江惠 家後 MTV

D-Day Coming.....

Gigantic Headache....

Take a look here....

Blossom Residences....Nice right? The price is 723psf, located deep in Bukit Panjang and 3 LRTs away from the future MRT.

The Warren, located few hundred meters from CCK MRT, is asking for about 780psf.

If you were me, which one will you buy (assuming budget is not the main factor here).

========================

SO and I went to the showflat for Blossom Residences a few weeks ago with the agreed mindset to just simply take a look around. We ended up spending 5hrs there and nearly bought a unit!! The only thing that stopped us was our lack of essential documentations and the chequebook!!

After walking out of there, doing some homework and a few days later, we decided that Blossom is not that good a deal afterall....

And so we set our sights on the upcoming Executive Condo in CCK by City Development, expecting to launch in Nov or Dec. A week later, we gotten news that a new DBSS project, The Trivelis, in Clementi and minutes' walk from the MRT, will be launching in End Oct.

Here comes the headache :

SO is VERY keen in the Trivelis for its location. I'm for it too, based on location. However, I'm also looking at the potential upside of the property 5-10yrs down the road when this property becomes eligible for sale.

I'm resigned to buying a property at today's high price, but I'm also looking at how much can I potentially gain or even breakeven when I decided to sell this unit in the future. There is a limited upside to a HDB flat no matter what and thats because you can only sell it on to another fellow Singaporeans or PRs and also that's if the Ethnic Quota for the block had not been reached.

An EC, is completely different. An EC can be sold after 5yrs, but only to Singaporeans or PRs and to anyone (even foreigners) after 10yrs. With the continued influx of foreigners into the country, I've no doubt that the prices of condos will only head north no matter what price you bought it at. The only problem is how far north and whether you have the money to buy it now.

My preference would have been an EC in the west anytime. The CCK EC will be the only EC launched in the west for the next few years for I do not see any allocated sites in the west for ECs for the next few months. And if the price difference between the DBSS and the EC is 100k, we might as well bite the bullet and go for the EC, correct?

Ok, having said so much, the main part is finally coming....

The Trivelis will be launching end of this month, the CCK EC tentatively end of next month or even December. If we ignore The Trivelis now and the CCK EC turns out to be out of our budget, we may be stuck with nothing and have to settle for a resale HDB flat.

If we go ahead and apply for The Trivelis, and happened to be successful, doesn't that mean the end of my EC dream? And we'd have wasted a perfect chance to own a "half"-condo at a slight discount!!

I know that we can't have our cake and eat it too, but I'd really love to at least give the 2nd cake a try before the 1st cake....

How how how???? What should we do????

Super Hot Date!!

Statistics for 3 consecutive Fridays in November 2011

Number of Solemnisations on 04 Nov 2011....

Number of Solemnisations on 11 Nov 2011....

Number of Solemnisations on 18 Nov 2011....

Life Changing Event...

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You know you're a BODYCOMBAT instructor if....?

1. You know every word to the scooter tracks...even though you haven't got a clue what it means! 


2. You can hear a BC track on the radio and within 2 seconds know the next chore cue

3. The speed of your car depends on which BC track you are listening to...you always end up breaking the speed limit by the Muay Thai track!

4. You have random girls come up to you in a bar/supermarket and start talking to you like you are long lost friends and you haven't got a clue who they are.. (until they tell you which class they attend and where they usually stand)

5. You hear a random track on the radio and immediately think...hmmm what combat move would fit this music?

6. You thinks it's fun to make up new combinations to songs on the radio while sitting in traffic

7. Your IPOD is only for Combat music


8. No other CD is important in the car except LesMills……… turn it up!!

9. You're washing your hands in the bathroom of a nightclub and hear strains of Fat Man Scoop "Dance!" and bolt to the dance floor to bust into the ginga!

10. At a friend’s party when “Tribal Dance” starts to play, you get everyone to do BC (BC27,T4)

11. You suddenly shout "COMBO!!!" when you hear that part of the track... in the clubs... and you realise some of the guys on the dance floor are doing the combo as well...

12. Members track down your email address to ask you if you've started the new release yet and what's it like coz they missed a week!

