About a year ago (1 year - 2 days, to be precise), i was blogging about the new trainees who would come in and form my company. today, 364 days later, those trainees are now old birds and preparing to welcome the next generation of trainees. makes me feel...well, happy, because it's another reminder of how close i am to finishing my term in NS.

last june, i had also treated myself to a movie for hitting the 6-month mark in SAF (i seem to recall it was pirates of the caribbean 3). i had planned to do the same today, but i ended up staying at home due to unforeseen circumstances (eg. too lazy to go out, no money in wallet). so...that'll probably happen next week, when the income from tuition comes in.

speaking of tuition, i'm really starting to panic. my student just doesn't seem to have the right mindset for tackling chem. it's ok if she's horrible at/with (?) the subject, but i'm annoyed because she's giving up on herself. well, that's the impression i'm getting anyway. i mean, i explain something (THRICE), and she says "i don't know" when i ask her about it again 5 minutes later. i believe my explanation is as simple as i can make it, because i don't use any jargon or terminology except when absolutely necessary. so...how to handle this situation? to be honest, she's got the odds stacked up pretty high against her favour. and given the way things are, i am not too confident that she'll even pass, let alone get an A. hopefully the book which my friend lent her will change her perception of chem and the a-levels in general.

funny thing happened yesterday. i woke up at 7+ as usual for the weekly turf city gathering. on the way to turf city, i started sneezing. it developed into a running nose by the time we left, and i was sneezing so much my throat was sore. made it through tuition thanks to flu panadol and some vicks thing. today, the sneezing's stopped, nose is more or less clear, but throat's still feeling a little raw. quite odd, actually. usually, when this happens to me, it'll last for about 2 to 3 days. not that i'm complaining about the length this particular cold though. if anything, i wish it didn't happen at all.

friday's stay in camp brought some interesting news. apparently, CO has given the green light for stay-in personnel to book in on monday mornings, subject to training requirements. this means that my sundays will no longer be filled with depression and dread, and that i can spend a few more hours on CoH, mahjong, TV, or anything as required. pity that it will only kick in next week, due to some of the aforementioned training requirements taking place this coming week. friday's live day wasn't so much of a live day as it was a run-cum-safety seminar day. well, hopefully this is a one-off thing, and future live days are conducted out of camp again.

oh. we got a new car! the old one was giving some problems (like squeaking when starting up...some air-con problem), and it was time to scrap it anyway (i think). the new car is blue, and the license plate number is 9688. it supposedly has some lucky connotation in chinese/dialect, but i still liked the old number better, because it was the date of issue of my pink IC. so far, i have no complaints about it, and in fact, i do find it comfortable. it even has electrically-powered seat adjustors! forgive me if i sound mountain-turtle about it, but it was really the first time i've seen it inside a car. i think it's going to be a fun vehicle, especially when i figure the audio system out, and even more so when i can finally drive.

well, that's about all i have to say for now. going to log in to CoH for a bit and pack my stuff later. i'll be out on friday night if nothing goes wrong. it's actually quite unlikely, because someone's in south africa, and the important figures' attention will be on the new company, allowing me to slip under the radar for the next 5 days.

-random thought of the day: Still need to check up on driving.-

Like i mentioned a few posts ago, i'm on my forced 2-day block leave now. well, one and a half days have passed so far, which leaves me another half day to go.

so, what have i been doing for the past 3 days? answer: nothing much. for some reason or another, this 2-day work week was pretty relaxed. it's probably because there will be a company size of new trainees coming in next week. i really really hope none of my friends/juniors is posted to my unit. could be traumatizing both for me and them.

ok...there really isn't much to talk about at this point of time, except to say that i'm planning to catch a movie later on. 4 candidates come to mind: kung fu panda, hulk. get smart, and you don't mess with the zohan. decisions, decisions. maybe i'll watch more than one?

