897

2005-07-09T21:56:00.000-07:00

okay..i have decided to blog after any event that will sparked off my interest. yes.pulau ubin. i did not want to go if not for ms yap saying that we will fail our mrp if no field work has been done. well, the whole purpose of the trip to ubin was not very much about mrp in the end..it was about fun.

the efficiency of changi point jetty was erm..pretty lousy. it was till we made noise to the ah pek there, then we were allowed to board the bumpboat. we went to collect the map at the info kiosk and there was this malay ranger who tried to act smart by telling us something that was supposed to be confidential and ended up with a scolding from his chinese boss. we went to rent a bike and i think we got cheated. cause across the street..there was another shop renting bike for equal standard for a cheaper price.

us being the swa gu (mountain tortoise) went around in search for chek jawa. we ended up in rounds. finally, we did something wrong, by crossing the boundary. but in the end, we din get to see chek jawa. or we did get to see chek jawa but the polluted one. it isnt nice as seen in those colour picture book. besides..it was high tide..so nothing to see, except mangrove swamps.

went to maam beach.saw nothing much...then went for lunch. wow..expensive a $9 lunch at a eatery with cleanliness D. perhaps, we ordered more than usual. A main course of seafood horfun, mushroom soup (traditional one), mussels (dwa dao). nvm..at least it was filling. oh yeah, 1 coconut. it was much of a holiday one-day trip than a mrp field-trip. went around interviewing some residents..they all said the same thing.i could have crap up the interview myself.

so we decided to go back to chek jawa again. this time..we cycled much faster. our ass hurt. so at certain junctions..we will jump down the bike and push it..till down slope..we then speed down.

this time chek jawa was much better than before..low tide, we saw mud skippers. but still no starfish!

we decided to go back to mainland...clement left for the jetty first, leaving kakin and I behind at chek jawa. we took the wrong turn and there, we are nearly going back to chek jawa.

kakin: isnt this the way back to chek jawa?
me: realli meh?
kakin: yes yes yes.

-.-" but at least the wrong turn made us see more things. we saw MONKEY!...we saw durian dropping down from the trees..so i took 2 home.

that was about all at pulau ubin..i guess next saturday will be a diff place again. sungei khatib bongsu?

uploaded some photos; have yet to gotten to rest from clement:P

2005-06-03T06:04:00.000-07:00

well..pdp is finally over..
it would be a memory for me..i m sure it would be a pleasant one, just like npdp
it was 6 trainings of fun..yes, we only had 6 trainings, 3 trainings of which there was only 15 of us.

2nd June, 1300 hours, we fall in for our last rehearsal training..it was pretty relaxed as we practised our march past and some other stuffs.we had our dinner together as a contingent, 37 of us, before we proceed on for the actual parade.
and without us knowing, the command was given for the march past. the march past signals the end of the parade for all of us...it was just so fast.

then we had our photo taking session before we had our debrief. it was certainly mixed feelings for me..no more having to come down for trainings till 8 in the evening or having to skip lessons just for the parade but..it was the last time we marched together as a pdp-npcc contingent, with our contingent commander, zhiwei, trainers, raudah, siti...it was these few people that made training sessions much crappier and relaxed...

2005-05-14T05:42:00.000-07:00

back from obs.

course: 5 Day Outdoor Discovery Course ( M503/05)
duration: 9th May 2005 to 13th May 2005
venue: ubin
watch: shackleton (Sir Ernest Shackleton)
instructor: samatha (sam)

1 word- fun
perhaps, initially, i din realli enjoy the camp, i muz admit tat it was pretty boring for the very first part of the camp. especially, when you should really be discouraged after stoning at the jetty under sun to wait for the boat. but as the days went by...every single activity was so exciting..yes, exciting..from day 1 learning how to pitch the tent, to day 5 trust fall

although it may seem that being in a mobile watch, it is certainly of a disadvantage compared to those resi people...it may be wrong, we get an experience that they can never get. though they did have their comfort that we never get throughout the 5 days..they will never be able to share the same memory as us but we can have the comfort for all we want now..

i am not being a sour grape :D

oki..i have very good watch mates..from samuel tan wei yi..yes, the one from 3c, min zhe, to the prcs. i m not labelling :p oki...yes..people like boyang..its so interesting as they share with you their journey from china to singapore..and what they think of the education system here...besides...they realli amuse us, at least, me..

the NOs for the camp:
1) handphones; i surrendered my phone for the very reason of going back to basics.
2) home-cooked food; well, this one cant be helped but let it be an experience
3) bed; i get groundsheet instead
4) shower; i get to shower but certainly not as many times
5) computer; when i get back home, it was so depressing to find my computer got screwed up with a corrupted registry

Day 1 9th May 2005
i am in Shackleton, actually named by Sir Ernest Shackleton. i dun realli noe much bt him but nvm. the day started off by gathering in school at the usual time. after attendance taking, it was time to leave for pungol jetty..so for the 40 minutes bus-ride from school, i was pretty much sleeping and listening to what nicholas loh has to offer..basically some unnecessary crap..so after reaching pungol jetty..we gathering into our watches, M11 for me..some familar faces while some not so familar faces. we waited and waited under the hot sun for the boat ride to camp2. the resi people get to leave first....so we get into our watch at camp2.

my watch was interesting, with a good mix of prcs. so often, throughout the camp, many if not some of us will speak to them in a funny china accent. we have to surrender our stuffs, for the very reason of going back to basics. i am a good little boy, i surrendered my phone, wallet..but not so good for i din surrender my raisins but i din eat them in the end. --" we got our instructors, sam.it just so happened that it was audrey's instructor too :p for the start, she was oki lar..the typical camp instructors..after settling all the admin stuffs, we went to have a store check and food check..basically, it was nothing appetising..just some biscuits and noodles..but what more can u ask for? we learn how to pitch a tent..not those tents whereby u joined the sticks together and its done up..but more of those tying ones...it was kayaking next...just learning some of the basics and recovery techniques..so it wasnt realli that fun..except for the capsizing part...after the whole kayaking activity, we went to wash up and after which, it was dinner. i wouldnt dare complain much bout the crunchy, uncooked rice, the cold beans, sardines, curry chicken for i din realli help much..i din help much and i am being automatic but not eating so much..actually it wasnt that nice too..i dun understand why so many people are fighting over it..haha.it was our first night circle, by DD or kelvin chua or raffles instructor. raffles was our buddy watch then..so he addressed us and checked our pots and pans before explaining to us the medical equipments..i wasnt paying much attention though..we packed our bags for the land expedition the next day and it was lights off.