13. You're out with your mates and someone breaks into a combo looking enthusiastically at you!

14. Your kids correct your chore when practicing

15. Your friends understand the importance of proper technique and make sure to remind you if they notice "on that last kick" you forgot to "position your heel"

16. You're in the grocery store and out of the blue your mate tells you "check out my uppercut" or even better "side kick" because they’ve been "practicing"

17. Your way of greeting people is a light front kick.

18. You practice your side kick while waiting for your cup of tea to dispense from the machine at work.

19. Your biggest fashion decision of the day is which colour wraps to wear...

20. You no longer know what is really Right or Left.

21. You iron your wraps.

22. You're at work and listening to the music and going over the Chore in your head staring blank at the computer screen and oblivious of anything else until the song is done.

23. When trying on a new pair of sneakers you realise that not everyone tries the fit and stability by doing jump knees, evasive sidekicks, scissors and mad shuffling from side to side and now the whole shop is staring at you.

24. You find yourself in a small changing room trying to find a way to set up kicks and do the splits from corner to corner to see if the new training trousers you're thinking of buying have enough give in the crotch.

25. You are getting into your car late at night in the dark car park after work, as yours is the only car left as you closed up, and you hear this sudden alarming rustle in the bushes right next to you and you unconsciously 'set' your heel ready to defend yourself....

Extracted from http://www.totallylesmills.com/site/Humour

Old-School National Day Song

Sung by one of our potential candidate for the Elected President's post....

Nice song? Do you actually get the message behind this song?

Anyway, I think the song is quite nice, brings back memories when I used to sing it in primary school during the run-up to the National Day celebration in school.

National Day songs nowadays, in my opinion, are usually crap!! They are too pop-inclined and does not ignite much patriotism from singing it. Most folks forget about it the moment NDP's over.

Try asking someone in the streets to sing one of these "new" songs and see if they can do it. At the same time, try asking those in their late 20s to 30s to sing one from their era and see what you get....

不用如果，现在就已经有了。。。

What Makes Me Feel Like A Singaporean?

1. Going back for ICT, wearing that No. 4 and singing the National Anthem in the Auditorium.

2. At the airport customs whenever I come home from my trips.

Today, I'm adding a No. 3 to the above list;

3. Attending the National Day Parade, esp. during the singing of the National Anthem and watching the "customary" fly-past of the giant state flag.

There I was this evening, with SO, somewhere in the Green Zone. It's my first parade, albeit its only the preview. I've been balloting to get tickets since the day they started this practice but I've never gotten picked. It's the same old disappointment this year. All thanks to SO's mum, for her NRIC was balloted for 2 preview tickets, which she gladly gave it to us when she knew how keen I was.

The Reviewing Officer of tonight's preview arrived, the State Flag was attached to the flag-post and we all stood up to sing the National Anthem. We (So & me) held hands as the anthem is being played. She's been singing it day in day out and thus had no problems with the Malay lyrics. Me, despite singing it once per year during ICT, was surprisingly able to sing along effortlessly. At the moment when the helicopter flew past with the giant flag, my heart suddenly become heavy and my hairs stood at attention too, as if to salute the flag as it goes by.

At that moment, I truly felt like a Singaporean and promised HER that I will do my best to ensure her survival and prosperity. Never will I abandon her for perceived greener pastures. Esp. not when I've given 2.5yrs of my life to HER.

Call me cliche if you like, but those are my heartfelt thoughts.

Flag from the goodie bag.

Another additional to my flag collection on my desk.

What's that in the sky???

It's the Red Lions Parachuters!! :)

They've never failed to wow the crowds.

Zoomed out view of the stage-area.

Parade's all formed up and awaiting the Reviewing Officer for the Preview.

Managed to zoom-in but ended up capturing only 3 of the 4 GOH Contingents.

Loots from BKK

1 pair of berms
1 pair of tailored dress pants
1 electrical essential oil "burner"
2 bottles of Martell
3 (mini) bottles of essential oil
3 packs of munchies
4 pair of briefs
6 tailored dress shirts

All that for S$670, exclude airfare & hotel....

:)

Travel Plans 2011 - Updated July 2011

Feb 2011 - Batam (completed)

Mar 2011 - Kanchanaburi (completed)

Apr/May 2011 - Chiang Mai (completed)

May 2011 - Kuala Lumpur, LM Workshop (completed)

Jun 2011 - Taiwan (completed)

Jul 2011 - Bangkok (completed)

Nov/Dec - Melbourne

??? 2011 - Dublin (doubtful *sad*)

Travel Plans 2011 - Updated May 2011

Feb 2011 - Batam (completed)

Mar 2011 - Kanchanaburi (completed)

Apr/May 2011 - Chiang Mai (completed)
May 2011 - Kuala Lumpur, LM Workshop (completed)

Jun 2011 - Taiwan (upcoming VERY soon....)