-random thought of the day: I just found out Friday is a full day in camp.-

Continuing from my previous (excuse of a) post, palm trees have taken up residence in the area around my block. this is slightly disorienting, as they are not native to this area, and haven't been for the past 19+ years. in addition to that, lots of the things i've grown up with and come to think of as permanent fixtures are suddenly not so permanent now. i mean, there's only 1 flight of stairs today still made out of purple bricks, as compared with 4 in 2006. the playground is being upgraded, for the second time in the 19+ years i've lived here. by the time i'm 30, i think even more drastic changes would have taken place.

as i was walking home from giving tuition today, i saw that in order to make room for those palm trees to grow, some of the existing trees' branches had been cut off. this, in turn, got me thinking about the old making way for the new. i suppose it's part of the natural cycle and all, but it seems somehow...disrespectful, in an odd sort of way. maybe i'm just too attached to the old trees, or older/more senior things in general.

driving has appeared on my new year's resolution list for the past 3 years running, which means that i haven't been able to learn it yet. i get the feeling that my original goal of getting my license before i turn 20 is pretty much shot. oh well. there's always before 21.

the slack sunday has left me feeling pretty recharged. still can't help but feel that i left out a few essential points to blog about. maybe i should start writing them down while in camp. should help me to remember better.

anyways, it's about 8:50 already. have to book in later, so CoH now is out of the question. in fact, i have to be off the computer by 9:05 latest to shower and pack my stuff. so, i guess i'll end my post here.

see you all on tuesday!

Normally, i would be out and about on a sunday, but i decided to take it easy for a change, and stay home.

i have a nagging suspicion that i've been living in a time warp, or at least a time bubble, where everything slows down to 10% speed. i could have sworn that i 'd been in camp for longer than a week, and yet, the calendar proves me wrong. at any rate, my work year is nearing the halfway mark, and that's definitely a good thing. incidentally, the actual halfway mark falls on this coming wednesday, at 12:00pm. guess i should go celebrate, since i've been forced to take leave on that day and on thursday as well. totally screwed up my leave plans.

now on to some non-army related topics, like tuition. i'm not sure if i'm doing a good job or not. from the way i see it, signs point to no. i just wish there was a way i could upload my brainwaves and thought patterns on the internet, so that my student can get a better idea of how i think and use all the knowledge in my head during exams. i'm actually quite discouraged after today's session, but well, i hope that one of my friends can help motivate the person in question.

somehow, i'm not really in a blogging mood now. i'll probably update again later, with a proper post.

-random thought of the day: Palm trees in my neighbourhood?-

My week has been pretty normal so far...whatever "normal" means to me.

nothing that remarkable happened except that some of the specs from my company ORD-ed today. that makes it wave 2 of ORD personnel. i still have to sit through another 3 waves before it's my turn. oh well. not to worry; it'll happen soon. i'm actually quite sad to see these guys go, because they were with me from the start of my time in the unit, so i've become accustomed to seeing them around. but that'll have to change. at least they promised to keep in touch.

i think i've been repaying my accumulated sleep debt while in camp. every day, i'll fall asleep at 9+ and wake up at 5+ (which is the standard waking-up time). that equates to 8 hours of sleep, which is definitely more than what i've been getting for the past fortnight prior to resuming normal camp life. the weird dreams (and subsequent inability to recall them) haven't stopped though. i also forgot one song which i thought was perfect to dedicate to the ORD-ed specs. the annoying thing is that i was listening to it on my MP3 player yesterday before sleeping, and i just can't recall it today, when i most needed to.

this week has also left me feeling rather sore. physically, that is. i'm sure i've mentioned how little exercise i'm getting while on ops, and running 5.6km is a very good reminder of that. just imagine running that twice (on different days, of course). my fitness levels have dropped far more than i'd thought, and it's not good for health at all. better do something about it...as soon as the aches go away.

well, tomorrow's a saturday, and that means turf city again. with either mahjong or wii after that. probably should go for the latter. wii sports may help to work out the soreness.