In the hour of adversity be not without hope, for crystal rain falls from black clouds.

Day 2 10th May 2005

the day started with our morning circle at 8.30 and have our first sharing session..just some crapping and after which,we left for our activities..it was blade of grass first..something to do with trust and we were introduced to this logbook where all the previous shackleton participants write their names inside...it was like a commitment book..where you are agreeable to their rules or so. before we could play trust fall...it rained..cat 1, lightning strikes, all to stay indoors..i muz admit that i was quite happy at that time as i was still feeling discouraged to continue the camp..

"Opts calling all instructors, cat 1 until 11.30, over"

sam's walkie talkie sounded. i was happy..yay, indoors but the sudden enthu-ness came into me before the hike. so, before the hike, we practised some belaying and it was fun..after which, we were taught how to read the map..again, i wasnt paying much attention and in fact, i was dozing off..this time, i was not so lucky and i got caught by DD..it wasnt only me :P..before long, we set off for our next destination, some ulu area which i dunno the name...i volunteered as the sweeper and boyang, the prc, was our naviagtor...so we embarked on our first expedition..it was tiring, a test of endurance..i survived. so we reached the ulu ulu area near to night fall before proceeding to our next activity..rafting. it was pretty obvious that the instructors are wasting our time lar...asking us to build and dismantle..but nvm, so we pitched our tents, minus the tent pegs as it was rock hard ground..this time round, i contributed to the cooking..so i get myself a fair share of noodles..it was well-cooked and nice...we went to our tents and there came a joke, a total joke.the police came and make a big fuss out of our cleanliness...some small fry police patrolman asking us to squat down, making us looked as though we are some illegal immigrants..come on..please, if you are so concerned bt our safety, then stationed beside our campsite..after that incident, we were supposed to do sentry duty which the whole watch completely ignored..we went to have our sleep..

Consider the postage stamp. It secures success by sticking to one thing until it gets there.

Day 3 11th May 2005
the next morning, we had our morning circle again...after which, it was a team-building game, keyboard puncher...fun i supposed..then it was our sea expedition to camp 1..we packed some dry food and left..this time round, it was boyang again, as our navigator..we completely ignored the diamond formation..at certain points, it was realli exhausting..the portage areas where it was muddy..finally, we saw camp 1..a total chalet-like area..unforutnately, we onli get to sleep near the campsite on a hill..we have our first canteen food..woots, it was nice, nice..every1 enjoyed it i guess..sam and shackleton starts our own crap session where we interacted and all that..so we get to noe more bt sam and sam gets to noe more bt us...we went back to sleep after a tiring day.

See yourself for what you truly are, not what others would make you to be.

Day 4 12th May 2005
time check..0300 hours, it started to rain..i was happy, finally, i managed to get some wind.however at 0330 hours, the rain got bigger and bigger..we din have to go to the extent of supporting the tent poles but have to look out for flooded areas..at 0335 hours, DD's voice was heard, "Guys, we have to evacuate now! Wake up!" instantly, we grabbed our stuffs from the tent, wore my sandals, grabbed my backpack, wore my poncho and set for the multi-purpose hall..i couldnt realli sleep that night..cause it was freezing cold and i din bother to get something to warm myself so slept behind a pillar..

the next morning, it was breakfast in the cookhouse..that was when i start to enjoy my meals..it was high elements next, nothing much though.rock climbing..oki, i got stuck at the 8th panel, not knowing what to do..cause i cant seem to find any more tiles..near me..either they are too high or they are too far.but after much changing of footing, i got up and completed it ...it was lunch then..our last meal at the cookhouse..so we enjoyed it..every1 did..our last high element activity was inverse tower..nothing much though, except it was so funny to see one of the prcs shouting, "thats me!" when u noe..the harness gets abit tighter..we trekked back to camp2, the mobile campsite and did our washing up..so it was basically packing and washing before we settled in for the night..at 1200 exactly, no joke..my tent, together with some other people got caught for making noise...basically, minzhe, weiliang and i got too carried away when we were talking..we talked bt everything...oki, from mrp to certain people..it was so fortunate of weiliang that he din get caught for DD thought that he was sleeping due to his hairstyle.nvm, we did enjoy the chit-chatting session..we slept..

A mind that has been stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.

Day 5 13th May 2005
(to be continued...)

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.

2005-04-29T21:16:00.003-07:00

2005-04-29T21:16:00.002-07:00

2005-04-29T21:16:00.001-07:00

2005-04-29T21:16:00.000-07:00

2005-04-29T21:15:00.004-07:00

2005-04-29T21:15:00.003-07:00

2005-04-29T21:15:00.002-07:00

2005-04-29T21:15:00.001-07:00

2005-04-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

2005-04-29T21:14:00.005-07:00

2005-04-29T21:14:00.004-07:00

2005-04-29T21:14:00.003-07:00

2005-04-29T21:14:00.002-07:00

2005-04-29T21:14:00.001-07:00

2005-04-29T21:14:00.000-07:00

2005-04-02T21:02:00.000-08:00

i suddenly had the urge to blog after so many weeks. shall blog about parade training yesterday; there wasnt much happening though, except for the fact that it rain in the morning. so happily, we wasted 1 hour? hmmm, after deducting the break, we had only 2 1/2 of training. it was basically an informal rehearsal lar...2 things i am afraid of: the bloody flag pole that will disobey me and not go into the setch and i am not able to catch the flag. after the parade, we had lunch at long johns and went for carp. seriously, i think dover park hospice is much better than renci in terms of facilities. thats pretty obvious as it is pretty cooling in the hospice...er, well-ventilated?

then on friday, there was the .22 revolver classification shoot. i did badly, real badly. so much that i did not expect myself to get 66 out of a total possible score of 90. i mean i am not trying to imply that i am some real good shooter here but having me rank last of all those who passed isnt something very pleasant. i must admit that i wasnt being very focus when shooting. hence, it explains my downfall. of course, i m not expecting myself to be of the 80s range...but at least 75 rite...i lost 20 marks because of 4 shots that is nowhere to be seen...nevertheless..although the marksmanship badge is attained, this will become a learning experience for me...it goes the same for my participation in the swiss cottage air rifle competition...

