My return to army life brings back memories of commanding a self-propelled howitzer through the hobbits-infested mountains of New Zealand. The only time in NS when the full exercise is so much more fun than r&r (rest and recreation).

Here we are, more than 1,000 meters above sea level

Driving through the mountains, with a portaloo shown on the right

That’s me and at the back, the tallest mountain in New Zealand

Note: These pictures used to be classified but can be displayed now since the SSPH 1 Primus has been formally commissioned.

I like to save the good news for later so…

Bad news

• My dog ate my power adapter. I have to buy another one for $110.
• We are wearing similar graduation gowns as polytechnic graduates

Good news

• Manchester United finally got Owen Hargreaves
• Our graduation gowns come with funky square hats; theirs don’t
• Straitstimes.com is now free

I’m an optimistic person. Since good news outweighs the bad, I’m going to spare the dog its life.

But not the cane. >:(

I just came back from a friend’s wedding. Believe or not, this was the first time I have attended a wedding of a personal friend. The girls I have known since secondary days are now 25 years old. It’s about time =)

Anyway, this blog post is not about weddings or its coming of age. This is about old friends and how we communicate with one another. Today, I witnessed something very interesting.. and special..

Stelly’s mum saw an old customer at her coffeeshop and began to strike a conversation. It went like this:

"Hey, have you eaten?", Stelly’s mum asked.

Oh and of course, all messages were in hokkien.

"Oh! Where were you this morning?", the old customer replied.

"Eat already right?", she asked again.

"Oh yeah, you were at the back frying noodles!", said the customer.

"Haha, you must come back eat more okay?", said Stelly’s mum.

"I saw you stealing a bit of noodles to eat while frying! Haha!", the guy joked.

"Okay okay, take care!"

And the conversation ended, both parties in smiles and joy.

If you noticed something, there weren’t a proper conversation going around. It’s all pleasantries and niceness. And that’s what I truly admire about our elders. If we were to hold such a conversation, there would be some of us getting irritated, some of us confused, and others totally feeling crazed out by the whole thing.

Which leads me back to this wedding I attended. I was there with Stelly and my best friends from secondary school. We did not talk much about work, not much about life, not much about anything in particular. We were just having fun with silly words and funny stories. Sometimes, our sentences don’t link or make any sense but we had such a good time.

I guess this only happens with friends we can truly depend on. People you know that will always be there in any calamity or joyous occasions. There are times when I was a lousy friend or an invisible friend. I’m glad they did not let me stray off but kept me on track with the numerous calls for gatherings.

On the same note, I’m really happy that Stelly is not only my love but my friend as well. Someone I can whisper sweet nothings to, and someone I can crack a stupid joke with.

Thank you all, for being such great friends.

2 days ago, I did this event called Tiger Trail for the army, a race that consisted of almost 2,000 participants, a race that needed us to wake up at 2 am for work. Well, I was the ’suay one’ who also ‘tio’ COS duty on that day. For females and non-Singaporeans, COS stands for Company Orderly Sergeant, and its duties requires us to handle lots of paperwork and administrative duties, very much like a secretary. However, the difference is that we need to be in office for the entire 24 hours of the day. (Yup, that means sleeping in the office)

Yes, it was a very long day for me. From 2 am to 12 midnight, an almost 24 hour marathon of work responsibilities. Where my friends booked out of camp at 10 am for their reward for waking at 2 am, I had to continue my work. But what was worst was that I needed food. Everyone was away and I was desperate. In a state of emergency, I called McDonalds. To my dismay, they said they only deliver with a minimum order of $18! No way will I pay that for a simple meal.

The whole building was isolated. And I was a lil afraid. The place was like a stranger to me, not being there for over 3 years. But I called Stelly and she accompanied me on the phone while I troughed the place for food. After 15 minutes, I found a pack of maggie curry noodles! The joy was incredible!

I took the pack down to my office and realized I have no bowls, no utensils, no kitchenware; only a hot water flask. I ransacked the whole office and found some plastic utensils, but what about a bowl or a method to cook the noodles? It’s not cup noodles where it’ll cook easily with hot water. This is a standard maggie pack that needs proper cooking. I was crazed and desperate… until I found some styrofoam cups..

Let the pictures continue the rest of the story…

Army Noodles Recipe

First, noodles are split into 3 styrofoam cups and drenched in hot water.

