Silver, Finally

I had a rude shock when I realised that I had two weeks left to take my IPPT. The horrible, horrible rule, where you had to take it three months before your birthday, just kicked in. I've never had to book sessions or do anything for it. I've always done it during ICT. This time it was different. Scary even. I went online to book the test at Khatib, a camp that I have never been to before!

Thankfully it turned out well. My nemesis, the standing board jump, was swiftly defeated. In fact, it was my first station. I just might have left for home if I lost the battle instead, but thankfully, things went my way. Even the slightly faulty censor chin-up bar couldn't get me down. No count? I'll do another. And another. I'll do it till I get 5 points because I've been getting 5 points since I've taken IPPT do you hear?! Sit-ups were a bit nonsense though. I did 30 in 30 seconds and spent the next 30 doing 10. How lame is that?

The 2.4 could have been worse. My legs were aching terribly after training on Thursday, but surprisingly, running on the track was incredibly easy. The distance felt so short! Not that I did it in a great time of course, but for someone who woke up every Saturday to run for an hour, 12 minutes is nothing!



And that's how I got my first Silver in close to half a decade. Granted, it's the first time I'm Cat Y, but I've shaved almost 30 seconds from my previous 2.4, improved on my SBJ, and consistently beat the crap out of the other 3 stations.

Huge thank you to my best supporter - James. Couldn't have done it without him. It was great to see someone familiar in such a horribly foreign environment. Glad we conquered IPPT together.

ICT 2011

It's true that Twitter and Facebook have been taking my time away from blogging. Sometimes you put yourself out there and when it comes to actually writing an entry, you're all out of juice.

But this entry is not about that. It's about my in-camp training last week. There's plenty of things I hated about it. I hate that I sometimes have to push on, even when my head is about to burst. I hate that there's a lot of waiting.

But I love sweating it out. I love the physical exertion, the physical activity. I feel like I'm exerting myself, really feeling it, like the body and mind are one. It's the feeling of a hard day's work... when I was inside that contraption, setting it up, and my singlet wetter than it'd ever been and sticking to every part of me, and me rushing against time, against my physical limit to get the bar into its fucking position. There's a strange sense of exhilaration.

And I'm a bit of a different persona in camp. My normal usage of vulgarities went up about ten times. Because, as we all know, bitching is a coping mechanism. And what better way to bitch than with the familiar people that I'm glad to see whenever I go back. Going through all that shit again somehow builds a bond that's not affected by time. It's memorable alright.

Also, I passed my IPPT!

Maybe the most exciting parts of life doesn't always have to be good. Maybe the worst parts of it might end up being the ones that you look back most fondly on. I go back year after year, the dread never decreasing. But I appreciate being outdoors, facing the sun, with the men that I've come to know for almost 6 years. We've all grown, we're all different, yet we work well together.

If only I didn't have to spend so much money cabbing to camp.

Six

I push myself to the limit. And I always feel a little superhuman after taking off the mask. Sometimes that feels kinda cool, like I've done the impossible. Other times I swear that it's the last time, that I'll never do it again.

Most of the time I do it because I don't have a choice. There's a bit too much relief at being alive at the end of it all. All the heat, suffocation and perspiration.

6 more days to go. And after that 6 more to go.

ICT Again

I've just finished my Annual ICT. I feel a dizzying sense of happiness and relief. It's only 4 days but there were moments I felt really really terrible because the training was really tough. However it has ended and I am glad. I passed my IPPT and surprisingly I was close to getting Silver. I haven't been training enough. If I really want that extra $100 I still have about two months to get it! I even got a $100 voucher awarded for people who performed well during ICT, along with Kenneth and Guofei. Needless to say we were stunned.

I'm just really glad to be back. I will not take my civilian life for granted! HAHA!

Pause

I know that since I entered army this blog has sort of been on pause. So has my life. I've been bitching and complaining like there's no tomorrow. I'm so sorry that I've to put my friends through all my nonsense and the fact that I find it hard to make time for anything else because of the crazy schedule.

