ICT Duos

Pretty much the same thing as what happened yesterday, a more detailed briefing about Wednesday's activities and a re-briefing for what will happen on Thursday and Friday.


We were told to reach at 9 am, only for the briefing to start at around 10 am.


At 10 am, we were briefed about what we would do, where we would be assigned to and what time we were expected to arrive the next day. I knew the parade for SAF Day will start some time in the evening, so I was expecting them to ask us to arrive maybe in the afternoon at the parade location or maybe in the late morning after 10 am, but for some reason, they wanted us to report to the airbase at 0630 in the morning, take the bus they have indented for us and reach the parade location by 0730 so we can have enough time to do "preparations" till 2 pm in the afternoon.



We will probably be doing absolutely nothing after the first hour of briefing at the parade location and we will only be dismissed after the last guy decides he has had enough of catching up with friends and stuffing himself silly with food and beer.


I'm already hating the last guy who's going to be leaving the parade, we are expected to work till 1 am tomorrow, that's fucking nuts. But the invited guest are all generally older people, so I doubt they are the sort who will stay up till wee hours in the morning gossiping about Army happenings and their family. I just hope they will all fuck off before 9 pm, we get debriefed till 10 pm and be released right after because I will be wanting to go back home and taking a bath straight away after that. These past 2 days, simply being present in the briefing room with the horrible air circulation is already making me feel all sweaty and sticky, I can only imagine how horrible it's gonna be tomorrow, I will probably start breaking out.



When the briefing officer told us that we had to reach the airbase by 0630 in the morning, he was considerate enough to ask who lived in the West side, that we could probably discuss with the sergeant about meeting us there directly, I raised my hand straight away and he took notice of me and this other guy seated behind me.



After he left, the sergeant who was in charge of the group I was assigned to comes over and briefs us about what we will be doing and he goes....

"Alright, so you guys roughly know what will be happening tomorrow, so tomorrow all of us will meet here at 0630."

....and I was expecting him to address those who live in the west (such as myself) who would heading directly to the parade location where to meet and what time we had to arrive, but he didn't, and he went on talking about something else, of course I was not gonna assume he was going to talk about it later, so I interrupted him and asked him what about those we were going to head to the location directly.  He stops, thinks to himself for a while and goes...

"I think we all meet here at 0630 instead, it's a lot easier because you guys won't be able to just go in by yourselves, you will be denied entry."

Ummm... Fuck No~ that's not a valid reason to have me wake up at 0500 in the morning or maybe even earlier and have to either cab there for $20 or trouble my Mum to drive me to the airbase before the break of dawn. So I suggested....

"Can we just meet at the bus stop outside the parade location so you can pick us up instead?"

I didn't think that sounded like a ridiculous suggestion because suggesting for us west side people to meet at the airbase at 0630 in the morning, only to have them drive us right back to where we came from is even more ridiculous. The whole time I was the only one who was trying to convince the sergeant to let us (the west side people) head to the location directly, this other guy who also lived in the west for some reason just couldn't be fucked.  Every time the sergeant denied my request, he just turns his head to his neighbor and gives a look of displeasure and that was it, I mean say something to back me up as well, why are you not saying something to make both our lives easier?


I think had I not raised my hand when the briefing office asked who lived in the west side, he would have probably just kept his hands down and reported to the airbase at 0630 like everyone else who lived in the east.


The sergeant didn't really fancy the idea of us heading to the location directly on our own and he suggested we could stay in tonight, that they will provide a bunk for us to sleep in, I was naturally really unhappy about it because it's such a fucking stupid and lazy as fuck idea, I mean how hard is it for you to just stop the bus at the bus stop for less than 5 minutes, pick us up and head into the camp together, just an extra 5 minutes compared to having us stay in camp for a whole night, so for the next 5 minutes as he was talking, my face had this expression of shock mixed with a little bit of disgust...

I was looking at the other guy and I really don't know what was going on in his head he didn't seem to give 2 fucks about it. Guess that's what happens when you have a car to drive you around. But come'on, even if I could drive, I wouldn't want to drive to the airbase only to have to drive back to the west again, that's wasting time, petrol and extra sleep.



