Restore

still hoping to clear up my mess of a life.
but the sheer enormity of it.. not helping.
Just have to start slow i guess,
picking out the loose ends, unwinding and undoing
until i achieve something resembling what i was.
Still trying to free this oppressed mind
but God's here to help



im fine and doing well, just a little lost.
So don't worry about me, and thanks guys, i really appreciate you all. (:

Santarina!

WOOHOO! i just installed the graphics tablet that i got for christmas, and it works SUPER well.

The tablet is like whoa sleek black, and the pen is like whoaa super touch sensitive! its just like drawing on paper! just that need to get used to looking at the screen while drawing. I was just using a small fuss-free program I downloaded off the internet, was lazy to install the software they included.

Oh man she's damn pretty!

So once again, here's Merry Christmas from my sweet Santarina!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Sorry but i'd like to repeat the title:

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! =DD

Sorry for stagnating for so long, once again i dont remember what i've been doing, but i know that I've been occupied with other things.

Before i forget, congratulations to those who have just attained officerhood! Gd job and i hope life will be better now that you're our of the pathetic "trainee" class. To those who are still in, shit man we still have quite alot to go through. For me it's just about 3 months left, but thanks all the tough stuff are all saved up for last.

And Happy birthday to David! haha

and Happy birthday Jasmine!

I know it's belated and repeated, but well the words are now immoratalized in this blog. haha

Army life is getting quite shiong now, and it's worse for me because ive been the cadet platoon commander for the past two weeks, lots of stuff to do. As if it weren't bad enough ive been appointed Ex fire unit commander for the deployment practices we've been starting to do. As the pioneer FU commander for deployment exercises, my job is just to thread where no one has thread, and to accumulate as much mistakes/errors and lectures that i can get so that future appointments holders can learn from my experience. Thanks. and Thanks for putting the toughest parts across the festive season. and Thanks that i have to book in on christmas night.

Im SO happy that it's a the festive season again! Tonnes of holidays! As this is the first year that i actually have a salary, i bought presents for lots of my relatives! I got stuff for all the kids only though, right up to the mature kids that are around my age, basically all within my generation. Also bought a very nice purple watch for my mom. MAN! It's damn fun to buy presents! The best part comes when you see them all happy and liking your presents, the sense of fulfilment is like wa ecstatic. I know you're probably like wth but k lar it's my first time. Bought mostly soft toys for the really young ones, and some cute and childish looking coin pouches for the old ones that are going uni next year just to make fun of them. haha. For another 6 i just got a Command and Conquer Saga pack for them to share, and the perk is that i can borrow to play too. haha. My younger cousin was like carrying the polar bear arnd all the time after that, shiok. But the bear was really damn cute, i even got one for myself.

As for myself, i got some nice casual clothes and stuff, one sketch book, and a pocky toy thing from japan, haha quite interesting. I bought myself a graphics tablet too, which means i can now start drawing stuff on the computer, and get them coloured just like the pros! nice.

gotta book in now. bye!

Firstly, to Sam Tham and Andy Lim, thanks for your email/message respectively =) Sorry i didnt reply either one though, but they were read and taken note of.

Life in camp is getting better, beginning to settle into camp already. Acclimatizing.. more or less. Training still damn sian, but okay lar getting used to it. Managed to find stuff that i can occupy myself with, as well as things i can look forward to. They're trivial stuff, but good enough, haha.

I ordered an artbook, which should arrive sometime next week =) . Ive been farming on psp for khezu armor, and im gonna get it soon heh, nice =) . I brought my psp to camp, not allowed but what the heck =) I put in anime on my psp to watch. One episode a day keeps low morale away =) Been playing some piano, auntie ask me to try for grade 8 next year. doubt id make it but at least i touch the piano. Found Claire De Lune score! Dont know where it came from =) Draw more pretty things! Gonna get an account on deviantart.com. soon id have a place to put up all my drawings =) Still trying to get my band started. members changed again, but now this guitarist is inclined towards jap rock, and so am I. haha =) Plan to meet up with tingfu to play monster hunter. =)

Quite alot of people left within the past week. My brother left for australia for EX wall.aby, so no company during weekends. Zhenghan left for taiwan. Yongneng and abel leaving on monday for re-bmt. Have fun mates! Andy came back from taiwan. Welcome, haha.