When I thought 0615 was early, for the past two days we've been booking in at 0545.

I'll meet up with you guys soon and yes, I'm counting down. 4 more days to end of ICT. Thurs, Fri, Mon, Tues.

OMG I can't wait.

Say It

1. Please do not act like you are a big deal when you can't pronounce "mandatory" and "consume".

2. Monday Book-In timing is 0615. Everybody say the three magic words with me. WHAT THE

RESPECT

In my head there was only one line repeating itself over and over.

"I hate fucking waiting," said Britney Spears when the fireworks wouldn't come on while she was filming the video for Circus.

The queue was long. The woman was slow. She was fucking slow. And I wasn't too fast my self. I picked out my size 8.5 Brooks and looked at other stuff and before I knew it there was an entire platoon in queue. And at the end of line was my two friends and I.

We stood there in stoned silence, knowing it would probably be 1140 when it was our turn reach the cashier and we would not get to eat the lengendary Honeydew Sago at the canteen beside this godforsaken E-Mart.

When you're in camp you start thinking of the simplest pleasures in life.

So anyway, as I was saying before bordering on the philosphical, we were there, fucking waiting, in resentful silence. My friend suggested that we took turns going for the canteen break. I turned him down, thinking it would be kind of sad to eat alone, leave a friend behind the queue, or be the one waiting in the queue.

Then, our sergeant came over. He took out his notebook.

"Eh, give me your 11B and your birthdate, I'll help you guys queue. Then you can all go canteen."

His words were greeted with a moment of silence, but not of the stoned kind. More of the bewildered and well, small fireworks of happiness bursting at the thought of enjoying ice-cold Honeydew Sago, yet apprehensive of letting our sergeant queue for us.

We declined, of course.

"By the time you guys finish queueing you'll have to board the tonner and go back to camp. So are you sure you don't want to go? DI can see it in your eyes. You all want to go."

With that we were more determined than ever to queue by ourselves. He went off to the cashier's counter and grabbed a basket, and thrust it to my friend and asked him to put his stuff in it.

And with that he demanded that we return from the canteen in 20 minutes.

It's not that difficult for a commander to earn the trust and respect of his men.

I Just Want To Lead A Simple Life

They say that in the army
The girls are very nice
You ask for Britney Spears
They give you Lao Char Bor

"Go and collect it from the post office arh!"

"What... aiyah never mind one la!"

"What never mind. It's from the government one leh. Deliver to our house then no one at home so you must go and take ok? After that ten days then they will deliver back to the sender."

"Ah nah, ah nah. What the hell is this shit. Must be one of those silly magazine things or notices. How sian. Liddat also must go and collect. Sian lar."

--

"You now at home why don't want to take!"

"Okay lar I go take now. I going to swim already. Before swim I go take okay?"

"Yah quickly!"

--

I stood at the post office like an idiot in queue and when I reached the counter, the lady told me very politely, and in the process making me feel like a right retard, that the counter for collection was the last one in the row. Making my way to the queue again, I wondered if the good weather would hold up for my long-awaited swim.

I got my letter relatively quickly and the words "On Government Service" and other very telling signs didn't seem very telling at all as I carelessly tore the sides holding the letter together.

"You CPL KHOR YING HENG NRIC are required under Section 14 of the Enlistment Act, Cap 93 to report for service at 07:30 hrs on 8/07/2009 at Seletar Camp for the purpose of ANNUAL ICT..."

I could feel the blood literally drain from my face.

KKNBCCB!!!

I hate complaining. I enjoy swearing but I don't mean it. But this time I couldn't help it. Swear words littered complaints that I lambasted to an imaginery nemesis inside my head.

14 days of my life. 2 weeks worth of tuition (they would never be able to pay me that much!). But 2 weeks of freedom and doing things that I don't want to do and the worst part... the worst part is there'd be some idiots I wish I wouldn't have to see for the rest of my life and I'd have to see them! There! Them! The best part of course is to see them fall from past glory. Slower, fatter, uglier.

