Saturday, June 08, 2002

On the other hand, he missed my vein.

That sounds horrifying.

I found a nice quiz too- take it, everyone!




*bard*

a magician with enchanting musical abilities

clever; artsy; fun
Final Fantasy Tactics Job Class


Also, I found a very, very cute (and well made) flash animation with a nice song:
Wind's Nocturne

Hm, let's turn this into a quiz saturated blog! That'll be fun.
Finally found a quiz gabriel might approve of. Gabriel take it!!

You are Fozzie!
Wokka Wokka! You love to make lame jokes.
Your sense of humor might be a bit off, but you're a great friend and can always be counted on.
.



On another note, I'm not msging invidia on icq anymore. I don't know why i bother- i get a reply once in a blue moon, and a civil one even more rarely.


This sounds like a Kamal idea. I bet it is. It certainly looks like one.

Bookout post:

Restored Post

Monday was another day of tests, so we just rotted in the stuffy and hot company auditorium. Quite a few of us got comfortable and went to sleep at the back.

I finally brought bak kwa into camp! Yeh.

World Cup season is here. Because we have no access to televisions, people are reduced to listening to the matches on the radio. Or crowding around the windows of the Mess and peering in. And soccer betting has started. It seems that many of my bunk mates are betting on football results and have been earning, from my buddy's measly $2 to Roy's $1000 (followed by $500 the next day). I do wonder if anyone loses money. It certainly doesn't seem so. Perhaps due to World Cup (and maybe betting) euphoria, we got to wake up half an hour later one morning and didn't have to do 5BX. Yeh.

The cookhouse always doesn't cook enough, and so they run out of dishes often. And when they -do- cook enough, the SFI people often refuse to give us more food, claiming that there are still people who haven't eaten. In the end, they often throw a lot away. We were quite upset at the measly (even for this place) portions on Monday, so we started helping ourselves to a fruit buffet from the fridge - Kiwi, Pineapple and Honeydew. To add to their list of evil deeds, they've locked the ice machine so we can't take ice anymore. Which is why I don't drink anything in the mornings nowadays.

He with the Killer 5BX (1 set consists of: Burpees - 10 counts of 10, 10 Go-up-halfway Situps, 10 pushups, 10 crunches, 10 spider pushups, 10 flutter kicks, 10 diamond pushups, 10 bicycle kicks ) finally joined us for our morning exercise. And after 1 set (we did 3 the first time and 3 and a bit more the second), he let us go for breakfast. Hehe.

One guy was bathing in front of the sinks in the toilet with the hose. And he had his shorts on. That's one step up from bathing in underwear!

1 of the Malay Sergeants told the Malays that if they ate from the Chinese food stall in the canteen, they'd sign extra guard duties. Ridiculous.

Those who had no leave left had leave deducted from next year's leave. Evil SAF!

New Town Secondary's Chinese name is "Guang1 Wei3". So it joins He2 Gu3 Zhong1 Xue2 in the league of schools whose names don't translate directly.

We had partner swapping on Wednesday - I poked and was poked by Yew Yew. And in the field in front of the lecture block too (which is actually cooler than the training shed). He is a joy to poke - his veins are very large and prominent! I finished my IV very quickly. On the other hand, he missed my vein. Looks like only my buddy is good enough to hit me :) And apparently said buddy's blood clots very quickly, so it's not just me. So both of us have complications that make it hard for people to hit us.

Zhang has an interview for the President's Scholarship! Woah.

Apparently Vitamin E can help get rid, or at least lighten, the stupid 16g scars. Hope is in sight! Current scar total: 4. At least 3 to go (during my course) and 13 during Reservist. Ugh.

I opened a Mobile E-Mart one night. And sold $7.50 worth of food! Though the bulk hasn't been paid to me. And it turns out I sold some items (like Almond Kit Kat) for a loss. Oh well.

The contagion of sore eyes (viral conjunctivitis in most of the cases methinks) has hit our camp. In one platoon, more than half were decimated by this scourge. Our dear CO has decreed that future cases of sore eyes will have to be referred to Maju Camp. And those infected do not get to rest at home, but are contained in quarantine in camp! Bah.