Anyway havent produced much drawings lately. Been doing more of hands on practicals and stuff, hence i seldom get to have my pencil and notebook with me. Now that Im bringing my psp in, i think there'd be even less doodling already. but id still try to draw once in a while.

The top one is duh, bleach. I was just trying to see if i could draw ichigo, and wa! he turned out quite cool, so i went on to draw rukia, who looked quite good too. Den i tried Chado who amazingly looked like chado with the curly hair. Followed by Quincy last, who's the worst cos i dont see him often.
The girl on the top was referenced from a pic i got from internet, no big deal. The bottom one is cute! =) She's the cutest school girl ive drawn in my whole life. Next time id upload the ones i drew years ago and you'd see the difference.


Abarai Renji! I love this one it's damn cool. Pen drawings are always defined and look very much nicer. Only setback is cannot erase but thankfully no major screwup.


Shinku =) mesmerizing eyes. I was trying a new close up angle. Quite happy with it =)


=D This is my all time favourite. They're like so awfully sweeeeeeeeeeeet aren't they?? Like awwww man im so totally in love with the maiden on the right. Sweet, innocent, demure, simple and lovely. Huiwen said this is not my typical style, that my typical style is like violent stuff, hahah. It's quite true, but it's only cos last time the girls i drew are always disgusting so i dislike drawing them, not that i dont want to. Now that i can, i love them! I just really regret that i drew them on like lined paper. Whenever i do, it's just because im testing to see if i can draw them or not, but somehow or rather they all turn out nice, like the above 5. Wasted.

Actually, the two above are both girls. But if you feel more comfortable looking them as a sweet normal couple then go ahead. haha. They are actually twin sisters, just that one dressed up not so femininely. That's also why their names are similar, souseiseki and suiseiseki-chan. They're just my impression of two characters from an anime. They are not lesbians. But anyhow, they're just sweet.

They look so complete. Just looking at them makes me happy =)

Anyway id like to thank my bunk mate Ian Chan for getting me a bleach comic book for me to learn how to draw them. Thanks! =D

Good night!

Hollow

Hi all, sorry for the long disappearance, not that there have been much to blog about anyway. Life is just damn empty and i don't even know what i'm doing 90% of the time. Bleh. It's just aimless and devoid of purpose, carrying myself on lectures by lectures, period by period, day by day, weeks by weeks. Time passes by fairly quickly, and i don't feel like i've even accomplished much at all. But okay, at least there's some comfort in knowing that if this goes on for the rest of my weapons phase, my commissioning parade will come quite quickly.

It's almost the same old routine everyday in my dull coloured camp, with nothing much to look forward to, except maybe like friday which is book out day. Book out already i don't know what to do either, cos i'm like cut off from the world, outdated and apathetic with regards to news and politics, and i don't know what happened to my social circle either. I think it'd really help if i forced myself to start linking up with friends and all, but i feel so dead i just stone everyday. Not that my army mates are boring, but all the discipline and peer-appraisal stuff just cause me to be stuck up somewhere, and the whole atmosphere is so rigid and stifling that i just can't let my hair down. My sense of self-discipline is just like turned on 24/7 and i can't switch it off. Another thing is that the guys here are so cliquey, and ive got difficulty dissolving or penetrating them.

On a brighter note, I'm not out of course yet, haha. Our basic phase ends next week, and we just got our weapons posting next week. I think i'm blessed that i was posted to my weapon of choice, the I-hawk, which is the least physically demanding of the 3 weapons that we can be posted to, which means my chances of staying on course are further increased. =) It's a divine decision more than mere chance.

Anyway i got so bored and all in lectures that i've been daydreaming alot. Subsequently, i started doodling, and to my amazement my drawing skills somehow improved by like damn alot. It's a huge difference as compared to what i used to draw before, and like wa i got really excited. It like jump started my interest in drawing again. I think it's due to influence from all the anime i've been watching every weekend when i book out, cos i'm quite a visual learner after all. Other then drawing ive just been playing basslines to random songs on my buddy's guitar, had some significant improvements too. So.. like yar okay lar there has been some in-camp-productivity.