Eh what if I miss hall FOC? I, the Chief Pageant Coordinator, am supposed to select and interview people for pageant! I will be hopping mad.

Okay I think I'll be missing school FOC instead. Which will make me bloody mad because I will miss HC.

ARGH!!!

I feel that there's this humungous rain cloud clouding up my heart and this painful reluctance to accept reality. When I was in there, compared to everyone else, I was less affected about not being around, more resigned to fate that it's something that has to be done. Now it's just... painful.

To do it all over again.

Tell Me That It's Over

The only cycle I used to know of was the way they named seasons in America's Next Top Model. Like ANTM Cycle 5. Or winner of ANTM Cycle 10 - Whitney. Now I've just finished the first of ten cycles post-ORD and I'm lokoking forward to ROD already. Booking out today was fantastic.

There'll be some people I'll miss seeing around though, those you know that you'll only see at the next ICT. They're great people. It's just that somehow it takes something on a scale as large as this to meet everyone again.

I'll be busy with a lot in the next three weeks. It's really thrilling. I'm anticipating the start of all the work that's coming in. There's tuition. I'll be rehearsing for The Minister's Wife ?!. There's preparation for CS DND. I'll be doing publicity for Dinner and Dance. And then there's also Hall FOC.

Yes, it'll be a crazy month.

Ooh and there's timetable-ing too! I'm going to take acting and short story writing next semester. I need modules that are non-examinable. And I'm genuinely interested in them too. I bet they'll be easy to get than some of the science mods!

After a rather crappy week, it's time to celebrate the end of Cycle 1! *throws confetti and takes out mahjong set at Ivan's house*

In The End

Tomorrow marks the last day of my reservist for this cycle. I used to look forward to ORD, now I look forward to ROD. It sort of breaks the momentum that I have in my life currently and that irritates the hell out of me.

There's also been a rollercoaster of emotions and states. I feel physically fitter after only a week, which just goes to show that no matter how often I exercise, it's never as intense as what it was when I was in NS. I think I've got the exercising bug again. Also, there's no other place that I feel less in control of the situation and I don't get to choose my level of involvement either. I feel proud to have done the mask run - always something for me to talk about that's slightly different from the normal kind of training.

The best thing is meeting up with friends that I haven't met up with for the longest time. Okay, so I've also had to come face to face with this fucker that I can't stand but then again you can't have all the good with none of the bad.

Tuesday after book out I had my first winning mahjong game with Guo Fei, Samuel and Ivan. Playing with them made my ICT much better. Winning was a bonus. That being said, my luck was ridiculously good. Everyone played even fiercer than usual, guarding against each other and throwing out really disgusting-looking cards. I just happened to draw tiles that sealed my win. I think we're down for another round tomorrow... hopefully I'll get lucky again.

Chris helped me wax my hair today just for fun. It looked bloody good. I couldn't bear to take a shower of it without taking a photo. I think I need to get a few tips from our resident hairstylist!

Ahhh... I could go on and on. All strenuous physical activities are cancelled which is why tomorrow will be less scary then expected. It's the last day and I can't wait.

I realise though, that I've got to stop letting things get in the way of living my life be it army or exams. Sometimes, I've got to look further.

I Don't Wanna Hear, I Don't Wanna Know

I'm appalled.

It seems that after one and a half years, nothing much has changed.

The utter lack of efficiency makes me want to tear my hair out. The worst thing is that I can only complain because there is nothing I can do about it.

Endure.

KNNCCHEEBYE!

Oh, but Sex was fucking fantastic though, and that more than made up for the day.

Confessions of the Unwilling

I don't want to go ICT tomorrow.

I don't want to go.

I really don't want to go.

I don't want to wake up at 6AM.

I don't want to eat camp food.

I don't want to cut my hair.

Don't force me.

Argh!

Why?

Goofy the Joker

20 Nov 2007 - The day I had my History exam, which was stated explicityly on my blog.

I received an SMS from Guo Fei at 14:23.

