Happy Birthday 2 Blog

As of yesterday, my blog is 2 years old.

2 years! And still going strong! Or not?

Hmm...

Actually it's quite nice to have started my blog at the end of the year. Sounds a bit cheapo, but can combine anniversary post and year-end post into one, haha.

In this year... well I served almost one year of National Service. BMT was surely a once-in-a-lifetime experience (especially now when I'm not even a combatant) and those days were really etched in my mind, possibly for life. Pity was that I missed quite a lot of stuff, like route march in the rain (I kept getting sick on route march days and it's not that I wanted it to happen), BIC: The Leopard Crawl, Back Crawl and other crawling patterns you can use in field battle (I missed it because I was recovering from fever. I was thankful for that -- my back was already itching like crazy).

And the gastric pain developed during my BMT days. Because of it I learned how to make myself burp when I'm too full (instead of just waiting).

Moving on to CPC as a clerk... it's the days there that really changed me. More than BMT did.

I learned to open up more... I know it's because it's an all-guys environment, but I believe my days there will shape me into a one who can survive my days in the co-ed university campus which I will eventually have to step into.

Also, my passion for the Japanese language sort of revived in CPC. Quite an unlikely place, but there're lots of Jap fans there, and I found this aspect of the culture there pretty heartwarming. If you put me in a place full of Korean drama and K-pop fans I'll probably die of suffocation.

My confidence in singing was found there as well! For bringing me for my first serious KTV session, and for letting me sing at all, thank you guys.

As someone who needed acceptance above all things since day 1, I have to thank all my colleagues for accepting me for who I am. Things would have been different if not for them.

• Mdm... you said I'll definitely grow in my days here. I know I will.
• YY, I knew you only had 1 month to teach me stuff, and I got you pretty worried when you left. After you reached ORD, the first few times you returned to office you only heard complaints about me... the last few times you returned the complaints stopped (Phew), but I was either too sleepy or on sentry duty. Nevertheless, I'm always glad that you came back, so do come often!
• Nick (who managed to convince Mdm to give me chances again and again)
• Dom (whose knowledge of computers saved many a day (read: my day))
• Bernard (nice sharing return transport with you... and Settlers of Catan!)
• Chor Bin (I heard NSF HQ will be introducing "Cable TV next year", so we'll be charging!)
• (Part of) Sunny Saturday (you guys are really the ones who got me going back to my Jap materials, haha)
• The IPPT training group. We shall overcome! Or remain as LCP...
• The Monday badminton group... do come next year!
• Fellow brothers in Christ in CPC... you guys played a part in refreshing my faith in my working days, and my eventual return to the faith from my backsliding.

and many more... Some of you are gone, some will stay a while longer in CPC... we're going to move on, to a nice year ahead!

Ah yes, this year I started going for cell group! I have Jiansheng to thank, for always making the option of joining him for cell available (in explicit ways), in those days when I almost began to doubt my salvation (with good reason, as my lifestyle was really degenerating). And for my cell, who made me feel at home since day 1. Erm why are we no longer eating cheezels now?

I learned how to cycle too, and it added a lot of convenience to my travel.

OK I have a lot more friends here and there to thank and to bless... and for those whom I left out... you guys are in my heart too!

This year I want to put down the grudges I bear (if there is any at all) and move on. I also know that due to my poor skills in dealing with people I have offended quite a few individuals. I ask whoever I have displeased for your forgiveness and understanding.

Dec 30 has come, and gone, and will come again when my blog reaches 3 years of age, then go and come and go and come... just like 24 Nov on Keon's blog, haha.

The Last Name... uh no I mean Week of December

Christmas

I spent Christmas with my fellow Student Venture friends... and we went to Timothy's church for service.

During the service I could really feel the festive mood... maybe because I'm surrounded by Christians haha. Something like my typical mood during Chinese New Year.

I realised that over these few years, the meaning of Christmas to me was totally different from what it was to me before. For instance, if someone hadn't talked to me about Orchard Road a few days ago, I wouldn't have even thought of that place, which was supposed to be a Christmas hotspot for Singaporeans.

To me Christmas is just a day to remind myself of why Christ came to Earth and what he'd said and done during his days here.

I was observing everyone during our little gathering and I glanced upon Tim's bag, with the wording "LAND COOL" on it. Hmm...

Wait.

Wasn't that...

Oh! The "L" is exactly the same font as the symbol used by L in Deathnote!

Anyway, after everything we went to Coffee Club at Siglap to have lunch. Since I'm into budget dining (read: Food Court), a meal at any cafe will generally cause me to feel a bit of a pinch... but the meal was filling (which was what I looked for in every meal anyway) and I was in the company of friends!

