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Friday, January 07, 2005
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Finished two books in e last week.
41 Pao4 (by Mo Yan) and Shen Cong Wen's autobio and his Bian1 Cheng2.
I like the way you feel nothing is really etched into your mind but somehow, there are things you learn. little facts about village life. the period of revolution. the warlords. and fresh emotions well up in you as you try to imagine yourself as someone from another time and another place and justify their emotions that sound alien to you. I experience life through words. whether it is from reading them or from writing them.
I used my little red note book girls! My first entry yesterday. I like my little red book. :D thanks again.
Haha. I realised i'm not the only one getting all soppy and mushy with my ORD date coming nearer. *winks at ivan* And to the other guys, u can be sure my 3 partners are not the only ppl i'll miss. In fact, i'm closer to the other guys but somehow there is a comradry with my 3 CSOs(is it 'camaraderie' : louis tan help me check. ) that i find unique.
There is:
Ivan who calls me a 'bugger' in his entry! yeah, my bitching partner. Remem the idol period where both of us will be on site and i'll be always quite anxious to open up the office door to see him there and start complaining bout jerry ong or laughing at chrissypoo. Will miss hugging the bear and letting him break my thighs. haha.
Dennis. Hmm. The 'old uncle' i hang out most with in camp. a person who's really easy to talk to and is a great listener. We'll start heyo-heyo-hey-ing (LINDA NO.7--> BARFS) or start hitting high notes when we walk all around camp together to do stuff. I think he showed me alot abt music. Not that he is a performer but in some sense, a very 'TALENTED APPRECIATOR' of music. And bloody fun to bully. Will miss insulting one another. Prob will really miss hanging out with him (and stupid Peh cos he cracks me up. seriously)
YZ. BIGGER and LONGER "HMMMMMM". I really hated this Moonface at first cos he gave me quite a headache trying to get his ass to move. I could remember exchanging sarcastic remarks across the office when we both refused to give in on work issues. *shakes head* BUT somehow things brightened up. Found out we shared quite a similar passion for music (esp. Chinese Pop which Dennis isn't really familiar with). And also for ktv-ing and min ge can ting-ing. Altho we have never hung out together at these places (must la before i go). And all the work-related differences sorta disappeared and its quite fun jus lazing bout in the office together with his sluggish existence and crapping from one thing to er....jus bout everything. The laziest bum ever. haha.
TYX. haha, REALLY REALLY hated this almost cartoon-like sarge at first. wah lau. thot he was e most act-cute thingy ever. but somehow (SOMEHOW) (maybe its jus my usual dislike phase i have) i really got to thinking he's REALLY QUITE CUTE! (as in cartoonish and stupid cute la) And also knows that he has some problems which i prob wun and dun wanna know bout. But jus have quite a lian2 xi1 feeling towards him and treat him quite well. Fellow yan1 gui2. Erm. of cos we are both successful quitters la.
Chek my man! always a bud i can both crap to and talk more seriously with. Tho we dun share many common interests but hah, still think he's a great chap. (a bit 'blooooody' maybe but still quite cool) Think u lack self-confidence man brother.
Haha, love teasing him and bashing him up when he tries his luck with me. Tekko wanna fight with Barrel. pui.
And ppl like KW and Ray and LuLu who i dun know all too well but still think are pretty interesting individuals.
My idling days are approaching sooner than i expected. And despite how i keep hollering bout how great ORD-ing is and using that fact to tease all the remaining people, i know that there will be things that i will miss.
But without doubt.
i'll MUCH rather
ORD.
heh.
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Wednesday, January 05, 2005
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Not entirely unforeseen.
But i am, nevertheless, surprised.
I do actually think i
do and will
miss my campmates.
The look on my face now :
Pouty smile with my nose wrinkled up.
*grumble*
The 3 of my peers (not under or upper studies but same batch of signallers) are clearing their leaves now and will be disappearing and leaving me behind for a month plus before its my turn.
I remember the 4 of us being the only ones spared from being posted to an Infantry *snort* unit in my entire signaller course.
We were standing at the accom. block waiting for the mini bus which would pick us up and drive us down to our camp.
We waited for a very long time.
~
And then we came in together, freshmen , greenhorns and absolutely clueless.
We were never very close. In fact, for the first few months in this unit, i had this great disliking which sort-of rotated from one of them to the other. And finally it wore off and really appreciated the 3 of them cos we always stuck ard one another and did things together when all the other understudies weren't around.
