walking in the rain

To those of you who don’t already know, I am experiencing a torn calf muscle after not doing a proper warm-up during one of my recent exercises. It’s not much of a big deal, except that I’ve been hobbling and limping around everywhere I go – even boarding and exiting buses is of a problem. Which makes it very frustrating because I have difficulty getting from place to place, causing me to be late for most of my lessons this week.

I’ve been looking very much forward to today, though, and I must say I’m glad the day went well.

Everyday is a learning experience. I must learn to take painful experiences in stride.

Everyday is a new learning experience.

I’m glad to be in a place where I am able to learn to handle different situations daily. It is a challenge to be able to make the right decisions at the right time, which is something a lot of people are not able to do.

I know there are people out there who think I may be quite bodoh, but unfortunately, they are so wrong. I love it when people think they can get away with things, because that’s not always the case. It doesn’t always mean I approve of such acts even if I decide not to take any action at that very moment.

I have been reprimanded by several close friends for allowing such things to happen. I guess it was something I did not foresee, so I guess I’m partly to be blamed. I do not show my displeasure unless I feel I need to, so that could have been one of the reasons why things have turned out the way they are.

Damn. I guess other people are right. I’ve been way too nice.

Here they are.

1. I woke up late. I wasn’t supposed to. I had wanted to take MC but I had scheduled a important rehearsal today, so I couldn’t.

2. I wasn’t feeling too well. My throat was hurting like hell but I made my way to camp anyway.


3. One of my managers was being an asshole, as usual. She gave us 6 shows in 7 days and couldn’t even be bloody bothered to be a little more reasonable when I tried discussing something with her. Asshole. She can forget about her Godiva chocolates when I ORD.

4. Someone ordered me around in camp today. This person actually dared to, thinking that he’s damn big because he’s taking over me soon. Not only did this power-hungry asshole give me so much shit the entire fu*king day, he actually dared to open his mouth and tell me off. I absolutely can’t stand people who are so power-hungry. F*ck you, asshole. I hope you’ll have your downfall soon.

5. I had tickets to a movie preview tonight and the people who agreed to come with me backed out, saying that they had other things on. I do not blame them at all. The annoying part was that I could not find anyone in that short span of time, especially when I was busy with rehearsal the whole day.

6. People disappeared from camp. I don’t really mind if that happens on a normal day when there isn’t much to do (not that there’s a lot of things to do for most people anyway), but I had scheduled rehearsal for today and obviously some people couldn’t care less, and disappeared during lunch. That’s not the worst part. I got scolded by the asshole mentioned above saying that I am not looking out for the double bass player (this new guy who can’t seem to handle the music at all) enough. I almost screamed vulgarities in his face, but I didn’t. For goodness sake, I’m already wasting my bloody time here at these unnecessary rehearsals, and just in case you have forgotten, it’s not my duty to look after him and him alone. After all, it’s not my understudy. His upper study had happily disappeared from camp, and you’re saying it’s MY job to take care of it? Haven’t I been standing next to him enough trying to guide him as much as I can? Don’t be a f*cker. I have other things to look out for, and other people to help. This asshole also asked me to stop playing rubbish when I just played ONE line of extra notes which wasn’t in the score. It was totally outrageous, because he plays total rubbish 90% of the time and I try to keep my cool. Look who’s talking man. Bloody asshole. I really can’t stand people like that, always throwing their weight around. People like him who have low EQ will die when working with others in the future.

7. I hate it when people comment on which days I take my leave on. I have my right to take leave on whatever day I want, even if it lands on a show day. I won’t be around forever, so don’t be retarded assholes.

8. All the buses I took today were totally stuffy. I’ve been in a totally pissy mood ever since things started heating up in camp earlier in the afternoon so the least I expected were comfortable rides when travelling from place to place. On the way to town, service 162 was stuffy like hell, so I got off and took service 133 instead. While on the way back, I took service 111 (thinking that it would be faster), but the bus was so stuffy I alighted after one stop. I waited close to TWENTY freaking minutes for service 14, but surprise surprise, it was ANOTHER bloody hot bus. F*cking unbelievable. I got off. Again. And waited for the next service. I was glad it was a totally comfortable bus, but the driver, being one of those usual retards, travelled at a snail’s pace. It was practically crawling from stop to stop and if I had the chance I would have smashed his face before I alighted as he stopped at SO many extra traffic lights, something which he could have avoided if he had travelled just a tad faster.

