Sunday, January 30, 2011
The prawn will "huhu" :)
The time has finally arrived. My age did ot onli jumped by 1 this year, it now starts with a 2! OLD MAN! HAHA! No la, I'm still young, age dosen't really matter to me. Its just a number. The onli important thing about birthdays is its just another excuse to have the company of my friends yay!
Ok firstly, my birthday falls on friday. Which conversely means I will be in camp when it happens, so kinda sad actually, but what to do, its army ma. Worst still, got prep work to d...till like super duper late sia. By the time I went back to bunk it was 1am? Imba sad rite. But we the CCIS are the bomb! They actually surprised me with a cake :) To some it might not mean much, but considering I'm still relatively new to the unit, its kinda sweet and nice. Though it was very understandable we were all super busy. Surprise, sing song, cut cake, then boom all one hand hold cake another hand do work liao HAHA! Imba~
Next is my family :). The week before they already cut cake for me liao cos I was expecting to bookout late on friday ma. Then sat we went to serangoon gardens country club to eat at the yum cha restaurant there. It was so expensive! 6 of us eat, came up to around $200 sia. But then my mum was like "Your birthday ma". So thanks alot :)
Lastly, GOF. I mut say they went through quite an elaborate plan jus to surprise me sia. Of it involving Sushan wasting 1 hour to pei me walk around vivo, before we proceed to Zhiyong's house for "mahjong". Then open door "Surprise!". XD In the end got alot of people there sia. We celebrated Joseph's bday also! And there was pre-cny steamboat dinner! Last time GOF did a steamboat was at Sushan's house last year, nice to have it again this year :). Then after dinner was Yu Sheng. Then a short photog session before we all disbanded. Awesome post-bday celebration by GOF! Thks guys!
That kinda concludes my bday celebration for this year. So heart-warmingly nice :)
Revealed on [3:28 AM]
Saturday, January 22, 2011
I could spend the time thinking of you...
After entering NS, time never seemed to pass so differently than before. I wake up, looking forward to the end of the day, always counting down to the number of days till friday. Then whenever I bookout, I wish for the time to slow down, jus so that I could spend more time of my own. Its because of the awesomeness of the my days out that I can't stop thinking about it in camp.
An hour could be used in various ways. I can use it to walk around camp, hiding from the officers to avoid being arrowed. Then there are my friends who spend the same hour in lectures, accomplishing at least something intellectual and beneficial. Or comparing with the weekends, the 1 hour could be a simple lunch spent in the company of friends. Take nights out for example. Some people could be outside catching up with their girlfriends, others drinking at the chevrons, or like me in bunk enjoying a quiet admin time to recharge.
The same 1 hour, same amount of time, yet how we utilise it allows us to attain different levels of accomplishment, or should I say happiness. There are times when we can't help control how we use the time, but other than that, we can try our best to make the full use of it. Or at least that's how I've been doing things since I entered army. Every minute out of camp is precious, none to be wasted. That's why no matter how short the time to meet GOF is, I will still try my best to be there.
Another way of putting it. Whenever a crush happens, its always kept quiet. Not many people have the courage say it out loud, hence the wait for who knows when. Then because you have the mentality that she/he is your crush, your mind automatically creates this barrier between you 2. You are afraid that anything extra you do will suddenly reveal the secret. Therefore, you shy away. As time goes by, the distance will just gradually increase. That means a couple of years wasted jus like tat. But, if you were able to put it aside, and to treat the special one as just another friend, things might be different. You wouldn't feel the paranoia, nor the stress. You'll jus enjoy the presence, the company.
Though in the end, I know that its easier said than done, as always. Still, time's not to be wasted. Every bit of meeting time, short conversation or even to jus sms each other. But this can't be one-sided to work.
...or holding your hands.
Revealed on [9:55 PM]
Friday, January 21, 2011
The loneliness of the days when we couldn't meet,
proved the perfection of the times when we were together.
The way things seem to us,
is what makes the same feeling,
feel so different.
Sometimes I wonder,
I persist,
and I always wait.
Yet my reaction to you,
is it acceptance of who you are,
or am I losing hope.
I wasn't asked by anyone,
but had the choice to choose,
yet neither courage lies in me.
Like the pain in my shoulders,
I wish for this to heal,
but I don't know what's it like before.
or after...
Revealed on [7:02 PM]
Saturday, January 15, 2011
I tone my body not for others to see, but to look nice in clothes.
