MC having mood swings

okay so as everyone know that MC is supposed having Spring - beautiful sunshine and lush greens. The weather for the past 2 days was great, i actually perspired a little. How little did I perspire? I dont want to go into details of the volume of the droplets.

But today the weather was horrid man, at 12 noon where incandescent sunlight was supposed to great me, I was faced with a blanket of dark clouds that engulfed every inch of the sky - no sunlight could pass through. And for the first time, I actually was caught in a very light shower when i was walked to class for my afternoon lessons. It was so cold that I could see vapour when i breathe out. evidently, the sight of vapour exiting from my mouth has ceased to amaze me, now its an indication of how many layers do I have to wear to face the confused climate of MC.

so tonite, my classmates decided to go chill together with 2 of our teachers. too bad i didn't bring my camera so i didnt have any pictures. something i realised about lunching with koreans is that they are really noisy at the dinner table - boisterous laughter coupled with jugs of alcohol. It was great fun hanging out with people form different origins. Through this dinner, my perception towards some of them has changed for the better. Though they maybe real lazy to not do their assignments, but that doesnt make them bad just that they indulge in fun and games a little too much.

So I was supposed to write out any article on the newspaper which I thought would be interesting. So I ended up with this one, it speaks of how a glass of coffee actually requires more water than you were to bathe. The article delves into the amount of water required to sustain the coffee plant prior to production of coffee powder/beans and how much water does the machinery for the production of the powder/beans require. It also speaks about the amount of water used in production for beef. After reading this article, I gained a fair amount of insight and definitely would not look at food superficially.

The journalist then ends off with " So will you cut down on coffee powder and beef."

Okay look, I mean yeah its great to let people know about how much resources it takes to meet up with our dietary wants but is water really that much a deal to actually change our diet? What huge amounts of water we may have used with regards to production of beef/coffee is not irrecoverable, I believe the journalist should have heard of something like evaporation and condensation or RAIN at the least. I felt that he should actually tabulate his findings on the amount of money needed to get the water and the amount to sustain a factory for coffee reproduction. I could just imagine him writing "will you now take public transport?" if he wrote an article on pollution.

So I wrote my paper on how the journalist should have approached his case since his last line ruined the entire essence of the paper. It should be "will you look at potable water the same way again?"

Okay so now my mother is back is here in beijing. I hope I survive the weekend.

shabu shabu / xiabu xiabu

okay so dad stopped by beijing and stayed at Sofitel hotel. So I made my way there yesterday for lunch with him. He brought us to this places that supposedly served fast healthy japanese shabu shabu influenced steamboat. And boy was I so FULL again after that meal!! The amazing thing is that it cost a total of 72 yuan (S$14.40) for the whole portion above! Look at the amount of beef slices and horrifying amount of greens displayed.















While window shopping, a moment of epiphany struck me. The whole world might have wronged people of MC, they do not have bad fashion sense but they are ONLY sold the ugliest of clothes! So I took a sneak photo of the adidas shoes at the authentic adidas boutique, tell me its tragedy. I concluded that MC is the place where designed-rejected goods were sold in this foreign land, hence, the fashion sense. I mean you can't go wrong with simplicity as a fashion style but look what came out from simplicity! A flamboyant disaster.

So my entry on March 17 had garnered much attention from some of my readers that they had to leave comments. While sharing the same sentiments as Amos, I think I should put this episode aside and carry on; but glenn being glenn must has to have the final say in everything especially when challenged. those who aren't familiar with the SAF or this abrupt discussion on my blog it's better not to read it since it will be too mind boggling.

My favourite understudy, I guess if you are only capable of helping them get a minimal of 5 extras???? you kidding me? LOL. then you ought to not be sitting at where you are. Poor judgement on my part.

Look, not everyone goes to another and engage in a petty ORD contest. Well perhaps not with you anymore la. So don't come and be bitchy with me and talk using some fucking intellect.

You double checked with them after JunLun died or?? for fuck u want to double check, what purpose would it serve YOU. and don't come and talk to me about the bloody GOM, you think I would not know what the statues are with regards to license submission. My submissions were all successful even for people who had collision with civilian vehicles. Dont talk to me as though I have not your work before.

If you are able to read *fingers cross and looks to sky*, i said the demerit points were awarded by CPT gary and not by HQ S&T. You would not even need to go through Law school or have legal to answer the question I am going to put through once again.

"Was CPT gary in any position to pass judgement on the bloody demerit points? "

If fucking HQTPT can say yes to it. I might as well ask my maid from indonesia to decide. Or even better, you preside all the cases of the unit with RSM, just send your reports to HQTPT. For one fucking time can you use your brain and not having to make me try inject some intellect to you. Like when you call me at fucking 9am in the morning to ask me where to deliver the fucking documents at HQTPT 5 months after I ORD. Very smart with GOMs la but dont know how to find out who to deliver documents to.

