Another lonely post in the medical centre, with a cup of coffee and two Twiggies (awesome stuff) to accompany me.
I received news from my boss that, no ambulance course again this month, so it's down to us two lads to settle the duties for September.
It's like, holy crap, I'm already spending more time attached to the Medical Centre than I've been in my own unit. Not that our duties are extremely tiring or packed, but sometimes holding a 8-to-5 is pretty good.
It also means that when I do get back to my unit in October, I have 9 days of leave, 13 days of off, as well as MCs when I get my wisdom tooth plucked, all of which excluding weekends, to clear within 5 weeks.
Where got time to do my ORD clearance!
Anyway, Jianwei Alvin and I headed down to Attica at Clarke Quay to support Shiyun for her UOC Pageant.
I may have left NDP behind at Clarke Quay two weeks ago (for some reason, it feels like a lifetime ago), but evidently the weather remained quite the same.
It was humid. Sweat and sweat. And then more sweat. Not very sexy when you're dressed up and ready to go into a club, only to be reduced to looking like Patrick Viera after a soccer match.
Inside the club was pretty cool. It's my first time there, in fact it's also my first time into a club. I'm not really into the clubbing kind, but it's a good experience.
And it's very squeezy too! It felt as though I walk right into a MRT on a weekday morning, except it was much darker, a lot less China workers and I'm in a much better mood.
Managed to settle into a spot to watch the proceedings and root for our dearest participant, only to realise in a while, that I was wedged in between a walkway between the stage and the upper platform.
Girls and guys of different shapes and sizes (and smell too. Sweat perhaps? Urgh) tried to jostle past us, giving you enough body contact to make you either very pissed or embarrassed.
I would have been the latter, but I was constantly brought back to reality when girls started to step accidentally on my toes. Heels/stilettos against human feet protected by thin leather, it was never going to be much of a fight. I was very surprised they didn't puncture a few holes in my shoes.
The UOC was very enjoyable in any other case. I thought the Malay emcee did a fantastic job with his banter and candid hosting. The crowd was pretty on, the music was good, the housepour was crap, the ending was pretty unexpected, all of which added up to a reasonably fun evening.
Once again, congratulations to Shiyun for getting the 1st Runner Up!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
The Post with the Victory Maggi
It's a beautiful Sunday, and I'm sleeping it off all the way in camp. T.T
Got this awesome headache as well as pulsating pain in the throat when I woke up this morning, as though someone pulled me up, skewered me on the throat, rubbed salt on it and toasted it over a fire. It might be too much junk food, but something tells me retribution. (More on this later)
It's good to have medic friends, because they know what to do, at least to alleviate the pain. Popped in some meds, then I was unconscious for a good part of the day.
NDP ended last week, and it was a good way to go!
In the morning, instead of heading down to the medical post straight, I drove down another place for a meeting, and you can see the entire contingent of ambulances and the drivers. The look of their faces says it all.
FINALLY THE LAST ONE.
It was an uneventful day, typically good in the medical circles. But I was forbidden to say so, because some people are particularly picky about cursing your good fortune.
And it was also day where the weather was relentless. The tent was a sluggish cauldron of increasingly stale hot air and restless sweaty people. Not until it was about 6pm did the f***ing sun finally set.
A funny thing did happen at night though.
It was about 8pm, a while to go before the Pledge moment is about to start. A crowd started to gather by the two sides of the Singapore River, including around our medical post. We're starting to think if they were here to watch the fireworks, because if they were, they are in for a disappointing evening.
After a long while of deliberation, Benjamin the medic from Tuas, rose up to the challenge (quite literally; he had to stand on a pedestal to be seen amongst the throng of people) and spoke through the loudhailer:
"Hello everyone! Happy National Day! Yup, just want to check with you all, are you guys here to look at the fireworks?" At this point some people actually cheered and clapped.
"But sorry to disappoint you all, but we've been here for the past 8 weeks and this building blocked up most of the view."
"So if you guys want to see the fireworks, you can go to the opposite side of the river. Walk slowly, don't push and be careful. Happy National Day once again!"
Which was like, damn zai can. Totally professional, polite, cool and nice. Most of the medical staff were very impressed by his short announcement.
Anyway, around 20% of the people left, which was immediately replaced by people who were too far to hear anything. The rest stood resolutely at where they were, either not believing a work we said or completely deaf in both ears. FINE.
Game time. 2022h.
We stood as the pledge was recited. As the last words rang out, I stole a glance to see the crowd's expression.
BOOM! The fireworks went off.
"OI", "WHAT THE HELL", "WAH LAO", "SIAN", "SHIT LA" and other assorted ramblings rang out among the night crowd. They couldn't see SHIT. LOL
The crowd cleared out faster than a bomb warning or announcement of free NDP tickets for next year. We resisted the urge to yell out "Told ya!"
We didn't end too late that night, everyone was in a good mood because it's finally over. The medics and doctors went home, and I set off for the bed in camp with my faithful ambulance.
Looking back, although the staying over on both days of the weekends was a bitch, I'm somehow glad that I'm part of this year's parade. Was a good experience, saw loads of stuff and made me a mentally tougher person.
Yesterday was also a good day. Went prawning with the Clique and celebrated Alvin's birthday.
I'm somewhat guilty about missing out a lot of friend's birthdays, outings and celebrations because of my weird working schedules, so I was really glad to be able to make it for this one.
It's a lot of fun, especially we don't usually go prawning and it's a really good way to chill out. It's easy to pick up and awfully satisfying when you do catch something (I didn't catch a lot, but still..).
