Haven't blogged in the past few days due to guard duty wearing me down. Was guard on Fri and then again on Mon! It’s a draining vicious cycle. Sat morning after I got off guard at 9am, rushed home to get a change of clothes before heading out to join CW and gang for a couple of games of bball. By the time I got there it was almost 11! Played a couple of games before we split, with Ben, Yun and me heading for lunch and the rest making their way home. Jun and Kang didn’t join us, with Kang down with a fever. CW was joking about Kang getting dengue… haha. Not sure about Jun’s excuse though. Reached home after lunch, took a bath, and then started reading the papers. Made it about halfway through before I found myself sound asleep. And that scene kept repeating itself for the whole weekend, when ever I touched something soft enough to slp on, I would just knock off. I still don’t know why. And when I want to slp at night, the sun burn keeps me awake. It’s better now, and I’m back to slping regular hours.
Mon came sooner than it was supposed to, and did guard again. While in camp, I got news that ‘Pikachu’ started a blog! The horrors! And what does he post on that blog? The reporting time of the squadron. And nothing else. The next thing I would expect him to do is search for someone to update that blog everyday. The concept is good, 3 cheers for that. Now you can check your reporting time everyday, at anytime of the day. But surely, there is definitely something better to use than a blog! But if I go back to camp and open my big mouth (Which I won’t BTW), I would end up doing everything for him at no cost to or reward from him, and will most ultimately end up being the nut job, who has to update it for him everyday. Well, NOT OVER MY DEAD BODY. So my lips are sealed. As long as I stay clear of updating that blog at least. One blog is hard enough to maintain. And for those who are still wondering who is ‘Pikachu’, he is none other than my incek/woic. When he comes around lightning shoots about like when you let Pikachu out of his pokemon ball. Which reminds me… anyone got a pokemon ball to spare? I need a big one! Heh heh heh…
Today got off guard at 10am. Major communications breakdown in camp. Was supposed to do servicing, leaving all the refuelling to the spare men. Did them a favour, got a team mate to walk back to the sqn to get the bowser test kit for them to use. In the end, had to do all the refuelling ourselves, and after that get ticked off for being late to do the paperwork! Sian. Well, all in a day’s work. Nothing new there.
I went home to rest a while, before rushing out to meet Audrey for lunch. Got there late due to transport being hell, I had to wait at least 6-7min per transfer, so I waited more than I travelled. Sorry Aud. Anyway, when I got there, I found out that she seems to be on a diet. Lucky she didn’t ask me the dreaded question… “Do you think I look fat?” Because if she did, I wouldn’t be blogging now. Probably would have ended up in pieces all over Singapore. Heehee… Went for driving afterwards, and realised at the end of the lesson, that 3 weeks of not having lessons and my driving somewhat rusty. Managed to get it tuned back into working order by the end of the lesson thankfully. I wonder how long I can sustain 1 week/lesson. Hopefully till my test in Feb. That is if my off clears. Hopefully. Pretty shagged now, so I shall stop here. Ciao!
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Lousy Week
This week has been a lousy week for me.
It all started on Mon, which saw rain making me stay in camp till about 11 pm although I was supposed to end at 6 pm. On top of that, I got drenched from standing in the middle of the airfield when it began to rain heavily. Then later when the rain subsided, I went out for servicing, only for the rain to fall again the moment I got there and was ½ way through my servicing. When I closed and packed everything up and moved back to the hangar for shelter, it was still raining. But after running in the rain back to the squadron building, it stopped raining a short while later. I was then told to go back out and continue my servicing. When I made my way out there again, the same thing happened. Only this time, it came just after I arrived at the aircraft and removed the covers. Replaced the covers in the rain, before making my way into the hangar. A short while after reaching the hangar it rain stopped. Completed that servicing and went back to the squadron, only to find out I had a hotwash just added to my task. When I went out there, it looked like the weather was going to hold, but I was wrong again. Just as the aircrafts were arriving back, the rain started pouring again. Got completely drenched once again. That thunderstorm lasted till about 8pm before I could go out again. I managed to complete my servicing just as the rain started the drizzle down again. High tailed out of the airfield before it started pouring again.
