zhiqin

i really needed the rest..ahahZ..after spending so much time outside for a few consecutive days..saw a couple quarrelling at tamp central..kaoZ..so many people crowding around to watch show..i just walked past and din even turn back, though i heard the sound of someone being slapped..it’s gonna be the guy being slapped la..cos the gal was so fierce..argh..

anyway received a belated christmas card from jieying..wah hand made sia and it’s nice..thanx a lot! so much for unique acquaintanceship..ya..come to think of it, whether it’s from sch, work, or army, or even the Net, i feel really lucky to have known some great and helpful friends out there..Life’s so dull without friends..:P

was being reminded that it’s been exactly one year since the tsunami disaster. guess this year’s boxing day is a peaceful one. went to sentosa early in the morning. argh feeling very tired cos i have been out for the past 3 days. i really apologise for my lethargy today though it was great seeing my cg mates again. it was a combined one actually, 1102 and 1302 were around too. but i wasn’t very enthu lah, as expected, keep yawning throughout the day. LOL. had a gd chat with jialin cos we are the only 2 that din swim in the sea. now i m actually blogging at kev’s house. just finished watching liverpool v newcastle match. liverpool made it look so easy, 8 wins in a row, and no goals conceded for 720min in the epl. wow tt’s qte a feat. yea tired..tt’s all for now. take care people! bless all.

today’s christmas! wishing everyone a merry christmas! feeling kinda tired now…ok shall begin with Fri, the eve of Xmas eve..went for swimming at tamp safra with dwin and ch. Oh i din know that i would need a SAFRA card to use the swimming facilities, but luckily i have it in my wallet. I din swim much cos i dun have my goggles, forgot most of the strokes too le. After that dwin and ch went to my house for a while, ahahZ, a bit paiseh regarding the messy state of my house, but i got dragged by them to bugis sim lim sq. ch bought a power supply unit, dwin got his wires soldered, be4 we made our way to cold storage to buy some food for the xmas party tml. reached home at about 7, but went over to dwin house again at 9 to make brownies! it;s my first time baking stuff, wow, baking isn’t hard at all, when u have all the necessary stuff. 2 guys plus dwin’s mum baking, end result = it turned out qte well. maybe it was because we used quality ingredients! played dota until 3am..argh..not intentional!

yep sat morn le..waked up at around 10..chris came over to dwin house, wow tt’s early..ahah i made my way home to have a few hours of precious sleep. went to dwin house again for the xmas party..reached at about 5, just in time for a sumptous meal! wow..apparently the rest of them helped make the pizza, wantons, sausages, christmas cake etc etc..it’s really a lot! they commented the brownies were nice too..ahahZ..i think i really will get fat if i continue eating like this. dwin jio us to go church with him the next day, ahahZ, but i can’t go cos i have sth on le..was trying to psycho ch to go with him, but to no avail! haiz..lol..nvm went home to once again energise myself for tml!

xmas! today! ahah it’s just another day for me really cos i m not a christian. I met up with pq. haahZ she’s my junior from ahsco and i hafen seen her for like 4 years le..she din change much, and yes i din change much too, just like how i was during sec 3..lol..watched chronicles of narnia at gv marina..managed to get qte gd seats! last row loh..thru booking of course! enjoyed the show! jeff said the relation to christian themes was obvious, but i dun think so. pq doesn’t even know tt until i told her. and yes i think the name Aslan sounds very malay..no offence..after show we went to find joyce for dinner..she’s another of my junior, ya she;s working at suntec. As expected she din change much too, easily recog her! had a simple meal together at the foodcourt be4 she goes back to work again. oh and i took a couple of photos with her, and pq also. by this time, feeling a bit tired le..oh no, CG outing at sentosa tml! oh no! epl at kev house tml nite! oh no! i hope i dun collapse!

ahah oh btw i have more songs now! yay..thanks to pq, so many i doubt i can finish listening to it in one day. that’s all for now..tired..zzz

hahaZ..at this particular shopping mall, they came up with this game..customers with receipts totalling $30 or more can participate..prize? a $5 gift voucher…lol

this game involves picking 3 cards out of 5, in which all 3 must feature the "santa claus" on it. Out of the 5 cards, exactly 3 are "santa claus" cards, the rest are dunno what "snowman" cards..lol..was watching the game for a while..nobody seemed to have the luck to win..so did a bit of calculations..

P(winning) = P(pick 3 santa claus cards) = 3/5 * 2/4 * 1/3 = 6/60 = 1/10

or simply P(winning) = (3C3) / 5C3) = 1/10

so for every 10 persons that play, 1 is expected to win.

assuming each person spends exactly $30 to be eligible to play, for every $300 spent by 10 persons, the shopping mall is expected to pay out $5 as gift vouchers..

