a&e
After I've finished watching the football match which czech thrashed denmark 3-0 at 4.30am, I went to sleep hoping to catch sufficient sleep(to sleep as much as i can lorz, hehe). However, I was awoken by my ringing handphone(my dad called). Grandpa was feeling very very unwell the whole of last night(i'll save the details for myself =P). Initially my dad intended for me to call up an ambulance and follow my grandpa to A&E but my grandpa didn't want to trouble anyone as he didn't find that there was a need to be hospitalised. When my aunt came over, she convinced him that the symptoms he suffered from shudn't be neglected and in the end, we(me and aunt) took him to SGH's A&E by cab(since he can walk, there wasn't the need to waste $100++ just to 'hail' an ambulance). When we got there, we were attended to very quickly by a nurse and after some examination, he was wheeled further in to wait for a doc to see him. Unbelievably, we had to wait for 2+hrs before a doc attended to him lorz(waiting so long in A&E?!?). I could see the group of docs all appeared at the same time to attend to the long 'queue' of patients waiting! My assumption is tt they all went for lunch together and this isn't a very comforting assumption...how can they just abandon their post all together?! This is a shocking experience for me...having to wait so long in A&E...hmm...it's interesting how I spent my day 'cos I actually intended to go to JRL to return my already over-due book and maybe borrow a book for reading back in camp...haha...realised that my patience has been tremendously increased thru' the army...a lot of time is wasted on administrative stuff in the army which slows everything down...
posted by sc @
rush to wait & wait to rush
I had to book in early in the morn at 8.30am to go for NDP rehearsal. I had breakfast wif my parents b4 they took me back to camp. We drew our arms at ard 9am and had to wait for the buses to come take us to national stadium at 10am. As one of the other companies was late, we left only at 10.30am. We reached the stadium at ard 12.30pm and started a component training at 1pm. After which, we took our lunch and rested for near 1hr before we had a 1st full run at 3pm. Our RSM took the time and effort to explain to us why we had to book in early and waste time waiting(it's 'cos we're coordinating wif the civilians who are also rehearsing for the pre-parade etc etc and we can't just come and go as and when we want to). Lol, unbelievably, we took our dinner at ard 4.30pm and waited until 6.30pm before we had our 2nd full run. During the 1st full run under the super hot sun, I was down with a slight flu and thus wasn't concentrating hard enough. During a wheeling(meaning the contigent turning a corner), somehow I did not follow my line and cut into the line beside me! I can't be sure but I think I caused a mess-up in the rows behind me and was thus scolded rather badly by my RSM. Well, I manage to recover from my flu just before the 2nd full run which went rather smoothly until the transformation drill. Duno why the sound system is very lousy today compared to past rehearsals. The echos from the 2 speakers at different positions of the stadium was too loud and the drum beats were mixed and muffled. Since we time our marching according to the beat of the drum, there was a cock-up in our marching(some left foot some right foot at one point in time) and we also did not stop together as a contigent when we reached the place where we had to stop and do the transformation drill. Luckily they din intend to keep us there any further and we got to our waiting area to rest after the 2nd rehearsal at ard 6.45pm. What a way to burn a sunday sia...waiting and waiting...can't really blame anyone 'cos such movements and coordination of large masses of people has nvr been perfect...my serg in BMT told us tt in the army, we always 'rush to wait and wait to rush'...how true it is...=)
posted by sc @
balonglong
Hmm, what does tt mean? Haha...I've learnt many ridiculously funny words/verses since I've started serving NS. For e.g, some tt I've heard are "press button monkey jump"(this one has lotsa meanings which i still haven't completely understood, hehe), "touch your heart...ask yourself..."(meaning to tell what you really feel), "ho4 eh2"(dialect, meaning 'good one!'). Alright, back to "balonglong"(it means to slack). We've been servicing our tanks for the past wk to prepare to go outfield nxt tues. Today was also not spared. We had to load up the OVM(tools/equipment req'd for use during outfield) and the SFCS(we use it to aim) set while the tank drivers had to grease many parts of the tank and replace some faulty stuff. After we've taken out the stuff from the store and laid them out nicely on the floor, I was told by my serg to take care of the store(sit there and make sure no unauthorised personnel enters the store lorz) while the rest of my mates went about doing up the tanks. Oh man, how exciting it was to be. I sat there looking around for approx. 