Great Expectations

Haven’t been updating as much as I’d have liked to, but hey, an update once in a while is better than no updates at all eh? It hasn’t exactly been busy, but I’ve been trying to optimise the evenings after work by meeting up with friends as much as possible. Ok, so far I haven’t met many people, but at least its a start right?

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We all had dreams then, we still do now. We expect different things from everyone as time goes by. And it is unfortunate that sometimes expectations differ from true performance.

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The ball brought me back to the times in school. Familiar faces then, still familiar now. Be amazed that acquaintanceships then do not to equate to friendships now. However, budding friendships look set to grow, if both parties will make the effort. I know I am going to try.

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A friend once told me that mature guys was the way to go. Her current squeeze was a school-going kiddo and well, she would’ve preferred someone who would understand the pains of the job. Well, she got her wish, and here I’m wishing her all the best. Looking forward to attending the ROM as suggested, babe.

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Sometimes I wonder if either of us had been more active and less lazy, would it still have lasted (coming to) five years?

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The expectations are great. It’s time to rise to the occassion.

Daily rides: 241Y (53), 3860R (53), 879H (358)
Cameos: 3614K (SP) 6, 3606J (SP) 359, 3623J (SP) 358, 633A (291) 359

 

“It’s the end, but it’s also a beginning.”

A week of memories indeed.

July 24 – A date to remember. It was the day, after 18 long long years, when I would finally put on the gown and mortarboard, and emerge from the auditorium as a fully-fledged graduate. Ok, so I’ve received the transcript and degree certificate, but the donning of the gown and the ceremony is a different thing altogether. And oh, let’s not forget the numerous pictures you’d take with all your friends who’re in the same session, and those who came especially early before their evening session to frame that special moment with friends in the afternoon session.

Ah, how sweet the memories of three years.

July 28 -  A celebration of all three years. The NBS convocation ball, the fruit of our labour, finally descended upon us in a rush. There was always the matter of logistics problems, but it was fortunate that everyone’s drive to make it a successful event was present, and it was all systems go, all engines firing, from as early as 9am.

First it was shifting the goodies from the carpark to the ballroom, then it was goodie bag packing, then it was the mad rush home to change and get ready, and back to the hotel for more.

The attendees began trickling in from 5.30pm, as the ball was slated for commencement at 6.30pm, with pre-dinner activities lined up. And of course, not forgetting the picture taking sessions once again. From these two events, I figure I must’ve taken something like 150 pictures?

Anyway the event was a blast! Thanks to all who attended! For those who didn’t but would want to take a peek, here’s a link.

All good things must come to an end, and well, it did, after three hours or so of excellent programming by the events company. I had lots of fun, as did most of the people who attended (did a roving survey at the end while taking more pics!). But the night was still young, and with Jia around, we all know what the next activity is.

Yep. He had four pints, followed up with about one and a half jugs of tiger. I had one pint, one wine, and about half a jug. Haha. The beng, of course, had about the same as Jia. And of course, we should never forget the antics he gets into whenever he’s over the top!

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Ah. The memories. The days have come to a close, a conclusion. We knew it was coming, but at least we’re not living in regret.

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A new phase in life has just begun.

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It’s the end, but it’s also a new beginning.

 

Changes in perspective

It takes much to build bonds, build bridges. Real links, not just smiley hahas and fickle jokes, before the bonds form and gradually strengthen. And, in stages, these bonds eventually strengthen, or weaken and eventually break.

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Friends can always be relied upon when you need them. Acquaintances are another matter altogether, if you think about it. It’s pretty much a gray area: who are your friends, and who are your acquaintances. It’s been 24 years, but I still can’t really make the distinction.

Once in a while comes along a friend who eventually will become your special friend. This doesn’t necessarily happen all the time (sometimes its more of a reflex) but it did happen to me. After so many years we’re still working out the kinks, but hey, which relationship doesn’t have problems? When you put two people together, no matter how compatible/suitable/made for each other they are, its still not going to click.

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Being home is a pleasure; something I learnt years ago when I had to pack my bags and stay in a goddamned camp 40 kilometres away on the other side of the island. So I still cannot get used to staying someplace else other than home. At least not for more than a month.

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You learn who your true friends are. They’re there when you’re riding the wave, but they’re also around when the fat lady sings.

Cheers. Next KTV’s on me.

 

The week in review

Noticeable lag growing between posts. Yep, 15 years have culminated in this moment. Finally, for the first time in my life, I’m holding down a full-time, stable job. Yes, yes, I’ve lived off my parents for the past 24 years, but hey, at least I’ve done stints here and there before right?

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FedEx (2001/2)
I know it took longer than most, but I did my first part-time stint at a warehouse in Changi South after my ‘O’-levels. Quite menial but well, what do you expect? Somehow or another, my friends got the cushy processing jobs, while I got the tougher warehouse helper job. But it paid quite well, $6/hr, $9 for OT and $12 for Sundays. Left in March to do my NS.