Zhang told some RI guy who went to RJ was told that I was from RJ. And on taking a closer look, he uttered thus, "Were you from RI?... Oh no, it's that Gabriel... How do you do IV now?". My infamy precedes me.

As we all know, SAF tests are impossible to fail. Except IPPT and SOC, that is. But I've recently been exposed to the next generation of SAF tests. They involve a group of people sitting around the tester and each being asked questions until he gets one correct.

Everything we have says "Property of SAF". I think if they could, they'd tattoo that on us too.

Someone liked Musharraf's face so much that he took the Economist out of my fieldpack when I was not in the company audit and ripped the front cover off. Grr.

I finally did prowling (with Zhang) during Guard Duty. I hate the half-sweating feeling. It's terribly sticky and neither here nor there. I got only 3 1/2 hrs sleep during my duty. And when I came back I promptly slept for 3 hours.

Just before booking out after guard duty, someone peed in the water bottle of someone whom most of the platoon dislikes. I feel quite bad, but I think I couldn't have done anything anyhow.


Quotes:

"Quietly, arrange your things and get lost from this training shed. Go to canteen and hide. (to the)"

"His son also auditioned for the President's Scholarship (was interviewed)"

"[On another section mate] Quarantine? Is that his Christian name?"

"[On the new permstaff] How often do you get to fuck a woman in Number 4? Tell me how often... In your lifetime. Zero right?" (...)

"[On some porn film called 'Pussy Cartel'] [Me: Isn't porn haram?] I know porn is haram but I like it. I like to indulge in sin."

"[On the Course Commander believing he's a great orator] I think we're the unlucky ones. He went for some public speaking class..."

"My SOC timing is 7 minutes, I think. Just to clear the low wall."
Oh. There *is* another female over here. With pedophilic tendencies! Except that she doesn't post.
Oh yah... let's organise a get-together everyone! I'll be back on 18th, so anytime from june 19 to 27.
On june 28 to july 7 i'll be in trengganu
Or from july 7 to july 18 (i fly off on the 19th).

Gabriel you'll only be free on weekends right? When/what time's best for you?
Kai what abt u?
And the rest of u have school? Common tests? (vague memories of school life) When's good? I'm terribly indecisive so ... must fix a date/place or else i'll never get down to it (not to mention my lack of a handphone makes me inaccessible

Friday, June 07, 2002

Just watched the England-Argentina Match .... 1-0 Beckham rulez!!!!!!

lalala!
(clip (petulantly) 'ed's shouldn't abuse their powers and spout untruths!!!)
lalala!

[Ed: Football sucks. And non-admins shouldn't remove the editor's comments and claim opinions are untruths for fear of strange things happening!]

We (the royal we) should not trust admin "ed"s with bad spelling, yes? (hearty chorus of 'Yes'es)
*We are Not amused.
Finished my biggie paper this morning. Ha, a question on coagulative necrosis came out, Thanks everyone who answered my queries on it !!!
(Will post the question later for alluvya to answer)

Skipped lunch, so i had a large gelati waffle cone (WHEEeee... if you've ever tried the Lygon st gelati you'll know why... it's blissful heavenly cloud-stuff) and went shopping- bought Charades with Audrey Hepburn! and Cary Grant, for $10.
I'm back for a while, on my enforced block "leave" and am leaving in under half an hour for guard duty. (...)

I wanted to watch ET today but there was no time as I had to return in time to go for duty. So in the end I ended up watching Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron with Screwed Up Girl.

Interestingly, the horses did not speak English, but neighed and grunted all the way, except for intermittent narration/voiceovers by the protagonist. This was rather refreshing. Of course, it could also be that they wanted to save money :)

And there was an irritating song sung by a very airy guy, who turned out to by Bryan Adams, whom I've not heard around for a long long time. Which doesn't say much actually, since I don't listen to modern music. But the airiness. The airy singing. Oh, deliver us from the unbearable agony!

There's this shop in Suntec which specialises in antique guns, but they also have a smattering of nice swords and axes. They had a complete suit of armour (with sword) for $7,588. Not bad, though it's authenticity did look a bit suspect (even to my untrained eye, primarily due to a heart symbol egregiously located on the breastplate).

