what a year.

it has been a very exciting and happening year with lots of ups and downs for me along the way. but i had picked myself up, set my mind straight on what i actually wanted, and i shall work towards my goal.


first up is otc. the first and longest project i've taken and embarked in 2008. it is a mixture of new and old faces with many of the instructors coming from otc06, either as trainees or instructors. each of us have different motives in becoming instructors for otc08, but most of us have mixed well, and had lots of fun together as we went through long meetings, followed by long dinners accompanied with bitching sessions.

i would also like to thank the people who had inspired me during otc, some of them trainees and some of them fellow committee members. thanks for all the advice. (:

juliet08 has typically felt like a juliet06, in the sense that we are neither very bonded nor very apart from each other. we are just in between, be bonded when needed to be. the different standards in the trainees were more obvious to me when i was a trainee myself, which made me reflect about the training standards hq has set, and i eventually realised how powerless we are to change things that have laid stagnant for so long. but to stay long enough to change remains another question. i can't even decide whether to go for otc09 again. (jy has advised me not to go though)


the next longest project i've taken is ndp. it's probably the most no-brainer project to do, in the sense that we just need to ensure we have sufficient cadets to do the marching and that they are fit enough to do so. it's also the project that i've looked forward to since ndp03. it was then when i had started thinking about going for otc.

it was very fun with funny kids from both zone 3 and 4, and i had fun with the officers, and the army boys! it was a reunion of some sorts when i met joshua again. and i got very excited with the old chang kee and mr bean! (:

ncoc. the last project of 2008. like i've said in earlier entries, there had been too many things and too many emotions had been involved. nonetheless it had been quite enriching, as i became more aware of the things happening around me.

oh and the snco farewell cum new recruit welcome ceremony that i've chaired this year. abit distrastrous but i've pulled through. (:

then work. actually i'm quite sick that i've stayed in the same bank for a total of like 7 months! goodness. the short stint this nov-dec was simply because i needed the flexibility to go for my sjab commitments. and almost whenever i go down to export i would be asked if i wanna work there. i mean, i've said i would never work there again, and i would definitely mean it. i don't mind going back to compliance because it's more flexible and i would not see all the ugly office politics.

asjab. i've finally set my mind to go back this year and went for the two camps to observe both the ncos and cadets. lots of destruction have happened, and lots of construction work need to be done. 2009 will be a year where i would not have as much help as i had this year, but we shall see how.



travelling has always been a dream and love of mine, and i'm so exhilarated that i've flown twice this year, with one of the destinations a country that i've always wanted to go!

england is a very beautiful place. london may be full of hustle and bustle, but you can always find serenity in places like Hyde Park (when it's deserted. LOL) and i loved walking around under the spring sun because the weather is both cool and sunny. may is definitely the best time to visit London.

i was mesmerized with Edinburgh, with the perfect blend of the Old and New Town. while being modern, it has preserved its ancient root, making it one of its kind in Europe. Scotland is definitely a place i would go back and explore again.



Taipei! going with parents might not have been a good thing, but well, i've explored some of the places that i've wanted to go, and there's always time to go back and explore the entire Taiwan again. (:

met up with 6AA'01 after so long, and we are planning the third one already! it was really great meeting them again, and lots of memories just came back. (:

we are like finally reunited after so long! stupid weekeong for MIA-ing! can't wait for the mahjong session at celine's house on thursday! (:

HPY. a group that was formed on christmas day. we had lots of fun in the past few days, and may we have lots of more fun in the future!

i think i had told some people that 2008 is definitely a year i would always remember in my life. too many happy and sad things had happened in this short span of 366 days, but they are all memorable nonetheless. it was part of the reason why i've loved S Club 7's Perfect Christmas so much:

A perfect ending to a wonderful year

it has been a wonderful 2008 to me, and i hope that it had been a wonderful one to you too! thanks to all those who had been around with me, giving me advices and strength to carry on. i may have crapped alot to my groups to this year, but i hope that they had made some sort of sense! and sorry to the people whom i've disappointed this year.

2009 will be a better year!