Its that kind of initimacy which is unspelt, unsaid but fully felt. Not 'close'. But a sort of silent agreement. And knowing that there are always people backing you up.
I remember having some problems getting certain people to get stuff done and the 3 of them were always around. Not like actively VOLUNTEERING OF COURSE (gee. dun expect tt much ok. haha) But just sitting around and willing to work when i asked. (nicely enough) But always without complain. Maybe alot of grumbling from Peh or some friendly stinging remark from Jack or having to timidly prod and fearfully awaking the sleeping ogre Shaun.
We used to sleep in a row. Sharing wall fans and my portable fan. knowing who would sleep in latest and not get up. (Shaun) knowing who will be all scratchy and itching at night. (Jack) knowing whose phone it was that started BEEPING (urg!) and RINGING all night. (Peh) Playing **ahem** "games" together. the *emphasis* FOUR of us. haha. *wink*
Then i moved away cos some others around started crowding over and making too much noise.
~
There is this night i remember :
There was this blackout in our unit and there was a need for one of us to be activated at bout 12 plus am. And him (Peh) was being absolutely hilarious, just lying on his bed and in the darkness , repeating over and over again :
"Ey. Have to bring generator over leh. Ey. "
And everyone was just ignoring him or laughing in the dark, trying to get to sleep.
Then i decided that i HAD to help cos he can't possibly do it himself so i just jumped up from bed and said i would help him. (but that Peh is super funny, he just kept lying there when i already volunteered to help him until i shouted at him to get up. hahhaa . useless bum. ) And Jack got up. Then the 3 of us , carrying lightsticks, in shorts and slippers, made our way downstairs to get the generator over to the main building. And just while we were getting the trolley from the store, guess who popped out by the door, in shorts and slippers too : Shaun.
And he said (matter of factly) :
" Aiyah, 3 of u all come le, of cos i come la. "
And that was when there were bout 10 or more other colleagues who could have helped out too. And it feels quite warm and fuzzy inside, thinking bout it now, working like how we used to in old times. Yeah.
~
Like waking up at 7 together and waiting by the door for the others to get washed up and have breakfast together. Or Peh msging me when my favourite breakfast is on the menu today. (tau sah delight! grin grin)
Or volunteering to join in and do work (which is SO unnatural) when two of the others are already driving out to get stuff done (for e army guys : L/C).
Or looking out a little bit more for the ones who aren't around.
Or when Shaun told me " Aiyah, we will help out wat." when I was worrying bout getting things done on time.
~
It can't be helped that its gonna be those casual, quiet farewells. Cos they come back on different days from time to time and you know never know when it is the very 'last' day before we will never see each other in camp again. But i guess it doesn't really matter. Its so awkward to feel even MILDY sad when parting with these guys.
I'll like to remember them as being crappy and funny anyway.
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Monday, January 03, 2005
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THE LONGEST BLOG EVER :
Today is the last day of my 2 week long mock civilian life.
Back to camp tonight. Not too bad, i actually miss some of the guys there. Tou people know how my camp is. Besides, in just another 1 and a half months, i'll be clearing leave again and its back to mock civilian life. And then ORD. And then sweden. And then Shanghai. *a deep pleasurable moan*
Well well. I think a few of my friends are awaiting updates. *grin* Well, naturally. *big grin*
I had a great birthday.
(i think i'll leave you guys bewildered if i ended my blog entry just like that.)
Well the birthday dinner on NY Eve i had planned for bout 3 weeks or so materialised. Despite the gastric problems i was having for the few days.
- The Preparation -
The preparation started prob bout 3 or 4 days back. I started downloading recipes for salmon and desserts (which weren't necessary at e end of e day). And i had to compile a grocery list, do some shopping at the Swiss Butchery and Cold Storage(KAP) and den cook on e actual day.
On e actual day, i started food preparation at bout 3:15pm. I needed desperately to sleep before that because i was running a slight temperature. And when i woke up, i was groaning and whining to my mom. And she kept insisting she'll cook instead. But i was not going to allow that. I really welcome help but not taking over the entire prep. That would be meaningless. So i had to pull myself out of bed when she said she would go chop onions. And then it all started.