9. Just when I was at the void deck of my home, both lifts decided to piss me off even further by having one of them at the highest level of my flat, and the other JUST leaving the first storey, going up. I tell you, I was totally furious.

10. I had a totally rushed dinner today. And my throat still hurts like hell.

I hate days like that. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong.


Oh, but here’s 5 things that did brighten up my miserable day.

1. Trickster queen called. I was glad to hear her voice although she couldn’t make it for tonight’s movie.

2. As usual, I had fun with my 3 muttons.

3. Apart from that, Mutton D made a special detour and gave me a lift to the MRT station after work today.

4. Also, Mutton J came for the movie tonight. I was totally surprised! We had a nice chat after the movie.

5. Tonight’s movie preview was fantastic. It’s called Me… Myself. It rocks, really. Go check it out when you have the time.


All in all, today was a sucky day.

I think I shall get a good night’s rest and pray that everything will be fine tomorrow.

I will be on leave for the next 2 days.

I forgot to mention that last week was such a blast.

As mentioned in my previous entry, I went out for drinks with a few ex-colleagues at Muddy Murphy’s last Monday, and almost couldn’t wake up on time the next day.

Then, there was the Gwen Stefani concert at the Indoor Stadium on Tuesday. I went along with one of my muttons (I shall call him mutton A) who helped me to win the tickets on radio, and we both had a blast at the concert. Also, there was something interesting (and rather disappointing for mutton A, too) that took place during the 90-minute concert, but I won’t talk about it. Nonetheless, it was funny and we both enjoyed ourselves.

I attended the SG concert at the Victoria Concert Hall on Wednesday. It’s not everyday that I attend a symphonic band concert though. I had gone to lend my support to David as he was conducting the vocal ensemble, and I took the opportunity to bid farewell to him before he flew off on Saturday. Jon and I had a good laugh during the concert, and on some occasions, we laughed till we rocked the row of chairs we were sitting on. The concert was also the first time I saw VCH feature lighting effects – I have never seen such a thing since VCH was my second home during my primary and secondary school days. More on that in another entry. It was so nice to see people like Geoffrey again, after so many years. He claims that I’ve lost a lot of weight, which is something I don’t exactly agree. Haha.

I met Leo’s mum for a really nice lunch at a Thai restaurant at Far East Plaza that very afternoon. It was somewhat of a thank-you lunch after all that has happened. I’m really glad that it’s all over now.

She bought me a little present as well. It was a really nice David Garrett CD! :)

Anyway, as usual, I was teaching on Thursday night, which was the night before my family sent my younger sister off at the airport, together with my elder sister and her other half. I went home to catch up on some sleep that very afternoon, before heading out for something I’ve been looking forward to in a long time – this year’s Fireworks Celebration @ Marina Bay. My brother and I were almost late for the event, and we ran through the Esplanade via Citylink and arrived at the venue at 9pm sharp. Although we headed out only for 15 minutes of fireworks, we did not regret it in any way – the fireworks were totally mesmerizing. We got the best seat too, the last seat of the front row on the extreme right.

What a blast it was.

1) I totally hate it when people can’t control their kids. AT ALL. This is especially for people from a certain race which I won’t mention. Letting your kids have their freedom doesn’t mean allowing them to yell at the top of their voices while travelling on the bus or MRT, or making a din when travelling in a lift full of people, does it? It’s bloody annoying. I wonder why some people have such bad upbringing.

2) The song Umbrella by Rihanna is so low-class. It sounds so, er, malayish. It’s little wonder why it ended up being Number 1 on the local charts and took such a long time to come down. I can almost safely say that it’ll be the Number 1 song of the year, joining the bunch of other loser Number 1 songs such as The Reason by Hoobastank and what not.

3) One of the worst songs I’ve heard in my life is the song Let Your Love Shine Through by The Suns. I still don’t understand why local music is so bad. To be honest, I won’t even call that music. It sounds more like random vocals thrashing out ideas during rehearsals, i.e. trash. Doesn’t anyone have any creativity and talent anymore?