8:24 PM

i was out with the HPYs (Hao Peng You, aka Hwee Peng Yo) for a couple of times in a short span of days. went over to hp's house to have christmas exchange cum dinner and then zone picnic at ecp (followed by mahjong at eileen's house) yesterday. it was a mixture of hitler and some of us, so it's full of familiar faces. in fact, waicheung is the only new addition to our old group hitler and friends. somehow ncoc just have the attraction to bring different people together. you should have seen the comments and tagging photos havoc we've created in facebook in the past few days. from mimosa to gorilla/chimpanzee to teekee and stuff. we have even planned countdown gathering!

on friday went back to btmu for a half day work before going back to anderson to see the comp training cuz yy said she's not going and that ros will be alone. but there's huishan zhixin tinghui, so i just observed and had some chat and fun with ros and e sec2 comp team. then me and ros went to fairprice xtra to find food for the zone picnic. after that and settling other stuff i went back home to change and then go over to vijay's house for asc steamboat cum xmas exchange gathering.

met old faces and had fun eating steamboat. it was like tok panjang la! haha. me qijia zhiyan soon.weiting chionged 2 eps of little nyonya on mio tv. :D got the body shop cranberry body polish from jiawei. hee. photos wise hafta wait for vijay to upload!

then today went to watch Twilight with elaine. we wasted 20bucks because i've bought tickets while elaine has informed me earlier that she's buying. =x



it wasn't as fantastic as i thought it would be, given the hype and popularity and the hoo-ha over the male lead, Robert Pattinson (as Edward Cullen). but well, i was told beforehand by people that he wasn't as goodlooking as Stephanie Meyer (e author) has made him to be in the novels, and critics have written that his acting skills are sub-par. deliang commented that he (robert) looked like he was on drugs when he saw the picture of robert and Kristen Stewart (as Isabella Swan) in the Life! feature on a particular day. unlike other teen movies, the role of edward would need some acting skills to depict his thirst for bella while trying to be protective of her. he was quite stiff in the scenes where he hafta act repelled by bella when they first met. not to mention kristen stewart looked so different from the movie posters to the movies. she looked like emma watson (in my opinion) in e posters lo, and her hair is darker in the movie.

anyway, i guess i'll still look forward to the next few movies in the twilight series. there was something in the movie that has struck me, and i can't quite put a finger into it. maybe i shld read the books to find that feeling. if you have the books, tell me!

i was quite amazed that christmas had just came and left, and it's 3 more days to the end of 2008. so many things had happened, so many feelings had came and left in my heart, so many people had came and left in my life.

Have I found you?
Flightless bird, grounded, bleeding
Or lost you?
American mouth
Big bill, stuck going down

8:45 PM

Hello friend, it's me again
I just called to tell you
Even though I miss you so
I've been thinking of you
All my dreams are coming true, at last

The perfect ending to a wonderful year
Will be to celebrate the good times with you here
Cuz I know, for sure
I never wanted anything more

The greatest gift that there could be
Wrapped underneath my Christmas tree
Would be the same my whole life through
I'd spend the perfect Christmas with you
Though the winter seems so long
My faith in love has kept me strong
So if I had a wish come true
I'd spend the perfect Christmas with you

I can't wait, till the day
When I finally see you
So hold on, I won't be long
Got so much to show you
All our dreams are coming true, at last

The perfect ending to a wonderful year
Would be to celebrate the good times with you here
Cuz I know, for sure
I never wanted anything more

The greatest gift that there could be
Wrapped underneath my Christmas tree
Would be the same my whole life through
I'd spend the perfect Christmas with you

So when you ask me what I mean
To me the Christmas is complete
Boy can't you see
You're the one thing missing for me

The greatest gift that there could be
Wrapped underneath my Christmas tree
Would be the same my whole life through
I'd spend the perfect Christmas with you
Though the winter seems so long
My faith in love has kept me strong
So if I had a wish come true
I'd spend the perfect Christmas...

