Letters

So my friend al sent replied to a letter i sent last christmas. It's always nice to see your friends reply to you. Even if it took 5 months. Bu honestly, what she wrote was touching and i would love to keep this penpalship thing going,

Since she never picks up her phone or replies to her emails.

Thanks al, really appreciate it

Lots of love.

last week

last week i went to dental

got 2 fillings for my 2 front teeth, which hurt like hell cuz she (the dentist) needed drill so everytime i had to gargle, i could feel with my tongue, a hole in my 2 front teeth, like an apple after you take a bite out of it.

went to find hihs teachers, but they had stupid sports day so most of the teachers were gone according to the security guard, and it started to drizzle so i needed to get out of there fast, so i ran to the bus stop, and went to srjc. talked to a few friends who were still there and also some teachers. most complimented how much i slimmed down, which felt good. it really did. i'm not a vain person, no really i'm not, but it feels good for other people to compliment you.

anyway, talked to a few past teachers, most of them were rushing around to do their stuff and pack up and i just followed some of them around and talked as they walked. i talked to Mrs jerene tay about my appraisal and also some council stuff, went to see the 22nd council do teach the 23rd elects, which is really interesting, because they sounded quite like how sam and the others sounded last year. also saw some of the elects practice, i would have said something, but mrs tay talked about some girl "invading" the orientation and i decided to shut up to not embarass myself.

also talked to ms ni. went to her office to talk about stuff, generally stuff about school, also asked her about me, improvements and stuff. quite interesting to hear teachers talk about students when they're in the office. can't really say much of it here. but we did talk about my GP, even though i don't really ever need to use GP specific skills again.

that saturday i went out with hao xiang. it's been a long time since i saw one of those i used to call brothers. 3 years. too long. still had a great time after so long. still had a lot of laughs. didn't really do anything much. spent a lot of time walking around and queueing up, but it was still really fun. we waited for half hour before eating at suki sushi buffet. we tried to compete with each other to see who can eat the most. by plate number 14, i couldn't take it anymore, and he forced down one more plate just to beat me. we ended up laughing at each other and causing our stomach to hurt like hell because we laughed too hard. it was damn funny. we also played pool, which was fun. i miss pool.

it was a great weekend last week, i doubt this week would be as fun. heck, i doubt my whole block leave would be as fun as that weekend

birthday

yesterday was my birthday.

the most touching thing that happened yesterday was that my grandgodmother (i.e. my mum's godmother) and grandgodfather drove all the way to hougang from tanglin halt (a rough estimation would be near queensway or the ikea at alexandria)

she came all the way here with her little granddaughter, only 20 months, just to deliver me a twenty dollar angbao. she really tengs me a lot

my actual grandmother didn't even gave me so much as a call. even the insurance company gave me a nice card.


anyway, had a real celebration today. i actually had a one-to-one "consultation" (don't know if you can call it that) with mrs lim. but she let me reschedule because of my birthday. thank you very much mrs lim.

we went to dhoby gaut to eat at astons and watch a movie, district 9. which i thought was good, and jelena and wenhui thought was VERY bad.

anyway, astons is quite overated, i think. maybe for that price range in that area in particular, that's why it stood out. but i don't really think that the long queues do any justice.

anyway, we went to orchard central, which is like this really fancy art gallery slash fashion high class shop thing. the best part was that the chairs were very comfortable.
we sat there for 15 minutes before the girls and yang decided to leave to "shop at taka"

they came back with takkin and kenghong and got me a cake. actually they went to a lot of trouble to hide the cake, which i proceeded to ruin the hiding by saying "the cake ar" in my usual loud and obnoxious voice. Jelena replied "at least he's not that stupid."

the cake was an "oreo cheese cake" with like a whole pack of strawberries on top. like if you took out the box it would all fall down, that much. i haven't tasted the cake yet because we lacked a plate or even tissues. but i ate like more than 6 strawberries so that the box has enough space for me to close. and takkin thinks that strawberries grows on trees. thanks very much for the cake everyone!