2005-03-12T05:03:00.000-08:00

it has been nearly 1 month since i last update. apparently, there wasnt much to talk about.

i think that for the whole of this morning, it is being wasted. there was this shooting comp pt session at 7. fine, i reluctantly come and nothing was being done, except the art of stoning. EXCO meeting was next, well there was some sort of miscommunication and thus, some came at 8 while some came at 8.30. that was not the pt. apparently, it was said that its a 5-day work week, hence some people don't want to come down. i mean its very true but to chase us out of the EXCO meeting for an internal meeting isn't very pleasant. perhaps, we could have just been allowed to sit in and listen. the atmosphere was pretty solemn and that time. yicheng and i are supposed to meet another yicheng to assist in the preparation of logistics work for monday CAPE. happily, we waited for 3 hours? it wasnt yicheng's fault cause we insisted on waiting till the very end. only to find out that he was being held back. after which, i went to kap for lunch with yicheng.

np day parade is quite fun now, at least i think so. i mean it isnt't very stressing till now. argh...i still havent got my flag..is that ram still considering..i happily tell the FI that the school is still processing my request. actually..i clearly understand there is nonsense lor...if the flag is available, it is always there. whats there to consider about?

my msg this term is pretty crap. at least i m not last in class...but supposedly to the bottom. that isnt good at all.

2005-02-19T19:57:00.000-08:00

well well....it has been a bad term for mi ): i screwed up most of my tests except for my chinese. its not that i did not study, but but..i will just have to console myself by saying it is normal for this transition from sec2 to 3. enough of my studies, my msg will probably be more that 3.

i went for npcc reunion dinner yesterday, only 15 of us came though. there was a widespread of food for the fact that we paid 20 bucks for it. of course, we get 20 bucks standard p: it wasnt actually much on the food, but about squad bonding. so i was talking crap with daryl and zhen jie.
we had much fun yesterday i supposed..from the song dedication to making the concoction, which basically comprises of marinda orange, coke, sprite, longans, leftover yu sheng and prawns. after which, dey made us of a soap towel to filter the drink. the day ended with photo taking but it just so happened that the gate is locked. thankfully, i climbed over without any mishaps. i still remembered when i was in p5, i left my file in poi ching when we were having extra lessons there. it was only till at night, i realised that i left my file there. so my dad brought me to the school gate and i climbed over. it was pretty much dangerous then, with spikes on the gate. in the end, i did not manage to retrieve my file that night because the classroom was locked. so it was pretty crappy when i have to risk my life by climbing over.~

on friday, it was our first official training together as a GOH contingent. however, it was also our first slackiest training of all in police academy. cause it rained when we reached there, so there was chaos all over the parade square. i was soaking wet by the time i reached the drill shed. so we did some static drill for 5 minutes, thats all. then we went to the armoury to draw our m16 rifles. its pretty cool to play with, except i find it rather tiring when you shoulder arms for quite some time. imagine you have to present arms..that will be much more tiring. immediately after drawing arms, it was break, the same thing after all~buns and mineral water. at that time, i was also selected for flag bearer. i supposed it isnt much of a permanent position i hope. :p after the break, we thought we were in for serious stuff. however, it rain again. so we took shelter at one building and played some games there, shant elaborate much cause it isnt very interesting. seriously, i think some pa training would be good.

i have a dream and that is to...i have a plan and that is to...

2005-02-03T05:12:00.000-08:00

effects of chinese herbs on gene expression

seriously, i think i m lost. argh..nvm, i will make it. haha...appararently, harhp wanted us to find out which herbs can affect gene expression. but..but the problem is, its hard to find. not easy at all. oki..so i actually emailed GNC..hmm, fast response from their nutritionalist. i also emailed eu yang san but to date, there was no response yet. although the response given to me was kinda crappy..but well, at least he bothered to reply lar..

bio test was today..i m not confident. argh..i dun wanna get the same marks as math test. btw, i managed to add 1 mark..moving my grade up to an A2. oki, quite lucky..i m slacking away..cause theres no more test at least for 1 week. but theres loads to come on wk 7. i think i will just hafta do an ACE article review for chem to end off the day.well...

Hi Calvin,

One of the salegirls in GNC Novena branch informed me that you are enquiring on the above subject.

There are not much research done on this as far as I know, however, Siberian ginseng has been shown in some research to stimulate endogenous protein synthesis.

Please feel free come back to us should you have further enquiries.

Best regards,
Donald Tan
Skills Development Executive
Tel: (65)6281 5688 ext: 136
Fax: (65)6745 26f

2005-01-29T06:26:00.000-08:00

so much for my math test-b3. obviously, i am not happy with this kind of results. the papers are nt out yet, its juz that mrs teng juz haf to ask me if i m facing any problems in my work yesterday. i knew that somehow or rather..it has gotta do with my test. and obviously, i am right. she wasn't willingly to divulge my marks in the first place but only to give me a pretty stupid answer. "not as good at last year"
but after much probing, i managed to get my marks. a b3. well, i admit that i din feel realli good at that time. it would be a lie to say that i take it easy and a b3 is seriously nothing. she, again, disclose something that i feel that i was not necessary for me to know- the model score for the class is a1. fine. so my first test in year3.i got a b3. i seriously hope that it will turn out to be the same like las year. apparently, i did not do very well fer math in the first term..i rmb clearly it was a b4 and it was on the same topic mind u. fer second and third test..things well smoothly and luckily, i got exempted. that was last year though.

i hope.i dream

npcc day parade training was rather boring. marched around and v soon, we haf our break. i muz admit they took care of our welfare.basically, thats it la..nthn interesting except for the fact that i saw a few of my ex-squadmates..and eric from rv. hmm.small world :p

2005-01-27T01:43:00.000-08:00

i juz had my math test today. well, i wouldn't dare say it was a hard paper as many commented on how confident they were in achieving an a1. however, i shall not bring myself to saying that it was easy, for the very fact that i am not so confident. let nature takes it course.

for chem today, i was finally called to answer a question for the first time in 4 weeks. as expected, i did not realli catch her question in the first place but somehow or rather, i think i manage to answer with much prompting from her.

theres chinese test tmrw. well..seriously, i dun like studying for chinese; although its onli 4 chapter, its much of memory work. besides chinese test, theres still loads of hmk i havent complete. worst still, har just have to come and tell us to prepare a list of herbs that we want to test and the method of extraction by tmrw.

fine. theres test on everyday of week 7, thats bad. week 6 is chinese new year, which also means that chinese new year is meant for studying. so much of the extra 1 day holiday.

npcc day parade training.

