2009 Reflections

Its hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day of 2009.
Don't you agree that time seems to speed up as we grow up.
I am really looking forward to the Year 2010.At least I could finally say I am gonna ORD next year.Haha..Which NSF is not looking forward to their ORDate.I guess secretly we are counting down in our hearts everyday.

This year has been a challenging year for me.I didn't start the year well.The first few months were spent mugging endlessly for my final year in poly.The unfathomable piles of projects ,ICAs and exams is sufficient to drive one crazy.Not to mention the catastrophe of conflicts and trials that came along with it.Thank God for loyal friends.They really stood by me during those adversities.Forgive and forget .These are basic answer of the problem.Time is the best healer.As time passes ,the rage ,the sorrow and scar will gradually disappear .


BF0626 had a wacky time in the class chalet after we bid farewell to my poly life in NYP.
I went back to SICC to work .What an irony cause I once said that I will never go back to the place again.While...Its their attractive pay that lures me back.I gained an deeper insight of the REAL working world.Its a jungle out there.Office politics and backstabbing are so common.This prepares me for my working life in the future.

April fool day ,I went Shanghai with Shaun and Jonice.What an awesome and unforgettable trip.I always hope that I will go back there someday.

20th birthday- I also tried something different ,went clubbing with the MSC friends -Jason's first encounter with the dance floor really cracks me up.I laughed till I rolled on the floor.

I also went G2max with my brother.It was an breathtaking experience.

Just before I enlist I got the chance to travel around.
Went Fuzhou,my granny'家乡 and an impromptu trip to Malaysia.


On 070909.I migrated to Tekong to live as an soldier..
P.O.P on 090909 and was posted to the infamous Guards unit.Seriously ,my life in my new unit was better than my recruit days in Cougar.Maybe its because I haven't been to the RECC course.I don't even want to think about it.

I went for my lymph node dissection surgery on 081209.It was an horrifying experience.

I didn't set any distinct resolution in the beginning of 2009.but I am really glad that I manage to achieve one of my goal which is to clear off all my Hp bills debts which dates back from 2001. Now,I live an debt free life.Once again I need to thank Suzy for helping me.

2009 is filled with so many memories .
It may not be a great year for everyone.
Lets believe
2010 will be the best year yet.

I do hope these happy days last longer

Okie..I know its disgusting to see my lumph node everytime you come to this site.
Let me update my blog and push the picture down.
I was given 3 weeks of MC to recover.
Call me a Chao Keng Kia.I can't be bothered .I am glad the lump is removed and hope the swelling goes away soon.
I am grateful for the time given to spend with my dearest ah ma and my family.
Thanksgiving night.
Look who I stumble upon?

The busiest woman in the world-Jasmine Lim(Left)!!!!
She is still the cheerful , lively sunshine girl.
She never fails to infect people with her joy and humor.

Suzy(Center)One of my longest friend.
She become prettier liao..
I browse through my photo album and found this vey blur picture.
Its the only picture with the 3 of us.
Look how much we have change these two years.

Don't kill me for posting this picture
Need to 回味一下..

Stace's 21st birthday


The RF reunite without Mr Mok.
I got these pictures from Stace 's very creative blog.
Thanks Stace for the great party!

Lastly I wanna thank everyone for your well wishes and prayers!!
Its comforting to receive these encouragements.

Bye Bye Lymph Node

I went for the Lymph Node Exucision Surgery yesterday.
I had a hell of a time in the Op theater.
I walked into the theater and to my surprise there were 2 surgeons and 6 assistants awaiting for me .Isn't is just a minor surgery ?Is there a need for so many staff ?

I lied on the operating table and one of the surgeon injected me with anesthesia.After giving me 3 jab of anesthesia.The surgeon used the operating knife and sliced through my skin.I heard my skin tearing and felt tinges of pain on my neck .I screamed in pain .

The surgeons immediately gave me 2 more jabs and told me to relax.I wonder why they didn't give me enough anesthesia before they operate on me.So unprofessional!!!The disadvantage of LA surgery is that you are wide awake during the operation.You are aware of every single details of the surgery procedure.I heard the surgeons discussing on how they should take out the lump from my neck.
"give me knife,"
"give the blade ".
"The lump is deeper than we have expected."

Who wouldn't be terrified to hear things like that?
They slashed through my skin tissues and kept squeezing my neck to push the lump out.

After 20 minutes of squeezing and cutting ,the surgeons are still unable to cut out the lump from my neck .
Hence they decided to get a senior surgeon to finish the job.We waited another 20 minutes for the Tua Bai senior surgeon to arrive.Can you imagine ?I was left on the operating table with a open wound through out the waiting time.