then we watched district 9. which was 2 hours long and quite draggy at the beginning, only when the action starts then quite exciting and i use the term exciting loosely.

thanks to all who made my birthday so special, mum, dad, bro, ah ma, ah gong, jelena, kenghong, zheng yang, wenhui, takkin, edmund and everyone else!

editor's note: i tasted the cake just now and the oreo part tastes a bit weird, like coffee or something, the cheese cake is actually pretty good.

www.lightamillioncandles.com
help them out

reflections

my bro just came back from his npcc leisure camp
brings back a lot of old memories
went looking for old pictures and looking at old friends' blogs
wonder what happened

when did they become "old" friends
when did i stop talking to them
time does that

anyway
gave him a bit of advice before he went off to his camp
i don't think he needed much of it
he had a kind of friendly personality, which kind of made him stand out from the rest
he would make a much better cadet than me
at least in lower sec

anyway, he told me he got nominated for best camper, got third place
i felt really proud of him
but i din tell him
i think he would have been the first
but i din tell him

anyway, he also told me that a lot of my "old" friends knew that he was my brother
i wanted to drop by and pay a visit
but never did
it never feels appropriate
feel like getting some of my old squadmates and just see a campfire or something
never did
don't wanna turn up like an unwanted guest
so i never did
anyone who is still in holy np, invite me back for something leh !

i dun wanna go back by myself
it feels really awkward
the people whom i talk to tend to be busy
while the rest, i dont have much to talk about
on the HI anniversary when i went back, i literally had nothing to talk about
i just went up, said hi, talked about a camp for like 3 sentences and just said goodbye

it just feels really awkward
hard to explain

saw a lot of them grasp opportunities given to them
regretted i never did
they are planning for events for an area 7 of around 8-9 schools when they are 16-17
while i took on my first school wide organizing in J2
always felt i had late development
like im a late boomer
or just a late


thing

i used to blame other people for not giving me the opportunity to shine, especially people in higher position
but now in council, and seeing my brother, i realized that it was never because there was no opportunity
i just never grasped it
my brother showed me that
just a little too late i guess
but like the principal says
you still have a long way to go, i mean i'm not wishing you any bad luck
but are you sure that you haven't passed the halfway mark of your life

i sure hope so too

anyway, miss the old days
wish they were back
miss my old friends
wish they would talk
miss my uniform
wish i could do drills in

miss np
alot


i think this is all nostalgic

anyone who reads this, still in np, let's organize a get-together, put all the ugly memories behind us and enjoy each others' company for a day


had the principal's rally yesterday
quite long
but interesting
i can't really remember what he said
but i remember dreams, perseverance, not knowing where you are in life

and horse breaking
and that swimmer
and lky and marina barrage
and terry fox

and that's about it

hope my brother can excel in NPCC


www.lightamillioncandles.com

Lijiang

Beautiful


summary:
went there on a plane,
got cold,
wore 4 layers of clothes,
went to a hotel,
slept,
woke up,
still cold,
had porridge for breakfast,
went to school,
played with secondary school kids there,
forgot my lines,
gave out some prizes,
went to a farmers' house,
refused a cigarette,
got hungry,
ate a goat,
danced with locals,
went back to hotel,
debriefed by principal,
slept,
woke up,
packed my bag,
had lunch,
went to Tiger Leaping Gorge,
climbed down rocks,
rode a boat across it,
climbed up some more rocks,
walked a zigzag path uphill,
walked across some farmlands,
climbed down some more rocks,
took some photos,
walked on a road,
ran out of energy,
bit some gum,
finally reached tina's guesthouse,
went to the bunks,
realized that there was no power socket and it was damn cold,
ate dinner,
danced some more,
sang some songs,
went to bed,
woke up,
id some tai chi,
had breakfast in the dark,
went back to hotel,
slept,
debriefed,
slept again,
woke up,
went up to snow mountain,
rode a cable car,
played with ice instead of snow,
went back down,
went to Yangtze First Bend,
looked at it,
went to communist memorial,
went back,
debriefed,
ate dinner,
went to Gu Chen,
saw some shops,
followed the river,
went back,
got peer evaluated,
played cards til 2,
slept,
woke up,
got our luggage down,
went to the "palace" of Mu the chieftain,
went for lunch back in Gu Chen,
shopped,
went back late,
got punished,
went back to Kunming,
had KFC,
did my punishment,
went back to Singapore.

