1st day of Spring!

Today is the 1st day of Spring, 1st September, and yes it is also Teacher's Day back in Singapore. Have not blogged for some time due to tons of assignments and mid semestral exams. Fast huh? been here for a month plus and i'm already having mid semestral exams!

So far so good, manage to keep up with the momentum here. Perhaps the initial start was totally lost to most guys as most guys would have left their brain rotting one corner in the Army. In the Army, it's undenial that we seldom exercise our brains as they emphasis on chain-of-command and following instructions. As NSFs, even the highest rank a NSF can get which is LTA/2LT, they are still been pressurised and work based on instructions passed down by the higher authority. There is no room to exercise our brain. The decision makers are the senior commanders.

Yup, Spring has come, weather is getting warmer (good sign). Have been suffering under the bitter cold weather the past few weeks. Winter here can be horrible, temperature can drop till sub-zero. The next morning you see frost. Canberra does have light snow, perhaps is the combination of rain. Temperature is still bearable notwithstanding the strong winds. The strong winds make the feeling worst. Sight of spring is beautiful, flowers blooming everywhere. How i wish to be in Japan during Spring. Well, it's not too bad here too when you see flower blooming from all trees. Leaves start to grow. And yes, people start to wear lesser too! No longer the trouble to wear thick windbreaker or jumper or sweater.

I bought a vehicle here, a Mitsubishi Magna Stationwagon. It costs me AUD 1500. Well, shared with my friend, Jason. Spliited half for the cost. Well, getting a vehicle here is not expensive and if you calculate for the cost and purpose, it may be worthwhile. On top of the cost of the vehicle, the registraion of the vehicle costs AUD 660 for a year. This vehicle is a good buy, previous owner had maintained it well. Yes, i'm definitely going to maintain it and perhaps even better than him? hahaha..

I've driven the vehicle to Sydney once. A good and comfortable drive. Have been to Sydney twice. Sydney is so much different from Canberra. It obvious that it has night life. Many businesses do close after 5pm but many F&B outlets would open till late night. Given its night life, you don't feel being in a deserted place like in Canberra. Imagine on a weekend or after 5pm on a weekday in Canberra where you hardly see any soul on the street. Scary isn't it?

To Daryl: Yes, i'll bring you around Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. Shall be your tour guide huh.. Your most budget holiday man. Hahaha.. We shall do more shopping and sight-seeing. Obtain shopping list from our supper gang man..

I'll be going to Sydney again in 2 weeks time, with a group of friends from my hall...

Time to mug again, or rather finish as many assignments as possible. Sigh, i find it difficult to strike off my assignment list.

See ya.

On-Campus Accomodation offered!

Yes! after 1 week of stay at the Canberra REX Hotel, i'm been offered Bruce Hall finally. Its catered, i don't have to worry for my food. Well, staying at the hotel is not too bad. Room is bigger. I do have a toilet to my own, have a queen size bed, a television, a mini-bar fridge and an ironing board. =P However, its a mixed feeling for staying in this comfortable zone.. Each day, my mind will be wondering: When will i move out? Whether i should stay out of campus? Will i be offered a catered hall? and so on.. Staying in the hotel ain't good as i wouldn't know how much food do i have to stock up as i wouldn't know when will i be offered an accommodation.

I'll be moving into Bruce Hall after 6th Aug. My next worry: how do i move? rent a car? i'm not going to cab, its way too expensive..

sigh, shall see how when time comes.

Today, i regret for not bringing up my maths books from singapore. damn it. lectures are touching on topics like relations and functions.

Haven't blogged for ages..

