Refreshing run.

I'm surprised I could push myself to run far this time. My previous runs were simply casual, too casual to break any sweat.
I'd say I covered about 3 km while walking and 5 km while jogging. Marina Promenade's quite a nice place to sweat out and the route was roughly the same as that of last year's RSAF run.
I've been thinking about joining the incipient marathon in december but I think I'd rather go for Army Half Marathon which is probably much much cheaper.
I don't know how my $35 registration fee is justified if I join the Dec one.
Maybe it's justified somehow but it's too expensive. I'd rather buy A French Affair CD which I kinda like.

I always believed that squash will always wear my fitness down and that fitness has to be built to play squash and not the other way round. Today, having felt the lightness of my body while jogging, playing squash intensely nevertheless builds up stamina and fitness. Anyway, I couldn't get out the sofa yesterday after squash, definitely some muscle building was being done. Heh.

Gangurru.

[Guugu Yimidhirr (Aboriginal language of northeast Australia) gaurru.]

Word History: A widely-held belief has it that the word kangaroo comes from an Australian Aboriginal word meaning “I don't know.” This is in fact untrue. The word was first recorded in 1770 by Captain James Cook, when he landed to make repairs along the northeast coast of Australia. In 1820, one Captain Phillip K. King recorded a different word for the animal, written “mee-nuah.” As a result, it was assumed that Captain Cook had been mistaken, and the myth grew up that what he had heard was a word meaning “I don't know” (presumably as the answer to a question in English that had not been understood). Recent linguistic fieldwork, however, has confirmed the existence of a word gangurru in the northeast Aboriginal language of Guugu Yimidhirr, referring to a species of kangaroo. What Captain King heard may have been their word minha, meaning “edible animal.”

I wasn't exactly convinced when my encik told the factual joke on kangaroos. Haha.

Scorched.

My throat is burning and dry. Its heat tickles my tear gland and my eyes are quite teary most of the time.

Back on another fruit tale, I saw Ba Du Ku growing in camp. Gonna try it soon.

Never would I thought...

That I could have found another Shao Min in Singapore.
The closest one was Zhao Min in Yi Tian Tu Long Ji.

http://www.blogger.com/profile/2787800

I stumbled upon this profile whilst glancing through Xiaxue's comments column, sympathising with her recent mishap.

Anyway, this discovery reminded me of how my friend used my name to trick a guy into coming out, you know... like, " Shaomin quite chio leh, faster come out leh! ". Haha.

So, Shaomin (f), if you also happen to read this, I'm the other Shaomin. A Male. =)

Spoil Market.

" I told that little fella that if he passes my test with full marks, he gets Happy Meal + Ice-cream, 7/10 then only Happy Meal. "

" Wah... you spoil market leh... ", one of the staff replied.

I was glad that managed to make him get 8/10. But the timing was long overdue.

Had a chat with a HCI volunteer, he looked like a doctor to me. But being a lawyer's his ambition.
He told me he was one of the only two students taking this very odd combination : Physics, Maths, History and Econs.

I think I'll try to make him go Macs often, for his mum really needs exercise. Just a mere 150 m and she starts drawing out tissue to wipe off the hundred beads of sweat. So a little exercise's good. =)

Working with 1 and a half eyes.

My right eyelid is kinda droopy looking partly due to the swell and the plaster diagonally across it.
Quite sore, that feeling you get when you stare too much at bright light.

Sigh.

Bleeding from my eye.

I anticipated a drop coming from him, never did it cross my mind would I get this literal stroke to my eye.
It felt okay for say... 10 milli seconds. I dropped to the floor and yelled after that.
With my closed eyes, I saw a blue streak against a black background. To top it up, my hands felt something watery...
" SHIT, I'M BLEEDING! "
So it went on dripping like a loose tap, drip drip drip.
After admiring my wound in the toilet, there was an constantly elongating silhouette at the corner of my injured eye. I inspected it again, it was something like dark red jelly.
Was it a) cougulated blood b) blood vessels or c) fats ?

A million thanks to the squash/tennis coach who helped dress my wound, though I learnt first aid, I probably can't dress it up well. =)

Runway indeed.

" I think you better keep to the first lane. ", noted my vehicle commander.
1 minute down the long flat tempting highway, I saw about 20 sports cars with much more people crowding the opposite sides of the highway. Men, women, mostly my age dressed casually with sandals and flip-flops. Strategically, they have effectively blocked all exiting routes into the highway from neighbouring farms and cemeteries.