Finally, I have to laud you with the 4 paragraphs of disaster that ensued. I seriously didn't have to read all these "cry mother cry father" talk all the way in beijing. But as many know, I love to entertain cry babies. Point form ok, easier to understand for u.

- one. dont associate the word "master" with yourself, this is where you get carried away my son. I didn't say master but said influenced.

- two. you dont have to hear rumours from others but when people start calling you and bitching to you on msn about your understudy after you ORD, that i gotta believe.

- three. of course you dont make decisions in promotions,license and extras but you had a significant amount of influence over it. maybe not with promotion but come on la, i am your upperstudy, you think i would not know what you can be capable of. unless you are really that useless but with you chumming up with RSM I think perhaps you are. I dont recall I had to blow anyone only how i used to step on RSM like he was shit. hmm.. I guess eldon was right it was just me.

- four. dont come and twist my words, I did not say that you love recommending more extras ok. but come on, you tell me 5? and let me tell you something, I have seen you work in camp la, I know you call people to your desk and act like boss hor.

- five. the feeling of disgust is mutual, I might probably might have to go pluck some china plums from the vegetation below. very nauseating having to read such shit. Eh, with the GOM talk, look at the above. Sibei tired to type here AGAIN!

- six. i am horrified at myself for making such poor judgements. I thought you could maintain some equilibrium of sanity from the regulars, evidently the see-saw gave way.


I dont know whether you actually feel remorseful after reading the entry that I dedicated to you previously. I personally think that you feel high and mighty after reading it right or not? Monday sure go cry to RSM say how you were unrightfully accused. If we were still in unit I wld bloody ask eldon and matthias to ram some sense into you.

Lastly, what did you tell desmond when he asked you whether Jun Lun visited you the other day. I dont want to say it here ok but if I was in singapore, I would go take my driving license and slit your voicebox and let you bleed to death. You could fucking say those kind of shit still man.
-ovation-

A quote from one of my good friends:

"who needs enemies when they have friends like you" - marcus chow.

- i apologise having to speech in such language above but when you speak to animals, you have to.

Thank You Emilia Yim

As you all can see, my blog has gotten a new look to its structure. Now it looks so much more handsome with its broad shoulders doesn't it.

As many of you might know, I am a html illiterate/idiot so thanks to Miss Yim's unconditional help (it will remain that way right) I manage to rectify the scrawny pony to a beautiful stallion...

So on saturday after collecting my new bank card from "Bank of Communications" aka 交通银行, Yumi-san and I went to walk around the school's vincinity. And it was approximately 1430Hrs and I have not eaten lunch so both of us proceeded to this ghetto noodle restaurant/cafe/parlous to have a meal. And I loved the Ramen here. I ate the beef ramen aka 红烧牛肉拉面. Damn good la and it cost S$2.40 approx. The portion was totally out of this world too. And after the super delicious ramen, we went to an ice cream place where I got this long long soft cream (which naoto hori-san would affectionately call it "sof-to cre-mu") and it cost me S$1! Damn good la the food around school. Oh and I realise the sole purpose of my belt is coming to reach its terminus for its good use. No shit. I am serious.



So this is what I had for dinner tonight. Instead of going to 五道口 again to escape from the 4 walls of my room, I decided to order a "call-in". I ordered chicken cutlet rice and onion rings which cost me S$6 and it came with a free packet of red tea. The price was not something that would leave you startled as some of the other culinarary delights of the other entries, but the portion was just humongous!! It could feel 2 people I believe, no shit. I was so full I decided to give my left overs (shit i am damn evil right ) to my roomie.

Another incriminating evidence of me putting on the kilos.


Today, I came to realise something.

Still, I am quite sore about Jun Lun's death, memories of both of us drinking at the combat engineer's canteen at nee soon camp after our matches kept coming back and forth. Badminton was an integral part of my NS life and he too left an indelible mark in that field.

2 days back after reading the newspaper article, I was unhappy about that one of the newspaper article photos had a yellow arrow. Not a normal block arrow but an arrow that looked like that from a 3 year old child's hand. An arrow that look so effortlessly drawn (without much thought) which I interpreted as a form of disrespect. This was not an advertisement to an Kindergarden but a pictorial illustration of the scene where he passed away. After which, I crafted an email preparing to send it back to the journalist about how the arrow had expressed ill-respect to the late. Couldn't they just incorporate a proper computer designed arrow that would be more fitting to the event reported? But when I was going to send it out today, I asked myself what was I out to do? Seek justice for an ARROW used in a report of him? What would be the outcome of my email? Would it just land itself in the trashcan just like any other junk mail? I then realised that whats the point of executing such trivial acts only where there will be no physical result.

when petals fall

It's very unsettling emotionally when someone of your age group/generation pass away. It makes you only think of how fragile life is and whether you have been living yours to its optimum fullest.

