E-learning centre post:

Restored Post

Since people have been complaining that I write too much, I will attempt to split my posts into shorter parts. So I will write till I'm chased out of my comfy chair at camp.


The next time my sister tries to use my quick credit facilities, she will be dismayed, for I have finally run out of money! The money in the hong bao in my drawer at least. Actually I still am owed $50 by my sister and tons more by others, and have $450 with my mother, but I think the time to break the seals on my bank vault is nigh!

For Tuesday's company run, everyone wanted to run, soI got to do cover. A win-win situation!

While covering the run, I saw someone who looked like Zhuang Yisa, whom I've not seen since 1998. In J1, Azim had told me that he had gone to VJC, and I've not seen him yet. I fondly remember the days of sparring with umbrellas in LT3, even though I was at a disadvantage because my umbrellas were always smaller than his. And speaking of Azim, has he entered into some marriage with a Bruneian princess? Maybe I will see him in the Straits Times one day.

How ruthless shall I be in imposing my linguistic preferences on others? Should I even be making minor concessions - like dumbing down my English level, or even, gasp, uttering 1 or 2 Mandlish sentences now and then? Or shall I just thrust forward relentlessly till all opposition is smashed, and I become the equivalent of the French cultural exception, or something near to it? And then my name will be established for all prosperity, and I will go onto the banana/potato/kentang/potato eaters roll of dishonour. [NB: If bananas are yellow on the outside and white on the inside, what is yellow both inside and out? The only thing that comes to mind is piss.]

I thought of writing 1 GP essay a week and posting it here, but the thought is just too tiresome to entertain. Unless anyone would like to send me some topics?

During lunch today I saw the 17th July issue of the Straits Times on the table, and I flipped through the Home section. Near the back was an article entitled, "RGS to raise school fees", and there was a 2 year old picture of Peggy Pao Peiyu, Priscilla Ng, Crystal Yeo Jingjing and friends hugging each other after getting their O level results. How unprofessional. Or maybe they wanted to show how happy these girls were, missing the hike by a few years, or not being affected, almost definitely being in the 80% of RGS students on a scholarship of one kind or another. Actually, the current rate is rather low - $100/month. RI has been charging $200/month at least since 1996, and in 97 SJI was asking $150/month (though I'm told this included photocopying fees!). This all excludes supplementary fees of course. But of course, Raffles Guys can raise money very easily by selling 1 square cm of their prime Anderson Road land everytime they want to raise money, so.

I got to send 2 patients to NUH today, one to check for pneumothorax and another to examine haematoma under a thumb. Exiting NUH, me, the Vehicle Commander and the Driver were accosted by 2 NUS girls, asking us to donate money for their flag day. Bah. Having some time, the other 2 decided to park the ambulance in a secluded parking lot in Alexandria Hospital and smoke - rather much trouble just for some nicotine I think. They then drove around Singapore for ~45mins, with me slumbering at the back, and we arrived back at camp just in time for lunch. How convenient.

I saw Junkai in the medical centre - he'd reported sick for some foot injury. He's training to be an Armour Engineer Specialist. Looks like everyone is going to outrank me! Excepting the half who are downgraded, of course.

Boon Wei was playing with a yellow stress ball. All pretty normal, till I saw that the ball had "Protection is your second best defence" on the side - urging servicemen to abstain from casual sex. So I theorise that whenever you feel like going to Geyland or Desker road, you just squeeze the ball and disspate the built up energies!

People like to refer to psychiatric cases as "P" cases. This might be due to laziness, but I suspect that it is actually an unconscious effort to distance themselves from the ugly reality - that people do go crazy while in indenture. No one cares, or chooses not to. It is never in the press, it is chucked aside and the only way you might ever see the victims is by visiting the SAF ward in Alexandria. And the ever useful US Army Policy on Gays is applied - "Don't ask, don't tell".

Last week we paid $2 each for a haircut. Even though not all of us - indeed very few of us, are going to use the services of the in-camp barber. Alvin tried, and his haircut was met with amusement. But then he's disrupting early September, so.

46SAR is sending people to cover (medically) people packing NDP funpacks. WTH?

For some reason, the radio in the documentation room was tuned to Power 98. Ideology aside, they did have an amusing ad - to promote this thing where they will get a NSF to co-host a Power 98 show. It went something like, "Go from this - 'Dari Kiri! Cepat Jalan!' - to this - '[some clip of a Power 98 show]'".

They like to call the Duty Medic the DM, and everytime I hear that acronym, I start thinking of Elves, Gnomes, Goblins, Dragons, Orcs and the like.


Quote:

"[On my wang4 wang4 milk tea and Oreos in the Pantry fridge] You're like on holiday"


I think they've found a way to block ICQ2go. Bah. Then again, the guy beside me is on ICQ, he says he had to try for an hour.

And I got this message lotsa times:

"Error 903

A message was not sent because you are over the rate limit."

So I think it must be that everyone else in this place is using ICQ too!

In other news, this blog's second top search keyword is "zaogeng". Whee.

The admin of the E-learning centre is humming along to "We will get there", and not very well too. ARGH. At least it's not the mandarin version playing on the radio. Which reminds me - since we have 4 official languages, where's the Malay and Tamil versions of all the yearly NDP songs? Racist!

On a related note, all the yearly national songs sound the same. The tune of this year's was in my head when it suddenly faded smoothly into "Moments of Magic", the so-called Millennium song. Another point: All the NDP songs so far, since 1998, have been sung by females, with not one male singer.

On an even less related note, I'm glad RJC didn't force us to learn and sing the yearly songs, as RI did. So I am blissfully unaware of the tunes and lyrics of "Shine On Me" (2000) and "Where I Belong" (2001).


Andrew Gan's reminded me that it's Racism Week this week! How could I have missed this special occasion, marked by 2Lers?

It might be just me, but it does seem that Screwed Up Girl only calls or SMSes when she needs something from me. Gah.