Merry Christmas everyone!

Back!

Finally back from haitus. Being a clerk, there is nothing much to talk about in my current life. It's only politics and frustration. As much as I want to trash it out here, it would not be a wise choice. I want to quietly get done and over with this thing. Thinking through about what I've learnt so far, there's only one thing to say- never have high hopes here. There will be always something or someone that will definately dissapoint you or so to say, very high hygene factor. To save myself from emotional discomfort, I never expect to anything seriously. Live the day as it comes. Thinking too much is also will be unhealthy for it only brings insecurity. Nevertheless, it will be injustice to say I feel that every minute. There are still tiny moments that will brighten you up, put a smile on your face or just feel relaxed.

Currently having block leave. YES!

just came back from battalion exercise. it was a very fun and enriching experience. although I was making so much noise and try to steal as much sleep as I can. haha! Good thing was that we had fresh rations from the cookhouse delivered to us. Bad thing was that I had ulcers!

went to KL over the weekend. It was a fantastic trip. Made alot of friends! yep. KL will be my next slacking place!

Back to Army...

And so, on Wednesday my MC officially ended and I had to return back to the "wonderful" island of Tekong to report back to HQ BMTC @ 0800hrs for temporary posting. Reported at the manpower branch. Apparently, there was some confusion on the place I should report. HQ BMTC said I should go back to Combat Medic side and vice versa. After waiting for sometime, I was told I reported at the correct place since my vocation in combat medic had been revolt. I was attached to my BMT company- Ulysses. The company just started their field camp on the day I was attached so that means the company line will be very very quiet. Nevertheless, I still managed to have to quick chat with a few of my sergeants before the went outfield. Life then came to a standstill... I was seriously bored to death. Basically, I just have to stay there until I get posted out. In addition, I had to stay in. Since I didn't know, I was allowed to go back on Wed.

Reported back to company line on thurs only to find out that I had to stay in during the weekend (doing Nothing) as its the training programme. Although I am not involved, I still need to follow. I was so freaking lucky that on Thursday I got my new posting! This means I my weekend is saved. Wohoo! The not so good thing- I packed and bring my stuff to stay in, now I need to bring them back. But... who cares! hahaha.

Today, went to my new unit that I was posted to- 20 Singapore Artillery as Admin Support Assistant (aka Clerk). Power la. Located at Amoy Quee- nearest camp to my house. Haha! In my branch, the guys are very nice and welcoming. More good things to come...

I was watching Oprah Winfrey's show that day where they had casts of the secret. Got 3 good quotes from the show.
They are by James Arthur Ray:

"Trying... is failing with honour."

"Your mind will listen to your interests."

"Being unwilling to forgive, it's about drinking poison and hoping for the other person to die."

Good thing, I'm going for physio later. The not-so-good thing is that the dark clouds are coming.

mastered the art of sleeping with construction noises, I have. haha. Able to sleep through it at ease now. The noises are no longer a problem to me. Mind has conditioned it (:

I finally went for my physio at Mt. Alvernia on Tuesday for my back. Right shoulder can only start after 6 weeks according to my doctor. Physio was normal. Went through 2 equipment- smth that pulls you (can't really recall the specific name) and heat theraphy. Supposed to go back on thurs but... physio took MC! That reminds me that I need to make another appoinment soon.

Internet too have been causing alot of problems the past few days. When both my brother and I logged on at the same time, the whole router automatically reset. Got quite irritated that I called the Internet person to check the problem. He diagnosed that the router needs to be changed. Changed it, he did.

Brother is going back to Perth tmr after this 2 weeks study break. Good Luck!

I was reading when I chanced upon this:

" 'I mustn't lose' does not have the same effect as 'I must win'. Say them to yourself and notice the difference. Whey you say 'I must win', you think of winning. When you say 'I musn't lose', you think of losing and not wining. That disturbs your concentration and puts you under pressure. You don't want to losem byt the thought won't go away. It can make you snatch defeat from the jaws of victory."

Taken from NLP & Sports by Joseph O' Connor

Been quite sometime since I blogged. Its not that I do not want to but just that there's really nothing to blog about since you spend most of your time at home. Indeed, I'm enjoying myself just that this time I'm having a good time doing nothing! haha. nice.

On Friday talk to Mr Vaz for awhile. Catched up about all the NLP sessions. Looking forward to the hypnosis course coming up soon. Hypnosis- people have very different extreme opinions on. Also looking forward to mastering Meta Models. Indeed, a very good catch up session.