Here are the main things that i have learnt from my recent 5 weeks of training in basic phase, in order of date produced:



random doodle
random, i like the flower
pretty!
Suiseiseki
Shinku - Rozen Maiden. I kept having problems drawing nose and mouth so im leaving it out first.
Suiseiseki!
Rukia-san! she has some neck problem
Random. A girl carrying flowers and violin case
The guy was a failure, but i absolutely love the girl =) Incomplete though
Random violinist. got trouble with proportion

I had too much time in hand, so i mass spammed armour. Super pumped up. haha. A pity the pic can't get any bigger, i really did intricate detailing. Re-drew some parts of it many times, but it's still problematic so i gave up.
My friend louis asked me to draw him a pic of a guy on in trench coat sitting by the beach with rocks on a low wall with a sandwich by his side. As it progressed i drew him putting his foot on the wall, he didnt like it cos too beng, but i thought it looked great so i decided to abandon his original order and draw my own stuff. Changed the low wall to a bench, and added in a gun. It ended up like this, and i like it =). Now he's a hitman instead of some loner.I redrew another one for him. Here's the loner, the sea and the rocks, but the sandwich hasn't arrived yet. Incomplete

Desu~ =) Incomplete

K gotta pack for camp soon, that's all until i draw more.


Bleh life is a mess. Reality is bad, and you won't understand it.
I wish for a normal family and a more normal life.
I daydream to enter utopia,
I doodle to visualize it,
I watch anime to be absorbed into their fantasy worlds.
Everything seems to be centered around escapism.

Need to find a direction in life

The Hectic Airwing Paradox

Friends always tell me to move on,


and like how there are many fishes in the sea.


but problem is hc was like land,


and airforce is like sky.


how to find a partner to go social night?






Anyway i can start thinking about social night because now i can stay in course long enough to see it happen and be part of it as well. I've been cleared for IPPT! haha

Can consider myself blessed, cos my NUH physio appt was like 1 day before the appt i was supposed to have with the SAFTI doc, who was the one deciding if i can do my ippt or not. Went for physio session, asked the guy if he could write a letter to allow me to do. He did some assessments, and was still reluctant to let me do. But when i told him that i used to be doing like xx number of pullups he decided to let me try!

So for the first time since the injury i broke out of my status and tried doing pullups, undergrip method lar. i did 3, but had to be super controlled and slow. He asked if there was any pain, there wasn't. and so.. yay clearance! And the physiotherapist himself was an officer from ADA himself, the exact same vocation i'd be going to! He operates the RBS system. How conincidental can it get.

Anyway for now i disallowed from playing racquet sports, bowl, break, swim, getting tekan, doing pullups, SOC, or riding offroad. Pretty sad. And the stubborn backache doesnt want to go away. But at least i'm left with computer and console games. haha. Just bought FEAR First Encounter Assault Recon. pretty freaky but it's fun the game physics are awesome and AI smarter den some real life players. Gonna get xbox 360 too! Just waiting for the Elite to be launched.




Anyway someone just gave us a bike. like whoa a beauty with like Campagnolo Centaur conponents. The person who invented the li.quid armor. But for certain reasons we feel that we have to return it back. All the anticipation and euphoria and plans for nothing. haha. Anti climax. Quite good in a way too though, i wont have to make the choice between switching over to the new frame or sticking with my nice old one.

Beautiful, just that the handlebar grip tape colour is aweful looking.

Airwing life getting quite hectic ( in airforce standards ). Unbelievable but yeah.. haha. It's like exams period, had one last friday and having one next monday. with damn alot of chapters to study. It's like i haven't watched the 9pm drama serial for the pass week already! hahaha. Got quite some time before the test but thing is that we aren't allowed to bring our precis home to study, so effectively we cant study nuts. And the tests are like not easy lar wa lau. Quite hard. I'm surprised army men can come up with challenging questions. hahah. Anyway i dont know how i fared. All i know is that i passed ( >50 ) and that means no confinement and that's all that we all care about hahah.

We have no soc, but we have seoc, which started not long ago. I'd never get a chance to try it, cos i've still got like 40 something days of status left. haha. Had navigation exercise today, my group not the best but still quite effective. We only horlan for awhile but got back on track. Bashing our way through the vines and spikey scrubs were fun, as well as crossing little streams without sinking into the sand or getting our boots stuck in the wet mud. Our boots just disappears all the way in. It's worse for those carrying the signal sets, they sink more. Bumped into Jasmine after i completed navex, haha how coincidental. Was really nice seeing her, it's been some time. A pity we weren't wearing our cool blue no.3s, haha. People such as her family actually go there to hike, while we are like stuck inside there trying as hard as we can to find checkpoints and go home. Navexes are really quite fun.

