Traffic Police Test (First Attempt)

Took my Traffic Police Test today.



Headed for the driving center in the morning and was about 45 minutes early, so I waited 45 minutes before my warm up session started, had my warm up session with an instructor I have never been assigned to before and he guided me around the circuit once before making our way to the test route.




During my warm up, I actually hit a kerb in the crank course, that was really nerve wrecking because I've never hit the kerb in the crank course before, the crank course was my strongest subject and I actually managed to fuck that up. I thought it would count as an immediate failure, but the instructor told me I never mount so it would only be 10 demerit points. I can't really remember how the test route went, so it must have gone quite smoothly, there were a few times the instructor would ask me to check my blind spot but other than that, no major screw ups I can remember.




After the warm up session, I followed the instructor to the waiting room on the second storey, where he drops my IC and PDL into a little box and that was the end of the warm up, the next time I was in a car, it would be for my test.



The warm up room only had 5 people including myself, 2 Indian guys, a middle age lady and a China guy who was probably my age. At around 11.50, the first tester came in and called out for the middle age lady, 10 minutes later, the China guy was called and shortly thereafter, my name was called.




The tester who picked my IC was quite a friendly guy, we greeted each other, he tells me the test route we were gonna take and I honestly really didn't know which test route it was, I know it's number 2 but I don't know how route number 2 was like. Later I find out it was the same test route I took for my warm up.




So I got into the car and away we went, the circuit went by really smoothly, although I think he forgot to do the slope and at that point I really didn't want to let him know, so I just kept quiet when he told me that we were going out to the test route,I didn't want to be given the chance to gain more demerit points.




I have to say though, I actually hated test route number 2 because of the particular U-Turn I had to do, it was at this U-Turn that I got scolded so many times by this one instructor during my peak hour lesson, it was nothing but bad memories, fortunately for me, the road at that time was actually quite clear, so I was able to my lane change with ease and didn't get stuck at the U-Turn for too long.




As we were nearing the end of the test route, lo and behold, what I had fear would happen happened, there was this fucking pedestrian standing in the middle of the T-Junction, trying to jaywalk her walk across, I wasn't able to see her because I was behind a lorry at the time, so when the lorry turn the corner, I assumed the road was clear because there's no way there would be anyone standing in the middle of the fucking T-Junction, the jaywalker probably also assumed there wasn't going to be any car behind the lorry and when I saw her, I quickly did a hard brake, she sees me, smiles at me apologetically and takes a step back before putting up her hand to apologize again and I thought that was it, that would be my confirmed immediate failure, I almost killed someone, I was so pissed off at that woman as I was making my way back to the driving center. That was what I was worried about, some inconsiderate pedestrian popping out of nowhere on the road and there she was, standing right in the middle of the fucking T-Junction.



So as I was nearing the driving center, the tester decided to start  small talk and ask me about what I work as and where I was working, and we had a short and friendly chat in the car which calmed me down a little. We got back to the driving center and I was send back to the waiting room to wait again and because the tester started to get chatty at the end, it had me hoping for the better, in the room, there were 2 other guys who were waiting for their results, the China guy and one of the Indian guy, the China guy passed with 18 points (because he showed me later on) and well, the Indian guy failed his test, he had a lot of problem in the circuit and was lacking confidence, 5 minutes later, my tester comes back, hands me my test results and goes...

"Okay, you pass."

I had this stupid smile on my face the entire time he was talking to me, everything that was happening in the room I just tuned out, I was so fucking happy, I was hoping to pass, obviously, but I wasn't really expecting to, not after how horrible my last revision went, in fact, when I went for my revisions and if the instructors were treating it like a real test and scoring me, I would get insanely high scores like 40 to 50 demerit points with 2 Immediate Failures thrown in to be the cherry on top of a demoralizing lesson, so to be presented with a score of 8 points was OMFG insane.

The tester then told me to head to the warm up area to watch the graduation video, I was so fucking happy. Me, in the warm up room watching the graduation video, on my very first attempt at the Traffic Police Test, that's crazy, but there I was 5 minutes later, watching this video of people dying in car accidents, I couldn't see much because my view was blocked by some lady's head, I do remember this one photograph that was flashed on the screen of someone's leg that was bend the other way with the bone jutting out, it was nasty but thankfully they were just pictures and not videos of the guy's leg actually bending the other way with the bone popping out of the leg, but the fucked up thing was that there was a little kid in the room watching the video with us, like a toddler in the front row who had a much clearer view of the video than I did, watching the video of brutal road accidents, the father who was sitting beside him had to cover the kid's face the entire time the video was playing, it was fucking hilarious because when the BBDC staff realize a kid was in the room with us, they got a bit shocked as well, but the Dad just settled with closing his kid's entire face with his hands.

After that, we were send back to the second level to get our temporary license where I had to wait 90 fucking minutes for my turn to be called, it's ridiculous, and it's not even a weekend. I waited there for 90 minutes for my turn. 10 minutes in I decided to just go to the canteen to grab a drink for like 10 minutes, but got scared I might miss my turn and went right back up after I was done consuming my packet of Vitasoy.




So I spend about an hour on the second floor after my Vitasoy just waiting for my turn. But waiting an hour is better than waiting another 2 months to retake my TP test, so I just kept thinking that and it made the wait more bearable.



I managed to get my temporary license at around 2.45pm and that was it, I've finally done it, after 2 years of heavy procrastination, I've finally gotten my driving license, I can now use my parents car to drive to where ever the fuck I want without having to wait 20 minutes for the bus in the sweltering afternoon heat and I MIGHT be able to use the car during my reservist because travelling from Changi to Bukit Timah by public transport is not a joke.




I realize in the past few weeks I actually have a body odor issue because my back wouldn't stop sweating, whenever I get up from the bus seat, I would get a whiff of this horrible smell and every time I thought it was from the Uncle in front of me or the student seated behind me, and I will start judging them, turns out I was the source of that foul smell because after the hundredth time smelling that same smell every time you got up, you start to connect the dots. So now I always feel very self conscious after I have waited 10 minutes under the sweltering heat for the bus to arrive, get on the bus and sit in the empty sit in front of someone, because when my body has cooled down and all the back sweat has dried up, the pungent smell will start to permeate the air and drill it's way into the nostrils of the innocent souls seated around me, and the person behind me will bear the full grunt of it.




