left and my right bed buddies.
Wonderful.

Oh by the way right now i am the Platoon IC.
1 man is part of a section.
12 or 13 men form a section.
4 sections in a platoon.
4 platoons in a company.
Yout get the idea.

Basically got to make sure the instructions from the commanders are passed onto my platoonmates, account for the condition and status of the platoon and to of course command the platoon from place to place e.g. marching

I have been at it for a week now
the first day was a day of moping in the dark trying to find my direction, finding my leadership style.
Initially when you are tasked with the task, due to a lack of a clear direction, you tend to be lead, or rather mislead by those who think that they actually know how to get the job done.
You have to learn to be receptive to the suggestions and feedback coming from your men, yet at the same time have a firm resolve so as to what you want.

-Being platoon IC means you march separately from the rest of the platoon like
XXX Where X = my mates and K = me.
XXX K
XXX
This formation has made me an attractive target for Junyu who cannot resist giving me a whack when our platoons march past each other. haha. He is Hawk COY(company) while i am Gryphon btw.
-My trusty notebook also has saved my ass countless times.
-Did not make any silly mistakes so far. quite tasty.

Morning we did our 5BX then water parade.
AHAHA after the water parade the whole platoon got to singing happybirthday lol.
They sang happy birthday again when we were marching to the ferry terminal.
I passed my note book around for them to write their greetings.. got a whole myriad and variety of greetings.
Got some in tamil "happy birthday KiamKiaM'
"KIAM 生日快乐 FARK YOU "
"Selamat Hari Jadi PL IC"
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIAMANATOR!"
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALL THE WAY TO OCS!"
"HAPPY B'DAY CONGRA-FUKIN-LATION YOU'RE JUST 1 STEP CLOSER TO LIFE!! CHEERS!!
"HAPPY BDAY WISH YOU BE SELECTED FOR OCS!"

Haha there was even a guy who wrote a poem.

"Today is your nineteenth
I wish on you today
A day of many blessings
and lessons on the way
Our journeys almost over
Yet its another start
To lead, excel and overcome
You choose what you become.

Happy 19th B'Dae
God bless, enjoy e poem

Rmb:
Every man has the right to dream
Many things in life will catch your eyes,
but few will catch your heart.
Treasure that"

i just thought this poem was fucking brillant.
especially the last past.
For those in the know, the second last line is the motto of OCS.
Yesterday afternoon i booked out from Singapore Discovery Centre around noon.
I took the bus home from Boon Lay.
Argh i have got to have the habit of tapping my card.
I'm lining the pockets of the fat cats of SBS and SMRT everytime i forget to do so.

Then i went home unpacked etc.
Saw all the unopened mail address to me, mostly from companies and unis etc.
Haha i honestly did not expect any replies from my xmas cards.
But there was one from hx.
haha just put it in short it was just great=)

Then my wonderful dear came over.
Its such a nice thing to see her always.
My little bundle of joy.
Huggable,kissable.
She passed me my presents=)
Hahah she is a wonderful baker of cookies.
She got me a custom t-shirt=)
heh. she drew it herself. a monkey's face with MENG below it.
tasty.

Went to meet the class people,
i postponed time with my dear and family to meet them
the guys had respect
the girls had interesting insights and a notable perspective.
It was nice seeing the class people as always=)
finding out how they have been... you know. its nice.

After stoning around for a long time...
Had dinner at Billy Bombers.
Shared plenty of my NS experiences.
Haha the class was very nice=)
Got me a cake=D.
Happy birthday to me.
Hahaha.

My son is really the best son anyone could have.
He remembers, replies and is reliable.
He got me a FleshImp shirt that i told him that i like.
Its basically a 4D ticket with the shaded circles forming FLMP.
I love stuff with a distinct Singaporean flavour. even better if its old Singapore.
just love it.

Met up with junior and grandjunior class. Cant help but say that it just get nerdier each year.
the immediate juniors are still a fun bunch lol.

Waikuan then passed me cakes from breadtalk.
They were dead good. fantastico.

took the 77 home with Rifeng. Wonderful talk.
just exchanged advice and experiences on NS. hehe.
i just realised its 50 days to POP.
hehe. time flies doesn't it. 679 more days to end of army.

alright people ill leave you all with these=)
its been a wonderful time.
i am living life enjoying it.
all this just rocks=)

2008-01-13T17:55:00.001+08:00

Just so tired.
Burned myself out the last week.

