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Aug 2007
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June 2007
May 2007
Apr 2007
Mar 2007
Feb 2007
Webshot Album

3rd Nov
This week really had multiple long days of training, including one that ended at 3am! Gosh, the planning is really crazy. The booking out dragged and dragged, so I could only rush to NYP at 8 plus la! Almost didn't want to go le but Taurus already bought dinner, so still went. Shi Ying was so relieved to see me, cos she had to play the whole melody by herself. Harry is sick and David have night class. Today combine practise went through Feng Shou and Do Re Mi, both are first time for me. Feng Shou the starting part really out of tune, now with sooo many suona! OMG! Have to re-adjust our tuning because now there are new members. Add in kaiyi and Yi Rei, there will be 7 suona players! OMG!

My weekends are sooo booked! Today went for practice and had Subway for lunch and walked about J8. Tomorrow going Party World to sing K. Thursday is cycling at ECP. Next sat is of course CO and then dinner with Firewire. Sunday going Esplanade to watch Beautiful Sunday by West Winds. On the waiting list are the zoo trip, make jiao zi. I haven't watch movie for quite some time too. Hope I can resume my driving lessons asap during Saturdays. So much to do, so little time. The most popular three-letter word that is popping up on my MSN screen is ORD because all the cat high peeps are getting or have gotten their pink IC! Guess what, I have not even started my scouts training... so not looking forward to it. HAIX! I still have 1.5 year more to go... freaking long. Shall not think about it, too torturous. Congrats to all those who 'tuo li ku hai'.

范玮琪feat.刘若英 - 不能跟情人说的话

Kylie Minogue & Jolin Tsai - In My Arms (duet)

?!?! Jolin and Kylie? Australia and Taiwan diva combine power but I can't seems to figure out where is the duet. Maybe this is Kylie's demo.

蔡依林 - 一個人

I wouldn't have guessed this is by Jolin. Very nice song!

品冠&梁静茹-Way Back into Love

There is a chinese version but I still prefer the English one, this is from the movie Music & Lyrics

周杰伦- 青花瓷

Honestly after readin the lyrics, I still have no idea what it is talking about!

28th Oct

Gelare Cafe

First time tried this cafe after being torn between Gelare and Swensen. Sophia had the banana split for $8.80 while I had this Red wine beef vol-au-vent. Vol-au-vent means windblown in French and it's because of the puff being so light and crispy. Then the red wine beef is added in the middle with the sauce, carrots and celery, garnished with chips. All for jut $7.50! Another good thing about Gelare is that it is inclusive of GST and there's no service charge. My only complain is that the beef is over-cooked, I should have asked for 70%. As for the banana split, there's only 2 scoops which is chocolate and vanilla. The chocolate is really nice, quite different from swensens. There are more interesting things in Gelare, shall go try the waffles next time.

27th Oct
Starbucks just opened an outlet at Woodlands Civics Centre, yay! Shall go there and chill out when I have the time and money and good friends. Past few days had been slack slack slack, haha. Didn't really go out, in fact I only went to school and causeway point and library.

Went NYPCO to practise Taiwan Blues and this time we added percussion. The whole piece is not in place yet, everyone can't seems to blend in together, now I start to dislike the song le. Especially the front part... Hopefully we will improve and get better.

The past 2 weeks I had been listening to 933 and heard a lot of new songs. Back at home now, I am listening to all the songs on 8ka.com and I have picked up my favourite top 5. Actually after enlisting, I am very very updated on new songs because I'm listening to 933 almost during all the rest time that I have. Even can listen to the 933 'Guan tou ju chang' and 'Xian ge ji yi' on top of the usual 'Wan Ren Mi' and "Mr & Mrs Zhou". There was one afternoon I listened to almost an hour of talk about choosing wedding gown for females. o.0! #5 當你離開的時候 - 蔡健雅

#4 彩虹 - 周杰倫

#3 不想懂得 - 張韶涵

#2 崇拜 - 梁静茹

#1 漂浮地铁 - 李宇春

24th Oct
Finally finished my AIT 7-day field camp at Tekong. It was slightly better in terms of welfare, compared to BMT because we get to sleep in the buildings at night and get to wash up using the taps. The final night we had to sleep in the forest and it rained cats and dogs at 5am, it was sooo miserable. Soaked! I made a personal record of not shitting for 8 days! After I reach back camp, I made a serious mistake by choosing the squatting cubicle, because I squatted for more than half an hour until my legs were totally numbed!