Jul 2011 - Bangkok

Nov/Dec - Bali? Melbourne? ???? (TBC)

??? 2011 - Dublin (Work-related)

"Affordable HDB Housing", Myth or Fact? - Part 2

A continuation of yesterday's post on the affordability of HDB flats...

Found the following table in today's TODAY and I took a picture of it immediately. The previous post looks at how "affordable" a resale flat is. Today, we will look at a BRAND NEW flat instead.

Let's do the maths again....

HDB launched 4 BTOs on Monday ion areas Seng Kang, Ponggol, Hougang and Sembawang. To have a fair comparison to yesterday, we shall consider only Seng Kang. The prices of the BTO units from SK are :

Let's take the average price of a 4rm flat to be 328K (median price) and the household income/CPF contribution to be as follows :

Assuming the couple gets 40K Additional CPF Housing Grant and that they also had 60K in their CPF before buying the flat, the finalised loan amount will come up to 228K. Below shows their monthly instalment....

913 of their 920 (OA Contribution) monthly goes to HDB, leaving 7 miserable dollars in their OA. Multiply this by 30yrs and we get 2,520 (7x12x30). Even if we throw in compound interest and CPF Top-ups by the gahmen, how much would the couple have at age 55? 20K? 50K?

Do note that this 20K or 50K is among the 2 of them, which means each one probably has 25K at max. Please tell me several things...

1. With the Minimum Sum hitting 120K by 2013, how will this couple ever be able to draw out money earned over the last 30yrs to enjoy their twilight years?

2. Of what use is it to us to have slogged 30yrs for a house, only to have "saved" 50K in our retirement fund?

3. The motto of HDB is "Providing Affordable, Quality Homes". I've no doubt about the Quality part. But I seriously doubt the Affordable part!! Is taking the life-long hard-earned money of the citizens away your definition of "Affordable"?

I'm not against home ownership, in fact, SO and I promised each other that we will definitely become home-owners together, somehow.... But I shudders each time I look at the market. Why? This is why...

1. With such prices, I no longer dreamed of being able to sell my house 10yrs later for a profit. In fact, I would be thankful if I can even break-even.

2. My kids, nieces and nephews, by the time they are settling down and looking to buy a house, how much would that be? 1million for a 4rm flat? With Mr Horse in place, I wouldn't bet against it.

I used to not really understand the housing issues come election time. But now that I'm looking to get a place of my own, I became fully aware of the existing issues and why so many peoples are making so much noise!

With my earnest hope and prayers, residents of Tampines GRC, please DO THE RIGHT THING and spare our future generations the shit that we are currently facing.

Thank you.

PS : according to the table from TODAY, the couple will need to fork out cash! That's an even worse scenario than the one I've based my maths on....

"Affordable HDB Housing", Myth or Fact? - Part 1

Fact? Yes, 10yrs ago, maybe.... Today, it's definitely a myth... A BIG FAT MYTH!!

Let's do the maths....

Using the above picture as a reference, the median Household Income of a 4-Room Flat applicant (25yrs old) is (SGD)4K.

Using yet another picture above, this is the prices of resale flats sold in Seng Kang, the existing new town that the gahmen is developing. Let's take the average price of a resale 4-Room Flat to be 400K.

Based on a salary of 4K, this household would have a total CPF contribution as shown below....

Assuming the household being eligible for the 40K Additional CPF Housing Grant and that they also had 60K in their CPF before buying the flat, the finalised loan amount will come up to 300K.

Refer to the following picture for the monthly repayment amount if the loan is stretched to the maximum tenure on HDB's fix-rate 2.6% interest :

The monthly repayment is 1,201 while the monthly contribution is only 920. Looking at the state of things, the couple will have their monthly CPF + 300 cash going to HDB. Leaving ZERO DOLLARS from their CPF Contributions to accumulate inside their OA. Extrapolate this 30yrs ahead, how much would they have inside their OA when they reach 55?

Answer : BIG FAT ZERO!!!

With retirement staring in their faces 10yrs down the road, they not only have nothing to withdraw, they also had to meet the CPF Minimum Sum shit!!

The questions now for the gahmen :

1. Where on earth is the couple going to find money to meet the Minimum Sum so that they can enjoy their "Savings"?

2. Is making someone pay 30yrs for their home and ending up having nothing for their retirement your definition of affordable public housing?

