There's so much I have to say about the unit, but which I will not say here. There're so many things which I'd like to do, but cannot. Not enough. Year End Course is over, my first unit activity as a CI, and my eyes have been opened. So many cracks, too little foundation. I don't want us to become nothing but a shell of silverware, caught and content with past glories. The risk is high, and the problem isn't just about unit proficiency, about poor NCOs. No, I see it as far deeper than that. I fear we might be moving in the wrong direction.

We've decided that for our unit 40th anniversary observation parade, Raphael's going to be parade commander and myself the guard-of-honour contingent commander. Parade commander was supposed to be either of us, but we couldn't decide, so we did what was only right - we flipped a coin. Haha. Mr Samuel Kwek is going to be the Guest of Honour.

Went out today with Yi He and Aaron. Bought some stuff with my vouchers at Suntec, went to HMV and then took a taxi to VivoCity to take a look. It is rather big, I guess. We went over to Yishun SAFRA to play pool after that with Muthu and Hao Yuan. Pretty fun, mostly because I kept winning. For some reason however, Muthu got the better of me for one round because I kept hitting his balls into the pockets whenever I was simply trying to break and spread my own. His luck was absolutely preposterous, and I can only conclude that he was cheating, that he'd cast some voodoo at the table we were at. He didn't have the same luck when I next played him at the other table (we had 2), so that must be it.

Tomorrow's New Year's Eve already! A couple more days and it'll be school all over again. Argh. Dammit my holidays are so meagre this year.

Went with Raphael to the army market today to get our full uniform ranks, along with some other stuff. The ranks were supposed to be issued to us, but HQ hasn't even given us our CI T-shirts, and we couldn't possibly be wearing trainee ranks for the Year End Course tomorrow. It's weird enough having to wear trainee T-shirts, but bo pian lor. Raphael bought a drill cane as well. I'll stick to the ones in the NP room till I can get a good quality one. Haha.

Met Hao Bin for lunch after that, and we went to Compass Point so I could spend some of those vouchers I got for Christmas again. Bought Rainbow Six Las Vegas for my 360, but my dad's watching TV, so I can't play yet. Argh. Bought a pair of training gloves from Royal Sporting House too.

Stupid Chinese TV serials.

At the risk of sounding like a bloody ingrate, I'll type this post. Haha.

First of all, let me set the record straight: I love Christmas. The festive atmosphere, the carols, Church, everything, so pardon me if I do sound like some bitter fellow who's seen himself through a war. Okay I'm exaggerating.

Background information: Every year on Christmas day my parents and I go over to my grandmother's for Christmas lunch. That is of course, where everyone in my extended family gathers and is where I get my presents, of course.

Anyway, we all know I'm an appreciative guy (no, I'm not promoting myself, thank you). Do something for me, even if it's small, and I'll always remember, I'll always feel gratitude. Okay enough of that. Every year, the actual presents I get can be counted with the fingers of one hand. The rest: All vouchers. Let me say something I've always wanted to say - I absolutely dislike vouchers. Whoever came up with them as gift ideas was a sorry ass who probably bought them for himself because no one else gave him presents. Better than giving cash to yourself right?

The reason that people give when they always give me vouchers for Christmas is that they can never find anything suitable for me. Well that might be true in a sense, because adults don't understand teenagers, they don't realise that to me, it's not about whether it's suitable or not. Forgive me for being emo, but truly, I believe it's the thought that counts. While it is also correct to say that my relatives who give me such vouchers wish me well, I personally feel that just going to a store to buy vouchers in bulk isn't much of a thought now, is it? I love the people around me, but I still don't like vouchers.

Vouchers are terrible things to give to others. Some think that it's better than simply giving cash in a red packet, because after all, you make the effort to go to the store to get them right? Furthermore, people can can what they want there, tight? But the thing is, others now have to make the effort to go to that store to get stuff as well. Me? I'd rather get cash if you wat me to go buy whatever I want, thank you very much.

I must repeat myself again just so this isn't lost on you: I still love the people who give me vouchers. But I appreciate even more those who actually go out and get me a proper gift. It doesn't even have to be expensive. Something costing ten bucks probably won't make me hop around for joy, but I'm extremely thankful. People like my godparents and sisters who get me actual gifts, even if they're not particularly useful or nice (those from my godfamily have always been both), I constantly cherish.

'Tis the season of giving, but to give sincerely with thought to the gift, that's what's most important to me. Don't you agree?

8 - 23 December. 9 day RC, 4 day ATC and one day NRC and it all boiled down to one thing; CIBTC POP. All the memories, of sleeping in my bunk, of eating in the mess, of the lessons, of ATC, of my friends from Delta and batch, I'll always remember.