Anyways, I definitely couldn't have pass my TP on my first attempt had my instructors not been so anal about perfection and had the tester hadn't been so lenient, I was very lucky. What a huge load off my shoulders and now all that's left is to see whether or not I get accepted by SIM, and if that isn't successful, its my career I have to worry about.

Updates on Driving.

Went for my final driving practical revision today, the next time I go back to BBDC, it will be to take my Traffic Police Test.




Since my final practical evaluation, I've gone for 5 revisions in preparation for the upcoming test, thinking that would be sufficient, instead of going just once a week, I went to book 2 lessons every week, I thought the more I go, the better I will be at driving. Turns out that was not true in my case.




After passing my practical evaluation, I went for my very first revision 2 days later and by the end of that revision lesson, the main thing I took away from that lesson was that me passing the evaluation was a complete fluke,  the instructor who was assigned to me for my driving revision lesson actually told me that had he been the one who was evaluating me, I would have failed. Just what I needed, negative comments, and it wasn't just at the end of the lesson, through out the entire revision class I would get comments from him about how sub par my driving was, but I can't blame him, even I thought my driving was shit and couldn't believe I actually passed my evaluation on the first try, that first revision lesson was really meant to be a fall back, should I have failed my evaluation the first time, which I really thought I would have, I would be able to go for a second one 2 days later, because if I didn't manage to attain a pass for my evaluation that week, the system will automatically cancel my booked Traffic Police Test slot and I will have to wait another 2 months before I can actually go for the test.




During my second revision, the instructor that was assigned to me was this particular instructor I didn't really like because he was really stern and he had this resting bitch face which made me not want to ask him any questions I had that needed answering. But I really needed him that day because the previous instructor said I asked too much questions during my lessons with him which gave him the impression that I was a nervous wreck, which in my defense isn't completely true, I was just asking questions to try and keep a conversation going when the silence in the car was getting dragged on a little too long.




So it was a good thing I got the resting bitch face instructor for my second revision, he wasn't my favorite but he was necessary because I don't feel obligated to start any conversations with him during lessons as compared to my other instructors. The whole lesson was actually not unpleasant, he wasn't as fierce as the last time few times I got him, which was a lot, probably because I am now a slightly decent driver and am not endangering our lives. Once in a while he will give me advice, albeit with a very annoyed tone, but overall that lesson actually went pretty smoothly and when he's my instructor, I tend to remember the lesson a lot better because every time I screw up, I get scolded by him, as such, every time I am about to commit a similar mistake many lessons later, I will have that unpleasant exchange pop up in my head and remind me how big of a fuck up I was that many lessons ago when he was teaching me.





My third revision instructor was a pleasant guy, he taught me once many weeks ago and I was surprised he remembered my face, I always thought after the lesson is over, the instructor will just forget about you and that thought has always tempted me to want to test drive my Mum's car around the neighborhood just for fun, or to take over the steering wheel when my Mum offers to pick me up from the office to send me home because should I run into an instructor on the road, they probably won't recognize me, especially because I only go for lessons once a week, luckily I was able to resist that temptation because apparently, the instructors do remember faces.




So the third instructor was very patient and pleasant, although he did went for like a 5 minute toilet break in the middle of the lesson which I did not appreciate. That toilet break of his cost me roughly $3.50, it was then did I remember him pulling the same stunt the last time he taught me, he went for a toilet break as well the last time. At the end of the lesson, he passed me a test paper to show me how well I fared, not surprisingly, I failed miserably.



What the instructor always tells me about going for my Practical Test is to never score any points for my Circuit, I should have a perfect score for my circuit test and all the points that could be deducted should be deducted on the test route because the public road is more prone is unforeseen circumstances like roadworks, or a fucking kid or old lady running across the road the last minute, or some inconsiderate experience driver not wanting to give way to let you lane change because they get turned on from being a complete asshole and are begging to be sodomized every time they honk their car horn at you, I've never met those who actually honk at learner drivers but I'm sure those sacks of shit exist somewhere.




Fourth lesson was pretty enjoyable, the instructor I got was very friendly and chatty and he remembers me because I wrote in a feedback to the school complimenting him, he was the one who passed my practical evaluation. Every time he teaches me, it ends up being quite enjoyable because he's quite a chatty instructor, he will ask me about my life and talk a bit about his, once in a while he will make some horrible joke about other the other leaner driver's cock up, which although was really mean, made the lesson really enjoyable. Apparently I thrive on meanness, if it's not directed at me.


He took an effort to write down all the mistakes I made, which was about 3 papers long and gave those to me to bring home and read through, so that lesson went well and that put me in a good mood when the lesson ended.







My final lesson, which was today, was nerve wrecking, I was so worried about the instructor I was going to assigned to, I wouldn't mind getting the resting bitch face one but I would very much prefer this particular instructor I got a few weeks back who was very friendly, chatty and very patient, in fact, whenever I am being taught by him, I always end up making a lot of mistakes because I would get so distracted from chatting with him. If I were to be honest, he's probably the least effective instructor I have come across, not because he's bad, but because I am never able to absorb anything he's teaching me, sure maybe for like the duration of the lesson I will be able to remember, but after that, all I remember is we had a good time chatting and that's it, everything else about the lesson on the other hand just gets forgotten, the last time he taught me, the same thing happened, I forgot everything and when I got back the following week and was assigned to the resting bitch face instructor, I ended up getting scolded because I forgot what I had to do at the slope course in the circuit.




So today, I was assigned to that very instructor I was hoping to get, and I was very happy because that meant  the lesson would be very pleasant, albeit one that will probably be filled with careless mistakes.

It wasn't.

When he realized my traffic police test was on Monday, he suddenly had a change of attitude and became this stern and unfriendly guy who would raise his voice when I made a mistake. I remember when I was doing my S-Course, as I drove into the course, he just sighs, opens his side of the car door, gives me this "What the fuck are you doing" face and just looks at the kerb I was about to hit. It was scary because he was always so nice and all of a sudden, he became as stern as the resting bitch face instructor.