-random thought of the day: Dinner appointment tomorrow. How to keep fit?-

Guess who got to stay out today and is at home blogging now?

since you're reading this, there are no prizes for getting the correct answer. in a rare display of kindness, my RSM decided to let everyone stay out for a night. well, there was the slight problem of not having sufficient bunks to house everyone, but let's stick to the earlier assumption, yes? so...that's why i'm at home on a nice monday evening.

you know, i think staying out makes time pass just a little bit faster. every day's book out day, so it's easier (and more fun) to look forward to getting off work. not to mention people can't disturb you during your rest time and ask you to go down to the office because something needs to be done. only issue with me staying out at my present camp/unit is the time taken to travel to and fro from camp, and not to mention the cost. assuming i rely on public transport, average time taken to travel from home to camp is 2 hours. which means if i knock off at 5:30, i'll reach home around 8:00 (including walking time and any traffic condition or congestion on the bus/train). this also means that i'd have to leave home at around 5:45am to catch the first train and bus to camp. which equates to me having 8 hours and 45 minutes to myself every day, and around 6 of which will be spent sleeping. this doesn't even take transportation costs into account. so...if given the opportunity to stay out at a camp closer to home, say nee soon, khatib, or even payar lebar air base, i'd jump at the opportunity. but that will only happen if i get posted out, so it's just a fantasy for now.

sometimes, i wonder where exactly i fit in in my group of friends. i remember reading somewhere (memory indicates it's FHM) that a typical all-guys group will consist of a few stereotypes, namely the leader, the know-it-all, the entertainment coordinator, the listener, and the fall guy. more often than not, i seem to belong in the last category, which is actually starting to wear me out. i don't know...maybe it'll get better once army ends, or when one of the other guys in the group goes in next thursday. wait and see for now i guess.

today, i learnt something rather embarrassing about someone in my company. normally, it would just be juicy gossip to me, but i'm paying more attention to this particular person since he's been on our cases for discipline and all that junk. i couldn't believe the stuff i heard. next time extras are flying around, perhaps i should sit down with the person concerned for a little talk.

if i had any leave to spare, i would definitely take the next 9 working days off, sadly, that is not to be, since my leave has been swee-swee-ly planned for the rest of the year. the reason i would go to such extremes is because next week is not a good week to be in camp, seeing as all my old specs and officers are ORD-ing in the upcoming fortnight (the last ones collect their pink ICs next monday). there's nothing more demoralizing than to watch people you've worked with and come to know (and depend on, or maybe even like) leave you in the lurch as they head for greener pastures. when the specs were talking about ORD-ing, i suddenly remembered a conversation i had with one of them outside the company office in the (now demolished) old building. i even remember that that was the day my cousin passed out from BMT in tekong, which was in mid-june last year. that was the day when the previous generation of specs ORD-ed, and we were talking about how fast time went by (i was a 6-month and 2-week old soldier then). well, fast forward a year (well, slightly less, to be precise), and it's my turn to say goodbye to them as they leave. hopefully december comes soon. then i can say goodbye again, but from the other side of the fence.

all the ORD-festiveness prompted me to do some counting down of my own. at this point in time, i have about 187 to 188 absolute days left, but only 118 or so working days. these 118 days are spread out in 26+ weeks, which is definitely less than the 49 i started out with at the beginning of the year, and just a quarter of the 104 which i had 2 decembers ago. honestly, even i have trouble believing that nearly 1 and a half years have passed since enlistment, but it's the truth. well, i could always pretend that it was january now and try to last until june or july. that's roughly the same time period i have to go through anyway.

well, i should probably log on to CoH for a bit to entertain myself. can't stay up all night though; i have to be in camp tomorrow, and unlike the ops period, sleeping in the day isn't looked favourably upon, especially when there's work to be done.

random thought of the day: This is the first time in my close-to 13 months in camp I've been allowed to stay out.

