Had steamboat at the popular goldenmile basement restaurant, the place was still quite packed for a weekday, amazing. Anyway its time I’ve eaten there since the cavein at Nicoll highway, the place kinda stabled already, I am I won’t be amused if that place becomes the safest and strongest place in SG since the incident. Things…
On a sidenote I wouldn’t be around for the whole day tomorrow as I have camp duties. Would be back in time for vesak day in the morning. In the meantime, chill! 😉
Woke up to another lazy morning, dang bout 10am to be exact, didn’t have much time to prepare anything myself. But kinda found time to get the site up & running smoothly again. hehheh & finally, the FTP’s up & working again (yippee more uploads!)
What kinda impressive are my host’s (as in the guys who were paid to store all these stuff online) replys to “my tons of messages” sent to them regarding the damned downtime yesterday (& yea, regarding the spam issue by IDA, heh I didn’t spam them mind you 😛 ).
Mmm did find some time for fixes around the site & re-done the guestbook, more friendly & won’t gobble up the typical idiot 
. Then its off for driving at BBDC again, this time with a simlutor lesson (aka crash, bumpercar lesson) which too, also serves as an auto transmission car lesson. Furthermore I’ve got a woman instructor for my practical today , not very much a joy for her being “close to the 40s” but what kicks are actually the silm chances of having them to take you. (& a change from the all male instructor thingy), also considering the school having only 2 female instructors! After all that, 6 more lessons to go till the final driving test. hehheh
Well, its off to dinner now, heard its steamboat, wonder what mum and dad have in store now…
The site was down yesterday, (damn host) which kinda delayed the upload of the new art gallery. Anyway, its all up now with full glory, check it out!
Ok its recap time again… life at camp is starting to get rather interesting these days.. or can I say, am I making it more interesting. Here are some “gisses” for the week:
- Finished the Anime TV series Hellsing within one day.
- Allowed my troopers to blanket those birthday boys this week (it can get rather cakely messy at times, otherwise much needed entertainment)
- Army open house is up in july (I think)…. wee up on designing a shirt for the event, If I win 30000 people would be wearing it on that day, whoa!a
- Some captain called around early this week, telling me that 2 of my platoon mates & me are selected to join the national army water polo competition team with a match due in july…. ❗
Waterpolo training would be on 1-3-5 (6,7 optional) so thats mon, wed, fri, the numbers representing the days and so. The consolation is only much of our coach being from the national girl’s polo team coach so having the girls around for training can be very much of a pleaser & welcome too, with the excpetion that they are so much more conditioned then us weak pokes, argghh! losing to them! 😮
There will be 2 driving lessons tomorrow at bbdc around noon. Wandering into stage 2 already, aim to complete all theory by end of the one week block leave, next week, then book the traffic police test by mid june. *drools* targetting to get my driving license by late june, or by july.
Ok then work time, things to be done for the week:
- Complete all driving lessons, book test
- Purchase the Hellsing guns
- Buy birthday present for sis
- Finish up incomplete artpieces to be scanned
- Play more computer games
- Clean up my room
Site related matters:
- Do up & upload new art gallery & sections.
- Minor site code fixes & upgrades.
- Revive the damn guestbook
Oh a sidenote, I am quite cash strapped at the moment, partly because of the large debits these few months comprising largely from my driving fees which I have to personally fork. Feel free to support me by dropping a job or a tip, I did be glad!
Finally, I’ve managed to complete all my driving theory lessons before schedule, ahha! end of those boring sleep inducing lectures & up come more exciting practical driving.
Decided that I need to catch up on my weekend drivings I more or less managed to book a last minute afternoon driving slot after my morning swim. My driving instructor this afternoon is Md Rizal, partly because he just fresh out of reservist, hes just to though yakky, bout army & stuff. And out of that 100mins of driving I get to know that hes from artillery, a recovery driver in his unit, his experiences in exercised overseas to him getting hold of the new New-Balance shoes at the camp’s E-mart… yea that power heh? It is all but otherwise good entertainment though as the car don’t have a radio anyway, & I guess it taught me one more lesson of the day other than fast speed driving & passing obstacles- to drive with distractions! Drove up to mandai & made a u-turn before night safari. Why so far?
As explained by Rizal its a new route they have nowadays & the learner driver boundaries are very much more extended than before. Learnt a new abbreviation from him today- BMW, & come to think about it I did go to BBDC today by BMW (and that is Bus, MRT, Walk) Then there hes goes talking bout his previous students & experiences… blah blah & yea did I mention hes rather funny at times? you can see the car veering occasionally off course ‘cos of too much errmm laughter or the occupants, not to mention the all imfamous babe alert at 9/3 o’clock positions- argh distractions! (& theres goes the joke bout bbdc paying choiubus to walk around on test dates… lol).
