Monday, February 19, 2007

Mahjong

I learned how to play Mahjong! Fri nite we went to Miss Tng's hse for Mahjong session. It's more like Mahjong lessons actually, cos Cedric and I are both beginners. So Serene and Christine taught us how to play. Cedric was more interested in Union and left after Derrick joined us. We played 1 rd of Mahjong and I think I only won twice. Paid sch fees of over 15 bucks. Anyway, I'm glad to finally learn how to play Mahjong. I think it's an activity which is worth mastering, sth that pple will gladly organise a gathering for. 1 more activity which I can do next time. =)

Today is the 2nd day of Chinese New Year. This yr's CNY came a bit too sudden for me. Prior to that, I was fretting over my upcoming ICT. Till the last min, I was still trying to defer. Din play for anything that is after the ICT period. ICT came n went n I was left with 1 week to CNY. Then I was left with my pile-up of work for the 2 weeks I was absent, and all the excess request from my China customers in anticipation of the 7 days CNY holidays in China. So much so that I did not even shop for CNY stuffs or help out with anything at home. I bought my CNY shirt on Fri nite itself b4 meeting them for Mahjong.

I think this yr's CNY represents a change in future CNY preparations onwards. Mum seemed to lost all zest in CNY preparations after Grandma passed away last Nov. CNY gathering at Grandma's place feels not-so-right when Grandma's not ard anymore. Nonetheless, everybody still made an effort to gather on that day, even though we are not officially celebrating CNY. We played blackjack with cousins the whole day.

Now I'm left with the decision to make as to what to do tonight. I can either go down to Union, see if anybody's there n if not look for an alternative place to hang out. Or I can just stay at home and see if Mum wants to catch a show later in the nite.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

ICT Number 3 Week 2

Week 2 of ICT. Pulau Tekong week. How nice. I have not visited Tekong in like 6 yrs? Well, somehow I think I'm being eaten in my detachment. My detachment consists of majority 3rd Coy pple and a couple of lao jiaos from other coys. I was somehow arrowed to go for Matador live firing on Fri and another piece of' "good" news greeted me on Mon morning just b4 we move out to Tekong. My Det Com spoke to me:

"Go draw 1 MG."

"What?!"

"Our detachment needs 1 MG."

"I dun want to take MG leh, I'm not trained anyway. Can get someone else?"

"Just draw out first. We'll take turns."

Take turns. Take my fucking shit! The only time when someone else touches the MG was during withdrawal of the mission when I have to lag behind to make someone take note of the fucking MG.

1st day at Tekong was day n nite component training. The first day almost killed me already. Think not conditioned to field yet. I went to bed (safari bed) at nite with my whole body aching. I was left wondering how to go thru the remaining few days and the mission at Tekong.

2nd day was all the dunno-what orders and a day and nite rehearsal. I was in pretty much of a daze in the early part of the day. Hadn't had a good nite sleep the previous nite. I woke up abt every hr. So I took every opportunity I had to snooze during the day. Come rehearsal time at nite, I felt re-energized already. My body adapts v fast to the surrounding. And I was left thinking the mission on Wed nite would be chicken feat. =)

Wed came n Wed went. The mission was seriously fucked. Our Det Com is a nice guy I would say, but just not too efficient workwise.

Thur nite and I'm at home blogging currently, waiting for tomolo to come. Well, whenever I'm in camp, I would inevitably think of Min. I guess it's because of the times when we were together. I was serving NS and she was the inspiration of my life then. The reason I fought. The reason I try as I might to stay out of trouble. Because I value the opportunity to see her every weekend too much. I actually dreamt of her the first nite while I was at Tekong. It was a negative dream. I dreamt of Piggy on Wed nite. negative dream as well. I haven heard from her the whole week. The last time I sms her was on Sun nite to tell her that I'll be away in Tekong for the coming week. Nil news since then.

