My eventful March and April

It was a busy and eventful March and April for me. Gave me pretty of opportunities to be excused from work in camp. :)

I am officially a student of Singapore Management University. After my pre-matriculation examination at Raffles Hospital, headed down to SMU for submission and collect my student card and the letter to be submitted for my disruption from national service.

One of the benefits of matriculating early is, you get to enjoy free usage of their gym and rooftop swimming pool without paying school fees upfront. I have yet to use it, but probably give it a try soon.

For some personal reason, I applied for admission to National University of Singapore. I was called up for interview and was required to write a personal statement. I spent quite a bit of effort writing the earlier admission essay and it was a writer's block thinking how to draft the personal statement, not making it seems a replicate of my admission essay.

The interview was conducted by 3 professors and the course manager (I think). The first question goes, "Brandon, please tell me about yourself in one minute". I did a verbal diarrhoea, spouting whatever I can think of while trying not to appear nervous. After the interview, met up with Ms. Ng for catching up.

I was offered a place in NUS but I probably go with SMU, I think. My parents want me to reconsider. Damn, I'm so confused right now.

Met up with my ex-colleagues from IRAS last Saturday. The last time I met them was the last day of work in 2003? ha. They did meet up regularly without me because of my commitments back in polytechnic and national service.

A brief introduction to them, they were 'A' level students back then and I was waiting for my polytechnic term to start. Anyway, the 3 girls are doing pretty well, one is a cell researcher in A*STAR, one working in the regulatory field in government sector and the other a credit officer in a local bank.

We met at Boat Quay. I was late as usual, I rushed from camp after finishing up some work. We had dinner at a board games cafe - Pitstop Cafe. It was whole lotsa' fun playing all the weird board games, Tickets to Ride, Taboo, etc. Ha.

Gonna 'book-in' to camp now. Hopefully, next month won't be performing any duty if thing goes my way. Received the outstanding serviceman of the month. :)

Nokia E61i

Two months back, I was devastated at the lost of my Nokia E61. It has all that I wanted, to name a few, QWERTY keypad, third-party applications to enhance its functions and seamless integration with my Macintosh.

Now, I present to you, Nokia E61i in titanium black livery,



It seems this phone is near its end of line (read: EOL). Nokia E series sure has a short lifespan.

I pretty sure this phone will last a long time until my next upgrade.

NSMen Matriculation Exercise

Took time off from camp to attend SMU NSMen Matriculation Exercise today. The matriculation was rather quick, the whole process took 10 minutes or so. It was conducted in a series of lecture halls and I say the lecture halls are an intimidating sight. Unlike the normal polytechnic lecture hall, it is compact in size for the seminar feel, what SMU is famed for.

Paid the confirmation fee (read: ripoff), confirmed my particulars, collected my account particulars, signed some disclaimer and acknowledgment form, took my photo for student card and voilà, to the exit I went.

Anyway, NSMen is a wrong term to use, serviceman who are still serving the 2 years national service liability is called NSF. Only after the 2 years (read: ORD) the serviceman is an NSMan.

A graduand who was serving his time in my unit from disruption told me students from my faculty are encouraged to do a second major. Gosh, I doubt I can survive coping with just one major. But two?!

After the exercise, visited my ex-colleagues. It was nice chatting with everyone, especially with my superior. Something is coming up and they need someone to help out over the weekends. I didn't exactly agree. I'll see how it goes.

First login into my SMU email account,



667 emails. *roll eyes* I doubt I receive that much emails in a year for my main account.

That's all for today. Later.

A jumbled update

Writer's block sets in midway through this post and I ended up lost in thought over what to write. Gee, so a jumbled update for now.

Together with my ex-colleagues from PMO, we visited one of our colleagues who suffered from stage 3 lung cancer. I am not exactly good with comforting words, I have been pondering on how best I can console, before the visit. We tried not to touch on the subject, but I can see she is handling it quite well and her will to survive is indomitable. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy and seems to be recovering well.

Something to muse over. There are certain things that should not have occurred, but it did anyhow. An intention made known not reciprocated in kind should not be pushed any further, lest all that remains is lost. Gee, all this cryptic talk.

