BACK!

an overdue entry i suppose, considering i haf been back for like 3 days le... yes brunei can be a terrible place to be for training purpose, but my time there hadnt been anywhere close to the word xiong, perhas apart from juz the time when i had to walk into the forest to the checkpoint which i manned during the troopers' navigation exercise, where i climbed like 3 to 4 hills b4 reaching, and de experience there isnt really fantastic, considering i slept on a slope and hafta prevent myself from slipping down to somewhere deep where i cant see the btm, my feet are chilling every morning i woke up, and not forgetting the 2nd day when rain hit... rain is nvr welcomed when outfield..

but despite all these, i'm still considered slack le, compared to the troopers where their programmes are totally horrible... kudos to them for making thru the whole thing...

for me, it has been more of a trip of thoughts, enlightenment and a lot of thinking.. (wad else to expect from me other than thinking? =X ) when i go out, i meet the officers and sergeants more than my fellow men, so interacting wif them give me a greater insight on stuff i nvr tot abt in the past...

army life has always been called to be the period where 'boys become men'.. but the point is, how do they know how to change? after the trip i feel like i'm still that little boy, unsure of how to become that 'adult' figure.. some of the topics that are talked abt during the interactions...

the thing abt planning for the future... a regular sergeant is planning to marry next year, but he's complaining he's struggling to save for marriage... wif not enough savings, he cant haf children coz he cant support them, but he oso cant save enough for now, as he still hafta support himself, his parents and his future wife.. but he oso cant haf children too late, coz if he had children too late, he hafta work even longer until his children can support him.. so as we can see, there are many dilemmas here and there and a balance needs to be struck...

still on de topic of future planning... how do we get enough money for future? one of my platoon mates told me he had put money into some kind of fixed investment, so he cant touch that sum of money for a period of time, and after that he gets more money back.. also, there's also the other kind of 'investment', more commonly known as 'betting'... some of my frens bet on soccer etc etc... but this is considered a kind of investment as well? well it's abt de same as those ppl playing wif shares ba, coz both involved risks ma, so if playing wif shares is considered an investment, y not betting?

2 of de guys from my company who went wif me to this trip talked abt their 'fighting' life when young... 1 of them is from a rough pri sch, where fighting is common.. de other fought b4 during basketball or soccer games, when there's a quarrel it will be followed by a fight... for me, i haf nth to contribute during this discussion abt fighting, coz i had not been involved in one b4... after listening to them, i had a thought... do all boys fight at some point in their life? perhaps i can answer that qn in a GP manner, where de answer is no coz de word 'all' is generalisation, coz not all ppl fought b4, an example being me...

during the troopers' re-navigation exercise, i had de chance to listen to 3 officers chat.. 1 of them actually asked me a qn which i haf always dreaded to hear.. "wad are ur goals in life? wad u wanna be?" for those who know me well, they shld know i'm no planner, so i dun really haf goals... so de officer was saying stuff like i shld haf goals and be focused on them, coz it's de ppl who haf focused goals that succeed in life... as one ages, one sees more and more obstacles to their goals, so many end up taking de easy way, but easy way often dun lead to success in life... life in de outside world isnt exactly de same as life in army... in army u can act blur and life still goes on, u still get ur pay... in outside world wad counts is ur performance, no performance = off u go...

i guess that's all for de thoughts and thinking during the trip...

last but not least abt de trip is de R & R. where we went to M & M & M, mosques & museums & malls... got to noe a bit more than brunei culture, sultan and de way of life ba... de only pity is that i didnt get to buy any stuff from there, partly becoz my other signal mates kept saying that there's nth worth buying there, but de troopers did get to buy some stuff back home, so that's de pity part..

as for de past 3 days where i'm back in singapore, it had been both interesting and boring... interesting coz i got to go out wif some of my frens, either to go walk walk, buy shoes, play pool or kick ball... but de boring part is at home, where i juz stone in front of de computer doing nth... although i haf nth to do on com, i still manage to spend several hrs in front of it, which is de amazing part i feel, together wif de tot of wasting time... i always juz go de new facebook thingy and do some of de applications there, while listening to jay's new album online... his new album is not too bad i feel, and i like quite a few songs from it...

loving 青花瓷 now, de 3rd song, which is de china-feng song in his album...