While having desserts, we shared a few cakes. We're cutting chunks off the corners of the cakes and at one point we realised that the remaining portion of the cheesecake took the shape of a coffin!

And so, we used our forks to make a cross pattern on it!

For some reason I felt that I had to take a picture of it in Black& White.

That afternoon, Jiansheng's lips were glossy for some reason (he denied having applied lip gloss) and remained glossy no matter how he tried to dry it. Hmm...

Jiansheng's Strawberry Smoothie, Jonathan's pot of tea and the Choco mint cake we shared among ourselves

Xiaoyun & Jonathan

Timothy

---

Retail Therapy

Weiquan (LEVEL 20) is on a SHOPPING SPREE!

OK as of that time, the ORD of 2 of my seniors was approaching. So I was thinking maybe we could prepare some gift for them. Since I was on leave on Wednesday, I went to town to see if I could get the stuff I wanted there.

The problem was, I didn't know much about "what I wanted" to get either!

Kelvin suggested getting a shirt originally, but a fashion disaster like me should think twice about getting a shirt, especially when it's for someone else! He later suggested that we get a bag instead, which I thought was a pretty nice idea.

It was at Marina Square where I found "it". I went into this leisure and sports shop and saw this Nike bag... it just looked different. When I first decided on a bag, I was thinking of a Deuter bag, but I realised that would be a bit too common. The Nike bag... well, it was certainly big enough, and it had this air flow system in the backrest side which made it pretty cool.

Later in the day, I went shopping for a watch. I saw one which I thought was $98. Turned out to be $198... the price tag was partially blocked (%$#*#!). Oh well... then I decided to get this watch which I thought was quite cool and I personally liked very much, and which didn't cost a bomb.

Of course, talk about shopping... I'd shop for my own stuff on the way as well! At Isetan I saw this patterend shirt which I found to be nice, and since I don't have many white-coloured shirts, why not just buy it?

OK that's pretty silly... taking a photo of my mirror image...

Another shirt which I found interesting but didn't buy... a rounded collared shirt with thie "fu" wording on it

Weiquan (LEVEL 25) is OWNING!

---

ORD loh!

Not me lah.

It's Nick and Dom, whose understudies were already pretty established figures in our branch, who left this phase of their lives on Friday.

The 2 of them played pretty important roles in my NSF life, and our office will surely be different without them around.

Still, I shall again wish the 2 of them all the best!

Yeah this is the bag we got for Nick. And you can see the backrest with the dents on it... it sort of distances your back from the bag's back, thus allowing some air flow.

And the watch for Dom. The reason why I chose green was because whenever I think of Dom, I think of him in his green jacket.

On the same day we celebrated the birthdays of Chor Bin and Mark. We got cards for all our ORD and birthday personnel, but we'll get Mark's gift at a later date. For Chor Bin we got a Liverpool jersey of which I didn't take a photograph. As for the secret item I got him...

Haha... as of 29/12/2006, Chor Bin shall be called "Mr Bean"!

A closer look at the label.

YY came back for a visit as well, and after work he treated us to the movie "Night at the Museum", which, to me, was an unexpectedly great show.

Dinner with the guys

On Saturday some of the 10/04 guys came together for dinner at Pastamania, Cineleisure. We happened to be seated at the same spot where we had our 10/04 farewell dinner with Ms Fong, so it was pretty nostalgic haha.

Yong Chuan was telling me about his recent trip to Japan, and he was full of praises for the country and the people. Good.

Someday I shall make a visit there myself, and return to Singapore with loads of merchandise and emotions. And photos.

The festive set at Pastamania was pretty filling... well, it was for Jeremy and JY. I ordered some seafood pasta with clams, prawn, squid and mussel (mussel!) inside.

After dinner we had pool. I was a bit off-form because of my injured elbow and because I hadn't played in ages, but could still make it lah. Joel was pretty good, I found out.

I see dead people

OK we didn't do any morning run this week.

Our officer was on leave and, well, since we had a course which spanned over Monday and Tuesday, we had quite an amount of work to clear in the remaining working days.

Or, for people like me, I did not go running in the first place as the weather was too cold for me to take a shower afterwards! Haha I can never be Commando you know...

Oh, the course!

It was an Open Office (a group of free-of-charge office applications available for download) Calc (the spreadsheet program in OO) course.

I went to the course in quite formal attire (because of a casual remark made by Kelvin that he's going to wear long sleeved shirt). The long sleeve shirt I bought at the beginning of this year came into use then.