And if I had one wish come true
I'd spend the perfect Christmas here
With you

*
it's my all-time favourite Christmas song, probably because of the part the perfect ending to a wonderful year

it has indeed been a wonderful year in my opinion, because i've been through so many things in 2008. otc, ndp, ncoc, anderson camps, zone comp, working, going overseas, etc. life wouldn't have been the same for me without those events that enriched and opened up my mind.

more of that would be saved for 31dec08 or 1jan09. (:


anyway went for asjab camp for the past few days. was not that good but considering they had made improvements from the previous camp i guess it's quite ok. but planning can be improved.

later going hp's house!! :DDD
12:29 AM

ncoc 08 has finally came to an end. there has been so many late nights chionging out the things required for the course days, so many unhappiness over things that we don't agree. and it has ended in a high note, with the pop merged with the zone inspection.

once again i'm not putting my heart entirely into my role as the instructor for Pegasus. eileen the assistant instructor probably did more work than i do (heck, i've stopped making things for my groups starting from otc). i'm probably remembered as the instructor who scolds and jokes with them and don't care alot for them.

i'm guessing it's because i've treated them like how i would treat otc trainees, which is definitely not a good thing to do. but nonetheless, it's over. so i shall just let it be. may next year be a better one.

(btw jeanette said that i was fierce back in 06 when i took roy's alpha for like a day or two. ha)

anderson. it's been ages since i've done such photos. otc06. 2 pips finally! my service medal kept dropping onto the floor because i ran around too much. and i was thinking that it's getting more cumbersome as we increase our numbers of years in sj because there's simply too many things to remember to do. now when i have to remember about the service medal when i attend formal events! (provided if i will attend) and get the service bar for field uniform.

my dearest rossie cum colour ensign of the day.

us doing a yanqiang pose. yan qiang is the beside me, and he always stand/sit very straight and stiff, so his group griffin always joke about him and we just continued from there. he whined when i made him donate his badges temporarily to joshua (first from the right) and bradley for the parade because joshua's e only one who dun have badges in the 2 AL GOH contingents. and then there's joshua who got teased about his small eyes. HA.

the following photos happened as a bunch of officers (ie me denise charmaine rosalind) sat at the tables near the boys toilet in FTP and called for those whom we want to take photos of to stop. we've even made some diam, ke belakang pusing and cepat jalan to us so that they wouldn't run away to avoid taking photos. :D

mah yi qian the queen of unglam. i have a series of her doing unglam poses during ndp.


shera whom i think is abit 闷骚 sometimes. :D
junhao e camera-shy boy. we made him diam ok. one of e mascots of ncoc08 representing alpha along with hiaphong because they are e smallest (in size). uncannily, e representatives from bravo are very chubby. isaac leong and leon tan! whom i didn't manage to take photos with.
li zheng yang the joker who loves watching taiwanese 偶像剧. moses the gayboy (called by rosalind). he's damn funny ok! the whole course knew about mimosa except for him.
bryan lum e sji sec2 comp team first man whom charmaine thinks that he looks kinda like lee wei chee. maybe it's just the smile.
tan yong siang the boy who got fascinated by rifles and thinks the swords (for the army officers) can be used to cut vegetables during ndp, and nodded earnestly each time i asked him if he's in love with wai cheung. LOL!

skipped the 6AA class gathering because my legs are simply too tired from walking too excessively and standing too long for the past few days. so i just went to plaza singapura to get my replacement sim card, and help esther pick up her movie tickets. from the photos i've seen on facebook it seems like i've missed out on a lot of fun. anyway keli said there might be another gathering coming up so i shall look forward to it.

christmas is in 4days' time!

the scottish bagpipes made me long for england again
2:36 PM

somehow life has just decided to play a big joke on me today by making me run all over the place to pick up various stuff, making me damn tired and ended up losing my phone. i just my hp pouch ytd! bloody hell. the loss of my hp pouch ytd is probably a sign or something. damn sian. now i need to gear up and run all over the place again to get my SIM card before the class gathering and picking up + passing the movie tickets to esther tomorrow. it's so gonna be a long day.

