sheesh, i don't know how many more goodbyes i've got to say in the next few months! goodbyes are never easy to say.
oh well, i guess goodbyes are an inevitable part of ns as well. now, as i'm posted out, more goodbyes will have to be said. to the friends i made in the course, to my section mates, to my hq pals, to ati, goodbye.
what for force people together if there are clashes in ideas, interests and values? there would be no true emotion coming out from within us, defeating a main purpose of performing. it'll look dead, far from being ebullient. what we've done so far is just slovenly work, and nothing is going to blossom. anyway, i don't think i want some irascible person who would cause infirmities in our family. don't colour your words and make it sound morally excellent, when what you gave was a tight slap on our faces.
i shall commiserate over our lousy choice.
we shall make a better one next time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ marianne; thanks for organising that! i'm glad it was no where near being rambunctious. unlike its fairly old enemy - clubbing. i'd love to go again, although there are some objections at home. haha.
oops. how time passes. i've now passed out from sispec and am currently in ati - armour traning institute.
back in bmt, i dreaded infantry, and wanted to get out desperately. the endless road marches and soc gave me no reason to stay. i just didn't want infantry as my vocation, and thought that any other vocation would do just nicely. i even thought that armour was the best. after all, how hard could driving a tank be? anyway, since many people told me about the perks of being a mp - military police, i wanted to go there. unfortunately, i had no say in my fate and got posted to sispec - school of infantry specialists (notice the bold word), instead of my indication to become a mp (hey, i excelled in my interview ok?). oh, how i cursed and cursed. but, i thought to myself, "hey, i got a chance to enter a leadership school, that must mean something about me!". moreover, there was another chance to become a mp again, and as a spec! oooo, how i hoped and hoped that that would've been fulfilled. and i heard that armour and engineers really sucked, so i needed to go to mp. but no, i got disappointed again! armour, my recruit "dream" was realised. how ironic.
life in armour infantry (yes, infantry) has been rather smooth sailing, maybe because i've been excused from pt due to my injury "sustained in sispec". what i hate is the gruelling pt. give me lessons and stuff and i'll gladly accomplish it. so that's what i've been doing and i'm enjoying it. however, i won't pass out as a 3sg cause i won't be able to taking the ippt and soc. i'll see where this goes... might be taken out of the course.
once armour, always armour hahaha oh how corny i find that. oops.
with regard to my uni choice, i got nus science and accepted it. i hope i get fst. i doubt my appeal to pharmacy would work, since i've not heard from them thus far. whereas others got called up already.
tag replies; luan; don't worry. if i'm out of course, i'll be free, free! hahaha. soph; same same, free free i will be!
oh yes, i miss my social life a lot so those who weremy friends, you still are, and i'd better still be yours! hahaha. i want to meet up, but i'm lazy. so please, please sms me or something! darn, i just missed yesterday's mco meeting due to saturday book out. sheesh.
i've already been accepted into ntu's biological sciences course. they even offered me a direct entry into the accelerated bachelor's programme, in view of my "excellent" academic achievement. hahaha. they sound quite desperate offering it to me considering what i got for gp. but i heard that ntu only looks at your h2s, so yeah.
smu economics hasn't given me a reply although my interview was weeks ago.
i just came back from the nus pharmacy discretionary admission interview, in which im vying with 100+ others for a spot in the 14 places left. discretionary admission again... hahaha. i think i screwed up some parts, but i really hope i can get it! i didn't even get to sniff medicine..
come end-may, i hope i see some good news in the letter-box!
only after reading blogs and looking at photos, then i realised how many things i missed. is it my fault for planting my butt at home on free days? i was free last night, but... whatever.
6 more days to my birthday. but 6 days of intense torture before i can book out next sunday, missing my birthday altogether ):
filed camps, strength/speed/endurance/combat (don't the names give you shudders?) training, navigation in mandai and section live firing are all going to happen in the remaining days. how sucky. i just came back from a 3d 2n field camp and i got kisses from lots of mozzies on my hands. extremely itchy!
anyway, i've been failing my ippt due to my standing broad jump and i can't pass my course if i don't pass (even a pass in ippt is not good enough!). please pray for my fitness! (:
oh yes, i'd better remember to update my links. so many more to add!
i wish i can get lost in mandai forest or get stuck in a bog so i never have to return. bashing through forests and swamps are not exactly my cup of tea. and i have to do it again tomorrow! and if my group really does get lost, we can forget about sleeping. ippt coming again. passed in bmt; failed in sispec. quite a laughing matter. anyhow, 1st field camp coming soon. gonna book out on saturday night i think. but what i dread is the rain. these few days haven't been exactly a good indicator of fine weather. try sleeping in rain! (luckily i haven't done it before cause my bmt field camp never rained!) but i don't wanna try it. oh well. and because of today's early book in, i've to miss njchoir's cantab choir concert, my last chance to see the juniors that i know perform! and i haven't seen ms lim in eons. how my heart is filled with regret.