And I saw Shuyu in This "Lian" Fashion. She's highlighted her hair. Ooo.

On the MRT home, some guy started talking to me. He started suggesting I run some, and thought I was in Sec 3. He was very happy for some reason to find out I was a slave, and claimed that a local degree was better than an overseas degree because it was cheaper and the exams were easier. Or something. Turns out he was from the RI Class of 1952, and he spent one term in Hualalalala. Apparently RI boys were bad in Chinese last time. Some things don't change! Too bad I had to get off at my stop.

With the advent of EZ-Link, not only can we not pay an easy to remember, universal bus fare of 60 cents, we also don't get bus tickets, useful for scribbling things like my URL, anymore! Darn.

Thursday, June 06, 2002

I asked Agagooga who aureate was, he told me person in question was the only female member on the blog, and I said this:

aureate is associated with SPYWARE in my head :P

which prompted a "Why don't YOU post that".

Which I have done.

Sorry, it just is. Spyware is evil. Therefore Aureate is evil. :D
Feel sik. I mean sick. Got out of my room at 4pm (which shows how late i stayed in/not studying)
Darn... i'm hungry again. Sushi place is closed.

Still haven't found anyone to go to trengganu with me .... Ex-classmate (who returned to malaysia to study) isn't free; he went there before and waited till 3am for the turtles to come but didn't spot a single one.

serene's blog is "mugger.blogspot.com"?? *boggle*

Wednesday, June 05, 2002

haha this is funny: (from the med fac discussion board)

PLEASE ANSWER ME NOW!

NEED HELP ASAP
help or die

On the other hand it isn't as funny as i thought. That is very likely me closer to the exam. Then again it's already very close to the exams. Plural.
Island punch was #7 in line for me.

What Jelly Belly flavor are you? I'm -

Find your flavor here!

Sorry gabriel i couldn't help myself
i love Jelly Belly Beans!!!
And i love my description (though i can't stand the taste of tangerine JBs, Island Punch beat them all the time!)

What Jelly Belly flavor are you? I'm -

Find your flavor here!

I think i'm un-patriotic.
i think i was the worst psl, andrew. i broke rules, didn't bother to remember my psg's names or birthdays, didn't counsel them adequately, or even plan sessions properly. ah well.

I wrote (and by some odd coincidence) published writing
was it the eotw one?:) i was going to have it read after your untitled poem, but i forgot to bring the book. the ho couldn't stop grinning after she heard your name.

*Must be more sensitive to people's feelings. Will not refer to friends (or friends' blogs) as ditzy.
they'll understand you meant it in the nicest possible way if they really were friends, yknow:) i call juditz that without any malice.

i thought "dude, where's my car?" was funny, but i wouldn't be if i had bought tickets for it:) i'll catch the sequel on vcd, my degenerate friends have a knack for procuring those.

also, being the only female member on this blog, i feel it my duty to remind you of my worth. ;)

Tuesday, June 04, 2002

Arrrggghh.. my sleeping time's been screwed. Slept from 9pm to 12 midnight today, woke up to go back to cell signalling/ membrane receptor notes.

Hmmm..... just realized "a fire-fly" is just 3 vowels (and an "s") away from "raffles". Darn meadows.blogspot.com [Ed: Weird Cappers blog eh. Why don't you join it? :)

'ice fall
"Wondered what the females would do if the men went to war."

they'd masturbate or engage in passionate lesbian sex, i imagine.

sere
No we wouldn't. Not all the time anyway. That's because females do think about other things than sex, sometimes.'

Right.]

I think i'm un-patriotic. Dis-loyal in a sense. Am I? i was the one whom eugene, my fellow psl, got mad at during the last peer support meeting 'cos i got sick and tired of the feel-good cheering and the dis-individualisation process and just gave up. And told one of my sec 1s about.

I wrote (and by some odd coincidence) published writing that started off "I didn't care much for the place" describing it. And was railed for it- both for being reminiscent and nostalgic, and for being critical and not "doing the right thing". Got complimented unexpectedly - from tai heng (which i was greatly appreciative for (= ). Who allegedly detested his years in are jay see.

