Combined bookout post:

Restored Post

I think physical and mental afflictions feed on and reinforce each other. This probably accounted for my breaking down when I went back to camp on the 13th. I also wasn't in much of a state (neither did I have the disposition) to take down quotes and notes for that half week.

Then again I think the volume of notes has decreased recently. Have I run out of things to say? Or have I just grown accustomed to being enslaved. Oh well.

We used to have, in the Recruits' Annex, a TV with no buttons (they were all removed for some reason), stuck at Channel 5. Now we have a new (or semi-new at any rate) one, with a VCD player too! Of course, we're only allowed to play legal VCDs. The illegal ones are resolved for non-recruits. Someone brought in a VCD of 2002, and while those with 5 O Level passes and above were at the SIT test, they watched the movie 5 times or so.

I'm less than 100kg now, so I have to do the SOC. Ahhh! I hate jumping down from such heights. Jacob's Ladder particularly scares me. I'm not worried about not completing it - I don't give two hoots about my ability or courage, just about being injured.

Apparently everyone, even mild mannered sorts, come out of Slavery spouting vulgarities. I am the only survivor, though unclean thoughts (of this nature!) sometimes trouble me. I think I will survive this assault on my sensibilities though!

I think the same guy who rasped "loop loop loop right loop" is at it again. He was leading one of the songs in Pitch Bender mode, with his pitch varying greatly. I wonder if he got punished.

Suggested way of telling rank: The lower the person's Smart 4 sleeves, the higher his rank.

My wrapping my towel at the chest level instead of the waist level is still causing no end of consternation and comments. People pronounce it disgusting - what's so disgusting about it anyhow? And now some are trying to tear the towel away. Gah.

We've passed by the old Camp 1 on a few occasions. It looks terrible and very dreary. I'm sure glad we don't have to live there anymore.

Due to my second attack of flu last week, I couldn't go for the SITuational Test. It was conducted by Bravo, my old company, so it was quite harsh. I just hope I'm not attached to another company to do it. I'll be with the Enhanced people then. Whee.

We had 3 blinds during the Live Grenade Throw. Which means we got back really late. Grr.

Apparently one person didn't know what 5BX was when he was quizzed by the Commanding Officer, so now the whole of School 1 has to do 5BX every morn. !@#$%^&*().

We had 2 washing machines to serve the whole company (slightly under 200 people). Now they have been removed. Ahhh!!!

After the Chinese New Year week, I was 89kg due to my bout of flu. Now I'm 89.5kg, probably due to water replenishment. Oh well, it earned me 30 pushups (20 + 10).

On the day before we booked out for Hari Raya, we had a Mat Food special for lunch. Too bad most of it was hot, so I couldn't eat it. Apparently they whipped up a feast for Chinese New Year too, but we were at Field Camp, eating Field Rations (bleah).

Just before they let us go, we had to go for the Battle Inoculation Course. Leopard Crawling and Back Crawling is tiring and painful. It was sunny during the days preceding BIC, but it *had* to rain just before we went. Luckily it wasn't enough to make the ground muddy. For some reason, they had 2 speakers blaring out battle noises while we were crawling. Quite dumb, I think. But after it I saw Sergeants and, yes, Officers (our OC even) cleaning weapons (the GPMG) for the first time.

I went to "8 on the Bay" for dinner last night. The waiter greeted me with "Just booked out, Sir?" and the waitress with "My brother also booked out today. Commandos". Well.


Quotes:

"Law Meng Soon, I don't want you to spend 4 months in BMTC and the only English phrase you'll speak is 'Permission to recover, Sir'"

"[On the impotent cough medicine from the Medical Centre] I use it to slepp [and only to sleep]"

"Description of SFG-87. Shape - oval shaped. Not like some fucker who said 'papaya' this morning... Does [a] papaya look like a grenade?"

Less than 5 weeks to Passing Out!

