i shall have to revamp this blog soon, its getting too boring. far too plain and simple too. and with the lack of pictures in the template and some exceedingly wordy entries , it can be an eyesore at times. but for now, ive managed to force myself to upload the pics, so its time to rest the eyes. and yay! i think i may be able to meet the guys up again! for now, lets meet the studs of my platoon ( wahaha!) :




Narcissus Sim, a godsend to all the single girls out there in spore =P




sim with tim and changtai, all ravenous pigs at fish and co




junhong, jiancheng and 'einstein'. they all look dazed haha




karken, engkiat, siqi and yicai




kheng hui and cavernous-mouthed cheng guan




last but not least, wonderwoman lim, lol




group photo: always ready, ready to strike! wwhhaaahhh!!!


and that was a pretty spastic line, esp the 'wah'part which has to be yelled out loud after reciting the whole guards' creed, which is damn long by the way. remember having to memorise it and then getting pumped if you forget/recite it wrongly. wat the toot. this part of NS i dun miss, rather, it can keep me rolling my eyes so much they get stuck up there. really stupid. worse still you have to recite it ever so often , which is like after reveillé and falling in, before and after pt, before and after route marches, soc and blah, and last parades... luckily, all these and a lot more shit has not blighted it much for me.


and next on the reverse-time path wld be my jc cls. havent met them in ages. quite happy to see them after such a long time. and am glad to see that most have not changed much. again, have to thank e creators of msn. staying in touch has never been easier. its a pity then that time was short that nite, not to mention that some were so fashionably late.. but on e whole, it was gd to relive e S46 days. certain key players were not present tho, wld have been more raucous otherwise.




ernest with the girls




swelling and nette




the guys




'shameless' self-taken pic of angry and serene




01S46! albeit half-strength





huawei and ernest




shunjie and jiarui look puzzled haha

and with that i complete my entry for the nite. posting pics is fun!

up next on the list would be the 'guardians' of our nation: the fellow signalers of 3rd guards. to say that it was absolutely fun to catch up with this disparate bunch of ppl would be an understatement, for the mirth that filled the evening was more than enough to make me smile whenever i recall the jokes and jibes made ( read: the ridiculous conversation between our platoon's resident 'hunk', mr sim wh and his 'faithful sidekicks' lim zg and pan sq). managed to take lotsa pics too. jackson now has this 'einsteinian' hairstyle, and both kk and ct have this retro-looking hairdo, wahhaa. if not my constant procrastination in uploading pics, this entry would have been less wordy. for now, i'll just bask in the glorious and shitty recollections of the past. no words in any language can succinctly encapsulate the feeling that all felt the nite before. on a sidenote, thank god for the guy who invented the camera/digicam. memories will fade with time, but images captured will be immortalised forever on film/online.

with the mass exodus of US-bound ppl, the no. of crazy late nites and frequent outings have toned down considerably. and the nebulous plans for my séjour in france have recently started to take shape at long last.. looks like i'd be in EPF, located in e suburbs of paris, in a town called sceaux. cant wait to start sch! wld be bored stiff with almost everyone either in uni or in camp and hence few ppl to go out with. and its a matter of weeks more before all of us would be in the heat of studying or rather, getting ready to study. it has been an absolutely long hiatus for e guys-two and a half years of army and bumming around. im afraid that it will time to settle down and get back to books, and studying them in a foreign language wld probably induce a stronger soporific effect on me than english ones , and imagine checking the dictionary ever so frequently.. well, time to fasten the seatbelt.

