If you are tired of reading things about the new year, this would probably be a good time to leave. But then again I am not about to go into some big-ass resolution making mode, partly because there isn’t much sense in making any resolution simply for the sake of making resolutions.
Last year I wrapped things up for 2010 to welcome the new year of 2011. Similarly, this year I would wrap up my experiences in 2011 and give closure to this long year which some would claim to be the worse year of their lives while others loved their time in 2011.
In 2011, I graduated from the National University of Singapore with a First Class Hons degree. It went well despite my really bad experience for my FYP. Till now I still feel sick in the stomach as I remember my FYP days. Thinking back it was rather risky of me to do the things I did, and I might have lost my First Class should things go any lousier.
In 2011, I applied for different types of jobs from RSAF, DSTA and also CSIT. I sat for my first 1 hour plus interview in CSIT with 3 interviewers and actually enjoyed my time discussing on my NS experiences and how I thought about the different lessons in them. 2011 saw me deciding on a career choice and embarking on it.
2011 saw me getting attached to a wonderful girl through a series of events. How I was initially introduced to a different girl and then my current girlfriend kept bugging me to see how things progress until in the end we got together instead. My life has been very different with her around; just the last few weeks we celebrated Christmas countdown and New Year’s Day countdown together.
In 2011 I began my career in the RSAF on the 6th of July, and I am currently less than 4 months away from finishing my course before being posted to the base to do some real work. There are many things that I have learnt along the way which seemed very interesting and I hope I will enjoy my job as days go by.
This is also probably the first time that I am sick through the crossing of year 2011 to 2012. There’s this bug going around in my workplace, and many of us have flu and cough. In such a confined space with not much ventilation, it is not surprising that this is a common problem among everyone.
It is now 2012 and a whole new life begins for some people who have chosen to do a reset of their lives. For me I will just continue to live my life the way I want to, and I hope as time goes by, I can look backwards and connect the dots. Happy New Year!
I would guess regular readers have dwindled down to but a few. I have not been updating as much because of the nature of my current job, and hence there is nothing to read here. In addition, there are many things that I cannot blog about or write simply because of the image I have to uphold for my employer.
It does not take a genius to find out that generally people expect more from civil servants simply because their salaries are paid from taxpayers, and every citizen is a taxpayer. Hence there are a lot of things that people expect to be done their way and that their way is right. In reality there’s always a thousand way to do something, and misunderstandings always occur when people think that they have this level of hierarchy over other people.
I’m considering if I should stop blogging, and whether I would have the energy to continue blogging, especially since how I would continue to stay in subsequently and then I won’t get to use the internet much too.
Just a quick update, I’ve progressed on from OCS to AFTC in Paya Lebar, and thankfully I have a friend who is able to drive the few of us west-siders to Paya Lebar every morning, helping us to save some bit of time which translates into more sleeping time as well. Life there is lectures and more lectures every single day, and examinations upon examinations. But it is not as physically demanding as in OCS, so much so that I guess we have become a little weaker, and people are getting sick day by day. I guess getting stuck in the classroom for long hours isn’t exactly great for human’s health and wellbeing?
I’ve started on my New Year shopping, with two new shirts bought yesterday with Joycie. Life has been great with her, and she complements me in the areas that I’m not so good at. She helps me select shirts that are nice and then gives me her opinion on each individual shirt so that we could decide together which looks better and which doesn’t. Particularly, we focus on shirts that make me look older rather than younger, and this would mean that the type of shirts would now move towards a particular direction?
We also took the opportunity to exhaust the Taka vouchers provided by Citibank. I got a Cologne set for $97, and I paid only $7 for it. It comes with this free bag that’s not exactly something that would intice me to buy. We bought the fragrance because we both liked it best after comparing it with the rest of the brands.
Joycie also gave me a Braun Buffel Wallet which we selected together. After deducting some amount from the vouchers, it is still quite an expensive gift for a student to pay. I’m really happy with my new wallet and I have already started using it. I hope this wallet won’t spoil easily so I can use it for many years.
Somehow the shopping spree helped to raise a bit of morale. 
After the three weeks confinement period in OCS (which wasn’t exactly 3 weeks since there was Deepavali celebrations last Wednesday), I am now going to book out at the end of every weekend!