The next week there will be field camp.
So will be inside for two weeks.

apologies for letting down u guys.
just... apologies.

gotta book in soon.
seeya.

2008-01-06T18:38:00.001+08:00

Haha people sorry this week's blogpost will be snowballed into the next week.
A little rushed for time=)
Booking in a while.
Find ya guys soon=)

2008-01-01T17:08:00.000+08:00

Hi People i will be going in back again yeah.
Book-Out time really flies.

Yesterday i spent time with my dear and the class=)
supposed to meet the band people today but i couldnt make it yeah.
have to meet up with the yugaiguys soon also.

Watched National Treasure 2 with my dear.
It was nice enough=) slightly preposterous , but a man can dream.
Also bought a Flesh Imp shirt with a large handphone on the front in neon pink.
It was one of those old model of handphones the size of a brick.
Im just a sucker for old stuff.

After that met up with the class people to countdown at Mount Faber.
Got Zhexi 2 small bottles of vodka as his belated birthday present.
Got Nengjie a nice felt cat-shaped birthday card to repay him for all the ones he didnt get.
Got 2 packs of party poppers too yeah.
Waikuan got us cards for us to write NewYearResolutions for each other as well as snacks.
Heh i think the writing thing was quite novel.

A very nice Night.
Don't have any pictures though. ya my camera is still spoilt.

See you guys soon yeah.
I gotta be at Pasir Ris at seven.

Everything went pretty much to schedule.
Except for the Xmas card writing.
I know its damn late but i am not giving up.
I don't care.
I am bringing the cards to camp and writing in camp.
This book out was really super short compared to the first one...
Heh although i think this time it was more productive.

k people im gone.
Expect your cards soon.

-KiaM
Happy New Year
Happiness, Health and Stay Positive=)

2007-12-31T10:20:00.000+08:00

Haha people i am back again.
Just booked out yesterday evening.

When i was still in camp on Tekong Island.
I was thinking to myself:
Its my second time booking out of the island...
and every time i book out,
it feels as if the last whole week had passed with a blink of an eye.
its been

3 weeks in army,
12 more weeks till the end of my BMT,
101 more weeks till the end of my NS.

It will be over before i know it=)

Like Zhexi said..
Life is short, Book-outs are even shorter.
I got an ambitious schedule this bookout and i hope by tuesday evening i would have crossed out all the things on my list=D
<------>
Ya yesterdays bookout was quite nice.
My parents fetched me from Pasir Ris and SeeWah was there too.
All of us went to Curry Wok. Ahaha. I recommended the place. My family liked the place.
The Uncle there also has a face like a famous local band conductor.. Randall Tan is it?
That place never gets old.

Slept and slept in till ten.
Feel recharged. Though biceps are sore like crap ahaha.
Bytheway i missed the chance to weigh myself in camp.

I had a finger infection.
No pus or anything.
Just a swollen thumb.
Its hokay now.
The worst part was maybe waiting for the doctor in camp for 6 hours for my turn.
Heh. Just glad it nothing much. Antibiotics thats all.

Had a phototaking session in camp.
Haha i am a sucker for photos. Both taking and posing.
Capturing memories, freezing moments in time with a click of a button...

Now night training has been opened up.
I took every chance to run at night.
Ran twice so far.
Meals are still the same, i take very little rice every meal and choose not to take the diluted syrup drinks that come with every meal.
My amount of rice i have to eat before being satisfied is decreasing and is now like maybe 3 or 4 spoonfuls of rice.. Some of my mates told me not to torture myself.
Ahaha. I tell them its progressive. No self-deprivation involved here.

Weight loss here i come.

<--->

Plan to meet my dear, class people and yugaiguys this bookout.as well as finishing up my "seasonal" cards. ahaha.

alright i'll be going.
you guys enjoy the festive mood i know i am.
Heh. enough writing, more doing.
see ya.

***
Important!
I changed my blog music.
If you guys really like chill out relaxing music,
You HAVE to listen to this track.
Just stare at my blog page for the duration of the song.
Don't get distracted or anything...
Its one of my all-time favourite songs already.
I love it.

