The Good Things About The Army (?)
I was very busy for the past few days because I was involved in an Ops Planning Exercise. An Ops planning Exercise is whereby several soldiers are trapped inside a meeting room from morning till late night discussing and planning for an upcoming Exercise which we are involved in. To them, it is to devise a strategy to fight against enemy ambush and how to deploy vehicles and stores to their respective locations. To me, it is fighting a losing battle against sleep and boredom.
Ops Planning exercise are a waste of time because 90% of the things you plan will never happen. Most of the things are executed to what happen on the ground itself. I was most of the time sitting by one side playing with my handphone and acting that I was listening. With all the Staff Sgts and 1st Sgts plotting and planning, the last thing you need is a small Private contributing because if you say something too constructive, you will make those big shots look stupid.
During one of the smoke breaks, a Staff Sgt came up to me and made small talk. He asked me how I felt about NS and what are the good things about it. I looked at him with big questioning eyes. Good things about NS? If you had asked me about the bad things about NS, I could have written a book about it. But good things? I went,"er....eh...good things...er...eh..."
Was I too negative? Did I fail to see some good in the bad? Why wasn't I able to answer him? I pondered this question on the way home and finally came up with some good things about the NS.
1) NS is good because they provide you with breakfast, lunch and dinner and even give you a big fat pay of $350 a month.
2) NS is good because that is where you have to learn to be independent and resourceful. Many a times your superiors can throw something to you and most of the time it's HIS problem and tell you," I don't care how you do it but you better solve this problem by today." Then you have need to crack your brains and learn how to get your resources because if you don't, it means extra guard duty and confidment.
3) NS is good because it hones your acting skills. You cannot pretend you don't know anything but you also cannot show that you know everything. Being too capable will throw you into the 'arrow army' and whenever there are any big things coming up, you will be asked to be involved everytime. You have to moderate yourself and put yourself into the category of 'I NOT BLUR BUT I ALSO NOT SO CLEVER'.
4) NS is good because you get to see all types of people. It really opens your eyes to see the type of people that exist. People that ranges from super blur cocks to those who are so clever that they know how to siam and push all the shit to you. There are also those people whom if you put their faces on the target boards in the firing range, I would have been a Marksman.
5) NS is good because you don't have to worry about what to wear. You are given 5 sets of smart uniforms that have the design of the green scenery and everyone loves the green scenery.
6) NS is good because you learn good manners. You are expected to greet every officers that come your way. Imagine 5 officers walking individually along the corridor and you happen to be there. You will have to greet them all and before long, you are even more polite than the Japanese.
7) NS is good because they bring you to go camping. They bring you to the forest and play many games with you. They play exciting games like ARTI ambush drills, trench digging and fire movement. They also bring you on a nature tour in the forest where you get to interact upclose with mosquitoes, scorpins, fire ants and many other more cute insects. During camping, they also teach you to save water because you cannot bath.
I really miss my pink IC and I am looking forward to Dec 07, my ORD date. Dec 07 will be the day where my pride and dignity will be restored.
The Fever
Finally, after 4 long years, the World Cup is here again. The World Cup always generates the most excitement compared to all other major sporting events like the Olympics. Even our General Election is peanuts compared to the World Cup. Sars? Bird flu? What is it compared to the World Cup fever? Once the fever sweeps through, everything is destroyed in its path.
Look at all the commericals you see on TV now. Even those products that have no whatsoever connection with soccer are using the World Cup as a theme.Everywhere, from markets to shopping malls, coffee shops to restaurants, the posters and banners are everywhere. Anyone who doesn't know that the World Cup is taking place now ought to be shot.
Even my mother who has no interest at all in soccer came and asked me when it's going to start and who I think will win the World Cup (I told her Batam). Whether you are in the office, army camp or the MRT on the way home, you will hear people talking non-stop about it.
An auntie of mine, in a bid to see David Beckham in action, took both her young kids to a nearby coffeeshop to watch England play Paraguay. She left them at the playground right behind the coffee shop and watched the game all by herself. No wonder the crime rate is rising.
And of course, where there's soccer, there is betting. I find myself giving crash courses everyday to various people on how to bet. They will come and ask,"eh, what is call give 1/2 ball huh?" or "if I take England put 1 1/2 and they win 1-0, do I win or lose?" Even those 4-eyed nerds who seemed to only know how to study are interested. But when I told them the minimum bet at Singapore Pools was $5 they went crazy. "Huh....I thought can bet 50 cents one..." That is perhaps why nerds are nerds and why nerds will always remain as nerds.
