Sunday, November 30, 2003
another weekend has passed...
today had a taste of what I'm missing... and that is CHURCH CAMP!!!! I'm not going church camp AGAIN this year.. for the 4th year already.. man how sad is that... today the camp speaker spoke for our services.. Rev. Richard Whitcomb... he's good man!! he knows how to hold the congregation's interest in what's he's saying.. and his message was really good.. a good start for the camp.. SO SAD THAT I CAN'T GO!!!!! stuck in course... boh pian... sigh...
I was basically rotting at home today.. after lunch went to Swee Lee to get plectrums and some guitar stuff... did a bit of window shopping for christmas ideas before heading home.. then i rotted on my bed.. hahha.. finally watched Life Is Beautiful on DVD... its really a very touching story... and a really good show.. now I know why so many ppl cried when watching that show.. hahhaa..
yeah that's basically all I did today.. how sad is that.. I had fun rotting... relaxing at home is so shiok.. wait until I clear leave!! hahahaa... alrighty.. more tomorrow.. =) nights!!
~~derek~~ at 11/30/2003 11:44:00 pm
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Saturday, November 29, 2003
So full of energy
today I was so full of energy.. actually because I felt that I used up a lot today... hahaha!! I was already up at 645am cos I had a LIFE run at East Coast Park at 730am.. ran 5km... at least I managed to finish.. and with quite a constant pace of running.. although slow but at least it was constant and I pushed myself to pick up speed at the end, but my body's not willing!! After the run could feel the ache in my thighs and calfs especially.. at least I'm getting somewhere!! when I reached home and showered.. I was like so tired.. actually took a nap until 2pm! hehehe..
then headed off to church for games... my first time joining them cos I'm usually involved in pre-Edge music practise and all... too bad that today it rained! so we didn't go out for soccer or basketball.. but I still got quite a good workout playing table-tennis!! hehehe.. all thanks to Kenneth.. =) the gals weren't left out either.. with Gloria, Rowena and Joanne joining in too!
then came my highlight for today.. I was at Tristan's birthday party.. ok I haven't like seen the guy ever since secondary school (which is at least 6 years ago) and I bumped into him on
Friendster!! He invited me over for the party... at first was like just sitting and eating cos didn't know anybody there.. then came along Jayson Ong! His face hadn't changed since I last saw him back also in secondary school!! We had a good time just catching up and remembering all the people that we once knew.. hahahha! it was kinda fun.. and he's a good entertainer too! Probably I need to meet up with some old secondary friends that I haven't seen in ages!! those were the days man!
well as usual no time.. gotta sleep.. tomorrow's another Sunday!! gdnite peepz!! =)
~~derek~~ at 11/29/2003 11:47:00 pm
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Friday, November 28, 2003
Weekend!!!
yeah!! the weekends are finally here!! after a not so bad week of being on course.. (better than staying in unit!!) the weekend is finally here.. just some update on my exam!! ok it wasn't that bad.. in fact it wasn't bad at all... hahahaha.. being an entrance exam, it seemed pretty easy.. besides, its army so beforehand already give tips like siao loh.. I think more than 80% of the participants got A loh.. I'm one of them! hehe.. besides I think I was the 2nd one to leave after like half an hour, in a 2 hr paper.. but everybody else finished about there also lah.. my friends came down like 10mins after me.. =)
well its late and its time to rest.. can't share too much on what I've been doing on course, cos its classified.. hahaha! but i think the headaches are coming soon... can't understand a word they're saying.. hahah! Well I got a run tomorrow.. think I'm gonna peng at East Coast Park.. hahaha! haven't run for so long.. hopefully I won't peng.. =) ok then! till tomorrow! ciaoz!!
~~derek~~ at 11/28/2003 11:59:00 pm
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Wednesday, November 26, 2003
HELP!
I have an exam tomorrow and nothing seems to be going in... then again its army work so I'm naturally turned off.. EXAMS STILL HAVE TO GO ON!!