2007-12-25T18:16:00.000+08:00

Going back in again.
Heh.
Will blog again when i can.

Did not manage to achieve all the things i set out to do when i booked out...
but will try harder next time.

p.s. Expect Late Christmas cards.(-_-)"

bye.

2007-12-21T23:49:00.000+08:00

(Post typed on the night of 21Dec after coming home and subsequent additions made to it over the next few days... cos my running nose makes it quite intolerable for me to type for long periods of time)

Heh.
Just got back from an outing with my favorite S66 buddies =)
Nothing beats catching up with friends.

I will begin with my recount of events after reaching Pasir Ris after my first bookout from NS.

Booking out was quite an experience for me.
While i was inside camp, as most of you may know, a big part of NS is the singing of songs.
Some of these songs sought to boost morale, while other songs merely crude songs purely meant for humour.
However, the songs that affected me the most were the ones about missing your loved ones.

Here goes one of the songs.

Far Far Away:
Far Far Away in the South China Sea Yah
I left
A girl
With tears in her eyes
I must go where the brave man die YAH
A soldier has to fight the front because he loves his land YAH
A soldier has to fight even HE HAS TO DIE YAH
Coz we're the 1s who fight the front!
And we're the 1s who hold the guns!
We are mighty warriors of our land YAH!
warriors Marching in HURRAH HURRAH
warriors Marching in HURRAH HURRAH
The boys will shout "YEAH!"
The girls will scream "EEEE"
The boys will shout the girls will scream!
warriors marching IN!
We are mighty warriors of our land YAH!

More NS songs here

This song really hit home to me the thought of a possible scenario where I would really have to leave Singapore to defend her... and possibly die in the process.

The sadness that i would have probably experienced in such a scenario was now quite a reality.
Got quite emotional while singing this song.
Songs in NS are usually first sang out by a singular leader or a group, then echoed by the rest of the group.
I did not manage to get past the whole song.
I just listened while the others echoed.

Anyway..
Back to being a civilian again for a while.
After reaching Pasir Ris,
I had already arranged to meet my parents and one family of relatives to go out, have a meal and celebrate my brother's birthday.
My dear, despite knowing this, made her way down there just to see me for a minute and say high, while my bunkmates got a look of her in the flesh after seeing her in photos. Haha...
Such gestures really put a smile on my face.
Gestures such as when i told her i felt really heaty(as in the chinese medicinal term),
she went to get a bottle of herbal tea for me, which i gulped down in no time after she left for home.

Dinner was a really nice affair.

Getting to be able to talk to my relatives and cousins,
sharing with them my experiences and insights regarding NS.

Ate at the zhu3 chao3 stall along Bukit Timah Road next to the Hyundai showroom.

The food was quite good.

Definitely worth going back.

After dinner the whole group adjourned to my home,

cake-cutting and song singing followed. Haha.

Quite a nice thing to take part in.

I want to say that i feel extremely lucky that my first bookout is a whopping 5 days long.

A lot of time for me to get all my stuff and be able to catchup with my close,loved ones.

Unpacked my field pack, went to sleep.

~zZz~

20 Dec

Woke up at 630 the next day.

Felt energised, refreshed.

The two weeks in the army made me really miss my family,

i would not use miss as the word actually,

the appropriate word is actually cherish.

For me...

I usually refrain from thinking about people that i cannot see.

I know what it was like to miss someone horribly, wishing what it was like to be next to the person you had longed to be with.

But for all your desiring and craving, it will all go in vain.

Last time i really yearned aimlessly for someone was really years ago.

No one would have heard, felt or ever knew that you had ever wanted to reached out.

I like to think that i am a rational, cool-headed person.

Worry is an emotion that i have experienced, evaluated and decided that it is not worth.

While some of you may concur, and would be inclined to think i am cold-hearted or something of that sort, i tell you i am not.
Just coming to terms with reality that i cannot be able to see certain people that i long to see and rationalising it, thus not being bogged down by it.
I had rather translate this yearning for the people i miss into action when i see them next.

I would definitely say that NS had

Woke at 630... then
Did my 5BX, jogged from my house at TohTuck to my grandma's place adjacent to West Mall.
Met Rainie Yang twice,
Saw the Muslims in traditional attire,
Saw many things i would usually not see in a car trip there.

