Happy Vesak 2007

Happy Vesak 2007!

I have a very different Vesak Celebration this year. Not because i attended something more grand and big scale, but rather on the contrary, I had a pretty toned down celebration - a simple Vesak Ceremony with Ven Kai Zhao and Hu Fa Yuan.

I have been very sick for the past 4-5 days, and took 3 days MC from work. Starting from a mild fever of 38 deg, it rose to near 40 deg as i experienced my first ever black out in my life. The fever refused to go away, even till now it has not fully subsided.

Over the past few days, I am sincerely grateful to my mum for taking good care of me - preparing my meals, wiping my body with ice-sokaed towels and waking me up on time to take medicine. The food i took were plain porridge and some simple steamed food. Strangely, i have never found them to be so delicious in the past. After 4 continuous days of consumption, i actually grew to love them, as i feel very light and pure within.

Ven Kai Zhao shared last night that the happiest thing in life is when:

1) We get to fall asleep - indeed, when i was sick, i could not even sleep well and lying on the bed in pains was like another form of torture to me

2) We get to swallow food - indeed, when i was sick, the food were hard to swallow due to my highly inflammed throat

3) We get to digest the food and feel the warmt in our stomach - indeed, when i was sick, my digestive tract was not working well as i kept experiencing stomach upset

In short, Shifu was trying pass us the message that nothing is happier than having a healthy body.

The viral attack, together with the Dharma talk given by Ven Kaizhao, has been a wonderful Vesak Day package gift for me.

150km/hr along N-S Highway

For the first time, i took Darkiee to Malaysia (or rather, Darkiee took me to Msia).

I remember I used to drive my dad's Nissan Laurel and Merc at 170km/hr along NS Highway several years ago.

Being just a 1.5 litres car, I am pretty impressed by this vios' performance, even though the max i hit was only 150k/hr (i din wanna stress it further).

However surprisingly, I could still easily pick up its speed even beyond 100km/hr. I think thats because the car is light + its new. I am sure the car will not deliver similar performance say, 2-3 years later.

Nevertheless, its still a value-for-money deal.

38 years, wow!

As a newcomer, I am not surprised to kena the arrow to organise a team building event for my team.

Unlike HP, this company does not have as much budget for us, probably less than 5-10% what HP is willing to allocate for each employee. I decided to organise a simple one - Games & Buffet dinner at my playground, ECP.

Although I have had quite a fair amt of experience organising games and events during my sch days, this is actually my first time to organise stuffs which involve eldery folks. Most of the games i have played in my sch days could not be applied here.

During the ice-breaking and introduction session, i am very surprised to learn that many of the staffs have been working in the company for decades- 3 of them for 38 years, 1 of them 35 years and another few close to 30 years. I am really very impressed by their loyalty to the company, and they have seriously earned my respect.

Cannot get enough of babies

Some ppl like me are suckers to babies, but i also know some ppl find babies a nuisiance.

Human babies are born dependent on their parents, unlike cats and dogs. They knew how to walk and look for food the moment they were born, but human babies remain helpless.

This would mean nuturing is essential for human beings. That is why we are not cold blooded - we love and we care.

Phobia

I am not exactly in the mood of writing, but i thought i could just briefly pen some thoughts down.

One of the BS freshie (Diana) messaged me 2 nites ago and told me she was very upset. Apparently, one of the SAF soldiers who got killed by the crashing fighter jet in taiwan was her jc classmate. Personally, i cannot imagine what would happen to me if my love ones were to leave me one day. I am sure i will slumber into a long depression.

Frankly speaking, i could see one potential relationship coming up strongly and promisingly, but i am now just struck with phobia of getting attached again. I wish to avoid from the pains of having to leave my love ones one day. I thought we should just all just stop 挥霍情感 altogether.

2 singaporeans were killed in the morning storm yesterday. I hope their family members are coping well.