~~derek~~ at 11/26/2003 10:51:00 pm
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Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Selamat.. Hari Raya..
yeah to all the muslim friends, selamat hari raya! anyways I enjoyed my day today... firstly because I managed to catch a good 10hrs of sleep!!! talk about recharging.. that's something I really needed... before I move on to today.. I must announce this.. I FINALLY MANAGED TO CATCH MATRIX REVOLUTIONS!!!! I watched it yesterday with Allan and his 2 sisters, Nic and Royston... together with a little kitten that Roy and Nic picked up at the carpark... it's so cute! but it was mewing quite a bit through the show.. hahahaha.. ok my take on the show?? frankly it's a little below expectations, the graphic were really good, but the story didn't end off very impactfully or with power but at least its an ending! it's still worth watching! hehehe =)
ok back to today... after waking up, didn't do much.. watched matrix reloaded again on vcd... then got to some studying for my exam on thursday... ok nothing much really sank in i think cos it was like things that my unit already practising so I know most of the stuff.. its all the intricate details that I'm afraid will come out.. but shouldn't lah.. hopefully!!! hahaha..
then went out to meet Amy and Glenn.. haven't seen Glenn for a long long long time!! and Amy last saw her when Sabrina left for UK.. so it was good seeing them again.. even though it was only 2 of them.. I wished more could have come, but its really difficult to get everybody together... and then now I'm back home... getting some quick net time before I go to bed.. tomorrow gotta get up early go back camp for lessons again! at least going on course is so much more relaxed than being in unit!! hahahaha!!! woohoo!!! oh well then, that's my day for you.. au revoir!
~~derek~~ at 11/25/2003 11:35:00 pm
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Sunday, November 23, 2003
Talk about changes...
Another sunday has passed... for
ONCE today, I managed to wake up and take the bus!!! even though I reached church at about 745am, at least I wasn't late and I was able to setup in time! hahahaha.. today we had a special appreciation service for the Chng family, because Ps Peter and Ps Angeline Chng will be moving to pastor Zion Full Gospel Assembly as of this week... so we had the privilege of hearing them speak throughout today.. hearing Ps Peter share has always been interesting... even though I was struggling to stay awake for quite a bit
(3 doses of 2 mentos didn't really help much too!!) but still he was good to listen to! It's sad that they'll be leaving but at least they'll still be in Singapore!
After that headed to Plaza Singapura for lunch! ok I didn't eat the AYAM PANGGANG today!! for once I decided to try out another stall.. ordered the Ban Mian.. wasn't really very fantastic... Qiu Lian still better... oh well, I still finished it anyway, not good to complain! hehehe.. Its really amazing how easily it is for us to find seats to some extent... I mean every sunday we have a good 10-20 youth going to a food court to eat, and we all managed to find seats in just about 10mins! Thank God for wanting us to fellowship together! =) After lunch I broke off to go get CD.. bought the album
Fireproof by
Pillar! it was only $10.50!! I thought they had tagged it wrongly but apparently not! Took a first listen to it on the way back home... It's not bad, if you like the likes of POD... its not rap but more to the heavy, bassy kind of hard rock stuff... They've got some nice riffs.. =)
well anyway i'm going back to camp tonight.. getting ready now even as i type.. another week of course ahead.. pray for me, I've got a entrance exam on Thurs, and I haven't studied yet.. prob gonna study only like on Hari Raya and Wed night.. =P but should be more or less pass one lah... but I haven't taken any form of exam for more than a year already.. need to get the brain into studying mode again.. alright then! more on my life tom! hopefully! =) nite peepz!!
~~derek~~ at 11/23/2003 09:50:00 pm
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Saturday, November 22, 2003
yeah i'm finally back on my blog!! talk about long ... its definitely been a while.. hope this doesn't become a habit.. =P
anyways let's just backdate..