3. With new BTO flats costing up to 390K (in SK), the applicant might as well buy from the resale market since it's only about 20K-40K more?

4. Going along this line, how can new flats STILL be considered affordable?

5. You always tell us a house is an asset. At such sky-high prices, my main worry would be : "Will I break even on the house?" I've already given up trying to make money.... Is this what you call affordable?

Mr Horse, where did you pluck your facts and figures from?

Feel free to rebutt me if my above is incorrect....

Pics from my Childhood Days

One of those game consoles which I used to have....

Used to visit the nearby provision store and buy takeaway soft drinks. They'd fill a small plastic bag with ice and then pour the drink from the glass bottle into it.

Bus tickets from yester-era. In those days, buses were operated by 2 persons; the driver and the fellow selling the tickets. Once aboard the bus, the seller will come around and ask you where you are going before whipping out the correctly priced ticket and punched a small hole indicating the fare-stage where you've started the journey. Classic!!

One of those olden days non-air bus with the gigantic gear box right at the entrance, beside the stairs where you climbed aboard.

My school bookshop used to sell these by the loads!! And I'm often there to support them. hahahaha

Anyone remember the cheat code to get 99 "Lives"? Anyone can confirm if its "up up down down left left right right A B START"?

Whoever haven't seen this before, hands up?
"Sunny Day.... Sweepin' the... clouds away...."

One of my favourite cartoon when young, but the movies recently doesn't interest me one bit, weird...

Another one of those hits during my time...

The school textbooks back then were uniform across all schools, even amongst the different levels, the exterior of the books were uniform, albeit with differing contents and colours.

The first TV I ever remember seeing when I was a kid looks something like that. It was a Hitachi and served us well until I was 10 or so.

Another one of those yester-era buses, this time a double-decker.

One of the many snacks to bluff kids' money in those days...

Another one of those snacks, this one is fish crackers I think, but not crispy one, it had those soggy feeling and smells damn fishy!!

One of my favourite games on the Sega console. I can spend endless hours trying to complete it using diferent characters. I particularly loved using Blade, that lady in red, for she is fast and nimble, but abit light on her kicks and punches.

Yet another of those cartoons during my time...

The Courtesy campaign poster.

I've never enjoyed my mandarin lessons, yet I was forced to buy this stupid papers for 20cents weeks after weeks!!

Uncle Scrooge!!

Western Bar!! My favourite handheld back then! Saw this game on the Apple App Store going for US$4.99. I bought it without hesitation!! :)

Travel Plans 2011 - Updated Apr 2011

Feb 2011 - Batam (completed)

Mar 2011 - Kanchanaburi (completed)

Apr/May 2011 - Chiang Mai
May 2011 - Kuala Lumpur, LM Workshop

Jun 2011 - Taiwan

Jul 2011 - Bangkok

Nov/Dec - Hokkaido/Europe/USA (TBC)

??? 2011 - Dublin (Work-related)

From the way things are going, this list can only get shorter. Any longer and my neck will be given a good squeeze by SO!!

Interesting Statistics....

Just found some interesting statistics regarding audiences of this humble little corner of the World Wide Web...

Farewell, SYC!!

Sunday, 27 March... A day everyone had been waiting for damn long, since 12 March. This is the day we bid farewell to SYC and proceed back home!!

Now I sit here in my bunk awaiting 6am. That's the time we can begin returning the bunks to the SYC ppls. Then, it's off to the parade square where we'd board buses bound for our Educational Tour and eventually to the airport at night.

See ya folks in SG soon!!


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SYC Day 5

Back frm KMTA....yippie!!

Departed that damn place around 10am and reach camp about one and a half hours later. Only those non-exercise folks were back, the rest came back later around 3pm.

From there on, it was auto-pilot mode. Everyone was busy unloading equipment, cleaning them and returning them to the respective stores where it was loaned out from. We, in the meantime, kicked into auto-mode too as we, too, have quite a few post-exercise administrative tasks to complete.

One thing that everyone observed is teamwork. No matter how tired they might be, or how clueless he might be, when it's post-exercise cleanup time, everyone will chip in and do their bit. The rationale for this is that everyone wants to get these mundane but mandatory tasks over and done with so that they can relax worry-free later on.

