End of Reservist; (My)Space 2011; 08S201 Outing; Happy CNY!

Happy CNY to all my readers!

Reservist updates - (1) Day 2 (18th Jan) - Stupid me wasted money on cabbing cos I was trying out a new route to camp but didn't do enough of my homework so when I was at the bus stop that I thought I was supposed to take from and saw that the bus wasn't going to camp, I panicked and took a cab. All I had to do was cross over and take the bus, idiot! Other eventful thing today was our cohesion 4km route march which was literally a stroll in the park as we walked out of camp and along some park connector and that certainly beats walking in camp which was so boring...

(2) Day 3 (19th Jan) - Nothing special in camp - whole day of mainly theory lesson... Met up with da jie for dinner as she gave me updates on her time with my classes and her pep talk to them using guilt treatment hahaha.

(3) Day 4 (20th Jan) - Lessons just a tiny bit more siong today but more interesting also as we set up dipole antennas and some other big antennas like NVIS, Log P, and SQT mast which was quite fun and I kenna suan by the instructor about how I was hammering the picket into the ground cos he said I must be holding a white-collar job outside cos I was just hitting the picket instead of smashing it in haha...

(4) Day 5 (21st Jan) - Theory lessons again...zzz...

(5) Day 6 (22nd Jan) - IPPT at Maju Camp and it was a debacle as the recording machine broke down and quite a few of us had our 2.4km timings wrongly recorded so we contested it and to cut a long story short, we had to chase them for the correct results and even after I had a call finally last Fri to tell me about the correct timing (12:24), the results were not updated till this morning so I just wrote an email to MINDEF cos I'm pretty * with them already though I was diplomatic as ever in my email. This stupid * really put a dampener in what was my best performance by far in terms of points and I felt really good running that day surprisingly considering I had not run since last Jun...

On the way back, I was dropped off at Ang Mo Kio so I went to get a Tip-Top Curry Puff which is nice and finally I also tried out a Taro Milk Tea from Gong Cha since there was no queue after hearing so much about it (and also Koi) and it was pretty ok. It was nice but not out-of-the-world and not exactly cheap so I wouldn't ever be queueing up for that!

Took a short nap when I finally reached home before meeting up with da jie to go visit the CSI Exhibition at the Science Centre, Singapore [that is the proper name in case anyone still thinks it's the Singapore Science Centre =p]. It was fairly interesting and a lot of the ideas can be brought back for our Science Fiesta cos they are simple enough to create and for the students to understand. Learnt some new stuff about blood spatter and other stuff you see on CSI which was quite cool... =)

Then we rushed down to Riverside Point's Brewerkz cos I had an appointment to take my measurements for this shirt company which makes tailor-made shirts and it was cool cos the shirts can be customised right down to the tiniest of details...

After that we went to Dozo at Valley Point along River Valley Road to meet "Mummy" (our colleague also) for dinner and it was another sumptuous dinner of Japanese food though significantly cheaper than my last meal at Kuriya hahaha. I loved the Japanese bread sticks (btw it's free flow ftw!) and their tea was very fragrant also (and it's not the usual green tea but some rose-like stuff). We had their 7-course dinner (apparently they only serve that) for a reasonable price of $70 considering what we had:
(1) Chef's Selection of Assorted Platter - had foei gras, smoked salmon, and I think scallop if I rem correctly

(2)Cold Dish - we each took a different one and shared - Beef Tataki, King Crab Claw Salad, Smoked Duck Breast and all were great though I liked the beef tataki best and it looked the most impressive also.

(3) Side Dish - 2 of us had escargots (my first time eating that!) and 1 had foie gras chawanmushi - I loved the escargots and definitely preferred that over the chawanmushi cos I like to feel the foie gras melting in my mouth rather than having it already infused in the chawanmushi.

(4) Soup - we shared a mushroom soup, crab bisque, and beef consomme and I liked the mushroom soup best followed by the consomme and then the crab bisque cos I didn't really like the coffee taste (it was cappuccino style)

(5) Main Dish - we had beef tenderloin on granite hot stone, baked Atlantic cod fillet, and sushi platter and I think I would've preferred the cod fillet more since I like that and it was quite well done. I didn't really fancy the beef tenderloin cos the leaf in between the meat and the stone got quite burnt at some parts so it was troublesome trying to remove the leaf which spoilt the experience cos I don't like to have a hassle when I eat...

(6) Dessert - we shared a warm chocolate cake, Japanese mochi with green tea ice cream, and an espresso creme brulee. All were great but the chocolate cake takes the cake literally even though I'm usually not a fan of chocolate!

