WOPC loh!

This week had been a busy one for CPC, because our unit was organizing the Warrant Officers' Promotion Ceremony at the Chevrons (an SAF clubhouse in Jurong East).

I was one of the carpark helpers.

Most of us were there at the Chevrons for 2 days: The rehearsal and the actual ceremony. Some of us went to check out the arcade when we're not deployed, and of course I'm one of them. The Initial D Arcade Stage 2 (it's a rare find, since most arcades have already replaced them with Ini D Arcade Stage 3) was similar to Stage 3 (just a fewer number of courses :P) but it was obvious that the Ini D pros rarely visit the Chevrons. Why? I was able to leave my name on the top 10 lists of a few courses, when my timing was only at the average level.

The carpark people were supposed to wear the No. 4 uniform, so I finally got the chance to wear it again (even though I'm now quite used to the No. 3). We've got to wear berets as well... now that's something new for me -- I haven't worn a beret before during BMT... but who would?

Max wearing his beret

Peng adjusting his beret... well this photo looks a bit...

Nick in the Long 4

So that's how I look when I wear a beret myself...

When doing the actual duty we had to wear this fluorescent vest.

From what I heard, the event was a success... and after the event was officially over, the duty personnel got to taste the food as well... the items that appealed to me included the chicken, the Eclair and the California rolls!

As a form of celebration, one the staff officer in charge of the carpark boys got beer for us, and, well, I had to say that it was the first time in my life I drank so much alcohol (about half a can of beer)!

Drinking alcohol is not a bad thing, but I really have to say sorry to my taste buds... and say hi to Jonathan, our new colleague who is the understudy of Jireh.

Jireh and Max: The "Handover" of... whatever.

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More miscellaneous pictures for this week...

I say, this is going to be the most beautiful shot of Angela Chang I've seen so far!

Unlike Ini D at the Chevrons, this time I'm really happy to leave my name on the top racers list in the Podracing Game at Tampines Mall!

Peng, who was awakening from his sleep during when we're at Starbucks

Now that my new phone supports mp3 and I've got a free mp3 editor from the Internet, I'm now able to use any part of any song for my ringtones!

This week I've been out of sorts... can't even do simple work properly (must have been too stressed)... and I've been spending quite a lot (ever since the new phone episode)... I hope I can spend less and do my job better next week.

Here's to a better week ahead! (If you can see the rainbow, that is.)

Back to College

Last Friday I went back to TJC to collect my A level Cert.

I was wondering why they kept us waiting for so long before we could go for the collection... I guess it's because they have to wait till the school holidays.

It's still the same... the route I took from Bedok Central to College... the traffic light which doesn't seem to obey my orders anymore (in the past I could do some "cheat code" for the light to turn red so I could cross!), and the small side gate (which was closed -- again!).

Hmm since I brought a camera phone along, I might as well let the photos do the talking!

The Parade Square, where I had been doing the wrong version of "sedi-a" for 2 solid years!

The grand stand

The Black King Bar (To me it's the King of all monkey bars). I tried swing across it like I did everyday last year, and I'm happy to say that I haven't lost my touch! And I still could manage 3 chin-ups (but only 3, that's why I failed IPPT).

The Canteen. It's special for having individual tables and chairs (with which we could form "molecues" if there's a large group eating or studying together) instead of long tables and benches.

Zap! Our photocopying shop where we collected our love-you-hate-you lecture notes.

How I miss those beverage vending machines! I went to buy a packet of Winter Melon Tea for old times' sake (no I don't have a photo of that), and as you can see, there's a piece of note pasted on one of the machines, and it read...

Yeah, like anyone would (if you know our O.M.).

T047! The locker I've been using last year! And the guy (or gal) using it now happens to use the same type of lock as mine!

Looks like we have a new mural drawn at the Scope study area! Hmm... it's actually just the painting of that study area itself with mushrooms (either because of the "Mushroom" on our badge, or because the painter plays Maple). I shall do justice to the painter(s) by putting up the full-sized version.