Formal attire, plaster-below-lips version

Our venue of training happened to have moved from OUB House (at Raffles Place) to ST building (near Tg Pagar) recently. And in the Course-joining instructions we're given very ambiguous information: The venue was stated to be OUB House while the map given led to ST. We followed what was written and ended up at OUB House before Kelvin called them and was told that it was at ST instead. Never mind... the view at Raffles Place was pretty breathtaking (The concrete jungle never fails to impress me... and you guessed it. I love Coruscant too) so I took a photo of it.

The view at Raffles Place!

While it turned out to be quite an eye opener for some of our colleagues, for others (read "the NSFs") the whole of the course was basically a subset of what we already knew in spreadsheet programs, given our experience in Excel.

Good thing was, the PCs had Internet access. Period.

---

On Monday Dad and I had quite a good badminton game with another father-son pair. My pants were not absorbent enough, though... after the game it was dripping wet!

On Thursday I went for dental appointment at SAFTI MI (wait... that's near Boon Lay! But it's SAF covered, so...). The dentist said that if I were to get my front tooth filled, the filling would come off easily, which was what I sort of expected. He offered to smoothen the edges of the chipped part for me, so I let him do it since the edges were actually quite sharp and were becoming quite a bother for me. My tongue felt much better after that.

Yesterday I was at home all afternoon trying to do my book review, and you bet it was hard trying to secularise a review on a Christian book! But my office, more than 50% of whose staff are Christians, was still a secular environment. So...

I was just thinking that I've been buying less CDs and VCDs now... until yesterday, when I decided to give my support to Westlife once again by getting their "LOVE Album". Along with that I bought the "SHE Moving Castle Concert in HK" CD, which was, I think, the first concert CD I ever owned. Most of the songs inside were not new, of course, but for some reason I found some of them better than the record versions! Maybe it's the arrangement of accompaniments and their way of harmonising... Haha Ella did a rendition of David Tao's "Ai Hen Jian Dan" (Love is Simple) which I found was pretty good! Tank was there as well, and he sang "San Guo Lian" (Love in the time of the 3 Kingdoms).

---

"Curse of the Golden Flower" was indeed a art piece with vibrant colours on display. In terms of bloodiness I was reminded of another plot-in-the-palace film, "The Banquet".

In Banquet you get a close-up view of blood splashing. Crimson, translucent, making a melodious tune as it splattered against pillars and walls. A Lot of Blood.

In Golden Flower you see blood. Staining the bodies, yes, but less splattering. Or at least, not that close-up. There were much more dead bodies, though. When Jay Chou's (yes, Jay Chou!) legion of golden armoured army was wiped out by collosal spiked shields, their bodies littered the palace ground just like chrysanthemum petals, trampled on the ground, mixed with mud and soil. A Lot of Bodies.

And yes, for the mind less appreciative of artful films... if Jay Chou doesn't get you curious enough, well... all the females wear very low cut outfit. So low cut, I fear for their modesty whenever they happened to be running around.

Fly me to the moon

Fly me to the moon
And let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter & Mars

In other words, hold my hand
In other words, darling kiss me

Fill my heart with song and let me sing forever more
You're all I long for, all I worship & adore

In other words, please be true
In other words, I love you

---

It's scary sometimes, when you hear, during the credits in Evangelion anime, the "REI" version of the song where "worship" is pronounced "wore-sip".

I wonder if doing that many versions of this ending credit song contributes to the lack of funds near the end of the anime's production...

Go biking!

Well, I think I'm the kind of person who dives head first into every new discovery.

And one particular night after work, I went Changi Beach for cycling again. Cycled all the way to somewhere near the SAF Ferry terminal (Nostalgia!) and had a "head-first" crash along the way while trying to dodge a passenger (I'm still not that skilful huh?). Ended up with a bruise near my lower lip, a minor cut on my left knee and a chipped front tooth.

My bruise, if you can see it. Just behind the bruise is an ulcer in my mouth, and that's the real painful part.

The chipped tooth wouldn't have been that painful if not for the fact that the core became slightly exposed. So you can imagine when I bite into a chilled apple...

And I still haven't learnt my lesson yet. Either that, or I learnt another lesson: Never give up just because you fell once.

On the next day I bought my own bike and started some long-distance biking... from Tampines to East Coast Park!

Click to have a look at my bike!