Finally he arrived and he told me that they are going to cut deeper into my skin tissues to reach the lump in my neck .I was petrified and before I know it ,I felt a sudden twinge on my neck .The pain was overwhelming and I yelp like a loony.The surgeon gave another jab and told me to calm down. He strike a conservation with me to distract my attention.He asked me about my life in army and told me that he was once an infantry officer.

He ended the conservation by telling me that the lump was taken out and the other surgeon begin to stitched up my wound ..

Now I am experiencing the post syndrome of the surgery -sore neck and itchiness

and I can't really move my neck.

Hopefully I will recover soon.

Really?

A person often meet his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.
Jean de La Fontaine

lost

Life is a series of decisions.
Have I made the wrong ones?

Weekends should always be longer

It would be really nice if Friday is officially a day off for everyone in the world.
2 days of rest every week is definitely insufficient .
I am already looking forward to Xmas and New year as both holiday happens to be on Friday.

This week ,I manage to sneak in a portable TV into my camp.I was able to watch some TV shows and ease my TV addiction .Sadly good things always come to an end.We were caught by my sergeant and wasn't allowed to bring the TV from next week onwards.I have been loading episodes of Friends season 1 into my mp3.My aim is to finish all 10 seasons ,watching the series really cracks me up.

Thursday
I gave Joel his belated birthday treat.We manage to dine at the secluded but very famous Wasabi Teh.The Unagi is superb.Then we watched the sneak peak for New Moon at Shaw house.There are more fight scenes in this sequel so its more watchable for guys.

Friday
It really very hard to organize a meet-up these days.After postponing this outing twice, I finally met up with Ice and Kokwee to celebrate Sam's very belated birthday. .We had a heavy lunch in Marche.We were so full that we skipped dinner .After Sam left to buy her Christmas tree,we went to play
Leftfordead 2 .It is freaking fun!!!!!You can chop the zombies with an axe or a chainsaw.
Guys,Lets go and play more LAN!!!!!

Saturday
I went to service on and finally get to hear Pst Kong 's preaching.He never fail to inspire.He was recommending us to read the book by Malcolm Gladwell-The Outlier.
Which is a coincidence as Lincoln just gave me this book.I can't wait to finish it.

My surgery is on the 8 DEC.. say a little prayer for me.

Thanks!

Rainy days

I love the monsoon season as trainings will be cancelled and the cooling breeze makes it easier to sleep .These days ,I have been trying to make good use of my free time in army.I finished a few books and I am attempting to learn guitar from my bunk mates.Everyone seems to know how to play it.

Met up with Anna and Lincoln yesterday morning.We have a lot of catching up to do.
The Beijing trip have brought a positive change in L's life.I am really happy for him.
Then ,I went church with Hexing.It have been 2 months since I went for service.
Guess there is too much doubts and fear in me.Trying to get my faith back.

In the evening,we went to meet Suzy for movie .We somehow manage to get tickets for 2012.
Unfortunately , we didn't manage to get good seats and we sat near very close to the screen.The mind blowing CGL effects cause Hexing to feel giddy and he decided to sleep through out the show.I don't understand how he manage to sleep under such loud sound noises. The world will definitely not end in 2012. My ORD is on 08 May 2011 leh. I will need more time!!!!!

I live for the weekends

I guess I am used to the bo liao life in camp.
After all,what is there to complain when you are paid for doing nothing.
Weekends are extremely important to NS guys .48 hours of freedom is all you have,but I often find myself slacking at home.
Its quite hard to meet up with friends as I also wanna use this time to spent time with my family.
but thankfully ,this week I get to meet up with Hexing and fen .
Initially we wanted to watch 2012 ,but it was all sold out.
So we watched Love happens instead.Its a love comedy with a predictable and simple plot .
Its worth the ticket as I get see Jennifer Aniston in most of the scenes.

We went to eat our favourite Pontian noodle after the show.
Its funny that we always go back to the same old place..

I am jinxed

Just when I say my life is getting better in 3 G ,I was deployed to Tekong .
Just when I thought I am going to enjoy freedom from my regimental lifestyle,I got out of bike course and was sent back to the miserable Bedok camp.
So much so for "November will be awesome!"
While my fellow platoon mates are enjoying their freedom from camp.
I have to submit to stagnant and meaningless routine orders.
Other than the the usual morning PT ,there is practically nothing else left for me to do.
I have been sleeping and eating a lot these days.
Novels and magazines did help me to pass my time.
Still, I am slowly decaying and I cant do anything about it.
Wake me up when November ends.

November will be awesome!