2005-01-19T02:39:00.000-08:00

actually, school isnt much of fun at all. juz finished my piece of concept map on Nationalism of Indoesia. seriously, i dun see a point in doing it and i dun even see a need to hand up tmrw. i seriously dunno what chansh is thinking. perhaps crap. nvm.

argh. third week of school realli looking forward to this coming holiday which means tmrw is the las day of school week. bad.bad.bad, theres afternoon lsn tmrw. i dun like afternoon lessons cause it is v boring, especially when u haf chem prac for 2 periods.

fine. i shall not grumble. i shall get used to it. my math is in deep trouble now. with me getting scores like 1/10 and 2/10, things dun look very good. its nt that i din try, perhaps a little rusty after the long break. i am sure i will improve, but not 3/10 for the next test though. i wouldnt mind 8/10 u noe.

2005-01-12T01:12:00.000-08:00

changed my blog template after realising that my previous one was rather boring. apparently,i have been looking at it repeatedly. nevertheless, i think this temp is pretty cool for the fact that it got tiny little icons fer you to navigate ard unlike the normal ones where everything is squeezed into one page.

its already the second week of school and i am still not very used to the fast-pace school life. perhaps it is just the fact that tests have yet to come in. nvm, but research projects are coming in real fast. smrp, mrp..who noes whats more. oki..bascially, i haf been waking up feeling real tired. that shouldnt been the case.

and fer chem lesson, i feel uneasy. seriously. cause mrs seck will always look into her class list and shout out some name. its scary when u r not at all confident of the answer and may possibly end up making a fool of urself. "when you learn, you should not be afraid of failures"...blah, blah blah

wow..i think that bio projects r seriously cool.

not-so-good day

2005-01-04T05:34:00.000-08:00

hmm..my day in school ended at 6.30pm. seriously, i m not very used to this. it just that i dun haf any cca on weekdays last year and i dun haf any extra lessons las year. so to say, i go home at 1.30 everyday last year. haha :p i m just lucky.

school was quite boring today. with all the teachers introducing the assessment system and all that. no one has seemed to get into lesson proper except cheryl wong and tansh, english and ss respectively. pretty boring...ones talking about expository essay, the other talking about south east asia. nothing much though. and..mrs seck gonna give us a quiz on chemical formulae and equation. thats bad.not good at all. cause i m not even confident of the chemical symbols. i realli thought that Hg was Helium for a moment. instead, it was Mercury. haiz...

another interesting thing i had noticed this morning. the moment i stepped into the class, it was quiet. its not that no1 is inside but every1 has a textbook infront of them, reading silently. while i decided it is better for me to get used to my environment, i popped over to 3c. a totally different scene. there were people chit-chatting in small groups.

enuf of school which ended with cheryl wong lesson. np was next. it was no fun at all. perhaps it is just the holiday breaks. haha...tats it larhx. dun realli haf any comments bt today's training.

tour2korea

2004-12-26T23:30:00.000-08:00

Click here to see my photos

woohoo, i m bac from korea! ~A world of Magic, Fantasy & Adventure. apparently the previous post was typed in the internet cafe at $5 an hour, which is expensive. as such, the computer was shared among 3 people in order to save cost. shall now talk about the trip briefly.

so we visited three cities of korea throughout the trip; seoul, jeju island, daegu. hmm..first day was actually spent in jeju island- the land of tangerines. there are lots and lots of tangerines-sweet ones of course. for that day, it was briefly sight-seeing, visited this place called Yongduam (Dragon Head Rock), Songsan Sunrise Peak, a volcanic crater perched out on the eastern tip of Jeju Island, Chong Bang Waterfalls and Jusangjeolli, one of Seogwipo's unique natural resources. that night in jeju island was spent in a 6-star hotel, lotte hotel, jeju. apparently that was the onli good hotel i would say we get to stay throughout the trip there. the hotel there is best known for the filming site of the drama "All In". a korean serial i think.

the next day, we spent the morning in this boring long road, mysterious road. 神密的道路. its basically experiencing going uphill when the engine of the bus is switched off completely. this is actually some optical illusion, where things which is lower appears to be higher. for that particular attraction, i would say i was pretty lucky as I won myself a box of korean ginseng tea worth USD 10. after which, we set off to daegu by plane. immediately, we went to this place called spa valley. nothing much though. just tat the swimming pool is much more attractive than ours. theres this stretch bar in the pool, a bed-like structure for you to relax and lastly a gym in the pool itself. can u believe it? its like having all those machines in the pool. except for the fact that the weights are not made of metal. after that, it was just sight-seeing again.

the fourth day was basically bus-ride all the way. a 5 hour bus ride to phoenix ski resort. i juz found that it isnt a very good idea to sit at the back of the bus. it certainly makes u feel nauseous. car sick, isnt it?

the fifth day was skiing. the ski-lesson was rather cheat cause it only lasts for an hour. they onli taught you three things! three onli; how to attach your shoes into the blade, how to fall, how to stop. thats all. maybe thats all you need to ski. i got a sense of satisfaction when i managed to ski down a slope of reasonable height without crashing into anyone. den the rest of the day was spent playing the sleigh. its pretty fun u noe. having to run up the slope and rushed down.

the sixth day was just a city tour of seoul. nothing much actually. at night, it was lotte world, a theme park basically. din get to play much of the rides as it was at night and we din haf much time. however..the laser performance was damm chic. u should see beams of laser in the air. that kind of atmosphere. ah...

the morning of the seventh day was another theme park. this time round, i managed to complete those rides that were worth playing. i must say that day, i got a great sense of acheivement. haha.i managed to sit onto a roller coaster. not just any rollercoaster but the one that goes in loops. that was the first time i tried it and it was not that scary after all. next was the suspended roller coaster. that was fun too. then we went shopping at Dongdaemun market. it was pretty intersting especially when you can bargain at some outlets. at night, it was visiting the fashion street, pretty boring when the things there r so ex. take for example, i got my swatch watch in switzerland for SGD 115 and they r selling it at SGD 185. a very great diff.

the last day was actually visiting the namsan national park and shopping again. din get myself anithing again, except for food and food. the things r pretty nice to eat. the pancakes there r nice, unique i would say. las minute shopping at this supermarket before we leave for singapore. haha. i managed to grab 3 seats to myself and have a good rest as they r empty.