Tues and Wed wasn’t much better, although it didn’t rain, I seemed to keep forgetting things. It was either forgetting to latch things up, or getting more than my fair share of things to do. Wed was particularly bad, firstly with getting my off on Thurs cancelled, and secondly with me forgetting to get a receipt from the cab I took home. Was so tired that it completely slipped my mind. Argh!
I thought maybe I still could squeeze my driving lesson into Thurs morning, but it was not to be. There was no more available space for me with the instructor. Sad. I’m hoping the rest of my day goes better, but I’m doing night shift today although I got to report early tml for guard. Sianz… Sometimes the more I stay in the squadron, the more I don’t feel like doing it anymore. And I’m not the only one to feel this way. But I got no choice. 1 year 2 days to ORD! I’m starting to count le. I got to make my way to camp now. Ciaoz.
It all started on Mon, which saw rain making me stay in camp till about 11 pm although I was supposed to end at 6 pm. On top of that, I got drenched from standing in the middle of the airfield when it began to rain heavily. Then later when the rain subsided, I went out for servicing, only for the rain to fall again the moment I got there and was ½ way through my servicing. When I closed and packed everything up and moved back to the hangar for shelter, it was still raining. But after running in the rain back to the squadron building, it stopped raining a short while later. I was then told to go back out and continue my servicing. When I made my way out there again, the same thing happened. Only this time, it came just after I arrived at the aircraft and removed the covers. Replaced the covers in the rain, before making my way into the hangar. A short while after reaching the hangar it rain stopped. Completed that servicing and went back to the squadron, only to find out I had a hotwash just added to my task. When I went out there, it looked like the weather was going to hold, but I was wrong again. Just as the aircrafts were arriving back, the rain started pouring again. Got completely drenched once again. That thunderstorm lasted till about 8pm before I could go out again. I managed to complete my servicing just as the rain started the drizzle down again. High tailed out of the airfield before it started pouring again.
Tues and Wed wasn’t much better, although it didn’t rain, I seemed to keep forgetting things. It was either forgetting to latch things up, or getting more than my fair share of things to do. Wed was particularly bad, firstly with getting my off on Thurs cancelled, and secondly with me forgetting to get a receipt from the cab I took home. Was so tired that it completely slipped my mind. Argh!
I thought maybe I still could squeeze my driving lesson into Thurs morning, but it was not to be. There was no more available space for me with the instructor. Sad. I’m hoping the rest of my day goes better, but I’m doing night shift today although I got to report early tml for guard. Sianz… Sometimes the more I stay in the squadron, the more I don’t feel like doing it anymore. And I’m not the only one to feel this way. But I got no choice. 1 year 2 days to ORD! I’m starting to count le. I got to make my way to camp now. Ciaoz.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
NDP & Moon Cakes
Looking at the title, most of you must be wondering what link is there between NDP and moon cakes. Hmmm… Think carefully… It’s a close link… Can’t think of any? Then in that case you are right! There is absolutely no link. Haha... It’s just another case of me not being able to find the time at the time to update.