*Must be more sensitive to people's feelings. Will not refer to friends (or friends' blogs) as ditzy. At least not publicly. *

Sunday, June 02, 2002

I've been rostered on once in august 25 on synth in CoC. So there go part of my worries about over-stretching myself. Oh hold on, seems like everyone else is rostered about once in 4 weeks ... (i wasn't rostered in until august 'cos i wouldn't be back till late late july) will that mean in the next roster i'll have more?

Esmond looks good with black hair, with his fair skin. Then again, today (rather yesterday) was the first time i ever saw him with black hair.

Should i call home? Parents should be back by now... then again they might worry why i'm still up (and i can't say i was studying... because i wasn't!). Then again they might not know the time difference.
Arrrrgggh! Forgot to ask if he wants to go to the library. And it's too indecent a time to call him (12.15am) besides, he's probably on the phone.

(btw, the one in the middle of the movie poster has the same look that vampire cum preener has. And is white to boot. )
Anonymous comment: Wow... are you sure that they're guys? That one (the one on the centre) has such nice legs!!
Another: Of course lah... guys have nice legs.
Yet another: Thing is, he *shaved* his legs.

And as i elaborated to gabriel on saturday, I think i can prepare better pasta than the ormond kitchen staff - using a packet of Home Brand semolina spaghetti, a bottle of Five Brothers pasta primavera sauce, and a microwave that is. As i did for my Real dinner. If there's something i can't stand it's the weekly pasta nite on saturday (The only thing worse is when they decide to make a weekday dinner Pasta nite). But sunday brunch makes up for it (= Speaking of which, i should invite my friends down for the ormond sunday brunch, I hardly used my brunch card, and it's still got, like 10 brunches left on it for this semester. Ah- the sunday during exams .... or maybe the sunday after! Then we can go shopping after that! ( = *wheeee*

I like my current hair-length. It's at a manageable, appropriately-fluffy state (and it still fits under a cap, like before on bad-hair-day-Friday) but it's troublesome to make it look neat. Now at least.

http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/archive/getfuzzy-20020529.html
Travesty of travesties ...
I was reading a quotation on a note- "Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his mid-gut" and blinked. And blinked. And read it again- "Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might". Awww... embryology!!

Was just showing the rest of the pple in the computer lab how to open netscape. IT people are trying to install Windows 2000 on all the computers, and format them, and in the process, the Start menu on all computers was fiddled with. Now only MSIE, accessories, command prompt are available. I opened netscape directly by running the executable file in c:\program files\netscape\communicator\program\

After Grease OST... was playing my Wow cds again... sometimes i wonder what sally thinks of this guy who at one *down* stage, kept on playing the jars of clay/rebecca st. james' songs in his collection (6 in total); and spent the whole weekend listening to the Grease soundtrack (i think i can practically write out an arrangement for the theme song "Grease")

There's a feedback section on the Topclass website for students in the medical, dentistry and health sciences faculty. I felt like requesting the lecturers and faculty staff to refrain from referring to medical/dental students as "the brightest we have in this university"; to avoid swollen heads.

Galen claims there weren't any babes in see aye pee this year. (*boggle*) Then again he wasn't paying much attention to the other cappers.

Church of Christ's website is finally.up, and the 9 and 11 am services are listed as "Vibrant Contemporary Worship", whereas the 7pm is "Creative Dynamic Worship". I wonder what the difference is.

Darn scanner isn't working... or else i could scan in the Sorority boys picture with the guy who looks like vampire/preener. Oh! IMDB would have it... heh heh heh....




[Ed: When their less-than-stunning female forms earn them an invite to a "dog catcher" party at their old frat, they decide to brave the harassment so they can grab the rest of their belongings from the house and make a clean break.]

That is the _most_ number of personality tests on one page I've ever seen at once. Really. Geez.

I took the Sorting Hat one and got into Ravenclaw. Rather neat, I thought. Some of the questions were pretty obvious, though.
Ooh I should find a video capture of that FFX scene then.