ICT Number 3 Week 1

I'm nearing the end of my 3rd ICT today, will be out-process tomolo b4 dinner. All in all, this 2 weeks ICT is still pretty alright. Just quite fucked for the main mission. The 1st week was good; they actually did not indent dinner for the entire week. Means nights-off every nite. EVERY nite. It was quite a relaxed week, just the tot of the pending 1 week out-field at tekong the following week haunting us constantly.

As with all army events, aapproximately 50% of the time goes to waiting. As the saying goes, "Rush to wait; Wait to rush".

The 1st nite, I actually intended to go down to Union. I was pretty early, and I rem Piggy shd be having cha cha lessons at JJ. So decided to pop by JJ to see if she's ard. Lucky I did pop by, as June caught sight of me and gave me the alternative dates for the Salsa Inter 1.5 lessons that I've missed. And so, I did meet Piggy there. She looked good that time. White top with green skirt. She din intend to go Union that nite actually, and had wanted to go for dinner with her frens. However, since I'm there she decided to accompany me instead. We went for a walk ard the area, but actually I wasn't feeling very well. Think had food poisoning from the late nite malay chicken rice at Changi Pt with Piggy that nite. Later was I to know that that particular chicken rice stall is supposed to be famous. It almost made me die on Friday nite though. Was running a fever thru sat which made me unable to attend the last sat Union Square b4 my ICT. I was still feeling the after-effects on Mon nite while I was out strolling with Piggy, but I guess she made it all worthwhile.

The 2nd nite I went home during nights-off. Well, tot ICT can help me to save some money. The cab fare to and fro camp is equivalent to my usual spendings when I'm outside I guess.

The 3rd nite I went down to Union! Not bad, quite a few of the gang was ard. Piggy was there too, but I hadn't told her b4 hand that I was going down. Guess it doesn't make much of a diff to her. She wasn't with me for most of the nite either.

The 4th nite I went home again. Money... there it goes.... =(

The 5th nite was reminiscent nite. I went for a walk ard Tampines central. Tampines Mall, Century Square, the usual places where I usually hanged out during my NSF nights-off. The place changed though. The familiar arcade center and comic shops were no longer there. But I could feel the familiar feeling in the air again. As I queued for No. 29 at the bus interchange to go back camp. The feeling of being constraint. The feeling of uncertainty. The feeling of not being in control of my own life. Man, I hate the army.

And on the 6th day....... book-out right? Yes, but not so soon...... Insert IPPT in the afternoon! Fuck. Courtesy of Mr Foo, who seemingly haven screwed me enough during my NSF days that he's gotta become the CO of NS men now and continue to screw with my life. Well, IPPT right? It doesn't seem so bad, just fail 2 static stations and proceed to out-process yea? That's what I did. Along with several other pitiful souls who tot they have found a way out of this intendedly-scheduled IPPT meant for fucking up pple's life. (They purposely book IPPT for those who have yet to clear it this workyear in the AFTERNOON, n not in the MORNING, so as to fucked up ur weekend) But guess they have predicted this ploy from the lao jiao NS men. Mr Foo was there in person wearing his highly-decorated smart 4 to see us take the IPPT thru the end. Run! Even if u failed 2 static stations. So run it shall be then. Actually I'm quite amazed that I still have it in me for the 2.4km run. Even though I failed, but the leisure run timing that I did was still quite ok for my standard.

That was followed up by 1 night of Union Square which ended pretty early for a sat night. I was ignoring Piggy that nite. Somehow her recent blog entries din exactly made me feel happy. She did come by to my corner once in a while, but we did not converse much as I did not wish to talk that nite. She did tell me when she's leaving, n that was pretty early. So i ended by Union nite pretty early that sat nite too.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Forgotten By Fate

I was chatting with Donut on msn the other nite, and she was telling me that Fate has forgotten abt her. If there's anyone Fate forgotten, I reckon it's more likely me than anyone else.

(Center portion deleted after 2nd tot)

Fate forgotten me? Nah, Fate abandoned me.