My body’s been aching a lot, probably due to the different softness of the pillow at home and in camp. The neck is always aching so i bought some Salonpas patches in case things get bad. When you get older, you start to feel that you are not in your prime when aches keep coming to you.
I had my IPPT test again and this time round there is a reasonable improvement. I had 10 chin ups as usual (4 points), but my shuttle run improved to a 10s which is 5 points, standing broad jump to 239cm (4 points, from a usual of 225cm), and my sit ups were maintained at 41 (5 points). This would mean that I’m in the running for Gold if I could run 9:44 and below. However my timing was 11:22 a week ago, and meeting that is impossible.
But, setting a goal is not something that is impossible, as long as it is reasonable. My first goal was to hit less than 11:20, but the other goal that I would really like to hit was less than 11:00. So I kept running, trying not to slow down. I tried breathing techniques, landing on the balls of the feet etc, and I am fairly confident that by the time I completed my 2.4km, it is a little below 11:00. The official timing given was 10:39, but they did clarify that a mistake was found, so I am expecting something close to 10:59 instead. I will know on Monday!
OCS has so far taught me many things which were different from the NS experience. It wasn’t taught to me in the classroom, but more of a constant reflection process where you try to think of what you observe, and what could be the reason why some things are done by other people. And then you wonder if there’s a difference in mentality and then you find out why. In a way, the training to become a specialist and an officer is vastly different, I find. Specialists are trained to micromanage; we take care of the men and talk to them a lot. We make things happen on a day to day basis, and make sure that everyone is always ready. Officers do a lot of planning and give much thought to everything that is being done. There is more responsibility and matured thinking involves that is different on a specialist level. In a unit the officers probably don’t mingle with the men as much as the specialists do; they just let the specialists run the show. It is indeed interesting to see things from both points of view and it is indeed a character building process where you transform from one to the other.
However sometimes it does feel anguishing when the younger people think differently from you. It is more of the opinions and attitudes kind of thing, and it is something that is hard to bridge, considering you alone have 6 more years of experiences dealing with people, and that includes more years of serving in the SAF and working in the unit way. There are still many people who live by the mantra “suck it up” instead of trying to make things happen to improve the organization. Perhaps one day when they mature, they would slowly begin to change and then the organization will also prosper at the same time.
I do realize that this post is just a collection of random thoughts, which I was rather lazy to sort out into a proper post with proper structure etc. But I guess what matters is that I wrote how I feel so that I can come back to it in the future to kick start my reflective process of OCS training.
That’s the uniform I would be wearing to OCS tomorrow. And I think it’s a little bad to post this after so long of no updates, only to say that I won’t be updating for the next 3 weeks because I will be in confinement.
Yes there’s Deepavali celebration going on, and I would be out for a day, but there’s so much other things to do that it doesn’t seem right to blog. I would be too tired to blog anyway.
It will be two weeks of Common Leadership Module where I would be down with the Army and Navy people, as well as the 19 year old kids going to OCS at the same time as me. There will be turn outs, the dreaded 5m confidence jump into the pool, and other exciting events, before I move on to the Air Wing in my final week of confinement.
It’s all back to school and mindless enduring of physical training, stuff that makes you stupider, the joke that NSmen make.
I will only graduate and commission next year, and this is the rank that I would be wearing once I graduate. Hopefully it will not be in the green pixelated uniform! 
And so the AFEs decided to have a chalet one day, which was rather last minute since we were doing the planning only a week in advance; most of the chalets were fully booked and only the one at Downtown East was left. Since the main attraction was to have a nice bbq, it was decided that we would only have a bbq session and that it would be held in my condo, if there was a bbq pit available.
Everything was done rather last-minute-ly, with the bbq pit being booked on a Tuesday, pit paid for on the Wednesday, food being ordered on Wednesday and the event being held on Saturday itself. We had to confirm the number of people, decide how much food to order, and settle any tiny details. Which was great since we had a really wonderful team of people who are able to take lots of initiative. Kudos to the west side people I guess?
And then on Saturday, a couple of us west side people came earlier to Jurong Point to buy some drinks, mushrooms, bacon, satay sticks (which was never used, wtf) and ice packets. Then we moved everything to the bbq pit at my house while waiting for the rest to come.
Joyce also came to my house, and at the same time, visited my parents for the first time, as well as see my sis through Skype. It was a pleasant meeting and she helped me wash the mushrooms and lettuce and wrap the bacon across the mushrooms.