He wasn't like in anal mode the whole 100 minutes, sometimes he would be friendly, but then there will be times he will be in "Fuck You" mode. There was this one time I looked at him after he had raised his voice at me to acknowledge his feedback and he just smiled back at me... it was so fucking weird.



When he brought me out to the test routes, it was a quiet drive, I just didn't feel like starting any conversations with him after how things went down in the circuit, normally I would when I was with him, but today, I just really didn't want to anger the beast by asking stupid questions that a driver like me who has gone through all the practical lesson should know.


Needless to say, today's lesson was a fucking disaster, I was so frustrated through out the whole 100 minutes because of all the mistakes I made, and to have them be pointed out by that instructor and be scolded by him just made it so much worst. When the lesson ended, the instrucotor asked me..

"So how ? Are you confident about passing your Traffic Police Test?"

After the way he berated me, fuck no, but obviously I didn't reply Fuck No, instead I just pretended that was a rhetorical question and just told him the stations I didn't have much confidence in and the problems I had with them, which really made me even more confused because the problems I had weren't directly related to the solutions he was telling me.


I went home feeling very demoralized about the upcoming test on Monday. If anything was to be taken away from today's lesson, it's that I'm going to fail my test on Monday.




The last few days, I always had like a small inkling of hope that I might pass my test on Monday, but after today's lesson, that hope has been extinguished. It's like the instructor took that last inkling of hope I had and just crashed when he said to me right after the lesson started...

'EH, YOU TAKING TEST ON MONDAY STILL THIS STANDARD AH?"

I'm fucked.



If I don't pass this Monday's test, I'm going to have to wait until maybe the earliest July and by that time, if I get into Uni, I won't have time to go for lessons and book the best time slot for the Traffic Police Test.



If I fail Monday's test, I'm afraid I'm going to just fuck all and not be bothered about getting a license anymore. This lesson today is already so fucking demoralizing, I can't imagine what would happen when I get told by my tester officially that I have failed my practical on Monday. It would be a huge weight off my should because the nervousness of waiting for the test is killing me, but at the same time, that's 200 bucks gone just like that and I've been pouring a shit load of money into the school, if I fail and have to retake, I will probably hit the $3000 mark just to get my fucking license.

Cake Post

I decided to bake some carrot cake cupcakes yesterday, it was meant to be baked the day before out of sheer boredom from doing absolutely nothing at home, but I was out of cinnamon powder, so I had to postpone the baking to yesterday after I was able to obtain a few scoops of the orange spice from my Aunt.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes.

And it was a good thing I did, omitting the cinnamon powder in the recipe would have been catastrophic and the amazing recipe I found would have probably just went into the shit bin in my head, where all the other horrible and useless recipes I found online resides. This cupcakes were amazing, I could taste the cinnamon in every bite, very subtle but very necessary. 

I never was a fan of the carrot cake in the past because all the ones I had were always the really dense and hard variation, filled with raisins and walnuts and then covered with a tad too much cream cheese frosting, which were always never sweet enough for me, the kind you are able to get from places like coffee shops like Coffee Bean or Starbucks, places that sells cakes but they just aren't very good.

And then I had the mini carrot cake loaf from my old bakery and they were amazing, soft and moist on the inside, always warm when I had them because there were freshly baked out of the oven and I never had the cream cheese squirted on them because most of the time, the ones I had were from the reject pile that either had too little batter and were way too low to sell or had too much batter it started to overflow out of it's case during the baking process, sometimes my friend would be really nice and just leave one or two aside for me so I could bring them home to consume. 

The other carrot cake I had that I really enjoyed was the one from Plain Vanilla Bakery. Also like the one from my old bakery, soft and moist, but this time frosted with their always amazing butter cream. I actually felt joy when I started eating the cupcake, like this sense of euphoria starting rushing through me, it was really weird, but as long as it's not an erection, that's fine.

So when my carrot cupcakes came out from the oven, I decided to break open a piece to see how it looked like on the inside, did it rise properly, is it soft, does it taste good, because I've got to be honest, I wasn't really expecting much from the recipe, because all the other recipes I have tried from this particular Youtuber has been really disappointing, but this recipe actually worked, and it exceeded my expectations.

When I ate the cupcake on it's own, it really reminded me of the one I had from Plain Vanilla, and initially I was contemplating which buttercream to make, should I stick with the Swiss Meringue Buttercream or American Buttercream.... make the latter and have a dozen (minus one I broke apart to taste test) cupcakes that were on par with the one from Plain Vanilla Bakery, the choice here was pretty obvious.

I made some cakes a few weeks back, not regular cupcakes but whole cakes and I used Swiss Meringue Buttercream for both of them, and the main reason I made SMBC was so my parents could enjoy them, they aren't fans of the super sweet American Buttercream so I had to compromise because I'm not a huge fan of SMBC for it's lack of sweetness and it's inability to crust.

Milo Dinosaur

It's a Milo sponge with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream, and Milo Dinosaur because I sprinkled a lot of Milo powder in between the layers, it was like an overload of Milo powder.

My Dad ate a small slice of it and said it was too sweet, my Mum said she wanted to try but never did, my siblings didn't even touch it, I had no choice but to try and finish the entire cake, but I could only eat half of it before it started drying out in the fridge.

A few days later I decided to bake again, this time a Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake.

Salted Caramel Chocolate

Once again, using Swiss Merignue buttercream because I thought my parents would maybe want to have a slice of it.


In between each sponge layer is Caramel Buttercream and a generous spread of homemade caramel sauce, sounds really good, looks really good and it got me 32 likes on Instagram, the most amount of likes I have ever gotten on my Instagram account.


No one in my family ate the cake, not one person, I was the only one who ate the cake and like the Milo cake, I had no choice but to throw it away after it started to dry out in the fridge, I managed to consume like 80% of the cake.


The main reason why I didn't eat the entire cake was because I just didn't like the SMBC, it wasn't sweet enough for me, which in the end just tasted like slightly sweetened whipped up butter, and it left this really greasy feel in my mouth after every bite.



So for the carrot cake, I decided to just go for the buttercream I would actually enjoy, and that was the American Buttercream, just butter with a lot of icing sugar and like a little bit of cream cheese for authenticity, I couldn't even taste the cream cheese but because there's actually cream cheese inside the recipe, it's technically a cream cheese frosting.