The sergeant finally comes back to his senses after he finished talking, probably realizing how ridiculous it is to have us travel from the West to the East only to head to the West again, literally from one end of Singapore to the other and than back to the other, slightly further end again, and maybe also because of my scowl, decided to give in and allow us to head to the location directly.



After he briefed us, the lieutenant who is in my group along with the other ICT sergeant comes up to me and tells me they will be meeting up with me and the other guy at a control station near the parade location first before making our way over together, which was great because I really don't want to meet up  alone with the other guy, would've been awkward.




After that briefing, we broke for lunch and by 12.30, we were released. I took the bus, train, bus combo home today, decided to give no fuck when I boarded the bus and just sat my way to the control station, where I gave some fuck and only sat for maybe 6 to 7 stops during the train ride before finally giving my seat up to this old man who definitely looked like he needed it.


At the 4th to 5th stop I was already feeling a bit self-conscious because the train was starting to get really pack and there I was tugged in the corner in my No.4 uniform looking at my iPhone, but all those who were entering the train were able-bodied looking individual who didn't look like they needed the seat desperately, I mean it would look weird if I gave my seat up to some beefy 20 year old dude because he looked like he needed the seat more than I did, because I am wearing my army uniform, a uniform that makes all the seats I take up become a reserved seating for anyone not wearing an army uniform. Wearing my army uniform and taking the public transport makes me feel obligated to be an extra nice Singaporean, and it's really quite tiresome.





So I was actually quite thankful that the old man came in, because he was a very valid reason for me to give my seat up, the old man was really nice when I stood up and directed him to the empty seat and even thanked me for the seat, a few stops later this other guy (who was not in an army uniform) who was seated across me also gives his seat up to this old lady who entered and she didn't even acknowledge or thank the young man for giving up his seat for her, she just plop herself down and continued talking on the phone without a care in the world. What a self entitled old bitch, I fucking hate people like her, sure the seat is reserved for older people like you, but IT'S NOT YOUR SEAT, you didn't pay for it, at least show some fucking gratitude by smiling when someone actually gives their seat up for you. The only contribution you made to society that granted you the right to occupy the reserve seating without having to get judged by the commuters was by simply growing old.




Anyway, when the old man reached his stopped, he actually thanked me again and gestured me to seat down, as if he was returning the seat to me, I smiled back at him but of course never went back down to seat because it just made me feel uncomfortable to be seated in my No.4 uniform and for that, I would like to Thank all you ungrateful Singaporeans who like to stomp soldiers like us for being humans who actually feel tired and need a seat every once in a while like the rest of the human race, just for $50.



After I got off the train, I went to the bus stop, boarded the bus and really couldn't be bothered to stand for another 20 minutes after having to stand in the train for the past half an hour, so I just sat my way through till I got home, the bus was also relatively empty so I didn't feel pressured to have to stand the entire time.




Total travel time was 2 hours, managed to reach home at around 2.30pm. If I was wearing my civilian attire, I would probably have dropped off at Bugis to buy a cup of bubble tea and fried chicken cutlet before going home.

ICT First Day.

Today is the first day of my second ICT. My Mum dropped me off at Simei in the morning and I took a bus from there, didn't realize the trip would take half an hour, so I actually stood up the entire time in the bus, half crouching because the bus ceiling was ridiculously low, but I persisted anyway because I'm an idiot and the whole time I was in the bus stuck in that uncomfortable position, there was this other NS guy seated comfortably in the seat at the back of the bus, probably just quietly judging that weird lanky guy standing awkwardly at the standing area of the bus.



Anyways, half an hour later, I was able to finally drop off at my stop, I was maybe 15 minutes late and was still considered one of the earlier ones.



Initially, I wasn't sure what the schedule was going to be like when I got the notice to go back for my reservist but I knew it was gonna have a lot of waiting and after hearing the schedule they had planned for us today from the warrant officer, I was right.