DAMN.
9:25 PM

funny thing i've felt closer and more bonded to my fellow instructors in BOTH otc and ncoc this year instead of the groups that i'm in charge of.

back in 06 i thought how nice it would be if i take an AL group instead of a BL group. i got my wish this year and i wish to reverse again. haish.

next week's so gonna be a blast with all the meetups and gatherings and parties. i have one lined up this coming saturday. it's time to PARTAYE!

be merry and dump all the troubles behind you.
11:38 PM

愿意合上眼 才能美梦无边
别让悔 熏乌了从前
也许碎片 才能让回忆展颜
何妨瓷花 拼凑明天

谁带我寻获 幸福的模
却自己 谜中困锁
谁为我留下 缱绻的天涯
信物是抹晚霞

思念如燕 它飞舞舌尖
若是真爱 配尝几分苦甜
意念婆娑 时间里推磨
追随到何处 才结果

燕如针线 在青空缝编
几幅女红 将以泪缀点
誓言斑驳 情雾只是经过
风雨中 且让我 盈步 婀娜

(小娘惹主题曲, Olivia Ong 演唱)

*
很喜欢这首歌. 很喜欢开头的弦乐, 很喜欢Olivia Ong的声音, 那么温柔的讲述着一段刻骨铭心的故事. 很温柔, 但也令听的人感到莫名的心痛和有掉泪的冲动. 是要让我们替主角们充满波折和遗憾的人生哀悼吧.

原本以为会不看 小娘惹 的. 毕竟处于保守时代的故事不外乎就是主角 (山本月娘)在经历过多番波折后才能修成正果, 把恨化成爱去拯救她的家人, 让从前很讨厌她的人都对她忏悔道歉. 然后在过程中就是观众一直对着电视机骂那群人.

我不想看的原因就是如此, 因为知道了剧情大概会怎样发展所以就没啥兴趣.

但是有一点我不明白的就是, 月娘到底最后跟谁在一起呢? (要不然她怎么会有孙女来说她那荡气回肠的爱情和身世呢) 官网里写了陈锡(她爱的人)在被迫跟黄珍珠结婚后就消失了, 那月娘最后有没有遇见陈锡呢?

这就是我追看的原因啦. 总觉得在封建时代的感情总是比现代的还来得更刻骨铭心, 毕竟当时的人都是专一的. 一旦爱上了一个人, 就认定对方是终生的伴侣. 此生此世, 永不忘记.

不过同样的, 这个故事里会有很多很多的遗憾. 像是陈盛的心中永远只住着黄菊香的倩影, 忽略了身边一直守候着他的妻子(虽然很坏啦); 黄玉珠喜欢陈锡但是愿意放手成全他跟月娘, 最后却被折磨至死; 黄菊香无法跟山本洋介白头到老(但至少有在一起过).

虽然只是部戏, 但是它满足了我想看荡气回肠的爱情故事的瘾. 也再次让我明白, 圆满二字是多难才能达成的呀.
10:14 PM

looks like i can't shy away from the entry eh. :P

anyway. anderson has really changed alot for the past few years, so it's no wonder that yy got stunned. i didn't realise the sports hub was up until a few weeks ago when i was driving along test route 8. so blue! ha. and yes yy anderson was getting kinda kiddy. the toilets at the canteen had those hammock-ish kind of nets on the ceiling with those paper leaves and they got some model toilet thing. zomg mans.

i miss the trainings at the temp block where we have to coordinate our footdrill damn well, especially for belok. like a few steps after i shout ke kanan belok i would have to shout another time of ke kanan belok before we have to hentak. i was really awed when hazelina's team can always maintain at the center of the narrow road lo. and the prac cases are always in the air-con classrooms. qingliang was like quite zai at casualty simulation and gets along the vaseline/lipstick/plasticine to make those fake blood and wounds. vincent once laid on the cold floor with his top off to have some injuries on his torso. hoho. (and yes yy i call him vinnie back then)

actually qingliang didn't hiam us as much as he hiam vincent's team in the sense that he would tell more things to vincent la (i remember i was quite unhappy about that part back then. :P). like reporting hafta be signs&symptoms-diagnosis-treatment and why we never do this do that. but i was quite touched that he turned up for our trainings, esp during nat comp when he came down to hq with us for a nursing training with derek tan where he became the patient and got manoeuvered by derek tan. ha. a good trainer and one of my inspirations to continue in sjab at such an early age (other than being inspired to go for ndp again after 2003. heh)

for nursing the girls would always tell me to smile properly (somehow my smile is kinda retarded or not serene enough for nursing) and made me memorise things to say during hn. and i think i ended up with not much tasks to do, even though i wasn't the main nurse talking to the patient (i think it was lihui). i was quite unable to figure out the 3 tweezers thing for wound dressing too. ha.