Met my maternal grandparents.
Never have i cherished them more.
Told them all about NS.
How i was coping etc.
After that i took pictures with them.
Took pictures of the house where i grew up in.

The window ledge that i used to have to tip-toe over to look at the scenery outside,
The ornate claypot that the older generations used to put water for bathing in, and where i used to soak in, but now i can barely fit in.
The familiar wall tiles with fishes on them.
The beds i used to sleep in.

Talked for a long time with them.
Looked through old photoalbums.
Pics of Me:

Saw pictures of my mom i have never seen before.
Fantastic Stuff.

After that i went next door to my uncle's place,
and talked to my auntie and cousin.
Really nice to talk to them.
Can always get along better with my maternal side relatives than with my paternal.

Went to my dear's house after that.
Really seeing her for not just a glimpse this time,
it was marvellous just seeing my bundle of love again.
Embraced in silence.
Such a nice feeling.
Shared my NS experiences with her as well.

Later that night went to my paternal grandparents place.
Same routine about my NS experiences..
Asked about the family history.
Only that night did i realise i had two aunties who did not make it to this age.
They passed away while they were still little girls
My father never told me about this.
Was kind of amazed to hear about it.

Well i would have never known if i had shown concern about the history.
Come to think of it..
If someone where to ask you how many aunties or uncles you had,
could you answer the question?
I know it might be trivial, but i think we should all know the answer to questions like those.
At least now i do.

21 Morning

Today's itinerary"
eating lunch with Bunny at her workplace
and there was also the long-awaited outing with my S66 buddies.

When i woke up today
i felt different.
Rested, energised, strong.
Putting on my jeans.. It was easier putting them on than i previously remembered.
Even my wallet and handphone had an easier time sliding into the pockets.

Oh btw. i lost 3kg in the 2 weeks i was inside.

Made my way to Harbourfront Centre Breeks Cafe.
I was late for a few minutes and decided to make a quick walk for a hundred metres or so, and cross the overhead bridge.
I noticed something... Fantastic to me to say least.

At the burst...
There was not a single drop of sweat on my face,
where 2 weeks ago, such a walk would have caused me to break out in sweat.

And i well know how people will react when they would see me in that state.
Its either
1. Woah KiaMeng did u just go for a jog?
2. Woah KiaMeng is it raining.

Sometimes these reactions are cynical.
But the horrid thing is that some of reactions were actually genuine.
Such was the severity of the sweating.

I vividly remember Mrs. Leo saying option number 1 during one of the morning assemblies.
As usual, i was sweating my usual amount...
And in exclamation, she just said it:'did u just go for a jog'

Well no more my dear Teri.. no more.

Well.
I am glad thats a thing of past.
Hope it stays that way.
Gotta keep fitfit.

Lunch with my dear Bunny was great=)
seeing her in her working attire.

So nice=)
I like working ladies. Ahaha.

Breeks Cafe is ok only.
The waiting time is horrible.
Food average. My lasagna above avg. My gf's food quite ordinary.
Given the priceyness and long wait... I was expecting more.
Won't see me going back.

Lunch with her was wonderful.
Talking while waiting for the food.
Looking into her pretty eyes.
Observing her little mannerisms.
Ahaha just blissful to be with her.

After lunch,
just kissed goodbye, bade her farewell and made my way to Somerset.

Met up with Waikuan, my son Changboon and Austin.
Spent a lot of time talking at the cine BK.
Sharing my experiences.

Before watching the movie,
we went to the youth park to burn time.

Haha a variation on O$P$

Heh. Liberal people will be liberal people.
The people that went to the skate park are mostly 13-14 yrs old only.
But even the singular grownup there was not very good.
The skill level is quite low by my standards...
Applies to people on bikes and rollerblades.
We had counted 25 attempts on skateboard tricks before anyone performed a trick and landed successfully.
Skateboarding is not like ball sports, where you can get lucky..
Every factor must be in place to execute the trick well and land properly...

Watched Warlords ( 投名狀)
Don't want to spoil it..
But i just want to say that given the circumstances...
I would do what Jet Li did. Without regret...
I would recommend you to watch it.