I'll always remember how my parents came all the way to Choa Chu Kang without complaint to bring my I/C for me just because I forgot to and was in a bit of a spot with my GIRO form; they're great. Not perfect, but I'm still so lucky.

And I'll always remember how God helped me through it all.

It's been a long while since I last blogged. Well alright about two weeks, but now that I haven't maintained my routine it seems a little alien to me to be doing this right now.

My POP's in 2 days. After a 9 day Residential Course at Home Team Academy over at Choa Chu Kang, a 4D3N Adventure Training Camp at Pulau Ubin from which I've just returned and a Non-Residential Course tomorrow, it all comes down to that one parade in ceremonial uniform in which my parents help me don my cadet inspector rank and I graduate from the 71st Cadet Inspector Basic Training Course. It'll all have been worth it. There's a lot to say about everything, but I still don't have the luxury of time, so I shan't say it now.

Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this. You're lucky because you get to experience the holidays in full, that lazy atmosphere which slowly warms up to a festive one. Me? I'll be stuck wondering where my holidays went.

Hello. I'm typing this post from Wuhan, China. It's not a bad place, not underdeveloped as you might think. In fact, the food here is bloody cheap, seriously. We went to this high-class looking restaurant and ordered a couple of dishes for lunch, expecting to pay about a hundred Singapore dollars. The actual cost? Less than twenty bucks. It's the same with everything else too, and the portions they give at food courts are humongous. More excuses to get fatter, the avoirdupois which I will attempt to lose during my cadet inspector course. If you've been paying attention you'd have noticed two things; First I'm in China and second I'll be away on course, so I won't be able to update as much as I'd like to till just before Christmas. This post was just to reassure you that this blog's not dead.

Also, I'm currently working on a 'project', if I can call it that which is sort of an account of my Hong Kong trip. This is the link to a blog my friends and I created in which we've got postings by all of us who went for the trip (in theory, in reality everybody but me's probably lazing their asses off):

Our Trip to Hong Kong

Just some fun facts on my present adventure (again, if I can call it that) to China. Firstly, I left for this place a couple of hours after I returned from the HK trip. That's like 8 hours or so. Secondly, the damned flight to Guangzhou was delayed for eleven hours in total. If you think I'm in Guangzhou then you're wrong. Read the beginning of my post again. I'm in Wuhan. There isn't any direct flight from Singapore, so we had to do a flight transfer. Anyway like I said, the flight got delayed because there was some shitty problem with the China Southern plane. If you're reading this, take heed; NEVER TAKE CHINA SOUTHERN. Their service sucks, their planes are damn small, and their personal relations are horrible. Oh, and if their planes had any quality at all then there wouldn't have been a fault in the first place. At first, the flight was delayed from 8am to 3pm (my reaction was 'what the fuck'), and so we went home first, with breakfast and lunch vouchers as well as taxi fare provided for us. That was bullshit, fine, but you'll notice that 8am-3pm only constitutes seven hours. I said eleven. Well you see, the rest of all that time was spent stuck at the plane waiting lobby waiting for that piece of junk they called a plane to be fixed. We took off at about 7pm. Moral of the story? Never take China Southern Airlines if you can help it. You have been warned.

Obviously we missed the transfer flight to Wuhan from Guangzhou as well, so arrangements were made by China Southern for us to spend the night at their hotel in Guangzhou before catching the earliest flight the next day. The 'hotel' sucked.

Thankfully, we aren't staying in some shithole here. It's the Holiday Inn, in fact and as you can see there's internet, for a fee of course. This place's pretty good for shopping, and the stuff here when discounted is really cheap. Take that nice pair of Puma shoes I wanted for example. Original price? 499RMB (about a hundred bucks). Discounted price? 299RMB (sixty bucks). OMG. But they didn't have my size. Shortage or something like that. ARGH.

Also, it's cold outside. Eight degrees out, and it's freezing when it starts to drizzle, or if there's a wind blowing. It's not so bad that the cold slices through your clothing, rather the problem is that your clothes themselves become cold to the touch. Brrrrrr.

Tons of stuff to be done immediately when I get back: xbox360, a haircut, preparation of uniform, buying of reamining stuff needed for my course and.....then it's my course already. I can only do the first if my mom allows it. My schedule's insanely hectic.

Until then, this will probably be the last lengthy update in a while. I'll still post once or twice a week, but I don't think it'll be this long.


P.S. I love cable TV here. ESPN, Star World, HBO.....*drool*

Back from HK. Off to China in 2 hours. Will update when back if I have time.