A World of Magic, Fantasy & Adventure

phoenix ski resort

2004-12-22T02:21:00.000-08:00

time check: 7.21
Singapore: 6.21

yup, i m in korea now. spending my last night in pheonix ski resort. juz had skiing for the whole of the day. i seriously dunno what i m writing. but i noe that i did not go fer quite alot of np stuffs.
1- agm
2- marshall
3-camp

quite alot, isnt it. nvm.

yipee

2004-12-18T01:55:00.000-08:00

bowling comp finals was today

yes. today. ; i was assigned the job of Competition Orderly, sounds nice eh? but i think it was the least significant job among the rest. i was just guarding the staircase, maybe not staircase, steps perhaps. AND it was just to prevent supporters from going down 2 the competition arena. from another point of view, i am quite useful in a sense that without us, supporters might bowl for the competitors. hmm..indeed useful. but it was kinda crappy towards the end, when i was to open the barrier for competitors who have finished bowling. the bad thing is tat dey dont go out at the same time. so imagine its- open, close, open, close.

den we had prize presentation. some of the winners were totally...comical? i dunnoe what r they thinking. some went up stage to collect their trophies with their SUNGLASSES on. hurhur. i dunno why wuld dey nd sunglasses when the lounge is already tat dark. -_-" another instance, some went up in slippers. no comments fer tat.

that was actually mentioned during debrief too. debrief was kinda boring and long too. we just practically sit there listening to the key personnels talking.

-time check 6.03

oki. shall talk about my trip to korea. my flight is at 11.45. still early now. i guess if i dun get 2 blog in the internet lounge over at changi, this will b my las time. gonna be away fer 8 long days and coming back on christmas :p yeah. gonna miss agm, unit camp. haha. 2 quite important events. its not tat i like to miss, i cant help it. i m enthu, k...haha, mayb not. wadeva

bowl...bowling

2004-12-02T21:27:00.000-08:00

Inaugural Uniformed Groups Bowling Championships

yes. thats it. such a long name for a bowling competition. fer yesterday preliminary rounds, i was assigned the role of lane marshalls. basically, it was to make sure the bowlers bowl in sequence, make sure they do not tamper with the control panel, make sure the bowlers do not bowl for one another...blah blah blah. as lane marshalls, we were given the bowling comp t-shirt fer identification purpose. as compared to the unit t-shirt, the bowling comp 1 is much nicer even though it is in black. haha. however..its not fun being a lane marhsall. grrr..its so boring lar. for session1, i took a npcc sea unit and boys brigade team. fer the bb team, their results are not so good..i wont say lousy cause i dun think i can even bowl better than them :(. the np sea unit team is slightly better; they managed to at least get 600+ fer team score. den for session 2, i took northland secondary school. haha..the way the gals bowl is abit violent; they practically swing the ball of their hands. so you can see the ball fly in the air for a certain distance, before..boom! it hit the ground and roll towards the pin. is that the correct way to bowl? ><" den had debrief before i went to eat with daryl at pasta mania. shouldnt have ordered the linguine or whatever u call that. nvm

Cadet Assessment & Promotion Exercise: Corporal Chevron Promotion Test

haha. another long name for a promotion test. the results are finally out and i m happy to say that i passed. hehe :) actually, every1 that took the test pass.

whee~!

2004-11-30T02:42:00.000-08:00

shall blog about a few events that happened for the past few days. firstly, i participated in the Horizon Challenge organised by nanyang npcc. hmm..it was a success fer dem, but it wasn't realli a success for us. apparently, we didn't bring home any trophies at all, not even the most enthusiastic award. however, just to console ourselves, we did bring home some experiences. perhaps the whole point of the competition is not to win:) yes..not to win. however, yinghao suggested that if we dun get into top 3 (which we didnt), we muz do 300 push-ups as a form of self punishment. hmm..>< interesting isn't it? it certainly dampened my mood-_-"

nvm bt horizon challenge..i will see how it goes. next up is civil defence course. its at some place called jalan bahar. uh huh. den it lasted for a whole of 8 hours with breaks in between of course. it is a total waste of time; as if anyone down there is listening. haha.as long as i get my cert i m happi :)

the incredibles~

2004-11-24T06:11:00.000-08:00

went to watch the incredibles with (aud, shermin, qq & sis, zx, zy). it was quite a nice show; with rather good animations. after all, its from waltz disney.

before the show, i have an encounter with a man in his early 60s. he was selling some lotion by the side of the street and apparently, he claimed that it makes wonder. hmm, i was seriously wondering the reliablity of the magical lotion. he claimed that it could relieve any physical pain, like bruises or headache. if it was reliable, the lotion would be quite well-known in the market. however, i never heard or seen of such lotion.(or m i that not knowledgeable) yet, i must commend him of his excellent speech that resulted in many singaporeans forking out $10 to buy tat magical lotion. how magical, isn't it?

nvm bt that. back to the show. :) so after the movie, we went walking around and took some neoprints.

den, we went home after tat. feeling quite energetic still..theres still marshal duty tmrw. dun relli like marshal duty. never like marshal duty.

to be promoted or not?

2004-11-22T01:53:00.000-08:00

yup..finally got over it. had been waiting for this test to pass and i will be just left to clear one more course for this holiday-civil defence course. i think it should be quite fun larx. cpl test today was manageable compared to lcp eh.

first session was lamp lighting session, i think i should haf no problem getting high marks fer tat station. it was basically just name the parts of the hurricane lamp and state a few safety precautions when using it. lastly, light it.

second session was drill(1). it was taken by our ncos..so i think its less pressure on us. i dun think i screwed up for this station, i hoped? den fer drill session(2); it was taken by a ci lohx. this station was more of marching lar..i dun think i screwed up for the commading part. but fer the executionary part, thats bad ):

it was something like this. "Squad, Tukar Langkah Masa Berjalan, Tukar" and the english equivalent is "Change Step on the March, Change March" so at the "tukar" part..i always bang immediately w/o checking at all..nvm, just hoped that i pass :)

to get promoted or not?