I just didn't see the point in compromising the sweetness level of the buttercream if the people I am compromising the sweetness level for isn't even going to eat the cake.

Awesome Cream Cheese Buttercream

And I went ahead and made a Vanilla Cream Cheese (American) Buttercream, and it was so good, tasted like the one I had from Plain Vanilla, and because the frosting will crust, I didn't have to put it in the fridge, which allowed the cakes to remain soft and moist, it was awesome.



I've already eaten probably like 6 of it, and it's not to quickly get rid of  them "before they all dry out in the fridge" like all my other cakes, I'm eating it because it's actually really good.



From now on, whenever I am baking at home, I'm just going to stick to American Buttercream because that's how I like the frosting on my cakes, super sweet and soft, albeit a little grainy, but that's better than taking it out from the fridge, cold, hard and really just not sweet enough for this cavity laden individual.

Updates on life

Update on life so far....



Driving.



I have finally reached stage 3 of my driving lessons, the stage I have officially deemed to be the most horrible stage.



Stage 1 and 2, the lessons are pretty straightforward, start the car, go a few rounds around the circuit and off to the main road, and depending on my instructor will either be a fun chatty session or one that's silent and uncomfortable with some reprimanding thrown in.



Stage 3 on the other hand requires me to actually learn how to reverse a car, how to go through very sharp bends and S bends and also how to park a car, which I have yet to fully experience.



I've also been getting a string of really unfriendly instructors lately so that kind of contributed to why I'm having difficulty finding joy in the lessons anymore.




Movies I watched.


Went to watch 2 movies in the past 2 weeks with my friend, the first one was Kingsman The Secret Service.

You'd think they would at least put Taron Egerton's name on the poster considering he's playing the main character. But look, it's Alfred from Batman.

It's directed by the same guy who directed X-Men First Class, the last movie I watched before I enlisted into the army and a movie I thoroughly enjoyed, mainly because of Emma Frost even though the actress who portrayed her made her character feel a little stiff compared to the comic counterpart, but seeing a female shaped diamond is quite a sight to behold compared to that disgusting looking one in X Men Origins which just triggered my trypophobia.... seeing a picture of it now actually makes my insides feel extremely uncomfortable.



Kingsman was a great film, the story line was great, the acting was great, everything felt very posh thanks to the British accent and the suits, but mainly it's the British accent. This is the kind of movie I watch and still think about when I leave the theater, which means it's really good, which also means I will probably watch it again when it's available, through other means.




Today, I watched Ah Boys to Men 3 with the same friend. (because I really don't have a lot who ask me out)

Ah Boys to Men 3 : Frogman

After watching Kingsman last week, the benchmark I had for movies was set really high and sadly, ABTM3 did not hit that benchmark, nor did it go anywhere near it.




The whole show is very predictable filled with a lot of lowbrow humor that send the entire audience laughing (really?) and the thing that really turned me off the most was how painfully obvious the product placements were in the movie.




Normally in movies, when they are doing product placement, it's all very subtle, for example, if the movie was doing a product placement for a mobile phone, simply showing the brand name by having the character use the particular Nokia mobile phone to contact her parents that there was a killer in the house would be enough, but in ABTM3, their level of product placement subtlety is equivalent having the character say something like...



"Well I better take out my latest Nokia Lumia phone to call my parents to warn them about the possible dangers they might face should they get home, with lighting speed connectivity, I will be sure to get through to them in no time."


....or maybe a particular brand of sports drink, simply showing the characters drinking a bottle of it would suffice, but with ABTM3, there's nothing subtle about their product placement for the facial cleanser they were plugging, even Youtubers do a better job at plugging a endorsed product without making it sound too much like an advertisment than ABTM did.





There's this scene that was probably 2 minutes long, showing this one character taking out the facial cleanser, sharing the benefits of it with his section mates, followed by him showing them how to apply it, literally step by step...



"First we pump, then put apply on our face, after that we take  a bit of water and wash our face with it, see, now the cleanser is all foamy, and then we clean it off, now I am so handsome, here, let's all use some" *proceeds to pump the product generously into his co-stars hands*




It was so ridiculous I actually turned to my friend and went "What the fuck?", he didn't really respond though, I guess I was the only one who was taken aback by the lack of subtlety in the plugging of the product.




The whole movie was only mildly entertaining because of how predictable the plot was made less enjoyable by the fact that my bladder was bursting not even halfway through the movie. Had I watched the movie before Kingsman, I might not have been so harshed on it, but sadly, it really is  a forgettable movie.



This shows that the difference between a mainstream local production and a Hollywood movie production is gargantuan because sadly, all the good local ones that have won awards overseas are the less popular movies majority of the Singaporean population have no interest in.





After the movie




I went to have Milk Cow at Cathay, that was my main goal of the day.


So much better than Llao Llao, and with a queue that's much shorter, I'm bias against Llao Llao because I hate frozen yoghurt.



I was expecting the ice cream to taste similar to a McDonald softee, but it didn't taste anything like that, the ice cream itself is milk flavoured so it wasn't very sweet but it was really creamy, I got the one that's drizzled with a chocolate hazelnut sauce called Gianduja which I initially thought was Guanaja from Valrhona, at the bottom of the cup of ice cream were a small handful of Milo Nuggets which added a nice crunch, but I would have preferred to have it maybe at the top so I can actually have with my the ice cream rather than only a few pieces of it with the ice cream and the remaining bulk of it drowning in the melted ice cream.



My friend got the honeycomb one, which was also quite nice and because the ice cream itself wasn't very sweet, the honey wasn't an overkill. I did not however had a piece of his honeycomb so no comment on that, but I'm sure my teeth wouldn't approve, would probably get stuck somewhere and I would probably be spending half the day trying to dig it out with my tongue.




Next one I really want to try is Honey Creme because they are a lot more generous with their ice cream, but sadly, the shop is located in Somerset 313 and I rarely visit that place, mainly because I really don't like visiting the Somerset area due to the constant crowds, here's hoping they open another store in the west next time.






New Mouse.


2 days ago, my Razer Abyssus died on me, or more specifically, the left mouse button died on me. It has served me well for the last 4 years, that was $60 well spend on a good mouse.