I'm not complaining about not having anything to do, I mean I'd rather sit and wait for things to happen in camp than to have to go and clean weapons or do guard duty for 6 hours at one go, but what I don't like is how we could have ended so much earlier if they had just push all the activities into the morning session. There was a lot of waiting for things to happen, but we were able to end at 3.30 pm after the last minute activities they had planned was over.



I was lazy to take the bus, train, bus combo home in my No.4, so I just took a $20 cab ride home. Managed to reach home in half an hours, that's a quarter of the time it would take me to reach home had I taken the bus, train, bus combo, and in my No.4 which means I might have to stand the whole trip home because those middle-aged Singaporean Aunties just love to Stomp the shit out of us for a $50 reward.



The main event for this ICT is SAF Day on Wednesday, not very exciting for the ICTs because we are gonna be doing some vehicle ushering. The last duty I did during my NS before I ORDed was ushering at SAFTI, and now I am going to be returning back there to do the exact same thing, except this time, it's going to be a much bigger event, with the President and Prime Minister attending.



Tomorrow is going to be another briefing again, asked my Mum if I could take the car and she wasn't very keen on the idea, so no car for my convenience tomorrow, FML, have to go back home via the bus, train, bus combo tomorrow, although I am not very inclined to do so. Might end up just taking a fucking taxi again. But on the up side, I will be able to use the car on Thursday, so that's good, my initial plan was to get my driving license before this ICT so I could drive to camp, but now it seems I can only use it once. Pfft.



My driving confidence has taken a tumble again, a few days ago when I was reversing my Mum's car into the parking space, I accidentally hit the car bumper against the freaking pillar, that parking spot was the very first parking spot I attempted after I got my license, decided it would be a great idea to park there again to prove to myself how much I have improved over the last month, and BAM!, ran right into the pillar, such a fucking idiot. There was a dent but it's not as bad as I thought it was when I heard the pillar kissing the car's bumper.



Now I'm afraid I will accidentally bump someone's car on Thursday, someone who has a higher rank than me who  wouldn't think twice about fucking me upside down for ruining his or her beautiful car.

Rejected

After going for the SIMGE Orientation Briefing about a week back, I started to have second thoughts about going for the degree program. The days before the Orientation briefing were already filled with second thoughts.

"I want to become a graphic designer"

That was the excuse I came up with when I went to apply for the course, that was the answer I gave my parents when I told them I wanted to apply for the course, that was my reply when my friends ask me why I chose that course and everyone believed it, even me.





But that's not the truth. I told everyone that so they would believe I had everything planned out properly, that it wasn't a half fuck decision I was making. Truth is I didn't really want to become a graphic designer, I just wanted to get out of the Interior Design Industry, so I told myself I wanted to become a graphic designer and convinced myself that it was what I truly wanted.





When I applied for culinary school, I told my parents I wanted to be baker, I told my friends baking was my passion and I knew for sure baking was what I wanted to do at that time. I know that feeling of really wanting something and that feeling, the conviction I had when I told my family and friends that I wanted to be a baker  just wasn't there when I told them I wanted to become a graphic designer.





I wasn't applying for SIMGE because I was truly interested in it, I was doing it because it was the easier University to get accepted into and it was only a year of studies before I could get my degree and start working as a Graphic Designer.

I had " the grass is always greener on the other side" mentality, I assumed being a graphic designer would be more interesting, but that was all assumptions, I didn't know what being a graphic designer would be like, heck it might even be as dull as interior design,and if that's the case and the grass isn't greener on the other side, I would have wasted $20,000 and another year of my life.





My biggest issue is probably the credibility of the course, it's a Design Communication course, but they don't seem to be having any lessons on the different software Graphic Designers will have to use in the work force and are somehow more concerned about the proper ways to to "cite sources" when we are writing an article. I never went for the Open House so I don't really know what they will be teaching exactly, but the impression of the course I got from the orientation briefing was a confusing mishmash of not really graphic designing and not really mass communication.

