Just some separate issues...

Been like ten days since I last updated my blog, had lots of stuff I wanted to write on, but wasn't really free or not in the right state of mind to type anything, so I will just be putting some separate stuff which had totally no link to each other...

Today was in the MRT discussing with sq how to spell the word twentieth. He was trying to sms the word to his fren but do not know the spelling so he asked me. Then I actually told him quite confidently that the spelling should be twentlth. (Please don't laugh, because this is not meant to be a joke ok?) A girl who was standing in front of us overheard our discussion over the spelling and decided to correct us. Oh gosh... Yah and anyway sq say the girl is near his type of girl...

A few days ago I was working an earlier shift and saw a HCI boy with his mother visiting to shop. What annoyed me was that his collar pin was inverted. Hey... if you don't respect your collar pin or your uniform, please change out of it when you come out in the public. I really feel like telling that straight to the boy's face. But I have been controlling my temper quite well so far.

I bidded for the module Making Sense of Society. It was a rather last minute decision as I realised that the initial module I wanted to take clashes with a tutorial class. So read up abit on the description and bid for that before rushing off for coaching. Got it so I will just get on with it. Thinking of taking another additional module for this sem. But havent decided yet. No time to really read up on anything also. Because I'm working over the weekend before the bidding round opens on mon morn. So I don't know how.

Heard over the radio that there's this "ying yue ri ji san" zheng wen bi sai, which basically is a selection for stories to be complied into the 3rd album of the music diary. The deadline is 3rd of Aug. I actually have one article written like 6 months back already? But never had the courage to send it. Or should I say I had just enough motivation to complete the story but not to read it or edit it again to send it. Maybe this few days I will find just enough motivation or courage to edit it and send it? Highly unlikely but we will see...

My timetable is really bad. 2 afternoons end at 4pm. The rest end even later. So how am I supposed to carry on coaching? I need to talk to ws and miss toh on it and we'll see how to accomodate my schedule.

I ending my stint at G2000 on National day. I'm telling myself not to extend it anymore. Studying is still important. My primary responsibility for the next four years is still to be a student.

Places

Different places I went, different people I meet, different kind of feelings I have for the place. As I grow up, I have constantly been feeling attached to a certain place before being forced to move on...

The very first place I had lots of feelings for was my primary school. It wasn't big. I could remember quite clearly each corner of the campus. I wasn't really that committed to volleyball then, so my memory of the school was all around the place, which mainly includes the volleyball cum basketball courts, which we use to play soccer as well, the hall and canteen which we do spend a lot of time in as young kids, and the assembly area which we assemble everyday either for flag raising or lowering. I will sometimes still dream of being back in the school, but ever since it moved, the old campus has been an empty shell. But I still travel past it everyday to work and take a good few seconds look at it.

The next place I had fond memories of will have to be the block 206 void deck. Once upon a time I was part of this 206 gang, which main (and only) illegal activity is to have its members play soccer at that void deck. Most of us weren't really soccer players and we were young then, so we bought those cheap rubber balls available at almost all provision shops to kick about in the void deck, which isn't hard on the legs and doesn't cause much noise pollution. The most important thing I was proud of being part of it was that we'll always pause our game whenever we see people walking by in the vicinity, so that we'll have no chance of hitting anyone. Thus we didn't really receive any complains regarding our conduct. But as all of us went over to sec sch and got involved with our own activities, we seldom met up to play and the 206 gang silently ceased to exist from then on.

Next up is the place that probably influenced my life the most. The CHS volleyball courts. It was at that very place that I spend a giant portion of my sec sch life playing and practising volleyball, and the following 2 years back there helping out as an assistant coach. It was also there I met some of my best friends, teammates and senoirs. My best memories as a volleyball player came from the place and representing the team in competition.

My two years after graduating from CHS was at HC, which I had always been hoping to enter. What other place is there to reunite with my senoirs to play volleyball and yet being able to fulfil my own resposibilities as a senoir to go back to CHS to help with training? But I ended up not really enjoying my stay in the school. I still have memories of the outdoor courts and indoor hall which we had trainings, but much of it was just the regular arguments with teachers and coach, and it was there which probably signified the start of the end of my playing career. I lost my zest and will to play and win volleyball. But at least there were other places worthy of remembering. Like the class bench, which is unique to HC as the class will gather there with their senoir/junoir class everyday waiting for school to start or during breaks or after school. The library as well, which I did spent a load of time in during my JC2 during my free periods to study.