The event went well somehow, and there were so many people that I didn’t need to bbq at all, and food just came to me. Those who had girlfriends brought their girlfriends, and the girlfriends all sat together to talk like a wives club. Every boyfriend seemed to be bringing food for them and showing how nice they are.
In the middle, Joyce showed me this from her Facebook and said that I fulfilled most of the following.
【男人深爱女人的九大表现】
1.在你难过时,他会不安
2.你高兴时,他很高兴
3.他常给你买东西,却舍不得给自己买
4.他一般会顺你的意
5.他很照顾你的家人
6.他有时也生气,但不吵架,过后会及时交流
7.他很注重你的感受
8.他在亲朋好友面前总夸奖你
9.他为人坦诚,对你几乎不会撒谎
Kind of nice.
The event went well until a sudden downpour killed the fire at the bbq pit. Thankfully all we had left was some stingray packets, and most of the food were already eaten. It is the first successful event where we all came and bonded together along with our girlfriends, and the start of many wonderful events with my bunch of AFE colleagues.
Just a brief update so that this blog doesn’t seem so dead. Lol. It’s been some time since I did an updates post here on my blog.
I had my ippt yesterday, my 2nd attempt in two weeks cause the first was cancelled due to the wet ground after the rain. Technically it didn’t count as an attempt.
I was quite worried and nervous since I hadn’t done well for ippt and I was worried that I would not pass. The static stations were scary. What if I couldn’t pull up? Or I got a cramp for sit ups. What if my broad jump sucked. Or that my shuttle run skidded? I wasn’t that worried for 2.4 because I did train for it.
Ended up I got a 225cm (3points) for my first attempt in sbj using a new technique. My shuttle run was 10.2s(4points) due to a short skid at the part where you pick up the blocks. At my chin up station I did 10 pull ups (4 points) and for my situps, I did 40 (5 points) with 18s left. So I had 16 points when I needed 15 to pass. 18 for silver.
I ran a timing of 11.22mins (3 points) for my 2.4km run and it brought my total to 19 points. I got a silver grading! There’s a 100 dollars award but those who took ippt in august hadn’t gotten their money yet. 
As for today, I had an hours of additional sleep since I was going to watch the SAFSA badminton match as a supporter for the RSAF in Kranji camp. We were vying for the championship.
The match was exciting as we lost the intial two sets. We won our mixed doubles and lost one set in the mens doubles. If we had lost one more set we would be 2nd. Luckily we won the 2nd set and it proceeded to the 3rd set where we cheered like mad and finally won. At that time we were tired with two matches each. It went down to the final set mens singles and we won effortlessly.
Hence by a stroke of luck we won! It was quite an exciting moment as a fresh member of the RSAF. Somehow I thought it was a great way to bond with people within the individual services and formations.
Yep that’s it. Hope it’s been a pleasant read!
Joyce and I went to Marina Bay Sands on the 11th September 2011 because it was a rather special day for the both of us, and I wanted to go to the Skygarden for the first time. I selected an expensive restaurant just to commemorate the occasion, and at the same time try out the kind of food they serve at such places since we won’t be going to such restaurants often.
The restaurant we chose to go to, or rather, I chose to bring her is Hide Yamamoto, which is a celebrity chef dealing with Japanese Cuisine. It is indeed an expensive place when one piece of fatty tuna sushi costs $20.00, hence we didn’t order that. Here are the things we did order:
The Califonia Roll King Crab, Avocado came in six pieces and tasted really delicious. The avocado was a good mix with the king crab and we even finished the ginger slices that accompanied the dish. The cost was 20 dollars.
Next, the Assorted Squid Hotate Oyster Mushroom (It’s not featured in their pdf menu so I cannot remember the exact name) was served. The hotate (scallops) is very nice as the sauce is delicious. The oyster mushroom was great too. This dish costs $25.
Subsequently, the “Grilled KUROBUTA Jowl and Romain Lettuce
Champagne Vinegar MISO Dressing” was brought to our table, and it tasted great as well. The dressing for the food made it great and covered the raw lettuce taste. As a result, I actually ate some of that lettuce. This dish costs $30.