After reaching back civilization, it was like we had been in jail for 10 years or so. The sudden erection of KPE, like what my friend commented "What is KPE?" simply sums up our isolation from the outside world. Gone for a week and suddenly there's a new expressway in Singapore! Wow! *with sacarsm*

I've been reading so many books in camp during free time, sometimes I can finish an entire book within a day if that day is slack enough. So far I've read one about brands management, one about creating word of mouth (marketing) and one on expo design. So many ideas flooded into my head, such as having my own line of clothes with anime-looking cute characters. Setting up my own business then venture on to be a public speaker or publish my own book ala Adam Khoo. They earn a lot just by giving seminars and talks.

13th Oct

Haagan Dazs! Can't believe that I actually spent $15 on my nights out and splurged on ice cream. It's really PURE INDULGENCE. The mango sorbet was sooo nice. After eating it, I was really on a 'high' and relaxed on the bed, having sweet dreams.

After booking out, I had dinner at home and then went for sectional practice for all the woodwinds. We rehearsed the Taiwan Blues and first time we all heard Chu Jun got irritated, by John. He Qiang was also commenting that first time hear Chu Jun get irritated. haha.

Wa today went supermarket and had a Jap food party at home. Waiting for the photo from weilin... Angeline, Sophia, Chin Teck, Huiying, Ying Xin and Joyce all came to my house and we made Soba, Jap Curry, Miso soup, Sushi, Hand roll and Origini. We ate soooo much la, too much rice le = too much carbo = sleepy. It's really so fun to have parties. HeeX!

6th Oct

Week 2 of my advance infantry training, won't talk much about it in case later I kena sued or breach some security thing. I'm now attached to the riflemen and they're the hokkien pengs. Week 2 saw the differences and division between the O-levels and the diplomas, quite a huge diff. Especially the enormous tattoos and large number of smokers. Some of my bunk mates are really rubbed off by the way they behave... haix.

What I am more worried about is NYPCO. Today went back after 2 weeks of training and the improvement is really minute. No wonder Mike was angry on Wednesday and lectured the members. Today he was angry when we were playing Taiwan Blues. Haix, and I heard the designs for concert are not out yet. The entire committee now is just so screwed up. Came upon a book which is about training new batch of leaders, maybe I should read and see what I can advise to remedy the situation asap.

Went to eat beef lagsane at pasta mania today, haha. SPLURGE on food again. That's after buying a dozen donuts last night. Then I even ate laksa as supper. Amazing! All adds up to about $30 in two days. Watched Hwang Jin Yi by Song Hye Kyo and the main reason to watch the show is her. She looks great in the giseung (Korean geishas) costume and the acting is decent. The bad thing - PLOT! The main ingredient of a movie... the plot... is terrible! It focused more on the male lead rather than on Hwang Jin Yi herself! So many things were not explained and her character as a powerful giseung was not explored at all. The tv version is SO MUCH better! I'm so disappointed with the movie version.

At takashimaya basement and the Isetan supermarket, found out sooo many Jap food that I wanna eat. Shall go back soon and buy those stuff to eat! haha. Even the German dessert looks so good, but I was really really full after eating the lagsane. heehee.

23rd Sept

My last day of the leave is spent packing the SAF stuffs which is like A LOT! Stuffed everything into the duffel and field pack and they are freaking heavy right now. Tomorrow will be a whole new environment and new people again. Haix. So many questions in my head about the life ahead... when can my life finally find some predictability and stablize?

Today went to causeway point with YF and Sophia in the late afternoon. Poor YF locked her phone's PUK and now her phone is totally useless. Who ask her to play with her phone settings :P and the worst part is that the account holder of the SIM card belongs to her brother-in-law. She's so insecure without her phone, now having to use a paper to record all the phone numbers. LOL.

Hopefully I will be back this weekend. Pray hard.

22nd Sept

Spent the last few days at CO room, practising my Feng Shou although it was without much success, had meetings with the committee and going out, having supper at Weilin's nearby kopitiam.

The best has got to be today's and definitely the most interesting in a long time. Yun Fang, CT, Ying Xin, Angeline and I walked all the way from Bugis to the National Museum to catch a free movie from the Jap film festival. It has been who-knows-how-many eons since I stepped into the museum. Wow, the interior is really beautiful like Sydney's Conservatorium of Music! We entered the theatre which really mimics the one in Sydney and sat down for the free show. To our horror, it was a film made in 1959! Black and white, in Japanese with ODEX subtitles entitled - Nian-chan. It depicts the poverty that a family of children is facing, as the elder brother and sister leave home to work, leaving the 2nd brother (nian-chan) and Sueko, a little girl. Sometimes it has some humourous part but overall it was okay... but our first time watching a B&W film. Ying Xin will tell you its black and yellow. They use a special old reel projector to play the film. Love-hate experience...

