i trade 2 days of urban lifestyle for sub-urban experience

Came back from a short 2-day Malacca trip. The weather somehow seems a little better over there. It was a good experience to get to see the city, which is celebrating its 1 year as a historical heritage-protected place. The old, rugged buildings that they have will be kept for long & old as they can be, these structures carry with them history from ancient times till now and its good to be able to catch a glimpse of it.

To sum up, the trip was a pleasant one. I had a good time eating chendol. I had very good time taking pictures of places I toured. Just like the feel of the old, rugged but extremely nice structures. But the lodgings I had over there was not too good. I spent a night where I didn't sleep well. Facilities was pretty average. And the only positive signs of the lodgings was that the building try to create the 'Peranakan' atmosphere by having Peranakan-style objects in the motel-that-call-themselves-hotel.

But instead of turning recharged after a short holiday away from the hectic life of Singapore, I ended up being more tired when I wake up this morning for work. I'm hoping for a better tomorrow but I need my 10am break. My sleeping break is gone!!

ORD-ed!

Yes! I've finally ORD-ed! I've made it. 2 years. A coster-ride journey. A deserving piece of memories will irked in my heart.

I mean, how to forget this past week?? To put it simply, Alan, my senior-friend-colleague, says my batch has the best ORD treatment. Well, its the BEST treatment that I've seen in the 5 batches of seniors that ORD-ed before me & I'm so fortunate to be part of it. For the past week, my buddy & I had 3 meal treats from the regulars. We also had a treat by fellow poor NSFs on ORD Day. On the last meal treat from the regulars on thursday, the head of department even went down to have lunch with us. This IS her 1st time attending ORD celebration outside the unit with the NSFs. Oh, and she even drove us, along with 2 other ma'ams, there.

Meal treats apart, the regulars came up with gifts for the 2 of us. They got us a wallet & coin pouch. Instead of wrapping up the items, they decided to decorate the box with hearts & good wishes. At the moment when they gave us the presents, had handshakes with us & wish us well for the future. I was extremely touched to the point where....tears welled in my eyes. Kenny was touched by the actions by Mdm Indrani (head of department) when she decided to came along for the lunch. Its a touching move by the most superior personnel.

And last but not least, must thank the NSFs lah. Treated us to sushi on friday. Even got kenny & me a basketball & soccer ball respectively. One word. Touched. See, I so easily get touched, too easy to bribe me liao.

Hmm. And the last thing I wanna say about my series of posts on ORD is I'm so happy that my work for the past 1 year 10 months is appreciated by Mdm Quek (my direct superior). And I'm glad she like the book I got for her. I got it specially for her after I got the idea from a certain chat we had, quite long ago. I hesitated to tell her the reason I got her that book when she was asking me about my plans for future. Well, in the end, I hesitated too long & didn't tell her. So what I heard from KC is that she wanted to get me something back in return. Even if she didn't get me the wallet, a combined gift from all regulars, I'm still very happy. All the suan-ing for the time I worked under her, to get recognition is all I asked for.

To sum up my 1 year 10 months of service in the unit, my first half of the year was a good one. I think my work is of pretty good quality but as ORD draws nearer & nearer, my work starts to deprove. But luckily the starting quality of my work is not too bad, so when my work deprove, it wasn't that obvious. And that's all for army. Unless, reservist is coming any sooner, I won't need to touch this part anymore!

gratitude

I'm super happy about my superiors' response after they received our token of gratitude from myself & my buddy. They were shocked, excited & happy. Wah, I'm so happy that they like it lah. Anyway, we got them each a book. Each book is chosen with special care to attend to each of their personalities.

The superiors treated us to pizza as well. And we were even asked to signed on the books we got for them. LOL. Make us look like some big star signing for the fans.

And apart from all that I said above, Mr Khoo (a highly experience & respected regular) offered to treat us to lunch. Whether that happens or not, it doesn't matter. The thought counts alot! And the ma'ams wants to get us a gift. We were given 5 choices to choose from. The choices are sweater, a bag, a wallet, a soccer/basketball jersey, a watch. Wah, still can choose a present some more. BUT, we rejected. But we failed as well, the ma'ams insisted on getting us a gift after all.

From the events that happened today, it really made me felt great. I dunno how to explain that feeling. Happy? Excited? I think its a combination of both. I never thought the response will be so overwhelming.

A good end to the 22 months of care & love & memories...

Rational vs perceptual

my 18 days vacation has finally ended! Well, i didn't my no. of days of leave, off & MCs. A friend did that for me in the office. He even made an update as to when i'll be back.

Its a good break nevertheless. Had enough of rest. Had enough of fun. Even tried clubbing for the 1st time. I was telling kenny about the experience in the office today. Told him about 2 incidents which caught my attention. But his reply was since its my first time, just have a look & don't look too much into things happening.

