newcastle 4 - 2 rangers
it's the first match of the gateshead cup and newcastle put up a good-enough performance to welcome rangers who played a bit too aggressive for it to be jus a friendly. newcastle led 3-0 initially b4 rangers answered wif 2 goals. who else but alan shearer converted a penalty to raise the curtains for the gateshead cup, being closely man-marked by a defender for the whole match. shearer later got so irritated by the defender's 'body-sticking' marking tt he was booked in the 2nd half for instigating the opponents. well, i was hoping to see(but didn't get to) the all-new newcastle wif new purchases james milner, patrick kluivert and nicky butt. however, kluivert was nowhere to be seen(nt even on the bench) so i guess maybe he still lacks match-fitness. james milner was also nowhere to be seen but it's not really surprising as he wasnt issued a squad number so i assume old-man bobby deems him as a potential who'll feature heavily in newcastle later on(but not in the mean time...). nicky butt came into the match in the 2nd half and put up a up-to-standard performance aft being absent from 1st-team football for so long(pleased to see him playing his proper game...a clean one too...). as usual, newcastle's pre-season performance is always lidat. they always take a long time to warm up to the season and their performance at the start of the season is always so-so or really sub-standard. hopefully things will change and they can pick up form earlier in the season so as nt to lose too much pts resulting in them struggling to keep pace at the top of the league to earn themselves a champions league place at the end of the season...all tt remains to be seen is whether kluivert can deliver wat he has been brought to st james's park to do...i certainly want to see him do wat he does best when he was on-form somewhere like 2yrs back??? one disappointing thing is to see lee bowyer in the 1st XI cos his standard isn't really there...the midfield is very competitive in newcastle now and i'm really pleased by that...hehe...bowyer's pecking order definitely is falling...=P
posted by sc @
sweat it out
well, i returned back to camp this wk 1/2-recovered from fever. Having only 2 more doses of panadol b4 i run out of medication, i wondered if i'll recover in time for training! i still had fever and took panadols and on tuesday, skipped a 5km run in the morn. however, in the aftnoon, feeling only 1/2-fit, i still went for the icct(intermediate close combat training). Din wan the sgts to think i 'chao keng' mahz. Was still feeling weak in the joints but i managed to pull thru. it's amazing how i felt better the nxt day in the morn when i woke up(mus have sweated it out during my icct lorz =P). i also got to collect the ndp tics i was entitled to but i was classified as the '2nd-class' cos i missed ONE rehearsal(excused wif fever). Due to my '2nd-class' status, i only got 1 tic..very sad lorz, wat's the use of 1 tic?? If u've ever been to an ndp, u'll realise it's impossible to go alone lorz, it'll be very very sian...the only interesting thing happening to me within this 2wks is tt i've made a huge leap in neopets(lol, childish game rite...). it's amazing how a weapon which i bought 2yrs back for a mere 50grand neopoints(monetary unit in neopets world) churned out 2million nps for me....hehe. I've started reading another storybk by john grisham in camp and it's called 'The Partner'. So far it's been rather interesting....it's about a lawyer who feigned his death a few yrs back and stole $90 million from his firm. A few ppl hired a very 'zai' detective to track him down and after yrs, they've finally found him. it's really funny cos the moment he was arrested and taken back to his hometown, many ppl sued him at the same time the moment the news was released. His wife wanted a divorce, the insurance company sued him for feigning death, his partners from the firm sued him for stealing the money...he was very calm when he received all his summons as he has prepared for this day for so so long...haha...he even hired an old friend as his lawyer...only read until this part and the rest will have to wait for me to return to camp and wif free time to spare =P
posted by sc @
interesting...check it out!