After the movie wk left...
Then Huixin Serene and Feng joined us.
We initially wanted to have dinner at Gluttons Bay(one of my favourite places)
but the rain and lack of tables forced us to go marina sq foodcourt.
Retold my stories to the 3 newcomers=)
Haha it never gets old.

Then the girls left.. and the guys went to the top of esplanade to talk cock.
Went home with my dear on the same bus. she was around town.

Thankyou Waikuan for organising the outing.
and the rest of the guys for turning up=)
it was really so nice to see my loved classmates again.
As for those whom i did not get to see,
i earnestly hope to meet up with you again.

22Dec
Went Gym with bunny.
Ran 2.4km in 12:26 thats an E (pass) by the way
Felt on top of the world.
Ran another 2km at slow jog speed.
Satisfying.

After that we did some baking
Cheescake..
Heheh.
i prefer chocchip cookies though.
the cheesecake turned out well enough.

Later..
Went to maternal granps to celebrate the Winter Solstice
By eating tangyuan together with my cousins
great stuff=)

23 Dec.
Got my specs done at Queensway.$50 dollars only. Those kind of simple black frame kind yeah.. for NS purposes.
Bought a bag, some shirts.

Visited paternal granparents.
Joined by my aunt..
Haha. Just talked...
Pity we had to leave early.

24 Dec. which is today..
gonna meet my class peeps for National Treasure 2...
and my dear later for a dvd at her place maybe=)
alright.
will try to squeeze in a post before next book-in.

... still haven't blogged about prom. haha.
find ya guys soon.
sorry about the slow posting. down with sickness...

2007-12-19T22:30:00.000+08:00

Haha i am back.
I booked out at 1800 and reached Pasir Ris around 1900.
Met my dear bunny for just a moment... She was so nice to make it there just to get to see me for a while=)
Then after that went to dinner with family and my auntie+uncle and their kids.
Today's my younger bro's birthday you see. Happy Birthday bro.
Tasty.
I kept chattering on and on.. Was feeling happy being surrounded by my loved ones.
Fantastic.

Cut the birthday cake,
unpacked my stuff etc.

Quite a nice feeling to be back=)
its been 2 weeks since i laid hands on women, keyboards and i am going to be lying on my bed soon.(Wanna keep my body clock in sync with the army wake-up times you see)

Will give a proper update and insight into army life for all you people tomorrow=)
Overall, i enjoyed NS very much to say the least.
Let ya guys know why tmr.

Schedule for tomorrow:
Wake early, jog to grandma's,
visit grandparents, let em know i am fine.
shun bian visit my cousins.
then go find my dear=)

will blog @ night yeah.

with many thoughts of meeting all my friends once again=),
KiaM

seeya.

NS!

2007-12-05T23:11:00.000+08:00

As you can see, i am all shaven and ready for NS.
Did not want to be shaved on the inside, for the equipment is dirty and.

Hi Guys.
Reporting for National Service tomorrow.
Well i am looking forward to the physical training and male-modelism.

Heh i just came back from the doctor.
Upon further examination of the X-ray films...
Turns out the break in my finger, was not just a little crack,
but a clean break from side to side.
ETA of healing: 1 to 2 months (-_0)

So tomorrow i will most probably have to report this to the Medical Officer.
Hopefully just excuse me from push-ups and chin-ups, i sure as hell don't wanna lose out on
the running and all the other stuff.

Further visits to a Hand Specialist will have to be arranged.
******************
Kind of disappointed to see others have not really blogged about prom.

Anyway, due to time issues, me was not able to uploads the pictures.
(uploading is usually the last step of the process, i will align, touch-up poor pictures with Picasa, label the pictures individually according to the people who are in the photos so that i can send to them then finally upload)
Might call me a neat freak but yeah, a organised picture collection will be a hell lot nicer to look at.

SO... the pictures will have to wait.
Apologies to those who used my camera.

Heh. Prom was fun,
I was high and my table was quite fun.

Heh.
I think i will blog about prom after my 2-week confinement.
Its far too much fun and detailed to condense in my opinion.
You guys will just have to wait.

Many people seem to know about my early enlistment.
To all those well-wishers(many of them)
I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
You will not be forgotten.