Time flies really fast in ocs. It's been about 9 week already, a period longer than that spent in bmt, and yet it feels 10X shorter. bmt life just sucks big time haha. I'm really having fun here.

That's it for now as you can see i'm doing fine here. Thanks for those who have shown concern and all ie Samuel Tham, matheus. All appreciated man.

Anyway, kinda miss the times building random chair towers in class, or the fight sessions in between.

It's getting really hard to find people who can do this kinda shit with you.

We are the rare people. haha. :)

Marcus Burghardt vs Dog. Stage-9

Ouwww poor bike! hahah

Medical checkup

Just came back from NUH. Booked out today for appointment, had much excess time, so i went back to hc to collect my yearbook before appt, and now im home to relax before booking back in soon.

Nice to see the juniors back in school =). Met Mrs Ang and Ms Soh, couldn't find the rest. Should visit another day.


As for the med checkup, i was awarded 2 months of light duty. If you don't know what light duty for two months means, it can be simply translated to 3 words - Out Of Course/ Out Of Training. Like fuck.


Seems like my fight to stay on course has only just began. Even so, it already seems impossible. Efforts futile. Officership unattainable. Only thing I can do now is to grind my brains and come out with feasible ideas and things to say that can help me negotiate myself back into course. I'm in Airwing anyway, and could probably survive through 2 months, since there aren't any tough physical training till like 10 weeks away? There aren't even any SOCs for me to deal with, so logically I shouldn't face any difficulty at all. I'm excused all upper limbs, hence Im hoping to get a deal whereby I can be exempted from everything except running, all the way until my IPPT which is on the 6th week. If i can still get a gold or silver w/o any dislocations along the way, then i should really be allowed to stay. But if i cant, or sustain any further dislocations in my whole service term, den i would be more willing to leave.


Argh help, this isn't gonna be easy. I can't do this by myself.


Help me to smile in the face of adversity, that i may understand the fact that you already know my future, and that you have said that it is good. Help me to understand that nomatter what your favour always shines upon me, and I will be victorious no matter what at the end of the day. It's all by your word, and I believe you. Not by my faith but by yours Jesus.

You have always lived up to your word. Time and time again i've screwed up but nomatter what you've always brought me hope and given me the best. The context has changed but ultimately it's the same old situation again. You brought me into OCS, and now that i'm injured, won't you pull me through again?

Even if i dont stay i know that you have it all planned out for me, but it's not something that I wil contemplate about at this moment. You said that you would give me the desires of my heart, and now that desire is to be commissioned. And i claim your word for that.

Guide me as I speak, that i may be able to say and do the right things at the right times. Help me to negotiate. Help me to let go, and free my mind of worries. The battle is yours, not mine.

You do not have shoulder or back injuries, and as you are so am I in this world.


I don't think i will hide the report, id probably bring it right up to the medical review board, and trust that His favor will see me through.



"My honor and life both sprang from one, take my honor and my life is done" - W. Shakespear


protect my pride, it is something you gave me.


Argh damn stressed. Let me smile.


In Jesus' name, Amen

Quick refresh

I'm home! after 6 days in OCS. haha. it's supposed to be a 3 week confinement, but i got to book out yesterday because i was sent to hospital for a dislocated shoulder.

In the morning there was a 5k run, and i was chionging with my plt friend kiap yong who also from hcjc. There was a left turn that was narrow and in the forest, and naturally we tended to keep close to curve. BUt, the curve was like subtly sloping to the left, which made it really to balance, and kiapyong lost balance and jumped off down to the bushes on the left. I was wondering how he could fall off when i started to lose balance myself. I tripped on the path and fell forwards, and used both my arms to breakfall. My right shoulder was already weak and so the huge impact threw it out of place. Ouch. This is the first time my shoulder came off completely, it totally sucks.