All while Bunny Killer's having lots of fun in Melbourne. Ahh the Medicine course will start soon and the fun will begin. Then the A Level results will come and all the Singaporean students will screw the Australian Universities and leave (awww).

Kettle Chips may have fat, but they use Sunflower Oil, with 75% less Saturated Fat than Palm Olein (in which most potato chips available in Singapore and probably South East Asia and Australiasia are fried).

Ahh and I got my first mail about RGS Yearbooks.

"Uh...
i just would like to know when the year 2001 yearbook page would be complete...or are you even working on it? hehehh...and i would really,really appreciate it if you email me...thanks alot!"

Not a male name, so I reckon the poor girl's yearbook has been stolen by an ACS hotblood.


Something in my talk21.com mailbox from long ago:

Your eBay name [Ed: Agagooga] is the Giak word for hungry!

Well, so maybe I didn't make that word up after all... Words come from the strangest places in your memory :)


The TV in my parents' room broke down, so my father bought a new one. Unfortunately he succumbed to techno-lust and bought a LCD one. 15 inches, that is. I wonder how he's going to watch television on a 15 inch screen. A flatscreen CRT model was twice the size at half the price. Oh well.

Bleah, I screwed up my ICQ somehow. Suppose I'll have to switch to Trillian.

And I've been sleeping inordinately much today, and getting headaches when I wake. I *must* get sick during bookout. Gah.

9:45PM:
Problem solved. My message history was corrupted. And Trillian has no keyboard shortcut features. Bleah.

Woke up reluctantly. Very reluctantly. Funny how i'm becoming a bunk pig (snor-kkkkh). Got to know some more pple in ormond college over breakfast, returned to room to put clothes in washing machine. cycle would take abt 45 minutes, so I went down to the gym. Reluctantly again. Watched the clock: 10 minutes b4 the cycle was due i dropped everything and went gleefully back to check. At which point I realized i should have dumped my towel and workout clothes in too. Then I put my stuff in the dryer.
And it just occurred to me I had 45 minutes to get down to queen vic market to meet the rest of them (12 noon). Parents called, then I called danny to say I would be a *bit* late. Tried to turn the knob on the dryer so it would take less time, but clothes weren't dry yet.
Tried removing smaller, dryer items e.g. socks. Waited again. Folded some shirts/shorts that were dry. Jeans still quite damp. Waited again.
Jeans still a little damp, so I hung them on my chair (this guy i met said his clothes would dry very quickly in the afternoon, yeah it was past noon already) and left for queen vic market. 12.20pm. Took a tram, but by the time i had my coins ready and nobody else was using the ticket vending machine the tram had already reached queen vic market. Hopped off and called danny again. Oh, and 30 seconds into my phone call this old angmoh guy started yelling at me for hogging the phone. Met up with them at 12.45pm


Wandered abt market/city for most of the afternoon, made it back to college in time for dinner. Met more pple- including this ex-VJ choirgirl- who Doesn't want to join a choir in uni because of how hard her choir conductor was on the choirmembers. More and more interesting pple!

Hmm. My microfibre shorts have slits up the sides- they go down to midcalf, so the slit's from midcalf to knee. Suppose it's for running.

College orientation starts tomorrow lunch. I'd better go get sandals/slippers/thongs; didn't bring a pair and don't want to spoil my current sports shoes. Sports shoes. Which reminds me of the scene in "xiao3 hai2 bu2 ben4"- where the mum bribes her happening daughter by buying her a pair of the adidas(?) sports shoes she wanted from queensway, and the daughter forgot all abt her grudge with her mother and was ecstatic abt them, and the mum and dad discussed how easy it was to influence their children and mentioned the New Singapore Shares incentive in the same breath.

Andrew gan

Gabriel i sent you a postcard- hope you like the picture. Found it in a cafe or eatery thingy called restaurant notturno, lygon street. Scan it onto yr homepage or something (=. Collection of quirky postcards increasing.

