The three weeks of torment has finally ended. To others, they might enjoy it for it was a break from their work. They were being paid as normal to slack and basically needed not use their brain at all. I felt the opposite because I was running my own business and the opportunity cost was high to halt my development.
This further made me realise how tough it was to become a young entrepreneur in Singapore.
I could not stand wasting my day rotting around and not able to proceed on my website development. The travelling distance was a major turn-off. This time, somehow Terry was allocated to the next batch even though we had attended two sessions together without deferring.
I was definitely luckier than most people. Not many could have an easy life when they put on the ugly green skin.
There were two car owners and I managed to get free lift. Apart from the first week that I caught the car near the gate, I started travelling down to Hougang to get my free ride. I get daily tea breaks at the canteens. The people were very friendly, which made the experience even better.
I spent the morning surfing, planning and blogging. I left for reservist straight without catching a wink. I met up Kang at the control station and he tempted me to get breakfast at a shop nearer to the bus interchange. I was expecting them to charge me an extra dollar for extra ingredient but I had to fork out two dollars and thirty cents, which I felt was cheated. Kang was quite worried that Terry would cause us to miss the base ferry and I assured him that we could even afford to miss one SBS bus to get there.
Kang made a move fast after checking out from the guard room and he managed to get into the squadron bus. I persuaded the NSF to squeeze in as well and there was only an additional place at the front, which Terry and I decided to give a miss. We took the base ferry instead and I was glad to meet Yutong. We had to walk a much longer distance to get into our headquarter.
While unwrapping the wooden chopsticks, I was injured by the sharp surface. I was not sure if any wood strap did get into my index finger but it hurt and irritated me for the entire day.
I started playing pool with Teng, and dart and Chinese chess with Terry. Finally, we moved to the table tennis table outside and I realised I had forgotten totally how to play the sport. After losing six sets straight to him, I got a hand of it and raced eight sets before losing another set. The final score was ten to seven. He gave up his bat to another guy and I won another two sets before calling for a break. I was drenched by my sweat but managed to doze off after some time.
I took a late lunch before playing table soccer with Terry and Yutong, and other NSmen. I dozed off a couple of times again to rest my back. Everyone was getting restless and we were extremely disappointed to be out-processed at 5pm sharp. We took Peter Chan’s car to Novena again. Terry was meeting his friend and thus I left without him.
It was already over 6pm when I reached home and thus I did not join my ex colleagues at Changi, considering that they were meeting at 5pm and it would take more than an hour for me to get there. I worked on my website instead and started dozing off.
Since my mum had not got home from work, I took my shower before bringing Lucky down for a walk. I brought him into the shop and after some time, the ladyboss’ “white face” husband came out. He started telling me he disliked dogs and that Lucky might bite the customers’ clothes. Then, he said that his “god” will not give me child if I enjoyed the companion of dog too much. He talked about the expense of dogs and claimed that “even human does not have the money to seek medical help”.
I never wanted to give the ladyboss or my mum any problem and thus I did not remind him that he had been jobless for more than ten years, and that his wife had to be so stingy to the workers in order to settle his debt for him. I also did not want to expose him that he had tried to force his wife to buy him a car.
I slept near 4am. My mum made me bread for breakfast and thus I did not buy anything before going to the camp. Mdm Chew came over to my side early and after chatting with her, I started dozing off every now and then until Terry started helping me with forum advertising for my tuition website. At the end of the day, we took Peter Chan’s car to Novena.
I worked on the tuition website until 3.30am. I woke up a few times in the morning and went back to sleep for it was too early. In the end, I overslept and woke up at around 6.30am. I quickly messaged Terry and set off within five minutes. He was cool, having his morning tea at the coffee shop near the usual bus-stop and probably looking at girls. We managed to catch the base ferry nevertheless.
I spent my time writing for the “Tuition Fees Budget Calculator” but it turned out that the content was most suitable for an article about “Plan your Tuition Fees Budget” instead. All the regulars were out in the morning for tasking and the numerous phone calls irritated me badly that I started picking them up. I made a very silly mistake when I tried too hard to speed up my words to end the call faster, and I said the unit’s name the opposite way.
My appetite was good during lunch time since I did not have any breakfast. The audition for the zone started in the afternoon and the place was noisier than ever. Terry left earlier for his lesson. The sergeant and I hitched a contractor’s pickup to book out for the day.
After checking my email, I saw a new request for tutor and I was quite motivated. I could see the traffic increasing over the past few days because of my effort. I was sure the business would pick up soon.
I continued with my tuition website work and spent some time blogging before going to bed at 3.30am.
Since I was earlier, I bought my breakfast first and Terry did not get anything. It was raining and many NSmen who were being deployed to other zones came back for IPPT and thus they made a waste trip. The driver of the base ferry dropped us right at the gate of our zone.
I spent my time more fruitfully by writing for my tuition website. After lunch, however, I was too sleepy that I dozed off a few times. Terry and I made our most worthy contribution by following two contractors to service the fire fighting equipments at a quiet place. I was amazed when the driver alighted to go around the car for there was a sign to instruct passers-by to check their tyre before proceeding ahead. I did not like the place for it was too isolated and there were even snakes around. After going back to office, the contractors had their puffs and they sent us out to the main gate, and therefore we were earlier than the day before.