So I got myself a new non-gaming mouse which was almost as expensive as my previous mouse called the Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Mouse, which I thought looked really nice...

The right one... because I got the right one! Geddit?

My friend didn't think so and just said "disgusting" or something similar when I pointed out the mouse I wanted to get to him, which is always a great response to hear from someone about something you are interested in, he kept insisting I get a Razer, reason being that I played games quite regularly, which is true, but I wasn't really up for the idea of spending a hundred dollars on a mouse, plus I haven't really been playing any MMOs lately, so the need to get the Razer, more specifically the Naga, wasn't there. 

Had I followed his advice, I am sure to be hit with buyer's remorse the next day because he was asking me to get all the expensive mouses I could afford but didn't want to. It's like the keitai I bought, instantly hit with buyer's remorse the week after realizing I payed $700 for an android lag fest.

As of now, I'm really liking my new moue, it looks good and it feels good, plus it's wireless so that's another plus point. But the mouse has been disconnecting a few times, so that's getting a bit irritating.

SIMGe

I have also finally submitted my University Application.

Had to head down to the school admission office to do it, I'm really questioning whether applying for that course is the right decision though, or to be exact, whether applying to that school is the right choice. 

Change of Plans

Met up with 3 of my bakery colleagues today for some catching up over dinner.



The plan was to do a bit of cafe hopping, and we had decided prior that we would do that in Holland Village, our main goal was to drop by Sunday Folks to have ice cream and waffles, because Sunday Folks is pretty hipster in my opinion, and we will worry about what we would have for dinner when we were actually there, I mean it's Holland Village, there are probably a shit load of other cafes there that serves savory food. Unfortunately, not everyone was up for that idea because distance was an issue for one of the girls, which I shall call Sandy. In the end, we settled for Raffles City, as suggested by my male ex-colleague, which I shall refer to as MeC.




When MeC suggested Raffles City in the Whatsapp group chat, everyone agreed, I wasn't really up for the idea but since Sandy wasn't so keen on travelling all the way from Tampinese to Holland Village, I begrudgingly agreed and started doing some research online to look for any possible cafes around the area we could visit. Raffles City is the probably one of the last place to find a hipster cafe, so I had a bit of trouble looking for decent cafes that were considered "hipster" and most importantly, worth the trouble to visit, but before I could offer up any relevant suggestion,  MeC goes....

'Let's go eat ramen!"

The plan I discussed with my other friend, let's call her Rei, before we invited MeC and Sandy to the meet up was originally to continue our cafe hopping adventures we (Sandy, Rei, me and another colleague) did a few months back when we visited Wheeler's Yard, so this meet up was sort of a continuation of our cafe hopping from that time, when I say cafe hopping, I mean visiting a cafe, having cafe-ish food like truffle fries , sandwiches, eggs benedict or whatever hipster cafes serve up these days as main course meals, not go to some generic ramen shop to eat ramen, so I asked MeC in the chat...

"Haha , are you craving for ramen ?"

What I really meant was...

"Really? Do you really have to eat ramen, like do you REALLY have to eat ramen?"

We wanted to meet up to visit a cafe to eat cafe food and drink coffee, not go to some Japanese restaurant to eat ramen, that's like saying....

Oh, since we can't go for our yearly Ski Trip (the main point is to go skiing) in Melbourne due to the recent tear in the ozone layer in Australia, let's scratch skiing altogether and just have a nice get together at Changi Chalet for 2 nights where we can have a 48 hours BBQ marathon!"

And he replies...

"Not really, I'm fine with anything, but ramen would be best."

So that means you really want to have ramen, alright, since no one had any suggestions or objections, and I wasn't able to find any cafes around the area, we all agreed to having generic fucking ramen, also since we hadn't seen each other in a long time, I didn't want to say "No, I don't want to eating generic fucking ramen!", so we all let him satisfy his cravings, even if it means completely changing our original outing plan, but I wanted to at least visit a cafe, so I went...

"After dinner,we can drop by Lady M for cakes and coffee.?"

Not hipster, but they serve really great cakes, and I really wanted to at least visit a cafe, and his reply was....

"Wah! Why not Llao Llao?"

and I went....

"Ugh, I hate llao llao"... because I really don't like Llao Llao

And he goes...

"Lady M a bit too atas (high class) for me, maybe we can go Tiong Bahru Bakery for coffee and croissant since it's at Raffles Place. We can also discuss ideas about my wedding cake!"

Lady M is located in Marina Square, that's the same place where the nearest Llao Llao is located. You want ramen, we let you eat ramen, but when I suggest to have cakes and coffee at Lady M, he comes up with all sorts of excuses to not have cake at Lady M, saying it's too atas for him is so stupid and invalid, there's no dress code should you choose to dine at Lady M, whether you are wearing a tuxedo or shorts and slippers, the service is still going to suck, because it's Lady M.

Talked a bit more on the chat afterwards, shared some ideas about what he could do with his wedding cakes in terms of decoration.  He really liked my ideas and said we will discuss them again during our meeting after dinner at the cafe, also said he will print out the sketches yada yada yada.

So we met up at Raffles City today, the 2 girls met up with MeC at his workplace first and I went straight to Raffles City from my workplace, I waited for a total of 30 minutes for them before they finally arrived.  Before we headed to the ramen restaurant, Rei and Sandy had to go to Guardian or something to get some girls stuff, so I got stuck with MeC, and he had to go to a pharmacy at Watsons to get some medication. I thought, since we hadn't seen each other in such a long time, there will probably be a lot to catch up on if I went with him alone.

But I really wasn't interested in being alone with him, the girls had already left and they were getting girl stuff, the last thing they needed was a guy following them into the pad section to discuss which pad had better support and absorption, so I had no choice but to follow MeC, he on the other hand was more interested in getting to the pharmacy than catching up with me, so he started trotting away to the pharmacy, weaving in and out of the human traffic, and left me lagging behind. 

When I finally caught up with him, he was already queuing up at the pharmacy, I asked him what medicine he was getting, in an attempt to start a conversation... he mumbled something I couldn't understand and the moment it was his turn, he went straight to the pharmacist without completing his sentence and started getting free consultation, not that it made any difference whether he completes his sentence or not because I didn't know what the hell he was mumbling on about.