3.5hrs! What could I be doing? Thinking about what to do when I book out, singing out softly some of my fav songs etc. Couldn't have felt more bored...would've preferred to sweat it out carrying stuff ard lorz, hai. This wk was full of servicing but there were some interesting moments. On Tues night, we were gathered at the vehicle shed to start off the servicing for the week and our tok-cok session began again! The characters involved this time were: me, my buddy KB, tok-bird king MY and ah-seh Jeremy. The topic was on time-travelling. We were thinking of how time travelling is possible and we came up with many different theories of course, beginning with the relativity theory by Einstein. I was thinking...time travel is only possible if the past and present are running concurrently(any comments??) KB even gave a analogy of having 2 mirrors, if it was possible for us to travel faster than speed of light, we'd be able to reach the 2nd mirror before the view from when we left the 1st mirror even reaches it. Since the images from the 1st mirror to the 2nd mirror are transmitted constantly, tt means we'd be able to see what happened in the 'past'(images we see on the 2nd mirror start even b4 the moment we left the 1st mirror!). By the time this theory was proposed, I was already disengaging from the tok cok session cos our initial objective is already long forgotten!(hehe, and i lost track of what they were actually discussing le). But as we left the vehicle shed, we came up with the conclusion that we should not think about it cos it's 'evil'(lol, exaggerate sia). If we were able to travel back to the past, every little action we make in the venture can have great if not, catastrophic(issit spelt this way?) effects to the future(which is our present actually)...Tt's all for now, I've to do other stuff before I book in tml morn! My sunday is burnt by NDP rehearsal...
posted by sc @
slack and stone
It's my off-in-lieu today, but I didn't have anything planned. Only slept at 2am last night so I woke up only at 12noon just in time for lunch...hehe, I don't usually do that but I didn't want to return to camp feeling shagged. After lunch, didn't have much to do so I surfed the web looking for new ideas for my website and also euro 2004 updates(I missed the matches yesterday). My bro got me to see a webby, http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com, which offered free personalised blog templates. Viewing throught the 'little' selections they offer, I chanced upon a design with spiderman 2 as it's theme. That gave me an idea for a new interface for my webby(cos the old one had some design problems I have a hard time solving..hehe, *insight*). And so I started doing up the new interface for my webby but encountered some layout problems and I redid some of the pages I've already done again. After spending ard 3 hrs, I managed to design new logos for my webby's new interface and it was finally up at 3+pm. I was very satisfied with the results but had enough of 'webpage-making' and so did not do up the rest of the pages(the jokes/stories/articles themselves in particular). I'd have to admit the logos weren't what I've thought of initially but lucky me, tyco found the stuff 'readily' available on my com(spent some effort to look for them lar). Hopefully can complete revamping the webby on my nxt book-out and I get new quality emails from my friends(very unlikely cos i dun receive lotsa emails these days, everyone very busy). I heard some news that my coming sunday will be 'burnt' as we'll be having full-dress rehearsals for the ndp. Sad case larz, cos I was actually looking forward to the PA outing to sentosa...tough luck =P
posted by sc @
holland 2 - 3 czech
What a thriller! The first high-scoring match of euro 2004! The Dutch played the match with much commitment going for a win to ensure their qualification to the next phase. The Dutch led 2 - 1 by half-time and just when they think they've secured their win, think again!(whaha) The manager swooped an attacker for another defensive player hoping to keep the scoreline until the 90th minute. The Czechs were very creative and had the better chances though their possession was almost just 1/2 of the Dutch. The Dutch players irritated me very much with their aggressive/rough play, tackling hard on the Czech players and fouling many many times. The Czech took revenge in the 2nd half when Nedved exaggerated a fall after being pushed by Heitinga who was already on a yellow. He got sent off on a 2nd yellow and Holland was down to 10 men. The Czech equalised 2-2 through a beautiful 1/2-volley by Milan Baros 19mins from time. Nedved nearly scored the winner when he rammed a shot from mid-field catching van der Sar out of position but it rattled the crossbar(what a disappointment!!) In the late minutes of the match, Smicer converted a Poborsky cross to kill off the Dutch and make Czech the first country to qualify for the quarter-finals of euro 2004. I was glad the Dutch were punished by an attack-minded Czech as they were very rough. The Czech showed great resilence and determination by making a great comeback from 2-0 to 3-2(my fav kind of game, hehe). The match was very exciting with both teams having good chances that weren't taken well. The other match was Latvia vs Germany which ended in a draw(I was hoping Latvia could win, hehe, cos they are the under-dogs and I betted on their win. I dislike Germany for their ultra-defensive tactics anyway.). A great wkend for me as I only have to book in on Monday night, meaning more football matches await me! =P
posted by sc @
feels great!