If i remember correctly:
The order of events:
1) Weigh butter for salmon
2) Chop herbs for salmon
3) Wash prawns
4) Boil water to cook prawns
5) De-stem mushrooms
6) Chop onions
7) Chop mushroom stems
8) Mix garlic , breadcrumbs with onions n stems
9) Stuff mushrooms and put aside
-Christine calls-
-Directs christine to bus-
-Christine calls on the bus-
-Directs christine which bus stop to alight-
(in e meantime, mom peels prawns, cuts mangoes)
-Christine arrives at bus stop-
-I put on "ah peh" (quote chris) jacket n umbrella myself to bus stop-
-catches christine and anata in front running across e road away from me, huddling under a tiny umbrella, lost in their own world with two 'sacks' of bo1 tong1 ingredients.
-Den they decide to run back across e road again, now behind me. (ahhh. having 'dat' kind of fun i see.) And totally ignoring my presence. I chase them from behind.-
10) Sets dining table for chris and anata to do their carrot/potato shaving, onion/potato/carrot cutting.-
There's this minor chaos as christine sticks her head in kitchen from time to time, asking where to get utensils la, pots la, bowls la-
And we suddenly my mom whispers to me,
"Your this friend cutting how many potatos?"
I scamper out and take a look and come back with an answer,
" She bought bout 12 potatoes. "
Mom gives a wide-eyed expression,
" My pot can put probably 5. "
I start screaming to christine that there's too much soup and there's this exchange of laughs and insults.
-Wesley leaves-
(in e meantime, mom cuts mango, prepares her own egg-onion-caviar dish, mom peels apple. cuts apple)
11) I start washing and drying the lettuce
-Meiling arrives-
-There's this squealing and girlish exchange between the two asst. chefs-
-Meiling starts shaving carrots in this powerful posture in her spag. strap : glam-
-I call zhao-
-Zhao says he'll be late-
12) I start mixing the salad, throwing in the prawns, mango and apples.
-lauren calls and ask for address-
-huili calls and asks for directions-
(Mom starts panfrying apples. I take over after a while)
(Mom marinates secret foie gras for ml and chris and hides it in fridge)
13) Help christine boil water , pour away water to boil pork ribs and fogging up my glasses - grumble grumble. (and cos i can't see, she was going, " MORE MORE. No no , pork ribs gonna drop out!" ) while Meiling cuts potato wedges for MR. JERRICK HONG.
14) Meiling and christine do MATHS with the soup. Trying to get an equal ratio of carrots, potatoes, onions and ribs in both pots (we added a pot cos we had TOO MUCH ingredients).
-Lihui calls-
-I miss her call-
-Lihui smses-
-I din read her sms-
-I call lihui-
-She missed bus 700A and whines ALOT-
15) Meiling and christine help to marinate the salmon and dredge it through flour. Meiling mixes herbal butter. Christine happily prances around asking to look like she does work in front of the digicam.
(in e meantime, mom has buttered the sausages-
16) I finish the salad! (HURRAY 1st PRODUCT)
17) wrap the salmon up in foil.
18) Meiling and Christine help to cut the bread into cubes for the fondue.
Meiling goes : " HAR. How to cut! "
My dad comes along : " Just cut into cubes. "
Christine : "How big are the cubes? "
Dad : " 4.2 x 1.8 inches "
*sniggers*
Meiling does the first loaf after mom demonstrates.
Christine's turn. Meiling SQUEALS.
Christine has folded the loaf into half. Dad and Mom look very amused.
19) Meiling and christine help to make the batter for the crepes.
-Lihui reaches bp interchange-
-Lihui gets all grumpy with my instructions-
-I get grumpier-
-Jiabin calls and says he'll be late-
-Junjie called-
-I miss his call and sms-
-And all this while, christine opens the lids of both pots of soup 20 times per minute to check , the conversation goes :
Chris prances over excitedly : I'll go check my bo tong!
Me : DON'T LA. U'RE LETTING OUT THE STEAM, IT HELPS TO COOK!
Chris : it does?
Me : Don't u learn pressure cooking in physics?
Chris : There was?
Me : .....
20) Baking starts. First the sausages then the salmon then the mushrooms.
21) I start panfrying the foie gras for the two ADORABLE assistants , think they loved it. =) FOR THEIR HARD WORK. *Look of contempt at the others*
22) They start setting the table. (wah really good assistants ne.)
- Lihui arrives -
- I go shower -
23) The 3 girls start frying crepes.
- Lauren arrives and joins the crepe team -
This is a classic. My dad and mom were teasing :
" Crepes also need four people to make. "
Mom :
" The funniest one was the girl who got a chair to sit and hold the bowl of batter. "
Who else but lihui the TRUE CHEF'S ASSISTANT.
I give up helping the girls cos they kept insulting the shape of my crepe.