GF: Wanna meet for dinner at 5? I treat you anything.

So I was thinking, "Woah, is the man in some kind of trouble? Does he really miss me that much? Why is he so determined to meet me that he'd even offer to treat me dinner?" It's not that GF's not generous, but it was quite out of the blue. It didn't even strike me as weird that he wanted to have dinner so early. So I replied in a nice and slightly apologetic tone. Slightly.

JKYH: Bro i exam at 5 finish at 730!

A few moments later...

GF: Dont want then dont want lo ! Haha good luck ! You think i purposely choose that time to treat you for wad :) see ya soon!

I was stunned. And then I felt dumb for being tricked. I smiled... because it's great to know that someone would take the time to send a funny SMS, disturb me, and wish me luck for the exams.

JKYH: !!! Damn! Don't care lo Wah purposely disturb me lo. You die already... Haha... Owe me a treat! Thanks!

Guo Fei's 22nd

Happy 22nd Birthday Guo Fei!



Just the Saturday before he came over to my place and celebrated my birthday with me. The very shuai GF says that this is one of the few red shirts that he has and I should be honoured that he followed the theme! Haha... alright, so I'm delighted that he did, but I think almost everyone looks cheery and good in red. It's a great colour! Anyway, today, Ivan, Samuel and I celebrated GF's birthday at a steamboat place at Bugis!

The food was moderately good, but on the rather expensive side. Anyway, it took quite some time for Sam and I to sneak out to buy the cake from Bread Talk and then getting the staff to put it in the fridge. We almost ran out of stuff to talk about, and we were bloody full from all the food we stuffed into our stomachs, so I went to get the cake.



It's quite a unique, tall cake!



And me with the Hall 11 Hall King! Woah! Haha... I look terribly tired. I think I need more sleep. Anyway all of us are planning on going on an overseas trip at the end of this year. It'd probably be some beach resort or some big city in Malaysia. We had some trouble making up our minds, but I think we're pretty committed to the idea of going overseas together.



And here's Ivan and Samuel! I've got a video of Sam with a variety of crazy poses but I think he'd kill me if I posted it on the internet. It's hilarious though and I could probably give you a peep if you asked politely enough! We had a great time catching up with each other. In fact, I talked to GF for almost 5 hours in total. We left school at 630 and reached back at about 1130! It's ridiculous how much we've got to talk about.

I think I overdid it with my rant about wanting to SU Maths 111.

Anyway we took quite a lot of group photos.



All of them came out ridiculous and funny... It's great seeing these guys again. We were the original mahjong gang. The last time we played together at Ivan's house was more than a year ago though! I missed the times where we'd talk nonsense and play mahjong games that felt like it would go on forever! I'm sure we'll have a chance to do it in the near future, probably after the exams! Haha...

Finally, I know some people think that the quality of my entries are dropping. I don't know how I'm blogging differently from what I've done in the past but rest assured that after this month of partying, I'll have less frivolous stuff to talk about!

Now Watch Us

It is true that in addition to writing for myself, I write for an audience. If you don't, you're not right mentality of thinking from your reader's point of view and thus not only will you not capture the attention of people who come to your blog, I see it as utter disrespect.

So I know you want to see your face on my blog!



Hahaha... Samuel, Guo Fei, YC and I met up on Thursday night at Holland V. I think it's the first time that I've set foot in that area. We went for a bit of food at the hawker centre (the fruit juice costs $3. Seriously.) before heading to Coffee Bean for drinks! Sam noted that we had rather weird social habits - instead of fighting to foot the bill, we fought to get one person to pay for Coffee Bean. And somehow after compiling a list of relevant points to support our argument, we got YC, who came back from his 6+ months Eurotrip to treat us! Well, Sam and I shared a cup of Iced Mocha although we probably should've gotten one each but vanity got the best of us.

