The Pink IC

As the day of redemption approaches very near for both Eddie Cai and Alvin Ong, I feel apt to recall the day for my own remembrance sake, lest it be forgotten forever.

It feels weird, especially after using the green card (which has torn plastic) for 2 years, the pink IC actually feels thinner than the green, and more flexible too.

It is only on the last day, that I realise just how many friendships were forged during the one year trial of fire. (in the form of exercises) Reluctant as a guy to say it, but I actually have a tinge of regret that I will never be able to witness the many quirks of my bunkmates, which of course, in real life would never be displayed or condoned.

Throughout the one year, I have always trudge out of the gates walking slowly past the tank. For the last time, it was different in that I had a bunkmate to hitch a ride from. Always felt that the army camp is a crucible and a microcosm of the outside world. If the whole unit detests a person, it must really be something wrong with that guy. Adaptation to the outside world would be a harsher lesson for the guy indeed. No names, no comments from this point onwards, lest this place is located through the search engine.

It was only during the last month that I realise guys are the most uninhibited, goofy, quirky, lame and of course crude (to put it nicely) in the presence of other guys in the next 5km away. But at least they are honest. It was lame and fun, having nary a worry about the outside world but anxious whether our hair is too long.

Remembered swearing a vow to heaven that I will get a new phone (camera) once I really step out of the gates. Now, with hair long and messy, I have fulfilled my vow.

After 2 years of lost time, the mind that has been condemned and locked is finally released from its prison. Anachronism and archaic rules that once bound it with iron locks have been broken and shattered to the ground. The body muscles are well toned and firm, but the brain department has become complacent over the months. It is time to tilt the balance. The freedom granted is a gift. Even merely walking around unhindered by hierachy of rule is a pleasant affair by its own right. (try walking Orchard Road and NUS, NTU, SMU and greeting an old group of have-beens, well not all of them, sirs each time you pass by them. The fear of not doing so is also a bitter feeling)

The pair of black spectacles that once hindered vision will be placed in the spectacle box, never to be touched in a long time. Duffel bags were briefly dusted, to collect stuffs from camp to home, so that it can lay at home to gather more dust. Some were not fortunate enough. They were left behind in bunks just as some chose to throw away the unpleasant memories.

The young men with duffel bags in tow walk out of the gates, with whole new lives to begin ahead of them.

End of Disc 2. Please change the disc to continue.

Potato

Just when I needed my printers the most, all the printers failed on me. All had run out of black ink. Looks like I have to take a trip down to BEST at Century Square for a quick refill.

Received a brand new Razer mouse from my dear little sister. Easily ranked as one of the top gaming mouse, it now sits comfortably under my hand on a huge mousepad.

The one month break is almost over. Places have undergone huge changes, for instance, White Sands is literally white now. The pavement to the bus interchange is sprawling with shops, and even the entrance to White Sands is not spared.

It is slow and shocking recovery back to my formal self. Terms like Maclaurin Series, matrices and the like keep flying past my ears, but without registering a memory or so. Sadly, I used to be able to deal with them. Even simple things like calculating compound interest has become an arduous affair, when I am pretty sure there is a formula for it.

The path along my town park is littered with pink and white flowers. It would have been more beautiful if the trees had the flowers instead. Shall intensify my search on the Classified, lest I become a real potato soon.

Maiev: You're insane, Illidan!
Illidan: Isolation does that to the mind.

Movie Treat

After my mother had happily redeemed 400 points from M1 for me, I was given the task of finding people to accompany me for a movie treat! Yah! Like true blue Sporeans, we decided to maximise the $150 off from all M1 phones by buying the most value for money phone, which, unfortunately, is not Nokia this time. Ended up with a baby which has a sleek black cover that is going to last me 2 years.

Feeling unusually rarely magnanimous, I decided to let Ivan experience the joy of a free movie ticket. Even if there is no free lunch, there is always a free movie ticket.

"..hmm...some gay sounding movie...what Last Kiss....M18 somemore...Orchard..." as I thought to myself. Without taking a second look, I decided to meet Ivan at Orchard at 630pm for a fine dinner.

Everything proceeded as planned. Ate Taco Bell for a quick bite. Singapore should have more Taco Bell outlets. Their quazilla watever pie is quite unusual and a change from the usual burgers and fries fare offered by the rest.

5 min before the show started, we went to the toilet for a quick wash. "Probably is a movie premiere, since the movie timing of the show is not even on the screen", remarked Ivan.

Striding confidently towards the movie ticket uncle, I brandished my two free movie tickets like a king of the hill. Unexpectedly, the old man peered at the ticket and gave me an instant answer...."chuo de di fang ah, xiao di".."What?! Say again" "Bu shi zhe bian de".

I squinted carefully at the movie tickets. Cathay Orchard. "?!". We are currently 800m away from the correct place, since......we are at Lido ! -.-''''

My stance had changed instantly, instead of the confidant young man showing off his tickets, I became a meek mouse retrieving back. Puffed myself and maintained (pretended) to have a bit of dignity left as I walked out of the theatre. Can swear I can hear silent laughter.

