walking in the rain

The new year is just round the corner.

I'm totally looking forward to 2007 - with lots of new resolutions, aspirations and hopes for the new year. :)

I know I haven't really been writing as much this year due to my busy schedule, so one of my unofficial resolutions for the new year would be to update more often. Well, we'll see how that goes. Haha.

Goodbye, 2006. You've been an awesome year.

Yes, I’m back from Rockhampton, Australia. It’s been almost a week since I returned, and I must say, I do miss the trip in many ways, but I’m happy to be back.

The trip to Rockhampton was fun, to say the least. It’s not everyday that you get to go on a business tour (read: free holiday), so I’m happy to know that at least I got the chance to go overseas while I was in the army.

I was overseas for 18 days, to be exact, and to me, it’s actually quite a long period of time. Everyday is a fun day in a different kind of way, and I thank God for actually pulling all of us through these 3 weeks.

Of course, with every trip, you get to see a lot of things, and you get to learn a lot of things as well. You get to see the different sides of everyone, especially when working and performing together as a group.

There are bound to be occasional conflicts including character clashes and working attitudes, which cause problems, leading to a lot of other problems.

You get to see how stupid and childish some people can be, how egoistic others are, and how sarcastic some can get. You get to see how disgusting some shows can be, how terrible people’s characters are, and how proud some people can get. On the other hand, you get to see how helpful some people are, how friendly some managers can be and how caring some people really are.

In essence, you get to see each and every person’s true character.

Oh yes, you get to realize who’s gay and who’s not. Seriously.

Well, in any case, it’s nice to know that our company’s full of talented musicians and artistes. It’s always nice to hang out with people who truly are nice, and have a good heart. I absolutely detest assholes who walk around thinking they’re the most talented musician/artiste around. People who don’t even give a shit when you walk pass and say hi. Pretentious people who pretend to be nice but always drop some kind of hint/insult in the things they say. People who come up and trash you because they think they’re always right, before even bothering to find out the truth. People who put the blame on other people just because they cannot handle the situation. People who don’t admit their mistakes. People who are lazy and can’t be bothered to pack up yet order people around to do their work. People who look down on fellow colleagues because they think they have lots of experience in the music arena. To put it simply, people who are fucked up.

I have learnt so much from this trip, it’s unbelievable. I don’t know how to put it in words, really.

Of course, there’s always the nice people around, which, thankfully, make up the majority.

Here are some things which I will miss so badly.

I will miss all the conversations I had with you guys.
I will miss disturbing Shaun every day and Ben every night.
I will miss the absolutely crazy videos we took.
I will miss imitating G and having a good laugh over it.
I will miss the late night chats with so many people.
I will miss the almost-daily talking-cock sessions that we have over a bowl of cup noodles.
I will miss the nights where we will head out to the petrol kiosks outside the university hostel and grab all the cup noodles till the kiosk’s left with nothing.
I will miss having heart-to-heart chats with so many of my friends.
I will miss the daily parties in M’s room.
I will miss walking past S’ room listening to her blasting U & Me by Cassie.
I will miss chasing kangaroos around our hostel.
I will miss all the (daily) gossip sessions we had.
I will miss taking photos at the beaches we went to.
I will miss sitting the managers’ cars instead of taking the bus like everyone else.
I will miss my Muttons. (Muttons, you have no idea how much I love you guys.)
I will miss my 6-hour shopping till I almost dropped.
I will miss taking hundreds of photos every day and uploading them at L’s room.
I will miss pouring Ant-Rid over the ants in the toilet.
I will miss the morning’s orange juice. It’s the only thing I look forward to every morning.
I will miss hanging out in Hai Yarn’s (haha) room gossiping and talking rubbish and doing absolutely nothing.
I will miss sneaking out of our rooms after lights out and hopping over to the other block in the rain.
I will miss listening to the radio stations there.
I will miss figuring out the chords for the song Hurt by Christina Aguilera and singing it with Sam.
I will SO FREAKING MISS the jamming session we had at the backstage of the Pilbeam Theatre.
I will miss Singapore Rhythm.
I will miss taking stupid photos with the managers.
I will miss sneaking in to some of the managers’ rooms while they are out for recee.
I will miss dancing like an idiot to I Don’t Feel Like Dancing by the Scissor Sisters.
I will miss shopping for presents for my family.
I will miss the food at Red Rooster (similar to Singapore’s KFC).
I will miss drinking Coke Zero, something you don’t get in Singapore. At least not yet.
I love Paul’s (no, not Paul, but Paul’s). Haha.
I will miss taking the public bus and having our own trip to the zoo on our rest day.
I will miss posing like an idiot outside Hog’s Breath.
I will miss the yummy steak at Hog’s Breath.
I will miss watching some shows (note: some) that my colleagues put up.
I will miss recording my own MTV at the beach. Haha.
I will miss filming HY catching mosquitoes.
I will miss the plane rides we took.
I will miss the times we tried to catch fish but ended up in the water instead.
I will miss walking around as a group and trying to find our own food.
All in all, I will miss all the fun and laughter we had over the past 18 days.

