Cherchez La Vérité

We really should meet up soon guys...

posted by gabriel @ 7:05:00 PM |

Well...it's been a busy busy day. Started out early again. Went to the SAFTI stadium @ 6.15am, for the 5km time trial the AHM (Army Half Marathon) team was suppose to have...

The time trial WAS supposed to be yesterday, but it rained. Wait, wasn't it raining this morning as well? YES IT WAS. Which is why the time trial is now pushed back to next tuesday. Poor Joel. He's in charge of the AHM team. Quite stressful organising daily runs with all the cadets being split up all over the place.

So in the end we did some PT in the indoor gym. Good stuff. Who needs protein powder...hmm...then again I might consider. HA!

Rest of the day was spent settling some papers Maam needs for tomorrow. Also had to finalise the MC script for tomorrow's Commander's Parade. I'll be doing it this month...Perhaps Jeremy should do next months! Jerm, I hope you're reading this!

Clarence officially ORDs TODAY! He popped by to collect his pink IC, which I obviously can't wait to lay my hands on. Sigh. About 8 more months to go. Hang in there guys!

Driving later. Learning Parallel Parking. Watch out! Learner on the loose!

posted by gabriel @ 6:31:00 PM |

Just trying out this Photoblogger thing. Pic of me at an old restaurant in Macau. Snazzy

posted by gabriel @ 7:40:00 PM |

Got a call from Erica while in office today.She was working for some insurance company. She sounded very articulate and sweet.

In her words, " It would be an honour if you could have coffee with me, so that I can tell you more about the services I can offer you..."

Woo.

Sexy.

I said no.

posted by gabriel @ 6:44:00 PM |

It's starting to sink in.

It didn't strike me until I turned my back on you and started walking away, that it wasn't some nightmare I was having. You're right. There are some things that I have to do before I can feel at peace with myself again, and face you without any doubts. I just hope that by the time I've come to terms with my issues, it won't be too late and you'll still be there.

Why the heck am I posting this here? Release maybe. Call if you read this. I miss you already.

posted by gabriel @ 12:08:00 AM |

Maybe it's for the better. I guess to move ahead, sometimes you just have to take a few steps back. Thanks Dear.

posted by gabriel @ 12:37:00 AM |

Wick...wick...wick...wick...Weekend!!!!!!

Meeting Ellie at Adam Road Pres for PUNJ tomorrow. PUNJ's the church youth grp, never been there, but Ellie's been saying that it's been helping him grow spiritually a lot...Guess I'll look see.

For today, I've been feeling under the weather. Been having this really irritating cold the whole of yesterday and today. As soon as I clear my nose, it starts getting clogged up with all that mucus! Argh!

Touched up the Lectora thing, helped co-ordinate some interviews, made some phonecalls about the IPPT i'm conducting on thursday, watched NARUTO (it's da bomb!), and slept away my flu at the end of the day.

Made my way to church for bible study with the guys. Somehow the topic came to lying, and whether it was really a sin. I mean, if you had to lie to save a life, would it still be right to lie? Like if you were a German hiding Jews in WW2 Germany. If the Gestapo asked you if there was anyone hiding in your attic, you wouldn't say yes.

Then again the 10 commandments states, "Thou shalt not bear false testimony against your neighbour." It doesn't specifically say lying is wrong. So is it right to lie if the intent is righteous? I dunno man. Hope someone can shed light on this. Ya know, I've probably been a Christian as long as I can remember, but there is still so much I've gotta learn. So many little question I've yet to get answered. I guess thats the phobia have when I try to share with friends about the Word. That I won't be able to answer their queries. Sure we don't hav to know EVERYTHING, but it wouldn't reflect very well on you if you don't know what you're talking about...

Ah well. I'll sleep on it and ask someone soon.

posted by gabriel @ 10:30:00 PM |

Sniffling like mad! My nosed 'as bin 'unning for 'a hold 'orning...*sniff sniff*
Think I better start clearing up my desk....getting dusty...yes, it's that messy. Maam's complained before. I cleaned it up once, but...oh well...time has taken it's toll on me poor desk.

Met my fixed driving instructor for the first time yesterday. Previously, I went for a few lessons with a random instructor.Had one particularly bad exp when this instructor with a really "kao beh" atittude took me. Dumbass...Henry something...forgot his surname. My instructor, Mr Woo, tells me that other students want to complain about him as well. I really hope something's done to him...we didn't pay 70 bucks a lesson to get shit from this lame-o.

Anyway had a smooth driving experience yesterday. Stalled twice though. D'OH!

Got another lesson with the Mr Woo tonight. Woo Wee.

posted by gabriel @ 11:29:00 AM |

Irritable. Sitting in front of the computer the whole day. Nice sunny weather. So tempted to gp swimming. Stupid office work. Pissed off. Clarence ORD-ing in 2 weeks. Jealous. Driving lessons all booked up till mid-October. No extra slots for me. Even more pissed off. Must vent frustration. Hope you're not gonna be driving round BBDC tonight. Grrr...

posted by gabriel @ 5:00:00 PM |

Luncheon.