To my class,
i stupidly for got my confinement is two weeks long and agreed to the date for which it was to be held.
two weeks = 14 days
14 days after 6th Dec is 20th Dec.
I WILL MISS THE XMAS GATHERING.

MAN that sucks.

To my dear, hang in there, it will be over before you know it=)

Bye...

2007-12-03T23:37:00.000+08:00

HELLO people.
Been to the gym recently.
Went to sign up for a 1 month gym membahship with junwei.

iWhen i was runnin on the treadmill
I was like,
why the fuck was i so exhausted?
I knew I had not exercised in a while and my ankle was hurt,
but why so tired?
(only later did i find out that the previous user had left the incline function at 9%,
leaving me gasping for air)

I ran 3km in total,
did not work the machines cause my finger is still injured.
Becos i kinda overestimated my level of recovery and decided to use a machine
Aggravated my finger injury by accident.
So the only other thing i did was situps.

Makes you wonder why i signed up for gym.

Well...
Its damn well cause i wanna get fit.

Another thought that i had:

K people, visualise yourselves in an prehistoric age.
An age predating medical science.
You are just any homo erectus teenager,
and you happened to sprain your ankle as badly as i did.

Think...
You would not be able to hunt/forage. Starvation would begin man, and followed by a mild case of death.
The freaking t-rex/sabretooth tiger would just friggin bite your head off cause you couldn't run for cover man.
Grog the nextdoor caveman would just steal your wife cause you couldn't defend your girl man.
and he would be all smug about it and like "Me Grog strong, take your lady, Grog HORNY!"

And by the great grace of medical advancements i have survived numerous occasions of injury, that would have deemed fatal to humans a long time ago.

Made me wanna be fitter.
<-------------->

Hokay, self-awakening aside,
Promenade is tomorrow,
The theme is Belle Memoire.
Can you guys guess the meaning?
Its Beautiful Memory.

Hm...
Kinda looking forward to it.
I'm trying to find the fundamental reason why we gotta dress up for proms and bigger events etc.
Is it about "face" or status or shit?
special occasion=special clothes?
um...
never mind.

as i said,
looking forward to it,
gonna take many pictures,
pity not all of my classmates will be there.

looking forward to the food,
as compared to food in the army.

looking forward to saying goodbye.
<->

2007-12-01T11:45:00.000+08:00

Heh today i will blog about two class outing of recent times.
One is of the class chalet with 06S66
The other is the sextennial class gathering of Pei Hwa Faith6 2001.

Class Chalet.
Day 1, Night 1.

Haha. Basically arrived at Tampines.
While waiting for the latecomers, some of the guys went shopping for the items they were assigned to buy.

Afterwards it was off to the chalet on bus 29

Haha on the bus trip.

Ha Zhiyun looked really mean in that one. Hope she won't kill me for posting this one.

Arrival,

then we laid out all the food supplies for the chalet.

first thing the class did was to watch a movie from the whole stack of dvds tat the pirates of the class have amassed, all the pirates are tall and lanky.. we watched "Accepted". quite a good show imo.

But i preferred the outdoors.
The sea was mucky, but full of life.
Most of the class people chose to stay on the safe confines of the dry beach,.

but i preferred to be in the thick of it, in the mud, looking the sea life.
I mean, you are at a beach, what are you going to see while standing there.

I found quite a few creatures,
a gong-gong(see below),crab(dead),jellyfish,numerous small silvery fishes,

.
i dunno. i just love wildlife.

other pictures of the beach

nice boy who posed

seahorse the boy was holding

la.
the 4 of us. wk, martin, boy and dad went to changi village before the rest of the class did.

supercat.
then the rest of the guys arrived

martin has the wtf look. i like.

the ridiculously young boy who served us drinks.

the people that went biking.
everyone but hx and me.
i'm still injured you see.

after that we went to the fabled changi hospital
i had always wanted to see how this place was like.
to get a glimpse of the supernatural.
the atmosphere of fear quickly diminished though,
with all the noisy jokers,
being in a big group also didn't help to keep the suspense up.
just a little pissed whenever i was in the middle of the group,
then there would always be some joker like mao dun grabbing someone or make a weird noise.
so i decided to be the last man.
didn't see anything weird in the photos yeah.