Hey there.. so many things have passed and i haven't been blogging for real long. guess not many see my blog too..

well, it has been 2 weeks since i completed my national service stint and i'm in Canberra now. yes! for good, i left the army on the 18 jul 2008!

reminiscing my army days, there're good and bad.. i suppose i'm quite fortunate to have travelled to two countries during my national service days. have been to australia and south africa. for all overseas exercises i have been through, i'm rather fortunate to have a good team of unit friends going with me. we worked and played together. those were the good old days. through each overseas exercise, i made friends from other units. mentality was different compared to having exercise in singapore. people are out there to help one another in overseas. back in singapore, people are selfish, individualistic.

also, not to mention, i have good bosses. LTC Ong and LTC Thong. through EX LW 08, understand LTC Ong better, in terms of personality. he has indeed changed alot in his character compared to the early days when i just entered the unit. LTC Thong is an understanding superior. he is a good listener. appreciate them.

however, culture of the singapore army has never changed for long. people does things to satisfy their own bosses. when thing goes wrong, finger-pointing starts. i think SAF has to change this part. everyone makes mistakes. when thing goes wrong, for a minor mistake for instance, forgives the person and resolves it together. punishment should be secondary.

wells, those were the days in army.. now, i'm in Australia, canberra. starting on my next new phrase of life - tertiary education. i'm studying at Australian National University, for those who may not know. Am pursuing B. IT here.

Appreciate that i have some good s'porean friends here. S'poreans here are united and close, given the small community in this foreign country. It reminds me of overseas exercise in army, everyone takes care of each other. just like what i'm experiencing right now. i suppose when s'poreans are overseas, we take care of our own fellow men.

nevertheless, i still miss my friends in singapore. especially the supper gang - adam, john, daniel and daryl. miss going out with you guys. will join you guys for supper once i'm back to singapore! also miss friends like jolene seow, hwee, caiyun, hansong, xavier, wei siang and conrad, nicolas, kian wah, binghan. will catch up with you guys when back.. when you guys have the chance to drop by australia, do let me know! to jolene seow, caiyun, hansong, weisiang and conrad, thanks for the heat pack. its very useful. haha.

so far so good in terms of academic, just that the maths horrifies me a little. going at fast pace and is deep.. computing modules are alright, as some are based on foundation back in poly. luckily i have my poly notes in my laptop...

Guard Duty

Sigh, am serving my guard duty now. Haha.. you may think why am i blogging and msn-ing here while doing guard duty. Well, self-confess.. i sneaked back to my office. And, i managed to smoke the CDO (Camp Duty Orderly) in order to obtain the keys back to my office! haha. I merely told him that the spare boots i'm wearing are uncomfortable and i have abrasion. Thus, needed to return to my office to change my boots. Hey, it's true i was wearing my spare boots.

the past few weeks have been busy. exercise after exercise. testing after testing. demo. that's partly i have no energy to blog even. i even stay as late as 10pm in camp on some days. this is getting terrible! as a NSF, i have to work so hard? anyway, i told myself i shall leave home punctually at 1730hrs unless they offer higher pay for me.

yeah, been going out with marcus and his friends the past few weeks for movies. watched pirates of the carribean, 28 weeks later, shrek 3, spiderman 3, etc. i think i'm spending too much. am going to attend marcus's commissioning parade on 9th june. am going to attend binghan's POP on 13th jun. there're more events to come to keep me busy. sigh.

Guard Duty and Black Friday.

Sigh, shall report for guard duty tomorrow morning. Wondering how am i going to past my day. Imagine 24 hours of not doing anything, restricted to bring in mp3 players, camera, laptop and any entertaining gadgets you can think of.

Army life really spoils your youth. At this youthful age, so much to enjoy! But, guys have to sacrifice their youth for the country. Sounds touching huh? I suppose many guys are in the same boat and are hating army in every aspect. Today's The Straits Times had a an article of Top Working Places in Singapore. Surprisingly, Singapore Prison Services, a civil service was rated! However, SAF being one of the largest civil service force isn't rated at all.

Yesterday, was a knock-out day. Went out with Marcus for a movie, "The Shooter". A fantastic movie. Haha, i was too tired till i slept in the middle of the movie, but trying to keep myself awake each time i dozed off to catch every part of the action. Was a 2 hours show. We finished the movie at 2330hrs. We thought we still might have bus back home. Right, Marcus managed to catch his back..

However, i could not. By the time i reached the bus stop at Heeren, i presumed the bus had left after noticing the last bus timing: 2351hrs. It was 2355hrs at that instance. Sigh, ran to the MRT station, there was only last train to Jurong East. Damn it! Left with the last solution: cab home.

Was sighing that i could still live at Central area. When i was still living at Central, i could stay out as late as i wish... How unfortunate!