Overall the session ended with him commending on my driving, all in hand not very bad at all as a driver at this stage1 he says. One thing he was rather impressed ( that I didn’t know) is the smoothness of my driving, esp on my gear changes up or down, as if I am *one* with the car. Really much remind me of Tak in inital-D. I dunno bout this, but hes even confident about me taking the traffic police test now on the road, with the way I drive confirm can pass one. All in hand I guess its still quite a long way to go than & I still have lessons to go- perfection thru future lessons is the way to go. In the end, it was a rather enjoyable lesson & its chao! hope to bump into you as a student again, he says.
In conclusion I guess I did make a good choice by not having a fixed driving instructor, though I ‘ve been getting a different one everytime, it opens up various challenges, viewpoints, techniques & tips instead from a single source, not to mention going easier on the pocket too!
Dinner was at east coast food center, though they had renovated the place quite sometime ago, its my first time there since they reopened. The variety of food there is very limited, though there are many stores & the ambience is actually quite good for a food hawker center (not to mention romatic at night), what they serve are mostly BBQ & fishball noodle stores, one duck rice store & no western food stores at all. dang!
Before that, didn’t go for driving at noon today as I was down with flu in the morning which I overcame by mid afternoon after resting at home. Then accompanied John as an advisor to Simlim in the late afternoon to buy his new Gaming PC parts. After some research & homework, manged to get a Pentium 4 2.8Ghz E & an Asus mobo with DDR400, AGP8x, SATA for bout $450 a steal!
Sunday’s tomorrow, time for another morning swim, & maybe some driving or so.. and yea look out for a brand new art gallery format, plus 4 new artpieces I’ve been working on would be posted soon. 🙂
Went for my so called “weekly” morning swim since a year’s time at delta swimming complex. The sports council closed the one at bukit merah since the HDB moved out last year & say the place is so quiet ever since. The swim wasn’t that bad, considering that I hadn’t swam 50m lap consceutively since I enlisted in the army, somehow I stilll managed to clock a descent 50m lap time of 1min 8 seconds. My heart rate is kinda messed up and high now, guess its time I smack my sunday weekly swims again on my calender. Overall the place is rather crowded in the morning & I can reconise some of the usual bukit merah swimming instructors & swimmers at the new location, guess I am not the only one who migrated to delta as well. The place spots many sports facilties like a gym and large soccer field which Ididn’t take notice previously. Not a bad place in all.
And mmm, its coming to the end of another sunday, mother’s day. Tonight’s family dinner was so homely & nice, maybe we shouldn’t eat out so often on special occasions & appreciate the good old homecooked food, (esp that of my mum’s, with alittle help from dad ) You are super mum!
& hey! theres new photos added in the NS section.
Whee… tomorrow’s monday, may it be another fun week to come.
Went to the dentist today morning for some regular checkup, cleaning and polishing appointment my mum booked for me mid last week. My usual dentist, Dr Sandra Lee would be posted to the clementi clinic after today, so I can say today is her last day her at the BM branch. & man was I lucky to have this appoinment smack right on this last day after like, not visiting the dentist for the last erm.. 2 years?
Dropped down to NTUC unity thereafter to purchase some flu medicine, as I had been happy quite a bad running nose the last few days. NTUC bukit merah is very much revamped now, its big enough to even compete with their liberty supermarkets featuring very large spaces, checkout counter, not to mention a huge sushi and wine cellar. Can’t expect more as they’ve more or less taken over the whole floor area of the previous tendant, Bestway… The place is big enough for trolley movement now, unlike the previous cramped layout. All the fun for future supermarket trips!
The handphone PTT accessory I’ve ordered online came yesterday in a package. It was air flown from hongkong & I am quite happy with it ATM. Still have more testing before I can actually make fair statments on the product. *thinking of writing a review on it* duh
Armour Family day is on at Sentosa today, at tanjong beach so more of less theres games, food and even a freaking foam party at night… dang. & I have a dinner appointment with my family at night… mmm not to mention forgoing another activity tonight, an invitation BBQ with my BMT friends. dang! why do they all have to come at one go? 🙁
Oh yea & not forgetting…
Mother’s day tomorrow..
How can I mistaken mother’s day being today than on next next sunday. Anyway, gave my mum her mother’s day card this morning together with some cute little red heart shaped plushie thingy with ‘I Luv mom’ sewn on it. She was rather surprised too though, till she recieved the gifts & told me: “Shaun, mother’s day is not in till next week!” & yea there I was momentarily stunned, & yea its stated next week on the calender too… too late dang! The occasion seemed so near, esp with all the greeting shops stocking up on mother’s day gifts and cards, its hard to miss the feeling, & the rush too, it just felt too close. I knew it was sunday, but a wrong sunday!