Hmm...yesterday's break from ns was wonderful. I went down to NJ to get my cert and yr-bk before going for my appointment with NSC(hai, face not nice mahz, hehe). I remembered that there's a TIBS bus which takes me to newton mrt where I can transfer to 124 and get to NSC. It was either 171 or 961 and I chose 961(the wrong bus)! As I boarded the bus at 1.50pm and my appointment was 4pm, I was in no hurry and took my time to see where the bus took me to(i duno the route of 961 =P). It took me to many places such as Funan IT Mall, Padang, then I ended up dropping off at beach road(funny that I frequent there but duno got 961, haha). I had lunch there(which wasn't pre-planned...) before grabbing a cab down to NSC. It was a wierd feeling taking a bus alone(that is, without ppl i know ard me) going around s'pore on a wkday, not knowing where the bus is taking me to...very peaceful and it was really private time to myself only! Lots of thoughts wandered ard. I got to see a indian doc at NSC who was new there. My, my, his slang was very very very strong! Whenever he posed me a question, I had to ask him to repeat it 3 times before I SORT OF get what he was asking about. He used a very wierd device(a super-big magnifying glass with flourescent lamp attached to it) and looked at my pimples before telling me that I need to resume taking medication(sigh...) Nothing much happened when I got home and I got up early in the morn to return to camp to prepare for NDP rehearsals(again!!) at National Stadium. Today was rather relaxing I'd say as we rehearsed until 3.30pm only(yeh...shiok!) There were rumours before we went to the stadium that we'll be having a full-dress rehearsal meaning we may have to stay late(even until 8pm maybe!). Thus, we were all very happy when rehearsal ended! Here I am practising my guitar(after pang4 seh1 for quite a while le...feeling guilty) on a new song(My Love by Westlife, not exactly new...just that I've nvr learnt it before...hehe). Hopefully I'll be able to master getting to the fingering for the special F(the tab is 113321, haha) This is also present in my fav song Wherever You Will Go and it slows me down when I try to play the songs...nvr mind...hopefully with hardwork...haha..u know what...
posted by sc @
guard duty and nearly more guard duty...
the highlight of this wk...my guard duty on tuesday night! We had to fall in for a parade at the parade sq b4 we report to the guardrm for us to be assigned duties. As usual, the guard-com(guard commander) had to teach us the short drills that were req'd for the parade at 6pm. After we were taught, it was already 6pm and we fall in immediately. We were req'd to lift our 'rifles' from turun(not sure how to spell, =P) to rusok(not sure how to spell again, =P), meaning from resting-on-the-ground position to one which sits 'comfortably' in our right hand pointing upwards. It was the first time i was using a carbine(instead of m16) and I didn't notice that I was stepping on the rifle sling! When the command was given, the unforgivable, unforgettable, frightening thing happened...I dropped my rifle!! I flicked the carbine up and since I was stepping on the rifle sling, it 'flew up' halfway and fell short of my right hand and landed on the ground with a loud 'thud'. I saw the guard-com shake his head from far and thought it was 'the end' for me. Later on, he came close to me and told me that had this happened in the NDP or SAF day parade, I would have been prepared to go for DB(detention baracks)!! Luckily the officer was understanding and didn't penalise me for that. Can't imagine signing my first extra for such a ridiculous mistake but phew, what a close shave...Today I got to book out 'cos tomorrow is my off-in-lieu. Well, will be going down to NJ to get my cert which i didn't collect on the allocated date...wonder if it's still ard(hehe, shud be larz!).