I mean the school can't even find like a proper successful student to feature on their website? The one that was featured last year, when I read through her story, it didn't really leave any lasting impression, the only thing I remembered about her was that she looked like Daphne Khoo from Singapore Idol and she wore fedora on her head,  which of course made me question my decision to join the course, and the one this year although probably slightly better off, still did not manage to convince me that the degree could help students secure a successful job at a design firm. I'm not saying a person should rely on just their paper qualification for success, but come on, when I look at an alumni for inspiration, I want to see a huge success story, someone working for a huge design company or running their own successful company, or at the very least was part of a hugely successful project that would at least let me know that the school is able to churn out hugely successful individuals and give me hope that one day, I could achieve similar or even better greatness. But all I get are individuals who are only mildly successful or working in a completely different industry, the latter I honestly think affects a majority of the alumni.




I recently saw their grad show Facebook page as well and all I am going to say is they could have  at least asked someone to proof read some of the student's "Words of Wisdoms", they don't call it that but how awesome would it be if they had, before publishing some of the statuses, not saying all of them are badly written, there are some that are not bad, but the one that stood out for me was the one where the girl compared designing to baking, it was such a bad analogy (apart from the grammatical errors). As someone who studied design for 3 years and baked professionally before and still do once in a while for fun, I felt that she could've came up with a better analogy.

Even she's confused about what she just wrote.

She compared the design process to baking, which when I first read, got me a little interested, and then everything else after just kinda went downhill. Apparently, to her, designing without any design process would be like flour, but why like flour? Because it's white and powdery? She should have said "would be like baking with just flour" but hey, that's what happens when no one tries to proof read and do any editing. And that if you only have flour, you can't bake anything, but without flour, baking will also be a failure, which is not really true because Awfully Chocolate does sell this item called Flourless Chocolate Cake but I'm just nitpicking here because I do understand the point she's trying to put across, it's just that as a baker, I know a bit more about baking than regular folks and all the little errors in the details are popping out at me.





She really should have compared designing to cooking and not baking, baking is a science and it requires you to follow a recipe closely, which is not what design is about because that would be called plagiarism, whereas with cooking, it's very much trial and error, which is what the design process is like, coming up with ideas and adding new ones to the existing ones. Cooking (professionally) also requires patience, time, effort and creativity, Patience because, actually fuck patience, cooks will probably be screaming from one end of the kitchen to the other asking if their steak is done or if the pasta is al dente, time because they will be stuck in the kitchen for the whole day, literally stamp in before the break of dawn and only leave after the sun has set or not leave at all, effort because they are working literally the whole day and creativity to conjure up reasons to convince themselves that despite being overworked and underpaid, they still enjoy what they are doing.... some would refer to the "excuses"  as Passion because that feeds you and provides a roof over your head in life.

So all signs pointed to a really underwhelming learning experience, that's why I decided to reject the offer. No point investing time, effort and money in a degree that I have to try so hard to convince  myself is worth getting. If I have to try that hard to convince myself that it's worth it, despite being slapped in the face with proof that it isn't, it's better to walk away than walk in blinded with ignorance and hope for the best.


p/s. I apologize in advance if that girl, by some act of miracle, actually chance upon this blog and reads this post. No one really reads this blog if that's any consolation.

Quest for cupcakes.

The car was available for me to use today for lunch, so I decided to drive to Holland V to grab my lunch and more importantly, get cupcakes from Plain Vanilla because it's been a while since I last got my hands on them.




Normally, a drive from my work place to Holland V would take less than 20 minutes, but being the noob driver that I am, it took me a whole hour, which is fucking ridiculous because taking a public bus would have been so much faster.



The main reason it took so long was because I wasn't sure if there was going to be parking available at the Holland V car park, so instead I went to the car park that was directly across.



As I drove into the road leading to the carpark across, I realize there was construction happening at the little stretch of road leading to the car park, the car park itself wasn't close, but there was this huge ass cement truck that was blocking the way, which means no way I could go in, so I drove out back to the main road and decided to go look for the HDB car park my parents always parked at when we visit Holland V as a family, took me about 20 minutes of driving around the vicinity before I gave up because I couldn't find the damn car park and ended up settling for the closest multistory car park I could find.