When we saw how little food arrived after the previous dish, we called for an additional “Cha-Shu Soy Ramen” with an additional “Flavoured Egg” so that we wouldn’t be too hungry. The broth tasted clear. It was a good bowl of ramen, but the both of us still felt more satisfied with the Nantsuttei one. This dish costs $26.
Overall, we left feeling not hungry but not full either. The food didn’t taste exceedingly delicious for the price, but the ambiance was great. It is a nice way to celebrate the occasion though.
When we left, however, there was this old man with balding hair sitting opposite this young china woman. And then we wonder, is it true love or some mistress? We’ll never know, I suppose, but if they are willing parties, who are we to comment.
We then went up the Skypark, which offered a breathtaking view of the surroundings. In my opinion, the Singapore Flyer just pales in comparison, both in terms of height and in terms of range. In your little capsule on the Singapore Flyer, you cannot see far given your limited height. Since the skygarden is on top of a tall building, one can see the surroundings better.
At the top I gave Joyce a handmade card and a nice box of chocolates. She eventually shared half of the chocolates with me just so that I can try the chocolates.
Nice date completed! 
As with all new transitions, my blogging capacity always drops once something new begins in my life that takes up a significant portion of my time. Last year it was the dreaded FYP that killed off the time, energy and joy that I derived from blogging my hearts out in a single setting. This time it was the starting of my career, my job, that did it. Although I had more time than FYP, that’s for sure, but the laziness you get when you transit just simply took over.
And why did I emphasize on a single setting? Somehow I found out that if I had left my blogging halfway to go grab something to eat whilst watching television (like my fish head curry post yesterday), the mood to blog would be gone and I would just conclude haphazardly. The post would then look as though it was done by some retard who just simply couldn’t write / have any talent for writing; not that I can boast of having any.
But all these should change. Should. I’m hoping that I would start blogging more about the places I have been or the food that I have been eating. It doesn’t help that I’m camera-less when I am out due to the nature of my job requiring me to lug a non-camera hand-phone around. Pictures just simply paint a thousand words.
It does help when you found someone who will accompany / bring you around places. Or simply put, it is not fun to go out alone to eat, so having someone there that wants to go out with you really opens up a myriad of opportunities in terms of dining. Joyce and I would be going to Nantsuttei (again cause we really loved it), massage (no photos, duh, rolls eyes) and then Bakerzin tonight cause she got the voucher from a deal site. I usually wait until she uploads the photos on Facebook before downloading them for this site, so you would have to wait for any of such posts.
Deal sites have been helpful in saving money (or not). In a way if you get really good deals, you can have your meals cheaper ($9.80 for a 12 inch pizza in a shop that doesn’t appear in all shopping malls!) and with better ambiance too. But on the other hand, one might buy something that is more expensive than their average meal prices simply because it is in a deal manner. I don’t mind, really, since sometimes we would get to try out many new things that we wouldn’t have been able to try. Besides, we get to enjoy time together, so it makes it all worth it.
But honestly, deal sites help give you ideas on where to go and what to do on dates. If I asked the guys to kee chiu (hands-up) if they have had trouble thinking of where to go on a date and what to eat, I guess almost all of us would have to raise our hands. Somehow we just suck at such things. In my JC gang, we needed many rounds of conversations before deciding on a single outing. As a result, we don’t meet up THAT often.
However deal sites are so abundant in ideas that it is as if there’s a thriving community of dating experts giving you tips on where to go and what to eat! Of course, do not subscribe to just one. I have had Groupon, JuzToday and some other sites like VoucherWow (if I remember correctly) send me daily mails on what deals there are. There are other sites though. Sites like insing.com does provide deals from time to time. I saw a hotel hi-tea buffet deal for UOB cards (yay to my new UOB One Card) that’s half price, so you pay about $44 per pax for the meal (or is it $44 per couple, I forgot). I didn’t buy it because eventually I forgot about it until the time went off. Luckily though, the girlfriend did say that the seafood selection during Hi-Tea is so much lesser than the dinner one, giving me some comfort of not snagging that deal.
Let me know if you learnt something new about me in this post. Somehow after changing my dp, only one additional friend realized something new came up in my life. Perhaps I’m just too boring to read huh?