As the title suggest, this is gonna be a post about me (wait duh...isn't that what this blog is about...pft). Now's about the start of 2011, which means I've been a 8 month soldier, of which its all been in Training Institutes so far, less the few days in actual unit this year. So I was thinking I should do a self-reflection post, to see how I've change to mark this phase of my NS journey.
So I took some time before sleeping to rack my brain to come up with a list, as well as ask some of my close friends, cross reference the points and viola, presenting to you the expressed traits of Dalvin ever since he entered NS.
1) Negativity : This is most probably the trait with the highest rate of occurence, sad to say so. Let's just put this bluntly then. I whine alot. Yes W-H-I-N-E, and I do it alot. And it applies to alot of stuff, like going outfield la, getting guard duties and such. During the start of my NS I whined alot alot alot, mostly thru sms to my poor friends who have to endure it constantly. I did mentally prep myself to enter NS and all, but I never said I will not complain about it along the way. I guess its that extra bit of negativity that spills over from the already sianess of NS. And with no avenue of escaping these extra "benefits", whining is the onli source of relief I guess.
And extrapolation from this point. I've also become increasingly comparative. In the sense that I will compare what I do, with what my other friends are doing. So to say, when I go outfield and my friend's happily in camp, I will complain again. Its like no matter what I do, I will compare with others. I.E to say, I am not the slackest amongst GOF's guys' postings. Though recently I am trying to change, and have am taking into heart that my posting is already of the lucky few already(up till now) so yup, noted. Will try to complain less...or lesser at least.
You know what, since I started with a negative trait, I shall continue on, and after negative will be positive then. So besides Negativity being the top visible trait, the rest at the bottom are not in order of merit, or demerit per say.
2) Materialistic : This is also a sum of quite afew little bits and pieces of me that I've realised I've picked up since NS. If you've been following my blog you would have heard this before, more than just a couple of times actually, I'm becoming more vain. I'm putting this characteristic here because being vain, in turn means a change in wardrobe. Rather than the over-sized graphic T-shirts I use to favour, now I'm hunting Shirts that have a proper suiting cut for me, which means body hugging to a certain extent. I'm also doing my PT regime for the same reason. Jus like the quote for this post, which is from a certain rather famous idol, its just means I'm caring more bout how people look at me, which is measured in terms of outward appearance. I know this is not healthy, but I can't help it (I am in the stage of life where I want a gf...muahaha!). Though up till now I hvnt been splurging on clothes, jus conveniently using CNY to add things I want into my wardrobe hehe.
Under this point too, I'm becoming materialistic in the sense of how I measure my happiness as well. For example GOF outings. 7 days a weeks, of which 5 days are spent in camp. I desperately desire that one day of social interaction, no matter how minimal it could be, ranging from major imba outings like GOF Formal to jus lunch, I need it. I find that it will generally determine my mood, for I always look forward to saturdays, starting from sunday nite. Its the seeing of their faces and getting to sit down n laugh together that reminds me that there is actually life for me outside of camp. This applies for sms as well. I do sms ppl in the day, but normally the bulk of it comes at nite. Its during the admin time that i can lie down on my bed and jus keep smsing ppl, to help relieve me out of army context for awhile. So sometimes when my friends are busy I got no one else to talk to, it kinda dosen't bring a smile to my face.
So how am I going to change this. Hmm I dun foresee myself splurging on anymore clothes anytime soon so tat's fine. As for the measure of happiness part, I'm trying to see the little bits of life that reminds me to be happy, like time in bunk, nites out or to find back the true joy of listening to music. Though these will take awhile, but I'll try!
3) Elitist : Yes sad to say, I am also a sufferer of the "I am proud" syndrome now. Some might think otherwise, but to me, being a Sergeant of the SAF is something to be proud of too. Yes we are not offiially commisioned like the Officers, nor did we undergo 9 months of rigorous training, but still we did what was expected and required of us to attain the rank I so proudly don on now. Which has resulted in me developing a certain kind of elitist perception. Its like when I see men around, I get the urge to do better than them at least. Maybe its from trying to always do my best, I find myself looking down on "Chao Keng" in army. Its like they can do the task, but just because of the lack of will they don't even bother trying, and that just irks me.
Granted this could be because I'm used to the Institute mentality. Now that I'm in a unit, and I get my men, I actually find them to be not that bad. No doubt they do slack whenever they can, but they know their priorities, their responsibilities and do the things that have to be done first. Maybe its just cos I haven't gotten alot of chance to bond with them yet, but with time to come I hope this mentality will go away.
Finally, positivity!!!