Saturday morning, Hanhui left to pursue her further studies in Perth. Wish her all the best.

Got my new laptop. Another acer. Its black and I like it. haha. Decided to choose a smaller latpop compared to my old one so that I would be easy to travel around with. Had lots of problems with my wireless initially bcos I'm not used to it. Luckly, all is settled now thanks to my Dad.

Met my specialist today for another post- op checkup. He says that I'm recovering very well. That's a thumb's up. haha. The doc borrowed my xrays that I just took today because he wanted to take a picture of it! haha. He also sent me for physiotheraphy for my back first. Shoulder will start in 2 weeks time I believe.

The bad thing about today is- there's a cacaphony of construction noises. Super noisy throughout the day. The only silence I heard so far was during lunch hour. And now back to the disharmony of music. I got this feeling the fastest they will take is 1 week. My brother was smart and went out. haha.

One quote which I like..
" The doctor dresses the wound, and God heals it." - Ancient Proverb

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KUMAR!

Kumar is one of my bosses in school. Also a prominent member of the MelayUnit. hahaha. Without all his advice, life is JC would have been really hard. Thanks!

Wednesday.

HAPPY 19th BIRTHDAY PHIL!

Sorry, I could not make it for your Birthday Surprise. Hope you had a magnificent day today!

Gerald came over my place last night to do some catching up. Great to have him here! Talk about happenings in school and life. Finally, something interesting to look forward to at home. We were like busy webcam-ing or basically, disturbing everyone online. haha. At 12am, we called Phil to wish her happy birthday. Really busy, she was. He left arnd one plus.

Then later in the morning, Weiyann came over to my place for breakfast and much much more of catching up. Busy using the macbook cam to take photos cos she liked it. haha. she stayed around till lunch before meeting up with her friends. Great to have her around.

Later in the day, I decided to do some personal housekeeping. Cleaned up and arranged the boxes of gifts, letters, cards, tickets, receipts and everything I could keep during my JC days. Looking through it brought back the high peaks of JC life. I think I became so sentimental that I even kept receipts of mineral water I bought and all the other random stuffs. The ones that brought back visual memories of JC life were all the letters and cards I read. One item which triggered all kinds of emotions was the house council badge. Brought me back to days of happyness, misunderstandings, gossips, STRESS, headaches and FUN. All these are experiences that I will never forget.

Platoon Sergeant gave me a buzz at night. Nice to catch up with him. He'll be passing out tmr from Platoon Sergeant (PS) course which means he will be an offical PS! Congrats. Next batch of recs coming in this fri! PS bdae is this SUNDAY! wahahaha.

Tmr will be... reading day!

Courage

thank you bernice for helping me to put up the tagboard on my blog! even after more than a year blogging, I still do not have any clue on how to use all these template settings and what not. haha.

As per normal, I'm home the whole day today. I did nothing much other than watching tv or reading.

Let me share some nice paragraphs and quotes I found in the book:

The Book of Courage by Hans Wilhelm

What is courage? The root of the word "courage" is the Latin word cor, which means "heart". Our English word "core" has the same Lation root. Webster says that "courage implies firmness of mind and will in the face of danger or extreme difficulty." A person with courage is someone who has faith that all necessary and energy will be available to him or her in case of need.

The ego is frightened about anything unfamiliar, such as future or change. It doesn't want us to see our full potentiality and our true identity.

When we are scared about the Future

Embracing uncertainties is something most of us are not comfortable with, particularly in times of drastic changes. We do everything to obtain and maintain certainty in our lives to buffer us from any winds of change. We sign up for things such as marriage licenses and insurance policies to feel “secure”. This deep desire for certainty comes from our ego, which can only deal with the unknown, the past. The ego wants certainty on its own terms, but these terms are all fallacies.

It is our soul that wants to evolve, grow, and experience life. And for this our soul needs change as much as lungs need air to breathe. Our soul has consciously chosen to come to this world at this particular time because of all the changes that are upon us. We did not come to hide and hold onto the old. We are here to experience, explore- and also enjoy- all the exhilarating uncertainties that are coming our way. As every toddler enjoys his or her first own successful steps, so can we find pleasure from observing our own growth process even in the worst of times.

Uncertainty is the basis of life because life is change. It is the Gift from God and it is up to us to revel in it and rejoice at every turn. He who is not afraid of uncertainties will walk free in the face of all adversities.