5/300 = 1.67 %

ahahZ..i must be too bored le..

shall continue on my previous entry! oh i forgot to touch on the showering part..kaoZ..every night is a torture when it comes to showering..have to pray tt the water is hot, if not it’s best tt dun shower at all..oh there’s a pasar malam here at tamp int..got one stall selling ji1 pa2, i think can’t be compared to taiwan’s..esp the extra spicy one..lol
ok going on to R & R.
Day 13 - (11 Dec)
first day of R & R! woke up at 0515 to do area cleaning..argh..boarded the coach only at 0830..at first we were saying load up the coach..kaoZ..maybe to used to saying load up the tonner..lol..anyway our tour guide was this young lady called Amy..okie lah veri friendly..ahahZ..had this intro session on the bus..feels awkward when everyone had to intro their chi name..ahahZ..anyway highlight of the day was at the yamay discovery centre..sth like escape theme park lah..not bad i tried almost all the rides given my history of motion sickness..there;s this water ride where chris and i sat at the back row thinking wun get wet this way..we were so so WRONG..the "boat" turned 180 degress be4 plunging into the water! kaoZ sux sia..reached taipei qte later cos of jam..checked in at the hotel then immediately rushed to Shilin night market..ahhZ..doing topo on our own..tried the MRT over there..veri modern..ahahZ perhaps better than singapore’s. ate lots of food there.oh we witnessed a robbery over there.the robber ran qte fast lah, leaving the lady crying..zzzz.when we went back i holland-ed..feel veri guilty make everyone walk so far..oops..sorry..ahahZ..reached back hotel in time to watch man u v everton live..ahahZ..slpt at half time..too tired le..
Day 14 - (12 Dec)
our ps was late..ahahZ..oc was a bit displeased with him.ahahZ..anyway first stop was LeeFoo Village, or liu4 fu2 chun1 in chinese..supposedly one of the main attraction in taiwan..it’s a theme park..it was extremely cold that morning..tried this ride where they drop u vertically down from qte a distance, the feeling of free fall damn shiok..ahahZ..surprisingly i din feel too scared..instead felt so high! but when u slowly rise in height and dunno when u ll drop, tt feeling is a bit !@#$. after that went to this museum called gu4 gong1 bo2 wu4 yuan4..okie lah i m not a person who appreciates artefacts..a bit boring..next stop is a war memorial..there was a change-parade in process where the soliders on guard change duties..their drills veri zai3..veri impressed..someday i wanna go see the istana see how the guards swop over duties..night time we went Xi Men Ting..just like Orchard Road loh..veri crowded..bought some jeans and clothes..slpt alone cos jeff went back to his home to slp..he’s a taiwanese lah..ahhaZ..
Day 15 - (13 Dec)
last day of R & R..free and easy…went to Jeff’s house..his grandfather and aunt veri hospitable..aww even treat us to lunch at an eatery..got take a group photo also..:P took cab to taipei 101..it;s this freaking tall building, supposedly the tallest after sept 11 incident..paid 350 NT to go up to the 89th floor..was misty but the view was still nice..the cars look like toy cars sia..lol..but aniwae left taipei 101 qte impressed. went to wu3 fen1 pu3 next..cheap bags and clothes..more shopping..ahaZ..when night falls went back taipei main station..some more last minute shopping be4 we went back to hotel..damn tired liao…our flight is at 4 am in the morning..zzz..yes but i really missed singapore..weather too dry here..face peeling..zzz

yes finally i m back! after 16 days in taiwan, weather is freaking cold (as expected) but i din appreciate the cold fronts. all in all taipei is a fantastic place to be in! highly recommended! this is gonna be qte a long entry!

Day 0 ( 28 Nov)

flight at 2230. yea SQ flight. the rest of the platoon came to see us off. the departure hall was damn crowded, it’s obvious that we are troops going for overseas training even though we are all in civilian attire! there was a funny incident in the plane..got one air stewardess asked a particular sergeant (i better dun name him) what beverage would he like, maybe he din catch it so she asked a few more times. her english was a bit accented and in the end she got qte frustrated and she finally spoke sth along this line "wo3 shi4 wen4 ni3 yao4 he1 ka1 fei1 hai2 shi4 cha2 (i just wanna ask u whether u want coffee or tea) , u can’t even understand what i say, how can i depend on u to protect the country?" lol the sgt was damn paiseh..hehe.. anyway watched 40 year Old Virgin, qte a hilarious show..caught some sleep cos i was expected a busy day ahead.