They started peering in the direction behind me, naturally I turned to my right mirror and I saw a orange white spot growing larger.
" FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM "

" Fwah! ", I complimented.
My heart punched me hard. My heart actually felt painful when this bullet car sped pass me.
I would say the wind speed generated into my car window (due to close proximity between me and the car) was bursting. Kinda like a mini fighter plane going past me.
My steering wheel was kinda faulty and it drifted slightly to that speeding orange car's lane prior it overtaking me.
That lunatic was probably going at 200 km/h cos by the time I finished saying 'Fwah', it was already 50 m ahead of me (I was at 50 km/h).

The emergency aircraft runway had become their own Initial D race ground.

Reports from my peers earlier on included a WRX with a flaming exhaust pipe.
The way these racers fart their cars are simply bloody noisy...

The material and cultural divide.

I paused for a moment in that room.
Amidst the fun and cheer generated by the kids, a couple with their ACS son caught my attention.
Presumably the son being a volunteer, I guess the parents were just tagging along.
They took seat at the back of the room.
Well-heeled, well-dressed and nourished.

At centre stage were these children belonging to the blue-collar class of our society, brought together by the family service centre for a children's workshop : to teach them about life and to inspire them to scale greater heights.

Lizan impressed me greatly, certainly his agility and extrovertness left a deep impression amongst us. I ought to thank Sarah for pairing the kid up with me, the first session three days back left me even more motivated to brush up his maths. He's definitely capable of achieving greater things.
He told me he wants to be in the Army when he grows up and today when I witnessed him correcting another mischievious boy, he really impressed me with his sense of what's right.

Rizal, his WWE wrestling buddy, was particularly sweet, he asked me whether I had my ice-cream and if I wanted to have his. I feel at ease mingling with these malay kids. They are more lovable and spontaneous. By the way, he wants to be like Taufik. =And Lizan, the Human Torch.
They asked me to be The Thing. Haha.

The path for the ACS boy is one which is more or less sheltered, luxuriously provided with material comfort and able to make more informed decisions through his growing up years.
The young heartlanders will have to suffice with simple things in life, but there is still a path for them to lead better lives through power of knowledge.

Sometimes when I think back on my life thus far, it's not because I have the ability to do things, but more of the karma that I have that really shaped who I am now. The karma that I was brought up in Singapore, this household, this environment, having directly experienced this and that, having perceived this and that, having concluded various theories about life through experiences and intellect.
Even more fortunate to be able to make a positive impact in these children's formative years.

Rest.

May those affected by the blasts be charged with the tenacity and calm to pull through.

This morning was great, finally I got to experience the immaterial : a good satisfying sleep.
Those when one wakes up feeling really fresh, not attached to the bed anymore, literally bounce out of bed type. I slept for 11 hours, of course shiok man.

I practically did nothing today, just eating, TV and meditating.

Went phone hunting with mum and she said something memorably silly.
I showed her a brochure for Sony Ericsson T290i and it had 2 phones pics, the front and back.
Pointing at the back pic, she said, " So this is the phone with the cover and the other is not is it ? ".
"Wah lao eh........... *pause*... wah lao....... Haha. It's the back lah. ".

Then she said I had a generation gap with her. I said it's more of common knowledge gap. Time to update! Haha.

Squash and rambutans.

First of all, this army com is super glaring, I started shedding tears after a minute of usage.

London won the bid, I thought Paris might get it.
It is a pleasant surprise to see ST featuring squash and discussing about it on the Sports page.
With London winning the bid, will squash, predominantly English sport, gain its foothold in the Olympics ?

Back to rambutans.

Poh and I attempted to harvest the tree outside my bunk, that big red juicy one.
I retrieved a cutter and extended it to reach the fruits.
We did get some down, some even hit me on my chest.
I started getting ant bites on my chest after that though.

We examined the ground with a torch to illuminate the fallen fruits and to our disgust...
It has loads of ants and it was covered with white parasitic creatures that look like sesame seeds!
Sounds a tad too juicy and sweet. Too ripe I heard.

Thinking back about its appearance during the day, this tree's fruits look slightly different from others that I've seen. It has slightly darker red pigmentation and I already noticed the white parasites, just that it didn't occur to me that it's so super widespread.