Retrospecting.. been going out with Marcus almost everyday this week. Haha, i think it was rare chance for Marcus to enjoy such a relaxed life in his OCS Service Term. Next week, he's back to SOL. Back to stay-in regime. haha.

Now, two of my friends, Kian Wah and Binghan are at an isolated island of Singapore whereas Nicolas and I are at mainland. Haha, thinking of this, quite funny that the gang of us are splitted evenly. To Kian Wah, enjoy your BMT recourse. Haha, he's the lao jiao among all the recruits. To Binghan, enjoy your BMT phrase.

Food Buddy!

Found myself a food buddy! haha.. Didn't expect Marcus, a skinny guy, to love food too.

Went out with him for dinner at Swee Choon Dim Sum. It is located at Jalan Besar, next to Desker Road (don't get the wrong idea with our intention). Weird, its opening hours start from 1700hrs till 2300hrs. Given its location and operating hours, it is definitely targeted at night customers.

Finding the location was tough as it is located in the heartland of Little India. Imagine swerving your way through the dense traffic in Little India where people doesn't care about the vehicles. People are treating the roads as their own. Terrible! Perhaps, the Indians think they have too much population, losing one doesn't make a difference at all! Probably, that's why some Indians don't have safety conscience, and yet wearing total black at night. Come on, how would you want the drivers to recognise you at night when vision is poor? You wanna the drivers to recognise you by your teeth, so that you can advertise for Darlie toothpaste?

Noticeably, the Dim Sum prices were reasonable and cheap. Perhaps, given its setting, it should not be priced as high as restaurant pricing. However, its quality is almost on par with traditional cantonese dim sum. I'd say it's rare in Singapore. We ordered almost up to 10 dishes. Dishes include Siew Mai, Haw Kaw, Tai Pau, Chee Cheong Fan, Steamed Pork Ribs, Deep Fried prawn with banana, Deep Fried Carrot Cake, Mango Pudding, Char Siew Sou and Deep Fried Beancurd Skin. All amounted to SGD 20.15. Reasonable huh?

During Dinner, we were discussing and sharing some of the delighting food in Singapore. Hope we can visit more! Sadly, Marcus is returning to School of Logistics for 5 weeks course. No more stay-out. Haha, not to worry, we can always have supper! Or, wait till you're commissioned and posted to your unit, we can have more meals often too!

After dinner, both of us were bloated. We decided not to return home early. Hence, we decided to tour around Singapore. Marcus suggested that he wished to see the real Red-light districts of Singapore. Thus, i drove around Geylang above Sims Ave where the majority of sex businesses are located. Drove through Desker Road and Joo Chiat Road, where they were once famed.

Further on, we decided to drive around Singapore, looking at huge houses. Drove into Sweethemham Road. Bet many don't know where is it! We were like 'wow-ing', dreaming one of the houses here is owned by us one day. Some of the houses even went through architectural design.

Anyway, returning back to camp tomorrow morning. Am going to leave early, as my main aim to collect back my uniform for guard duty on 150407. Sigh.

Crap, they gonna implement last parade.. this is absurb. just because they wanna curb people from leaving early. Do you think that will help? I think it will going to be worst situation... Come on, if the officer is going to be stucked with the orthodox of army's regimentation, there'll be social problem within the unit. think there's better way of resolving this issue.

Food...

I presume i should gain weight by now. Been eating heavily in Hong Kong. Shall recommend some of the food i ate in HK.

Tai Sing Roasted Meat (Causeway Bay). The roasted meat (Siew Yuk) is crispy on the outer and the inner meat is tender. Also, its Char Siew is juicy and fleshy. Don't think you can find such quality of Cantonese Roasted Meat in Singapore. The best Cantonese Roasted Meat i can find in Singapore would be the one at Marina Square Food Court.

Spring Deer Peking Cuisine (Tsim Sha Tsui, Moody Road). Its purely economical though i won't recommend its quality of food marvellous. A package of 8-course meal for a value of HKD 170. Isn't it worth it? However, not many tourists know about this place. It seems more like a local restaurant as i saw many regulars.