'd' reunion

2004-11-19T02:14:00.000-08:00

*audrey is deprived of reading material now.

yup..shall tok bt the chalet which lasted from 17th nov to 19th nov. so i met up with zx, wh and zhuang yi at tanah merah mrt station before we left for white sands. so we waited for qq mum to get us the confirmation slip and we started to crack some racist jokes among ourselves while the girls played some interesting game. "到底有几个meh meh?"

so after we checked in, we started to mess the house. for example, jumping on the bed. then we started talking and talking till suddenly quan quan pop out of nowhere; she had cca earlier on. so it was kinda scary. den we had bbq. hmm...muz realli thank the gals for cooking for us. dey were like all gathering outside helping us cook the food and suffering the intense heat. kudos to them(audrey, qq, shermin, jesslyn, sijia, huitian). before that, we indeed had a hard time starting up the fire till some1 kind from next door pop over and started the fire. quite guilty eh...its our bbq and yet he haf to step up. haha..kaez..so we watched tv all the way till 8+. then we went to the beach. the breeze was so nice lar..we wasted 27 sparklers for 30 seconds of enjoyment. how wonderful isn't it? den audrey, jesslyn left as dey got cca the next day. we bath and went to slack while huitian and si jia went to find a place to sleep instead of the chalet. i think we talk and play, play, play it realli brings back memories of the past. nvm. den we went to the beach again..at 3 am just to look for huitian and sijia. apparently dey were having a chat at the break waters. its damm nice especially when u r lying down. the sound of the tide and the twinkling of the stars. however..sijia and huitian sorta dao-ed us. when we sat near them, dey went over to the other side. haiz..dunnoe what are dey thinking. so we went back to sleep and set our alarm at 9. but it was freezing the whole night and i was sneezing away.

woke up at 7 and ate the cup noodles qq bought for us. thanks qq. den we went cycling and roller blading to and fro. we finally stop at the playground and i managed to conquer 9/10 of the spider web. i seriously couldnt find any path up the top. so we cycled back and haf our lunch at the food court. after lunch, shermin went for cca and we went back to the chalet to play truth or dare. haha..it was so fun. den some of them wanted to sleep so it was basically free at leisure. at that pt of time i was still energetic. haha...huitian was writing in the book. lol, so i decided to write in the bk. (aud, hope u dun mind, k) so huitian, weihong, zhuang yi and i started to talk and talk. so after shermin returned from school, we went to bk for dinner. nothing much happened there..so we went back and before we settled down it was alreadi 9..sob sob..haha..nvm; zixuan, u still owe us 1 dare, 2 truths. uh huh...den i went home for trng..so sad..its the same for class chalet lor..i have to leave on d second nite for trng. nvm...juz take it that i m enthu!

tats all folks :P

endless entertainment 4 everyone

2004-11-10T04:22:00.000-08:00

class chalet
yup, shall blog now regarding class chalet. a place where bonding begins. hmmm..let me recall the day the chalet starts. (3th November)

it all begins(sounds like narrating a story isn't it)when xm and i went for lunch at j8. i must say that the food there, or rather the chicken rice there was horrible. then we went down to buy some snacks which include famous amous cookies and a packet of hi-chew sweets and more sweets. at 1, we made our way for pasir ris mrt. it was a long.......long ride till we meet wang shu and jacky on the mrt. it was like we didnt know they were there until some time..so it was kinda laggy. nvm ><...so, time flies and we reached there half-an hour ahead of the scheldued time, 2? so, we went up to white sands and straight up to the arcade. we saw zhen yang, the ncc gang and some others...so daryl was there playing wif the sniping game and daryl most probably have the potential to become a sniper for the special operations command? hmm..we will see. at 2.15, we made our way for aloha loyang..the chalet brian booked. however, we still have to wait as a confirmation slip is needed and it is with brian mum. so some of us settled down in middle of the pathway(how smart isn't it?) to play big2. anw...i was still under go teaching lessons my henry...so it wasnt much of a fun game eh...so in the process, i coincidentally saw a few peeps.; amanda, calsia and weiling. such a small world, considering that i saw zhuang yi in the mrt station earlier on. when the admin stuffs are settled, we went straight for the chalet..a 2 storey terrace with a living room, dining room, kitchen and all kinds of room attached.bleah...jacky and huan zi went down swimming, who are later join my more people; including me.:p before that, daryl was having roller-skating tution by mr zhen yang. haha..it was damm farnie watching daryl calling out for help. we went to the mini-arcade later which was kinda run-down. even some of the game machines are not connected. after that, wash up and it was bbq...haha..din help much till the end where most people are settling down...basically..i think the bbq isnt very much about enjoying the food but the fun we had...after that...it was the "asian baywatch"~the champions~任我遨游.

haha..asian baywatch indeed. i was actually barbequeing the satays during commercial break. then halfway through, wenqiang started his magic trick in the room...it was quite zai but i thought i figure it out initially but screw up everytime. so daryl and i went to talk on the bed...we were not really talking but actually crapping...in the meantime, we were actually tickling wenqiang...u must see his reaction, he was actually screaming away..i was one of the lucky ones who got the bed and shared it with daryl..so i dozed off at around 1+ and all the way to 7 the next morning.

day 2
rise and shine. we went for an early swim in the pool before some of us went down to white sands to have our breakfast at macdonalds. haha. we went to the arcade to throw in our coins again..samuel and quite pro in the drum and dance machines..but the dance movements look quite unnatural(no offence, k?) we went back to pack up and we changed to a different terrace. so after we settled down, i went cyling with ying hao, zhen jie, daryl and huan zi. so we went cycling all the way and it rained halfway...after listening to wise daryl yee, i decided not to cycle in the rain while ying hao, zhen jie and huan zi went playing in the rain...when it get smaller, we went to return our bike and thats it...end of cycling session..back at the chalet...the np guys discussed about going for revision trng the next day..it was quite a debate..was it? then we ordered pizza and have a room photo taken..(see nov 5 entry). after which, zhen jie and i left home.

day3
Revision Training

2004-11-05T19:32:00.000-08:00

2b' 04 Class Chalet Room Mates Not in Picture: Daryl, Zhen Yang

the battle ends?