Let us embrace uncertainties as an essential ingredient of our experience of every day. The more uncertainty, the more joy in our life. In uncertainty there is pure creativity and freedom. The fun, the excitement, the adventure, and mystery in life are always in taking some risks. At any moment in our life we are standing on the threshold of the long- sought- after new beginning.


Currently reading: The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Dr Joesph Murphy

My brother came back for Perth for his term break on Thursday. Will be staying here for about 2 weeks before going back there. Nice to have him around. That also reminds me that some of my friends will be leaving to other countries soon to further their studies. Good Luck people!

My acer laptop decided to take a permanent break and crashed on Saturday night. While I was using my laptop like every other day, the screen just suddenly went blank. Tried to restart and reboot but to no avail. Thats when I know something was dead wrong. Ohwells. Now I have to rely on the MacBook and desktop. Looking on the bright side, most of my data is still with me because it's actually kept in my portable hard disk and not the acer laptop itself. I knew that one of these days these kind of things might happen. haha.

Recovering from shoulder operation is very different from the wrist and knee. It takes much more time and effort. One of the greatest challenges is trying to sleep. Turning on the wrong side hurts the shoulder. Wrong sleeping position too hurts it. Nevertheless, its all about adapting. Slowly but surely. I can't wait to get the green light from my doctor to allow me to start back running. I need to get fit!

Here's the quote of the day:
As light dispels darkness, so does love dispel fear. Learn to love every aspect of that which you fear and you have conquered fear. If you cannot love it, at least appreciate its value, for everything has its purpose for the benefit of your growth.

College Day- 060707

On friday, went back to school to receive the Jacob Ballas Sports Award. Meet up with Joel, Herng Liang, Qian Hui and Pong for lunch before going to school. Had to report to school at 1430hrs which is like super early cos the college day ceremony only started arnd 1715. I guess the reason they made us come early was to take photos by the school photographic society. I took the shot alone since I was the only sports award receipient and mr lim suggested that I took a pic at the rugby pitch. haha. needless to say, my eyes hurt while taking the shot and looking at the sun. Meet up with my other schoolmates, it was obvious that people do change after leaving JC. Can this be that their rep system changes after leaving school? Perhaps this is due to the massive change of environment they used to be and currently in now? (P.S. NLP buddies what do you think?)

As expected, the college day ceremony was long. Hearing the Valedectorian and GOH sharing their school experience, it brought me back to my JC days too. JC life itself was an important chapter in my life. A rollercoaster ride, It was. Nevertheless, these feedbacks and lessons came for a reason- to cause a positive change in me.
Okay.. I will back track alittle.. During the speech I was thinking what was the lowest point and highest point of my JC life and here is what came out of my mind.
LOWEST: It was during early 2006 where I was recovering from my injury. Season was around the corner and I knew I need to get back in shape fast. In addition, academic pressure also have been piling up. Icing on the cake was I also had personal problems. Thus, pressure came from every direction. System almost crashed not for two people. Mr Louis Ho and Mr Ben Soh. I owe them one.
HIGHEST: What else then the rugby finals. Felt really good to win. People say it was by luck. Well, its true. However in this case, luck only comes with hope, strength and determination. Everytime when I look through the pictures and videos of that day, my heart can only beat faster as its being filled with wonderful emotions.

Back to the college day now. Finally the award ceremony started... Very proud of Boon Rong, Arthur and Aldric for receiving School Colours Award. The captain and vice- captains of the 2007 team. Kudos to Joel Tan for receiving the prestigious Meritorious Award, Caleb, Weiyann, Qian Hui and Pong all for being the receipients of Jacob Ballas Scholars. When I was receiving my award... the only emotion that went through me was surprised. Firstly, I didn't expect them to say a paragraph on me before receiving the award. I was staying there not knowing what to do and how to stand while they emcee was talking about me. Being a typical army boy.. I just stood there at senang diri position. haha. After tat, what really touched me were the audience clapping and cheering. Thanks! To bring end the ceremony, we had our one and only Mr Yee to lead us in the singing of school song. Although it was funny and all, I guessed all those who were there felt jovial after tat. haha. I received a plaque, cert and 200 dollars. Never expected to get money! hahaha!

During the reception, I managed to catch up with most of my teachers and friends. Had photos with some of them. JC days are definately the days I will never forget!

College Day Photos

The Secret to You

Awsome. Just watched The Secret DVD just now. Some of it I've already been doing, just that it wasn't part of my concious level. Now that I know.. achieve more, I will.

Life Still Has A Meaning

I was surfing the net when I saw this...

Life Still Has A Meaning

If there is a future there is time for mending-
Time to see your troubles coming to an ending.

