Restored post

After 2 nights spent at home, I am loath to return to camp to sleep tonight.

I'd thought of booking in tomorrow, but then I remembered that the Company Orderly Sergeant (COS) has to sign in a column to vet the booking in/out entries. Damn.

And though people from other departments might get their fellow department mates to "book in" for them tonight and then come tomorrow, I don't think any medics are in camp now, and anyway we're not the sort to flout regulations so egregiously, albeit not all that riskily.

Anyhow, after 2 nights at home, the marginal utility of one more night is probably less than the marginal cost of risking anything.

Then again, my feet still hurt. But I'll probably need an MC to cover me. Damn.

Decisions, decisions.


My father, in his free time (which is to say most of the time), has been cleaning up my room. He's asking me to look through old books before they're given away.

One pile consists of my old Chinese books. Though I didn't burn any, like my sister did one symbolically after her AO Exams, and I still don't like Chinese, looking at them brings back fond memories.

I miss chinese lessons somewhat. Then again, quoth I:

"As you may have guessed, I really miss Oxford, especially now that I'm in National Service... I think anyone would miss anywhere in National Service" --- Talk On Economics, S Economics and PPE at Oxford

I was struck with a whim, to index what each of the passages in the chapters of the textbooks are about, but I think that's too much trouble.

Surprisingly, besides the usual Chinese moralistic tales lauding dubitable logic and warped morals, Chinese legends and Chinese History, and a scattering of Singapore-related stories (on various events, festivals and places of interest), there are quite a few retellings of English/Western-related stories.

For example:

- The story of the Moonlight Sonata (probably fake)
- Demosthenes' practicing oratory by the sea, facing the waves
- Some boy called Edmondo de Amicis who "loved his country"
- Thomas Alva Edison and how he invented many things
- Mark Twain and how he outsmarted a stingy neighbour
- Levi Strauss and how he invented Jeans
- Amusing anecdotes regarding Albert Einstein
- The last lesson in a school in Alsace-Lorraine before the Prussians took over following the Franco-Prussian War
- Other stories featuring assorted Caucasians whose names I can't figure out after they've been translated into Chinese, necessitating a look at an index at the book's rear

I still have gripes about the logic of some of the "patriots". Take "Wen2 Tian1 Xiang2" for example. He lived during the Song dynasty and when the Mongols invaded, he refused to serve them and eventually was executed. What a TRUE patriot would have done, of course, would be to pretend to serve the Mongols, then doing as much damage as they could behind the scenes.

Looking at the illustrations, I remember my old Chinese Tuition-mate Alex Er, last seen at the MDC auditions, who used to draw on the illustrations, making them quite funny (ie mutilating the pictures and warping them beyond their original meanings).

There are also books I never knew I had. Like "My Progress in Kindergarten", from Damien Centre Kindergarten. 1, Commonwealth Drive. Singapore 0314.

The sole areas I was rated "very good" in both boxes was "Imaginative Play eg. Interest in: Play House, Dressing-up Box, Block Building". I got one good and one very good for most other areas.


I just got spam mail regarding a site called "Singapore Cupid". Bah.