Singapore Management University's last matriculation for NSFs this Wednesday. Frankly speaking, national service has drained so much from me that I am not sure whether I can handle the academic pressure I will be facing when semester starts. It doesn't help when you hear people telling you the life there is, attend classes at 0830hrs, leave for home at 2230hrs. Even during FYP days back in TP, I don't even attend classes that early! Gosh.

Spring Cleaning

There was an article I read a few back in Urban, a Straits Time Supplement, on cleaning up mess and offered a few tips on it. It was rather timely, given that everyone is probably busy with their spring cleaning in preparation for the Chinese New Year. Quoting from the article,

But people who are unable to control their mess may be guilty of 'hoarding', defined as the acquisition of, and inability to discard, items even though they appear to have no value. This results in the accumulation of junk - usually newspapers, bags of old clothing and documents.

At its extreme, hoarding is a mental illness stemming from obsessive compulsive disorder, and sufferers have symptoms of indecisiveness, procrastination and avoidance.

Bah. I think I am a terminal sufferer of obsessive compulsive disorder. I like the use of the analogy found in the article - organised mess. ha.

I was spring cleaning my room when I stumbled on a plain looking yellow ring file. Opening it, I found the compositions I wrote back in secondary school. The things I wrote, I can hardly believe it, ha! I realize almost, if not all of my compositions are either crime or thriller influenced, probably an excessive reading of such novels back then.

Another interesting find was the farewell card I received when I was working in the civil service before enlistment. People can probably know how I am like from the bits and pieces found in my room.

Gee, time to return to my spring cleaning. I will be writing soon, look out for my next post. *grins*

Stolen: E61

My trusty Nokia E61 got stolen last Friday in broad daylight. The lost of my companion is the saddest day of my life, I went crazy at the realization of it. Suddenly, I find myself so disorientated, so blinded in my everyday life.

I am a firm believer of effect from cause, what goes around comes around. The thief who stole it, I hope you can sleep peacefully at night without feeling the slightest guilt and fear of repercussion.

Now I have to start hunting for a new replacement. I am absolutely sure my Nokia 6610 is unable to plan my life as well as my lost E61. While I thought of getting back the same model, it would be pretty senseless to buy back the same phone that has went EOL (Read: End of Life). Latest smartphones are out of the question with its built-in camera when now I am still serving my national service. Oh well.

This incident aside, I visited Chinatown the day before and bought a few hundred grams of Bee Cheng Hiang's Gourmet Bakkwa (经典肉干) for sampling. It's heavenly, the fat melts in your mouth with every bite. *Yummy* It priced currently at $6 per 100g, pretty expensive considering the more common pork slices are priced at $40 per kg.

Anyway, buy your bakkwa early and store for Chinese New Year. The prices go insanely high when nearer to Chinese New Year.

Random updates

Last week, my unit had a change of command ceremony. I was caught off guard when I was tasked to be the emcee the day before the actual event. I was all disquieted with the lack of time and the very little rehearsals they conducted. Worse still, four extremely high-ranking officers are attending.

Fortunately, everything went well at the end of the ceremony. No mispronunciation, no jumbling of words. Just as planned.

It was time to let the hair down after the ceremony. Free flow of food and drinks at the Officers' Mess. I set a new threshold, sipped 5 glasses of red wine and I am still as sober as before. A driver passed a casual remark that I was alcoholic 'high'. ha.

3 weeks to Chinese New Year. Can hardly wait. (:

A Birthday and Christmas Affair

Birthday and Christmas were never this joyous, it was a wondrous celebration!

A few days before birthday, paid my ex-lecturer and my friend at National University of Singapore a visit and do some catching up. They remembered my birthday is approaching and gave me a bouquet of Baby's Breath and blue roses for birthday, gee.



Celebrated my birthday at home with my family. Instead of potluck, we decided to have catered dinner. Food was great but it's the company that counts. My 2 little nephews brought much laughter and joy to the celebration, love them to bits.







Thanks everyone for the birthday greetings, I may not reply to each and every message but know that I appreciate it.

Now before I leave for camp, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!

Classmates' Meetup @ Billy Bombers, Marina Square

Thanks to Noi for organizing this round of meetup for TB030 gang at Billy Bombers, Marina Square. Everyone has been busy, so the turnout was small, with Noi, Nadia and her beau, Sharon, Michell and Peter who joined us for coffee later.