Wed night moved off at 11pm... didn't sleep until 5+am cos we had planning and doing training... and we only slept until about 8+am.. and we carried on working and doing exercise throughout the night, only until 12am then we cut the exercise and headed back to camp... talk about working with fatigue man!! Even my understudy also wasn't feeling too well.. in the end he caught fever.. 38.9 C man... so he went back to camp...
then came Friday... after sleeping the previous night at around 2am, had to wake up at 7am cos it was the first day of our course and we had to report at 730am at Sch of Arty! The sad thing is they have quite bad sense of timing... it wasn't until about 830am then they started the program and all.. I could have slept for another half hr and still got time go breakfast!!! Yeah, we were all tired out, the 6 from my unit that went for the course... at least it wasn't lessons straight away but more ice breakers and stuff.. so pretty fun. didn't really have to fight Z-monster that bad... =P
Then after Friday's session, I went out to meet my ITASSC friends, cause Ricia and Juliana just came back on Monday, so we all met up for dinner and coffee! Connie wasn't there cos she only came back this morning at about 1am... but everybody else was there.. Steven as usual had something on.. we had a lot of fun catching up and just talking cock... talked until 12am!! then being the chaffeur, i sent whoever i could back home... and only reached home at about 130..
Saturday, and had to wake up at 645am to change and drive to camp for course... today was pretty alright too.. not too much indepth stuff, but still was mind-stirring... and also Z-monster fighting, cos only slept for 4 hrs... =P Then I attended Joanna's wedding.. she's one of my campus crusade friends while I was in poly... so young already get married leh!! she's only one year older than me!!! start to feel old liao.. slowly attending a lot of friend's weddings.. hahaha... it was also good meeting up with the other crusade friends like Cindy, Huimin, Wensi, Jianzhou, Cuiping, Chris, Joshua etc etc etc...
Last but not leastly, I came back to church for Edge!! today's worship was good for me... firstly cause I wasn't playing today due to the wedding!!! so I really enjoyed the worship... gave me a chance to worship God in abandonment, just jumping and singing and praising it was so fun! It's different worshipping as part of the congregation than when you are playing... it's a different focus partly, and you kinda sometimes get focused too much on what you're playing rather than who you're playing for... that's something we need to check ourselves a lot of times.
After service, I stayed back with the worship team to run through the new songs they are going to introduce for their youth camp! Makes me wish I could join them.. or even better! Revive our own youth camp... which we haven't had for more than 7 years already!! =P Then I joined them for dinner too cos it is also Esther's birthday tomorrow!
And finally I'm back home... after sending them back home too... I'm just a good chaffeur.. hahaha! well, I'm gonna crash soon... got duty tomorrow.. but think I'll watch my Harry Potter first.. havent watched the 2nd show yet.. borrowed DVD from my friend... ok then... until tomorrow! ciaoza!!
~~derek~~ at 11/22/2003 11:52:00 pm
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Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Another battalion exercise...
today has been smooth.. somewhat... but today will definitely be long... yes I'm moving out for another battalion exercise... moving out at 11pm.. then definitely gonna work through the night... at least hopefully I can come back on thurs night, cos my course starts on Fri morning... phew talked about a packed schedule!! I'm going to be on course for about 4 weeks... afterwhich i hopefully can start clearing leave!!! hahahaha... oh well.. its off to dinner and more work... gotta prepare for orders group too... until maybe friday.. see ya!!
~~derek~~ at 11/19/2003 06:05:00 pm
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Tuesday, November 18, 2003
BBQ galore...
Yes its me again.. my jian fei ji hua has somewhat gone down the drain... especially after the bbq.. got too many things to eat liao.. hahahaha.. oh well.. its back to square one again... just to whet your appetites a bit... there was sambal stingray, chili crab, tiger prawns, beehoon, satay, otak, pork chops, chicken wings... woohooo... I'm stuffed to the max!! the good thing is I managed to stop myself before falling deeper into temptation! hahahaha!! oh well... its back to the exercise drawing board... ={
~~derek~~ at 11/18/2003 09:34:00 pm
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More Work?!
yes...its more work.. i'm at work now... working my butt off... sitting here in my chair and working... anyways it's been a long day today... and its gonna get longer.. cos I got to attend some sort of promotion 'celebration', which to all of us is pretty much a waste of time.. nothing much to celebrate less for the increase in pay.. but more work to come!! argh!!