I worked on the Tuition Fees Budget Calculator for Smart Tuition Singapore. It was great that the codes that I had written on papers worked perfectly. Before I could implement AJAX to it, it was 8pm and I left the house with my younger brother. We took bus to Central and transited to bus 190 towards The Cathay. After buying the tickets for The Exorcism, we walked around the building before his buddy joined us.
The movie was quite boring at first for it was filmed in a point-of-view of the actor style. I almost dozed off at the beginning and my younger brother started explaining what was happening, which I actually knew for my brain was still functioning all along. It was quite funny in some parts, especially when the priest showed his props to perform fake exorcism. The ending was somehow quite uninteresting.
We took bus 167 home. At the point of time we stepped into the house, my elder brother told us my younger brother’s good friend, Mandy, had called our house to ask for help. The three of us went down together with Lucky and met her at the UOB ATM machines. She started explaining to us that there was a fight earlier on when an auntie stalling the cash deposit machine started arguing with her and another stranger, and her ah beng husband came over to display his hooligan-ness. We were amazed by her story. Anyway, we walked her back to the same bus-stop at Cantonment Link, where we alighted earlier.
I spent some time working on my tuition website and blog before I went to sleep at 2am. It was one of the earliest days I had gone to bed. I woke up at 5.30am and lazed around before setting off.
My breakfast was a black pepper chicken bun from the bread shop near Eunos MRT control station. Terry and I took the base ferry to the zone and we were quite stunned when the driver did not stop at the usual carpark.
I was present at the conference for the first time they had video camera meeting. It was quite interesting though I thought things could be easily settled with an email each. We stayed in the conference room throughout, unlike the previous time, we gathered inside a small room. It was weird to sleep and thus I stayed awake for the day. Richard kept us entertained at times. He was a very soft but crappy guy and most of all, he was very nice.
We took Lum’s car out at the end of the day but the regulars left slightly after 5.30pm and thus we did not get to the bus-stop as early as the previous week. We alighted earlier from bus 94 and walked to the MRT instead of waiting for the bus to make a big turn into the interchange.
I worked on my website until 2.30am. Even though I woke up at 5.30am, I dozed off again and my mum saved me at 6am. I met Terry on the train and we waited a while for Kang before going to the bread shop. I got myself a bun for breakfast.
We managed to catch the squadron bus. It was a sleepy morning. Test was conducted and after that was a relaxing day for all of us. I got my off form but was not certain if I could leave earlier the next day.
Since Terry had left earlier for school, I was together with Kang and we hitched a car together to get out of the camp. We met Yutong, whom I felt was a nice guy. The three of us met again at the MRT station and we took the same direction train home.
I spent some time to forward emails. It was a rush hour for me when I realised there was a bug in my personal website. There was nothing wrong in my localhost and I had to adjust the code such that both the webhost server and localhost could accept it. I was working on a new page for Smart Tuition when my brothers wanted to bring Lucky down for a walk. I joined them more than half an hour later.
After meeting up with Terry, we went to the hawker centre to get some food. I bought only a bowl of beancurd for eighty cents. Since I had slept much earlier than usual, I could keep myself more refreshed in the morning. I spent some time writing and planning for Smart Tuition Singapore. I tried the burger from the ninja van but it was awful. I missed the chicken burger from the Stagmont Camp’s ex Specialist Mess uncle.
After the interview, which I was told that I could be granted time off to leave earlier on Thursday for my birthday dinner, I could not hang on for the afternoon as I was deprived of sleep. In the late afternoon, Terry and I hitched a car out of the camp.
After having my dinner, I went to the gym to help out. Since it was getting late, the meeting with Andrew and my team was cancelled. It took an hour to hurt my skin on the finger as they were short of penknives and I had to use brute force to tear the wrapping plastic from the new equipments. I left earlier with Andrew for they had enough people there. I knew I had done my part for my friends despite I was already being frustrated by the lack of time due to the reservist.
I was working on the tuition website before I started updating outdated blog entries. I went to sleep after 4am but could not doze off.
Before I made my way out of my house, I realised I did not fold my Smart Four. Terry had reached Eunos before I boarded the train. I was late for around fifteen minutes. We were very early in the end and took the squadron bus in after registering with Mingkai.
We chatted inside the AV room until around 9am when the introduction started. Then, we got to know of the new stupid rules. The ninja van came at around 10am, which was near lunch. I bought noodle and it tasted quite bad. We could hardly finish half of our lunchbox.
We took the squadron bus out in the end of the day together with Victor. Then, Terry and I took bus 94 back to Eunos before transiting to the train.
Lucky was my main concern of the day and it was good to see him back at home. I had sushi as supper. My brothers and I went down to walk Lucky before going home to catch the show.
My reservist was finally over on Thursday after they out-processed everyone, giving us a day off on Friday due to Chinese New Year.
The culture of the air base was way different from normal army’s camps, and everyone, regardless of ranks, basically showed respect to any small fry. I met many great and weird people. Conversations were most of the time pointless and nonsensical.