I am not being spared neither. My dark circles are getting increasingly darker and if not for my dark complexion, I would have been mistaken for a zombie. Nothing else seems to matter anymore. I am only concerned who plays who tonight.
As for those girlfriends whose boyfriends somehow behave like Cindarella (when 9 o clock is approaching, they make excuses to leave, leaving behind not glass slippers, but a trail of Singapore Pools betting slips), you should know he is rushing home or to meet his khakis for the 9pm match.
My advice to these girlfriends is let him go. You wouldn't want a distraught boyfriend by your side, physically with you but with the heart in Germany. And you shouldn't complain too. After all, the World Cup comes only once every 4 years while your GREAT SINGAPORE SALES comes EVERY year. So there, stop whinning and let him go. Just for a month.
The Real Story of the Dragon Boat festival
The Dragon Boat Festival is one of the most spectacular traditions of ancient China. It is an exciting period for rowing competitions marked by the eating of rice dumpling called "Ma Chang". In some Chinese-speaking societies, the day is also known as the "Poets' Day".
The Legend behind the Dragon Boat Festival embodies the story of love and service for one's country. About 2300 years ago, during the Warring States period, a well-respected poet and statesmen named "Qu Yuan" lived in the Chinese Kingdom of Chu and served the government with integrity as Minister of State.
He was disturbed by the corruption and by the court intrigues of many courtiers who resented his talent, popularity and sense of righteousness. One version said that other officials convinced the Emperor that Qu Yuan was corrupt, that his plea for reforms be ignored and had him banished from the Kingdom.
The beginning of the legend was correct but the latter part of it was found to be not-so-creditable. It was believed that the story had been altered and after lots of research and interviews, this below, my gullible friends, is the real story. The one which you have known since Primary School ought to be scrapped.
After being retrenched from his post in the imperial court, Xiao Yuan wandered the country sides and composed poems and auctioning them at eBay at very high prices. One of his poems even managed to fetch a price of 2 million golds, making him the top 10 richest man in the world that year.
Pic taken after the sale of his poem for 2 milliongolds at his press conference.With the money earned from the sale, plus his retrenchment money obtained from the court and his fat CPF account, Xiao Yuan stopped working and instead spent his time idling by the river side, eating rice dumpling and sunbathing. His wife, xiao-yu, gave up on him totally, calling him a fat lazy bastard.
The emperor came to know about this and slapped him with a crime of stealing gold from the Imperial Treasury. He then ordered his soldiers to capture Xiao-yuan alive. The army went down to the Mei Lo river where Xiao-yuan always frequents and found him while he was eating his dumpling. As he tried to escape, he slipped on the half-eaten dumpling and fell into the river. As the current was very strong, none of the soldiers dared to dive in to capture him.
The culprit which killed xiao yuanThe army commander reported the situation back to the Emperor and the Emperor sent his Navy troops down to the Mei Lo river. He promised to give a handsome reward of 10000 golds to whoever who can capture Xiao-yuan.
the race against time to capturexiao yuan and of course the promised10000 golds.The alert wife of Xiao-yuan, xiao-yu, on learning this, hid all 2 million golds and fled before the imperial court came for her. The Emperor was of course furious that his navy troop had failed to capture Xiao-yuan. As a punishment, he made the entire Navy troop go to the same river every year and search for Xiao Yuan even though he was dead. This went on for many years and slowly became a tradition and hence the orgin of the Dragon Boat Festival.
The villiagers, on learning that their beloved hero had fallen into the river, were heart-brokened. They then proceeded to make many dumplings and threw them into the river so that xiao yuan can eat them when he is hungry.
Now, I know that the legend we know is that the dumplings were thrown into the river so that the fishes can feed on them instead of the flesh of xiao yuan. But by common sense, do you think that the fishes know how to unwrap the dumplings? Of course not! So the dumplings are definitely for Xiao-Yuan.
The food cycleDumplings thrown into river --> XiaoYuan eat dumpling--> Fish eat XiaoYuan-->villiagers eat fish
The wife of xiao yuan, xiao-yu fled to Korea and changed her name and started a new life. In memory of her hiding the gold from the Emperor of China, she changed her name to 藏金. It was heard that she later became the chef of the Korean Imperial Court and even studied medicine and became a doctor eventually.
大藏金--
the wife of xiao yuan,formerly known as xiao yuHappy dragon boat festival and enjoy your dumplings.