Life is never hopeless however great your sorrow-
If you're looking forward to a new tomorrow.

If there is time for wishing then there is time for hoping-
When through doubt and darkness you are blindly groping.

Though the heart be heavy and hurt you may be feeling-
If there is time for praying there is time for healing.

So if through your window there is a new day breaking-
Thank God for the promise, though mind and soul be aching,

If with harvest over there is grain enough for gleaning-
There is a new tomorrow and life still has meaning.

~ Author unknown~

Change

Something came to my mind today during lunch while I was thinking about JC life. I was applying the book I read on NLP to it.


Focus on the solution, not problem.
Most of the time, when I encouter problems/ obstacles, I tend to manifest the problem. Basically what I did was I analysed what is wrong in great detail. This orientation is also known as the 'Blame Frame' was a contributing factor that made my life seemed harder then it was in school. Example of questions I used to ask myself were... Why do I have this problem?, How does this limit me?, Whose fault is it? and all this questions do not usually lead to anywhere useful. This will only make matters worse and more complicated than when I started. More importantly, it does not help me to solve my problem. What I should orientate myself on how and what I am gg to do to overcome this barrier. Focus all my energy to the solution and not the problem.

-BACKTRACK-

BMT Experience

Being in PES C, it was obvious that our BMT wouldn't be a intensive and demanding as the pes a and b. On the day itself, I didn't know why they had to make the environment very emo. I mean its just national service- 2 yrs get done n over with. Nevertheless, I met a few familiar faces. In my platoon there were 2 sajc guys- kanesh and dennis . This was going to be a new and different experience altogether.

Personally, I felt the 2 weeks confinment period went pretty quick. And the remaining weeks flew even faster. The next thing u know, BMT has ended. During BMT, one of the most important lessons I learnt was getting along with people with all kind of personalities. There were people of both extremes. Needless to say, the it was very easy to work and get along with the cooperative ones. While it was gg to be tough to get along with the people with the opposite personality. However, it was not an impossible job. I was the first to take the role of platoon IC. An easy task, it was not. The platoon was still at its norming stage. There were alot of conflicts and unhappiness. Some guys couldn't take the poor attitude of their mates. And those with poor attitude thought they could take advantage of situations. I still remembered the night where PC told me to say a few words. Said my 5- cents of worth. The job of the IC wasn't as easy as what people thought. After 1 week or so, somebody else took over me. BMT went smoothly for me until I got injured.

Made alot of new friends- some of them were super funny la. The gossips we had during coy admin. The talk cock sessions. The area cleaning sessions. The stand bys. haha. all were fun. To top it up, we had good sergeants and officer.

Got posted to combat medic. However, Im already out of course.

Neuro- Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner Course

This is one course which I have always wanted to go since I was in sec 3. However, due to time constrains I never had the chance. Thus, after As, I told myself I must go for this course before I get enlisted for national service. I gave a few calls to Saint's mental skills trainer, Mr Vaz, the gentleman who will be running the course. The next course he would be conducting would be held in KL for 8 days- split into 2 parts, 4 days each. I grabbed the opportunity. Further more, I was thinking that it would also be a good time for me to take a break too. Mr Vaz son's Rishi also would be going for the course.


-BACKTRACKED-

I travelled with Rishi to KL on friday afternoon after we ended work. Reached there rather late at night and met up with Mr Vaz who went there earlier to get some things prepared. We ordered room service to have quick supper before turning in. Rest is essentially important for this intensive course I'm about to go through. It will be from 9am to 11pm on 4 consecutive days. On the first day, I when I saw my other fellow participants, I felt alitte wierd as I was the youngest chap there. These adults here have real life expereiences to share, they've been through more in life than an 18 going 19 year old chap like me. However, I told myself if I'm going to keep on with this mindset- to just keep quiet and feel timid, I'm not going to get anywhere and it's going to be a waste of time and money to come for this course. Soon enough, when I did opened up, making rapport with my fellow participants were much easier and faster. Somehow, I felt they were in the same frequency as me as I was being able to effectively communicate with them. 4 days passed liked a flash. We then took about a week's break before coming back for the last 4 days.

