Hello! Happy New Year to all out there . Seems like 2004 has past faster then Ive expected , lotsa things had happened. Spent quite abit of my NS allowance on new yr clothes tis year. 3 tops frm 77th Street, 2 from Fox Men and a pair of Jeans frm Nautica. Got myself a new pair of shoes frm a shop at heeren as well .... Seems like the greatest cai sheng ye at tis time of the yr are those working in the retail business... can see the lao ban niang's grin whenever the cash register rings ...

Chinese New Year also mean lots and lotsa eating ..... the once in a yr popiah, steamboat for reunion dinner, ba kwa, pineapple tarts etc ....... Ha hope all tis food will contribute to my new yr resolution of gaining some xtra pounds ba ...

Tis sunday will be attending SE's bday celebration, the first one in 2005 im attending .... wishing her a happy bday first ... and an advanced happy valentine's day to all lovebirds out there.

Tis yr's christmas was rather diff frm the prev's yrs. My lao ban niang was back frm her leave clearing on christmas eve. She went thru' our work individually and as expected none met her standards. We were given up to Friday to improvise b4 she kicks us off to another dept. Bt good thing we were allowed to leave ard 11+ .

Watched Kungfu Hustle at GV Bishan at the later part of the day wif Xueli, Zhenru, vincent, zheng cang and dingze. Was indeed a lame show bt much better than i expected. Liked the cheorography and camera angles of the show bt find some parts of the effects rather fake. Chilled out at Dome cafe after tht for a short while . The Ice Mocha with Gelato there is really good. Out of boliaoness we headed for Bishan Park and spent our nite there talking cock till dawn... guess none of us expected we'll stay till tht late also..... had our breakfast and headed back home after tht.

Metup wif my cs and co at holland v's Sushi Tei for dinner on christmas day. Ordered the curry rice there. Abit too big for my appetite though. Drove the few of them to clementi as they wanted to rewatched kungfu again for the benefit of chun hwee who had missed the show. Headed home after dropping dingze at kovan mrt as I wasnt really tht confident of driving to sengkang ... Ha wat a bad driver and friend ..... Signing off for now ... :P

Hmm got my posting last friday ...... got posted to airforce skool at paya lebar ...... guess i was rather lucky as it was one of the locations ive hoped for ...... Apparantly they chose all the multimedia pple frm pes c to be admin support there as they wanted us to help them develop some courseware for the trainees there ........ that makes it a 3 dmmt and 2 dict grp in my dept.

Which meant tht we were given 1 week to finish up a courseware prototype with macromedia authorware as well as a wallpaper wif photoshop ..... hopefully can meet the standards of my female boss else will be transfered to some other depts to do administrative work. Life is in the airforce is indeed slack ........ working hrs : mon -thurs 8 to 5.30 , fridays 8 to 5 . 1 hr lunch break , 1/2 hr breakfast break and another 1/2 hr tea break ...... was rather surprised to hear they even give u time to eat breakfast ...... bt only lunch is catered for u at the cookhouse, the rest is at ur own expenses.

Being in airforce also meant tht i wun be in No 4 uniform anymore . Just draw my No 3 frm the e-mart on thurs bt wun be wearing it till everyone gets the full set and name tag.... Im still waiting for my top and beret as well as PT shorts .

There's also a airforce mess in the school which serves beer at only 1.20 on normal days and i tink less than a dollar during happy hrs .... there's pool tables, arcade machines as well as a mini cafe there. Yesterday evening also saw them holding a christmas feast there bt as the thing only started at 6.15, i did nt stayed for tht . The dept i was in, AFS HQ also had our own celebration during weds lunchtime ...... basically the whole thing is rather lame ..... There's a buffet lunch for the staff, a christmas carol competition as well as a gift exchange towards the end. We didnt participate in the last one as it was for staff who had paid for the presents . Thats bout it for tis week.