Ain't I glad I didn't try to climb it, I'd be devoured by those legions of ants man.

Where did the rambutans go?

Poh and I scaled Mt. Rambutan and came back with quite a harvest last night.
Like what he said, an experience of a lifetime.
We splitted our loot 50-50 and this morning he told me a secret, clearly amused by it.

While I was sleeping, he was half-awake and was startled by the rustling of plastic bag.
He opened his eyes and saw a silhouetted figure digging into his bag of rambutans and helping himself to it. The figure then rested on a bed, whose I shall not reveal. But anyway, he guessed that the figure was resting on his own bed. My share of rambutans were kept in a Breadtalk bag, which makes it even more tempting to take because it's wide open and doesn't make much noise when dug into.

Personally, I wonder if it was psychological, but after hearing it, I lifted my bag and sniggered, " Eh, it was more than 1 Kg, now it's slightly lighter! Haha. "

Why did our dear silhouette resort to such late night tricks ?

He could have asked.

The North East Line race.

For those who commute via train and inevitably pass by Outram Park to transfer to East West Line, you'll probably also wonder why the LED display states very redundant messages like ' EAST WEST LINE ' or ' HarbourFront/Punggol x mins ', the latter especially so, because you're boarding the EW Line.
But look ahead, near the bend leading to the escalator you might notice commuters picking up their pace, accelerating and sprinting! How exhilarating!
Obviously, they saw the important message that shows ' Boon Lay/Pasir Ris 1 min ' is on.
My point now is, why not put this important message on that LED display with bo liao messages ?
Scared got marathon then people cause stampede ? Haha.

Oh look, I'm reading Chinese.

My mum's pleasantly surprised that my internet browser actually showed chinese words, even more so when she realised it was a full chinese webpage.
Honestly, I'm starting to like reading Chinese. It just happened.
And I just finished reading China's CCTV internet news report on school uniforms.
It seems that Schools there are making a great profit out of selling uniforms.
School uniforms in china are not compulsory but parents buy them because they have no other choice, bo bian.


不过，按照国家实行“一费制”的要求 ，校服是自愿购买的。然而记者在调查中发现，在所谓的“自愿”背后更多的是家长的无奈。 　　

无论城市还是农村中小学几乎都要求学生购买校服。 　　

上海教育工作者：统一校服对学校管理 学生养成良好纪律比较有利。 　　

多数学校的校服分为冬夏两套，虽然没有硬性规定购买，但要求学生在一些集体活动中必须得穿。 　　

学生家长：别人都有，我没有，升旗的时候怎么办？星期一怎么办？假如学校开运动会，开什么会非要全部娃儿要穿校服。

It's like normal in SG to buy uniform, but anyway, here's the profiting part.

The reporter visited a parent who dished out the child's uniforms and complained about the lousy material like how difficult it is to wash it and how even more frustrating it is to remove dirt from it. 48 yuan's the price.

A visit to Chong Qing's largest uniform distributor revealed that such uniform costs merely 20 yuan. Another check elsewhere found certain uniforms to be at a mere 4.5 yuan.

So check out the profits schools are earning. Reference

Very groggy.

If I were to pick up a skill now, it'd be how to sleep well regardless of the conditions.
I finished duty at 3 am this morning and thought I'd be shagged and my mind will be docile enough to fall asleep. Analogically speaking, it was like snacking, I just couldn't get a satisfying dose of sleep. I dozed off on the bus... I opened the house door, changed and just dropped on my mum's bed cos it's nicer to sleep on. Woke up close to 1 p.m.

I was spending time in the admin office reading this book 'When I was in Uniform: Reminiscences of a National Serviceman', written by James Suresh last night and days back then although said to be tough still had its brighter and sweeter side. And one thing I learnt from that book is, people don't change. No matter which era or generation you're in, there'll be lazy people, gambling addicts and people exaggerating their medical conditions in NS.

Trivia : SAFTI had a mini-zoo maintained by a officer there. It has bears, pythons along with the usual creatures to be expected. On 2 occasions, a bear escaped and wandered around SAFTI. Its first adventure was halted when the officer caring for it walked right up to it and spoke to it. Amazingly, the bear just walked back.
And during training in Sabah, some fellas who were found wild boar scaring too inefficient with their rifles, decided to toss a grenade to them. Needless to say, the swines were fragmented.