nvm, my birthday's coming soon.
soph; sorry for not being able to make it for the concert today! hope you had fun! haha, you got my sms about dinner right? will be looking forward to that! (:
... sispec warriors, we are the warriors, sispec warriors, with pride we will lead! ...
that monotonous song is sung at least 10 times everyday. i'd rather sing the infantry song. at least that's in a major key and is uplifting. the sispec song is plain demoralising. BUT, i only have to suffer there for only EIGHT weeks thanks to the saf for shortening it from ten. woohoo! shorter than bmt. BUT, there will be night training almost everyday and our schedule is so packed.
AND, due to some section life firing, i'll NOT book out on my BIRTHDAY, 26/04/2008! how sad is that? its a saturday. yet, i'll still be confined till sunday morning. irritating. i don't wanna be at the hands of my bunk mates. maybe i'll get shot during my live firing as a birthday "gift".
anyway, the 1st week has been so-so. really wanted to be out of course and downgrade my pes status because i didn't want to suffer anymore during all the trainings. and there's the stupid obstacle course that i really hate. but thankfully i made some friends and probably that shall keep me going (with all my incessant complaining, that is). back to topic. 2km run every freaking morning for the past week, 3 times of pull-ups before each meal and physical training almost every single day. i dread those the most, and my worst nightmare came to life. but other than those, i've had 3 hours of free time every day right after dinner. i hope that continues. (i can dream on i suppose), and i will dream.
i'm just waiting for the 8 7 weeks to pass and i'll have some rank. heh heh. nonetheless, it's just a corporal. i'm undergoing the basic section leader's course (bslc) now and i really hope i don't get chosen after the 8 weeks to proceed to the advanced slc because it's really worse. more pt and field camps. military police please please please!
one major difference in traffic: when singaporean's honk, it means: you barged into my path! or whatever traffic offences made. when vietnamese honk, it means: get out of my way!
there is incessant honking all day long, right into the dead of the night. the ratio of cars to motorcycles - 1:50 - i'm not kidding. that's why the large vehicles have to honk to get the 'midgets' out of their way. hahaha. but other than the traffic, everything else was good. souvenirs and food were very cheap, but there would still be the bargaining. haha. the visit to the war remnants museum was also and eye-opener. especially the horrific pictures of exploded bodies and dismembered heads in black and white. another disturbing factor was the effects of the chemical warfare the us used on the vietnamese. a chemical called agent orange affects pregnant women, causing them to produce babies with physical defects. rather sad. these effects still last presently because the chemicals still linger around in the soil that may be used for agricultural purposes. when the toxic product is eaten, the effects follow. used tanks and planes are displayed as seen in the photos!
ok, now about my passing out parade! i've officially graduated from bmt, with much suffering and pain i must say. i would've enjoyed it more if it didn't rain. but since it rained during every rehearsal, i was well prepared! haha. more photos at:
i will miss all my friends there! how i wish the 2 years would be spent with them :(
there's an mco outing tomorrow. hope everyone will go! can't wait to go out again. haha.
tag replies: cheej; my oc said that even if there was a cat 1, we'll still carry on per usual. but that didn't happen for me, so :p hahaha yh; hahaha, that's with a cap :x yuntian; i only saw you once, live! haha, during results day right. nah, you didn't see properly haha. roman; thank you! sophia; enjoyed it. real great! (;
i'll be going to vietnam for a short holiday from tomorrow to tuesday. i can still be contacted on my hp though, provided m1 has the "pay as you roam" serivce there. byebye!
those helped me through my field camp! somehow, i rarely felt homesick (although the day before it i couldn't bear to part with my phone). and i adapted to the living conditions quite fast - shitting on soil, peeing anywhere green, sleeping in holes. i think i had 75% fun and 25% complaining. and trust me, singapore's weather can fall right down to 19 degrees celcius. the weather in tekong is damn cooling in the morning. the first night when i didn't wear my socks to sleep, i nearly froze to death when i woke up the next day. sleeping wasn't uninterrupted either. cold weather would wake you up, and there's always the sgts pulling your rifle out from your grip at night - how irritating.
also, thank God that not a single drop of rain fell from the sky during my whole 6 days. imagine sleeping in mud! brr.... bound to catch a cold. only when we came back to camp then it rained for about 10mins haha. other companies had it worse cause it rained for 2 days during theirs'.
my hair was washed for the last time before its all snipped (yes, i prefer this to 'shave') off tomorrow. goodbye hair ):
thank you everybody who has played a part in my life this holidays, making it a meaningful and fun one before i go in! my sec 4A, mc-0, choir peeps and everybody else!