NDP
There was a NDP function at ADSD in Yishun on Thursday. It was a tea buffet with a certificate presentation in the specialist mess. It was a quiet affair, with all of us catching up with each other. There was free beer and wine along with the buffet, that was drunk mostly by the inceks and more senior personnel. I took a glass of red wine, and I must say, it was pretty good, abet a little strong on the alcohol. Then a while later, during the certificate presentation, MAJ Pang was saying, “See you all in 2007!” With that all the 124 personnel said “ORD lo…!” and instantly got daggers shot at us from all the regulars… Heehee…After the presentation of the certificates, it marked an end for the NDP. Its been fun while it lasted, even though my Sat were burned. There may be a chance to do it again next year, counting that my squadron is commercialising next year, and I’ll be out of a job to do. But that we’ll have to see. =)
Moon Cakes
My whole weekend was spent at home this week. It would be a pretty sad thing except it was spent helping in the making of moon cakes for the upcoming Latern Festival. When you actually have a hand in making it, you would then realise how come shops are selling the moon cakes for up to $8 a piece. It is actually not that expensive to make, but it’s a whole lot of work. From preparing the filling to the dough itself, everything has to be done with precision, or else the moon cake would not come out good. Afterwards, the moon cake has to be pressed and knocked out of the mould, before it is baked in a three step process. Its hard work, but getting to eat it after that makes it all worth while. I got to try one after making everything, with the rest being kept till the lantern festival comes around. =p…. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Can’t wait for the lantern festival to come around liao… the wait is agonising. Off to play some games to get my mind off mooncakes. Till next time then. Ciao.
NDP
There was a NDP function at ADSD in Yishun on Thursday. It was a tea buffet with a certificate presentation in the specialist mess. It was a quiet affair, with all of us catching up with each other. There was free beer and wine along with the buffet, that was drunk mostly by the inceks and more senior personnel. I took a glass of red wine, and I must say, it was pretty good, abet a little strong on the alcohol. Then a while later, during the certificate presentation, MAJ Pang was saying, “See you all in 2007!” With that all the 124 personnel said “ORD lo…!” and instantly got daggers shot at us from all the regulars… Heehee…After the presentation of the certificates, it marked an end for the NDP. Its been fun while it lasted, even though my Sat were burned. There may be a chance to do it again next year, counting that my squadron is commercialising next year, and I’ll be out of a job to do. But that we’ll have to see. =)
Moon Cakes
My whole weekend was spent at home this week. It would be a pretty sad thing except it was spent helping in the making of moon cakes for the upcoming Latern Festival. When you actually have a hand in making it, you would then realise how come shops are selling the moon cakes for up to $8 a piece. It is actually not that expensive to make, but it’s a whole lot of work. From preparing the filling to the dough itself, everything has to be done with precision, or else the moon cake would not come out good. Afterwards, the moon cake has to be pressed and knocked out of the mould, before it is baked in a three step process. Its hard work, but getting to eat it after that makes it all worth while. I got to try one after making everything, with the rest being kept till the lantern festival comes around. =p…. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Can’t wait for the lantern festival to come around liao… the wait is agonising. Off to play some games to get my mind off mooncakes. Till next time then. Ciao.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Comex!
For the benefit of those who didn’t know, Comex 2005 was in town this weekend. And since I’ve been scouting around for a printer to replace my present one which died on me the last time I tried to print, and has remain dead since. May it rest in pieces.
So I braved the crowd and went on Sat. For those who have played pinball before, you would suddenly gain an sudden insight into what the ball feels like in the game. It was like being a sardine in a can of many more sardines squeezing about. Then once in the crowd, you get bumped and pushed around (hence, the pinball), so there was little need for actual walking. I think that I’ve never seen so many people cluster at a single location except at these computer fairs. A lot of people are like me, going there to scout for good deals, but whether they buy anything in the end, is a totally different issue altogether. Checked out all the deals from printers to digital cameras, some of them were amazingly good. However, guess what? I didn’t buy anything in the end. I was scouting for a Canon printer that had caught my eye sometime back and when I went there, they told me that it was not a focus model and they did not bring it to the show. Then they were trying to sell a lower end model very hard, with the sales personnel constantly pushing me to buy it. I wondered why till later when my mom told me that her colleague, who used to work for one of the companies there, told her that the tactic was that they would try to push the models that were soon to be replaced by something newer so as to clear all the available stock. Good if the one that they are trying to clear is the one that you want or it suits your needs. Sometimes though, these hard-sell tactics are a great turn-off if done improperly, like in this case where by every other sentence out of the salesman’s mouth was about the lower end one which I told him that I wasn’t interested in. Talk about die hard fanatic.