I chose a not-so-biker-friendly route so I had to pay for the consequence of bumpy sections and near-ball-crushing experiences. Nevertheless, I felt a huge sense of satisfaction after arriving at East coast park. The cycling road was pretty nice, and I cycled all the way to... well I just kept cycling until I reached that SAFRA country club which my family went every year (for the past few years) for chalet.

The bungaloes.

On the way back from the country club I got past The Middle Of Nowhere and it started raining.

The Middle Of Nowhere

Well thank God it was just a small rain, even a drizzle.

On the way there were also these structures whose purpose of existence was unknown to me. Still they were quite impressive to see.

All in all it was a nice trip, but the return journey was ardous! You know... exhausted and wet, wishing that you knew better than to put yourself in this quest you have to complete no matter what...

And then, Home Sweet Home!

P.S. After my JC days during which I suddenly lost interest whatsoever in romantic love (I was still "straight" at that time though), recently I started thinking about the whole issue again. I even had dreams about it. Haha. It will really be quite an exciting journey when I finally find the girl who will smile when she thinks of me and will also make me smile when I think of her.

HO Chalet 2006

This Friday I went for the chalet organised by the AHS HO senior alumni.

This year it was at Changi Holiday flats in Changi Village. Basically they're just flats being allocated for chalet-like purposes. Even though it was "within civilisation", there's still the Changi beach nearby, and the wide selection of food available (including seafood restaurants, food centres, Prata shops, bars, etc) made it a quite comfortable place.

I went and stayed for the night on Day 1, during which, most of the time there were people playing mahjong or card games and the rest of us watched the Fullmetal Panic VCD that Shao Chung brought.

For dinner we had Subway sandwiches, and since I'm not entirely familiar with the system there, I just ordered Cold Cut Trio set which was on offer that day.

The first night there we slept pretty late, partly because we played Uno. Seriously it's not a game that's to be played before bedtime, because it just doesn't seem to end. In the end we actually had to stop playing as the game just dragged on. Good thing was, I managed to do some stunt I wanted to do right before the game was forcefully ended, haha.

The beds there. Our flat had 2 2-bed rooms.

The non-sleepers room.

Tai Man

Ningxi and Jackson

Shao Chung & Allen playing chess

Shi Lei, who was just beginning to sleep

On Day 2, I woke up the latest: about 9 a.m.. We had prata for breakfast, after which we went biking at Changi beach. I still didn't know how to ride a bicycle, but I decided that it would be a good chance to learn. Within the one hour I somehow came to be able to maintain balance for a few seconds.

Changi beach, from which the beautiful Pulau Tekong was visible. On a clear day you can even see the BMTC buildings! Nostalgia!

A plaque with engravings on it, telling of the mass killings of Chinese men which took place there during the Japanese Occupation.

Kelvin then arrived and we all went back to the flat. Originally we wanted to try out the Karaoke room, but all I could say was... it was worse than G1 Family Day in terms of songs available.

So it was back to more mahjong (I began to gain some understanding of the game) and more FMP. Way Si passed some bee hoon to Tai Man and Jackson, who brought them back to the flat so we could all have it for lunch/dinner.

Since there was nothing for me to do, I went alone to try biking again. This time I finally managed to maintain my balance. So I too can ride a bike now!

My rented bike and I

Near the evening we played some truth-or-dare (minus the "dare") game. There were quite a lot of interesting questions being asked, about personal issues like funny or regretful incidents which happened to you.

For the funny incident I talked about the one when I slided down a grassy slope on my butt and ended up with this big soil stain on my white school pants, which people mistaken for shit.

We had the bee hoon, Satay and Rojak for dinner while watching the Golden Horse Awards presentation, after which I left.

"Sew" shiyou!

Ah... a well deserved 1-day leave, let's do something meaningful to make it worthwhile!

Ah... I know, I shall sew my LCP rank insignia today!

Lalala...

Originally I was supposed to get it done the weekend before last week, but due to unforeseen circumstances (read: I sewed the insignia on the wrong position) I could only finish sewing them today.

Hey, it was hand-sewn OK?

Haha well, I love to sew things, so I decided that even though it might take a longer time than asking for help from some Army shop, it might be better if I could just do it myself.

It took some exploration before I found the way to get the sewing done quick and clean. However it was all worth the trouble and I can finally report to work tomorrow with my new rank!

Atten-tion!

Ta-dah!

The following images has no relation to today's topic whatsoever, but...

Just found it a nice view... I love the concrete jungle!

Aragaki in some Japanese Pocky advert.

Gakki in megane! Haha itadakima~su!

Seriously, would I have had less sympathy for Misa Misa (who's really quite a sad case in the story) if Toda hadn't played that character in the DeathNote movie?

