Goodness gracious me, I can't believe it!

I found a song which I have been looking for the past decade! No joke! I am so elated.

Its called "I saved the world today" by Eurythmics. The last time I heard it was when I was still a primary school kid. It was playing on the radio in a KFC outlet at Novena Ville. I was eating with my small aunt, my younger cousin and my elder cousin.

Mesmerized by the tune at that time, I sang the chorus, with my mouth full of Zinger burger, repeatedly. It was so enchanting...

"Hey hey I saved the world today.
Everybody is happy now, the bad things' gone away.
Everybody is happy now, the good things' here to stay.
Please let it stay..."

...until my cousin snapped me back to reality. Apparently she got disgusted by seeing the crunched up burger in my mouth and scolded me. I can still remember her words: "OEI! Eating sing what sing!". That shut me up.

How nolstagic.

10 years down the road. That KFC outlet has already closed down. My cousin who scolded me is already married. I am already 19. How time flies...

Anyway, I am not the only one that found some good stuff tonight.
My buddy Wedgie finally found an anime website which has "Jikoku Shoujo" (literally "Hell Girl") on it after searching for the past week. It was recommended by me initially for its occult-ness. Yes, I am interested in the occult; so is my buddy.

The first few episodes are quite nice according to him. I am gonna watch it soon too.

Counting down: 8 more days to passing out.

Finally found myself a decent blogskin. Something plain and simple and nice.

From my hunt for the right blogskin for my blog, I realised that there are alot of emo-ish, gothish and lovish type of blog skins. There are so many of them!

I wonder why people nowadays are so emotional.

Unbelievable! I've lost weight!


This Disney t-shirt used to be a tight fit for me but when I wore it today for the first time since January, it fits me like a slightly oversized t-shirt!






This proves that I have lost weight and along with it, my muscle mass! Argh!

The continuous running incorporated into my physical training program and the CMI mess food played a large part in the degeneration of my muscular physique.


The police force stole my masculinity from me!


I want ma muscles back!

"Every time after school during my junior college days, I would walk down Bartley Road to the bus stop next to Thomson Road. From there, I would take bus service number “131” home.

Every time I want to watch a movie, I would take bus service number “131” to the Shaw Plaza cinemas at Balestier Road. Along the way, I would pass by Thomson Medical Centre, Novena Square and United Square.

I passed by those buildings again today, not as a student going home on a bus, not as a civilian going out to have fun but as a police officer patrolling the streets in a police car.

A police officer with a mission; to eradicate crime and strike fear in all those that are inclined to criminal activities."

All right, the above paragraph was meant to be on this blog about one week ago on the 5th of October but I was lazy to type it then. Never mind never mind, it made it here today. You guys read it so I guess its fine.

Anyway its the introductory paragraph for my attachment report in case you are all wondering what the fish am I typing about. I was attached to Tanglin Police Division from the 5th to the 14th of October as part of my training for National Service Probationary Inspector.

We had a Scenario Based Training this morning. The squad was divided into two groups, the role players and the police officers. The role players would create trouble and the police officers were to attend to the scene of incident. This SBT further reinforces what I have already learnt during my attachment.

A police officer must really expect the unexpected. We do not have a single universal guideline on how to attend to cases. All cases are different and unique by itself. Therefore, it is imperative for us to have a flexible mind, initiative and foresight. We must also remember the 3 "C"s - Cool, Calm and Collected because as police officers, we must be in control of the situation and not let the situation control us. This can happen only when we have a clear thinking mind.

Then again, I don't think I am gonna sign on. So I guess it doesn't matter.

Ce qui est l'amour?

My buddy forgot to bring his Staff Work textbook home and asked me to meet him today so that he could borrow mine for photocopying. Irony is that he reminded me to bring home my Staff Work textbook on Friday evening and yet, he forgot his own.

We had lunch at Waraku restaurant at Starhub Centre. I ordered a Katsu Tomago Yogi Don (AKA Katsu Don) which I think is superb. I am gonna go back to this restaurant again to try out its other dishes.

There is something interesting about the items in the menu though.

Hmmm. Kinky? Or what. Ha. The caption doesn't match the picture in my opinion though.

The bloody barber screwed my haircut!

"Do you think your brain is more powerful, or a computer is more powerful?"

Most people would choose the latter choice because of all the things which a computer can do with ease; typing out documents, correcting our grammer, displaying tons of information, simulations, extrapolations, communication, entertainment, learning, storing colossal amounts of data, financial management - the list goes on and on. The computer can virtually do all the things that a human brain can't do and for the things that the brain can do, a computer can do better. No doubt, the computer is a wonderful and miraculous creation.