It was only when he was at the pharmacist did I realize he was getting medication for a simple sore throat. He got his medication and went straight to the counter to pay for his item. I stood with him for about 20 seconds, we spoke a bit for only the first 5 seconds or so, if that's even considered speaking, and when I started to feel the awkward silence slowing creeping up on us, I went over to the facial cleanser area to look at facial cleansers, because starting at bottles of facial cleansers is better than awkwardly standing next to him.



I was at the facial cleanser section for probably a good 5 minutes, and usually if I am making someone wait this long for me, I will at least try to start a conversation with that person or ask that person to go to elsewhere first, not stand around and have them wait for me indefinitely, but that apparently didn't bother him because when he was done paying for his medicine, he walks up to me and says....

"I need to get hair wax.Where is the hair wax? Need to get wax?"

So I point out the wax section to him, I knew where it was because the hair wax section was near the facial cleanser, and how would I know that, because I've been standing there for 5 bloody minutes waiting for him. He grabs the hair wax and rejoins the queue again, this time another 5 minutes... when he was FINALLY done, he heads out without letting me know, it was only when he was outside Watsons did he start looking around, as if suddenly remembering he had just left someone behind, someone who had been waiting 10 minutes for him to get his stuff, TWICE.  I went up to him and told him that took a while (like a fucking long time) and he goes....

"Yeah, *mumble* *mumble*....I go toilet."

I had already waited 10 minutes for him, I was not interested in waiting anymore, so I asked him where the restaurant was, I will head there first since the girls were already waiting there, twice, he mumbles something back to me about the restaurant not being on the level we were at and before I could ask him for the specific location, he bolts right to the nearby toilet and left me on my own outside, waiting for him AGAIN. What the fuck? He treats me like I am there just for the sole purpose of waiting for him.

His personality really reminded me of this bloke I was stuck with during my 5 days OBS camp who was very self centered and wouldn't stop talking about himself, every single time without fail, like I'm his fucking psychiatrist.



When I try to talk to him about other stuff that doesn't circle around him, he will get bored, change the topic and start talking about himself again. ON AND ON AND ON~ and no matter how much I try to distance myself away from him, he's like fucking Pikachu, he's keeps following me.

Pestkachu

I am not Ash, I really want him to GTFO and quit sticking around me, it was so frustrating because as if feeling very homesick wasn't bad enough, I get stuck with a fucking moron like him, which made everything so much worst, and for the first 3 days I really hated OBS. It wasn't until the 4th day did I finally get a chance to pair up with my very good friend who was in another group for our kayaking, and that was when I finally started to enjoy the whole experience. I guess they aren't exactly the same, MeC and this Bloke from OBS, the latter is definitely a lot worst, like Worst Buddy of the Millennium Award would go to him, but there's definitely some similarities in the way they are able to tune out and ignore what other people are saying to them.

I digress, so when MeC came out of the toilet, he signals to me and we head for the escalator, he made no attempts at trying to start a conversation with me during our the escalator ride and instead, takes out his phone and starts checking his messages. It was only when we were about to reach the restaurant did he start trying to ask me how I was doing, so I replied and asked him how work was, unsurprisingly that conversation didn't last long,thankfully the restaurant was nearby and we were reunited with the 2 girls.

Rei was a lot more interested in starting a conversation with me, so within a minute, we were catching up with each other about what we've been doing etc. I spend a good 10 to 15 minutes with MeC and we only spoke less than a minute, that's how "close" we are.

Halfway through our ordering, MeC decides to invite another one of his colleague over , an ex-colleague of Rei and I, because that person happened to be working nearby, I shall refer to her as S, so S came over and she was very friendly. We had our dinner, talked a bit more and headed out.

After dinner, we discussed about where to go next and I suggested Lady M, everyone was feeling full, so I thought we could walk if off by heading to Marina Square, which really isn't that far away, but MeC wasn't interested in walking "so far", and Sandy wanted to go home, so he suggested we go to St Marcs instead because it was close by, we can have our dessert there and split the bill for the ramen meal we just had as we enjoy our ice cream and coffee.




Walked to St Marcs and lo and behold, the place is packed to the brim, we all stood outside hoping to find an empty space for the 5 of us, and when none could be found, EmC goes...

"Let's go back to S workplace and we can sort out our dinner payment there."... because Sandy had paid by credit card earlier.

And that was it... dessert got cancelled, just like that,I had thought the point of going to the cafe, apart from having desserts and coffee, was to discuss his wedding cake ideas, but that was not the case because when we settled our bills, no one was interested in dessert anymore... and MeC was no longer interested in talking about his wedding cake.




We hardly discussed about his wedding cake, a topic he suggested that we gather at a cafe to talk about in the Whatsapp chat, and when Rei brought it up during dinner as a conversation topic, he talks about it for less than 5 minutes and that was it, discussion over, no need to try and drag out the conversation, just let it end there and have us embrace the long and awkward silence together that was only killed when S came along. He was the on who wanted to discuss the wedding cake, but he never brought it up, he was the one who said he will print out the sketch so we could discuss about the design further, the sketch was never seen, probably didn't even print it at all, all the rough ideas I discussed with him in the chat, he never ask me to elaborate further. If you are not interested in talking about it, why bring it up as a possible conversation topic in the chat in the first place?

I understand Sandy wanted to go home, so I thought Rei, MeC and I could have dessert and do some proper catching up, but after seeing how pack St Marcs was, he wasn't interested anymore and because Rei was a bit full, she just went with the majority and all 3 of them decided to go home and S went back to work.




In the end, we parted ways, my stomach still feeling a bit empty because I had skipped lunch thinking I had to save space for the dessert, it was quite disappointing, I enjoyed catching up with Rei but honestly, I think the meet up would have gone a lot better had I not suggested for Rei to invite MeC, would've probably been able to eat more interesting food.




I don't dislike MeC, I mean he was quite pleasant to  work with, but if given a choice, I would choose not to hang out with him outside of work because hanging out with him brings me no joy, that's why when he invited me to his wedding, (I'm assuming he just mass invited everyone he knew personally on facebook) I didn't bother to reply, because we are not close, I'm not willing to travel 3 hours into Malaysia to attend the wedding of someone I merely view as a work colleague.

