The Post which is HQO

Alright it's Friday so I booked out of camp with high spirits and went to watch Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen!





Okay I remember a long time ago when the trailer of this movie came out I promised to watch it with all the guys but aiya, NDP just came suddenly. Weekdays not free, weekends not free. Not much of a choice but decided to go ahead and catch it with Sinkiat first!

Went to Tampines! I vaguely remembered that it was still the school holidays, seeing that those yellow boxes in the calender meant little to me for a very long time already. Explained the presence of all the school kids. Jealous.

Anyway.

























Pretty actioned packed. Haha. It's a movie meant for the males. Seriously. It has guns, cars, robots, fights and babes (only two, but still...)! What else could a guy possibly ask for!

It has A LOT more fighting compared to its prequel, which is excellent. Some of you may remember the first instalment consisted of wrestling and chasing of huge robots and little else. This time you can expect a lot more gunfight, good ol' brawls and things exploding everywhere.


















The movie will also draw the guys' attention, mainly because of Megan Fox and (to a smaller extent) Isabel Lucas. Well, just two hot girls in a movie. Can't expect everything huh?

Shia LeBeouf is pretty decent as well! Loads of running and chasing, which makes you wonder how on earth is that realistic.

One pet peeve, is that the camera just keep rotating and spinning, during battle scenes and some conversations, and sometimes for no reason at all. Very noticeable and irritating because there is no focus on the scene.



















I know everyone is raving about Bumblebee the Chervolet Camero, but this car (made little appearance though) is my favourite. It's a silver Chevrolet Corvette, courtesy of Wikipedia!





When the movie was done, we came out and saw that the queue was horrendous. Mind you, it's a Friday noon, and the stretch of people queueing was from the counter at Tampines GV till Pastamania. No doubt waiting for their turn to buy the tickets for T2.

It stinks that people are enjoying their afternoon and night out, knowing it's the weekend soon, and I have to book in back to camp later that night.

It's followed back a weekend, doing NDP and camp duties. Argh.





It's 7 more rehearsals to go. I will TAHAN!!!!

The Post which has the Scoring Cards

Yesterday, if you happened to be at near Boat Quay for the Bumboat Festival, or were dead drunk coming out of a pub nearby, or even just taking a walk around that area, you would have noticed a huge green tent in the middle of nowhere.





On a second closer inspection, you would have noticed a posse of people inside. Most of them are wearing blue, except for an odd few wearing the no-longer-very-new SAF uniforms.

A thing common about them was that they were all in various degrees of boredom. Some were gaming on their PSPs, some staring into the blank space, some managing to sleep with their eyes open while others watched moss grow on the concrete slabs under their feet.

It would then have prompted you to look around the tent. There was a large noticeable sign, hung proudly on the outside of the tent.

NDP MEDICAL POST.





Yesterday was rehearsal number one.

Had to stay in the previous night before, and at around 6am, the medics and I woke up and began our journey to the CDB maze to find our medical outpost.

Got lost for a while, found my directions again and began my 15 hour wait till the rehearsal ends. Oddly enough I managed not to sleep (much) and talked to the other medics who were bored out of their wits.

We had a relatively quiet day. No casualties or big problems, with the exception of a civilian who fell from a skateboard at night and sprained his knee. Technically not our problem, but some of the medics went to help out anyway. Haha.





For the most part of the day, we felt like a freak show in the zoo. People went past us ogled,pointedly stared and took photos of us. Never see medics, tents or ambulances before meh?

Some people were also quite oblivious/idiotic to walk RIGHT THROUGH our tent. It's usually followed by a second of stunned silence and twelve pairs of eyes following their stroll into our ground.

Okay, it's one thing to be apathetic, it's another thing to be rude. We're not a show booth, neither did we invite you in. Would you think it's nice if people walked right through your house just to cut through to the other end?

Perhaps we should rename the tent "H1N1 TRIAGE" and don the full blue protective equipment. See if anyone dares to come in. Haha.





I was also warned about inspections for my ambulance during the NDP rehearsals and boy, was I stunned.

You know the feeling in DoTA when you are farming in the neutral camps, minding your own business, when suddenly 5 opponent heroes appear out of nowhere, converge upon you and began to beat the shit outta you?

It's nearly the same, except there were more of them in the audit. Haha.





I realised, once again, that the world is really pretty damn small, when in the middle of the audit someone called my name.

I spun around, and it was Paul, now a 3SG.

To jog your memory, Paul is a close buddy of mine, previously a storeman in my unit. We went for BMT recourse together in October last year, but he was later posted out to become a seargent in Combat Engineers (poor soul).

We spent a lot of time catching up, in the most unlikely of all places, and I realised I haven't seen him for 8 months already.