Meanwhile, Ivan was happily laughing his toes off. If it was Ginway, it would be the end of me. Literally. Can almost imagine him saying "Eh @#$@#%#@ you lah, what the @#$@#$@#4, @#$@#@#$@$, @#$@#$@3" So, thankfully, I got the right person for the screw up. Sigh. To think that I confused Lido and Cathay. In a feeble pathetic attempt to explain my noobness, I can only say that I am not as wellversed in the Orchard area as any RG girl. If I had tried to explain it on MSN, I can roughly imagine it appearing: Lol, wtf! ROFLMAO! ROFLOL! L3Et.
Yeah. Go ahead and roll on the floor man, though don't roll too much, if not people will think you have fits.

As if Heaven was also laughing with Ivan, the weather decided to pour cats and dogs over our heads as we were contemplating whether to rush to Lido Shaw. So we took a break at some CD shop, after buying tickets for another movie. "You know ah, TeckBeng, this place, say they only recruit beautiful women as their sales personnel." "Sure or not?Got such thing meh" "Yah, don't believe take a look" Ivan was right after all. God had indeed created one of his finest handiwork. So we happily loitered in the cd shop for an hour (while Ivan happily tested my phone) before going back to Lido. Meanwhile, the free movie tickets were already in the bin, awaiting the fate the rose had been ages ago.

Hence, there is also no free movie tickets in the world.

Lido Shaw=Orchard. Cathay Orchard=Somerset. Cathay=Dhoby Ghaut. I shall chant these words whenever I go movies in the future.

Long John Silver Combo 1

Went to Recruit Express with Ginway today, which is at Ngee Ann City. After making 3 trips there, we were finally led to Haw Par Centre, Dhoby Ghaut for an interview by the Starhub personnel.

We ran our way there to the Starhub building in spite of the heavy rain. There were fewer people there, in contrast with the job agency office, which was filled with throngs of ex-NSFs and A level girls.

Meanwhile, Ginway had just completed his driving lesson at Ubi Centre, which is very near Kakit Bukit, the place of nightmare. His officer training came in handy, as he had to juggle between driving and a nightshift job at the same time. After that interview, (which the interviewer did most of the talking), we proceeded to Long John Silver and ordered the same old things as always.

As we were happily talking and walking towards the MRT station, we sighted a strange sight. Two traffic policemen/women were taking down names from a group of youngsters, apparently caught for jaywalking. Any thought of breaking the law were dashed from our minds, though we sadistically revel at their demise. Ah. No wonder no one was walking across the street even though there were no vehicles coming.

An elderly Indian man joined us in our happy conversation, in which he kept on commenting that Singapore has become very strict, since the Gahmen cares for our road safety. In which I replied, "Yeah, Spore is becoming a fine city man." GST increased to 7%, so more fines are to expected of errant and unfortunate souls out there. Your mishap=more social security for the poor. Or rather, as the paper has put it, "Closing the gap between the lower-income and the rich people"

Beng and Meng Company :D

I was dozing off to lalaland, with soothing background music provided by my friend's mp3 player. (guess how many rules were broken already; give you another hint, that song was from my friend's cd that had many other songs). Meanwhile, my mischievous friend Ngai Meng kept on playing corny games with our understudy.

After he had finished tickling the understudy, he turned his attention to my reclined form on the dusty armchair! In his usual low and husky voice, he chanted the same few words over and over again.

"Teh Peng, milo peng, teh peng, milo peng, teh peng, milo peng , teh...X100"

That was sufficient to interrupt my sleep. Without saying a word, I opened one eye and closed it, pointing a defiant gesture towards heaven (displaying a symbol of manhood). A silly monkey giggle ensued, and then he continued chanting his teh peng milo peng chant again, much to my dismay.

Since we were in the signals company, why not put our skills to use? Hence, *points above* that corny name you see above. My store 2 IC decided that the both of us would specialise in surveillance technology. We would be at the zenith of our creative power, though with great power comes great responsibility...coz our skills can be used for GOOD and EVIL....I would be director and Mengz would be assistant director. Yeah. Only the two of us currently.

Went to the medical centre. Long queue of guys waiting for the Medical Officer to just sign the clearance forms. One guy even dared to bring his girlfriend into the den of wolves, or rather coloured wolves. I applaud his courage. His girlfriend was quite the eye candy, though my morals, if any, kept me from ogling for too long, lest a fight of manhood ensues, which aint gonna be pleasant for the guy (actually me).

On a serious note, I must commend on the strong and long lasting relationship that the both have. It takes faith and great love for them to continue throughout the strenous 2 years of hardship and separation. Rare.

The Very First Day...Tekong!

As the counter reads less than 24 hrs on my blog now, I was looking back at the past two years, feeling amused at the transgressions, "misfortunes" and incidents that occured...