I'm still in office. Waiting for Maam to be free. Supposed to have a short worship session today, like we do every Wednesday. Clarence is back from Taiwan, after his filming stint. Welcome back Clar!

A few phone calls to make about proposed training plans, and a few e-mail queries to answer. The training departments are scrambling right now after yesterday's big announcment of NS liability being reduced. They now have to try and figure a way to cram 23 weeks of training into a shorter package.

Yep, this change is definately welcomed.

posted by gabriel @ 12:11:00 PM |

"And across the Straits of Johore, you can see Pulau Sarimbun, which was used by the Japanese Imperial Army to..."

Baking under the scorching sun, I held the placard up for LTC Chang. The metre wide piece of cardboard showed a map of North-western Singapore, red and blue markings denoted Japanese and British positions. The Australian troops positioned at Sarimbun beach were outnumbered 7 to 1. Poor co-ordination by the British command, coupled with underestimation of the Japanese Army's capability and failed intelligence eventually led to Singapore's downfall. Hard to believe that the Battle for Singapore started some 60 years ago on Sarimbun.

Zaini and I had to accompany LTC Chang to the Battlesite this afternoon. He's to give a lesson to the cadets in about 2 weeks time, about what took place on Sarimbun Beach during WW2. Being the subject matter "experts", Zaini and I accompanied him to see if he had any queries on the ground. Problem was, we weren't any more knowledgable! The facts were read off the lesson plan, and Zaini and I didn't have time to read up earlier, after being given the task of escorting LTC Chang just a few hours earlier by our boss. Talk about late notice!

It was a nice change from the comfort of the cosy, air-conditioned office. Walking on the dirt tracks and rustling through the long grass made me reminisce about my cadet days. It was nice to be reminded.

In the car, LTC Chang shared to us the news about our NS liability being cut by 2 months. Sweet. March 2005 still seems a long time away, but I'll take the extra 2 months off thank you. Good job Mr Teo.

Driving lesson tomorrow. Haven't driven in 3 weeks. Which pedal to accelerate again?

posted by gabriel @ 10:31:00 PM |

Busy busy day. Had to do fill in the content for some program for the instructors. The programme's something like Authorware (ancient stuff I know), basically a primitive form of PowerPoint. This software is sort of a guide on how to teach certain lessons for the instructors down at wingline. I'm basically just getting information from the lesson plans and inputting it into the software. Zaini and Wee Liang are the real brains behind the project, designing the layout and graphics. I'm just the cut and paste guy.

Met Corinne to watch a movie @ PS just now. Wanted to redeem my free tickets for Harry Potter, but only the front 2 rows were unoccupied. After my experience of watching LOTR with tse siang and yihan in the front row @ PS, I know that front 2 rows at PS Golden Village means having the wall just 2 metres infront of you, and a really sore neck at the end of the movie. So we watched The Best Bet...HAHA... Jack Neo's hilarious in putting Singaporeans in such light, painting us to be a nation obsessed with striking it rich, and addicted to gambling. The movie got a bit depressing in the middle, but thankfully, it ended off with a light hearted conclusion. Catch it if ya can. Support local talent! Mark Lee is quite convincing as a Beng, but then again, he probably is one.

Going running tmr morning. Hope I can drag myself outta bed. zzz...

posted by gabriel @ 12:29:00 AM |

AHHHHHH!!! I missed a driving lesson on tuesday! I totally forgot! frickkin cheesepie.... !@#$#$%$% 70 frickkin #$@% Dollars down the @#$%#$% drain! AHHHHH!!!

posted by gabriel @ 11:02:00 PM |

Buhbye Hong Kong.

Just back from a 5 day break from work...HK was DA BOMB. The city is bustling with excitment. On a weekday night at 11pm, the streets were still crowded with people and vehicles, as if the night had just begun. Truly a city that never sleeps. All of a sudden, Singapore seems so subdued. Even the "crowds" you find in Orchard on a busy weekend seem pretty tame compared to the chaos and vibrant buzz I witnessed in Tsim Sha Tsui.

As soon as I figure out how to put photos on the blog, you guys can see em' (Alright, alright...I'm just lazy to do anything to the format right now.)

Most of the 5 days was spent on shopping, eating, travelling on the MTR (the local subway), and...more EATING. Every meal was heaven! We went to Foong Seng, a famous local restaurant and had herbal chicken soup with shark's fin and Lettuce wrapped with pigeon meat. Magnifico! Contrary to popular belief, pigeon doesn't taste like chicken. It's actually a red meat, as Dan my bro pointed out. You gotta try it for yourself. It was so good, we went back twice! More on our culinary adventures, we went to the oldest teahouse in HK for Dim Sum. It was newly renovated, so throw out those images of a run down shophouse...Nice Chinese furnishings with antique fans hanging overhead, which were a bit redundant since there was air-conditioning. The fillings in the dim sum were given in such generous portions. Thick, succulent juicy prawns and bamboo shoots encapsulated in fine, translucent flour skins. The dumplings glistened in the dim lights as the oil droplets trickled down their shiny flour skins. MAMA MIA. Good s*** I tell you.