take care whether you're working, on attachment, going for a holiday and just plain slacking!
bye.
ps. sorry, the tagboard will have to wait! hahaha. i'm lazy...
today is jean's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEAN!) and she invited me to her birthday party at essential brews! thank you! (: i had great fun there. usually when the pinata is broken, the kids (not us) would usually scramble all over the place to collect the candy. BUT, 18 (and above) year-olds do it differently. it's smashed on the floor, and the candy spills out and the candy is collected and thrown at everyone. that is called a candy fight. some candy is also put into shirts and pants. hahaha. the most fun i had after grad night! hahaha. thanks jean, for this opportunity to see the bbs again! (:
it was linus' first time - riding a motorcycle (thanks hc for the exhilarating ride!) - playing games in settler's cafe (very expensive for some reason) - talking to some alumni peeps
haha, maybe not many. perhaps it was the motorcycle ride that compelled me to write about this.
goodbye yuehhsin and jiahao! take care! sigh everybody's leaving..
sometimes closeness is one-sided. you never know until you get an affirmation from the other party.
so much has happened this past week. hmm. let me start with my trip to kl.
took a 5h luxury coach to klcc. stayed at impiana hotel. seriously, the shopping malls there are exact replicas of singapore's. there are departmental stores like isetan, topman, etc.. that can be found here. the price is only cheaper by a few cents. went to the newest mall called pavillion which is supposed to be upmarket; its like wisma. then there was sungei wang, which is like far east plaza. nevertheless, there were still new sights to see, like the indoor theme park in berjaya times square which has 10+ floors worth of shopping. the malaysian eye ferris wheel thingy was something worth going too. needed to take the monorail to get there. haha. quite inaccessible though. alas, it was time to go back to comfy home sweet home! bought back dunkin donuts for some people, but somehow or another i did not manage to see them. how sad.
pavillion's white christmas decor.
scenery on the eye.
hotel lobby
after my trip it was hardcore carolling! i simply love carolling with all of you. i adore everyone's voices! whether it was being a caroller or spectator, my life revolved around raffles city-dempsey road-goodwood park-sheraton for the rest of the remaining days to christmas. in fact, i've been seeing all my choir friends almost everyday. uncannily, i'd still want to; unfortunately, some have left. its delightful and enjoyable singing carols everywhere and having those crapping sessions with everyone before every carolling gig. also not forgetting going to zhirui's house almost everyday this week. haha. i'll miss the dai dee sessions!
the donuts and xq! xy and me on the mrt. xt and me. xy xq and me in nydc. couple outfit with mav.
mav zr me at dempsey road.
yuehhsin and me
zr and me
chuwen and me. congratulations! (:
some stuff happened on christmas eve and christmas day that made this christmas quite miserable for me. it hurts to know that after you sacrificed something to warn someone, the warning isn't heeded and believed. if i didn't say anything, i'm sure the situation presently would be much much better. all the shenanigan stuff should stop. i'm so glad i've got you to talk to, if not i don't know what would've happened (: anyway, all's good now with everyone! i think we should have a name for ourselves. i don't like to put "everyone" this "everyone" that when its just us. hahaha.
well, back to happy stuff. met up with my mco at the eski bar in holland on boxing day! the stupid freeze room was damn cold. had a good time playing indian poker and attempting to play the cards ben brought. what's it called? bah, i forgot. hahaha. anyway, it was just fun fun fun. ACCOLADES for this christmas junqi; for the card sent through the snail mail! i'll see you soon at the 4A chalet! xiaoyun; for your lovely card! i'll give you the tys' real soon! chengluan; for the picture that we took last christmas! charleen & deniece; for the nike cap!!! i simply adore it! i'll wear it everyday! soe; for the handy dandy brush holder and chocs! plus, the card! ben; for the carlsberg and candies! although i don't drink. haha. alee; for your heartfelt donation and card! julian; for the extremely emotionally heartwarming photo organiser! i'll nv bear to use it. loads of memories are found inside! sorry i didn't send you off at the airport!
a blessed christmas and a happy new year to all of you out there! (:
haha. this will be a long long post cause i haven't updated for nearly a month.
for the sake of convenience, grad night photoshere! happy viewing!
a big thank you to all who wished me before my h3 econs paper! sorry i didn't reply your tags on my board! all in all, i think it went well. bell curve, bell curve...
major events after the damn h3 paper:
1. 29/11 tjc concert with negativ (right after the paper lol)
it was an eye-opener! great seeing performers from other jcs. it was the first time i went to tj. boy am i glad that nj's building is what it is. 8 floors lol. there was this ball sculpture contraption in their courtyard similar to the science centre's. too bad it was out of order. at least they have an auditorium. lt5 pales in comparison.