The later part of the day saw everyone relaxing in the canteen, eating dinner, drinking beer and chatting loudly. No one seemed to have a care in the world, it was THAT lax last evening. Meanwhile, the 6 of us got together and have another PROPER dinner together. It was quite a cozy affair I felt, I like this kinda feel :)

3 more days to flying home, you can bet your last dollar that I'm dying to go home!! See ya in 3 days, Singapore!


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KMTA Day 8/8

Woohooooo!! Last day is this damn KMTA!! We'd be breaking camp tomorrow morning at 9am sharp!! Been waiting for this day since Day 1 of arrival here.

Returning to SYC marks the start of the "final burst of fire" before going home. Arriving in Thailand on Flight 1, I'd be departing on Flight 2, reaching Singapore early on Monday morning, maybe 1-ish am?

I'd be posting up some pictures snapped during the trip, so do stay tuned if you are keen to see them.

Last night was a damn difficult night to sleep; it's so damn freaking warm!! Those powder on me managed to keep the sweat away for a few hours before being overwhelmed. My chin started the ball rolling... The forehead soon joined in, followed by both legs. I was initially in long pants and t-shirt but it soon become shorts only. This didn't help. The heat kept on coming. Having to keep the blanket on made the fight much harder. Removing the blanket will mean a free buffet for the mosquitos, so the blanket had to stay. It was a terrible night... I spent those awake hours either trying to fan myself cool, trying to keep out the mosquitos or scratching wherever that had already been bitten! Another guy here told us he slept only at 4am due to the same reason!!

Just like the initial 3 days in KMTA, the weather changed very fast; from freaking warm last night to freaking cold in the early morning around 6-7am. The pre-downpour wind was chilly, blowing Eastward from the West. I knew this for the clothes were swaying violently in the wind that came from the direction where the sun sets. We were spared the chilling wind as our safari beds are against the wall and that sort of kept us away from the onslaught of the wind. Hard to visualize? Take a look at the following picture and you'd understand...




Worried the clothes would be blown out of the lines and onto the dusty ground, I quickly got up and pulled them all off the lines before jumping beneath the blankets again.

The rain soon followed... One can feel the intensity of the rain just be listening to the sound of of hitting the zinc roofs shed we're in. The sound is SOOOO loud that I would have put on my earplugs if I had them!! I worried for a moment that part of the roof would collapse due to the intensity. Either that or the area would flood and rainwater (mud, actually) would run inside here. Anyway, I didn't have to worry about it much longer as I soon fell back onto sleep, this time colder...

It was still drizzling by the time I got up... And the rest of the day turned out just the way we wanted for sooooooooooo long; cooling, yet not too cold :)

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully but when night falls, it gets rather interesting. Besides the usual irritating flies and bugs, we saw a few crabs scrambling across the shed and numerous frogs hopping around!!

We caught a crab and kept it in a pail for entertainment, provoking it using a pen.



We also flip it over for fun...




Later on, we caught a frog too and threw it in together with crabby, hoping to see some "Animal Planet" in action. However, it seemed that the 2 animals ain't interested in each other. By morning, we decided to release both captives since we were leaving for SYC, but the frog was nothing in sight. Looks like it had jumped outta the pail in the middle of the night, via a small gap in the plastic covering we used to cover the top of the pail (to prevent the frog from escaping).


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KMTA Day 7/8

2nd last day of KMTA... I'd never missed this place as it's quite run-down, without clean and proper sanitation, full of creepy-crawlies and lack of facilities maintenance. However, having complained this much, one much admit that no doubt the living conditions can be MUCH MUCH BETTER, it's decent enough, at the very least, we've managed to survived this far without getting sick.

There is a temple up on a nearby hill, a few of us went up to take a look and also to pray... The flight of steps leading up is steep and consisted of 432steps (according to one of the guys).

Take a look at the following picture...it's taken from the foot of the steps.




Climbing the steps reminds me of the flight of steps leading to Marina Hill of XXX, those "Vertical" Marathons which I used to take part in, and lastly, my one and only attempt at mountain climbing of Mount Ophir few years back... It's quite shack climbing the steps, we stopped a couple of times along the way and by the time I reached the top, I was breathless and my shirt was drenched in sweat!!

We had a late dinner today at around 8pm as we had a rather late lunch earlier. In the early days of reaching SYC, I tend to go for main courses which includes omelette or deep fried stuffs such as chicken or squid. But after SO's warning about cholesterol, plus my goal to shed some kilos, I'm now going more for mains which consist of plain rice plus another stir-fried dish, usually mixed-vege with meat. These not only (looks) are healthier, but they also cost cheaper too at about 50-60Baht compared to 80-90Baht for the former.