It has been a well spent 5 days off from military life .... Went to bishan for a short while on thurs b4 setting off for beach rd to stock up on army supplies. scouted ard for my new guitar skool as it was near the beach rd area also .... tht area really super ulu. The skool's situated along tis Bussorah Street facing Park Royal Hotel . One of the small lanes which leads to a mosque at the other end ....... kinda deserted at night if u were to walk alone along tht stretch of road .... Metup cs after tht at chinatown for dinner. He brought me to his old workplace for some chinese tea after tht ...quite an interesting place to hangout and rather different frm wat i would have imagined.
Had a late lunch/early dinner at Kenny Rogers with my sis on fri. Was my first time dining there . The roasted chicken and side dishes were alright but didnt quite like the ribs they had there . Went to nydc nxt for desserts. We ordered the Grandma goes Nuts mudpie as well as 2 drinks. The mudpie was indeed veriiii sweet , wif a sprinkle of orea biscuits and nuts inside the dessert, complete wif a chocolate fudge topping.
To end the day we went to Ai Qing Hai for a short while . Had a hard time finding the place as marina square was still undergoing renovation. The singers tht nite gave a good performance. Sang out the usual songs like Ai Heng Jian Dan, Ai Qing Bu Neng Zuo Bi Jiao, Love me etc .....

Went ktv twice in a row on Sat, Sun. First was with my poly mates - Jason, Jiehao, Steven, Chee seng, karen, christopher , weilin and zhaowen on sat nite. Had been a rather long time since all frm my fyp grp had met up for a gathering. Talked a great deal bout ns lives as expected . Most of them went for a steamboat dinner b4 the ktv but i had to give it a miss to attend my guitar class nearby. Trying hard to find more time to practice on my guitar, haven been playing much since I went NS.

Sunday afternoon went cycling at east coast for 3 solid hrs .... The usual pple with the addition of xueli, delwin and william and vincent. Did a few chinups along the way .... tink i really shd improve on it sia .... most of them can do like 6, 8 some even 10 when i can only do a pathetic 2 or 3....... even dingze had surprisingly improved lolx .... to tink we were on par few years back ...
Few of us went to partyworld at chinatown after tht for ktv and sang till 9pm .... Tink im truely overdosed wif ktv liao ....

Booking in a few hours time .... Will be confined the coming weekend most likely as im having fieldcamp and a live grenade throw. If everything goes fine , shd be booking out on fri nite the following week ba :P

Finally time for my 2nd bookout. I guess i was really lucky to have my 2nd book fall on deepavali and hari raya ...... tht gives me all together 5 days rest till Mon Nite ..... But guess the true torture will come the following week when its time for Field camp ...... hope things outfield will turn out fine for me ba ......

It has been a month full of events for me .... So far I've done the following

-2 IPPT tests
-2km, 4km, 6km road march ( 1 more 10km left- pes c only march till max 10km)
-Technical Handling(IA drills, Draw/Send Arms, Clean Rifle, Fix Bayonet etc.......)
-First Aid
-Dummy grenade throw behind Company , Grenade Assault Course
-Outfield (Learning to pitch basha with groundsheets, tent pins, basha sticks)

I guess the luckiest thing for me so far was being excused frm range ba ..... tht would mean i wun have to do the following
-IMT (Stimulated Range)
-Live Range
which is good cos alot of pple tio xtra there .

But nevertherless my carelessness still led me to sign on 2 xtras, 1 for losing my rifle sling buckle and another for nt having slippers inside my fieldpack. So i guess tht would be 1 or 2 weekends shortened for me Zzzz.

Probably will elaborate more bout NS life in my nxt book out ba ......... Guitar lessons resuming tis sat ...... jus gotta knw frm my teacher attitude has shifted and renamed themself as Echo Music Skool. Seems like lotsa things have changed while i was in tekong . Time to get outta the house liao . :P

Tis would possibly be my final post b4 I enlist ......... A recap of this week. Didnt do much stuff on the weekdays except the usual jogging and swimming. Had a really hard time making my pc worked after formating it ....

Met kath and kelv up for coffee at the tcc cafe nxt to centrepoint. Didnt realise previously the old breadtalk had moved out ..... veri comfy couches there ...... the usual crapping and talking cock ..... went to did a little shopping after tht, Kelv got himself a tee and ny cap after quite abit of poundering. Had dinner at mac followed by desserts at nydc though i only ordered a drink .....tink these days really splurge alot ...... my savings plans shall begin frm enlistment day :P

Had the nth ktv session today wif Cs, Jason, Jiehao, Dingze and Zr. sang till like 6.15 b4 we headed to marina south to meetup siong eng and zheng cang for steamboat ..... my first time patronising the Chong Pang Steamboat. It was only after i ate halfway thru my meal did i realised i was holding on to 2 6100 !!! Ha i took jiehao's phone my mistake as it was almost identical to mine ........ blur me ended up going dhoby ghaut to find them to pass him back the phone ...... I hope i wun take the wrong rifle when i go NS else can really die lolx ......