Eh... so we have Tak-kun's 86, an Evo, Doraemon, Nobi and... huh?

G1 Family Day

On Friday we celebrated the G1 Family Day. It was quite a fun-filled event... with activities like Paintball, Bionix (a type of armoured vehicle) rides, etc.

Paintball was the first event for me, and I took a lift on Bernard's car along with Nick and JY to Amoy Quee camp. There was protective gear available for us, so it was quite safe. I had quite some difficulty aiming, and actually got a headshot (the impact just came and, splat!).

Later we went to SISPEC Pasir Laba (where we're supposed to stay for the night). I was informed that the songs which I chose for the Karaoke Competition were not available (?!!!), so I had to go choose other songs. I then took a look at the song selection and... withdrew from the competition. There was simply no song that I'd really love to sing. So there's no point singing just for the sake of it. CPC already has one representative other than me, so it didn't really matter.

The bunks were nice (I heard that they're newly constructed) and spacious. The shower cubicles had racks to put your soap or shampoo on, unlike BMTC where such racks were lacking. After playing Space Munchkins (Chiang Wee brought it), which is a card game where you engage space monsters and encounter scenarios which are mostly spoofs of well-known epic space tales like Star Wars (just imagine... there's a scenario called "I am your father"... and of the wide range of sidekicks you can have there's a "Big Hairy Alien" who, "coincidentally", carries a crossbow!)

Dinner was Gu-rei-to! I mean, how bad can a steamboat session get? With catered food available, as well as the sumptuous steamboat spread, I really enjoyed myself during the dinner.

Following that we went to the Mess to watch a presentation of videos done by various units in G1 Army to commemorate their anniversaries. For CPC it was the 40th anniversary (Wow!) and HRSC was probably the youngest unit of age 1. The videos were generally well done, especially the one by CPC, done by Yichuan, Kelvin and Bernard!

The karaoke competition that followed... I was surfing the Net in the Mess, haha. Heard them sing, and some of them were not bad. The prizes included things like DVD player and earphones!

Continued surfing the Net during the subsequent Free-for-all karaoke session. Played darts with my colleagues, and surfed the Net again. Did sing a few songs here and there, but I didn't have much mood.

They organised a trip to the Jurong Fishery Port but I didn't go, as I wanted to just have a sleep. It's been a long time since I slept under bunk ceiling fan, with my head and feet in the "upside down" position relative to the bed, just like my BMT days.

*Alarm ringed at 5:55 a.m.*

Turned it off.

Woke up at about 6:45 a.m., relieved that we didn't really have to wake up at 6 a.m. like I thought I heard last night.

Went down for a Kickboxing exercise which got me quite shagged.

Washed up and had a Bee-hoon plus Soon-kueh breakfast. Had tea (with creamer) and coffee (I took it before realising there's no more creamer, so I had to swallow that bitter liquid which, after adding 2 packets of sugar, didn't taste like coffee anymore). Saw this worm dangling from a spider web under the table, spotted by Chor Bin. Tried to save it but it was already dead.

Bade farewell to SISPEC and set off for the Singapore Discovery Centre for a guided trip there. Watched a movie entitled "Wired to Win" (co-sponsored by National Science Foundation which coincidentially gives the abbrieviation "NSF") that gives an account of how the brain works and changes under conditioning.

Once again I came to a conclusion that we must have been created by a God. The argument that such elaborate systems in humans, animals and plants simply occur by chance is unbelievable to me.

Next we were introduced to a series of stations where we can participate in games and learn, hopefully, about nation-building. After trying them out, all I can say is that they're generally for kids.

But then again, isn't this Family Day after all?

One station that particularly turned me off was that... that quiz for entrepreneurs thing. True, it's purpose was to teach kids about values in entrepreneurship, but the very idea that there're right and wrong answers to questions about your personal values regarding work and business simply did not fit the picture. I may be a bit biased here because I was personally told by the game that one of my inclinations regarding the issue in the question was wrong.

But... the right-&-wrong thing just didn't fit the word "Entrepreneurship". "You feel me?"

P.S. Finished watching the Gal Circle drama yesterday. A generally likeable drama. Couldn't really imagine, though, what it must have been like to have an ex-Gal Cowgirl brandishing a lasso in Shibyya for 3 years.

A few kg's less, a few kg's more

I remember mentioning about that one cheesecake per week thing.

It's still on.

*Flashback...*

This morning was one of our most intense (or some might put it, "siong") training so far. A time trial of a bit more than 2.4 km I think, and then a upslope sprinting exercise. Or should I call it a (sprinting x 10) exercise.