I have learned that doing the 45 degree parking technique is so much easier than the 90 degree one that I was taught in school, so I was able to park the car without much trouble, got out of the car park and thought I could get to Holland V by walking across this patch of field, turns out I couldn't because at the end of the field was a pretty high drop, so unless I was planning to jump off the drop, possibly break my legs and be forced to drag my body with my hands to Plain Vanilla Bakery, I had to walk around the patch off grass, which is fucking ridiculously far, I was in no mood for an exercise, so I got back into the car and decided to just try my luck at the bloody car park in Holland V.




I had spend so much time driving around Holland V that by the time I went to the car park at Holland V to look for lots, the lunch crowd was pretty much gone, even though the ground level car park was packed to the brim with cars from who knows where, I managed to get a lot on the second story car park, in fact there were a lot of lots available there, so no stress for me when I had to park the car.




First stop was obviously Plain Vanilla Bakery.



After having spend almost an hour driving around and looking car park space, which was really my fault because I'm an idiot, I had to get enough cupcakes to justify my stupid, so I got 6 cupcakes.

Shit quality because the company has shit lighting, that's why it's not going on Instagram

I was actually lazy to choose the flavors, I just went and told the counter girl I wanted the first five flavors from the right side of the display and a red velvet. Their cupcakes are always yummy so I didn't really have to be too picky about it.



Got myself the Cookies and Cream, White Chocolate Strawberry, Smores, Red Velvet, Hazelnut and some Pineapple Mint which I gave to a my office colleague.



I am not sure what the Pineapple one was, I just assumed it had mint in it, that's how much confidence I have with the bakery, that I just randomly picked that flavor without even reading the name of the flavor. I didn't get to eat it tho so that was a waste.



The Smores cupcake was the flavour I was looking forward to, and it was really filling. The cupcake consist of a biscuit base, chocolate cake with a thick chocolate ganache center which had the consistency of a truffle, a thin layer of chocolate on top of the cake followed by another layer of torched marshmallow meringue frosting and finally topped with a graham cracker which they made from scratch, so many components and so much effort for one cupcake. I also had the White Chocolate Strawberry one, not as awesome as the first time I had it, probably because despite being too full from the Smores cupcakes, I still proceeded to shove the White Chocolate Strawberry one down my mouth.



I am glad I still have 3 more cupcakes left to devour, can't wait to try the red velvet one, I always buy red velvet when I visit but I keep giving up that flavor to my younger sister, well not today. I'm gonna try that flavor from them once and for all and see how it fares.




Oh and for lunch I had a Subway sandwich, because it was the closest store to the car park so that's it.




Whilst I was looking for a car park, I also came across this stupid Mercedes driver who didn't want to let me enter his lane, my lane was half occupied by  road works so the obvious thing to do is switch lane, that fucker didn't want to let me into the lane, and instead of speeding up so I wouldn't cut him, he decided to drive at the same speed as me, fucking asshole.

Accepted

I haven't really been driving a lot lately.


After passing my Traffic Police Test, I thought I would be driving at every possible opportunity, but that's not the case because as it turns out, I can't park for shit in a real car park, there are no markings on the road telling me when I should turn or points on my Mum's car I could look out for.


The first day I took my Mums' car for a test drive, around the parking lot because I don't like living life on the edge, I accidentally brushed her car against another car as I was trying to park, just a gentle brush, there weren't any noticeable dents or scratch marks, but it scared me enough to want to quickly get the fuck out of the car park, I was even deciding at that time whether or not I should park the car somewhere else, in case there were actually scratch marks, but I decided not to because I was scared I might end up actually damaging another car.



So the past 2 weeks, I have been driving quite a bit, not as often as I should be, but enough to have me throw all the rules of driving out the window, things like signalling before changing lanes or checking my blind spot before I make a turn, I mean I still try to do them if I remember to, but most of the time, when I am changing lanes and there's literally no other cars in sight, it just feels kinda stupid to signal to the non-existent car behind me to let them know I want to switch to the left lane where all the noob drivers reside.



Driving updates aside, I've officially been accepted into SIM Global Education. That's a good thing I guess, but I didn't really feel the need to share it with anyone I unless they ask me about it.





A few days back, I met up with an Army buddy for dinner at Westgate. I have been going to the Jurong East area a lot recently, the place is starting to bore the fuck out of me.