The double-decker-bus-for-a-student-lounge, which I wasn't really in favour of. And I've heard that it's already been completed. So this is the completed version?!

There's this wall at the back of the auditorium which I call the "Wall of Presence"... I like that place for it's air of tranquility, but looks like those drama people have sort of turned one half of the wall into -- OK I shall put it nicely -- a storeroom for props.

OK, at least the other half of the wall was for lockers.

The collection of certificate was swift, and after going around some more places and talking to the Auntie who remembers me for mugging in the Canteen till 9 p.m., I went off to Bedok Central to relive other old times. Heh heh.

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Remember the time when I was swooning over the cute girl from Romancing on the Handphone MTV?

Those screenshots were actually not what I wanted to use, because I could only search for images on the web.

But now... I've finally gotten the screenshots of those scenes I really wanted!

When she sort of realized that Jay was the guy she'd been unknowingly sending mushy MMS'es to.

Yes, that was when she was shooting herself for the MMS I was talking about! Arrgh...

Heh heh... job done!

Wang

I remember the time when I was doing Chinese Literature... there was this short passage on this guy called Wang Ziyou.

There was once when he had nothing in the middle of the night... he decided to go pay his friend a visit.

After a long journey to his friend's place (which was pretty far away), he arrived at the doorway of that friend's house but then he decided to go off without entering the house.

When asked for the reason of his action (which may look rather stupid to others), he simply said that he set off for his friend's place because he felt like doing it, but after the arrival at his friend's place he didn't feel like going in anymore.

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I guess I'm that kind of person as well.

Sing again

There are times when we have to put ourselves into the shoes of others before accusing them.

I heard a discussion on the radio regarding whether a company should employ pregnant women. There were some people who criticised companies which refuse to employ pregnant women and even said these companies would not really look into welfare of staff.

Well what I think is that the reason may not be as simple as selfishness on the companies' part. When a person is newly employed, he or she may need to take some time to get used to the workflows and job scope and stuff. A pregnant woman will have to take maternity leave months after being employed, and if she's only about 1 or 2 months before delivery, then she may have to go for maternity leave right after geting used to stuff in the company. The limited level of understanding may diminish again during the leave period.

This doesn't apply to all cases, of course. But when people criticise those companies, do they even know what kind of companies they are?

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Yesterday after work, I went with my colleaugues to this KTV in Somerset called "The One". Haha it's actually a big underground section of a building with a really small entrance... which reminded me of the Leaky Couldron bar in Harry Potter.

I was amazed when I got in, however. It's like a huge labyrinth with pretty nice rooms, and the GUI (Graphic User Interface) of the song selection system was pretty well done.

Except for the old crowd from last week's K box outing, Jianyuan came along as well. Dom brought his girlfriend and Huang Peng brought a female friend, so it wasn't all male voices that evening.

The songs we sang were pretty much the usual songs, and like last week, we couldn't spare time for the long introduction to the MTV of Gary Cao's "Superwoman", so I didn't have the chance to sing it... I hope the KTVs can, like, offer the chance for us to select a "cut" version of the MTV to cater to the needs of those who want to watchit and those who just want to sing it.

However I was pretty glad to have had the chance to sing more of Jay's songs like Hei Se Mao Yi (Black Sweater).

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Today I went to watch the movie "Cars" by Pixar. Of course, part of the reason was because I'm a bit into cars now, but I sort of expected that the focus of the movie would not be on the aspects of cars that I'm interested in.

I was wrong.

The movie was actually very meaningful... it was about Lightning, a racing car (not Rally cars -- more like that kind of racing in Daytona USA) who lost his way (oh, cars are living beings in this film... they drive themselves) on the journey to a major competition and stumbled (literally) into an abandoned town... repaired damages... fell in love... came to meet a veteran who happened to be an expert in drifting (I told you I was wrong about this movie!) but was disillusioned with the racing world. In that town he came to realise the value of friends in his life.