It was time to bid farewell today.

My family and I were at the airport early this morning at 4am to send my sister off. I had only 2 hours of sleep after a pretty long day (after only having 3 hours of sleep the night before), so I was really quite tired.

My uncle was kind enough to drive his company van all the way to my house to help us with the transportation of the 6 luggages we had – my elder sister and her boyfriend were also heading to the US with my younger sister, to accompany her for 2 weeks before she starts school.

It wasn’t exactly a very teary farewell, but it felt rather emotional, although I didn’t want to show it in front of everyone. It felt as if I was losing someone quite close to me, which is rather odd, since I’m not extremely close to my younger sister. It just felt weird knowing that she won’t be back for quite some time.

And at this time of 1am in the middle of the night, it feels strange having only 4 people in the house. Somehow, it just feels a bit empty. It’s an unusually odd feeling – something I can’t seem to explain in words. Something’s just missing, and there’s nothing to replace this feeling of emptiness, although I know it won’t be forever.

My ex-colleagues Yado and Kenneth decided to ask me out for drinks this evening. I declined initially as I had actually reserved my evening for other plans, but when I found out it got cancelled, I obliged.

This has been one of the most happening and fun weekends in quite a while.

Will post some photos when I have the time. It's been a blast indeed. :)

And, of course, the work week is here again.

So we were over at Suntec City performing the entire day.

It feels kinda funny, since the entire crew's working on a public holiday.

Most of us were hoping to catch a glimpse of the fireworks when it went off towards the end of the parade, but sadly, Conrad Hotel blocked our view entirely. From where we were, we could only see a portion of the sky being lit up in different colours, and although we didn't get to see the actual fireworks, it was still a beautiful moment, with soft faint bursts of explosions heard in the background.

During those few minutes when the fireworks went off, I took the opportunity to thank God for his continuous blessings for our country. If not for His grace, Singapore will not be where she is right now.

We are indeed blessed, and I thank God for that.

Happy National Day.

I was out for dinner with Shannon a couple of weeks back and I remember him telling me to change the way I look, and update some of the things I wear and carry, including my shoes (which he described as 'old school shoes') as well as my bag.

Another service 52 bus broke down. Again. It's the second bus in 2 days, and I'm glad I wasn't on that service. I was travelling on another bus service after collecting yet another CD for my manager, hopefully for the last time.

In other news, I was waiting for the bus along Upper Thomson Road when I saw service 52 pass by - it was driven by the lady bus captain whose bus I was on broke down along the highway yesterday. I would have had taken her bus and said hi if I was heading home but I was on my way to town, so I didn't get a chance.

It's not often that a bus breaks down. Not for me at least.

Well, interestingly enough, the bus I was travelling on broke down while I was on my way back. There was quite a bit of drama though, and the whole story was actually quite interesting.

I boarded service 52 along Upper Thomson Road, and about 10 minutes into the ride, there were long beeps being produced while the bus was travelling. The bus captain, who was a female, started restarting the engine at several bus stops, but the beeps persisted each time the bus travelled for a few seconds.

The bus then entered the PIE (this was a bad decision, but oh well), and, as you might have guessed, broke down several times within the highway itself. The bus captain had to stop the bus urgently at different places of the PIE, including in-between road conversions. Finally, when no one could take it anymore, she stopped the bus at the road shoulder, just before the BKE exit.

The bus captain was slightly anxious as she tried to reach the control centre, but she was extremely apologetic and kept apologizing to the commuters on board.

I was sitting at the seat right behind the bus captain, so I saw everything that was going on.

There were commuters who were rushing for time. There was this guy who was late for an exam so he left the bus and tried to flag a cab, but to no avail. He was in a frenzy and before I knew it he was shouting vulgarities at each vehicle which passed by but did not stop for him. Later, he went on to kick the plants next to the road shoulder and damaged them by pulling the branches off. Thankfully, a kind lorry driver finally stopped by to give him a lift.

Other commuters kept blaming the bus captain for not checking if the bus was in working condition before leaving the Bishan Interchange. They mentioned that they had waited more than 30 minutes for the bus to arrive at the interchange. The bus captain replied politely that she did realize that there were some problems with the bus, and that she had wanted to send it to the mechanic at the Jurong East Interchange. She also mentioned that the service 52 bus before hers had broken down. The bus captain said that she was certain that the bus was working fine when she had left the interchange, and tried explaining to commuters that situations as such can be pretty much unpredictable at times.