I certainly hope that the next 8 weeks will pass just as quickly!

The Post which is Late for a Haircut

First up, loads of thanks to the many people who have sent their well wishes and regards, as well as contributed to the card and presents for my birthday today!




It's pretty neat that I managed to be on an off day, just in time for my birthday celebration. Considering the number of duties I have, it's like a 50% chance that I will have duty today, but turns out no.


Woke up early, had breakfast with my parents. Typical meeting time for us. Eat and talk about loads of stuff, before I left around afternoon to meet up with my classmates.

Since it's a weekday, all of the guys couldn't come at all, and only the girls (university holidays la) could make it. All the same then. Haha.

So I had a grand company of Elga Jiahui Cheryl Winne Zhiyun Vanessa, as well as my fellow birthday boy Chengliang, who managed to get an off day also.

Went down to eat at Fish and Co. For some reason, Cheryl kinda insisted on eating there, which we found out the reason only later, to our cost.

Food was pretty decent! Though I think I've been eating a little too much recently and I'm predicting a sore throat really soon. Haha.

Nearing the end of the meal, the cake came together with the stunts we have to pull off. Chengliang and I were made to stand on the chair while the Fish and Co staff cheered and sang. Bloody embarrassing!

The cake was awesome, tasted like Kinder Bueno cake.(Oddly enough we had a few of those for some time now, I think)



















Group picture of us in Fish and Co at Park Mall.


















Cheryl wanted us to act cute like her. LOL
























Using my Sharingan to copy Winne's trademark celebration. (Like she soccer player like that. Haha)
























Chengliang becomes a new "Prawn Star" while I'm a headless Bart Simpson.
























Chengliang in mortal pain, after eating the very sour cherries as a forfeit. Bless him.




















The ladies.



















I liked the picture especially. Was taken outside, on the path towards Giraffe. Lighting was good, everyone looked nice and cheerful! =)



















Just outside Giraffe. Vanessa Elga Chengliang and I getting unwarranted attention.




















I posted this one because Winne looks hilarious on the side. LOL
























On our way to Cathay.



















Sitting down, getting a rest after our walk-stop-take photos routine. Haha. Looking cool eh?





After that we went down to catch a movie. It was debated for some time, but after a while we settled for Taking of Pelham 123.
























It's a really good and intense movie. Tension sets in from the first minute of the movie till the last. It never lets up!

It based on a novel of the same name, and it's really good. Highly recommend it!

After the movie, we were all tired and parted ways. The girls went to eat at Rochor and Chengliang, Elga and I headed home.





I rushed and rushed all the way back home, only to realise my hairdresser's closed! My hair is like, awfully long right now.

Hope I don't get a scolding from my warrant officer whenI see him tomorrow. Haha.

Now I have had some time to settle down and think, 19 is my last teenage year. It's been pretty cool, had loads of adventures like..

1) feeling the rush of speeding down the streets in an ambulance with all the sirens on
2) getting into my first (and only) car accident
3) chambering a round into my rifle and aiming it, getting the adrenaline rush.
4) hanging out with all the ah bengs and people in my unit, learning about their lifestyles
5) picking up second-hand smoking, though I hardly had a choice
6) getting to know the rules of the Game
7) bumming out and drinking with my friends




So it's been a really cool time. Loads of ups and downs but I enjoyed the ride. When I'm 20 I wanna:

1) ORD peacefully! (how about now? =D)
2) Go on a blue sky holiday!
3) Drive my family and friends around.
4) Gain 10 kg (we're allowed to dream here right?)
5) Get a volleyball coaching license!

Seems to be lofty goals, but I'd gotta try my best because it's gonna be a really fun year I hope! Haha.





Once again, thanks a lot everyone! =D

The Post which is the Wire in the Pillars

Yesterday was a rather interesting day, because I got three new sets of items.





I went back to camp, thinking it would be yet another two days of duty. I was surprised by by the presence of a big black bag waiting for me.

Oh. My. Gosh.

There were a set of new SAF pixelated uniforms. The green was so sickly bright it hurt my eyes to look at them. We were expecting to get them soon, but I didn't know they would be delivered right in front of us to make us wear them.

I flipped it over. There was the nametags sewn on the shirt.

C Y FANG.

Chey, not mine. Haha.





Anyway I went to get own uniforms, tried them on to find that they are oversized. As in super big. The pants were alright, but the shirt was so big it looked like a green mossy pyjamas. Aw sickening.

I inspected the shirt, to find that it was, as indicated on a tag, MADE IN CHINA.

Gosh, everything comes from that country nowadays ain't it?