For the final part of the course, I decided to go KL a day earlier to do some revision and shopping. I met up with Shankar on that day to have a chat. For the final part of the course, I will be around for 3 days instead of 4 because of the b div rugby finals. The course became even more intensive as most of us felt the pressure. The last day was set for evaluation, meaning we will be tested one of the processes that we had learned earlier. For me, it was the night before. In addition to that, I was the first participant to go for the evaluation. Hours before the evaluation, I told myself I had two choices- first, to be all worried thinking if I can get through this or not or second, just relax, have this self- belief that I'm going to do well and more importantly knowing that I've done what I should to get preapre. I chose the latter. To my surprise, I had not much problems with the process steps during the evaluation. My "client" then was Tejinder.

On the whole, NLP has given me a new healthier way of looking into life and problems. With this, I can not only help others, but myself. This experience is not easy to explain in words. The changes that happen are mostly internal.

Other then being equipped with NLP, I have also been blessed with wonderful friendships that I have forged during the course. We ate, laughed, danced, sang and even cried together. Knowledge I have received from this course is not only from Mr Vaz but also from them. They too were my teachers. Thanks guys!

i'm back!

hello!

This blog is dead. The last time I updated it was like 25 Feb 07 and thats very long ago. I shall revive this blog. Further more, I will have all the time since I just had right shoulder operated and I am recovering now. Yes... This is my forth operation.


Revival Checklist:
1. Back track all the past events since I last blogged.

Events to blog:
- Life Changing NLP Practitioner Course that I went through.
- Army: BMTC
- Army: Post- BMTC
- Post Op

2. Get hold of my blog mananger- Mr Hash.

Its now 0006 hrs and lights off timing is approaching. I shall continue blogging later!

Ciao!

Blog Update... finally

I've decided to start blogging constantly again like in the past. Changed my blog skin to something very normal since my blog manager is in army now. I shall wait for his return so tat he could do up this blog into something nicer. haha. And now I admit.. the main reason why I didn't really update my blog is because I've been busy with work but more of being lazy to do so. I noticed this year, time pass very fast. Or mabye it's jus that feeling.. as you get older.. time pass even faster. Very soon, results will come out. I'm not really expecting much from it either. So I don't really feel that anxiety feeling of "wat-am-I-going-get-for-A-lvls" thingi. To be frank, looking at my academic progess in jc, its all rubbish. haha. More importantly, I got what I came for went I went into jc. If you know me. You will know what I mean.

Anyway, lets see what I've done so far. One thing my parents and friends will agree with me is that I've been going overseas quite often. Not into far away places though. haha.
Since As ended, I've been to:
Penang, Genting and KL with my good rugger friends,
Jakarta with the Melays,
Kaohsiung (Taiwan) with the National U-19 Team,
Perth to see my brother off as he is currently studying there
and Bangkok to referee the Bangkok International 10s.
Plus I'm making 3 trips to KL soon. One with my mum and sis and the other 2 for a course.

My Bangkok trip was a very memorable one. It was the first time I travelled to a foreign country alone. My trip there was an official one because I was representing the the singapore referees'. Met with Matt Oakley when I arrived there. He introduced another referee, who at the end of the day was more of my mentor, AL. He's one pro referee. Matt and me thought me lots of stuff about refereeing. The learning slope of a referee when he travels overseas is much steeper then when he's at home. I'm privileged to have been given this chance. In addition to that, I got to refereed the Bowl Finals and touch judged the Cup Finals. Tats an honour. Other then refereeing, it was shopping at MBK. haha. I somehow feel much safer travelling in their trains then taking the cabs or tuk tuk. The feedbacks I got in Bangkok motivates me more to pursue refereeing. I'm still experimenting if I'm really cut for this job. haha. Further more, it's a good source of getting quick cash legally. haha.

However, that's not my full time job. I'm currently working as the Sports Development Officer in St. Andrew's School. This job, although it can be very demanding at times, it's something I enjoy every single minute. The friends and atmosphere is awsome. Plus I adapt very easily to the environment which I feel more of my 2nd home! Now its like busy period since B Div is under way. I swear I'm going to miss my job when I go into army.

Talking about army, life is quite boring now.. Most of the Melays are in the army, people whom I usually hang out with. Others who are not are very busy with their jobs. Basically everyone's busy. And what's worse is that when they are free, I'm busy and vice versa. Always clash! That gives more excuse to stay at work. hahaha.

Alrite, I shall stop here for now. AND HOPEFULLY.. I will start blogging again!

life's good

aye. havent really had the time to update this blog. it looks super dead. life after exams is great. never in my life have i travelled so much and actually really enjoyed. having that time to do more things. awsome.

now im working in st andrew's sec sch as their sports development officer. boy oh boy, im enjoying every single minute at work! (:

shall start back my blog habit soon. for now! ciao!