anyways I was glad to have been talking to Alvin today.. he's the first in the church that I got to know when I went to Brisbane for my attachment.. a real blessing to have gotten to know him.. Go check out his blog in the links above! Anyways he's coming to SG soon!! ok in about another month+ but at least he's coming!! hahaha.. together with Rachel and Lung... man haven't seen them in more than 2 years! We had some discussion and advice on when I go over back to Brisbane to study next year... man I got a lot of work to... need to get my visa done, and my air ticket and accomodations and studies... argh!!! so many things.. got to manage them somehow.. =P and Alvin's agreed to help me source for a house to stay and helping me to look at it and take over the keys if necessary even before I fly over! thanks bro!!
well.. gonna keep it short cos I dun exactly have a lot of time.. just taking a short break... back to more work... work work work... sounds like Warcraft Orc.. more work to be doing?!
~~derek~~ at 11/18/2003 04:48:00 pm
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Sunday, November 16, 2003
gd evening ladies and gentlemen... another weekend has passed... a busy week ahead for me... well let's look back at what happened over the weekend!
Saturday
well remember I resolved to slim down? well I gotta start somewhere.. so I've decided to do some morning PT every morning just to keep the metabolic rate up.. increase rate of fat burning.. hopefully.. yep so did some push-ups, crunches, back strengthening exercises ... cos I think my back's quite screwed... its been giving me problems of late.. I just hope it doesn't get any worse if not got to go see doc again... yep then slacked in the morning until getting to church at 2pm. The Edge was really good... the message really spoke to me in a couple of areas... how God really knows your needs and has everything under control...
then I made a trip down to Meridien to meet up with some poly friends! Went to Feathers & Fins.. this Fish & Co kind of restaurant... pretty good stuff too! besides one of my friends' uncle was a shareholder so we got like 20% discount.. woohoo! =) then slacked over at Piazza for some coffee before I headed home.. it was really good seeing all of them again... haven't met up with them for quite some time already.. then ppl like Daniel already clearing leave dye hair liao!! sickening.. luckily still got some OTHER ppl (JASON CHEE & SYAFIQ!!) that still got long way more to ORD! hahahaha!!!
Sunday
ok woke up late today.. but still managed to rush and take a cab down on time.. =) it's already becoming a very bad habit.. and an expensive one too.. anyways today was C.I.T. Day.. so we had our church Christian workers sharing from the pulpit! both Bro Simon and Raju shared really good messages about God's greatness and Righteousness respectively! then had loads of fun teasing Rowena... (hahaa I'm SORRY!!) she just seemed to cross my path today.. =P I'm sure she had fun too!! but Benson got the most brunt of it... everytime he teases her, he'll get a kick, a whack on the head, pinches, etc etc you get the idea.. hahahaha i only get it half as bad...
well that's basically what I did today... tomorrow starting safety audit... man sure gonna get it left, right and centre... hopefully everything will be smooth flowing... ok then! until tom... ciaoza!!!
~~derek~~ at 11/16/2003 10:03:00 pm
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Friday, November 14, 2003
wow.. its been quite a while ain't it?! hehehe.. yeah i'm back... at home finally!! actually my exercise ended early so I was already back on Thurs, but too bad didn't find much time to blog.. =) well now I finally can!! hehehe.. just a short insight on my days..
the exercise to me... was not really what I would expect... but at least I still managed to get some stuff done... basically managed to run in all the new people that will be going up to NZ... but still it was quite a waste cos there wasn't really much focus on my training.. only when they've got nothing to do then they ask if I was doing anything.. so irritating.. but then again i'm already used to it.. every exercise most of the time also like that one.. only my team works through the night while everyone else is sleeping... sheesh..
luckily the exercise ended early on thurs afternoon... if not it'll really be a waste of time!! then had the after-action review this morning after a short commander's run... man I really need to start running again.. today only run like 3.5km already and I was super shacked!!! my back was giving me problems too so that didn't help, but I never expected it to be so tiring!! thus as of today I shall work to slim down and get fit again!! even the unit barber say I put on weight man!!! I shall strive to achieve this... hopefully before end of this year?! hahahha...
well okiez.. its late.. i'm still surfing net.. hehehe... my friendster list is bombing... but its still fun!! hehehe =) ok then.. till tomorrow, gdnite!!