I had been thinking about this as well. Maybe I did read too much into the events. I think its down to myself being too rational (理性). Its time to be more perceptual (感性) le. But i think i've been too rational for too long. Everytime I tried to be less of it, more of being perceptual. It seemed I need to open up many doors before I can be perceptual. And everytime, it takes a long time for me to open up the doors, hence that side of me never ever surfaced.

Anyway, there's always a first time to trying out anything. And since I've tried clubbing once. I think the floodgate will open. Just like how I was hooked to bowling for a short period of time.

Last nite, somehow I can't seem to sleep well. Too excited to be returning back to unit? Maybe. After all, I've not seen the guys for quite a long while eh. 18 days break eh...

4 more days awaits till I'm out of army. Suddenly, I feel pretty excited about going to ORD. And 2 years has gone just like that. A memories folder named "Army" is just about to be remembered.

Till then, this coming friday awaits..Afternoon will be lunch with kenny, rabbit & yin ki. A mini 6th batch celebration & bday celebration for yin ki. And in the evening will be a dinner gathering with the office guys. =)

Not up to expectations

I had a jog around the area. I think the distance should be close to 5km. Jogged from Upp Boon Keng to Kallang Bahru, to Boon Keng to Kallang Industrial estate. Jogged twice. Well, somehow hmm came to my mind for no reason. How ah, really so hard for me to put it down meh? Just as I thought I did it. Just as I thought jogging has another meaning to me. Still need time? I don't need lah..I want instant results.

Anyway, tomorrow's the day my 2 wisdom tooth say goodbye to my gum le. I hoped I get a good dentist & not a seemingly quite experienced but average skills one. I want it to be quickly over. The previous experience still leave a deep impression on me lo.

That leaves me with 3-5 days of MC. Well, I hope my MC last till friday can le. I don't want my weekends to be on MC status. I got a to-do list for the coming few days le.

These are things I want/need to do:

1. Finish up my camera's instruction booklet

2. Watch the 蜡笔小新 DVDs

3. Finish Subash Anandan's auto-biography

4. Find songs for myself & yx

a weekend to remember..

It was a last minute plan to watch fireworks & go for the night festival on saturday. I was happy at the chance to play around with my camera. And to have a weekend meet-up with wai & lil.

We walked up the pedestrian bridge & arrived at Benjamin Sheares Bridge where we took pics while waiting for the fireworks. Time passed. And finally, the fireworks starts. And the sky starts to drizzle. The rain starts to pour as the fireworks scenes gets more spectacular. Several pictures were taken before the chance was gone. People were running down the Bridge, trying to get to the nearest shelter point. After the long wait for fireworks, it was at the last moment where the chance to view the fireworks was gone.

All 3 of us were drenched. With myself looking the most obvious one of all. And after taking shelter till the rain gets lighter, we ran to Millenia Walk. Once again, we got drenched. It was not a nice enocunter, running under a heavy downpour but its an experience to remember.

Next up, we planned to take train to Dhoby Ghaut for the night festival at National Museum. As we walked along City Link to the train station, we saw a long queue forming in front of us, in the direction to the train station. We took a detour & head to Suntec City bus stop. It was the start of our BIG walk. Oh! I saw Bert near Suntec City as well, I guess he was with his dragon-boat friends bah. Should have hit him harder sia, never reply my message for 1 whole day. Good lah!!

We ended up alighting at Bugis area due to a road closure for the night festival. Argh! Hence, we end up walking to National Musuem for the festival. We decided to look around at National Musuem since we need to wait for the concert to start. It ended up being the right choice 'coz the rain came again! And it was an eye-opener, looking around in the musuem. However, we didn't have time to tour the whole building but nevertheless it was great! Anyway, I saw si kai there and that guy ah, juz had to shout "Yo, Pak!!" so loud that all people on the escalator can hear him. I was sooo pai seh lah.

After the museum tour was the concert. I think if I were to be more 'artistic', I would have like the concert more. Last stop was a supper at Rochor Beancurd. AND we walked there as well. That's the end of our BIG walk though.

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Went to orchard alone today to head to Borders. I think its my first serious shopping in it. I needed to look for a guitar book mah. But i didn't end up getting the one, my teacher asked for. I spent like 2 hrs plus in there and during the time, I read some comics on National Service, it was quite hilarious.

Anyway, I'm looking for MJ's You're Not Alone. I heard this song before but it never come across my mind that its by MJ 'coz it doesn't sound like his type of song.

Two quotes I saw from TV Mobile:

1. If you want your dreams to come true, the first thing to do is to wake up.

2. Things are only impossible until they're not.

night out at T3

a meet up for 2 unit buddies today at t3 for dinner & a send-off for zhehao a.k.a chong (i'm still used to calling him chong since the bmt days) & wei jian. Both of them are off to brisbane for further studies. All the best guys!

Seriously, I dunno how the 3 of us managed to kill time from 7 plus to 10 plus before sending zhehao & wei jian off. Its like the time passed by so naturally that i felt 3 hours is a very short time spent. Anyway, as events unfold, ORD draws closer. It was in bmt that i know chong, even though we were from the same bunk, we weren't close. He's more of section 3.5 while i'm purely in section 3! And it was in unit that i know wei jian, even though we were from the same company (Leopard!!). And it seemed so recent that I had news of them going to aussie and now they're on their way there.