But there is only so much wonder about the omnipotent machine. All the supercomputers and other similiar machines are but just creations from the human brain. The human brain conceived them and the same human brain created them. Without this thaumaturgic core organ of ours, the world's computers would continue to exist as virtual reality. So would many other creations of ours.

The human brain is a very complex entity. You can take all the supercomputers in the world and put them together and they are still no where close to attaining the complextity of our brain. We know everything about supercomputers but we have yet to decipher all mysteries about our brain.

The thought that you are thinking now, are you leading your brain to think it or is your brain infusing the thoughts into you? Are we in control?

In any case, the brain is an amazing organ.

Hmm. Lets see.

I am trying to organize my thoughts and pen them down. My mind is in abit of a flur now.

Whats a flur? I dunno. Dun ask me.

I am just a normal average guy. Not those kind of ravers, revellers, emo-ers, punkers etc etc.
Yet sometimes, I try to be like them.

Its cool to be cool. Literally. To have many friends to chiong with you. Friends to party with you? Drink, smoke, eat, talk cock, fight and get busted together.

Sure is fun. But its so un me.

Perhaps I should just stick to the old me. The same me. The average me. The normal me.

I want to be more intellectual!

Why do I sound so emo or something like that?

Its because Ted busted my left eye with a squash ball flying at 50 metres per second.
I think some of my neuro nerves went haywire.

The 129th intake came in today. I was the emcee again.

Typical Singaporeans... the moment they hear the announcement "We have come to the end..", they would start to leave automatically, without waiting for the guest of honour to take his leave first. Tsk tsk.

It was a less-fit intake and there are about 400 of them. Its one of the biggest intake in this year. The academy is gonna get crowded.

Soon, I will see the United Nations refugees running around looking for their uniforms and other stores haha.

All right. I am such a happy today and yesterday night. Wonders do happen I guess.

Ted, Alfonsus, Kenneth, Julian, Elleen, Novi, Novi's boyfriend and yours truly had a mini gathering at Suntec City. We dined in together at Ichiban Sushi restaurant. The food wasn't half bad. The Nabei (Nabeyaki) Udon I ordered was good. The peach ice-cream I shared with Ted was sweet and delicious! If only it wasn't shared with Te.. never mind :D

Ted and I spotted this pretty cute attendant at the store. Ah-ha! What an eye candy.

We did some catching up with one another. Alfonsus was so happy because he found some army personnel with whom he can share his agony in Hendon Camp. Julian is on attachment to some logistics camp, talks about transferring over to police. Kenneth is learning how to ride a motorcycle. Ted is the same as usual; chest grabbing and neck choking. Elleen and Novi are both studying at NTU along with Florence. Elleen still looks like piglet. Novi has a boyfriend. What a pleasant surprise. Novi.. a boyfriend... hmm.

It was so nostalgic. I get to revel myself once more in these familiar company. My lame genes and retarded antics were suddenly revitalized! Somehow, it just feels so much easier to let my hair down and pull up my socks with my good ol' friends.

Probably thats why we are friends!

Hunks in White Cleaning Services Co.


Introducing our fledgling cleaning company with a promising future.




Just as our name suggests, we have hunks wearing white who will clean your apartments for you.

Not only do they just clean, they clean with grace and precision.

At the end of the day, come home to a spick and span home!

We were asked to go back on Thursday night and then released on Friday night. We could have the whole of this week off and the reason why we didn't is because they need us to go back for one day to prepare the accomodations for a neighbouring force that would be visiting us soon. Interesting isn't it?

Talk about making full use of manpower.

Let you guys guess what this arrow is for.

Hint: Neighbouring force coming over to stay with us. Our neighbours are predominantly Muslims.

Oops I did it again!
I went on yet another shopping spree today!


Shopping List:

1. Levi's Sneakers - $55
2. Wilson Squash Racket - $48
3. Prince Squash Ball - $4
4. New pair of spectacles - $98
5. Titanic model kit - $23
6. The Secret - $23
7. 4 pairs of socks - $10

Grand Total: $331


When I realised that I had spent half of my this month's pay in one day, its abit too late. Ha. The last time I went on a spree I only spent $215.

Oh well. Theres always the need to pamper myself.