4) Perseverance : I know that my body can "tahan" alot more than it use to be able. Its all in the mind, think of keep going, not stopping. I know that I can achieve what I set my mind onto, at least physical aspects in general. I have trust in the system that what is set is achievable, and the motvation that those before me have already done it. And so far, this thinking hasn't failed me yet. To date, I have taken everything that's thrown at me, and have not fallen out from anything yet. Possibly my proudest achievement still, besides from being a Sergeant. Lets hope I will be able to continue this on, and learn how to apply this not only physically but mentally as well. There are other things in life that require perseverance as well, and alots of it too.
5) Relationships : I don't know if there's a trait named for this, but I am definitely more family and friend oriented now that I've entered army. Needless to say, it extends from being coopd up in camp majority of the week, cut from all outside ties. Like the saying goes "Absence makes the heart fonder". You don't chreish something until you've lost it. So out of my weekends, its now seperated half for gof, the other half for family. I make it a point to have a gof every, as long as most people are free, even if its just for a chat. Huge events like GOF Formal are just extraordinary events that add to the awesomeness. Sometimes, I'm amazed we aren't bored of each other haha! Ok back to the point, now I place more emphasise to ensure time to spent with both groups of people. In the past, it could be said that I do take things for granted, like daily family dinner. But now, going back home on fridays on dinner is just :).
This is something I'm certainly going to keep up and not let it die down.
Wow this was a long post. That's all points I've managed to compose up to so far. Nothing else is like a strking trait that haven't been mentioned. Unless you've noticed something that has changed in me that I failed to notice then please do throw in opinion, then I can add into this post futher. But for now, these are the good and the bad that have either been inculcated or developed in me, so the good I will keep and improve on it, the bad I will try my best to change.
Revealed on [5:46 AM]
Sunday, January 9, 2011
You can't say that I didn't try, for I already did.
I can only hope that you in turn didn't do it on purpose...
Revealed on [4:52 AM]
Saturday, January 8, 2011
The ship came into the harbour, a ship carrying GOF :)
Why do I get the feeling that we are getting sportier, first was cycling at Pulau ubin then now trekking at Mt faber. Oh wells nothing to complain about anyway :). The day started bright and early, or supposedly bright and early. Plan was to meet at Harbourfront mrt at 9am, but GOF was never a bunch of early risers, or rather some of us. So by the time everyone arrived, it was around 10am (and sushan wasn't the last again, wow!).
Armed with 2 DSLRs and 2 semi-pros, oh and not forgetting ryan's tripod, we began our hike. Not much to say bout the hike. It was just walking, taking photos and laughing along the way. Some quirky photos here and there, P.Exes, running away from butterflies and spiders. Then it rained :(. At least we informed ppl to bring umbrellas, which resulted in 8 ppl sharing 3 umbrellas HAHA! Lucily it didn't rain for long, and wasn't too heavy. Due to time limit we couldn't really walk futher than Henderson waves, so we missed the treetop walk part, which I felt was a pity.
Bussed back to Seah Im Food Centre, had lunch. And of the delicacies were chicken rice, beef noodles, hokkien mee, mee goreng, nasi lemak and then Mich's very sad porridge with veges...and pork liver as meat. So sad la! Everyone see liao shake head sia...even Sushan. By then was around 2pm, so we sent ryan off at mrt, and went to vivo skypark to chill. Found a nice cozy shaded place to sit, plonked ourselves there and started doing nonsense. Played "When the ship came into the harbour...", of which the punishment was either to be hit on the hand or on the forehead. Apparently sushan has the worst pain threshold, of which we got t witness quite afew times cos SIMPLE topics like "Chinese songs" she also can't answer...phail!
Wendy had to leave, so we had a group photo taken, before rest of us headed for Gong Cha. Walked around with vivo, and walked past carnivore, where we said we shall all save up for a GOF carnivore outing...as therapy session for the vege obsessed Mich haha! I also dunne why, but somehow we ended up in Toys R Us...think about it a bunch of 19 year olds there. So the gals throughly enjoyed themselves in there, like seriously. They were like kids. Running around with foam swords, playing hula hoops, cute stuff toys and animal caps. I also dunnoe why they so high. But as the photographer, I had to keep my sanity and snap the photos HAHA. I tink Sushan was high...on Gong Cha.
Oh well, in the end, it was all talk :).
Revealed on [5:28 PM]
Monday, January 3, 2011
Finally the day has come.
After much talk, brainstorming as well as waiting, Gof formal actually came true! And the idea was even greater than expected initially discussed. An idea to recreate our JC2 prom experience even though we are out of school now, meaning we all dress up and go to some atas place to dine, and then it got expanded to include a sleepover as well, what could go wrong, or should I say get better than this.
