Tuesday, November 27, 2007
.two wings and a prayer.
So here it is. The event which heralds the winding down of our stint. The last stand. Crescendo! I'll be flying off today. And touching down on the 18th of December. Not the 21st, as I had told some people previously.
See you later!
Sunday, November 18, 2007
bending the rules...
A really quirky thing happened on friday. My teammates and I had just walked out of tanjong pagar station, and quickly found ourselves on the outskirts of the business district. Realising that we had walked, thus far, without the aid of our map, we decided to stop and confirm ground, like all good soldiers should. No sooner had we flipped our map open, up came this almost amazonian, blonde office worker in her power suit, power-walking up to us. She headed straight to the one with the map, and uttered almost too eagerly, and a bit breathlessly, 'You guys need help?'
It was just a really funny situation, her eagerness to help (which must be commended!) ; it also fostered great irony if you were one who believed in stereotype, or at least were quick to recognise it. A foreign lady offering a bunch of male locals directions. Not that I subscribe to any of these generalisations. Maybe some of the humour in this situation would be lost in the recording of it.
We were, actually, taking part in our batallion anniversary celebrations. It was this treasure hunt-like thingy, where we had to intepret clues about a certain historic location in singapore, race down to it, and find/solve/do certain things while documenting it on our digital cameras via photo or video. It was fun, almost civilian-like. Something about certain people (who normally would never have the temerity to raise their voices at you) screaming at you in the streets of shenton way kind of makes you miss being civilian.
All around, my friends are ord-ing. People like the 2e1 gang, with their top-5-JC-therefore-january-batch status, are re-entering the real world before I get to. Hell, even my platoonmates are leaving 1 month before me. Stupid PTP. So at this point you'd expect a bit of a rant about my situation?
Actually I'm rather glad that I enlisted in March. It gave me about 3 whole months of freedom after the As. 3 months in which I'd garnered lots of experience, lessons and no doubt, money. I'd also got to know a few people much better, a certain few people who, in varying degrees, are currently not as close. Regrettably. I'd also learnt a few lessons, gained a few pointers about Army life from my mates who went in earlier. My food testers. In conjunction with the one month PTP period before the start of actual BMT, I was afforded a gradual easing into regimentation and the sea change in lifestyle that was BMT. That definitely was a big help for someone who, after close to 2 years of testing this very hypothesis, is just not suited to the military way of life.
And now, as the clock ticks down, I am ambivalent and apprehensive. Crescendo will be the last great hurdle in my army life, and that's coming in less than two weeks. After that will come a brief escalation followed by a rapid winding down, and the end of my two-year hiatus. I call it a hiatus after observing what the girls of my cohort are going through. Of course, I will be feeling quite a great deal of relief. As all that I've gone through in NS briefly flashes across my mind, I really cannot quite contemplate going through all that again.
And as any hiatus, any break, almost like the school holidays, there comes that feeling of dread. As always, I've left my homework to the last. The one difference is now, there's no certainty. I've almost no idea what I want to study, and how I'm going to achieve my aims. No matter how shitty NS was, at least I knew that my future didn't hinge on it. The next stage of my life, however, is rather crucial. I just hope I don't repeat the mistakes ( no, I shouldn't call them mistakes, they're too wide-ranging and deep-seated for that ) of the past. I hope I finally do something with my life.
And now I'm off for Crescendo-shopping.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
It's been a long time, old friend ...
I've not spent one whole day vegging in front of the tv and computer since enlistment. And I must admit, it is an exercise in torpor that I've come to miss. I've come to realise certain truths that I never could have doing anything else.
It's time for technology to play a greater role in football. I mean, if they can afford to overturn the decision of a World Pool Championship semi final by taking what must have been at least 15 minutes to scour through a frame-by-frame slow-mo, trying to decide which ball was hit first... And there Sepp Blatter goes on blathering about replays' potential for destroying the flow of the game.
Sometimes it's all about preparation and how much you want it. A lot of the favourites and big names crashed out of the WPC rather early. And those who reached the semis were rather okay players who have obviously put in great effort to peak for the championships. Gomez, Peach, Boyes. (On a sad note, the rather dour and scowling daryl peach with the disruptive travel entourage won it. Against the revelation Roberto Gomez. )
I'm the only sod in the world without facebook. It's just that the name really put me off the first time I came across it. Facebook? Just didn't sound right. Well, if only you could hear things from my perpspective, all ye facebook faithfuls, then you'd know how validated I feel my decision is. haha omg i just poked him yesterday and he responded by dry-humping me! And then I realise that these are full-blooded army dudes in camouflage, in the middle of an outfield exercise.
Grey's Anatomy and House are addictive. Sat through some episodes of them two on a rather epl-barren saturday night. And apparently the actress who plays Meredith is like 40. Who could've told?
I need to play soccer more often. It's the only way I'll ever get off my ass and exercise. my hopelessly lazy bum.
17 days to Thailand! I can't wait, because after that it's time to slowly slowly relinquish responsibilty and start handing over to my understudy! Only 3 more paychecks from the essayef!
Thursday, November 08, 2007
no recidivism!
Wow, it's been a while since I've done this! I guess you could attribute my little hiatus to a marked dampening of enthusiasm for scribing little oddities and interesthings; and a resolve not to indulge this blog in whimsical things, Army, and more recently, Football.
It's just that sometimes you feel you've got to do your part, fulfil your obligation no matter what/how you feel, yes?
Now, I really feel like my head is exploding from all the things I want to pursue. Simultaneously imploding from the wealth of choices at hand, their repercussions and implications. But that's good, at least I know I'm concerned and actively thinking about my future. It's a good pain.
Granted, I shouldn't indulge in vagary or ambiguity. But what can you expect from a man who doesn't know what he wants, and wants what he doesn't know?