Of course no need to mention the menial amount I got as a 3SG during NS lah, but I held another job during my year-end break in my first year of University. Sold pants for $5/hr, and some commission. Frontline jobs are really not easy, and well, I try to treat all salespeople as nicely as I can, having been in their shoes once before.

But for those rude ones, sorry, I ain’t going back.

A major land transport operator, Finance (2006)
This was to fulfil an academic requirement. Pay was….err…little. But I guess the experience was enough. I was the only male, so the ladies there took it in their stride to make me feel at home and stuff. Till now I’m still in contact and have had lunches with them, although now being bound by work, I no longer can do that (yet). I’m hoping to do so when I get some leave or time off.

A major accounting firm, present day.
Yep, finally, after graduation, here I am. Somewhere I thought I would be. And somewhere I hope I can stay for a pretty long time. And by the look of things, it’s likely.

 

Three…

…days have gone by.

New friends.

New faces.

New life.

Zonked.

 

National Museum

Yah, yah, a million people will ask me “why go to the museum? Blah blah…” and I will reply “because I like to be a tourist in my own home”. Yeah, closet tourist who lives in the heartlands. That explains my Singapore Explorer and my penchant for riding buses and trains. Hey, if you can’t tour foreign lands, try your own for a change, eh?

=)

Met Jia today for a trip to the recently revamped National Museum.

As usual, limited photo taking is allowed, and we’re two guys who aren’t exactly very fond of being in front of the lens. Hence more commentary and less visuals. Sorry.

Entry: S$10 for adults ($5 if you can produce a valid student pass or 11B), S$5 for children (as advised by the NHB corporate communications — see comment below)

Entrance fees are only required for two types of galleries: The History and Living Galleries. At the time of writing, there are two other exhibits: documenta and the stone banquet, which are free of charge and open to the public.

History Gallery
Paid gallery-darkness-audio companion-no pictures allowed. That sums up the history gallery. But hey, I spent two hours in there, so let me tell you more.

Essentially, the history gallery begins in pre-Raffles Singapore, and stretches all the way to 1972. The exhibits are mostly artefacts, manuscripts, commentaries, historian accounts, event recollections, first-person recollections, etc. The most interesting part was probably the splitting of recollections into events and people. In the events section, the history of Singapore was told through various occurrences of major events which shaped the formation of our nation, while in the personal recollections section, people who normally wouldn’t make it into our history books gave accounts of their thoughts, hopes and dreams of what Singapore would later become.

Interestingly, the two merged in the final gallery, as we saw Mr Lee Kuan Yew and a compendium of his speeches, as Singapore worked towards independence from the British and then Malaysia.

Typical history book stuff, brought to life. =)

Living Galleries
Essentially, these galleries chronicle the changes in food, fashion, film and photography throughout the ages. We saw old utensils used by street hawkers, smelled different types of spices, black and white photos and the eventual use of silver bromide in film, the making of malay films in Singapore by the Shaw brothers and Cathay-Keris productions, as well as female clothing evolving throughout the century.

Documenta
Held at the basement, this is essentially a tribute to the Documenta exhibition held in Germany every four years. Nothing much here for us, but I believe art and design people would be better able to appreciate this exhibit. Free.

Stone Banquet
Showcased in some of the local newspapers, rare stones are used in the creation of famous dishes. They look mouthwateringly realistic, but are actually not edible. Closed because some interview was being carried out inside. Bleh.

Some swinging lamps. They miraculously stopped after awhile though.

Also caught this short film “Love”. Don’t know why its titled so, because what was happening on screen can hardly be described as such!

One more to end the day:

Time Capsule, due to be opened in December 2009.

Daily rides:
Fri – 7302J (21), 2600G (33), 3623J (359)
Sat – 7440T (21), 7459R (80), 9565G (80), 7337J (12)
Today – 9573E (81), 9676S (80), 899A (2), 7422X (12)

Cameo watch:
Massive movement: Many NAC N113CRBs have been transferred to BNDEP, appearing as follows: 3623J (SP) was on 359 for a week and just spotted on 35, 3620S (SP) on 358, 3611T (SP) on 359, the list goes on. OACs have also appeared, like 39R (SP) on 518/518B and 64S (228) on 12.

New Deployments:
88 seems to be the next WAB service, as 4 B9TLs at BRBP have been deployed on the service. More to come, with many of the B9TLs still SP.

 

Nightlife

Missed out on this facet of life for the past 20-plus years, but in recent months have been experiencing it in waves.

Suppers with the guys, late-night KTV sessions, overnighters at chalets…the list just goes on and on and on.

Just last sunday-monday, went nuts at night after an over 20km trip on my ‘trusty’ bicycle with the squeaky brakes and rock-hard seat.

