An open invitation
POSTED AT 10:55 PM

For those interested,

5pm, SAFTI parade square. Free admission. Smart casual.

All welcome.

Beginnings and endings
POSTED AT 10:47 PM



38 weeks, and there we are. A new batch of young second lieutenants, young, eager, wide-eyed. We're ready to put our training to the test, to put our character and competance on the line. Only time will tell what shall become of us.

And frankly, I don't know what to expect. The responsibility is bigger than I can imagine.

Officer Cadets Commissioned by President
POSTED AT 10:15 PM

Posted: 10 Dec 2005, 1930 hours (Time is GMT +8 hours)
http://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef/news_and_events/nr/2005/dec/10dec05_nr.html

This evening, 369 officer cadets were commissioned into the ranks of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) officer corps at SAFTI Military Institute. President S R Nathan officiated at the commissioning parade.

The commissioning of these 325 Army cadets, 36 Navy midshipmen and 8 Air Force cadets marked their completion of a new 38-week intensive officer cadet course. Six outstanding officer cadets were awarded the Sword-of-Honour. The newly commissioned officers will be assigned combat, instructional or staff appointments in various units of the SAF.

Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean was also present at the parade. Family and friends of the newly commissioned officers, Members of Parliament, grassroots leaders, National Cadet Corps (NCC) cadets, and junior college students were also present to witness the commissioning of the new officers, underlining the strong support for National Service and the importance of the SAF in ensuring Singapore’s security, survival, and success.

Self learning
POSTED AT 02:01 AM

It's really a whole new life now - something hard to get used to and in more ways than one. We act differently, we're treated differently, and we've become different in our own right. What has come to an end has ended, and there no longer lies any reason to look back upon it.

We held our commissioning ball today, which probably marks the end of the entire transition phase. Somehow, I'd imagined it to be much more carthartic than it actually turned out to be. And the same goes for the parade. Perhaps it's really a matter of 当局者迷,旁观者清。The significance of the moment is lost when it really arrives, because in reality it doesn't arrive unheralded, and the anticipation build-up simply dissipates, rather than go out on a bang.

And of course, there's that other reason.

But it was fun. We had a great time laughing our heads off at everything - all the bewildering moments, the hilarious antics and I guess the infectious joy of the celebratory moment. It will certainly be one to remember.

She said only after such an experience will you know what you truly want. I wouldn't call it a good thing, but rather an inevitable thing, a journey of self-discovery, of trial and error that all of us have to take. We can choose to avoid it, but we will only be taking the other path - a smooth, straight and comfortable path, but a barren and fruitless one as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My brother's coming back on Tuesday. I'm really looking forward to it.

Links
POSTED AT 10:05 PM

My mom's really annoyed with my brother for being out of contact. His exams ended on Friday, but he seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth - 不见人影, as my mom put it. Usually we talk to him online on MSN or Skype, but he hasn't been around lately.

She's really put off by it, perhaps hurt even. She was complaining to me that my cousin, by comparison, always call back home. I don't really see it that way, but I guess when you're a parent and your eldest son is many miles away on the other side of the globe, you'd want to be able to talk to him frequently as well.

I guess she's really upset. Throughout the afternoon she kept muttering to herself that perhaps there is something wrong with our 家庭教育. How come we've turned out like that. And she warned me not to be like that as well when my turn comes to fly to the other side of the world. I don't think she can take both of her sons far away and unreachable.

But seriously, I find myself unable to make any promises.

It's a fact. We were never that close as a family. Not that we're dysfunctional, but I see some of my friends who can really talk to their parents like friends or pals, and I realise that it's never been like that for me. There's always been a sort of line, or barrier that stood between us, my parents, and me and my brother.

I've tried to analyse it. Perhaps it's because of the way we were brought up. My mom's always been very harsh on the two of us, especially when we were younger. Privileges were far and few, and we were kept under a tight rein for a large part of our childhood. Today, looking back, I don't resent that, because it has taught me a good deal of self-discipline and responsibility. But somewhere along the way, it has also led us down another path, one of alienation and a lack of familiarity.

Even when I was in Taiwan for three weeks, I never saw an urgent need to call back home. Even when I did, we hardly had anything to talk about. I wouldn't go to the extent of calling us strangers in the same house, but definitely I'm sure we aren't as close as my mom would have hoped for. And it's sad for me to see her like that now, when we leave this house behind and head on towards our futures.