8:15pm on a sunday night means i have to be in camp in about 2 hours' time. i'm ahead of time today, so i thought i'd blog before going to get ready.

this weekend has been like another typical, regular weekend. turf city on saturday, 4 rounds of mahjong after that (!), and another round today. net loss: $15. there seems to be a pattern to my games. during the first 1 or 2 winds, i can win big. but then it goes downhill from there. had some interesting hands though, like yesterday's 3 kongs and zi muo. nearly did it again today, but it wasn't meant to be. so oh well. it was good for my heart anyway.

june's started! it's a little depressing to see all the kids who are still in school slack around for one full month. well, that's not completely true, depending on the school you're in. for instance, there's remedial lessons and mid-year exams (for some crazy schools) during this period. what happened to nice slow-paced holidays, where the only way to tell what day of the week it was was to see whether your parents went to work? i, for one am happy that i didn't have to put up with this kind of nonsense in my schooldays. i'd probably skip the lessons anyway.

apparently, my tendency for having weird dreams isn't limited to while i'm in camp. for instance, i just had this odd dream where artillery officers stormed my school (memory indicates it was either my JC or primary school...can't remember which) and were abusing some of the people there by putting them in all sorts of odd submission holds. so, i was about to go and save one of them...and woke up. guess the ending will remain a mystery for now.

my best guess as to why i'm having all these funny dreams is because my "sleep account" is in severe deficit, i.e. i have an outstanding sleep debt to settle. probably can write it off in camp. just need to sleep a little earlier every day.

one sad thing about being on ops (other than the weekends burnt) is that you have practically zero time to maintain your fitness. you're on either duty or rest in camp, and personally, i treasure my day off too much for running. so, that's led to a rather alarming decline to my fitness (whatever little of it there was in the first place). have to start building up again, both for personal well-being and since the AHM is coming around in another 2+ months or so. 2 days off for completing 21km in less than 2 hours 15 minutes. works out to be about 156 metres per minute (anyone care to check? i got a C for maths). sounds accomplishable.

ok, i'll cut it here. 15 minutes before i have to go pack my stuff and shower up. hopefully everything goes smoothly this week. after all, we have to adjust back to regular working hours again.

-random thought of the day: I don't want to book in!-

In a rather uncharacteristic move, i actually agreed to go drinking/clubbing with a few army friends. ironically, none of them were from my company. for those who don't know, this is only the second time i've gone clubbing (first was during the limbo period between J2 and army, about one and a half years ago), and prior to this, i haven't been drinking for about 3 to 4 months.

taking the above into consideration, i think i did quite ok this time round. managed to outlast 3 to 4 of the 7 guys there (which i assume puts me in mid-range for alcohol tolerance). only little hiccup was that i KO-ed for 45 minutes between 2am to 2:45. but at least there were no messes (none that i created, anyway) and i'm not wishing that i was dead every 3 minutes or so, like i was at about 4 to 5am. it was a pretty fun experience, but one which i don't think i'll be repeating in the next...6 months? a year? forever? who knows? one thing's for sure though; i'm extremely appreciative of the "no smoking in clubs and other assorted public places" rule that was established last year. the lack of smoke reduces your urge to puke. but the music's still too loud, which is not good when your head's pounding along to the beat.

let's assess what's killing my liver now:
- 1 shot tequila
- many many glasses of chivas + mixer (works out to about 4 glasses of alcohol or so)
- a bit of lychee martini
- 1 shot B-52

hmmm...don't think i left anything out. so, outcome of the outing is i got home at about 7am, and slept until 11:45. still trying to undo some of the damage by rehydrating myself and trying to believe that my liver's not busted yet. all in all, i'll survive, but i just wish that that sense of minor disorientation would go away. oh well. probably should drink more water to flush the alcohol out, and get some food in my stomach. if it worked when i was half-dead at 4am, i'm sure it'll work now since i'm more alive.