We talked about a lot of crap, about school, about work, about girls. YC had a little bit more to share on his trip around Europe. In fact he even brought along a map for effective presentation! Haha... It's really a dream to go to Europe but it wasn't all smooth-riding for him. He lived on expired bread for first few days before he found a job. The expenses for putting a roof over his head and travelling really put a strain on his wallet. However it got better after that - he got himself a good job, a sponsored trip to Spain to learn Spanish for a month (we asked for "Let's make love." in Spanish!). We also learned that our "V" for victory sign (the one you make with your index and middle finger) is a rude hand gesture, which he found out when a customer jokingly responded by giving him the middle finger.

After even more crap about my pageant, about Sam's dodgeball, and Guo Fei's highly intelligent cold jokes which I sorely missed, we all hopped into his car and he sent the other guys back home before we went to his hall to take a look at his pageant photos and Hall 11's version of DnD. I felt that their stage was smaller and was thus a more intimate setting. The one big difference was that they didn't have to get shirtless for the beachwear segment (while Hall 8, I've just realised, got to wore NUM singlets and took them off during the segment). The girls all looked rather similar due to their hairstyles and makeup on that night. Judging from the photos alone, I think F4 is the prettiest.

Shallow shallow shallow.

I need to go hunt down professional photos of my DnD!



Yes I'm deprived. Kenneth returned from his jamming session and I chatted a bit with him as well. He's the guy who spammed my tagboard! Haha...

I slept a mere 2-3 hours that night as I returned to hall and had a long heart-to-heart talk. The next day I was barely conscious as I went for breakfast with Daniel and Joyce! After that I went for tuition and returned home to stone for awhile . I wanted to sleep very badly but I don't know why I became preoccupied with surfing the net! Out of the blue Zhenhui called me for lunch and I agreed immediately. We took his car to Ikea at Tampines where we had Poached Salmon and Chicken (can't remember the name of the dish!). It's impossible to step into Ikea and not get anything. The bad thing is I sort of lost self-control and bought an item that costs twice of my expenses on my previous trip to Ikea!



At night Si Hua and I went down to East Coast to celebrate Nana's birthday! It was a surprise birthday thing that her boyfriend organised and it included her family and a couple of close friends. I enjoyed the food tremendously as well as the cool embrace of the sea breeze that relaxed me a lot. For the first time in a long time I wasn't rushing to anywhere, doing anything, or deep in thought. It was also cool to talk to her chatty 6 year old nephew who went on about the things that a 6 year old revolves around - school, toys, games and TV. Haha... innocence is priceless.

I hope she enjoyed herslef because we certainly did! Si Hua's boyfriend came and the three of us took a cab back home.

This has been a freaking long entry.

Good Advice

L, you da man! Can rap, rhyme and give advice at the same time!

maybe he is taking it too seriously
or maybe he is shy
or maybe he is C in disguise
wadever the case why be bothered by him

Point noted. Thanks!

LMFAO

Remember when you made the claim that, "When we go to the wrong place we'd always find someone to blame?" Then when I asked you how often it happened, you said that it happened plenty of times. Of course, being the fair person that I am, and willing to hear you out, I asked when was the last time (or any other time) that you, or anyone got blamed.

You didn't have an answer.

Let's do this again.

Which part of the trip did I get the schedule wrong, and what "half-truths" have I written on my blog?

I was about to type something more mean, but well, you won't want to see the FACTS that I can name from your stunts in army.

Lots of love,
Jason

The Brightside

The number of people who turned up was less than we expected
But it was enough.
The topics that we had to talk about were the same as always
But the content was endless.
The freshmen camps are a month away
But our enthusiasm for them were already alight.
The frisbee got stuck atop a tall tent
But we managed to get it down.
The lack of a volleyball made us felt like the odd-ones-out
But Sern Hong went to 7-11 to help us buy one.
The volleyball games weren't perfect
But the company was.
The sun was roasting us cruelly
But I got a good tan in return.
The sand was so hot that I was jumping around like an ant on a hot wok
But it gave my mind the release it needed from daily mundane tasks.
The warm, salty sea-water wasn't the least inviting
But there was a couple was making out in it.
The hunger was driving us crazy
But Carls' Junior was worth the wait.

