About 10 minutes later, another bus plying the service 52 route had come to pick us up, and we successfully boarded it, after collecting our complimentary ride ticket. Once again, the bus captain apologized profusely to all commuters.

Before I boarded the other bus, I stopped to thank the bus captain and asked her for her name. She mentioned her full name but I only managed to catch her surname.

I have since sent my feedback to SBS Transit to show my appreciation and commended the bus captain for a job well done, as I felt that she had handled the situation well, apart from the fact that it would have been a better idea if she had stopped the bus before entering the highway, as it would have been less dangerous.


Here's the interesting part:

1) I was not supposed to be on that bus at that time.

2) I was carrying some bulky, heavy (and illegal - only some of you will know what I'm talking about) stuff on board, so it was rather inconvenient.

3) The bus captain was a lady.

4) I do not experience a bus breakdown often.

5) I have never thought that a bus would break down on the highway, since it doesn't stop during its journey.

6) Most importantly, I was not rushing for time. I'm rushing from place to place half my life, so it was interesting I was heading home as I had changed my plans for the day due to the bulky items I was carrying.


I never knew a bus breakdown could be that exciting. Haha.

I've always been apprehensive about using Facebook.

I'm afraid I don't have the time to ensure it's fully updated with the latest information at all times, or keep up with things that are happening with my friends.

Basically, I just don't want it to become another stagnant website, just like Friendster, which I haven't found the time to update yet.

Everyone has been asking me to sign up for Facebook, so I did, reluctantly. A few days later, I de-activated my account, as I found it rather complicated and extremely time-consuming.

But I thought, what the heck, I shall just get started and play around with it every now and then, whenever I get the time.

So there, I'm on Facebook. But for how much longer, well, I wouldn't know.

I can't wait, though, to scribble rubbish on some of my friends' walls. Haha.

A new student.

4 new VLs at church, which cost $20K each.

Man. Totally awesome stuff. :)

An incident in camp today has shown me how unbelievably narrow-minded one can be.

This person has once revealed the narrowness of his pea brain a couple of months ago, but never did I expect it to be to this bad. Not to this extent, at least.

I'm not going to say I dislike this person, but I'm going to have to be extra cautious when working with him, which won't be much longer since I'm going to be out of the army soon.

In other news, Paul's meeting with the I/Cs started a few hours late and ended past 4pm. I had to rush out some urgent documents such as schedules and stuff after the meeting so I ended up working overtime till 5.30pm, something which hasn't happened before. Not on a Friday, at least, since our working hours is until 5pm.

In other news, something else happened today. And I'm glad I took the initiative to make sure it did. :)

I got up bright and early to pick up some CDs for my manager, for the umpteenth time. I have been cancelling my off to specially run this errand for him.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but there aren't any good morning radio shows around anymore. The Muttons, after a station revamp, have moved to the night slot. I used to wake up looking forward to listen to the two retards each and every single weekday morning. They always brighten up my mornings, especially on days when I wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

Other DJs hosting the not-so-good shows are on leave this week, so for the first time in a long time, there’s actually nothing nice on the radio. Well, for this morning, at least.

While waiting for the bus at Clementi, I switched to music from my MP3 player’s music library. Interestingly, listening to Corrinne May early in the morning can be quite therapeutic. Speaking of which, I just found out recently that she’s in town for a concert tomorrow, but apparently tickets were already sold out by then, so well, it’s just too bad I guess.

Camp was totally deserted today. People were either on off, reporting late for night show, or at the National Day show vetting. I was not involved in any of the above, so I stayed in camp and finished up some administrative work. My manager called me into his room, and after a half-hour meeting with him in his office, he opened his mouth (for the first time in a long, long time) and said, “Er, you can leave early today, around 2pm.”

I left at 12pm though, as I had so many other things to do outside camp, but I won't tell you what.

It’s been a pretty long day, but I had lots of fun. :)

Need to catch up on some sleep. Can't believe I've got to head back to office again tomorrow for another meeting.

Thanks for making my day.

You're awesome. :)