And i was telling my brother abt kettle chips, and he pointed out that the fat content was rather high-slightly higher than pringles (34g of fats per 100g serving). Ah well. There're always fruits.
Ah the tall/slim whatzhernehm girl's name is tiffany.

Went to a "restaurant porchetta"-italian- on rathdowne st. Rather far- walking down from lygon st, everyone we met said it was "another 2 blocks" down but turned out to be a lot more. But it's pretty good esp the pizzas and cheaaaaap- $6.00 per person and we were absolutely stuffed! Julia was calculating, if 4 girls ate there all they would need is one large pizza (between 5 of us we shared 2 large pizzas, one fettucine carbonara and one lasagna) and they would pay, like, $2.00 a person! Intersection cafe between elgin st and lygon st is pretty cheap, especially on the half-price offers on thursday. Dunno abt the quality, though.

Enjoyable time shopping in melbourne central. Found this place called "cotton on" with a good sale on- bought a pair of funky microfibre long shorts and a white/green athletic sleeveless tee. Was tempted to buy this fitted sleeveless black tee with beige print of an eagle on it but it's somewhat beng and very un-me- would never find a suitable occasion to wear it (unless i joined a biker gang or went clubbing). Other bargains there too- but don't know where to get classical cds from here. Suggestions anyone? Oh. Apart from HMV.

Going to swanston st. church of christ, services at 9,11, 7pm. Dunno which to go to. Don't even know what the church/services are like.

SERVE pple are coming back from pen. malaysia today!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and sarah's attending OCF here too! OCF buddy!

And .... rick jiang is here too. Studying med 1st year tooo. Surprise, surprise.

Andrew gan

Booked out on the 7:15pm boat. Tired.

Just one thing to say for now:

KETTLE CHIPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Updated homepage- under request changed description of huihui on my prom photo collection in Perspective.

http://www.geocities.com/marshmall0w/prom/index2.html

And my telephone no. (in case i forget) is 9344-1586,
address: Room 4.12 McCaughey Court, Ormond College, Parkville 3052, Victoria, Australia
[Ed: Please favour with many nuisance calls and heaps of junk mail]

Hello,

I'm in comp lab 2, somewhere near a wilson hall in uni of melbourne.
Arrived here on sunday night. Since the bunch of med pple i'm closest to
here have gone shopping for handphones, i have nothing to do (at least
until 6.30pm here, when i plan to give my brother in london a wake-up
call).
Sunday 17 Feb: Sent to ormond college. Settle down, unpack enough stuff
to put bedsheet on bed and have a bath. Sleep.
Monday 18 feb: First thing in the morning, spent A$2.00 on calls to my
father. Public phone calls cost $0.40 per minute or thereabouts, i got
a wrong no., then nobody in my dad's room picked up, then i called my
father's singapore handphone (he had global roaming activated at a high
price just before leaving) at $0.80 a minute. Walked down from college
to hotel ibis (next to the queen victoria market). Brought my father
and his friend (a relative- erm my father's cousin's wife's
brother-in-law- he came along for holiday and to check on a property here) around
ormond college, then went around the city for meals and a little
shopping. Bought kettle chips (still unopened, i have a sore throat and daren't
touch them), power adaptor, extra bedsheets, water bottle, aqua shoes,
shampoo, set up bank account. Met father's friend/relative's nephew-
this really cool guy called kelvin tan. He's 28, quite cute, good bod,
he's got a bachelor's and master's degree in media arts- sound spec!
ialisation, RMIT, and plans to work in the media industry. He's cut
one mini-album and his first major one's gonna be launched in 1 month's
time- techno sounds. Also going to love ballads because of the
popularity, but his real interest is in heavy metal- offspring, limp bizkit (?)
and stuff. Oh, and he used to be a saints' rugger in singapore a long
time ago but he's hardly the jock stereotype. And no i'm not providing
his number.