Then we met this weird looking drag guy on the streets. Reached City Hall and I finally ate subway! Been craving for it for about a month. After that, as CT and YX went home, the rest of us went to watch CS perform by the bay. It reminded us of Darling Harbor and we really absorbed the nice view by the bay and getting the wind...feeling sleepy. The performance was a high-class ge-tai. A singer sang Ye Shanghai, Qian yan wan yu, mei gui mei gui and all the classics. Of course there was hua hao yue yuan and cai yun zhui yue... felt even sleepier. After the performance ended, we walked back and at another outdoor theatre, Tony Ang was performing his dizi in a quintet. The first song? CAI YUN ZHUI YUE againx! Even an aunty commented "There got hua yue, here also hua yue." PRECISELY! So we went to watch shadow puppet show at the concourse which had twisted and wrong versions of Chang'er flying to the moon stories. Teach the children wrong version la! So much for an artsy fartsy day, lolx! Oh yes, and I must mentioned that I watched Survivor:China, the only English show that I'm going to continue watching every week, keeps me motivated each week I guess.

Tomorrow will have to pack my luggage and prepare to go 3SIR selarang camp at Changi, freaking far, haix. Recce troop lo, I am desensitized already and like what Jeremy said, the good thing is I get to see Keng Wee and only the smartest gets to be in recce. Wonder if I can stay and survive, only 1/5 will make it through the very xiong training, according to Keng Wee. Bet on it.

That's the worry next week, not today. Tired now, sleepz.

19th Sept

BAY ZHI GIAM! Zhi Giam, Zhi Giam! Giam Giam Giam~!

I'm splurging on food again! Went out with Mablerine and Michelle to Marina Square and indulged in Kenny Rogers set lunch. I ate sooo much pasta and potato salad, nice! It was so worth it and value for money, we ate for 2 hours?! Okay, basically I was the one finishing up the side dishes slowly. Poor Mablerine have a PSC econs teacher who pronounced elasticity as elasticksity. Poor Michelle every Thursday go home also kena badmouthed by her roomie. But talking about NTU makes me want to be studying there NOW!!! Been so long since I have a conversation about acaedemics and something that uses brain. In camp it's just SOC, IPPT etc. the same thing over and over again.

Talking about food, I had a black sesame paste which had a 'chao ta' (burnt) smell at Chinatown today. But at least the mango sago was decent, heeX. Went back NYP and had the North Canteen western food, the standard dropped alot since the change of owner. Yuck!

Finally back in CO room after two months, like FINALLY!!! Been thinking and craving about it for two whole months lo... Stuck in Tekong is like cold turkey rehabilitation. Even smokers get to smoke 3 times a day, mine is almost total withdrawal. Towards the end of BMT I brought in my guan to practise. NS is a really torturing place for people with addictions and withdrawals.

In fact, today almost all the alumni came. If we exclude Meng Shan and Li Yan who are currently in Australia, only Hoong Eng didn't come because she's on afternoon shift. The rest of the alumni all came!!! Knowing that there is little time for Esplanade and concert... Mike stressed this so many times today. Even though I'm quite sick of hearing it also, especially that few months preparing for competition, it's always "No time left!!!" But at least I laughed so much during practice, more than I did for the past two months.

As expected, the CO room is back to its disastrous untidy state. I have so much to practise, Feng Shou I have to familiarise and get to the speed, same for Bali. Bali is a really nice song, despite the terrible impression it gave me when I first saw my score. Taiwan Blues also very nice, BAY ZHI GIAM! Blues style is quite challenging on the musical sense. I'm very impressed with the composition by Lin lao shi, he writes very nice pieces, although with a lot of syncopation and off-beats.

I only pray and hope that I can book out every Friday night, so that I can attend the weekly Sat practices. That is all I can ask for... >.<

16th Sept

Keep having headaches when I wake up each morning, grown-up headaches. Hopefully I can fully recover by next week. The past few days have been slack, so long haven't had the chance to really slack at home and read a book. I have finally completed the novel 'Babylon Rising' and I will be moving on to the second book of the series.

Met up with Justin and had Lerk Thai, where I ate tom yum seafood kway teow. So far, the tom yum soup was the best tasting in Singapore, it's really good and spicy, I was sweating when finishing up the soup. Shiok sia! Had Hans with Angeline at the National library, another great value-for-money lunch. Then I saw the menu for Sukiyaki at $15.50! I've been splurging money on food really. Must try to control myself. >.<

I've uploading my botak pictures at Webshots and Friendsters. Basically the day of my POP with my section mates and friends. Go take a look if you have time and get a good laugh. Don't think I'll ever be botak again in this lifetime.

