hard nail

goodbye and hello is basically what happens this 3 weeks. first, it was spending time with clm over the weekend, then it was reservist for 7 days which ended early due to some hard-earned enforcing, then it was a happy sushi dinner with clm, then she has to fly to hk. then i will see her on friday to get her tatt. will so miss her.

reservist was tiring and terrible to say, siong. cos it was the battalion's 3rd ict, to be fair, usual for a young battalion like us, we were treated just like a nsf. first thing in the morning, the rsm [regiment sergeant major] said "sergeant, u need a cut". oh my god, i've seen reservistees with much much longer hair during my serivce days, 3-4 years ago. [1 even had a dong li huo che hair -_-]. and the thing is i did snip my length before i went to report! cant believe i need another cut. so ok, went for a cut, this time round, it was no longer the malay barber armed with just a shaver and thinks that he can use that to whip up the most mesmerising style, now its the "suai ge, come sit down, aiyoh so handsomeeee!" in the 30's aunties armed with more essential tools to a decent haircut. 3G [3rd generation] army u might say. and i had to pay 5 bucks for that, inflation haha. to be fair the aunties are eating more expensive rice than 4 years ago. yeah. but why my service pay is stagnant? cos SAF sucks. evidently, they sent me a letter ordering me to report for june's ict, and then shortly after, i received another letter for nov's ict. the fucking thing is, i haven even report for june's ict then and they are already sending me another ict for nov. isnt that crazy?! then after i reported into june's ict, which is last week, i got to know there will be another in next apr as well. fucking mas selemat. his escape seems to fuel the more pressing need for more active training, in case he gathers his ah neh terrorist comrades to come seek revenge on us for captivating him. cos since when did reservist is so often and crazy? haha hope i see mas selemat soon. he is the only person who can end the whole country men's misery and i will be 8,888 richer.


now the first taste of whats expected in this young battalion. i lost my facial wash on the first day haha! didnt bring my slippers for showers! ah, had to go around begging for extra slippers lol! but as expected who will bring an extra slippers?! had to buy in the end. the dramatic thing is i didnt bring enough money. had to go around begging for money wahaha. first day in pro, immediately drawing rifles and stores, bed sheets and stuff makes the whole battalion mood sink. cos its the sign of staying for long. trust me, guys will know this feeling sux. 2nd - 6th day for me include the ranges and ippt, defence training, meeting and more meetings. everyday lasts til 1-2am, with one of the days lasted til 4am. everyday slept 2-3 hours. no wonder men expectancy age is lower. the riflemen rests and play soccer after their training, we do the same, but we dun rest after that, we do safety supervision for them, meetings and meetings while they rest. sergeants. sergeants are dogs. we go s.i.s.p.e.c aka 'suffer in silence plus extra confinement.' coincidentally, sispec advocates pride. p.r.i.d.e is just = ppl rest i do extra. we train with live bullet rounds, and could lose our lives anytime. after all that we giv to the country, laid down our lives for our motherland. we see ah tiongs, ah nehs, siam kias taking our seats in lecture halls in nus ntu. not that my results are not good. but without the ah tiongs ah neh and siam kias, i'm sure i have a place. the cabinet says foreign talent, why dun they draft them into army since they are so talented and make our army much stronger? singapore in its eagerness to attract foreign talent are at the same time losing local talents. locals who feels patriotic and will fight for the country, however many are migrating to aus, cana, where life is at a slower pace. after offering them the supposely renowned ntu nus degree, which so-called foreign talent would wan to stay in singapore anyway? ERP just increased by another 5 gantries on top of the current 32 that we are having. if the foreign talented really got brains, they will know its better to just go back to china times 5 the money and become rich than stay here, where earnings and spending are already becoming way inproportionately insane. in short we are slaves the moment we are born with a dick here. does this fucking country appreciate or remember who's laying down their lives for this supposely sacred soil where our home belongs, and where our loves one are. not that we arent willing to serve our country, but in every 1 year SAF wants us to reservist how many times? 3 times? its peace-time now, not war time. not forgetting we have regular forces and national service armies. its a large enough force for peace-time defense. dun we have our own lives with work and studies? its not as if they are short short icts. 7 days, then nov 14 days, apr 8 days. how are we gonna tell our bosses? we will lose our jobs u know? how many lectures we gonna skip? who cares? military defence is important, no doubt, if not others wud already been eyeing at our 'garden city' already, but surely there is no need in peace-time, disrupt the ppl's work/studies lives in such an inappropriate manner, or at least keep it to the bare minimum interference wud be appreciated. democratic society i laughed. teo chee hean is cunning, its actually 'dictatocratic' in disguise. i should had just downgrade all the way to become a clerk than strive for anything better. darn, i should had downgrade all the way to be just like my friend who is a dentist assistant, who serve 9-5, making phone calls "sir, ur appt is now, can u pls make ur way down thank you". no reservist for these jokers, no liabilities to the country, no loss of income when u have to take no pay leave.

