Fortunately, I have Vesak Day to recharge, a very welcomed technical break to otherwise what is a bad week so far. And of course, I have my guilt to contend with, guilty of leaving Jie Ren, Chei Ren and Amanda to run the platoon when AAO is only next week; guilty of leaving Chei Ren and Ben to run NDP matters, and all because the department we are supposed to augment for the workplan is totally irresponsible and incapable of doing the workplan themself.

When I signed on and my friend asked me how long I would stay in this career, I replied that I will stay on as long as I am well taken care of by my bosses.

Up till this day, I had very supportive superiors, until I got myself saddled with my most recent assignment. Supposedly, we get to learn from the really senior people. It turned out that the three young officers worked our asses off trying to get presentations in place, and while admittedly we did not do a good job due to a lack of guidance from our "mentors", what really disturbed me (or us) was their apparent willingness to leave us in the fray to answer to our ultimate boss.

I have to agree with Nic here, I have never, ever been reprimanded by anyone to the extent whereby I dare not look directly at him. And I can almost picture my "mentor" whistling away, as if we were never his charge

In 2005 Milan gave the Reds a first half footballing lesson, and had the better of the later stages, but ended up humiliated. Two years later they were easily second best for the first 44 minutes, and barely created any chances all night, but clearly their luck had changed.

Had Dirk Kuyt's goal-bound first half shot not been deflected away by the kind of interception Liverpool relied on two years ago then things could have been so different. An inch or two and the game swings Liverpool's way.

Instead it was Pirlo's average free kick that deflected off Inzaghi's upper arm that made all the difference. An inch or two to the left and it misses the striker for an easy save. The ball never ran the Reds' way. Take Dida's parry from Pennant's shot as just one example.

Then there was the ref's refusal to give Gattuso the second yellow he deserved. It clearly wasn't going to be Liverpool's night.

However, over the two finals one win each strikes me as pretty fair. And while Milan banished their memories of two years ago, they cannot damage ours; the songs are just one reminder. The cup on permanent display is another. Five times is still the third best tally in European history.

Maybe too much history was made that glorious Turkish night; my fear before this game was that Milan would fluke a victory now that Liverpool have improved, and so it proved. That's an unwritten football rule. It's known as Sod's Law.

That's not to say Milan's quality wasn't apparent with some of their possession, but the game hinged on the jammiest deflection. It allowed them to dictate the tempo of the second half but still they rarely troubled Reina.

It's times like these that I'm most proud to be a Liverpool fan. Being adjacent to the travelling Kop I was reminded yet again of the power it possesses and the bond that exists between the crowd, the players and the manager.

Anyone would have thought Liverpool had won, such was the noise even 30 minutes after the game had ended. No other club has fans this gracious in defeat or inspiring in adversity.

After the final whistle, when another miraculous comeback had been denied by the referee's premature whistle, the masses of Reds stayed to applaud Milan and show their appreciation to Rafa and the boys.

Milan's players were shocked much later in the night when, having milked the applause of their fans, and finally ready to head in, they realised the remaining few thousand Liverpool fans were still applauding them. They came over for more appreciation, and will have left aware of how special our fans can be. It was a great moment.

Exerpt from Paul Tomkins

Meetup with EXCO

Same old people, but everyone seemed older. It used to be loads of fun, crap and nonsense, and it is totally replaced by grown-ups talk. Of work, marriage, HDB and cost of living. Are we really so straddled with these issues now that we have left school?

I've had a meetup with my old Singapore Soc Exco - Velma, Peida, Jon, Doris, Qiqi and Ken. Had dinner at this great place (with even greater prices) at Bukit Timah. I didn't know Ken was back from US, until I saw him strolling along the road while I was searching for the carpark.

But yep, like I've mentioned, the things we talked about were totally different. It's kind of like a necessity now that we are, mid-twenties, but this situation seemed kinda far a year ago. Now it's a reality.

~~~~

I am currently buzzed up with Workplan. Slides and speeches are taking up most of my time. I remember this conversation I had with CO and Comd ADG earlier this month, where I was encouraged to spend more time with my platoon and do some ground work. I had been saying this again and again - that I wish I had the time Alvin enjoys to work with his platoon.

Of course, NDP's rehearsals are intensifying. Now, my entire Saturday is occupied by rehearsals and sequence runs. Weekdays are spent conducting trials at the floating platform. Other free time would be spent preparing and conducting discussions for these rehearsals. *pant*

And to round things up, preparations for our live firing, and my project are entering their final phases. I would expect a full schedule for the next couple of months before I leave for my next posting.

Quoating from eewen here,*Hello Panda*

Reflections on the past week

On Command and Control, On a "Trust-based" Leadership Style

A lot has happened in the past week during the exercise, things which should not be mentioned so publicly, but at the end of it all, when I approached S3 for a debrief, there was one thing he mentioned which doesn't really sit well with me, and its still bugging me.

He mentioned about mine, or in general, Alpha's leadership style, to be built on trust. It is our tendacy he says, to have things done based on "trust". Trust in that our junior commanders, our subordinates can get things done right. He wanted me to place sufficient command emphasis on our guys, supervise them and ensure that things are done exactly the way we want it to unfold, rather than to leave it to "auto-execution".

In defence, I cited the proficiency, expertise and experience my subcommanders and ADSS have to offer. S3 warned me against their complacency and an "everyday" attitude. Its apparent that my management style is different from him. No one's wong here, but I can't see myself being another kind of leader. I let my ADSS run the show, and I try to keep abreast of events happening. I feel that this is rather akin to the way my big boss runs many taskings of mine.. NDP, projects, etc. Somehow, someone must realise that I also do not have sufficient bandwidth, and most important, precious time to respond to minute details given my numerous taskings.

So is it just the assertiveness lacking in my command and control, or was it just a style differental? I feel that if I tighten my grip on my sub-commanders, the efficiency of the platoon management will suffer, and most importantly, conflicts will arise. So should my management style change?

Face Matching

Well, at least I resemble most Chinese, as compared to Pengyu haa... Call me Leslie anyone? ;)