Over dinner, we talked much, but the most interesting topic was on this someone amongst us who became a model. Gee, need I say who she is? After parting with Nadia and Noi at Marina Square, we strolled to Starbucks, Raffles City for extended catching-up session.

Speaking of Starbucks, I have been frequently it quite often these days after my days of 'staying out' from camp became history. Armed with my book (currently, The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom), I will spend hours there just to pass time by at night before heading back to camp.



The lot of us at Billy Bombers


The ladies


My lame attempt at being creative


Anyway, for my Hong Kong trip, I meant to blog about it soon after touching down from the airport while my mind is still fresh. But procrastination was a force to be reckoned with. The trip was definitely enjoyable, love the people, the weather and the company. I promise to blog more about my trip once I can afford the time, for now, it's time to pack my bag and head back to camp.

Some photos teaser for my Hong Kong trip, enjoy.



I love this, claypot rice!


Train to Disneyland

Procrastinated

I had dinner with an ex-lecturer and a fellow coursemate over at Jack's Place last week. I was tired having performed duty the night before, but it was all worthwhile. We touched on several topics, enough to cover our stay at the restaurant and our next chill out at Starbucks. In total, I had 2 cups of coffee. I am such a caffeine junkie.

If only I'm done with national service now, I won't have missed the opportunity to work at a local university gaining working experience. owell.

Also received my first early Christmas gift from my coursemate during dinner, as usual, every year.

All these procrastination, my Hong Kong trip itinerary is left undone, not even a draft of it. 6 days more to my trip and I am panicking. I barely manage to book the hotel, it was at the eleventh hour one of the rooms was available and did I grab this chance quick. Anyway, I will be lodging at Prudential Hotel, conveniently located above a MTR station.

Christmas mood is in the air again, I can smell it everywhere. *smile* It's the time of the year to be in Orchard Road and just do nothing but chill lazily at a coffee joint watching the world goes by. Did I say how much the decoration lightning cheers me up? awww.

It's 4am in the morning and I have a matriculation exercise at SMU to attend in the early afternoon. Hope I won't be late. *yawn*

Till the next update, later.

Cameron Highlands and Kuala Lumpur

Quite an eventful October, celebrated Michell's birthday and went for a short holiday up north - Malaysia with Ling and Ron.

Here's a group photo taken over at Michell's chalet,



Humph, regular faces seem to be disappearing from class outing. More participation please!

Next, was my Cameron Highlands and Kuala Lumpur trip with Ron and Ling. Cameron Highlands have such breathtaking view, it was simply amazing especially when you are standing at the top of the hill looking down at the tea plantations. Given the altitude, the air is cooling here and it gets pretty cold in the morning.



Over there, we joined a local tour that brought us around and we climbed slopes to explore the nature. It was all muddy, but I escaped dirt-free in my white jacket, pity my shoes though. :)



Not much of a experience at Equatorial Hotel in Cameron Highlands. We got an apartment instead of a hotel room. There's 2 showers and a living room. Nothing out of the ordinary. Simple and spacious, good enough for short stay.

After one night at Cameron Highlands, we travelled to Kuala Lumpur via coach. The coach was late for 2 hours, spoilt our plan to visit "Eye on Malaysia" in the afternoon.

We stayed in Capitol Hotel, located right in the centre of the shopping distract, Sungei Wang, Bejaya Time Square and Pavilion (must visit!).



Food was great, just don't look at the environment it was cooked in lest it spoils your appetite.



Next in the line is my Hong Kong end of this November. Need to do more research to make sure time is not wasted there. I have yet to book my hotel, gosh!

It's October!

It's October finally! 11 months more to life as a civilian! Actually, it would be shorter than I thought, I might have to disrupt my national service to meet the start of my first semester. So it might just be 9 months more. The remaining 2 months I will serve during school vacation.

My overseas trip is confirmed! Travelling to Hong Kong in the month of November with an army friend. It would be my first overseas trip without my family, not considering my past trips up north. I am just so looking forward, almost everyday I will stay glued to the computer researching on places to shop and tourist attractions. The fun already began even before the trip. :P

Until then, I will have to scrape whatver I have and save up for the shopping in Hong Kong.

Ciao!