posted by sc @
portugal 1-2 greece
It's the curtain-raiser of euro'04! The result was a major upset as portugal were the favs(since they have a better team on paper and they're the hosts). Watching the match really made me think a lot. I, with many others, never thought greece could pull a win on the hosts because from the matches I watched them play in the past, their standard wasn't near the way they played yesterday. I thought they were just like russian players who only had stamina and liked to use their body size to outplay their opponents. The match was an eye-opener for me because the greeks played great attacking, smooth-flowing football! Their strike force was also playing well with the strikers very comfortable when they're with the ball and terrorising the portugal defence before scoring the 1st goal of euro'04. The goal was beautifully taken from just outside the box from where the ball went to the bottom left corner of the goalposts (the goalkeeper simply had no chance sia). That demoralised the portugese team who were already rather depressed before the match even started. What mattered more was the hunger for victory that all the greek players displayed (something lacking in most of the portugese players). The only portugese player who impressed me was Christiano Ronaldo, the Man-Utd player I initially hated most. His style of play(dribbling too much unnecessarily), irritated me all the time as it made him seem like a very haughty youngster who hasn't seen the world. Yesterday's match changed my perspective of him. When he was introduced into the team in the 2nd half, he played well and brought the ball down to the by-line many many times but he always cross the ball into the penalty box without even looking to see if there were any of his team-mates present(of course, there wasn't) and his efforts were all wasted. Initially I thought it was very stupid of him and I wondered what he was really thinking! Later in the match, when he blew a good chance to score and the camera zoomed-in on him, I saw his rather teary eyes and realised he was the only player in the portugese team who possessed the determination to bring the hosts back to win the match. After much thinking, actually the fault might not lie in him! Since his team-mates know he will dribble down the left-flank and cross back into the penalty box, why aren't they running into position to receive it?? Furthermore, the first thing he did when he came on was to concede a penalty(poor thing...). Towards the last 10mins of the match, he managed to score a goal but it wasn't enough to help his country. The camera man zoomed in on the portugese fans in the stadium after the match and most of them were teary-eyed, ready to cry. This is how passionate fans can get about football! Everyone supports their team with the faith that they have a chance to lift the cup in the end of the competition. The sad thing is that there is quality in the portugese squad and to me, yesterday's defeat was a result of wrong tactics employed by the manager(who I din really think was great, haha). The strikers weren't doing enough as well. But the result is fine with me as I don't really support portugal...hehe...'cos Figo's attitude just isn't right and good enough to earn people's respect!
posted by sc @
tok cok!
I've jus completed my OM course at OETI on friday and a new 'life' in Bronco awaits me (whaha). I had quite a lot of admin time this whole wk and my bunkmates and I spent it playing chinese chess (not bad lorz, i used to play it in sec sch haha) and toking cok! As for the toking cok part, it wasn't really just talking nonsense. It began with my knowledgeable and mature buddy KB telling me something about MLM on tuesday night. It was a very interesting concept he was introducing to me which i somehow thought I've heard about it b4 somewhere. On Wednesday night, our bunk sort of became the hub of Chinese Chess with 3 concurrent matches going on and the players come from different bunks. Man...it was really noisy with us expressing our feelings out-loud(I bet people on the ground floor could hear us, we're on the 3rd floor). After a few rounds of chess, our toking cok session began with tok-cok king YS, tok-bird king MY, my buddy KB, ah-seh Jeremy and my other bunkmates. KB first talked about how weird teaching(the career) is. The teachers learn from other teachers, and then recycle what they've been taught, to teach a new grp of people, earning an income. This made me thought about how knowledge doesn't belong to anyone and teachers don't have a right to charge students for passing on the knowledge to them as knowledge ultimately belonged to everyone. MY rebuted me and KB from the perspective of an economistthen(my econs teacher told me anyone who studied econs may be called that, haha) saying that education is a merit good(speaking in econs terms, means something which one derives more benefits than what one is paying for...something lidat larz, can't remember exactly what i learnt, hehe). From what I can remember, it is usually underproduced and thus the govt subsidises it making it affordable for most people. This gave me another perspective which is, if teachers don't draw an income teaching, they might not even bother to learn it and pass it on. If this happens, won't knowledge be lost?? After talking about that for like 15 to 25mins, KB then introduced them the concept of MLM and MY rebuted it (again from the perspective of an economist) saying that it results in a wastage of resources since the price at which one purchases the good is higher than the cost price to purchase it. Then another point of view came into play with KB emphasising that the price the last buyer purchases the good is the same as the first person who purchased it directly from the producer. MLM is a pyramid-thingy which is very powerful if everything runs smoothly but me being brought up as a person who doesn't think very much out of the box can't really be affected by this idea...though theoretically it helps you get richer than you might if you work normally your whole life. What my buddy told me was very brief but there's bound to be more to it lorz, so I'll just carry on what I've set myself out to do(which is to serve my time in NS and then graduate from NUS with a degree in Chem Engi b4 deciding what I might want to do =P).