Thursday 23/08/07
Day 1

The commencement of my 12 days OBS course. I was hoping that the journey from HTA to Punggol jetty would last forever so that I won’t reach Ubin. I am still quite sian about the whole thing. Upon arrival I saw this big ship which was built on a patch of land some distance in front of the jetty.
We were ushered into the Multi-purpose Hall where we were divided into 3 groups (A.K.A watches). I was in “Nehru” watch. My instructor is Cindy and she looks like a pleasant lady. I saw the various rock walls and ladders and ropes hanging down from the roof of the hall and wondered if we would be doing them. I have mild acrophobia. Next we were led to our dormitories which we assumed we would only be staying in for a fraction of the 12 days. When I entered the dorm I was like “Wow!”. The place was much better than I expected. It gives off a kind of cozy feeling. I picked a bed next to the window overviewing the Tenacity Drive. Or was it Enterprise Road? Basically its just the route which we will take from our dorms to the other facilities.
I thought since half the day is already gone and we would be slacking for the rest of the day and the real activities would start tomorrow but no. The instructors wasted no time. After briefing us about the dos and don'ts of the dorms and officially handing the stores to us, we were told to report to the Inverse Tower in our climbing attire, bringing along our harness and helmet. My first activity was a high element! So off we go to the Inverse Tower and after some rounds of belaying lessons and briefings, we started scaling the tower. I paired up with Jaromes and we did the DDD; 7 logs there were attached together horizontally with the distance between each log increasing as one gets higher. I got really scared when I reached the 3 log and got abit hesitant about moving on. Nonetheless I moved on. But alas, fear took control over me and I got stuck at the 6th log. In the end, we failed to complete the DDD because the time limit is up (yes, there is time limit).
After that I felt damn disappointed with myself. Just one freaking log away only. I tink I let Jaromes down since he wasted all his effort in hurling me up to the 6th log, only to have me giving up there. Hai. When we were packing up our stuff and were getting ready to return to the dorm, I realised that it was such a bloody waste. Just one more log away only. Hai. Its always like that, regretting what I didn't do. After that we changed in PT attire and went for a 2.4km run. The route was so very similar to the MacRitchie route, except with even more rocks and uneven surfaces.
Food at Ubin was good. 10x, probably 100x better than HTA's. We had a night lesson that night. It was on leadership profiling. I was given this booklet which I had to fill in accordingly to see what kind of leader I am. The results were somewhat surprising. Self-renewal and Character. Hmm..


Friday 24/08/07
Day 2

10 more days away to the end of the course. The usual routine here is lights out at 11pm (our lesson drag till 12am this morning though) and reveille at 5.55am. Relive the BMT moment! Anyway, we had to report to the Expedition Square (AKA parade square..) by 5.55am for a not-so-formal flag raising session. For being the super-provost, I got arrowed to raise the flag for our first time. Its quite simple. We just had to sadiah when we were asked to and then stand straight until the flags were raised. No singing required. Short and sweet.
We began the morning with a game which I can't remember. It involves all 42 of us though. After that we did some stretching and went for a 2.4km run. Probably because of the terrain, all our timings were between 11 to 13 minutes. After the run, we cooled down and went to have a dip in the sea. Simply put, all of us stepped into the sea and then lower our entire body into the seawater and then come up again. Once would suffice. I wouldn't mind if the water is crystal blue but with all the floating twigs and leaves and rubbish and patches of oil... Ugh. No choice tho, it was mandatory for all of us.
That concludes the end of morning PT and we went back to change and then went for breakfast and then went for morning circle. Morning circle is just a session where everyone would gather in a circle with all 3 instructors and we would reflect upon the previous day and then share with one another. Quite pointless in my opinion. This would be the usual morning routine for the next 10 days.
In the afternoon we did two activities, kayaking and X-field. For kayaking, we were thought the basics of kayaking.. how to paddle, how to steer the boat etc etc. When we were about to set off to do a little bit of rowing for practice, a thunderstorm starts to brew and we were forced to abandon the practice row. We waited for the rain to stop and when it does, we began doing the X-field. Its something like the amazing race, minus the price money and minus the global scale of checkpoints. We had to find like 7 checkpoints which are scattered throughout the island in like 2 hours.
The checkpoints were planted on ...

......
..
..........
.

Ok. I give up. I no longer see any point in sharing every single day of my OBS here. I will just give a brief summary.