"Beng ah, got everything ready or not?" "Yeah, I think so", I replied in a not so convincing manner, peering my sad-looking mug as I checked through my bulky bag. That was filled with junk that were unnecessary, as I realised to my horror later. Ten rolls of black tape. Check. 5 pairs of white socks with toes. Check. Prickly heat big bottle. Check. And so on.

It was time. Lunch was like eating lead. Carrying my holiday resort bag, I slowly made across the park, accompanied by my parents and sister. As I stayed a 5 min distance away from the Pasir Ris Bus interchange, I was considered more blessed than others. At least I did not have to travel 2 hrs to my army camp. (which I had to eat my words much much later).

Shaking my head in futile resistance, I joined my sad crowd of men (or rather boys, which the SAF calls us), lingering there like someone had cast doom on us. Pretty girlfriends provided the occasional eye candies, or "creeps" as a good friend of mine would call them, but still, it gave little relief to my heavy heart.

Forgot what had happened, but it was probably too insignificant to remember. Anyway, I soon found myself on the Penguin Express, reputed for its express service across the sea by being slow. "Wah, you so good ah. At least this time the ship to Tekong got comfortable seats", my father quipped, in an attempt to cheer me up. "..." Soon, we walked across the jetty, which says "Welcome to Tekong!" Wow. Matched my attire man. Holiday resort with a holiday resort bag.

After that, we were separated from our loved ones..ok, parents. Glump looking men, including me, were herded to rows of chairs, in which my sergeant major (which I wrongly saluted and found out much later) gave us our 11B. Even though the scene was quiet, you could sense a sea of anxiety and restlessness, plus sorrow, in each one of us. Since men are the less expressive half, we gulped and bottled the sadness.

"Remember, you all must say WITH OUR LIVES! Repeat after me, WITH OUR LIVES!" "....with our...... lives". The sergeant major drilled and rehearsed with us the SAF pledge ad nauseum, which we were supposed to say with pride in our parents. We succeeded..after the fifth attempt. That moment was the first of the many incidents to come of the phenomenon which we call "wayang". And for God's sake, scrap that video showing "50 DAYS from Boys to Men!"

Meanwhile, our parents and some girlfriends had a hearty lunch of chicken rice. They were then herded to the auditorium, where we were already there for the past 2 hrs or so (rehearsing the "WITH OUR LIVES" part). Expectedly, we gave a rousing performance that might have brought a tear or two to girls and parents, but sadly, not us.

After we had our share of chicken rice (at last), we waved goodbyes to our parents. It was night time by then. One company of men were squeezed in a training shed, where we had to inspect our duffel bag for our necessities. (amazing, since somehow, the duffel bag defied the law of physics by managing to squeeze everything) It was dark. The men were tired. The sergeants were angry. This meant hell was about to erupt. But since today was the honeymoon day, nothing happened.

"...@#$#%, how the hell do I check when the light is so poor?" I mumbled to myself. Unlike Harry Potter who had the luxury of Hogwarts school to check all his magical equipment, I was stuck on an island with testosterone filled blokes. "No problem then Stuff the equipment and Go back to your bunks! Now FO" "..wow, now they ask me to stuff everything back in again. Great."

The best part was that after shaving our hair, we had to drag our 15kg bag all the way to our company building. My bunk was at the 4th storey. And no, we don't get to use the lift. "Ugrh, .." I panted as I was dragging myself and the bag up the stairs, squeezed in the crowd smelling each other's sweat like a pack of sardines.

It was ten thirty. "LIGHTS OFF EVERYBODY". Gloomily, I stared at the ceiling, with my newly-shaven hair, dressed in grey PTs like a POW. That time, I would have done anything just to wear the RJ PE shirt and shorts again. Here, I look like a fool. And rightly so, they assume you to be. "I wonder how everyone is doing"as I thought silently to myself. Everyone else included Thng, Raymond, Ginway and others, since I came the last, 2 days after all of them. 2 days of hell must have passed for them. Meanwhile, Alvin Ong and Eddie Cai had already experienced one monthh at Tekong, right after graduation dinner, sadly.

And that marked the beginning of hell.

Note: which is ending in 2 days time.

The Alter Ego

Ever since the long break came, I have been immersing myself into the world of FlyFF, after much prodding and persuasion by Alvin Ong. It has been an engaging experience, though it is far from perfect. The void that has been left behind after completing the campaigns in heroes V has just been adequately filled up by this.

Learnt many MMORPG terms and lingo. Even though the game is free, it is ULTRA frustrating to have crashes, bugs and patches that compound the problem instead of solving them. Talk about the solution that is a problem by itself.

Adding to my list of problem is the subsidised SAF course that I am happily taking. Apparently, the login page does not work. Neither does the 24/7 helpdesk through e-mail that they purported to serve materialise.

Now I am filling a new void by staring at this screen and typing this post. There is never a free lunch in this world. Any lunch that is free comes with problems.