Shagged.

But good shit it was. Really an exhilarating experience, giving your all to just sprint forward. That's why I love sprinting so much. So very much.

As for that 2.4 km time trial, I found out that the advice that our officer gave us was really useful. That it's easier to run up the slope with small but fast strides than with slow big strides. Hmm.

...

A few days ago I told Kelvin over MSN that I volunteered for the G1 Family day Karaoke session.

I can still remember his *HAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...*

I think he would've ROFL'ed even more when I told him that the song I chose was "Tui Hou" (Reversing) by Jay Chou.

And then I was told to choose a back-up song as Tui Hou was quite a new song and the karaoke version may not be available yet...

So now I'm troubled as to what to choose for my back-up song. I originally thought of "Hei Se You Mo" (Black Humour) by Jay as well but was told that I simply could not hit the high notes.

How?

I might very well choose the song only on the day itself (which is this Friday).

I had Hokkien fried noodles for dinner. And today's going to be my cheesecake day.

*rubs hairy tummy*

...

Been in a Jap drama frenzy recently... 1 Litre of Tears, Ima Ai Ni Yukimasu, Sekachuu, Nobuta, GalCircle etc...

Ima Ai Ni Yukimasu moved me quite a lot, maybe because of certain aspects of the story like the warmth of family, and also because it's a story about choice. Choice between living a long life and being loved by the one you love.

Ima Ai Ni Yukimasu, starring (left to right) Mimura, Akashi Takei (who played his role damn well!) and Hiroki Narimiya

GalCircle, hmm I watched it because of Erika Toda (again?!) and Fujiki Naohito (Aya's doctor in 1 Litre). Besides the cute girls, the drama was quite meaningful. It's a story about an ethnic Japanese cowboy (played by Fujiki), raised in Arizona, who returned to Japan to look for a girl (presumably a relative). He ended up in Shibuya in Tokyo and had encounters with various girls in the largest Gal Circle in Shibuya, called Angel Hearts. During those encounters he managed to help those girls with their personal problems due to his straightforward and honest nature. Some of the lead actresses of the drama include...

Erika Toda (of course...) who plays an underdog in the GalCir, who joined in because of her friend.

Emi Suzuki, who plays the leader of the GalCir, whom I think didn't become a leader by mere chance.

The pleasant looking Yui Aragaki, who plays an prominent member that wanted to replace the leader.

This is youth!

Well...

I shall trace back to the event which I still call the most humiliating moment in my life...

The moment when my last IPPT (Individual Physical Proficiency Test) 2.4 km run ended. The moment when I realised that given my timing, I failed the run.

It didn't hit me that hard; I actually had the mood to go for Karaoke after that... but it really got me wondering... how could I possibily fail that?

Since then I decided that I should resume my habit of jogging (ironically I became even less concerned about fitness after BMT)... but I could at most do it once a week...

Recently, however, due to certain changes which may be made in the SAF, I got the chance to join a physical training programme set up by one of our officers to prepare us for the next IPPT.

So I finally got a chance to reclaim what I've lost... the 2 chin-ups (excluding the 2 I can do now)... the PASS grade for my 2.4 km (and hopefully my best timing, 10:56), and lose what I unintentionally gained these few months: the few kilos.

There was once I got a bit depressed due to that few kilos I gained... I almost thought I would go anorexic. Almost... especially after the day when I suddenly couldn't do one single chin-up (the reason turned out to be exhaustion of my arm muscles from the badminton game the day before).

Some things happened that made me realize once again that being fat is NOT a sin.

Even so, I've got to cut down on supper... only one cheesecake per week!

OK back to the training... it's daily! And getting more intense by the week! So far we mostly jogged... around our camp area... did staircase runs up and down 22 levels (that was good shit, man!)... and... more to come in the following weeks I suppose.

And really, going back to work after washing up really made me feel like I've gone back to my JC days of daily jogging... nothing beats spending time in an air-con environment after working out good sweat!

The SAFRA Mount Faber Pool Incident

This was the very first time in my life when...

I got a cramp while swimming.

Hey it was damn painful, man! Normally my muscle cramps occur when I just woke up from bed. This time round it occured when I'm wide awake, so I learnt how scary it can be. The part that always got cramped was my calf muscle. and when it cramped, the whole thing was, like, it gave me the feeling that it was twisted to one side.

Now that I got a chance to take a look and feel it, the whole muscle was really twisted to one side, and it was like, what Max appropriately described as a "tight bundle".