and as i start arranging to meet up with ppl one last time (given all their crazy schedules, its sooo hard to find a day where everyone's free), an otherwise- usual outing has taken on more significance for me. for now, in reverse chronological order, i would like to start thanking these various grps of ppl that have crossed my path, whom i had lotsa fun with, and have left indelible footprints on it. life would certainly be very much different without u ppl. first on the list would be washwatch:

from obs





















to the first outing





















on to sing-along at village





















and then on to one of the many drinking sessions-courtesy of peiying, local booze doyenne who fuelled the craze. sobriety vs inebriation: the latter wins hands-down. haha, getting high has never been better. =)





















ktv






















bridge






















and the very first send-off





















there are countless other things like the mere-mere games and sentosa outing and numerous zi cha meals that helped cement all these deeper. and i certainly enjoyed every minute of it. a big merci to you ppl and heres to washwatch for being so incredibly on and zany! may the spirit nv die! =)

disclaimer: this post was written tongue-in-cheek, with a dash of male chauvinistic pride, and infused with some bias towards certain parties, so pardon e language and tone used.

i really wanna slap ang pow chiew upside down for what he said to the ST in todays article of VS possibly gg co-ed. wth!?!?! just because VS hopes to be the main server sch for vj, it doesnt mean that becoming co-ed wld guarantee tt rite? granted, the silly poseurs of VS that have sprung up over the past few years are spending more time acting suave and combing their god-damn hair in the toilets during lesson time instead of putting their brains and time to better use, but i think gg co-ed wld be a major faux pas. no-no. in the first place, what a gross generalisation it is to make by thinking that introducing girls into the sch wld lead to better academic results. i beg to differ, such gender studies are not really that conclusive. then again, not that many girls wld be interested in gg to VS too. great inertia i presume. the whole culture and spirit of VS would then take on a whole new identity. one of uncertainty and haziness. the rah-rah spirit would be bastardised! the unique culture would be gone just like that... all for the sake of academic sustainability. great. and just so tat we can get into IP partnership with vjc. wth, chan and lim all the same. always gang up against vs guys. blardy hell. last time got one thats always embracing dunman high ppl, and now another thats more than keen to open the flood gates to any tom dick harry, eh nope, make that jill jane judy. haiz, i really dunno what got into the past few batches of vs boys, but they sure are getting lousier by the year. when i took my psle in 1996 and had to choose a sec sch, vs was at least ranked a decent 5th position. now its ... e fact im unsure shows how bad it is. what a shame. gdness, founded since 1876, only to become co-ed in say 2006? joke indeed... and all for the sake of a stupid IP program (or so it claims), and as if must be so exclusive like that, majority of students for IP program must come from VS.. bullshit! in the end its still quite a proportion of DHS ppl and students from other schools..and stupid APC, knew he was up to no gd alr when i was suay enough to have him as a vp in sec sch. now must be in cahoots with chan kah gek, plotting to rid VS of half the boys and replace them with girls. and they better not change the anthem. nor 'victoria-thy sons are we'. there must be some iconoclasts and present-age germaine greers out there that wld wanna do smth as stupid as changing the word 'sons' to smth else. face it, man has been pre-conceived as the dominant sex since eons ago. to change it to smth more feminine/neutral wouldnt alter anything. and the uniforms!! imagine girls in khaki uniform!!! think of WW II soldiers' uniforms, just that this time its girls donning pinafores version. *fashion sirens alert* or girls wearing yellow-and-black PT kits. *shudders* not to forget the testosterone-laden guys that would most likely channel their vanity efforts into indulging in dalliances of various nature with the girls... lets just see how things turn out. victorians out there, please do your bit for ur alma mater!!! go to http://vs.jonaize.com/ and sign the online petition thank you!! =)

a fren mentioned that late last nite on msn when chatting about peoples behaviour and character. that statement took me by surprise partly due to the nature of the word, and secondly thats quite a huge claim to make. didnt give it further thought till today when out with M. was lamenting to myself the fact that theres subtle changes and loud differences here and there; and suddenly i recall my fren's words, which hit me like a bolt-our discomfort in dealing with the differences stems partly from the fact that we have a certain impression/image of a person that we tend to wanna hold onto, and any metamorphosis, no matter how slight, can be very unsettling. sad thing is hardly anyone remains e same with time, and when that happens... haiz how 'heartening' indeed.

i was to receive another huge jolt back home when i saw a letter from DBS, lying innocuously on my desk, therein lies the debit card statement. from 13th to 27th jul, i chalked up $856.25 worth of purchases, some of which i couldnt remember at all. i promptly died on e spot.