2004-10-15T03:13:00.000-07:00

the battle ends?the week-long exams had come to an end. the very first paper was English Language, both paper 1 and 2. However, I personally find the comprehension paper difficult. Perhaps, I only have to blame it on my limited English standard. Chinese paper was next, it was rather ok, I managed to put my ideas into my essay. Science was manageable; shouldn't do too badly I hope. For oral defence, I survived it though. :p we din get niao by the opponents but with just a few questions here and there. last paper was chinese paper 2. I was not totally prepared so there were a few stupid errors here and there. Exam ends.

::special programmes::
i was choosing the special programmes for year 3 next year and was seriously considering between the two programmes which offer numerous incentives. bicultural programme, a government-recognised programme and Math and Science Research Programme. i must admit that this particular programme does have its plus point. but that wasn't my first choice and the reasons are as follow:
1- i have not much interest in chinese literature. For example, i never complete reading 三国演义 since the beginning of the year and i believed that it is essential to understand these literature texts in chinese when one is in the programme. of course, u must at a least finished reading it.

2- a 3-months cultural immersion in china? i dun look forward to it

Coincidentally, i ponder upon a blog entry by a JC LEP student who commented on this issue.

Blog Entry taken from http://powrabbit.blogspot.com/

Amphipathic properties ~ The Next Generation

Read LianHe ZaoBao page 10 today, "双文化毕业生任公职空间大". It is a continuation of what I mean about the craze to become bicultural, on the basis of hitching on the RISING DRAGON's scaly tail. Apparently, not only must we embrace Lao Tze, Zhuang Tze and the whole bandwagon of Ching-chong Cheena ancient talents, we must also know the BARD inside out. Yes, we must do semi-conservative replication. Take half a culture's worth from the Bard, then take another half from Confucius. Not only must you be able to write sonnets, sprout ancient Chinese poetry, be well-versed in ancient Chinese text, know ang-moh history and also grasp the quirky habits of Chinese emperors. To sum up, we must be amphoteric, like a protein with acidic and basic properties. We shall be hybrids, half-Anglophilic and half-Sinophilic.
Seriously, how many of us can do that?

I'm an LEP student, and I don't see many people with the ability to straddle both cultures comfortably, to the extent that they're well-versed in both. Being an LEP student doesn't mean that I'm obsessed with the whole package of Ching-Chong wayang stuff. Quoting the news report, "随着中国在世界舞台所扮演的角色越来越重要，对中国的人文和国情有深层认识的年轻人，是新加坡政府急于吸收的对象。修读双文化课程，对日后有意在政府部门工作的年轻人将大有帮助。" Okay, some will be diplomats, some will be translators, and some will be our esteemed wonderful Chinese educators?Hahaha....there's no end to this bicultural talk. Let's just resign to our fate. Pass me the Shakespeare poetry please? 隔岸观我and红楼梦too. Thanks.

Blog Entry taken from http://powrabbit.blogspot.com/

hmmm..what this person says is true to a certain extent. I had highlighted some of the key points of the entry. "Seriously, how many of us can do that?" undeniably, its true. however, we cant rule out tha fact that there are those elites who can manage both. thus, this entry is not true to a certain extent.

16 days counting...

2004-09-22T23:49:00.000-07:00

16 days more to eoy and i am not really very prepared to take the exams. it was quite a busy week as well as a happy one. For the whole of last week, chiucc gave us a series of tests and i must say i did not too badly. For today, was rather happy when i did received a letter and its the letter of exemption from Math. Although it is only 1 subject but i think its not too bad considering what mrs teng had said...end of year for math is not gonna be easy...

*wow..really envy clement...he got 2 subject; math and science...thats the perfect combination.

boohoo

2004-09-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

now my face has 2 distint shades-the lighter part as well as the darker part and all thanks to the sun. grrrr..

today, school was kinda slack. i shall start my day-telling session again...for chinese, it was some revision test, which was quite ok and tomorrow there will be another chinese test on zao ju, sentences. Ah....then, we had math. we learn more abour circle properties and frankly speaking, i am certainly not very sure of that topic and its TESTED. so, i am there struggling but i am sure i will find out one day. then, we had assembly, the most relax period of all. sat there, most probably in my own world. but...i sorta figure out that they were talking about the special programmes. for me...i am totally confused of what to choose but i try to minimise the choices; bicult or math&science....hmmm, both are equally attractive. last 2 periods are slack..slack..slack, the only word to describe that.

During com studies, yongjs was not there and apparently, it was due to some error in our time tables. So, yinghao, daryl and i took upon the mission to find him...we were like wandering around. after much attempts, he was nowhere to be seen and we headed back to klas to crap around...next period was english and we didnt do english. instead, it was more of a lecture? hmmm...she was talking abt discipline and she said that teo complained about our noise level...since when were we noisy? perhaps...it should be the other way round, we are too quiet for the fact that no ones answer her question....

school ends like this..went to library and slack for awhile before going to ep3 block for the moving of np room...helped in carrying some boxes and trophies...before we are dismissed at 5...i was so tired when i got home and dozed off in my school u. AND...now, i am revising for zao ju...zao ju...zao ju

end of kayaking/hols~

2004-09-12T05:56:00.000-07:00

it is certainly no doubt that time really flies. its the end of the september holidays and yesterday, it was the last lesson of our kayaking course. hmmm...after weeks of fun, it had come to an end.

on sat, we had our expedition, a mini one though. The whole trip was scheldued to be 6km long but i think we had only completed 5km and the time we took was far too long. i think its quite ok lar...considering the fact that we travel in a large group? maybe thats not the excuse to our mistakes. after the expedition, we sorta played in the sea before going for lunch. our last packed lunch. haha...the lunch was not too bad lar..in fact it was quite good. lastly, we learnt two skills before the course officially ends.

so, we received our cert. and in order to prevent mine from ending up in the bin, i got mine laminated:p. hmm..then after that mr tan talked to us about our attitude, our discipline and all that; basically a reflection for leap...maybe what he said was quite true..leap for us have come to and end...