that's it





and then there's the view
Breathtaking

Thank the teachers, the principal, Tom and Rocky our tour guides for an amazing trip

Camp's Over

Sec 1 leisure camp is finally over

the hard work that most of us put in has paid off

although i wouldn't mind more manpower throughout the camp


I felt proud of myself after the camp, for the first time. Seriously. I felt that i have really contributed to my squad and the instructors. i just hope everyone else feels the same way about me!!

The preparation itself had a lot of hiccups along the way. mainly due to time constraints and the stupid after school lessons. Plus there were many things we really really din know until we became ncos, such as instructors can sleep on mattresses and kerosene bombs and ropes will spoil if they touch water. It's these little things that really gave us a lot of problems.


The first day of the camp was probably the worst. We were all very lax and left a lot of things to let the senior ncos do like suicide window, so we gt scolded basically. We din really know what to do cuz some went to help sec 3s but ci taking so we dun dare go near them then others try help suicide window but they are doing everything and we dont know what to do.the seniors also made a 5 spar flagstaff but it broke so we reduced it to 3. so the first day was nt quite successful
there was 1 sentence during debrief that i remember very well and motivated me for the next day. " You all know that you are short on manpower, so you have to do 2 person's work. My senior Ncos are only here to help you all, not run the camp for you all."

The second day was much better IMO. everyone knew what to do and we werent like first day keep running around aimlessly. but still quite problematic cuz cannot find each other when we busy. But our squad still can't motivate a large group of cadets, esp sec 1s, well enough yet, since they are more afraid of CIs than us. Another problem about taking squad is that, sometimes we dont know the priorties, whether to train them discipline first or to save time first so we usually get very confused over this matter, and thats when the CIs or senior Ncos start to scold us.
the main problem in this day was that a lot of us was too caught up in preparation that we din take the sec 1s at all, some people even played with flour and water. The campfire was successful but only after using wei quan's wood. our campfire nearly died cuz we din have a kerosene bomb and our wood wasnt dried properly. So lesson Learned here. the campfire really gt high after the sec 2 and 3 performance. YOU GUYS DID VERY WELL!! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!! thx to all who contributed esp the instructors.

Third Day was area cleaning plus urban hike. The urban hike was quite interesting but it was very tiring. WE WON. Our group was the first and we did it b4 lunchtime. THX Kelvin, elaine, woei jiun, wee kit, jun xian, jun liang(energizer), ming hui(map man), nina, lijing, Shenn Ma'am plus ME. if i miss out anyone must tell me hor. shenn maam gave jun liang a lollipop and he suddenly energize liao and walk dam fast. But he made us run cuz usually he reach checkpoint first.
lesson learned here is that mus keep encouraging cadets and let them navigate on thier own dun help too much.

The sec 1 leisure camp is over, Ive learnt many things as an NCO, i only fear that its too late.
When u try your best and people still shoot you down, that sux. THX jianyong for trying to up my morale

1st post......6/1/06

wow first post yay!! hopefully it will last till end of year. k so today my maid has been painting the rest of the door(they started since who noes when)
In skool met a few new teachers. 1 teach in particular, her lesson according to the clock is an hour, according to me forever. i dunno why it just is...
but not all teachers are bad yet. a few indian and malay teachs but its okay.

ANTIRACISM YAY

so recess cam and went to find the guys( which u probably dunno) watched the sec 1s play with water during camp(we never have that) so we recall of memories when we were sec 1s .
recess ended too quickly so met our e maths teacher. quite scary at first but he s ok
then english, nothing much then LCE then go home

went home and found devart gt lotsa things I cant Bliv I GT CHOSEN

not a bad day.