It was supposed to be two weeks of rest for me and also for me to ponder over the future; but somehow I did not make good use of the time.
There were some days that I was able to play table tennis, pool and table soccer. I was glad to be able to exercise so that I would not grow fatter like the rest of them.
I ate more than ever, taking my morning breakfast prepared by my mum, followed by my own breakfast in the camp. I was able to finish my lunch after that. It happened almost every day.
I spent the time at home editing my websites into late hours, and thus, I tried to spend my time sleeping in the day and afternoon, which I failed because of the noises. Sitting on the chair, trying to doze off, caused me bad aches after the long struggle. I had numbness caused by the prolonged position and my knees were badly affected.
The toughest thing to do was the travelling. I hated having to transit from train to bus and followed by the internal bus, which I could not afford to miss. Lunch was quite terrible except on the last second day, which was like of like western food.
The weekend has arrived and I can finally switch back to my phone. I’m not particular about holding good phone but the old LG non camera phone is very un-user-friendly and it does not display all contacts in my SIM card.
The week was not bad. I met many kind souls. The early morning’s struggles to wake up were the killers. Apart from that was the distraction from doing things. None of them could understand why I was sleepy during the day because they did not know I had to make full use of the time when I was at home to do as much things as I could.
It was time to say goodbye to the days of playing pool, table tennis and table soccer for free. After moving to another building, seven of us were stuck in a small room with poor reception.
I needed much more privacy in order to do my planning for my future and also, new websites.
I was lucky except for the travelling part. The gentleman offered to send us out but he was a workaholic who stayed behind for an extra half an hour. I would not have minded if it was a normal day, but I intended to go back to my office to feel the air before the start of the volleyball game – I could not make it on time.
The games were awesome in the absence of someone. After sleeping in different positions over the past few days, my right arm was numbed and thus, injured, such that I could not really perform. We played till late and I had my dinner just before midnight with Kachua at the prata shop near my house.
Things did not turn out as planned, which was usual. I thought I could spend lots of time reading but someone spoke over the phone as loud as gangster like as if the entire room’s people wanted to hear his long meaningless conversation. I tried to sleep but the sound was too loud.
I tried to do some planning for new websites but friends came over to inspect me. I could never start anything without my privacy, nor did I want to explain what I was going to do, and I never had the energy to broadcast my plan.
I was amazed of myself to wake up in the middle of a lecture, not knowing when it was started. I was also impressed with my appetite that I could finish my lunch after late breakfast for the second day.
I spent most of the free time playing the table soccer and table tennis, and also a little bit of pool.
I’m shagged. My arms are trembling and strengthless with muscle ache, and my ankle has an abrasion. My eyes are closing…
I had a day of pool and table tennis and my forfeit was eighty push-ups on Monday.
Tuesday was full day of dry lectures and it was definitely torturing. I dozed off for more than half of the time. I was too tired to play table tennis anymore and thus I was playing the table soccer game most of the time with Terry.
Wearing the uniform simply made me hungry.
The greatest thing was when I found out my PES status was C2 L2 with effect from 04/12/2008.
Before going to bed, I tried to clear as many things as possible like sending in deferment email to the SAF.
Afni impressed me with her communication skill. The kids from Shuqun were well behaved. Lunch was together with Afni before I rushed to lesson with George.
There were emails to update statuses but before I could finish all the intended emails, Jingkun was ready to leave and I took a lift from him. Standing by the side of the train’s door, leaning against the glass, I dozed off a few times and almost fell.
I dozed off at six and woke up at eleven, missing all the shows, giving dinner a miss. I was too tired in the physical and mental.
I started Monday with low morale with the invasion of the rain. It was an unforeseen situation that I did not put into consideration while planning for the afternoon’s medical review at Payar Lebar Airbase; I was too concentrated on planning how to get there on time.
Due to the rain, I did not go home. I started walking toward Clementi MRT station at 1230h after lunch and it was tiring to stand throughout the journey till Eunos MRT station. Bus 94 arrived just in time and soon, after nodding on the bus, I arrived at the main gate.
I exchanged my identification card at the guard house and surrendered my K800i and thumbdrive. As I asked the guard for the direction to the medical centre, he was quite shocked and he surprised me even more when he told me it was more than three bus-stops away. I was glad that I did not go home first since it would further drain off my time.
I passed by the Air Force Museum and Air Force School before reaching a carpark. After making a wrong detour, I finally found the little gate and reached the medical centre. I was actually fifteen minutes earlier. The NSF who served me was Pang and he was friendly.
After waiting for more than half an hour upon the scheduled time, I finally met the MO who was quite a friendly guy as well. The only test he did on me was to ask me to bend forward to touch my toes and the rest were questioning. Like usually, I missed some important points like the effect of walking could even pose minor strain on my lower back. He decided to file my case to the medical board and I was actually not very confident of winning the case. Anyway, if the medical board were to upgrade me to PES B and that if anything were to happen to me during my reservist days, I would definitely spread the fame of SAF.
The journey back to Eunos MRT was much longer somehow for the bus seemed to make a longer trip before the interchange and the traffic was slower.