today the verdict is out on "zhang ming" the famous guy who smuggled a rifle with 8 live rounds to kill his gf and family, was sentenced to 9 years 2 month jail with 18 strokes of the rottan. its sad to see a fellow servicemen wallow in such misery, stray and walked down this self-destruction road. apparently his gf wanted to leave him when he is serving his ns. so he couldn't take it, and planned a massacre to kill his gf and her family and then ending his own life, which luckily didnt happen. well, sad case. sometimes, when my men and i gather and talk, i realised alot of them share very sad cases. in fact i got to know 2 of them actually almost fell into depression due to the fact they were actually sacked/replaced in their company when they came back from ict last year. and they only got to know it when they report back to work the following week. imagine u're away for 1-2 weeks, then u report back to work, suddenly to see someone new seating right at ur desk, then being called into ur boss office to tell u are not needed, here's ur 3 weeks retrenchment benefits. feel for them :/ especially 1 of them is married with kids. greatest sympathy for my guys, adrian and liang. this is clearly a society problem here, analysing the recent 10 years election results, shows that trends are slowly but surely tilting towards the other opposition parties, no longer does pap enjoys walkthrough wins. even lau goh has to come out of his mountain as a special guest to aid fight in elections, and even he lost hougang. this only shows one thing, the public is slowly but surely displeased generally and turning to other alternatives. this is dangerous, even the great zhuge liang once said "安民心者, 得天下" it advocates that, power stays with those who has the people's support. a leader without any followers is just leading himself isnt it? my guess is expect a shift in power in 20-30 years. i sound like a prophet haha. if it really happens, its important to me, and my generation, the D.E.W.K.S [double earners with kids] because, tat wud mean we will all be 55 then? and we are the ones who will go thru the transition if there really is a change in goverance. pap is good yes, SARS was handled extremely well, with utmost urgency, but, my guess is that its shortcomings in other areas, the displeasure and the way the govt has turned the country's culture into, has struck frost arrows into many individual's heart. clear-eyed individuals can see, more and more people just care for themselves, u board the bus, u know the people just cut queue, squeeze and shove u from behind in order to rush to get a seat. i mean, if u feel ur diapers are gonna drop and u wan a seat u sit lor. although my leg has a broken bone in it, i can stand no problems, but just dun brush my arm and wet my t-shirt with ur wet fishes and crabs from market. few days ago on the papers, a crippled middle-aged man fell into singapore river, he could not swim of cos, he's crippled. and he struggled, screaming for help, with the full view of the crowd that had gathered by then to watch the commotion. for 3-4 long mins for a non swimmer, no one jumped into the water to save him, nor call the police, nor even throw him a bouy, there is sure to have life bouys around water areas [NEA's safety regulations]. a few of them even took out their handphones to video the cripple drowning! i mean what's that for? to show the police evidence that u are not the one who pushed him into the river? a life's at stake, do something constructive! then finally 2 teenagers who just passed by jumped in to save him. even they commented after that they are shocked no one helped. see, garden city. beautiful. but ugly people. hyenas culture. where hyenas would sit by and enjoy seeing the lion kill a deer, then after the lion had his fill, the hyenas would go in and let off a chuckle saying : "hee, FOC wan must take. keke" maybe its not all who are like this. upbringing u would say. but the way the culture is as it is for singaporeans, surely the govt has a part to play. PM lee says we need to stay competitive in the region, if not the world in terms of education. and his aim is that every 10 person, 7 are degree holders. is that neccessary? stop the certificate society for a while pls. at least the focus should not be on our greatest strength now, but our weaknesses. u turn ur head, u would almost everytime see undergrads or grads. who doesnt have at least an N'level or O'level? i would say very few doesnt. our education foundations as a country is indeed so strong that neighbouring countries would take 100 years to catch up. so the phrase 'stay competitive' is not in context anymore. now its time for morals, social responsibilities, green issues, energy saving. before the world hits an ice age again.

this morning, went to the airport to see clm off to the plane, went for another hair cut to salvage the square cut i got from the aunties. 3 hair cuts in a month lol. sigh. reached home, went to a gathering with army friends for dinner at sebawang seafood, ate so much, so full haha. then i read some papers, came across a very interesting article. bees are dying at a alarmingly fast rate. u might say, isnt that gd, no more bees attack yay! hah, i also thought so. but, the article indicates that without bees, there would be crop problems. this is esp so for crops which are not self dispersed, as in they need pollinators like bees to help them reproduce. they include almonds, apples, pears, cherries, strawberries, bananas, citrus fruits etc. all these are essential fruits in the diets of the mass around the world, and of cos honey. so what is exactly killing the bees? virus mutation, termed 'israeli acute paralysis virus' which a affected bee will spread to the whole colony leaving frozen bees dead in their hives. cellphones, the radiation interferences interupt the bees' navigation back to their hives [bees has bad eyesight], as they are away from the protection of their hives, it causes them to be vulnerable to attacks by other insects and predators. and mites, aka bees parasites immune to pesticides, these mites could kill the entire colony in days. in this economy of rising prices in food supplies, coupled with dying bees, its no wonder the international agriculture bodies are sounding the alarm. even haagen dazs' is chipping in with efforts to help preserve the natural habitat for bees. now that is social responsibility, however not to forget their 73 flavours of ice cream worldwide depends on these fruits to say. quoting einstein once said "without bees, the world would starve within 4 years" wow, i trust einstein, but there still seafood and stuffs right? but to be fair, who can imagine a world without our favourite banana splits, almond nut muffins, chocolate peanut butter and of cos the holly berries & cherries for christmas.