-random thought of the day: I borrowed Calvin and Hobbes books from the library!-

The second round of ops is over and done with, which means i'm on extended off again! but you'd probably know that already if you've seen my facebook recently (i.e. within the last 12 to 13 hours.). one thing does kind of annoy me though, which is the fact that my whole shift was held back until close to 9pm because some people were 6 hours late in taking over. we say "no need to rush" as a matter of courtesy, but this is pushing it, don't you think? maybe i should try and claim another half day...or not. who knows what might happen?

anyways, today is the first day of my 5-day break (which would have been 5.5 days if not for the late takeover). around half of it has passed already, so i'm left with 4.5 days to go. i have no concrete plans as of yet (except for saturday), but i foresee some (or all) of the following happening within this time:

- sleeping, slacking, stunning
- CoH
- going shopping
- mahjong
- possibly meeting up with friends

of course, there could be others, but that's about all i can think of at this point of time.

for some odd, inexplicable reason, i've been having weird dreams in camp. the stupid thing is, when i wake up, i can remember them in great detail. i even narrated the dream (out loud!) to myself to make sure i wouldn't forget it. but then, it's gone from memory 5 hours later. maybe i'm not meant to find out about it just yet, but i do wish i could at least remember the gist of it.

halfway through writing this post, i had this urge to search youtube for CJC, so i did. and guess what? i saw a video of ODAC performing at this year's CNY concert. it brought back some memories of JC life, and to be quite honest, i miss the closeness and atmosphere. you just don't get that in army. maybe i'm overdue for a visit? but that'll have to wait until later, because it's the june holidays now.

speaking of which, have i mentioned how sad i am to not have any holidays? one solid month of doing nothing (except for holiday homework when the mountain on your table makes you feel guilty). well, at least this means half the year is almost over. half a year closer to ORD!

-random thought of the day: Time to go back into CoH.-

Plans for today originally included mahjong and dinner, but it's probably shelved due to lack of people. so, i'm just going to nua at home on my day off from ops. kind of sad, isn't it? the fact that thunder's rumbling in the sky doesn't really help to lighten the mood either.

with regard to the long story i mentioned in the previous post, it's been more or less settled, so i'm not going to dwell on it any more.

oh. i did confirm my place in NUS after all. you see, i went to check out some foreign universities' websites. after looking at their application processes and entrance requirements, i thought it was too much of a hassle. besides, i'm quite satisfied with what i have at present, so no point fixing something that's not broken.

it really looks like i'll be spending my sunday at home, with rain (well, the weather's cleared up a bit now). maybe i'll go for an evening walk or go window shopping at j8. that should lift my spirits a little.

-random thought of the day: I'm bored.-

How can ONE small SMS spoil an otherwise-perfect day?

before anyone jumps to (seemingly) logical conclusions, no, i wasn't activated and recalled to camp on my day off. in fact, the SMS has nothing to do with army stuff at all. the whole story goes something like this:

one of my friends was not well. it started 2 fridays ago (the same day as iron man and dinner). he managed to hold on until monday, where he finally got himself admitted to hospital. according to another friend, he was discharged sometime during the week, while i was still on ops. today, yet another friend SMSed me to tell me that the first friend is not exactly happy that i didn't pay him a visit in hospital.

so right now, the main thing bugging me is, how was i supposed to visit while on ops, and when the discharge date comes before my off? leave is obviously out of the question (i say again, oscar papa sierra - OPS), and i can't leave camp without an extremely good reason. my question at this point is, what's the fuss about? i'm honestly at a loss as to how to tackle this problem, and it's probably not a good idea to let it drag. i think i'll make a few calls later in the evening to iron things out.