And so, today is our country’s birthday, and hence a public holiday; a day where many people get to rest an extra day to recharge themselves, and a day where only a minority few would actually bother to feel strongly for Singapore. Or have I actually been led to feel so marginalized? At least most of my Facebook friends seem polite; those who like Singapore wished Singapore a happy birthday whilst those who might not have the same patriotic sentiments take care not to voice them out in this happy little day.
I can’t say the same for the other “fan-page” entities online. When the administrator asked what the best part of NDP was to the readers, most replied that it was to not watch it at all, or that they went to JB etc. Which is really not cool, cause even if you didn’t like the administration, you don’t have to say it on a day like this. It’s the Nation’s birthday folks, not any political parties’ founding day.
Today is a day many, or some at least, feel happy for ourselves as a nation, and at least some sense of pride in terms of our progress or even our home team and armed forces. The parade segment took me through many hats I once wore or am currently wearing. As a guardsmen I felt the sense of pride as the parade commander and Chief of Defence Force wore the Khaki beret today. I also felt the pride that I had as the Guardsmen rappelled down the tower when they were activated. Although, we don’t really do that for operations. -.- And then as the Terrex rolled out, I recall the days I interned at DSTA when I got a chance to visit and see the Terrex and even ride in it. And as the naval helicopters came into view, lowering their sonar into the water, and the Apache doing the tight turn as well as the roaring past of the F15, it made me feel some sense of pride as a member of the RSAF.
In fact, the entire parade gave me a new thing to think about. That we were always a society of immigrants. That we overcome adversities and challenges in our lives and then we bonded together. There wasn’t so much of a you and me; that we’re from different countries and stuff. And we survived, and hey, perhaps that is the way we have always been, just that the newer batch of immigrants seemed to be hard to integrate with, and a slew of other problems.
But I guess this is globalization, an effect where we have to live with in this world today. We should just probably fine tune ourselves so we can all live happily ever after.
Basically the most important 48 hours or so of every week just went past like that, and not before long I would be waking up with Monday blues and then work starts again. There’s a new start to tomorrow’s day since I’ll be posted into a new department, and probably getting to know two scholars, or high-flyers as they say. And I would finally be working on a project related to my degree! The previous department was a haven for Mechanical Engineers, and as they said, I would never be posted there in my life after I commission. So I guess it is something to be happy about, although it means I would not have much interaction with my AFE colleagues in the same batch. Ah I miss the inside jokes of zai sir, permission to mount the bar and all the stupid nonsense.
But this post is not to celebrate or commemorate what went on at work, but rather, what went on during the weekend. I didn’t rot AS MUCH as I did last weekend, but things can still be improved I suppose.
I went out to watch Bridesmaid. Touted as a good comedy, I honestly expected much more from it. It does fulfill its M18 ratings though; it opened with a sex scene and there’s other sex scenes inside too. But perhaps it was so hyped up that anything slightly below expectations would feel like a disappointment.
The story was funny in a way though. The guy in the movie said he is handsome and nice, just like what I kept saying over the past 2 weeks or so. Hence I was laughing inside myself when I heard that. Coincidence much?
After the movie I went for a meal at the Crystal Jade Korean BBQ, more reviews on that when I remember and when I have the time, but it was a nice meal. The Ginseng Chicken soup is good, but you only get one serving cause its the best thing. The food is generally alright, although if you really wanted quality stuff you probably should be looking at the Japanese restaurant (forgot the name) at Vivocity. That’s not a buffet though and it is more expensive.
My sunday was spent settling some issues with M1 over my blackberry plan, and trying to figure out some issues. At the moment my Blackberry internet service (BIS) only works through Wi-Fi. Perhaps the 3G part would only work tomorrow, so I’m hoping that is the case. Then I would be able to keep up with my Facebook and Twitter accounts and even use my Whatsapp (Yay!).
And I did a run again, 800m sprint, rest, 400m sprint + rest * 4. Total 2.4km sprint and it tired the hell out of me.
Had a great meal at Dian Xiao Er although seriously their service could be faster; it isn’t the first time I felt disappointed by their service. We could finish like 60% of dinner before the last dish comes; that is slow!
I totally didn’t even touch Dragonica this weekend, so it means I actually found stuff to do. I guess this deserves an applause.
I bought bread, nutella and cheese to for my breakfast at work, so I can save more money in the future. Today I learnt how much a 1 carat diamond ring costs, and it sounds scary. Ah well saving is always good for future expenses!
Tada. Towards monday blues!