25/08/07 - 27/08/07: Land expedition. Same stuff. Basically we just need to go around finding checkpoints and work as a watch. Got to camp out in the open, cook our own food, saw huge spiders, found out about something more in Ubin. Ended the expedition by building a raft at 4am on the last day and paddling it back to base camp. Upon reaching the base camp at 8am in the morning, we went kayaking to prep ourselves for the sea expedition that is coming up next. We kayaked around the entire island of Ubin plus some of its offshore island.

28/08/07: Felt very nua due to the hectic and tiring schedule yesterday. The usual morning routine still applies. We had some more kayaking classes today and spend the afternoon planning the sea expedition. We would be the one planing the routes, deciding the ETA and stuff like that. All of us are running the sea expedition.

29/08/07 - 01/09/07: Sea expedition. First day we got stucked outside of Changi Naval Base. We were supposed to keep a 1km distance away from the base but the freaking strong waves kept pusing us towards the base. A police coast guard boat actually approached our instructor's boat (they were not kayaking, they were in their engine powered boat) to see what we are trying to do. Luckily things went well. Camp at east coast the first night, sister island the second night and east coast again on the third. Corals at sister islands. Aircraft carrier. Destroyers. Adrenaline rush from the rocking of the waves. Big big waves. SIA and budget planes flying above us. Sun tan. Sun burnt. Shaq. Motivated. Shaq. Motivated. Goes on and on. Arrived back at base camp on thursday 4 hours earlier than the ETA. Mwahaha. After packing our canoes and stuff, its about 3pm. guess wat. THE DAY GOES ON AS USUAL. we still need to do afternoon PT!

02/09/07: Peak ascent. Another high element challenge. But abit more advanced. This time round I completed it! Huat ah. We spend the whle day doing it cause everyone must at least climb once and the periodic intervals of rain kept disrupting our ascent. At night, Nehru gathered for the second last time to share our reflections. Found out interesting stuffs about Cindy and my other mates.I shared some of my own too.

03/09/07: To quote Mark Twain - "I am happy when I completed a challenge; abit because it has ended but chiefly due to the fact that I will never be doing it again." Yes. The much awaited day has arrived. We did the graduation run in the morning. A 10 km run. I finished it in 52minutes and 42seconds. Went for breakfast. Then went to pack up our luggage. Then went for a debrief. Then went for lunch. Then went to souvenir shop. Then went back for more debrief. Then went home. The end.

Few things I want to say about the OBS. While it is fun , I won't say I thoroughly enjoyed the whole course. There is still room for improvement. Like the quantity of ration given to us during the expeditions. Anyway, I have learnt several lessons during the course and I think I have grown slightly more mature. Perhaps. I have developed more of my leadership skills. And yes, it will be a somewhat memorable chapter in my life.

I dunno about you guys but for me, everytime when something comes to an end, like JC, some courses, BMT etc etc, I will feel kinda emotional? Something like I don't want it to end.

I guess I said enough tonight. Getting exhausted...

I pulled out my duffel bag and field pack which has been laid aside for the past few months yesterday to pack for my OBS trip.
When I zip open the bags, a familar smell engulf me... the smell of BMT. The smell of Tekong. The smell of my bunk.
Its not like I never wash my stuff. Its just this lingering smell from Tekong. I am sure you guys know what I am talking about.
I was reminded of my 3 months stay on that cursed offshore island. Though I call it a "cursed" island, it brings back to me fond memories.

Such nostalgia.

Ha. Sleeping is such a waste of time again. So much so that I decided to to sleep again for now.

Today's CIP for the annual Heartstrings Walk at the floating platform was so-so. I was deployed as the "Contingency Group" and my role is to walk the 6km walk with the crowd to watch out for any casualties or unprecedented disturbances during the walk. (How my duty has anything to do with my group name I don't know).

Anyways, with only half an hour of sleep the previous night, I set off with the crowd for the 6km walk. The president (the guest of honour, he came by submarine. nah) stood on a platform beside the starting point, shaking hands with his people, waving to them and smiling to them as the crowd walked past him.

We started from the floating platform, walked thru underneath the bridge next to Fullerton, passed by UOB plaza, advanced towards clarke quay, traversed through boat quay, made a turn at the turning point and retraced our steps back to the floating platform. Somewhere in the middle of our walk, I saw some Falun Gong practitioners distributing propagandic pamphlets to the walkers. They seemed to be quite happy... I assume they thought they can recruit a handful of people from the approximately 6000+ walkers but haha tough luck! We are not called Singaporeans for nothing...

For some arcane reason, I feel kind of exhausted after the walk. Mysterious...