To conclude tis post ......... I'll like to thank all my friends who had made tis 4 mths really enriching and full of happenings ........ All the ktvs, movie sessions, la-teh sessions, visit to ming ge can ting, bday celebration,dinner dates, concerts, singing competition etc .......... really enjoyed myself in all of them .......

Really thankful to the pple who sent me well wishes thru msn, icq, smses . Hope everything goes on smoothly for me ba ........ Tekong here i come ! :p

A rather fulfilling sat for me ba ....... metup wif xueli, dingze , vincent, william and edward for ktv at partyworld in the afternoon ..... my first time going wif most of them except dingze ....... quite a new experience la singing in front of diff pple ..... bt im kinda overdosed wif ktv le .... bt nxt week probably will go one more rd ha .....going mad .....

Siong eng and zhenru joined us soon after tht and we went over to cityhall ..... i parted wif them at suntech to meetup jiehao, jason and cs for steamboat at tian tian huo guo ........ wah a veri fulfilling dinner .... my only proper meal of the day bt felt really bloated after tht ........ the Ma La Guo is really power ..... even Cs cannot tahan .......

Nothing much to write bout le getting rather sleepy .....will update again some other day Zzzzz

10 more days to NS ........ :p

Tuesday saw the end of my 3 mths stint at mediaring .... we had a mini food session ard 3 or4. Kath made us some Japanese Curry with cutlet, whip potato and potato salad while i brought along the egg tarts ive bought for them. The day really pass faster then expected probably cos i wasnt really doing much work on tht day ba .......we went to take some photos during lunch and after work too ..... will post them up in the future. Though i still find the work im doing there rather redundant , it was indeed a diff experience frm the others ive had .

Probably will say alittle bout each of my colleagues ba ....... Starting frm the phone testers ........ Yeo : a rather oriental guy , tis guy really can talk alot bout the chinese literature kinda topic ..... Nadiya: The gal who appears to be sweet and petite but actually has a spunky attitude behind haha , always shocked me wif her command of mandarin . Kath : the "Jing Mao Shi Wang" with striking blonde streaks neber failed to amazed us wif her fluent japanese and her knowledge bout food ......... The engineers --- Nicholas: A really bo chup guy on the surface bt cant crap well too ..... Bernard: tis guy needs improvement on his mandarin man .... bt cool and approachable too ..... Johnny : Tink he's rather interested in anime, have a good sense of humour too, Kelvin: One guy whom has a good passion of music , can sit down and talk cock wif him once in a while........ and nt forgetting moe : seldom tok to him bt he was quite friendly too when i jus came in , tok he look abit malay though. Guess tis is getting abit too long and boring so shall stop here ....... Thanks to all who had made my stay so 'enjoyable' ........

19 more days to NS Slavery ...

Went to 2 concerts last week, hit awards on fri and Sky Wu/Jeff Chang concert on saturday .... was my first time driving alone for the latter ..... wasnt quite sure of the directions ..;.. but thankfully we manage to find our way there in time ..... The concert was quite alright la but probably they could have sung more of their old hits ...... gotta see the humourous side of sky wu ..... didnt realise he could actually crap tht well till tht day ...... The whole thing ended at ard 11 ....... drove to the famous Tao Huay Stall at Geylang to get something to munch ..... but decided to takeaway as there werent much seats left ....... Sent xiaomin back and reach home ard 12+ .....

went ktv wif kath, nadiya , shuorui and one of her frd (forgot the name) ...... i tink ive kinda decided on the song to sing for the mu chuan audition le ....... most prob would be Piano by Fan Yi Chen ...... But gotta work on the chorus of the song more ......

Went to buy toto jus now @ the chaichee SG pools .... wahaha my veri first try ....bought 3 bucks worth of quick pick and the numbers look alright to me ...... low chances of winning bt jus giving it a shot ......:P

14 more days b4 my contract ends at mediaring ..... and after which 20 days leading to NS ........ Gonna cherish my remaining days well liao ....... Hopefully this weekend would be able to meetup my dmmt mates .... haven been seeing them for quite some time le ......... hope everyone is doing fine........Back to work for now :P

Had lunch wif dingze, chun hwee and zhenru today at chinatown., shunbian pass the photos ive developed to chun hwee. As usual the 2 of them were talking mostly bout NS .... so tried talking to zhenru more to reduce the sian-ness...... Went for my guitar class at 1pm...... Learnt the colin raye song today, jus the intro part already seems chim ..... more intensive practice needed ........ Would be stopping class for the whole of oct as my teacher having exams and I'm enlisting too ....... Hopefully wun be too lost when i return in november.........