I thank my God that I was not right in the middle of the pool when it happened. I was swimming near the side, and about to venture towards the middle.

Phew.

When I managed to get out of the pool clumsily, Yichuan helped me do some stretches. Good thing there were experienced people around... otherwise I would have just sat there and stared into blank space until the cramp disappeared. I mean I wouldn't have wanted to stretch it because of the pain.

And now to other stuff.

The VCD series of Nobuta Wo Produce is finally available in Tampines! Haha I wanted to watch Erika Toda (who plays Misa in Deathnote movie), that's why.

Naturally, I bought it.

And I got a new bag as well, since my current sling bag, big as it is, is tearing at the sides already.

Jyaa-ne!

"V"ery nice

Well...

I got an mp3 player for my birthday!

Haha it was a joint gift from my colleagues, who supposedly heard me saying that my previous mp3 player (the then "current" mp3 player) was of a size of 128 Mb, in a time when 1 Gb was the new norm.

So... I'm now a proud owner of the Creative Zen V Plus!

Sorry for the anticlimactic image quality, but VGA...

My player already has the silicon skin on when I took that picture. I'm "gifted" with super oily skin, you know... and the moment I touch the player's shiny black casing... finger stains appear! So I had no choice but to buy the skin, which, due to its being an "original" acessory, cost $25!

I bought a new set of earphones as well, to go with my new mp3 player! This time it's clip earphones for me as I feel a bit uncomfortable in the ear after wearing in-ear phones for too long.

Nice colour, don't you think?

Now that makes me look like SSG Kururu...

Kururu and his trademark earphones

Last Friday we had branch cohesion and we visited the Mint Toy museum. Basically it's a museum set up by a toy collector who wanted to showcase toys of the past to educate the future generation... so there we could find toys which mostly date from decades ago, and were bought by the owner (an engineer) at sky high prices!

And the Japanese at that time was already the global authority on toys... in terms of quality.

One of the things I learnt was that my current, seeming expensive hobby of figurine collection will pay off in the future!

Albeit a very far future... maybe about my grandson's generation, before the toys now will be called old. Then maybe a small Keroro figurine can fetch about... a few hundred bucks?

Blood, Toil & tears

On Thursday I met up with Keon for dinner, and before we parted he was telling me of this hypothesis he came up with.

That guys who reached NSF age without having been attached (sabishii ne~) are all weird in some sense or another.

Hmm... OK...

I'm sure weird, I know, and he claimed to be weird himself as well.

Well, in any case, "weirdness" is very subjective and it depends on who is judging the person.

Anyway, on the same day I bought this figurine of this female Lieutenant In Fullmetal Alchemist (which I started reading recently), as I found her pretty cute.

Don't know lah, but I tend to find broad-faced girls cute

The figurine I bought!

---

Blood

Friday, sunny (except for some stupid fluctuation of the weather at the Depot area which occured at a very wrong time).

On that day, there was a blood donation drive organised by Bloodbank and our camp.

So a few of us went to donate blood. Chiang Wee was originally uncertain if he's above 45 kg (below which the donor, however willing to give, will be rejected).

Thank God all of us could donate eventually.

Over the years I think my phobia of the finger prick (to obtain a small amount of donor's blood for some test) has lifted. On my very first donation during JC days, I got chosen by this pricking device with a particularly strong spring... which gave my poor finger a sensation I would never forget.

Nowadays the pricking devices have become more gentle... Is it unique to my case, I wonder...

During every donation, there will be a stress ball given to each donor (in case he needs to squeeze something to pump out blood), who will then keep the stress ball as souvenieur. In conjunction with Deepavali celebrations, we got a Deepavali-themed stress ball!

Happy Deepavali!

---

Toil

The search begins.

After the Blood drive, I went off to City Hall to look for an item.

I've heard from some source that the item is available at Funan Cold Storage, but I decided to take a tour at Suntec (since I haven't been there for ages).

Lots of surprises await at Suntec.

Hmm... of course my first stop will be the VCD shops! There were 2 I went to, but none of them had the item. One of them was damn funny. When I asked them if they had Japanese drama VCDs in stock, they showed me the Sekai No Chuushin De Ai Wo Sakebu (Crying out love in the centre of the world), which I already have.

And that's the only Jap Drama set available in that shop!

-___-

I then proceeded to a toy shop at the Family link (which I will visit every time I go to Suntec). Just in case there're new types of collectibles which came out without my knowing it.

Well, what I found wasn't exactly new, as I saw it on display (sold in sets. The whole set was more than $20!) in some Comics Connection outlets before. In this toy shop, however, it was sold in twos. It's this Keroro roly-poly with members of the platoon standing on a tiny globe. And I had the good fortune of getting Giroro (!) along with Dororo!

