5-10 anazazi

While searching for my running shoe on Thursday Morning, my 5-10 anazazi rock shoe fell out from the shoe bag, greeting me with an unwelcoming sense of guilt. Almost instantaneously i glanced at my slalom skates( its by the shoe rack anyway ), my forearms and my flabby tummy. I didnt really figure out the exact connection for my reactions.

I muttered to myself that one of my new year resolutions is to pick up bouldering all over again. What i've so passionately practiced during the years of 2003-2005 remained as beautiful memories when i started putting cones at the void deck in early 2006.

Enjoy.



From the same guy

Charlie Battery Commander

Now i truly understood what it meant when soldiers can actually look forward to reservist.... Though i may not be doing my operational Air traffic controller job yet, it is a good break away from my monotonous trainee life. I am one who doesnt like the green, yet i love to see familiar faces donning green, some whom cant fit into their uniforms and SBOs anymore.

I began to feel the effects of ageing this in-camp. Not because i choose to think i am, but those impish mischievous gunners whom i used to serve were a much mature lot.( note: the officers serve the men in my unit hahah )

I remembered Julian for being forever an a**hole, trying to test my patience in taking MC; I tot Hamster and Fitman would conjure up against me and my bsm, but i was so wrong. Even our dear aussie jockey returned a grown up man.

Seeing those guys for the past 5 days really hit me with mixed feelings. There were times during 20sa( 5 years ago )which i wished i could take a rifle and gun some of these "indian chiefs".

But right now i'm so glad to see many of them taking time off to serve.

I guessed this in camp gave me an opportunity to exercise some ownership over these boys. That wasnt the case 5 years back. When i first stood on the grounds of Amoy Quee Camp, i felt completely naked, not knowing how to handle my future gunners. Sometimes being an officer was so hard. I was afraid, not because of my technical competency, but was apprehensive over my capability to deal with those 'hokkien' soldiers.

When i out-processed today, i cant help but feel glad that i did what i chose to do 5 years back. Leading those boys certainly require alot of attention and heart, even till today. Some how i'm blessed with very cooperative specialist and fellow officers to work with.

Being a battery commander is nothing about being an individual siao onz garang officer .... It is anything BUT that.

Training to be soldiers....

Being so deprived of a good morning skate under the sun, both me and Christine made our way to ECP. Weather was afterall kind to us, despite the occasional showers for the past week.

We were happily chatting. Christine was kind of proud, lamenting every now and then that she wasn't falling. But i guess lucky has limited credit. Nearing the edge of a slope i saw a family of skaters on the other side, so i cautioned Christine while i initiated the gradient, in hope of getting attention of the fellas down there. I was soon experiencing the speed, sea breeze whizzing past my oily face, and all of a sudden i heard a YELP followed by a thud behind me.

I knew Christine had fallen, and i cornered to make a turn back to where she fell. By the time i got to her, blots of blood exploded from within the grazed portion of her butt ( Opps! ). As the red liquid oozed, i saw Christine biting her own teeth, eyes winching in excruciating pain.

Lousiness sipped into me.. there's nothing i could do... Felt like i was the cause of the fall. Maybe if i hadn't sped forward, she could have had some form of confidence in my presence.

Times like this make me weak. No, maybe weak is the wrong word. My emotions will get stirred up every time i see a loved one or a friend got injured or hurt because of something i did . A month back my Dearie couldnt negotiate the slope down the KPE entrance and bruised her face upon impact with the side concrete slabs( same situation, i skated in front of her to assure that the slope was conquerable ). That time, lousiness saw me weak and naked. I really hate it man...

A few hours later i would be putting on my No. 4 to report for reservist. I'm kind of lost touch with green, especially when the last in camp training was close to 1.5 years back. No body wants to return for reservist, especially when it meant giving up your daily routine of money making / enjoyment for 5 to 14 days of regimentation and lack of sleep in the wilderness / training area. Ask any of my men, and the only thing that keeps them going on is the thought of meeting up with fellow soldiers who started out serving their NSF days together.

I am not a role model of what an officer should be.... I curse, swear, do short cuts and sometimes set inappropriate examples to my fellow soldiers. All i can say is that i commit to responsibilities that ensure my men wont get into trouble. I wont die for my country , that's for sure.

The only thing that keeps me focused on in camp is the very thought of protecting my loved ones. Spare me the "DUTY HONOUR COUNTRY". Give me my 68 men and i will do my best to get every single soul out safe and alive, be it training or the real crunch......

Probably its my friends and loved ones that kept me going on strong in life.

That's quite some thoughts before in camp. Need to catch sleep. See you all folks out there while i fire fight shit for the next 5 days!

Deal!

Finally...

The hockey skates deal is off... for $150...

Presenting the buyer before the deal. Got to blanja her to make her happy.

Meeting the Goondoo has never been this 'happening'... it felt like the days back in 2005 when we had to meet up to discuss plans for PUMPFEST, except that this time, the topic revolves around gossips and rumours and bitchings. Feels good to rant out over a cup of teh tarik and a piece of cheese prata AND egg prata. Thanks for the supper meet up goondoo~!

After supper i drove the buyer back to her residence in blk 296 yishun ave XXX... Got her to try out the skates . Just look at how happy goondoo is...







"Fit to a T!" says goondoo who had problems searching for the right skate because she had broad feet.

I parted my dear goondoo with a faint smile ( because its almost 1am in the morning ), feeling so light headed and happy as i drove my way home under the hypnotic influence of the light drizzle.