Next, I went over to check their rival, HP. There I saw a pretty good deal, a printer with about what I was looking for at $200 off! That made that $499 printer slightly less than $300. But what made me pop was actually the price of the cartridge refill. One was another cool $50 apiece. That would cost me about $100 a set of refills, 1/3 the price of the printer itself! Thought of buying it anyway, because I’d found a company that sells a kit to refill the original cartridge at a fraction of the original price. Decided against it later after going home. The decision went to buying new cartridges for a somewhat new printer from my brother, and later buying the refilling kit to last me till my NS is over at least. Cost effective solution, which almost cost me as much as the lower end Canon printer! ($39 to be exact.) Hmm… maybe not the cheapest, but still the most cost effective.
I went back to Comex to make this purchase the next day, with TYY joining me this time round. He drove us there, but when we got there we almost regretted that decision. Parking was hell in the area, with all the car-parks in the area being full. We managed to get a place at Marina Square eventually. Went to look for his friend who was working in the Giant there before going to join the crowd at Suntec. By the time we got there it was almost 4pm! (We went out at 2pm btw)He was looking to buy a wireless router to allow his laptop to share his internet connection. He bought the router from Linksys, whilst trying to get the salesgirl’s number at the same time. Haha… The end results? My lips are sealed. Ask him yourself. After getting all the things that we were intending to get, we decided to call it a day and went home. I must say, it is extremely tiring affair to go Comex.
On another note, Chiang Wei’s birthday is tomorrow, so
So I braved the crowd and went on Sat. For those who have played pinball before, you would suddenly gain an sudden insight into what the ball feels like in the game. It was like being a sardine in a can of many more sardines squeezing about. Then once in the crowd, you get bumped and pushed around (hence, the pinball), so there was little need for actual walking. I think that I’ve never seen so many people cluster at a single location except at these computer fairs. A lot of people are like me, going there to scout for good deals, but whether they buy anything in the end, is a totally different issue altogether. Checked out all the deals from printers to digital cameras, some of them were amazingly good. However, guess what? I didn’t buy anything in the end. I was scouting for a Canon printer that had caught my eye sometime back and when I went there, they told me that it was not a focus model and they did not bring it to the show. Then they were trying to sell a lower end model very hard, with the sales personnel constantly pushing me to buy it. I wondered why till later when my mom told me that her colleague, who used to work for one of the companies there, told her that the tactic was that they would try to push the models that were soon to be replaced by something newer so as to clear all the available stock. Good if the one that they are trying to clear is the one that you want or it suits your needs. Sometimes though, these hard-sell tactics are a great turn-off if done improperly, like in this case where by every other sentence out of the salesman’s mouth was about the lower end one which I told him that I wasn’t interested in. Talk about die hard fanatic.
Next, I went over to check their rival, HP. There I saw a pretty good deal, a printer with about what I was looking for at $200 off! That made that $499 printer slightly less than $300. But what made me pop was actually the price of the cartridge refill. One was another cool $50 apiece. That would cost me about $100 a set of refills, 1/3 the price of the printer itself! Thought of buying it anyway, because I’d found a company that sells a kit to refill the original cartridge at a fraction of the original price. Decided against it later after going home. The decision went to buying new cartridges for a somewhat new printer from my brother, and later buying the refilling kit to last me till my NS is over at least. Cost effective solution, which almost cost me as much as the lower end Canon printer! ($39 to be exact.) Hmm… maybe not the cheapest, but still the most cost effective.
I went back to Comex to make this purchase the next day, with TYY joining me this time round. He drove us there, but when we got there we almost regretted that decision. Parking was hell in the area, with all the car-parks in the area being full. We managed to get a place at Marina Square eventually. Went to look for his friend who was working in the Giant there before going to join the crowd at Suntec. By the time we got there it was almost 4pm! (We went out at 2pm btw)He was looking to buy a wireless router to allow his laptop to share his internet connection. He bought the router from Linksys, whilst trying to get the salesgirl’s number at the same time. Haha… The end results? My lips are sealed. Ask him yourself. After getting all the things that we were intending to get, we decided to call it a day and went home. I must say, it is extremely tiring affair to go Comex.