I just realised that my biking course will start on Monday.
That means I will get to stay out from camp for 1 month!!!
No more revelry@ 5.30am,Area cleaning,PT,Tekan sessions.
I will have my freedom back for 1 month,
in exchange of risking my life doing bike stunts and obstacle course.
It's worth it.
I had an eventful Saturday.
Though I didn't managed to catch the movies that I intended to watch.
I went to watch MJ's This is it.
The movie shows the final rehearsals of the King of Pop's comeback concerts.
It could have been the world's greatest concert .
Through out the 2hours ,I was dazzled by MJ's astonishing energy and dance moves.
I have fell in love with all his classic songs once again.
I guess his songs are ageless,百听不厌.
It's a pity that the world have lost one of the Greatest entertainers of all time.



I met up with my poly clique for Halloween night,
we haven't meet up for quite some time.
It's fun catching up with old friends.
I dressed up as Jason,Friday the 13th.
It was a failed attempt.HAHA
Pictures will be up on Facebook soon.

Home sweet Home

Two day MC from the doctor that explains why I am so active on facebook these two days .
I had an incredible time staying at home.
How I miss sleeping in wee hours and waking up without an alarm clock.
I had the luxury to catch up on the latest US dramas and my favourite animae.
After 5 years of waiting.Inuyasha is finally back for its final season.
I have been a fan of the series since it was shown on art central in 2005.
Thankfully ,Viz media decides to give the show a proper ending.
Beside lazing at home.I also helped my granny with some of her chores such as sweeping the floor,cleaning the dirty fans and buying lunch for her.
If I am Hiro Nakamura,I will time-travel to 08 May 2011 (My ORD date) and live the life that I wanna live!
Dream on,wayne....

The great escape

Just when I thought life is starting to get better in 3 G.
I received the sudden news that I will be deployed to Tekong for 1 week.
This will be the longest outfield exercise that I have ever been(8 days 7 night.)
Our job is to be enemies for the company fire movement test,something like A-Tec.
WTH!!!!They should have inform us earlier and not the day of deployment.
We pair up and were thrown into the jungle for more than 16 hours,awaiting for different sections to come.I have to endure
the scotching hot sun ,
endless mosquitoes stings,
and wild boars attacks.
I was also mentally disturbed by sneaky foot steps.
My surgery is scheduled on 24 Nov 09.
Hopefully ,this is my chance of getting out of this damn place!

There are two movies that I really wanna watch .



and

Bitter sweet

After bragging about my pathetic life in Guards unit for the past 1 month.

I decided to blog something positive about my new unit life.The physical training may be grueling but there is alot of admin time between the trainings for us to slack and rest. The cookhouse meals are tastier than those I had in Tekong .The best thing is that my IPPT result have finally improved!!!!At last I achieved Gold for my IPPT.This is the first time in my life that I jumped over the 234cm mark for Standing Broad Jump .Hopefully the 200 dollar reward will be coming my way.

Bitter

My PS is back!That means hell training for us everyday.
100 chinups per day
FOB to cookhouse for lunch.
Crazy PT sessions

I visited the ENT specialist on Thursday and found out more about the lymp on my neck.
He told me that I have a lymp node.

What is lymp nodes
Small, rounded structures along the small vessels of the lymphatic system that produce disease-fighting white blood cells and filter out harmful microorganisms and toxins from the lymph. Lymph nodes may become enlarged when they are actively fighting infection.
Lymph nodes also have clinical significance. They become inflamed or enlarged in various conditions, which may range from trivial, such as a throat infection, to life-threatening such as cancers.

Well...I dont think its that serious..

I gotta feeling

That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good good night

Tonight's the night
Let's live it up
I got my money
Let's spend it up
Go out and smash it
Like Oh My God
Jump off that sofa
Let's kick it OFF


This song was stuck in my head when I was doing the 6 km fast march.
The only motivation for me to move on was the fact that I am booking out at the end of the fast march. We have to finish the 6km fast march in 50 min with a total load of 20 kg( field bag and SAR 21) on our back.This is no easy feat .Many gave up,some fell ,some vomitted.I wanna thank YQ for pulling me along the march.If not for him I would have gave up too..

I am not sure how long I can take this shit.
I hate booking in!!!!!!!!

Ready to strike

The only way to deal with your fear is to face it.

Thats what my CSM said to me.

The ugly truth

My mood was lightened after watching this show.

I just have to accept the truth
even its ugly

Living in denial

I guess the positive thinking method didn't work out for me.
I just have to accept my fate.
Please stop the time now!

The End of Tekong days

I have been busying catching up with friends and families .That's why I didn't have the time to finish up this post.The 11 days break have been great so far. I have been waiting for this break ever since the first day I got enlisted into Tekong. I wish it never ends...Perhaps it will never end,cause I have been praying that I will get into a 8-5 unit and I believe I will get it!!!!HAHA.
My days in Tekong have been Craggy.
Things did not turn out to be what I have expected .
I did not realised I would miss my family and friends so much.
Neither did I expect to meet crazy bunk mates and go through tortuous field camp and takan sessionsI.I have been stretch mentally and physically during these two months.
Be it good or bad .These memories will be deeply etched in my mind.