The Earth is ours!

OK... then I proceeded to the topmost level where the Arcade and Cinema was. Instead of finding a VCD shop I remembered to be there, I found a collectibles shop instead! The collectibles sold here are more Western than Japanese.

For me, Western collectibles leads me to... Star Wars!

And I really saw Star Wars merchandise there. Including those Lego SW constructions sold at hundreds of dollars!

Skip those.

And I arrived at a spot where Lego figurines of various types are being sold! Of course, SW characters were there, along with others like Harry Potter.

Wasn't that what I've been hoping to be able to buy?

Haha... Darth Vader... wait, I have Vader's figurine already, from a Lego set I bought.

In the end I bought a figurine of Boba Fett, the legendary bounty hunter of the galaxy.

Cute right?

Boba Fett, Legendary bounty hunter.

Along with a Chara Kids figurine of Murkrow.

Murkrow

I then went to a capsule machine (the Family link has tons of it) of this series of Evangelion characters (Asuka and Rei) and tried getting a figurine of Rei (I think she's damn pretty). I really got one where she's in school uniform. I may go next time to try for the Rei in Spacesuit figurine.

Kawaii, right?

Ayanami Rei from Evangelion.

Another capsule machine gave me a Keroro Softbie!

Kero?

Finally, giving up hope of finding the item in Suntec, I proceeded to Marina Square.

There at Giant I found the VCD of Evangelion (which I think are hardly sold anywhere else) so I bought it.

But, still no sign of the item I was looking for.

Final stop: Cold Storage!

As I entered Funan, my hopes began to raise for no reason. I tried looking for cold storage (it sure was hard to find!) and when I finally found the supermarket, I went straight to the VCD section and there it was...

The "One Litre of Tears" VCD!

P.S. On the next day (which was yesterday) I went back to TJC (only to find the school compound closed) and found the VCD at a shop opposite the college. -___- ! Nevertheless I didn't regret going off to town to look for it, as I bought many other items there as well!

Oh yes, one of my prayer requests for Cell group yesterday was "not to overspend anymore".

---

Tears

I bought the VCD, in fact, to watch the second half of the drama, as I have already watched the first half prior to buying it.

I was considered slow already. This serial (and the lead actress, Erika Sawajiri) had been the hot topic of my office at the time I came (which was around April), but I only began watching it recently.

This drama is about a girl named Aya (played by Sawajiri, of course) who contracted a disease called "Spinocerrebular Degeneration". Basically it's a disease which directly affects the nerve cells controlling muscular movements.

In the drama, Aya was who one would quickly call an all-rounder -- she excelled in studies and basketball, and hence caught the attention of a senior she had been admiring.

The discovery of the disease changed her life forever.

In the subsequent parts of the drama, she had to give up many things she had in life, including basketball, her blooming relationship with her senior, and eventually her studies.

Giving up that much, she still had a very supportive family. Also, her friendship with one of her ex-high school classmates later blossomed into love as well.

Still, the fact remained that she couldn't live long.

I finished watching the drama and was reminded of the cruel reality in this fast-paced world, which could hardly spare time for those in need.

There was, of course, a period of time when Aya was struggling to stay in her high school as travelling and writing became increasingly difficult for her. Her close friends have been helping her out, and generally the whole class had to slow down their pace for her. Naturally everyone started to worry about their results in the coming exams.

Even though many would quickly come to the conclusion that the classmates lacked compassion on their part, reality is, after all, reality. Your future is your own, and it depends on the mundane things you do in classrooms, and no one can afford being held back by any other.

To what extent can we look out for those in need? Who can do so even to the expense of self? Hardly anyone.

A scene that struck me the hardest would be the part where Aya (already in a very bad condition) was trying to dial her house number on a public phone, which kept ejecting her card as she had to take a very long time to dial a number. The phone is just like the reality, cruel as it is dead. Pre-programmed. Having no time for those who are slower than others.

She found her meaning in life by writing her diary (sounds like someone you know huh?). She said more than once that she wanted to quickly write down what she feels lest she forgets it.

Her diary was later published in a regular compilation series, and encouraged many of the fellow patients due to her optimism.

And hence, she was remembered by many after she passed away.

Moral of the story No.2: You'll never know who you're affecting by what you write. Someone somewhere may be greatly changed because of the little things you do.

P.S. This drama was actually based on the diary of a SCD patient (who's really called Aya) which was published in a book which gave the drama its title.