Canteen food in SYC or KMTA are rather expensive (at least 20% more) as compared to anywhere outside. I'm not surprised at this price difference because both Canteens catered mostly to SAF folks and coming from SG, these prices are considered cheap when referenced in the Singapore context. They are, however, expensive, when you compare it in the Thai context. As businessmen, it's natural that you'd want to price your products to rip maximum profits from your customers yet considered cheap enough by their standards. Besides, it's not as if we have too much of a choice considering that the Cookhouse food isn't that appetizing. I mean... The Cookhouse food is decent, but since I have a choice, I'd gladly pay for better options.


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KMTA Day 6/8

Today marks the FINAL STRETCH of the series of Battalion Exercise beginning last week and scheduled to end this Thurs evening. For the rest of us here at Base Camp, we'd be packing up and moving back to SYC on Thurs morning (huge hurray).

Bye bye to mosquitoes, flies, bugs, dogs and cows!! The next time we meet, it should be on one of my holiday trips to the countryside and not this kinda "National Service" holiday....

Was chatting with Irene over FB and she was under the impression that I'm having a good time here on government payroll enjoying nature and learning to use a rifle... Wait till she give it a try at what I'm going thru now and see if she'd still think is fun.... :p

Took a shower earlier just now after lunch, powder-bathed and then lie down for a nap. Awoke less than hour later soaking a perspiration and had been unable to get back into dreamland :( Can't wait to get back to SYC and under my "personal" fan in my bunk...

One weird phenomenon I've observed since the change in weather... There are a lot more insects and creepy crawlies going around. I'm specially fascinated by these flying black beetle and how they would drop to the floor, either dead or desperately flapping their wings with them lying on their back. SO MANY of them can be found on the ground each night that we always have a hard time removing (kicking actually) them from our "compound". The moment you cleared a few from the ground, another would drop to the ground again. Yes, it is THAT irritating!!

Switching off the lights solves the issue, but we, then, are unable to see... Damn beetles!!!

Anyone able to provide a clue to the beetles thingy?


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KMTA Day 5/8

The battalion started coming in for showers, replenishments of supplies and much needed rest starting from about 9am...

Alot of activities were going on around us except for our side, where it was still the same old story... Sleep, eat, relax and talk rot... All the way till 6pm when they are supposed to move out again, apparently... It's now 1120pm and some of them are still here. In fact, the 3 from S1 Cell are sleeping in with us tonight!

The 6 of us had lunch and dinner together, squeezing into a rectangular table and eating the canteen/cookhouse food. It's pretty cosy and ironic that we never manage to dine together like this back in SYC and it's out here in these poorer conditions that we finally manage to get it done!!

The weather was damn hot today that I powder-bathed twice to cool myself off... No doubt troublesome, but it does make me feel cooler and fresh, ready for bed kinda condition. Maybe I should try doing this too at home whenever it's too warm.

I happened to take a look at the clear night sky earlier and saw many stars. It awes me each time I look up into the night sky and sees so many stars. I feel so damn small, I mean... Humans on Earth versus the rest of the galaxy...

We are not alone... I'm quite sure of this.


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KMTA Day 4/8

After having "cooling" weather for the past 3 days, the heat finally returned today. The freak weather in previous days had even caused one of the servicemen to suffer from hypothermia (unsure of the spelling...)!! Since when do you hear of someone being hit by this in Thailand? Before you laugh, let me assure you that the weather these 3 days were no joke, IT IS THAT COLD!!!

Took a shower after lunch just now. There was a marked difference between the temperature of the water from the tap and from the tub. You see, the showers here that we used had 2 sources of water; one, piped in from don't know where, the other, A tub filled several times by a tanker that goes around the campsite for this purpose. In the past, water from the tub would have been too icy cold, but it was a welcomed relief just now during my shower!! You can imagine the vast difference in the temperature change...

Nothing pretty much happened today except that the Live Firing had been stopped for a scheduled break tomorrow before resuming on Monday and lasting till Thursday.

At night, there were alot of flying bugs... Guessed they stayed away in previous days due to the weather. The night was warmer than in previous too and there were no need for sleeping bags, just blankets will do. :)


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KMTA Day 1/8

OK, today's the most dreaded day of the entire battalion. I'm sure I need not mention why....