Watami (Tsim Sha Tsui, Haiphong Road). Again, a value for money japanese restaurant which is located a prime setting of Tsim Sha Tsui, surrounded by hotels, Hard Rock Cafe, Habourfront Centre. It portrays a unique style of menu for its dishes, unlike the usual bento and ramen. There are various dishes such as japanese pizza, california in spring roll, etc.

Haha.. for those who are visiting Hong Kong, you may approach me for more foodies, just too many to be mentioned here!

Also, Singapore does have some. On Saturday (070407), went out with Hwee, Caiyun, Xavier and Wei Siang. Had a sumptous dinner, near my place. Ordered a fish, worth SGD 45. At that instance of ordering, my mind was not awake. I treated the value as HKD 45, which i found it cheap as it was a fresh and fleshy fish! Ordered others such as Pork Rib, Chicken Floss on Tofu, Shrimp roll (Niong Hiang). Everyone enjoyed the food.

In terms of appreciating food, my dad told me that i'm a foodie. However, i haven't reached the extend of appreciating the beauty of food. Just like wine.

Am back!

Was back from Hong Kong just 2 days ago. Had an enjoyable and fruitful break. In fact, probably a solitude as one may regard from my political and nonsensical national service.

Went to settle some stuffs and made 'friend' with a HK IT distributor. Perhaps, i may order my goods from HK in future due to low cost.

Shopped around Kowloon (Mongkok, Tsim Sha Tsui, Sham Shui Po and Kowloon Tong), New Territtories (Tsuen Wan and Sha Tin) and Hong Kong island (Causeway Bay, Central, Sheung Wan, Tai Koo, North Point). Yeah, many places packed in a week holiday. A fruitful holiday roots from good time management.

Well, bought back many stuffs, from clothes to cookies to pastries to noodles (egg shrimp noodles) to shoes. HK didn't change much, though there were some slight changes in terms of businesses. HK, an enterprise city, you wouldn't be much surprised if businesses shut within short period. Coral De Cafe, Maxim and Fairwood have reduced their presence in most parts of HK. Believe there have been more of such related eateries popping up.

Realised that Singaporeans have got to improve! Notwithstanding the claim on best education, i noticed that some Singaporeans are really stupid!

On my flight to Hong Kong, i took Singapore Airlines. At the aerobridge, saw the supply of newspapers emptied. Hence, requested for a copy of The Straits Times on board the plane. As promised by the air-stewardess, she returned with a copy in 5 minutes. At that instance, a caucasian from the Raffles Class (a representation of Business Class in Singapore Airlines) requested for a copy too. However, the doors of the plane were shut then. The air-stewardess said to me,"Let him read it and i'll pass it to you once he's done." I was pissed then, and exchanged,"Right, you shall have my left-over of my meal later. Does Raffles Class people have more authoritative rights than Economy Class people?"

That was first incident. I believe that was one of the reason why Singapore Airlines was not rated the Best Airline of the Year 2006 (according to Skytrax).

Upon touching down back to Singapore, there were two incidents which pissed me off.

First, the indian custom officer. Not discriminating the indian race here, but sometimes one or two could have disgraced his/her own race. I brought back a box, a huge luggage and a trolley bag. Upon seeing my box, the indian custom officer accused me of bringing chemicals and bomb! I told him to watch his words and repeat what he said vividly in front of everybody! I assured to sue him if he checks that it doesn't contain any prohibited items. The other custom officers calmly requested to scan my box and i co-operatively agreed. Come on, think before you speak. Even told the officers to send him back to school and that the indians in India are much smarter than him! That's true, the world smartest programmer is an Indian.

Second, the chinese taxi driver. Again, not discriminating as i'm Chinese myself. The cabs here are the same as those in Hong Kong, Toyota Crown. No doubt, the appearance of the HK's cabs may look bigger but the boot space is similar as HK cabs have a LPG tank at the boot. In HK, the cab driver could arrange my stuffs to fit in nicely in his boot. However, when the SG cab driver literally and stubbornly told me,"No space to put your things." Both drivers are Chinese! Why is that so that the HK cab driver is able to think and the SG cab driver is unable to think?

Is the education in Singapore frailing? I think Singaporeans are lacking of analytical skills. Singaporeans have more to learn..


Anyway, logging off now.. going back to camp today.. Haha, 2 hours of sleep..