More often than not, I feel lonely in a crowd
But with you guys, it feels like family.

Read My Mind

Last night I was still reeling from the fantastic conversation I had with Guo Fei while he drove me home. I don't know what triggered the verbal vomit from me, because I usually need a good dose of alcohol to become this chatty, but I guess a good combination of long-time friendship and the right topics just got me into a chatty mood. I've been thinking about a lot of things lately and it felt really good to share it with someone who understands.

It was quite an armified outing yesterday as Samuel, Guo Fei and I met up for dinner at the Asian Kitchen at Vivocity. It's a rare occassion that I actually paid for the meal, because I owe Samuel one for introducing me the job that I'm doing and GF just because he's there. =P The real reason just won't look right in words so I won't bother. Guo Fei was late and so Samuel let me read one of his essays which I must admit was pretty impressive, but not unexpected of him. He got an A- for it (which he says he's going to find the lecturer/tutor to find out what he lacked because it sounds weird to be the-student-who-got-A-MINUS for English!). I felt the essay really showcased a different side of him that I was pretty impressed by. But because he's usually such a joker, I couldn't help but burst out laughing while reading it. It was impressive though, so a big thumbs up for him. Seems that he's doing really well at SIM.

Anyway, the food there was really good and we had a good time swapping stories about our lives, which are turning out to be really, really interesting. Haha! We then settled for coffee at Pacific Coffee, talked some more and happened to see our ex-OC, Mr Tong YC. He shook hands with us and we discuessed running, his job, and marathons before he went off to meet his friends! We also made arrangements for next Saturday's Sentosa outing by SMS-ing a few people, called up Kenneth to scold him for being MIA and surprise Max with GF's "unknown number"! We then headed to this restaurant where Jian Hui (my BMT-platoonmate-turned-39-sce-company-mate) was working at and coincidentally, Tong was there having his meal!

It was a surprisingly short trip from Harbourfront to Samuel's place, while the same could not be said for the trip to Woodlands! Along the way we covered topics like friendship, the feeling of entering Uni in a month, a motivational film he watched (and I brought up Britney, but I can't be arsed to explain why) and of course, driving. After the entire conversation I felt enlightened, inspired and challenged. (See Samuel, it's a technique to use '3'. I know because I always do. How's this compared to your 'distraught, devastated and utterly depressed'? =P )

Stayover

Yesterday Terence, Daniel and Sern Hong came over to my place to do a bit of planning for our Taiwan trip, which will start on the 9th of July all the way to the 14th. My mom was a tad nervous because it's not very often that we have guests in the house and after hearing about the teppanyaki meal at Terence's place and steamboat at Daniel's, she felt that she had to step up her game.



And so she made this rather expensive porridge, which really wasn't what I had in mind. But I didn't have the chance to do much for dinner as I had two lessons of tuition before rushing back home to join them for dinner. Our main purpose for meeting up was to settle the accomadation for our trip. After going through the many hotels that were available, we chose Neijiang Hotel, which was recommended by Wee Hong, who was there barely a week ago! We made a call to check the price and then a really weird thing happened. Daniel was repeating what the receptionist told him about the hotel, "Ximending, Hong Lou..." when the exact words came out of the mouth of the MTV VJ on TV! We were stunned and then ended up laughing like mad.



After a bit more contemplation, a lot of food (I made that with my sis!), and entertainment in the form of a variety show hosted by Jacky Wu, Daniel gave a call to the hotel to book the rooms. His proficiency in the language made him the natural choice to make the phone call!



After the important stuff were done, we spent the time flipping through brochures and going online to check out the attractions that Taipei had to offer. If anyone has any recommendations, I'd like to hear them! We decided to meet up again to settle the itinery. They managed to sleep in my bedroom as my brother went to sleep in my mother's room and my other brother didn't come home till much later!

Can't wait to go overseas again! And a big thanks to Wee Hong for giving us all that information, without which we would've been at a lost as to what to do!