The "Admin Team" loaded up our laptops, printer, kitbags and some other essential items into our designated Land-Rover. We then headed off to the Vehicle Form-Up Point before heading towards KMTA, with my rover leading the convoy of 19 vehicles, including 2 spare guns.

Departing at 9am, we arrived at our destination (+/- 100km away) nearly 2hrs later and immediately setup our "Office" for the next 8 days. Our "Office" is set up in a gigantic open-concept sheltered shed with concrete flooring and a bricked perimeter wall with openings at intervals. We picked out and optimal spot towards the middle of the shed, cordoned off an estimated 5m by 5m area using white-tapes and started setting up the various equipment and beds.

It was nearing lunch time by the time we finished. We were shocked to learn that there will be no food today and it's supposed to be Combat-Rations for today. Fresh rations will start from tomorrow and continue until the final few days when it will revert back to Combat-Rations. One alternative is to get food from the canteen which will usually be opened at the camp site. However, checking out the building likely to be the canteen, the hawker said it would be ready only during dinner time. We ended up getting by with a packet of Combat-Ration, some biscuits and junk-food bought from a nearby provision shop.

The canteen was ready by 4plus and we took turns to go as someone HAD to be around to guard the "Office". When I finally managed to go, I was stunned to find that the hawkers here are the EXACT folks from the SYC Canteen!!! Apparently, these hawkers are aware of our movements and followed us as we move!! I'm very impressed.

Must be due to the rain, it's rather cold today. For the first time ever, I wore a t-shirt under my uniform and I just about felt warm enough. Usually, the uniform alone would make me sweat! I can't imagine how cold it will get later on in the night be it for those out there in the field and also for us back here in camp. Even the water feels quite cold... Guessed I'd skip shower tonight...

I was mentioning to SO earlier in the evening that the amount of calamaris I've had in the past few days are more than what I'd have had in a single year. She instantly reminded me that these are high cholesterol stuffs. I hadn't thought of that until she mentioned it.

Oh man, I simply love SO to bits for being so thoughtful!! :)


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SYC Day 3

Today's the last day in SYC before the pinnacle of this ICT, Live Firing of the FH2000 howitzer (Gun) in the Khao Meng Training Area (KMTA). We'd be staying in the camp area of KMTA together with the other folks from the supporting elements for the next 8 days.

It rained pretty heavily earlier in the evening. Not too sure if raining is a good or bad thing, especially since the Battalion Exercise / Live Firing is starting tomorrow....

Good thing because the weather is likely to be cooling and will not be dampening the already not too high morale of the exercise troops. The other side of the coin is that the wet weather is gonna worsen the terrain conditions further, forming mud pools everywhere, dampening everyone's spirits. This is ironically, quite contradicting of the fact that a cooling weather is always welcoming to the outfield personnels.

Anyway, back to the earlier downpour, it was raining sporadically, heavy, light and heavy again. It was hard to predict when, if at all, the rain will subside and eventually stop. What worsen the situation was that all 6 of us in the office had yet to have dinner and am famished by 8pm! 4 of us decided that enough is enough, pulled out our issued rain-jackets, tried keeping our essential items under the protection of the jacket and headed out into the rain towards the canteen.

This rain is a real eye-opener for me. Not that I've not encountered heavy rain before, but let me assure you this rain, no doubt the intensity may not be heavier than what might get in SG, the impact is, without a doubt, leaves a much deeper impression in my mind!

Heading into the heavy rain with a rain-jacket is nothing worth mentioning, it's the torrent of rainwater flowing towards you, some ankle deep, that I felt was worth a mention! Some water got into my boots and wetted my socks barely 100m into the walk, water landing on me flowed downwards, off the jacket and straight onto the lower portion of my trousers, wetting it from my thigh down.

Really hope the next 8 days will be smooth, without any accident in the field for everybody. This will ensure a peaceful time for the HQ Admin Group, the team I'd be attached to throughout the Exercise.

Oh, and please, give us cooling weather, yet no rain too. Thanks!!


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SYC Day 2

Woke up around 730am today as there's some kind of parade taking place at 815am. So I got changed into this t-shirt I bought from the shops in the canteen yesterday. I quite like this shirt not so much for it's design, but more for the comfort of the material and also that it fits me really well :)

I had all my meals in the canteen like yesterday. Tried getting the guys to try the cookhouse food but they declined without hesitation. Well, the curious me went into the cookhouse to take a look at the fare and decided there n then that I will not eat at the cookhouse unless I had no choice! Not that the fare is bad, but it's not much diff from what we can get back at home. So, rather than continue eating the same thing, might as well eat more Thai food since we're ready here? I did not have any Pad Thai today. I had my first Tom Yum soup during dinner when 4 of us got together and ordered some dishes.