Pasir Ris -> Ubi -> Marina South Pier -> Mount Faber -> Ubi
First Leg: Pasir Ris to Ubi via:
Pasir Ris Drive 1, Drive 8, Tampines Ave 12, Ave 9, Ave 10, Kaki Bukit Viaduct, Ave 4, Rd 3, Ave 1, Ubi Ave 2, Ave 1.

Ubi to Marina South Pier via:
Ubi Ave 1, Ave 2, Paya Lebar Rd, Geylang East Central, Aljunied Rd, Geylang Rd, Lor 18, Lor 16, Guillemard Road, Nicoll Highway, Esplanade Drive, Fullerton Rd, Collyer Quay, Raffles Quay, Shenton Way, Maxwell Rd, Marina Station Rd, Marina St, Marina Place, Marina Boulevard, Marina Coastal Drive.

Marina South Pier to Mount Faber via:
Marina Coastal Drive, Marina Boulevard, Marina Place, Marina St, Marina Station Rd, Prince Edward Rd, Shenton Way, Keppel Rd, Telok Blangah Rd, Kampong Bahru Rd, Mount Faber Rd, Mount Faber Loop.

Mount Faber to Ubi via:
Mount Faber Loop, Pender Rd, Morse Rd, Telok Blangah Rd, Keppel Rd, Anson Rd, Robinson Rd, Collyer Quay, Fullerton Rd, Esplanade Drive, Nicoll Highway, Guillemard Rd, Paya Lebar Rd, Ubi Ave 2, Ave 1.

Too tired to cycle back after that, so it meant that I had to go pick up my bicycle, which I left at Ubi the previous night, and help to send the other bikes back to their respective owners, with zw’s lorry and reubs and kr riding shotgun.

That meant yet another night outing, cos we met at 12.30am tuesday morning, and returned the bikes before supper at Geylang Lor 15 before heading home at 3 plus.

Boy am I tired! But hey, here’s to more of such events!

Daily rides:
Tue – 9805L (12), 7348C (12)
Wed – 987D (21), TIB537B (106), 585E (175), 3639P (358)

Cameo watch:
SBS7494M appeared on 88 yesterday…a hint of things to come?

 

Out of the Frying Pan…

And into the fire.

My university days have officially come to an end, with the release of my final semester’s results. Did reasonably well to secure good enough honours, and now the countdown officially starts (read: 17 days) till gainful employment commences at the firm.

Goodbye, tertiary life. Hello, working life.

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Met up with zhen today over at AMK. Was pretty much fun, eating cutlet and chatting and looking at comics and clothes and games. Talked about life in general, and what married life might be like. It’s funny, cos in the past, whenever you meet your friends, you’d talk about the latest fashion, latest game console, how much allowance you’re getting, which movie is great, etc, but now you’re talking insurance coverage, plasma TVs and DVD players, the price of rice and detergent.

We all move on. It takes time but we eventually do.

Congrats zhen, we’ve done it. And I owe you one now. Bleh.

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Daily rides:
Tue – 9636H (81), 3715U (38), 9489R (12)
Wed – 7300P (21), 1726J (358)
Thu – 3708Z (39), 313Z (86), 3759B (25), 2621X (81)

 

Another One of Those Trips…

Did a mini x-country today. KR asked if I would be so kind as to help him settle some matters at CMPB while he visited the Genting Theme Parks and being the nice person that I am, I agreed.

(Yeah I’m just glorifying my role in all this)

Well, in the know that the Defence Technology Towers is after all a military installation, this meant no cameras would be allowed. So no pics will accompany this post.

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Ride details: 12, SBS7331A, Kallang Rd (Aft Kallang Rd ERP Gantry), $1.38

Boarded 12 at my usual bus stop, like I would when I go to the National Library and would prefer not to take the train (costs more lah!). The ride took me 50 minutes, and I got off at this stop because I thought I could catch 175 after it came out from Geylang Lor 1 terminal.

Bad move. 175 didn’t come in this direction.

Ride details: 51, SBS2786D, North Bridge Rd (North Bridge Comm Cplx), $0.40 (after $0.25 rebate)

I knew 175 would traverse North Bridge Road, so I could board either 7, 51 or 80 at the Kallang Road bus stop. 51 was the first to come, so I picked it. Lucky me, because as the bus turned into Crawford Street, what should appear but 175, in front! I should really thank my lucky stars that the 51 I was on overtook 175 before Parkview Square, so I got off opposite Bugis Junction and hopped immediately onto the 175 behind, which would take me the rest of the way.