that little issue aside, today went pretty well. as my facebook says, i did go back to cat high for a while earlier on, and i met a few familiar faces there. sadly, the number of these familiar faces seems to be decreasing with each visit i make. saw my friend/secondary school classmate there (which was one of my motivating factors to visit) who's doing some relief teaching between his end of poly and start of NS. kind of funny to see things from the other side. had some laughs talking about our lower secondary school days and the havoc our class caused. we also tried to recall who sat where in the classroom, but remembering seating positions doesn't seem to be a strength that either of us possesses. laughed even more while browsing through the students' attempts at letter writing ("dear nameless, how are you? ........ love, anonymous"), and had a little serious discussion about NS. all in all, definitely time well spent. i came away with some food for thought too...what if i did relief teaching for say, a school term while waiting for university to begin? the choice is hanging around somewhere in the back of my mind, so i guess i'll bookmark it and seriously consider it when the time comes.

my university letter finally came! i have a place in NUS, for chemistry. for those of you who know what i applied for, it should have occurred to you by now that i didn't get my first choice, which was chemical engineering. strangely though, i'm not feeling all that sad. you see, i was having second, third, fourth and fifth thoughts about putting chemical engineering as my first choice. my plan was to accept what the university gave me, unless there was a very good motivating factor to fight for one instead of the other. but after re-reading my cousin's email (she's a professional chemical engineer) and talking to some people in camp with a chemical engineering background, i sort of realized that maybe, just maybe, chemical engineering wasn't my cup of tea after all. so, long story short, i'm actually kind of happy/relieved that my application turned out the way it did. now, all i have to do is to log in and confirm my acceptance of the place. and yet, i still don't feel, well, ready to confirm it. this is mainly because i haven't checked the foreign universities out yet, and like a typical kiasu singaporean, i'm worried about shortchanging myself. sad, isn't it? well, i have until 2nd june to decide, so i can probably sit on it a little longer.

hard to believe that i'm running on 2 hours' sleep. guess anticipation of the days events pushed fatigue aside temporarily. but now that the events are over, fatigue is creeping back in. i guess i'll take it easy for the rest of tonight.

-random thought of the day: I still have a phone call to make.-

Sleep deprivation is something i normally do not practise, but extereme times call for extreme measures. my stay up all night plan was successful, but not completely, since i stole a 3-hour power nap from 12am to 3am, and dozed off (for short periods only!) several times after that. nevertheless, my ultimate goal of being tired enough to sleep in camp has been fulfilled, and the fact that i took the time to get some more stuff done in CoH is just a bonus.

at present, i have about 23 minutes before i have to shower up and prepare to book in. i'm really not sure how to spend my last few remaining moments of freedom, though i know catching a nap is out of the question. heh.

well, i'd best be off then. better to be really early than just a little bit late.

-random thought of the day: I bought Fox mints for duty!-

Being back on ops has its pros and cons, the biggest con staring me in the face now being missing out on my long weekend. still, it's a refreshing change from routine life (which i've grown sick of again very quickly), and even from the previous round of ops, seeing as my role is different this time. as usual, i'm still not going to say what my role is, or give away any compromising details, so that's about it.

got asked out by my cousin today, who is surprisingly out of camp. went to watch harold and kumar, which is quite surprising since i never had any intention of catching it in the first place. it is, quite surprisingly, not bad. in fact, i'd go as far as to say it borders on good (well, as good as these kind of movies get anyway). during the trailers shown before the actual movie, i took the time to come up with a list of movies i want to watch. they are, listed by priority,

1. You Don't Mess with the Zohan
2. Get Smart
3. The Dark Knight
4. Hulk

assuming i have to watch all on weekends, it comes up to just under $40. better start saving.

doesn't it just suck to know that you have to be stuck in camp on a saturday? no prizes for guessing who's in that predicament now. but it's all in the course of duty to country and protecting the nation, so...not much choice about it.

here's a little poem from harold and kumar that i think is quite cute (in a rather nerdy/geeky kind of way):

I’m sure that I will always be
A lonely number like root three

The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine

For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic

I know I’ll never see the sun,
as 1.7321
Such is my reality,
a sad irrationality

When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three

As quietly co-waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer

We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands

Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed

i'm actually quite impressed by the person who came up with it (heard he died of AIDS though).

well, that's about all i have for now. i'm going to try and pull an all-nighter so i can go back to camp and sleep tomorrow.