he cha chi dian xin, dian xin dian xin! wah, DSD: spores most wanted never fails to deliver. the irrepressible trio came up with lotsa fresh digs at govt policies and political upcomings this time round. last yrs one was much better with pam oei's excellent nailing of the malay accent as a matcik( sp?) parking attendant, not to forget them acting as maids, replete with filipino tongues so real you couldnt tell if they were chinese sporeans if u were just listening.. i realise that i really like it if they act as ppl of other races eg jap (emma yong as crown princess masako in last yrs one) and indian ( all 3 in this years) or speak in dialects. it was quite hilarious, but my favourite wld be the act where pam acted as lucy liu's role in kill bill 1, in a fighting feud with emma yong as .......... *drum rolls* zhang ziyi of crouching tiger hidden dragon and hero's fame. pam would be cussing at emma in english while emma wld be speaking chinese with perfect intonation and lilt. when taunted by pam for not being able to speak english, guess what emma said?

"the soup is too salty!!!!!!!!!" what an uproar it caused!! haha , nearly brought the house down. when she repeated that memorable line so deeply immortalised in our memories by zhang's mangling of e english lang in tt citibank(?) commercial , pam pretended to sway on stage as if fainting in abhorrence at emma's pronounciation. when the duel ensued, pam spouted lines like 'californian maki' and charged towards emma, and e latter shouted 'beijing shao1 ya1 xiao3 long2 bao1!!!" ( beijing roast duck and steamed buns ) as if they were names of stances in kung-fu. my gawd... i was luffing like crazy man. but the best was when selena tan appeared as the the frumpy landlord lady in kungfu hustle, 'resplendent' in her hair curlers, cigarette in mouth and white sleeping gown to mediate between the two... its a must-watch, really!!! all you ppl out there who have not watched it, do go get ur tix now, they're performing till 20th aug, so better book fast! no regrets for sure, its really money well-spent. not to forget that theres hossan leong who did a fairly commendable job, tho i feel hes more of an accessory and could be funnier if given more opportunities to be in the limelight.

overall a very satisfactory performance, esp e last part- where we waved e mini spore flags that were passed down. nationalistic pride has flooded over me only thrice in my life: once in 2003 when i took part in NDP thanks to SAF, the second was during last yrs dim sum, and e 3rd being tis yrs one. no words can fully capture what it entails to be a sporean and wat it means to live in spore. for all the discredits and banes that spore has to her name, there are indeed certain aspects that i truely appreciate and am thankful for, and am proud that she has gathered all e accolades, which most have to concede is impressive given our history, size of country, lack of natural resources etc...

and reservist is cut down to 10 years!!! yay!! perhaps i can downgrade and would not have to chiong outfield with 724 guards during reservist. shall resolve to think hard and find ways to do so,lol. on the other hand, its kinda bad to e other guys, esp since we've gone thru so much. den again, who knows? some of them have proved to be really adept at malingering, so wouldnt be surprised if they dngrade themselves while in uni. and managed to meet up with T yesterday. great to know that at least there remains one person whos just as affable as ever, who would not have such a sharp personality switch tt its hard to comprehend and adapt to, and most imptly, is not fair-weathered just because the rough tides of NS are over.BAH to some ppl...

anyway its high time for me to catch up on lost sleep, am living on 5-6 hrs of sleep nightly, bad... shall sleep in tmr, and have a nice long relaxing and restful day, till further notice at least. now for the newspapers! have not been able to read them in the morning as i usually do, thanks to gg out early, straits times, here i come..

went to crash at NUS yesterday. virginal foray into tt place. really huge, and very easy to get lost on 1st day.luckily W taught me abt e ISB routes. took me forever to find LT 16 for financial accounting. somehow, sitting back in an LT for a proper academic lecture ( NS ones dun count ) after a more-than-2-years break doesnt seem to make a difference. no feelings of 'wow, im back to studying proper!" or anything along that line. then went to raffles hall to look see look see. its old and cosy, tho it can get very stuffy inside the room. managed to kill 3 birds with 1 stone by meeting up with 3 ppl. met with A to pass him his DVDs, he has 2 gleaming earrings on his left ear!! haha, havoc. and a long walk to PGP from central library next, thanks to ZG. PGP is really nice, very villa-like, tho it seems there's less of a 'community spirit' than RH. guess thats e key diff between halls and residences.