This is disgusting. Screwed Up Girl took a personality test (there must be 50 - no kidding - cluttering her weblog by now). A Diablo 2 personality test. And she's never even played that game. !@#$%^&*()
Kore wa watashi no monogatari desu kara~

I've just finished playing Final Fantasy X: International, and I can truly say that it has one of the most touching endings I have ever, ever seen. It's something I'm going to remember for a long, long time. If you haven't played it, maybe you should be giving some thought (serious thoughts, at that) at finding some way of playing Final Fantasy X. The story itself is worth it.

Of course, if you play the International / American version, you're going to have to suffer through the horrible, horrible Tidus / Yuna voiceovers. There was this one scene which almost made me want to break down and cry, and it wasn't because it touched my heart. Urrrrk. Still, the story's worth it. Then, after you complete the game, watch the "Another Ending" for a wonderfully optimistic "I'll find my own tomorrow" message from Yuna herself. Of course, you want to see Rikku again as well. (At least, I did.)

Need I mention the fact that I'm a sucker for such endings? They always get me. Every time. Then there's that wonderful vocal track, Suteki da ne (It's Wonderful). And those beautifully rendered environments. And those lifelike motion captured character animations. And the improved Sphere Grid system.

Go play it.

This is my story...
Yesterday's outing was quite good. 6 people turned up - me, Ken, Nelson, Tze Li, Kumar and Seetoh. Actually 2 more were supposed to come, but Jermyn had guard duty and Royston's fever had worsened after his IV.

Because large groups always eat at relatively cheap places, we ate at Burger King, and 4 of them King Sized (one of the myriad of suggestions I made end 1998 or so, earning $25 in vouchers for my effort) their meals - and managed to finish everything! I remember the time or two I tried that option, I felt totally sick even without finishing everything on the tray. Oh well. No wonder they reduced the price of King Sizing to 30 cents. They now have Prawn Cutlets. Nice, but too little is given for the $2.90 price.

Then after that we went to watch Panic Room. Good movie, and interesting camera techniques, though I think there are way too many shots showing Jodie Foster's cleavage.


Apparently the USSR was not a party to international copyright laws, so the Ak-47 Rifle was shamelessly pirated. Aww.

In Tiong Bahru Plaza, beside the U2, there is a shop called U2too. Its range of merchandise doesn't seem to be drastically different from U2. Hmm.

Bought 4 pairs of shorts for homewear. Yeh.
Bookout post:

Restored Post

2 of our sergeants seem to have been getting stricter recently. One uber relaxed one, who seems to smile when giving drill commands and whom everybody but Roy and me think looks like Brain from Pinky and the Brain, but we two think looks like Pinky, has become ever so subtly more strict - he was the one who made us do 6 rounds around the parade square last week when previously, we'd not even run round the parade square in the mornings, and he's been knocking people down more. Which may be why people have become less taken to singing the Pinky And The Brain theme when he approaches. The other is the previously mentioned "garang" sergeant, whose professed philosophy of "whack hard, give lots of welfare" has become more evident recently (He actually promised us many nights off if we performed well, but so far it seems nights off are all given in company level, so). He's become a lot more particular about us shouting loudly, tightening our boot laces, locking our arms when marching and doing drills properly recently, and on tuesday and wednesday our reward for going to the parade square earlier than other platoons was to be knocked down (as a "lesson" in how to lock our arms when marching). We are also now supposed to shout when talking to him, even one on one, but thankfully that has lapsed somewhat. I reiterate my stand that shouting damages the voice, so making us shout is actually worse as eventually we will not even be able to attain the pre-injury level!

Whenever we are given physical punishment, the others dismiss it as "nothing". I think if the Army now is like cutting off one arm as opposed to the past's two, and Gryphon Company was cutting off one hand, SMM is like cutting off one finger! :) Though the bottoms of my palms keep getting sore. And I think my hands are becoming rougher by the week. Oh well.

Someone went to stick a cute cartoon of a pig's head on the ice machine in the cookhouse. Hehe.