posted by sc @
eternal sunshine on the spotless mind
Met up wif my primary sch classmates HS and SY in the morning for breakfast at macdonald's. It was kind of wierd initially but it got along well and we chatted to know more about how everyone was doing =) After that, SY left then me and HS went to watch Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind starring Jim Carrey. The show gave me a different kind of feeling compared to all the movies I've ever watched(HS felt the same way, haha). It's about this guy(Jim Carrey) who broke up with his girlfriend(Kate Winslet). He found out that she underwent a procedure erasing him totally from her memory and in a fit of anger, he also decided to go for the procedure. Half way through the process, he realised he didn't really want to forget her and the show transitted between him in the real world with people in his room erasing his memory and him in his memory, trying to bring his girlfriend to another part of his memory so that she would not be erased. The show had moments of humour such as him being bullied by his friends(imagine an adult being bullied by young kids, haha). I didn't manage to understand the ending part of the movie where he got back to his girlfriend again. However, it is on the whole a very heartwarming show reminding us that no one is perfect and it is something everyone should learn to accept. Based on what I've heard from my bunkmates, it is more worthwhile than watching The Day After Tomorrow =P After the movie, me and HS both did not have anything on and we went to the Jurong East library to check out as it was just officially reopened yesterday after undergoing a massive upgrading since last year. It was very similar to the regional library at Woodlands with 4 floors and all it's computers and machines updated. I managed to find the book, "SAMS Teach Yourself CGI in 24 Hours", which i wanted to borrow. Hopefully I'll be able to master what i intend to learn and further improve my personal webby, hehe =)
posted by sc @
wasting time? not exactly...
Today's another lucky day for me as i'm still under a course and so avoided another ndp rehearsal allowing me to book out and go home at ard 12noon instead of maybe 6pm. I went for a haircut b4 meeting Kenneth and Hui Jian at Lido as they've planned to watch Harry Potter 3. When i reached there, me and Hui Jian saw there were no more available tics for the 4+pm or 5+pm show and decided to try our luck at Cine. As anticipated, there were also no available tics for those time slots and Kenneth wanted to meet us at Lido. Thus, me and HJ had to walk back the same route the 3rd time to get there. Then Kenneth gave the 'best suggestion' i've ever had...to try our luck at PS! We walked there and in the end, sat down at Starbucks(without getting drinks, hehe) for 10mins b4 i decided to go meet Min Yang at Lot 1. So i met MY at LJS to take our dinner then we walked ard Lot 1 and tok cok abt the 'old times' but i din realised it can be tt interesting until our conversation got on...haha. I also bought a new comic titled "guan4 lan2 shao3 jiang4" to read(at least have some chinese to read, hehe). Anyway, it was a happy day in the end as i wanted to keep in touch wif my good old friends...tomorrow will be another one as i'll be meeting for an 'outing' with some of my pri sch friends(actually only 2, lol) for the 1st time in like 7yrs!
posted by sc @
Gran Torino - Jamie Cullum
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