I can imagine that a few months ago, some lady in a factory millions of miles away would be grabbing my name tag X J LIOW , and running it through the sewing machine on a huge piece of pixelated cloth, saying, "Yi ding hen nan kan!"

Funny how fate works.





I also received my long overdue rank of Lance Corporal (not that it's a huge rank, but still..) and my back pay for the last 5 (!!) months. So I'm a happy man, for now.

Also starting to get to terms, albeit slowly, on my painful predicament for the next two months. It'll be a long ardous journey, but as my friend put it well, I'm not the only one.





Oh yeah this bit is as you requested Evan!

Pickup Minibus OUV 3-Ton 5-Ton 1.5-Ton 8-Ton 24-Seater 44-Seater Jeep GP Car Staff Car Ambulance L/R .

Haha, 3 more to go to hit the full line-up, but it'll hardly matter anyway.





It'll be my last free Saturday this weekend for a very long time, so I'd be looking to utilise it fully!

The Post which is a Policeman

Well today I had a change in my usual schedule and headed down to Cityhall early in the morning for my NDP briefing.





I received a couple of messages from my boss, supervisors and some unknown person, stating the "Dear operators" (making us sound like secret agents) "are to report at F1 carpark near the Singapore Flyer at 0900h"

Ah, finally after so many trips on the ECP, I get to go near to the famous/infamous Singapore Flyer.

I didn't know to go there, so I had a quick check on the Internet and jotted down a set of directions. I set off early, in case I lost my way there.

Walked around in City Hall, twice turning at the wrong junction. Turns out my directions weren't wrong, but I somehow managed to read my own instructions wrongly. I think I'm hitting midlife crisis.





I did finally reach at about 8:40am. I wasn't very sure which was the exact location, so I followed these two guys in army uniforms in front of me as surreptitiously as I could, hoping and probably failing to hide in with camouflaged uniform in the urban surroundings.

But my plan paid off, with them leading me to big carpark where there were.. 2..4..6..7 people already there?! HOW CAN THERE BE ANYONE MORE KIASU TO BE WHEN IT COMES TO BEING EARLY?

Ahem.

The meeting went smoothly, with us traveling around the city area in a big chartered Transit Island bus (we received quite a few stares), getting the routes to several hospitals.

Old faces were seen, new friends were made, and huge amount of work were delegated for the next 2 months.





I thought it was the end of my adventures for the day when I was reaching home, but I bumped into a little Indian kid and his mother (I think).

We got into the lift together, began removing my exceedingly loud earpieces when the boy jumped right in front of me in the lift.

Kid: Hey!

Me: *lift eyebrows*

Kid: You're a policeman right?!

Me: Er, no. I'm from the army.


At this point of time I stuck my hand into my left pocket to switch off my MP3 player.


Kid: HE'S GOT A GUN!!!

Me: -.- No I don't.

Kid: IS THAT WHAT YOU DO? SHOOT PEOPLE? SHOOT EVERYBODY?!

Me: No no no..

Kid: So what is that you do?

Me: Ah, I protect others from like you (technically not very true, but who cares)

Kid: Woah really?!





Apparently his mother and the kid were too stunned or young respectively to decipher my attempt at a joke, but the lift spared me from any other conversation by choosing to deliver me to my floor.

I gave a cheery smile and wave and I left for my home sweet home.

The Post which was 15 of 20.

I'm back from another hiatus and once again my fortunes took a turn for the worse this month.





I was so happy about a week back when the duty forecast decided to smile kindly at me. Managed to avoid duties on ALL the events I wanted to attend to this month.

Then one fine Wednesday (this Wednesday to be exact) I had a campmate come over to me and say "Hey sad la you, kenna NDP!"

I was like, "No shit?"




We're already operating at the barest minimum requirement of manpower, surviving with 2 drivers a month. Okay true ambulance drivers are hardly the most tiring or difficult positions to hold, but we're nonetheless doing work during standby.

What if one of us were to fall ill seriously (I'm not even talking about reporting sick) and unable to drive?





Back to NDP, a quick look at the schedule tells me I'm on duty for every Saturday from the 20th this month until the end of NDP. Awesome.

Everyone's saying, "Oh there's off mah", which is once again indisputable but I'm also on duty on Sunday, so that's like 8 weekends TOTALLY GONE.

I'd rather stay in for 5 days and give me my weekends unscathed, but it seems impossible in this case.





After a rather gloomy week, I managed to catch Angels and Demons in the cinema. It's pretty alright for a film, but if you read the book before, it's like they skipped 50% of the book and changed another 40% of whatever's left!

The cast was also relatively unknown, with the exception of Tom Hanks, doing an okay job la.





Feeling rather low. Haha. Haven't felt that way in quite a while.