Well, I just emmm “told her” that next weekend may be quite rushing for me, esp the possiblity of staying back in camp (though the probablity is almost zero, it was just an excuse) & me going for a BBQ with my friends next saturday, may be staying over & till sunday & won’t be able to wish her mother’s day then. Though mum didn’t questioned me of my mistake, I can tell that she kinda brought the point of me telling her: “nothing beats the feeling of recieving a mother’s day gift on a nice sunday morning while having breakfast (thats what I actually did this morning). All in hand I can tell that she was rather happy with this year’s presents, & yea, she was not out to get me just for that!
whew!
Payday would be in bout 8 days time, & I guess its time it came too. Considering that I’ve spent almost $250 on driving lessons only just for a fortnight. Its freaking expensive, the worst thing is I have to pay most of the fees myself arghh! (Dad want me to go thru this myself, but how much cheaper was it last time when he took his leesons? minus inflation arghh!)
Never underestimated is the power of internet shopping, esp with me getting my hands (die money! wrong move) on a debit card with my name on it.. the feeling to impulsively spruge & spruge is great.. argh! convience argh! low rates so many things to buy! overload! anyway, got one of these for my phone today.
So much for debit, why not credit? The net is a good place to earn cash too. Been looking around e-bay.com.sg lately & found quite some nice deals there. Moreover, I have tons of old computer modems, ram, etc to sell possibly making some money too. Also if you wanna help out feel free to give the art commissions section a ring or so. 😉
Armour’s 35th aniversary was up mid last week, and yea we were involved- just a tiney weeny little bit, like making the deco around the area look nicer, thats it (and all). In return we get off since thursday (yea) with the exception of the armour route relay (ARR) at kean hong camp this morning. Ah but that was nothing we were out by 10am and off o beauty world for some lan gaming at some arcade, cum pool, cum lanshop store were we had 2 rounds of warcraft3 (cheers to janan, chonggen, john, darryl & tanyi) BF1942 was played later but I had to leave early cus of a driving lesson I’ve booked at BBDC. Caught a cab there, and yea cab drivers are very observant drivers, esp looking out for passengers. I was on the order side of the road near the shopping center where this old sharp eyed taxi came u-turning and zipping there- right in front of me. Oh well, at least I dun need to wait and I thought catching a cab in such a “oulu” part of town was hard!
Had my 3rd and 4th driving lessons thereafter & whee… finally get to go on-road. My 3rd instructor (and 3rd lesson) was a nice middle aged man. Though I was pretty biased against such instructors as in my last’s last driving lesson. This guy was relatively friendly, very coaching, correct my mistakes immediately. Changed my impression completely on old instuctors as well, grumpy old useless balast on the passenger seat. Guess I have lots to see & experience, taking different instructors everytime. He guaranteed me by the next lesson I am comfirmed to go out on public road… Guess it was so!
My 4th lesson was taken by an instructor around the mid 30s (guess I was serious bout having good driving instructors, esp overcoming generation gaps) going out on the public road is very much easier than circuit driving. Theres not too many things happening (not to mention congestion), no worries of newbies wandering or oversteering into your lane, not to mention zippy bikes here & there- dangerous! If you want to ultimate information overload & super fast changing traffic lights, BBDC is the place to go ;).
Public road driving is very relaxing, not to mention fun. I had a ball of time & was quite happy with my performance, though I can do better with clutch control while moving off, otherwise everythings very good, well, in my instructor’s view (but not for me, as I felt I can do better). Even if it is so I guess that perfection is the key to a save traffic police test pass, which I would be trying hard to achieve by this mid year.
Well, besides all that, I’ve also learnt not to book driving lessons too early in ther day were the chances of meeting grumpy instructors with the morning drag can be quite high. Other than that, I am very much up to the mercy of the system in the allocation of good instructors for me. 😛
and heh look the moblog’s up.. duh!
Dinner was at Victoria hotel, near the bras basah- bugis area, beside Apollo hotel. Theres this small chinese eatery which serves restaurant standard food at very reasonable rates, not to mention a relatively good standard and service as well.
Received an sms regarding my hereen mall points expiring end this month, with a free $10 voucher from them at stake. So what else would I do but drop by to collect the voucher and spend a saturday night at orchard. The hereen annex is still under renovation, with quite a few new stores taking shape. Good thing that many stores in there are still largely open & full of people. Action city just got downsized by half due to the renovations too, hope to see a larger collection of toys and collectables in the near future. Spent the voucher on upon redeeming it on an new ATB- The DJ in the mix dance CD at HMV. Keeping it won’t mean much as expiry is on at the 30th this month & I am booking into camp tomorrow night.
Johnson, my old BMT campmate, reminded me of a bbq which kinda slipped my mind, going on the 8th this month, gotta prep for that. Furthermore My dad’s birthday in on the 5th may, a wednesday, mmm wonder what to get for him this year. Moreover Mother’s day is around the corner too, gotta get something for mum too.
On a sidenote, I am currently working on a new art piece. *yea* Guess its time I finally get those lead grinding and liners rollin’. 😉
❗ Darn why do payday still seems so long from now?