(7) Drinks - had a green apple mocktail (so me!) while the other 2 had a fruity refresher and a grapefruit glory... I didn't quite fancy the other drinks but I suppose it's cos I quite like my mocktail which was sweet =)

Overall a nice quiet place for a meal and it has a nice ambience too so quite a few people went there to celebrate birthdays. It also doesn't have a strict dress code so it's relaxing...

Sunday (23rd Jan) - Gym in the morning with Jon and Liju and felt good! Ended off with some intense abs and some funny butt and thigh exercise which looked kinda strange... Then followed them to Phoon Huat where I bought some jelly powder and jelly moulds cos I wanted to try making some for the festive season! We then went to Newton Hawker Centre for lunch and I liked the coconut - cold and sweet and meaty, best! The XO noodles were kinda overpriced and was ok lah but then again can't expect too much from such a touristy place...

Day 7 and 8 (24th/25th Jan) - Detachment Proficiency Training and then Test which was pretty ok considering that we had some decent training last week (for once!)

Day 9 (26th Jan) - Due to some technical issues, our morning CP deployment was cancelled so we just chilled in the auditorium and slept or throw each other some qian bian wen da ti. =p Had our MR Ceremony in camp at the Spec's mess and I played some foosball which was fun and the table was quite good cos we didn't have much problems of the ball getting stuck which happens some times and I am able to control the ball decently. Went for our cohesion lunch/dinner (it was a weird time at 3+p.m.) at Rasa Istemewa, near Choa Chu Kang, and the food was quite ok though we still wondered about contesting why we had to fork out $16 each for it when we felt that the army should've been the one paying for it in principle.

Day 10 (27th Jan) - Nothing much on the last day except settling admin matters and then it was out-pro! Overall I have to say that it's the best of the 3 high-key ICTs that I've ever had! All we had were lessons and no deployment and everything was done in Stagmont Camp so I couldn't have asked for more. Also made a couple of friends there who are quite nice so hopefully we'll meet up one of these days to go eat =)

Other updates:
Fri (28th Jan) - Finally back to school after a long break and work piling up immediately! Admin Day 2 and things were generally ok though in the morning there were problems with logistics arising from the previous day. The mass dance conducted by the councilors was quite good and the new cohort was quite enthu and obedient also as they followed the steps... Loved the video shown at the end as it was a cliff-hanger to build up the excitment to next week's orientation! Stayed back to watch the kids prepare the setting and rehearse for Principal's event and it was quite funny to see all the props that were made - the spaceship, the rocket propellors, insignia for the Queen and stuff, hahahaha...

Sat (29th Jan) - 08S201 Outing and I met them at Marina Square's Starbucks before proceeding to Hot Pot Culture for buffet lunch. It was quite good actually for about $16 and I quite liked the variety and quality of food (the cai xin is v. nice!) there as well as the ice-cream and chocolate fondue at the end. The kids were ordering like crazy and apparently they wrote the dishes on the slips of paper and then x5, x6, etc and then later we were passing food to each side to try and finish it up...

Christian, as usual, was the joker of the day and he never failed to entertain us throughout the day with his funny punchlines (like his thank you speech where he thanked everyone for taking time off to meet together although some REALLY took their own sweet time to reach hahaha) and stories and for all his nonsense he's actually in commandos so it's super xiong man... Flor was sharing with us her French lessons and apparently Yeon Ju's name sounded like a French vulgar term which got us laughing (though too bad she's away in Imperial College). Then AY found out about my uni days and suddenly the conversation became a session about how competitive I am and joking about how to get tips on doing well in Uni... Went to play pool with them after that and it was fun playing pairs, esp when I was playing better than usual and in the first two games I had many good shots which won us the games. Of course, it wouldn't be funny without the trash talk and crapping and Christian told us about his "dragon guarding the cage" when his shot missed and ended up just outside the pot hence blocking our balls and then when I cleared his ball I said that's called "Slaying the dragon" haha. Lost our last round-robin match after being too cocky and trying some ridiculous shots and then finally hitting the black and white ball in together to lose... Overall had a really good time esp when I've not seen them since last Mar when they collected their results... =)

After that I went to do some shopping at T.M. Lewin and Raoul and spent $800 before going to my aunt's place for reunion dinner...

Sun (30th Jan) - gym then work as I tried to catch up on the work left over from my reservist...

Mon (31st Jan) - (My)Space 2011 started off with a bang with the Principal's event in the hall (due to the rain, but thankfully it was held there cos I think the atmosphere is better) and it was awesome fun, thanks mainly to our star of the show, Ms Lai, who gamely followed the script and made many jokes during her performance and the opening was really cool also with all the props, including the nerf gun at the end which was fun!