Then had supper with dr. peter lee- my father's uni classmate and good
friend. He's an obs/gyn with his own practice in ferntree gully (yes
the cartoon was based on a real place) in the more rural areas, near glen
waverly, east of melbourne. Got a really nice clinic (it's actually a
refurbished residential house converted into a clinic) with imacs
everywhere, and a wonderful home thereabouts.
Forgot to bring along my saline and contact lens case, so dr. lee had
to drive me back to ormond to get them so i could remove my contacts and
go to my father's hotel to sleep.

Tuesday 19 feb: Spent all following nights sleeping in my father's
hotel room. Some shopping again0 stationery/toiletries, then had lunch in
restaurant coretto in lygon st. Salmone pasta- quite fishy and
creamy/cheesy, but i liked the taste. Huuuge portion, $12. Must remember to
contact melvin tay's friend in lygon st to pass stuff from the former to
the latter.

Wednesday 20 feb: Can't really remember what i did... i think i went to
the uni international reception centre in the morning, met davin and
danny there as well as my student mentor- alvin. He's a malaysian,
schooled in singapore, did foundation studies in trinity, then entered uni of
melbourne, now 4th yr engine. Apparently a lot of similar cases. A LOT.
Then arranged to meet chaowan in ormond college and we spent the
afternoon wandering around college and uni (caught in a deluge of rain late
afternoon and discovered to my horror my umbrella was broken in many
places). Coincidentally bumped into dev chak- our batch, S02B, studying
engineering first year, was talking to him. Then i went down to city to
do a spot of shopping. Bought umbrella, tupperware, and a yellow
sleeveless tee with a barbed wire motif. My first clothes purchase (= @ $15.
Westco (yes, bought it at westco)'s shop assistant told me will smith
was going to village cinema for the premiere of Ali, and i saw a!
crowd of pple waiting there. Waited there with them for 3 minutes,
then got impatient with self-indulgent and tardy movie stars and left.
Dinner at china bar (cardigan st, really good asian fare, big portions,
abt $A7.00 ) with kelvin and father and father's friend, then went to
kelvin's apartment (there was an advertisement for a flatmate- a 25-yr
old male asking for a 20-25yr old female flatmate to share apartment,
included a picture of Robert Downey jr. which he claimed was his mug) Then
met up with another one of my father's friends- an indian couple from
singapore who migrated to melbourne. Husband was a psc scholar, did his
master's in criminollogy in melbourne, then was serving his bond in
police, then ministry of home affairs (btw he agrees heartily abt the
social engineering conducted here) and was not very happy abt career
prospects- that talented and suitable candidates had to wait their turn to
join the old boys' club and get promotions and move career-wise. Wi!
fe also did master's in social work in melbourne, both of them decided
to migrate to a small town off melbourne to stay. They travel quite a
lot, come back to singapore quite often (they don't have children),
very nice couple. Promised to look out for me and take me out sometimes.

Thursday 21 feb: Said goodbye to father (he's leaving later on), and
went for orientation. Wanted to eat fruits for breakfast but the stuff I
bought from queen vic market had gone soft and slightly rotten after 3
days�. Salvaged a peach. Lemme see..... there were the medics from rjc
chenyi, tingru, chaowan, danny, sarah, julia the J4 (singapore citizen,
waited one year and 2 months to get into melbourne, everyone keeps on
asking her what she's spent the whole last year doing, she claims she
was a kindergarten teacher), Jiamin who spent a couple of months in rj
then went to trinity college, melbourne to do 1-yr foundation studies
(equivalent of a-levels or pre-us). Sue-anne and another girl whose name i
have temporarily forgotten, the one with a boyfriend in ns, tall/slim,
from tjc/vjc i think. And xiumin, ri choir/vjc/ns, 2 yrs my senior.
Davin, tjc, indonesian. Albert, who've i've just discovered was my primary
school clasmate primary 1 through 3, acps/acs i/njc but still v!
ery ac-ish outwards, There's supposed to be atomic liao's daughter who
also did the trinity college 1-yr foundation studies but i haven't met
here yet. And a hwachong girl called trudy- could tell from the first
glance she was from singapore by the look and the giordano tee (my
theory is that every teeen from singapore owns a collection of giordano
apparel- which reminds me- SImply Giordano is out! With the suede ribbed
tees- are they nice??). Would be much easier to find out who she is if i
had something like a first name to work with. Malaysians from malaysia-
wayne, gan chun hao, NAVINA!!! my j1 asean scholar classmate who went
to malaysia for J2, oliver, a taiwanese, migrated to canada. And dev
from engineering, and a bunch of 3 dark short rj girls, definitely rjc,
they look pretty familiar- i think one of them is peishan or peixuan or
soemthing like that.