The act cute guy, Comms IC and Deputy Provost

The Singapore Eye, heard that it costs $28.50 to ride on it. Might give it a try.

Carracks! I bet they are armed with carronades to protect the president from seaborne threats!

Ha! What have we discover?

!!! Potential mosquito breeding spot! NEA please take note. Maybe its some plot to creat a dengue epidemic...

Singapore my homeland! (Russia really rocks)

I am so short of time this weekend.
Sleeping is such a waste of time. So much so that I decided not to sleep today and just leave my house at 5.30am for my CIP at Marina Square.

Time-lock!

I am so wilfully in love with Gaara! Die everyone else die!

Today is the first day of July in the Chinese calendar.

I just went to burn some joss paper for the "brothers" and "sisters" with chee lin, jin hong, brendan and lee chong on behalf of Alpha coy. I found out that chee lin is quite well acquainted with the customs of the ghost festival.

May all be well!

HUAT AH

The National Day Observation Ceremony (a.k.a National Day Celebration in the Police Force) just ended. Don't be mistaken though. The ceremony was not meant for us cadets. It was meant for the the various department of the Force, Police Coast Guard, CID, CAD, the 6 divisions just to name a few.
No doubt we cadets were involve in the ceremony but our involvement were largely limited to what I would call the Saikang Department. We were in charge of ushering, registering the guests etc etc.
Walk out time was 5pm. Yet, I am still here in the Academy typing this blog. Why didn't I walk out with the rest? Well, the reason is simple. I have got provost duties today and I need to lower the State flag later at 7pm. I can leave only after the State flag has been lowered and sent to the guard house.
I will take the time to read as much of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as possible. I really enjoyed the Potface series. Very interesting. How I wish I can learn magic as well. Haha.

I have a vision for Singapore! *waves the miniature Singapore flag frantically*

This is bad. I have been inflicted with Otitis externa.

Otitis externa(aka Swimmer's ear), is the inflammation of the outer ear and ear canal. Inflammation of the skin of the outer ear canal is the essence of this disorder. The skin of the bony ear canal is unique, in that it is not movable but is closely attached to the bone, and it is almost paper thin. For these reasons it is easily abraded or torn by even minimal physical force.

Inflammation of the ear canal skin typically begins with a physical insult, most often from injury caused by attempts at self-cleaning or scratching with cotton swabs, hair pins, keys, or other small implements.

Another causative factor for acute infection is prolonged water exposure in the forms of swimming or exposure to extreme humidity, which can compromise the protective barrier function of the canal skin, allowing bacteria to flourish; hence the name, "swimmer's ear".

Oh man. i wished I had read this article earlier. Yesterday at home, I was still happily poking my ear with cotton sticks, trying to dig out ear wax(even though there was none, I just like the ticklish feeling) in an attempt to alluviate the pain in my right ear. And because I thought since it was swelling, I kept flooding my ear with water while bathing, hoping to "cool" down the swelling. Ack. Not a good move. Damn! No wonder the pain got worst this morning.

Stupid me. heck. Argh!

The following paragraph might be useful to some of you guys:

"A natural question is, "How can I clean my ears, then?" It is well established that in most people the top layer of the ear canal skin normally migrates toward the ear opening, essentially sweeping the canal on a continuing basis. In other words, a normal ear canal is self-cleaning. This self-cleaning physiologic feature fails in some patients, especially in late life, and periodic cleaning by a physician can be necessary. The most controlled and least painful means of cleaning impacted wax or dead skin from the ear canal is by using a binocular surgical microscope, which frees the examiner's hands to instrument the ear and provides the magnification and depth perception needed to avoid traumatizing the delicate canal skin and eardrum."

Visit wikipedia for more detailed explanations.

I still can't accept my retardedness in doing the exact opposite things to "cure" my right ear. Should have used "Esuna" or something like that... haha

I've got so many things that I want to say but for some reason, I can't. I just can't. Its like my thoughts are all flushed around inside me and I can't set them down and articulate them out.
I am facing several dilemmas and internal problems recently and it vexes me to the core just to think about them.

But yet, I can't escape from them. How ironic.

In the past, I used to condemn people who imbibes concoction conceived from the fermentation of sugars derived from starch based material. Ironically, now, I take pleasure in ingesting that mixture which I so abhorred a long long time ago. Its psychotropic effects is simply overwhelming. However, I must ensure that it does not become habitual. I must.

So they say ".. the only certainty about the future is its uncertainty."