Wei jian was saying about how excited he has been this morning when he head to CMPB for collection of THE pink IC. He was unable to sleep and even woke up early at 6 in the morning. After hearing his experience, I thought about how I will feel when I'm in his shoes in 2 weeks time. But somehow I didn't get excited leh. Maybe I'm already in the ORD mood after being 1 week plus away from the unit & another week of 'holiday' awaits me. Maybe, I don't want to ORD?? Nah! I must be out of my mind if I want to stay on as NSF. Hah! Well, it should be a natural thing when it comes lah, no point thinking about such thing.

I think I'm loving my camera more & more. And I'm taking pictures seriously for fun. Yet another 30/40 plus pics taken at T3 & the train station. Took a few pics after getting the green-light from the control station officer. Phew! He nearly didn't allow me to take pics!

a lazy week's been gone & the lazy bones gets moving

alritez, the pics of last week's outing is finally up on facebook. I finally decided to stop being lazy & upload the pics.

apparently, got friends bother to read my tiny words in my last post. So, using smaller fonts doesn't works and putting a note doesn't works.

Anyway, i think i should really wake myself up after a near-serious encounter this week. I think it was a tuesday that I was out with mum to bugis. We went to the temple, shopped around there a while and went off to sim lim towers to get a screen protector for my DSLR screen. And on my way to the bus stop from the building, I was happily taking pics of buildings & sceneries out there. Seems like there's nothing wrong right? But, BUT I was doing it at the expense of the traffic conditions. One of my shots were taken while the 'green man' turns 'red'. Erm, I only realised the situation when the lorry starts to move. If not, I'll continue happily taking pics like I'm the king of the road. Hahaha.

Anyway, after shopping at OG that day, made me missed the jacket I saw at Springfield last weekend. Its like Kappa having a sporty jacket at $90+, and Springfield having a better looking one at $90+ as well. I always have the mindset that sporty jacket doesn't worth that much. But anyway, I think the jacket will be waiting for me bah. I hope so. =)

entertainment & shopping galore!!

Yesterday was a day of filled with entertainment! Was out with poly frens for Ice Age 3, shopping in town & vocal training at ktv!!

Ice Age 3 is basically a movie where u watch, have fun laughing, and don't put too much emphasis on its plot and you'll enjoy it. There are no real main characters in the show but it will leave an impression some way or another. Like the silly squirrel in the show, I've no idea what's the relationship between a squirrel & a nut. But the way, the squirrel goes about chasing after the nut, just catches my attention. Pure determination by the little one.

Next up, after the movie ended, sky was dark and rain poured. However, the shopping mood was not dampened. Nice jackets and jeans were spotted while shopping. However, with my think-too-much character, I ended up conquering none of the items I liked. Well, I just got one item that i 'want'. Now I should just focus on my 'needs'. Maybe I should throw away the theory of 'wants' & 'needs' while shopping. Haha.

And after dinner & a little bit of shopping, we came to the last pit stop, ktv. I think its a pretty good session for all 4 of us. And time flies when it comes to singing. Before you knew it, the time slot has ended and night is calling for all of us. Photos will be available soon.

AND when I reached home, I managed to catch a glimpse of the Wimbledon men's singles finals between A.Roddick & the now 15-times Grand Slam champion R.Federer! Yesh, you're right. Its not a repeat telecast. Its a LIVE one. The match is still on after 4 looonggg hours. This is another great Wimbledon finals after a heck of a finals last year.

Saturday was a great day meeting up with the unit's frens. Great to see jian yong after a long while. But it didn't end up well thanks to myself. That's all for now. =)

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*Note: Any passer-by reading this post, you can stop here. =)

This shall be a note to wake myself up. It is after what happened on kc's party that made me think about such things again. Dunno why I feel 'shy' when facing gals. Dunno why I feel 'shy' when facing strangers. Its like I will be tongue-tied when talking to gals. Dun dare to approach them. And when a game was played during the party, I was hoping I was not called up to play the game. Just have the inner fear of facing strangers which I seriously dunno why! I can be quiet with friends, but thats because I dunno what/how to start a topic. But I will feel at ease with them around. But with strangers, I just felt like escaping the situation.

Ok. After a couple of days of thinking why I acted this way. It should be due to my inferior nature. Its hard to explain how my inferior self developed. It is something I dunno how to explain with words. I guess, only people who were/are inferior can understand how I feel. But then, is it inferior or is it cowardness? Or a mix of both? *Takes a deep breath* Hmmph. Dunno. I'm still very blur. I need to get this inferior feeling out. But can I do it? Or it will be with me no matter what, and it can only be curbed? Questions and more questions left unattended. *Takes a deep breath*. URGH!!

Numb........你不是真正的快乐........Breaking The Habit.......