Don't think it's a film for kids only. Otherwise you'll miss out the funny parts of the show I left out in my description above, and end up snoring in the theater like what a middle-aged father was doing right beside me during the middle part of the show. Grrr.

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I love the Great Singapore sale, man...I got to buy DVDs of Initial D 4th stage Anime for half the price!

And I discovered that the D letter does not merely mean "drifting"... heh heh.

Food Chain

This week I finally changed into my No. 3 uniform (the formal one, with the shirt which looks like the TJ uniform) after a long wait (it's my superiors who are waiting, rather than I myself... haha. I sort of miss my No. 4), but I'm new to the art of ironing clothes... Mum had to iron my shirt for me to see first, but even so, after seeing her demo I still wasn't up to the mark... the day when I wore the shirt I ironed to the office, I got scolded for wearing such a crumpled shirt...

After getting the camera phone previously used by Mum, I started taking photos like a wannabe photographer... trying to take so-called "abstract" pictures from time to time. Enjoy.

The top glass dome of Century square

The outside wall of Century Square

Century Square itself!

One tall building I shot at Suntec during the Food chain game organised by our branch

The glass celing of Suntec shopping mall

Darth Weiquan

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Yesterday we had an outing organized by our branch... we had breakfast buffet at Delifrance... it was a buffet with pastry items like the Croissant and muffins... thanks Mdm for the treat!

After the breakfast (most of us ate sparingly since we're going to do a LOT of eating later) we're briefed on the details of the game we're going to play -- Food Chain!

Well, at least that was the name they've given the the SHi Zi Lu Kou game played with English as the language medium... you know, the game where the first letter of the food item you eat must be the last letter of the previous food item. The first item will be given to the team, and the team will be notified of the last item after coming up with the 7th food item (the team must eat 10 food items in total -- and no groceries allowed).

Our team, led by Max, got to start with Fire Floss Bun and we continued with Nugget - Twister Fries - Sundae ice cream-Mango Cake - Egg (we divided one single hard boiled egg from a Mee Siam stall into 4 slices!) - Gourmet food loaf - French toast with Ham - Mee Siam - Muah Chee. We're supposed to take pictures as proof of having tried the food items, and I took pictures for some of them.

Nugget!

Twister Fries!

Sundae!

We tried to stay within the Suntec and Marina Square area, instead of going to other parts of Singapore, even though we're free to do so. Some of the teams went to places like Parkway and Bugis.

But still, our team lost. What the heck?

And the forfeit mentioned by CPT Brian was actually -- Raw Eggs! Max almost had to consume it until Mdm Esther decided to, erm, be a bit protective and drink it for him.

Our Food Chain team! (From left) Max, Mr Toh, Mdm Theresa, me, Sueann and Ms Lim

Max in his "Spidey suit"!

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Why the sad look, Chor Bin?

After the game, we went for a K-Box outing -- the first time in my life!

Nicholas proved himself to be a K-box veteran, Junming sang Cantonese songs, and so did Bernard (he's a Hongkonger after all!), Huang Peng's singing rocks, Chor Bin and Dom were a bit low profile, but to my surprise, Dom actually sang Rainie Yang's "Guo Min" (Allergic) with me!

My singing was a bit soft... like I was singing to myself. Except for some songs like David Tao's "Zhao Zi Ji" (Find Myself) which I can sing to the fullest extent.

And before the outing yesterday, I didn't imagine I could even sing the songs by rock band Shin! In the end I actually sang a few parts of "Si Le Dou Yao Ai" (Love Even After Death) and "One Night in Beijing"!

Oh yes, the MTV of "Sha Po Lang" by JS band was really funny... Sophia kept doing Tai-chi moves with her feet perfectly rooted to the ground! Wow!

P.S.

No one said I lost weight last year when I had this daily regime of running 3.6 km (as my blog readers can remember), and no one said I lost weight when I was doing BMT. Recently, however, after being a clerk (and not sweating at all for most of the days) for 2 months, my electone teacher and Keon said that I looked like I lost weight.

What the heck?!