Kiap yong brought an instructor to me, who lead me to walk the remaining path all the way back to wingline, where the safety rover was supposed to be but was not because another wing coped our rover. Rover finally came and drove me to SAFTI med center, but it was not open and after some deliberation they finally decided mine was quite bad and sent me to Pasir Lebar camp med center in an ambulance. All the bumps and humps all around the camps really killed my arm. At PLC med center, the waiting continued... thanks to all the procedures and processing that they had to do. After a long wait the doc was ready and asked me in. I was a quarter dead so he injected some pain killers and Trieed to put back my arm, pulling and all. That took away another half of my life. The pain you wont understand, haha, as a guy i was screaming and crying like mad. And so, they sent a 3/4 dead me in ambulance to NUH, and of course through all the road humps again.

After my arm had been hanging on my muscles and ligaments for about 2 hours, we finally alighted at NUH. Was wheeled into emergency, where did some procedures and waiting. There was a form that required me to rate how much pain i was upon 10, i rated 9.3. Finally put on bed, and the doc, seeing that i was 1/5 life left, put me to sleep. That was about 1030, 2hours plus past the fall haha. They put oxygen tubes in my nose, a plug on my arm and some funky plugs around my body. I woke up around 230 and walaa all was fine my arm was put on a sling and my shoulder was back in place. A happy ending =)

Terribly painful but it was quite an experience, haha. and i went home with the funky round plug things on my body as souvenirs.

Arm still hurts now got to go back someday for checkup. Hope things turn out fine, Jesus watches over me anyway :)





OCS feels really different from bmt. For one at least we have some pride with us, and that provides us with some motivation. The campus is really nice too! nice bunks, and i like the shower place. Cosy place, makes you not feel like getting off the bed every morning. Maybe that's a form of mental torture hahaha, kidding. Training is fine so far, but we do running everyday, sometimes twice a day. I love running, and it feels like i just joined a cross country team or something. Oh circuit trainings rock too haha. Another good thing is that we do our exercises on concrete ground or tracks, unlike bmt where we do on barren fields which turn to mud everytime we perspire. Oh yeah the food is good, and the weather is much better than tekong, which is so much hotter than mainland .Got many ppl i know too! Kevin Seah and Kenneth foo from acsi =). and there are quite alot of tchs people, weilun hongkai kiapyong. PS hongkai thinks pamela is very cute.





Ahh. civilian life, i really miss it. Somehow in camp i seem to be missing every single thing, NS makes me treasure everything outside of it even more. I miss my art buddies, the fun times staying up in school till midnight finishing up our art projects, us doing retarded stuff and childish games in school. our 8250s. Insulting each other's artwork.

Miss my classmates, our sec 3 trip to chiang mai, our 2005 class chalet, our rubberband/cardboard wars in class, pushing each other off the amphi ledge. haha. Oh yeah our fun water spurting lab sessions, and we sure had fun poisoning yijun's distilled water thing hahaha. Still remember throwing paper aeroplanes out of the window to the cca block too. Sec school was probably the most carefree and enjoyable time of my life.

The prefects, our patrols, all our tekan camps, the cheering sessions, our crap, our dances, our rehearsals at fish's house, lessons at Les's place. our dumb gay videos at suntec. The nice boardroom, the cockroaches, the big long cuddly snake, the classroom raids. Great times.

My hc friends, my great study mates, the warm yet foreign kinda atmosphere. The studying together, the bio notes, the plant repro notes. The double bass, the ensemble, playing in VCH, the band, the yumin thing haha. The great random hi-bye friends. Caring and concerned schoolmates, the classmates who have so supported me through the 2 years. All the eye candies who brightened up my days. Project work, our outstanding HI154, Our kickass video. The class band, the chinese songs. No Man's Land band and our band auditions. The abel darren john wx band during the pre-enlistee days.

The sailors, my seniors, my brother, our post-training warcraft sessions, our beach soccer at the old europa sea sports club. Pulling boats, the storms, the team, Timothy lim, uncle tony. The jasmine thing was kinda exciting too. haha. Hmm, the skipping stones..




But i wont be a sad boy anymore, departures are just frequent passings in life. So that's it. im gonna laze around till i book in at night.