On another note, Chiang Wei’s birthday is tomorrow, so
HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY CHIANG WEI!
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Short Week
This week was a somewhat short one. Wed has no flying for some unknown reason, so I used the day to do my secondary appointment. Went to do a fleet check, it took from 8 in the morning to about 3 in the late afternoon. Missed my lunch, but for some weird reason, took tea-break at 10, something that I very rarely do. Guess it was a good thing, because by the time that I came up from the airfield, all the lunch was gone. Eaten or tossed.
I was hoping to get early off after doing the fleet check, it was cleared with my IC before I started work, but as usual, got played out and had to stay till about 7 before getting released. But spending the whole day in the sun took its toll, feeling a bit feverish, pretty sun-burnt, and with a headache, took an MC the next day. The next day happened to be RSD or RSAF Safety Day, but better known as Report Sick Day. What coincidence! Hahaha… I spent the rest of that day resting and relaxing, resting more though, because the medicine knocked me out cold.
The next day was squadron family day, so I went for a driving lesson before making my way to Orchid County Club to play bowling as part of the family day. I must say, its been a long time since I went bowling, and I cannot bowl 2 slots per game for 3 games. Why 2 slots? Because of a certain someone, who put his name there and ran off to hell knows where. So ended up playing for him too… And he actually outscored me! Or rather I out scored myself. Sad right? I seem to be able to play better when the name there isn’t mine. But it also could be that his name was before mine.
After resting for about an hour waiting for the games to end and the prize giving ceremony, a couple of my friends and I decided to adjourn to the pool place below the bowling alley for pool. We played till about 7pm before going for dinner at Crystal Jade Ramen at Northpoint. The food there was delicious! The ramen came in bowls that were bigger than my hand. Everyone ordered a different type of ramen, and all gave it 2 thumbs up. And the xiao long pau, outstanding! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. The ambience of the place was also nice, tucked away in a corner; it had a warm and bright decor, and was comfortable, without all the loud chatter that some Chinese restaurants have. The prices were also pretty affordable. I would recommend this restaurant! Kudos to Dy EO for his recommendation of the place!
I was hoping to get early off after doing the fleet check, it was cleared with my IC before I started work, but as usual, got played out and had to stay till about 7 before getting released. But spending the whole day in the sun took its toll, feeling a bit feverish, pretty sun-burnt, and with a headache, took an MC the next day. The next day happened to be RSD or RSAF Safety Day, but better known as Report Sick Day. What coincidence! Hahaha… I spent the rest of that day resting and relaxing, resting more though, because the medicine knocked me out cold.
The next day was squadron family day, so I went for a driving lesson before making my way to Orchid County Club to play bowling as part of the family day. I must say, its been a long time since I went bowling, and I cannot bowl 2 slots per game for 3 games. Why 2 slots? Because of a certain someone, who put his name there and ran off to hell knows where. So ended up playing for him too… And he actually outscored me! Or rather I out scored myself. Sad right? I seem to be able to play better when the name there isn’t mine. But it also could be that his name was before mine.
After resting for about an hour waiting for the games to end and the prize giving ceremony, a couple of my friends and I decided to adjourn to the pool place below the bowling alley for pool. We played till about 7pm before going for dinner at Crystal Jade Ramen at Northpoint. The food there was delicious! The ramen came in bowls that were bigger than my hand. Everyone ordered a different type of ramen, and all gave it 2 thumbs up. And the xiao long pau, outstanding! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. The ambience of the place was also nice, tucked away in a corner; it had a warm and bright decor, and was comfortable, without all the loud chatter that some Chinese restaurants have. The prices were also pretty affordable. I would recommend this restaurant! Kudos to Dy EO for his recommendation of the place!