and charlie and e choco fact was quite a bit of a let-down... i cldnt in the world fanthom what got into the tim burton's head when he introduced the little men ( forgot their name) into the film. its cute when they appear at first, all with the same indian face, dancing and singing in perfect sync and gyrating in their cute colourful costumes. but when that happened again for another 3 times, it just got plain silly. and the indian face wasnt even cute/funny to begin with. but kudos to burton all e same for bringing roald dahl's story to screen. the scene with the chocolate river is a sight to behold. reminds me of enid blyton's the faraway tree series, where there was this land of sweets/candies/chocolates tat visited the tree. everything was edible there, where u turn on taps to find chocolate milk shake flowing out etc. wld be great if such a place existed. gastronomic utopia for me hha.

spore celebrated her 40th bday today, and im very happy, not because im patriotic, but rather because its a public hol, tho it doesnt make much of a difference to me; everyday's almost e same. woke up today at late morn, then went to ikea and queensway. ate my first meal of swedish meatballs there and managed to settle some of the stuff that i have to buy. i like ikea haha, the furniture and the lay-out concept just makes me wanna buy watever i fancy to design my dream home. by the time i returned home, NDP was almost ending, and i HAD to catch 'reach for the skies' just as the screen lit up.. how timely. luckily rui en looked better here, she really looked ridiculous in her beret on the mtv tts been overplayed on mrt platforms. luckily ndp's over (think chewonit! comics). taufik was just...... no comments. shooting stars that saw its debut episode being aired today must have been the latest show tt's added to the neverending string of CMI tv 5 shows. i can imagine ken lim, e executive producer, silently rejoicing as he reads an article in life! sometime this week or next that rave over the unbelievably high viewership shooting stars has garnered for its premiere episode. pukes. its understandable that most of them are acting formally for e 1st time on tv but their acting chopes are really horrid. taufik put on pink lipstick/lipgloss, gdness.. how off. sylvester tries too hard to portray an angsty teen with that cool attitude. pui. all of them apparently seem to live the same reel/real lives. olinda's rich, and daphne's a student. jessea's just.. still quite pretty. hmm, looks like theres not many gd programs on tv nowadays, shall read more then..

just came back from esplanade after watching the above musical (starring a bmt mate) with a bmt mate. it was written by declan ee, a sporean UCL law student and was such a hit over at west end, london, that he desided to re-stage it here in spore, this time casting students from rj and nus. the plot centred around this guy paul who owns a restaurant and shophouses at pagoda street. he has this girlfren ( rosalind pho!! shes really hot )who connived to sell away his assets for personal gains and blah blah... with a motley crew of an ah beng debt collector, an indian barber and a malay caretaker, the musical takes on a true-blue sporean identity, replete with racist insults and spouting of hokkien/singlish; and at the same time it explores the poignant vignettes of sporean life, issues that may be close to young peoples hearts today such as family, life and identity. absolutely fantastic. the only bad thing was the singing, which at times couldnt be heard above the music. but i heard that the london performance was much better, so hopefully the londoners have been impressed, tho personally i feel the sporean season held in uk earlier this year was just an over-amibitious attempt by spore to catapult herself into the international arts scene. this reminds me of the IOC session abt 1 month ago,there were 2 sops and 1 tenor ( smth like tt lah ) chosen to sing some anthem and followingly, was mocked at by the british press left, right and centre the next day for their attire and their massacring of the anthem. oops.

anyway, this musical has made me realised tt i've come to embrace singlish so much; just a 'huh...', 'wa lau' and many other platitudes that have miraculously found their way into sporean parlance are able to convey so much meaning and capture the nuances of the situation so well...

eg, imagine the scenario below:

A: oei, help me print all these notes by tmr morn can?
B: huh..../wa lau eh....

just by that marvellous utterance, you can tell that B is not really keen on helping A, and the best thing is that he doesnt even need to spell it out in full. so with singlish, theres no need for superfluous words. tact may be compromised, but hey, you cant have ur cake and eat it too.

another amazingly versatile word thats perhaps slightly overused is the f word. more vulgar but at least this is more internationally recognised lol.brings to mind this forwarded email attachment a long time ago that illustrated how useful e f word is.