The next place to be mentioned as a very unknown place called the woodlands point, which is situated right next to the causeway. I spent almost everyday of my 3 or 4 months before my A levels travelling there and studying there, sometimes all the way until 10pm. I don't really like the place, because it reminds me of my hard time studying. But if not for the existence of the place, I probably will have done worse than I did.

The final two places I'm going to mention are my work places. My first job was as a waiter at Bboss, which I worked for about three months before enlisted. It was probably the best warmup before going to army, as I could tame myself down and serve customers and get to further understand how the society really works. The restaurant was like any office where office politics play a good part in. The details I won't mention it now, but whats important is that that was the first time I felt that I was working for a living. I still went back to it once or twice during my NSF days, but it has since closed down.

The current place I 'm spending my five days out of a week in is G2000 at ngee ann city. Working there, or should I say going for fun, is a very unique experience. I didn't really need the work, but I needed something to take up my time before my university term starts. So i started working there. Small shop, many goods, plenty of customers and all good cum fun loving colleagues. What else can one person want from work? Going to work is just like meeting up with a bunch of friends just spending time together. And I'm very much ok with mixing with people from different walks of life. So its great!

Why did I suddenly wanted to write this? Because I always grow attached to a lot of places during different phases of my life. Now I think I'm really loving this place. Emily was asking me to extend my work until mid Aug so that they have enough time to get people to take over and I did not really refuse. My heart and my brain are at conflict again.

Working Life

I have always been telling my friends that I have had fond memories of my time working after my A levels before being enlisted. Then I was coaching and working as a waiter at bboss at the same time. It wasn't really tiring as the waiter job was only at night, while the coaching was at most three times a week. Other days when I wasn't working, I would be back in CHS helping out with training or out with friends for lunch or just relaxing at home. No worries, and I did have time to myself, yet I was working and doing something I loved. It was great life then.

Just started on something similar a week back, when I started working as a shop assistant. So far, its been real tiring. Was coaching on 5,6,7, then started work as the shop assistant on 8 all the way till 12, before having an off day to go back to coaching. And I'm going to work all the days which I don't have to coach for the rest of the month. This is a tiring prospect as it means I'm not gonna have any real off days for the rest of this month. It's no fun having to stand for a few hours in a row serving (i DO stand AND serve for my players to receive during trainings but its abit different you see) difficult customers and searching for their sizes. Hey... But I was the one who was tired of being at home for five days a week doing nothing constructive. So its my choice...

2 different periods of similar working life which I probably won't repeat ever again. I told myself after working at bboss that I won't want to be waiter again, so now I am working as a shop assistant, after which I may decide on the exact same thing: not to work as a shop assistant again. Its not because I do not enjoy being a waiter or a shop assistant, its just the experience that counts. To be truthful, I do not expect myself to become either one of those when I graduate right?

I know that my working life after graduating from uni will probably be a lot different from the one I'm having at the moment, so why not just enjoy it while I can right now right?

Just a small side issue, I hereby vow to make it big and make sure all those difficult customers that I serve during my time as a shop assistant will have to bow under me!!!

sales

Yesterday was my first day of work selling clothes at G2000 at ngee ann city. Those interested can go there and look for me ok? Though I probably won't be able to give anyway discount, because almost all the stuff there are on discount!

It was actually quite a dumb first day. I didn't want to be late plus I had to settle some other minor stuff before reaching the work place, so I went out quite early. But I was too early so I had to walk around the place before still arriving for work too early. Haha. Then my colleagues started teaching me some stuff in the afternoon since there weren't many customers around, which was correct as I do need alot of guidence in how they work. But the funny thing is that the colleague teaching me was treating me like a idiot? Haha... the kind of questions that she was asking to make sure I know my work was totally laughable.

Some interesting stuff happened though. The operations manager went down to see us work. And all the senoir staff got screwed. She was fierce. Luckily it was only my first day of work so she gave me some leeway. And I do have some interesting colleagues who will serve customers with a smile in the front and go to the back all swearing at cursing at the same customers.