i went there 3 times in total.
once at night with the guys.
once the next morning with zy and hx while the rest biked,
they got kinda freaked and i wanted to really explore the whole place and see it for what it really was,
so i rallied another group to re-visit and we covered the whole place.fascinating.
really nice to see the place in full colour.

the fabled old changi hospital

a faded queen i found on the floor.
interesting.

mahjong was a big part of the chalet.
heh.
i learnt a few things.

get the picture?

mahjong makes me excited.

well most of the other time was spent watching movies..
yeahs.
quite a fun chalet in my opinion.
never know when people are listening eh.
<------>

Faith 6 gathering.
Initially the gathering was to be held at Cafe Del Mar, But i guess some of the peeps found it a bit pricey.
I know this is off-topic, but i really have fallen in love with the music that i have heard on the main page.
Its La Caina - "Bailando Va"
i can describe it as chill-out music i guess.
i love that genre of music.
heh the discography is almost done. love it.
woah the feeling that i got when i listened to the track was like GROAH this song is the shit.
felt so lucky to be listening to such music.
it will be my next blog music.

ah anyway the first people i saw at Harbourfront mrt were ShengZhong and WeiHuang
haven't seen them in six years.
wonderful stuff.
Eileen and JingYing were there already as well.
Out of nowhere, Victor from Grace 6 had appeared, and it seemed that he was invited to a Faith 6 gathering, but he tagged along in good spirit.
We were soon joined by KaiXuan,Jayce.

Heheh. This group then went to meet our form teacher Mrs.Toh at someplace in Vivo called
Terra Cafe.
It was so nice to see her again, after all these years. she looked like she hadnt aged a single day.
She described me as being toned down compared to my primary school years and when i spoke,
heh she said i was very gentlemanly. Haha.. Dunno what to say.
just grin.

She was very nice, sharing her life experiences with regards to teaching and the Singaporean educational system.
Rox.

Then yeah, the people slowly started arriving.
nice, those that i could talk with six years ago i still could hold a decent conversation with.
Kevin reminded me of my LifeSucks phase and the time whre i was a real gamer.
Not to forget the ill-fated iguana gums club.
He and Marcus also looked like the same since six years ago.

ShengZhong told me about something i wrote in his autograph book
"My best friends are all the humans,
My good friends are all the animals,
My okay friends are amoebas."

haha how sweet is that.

I vaguely recall doing that.
thinking back, i was an idealist,
my ambition in the past was always animal related, zoo work, vet, that kind of job.
but when people asked, i always said environmentalist.
now thinking back.. i smile in fond memory.

Eileen was a person i could not forget,
once there was a big tussle for the basketball between the both of us,
and during the period she was the ultimate anti-boy haha,
i left 3 long scratches on her arm,
feel guilty about it... wonder about the scars.

well most of the people have around the same personalities as before.
they dont seem to have changed much. haha.

by the way the food there sucked for me.
i ate lasagna. one of my favourite foods. was kind of disappointed Mrs. Leo's mom-in-law din make it the time we visited.
it the worst lasagna i ever ate.

After dinner, Mrs. Toh left and we went to some empty patch of ground, sat down and talked,
whos attached,
what cca we in now, etc.
catching up basically.

the magical thing was that when we started to leave fireworks started exploding in the night sky.
veh nice. and it lasted for a long time too. just magnificent.

I brought a notebook to take down everyone's details
compiled them and sent them out again, asking them to check the details,
and if they have any details of the people missing that nite.
only one person replied, saying thanks for the list.

Heheh. Well what can i say.

Lynn on the Left, Victor.

ShengZhong in the middle, Weihuang

From left: Me Kev, Marcus, Nathan

PHPPSFaith62001.

Well.
Actually primary school had left a deep impression on me.
For many years after primary school,
i was haunted by the memory of certain events, they were not accidents happening to me per se,
but just some interpersonal relationships.
For some time i was actually thinking of meeting up with them but didn't really pick up the courage, heh just wishful thinking on my part i suppose, but it was my first experience so i don't really blame myself, but during that period of time after pri i just couldn't help thinking 'what if'. Those were the memories that i held onto the strongest. heh.

hokay... more on my primary school another time.
some memories are best kept suppressed as well.