The F1 race

I decided to send an sms to one of my rather old time varsity mate in NTU to find out how she was. When asked what i had been up to, i happily keyed 'skating' as my reply. To that, she casually commented that i was forever skating....

All of a sudden, those words weigh upon me. Indeed, i really spend quite alot of time on the spot. I wont waste time typing my passion for it.

Have i been neglecting my friends?

I do not have a definite answer, but once in a while when i am on a long journey back from work, i often ponder about my friends' whereabouts, what they were doing, the difficulties they were facing etc etc. After a long day at work, asking friends out really requires alot of effort. There were quite a few times when i casually turn my friends down for meet ups just because i felt i needed rest or some time on my own. Personal breathing space has never been that valuable until i set my foot upon work.

But i supposed everyone will be busy. They have their own 'F1 race' to complete. We might have started out from the same starting line, but in everyone of us, there exist an ending point which differs from the rest... You think you are poor and you want financial freedom, so you work very hard for it and commit your personal time into it. You think you want to learn more about generating residual income, so you concentrate your efforts in reading up and enriching your knowledge towards the ways to do so.... You felt shortchanged previously so you wanted to challenge the convention to stand out from the rest.... There are just so many agendas....

On a happy note, I choose to believe that in this harsh and fast race that every one is so overwhelmed with, there will always exist a pit stop, providing some form of assurance to the F1 racers out there.... True friends are like pit stops that stood by your journey unconditionally, be it rain or shine, ever ready to lend a spanner for that loose nut on your rim.

My dear friends out there, sorry if i were too busy to be there as your pit stop crew. Just call me and i will be there in future =)

Of Slippers in KTV, Youtiao in Selegie and Cone tricks in Ecp

I wore my faded OCS polo tee( bad mistake, because the translucence of the tee made my tummy more obvious ) and salomon pants to supper with fakie, the parade commander and fakie's brother on friday night.
Fakie had chicken pox, but i wasnt that disturbed because i was hit by pox 11 years back. Could still remember days of not bathing and the stench... yucks...

I was surprised that fakie looked the same. Her brother, though never hit by pox, was brave enough to hang around with the germ carrier. The 3 of us tucked in first before parade commander came. We shared our fare bit of our good and trying times during the work week. Boredom set in real fast as soon as i munched the last bit of curry mutton, and fakie suddenly insisted that we should try HALO bar for ktv session . Haha..hanging around with fakie sometimes meant that we would all end up doing something on impulse.

Halo bar was located in Ngee Ann poly. Fakie's bro H assumed the vehicle commander, navigating the car from AL AHZAR towards the polytechnic. I felt so down dressed when we reached Halo bar. Apart from the pox germ carrier who wore shirt and jeans, the remaining 3 guys were cladded in slippers and shorts, you know, the typical supper attire. But i supposed no one there care, and we had our fair share of fun singing the irritating 'beautiful', complimented by H's "HELLLLLL-llo HELLLL-llo~!!!!!" gangsterism mic test and yours truly mimicking the vocals of a lady korean singer in the song 'mystical' sang by jackie chan... That was Friday for me.

Saturday began by meeting the great terrors. It was close to 3 weeks since i last tutored them, and was glad to see them again. I taught them as if they were really my children, and that's why i am so committed when it comes to tuition sessions with these 3 boys.

Haiz...speaking like this makes me feel so outdated and old...

I was glad to have Christine for a saturday late night movie mate. She went to cut her hair in the late noon , which implied that i have to go get the tickets first. I was home by 3pm and the movie show time we wanted to catch was 940pm. Played a 1 hr good game of chinese chess with Zhou Gong before i left for Cathay Building to buy the tickets in advance. Boy this Cathay building changed so much... the last time i was there was like close to 11 years ago. Those days there were only KFC and Orange Julius. Its a total contrast man. Like a mini Orchard Rd there.

Christine made me wait for about an hour or so...i found a seat outside the building and sat down alone.. suddenly feeling the lousiness in me. I set my sight beyond the crowd of moving youngsters, staring into the shimmering glittering lightworks that lined up the streets from Orchard Rd all the way down to City hall. The acidic juice in my stomach didnt help either. I thought i was gonna suffocate and die as a 2nd hand smoker. Christine came just in time, which explains why i am still able to type this entry..haha...

Dinner and dessert was good( we had ours in Selegie ), but the show wasnt really fantastic. We watched '30 days of nights' ( how i wished Dearie was around, because she's a sucker for gore and vampires ). To summarize, i thought they should have made '5 days of Nights' instead of 30. There were some scenes that were quite drama, and it left both of us giggling... so off. After the show, both of us headed down for some light indie music in timbre, somewhere near the old national library. We were contended with an Apple Vodka and a mug of beer, and left the place for the night rider bus stop...Its the 1st consecutive saturday night that i took a night rider home...

I woke up by 10am Sunday Morning. Munched the triangular shaped tuna-cheese-peanut butter-ham-luncheon meat sandwich Dad so fondly prepared for me without fail every morning since i started work. I dusted my bed after packing up for my afternoon skating trip and went into a state of slumber before heading out for the ECP Sun. Its so glaring today, as compared to the last 2 noons. Perfect for a mini SCE gang outing.


Poor fakie wasnt able to make it. She didnt really feel well.

I'm looking forward for the next saturday night movie session with Christine ( Mad Detective this time )and a good Sunday rest before my in camp which will start on the 10th... BOOOOO~!!!!!!!!!!