A reprimanding lesson

Blogging in the office, if I was working for someone else, no doubt I would be getting fired.



I managed to pass my Final Theory Test last week on my first try and I was very impress with myself, it took me 2 tries to pass my Basic Theory, so I thought my Final Theory would probably take more than 2 tries because it's supposedly more difficult.




I guess it was sheer luck that I managed to pass, just like how I managed to snag a B3 for my Chinese O Level, that for sure is a fluke because my Chinese is horrible and I managed to score higher for my Chinese than I did for my English, makes absolutely no sense at all.




Anyways, I went for my Driving Practical Lesson yesterday and I guess my all my driving school luck was used up during my FTT because I got assigned a new and very unfriendly driving instructor.





The first thing he said to me was...

"WHAT?"

...when I was walking towards him to let him know I was his assigned student that day. Extremely rude but I didn't want to reply in kind , so I just told him nicely that I was his student that day, gave him my identification and showed him the necessary documents that I was his student that day, maybe dial down on the rudeness a bit because I am not an insurance agent on the street who's trying to hard sell insurance plans to you.




We both headed into the car and the first thing I did was try to start the engine, so I turned the ignition key really hard, but instead of hearing the "vroom" sound a car makes, I hear the instructor yelling at me...

"OI! OI! THE CAR STARTED ALREADY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? CAN YOU SEE THE DASHBOARD, THE CAR IS IN PARK!"

I admit, that was my fault. He then went on a rant about how I was damaging the car engine and what not, kept scolding me and throwing out rhetorical questions like..

"If the car spoils how? If spoil how? You know doing that will spoil the car engine."

I knew it was my fault so I just sat there and let him rain his scoldings on me as I kept apologizing, hoping that will make him stop. He did stop eventually and we drove around the circuit a few times, at this point, my mood was already ruined and I was feeling very very flustered and nervous because of his scoldings, so I just sat quietly in the car while he was at the passenger seat, probably quietly judging my abilities as a driver and also maybe worried about a potential accident that I might cause that would cost him his life.



When we finally drove out, he managed to calm down a bit and started talking to me a with a much more civil tone, telling me the amount of points I would have lost had this been a Traffic Police Test, and everything was fine and well for like 5 minutes, because 5 minutes later I had to do a jam brake on the car to stop myself from running an amber light. The look on his face when he realized what had happen was like the ultimate look of "I've had enough of this crap"

He then went on a rant about the dangers I have placed myself and on the other road users, blah blah blah, I apologized and he stayed angry for a while and at this point, I just found the whole situation hilarious because it's as if every time after he has calmed down a bit, I somehow manage to find a way to make a mistake to get him riled up again. the mistakes weren't as bad as the jam brake and "almost destroying the car engine" at the beginning of the lesson bad, just small things like not checking my blind spot or not signalling before turning. mistakes experience drivers always commit.




He was especially annoyed when I took my time to make a U-Turn at a busy road, this was my first lesson during peak hour, so I was very new to the heavy traffic environment. Every time he saw an opening for me to drive out, he goes....

"Okay, after the white van you think can?"

...and I would take a while to answer and by the time I did, he goes...

"Missed it, now need to wait again.... okay after the red car you think can?"

... and once again, I would take a while to access the situation....

"Miss again"

... and he just slumps back into his seat. I was at the U-Turn area for a very long time, I actually started to feel really bad for hogging because the cars behind me were starting to pile up, but thankfully, maybe because of a traffic lights, the roads managed to stay completely clear and I was able to make a proper U-Turn, the instructor wasn't happy with my progress so we repeated it a few times, it wasn't fun. The clock on the dashboard was set at a wrong time so I couldn't tell if the lesson was ending soon or not, which made it even worse.




I had a lot of problems as it turns out, never check blind spot, lane change was too abrupt, road hogging due to slow lane change among other life endangering problems. When the lesson finally ended, I was ecstatic, even though this instructor managed to pin point a lot of the problems I had with my driving, I really don't care much for his attitude, the reason why I think I was able to find his outburst funny was because I was in a good mood that day  for managing to pass my FTT the week before. Had I been in a foul mood that day things would have gone very differently, I might just stop the lesson midway and ask him to drop me off at my house because I've had enough of his bullshit attitude.



I don't work well under pressure, as evident from me almost running the amber light, I've never made that mistake before. The other instructor that I complained about, despite having an attitude, he never really scolded me, probably because I gave him a look when he tried to, but this one was constantly picking out my mistakes and reprimanding me for it, which made me very flustered and when I am flustered, I can't focus.




Now I just hope for my next lesson, a friendly instructor.




I tried to look up the instructor's number on the BBDC website, but for some odd reason, he's not listed as one of the instructors, that and also the fact that his number has 5 digits, as opposed to the 4 digits all the other instructions have. Those with 5 digits are normally reserves, but even so, they still appear in the list, so I must have been one lucky bastard to get him that day.

ICT First Cycle

Went back to Changi Airbase for the whole of last week for my ICT, the very first of 10 cycles to go through before I am permanently free from my national duties.

Going in, I had mixed feelings even though I was finally able to see my army friends again, the thought of having to travel all the way to Changi Airbase every day for a week pretty much ruined everything.

When I reported to camp on the first day, I thought the moment I walked into the first security checkpoint, the place I always dreaded to get assigned to for guard duty, I would get struck by a wave of nostalgia, that wave never came.




Going back to camp that day didn't feel any different from booking in when I was still a conscripted soldier assigned to that airbase to do guard duty, everything felt so routine, like that year and a half after I ORD never happened, that was until the soles of my boots started to wither away and began falling apart as I made my way through the car park area to get into the airbase did I realize that year and a half did happened and the boots I was wearing were showing signs of that. I was no longer a conscripted soldier, I was now reporting as an ICT, and as a first time ICT, I decided, against my will of course, that I would leave behind a trial of my broken soles, which were slowing breaking apart and falling off as I walked further into the camp, that walk became a limp as the soles of my boots started wearing off and become more and more uneven.