A: oei, today can treat me lunch not? i damn poor now.
B: f you.(normal tone) you think i charity ah? ( telling a person off, washing your hands clean of him, expressing nonchalance?)



PC in army: eh guys gather, all the stores from MT line that you all draw just now draw wrongly... is supposed to be bravo coy one, can you all bring back to there? chop chop, i give u all 10 mins...
soldier muttering under his breath: fffffuuuuuucccccckkkkkkkk.......( long and drawn out, expressing vexation/chagrin )



A: ( humming to oneself while doing math homework, lalala, meticulously using rough paper for working so as to be tidy)
*5 mins later*
A: FUCK! i accidentally used my lecture notes as rough paper!!! ( short and with a slight lilt at the end, expressing shock/dismay )



A to B: wa lan eh, damn suay one leh, everytime kenna arrow do weekend guard duty, i dun care liao lah, im gonna ask sgt to change to u lah. you damn blardy chao keng, last 2 route marches siam, outfield also siam, so now u shld do ur turn.
B:FUCK OFF lah! you go downgrade already still kao pei kao bu... ( strong and vehement, expressing slight anger/discontent )

and there are countless other occasions where the use of the word wld be just right, w/o coming across as too harsh. perhaps its the way you say it, and all the connotations the word has, but the word really has the punch and oomph factor to it haha..

i had my first bowling training today! thanks to cy who decided to go bowling last sat and subsequently cajoled me to sign up for this training. training was quite fun haha, cheap and u get coaching and unlimited games. catch: it only lasts for 1 1/2 hr. so its up to you to bowl fast in order to squeeze in more games. managed to learn the proper technique of walking up, and releasing e ball. before this i'd just release it, usually with a very loud thud and just pray hard the ball dun go into the longkang. haha, and if the pins wobble and dun seem like they're falling, i've learnt this technique from a jc fren, and that is to jump hard on the spot; and will the tremors be strong enough to travel all the way to the pins and make them topple. might work if youre damn pui and heavy lol.

besides bowling twice in less than 4 days, i also went kbox twice in e same time period. realised that ktv must be sung at nite, coz your voice would have been warmed up sufficiently from all the talking and eating in the day, resulting in you being able to reach all the high notes without sounding like a castrato-whose-coup-de-grace-had-gone-wrong/banshee. this effectively means that klunch wouldnt be that gd now since its from 11am-2pm, and i doubt the voice can reach its peak so early into the day. so its either u settle for a cheap deal and sing songs that are less trying for the voice or u pay more and croon/croak for all you're worth. the latter certainly sounds more attractive.

and am getting quite sian of town liao. seems to be gg there very often nowadays.in the past, the places that are overly-frequented include suntec, PS, TM, parkway, and bugis. shld i start going to neighbourhood favs like northpoint and hougang mall and familiarising myself with new haunts in the west? there needs to be more fun places in spore for us to hang out! at least i got to know this new place, settlers cafe at clark quay where i went to a few days ago. its this really comfy place where u can sit and play very novel board games/card games for hours on end. 4 hrs for a mere 6 bucks with free flow of soft drinks. very hard to stop playing coz theres really that many interesting games u've nv heard of/played before. shall go there more often.

for now, its back to reading and more reading. haha, books, glorious books that i blithely borrowed from my aunt, a voracious biliophile whose book collections can set my eyes popping. say hello to tony parsons, lovely bones, middlesex etc, and bid farewell to my stacks of A-level notes that have faithfully sat on my desk collecting dust, awaiting my well-intentioned perusals for revision's sake. bah...