Man was programmed to hunt and cook for their survival. It's in their primal instincts. So I got a big kick when the first prawn came up from my noobish hunting. Granted, capturing not-very-smart prawns in a not-very-deep-or-big pool is called hunting, but whatver yea?
It came down to crunch time when it was time to cook the prawns. It's not like OCS stuff, plucking a chicken's head or peeling off a snake skin from their living sources.
There's no blood, no commotion, just some very sad, struggling prawns and some satay sticks. A few moments before their impending impalement, I said a little prayer. Well, not just to the prawns, but also to the Heavens that I won't come back in my next life as a prawn.
So I pulled the prawns up, skewered them through their belly, rubbed salt and toasted them over a slow fire. Man, some of those buggers were feisty fighters, struggling all the way to their fiery graves.
And I really reckon it came back to bite me in the ass this morning in the form a nasty sore throat. T.T
Got this awesome headache as well as pulsating pain in the throat when I woke up this morning, as though someone pulled me up, skewered me on the throat, rubbed salt on it and toasted it over a fire. It might be too much junk food, but something tells me retribution. (More on this later)
It's good to have medic friends, because they know what to do, at least to alleviate the pain. Popped in some meds, then I was unconscious for a good part of the day.
NDP ended last week, and it was a good way to go!
In the morning, instead of heading down to the medical post straight, I drove down another place for a meeting, and you can see the entire contingent of ambulances and the drivers. The look of their faces says it all.
FINALLY THE LAST ONE.
It was an uneventful day, typically good in the medical circles. But I was forbidden to say so, because some people are particularly picky about cursing your good fortune.
And it was also day where the weather was relentless. The tent was a sluggish cauldron of increasingly stale hot air and restless sweaty people. Not until it was about 6pm did the f***ing sun finally set.
A funny thing did happen at night though.
It was about 8pm, a while to go before the Pledge moment is about to start. A crowd started to gather by the two sides of the Singapore River, including around our medical post. We're starting to think if they were here to watch the fireworks, because if they were, they are in for a disappointing evening.
After a long while of deliberation, Benjamin the medic from Tuas, rose up to the challenge (quite literally; he had to stand on a pedestal to be seen amongst the throng of people) and spoke through the loudhailer:
"Hello everyone! Happy National Day! Yup, just want to check with you all, are you guys here to look at the fireworks?" At this point some people actually cheered and clapped.
"But sorry to disappoint you all, but we've been here for the past 8 weeks and this building blocked up most of the view."
"So if you guys want to see the fireworks, you can go to the opposite side of the river. Walk slowly, don't push and be careful. Happy National Day once again!"
Which was like, damn zai can. Totally professional, polite, cool and nice. Most of the medical staff were very impressed by his short announcement.
Anyway, around 20% of the people left, which was immediately replaced by people who were too far to hear anything. The rest stood resolutely at where they were, either not believing a work we said or completely deaf in both ears. FINE.
Game time. 2022h.
We stood as the pledge was recited. As the last words rang out, I stole a glance to see the crowd's expression.
BOOM! The fireworks went off.
"OI", "WHAT THE HELL", "WAH LAO", "SIAN", "SHIT LA" and other assorted ramblings rang out among the night crowd. They couldn't see SHIT. LOL
The crowd cleared out faster than a bomb warning or announcement of free NDP tickets for next year. We resisted the urge to yell out "Told ya!"
We didn't end too late that night, everyone was in a good mood because it's finally over. The medics and doctors went home, and I set off for the bed in camp with my faithful ambulance.
Looking back, although the staying over on both days of the weekends was a bitch, I'm somehow glad that I'm part of this year's parade. Was a good experience, saw loads of stuff and made me a mentally tougher person.
Yesterday was also a good day. Went prawning with the Clique and celebrated Alvin's birthday.
I'm somewhat guilty about missing out a lot of friend's birthdays, outings and celebrations because of my weird working schedules, so I was really glad to be able to make it for this one.
It's a lot of fun, especially we don't usually go prawning and it's a really good way to chill out. It's easy to pick up and awfully satisfying when you do catch something (I didn't catch a lot, but still..).
Man was programmed to hunt and cook for their survival. It's in their primal instincts. So I got a big kick when the first prawn came up from my noobish hunting. Granted, capturing not-very-smart prawns in a not-very-deep-or-big pool is called hunting, but whatver yea?
It came down to crunch time when it was time to cook the prawns. It's not like OCS stuff, plucking a chicken's head or peeling off a snake skin from their living sources.
There's no blood, no commotion, just some very sad, struggling prawns and some satay sticks. A few moments before their impending impalement, I said a little prayer. Well, not just to the prawns, but also to the Heavens that I won't come back in my next life as a prawn.
So I pulled the prawns up, skewered them through their belly, rubbed salt and toasted them over a slow fire. Man, some of those buggers were feisty fighters, struggling all the way to their fiery graves.
And I really reckon it came back to bite me in the ass this morning in the form a nasty sore throat. T.T
Saturday, August 8, 2009
The Post which Got the Wrong Size
Caught the movie Up in the cinema today, and man it's pretty good!
It's a heartwarming story about this old man trying to realise his lifelong dream, and deciding to do embark on his journey on a house, flying on balloons, aided and abetted by a little boy.
No other spoilers here, but it's a definite must watch. There were several parts which tugged at my heart strings, but well, it's a feel good show la huh. Haha.
I had my first free Friday and Saturday in two months. Man it really rocks to hit the town, see the people milling about and enjoying themselves after a week of hard work.
And the best thing is..
NDP ENDS TOMORROW! :D:D
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