Day 1 ( 29 Nov)

reached Hukou Camp at ard 4 plus in the morning..freaking cold..the whole day was basically admin stuff..drawing stores..accomodation was a bit sub-standard.but kinda of expected la..it’s a bit irritating that we can’t throw toilet paper directly into the toilet bowl cos will choke..argh..anyway busy busy day..gd thing we still manage to slp be4 2359hrs.

Day 2 - 6 ( 30 Nov - 4 Dec)

Navigation Exercise (NavEx) lasting for 5 days. i was deployed at Lima Papa 1, along with Lt KS, medic JM and driver Vincent. it was at LW Shan , 300 plus metres high. sian outfield. set up dipole immediately for rebro. my location was qte boring, 4 of us basically talk cock the whole day. An interesting incident the next day..morning got one officer from a camp nearby came to us, offering us the facilities.( wow can bathe le!) there’s a chicken farm nearby. got one truck stuck at the slope. ahah..we did them a favour by towing the truck out..they were qte grateful, bought us some drinks. finally some interaction with the locals! the weather was qte ok until the 4th day when it started raining..kaoZ..shivering the whole night sia! oh i managed to finish reading a novel called Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz..i enjoyed it..last day we parted ways with the ROC soldiers there..even exchanged combat rations with them! lol..one sergeant showed us pictures of him and his gf. Exercise ended at ard noon time..went over to Lima PaPa 2..that place happening sia! so many kids..within 5 min the kids were pestering me to piggyback them! so cute! they were saying " bei1 wo3 bei1 wo3" that i found it hard npt to oblige. had lunch at one of the residents’ house..aww so nice of them.. went back to camp after that, nothing much to do..had a briefing for next day’s exercise and ordered chicken cutlet and bubble tea..(which we went on to order every night)

Day 7 - 9 ( 5 Dec - 7 Dec)

Company mission..it coincided with a cold front..i was freezing out there laying lines, doing a reef knot is insanely hard cos haf to do without gloves.in the end CO cut the exercise cos temperature hit below 13 degrees C. so lucky of us to go back camp to slp. training was modified to day training only. yes! which means dun need to bash through the jungles in the night! was S1 signaller..S1 was a real nice person, really took care of me, even cooked maggi mee for me and his runner at the BUA. so nice, along with other officers we were having lunch at the basement of the building..ahahZ>.feel as if like having a picnic. my name was hard to pronounce..ahahZ..S1 keep making fun of my name..argh..the tough thing was tt i had to carry a signal set (veri heavy loh) and follow behind him..the exercise was qte cool ..so many shots fired..close to simulating a real battle! we even went to gai-gai after the exercise..see the bing1 lang2 girls..kaoZ..scantily-clad..in this cold weather..*clap clap* the third day S1 din even go out so i stayed in camp..lol.

Day 10 - 11 ( 8 Dec - 9 Dec)

Company Prof Test - due to cold weather, training was cut to 2 days and restricted to the day only..ahahz..oh i just realised that there’s this officer called Lt ZC in Charlie Coy..i heard of him ahhaZ..the very pro cellist from Ngee Ann Sec..back to the excecise..S1 treated me to breakfast..had some dan4 bing3 and italian coffee..the main highlight was tt we caused a bush fire in the midst of exercise! the lalang caught fire so easily from the pan flares. panic sia! the wind was so strong and the fire just wun stop..but luckily the fire din spread too far cos the wind was blowing it in a direction of open area ( with no lalang). phew put out the fire in the end with the mops and jerry cans we had..when the fire engine came the fire was already put out le..ahahZ…CO resumed the exercise after that..did bashing this time..dunno y i feel veri garang..ahahZ..veri on the ball when bashing upslope..of cos along the way S1 and his Dy officers were very entertaining..ahahZ..when we reached back camp, we immediately sent stores until next day 6 am..kaoZ..the storemen were veri strict loh..like purposely wanna tekan us like tt..zzzzz..but nvm R & R coming!

Day 12 - (10 Dec)

whole day of area cleaning + sending of kit bag …had our last dinner at the cookhouse..aww forgot to mention we are using those metal trays (like those in the prison) and have to wash ourselves after meals..lol.. ordered chicken cutlet for the last time.. ahhaZ..sick of it sia! we sent back all the sleeping bags liao…shivering throughout the night cos the blanket was very ineffective..ahahZ..tml would be start of R & R!

ok for now..shall continue on the R & R part in the next entry.