To you and all: Thanks for visiting, nothing goes unappreciated. Takecare and have a nice day everyday! :)

The non-comprehensive guide to ho chi minh

As of 1330hrs today my plane touched down on Singapore Chan-gee Airport (the vietnamese stewardess pronounced it this way. haha cute ) and i am back on this island with 3.5 more days of blissful freedom. Let me share with you my wonderful experience in the land of Vietnam, Ho-Chi Minh city.

My father had been transferred over to work in ho chi minh, and so if i ever go overseas again it'd most likely be back to vietnam again. No more shopping sprees to bangkok anymore, but that's quite a good thing too. Im starting to find it quite a boring place. Most shops generally sell the same stuff, and besides shopping, there really isn't much to do. Can't possibly revisit the same shops everyday. Air is bad and traffic is a catastrophe. It's really a different feeling altogether - going there on a short holiday/ a long term business stay or frequent trips to visit people. The former is better, keeps things fresh.

This is my first visit to vietnam, and i honestly didnt know nuts abt what vietnam is like, except through the eyes of camera-men in all those conflicts-in-vietnam movies, and they're always shot in the forests. I always had an impression that it is a really third world country, laid back and all, but it isn't that bad. They have shelter, decent buildings, and organisation. The streets are also surprisingly much cleaner then those in bangkok. Life is rather flow paced, as compared to bangkok or singapore, gives you quite a relaxing atmosphere.

Traffic is much better than bangkok, but the first thing that strikes you is that there are motorbikes flood the streets haha. And i got to see for myself how versatile bikes are, they can like fit 4-5 people on a bike, or stack up tonnes of baskets/crates/goods/chickens/ whatever they got on a bike and still ride it. There was like a doorframe too. Their driving is.. not as reckless as in bangkok, but still quite disorganized. They like to horn everywhere anywhere, and the people who get horned don't even give two hoots about it. Even if they dont annoy each other its quite irritating to us Singaporeaans. To them it's not really like a form of alert, it's more like notification, it can mean like anything: " coming through/ hey i'm beside you/car behind you/car beside you/ you're in front of my car/ i am going to overtake you/ you are in the center of the road/ how are you? / you're too close to me/ i'm making a turn/ offf the roaadd/ just let me cut through/ i horned first so i presume right of way ". Most of the time, the people who are horned at don't respond at all. It's the person who horned who has to get around the one who is like hogging the lane, so it's like "horn horn, ok i notified you but it's alright you carry on i'd get around you".

Like bangkok, trucks and big vehicles arent allowed to use the roads in the day, so traffic is very smooth. Oh one cool thing is that sometimes the road splits into motorbikes/cars lanes, cos there are just too many bikes around. FYI vietnam roads are left-handed. If you want to drive in vietnam i still suggest you take the AWXRC conversion.

Ho-Chi Minh is divided into subcities called districts, according to how developed they are. District 1 would be their premere district, very upclass, shopping centeres, cafeterias, big brands. It is also the commercial district, and our service apt was also located here. I feel the most secure in district 1, but not in like 7 or more. Tourists are already quite scarce arnd ho chi minh, and they are mostly concentrated in districts 1 or 2 or arnd the musuems and stuff, so in the other districts, it's hard to find foreigners arnd. It's also hard to blend in with the locals, cos the clothes we wear are just too different, so it's just be the few of you walking arnd, with your obviously more expensive clothes, big SLR arnd your neck, sticking out like sore thumbs. Just doesnt feel good, little kids start crowding arnd us begging for money, and people stare at you for being different. It doesnt help knowing that it is a strongly communist country too, ruled by quite an arbitrary government. Scarrryyy.

Hahaha turned off yet? Don't be. That' just the initial feeling i got, it really isn't that bad. The locals aren't as friendly as the thais, they don't seem very approachable, and don't smile as much. but i think that's just how they are. Maybe it's also cos there aren't many foreigners arnd, hence they're not so tourist-orientated. The women are also not as gentle as they look, so don't be surprised to see one yanking two stuck supermarket trolleys apart. The middle/older generation are fond of squatting by the road the way guys do. Haha. It's just the culture, after all, their traditional dress consists of long sleeves and long pants, not skirts.. and 30% of the VC soldiers were females..