Metup kelvin at Bras Basah to get his guitar . He settled for a black acoustic frm johnson, same brand as mine but diff color ..... tink the variety at tht music store really quite wide ...... saw a few guitar stands which look pretty cool.... maybe when i owe a few more pairs can buy one of them. Kath join us soon at the V-8 cafe after her work ...... had a short chat there b4 proceeding to kbox@suntech for ktv ...... sang lotsa oldies as usual ....... bt was kinda fun la first time going ktv wif colleagues ..... diff experience ....... Had dinner at pasta mania after tht , ate the Olio pasta ....Kelv gave us a ride back after the whole thing ....... Hopefully can have more of such off-office gatherings b4 i enlist ....... Time to catch some sleep :P

Hmm jus a few days made such a big difference ..... Lee Jiawei has jus lost the most impt 2 matches , the semis against north korea and the bronze medal match against South Korea ........ The former was really such a waste .... having lead at 3-1 with one of the games at 11-0, she could have jus made it .... Haiz i guess thts something Lee will have to work on .... this's probably nt her first such defeat. It was a gd thing PM Lee mentioned bout her during his veri first national day rally address . I tink we shd all be proud of her having trained so hard to get to the top 4 .... nt every table tennis player can made it tht far in their whole sporting life ..... Hopefuly she'll recover soon frm this downfall ....

Went to the Japanese Summer Festival at Changi wif Kath, Kelv Phua and Kelv Tee ...... We didn't manage to get any coupons by the time we reached, all sold out . Thankfully most of the stalls accept cash but due to the exceptionally long queue at the stalls, we decided to go elsewhere for dinner. Probably due to my lack of interest in Jap culture, I find the thing rather boring. Bt it was gathering wif colleagues so decided nt to give it a miss ba .... On the whole still quite alright la .... had a good chat .....

Metup wif chun hwee b4 my guitar class to pass him the stuff he left wif me ..... he seems to be missing his days at tekong , having jus recently been posted to mainland . He was complaining to me hw slack his unit pple were and etc .... Ha hopefully i tio one gd unit after my 7 weeks stint . Learnt "Xi Huan Ni" by kit chan this week during my class. The chords are simple bt getting the tempo right was a challenge at the beginning. Ha talking bout guitar I've jus managed to get a "tu di" who unofficially agreed to learn frm me .... wahaha we shall exchange tips ba can get free vocal tips at the same time ..... Audition frm mu chuan is drawing soon .... and my teacher is still unaware tht im participating ...... wish me luck :p

Attended my graduation yesterday afternoon at the sp convention hall .... brought my uncle and aunt to the T12A cafe for a drink first b4 entering the hall ..... The ceremony was quite diff frm wat i expected .....watch a few videos bout the award winners , intructions to graduands and etc .... Then after hearing the rather lengthy speech ... one by one we walk up stage to get the scroll .... Gotta fake tht smile while u on the stage cos u r being tailed by a camera right frm the point ur name is announced and ur face appears on the 3 giant screens across the convention hall .... quite impressed sp could actually have the resources to do all these ....

It was a series of photo taking right after the ceremony .... bumped into pple like dingze, siong eng, vincent, zhenru etc outside as they were attending the 5pm session. Practically everyone there brought along their camera so it was kinda confusing where our pixs all end up at after the shoot ....

After much poundering and undecisiveness, we've decided to have steamboat at 'tian tian huo guo' which is just opposite parco bugis junction .... find the english name rather lame "happy pay restaurant' .... obviously none of us were happy paying the price of 20 plus after the meal .... when we were merely expecting 10 plus ..... guess the drinks cost us alot ba ....... but i would definitely recommend this for a grp gathering ..... the soup base is really quite good as mentioned on the advert ....

Coming outta the grad topic .... our s'pore paddler Lee Jia Wei has beaten China's Wang Nan to get herself a slot in the semi finals .... i tink she really did had her revenge after her upset at the sydney olympics ....... Find tht the chinese players shd really reflect on their attitude .... earlier on Wang Nan was reported to have said tht the S'poreans players were neber go enuff for the chinese ..... I'm glad we've proved to them tht she was wrong ....Hopefully she can beat her nxt opponent frm North Korea who has won s'pore's zhang xue ling earlier on ..... Imagine if Zhang would have won.... It would have been a SG vs SG semi final .... meaning we r definitely assured of a medal ..... the one who wins gets either silver or gold, the one who loses has a chance for a bronze ..... Hmmz lets all pray for them for now .... :P