posted by sc @
ovaltine
well, the highlight of this wk is...my outfield(again!). it was a 2 day 2 night outfield and it rained heavily the first night(man...was it cold...). we were actually sleeping nxt to our tanks in the open but when it rained heavily, our commanders got all of us back to squeeze into the training shed. i couldn't find my groundsheet but luckily i had wonderful buddies...we shared our groundsheets and as a result, had spares to use as blankets! generally, my performance this time was much better than the 1st...was rather satisfied. when we got back, i had the privilege(tyco one lorz, also duno why they got me...i'm jus a spare gunner...) of sitting in the tank to return back to camp. but on returning to camp on the 3rd morn, very shagged, we had to perform servicing!!! i had to strip the main gun wif my sgt of the tank and clean and oil many other stuff too...it took us like near 2hrs! by the time we could return to our bunks, it was already 3+am. we slept only for a while until 6+am and went for breakfast b4 resting for a little while longer. then we had to settle stuff for our tanks which took us the rest of the day. by night time, we had to wash our tanks which was full of mud...the high-pressured water we used really helped remove those hard rocks/stones/dried mud stuck in the tracks and filled the whole washing bay wif mud(which was light brown in colour of course). it was then tt my fren commented, "I'll nvr drink ovaltine again!!". we only managed to finish our task at 10+pm and the nxt day, we had to clear up the washing bay which was in a mess! wif insufficient sleep, most of us started falling ill and i reported sick yesterday getting excuse for 2days from yesterday. thus, today all i did was to stone in the indoor stadium while the rest of the contigent went marching at the national stadium. as the aircon was rather strong, i caught a flu and now, feeling sick, tryin' to complete this and get some rest soon...hehe...but the prob is...coming home to sleep is a total waste of time! no choice lar, hafta recover b4 returning back to camp...
posted by sc @
n.e show
Oh well, it was the n.e show yesterday at the national stadium when we performed in front of mostly pri 5 kids who were all very very excited about watching the ndp. The n.e show is officially the beginning of us performing in front of a real crowd instead of just silent, empty seats at the stadium wif jus the SAF staff watching us. We could hear the noise from the crowd even before we entered the stadium as Sharon Au and many other TCS stars led them in some cheering and intro-ed some performances by sec sch students. It was really funny as the crowd actually echoed the RSM when he shouted the commands. Every pri 5 kid was so excited that i think they actually waved the small national flag included in the fun-pack for the whole parade! When the national anthem was played, they sang even louder than the pa system. It was a really good experience having such a responsive crowd(hehe, wonder if they really know what they're responding to...). All of us put up a pretty good show(better performance than during other time) but din know why the colour party(those bearing flags) were quite off-form, did not match in step, people on the wrong foot etc. After the parade, we were ushered to the indoor stadium to wait for our chartered SBS buses(cos priority is given to the pri 5 kids! we had to wait for the whole performance to end and for the buses to return to take us back to camp lorz). Our RSM told us that if we reached camp b4 2330hrs, we'd be allowed to book out. Problem is, we only kallang at ard 1215hrs! Everyone was very sian diaoz when minutes and hours went by at the indoor stadium. The soldiers were seated at the east end of the indoor stadium while the other 3 were occupied by Boon Lay Sec, Deyi Sec and some uniformed grps on the 3rd side. The uniformed grps began singing cheers to burn time(reminded me of my sec sch days when i was in council and we led cheers all the while...lol) and b4 long, they started to 'bomb' each other(girl guides, girl's brigade and npcc). It was quite entertaining and b4 we knew it, they started, "something bomb, something bomb, something bomb to ARMY bomb!" When we didn't respond, they started boo-ing us and the arti soldiers also boo-ed them back(lol, it was really childish but entertaining). Then, the uniformed grp started a 'kallang wave' wif the SCDF and arti soldiers responding but we, the armour soldiers, were too shagged to respond. Most of us were asleep while those awake were lazy and couldn't be bothered to join in the fun. They started many kallang waves ending wif us not responding and they boo-ed us on each occasion! They got tired of it and when the other sec sch students returned from their performances, the SCDF started a 'kallang wave' in the opposite direction(making armour the last to do the wave, if we do of course...). They responded well and b4 long, some of the armour ppl start to join in the wave and the wave went rd the indoor stadium at least 5 times, haha. All this 'nonsense' started at ard 2100hrs and ended approx. 1+hr later. From then on, i fell asleep and woke up, fell asleep and woke up until ard 1215hrs when we were told we could go liaoz. The Boon Lay Sec students were really hyper-active all the while when i slept and woke lorz, the noise level was terrible!! When we were in the indoor stadium, we had to adhere to strict rules...we had to put our weapons and our SBO on the floor and we were restricted from putting our legs on other seats(tt is, kiao ka lor) to avoid dirtying the seats. We were also not allowed to eat our night snacks there. The arti and guards, who were less disciplined, violated those rules and so the armour ppl, being very guai, were allowed to leave 1st(much to our pleasure, =P). When we got back to camp, we sent in our weapons and took our bath, packed our bags and prepared to sleep for a few hrs b4 booking out at 0600hrs. Most of us went to sleep in our civillian attire so that we could catch more sleep(no need to change mah, den can wake up later, lol, lazy hor?). Our free time out of camp this wk was definitely 'eaten up' by them and won't be returned lorz...kns...
posted by sc @
234!