The hot water is rinsed off the cups and drenched again. Repeat 3 times.

Find an innocent pail for all the water that you drenched. Begin to pour the curry powder evenly into each cup. 

Pour hot water into each cup as you eat. Wonderful!

The picture above shows Brad Little as Phantom, and what a great singer he is. On May 13, Stelly and I went to enjoy the Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera and it was fantastic! Not knowing the story (I did not want to watch a movie or home video version), I was drawn into the music and voices of the artistes, especially Brad Little. He was impossibly powerful and emotion-wrenching…

Stelly knew the story but she said it was still as wonderful. Personally, I lost hold on the story at some point when the words were intentionally accented and I couldn’t catch it. Also, I thought Act 1 was better than Act 2. Some thought the ending was incredible but I loved the first half instead. Why is that so, I cannot say it in words. It has to be experienced yourself.

This was $300 well spent, no regrets.

I reached Kranji Camp at 4am today. Yup, crazy right? It’s all due to this thing called the Tiger Trail. The males in Singapore who have done their NSF under the 3rd Division would know. This is a race, but not just any race. Participants have to compete in groups to reach as many checkpoints as possible in the shortest period of time. And these checkpoints are on top of little hills around Pasir Lebar.

So, why did I need to be in camp at 4am? So that I could be sitting on one of those hills by 6am as a checkpoint in-charge! Now let me describe my location. It was simply a spot on the hill where a small tree grew; surrounded by small bushes, grass and insects. And I stood there for 30 minutes before my eyes start closing; I woke up at 3am for god’s sake!

Legs getting more tired every minute, I sat down on the grass. Mosquitoes zoomed in immediately. I then covered every single part of my part by squeezing my hands into my sleeves and putting my t-shirt around my neck. And it became quite comfortable! Before you know it, I was lying down and falling asleep. Yup, sleeping on digusting bushes, on top of the millions of ants, caterpillars, mosquitoes and worms. Once in a while, an ant will crawl up my face which it’ll receive a flick of my fingers to send it flying.

I can’t believe it. 3 years out of National Service and I actually still get a chance to sleep in the wilderness. Lucky for me, only one runner stopped by my station today (and I was awake then). I managed to play with a couple of caterpillers by trapping them on a stick and making them crawl back and forth a thousand times too.

Today’s experience of wasting 5 hours by myself on a lonely hill reminds me so much of my SISPEC days. I’m so glad I’m leaving soon. But whatever it is, the green uniform sure made me be a little more ignorant of the unwelcomed guests around me. Maybe I should wear it more often?

So many friends of mine are having grand internships in really big companies, fun internships in cool companies or simply advancing their studies with summer courses during our 4-month summer holidays and I realized that I’ve never done most of them except an internship in a PR agency. So sometimes I felt envious and thought to myself, hey those internships will really help in securing jobs and finding out more about different industries.Still, I wouldn’t trade what I have experienced in my summers away for anything else.

Year 1 Summer:
Tsunami Relief Volunteer in Khao Lak, Thailand
Presentor for SIFE Singapore Championship in Ritz Carlton Hotel, Singapore
SIFE World Cup in Toronto, Canada

Year 2 Summer:
Media Internship in Fleishman Hillard, Singapore
Advisor for SIFE World Cup Team Paris, France

Year 3 Summer:
Artillery Detachment Commander in 21 Singapore Artillery
Ambassador for iLab @ Standard Chartered Bank
Team Member for confidential project (at the moment)

Different experiences, different routes. I see friends very focused in their path to becoming financial leaders and I predict great things for them in the future. Huge companies, great industry, fat paychecks. Still I know I will never make it big in that industry but I wonder how my experiences can help me. Seriously, I think they’ll probably be more relevant if I become a minister. Mr Balakrishnan, make way for Mr Xie Jiawei! MCYS here I come!

Last night, I watched Heroes episode 20 on DailyMotion and the 3:00am match of a 3-0 loss of Manchester United to Italian giants AC Milan; and something popped right into my mind.

Here it is.

Gary Neville is Peter Petrelli.

No wonder he couldn’t play last night; too busy saving the world.

Anyone remembers this movie? It’d been my favorite during my childhood years. I faintly remember liking the rhino the best, especially her guts; some might call it stubbornness. Anyway, look for me if you want to check this movie out one more time. =)