13th Sept

Yesterday I've finally passed out of Tekong, two months had been such a long time filled with pretty good memories and having met lots of great people. Yet two months seems to short to really get together and have real fun. The real fun only started on the last two weeks where everyone really worked together. I was so surprised to see my Dad because he was suppose to be working, so only expected my Mum and Bro to come. All 3 came, haha, although each person is only given 2 ticket. Maybe like what William thinks, I'm the white horse?! Blah! hah.

During one of the days, I was called to go for the recce interview. The moment I heard recce, I was scared liao. Recce troops are the scouts, which run first to collect information and always last to come back. very xiong de unit.Even when I went into the lecture room, the interviewer could see I was so scared to talk or even address him as Sir... why so suay kena recce? Then for some unknown reason, he was like saying "Alex, I'm going to see you very soon. If you see on the e-posting it says Recce, don't be too sad, just accept it." What the?! I asked him 'why me?' he just replied he's joking. Worse, the other two interviewers were from Cat High -.- Later I called Keng Wee, who's in recce, he confirmed that my name had been selected and submitted. HAIX.

Shall think about it later, now enjoy my holidays first.

9th Sept

Finally completed my 24km on Monday where I was running a mild fever. Thankfully some of my platoons mates really pulled me through the whole 8 hours. After that, my hand was scalded by the hot water of the water cooler. It was spoilt, I was filling up cold water when the hot water just spilled out from the other side. Then my hand had a freaking big blister which shocked even the sergeant major. o.0 So now I'm excused upper limb all the way to POP which is this coming Wednesday.

Went to have high tea with Firewire, it was Japanese dessert. This is also Syazwan's last week before he enlist, so I gave him lots of tips. Eve was flaunting her new handphone with the 3.2 megapixel camera, Kelly was telling us about her super-squeezed one-day wedding on 11-11-2011 which she had planned with Ah Hock ala Mickey. I really like the Cream Anmitsu and the 'mai cha'. It's only $5+ very cheap. Then we went far east looking for place for the rest to have dinner. Found this japanese restaurant with a long queue, because the seats inside was sooo limited to about 10 person. And there's a sign outside that says "$2 is charged for every seat, you are entitled to one drink. Each seat must order a meal" Suppose the drink cost $1.50, the seat would cost $0.50! ridiculous!

Then met up with JLow, Hin Yeung, Bo Yang, Lip Yong, Keng Wee... people whom I have not met for almost 2 years! Everyone is still the same, we ate Thai food which was quite a rip off for the lousy service n food they serve. Everyone is doing pretty well esp.

1st Sept
Just bought a new set of motherboard and processor, upgraded the PC basically. Now it's Core 2 Duo 4400, 1GB Ram, nVidia 8400 graphic. Not fully fixed everything yet and so far it's functional. Seems to have problem installing Frontpage so you see I'm not able to change the page to a new one for Sept.

Happy Birthday teckie! Met her at Marina Sq out of the blue when I was going Comex with Angeline and Sophia. I'm so tired after walking Sim Lim and Comex today... exhausted fixing the stupid com. Now there's 3 yrs warrenty, I don't want to worry about it for the next 3 years... but there's still the printer which is spoilt. HAIX.

Going to POP in 12 days time, but gonna confine first this weekend. Monday is the 24km route march. Passed my IPPT... then expressed that I'm NOT interested to be a commander, despite 7 weeks of psycho and hard sell. Most of my friends are probably going OCS or SISPEC, I'm not... dunno how to explain why also la, just that I'm tired of being leader all the time. 3 years in poly very cheong, from the small 7 people CO to 70 people in Sydney has been a satisfying achievement le. Wanna rest a bit first, before going NTU.

Anyway, so boring to talk about army stuff. Weekends are so precious, last week went to Kbox and also had BBQ at DTE. Wah the BBQ was so fun, especially this japanese fish which had eggs inside, so nice! Then just now I went to watch Ratatouille, which was 2 hours long! I think it's one of the longest animation and it's pretty good ride. My only complain is that the theme is pretty thin, only "Anyone can cook" ala anybody can achieve anything... and the issue of the dichotomy between family commitment and personal passion. cinema today was very packed, i was sitting on 2nd row.

Right now in camp, I'm always listening to 987 and 933. The funny thing is, I brought in a fm radio which my dad had, but it was spoilt and i couldn't receive anything at all in camp. I borrowed Thong Guan's receiver but within 10 minutes, i spoilt one of the buttons! wah sianzzz!!! My luck with fm radio not really good, it's sad! Anyway I'm crapping liao. Tomorrow will get my suona and practise a bit before the Saturday audition for SAF CO. Have to play a solo piece and I have NEVER played a solo piece on suona before, please refer to the June post about why I don't like solo piece.