Well, a lot more I gotta say about the food. We'll save that for another time. We went to Macau on Day 3. Just a short 45 min ferry ride from Tsuen Wan. Visited the newly opened Macau Sands and Casino Lisboa. Macau's economy would probably be dead if not for the casinos! It was scary to see huge crowds just throwing their money away at the slots and tables. The grandeur of the Sands really contrasted sharply with the dilapidated buildings in the city. At the older, and more sleazy Lisboa, we saw hookers doing their rounds at the shopping arcade portion of the casino. They were really skimpily dressed, and you could tell they were Mainlanders. The sad thing is that most of them were really young (or at least seemed to be) and pretty. It seems like such a waste that they had to resort to this line of work. How'd you know if they were hookers? Besides their dress sense, they would maintain eye contact with the guys they would come in contact with, and throw a smile or two. Ladies, if you're going to casinos in Macau, spag tops and tubes are out, unless you want dirty old men asking you "How much?" every 20 metres you walk.

Back to reality, and back to work. Keep you posted later. Ciao.

posted by gabriel @ 1:10:00 PM |

Hard to believe that in less than 12 hours, I'll be in Dim Sum land. Taking the 8am flight to Hong Kong later on. I'm packed and all ready to go. Coincidentally, Corinne's leaving the country too for M'sia. She'll be back a day earlier though.

Had a hectic afternoon suprisingly. Had to mark 100 scripts for the cadets. The scripts were for Military Service Writing, basically it's just testing the cadets how to write letters according to the military format. Yes folks, you heard right. Letter writing. I had to frantically look at each script and compare them with the given answer. Thank God I had the rest of my colleagues in the office with me to help. Han, Teng, ZhiJie, Gary- Thanks guys. I owe you all Ji Dan Mian (The canteen's specialty)! So we managed to finish marking everything in under 2 hours. Jeremy took leave to study for his CFA on Saturday, so he couldn't help.

It was my fault that we had to rush. I just left the stack of papers there while doing my other duties. Lesson learnt Gabe, no more procrastination. Ma'am gave me a lecture for leaving it till the last minute. I would have felt better if she had scolded me, but even when she's angry, CPT E's just so mild! And it just makes me feel worse that I've pissed off someone so good natured.

Anyways, went for my first drum lesson at PS just now. At first, I thought I was in the wrong class when I saw that most of my fellow classmates were probably in secondary school. Needless to say, I felt REALLY OLD. Then this guy that looked no less than 25 came in late. Heh. Phew. Not so old after all. But then again, you're never too old to pick up a new instrument la...

The class was really basic. The instructor assumed that all of us knew zilch about music and started explaining about whole notes and quavers and semi-quavers. We then proceeded to do some "rudimentary drum drills" as he called it. It got a bit annoying, as I just wanted to start whacking some drum skins, and smash some cymbals. I guess I really should strengthen my foundation before moving on to cheem-er stuff.

I'll be back on Tuesday. Ciao for now.

posted by gabriel @ 12:20:00 AM |

Public holidays...ever had the feeling when you wake up to a jolt, thinking that you've overslept for work, and then as you look at the calendar, it dawns upon you that YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO TO WORK and you just plop (is that a word?) yourself back onto the bed and back to sleep? (Ha, so many commas in that sentence. reminds me of one of my bosses)

Today was really fun. Aching all over though. Played street soccer at Tanglin Halt from 1-4pm and took a bath at Vince's place before going to Lido to watch Eternal Sunshine with Corinne. Damn cool show I tell you. It was, as my bro Dan put it, bitter-sweet. I guess the show really illustrates the saying "better to have loved and lost than not to love at all". The way how Jim Carrey's character tries to save memories of Kate Winslet (or her character, Clementine, rather) was just so heartwrenching. Go watch it man. It gets 5 of Gabe's thumbs up (out of 5)

Went running with Corinne at Clementi Stadium on Monday upon her request...haha, it was good fun. Ran about 8 rounds with her. It was quite funny 'cos the lights in the ladies changing room had gone out, so I had to make sure no one was in the gents before Reen came in to change in one of the cubicles. Then one guy came in shortly after she left! Close call man...

Then we went to Jack's Place @ West Coast Recreational Centre (which is coincidentally next to Clementi Stadium)yesterday. It's been a while since I've been there. The standard's really dropped man. Jack's Place used to be DA BOMB when it came to western food last time when I was in primary school. Maybe my taste has changed.

Back to work tomorrow. Going Hong Kong on Friday. Can't wait.

posted by gabriel @ 10:44:00 PM |