At first there was difficulty in deciding the location. Yes we want an atas atmosphere, but we dun want to burn a huge hole in our wallets too. We considered like Earle's swensens, hotel buffets, a few other restaurants here and there. In the end, we chose TCC. Then came the house for sleepover. We've been to Ryan's house alot, so we din want to trouble him again, and tried Ter's house. But no can do, so in the end its Ryan's house again.
Considering the grandeour of the event, there was a need to recce the place first. So on Friday, which is New Year's Eve, I met up with Sushan and we went to check out the TCC at Keppel Bay first. Reached harbourfront and we nav-ex our way to keppel bay, with the help of a bus haha! It was just a short walk from the bus-stop, and the view was awesome! We went to check out the TCC which was at level 2, didn't enter jus stood outside and checked it out. Armed with our cameras, we went to take in the picturesque view of the locality. Nice fluffy clouds, yachtes by the side and the somewhat of a sea-view. We were kinda set on the place actually, but seeing as there was time we decided why not give the TCC@Clarke Quay a try. So a short lunch, which included Gong Cha (wat to do got Sushan with me ma), we mrt down to clarke quay. Like tourists we used whatever help the map could provide and huned our way there, of which luckily we din get lost :) (thks to my instinct HAHA!). The TCC decor was nice, but the outside too commercial, unlike the serenity of Keppel Bay, so nope. Just as we were bout to leave, it rained! So we ran over to liang court to seek shelter, using onli a cup of tea from macs as excuse haha! Ok this paragraph is dedicated to us the advance party ppl, and its so long already but I hvnt even started on the actual event yet omg.
Taken over there. My current wallpaper. Nice rite!
010111, first day of the new year. Original plan, meet at 5pm at marymount mrt, drop barang barang at Ryan's house, proceed to Vivo for photo-taking. But one can't predict the weather. It rained! So photo-taking was cancelled, pushed back meeting time to 6pm. In the end, we reached Ryan's house at about 6.30pm, which also meant that we (Sushan, Sharon, Ter and me) were late to meet the rest (Wendy, JiaYen and Zhiyong) at vivo. And before a certain someone complains again, it is NOT Sushan's fault we were late HAHA. In the end waited for Ryan, who was shortly after us, and we walked to the place. Lucky the gals were pre-informed not wear heels, cept JiaYen who was gungho. We met our reservation timing still, somehow. Hurray for emergency planning. We ordered an array of atas looking food, you know those kind where the food looks too nice to be eaten kind, and coffee! I ordered the lasagne (or Langsana as another certain someone would say) since not many places have non-beef lasagne. And it was good, luv the cheesiness of it. My drink was Choc cookie Frappe, which was very Gao, must eat with a spoon haha! But I like. So taste buds satisfied, hogged the very narrow entrance for awhile for photo-taking and we went to stroll by the place. Lots of photo-taking, camwhoring and such. Afterall its not everyday we get to see each other dress up so nicely.
TCC 
See all the Shuai Ge and Mei Nu :) 
Nice photo! Only too bad Sushan wasn't inside.
Literally Boys Over Flower sia HAHA.
Leisurely strolled back to vivo to catch the last train back. Camwhored at Marymount somemore, with Ryan taking very album-ish photos of the kantang meisters, and some very cool looking photos of gof, too bad we couldn't have everyone in it cos there was no tripod. Wasted. Walked back to Ryan's house, on the way getting ........................... youtiao. By the time we reached his house it was around 1am? So everybody lepak, wash up and look at photos it was bout late 2am before we all gathered in his room.
Normally, a normal GOF sleepover would be a talking session, but nooo, someone decided to play Truth or Dare. I can only say that was the most Epic, Awesome ad Disgusting game of Truth or Dare I've ever played before. Seriously I didn't we had it in us HAHA! For the sake of my reader's sanity as well as to adhere to the nite's rule of no photography is allowed, nothing shall be revealed further bout the Truth or Dare. It was too awesome to be described by meer words anyway. Oh and as a side-note, camo cream helped to keep the girls stay awake throughout the nite at least. After 6 solid hours of "fun", we finally decided to regain our sanity and go down for breakfast, before we packed up and left. Too shagged ut by staying awake the whole night to do anything else liao. Should have seen the look on everyone's faces hehe.
That was how I spent the first nite of 2011, with GOF. What an awesome way to start the new year!
I don't dare to say I love you,
but I can say I love GOF.
Revealed on [2:17 AM]