from 2003 to 2005 we had comp during december, so we would always chiong five days straight up till the day of the actual comp in hq. after all, she-who-mustn't-be-named doesn't approve alot of trainings in school, so back then we always had illegal trainings. then there's the legendary YOU MAKE MY BLOOD BOIL! jokes. it was 8-6 all day, thus i was lamenting to ros one day that things have changed alot over the years. it's now 9-4 lo. and one particular team even planned 9-12 trainings. like wts ok. and now the concourse is gone, no more christmas trees that i've seen since 03. 是有感情的ok. ):

camps had seemed to be such a faraway thing to me until the recent june camp when i went back. the tekan-ing is still there, the fetish for torturous standby bed is still there (it got warped over the years) with the love for my bonnie lies over the ocean never ceasing, the campfire is still there, the nightwalk is still there (but junecamp we had actual makeup! pingkee became a joker!), the longest camp (for numerous times to torture their voice) is still there and the mass cat is still there. i was hit with nostalgia when i watched the events unfold. jingjie's group performance in 04 was by far the bestest cf performance over the years and qingliang's batch's buttered(or margarined)-toilet-paper in a wok campfire is the most memorable one. nightwalks used to be super boring because we always had a longggg waiting time before or after our turn. thus in recent years there was screening of movies. (like kungfu panda in june)

till now when i go back anderson for training or camp i would always have the 手工面 for lunch. it was the staple food for us back in those training days and sometimes topped with the 糯米饭. and the bubble tea/nuggets/fries after school when we left the sj room together. we would always nua in the sj room listening to FIR/maroon5 with weekeong (or jq?)'s mp3 plugged to the speakers. She Will Be Loved and 我要飞 are like the classics! hoho. summerjoy was our fave with aunty sandy. somehow weekeong knows her and that's where we stored our cup and board over there after lugging all the way from queenstown ikea. the mrt people at amk said that actually we cannot bring up to the train lo. so thanks to the queenstown mrt people who let us in! haha. that trip was super memorable because that's the first time we've decided to spruce up the dull sj room and have decided to get new cupboards, which disappeared after we handed over. jasmine's batch never managed to saw the messages behind!

those years have been the golden years with so many fond memories. i once read in a book that after going through so much shit and pain during a particular time, when you looked upon those times again after a long time, the memories you have left are the fond ones. even though for me there has been some shits endured over the years (like not close to the girls until sec3 and the 自卑 that i can't be better than yy), and that i'm still not that competent as compared to the others, i'm still striving hard. at the end of the day, 最重要的是要对的起自己. and eventually i have the friendships that had survived in the past few years despite us not seeing each other regularly. it's what we had been through that made us strong and kept each other in our hearts. at least that's what i believe in.

p.s. the SHE song was 半糖主义 and we had some issues over the dancing part i think. but it was memorable nonetheless.

五月天's 突然好想你 played as i typed the last few paragraphs. how apt is that!

我们那么甜那么美那么相信
那么疯那么热烈的曾经

突然好想你.

p.s.p.s yy if you want to go for camp it's 22-24dec. and the number of seniors going over might just overtake the number of cadets going (including ncos). LOL!
9:48 AM

it has been a couple of whirlwind weeks man. i nearly went to the extreme with the standard chartered marathon tomorrow. ohwell.

i have finally finished driving! so that's quite an achievement, considering some of the immediate failures-ish mistakes that i still make. but i'll rectify them by the time for my tp test in february!

then there's ncoc. i've started off at a wrong note and i'm reaping the consequences of it. i'll try to do some salvage but it's also up to the cadets themselves to make the effort. maybe i should also go through the notion of forming-storming-norming-performing with them, which i believe none of the BLs actually listened to what i've said during the lesson today. and e chao lao sji boy (who is actually 14yearsold!) actually knew about TEAM that i've read in a John C. Maxwell book. coolios. and the BL kids are really damn funny. isaac and leon should be good friends man.

then work. was feeling damn tired every morning i went to work, probably because i dun have sufficient sleep for all these weeks. and the work is well, damn mundane so bobian la. and i dun drop by export anymore. bleah. 10 more working days!

there's this strange feeling weighing in my mind, and i don't know how to describe it. ohwell. and i'm going to ask for something that i kind of dread seeing. bah.
10:33 PM

11:27 PM