Rumour has it a level results out on 1 march, since o level results out
on the same week in february or thereabouts.
Andrew gan

Oh well. Back to camp.

I hope I don't break down tonight like I did on Wednesday night.

At least I'll be back on Friday, and not including today, we have 37 days to Passing Out!

Maybe I should get a dog to lavish my love on. I think I'm quite fond of the Samoyed.

Sometimes I wonder what's the point. 18 months, and at the snap of a finger it's over. Despite how horrible I'm feeling now though, I still think I experienced a Pareto improvement.

It's very easy to become cynical and disillusioned, but I think that's not the path I will take.


Seeing how lazy and lax I've become, I'll probably combine my thoughts [for my bookout post] from the last (half-)week with those from the forthcoming (half-)week.

With the first cloning of an animal, feminists (or more often, female chauvinists) were often heard to proclaim arrogantly, "men are no longer needed".

Now it seems women can be made redundant too.

Men redundant? Now we don't need women either

"Doctors are developing artificial wombs in which embryos can grow outside a woman's body. The work has been hailed as a breakthrough in treating the childless.

Scientists have created prototypes made out of cells extracted from women's bodies. Embryos successfully attached themselves to the walls of these laboratory wombs and began to grow...

'We hope to create complete artificial wombs using these techniques in a few years,' said Dr Hung-Ching Liu of Cornell University's Centre for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility...

Artificial wombs could end many women's childbirth problems - but they also raise major ethical headaches...

said organiser Dr Scott Gelfand, of Oklahoma State University. 'Some feminists even say artificial wombs mean men could eliminate women from the planet and still perpetuate our species. That's a bit alarmist. Nevertheless, this subject clearly raises strong feelings.'...

Crucially, both believe artificial wombs capable of sustaining a child for nine months will become reality in a few years...

It also has serious ethical implications, as Gelfand pointed out. 'For a start, there is the issue of abortion. A woman is usually allowed to have one on the grounds she wants to get rid of something alien inside her own body.

'At present, this means killing the foetus. But if artificial wombs are developed, the foetus could be placed in one, and the woman told she has to look after it once it has developed into a child.'

In addition, if combined with cloning technology, artificial wombs raise the prospect that gay couples could give 'birth' to their own children. 'This would no doubt horrify right-wingers, while the implications for abortion law might well please them,' he added.

Gelfand also warned that artificial wombs could have unexpected consequences for working women and health insurance. 'They would mean that women would no longer need maternity leave - which employers could become increasingly reluctant to give.

'It may also turn out that artificial wombs provide safer environments than natural wombs which can be invaded by drugs and alcohol from a mother's body. Health insurance companies could actually insist that women opt for the artificial way.

'Certainly, this is going to raise a lot of tricky problems.'"

Most interesting.

I believe that, at the very least, every other person I know is downgraded. Probably more.

Zhongyong is the latest lucky chap, kudos to him! Well done.

Sad way to spend a Saturday night bookout:

Sick and typing examination papers. Oh well.