Anyways, I suggested for us to dine at this restaurant I used to work at about a year ago, I worked at the Bugis branch and decided it would be nice to visit the Westgate branch.



I was actually a bit nervous about visiting the restaurant because I wasn't sure if anyone remembered me, it would be awkward if they didn't and I assume they did, went "Hi, what's your face?" and have them stare back at me with utter confusion as to who the fuck I am.




But the moment I walked up to the restaurant, I was greeted by the manager who had this surprise look on her face and she went....

"Woah! Who are you?"

...in a good way of course, I smiled back, greeted her and we were led to a table, I normally like sitting at a corner table, so being send to a table smack in the middle of the restaurant with customers on my right, left, front and back, it really wasn't my ideal location.



Having worked there in the past, I knew the items were always on the pricier side, and despite the restaurant serving bigger portions to compensate for the price, $16 for a meal seems a bit much, and I realize that when went in as as a paying customer. Calculating the total cost in my head made me realize how expensive the items really were when combined together.



I had originally wanted to order a main dish, a drink and a dessert, but after realizing that just ordering the main dish and the smoothie would set me back by $20, ordering the dessert, priced at $14, just seemed a bit excessive, if my meal is above $30, that's a bit too much for me to handle, so I decided to just skip dessert, again. It's always disappointing that I have to skip desserts every time I visit a restaurant, even though I am a dessert person because I'm either too full or the total cost is too expensive but most of the time it's because others have no interest ordering desserts and I don't want to be the only one enjoying my dessert as they stare at me like it's a mukbang.



I ordered a Peanut Butter Banana smoothie, which arrived first and it was fucking delicious, but I think they made the servings smaller, so I was nursing the drink to let it last until my meal actually arrvied. I tried recreating the drink at home yesterday, it didn't come out very well because I was too generous with the peanut butter and ended up getting a smoothie that had a very claggy finish, it was like the smoothie didn't want to slide down my throat and was desperately sticking on there for it's dear life. The one I ordered on the other hand had a nice balance of banana and peanut butter, it had a nice consistency that wasn't too thick nor too watery and the peanut bits gave the drink a nice crunch.



The Mac and Cheese I ordered was also fucking delicious. I normally don't like cheese items, but if they are baked and melted in the oven over pizza, or in this case pasta, those rancid smelling yuckies become something else entirely. I think from now on, I might actually start ordering Mac and Cheese at restaurants that serves them, of course they must be baked and have a nice golden and slightly charred crispy cheesy layer on top.



When my friend and I went to pay the bill, the manager was really nice and gave us a 10% discount, we chatted a bit and she introduced me to the cashier as the "Ex-Pastry Boy" who worked at the restaurant a very long time ago. The managers and waiters whom I worked with were all really nice to me when I was working there, so I have a very good impression of the service crew, the kitchen crew on the other hand, some of them are nice to me, others never really felt the need to get acquainted with me, but there were a few that I didn't really enjoy working with because they just didn't know how to keep their cool.



I had a really good time dining there and would probably return again just to have the desserts, it would be nice to have the dessert be prepared for me instead of the other way around because spelling it the other way round is stressed. Gosh, I'm so witty and funny.

After the meal, me and my friend took a stroll around the JEM and Westgate a bit, we spend most of the time walking around Fair Price going through the different aisle, not really getting anything, and when my legs got tired from aimlessly walking around Fairprice, we settled at Baskin Robbins to have a cup of Ice Cream to do more catching up, at this point my back was already starting to really stink, I could smell the stench from my backpack as I removed it  from from shoulders, it was bad and I felt really self conscious as well,  I also saw my BMT sergeant there, I didn't feel obligated to say hi so I just looked at him from a distance and tried to avoid eye contact. We are facebook friends but we weren't close in real life so there was no point really to go up to him, say Hi and not expect the conversation to be awkward at all, he probably wouldn't even recognize me at all with a full set of hair.




After the ice cream, we parted ways and I had to drag my smelly back home to clean the stench off myself and the bag by spraying a generous amount of deodorant all over.