-random thought of the day: My bio-clock is about to get screwed up really badly.-

Word out on the street is that my next long weekend may not happen after all, due to some more confidential operations. but i'm just going to wait it out and see what happens, since these rumours have been known to be grossly exaggerated/untrue.

friday's engineer parade was pretty interesting. felt good to be a spectator for a change, and not a participant. though i've been in the engineer formation for a little more than a year, it was the first time i heard the engineer march live. first time i saw a 2-star general in person too. luckily, everything wrapped up fast, and there was enough time after that to catch iron man and have dinner at Tony Roma's.

iron man was pretty good, actually. i particularly liked the technology shown in the movie. just imagine - what if everyone had a virtual PA/butler, could stick their hands into holograms and have them respond appropriately, or could interact with machines like they were pets/humans? it would be quite fun, but then, i doubt if it would be possible within the next 20 years. oh well. i won't complain as long as it happened somewhen in my lifetime. oh. and if you're thinking of watching the movie (i'd be surprised if any comic-book fan hasn't watched it by now), do stay until after the credits.

dinner was great too, but not so great on the wallet. bill for 3 = $135.33 or something like that. luckily i wasn't the sole bill-footer for the night. nevertheless, it put a quite sizable $60-shaped dent in my bank account. it also helped that the following day was pay day. you feel the blow less when input exceeds output.

recently, my slippers have got into the habit of breaking up at the most inconvenient times (eg. while i'm out of the house and on the move). as such, i've got a new pair of sandals from turf city, which will hopefully last for a few years. if they die on me too, then i'll just have to resort to SAF sandals, but only after i ORD. it's kind of a funny psychological thing about me. i'll tend not to wear things associated with an organization (eg. school t-shirts) while i'm still in that organization. but once i leave, it becomes normal everyday wear. so...back on track. SAF sandals are actually pretty comfortable, but you won't see me putting them on outside camp just yet.

this coming week is the start of the 20th week of the year. do you know what that means? it means that i have about 30 more weeks to go before i can receive the ultimate promotion to civilian. 30 weeks is not that long actually. it's just the duration of 5 consecutive signal courses, or 3 consecutive school terms, or 2 consecutive BMTs, or 1 BMT, 1 signal course and 2 months of unit life, or 10 more haircuts (assuming one per 3 weeks). i can survive this!

like i said on thursday, it looks like my week will be quite a busy one. need to settle some paperwork matters, and inform the higher-ups about the downgrade. i wonder how they'll take it?

-random thought of the day: It's a nice, relaxing Sunday.-

Regular working hours are back, and it's taking some time to get re-acclimatized to them. as usual, i think i'll survive.

for a four-day work week, it was pretty slack. didn't really do that much construcive stuff (which is why next week is going to be busy). also this week, i received 2 pieces of news. first was that all signallers and medics were being transferred to BHQ...which got cancelled after one day. second is that i've been downgraded...permanently. implications of the above? i'll still be stuck at company line, but in a more relaxed state than before. hopefully things work out.

while still on matters happening this week, i thought i'd just mention that my boss (ops spec) and 2 other specs just ORD-ed. i'll most definitely miss them (my boss at least), but well, they've served their time already. just need to get used to having a new ops spec i guess.

status updates on university applications are nonexistent. nothing's come in the mail yet, which means i've either been rejected from chemical engineering, or NUS on a whole. no big deal for the former, since i was considering giving it up anyway, but the latter deserves some concern. maybe i better start looking into that overseas university thing my uncle was talking about.

that's it for now, probably going to log in to CoH for a bit to see whether my bids have been successful.

-random thought of the day: Parade at Nee Soon tomorrow.-