Had a really insane day cos after the Principal's event I went off to lecture H1 then consultation for H1 cos there's a test the next day and then lecture H2 (where I played my first chem song cos appropriately they just finished chemical tests for carbonyl compounds before moving onto teach them about carboxylic acids and derivatives). Then settle down to do work for 1 period before helping to do relief teaching, work again plus check on orientation, consultation again, then 3 tut periods in a row... A long day without lunch =( The good thing about my reservist break was that I always got to see the sun on the way there and back and healthy meals at appropriate times but it's tough in school... Anyway, despite the busyness I still very much enjoyed teaching and had fun during the lectures and thanks to my F5 in 10S103 and Jana in 10S417, tutorials were a lot more fun... =)

Tue (1st Feb) - Orientation Day 2 with MMM and things went on fine until we had bad weather in the early afternoon but at least they had time for some decent fun considering that the last few days had been pouring incessantly and also we had a public complaint about our OGL eating on the train and being rude so that kinda spoilt things but otherwise it was good. H1 test was so so, but looks like many will have to be trained properly during the retest cos not enough effort from some of them... Tut with 10S103 felt good and it was funny while enlightening also I hope as I talked to them about the test results and delivered some "hard truths"... Really hope they can deliver soon but at least I do see some improvement in some of them so shall keep my fingers crossed...

Oh, and I made jelly for the first time in my life! It was a really fun experience and it's not that easy cos apparently Konyakku jelly is harder to prepare (there's more to the simple instructions written on the back cover) and I learnt quite a lot such as even basic things like choosing an appropriate pot so that it is easier to pour the mix into the mould without it coagulating too quickly and how the fruits in the mould should be stirred so that they come out nicely when the jelly has coagulated. I also kenna suan cos I never used a can opener in my life prior to today so I was trying to figure out how it worked (it's actually not that obvious, really =p)... In the end it was a decent effort and most of the jelly were pretty tasty and firm so yippee!

Wed (2nd Feb) - Last day of Orientation and we had our Wet Games Finale! Again, we really had to thank for the good weather that lasted just until our finale ended and I was glad to see that everyone had fun without anyone getting hurt. We ran late by about half an hour so I had to run around the field to coordinate with the OGLs and then to the center for the grand finale where I got bombarded with tons of water bombs while telling all our defenders when we should put down the struture and concede defeat so as to finish the event on time... It was absolutely fun though and in the end it was certainly a lot of effort in preparing for something that took like 20-25 min but 10000 water bombs and setting up the field for the finale certainly required everyone to play their part which they did and I was happy to see everyone working together towards the success of orientation and coming up with a fitting end to (My)Space 2011!

Went for our school reunion breakfast after the event where each JC1 OG was paired with a JC2 class as part of the plan to get the JC1s and JC2s to interact with each other to build school spirit and I passed the jelly around to my 10S417 kids as well as some of my ex-students who came back and some of my students from other classes also who had done well in their tests. =)

Finally wrapped things up with a debrief to the OGLs and SC and giving out of survey forms but there are just a couple of things left, which are the revealing of the final results of orientation and also the appreciation lunch for the OGLs and then we can finally close this chapter of our lives! =D

Went home to sleep until reunion dinner cos I was so tired waking up at 5am the last few days for orientation... After dinner I watched Magic's Biggest Secrets Revealed and I really like the show cos it's intellectually challenging to see how people can pull off all those illusions and how elaborate some of the setups can be as well as the sleight of hand tricks involved...

Thu (3rd Feb) - First day of CNY and I slept almost till like 1pm cos I was still tired from school before going out to my grandma's new place (not exactly new but they rented it after selling their flat at Teban Gardens) at Serangoon Central. Then I went to my dad's side, which was typically my uncle's place in Bishan. Spent most of my time at both places watching TV and I watched this show about the legend of Su Can and also Chi Bi. Surprisingly the night ended off with mahjong when my cousin invited me to play with them (her, my other cousin and his fiance) so I did and it was quite fun even with the extremely friendly stakes of 10/20. Nobody won more than 3 tai and in the end it was funny cos I won from all of them but I won a grand total of $2.9 LOL. But it was still nice and for me it's the sense of winning that's important... =)

Fri (4th Feb) - Nothing happening much today cos as usual my visiting is typically done within the first day nowadays so I've been slacking since it is CNY after all but going to my aunt's place later for dinner... Shall take a good rest before working hard tmr!