I had thought it was pure bad luck that that happened to me, but fortunately for me, I didn't have to go through that embarrassing and uncomfortable ordeal alone because two of my friends also had the same thing happen to them, their boots started breaking apart when we were all gathered in the auditorium, so it wasn't that embarrassing for them as it was for me. We all decided since wearing that broken and pathetic excuse for a pair of army boots wasn't going to work, we had to go get new ones, I mean mine was collecting twigs and small rocks on the ground due to the leftover sticky residue of what remained of my soles, a majority of it I had ripped off and thrown in the bin and theirs  just looked like clown shoes with the constant slapping action it was doing when they were walking, so we got new ones at the eMart.

We managed to spend more than half of our credits on the first day from getting army boots, and we weren't the only one, when we got back from lunch, I saw boots soles just laying around the auditorium where we were gathered earlier in the morning, there were whole soles and they were small bits and pieces of them, all just scattered across the room.





There really wasn't much going on on the first day really and I don't think I can blog about the activities that happened because they actually told us not to, the second day was also quite straightforward, the first two days were covering the basic army stuff, just some refresher courses nothing significant , we spend more time waiting for things to happen than actually have anything happen, just like the third day where we spend literally the entire first half of the day waiting for lunch time to come so we can head to the NEWater Plant in the afternoon after we had our lunch.





The third day was suppose to be IPPT day, but because no one actually bothered to train up their bodies, myself included, the commanders allowed us to give it a miss and many of us just ended up waiting in the crew room for 5 hours. 

After 5 hours of doing absolutely nothing productive in the crew room, we went to have our lunch before making our way to the car park area to wait for the bus that was indented for us to bring us to the NEWater Plant, that bus was over an hour late, so we were left waiting at the car park with absolutely no updates about the bus, a whole hour we just stood around the car park area and waited until finally the commander who was in-charge of us finally got some information from somewhere and told us the bus would arrive in 10 minutes, after almost an hour of us just standing around.




When we finally reached the NEWater Plant, which had a really really long drive way, the guide decided it would be best he did a quick tour because we were an hour late and he was suppose to be showing us the place 45 minutes ago, plus he knew we were going to be released for home straight after the tour so none of us really wanted to be there.



The whole group of us were all very disinterested during the tour, the questions the guide asked no one bothered to answer, asked if we had any questions, no one had any and the moment the tour ended, everyone just bolted out of the plant and made their way home. A few guys drove there so they were able to get out of the plant fairly quickly, but I didn't drive, my friends didn't drive and we weren't really comfortable asking people we hardly knew to drive us out of the plant, so we just walked out, and it was a really long walk out, that ended day 3.






Day 4 was pretty straightforward, a final briefing in the morning, quick lunch, another really short briefing in the afternoon and we were released. That was also the first day I booked out in my army uniform, the first few days I either booked out in my civilian outfit or took a cab home, which was cheaper than I thought, but I was too lazy to change that day so I just fuck all and went home in the army uniform, after having to take a 20 minutes ride to the nearest MRT station and another 50 minutes to get from Tampinese Station to Clementi Station, I really couldn't be bothered about how i came across, if someone wanted to STOMP me for sitting down, than so be it, they are going to get flak from Stompers in the comment section for doing that on STOMP anyways, so I just sat down during my final bus ride home. No one really cared.





Day 5 was the final day of my ICT. We were to report to Tampinese Safra for our cohesion session, I live in Bukit Timah so I didn't look forward to the cohesion, but thankfully I had a direct bus and because I was too lazy to switch to the train and then take a bus again despite it being a faster journey, I just sat in the direct bus for almost 2 hours to reach the place, I'm just grateful my motion sickness did not kick in.




The main event for the cohesion was bowling, at first I wasn't really that keen but after a few throws, it got fun, then my fingers started to hurt and it stopped being fun, after the third game, everyone's finger got sore and that was when we had enough, even up till now, my fingers are still sore and for some reason, so are my wrist, the soreness on my butt cheek was unexpected though, maybe from the long bus ride, so anyways, we just sat around until lunch was served.



After the lunch was a movie screening, they had to screen a movie to kill time because they couldn't release us too early, so while everyone was watching the movie, two of my friends and I decided to go play DOTA 2 at the LAN shop nearby, I haven't played DOTA 2 in a while, I have difficulty finding MOBAs enjoyable because I was never a good DOTA 2 player, so even though it wasn't really a great option, I decided to join them anyway since they would actually be playing by my side, they could offer me advice and instructions on what I should do.




Played a match with another bunch of ICTs, my team having 4 members and theirs having 3 because I'm the 4th member and the fourth member is a complete noob, in fact, having me play against them would be an advantage for them because they can just feed off of me.




Throughout the game, I did nothing to help my team, the whole time I was just sticking to a friend, and when I got killed, I just started walking back and forth choosing which friend to go to, and while everyone was hitting level 20-ish on their characters, I was still stuck at level 8, the highest level I reached was only 13 and that was after 45 minutes of playing, it was pathetic. I was literally spoon fed information on what to get and where to go to by my friends, despite having their strategies typed out in the team chat, they chose typing over speaking so the other team can't eavesdrop of our strategy, of course being the noob that I am, I still didn't really get it and they had look over to my screen and point at the mini map to let me know exactly where I had to go.




The only reason why I wasn't getting raged on is because my team mates are my friends, had this been an actual online match, my team mates would have ripped me to shreds on the voice and team chat.




We played for 45 minutes, made our way back to the gathering spot where the movie was being played and after that, a short debrief and everyone was released, that was the end of the ICT. It feels so weird because the 5 days felt like a really badly planned school camp (minus the sleepover), especially the last 3 days, because we had so many down times, it didn't really feel like ICT and had I actually been working in a proper company and not for my Dad, the 5 days would have felt like a much needed break, but at the end of the day, I still had to travel a lot back and forth from Bukit Timah to Changi so that kind of ruined everything.




My Mum was able to drive me 3 out of the 5 days so that was great, but going home everyday from there was a long and arduous journey. I just hope by the time I get called back again, I would have already gotten my car license because the biggest complaint I have is the distance and the IPPT but the latter was cancelled so it was alright, with a license and my parent's car, distance will no longer be an issue. I bitched and moaned about it to my friend prior to the start of my ICT, complaining mainly about the distance and travelling time, but really, looking back now, it wasn't so bad, it would've been better had more of my friends been called up, but it's better than not having any.