Different families have their own dynamics, and I guess this is mine. Not something to be proud of, but it is the fact, and it is what we will have to accept.

I don't like the direction that my life is taking now. It's so two dimensional. But I don't see any way to lift it from its stupor. I tried to go back to old ways, to rekindle what was lost, but some paths, once abandoned, remain closed forever.

The Apple of My Eye
POSTED AT 10:47 PM

Wahaha Ipod Video 30GB! Need I say more?

I would have preferred white to black... but now's too late anyway.

Snowy white
POSTED AT 03:12 AM

My grandma's in the hospital, and I was awokened rather early this morning to head over to JB to visit her. We drove up - me, my brother, my uncle, aunt and two cousins - to spend the morning to keep her company.

My grandma is quite a loud, boisterous and gregarious person, but to see her lying down on the hospital bed looking on as relatives shower attention upon her suddenly showed me a different side of her, one of frailty and age, quite far removed from her usual outspoken self.

Her condition's fine now, but I guess it was still quite a scare for all of us when she had to be admitted. I guess when people get old this sort of thing becomes an inevitability, but when she's been my sprightly grandmother for so long, she tends to build up an air of invulnerability. And suddenly there are chinks in the armour. And it's frightening.

We have a family Christmas lunch tomorrow, and it was almost cancelled because of this. Almost, because the food that had been ordered couldn't be cancelled in time, so there was little point in wasting all the food that was going to arrive anyway. I guess it's strange to be going ahead without her but then again the realities of life were never too sheltered.

Sometimes life can be as subtle as a brick through a window. And sometimes we choose to ignore it, at our own expense as we will find out in the future.

But that aside, it was good to see all my cousins again. And it's not a twisted matter of circumstance that we meet, because we're all going to be at the lunch tomorrow anyway.

A Christmas eve to remember, eh?

I can't really remember what I was doing on Christmas eve a year ago from now, but I'm very sure that circumstances were very different. Oh, very different indeed. Unfortunately the significance of the moment no longer maintains the continuity for me that it once did.

Things change. People change. And sometimes we only realise too late. It is a kick in the bollocks.

-----------------------------------------

In a reference to recent events, I can't decide if TT Durai is a genius or a real fucker.

Truly Asia
POSTED AT 10:50 PM

I spent my post Christmas season on a well-deserved holiday in Malaysia with my family; with all our busy lives only a short trip like this could agree with our schedules. We planned to take the car and drive the 300km up north to KL - a throwback to days past when we would go on driving holidays as a family in Malaysia, reaching as far north as Terenganu.

KL always seemed like such a familiar place, perhaps because of the fact that I had an aunt and cousin staying there, so it seemed rather homely. But in actual fact I hadn't been to KL in almost a decade. The Petronas Towers weren't even built yet the last time I was there.

So at least it would be something new, and of course it was always nice to spend time with my family.

We stopped over on the drive up at my grandparents place for a night of good food and rest. I've expounded many times on the simply sumptous food that we have there, and of course, no trip to Malaysia would be complete without eating the Hakka Yong Tau Foo at my grandparents hometown.


My cousin. He's not really the cute loveable kind of kid that you'd expect of his age. This guy has attitude.

So anyway, my uncle booked rooms for us in KL, and since we were on holiday, might as well make it comfortable, right?

I guess the mark of a 5 star hotel is not so much the swimming pool, or the gym but the fact that the toilet in the hotel room comes equipped with a speaker which allows you to listen to the telly while you're sitting on the throne.


The speaker.


You can even control the volume.

Since it was a 5 star hotel with the appropriate facilities, I decided to put them to good use. I'd never been to a sauna before, and this would be my first time. It's not too bad. Not as relaxing as I'd imagined it to be, but it's quite an experience to be sitting in a room immersed in steam.

Of course, the inevitable and customary visit to the Petronas Towers.


Once in the day...


And once at night.

We didn't really do any sightseeing - visit the aquarium, museum, that sort of thing. It was more of a shopping trip, interspaced with interesting excursions in search of good food, with my aunt serving as our local guide. I'm not really a shopping kind of person, but it was a good opportunity to stock up on new clothes for CNY next month. But I really loved the hotel. It was really great to live in luxurious comfort, even if for a few days only.

On the way back home we stopped by Malaysia's spanking new government district to check out the area. A huge amount of money went into developing what is now called Putrajaya, and I must say it is pretty impressive. And always a kodak moment.


The istana


and the mosque