It's been a rather eventful wk for me in camp. We had IPPT test on Wed in which i jumped 234cm for my SBJ(first time ever lorz, always 216cm or fail) and was rather pleased. But I was suffering from flu on Tues and jus recovered on Wed and thus wasn't able to run well for my 2.4km(timing was worse than usual though i was motivated to run better). On Thurs, our PS decided to take us for a run(very intensive lorz, shagged). Initially we tot it was jus a slow 2 rds around our camp but we were brought to the track as well and had to run 3 rds at 1.5mins per rd. On Friday, we went to the gym in the morn and I did some more intensive running and thus my legs were really tired le. Went for NDP rehearsal again 2day but 2day was rather diff as there was a small audience(abt 10k lar, not very little also, hehe). One of my platoon mates, CH, also struggles wif SBJ like me for a long long time le. He trains very hard for it, jumping at the graduated marks to practise the correct technique(even immediately aft meals!). I only jump occasionally and when i surpassed him, it sort of demoralised him a little lorz. This really proves that hardwork doesn't necessarily equate to results if the hardwork isn't directed in the correct direction. It is very funny from my perspective(no offence to CH though) cos he used to be very very confident of himself in every aspect(to us, he seems very haughty in the funny sense though). He likes to say,"I feel I'm the best" all the time(direct translation from: wo3 jue2 de2 wo3 shi4 li4 hai4 de4) and we'll all laugh at him cos he always like to start wif 'wo3 jue2 de2'('I feel'). He's one of the more different mono-intake ppl who like to mix ard wif us(the "a'lvls ppl" which some other rather irritating mono-intake gunners like to call us). We are always being differentiated from the mono-intake ppl by them(luckily they aren't in my company!). It's the 1st time i face such kind of ppl and thus, i'm so pissed wif them at times that i want to just heck care them. BUT...one shud learn from experiences lorz, so i'm tryin' to just tolerate such 'nonsense' and still mix ard wif them when they do talk to me =) Ok le, dun wana think too much liaoz, very shagged, now needa relak relak...=P
posted by sc @
spiderman 2
Well, stayed up very late last night to catch the euro finals which was a rather messy one. I shan't tok much bt the finals which ended wif portugal 0-1 greece through a beautiful header. This euros is like a curtain raiser into a new era. It ends the era of david beckham, zinedine zidane and luis figo. These players are those who are already over their peak and thus producing under-par performances. All the big teams such as england, france, holland, portugal etc fail to make the mark simply because most of the managers chose to defend a 1-0 lead but failed. Another reason is that they're stubborn to substitute big-name players who simply aren't performing to standard resulting in the whole team not playing well. Some comments I heard from ppl like Jamie Reeves are that this euros is very different from other major tournaments. The strike rate and quality of the strikers are not there(which is quite sad as this doesn't make the tournament very attractive already)...Greece, against the odds of 80-1 managed to win the euros. Enough of football =)
**warning: spoilers for spiderman 2 below, don't read on if u haven't watched =P**
I went to watch spiderman 2 wif my bro this afternoon and boy, was it a good show. This time, everything in peter parker's life is going wrong. He's always late for classes and for work, MJ has a boyfriend and Harry presses him to reveal who spiderman is so that he can revenge for his father. Aunt May struggles wif finances and sort of loses their old home. Because of the depression he's suffering, he loses his special abilities for a while. He chose to lead a normal life and felt very happy but it wasn't long before he realises he has a responsibility to fulfil as crime rates soar when spiderman wasn't around.
The catch of this show is that MJ eventually finds out who spiderman really is(peter parker lor, lol). I think this is very important in the plot 'cos if this drags on, this movie will be very much like smallville where lana lang still doesn't know clark has super powers. This makes the show very slow and boring le. In spiderman 2, a lot of ppl, including MJ and Harry see peter parker wif his spiderman suit without the mask(very wierd, haha). One of the nice parts of the show is when spiderman returns from his absence to fight Doc Orc on a train. Doc Orc destroys the brakes of the train at a very very high speed and spiderman had to use ALL his strength b4 he could stop the train and he fainted when he managed to do that(his mask was off again cos it sort of caught fire and PP took it off). The passengers pulled him inside for him to rest on the floor and all of them were shocked tt spiderman is actually just a teen. A nice exclamation by one of them was, "He's not any older than my boy!". Everyone was glad spiderman is back and they finally take pity on him for his sacrifice(very touching indeed, his hardwork is finally appreciated =)). So, that's the end of my super-summary of spiderman 2. There're more plot twists which I shan't reveal lar, if not u guys got nothing to look 4ward to in the movie le..haha. Spiderman 2, a must watch...
posted by sc @
back jus in time!