Oh yeah anyway, their female national costume is veryyyy nice. It's like elegant, oriental, vv feminine, superr beautiful. Their national costume is like their college uniform. Saw a student wearing it, like wa. A dark blue long sleeved dress, with the skirt all the way down to the heels, and two slits up both sides to the hips, mandarin collars, and long white pants. The material is also those kinda very soft cotton kind. nice. Beats jap uniforms hands down, this one has class and culture.

It isn't a good place to shop, cos there's really nothing to see or buy. But i still feel it's a great place to visit, for the food and the experience. Traditional Vietnamese food is really fantastic, but you'd need a local to guide you arnd cos they're hard to find. Most popular is their beef noodles. They call it pho (pronounced fur). Nicee. It's a very unique experience too, they've got communist red-star/ workers' party banners up everywhere, along the streets, on top of buildings or sticking out from the their sides. Hahah bernard you'd like it. First time i walk down a street with communist stuff everywhere. Old buildings, communist banners.. Next thing I would expect would be tanks rolling down the boulevard, or rooftop speakers blasting communist propaganda.. It takes awhile to realize that it's too far fetched. hahaha.

Got some nice french architecture around, left behind from the french occupation. There's a post-office, townhall, opera hall, and a church called notre-dame. There is also a road in front of the townhall which resembles the champs elysees. A longgg straight boulevard. Nicee. Eh.. oh yeah and culture wise there isn't much, long time ago under chinese imperialism, den french occupation, den jap occupation, den american attack. So there really isn't much to see, unless you go to their war museums, and yeahh their famous tunnels, really cool stuff.

It's a must to visit the Cu Chi tunnels, the tunnels that the Viet Congs in this place called CuChi built to fight the french and americans. You really must try, even if you are claustrophobic. They enlarged the tunnels already, and some lamps along the way, so not that dark. There are 3 levels, and the 3rd is about 8-12 meters beneath the ground, and thats the level that gives most kick. They wont bring you there unless you pester them too haha, cos some portions are not enlarged and they aren't lit. One Cuchi guide saw that i was damn gungho and offered to bring me through the 3rd level one haha. 120meters for that one, when most people only go 15/30 or the most 50 meters. Haha totally awesome.

When you're there must try the live range too. Bullets are expensive, so i only tried AK-47. They have heavy machine guns like the M60 and some AK dunno what, m1 carbine, m16, ak47, some shotgun, m1 garand and i forgot the rest. Only sad thing is that they clamped the muzzle down on a wall, so you cant take it out and aim by yourself.

The war museum also shows you much about the vietnamese soldiers, respect. Now i can seriously watch US-made films on vietnam war with different perspectives.

Left this morning for home, back to the hectic singaporean lifestyle. Felt very sian, back to NS life next monday, it's just something we can't run away from. But anyhow, once i stepped out of the gate, there was this SIA girl showing us the way to the arrival hall. I looked at her, she smiled and me and said, " welcome home!" in such a sweeeeeettttt voice. and she was sooooo cute! she looks like vivian h.su!! and her smile was sooo sweet! Ahhhhh that just totally made my day =)

But how did i respond? i juuuust had to give juusst a small smile and walk away, it was almost like a momentary glance. Like.. Waddahell, thats all??? Mann, damn hopeless, i'm good at losing out on such chances, and thats like.. sad. That was like.. friggin golden opportunity! BLeeeeeh. SAD. ARghhhhhh. I could have just like said "hey thanks for that greeting. It totally made my day". And i had one extra frame in my camera, i could have like "hey ive got one unfinished shot, can i take a photo with you?" Could have just acknowledged her greeting by saying "thanks", let her smile one more timee. ahhhhhhh. hahahahaha. nvm.

Singapore isnt that bad.

just some fragments

Was just scrolling through some photos. Man seems like my days with hair happened in another life or something. Life is so different now i can't really remember what it feels like to be in these photos at that particular point of time. So distant. I do miss those times (:

Food time!

I really should catchup with both my alma mater mates someday!

welcome to mainland

back from tekong! whoo! I have never missed home this much before.

2 weeks in tekong, and im glad to say im onLY 7 weeks away from PoP! it doesnt feel that close away.

I got posted to G company. It stands for Gryphon, not Gay. Platoon 2, section 1, bed 3.