*got sun burnt and its no good at all~!

last day of holiday and i am here wasting my time away...had just finished reading thru the first page of my chinese words...although i haf studied but still, i am not confident and i feel that i lacked that kind of enthusiasm...perhaps it has yet to come...

terminal~

2004-09-09T05:59:00.001-07:00

yeah...watched the terminal today which I must say its worthwile unlike Bourne Supremecy. Woke up at 9.00 and revised my chinese for the last time i hoped before heading for somerset mrt. after that, the rest of them were hanging out at bk and it was so hard to locate dem(huitian, audrey, shermin, zixuan, weihong, zhuang yi) lor; apparently they were at a corner. I was the latest to arrive.Okae..i bought a large sprite and smuggled it into the theatre.

how...ever, zx and zy were not so lucky in the smuggling which they thought was fool-proof? just bringing it in by the side? haha...the show was very comical....i thought it could be related to mr bean?Viktor Narvoski from krakozhia....nice and interesting names...(adapted from aud's blog)

den ....they thought of going to changi airport...weird ideas but nvm...i just tagged along. Ate bk at changi and went up to the viewing gallery. In the end, they went all the way down to the end of the gallery and i thot we are supposed to view the planes taking off and touching down..Hmmm, but it turned out to be seeing metal stilts. No planes at all:p

Finished my BK fish and left...sad, while they stayed until 5+ accoring to aud. haha..but its a nice show. The Terminal

sept hols

2004-09-08T03:13:00.000-07:00

today is the last day of school liaoz. Not much fun for this week but overall it was quite ok. It was ok until chiu came in and said something quite disheartening. Theres gonna be a chinese test in the first week of term 4 and to be exact, we only have 9days to study. Looks enough but certainly it isnt. Firstly, its impossible to dedicate the 9days to studying only chinese. Secondly, we gonna study the whole of 2B? + chen yu. It doesnt sounds nice at all.

At the end of the day, i got back my term progress report. Hmmm...i did improve this term. I hoped its not luck that helped me. My ACE supposedly all full except english and com studies; 19 and 17. English shouldnt be the case cause i got my portfolio and debate and travel manual. 4get it....

2* kayaking

2004-08-21T23:55:00.000-07:00

we had our 2 star kayaking course today and it was quite ok. The fun actually comes in when CI Issac Tan and Teacher Officer, Mr Tan C.W joined us. For the first lesson of this 2 star kayaking, we covered basically some rescue techniques. It was rather boring but quite difficult to execute some of them. One of them called "Eskimo Bow" where you have to flip yourself after you capsize with the help of another kayak was hard lor. I nearly drowned when the pool was rather crowded and I started to panic and couldnt find the other kayak. So, I grabbed on to the skirt of daryl unknowingly. So, Daryl pulled out my toggle and it was only then I floated out. After that, we had lunch and it was only a 10-minute one. We headed straight for the Big Splash and this time, almost the whole of year 2 np went up to the big slide which was 3-storey high and mr tan went up too. After that, we have another hour of kayak before we went to bath and head for doby ghaut mrt.

end of common tests

2004-08-16T03:35:00.000-07:00

I guess today marked the end of the series of common tests this term. It may not be a good thing. I am not so confident about the two important papers I took today; science and math. Although I find both tests reasonably ok, I have a strong feeling of getting only an average score which is a bad thing. Nevertheless, I got back my chinese test today. Not so bad after all-96%. I think I am 5th or 4th in class but credit still goes to chiu. If not for her retest, I don't think I will do as well. Perhaps, I can finally see an A1 for chinese this term. It just happened that I did maintain my A1 for class tests but the assignments still pull me to an ugly a2. So, I have been getting a2 for both term 1 and 2, please let me have a 1 this term...My results for this term aren't really that pleasing. English, the subject which I cant score, was bad. I got a b4. I kind of expect this but certainly hoped to do better in future:p Oh yar..I got an A1 for Geography. I was quite happy with that, I did study for that but not very in depth. Suprisingly, I still can make it. I shall talk about kayaking on Saturday. It is certainly better than the week before. This time, we didnt go out to sea. We stayed in the pool which I thought was better. Perhaps, there is still some fun out in sea. We did some capsize and it rocks. We no longer have that kind of phobia of capsizing in the waters. After that, we have our lunch-1 hour break and 10 minutes we finished our lunch. Next, the whole of sec2 and sec3 np went to big splash. After much playing on the small slide, I looked up and saw ming yang waving his T-shirt. Oh manx! they went up the 3 storey high slide. Zhen Jie and I rushed up there and vroom...we are down the slide. Its quite fun yet scary because you have to face certain bumps. However, it was indeed a good experience. After that, we have a water fight? It involves the yr2s, yr3s and issac. Quite fun splashing water at one another. We end of by clearing up and bath. We took a shuttle bus to plaza sing. and we roamed aroudn there and at the ground floor, there was a LG roadshow. So, a competition was going on and its goes like this. One have to say, "L.GGGGGGG"holding the"g"there for 55secs and you get a vacuum cleaner. I timed myself and I think I got 17 secs. In the end, one guy got it and that marks the end of the competition. I took a MRT back home and slept through. ZzzzZ

kayaking

2004-08-07T21:22:00.000-07:00

kayak. i had my first kayaking lesson today and i must say it was quite fun. it was held somewhere in east coast park from 8am till 2pm. kinda long but time really flies. we had our theory lesson which I find quite boring. the theory part consists of introduction to kayak, personal floatation device(a technical term for life vest), forward row, reverse row. Our very first practical lesson was scary yet exciting- capsize drill. Its not much of a use though because if you were to capsize in the sea, a normal human instinct would be to stay afloat. we were taught to tug ourselves in, capsize the kayak, tap three times on the kayak before coming out from the water. Lastly, shout for help. Next, we have our break whereby we, went to empty our sand-filled shoes. It was not much of a use by rinsing water, the sand will still be there. I will just have to remember to bring sandals for the next lesson. The next practical lesson is forward row, reverse row and sweep stroke. This is where the fun comes in. I paired up with da yong and we were off to sea. we paddled off quite far and the feeling is nice, especially when the sea breeze blew towards you. It was quite funny when li hao and tack kian capsize rather far from shore. tack kian was cursing li hao. At the end of the course, we have to empty our kayak, which was quite heavy as it is filled with sand. Then, we have to wash our kayak. It was damm cooling when the instructor splash water on you. the feeling is...we went to wash up and we do not have time for lunch...poor scheldue. we went back to school, have our packed lunch and went to have our debrief. I wasn't really listening but i think loke mentioned about wearing long sleeve. ?!?! Long sleeve under the hot sun?

Looking forward to the next session:p