Ride details: 175, SBS586T, Depot Rd (Blk 104B), $0.12 ($1.90 fare cap reached)

The good thing about SBS Transit services is that within 2 hours, if you transfer between different services, the fare is capped at $1.90. So imagine, I travelled from North Bridge Road, via Stamford Road, Somerset Road, Orchard Boulevard, Irwell Bank Road, Havelock Road, Outram Road, AYE, Jalan Bukit Merah and finally Henderson Road to reach my destination for the day, and all I paid was 12 cents! Heh.

And well, over at the DTT, you get similar service as you do at all governmental offices, except that security is much tighter. Bag scans, metal detectors, camera phones to be locked away, etc etc etc. But the most surprising thing is the FSC. I expected rows of counters, and all I saw was one little cashier.

Haha.

It didn’t take too long. There were two people ahead of me, and I spent about 20 minutes there. Then came the return journey.

Ride details: 195, SBS666E, Alexandra Rd (Alexandra Hospital), $0.65

Depot Road, if you didn’t already know, is this really ulu stretch between Henderson and Alexandra Roads. There’s a Botak Jones there (shocking!), right in front of the bus stop. And its served by three services: 57 (Bishan – Bt Merah), 175 (Geylang Lor 1 – Clementi) and 195 (Marina Ctr – Commonwealth Ave (Loop)). There used to be a feeder (274) to Bt Merah Interchange, but it’s been withdrawn because 57 duplicates its route.

So I waited for almost 10 minutes before 195 came. And I looked at the number plate and laughed to myself. ‘Auspicious’ number, I must say. I’d thought of taking the bus to Queenstown MRT, but then I’d not be able to save on fares, so I got off at Alexandra Road instead, and decided to continue my journey home by bus instead.

Ride Details: 51, SBS7397K, Sims Ave (Aft Geylang Lor 1), $1.03 (After $0.25 rebate)

Second ride on 51 today. I had so many options at the Alexandra Road bus stop, most notably 14 (to Bedok, can transfer to 12 along the way), 33 (same as 14), 197 (same), 93 (to Eunos, can transfer to 53, 81 and 21 along the way) and 51 (to Hougang Central, transfer to 12 and 21 along the way). I skipped three 33s, two 93s, two 14s, two 197s and one other 51 in order to hop this B9TL. I was hoping to get a gassy on 93, but it was not to be. Anyway 51 served its purpose, I got to Sims Avenue in 40 minutes.

Ride details: 21, SBS7305B, Pasir Ris Drive 6 (Blk 429), $0.22 ($1.90 fare cap reached)

Again, I managed to save on fares with the $1.90 fare cap. I was deliberating between 12 and 21 at the Sims Avenue bus stop, but 21 arrived first (when iris said 11 minutes!) compared to 12 (supposedly arriving). Uneventful ride through the streets of Geylang, Eunos, Bedok and Tampines.

Total fares: $3.80
Travel time: Slightly over 4 hours
Ride summary: 7331A (12), 2786D (51), 586T (175), 666E (195), 7397K (51), 7305B(21)

 

Football

Nothing surprising about the fact that I do like to have a little kickaround, and until recently, play amateur sunday matches. It started off quite weirdly, actually, when I volunteered for the primary school football team in ‘93, after ’scoring’ a ‘goal’ in a void-deck game with one of those $1.50 plastic balls.

Went for one session and quit. Haha.

After that it was mainly tennis ball soccer, at the basketball or volleyball courts in school, or outside, under the void decks. Still remember the days when it rained cats and dogs and we’d be at the void deck and the ball would roll out into the rain and we’d get wet picking it up. Even got scolded by some ‘civic-minded’ residents who said “You cannot play here! This is not your playground!”

Civic-minded residents my ass. You buggers probably litter and spit and god knows what else un-civic things you do.

Those primary school kickabouts were supplemented by some field outings, over at the field right in front of my block, once we all went off to secondary school. Of course, the ’star team’ in primary school disbanded, and it was left to a few musketeers in the neighbourhood/vicinity. These were more leisurely, and usually involved four or less people, but it was quite alot of fun then.

In secondary school it was quite a different proposition altogether. There was no soccer team in the school, so we’d play on the field, and later, the basketball and street soccer courts in school. Sometimes we’d even head out of school to find alternative grounds when the courts were all occupied and we didn’t want to challenge the seniors.

Formed our first team then, in sec 2. White reebok jerseys, no numbers, and well, sad to say, it didn’t last too long. Then in sec 4, we formed our second team. Lasted long enough, but also disbanded. But there’s a fairytale ending: the guys I played with are now still my best pals.

Turned to recreational football once again after the army. Erratic but eventually got rolling again in the second sem of my first uni year. Formed yet another team last year.

And here I am, playing for my third team. Never played schools football, so actually I’m really amateur.

Oh well, it is leisure, isn’t it?

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Daily rides:
Fri – 9361A (89), 9675U (89), 3639P (358)
Sat – 7444H (12), 9637E (31), 9402R (31), 7331A (12)
Sun – 1972P (21), 899A (15)