The weather here is pretty hot in the afternoon and one can really get baked if you're outside for prolonged period! It's that terrible that alot of them actually bought a cooler container for use whilst in the field. You can imagine how warm it is out there for these guys to want to grab one container each!

Turning in now, shall post more updates tomorrow. Gonna turn in now... Good nite!!

PS : these entries are typed and saved in my phone, waiting chances to upload then to BlogSpot.


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Sai Yok Camp Day 1

Yup, that's where I was headed last nite. I was in Flight 1, TG8181, a chartered flight flying directly into Don Muang Airport. There were a total of 2 flights, each taking-off and landing about an hour apart....

The airport was closed when we landed. There were no staff except for a few immigration officers. Lighting was minimal too. Landing @ 210am, we waited till nearly 4am before boarding the chartered buses for our destination, an estimated 3hrs drive away. We had 2 police escorts along the way to Sai Yok Camp, one leading the way and another at the rear of the convoy.

We arrived at Sai Yok Camp around 7am and was greeted by the folks from the Advance Party. Breakfast was catered for and everyone was damn hungry I bet!! My tummy was growling along the way and I can't wait to eat!

We were next allocated bunks but due to some Administrative screw-ups, very usual for the SAF, David and I weren't allocated a bunk and were ding-dong here and there by the respective In-Charges. They finally somehow managed to sort things out and allocated us a 2-men bunk, unlike the rest of the guys in 100-men bunk!! While I liked the privacy of this bunk, it's damn dusty n as of had been left unused for very long... Took me quite some time to clean it up sufficiently. :S

I didn't manage to sleep during the Midnight flight. Neither did I sleep much during the 3hr bus-ride. Yet I do not feel tired in the morning. However, the "kick" came in the early afternoon. I went back to the bunk and drop deep into sleep. Barely 30mins had passed when I was awaken by a call, much as I would like to continue sleeping, I had to head down to the Admin Office to get things done. One thing for sure, I can feel that my 30mins nap was a DEEP ONE!!

Ok folks, my eyes are closing. Gonna turn in now. See ya soon....


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"Frying" up to Tom-Yum Land - Part 1/3

I'm be making 3 trips to "Tom-Yum Land" (Thailand) thrice this year, leading to accusations of me having secretly gotten PR there!!

This trip will be my first time there on National Service-related purpose. We're going there for a Live-Firing Exercise. I was back in camp for ICT since last Monday, but that's the local phase (based in Singapore) in preparation for the 2weeks exercise starting next week.

The place we'd be based at isn't too technologically advanced and communication might be an issue, not to mention the hefty roaming charges I'm expecting to incur. However, in my bid to try and reduce this cost, I've done some research and came up with the following "battleplan" :

1. subscribed Auto-Roaming from my SG Telco.

2. Bought a Thai SIM-Card (True Corp.) via Trusling Communications to call back to SG.

3. Use the same Thai-SIM to access Internet if time/signal-strength permits.

4. Bought 600B worth of Top-Up value whilst in SG.

While I do not expect to use my SG-SIM much there, I still took up Auto-Roaming as an "Insurance" just in case I was not able to get a signal from True, I'd still be able to hook up to any available network in the area using my SG-SIM.

Should True have signals in both camps while I'd be, then Items 2 - 4 will come in handy and Item 1 will be used as Plan B. The above items costs me a total of $75... Hope they are sufficient for my use. I bet if I survive on Plan B alone, the charges will probably be triple of $75 and upwards!!

So much for now, see you folks when I'm back in SG 2 weeks from now.

PS : Sorry, cannot provide too much details regarding the Exercise for security reasons.

Travel Plans 2011

Feb 2011 - Batam (completed)

Mar 2011 - Thailand (ICT)

Apr/May 2011 - Chiang Mai

Jun 2011 - Taiwan

Jul 2011 - Bangkok

Nov/Dec - Hokkaido/Europe/USA (TBC)

??? 2011 - Dublin (Work-related)

SO was telling me I've no more slots to squeeze in anymore travels.... :(

Open your eyes big big before buying!!!

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Pictures photographed off The Straits Times