Last of the Army Series

**Camera phones and any other forms of photography are strictly prohibited in the army. Hence, pls do not assume this pic is taken within the camp premise**

My ICT has finally ended. I guess I was being too optimistic prior to this ICT that it turned out to be a nightmare for me - probably the worst period i have ever gone thru in my life since i ORD in yr 2000. I used to be one of the very few guys who felt great abt my army days but after this in-camp my impression has changed a great deal.

The weather was extremely hot with 40-50 soldiers squeezing together in a poorly ventilated BTOC tentage. There was totally insufficient or NO sleep at all for the almost entire week of 24-hr exercise. There were nites that i pia from Pasir Leba Camp back to home at bedok at 3am, slept for abt 2++hrs and then pia all the way back to camp at 6am. I reckoned that sleeping 2 hrs on my own bed is much more recharging than sleep 4hrs on the hard grounds. I am no longer the soldier i used to be (who can sleep anywhere). Moreover, I didnt want my HBP and migraine to come back due to insufficient sleep.

The thing which pissed me off most was that i felt we are called back this time for "NOTHING". I did not get to provide much service to the active guys, and i did not learn anything useful from this ICT. Its a fxxking waste of my precious time, which i could have spent much more meaningfully at work.

But on the positive notes, i get to know many funny and interesting fellow NSmen (like the one in the pic). When you put a group of men together without anything serious to do, all the nonsense and rubbish will start to sprout out, haha. Suddenly, i became very fluent in my flowery language once again, as those fanciful words start to flow out smoothly from my mouth. I really enjoy the companionship and friendship made with these guys.

During this ex, i also get to visit my Sispec company line - a dreadful yet memorable place which i used to train/sleep/eat/sweat at 9 yrs ago. The building has since been refurbished nicely, but the old memories remain vivid in my memory. The trainings may be tough, but definitely professional.

Army remains a love-hate relationship for me.

Laughing Baby

Hmmm, its always so difficult to capture photos of Ashley baby smiling, but i actually managed to took several of them this morning.

Besides the smiles, she also wetted my army no.4 uniform 5 min before i wanna leave home for camp. Well, good and bad things always come in a package....

5 things about The Army

This was me in my armoured vehicle in year 1999. I was arrowed as the 'poster boy' for the then newly launched Singapore-made Bionix vehicle. Forat least a year, this picture could easily be found on newspaper ads, publicity posters and huge exhibition boards placed at various shopping centre (for promoting Army21). The ironic thing is i never got the chance to be operational ready with this armoured fight vehicle.

During this reservist, I noticed 5 disturbing things about the army:

1) The commanders are all very young and kiddish
This may be something relative to my own age, but i cant help but feel that the commanders nowadays are all very young and kiddish. Unlike the past, i always have the impression that they are made up of very matured, strict and no-nonsense kind of personnel. Any compromise with their experience and capability? I duno yet...

2) A waste of young talents (personal view)
There are a couple of young regular officers whom i am quite impressed with their working style and attitude. I am sure they will be an asset to MNCs in the outside working world, helping the companies make big money. But why are they stuck in the Army??? (of cos ppl will argue Army also got bright future.......wat)

3) Super slow moving pace
Having worked in the fast-moving paced society (esp in companies like HP) for sometime, I wasnt quite used to the pace i have to follow in the army. As agreed with my fellow camp mates, we have to switch ourselves to ultra slow mode ie. walk slowly, eat slowly, go toilet slowly, do things slowly, and the list goes on......

4) More time spent on breaks than useful work
I am not exaggerating. I actually spent more time at the breaks than useful work today. Furthermore, I didnt quite remember my lunch break duration was 1.5hrs long 10yrs ago - Today, we spent 1min queuing for the food, 10min to eat, and 79min sitting there tok cok.

5) They assume everyone drives a car
I may be driving one myself, but i am very sure not all my camp mates drive. But they assumed so by issuing everyone a carpark label (by default). They also guided us how to find our way to another camp next week, by telling us which expressways and exit to note, instead of telling us which MRT station and SBS bus to take. The commander even told us we must bring all our army barangs barangs along for reservist regardless whether we need them. He said we can always place these bulky items in "our cars" *faint*