As usual, i booked in in the morn for ndp rehearsals. Today was the first time we have to put on camo cream on our faces and wear black gloves and also camo scarfs on our necks. This is the first time i think we really look like soldiers! lol, all green mahz. Today was one of our worst performances I'd say but I can't explain why too...hehe. But it ended on time and i reached camp at 9.15pm, wif sufficient time to book out b4 10pm. My dad brought me home and here I am, gearing up to watch the euros 2004 finals(jus becos it's the finals -_-"). Greece vs Portugal - the curtain raiser of euros 2004 and now also the finals of euros 2004. Din expect either of the teams to make it here actually...would've preferred strongly to see czech wif their beautiful attacking-style football. It's interesting what ppl watch football for. For me, I prefer beautiful attacking-style football which isn't really practical for teams challenging for championships. Thus, I really dislike germany for their ultra-defensive tactics and attacking only on the counter and training very hard on set-pieces! However, there're other ppl who appreciate tactical play and love watching how germany put their tactics to work on a live football match. Football matches these days are very fast-paced and referees have a hard time catching up. As a result, many of their controversial decisions have costed many teams their chances of reaching the finals(awarding penalties to dives, denying penalties to genuine falls etc). With the tv replays readily available, one wonders why they can't change the way they ensure their decisions are fair and just.
posted by sc @
shagged cannot think!
Went outfield on tuesday for my single tank battle course in which we, the tank commander, gunner and driver have to work together as a crew to run the tank and engage targets on contact. Due to some mismanagement, and most of our tanks which we moved out were unservicable, we could only run 1 tank ard the course at any time(we ended up completing only 6 out of 20+ crews!). Then only those who've completed the day practice are allowed to carry out the night practice and so the 1st day of 2 was very balonglong for most of us(me included =P). On Day 2, an officer popped by and recommended another way of running the course in order for all of us to be able to go thru' the course by the end of Day 2. Well, things ran a lot faster and I finally got my chance! Hmm, nvr got to travel in a moving tank until now lorz, and the feeling was unexpected. The ride was very very bumpy due to the undulating road and when we're engaging a target, the driver drives too fast and I was able to shoot only behind the target!(opps! =P) Then I proceeded on to do the night practice after dinner at ard 7.45pm. We only managed to complete everything on the morning of Day 3. When we returned to camp, we had some servicing to do on the tanks and only got to bunk to sleep for ard 1hr(after breakfast) at ard 6.30am. We had to fall-in for a short parade as it was SAF Day. After that, we carried on wif our servicing/maintenance, distributing our load. I, with 2 other buddies, was allocated to clean the last of our 4 coax(read as co-ax, a machine gun). Unbelievably, we spent the whole aftnoon from 1.40pm to 6pm! We were shagged and movement was thus, slow. But another reason is that the gun was shot so many times that all the carbon was dry and stuck on the insides of the gun which was very very hard to remove. We only managed to clean all our arms(weapons) at 8.30pm. We were sent back to our bunks to rest for the night already(knowing we have an IPPT category test the nxt morn!!!) And so there I was doing IPPT. Surprisingly, I got silver this time! Haha, I din know how I managed to jump 230cm for my SBJ(nvr done that in my life...always pass/fail only...Today wasn't a good day for me. We had to go thru' a camo drill(camouflage our tanks wif a netting) which sounds simple but is actually very tedious! We had a timing to meet and when my crew of 4(instead of 3 lorz) didn't meet the timing, we were called back to re-do the drill after everyone else completed at least once. Thru' a chain reaction of mistakes by many of our crew of 4, our timing was very very much worse than the 1st! We also didn't camo properly and I was very shagged and quite sad larz(ha, recovered from it le). Hopefully I can get it right the nxt time i get the chance...hmm, gotta go get some rest le...If I have a day-off on monday, I really hope to catch spiderman 2 but duno who I can get to go wif lorz..haha...will see 'bt tt..tataz~
posted by sc @
Gran Torino - Jamie Cullum
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