~~derek~~ at 11/14/2003 11:05:00 pm
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Tuesday, November 11, 2003
well another day has gone by... and guess what? i'm still in the office packed with work... basically coming out with a quite last minute plan for tomorrow's exercise... yes i'll be going on exercise... AGAIN.. after just coming back from one without a break!! just going for a short exercise until thurs night.. well.. so prob the next time you'll hear from me will be friday.. =) well that might not be a bad thing after all now would it... oh well... finishing up soon.. going to go back bunk to pack and all.. gdnite peepz...
~~derek~~ at 11/11/2003 10:17:00 pm
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Monday, November 10, 2003
his heart is bleeding... bleeding from the wound that has surfaced.
being cut open with a scalpel, that grimaced look on his face.
the pain he feels so deep within
cries out to God to comfort him
how did this happen, how could it be?
why must this happen to me?
is love so hard and comprehend?
is love so very difficult to mend?
yet he waits, is that not what he should do?
waiting for her to say, "I do"...
~~derek~~ at 11/10/2003 10:30:00 pm
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morning!! yes i'm actually at home... good thing for me too.. at least I got to rest at home... but I'm going back to camp soon!! argh.. yes got meetings again in the afternoon.. oh well...
anyways just a small update.. added more photos in another album.. feel free to check it out over
HERE. go check it out ok?
~~derek~~ at 11/10/2003 10:43:00 am
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Sunday, November 09, 2003
I'm Back!!!
yeah i'm finally back from aus!!! woohoo!! you know I never did expect that I would actually be wanting to come back to SG.. hahaha... well I'll explain myself later on in the post.. well the trip was a good break for me.. perhaps too good.. hahahah! well i enjoyed the break.. but I know from here on its busy busy bee!! Well i'll just give a short breakdown of what went on through out the 2 weeks I was there...
1st week
spent the week mostly sleeping, if I didn't have to go out for recce... the whole training area is super super dusty and sandy man!! its like just driving a while and you'll have a layer of dust all over your clothes and in your hair and in your face! Other than that, was staying in camp and resting, moving between the canteen, cookhouse and tent.. hehehe...
temperature conditions were like super hot in the day.. reaching about 33-34C and cold at night about 16-18C... we had to ration water and stuff... and the water tastes pretty bad too.. hehehe... we had nightly movies at the canteen... but the food is expensive!!! fries for A$2.50!!!
and there was a freak thunderstorm during one of the nights... some tentages actually got blown down and collapsed..
2nd week
exercise time... out in the field.. I was doing safety so it wasn't that bad... but the sleeping.. there was 2 nights where temperatures actually went down to about 12-14C.. and we were without sleeping bags.. i was only in my hammock and i took out my shoes.. woke up at 12am with frozen feet.. frantically tried to keep myself warm but very difficult.. brrr...
the live firing went on pretty smoothly... no mishaps or anything like that... though there was a bush fire that started just after we finished the first phase of live firing... and so the 2nd phase was cut!! woohoo!! hehehe.. but really saw the devastating power of a bush fire.. spreads really fast in such a dry place...
R & R
Initial starting of R & R was pretty good.. headed off to Rosalind Bay to board the catamaran to Great Keppel Island... SOLID BEACH MAN!! clear waters, white sands... woohoo!! but it was boring too cos we really didn't have much time cos there was lunch in between and everything else... and other than the swimming and water stuff, there wasn't much else to do... after that headed off to our accomodation.. some low-budget Motel... really the american motel kind of thing... hehehe...
2nd day was more pathetic... we had shopping day literally.. but with the town shops all closing by about 2pm.. we were left rotting in the area for a good 4 over hrs man!!! talk about being bored to death...
Updates
Well I have added my trip pictures into my photo album, so pls feel free to click the link over on the right to get to them yeah?! Until tom or sometime soon.. gdnite!!!
~~derek~~ at 11/09/2003 11:30:00 pm
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