When it comes to the treatment of insects and other monsters, I think much of my platoon is rather hypocritical. When I kill giant ants or giant spiders, people scold me and moan about my cruelty - "What did the spider do to you?". However, when other people use lighters to burn them (sometimes to a crisp), trap ants and spiders in syringes and put them in a near vacuum for a periods of time and make them fight deathmatches with other insects, no one utters a word (at least not that I've heard). What they do either kills the insects painfully (if they -can- feel pain) or leaves them permanently damaged, while what I do gives them a quick clean death such that they won't come to the bunk to terrorise us.

Jeremy was bored, so he was drawing Lord of the Ring parallels. He claimed that Steven looked like Saruman, I looked like Bilbo (?!) and he himself looked like Sauron. Right.

Last week, we saw a new face walking around camp observing us (one day, she was wearing a witty shirt which said: "Junkies University. Brain cells may come and go, but fat cells live forever!"), and of course, the others were evaluating her (Incidentally, the evaluation was 'not bad'). This week, she got her No 4. She'll probably be the newest female instructor. But she doesn't have the army look. She has slightly dyed hair (isn't that disallowed) and looks like she came from the Poly. Run while you can!

Tuesday night was OC night! So we got to dress guys up as girls. Most of them weren't very convincing, but some were quite good. For some reason, the 'cheap slut' look was in, so most had all manner of tasteless clothing. And many of them didn't shave! Ugh. Folie, our section's Miss SMM, was quite pretty in his outfit. Only thing was that he didn't have a wig. Roe, Section 9's Miss SMM candidate, on the other hand, had this gigantic pink wig and a matching pink boa. While waiting for the results, one of the more convincing "girls" actually did some bodybuilding poses. And then proceeded to wipe "her" sweat with "her" left breast (which seemed to be triangular bandages).

For OC night, someone managed to arrange for 3 real girls to come down, all in matching pink tanks and black hot pants. 2 of them joined the sergeant many people always make fun of for the opening dance (He can dance quite well actually). Of course, they were being evaluated while they were there - "Her butt and breasts are very big... They have the figure. Large hourglass figure... Enormous, you know... Usually, girls like that, [are] very fat... [They aren't] But they have the shape." Sigh. But I do wonder where they got them from.

In the end, my fears were not entirely founded. Our platoon was the only one which did a sketch on army life per se (With Jeremy doing a most excellent impersonation of his namesake). One did one where their instructors had a reunion 20 years down the line, another did a terribly boring and draggy news bulletin and the last a "SMM radio show".

Starved for news, I did what I would not normally do - I read the New Paper, since none other was available. Apparently some woman was sentenced to death by stoning in Pakistan for having sex outside marriage - she'd been raped. But then, since there weren't 4 reputable muslim males who'd testify to having seen the rape, the rapist couldn't be convicted. And her allegation of rape was taken as a confession that she'd sex outside marriage. But then, if 4 muslim males has witnessed the rape but hadn't done anything, then they wouldn't be very reputable, would they? The problems with basing law on the letter, and not the spirit (and a healthy dose of common sense) of the [1300 years old] holy books.

Also in the New Paper was a good quote from someone - "In Democracy, the people place limits on the government, not the other way around". Or something. That was in relation to the rubbish about out of bound markers. I think the article on religion and moral panics was really quite good, though of course some would decry it as the product of ivory towered academics' idealism. They do err too much on the side of caution over here (See? I see not some more sinister intent). Now, what's politics doing in a bookout post? :)

Our catheterisation practice amused most. For some reason, they liked to play with the model penis (not that I didn't poke someone with it once though). For the demonstration, Folie had to put the model in his pants. Oh well. Some fuss was made about female sensibilities - how come they're so privileged? Tis unfair. I also want to be protected from the sight of [mostly Malay] male genitalia in the bunk!

I saw my first private first class! Some reservist guy.

On Wednesday, we were going to have a fantastically early night off - we were going to be able to book out as early as 5:40pm. However, we were delayed by 1 1/2 hrs in the end because someone's cupboard was smashed and his handphone was stolen. So we were searched, and then had to strip to our underwear. Well actually if we'd been a touch earlier we would've escaped - we were the first platoon at the guard room and the first row was almost out of the gate when we were called back. Pity that Simon chose to mumble in response to our sergeant, so he went into the guard room to sulk for 2-3 mins.