Last night a friend of mine ,clarence ong, informed me of a disheatening news- a friend of mine had passed on. His name was Ong Jun Lun and we were from the same unit. The latter and I weren't closely knitted but definitely more than superficial friends. We were from the same badminton team and played the inter-signals formation tournament together. After Weipin and myself Ord-ed, he took over Weipin's singles spot in the signals formation badminton team. Everytime when we completed our games, he would ask me to get my CSM to let us off early, but I didn't want to go home early since I had nothing to do at home too. He would then ask me relentlessly to have her give us time off and make me drive him out of camp. He had always been indolent, perpetually sleeping all day long and would skive when given tasks. However, he was a great person, didn't have any ill/violent tendencies to others. Recollections of him and I were playing badminton during the tournaments and bitching about how stupid some of the other NSFs were.
One thing that leaves me wrenching was not calling him back, he smsed me when I was on the plane to Beijing. After having downloaded pfingo, I went to give him a call but once again he was sleeping and I said I will call him back. I refrained from deleting the sms to remind myself to call him back.

Just yesterday (after not changing to my Singapore Sim card for 2 weeks), I decided to return his call. I already knew what he had wanted to ask me: status of his civilian license application. Though I completed NS in June last year, I was somehow responsible/linked to his civilian license application.

- Earlier on in 2006, Jun Lun had reversed a 5 tonner into a Commading Officer's Civilian Vehicle and was awarded 9 demerit points by my Officer in Command. Since the case was not reported to HQ Transport nor was the demerit points awarded by the SAF transport department the 9 points should not have been justified/valid.

Evidently, my understudy felt that such an act was blatant transgression and ALLEGEDLY wasn't very helpful during the license application procedure. Instead of thinking of ways to help Jun Lun get his license, he felt a 180 degrees approach was more appropriate. When I came to hear of such news, I felt that this was total bullshit. Ergo, i took up the onus to try get his license application through with my warrant officer/CSM. Our task was successful, the licensing department gave the green light but that was probably 2 months ago.

However, when I came to find out that my understudy was very adamant lately that Jun Lun would not get his license I guessed that something was amiss.


-To my understudy whom I know you read my blog-

大哥 here shall now fuck my usual euphemistic self. Why would something as trivial as competing whose ORD dates are earlier get to you. Everyone ORDs in 2 years, need you be so vengeful on an issue as insignificant as such? A fellow NSF driver who worked 2 years under a unit such as ours should not deserve a license? He might have had an accident during his tenure but from what I understand from the GOM (unless there was a drastic change to it) he should get his license. Though you didn't have the hierarchal authority to avert the situation, you were the puppet master to it weren't you. If I am still sitting in your position, Jun Lun would definitely gotten his license already.

In these few months, alot of people had asked me why I had passed my appointment to you.

My answer: I didn't expect the then jovial and happy go lucky person be overtaken by insatiable supremacy.

Do you like basking in the authority that you have attained from the appointment? So what if you have the strongest decision making ability among all the other NSFs, that doesnt give you any respect from them. It's the person not the appointment. I am not saying they respect me but they know they can rely on me and will definitely call me if they get into trouble. And I believe you know that I used to get my ass fried by CPT Ong and others because I help/speak up for them too much then. I can't say that about you can I? Of late, I heard you love seeing people get charged and if anyone gets in your way, he will have a bitter end? Your interpretation of respect, respect = fear, doesnt work out.

Perhaps someone else was indeed more appropriate. And if you dont realise, because of what you did then make me feel like a bastard for not returning the call.

Well, at least now i think we have reached a common understanding/fact - he wont be getting his license for sure. You owned him and finally, me. Respectxxx...

天坛公园

ok so I have not been blogging in a while since I have not experienced anything interesting. And I had lots of writings to hand in so did not have the time/mood to start with. And to the exchange students in the class, stop trying to be so enthusiastic in class when u nvr do ur assignments, its just really stupid as no one knows what you are trying to prove.

-estatic to have complete the israel and palestine essay-

So anyway naoto hori-san, chloe and myself decided to go to 天坛公园, temple of heaven. But before that I went to cut my hair for S$6 at this boutique which I thought was alright, aint that bad. Just that I had major insecurities pertaining to whether I would turn out to look like another MC man on the street. I was refraining myself from the usage of 剪短 , cut short, because u know how cutting short is such a generic term to length. But it turned out alrite just that I wanted it shorter but didnt wanna say the taboo word so I had to be satisfied whatever the shape my crowning glory was.