Of course, there are things which I will NOT miss. AT ALL. I will NOT miss the food from the caterer which my manager orders for the company, and I freaking will NOT miss the breakfast that I have each morning. It really sucks waking up to smelly beef sausages, spaghetti, hard boiled eggs, or tomato with cheese bits early in the morning at 7am. As for the rest of the meals, it really isn’t very clever of my manager to order stupid things like pasta, spaghetti, sandwiches, or Subway for almost all meals. For the first 10 days or so, the entire company was eating rubbish for almost every meal, and a whole bunch of complaints were coming in after every meal. I mean, I know we are given $12 for each meal, why do you force us to pay $9 for something not only we cannot choose, but sucks big time? Believe it or not, we can get a proper meal of fish and chips for $5, or a decent meal at McDonalds for $6. This was a really big issue during the trip, and one fine evening, after 10 days or so, it led to a huge meeting/discussion with the whole company regarding this issue of food, and why the food for this trip was so bad. In the end, the manager in charge of this gave up ordering food for us and the entire company came to an agreement that we find our own food for every meal from that day onwards. I was exhilarated. I had been waiting for that day for the longest time. After putting all your energy into every show, the least we could ask for would be some decent food, and not stupid things like pasta with creamy sauce, where 90% of it would end up in the bin. It really doesn’t work that way. Believe it or not, because of this food issue, I actually lost some weight during the trip. It’s quite strange, actually, since I started eating quite a lot towards the end of the trip. Haha.

Anyway, there are a lot of other things that I won’t miss, like seeing some of my fellow colleagues again. I was back in company yesterday after a long time and I, together with a lot of other people, just didn’t like the idea of seeing certain individuals. The irritating, childish behaviour just gets to us sometimes.

During this trip, there have also been a lot of personal issues, and personal struggles, and on some nights, I actually lock myself up in my room and pen down some random thoughts. This caused me a few sleepless nights, but that’s okay I suppose. This trip has been quite an emotional rollercoaster in some ways, but because it’s rather personal, I thought I’d rather not write about it.

All in all, it has been a really fun trip. Strike that – it’s great. Every single thing is covered by company, from air ticket to meals to allowance for each day. What more can you ask for? I would have gone home much richer than I went if I hadn’t done any shopping. Haha. Of course, if some people hadn’t come for the trip, it would have been totally awesome, I tell you.

To all my friends, you have absolutely no idea how much I love you guys. It’s been great. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to experience this all over again, but hey, I’m glad I had the chance.

I have a crazy 1500 photos I’d love to share with all of you, so if you’d like a copy of the photos (and videos), do let me know. I’ve already distributed 20 DVD copies to some of you.

By the way, whatever I’ve written in this entry is only a small portion of what happened in Rockhampton. A LOT of other things have happened, but I can only recall this much today, so I guess I shall stop here for now.

In other news, a lot of other things are happening at home as well. I will be leaving with my family for Taiwan tomorrow and will be back before Christmas. I hope it will be another fun trip, although somehow I have feeling it won’t be. Haha.

To everyone reading this, here’s wishing you happy holidays and a Merry Christmas.

I can’t wait to be back again. :)