- Zhao arrives -
- Huili calls and is stuck in the rain -
- Zhao is sent off to escort her in from the bus stop outside -
- Junjie arrives , with Meiling happily shouting at the top of her voice : " JERRICK!!!" Help. Eeks. -
24) Receive last minute instructions from Mom. Busy myself with providing the people clothes to change out into. From glam fine dining to lok pok hcjc shorts and tshirt. ALL OF THEM were in MY clothes.
25) Table set. Food warming up. Just trying to get the OIL for the stupid wedges to boil. Christine still happily checks her bo tong from time to time.
-Zhao and Huili arrives-
- Jiabin arrives LATEST-
All the guest have arrived. Dad, mom and bro leave for the countdown dinner at my uncle's place. Everything ready and I take a seat. With glasses of red wine, (not forgetting huili's plain water she insisted she wanted to a wine glass to contain) we made our cheers for the new year and my birthday. Salad and stuffed mushroom served.
I didn't sit for more than 20 minutes for the entire dinner and ate very little.
WHY?
MR. FANG JUNJIE'S OIL for the wedges REFUSED TO BOIL ON the BIG FIRE for like 30 min. Then i realised the oil probably doesn't boil. Hmm. Don't know whose fault.
-The Dinner-
I remember them calling me more than 20 times to go sit down and eat with them and stop running around.
I remember serving sausages.
I remember trying to find the sweet sauce for the salmon as niang niang requested, trying to find mayonnaise for lihui, pouring gin w bitter lemon, absolut kurant w tonic for jiabin n lauren , boiling water for huili's instant mee, shaking salt for jj's wedges, getting zhao a salmon and seeing christine drunk.
I remember how red christine and jiabin's face were. One drunk. One not. I also remember christine trying to pour her portion of red wine which jiabin took from her cos she was drunk after a sip. I remember how drunk she looked. And how silly she was. She still wanted vodka tonic. I remember christine saying tipsily, " I have to put salt in my bo1 tong1 now.... salt.." Silly girl.
I remember everyone loving the salad. And lauren loving the stuffed mushrooms and the drink.
I remember myself saying , " It's alright, i like running about and serving. Doesn't matter if i sit down or not. " And I also remember meiling saying, " It matters to us."
I remember the girls concluding that they love such a dinner where friends could sit down and eat and talk.
I remember running to and fro alot. For the wedges. And chilli sauce.
I remember thinking happily , " Wah lau this demanding pigs. " When everyone started wanting me to bake the bread meant for fondue (which wasn't all too popular *grin*) with butter cos they like the bread alot.
I remember everyone going to the kitchen from time to time. Either checking the bo1 tong1 out, helping me salt shake the wedges (AND FIGHTING OVER THEM), getting ice, getting drinks.
I remember the few times i actually sat down : I remember looking at everybody's face. I remember thinking, "This rocks."
I remember asking junjie ,for each and every dish, if he was okay eating them.
I remember zhaowei being really quiet.
I remember lauren trying to make christine drink and meiling trying to stop christine from grabbing the glasses.
I remember jiabin hollering most of the time.
I remember huili and junjie discussing about their common liking for common food.
I remember lihui happily asking for wedges too.
I should have spent more time at the table. But i remember alot.
- The Cleaning Up -
Cleaning up was announced when i realised it was pretty late and i had to go over to my uncle's place. The GUYS (the slacky, late guests) were supposed to wash up. Excluding me of course. BUT IN THE END. Haha. No la , i couldn't stand how jiabin and junjie were happily arguing with lauren and lihui and dancing with the brushes and drying clothes while zhao was taking a gazillion years to wash like a few utensils and plates. All these qian1 jing1 and shao4 ye2's. *shakes head*
I had to barge in and snatch the sponge. Then there was this power struggle when they were all fighting to be the cloth-dryers cos whoever wasn't working would be caught by the digicam as obviously slacking. In the end, boon and zhao were wipers and junjie was SUPPOSED to memorise where all the utensils, plates and tools were kept. In the end, i was soaping the dishes, and screaming out where each dish was kept like : " TOP DRAWER LEFT SIDE! " And junjie would be happily dancing here and there with jiabin swinging his cloth around. Gee.
Lihui and Lauren were there with all the insults and teasings and laughter. Having a great time looking at guys do housework for once. Oh come on, i do it ALL THE TIME.