For a first day of work, as predicted, my back was feeling the strain by the end of the day. Luckily there was an hr break which I recuperated. The standing was already torturing enough and we had to climb up and down to get clothes inside the store room. I nearly died at the end of the day. Haha...

I'm working today and tommorrow as well. I guess I do need some getting used to the long hours of work. But its good training as well. I get to practise smiling a lot and speak more english to customers. The 2 extremes of work... scolding my students on some days of the week while catering to unreasonable customers on other days.

3 days in a roll

Going down for my 3rd training session in 3 days, due to the youth day holiday on mon and a parents-teacher meet on friday, a originally planned mon wed fri training week became tue wed thur training week. What's worse is that ws cannot make it on thur, so i had to take 1 more session this week so he'll take 2 session next week. Originally I didn't really bother too much, I'm just the coach not really having much physical strain on the body right? But my back tells me otherwise. After the tue training my back was already hurting abit, perhaps because I stood for a prolong period of time. Yesterday was feeling the same pain, but add that to playing pool with sz at nght, my back was killing me. After todays training I'll see how it goes. Tommorrow I'm going to start work at G2000, which also involves standing a lot. Ok... bad idea.

Slps cls outing 020705

Diana organised the outing and since she already contacted us several weeks ahead of the date, it was actually quite inappropraite for us (at least for me who's not really working) not to turn up. I was still wondering what kind of things we'll be doing at sentosa, but luckily it turn up better than just fine?!

Met up with sq n cw that morning, supposedly to travel down earlier to buy drinks and not to be late. But in the end went for breakfast (which was correct coz we ate snacks for lunch) so we ended up just on time when we reached harbour front mrt. Bought a lot of drinks, which I insisted, and went back to the mrt station to wait for those who were not early (actually is late). Then comes the surprising part. I was still expecting many more gers to guys, which was what diana told me initially supposed to be 8:4. But the turn out at the mrt was 2:5. 3 more later turn up and joined us at sentosa itself though.

As for what we actually did at sentosa, I can safely say that I had fun. Played abit of vball (just tossing around with the guys, not actually having a match), some captain ball, some ice breaker game which involves throwing water bomb (me ending up soaked with sea water which they use to fill the water bombs) and play a murderer game which occupied a major part of the afteroon. After leaving the island and having dinner at hawker centre, we went a party world outlet at chinatown to end the day.

The turn out was pretty good. Hanwen went down, who I had a good chat with regarding volleyball stuff. Annie went down as well, who was seated beside me during pri 6, and had a good chat with her too, especially since I haven't heard anything about her ever since leaving pri sch. The rest I didn't really talk much to, either too close or not really having anything much in common.

As I think of it, actually I rather enjoy being with the pri sch frens. I'm like a different person when I'm with them. I smile, laugh and talk much more. For the past few years of my life, I have always been projecting the image of a serious, attitude problem, bad tempered guy who dunno how to smile. I dont really like the image I have but that is me.

What image will I project in uni? Or more importantly, who or what am I supposed to be?

How I came into existence...

I have never told this to anyone in my life. This was told to me by my father. But now I have decided to face up to reality. Here goes...

It was a long time back, about 21 years ago. The man I now call Father was coming home from work. He was a taxi driver then (he still is now anyway), so as he parked his taxi and was preparing to walk towards the stairs, he heard the cry of a baby from a rubbish bin which was hanging at a lamppost. (I still can point to you exactly which is the lamp post.) Out of curiosity, he went to check it out. Amazingly, there was a baby boy crying inside (which happens to be yours truly). Seeing the sorry sight of the baby struggling to keep alive, he decided to bring this boy home and rear as his own. And thats how I came into existence...

As with every story, there are important lessons to be learnt:

Lesson No 1: Never throw a baby into a rubbish bin, because its very hard to clean him up properly if anyone decides to pick him up. Now you know why I am still so dark.

Lesson No 2: The environment that a child is brought up is very important. So cannot blame me for being kaypoh or compassionate like my father k? (Hmm... Nobody will believe me if I tell him I'm compassionate anyway?!)

Lesson No 3 (and most important): A lot of characteristics are hereditary. My father is a bad lier and tells lousy jokes. So here I am.