After that, we had lunch at Bravo an Italian restaurant and ate this plate of rice thing which is supposed to be an italian dish but I have never seen it in any singapore restaurant. It tasted really nice and it cost S$3. The side dish was a potato ball thing that cost S$2 and tasted alright with a satisfying 10 pieces.


so here you have the entrance of tian tan but scroll down and there is more. Oh I paid $5 to visit all the sites of the temple, i love cheap student rates.








So here we have the 棂星门-Ling Xing gates which lead up to this altar thats made up of white marble. So here we have a picture of Hori san and myself standing on the epicenter of the whole temple complex. Doing so will bring us good luck (i hope) and dont mind the other asians behind, they are just another asian.

Here we have the cypress garden in the temple. We didnt go further since we had a lot more walking to do and rather not spend it on some random trees which dogs would just piss at.








here we have the 东配殿， east annex hall where tablets of the sun , moon, jupiter, stars so that people can pay their respects to them.









Here we have 皇穹宇 where it houses all the tablets of the gods that are used for worshipping. Looks like one of the eerie ghost picture right. correct or nt, shaun gan. Like something lurking at the altar.


Here we have the 9 dragon juniper tree which breeds around the whole temple premise. And nearby, there is this man trying to sell this game thats almost like badminton so after some egging on by my friends I went to try playing it. Quite simple to play cause it follows the same motion as scooping up the shuttle, but the racket is so short and small. Below is a video of the game.











This is 祈年殿， hall of good prayers for good harvests where the emperor would pray for good harvests.











So this is the place where they would cremate the sacrifices for the gods.
The 火柴炉, firewood stove which was just sticking out of nowhere in the complex. I thought it was an ancient water catchment well. Okay people shut the ____ up.

So here we have a station for u to borrow a guide, an automatic guide. So I thought its a real guide person and what tickled me was you had to pay a deposit for 100yuan. So i told hori-san and chloe how stupid is that deposit thing on a guide. So chloe burst out laughing and said its a GPS hearing device where they would give u the historical background on the place where u were at. Ok so ____ me. How in the world would i know MC had such devices.













After we have walked through 天坛公园，the 3 of us proceeded to 北海. It was very disappointing for me maybe because we didnt go into the "had to pay or you cannot go in area". Well I did see sakuras here. Who says you cant see sakuras outside japan and I felt like eating it so hence the picture. Just beautiful hor. Tiff and syafiq must be laughing. RIGHT.

Okay gg off now.. dont think i will be going out soon since I spent alot of money today.. almost S$50 and i didnt buy anything. Sometimes the wallet is just like a blackhole, the deeper you dig, the darker it gets.

潘家园旧物市场

So I decided to blog what I did on Saturday; I am boiling water so I can bathe, so pathetic.

Anyway for lunch yesterday I had another buffet at "tafi" which is an Italian restaurant for 32yuan (approx SGD$6). The spread wasn't fantastic but it had a healthier spread than other buffets. It had pasta, garlic bread, soup, salad, pizza and etc... As many of my friends know, I am a great sucker for soups so I drank 4 bowls of soup, pumpkin soup. I would like to drink more but was afraid that I would need to use the bathroom and u know how are the public bathrooms in MC are like...

So this is 潘家园旧物市场, where stall owners sell alot of local products that are indigenous to their culture/history. The products range from jade, wood carvings, embroidery, buddhist deity scultures, and even wooden mahjong tiles which i was tempted to buy since it cost SGD$30 before discount =) I might get one before gg back to SG. Weipin so needs it.. hor pinhead....

So after spending 1.5hrs at the street market, I bought a stamp chop engraved with my chinese name. There are some store owners who were being like sluts, they tried to it to me at SGD$40 , like come on .... you are MC u know.. where are the cheap goods you market place. So anyway I went to this other store that sold me the jade piece for 6yuan and went to another store to engrave my name for 60 yuan. So i paid 66yuan in total for my chop.

Here is the shifu that did my chop, apparently he is quite famous in china but its enigmatic as to why someone of his caliber would be setting up a street stall in a street market. He apparently hangs out with some professors from my university so he gave us a discount. He says that convincingly while pointing to his banner that states 50yuan per word. He showed us a magazine article of him recently too!

After our shopping spree, we proceeded to have dinner at this korean restaurant. Though I might sound stupid but it was my first time eating korean bbq. And since Miya said it tasted like the real thing, it is/taste like the real thing. Behold my marvellous spread though which we paid 32yuan per person =) SGD$6.40, glenn is happy.

Oh and Miya lost her wallet so we made our way down to the Police Station where I spoke alot of shit to him on video!courtesy of chloe! Sadly I cant post them here but I have already posted one of it on my facebk grp. Pardon the poor speech in mandarin.