My two weeks in tekong weren't that bad. It's not that bad a place, really. Nice island, i really love the coastal route. Just that we never have the time and luxury to stroll along and enjoy it. The weather is nice and warm, an average of 1 degree hotter than Singapore, which isn't hot enough. Erratic weather changes from bright hot and sunny to dark gloomy and happy really make our day, and we start chanting " Cat 1 Cat 1 Cat 1.. ". Rain and thunderstorms usually ensue, and a monotonous computer generated voice echoes our chant, "Cat 1.. Cat 1.. Cat 1..". And then all outdoor activities are cancelled and we happily make our way back to our bunks.

The food is really not bad, and for now im not really sick of it yet. Fruits are provided every meal, and there are always syrup drinks, or special milo-like drinks like vico-coco. Ice cream is a luxury treat which we get once every week, rocks! The only sad thing is that, even if the food is nice, it has to be in the stomach by 10-15 minutes, which means we never get to savour what we eat. Oh we get stuff like greenbean/redbean/barley soup too.

Training is... quite alright. Not very shiong, not very slack either. Only dumb thing is that they throw us physically demanding activities one after another, day after day. Our bodies dont even get a chance to recover, how to improve like that? Once the fatigue builds up our morale goes down and we cant really give our best effort anymore. They say progressive training, which is quite bullshit. In our first PT, we couldnt even complete 50% of what we were asked to do. The intensity of the physical sessions we have are the same, even if we have two back to back, as if we would be as fresh as we were before we started the first session. They expect everyone to be conditioned just because we are the enhanced leadership batch, which is quite rubbish.

And the worst part of training is that we have no courtyard outside our company, only a semi-barren field. That means that all our physical activities are conducted on it. Lying down on the ground really sucks, our sweaty clothes get dirty everytime when all the mud and leaves get stuck to it, and becomes we have to wash clothes quite often. One day i left my clothes soaked in soap water for a day, and the next day they all stank like mad. So yeah never soak your clothes in washing powder water.

Oh yes we had Cover and Concealment lessons, which meant going outfield to gather twigs and leaves to stuff on yourself so you look like a tree as much as possible. That was quite fun, except that where i lay had two ant trails. Luckily they didnt bite. One of my platoon mates got red ants. hahaha. Thankfully not the big one though.

Our uniform really camouflages quite well. At least good enough to trick the birds. One day when we were in our files, two Sun birds came and flew in between us, damn cute haha. Den our sergeant was like "it thinks you are trees! haha" That malay sergeant is very funny btw. When we were doing our crunches lying on the field, he comes to each of us and, standing over us against the backdrop of the blue tekong sky, he asks, "do i look like an angel?" hahah.

Discipline is not that strict yet, because it is only our adjustment period, my commanders are quite friendly. As of now.. We are allowed to use the softdrink vending machine outside our bunks! Rocks

My platoon/section mates are all nice people. For those that i already know, there's samuel lim from hc/ac, Julian Tay ac, colin hc, reuben lim ac. At company level there's Melvin from nj.

I was happy when i went in, but subsequently after the first few days i started getting damn sian already. I went in all garang and pysched up, ready to chiong and get tekan, but i was disappointed when there was really nothing much to do, and the commanders were so laxed. Nothing to chiong. My phone died on the second day, and i was cut off from friends. My radio never worked at all, and i was totally deprived of music. I got back injury on the third day, and got excused from all activities for the next three days. Back pain never recovered, and together with muscle fatigue from the activities i was no longer anywhere near fighting fit, I really couldn't chiong sua anymore. When i couldn't chiong, it's like there's really no motivation for anything anymore, and morale all disappear. So now im quite sian, i hope the back pain goes away, gonna see doc on monday. So sad =( And i dislocated my arm during the monkey bar thing of the soc.

On a brighter note i was bored during my status period, and came out with a sketch for company T-shirt. My Platoon commander liked it and now i need to come out with a proper design for it. =D. I wasn't shortlisted for medicine, but i got shortlisted for architecture! Aptitude test is tomorrow, and i hope i do well.

So that's it for now, i have much of civilian life to enjoy. In camp i dreamt of food everyday. Last night after i booked out i had Ben and Jerrys, and then my bro and cousin brought me to cafe cartel where i had waffle ice cream and a berrie smoothie. Whoaa heavenly :)

Okay i have to answer my Call of Duty 3 now. Field camp next week. till the week after.. bye!