Yew Yew bought 3 extra sets of uniforms with his credit, bringing the total to 8 sets. Wah. I actually have an evil plot for using up the $226 of credit we get every year - buy 500 tins of Kiwi and resell it on the black market.

We were supposed to go to a "Service Quality Centre" for 2 days to train our customer service skills. Unfortunately, they cancelled it and we're being forced to take block leave next friday and saturday. So I'll only have 7 days left till december! Stupid SAF. "You can only take leave when the SAF wants you to" - A sergeant in BMT. I think I can kiss the thought of overseas trips goodbye till 12 June 2004. They could actually give us an "off" (meaning we've to come back anytime they call us, but our anemic 14 days of annual leave won't be burned) but they were too stingy. Oh, well actually I've guard duty on Friday. I wonder how that'll work out.

I think I'm losing touch with the world, especially with Singapore, because we don't get newspapers. And merely reading one magazine a week is not enough. It'll have to do, I guess...

We have to pass 10 IVs to pass out, but from what people tell me of their IV experiences, it seems SAF medics aren't very skilled. When Kairen was IVed (for a fever), the medic hit a valve once and missed the vein the second time but pumped the saline in anyway, causing an oedema (a large bulge under the skin - thank Andrew G for providing the term). When Royston got hit recently (also for a fever, and a 37.6 degrees one too), the medic also missed the first time and so the senior medic had to take over. And he felt more tired and lethargic after his IV and his fever got worse, making him miss our section outing to Cineleisure. Oh well. Mayhap they give the lousy medics to those whom they think are trying to skive (low fevers, presumably). Actually I hear that besides unnecessary IVs, some medical officers give more punishments to those they think are trying to skive - one medical officer at Maju used to order the medics to stick their gloved (but unlubricated!) fingers up the rectums of patients reporting sick for diarrhea because he thought all 'diarrhea' cases were fake.

On Friday night, I was bored, so I finally sucuumbed to blandishments and ran 2 rounds around SMM with Roe and Sargunan. When I returned to the bunk, everyone was very surprised, happy and shocked. And Kenneth asked me for 4D numbers. Gah.

Simon calls me "Englishman", and indeed as in BMT I think I am the one whose English is the best in the platoon, though my standard has dropped somewhat. However, even Steven, with his degree from Murdoch University in Australia (and who boasts of having had to plough through texts so arcane that even his father, a University Lecturer, cannot comprehend them) still gets puzzled by the words I use and my sentence structure. Oh well. Some accuse me of using bombastic words, but they seem perfectly normal to me. But then, that was the impression I had of the denizens of vis-a-vis (the Yahoo Groups Group), when I first joined them on it.

The so-called Smoking Hut in the camp looks more like a Smoking Prison to me. It even has bars - the walls reach partway up to the ceiling, and the rest of the distance is covered by grilles.

We had Casualty Evacuation in Built Up Areas (CEBUA) on Saturday in Sungei Gudong (which is so expansive, it looks like Malaysia - with so much land given to the SAF, no wonder we're running out of space in Singapore!). It's actually supposed to be a full day event, but they wanted to be cheapskate and so squeezed it into Saturday's schedule. In the end, 1 1/2 hrs of bookout time was eaten up.

I saw a tin of Soya Oil (not palm!) in the kitchen of the cookhouse. Wow. I wonder if they use it all the time, or if it was just for show.


Quotes:

"[On my 'snack' bag] Do you have a turkey in here?"

"[On a cartoon of a pig's head stuck on the ice machine] Pig's head? Cannot... Ice not halal already (The ice is)"

"[On torturing insects] We don't intend to kill them, just do some permanent damage."

"[On the female dancers brought in for OC night] Her butt and breasts are very big... They have the figure. Large hourglass figure... Enormous, you know... Usually, girls like that, [are] very fat... [They aren't] But they have the shape."

"[On physical punishment] Excused ah?... Cannot do exercise. Later, do area cleaning for 1 hour."

"Look at Zhang, wearing a poncho and talking on the handphone. He's trying to be Count Cuckoo (Star Wars II reference)"

"What time is it? [Other platoon mate: Time to get a watch]"