I was Captain Dishwasher as I bellowed out instructions, ordering the useless bums jiabin and junjie around. But nothing could stop the slightly high jiabin from singing Ji Mo Bian Jie at the top of his -ahem- AVERAGER THAN AVERAGE voice. *grin*
I was like some Wizard from Enid Blyton's trying to get naughty elves to work.
I don't remember knowing what the other girls were doing. I thought christine was really drunk and was lying down in the room or something.
I remember walking out of the kitchen once and into the room to see if my digicam photos were transferred over (asked meiling to do it) and meiling did the WEIRDEST THING EVER. She started SHRIEKING AND AAAAAAAH-ing in this realllllly loud voice while pushing me from behind as i was walking down the corridor. I was really bewildered but i didn't suspect anything.
Then there was this flying object, the size of a coin which caused greater chaos in the kitchen. Jiabin and Junjie were flying all about the place trying to avoid something the size of their toe. And they were not listening to my instructions. That called for superior intervenenance. I marched in and took a tissue and grabbed the insect and got them back to their working posts with oohs and ahhhs of admiration at my sheer courage and fearlessness. What a bunch of nincompoops.
You should see the way they were dodging and squealing. What a bunch of schoolgirls.
And there was the bo1 tong1 which was ready and Christine was eagerly scooping into bowls for us to drink and at THIS MOMENT, the girls were out there insisting i come out to help. Only then i got slightly suspicious cos knowing the girls,i know they would not ask me to do extra work for my bday dinner. so them asking for help sorta let e cat's tail out of the bag. (not e entire cat). So when i walked out, there it was, a cute little choc cake~
I was quite surprised at how they actually got a cake in without me knowing. I was THAT busy. And lighting it and putting it at the dining room was another feat. No wonder meiling was shrieking.
And after that was pressie presentation and photo-taking. DAMNED LAUREN TEY! All my photos turned out wavy and SUPER blur. Lousy PJ. Lucky i had videos which can't go wrong. She's so lousy! Grumble. And they kept insisting it was mi camera. Which isn't possible cos my camera took very good photos before that! Grumble.
But yea, it was a really nice ending as i opened presents and took photos. Cleaned up, washed up and we set off to my uncle's place for a while to cut my bday cake and check out my cousins and niece which they quite loved. And they all think my family is really cool to have party games and decorations at dinner : there were two teams : "Strawberry Shortcake" and "Barney". The only game we saw was this one where my uncle,aunt,bro n bro's gf were trying to get a potato chip on their forehead to slide down their face into their mouths with no hands or outside assistance. Den we left. And lihui, zhao, jb , jj and i counted down on the bus to town cos our ktv room was given away cos we were late. haha. no matter. Cos i dun bother w countdowns.
-Afterthoughts-
It felt really surreal, I quote jiabin. Did you know, from my council days, my greatest wish was to have all my favourite friends take a photo together but having to be quite sensitive and even political sometimes, it didn't work out. And this, is so much more generous. An entire night and dinner with my 3 major cliques. And in some sense, there isn't a very distinct clique distinction going on , because i am blessed to have the cliques know and even like each other to a certain extent. It all felt really really heartwarming. Its jus friends having a dinner. And not just any dinner, but a dinner where everyone contributed. In no way was this MY dinner. It was everybody's dinner. With a table full of dishes prepared by us, with glasses of red wine, with Lisa Ono in the background and with friends sitted all around.
And there was almost no awkwardness at all. I don't know if this is attributed to the fact that i have friends who are really easygoing (lauren meeting boon for e 2nd time only) or it was all for me. It doesn't really matter. And i was constantly reminded of the fact that these are my friends who are here, for me, and enjoying every single bit of the moment, without any more obligation than me hosting this dinner. I didn't feel like a host. Or a guest. Cos everyone was host and guest at the same time. I felt completely at ease. And very very loved.
It felt perfect. Even though the fondue was barely touched. Even though everyone was too full to have the crepes suzette and strawberry romanoff. Even though i hardly sat down. Even though huili couldn't eat. Even though junjie would much rather have eaten hor fun plus egg. Even though this and that. It was perfect. Because there were all the people i love around me. And i think i am so lucky to have ever experienced this once in my life. I hope i have so much more of it in the future. I am willing to host it. Cook. Wash. Whatever.
What a night.
What friends.
What a life.
P.s.
And such a big thanks to mommy for helping out so much. It would have been IMPOSSIBLE without her. in the first place, i forgot to defrost my sausages, salmon and foie gras in the morning. er.
ah. happy 2005.
HERE IT IS
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