Credits : Wenyao 's father 's photography skills.



The RO Parade inspection

Try to spot me!!

Recruit Wayne Lim Wen Jie

Mum was trying to act cute.

The BMTC Roar


Me ,Joseph and Sebastian.

(The most talk about picture)
Me,Jason,Josephine and Jolie


Half of Cougar platoon 1.The rest went missing.

Half of my bunk mates.

Kenny,Martin.Me and Tian Yuan

Posing with Sir Eidham.The nicest PC in Cougar

Our Platoon Sergeant ,The man that makes me tremble.

I guess I will not be seeing you guys anymore...

Yong guang,My secondary sch mate.

Kokwee,My Poly class mate
Its a coincidence that both of them are in the same platoon as me.


Captain Shaiful,He is the hero!

Sg Yeow.His fav phrase:knock it down!

Sg Chris the best Sg in cougar coy!

A awesome dinner with my family after the parade.

090909.

I am home!!!!!!

I have been waiting for this break for the longest time.
Its finally here!!!!
I wish it never ends...
I will post my POP pictures soon..

3 more days

What i need now is

Clarity of mind

Inspiration

Purpose .

11 more days

I can't believe we get to book out on thursday.
Its a dream come true for us.
Finally! I get to enjoy a longer weekend .
Managed to watch GI Joe before it disappear from the theaters.
I must say Sienna Miller is hot !
I guess watching movies every weekend is the only source of enjoyment for recruits like me.
Every weekend I just hope seconds will turn into hours.
so I can meet my different clique of friends .
Life in Tekong is getting a little bit better.
but I just hope it will end at the right note.

Thank God

I finally get to have a full weekend off
Book out: on Saturday.
Book In :Monday.
I managed to watch two movies ,
The Proposal and Where got Ghost?.
It managed to cheer me up quite abit .
I also went to service .
Pst Kong preaching never fails to motivate me.
I do hope that I will be able to have a postive mindset
to face my 21 long months of army life.

3 weeks

I am glad that I had finished my 3 day 2 night out field camp.
and G test .
Initially I was quite worried about the G
Negative thoughts keep surfacing in my mind .
What if I drop the G?
Would I just die or will I become a cripple?
To my surprise ,I was rather calm when I was throwing the G
and I managed to hit the target board!


It was indeed a once in a life time experience.

Happy belated birthday to Kagek!
Sorry for not turning up for your birthday party!

I just booked out last night
and will be booking in later at night.

Last than 24 hours of free time =No life

3 more weeks.
I cant wait.

30 days

I need to endure for another 30 days.
Field camp is over!
I survived 6 days without shitting,bathing and
endless unreasonable takan sessions.
At least there still some welfare given to us.
We were given 2 sets cooked meals delivered from cook house and
battecourse was cancelled due to rain.
I need more time seriously!
Pray for me .thanks

Everyday stronger ,better ,faster.

That is the motto of my company.
I need to learn to embrace dirtiness.
I will survive the 6 day Field next week.
I must................................
Pray for me.Thanks

HomeSick

It really feels great to be back home!

I missed home,my family and friends badly.

Thanks for all the encouragment and prayers.

I am still hanging on...

I cant wait for the remaining 7 weeks to be over!

I cant wait.....


Pray for me .Thanks

鼓浪屿 Gu lang Yu

I am still down with the irritating flu.
Guess I will still enlist tomorrow
My final post on my Fuzhou Trip.

My mum and I took an 15 min ferry ride to the tourist Island of Xiamen.
-鼓浪屿 Gu lang Yu. It is also known as the Town of Piano
as there is alot of Piano in this tiny little island.



Gu lang Yu 's nursery =looks pretty classy .

Gulangyu Architecture-the westerners used to inhabit in this Island.
That explains why this place is also under the European 's spell.


There is a beautiful beaches with splendid scenery.
I took this opportunity to camwhore....




We also went to the underwater world .
I am skeptical about the standard of underwater world.
As I had a bad experience in the underwater world in shanghai


Sperm whale

I am not disappointed this time as
most of the creatures are alive and not fossilized.
Weird looking fish 1

Weird looking fish 2

Weird looking fish 3


Lastly we watched the Animal show.
I was really amused and entertained by the diligent Dolphin and Seals
I just hope that they will be released back to the ocean someday
They should go back to where they belong.



As of 9/7/09 .I no longer live in the Island of Singapore .
I gotta miss you guys!