ホームシック

Today was quite a tiring day, but quite eventful, by china standards. Heh. Went to get my badminton racket re-stringed. Turned out that you’re supposed to cut off the strings as soon as they snap otherwise they’ll warp the racket. I left it in that condition for the better part of 6 years. Lol. Didn’t fix it since Weixian broke the strings during PE in Sec 2. They said it was warped already, but I can’t tell the difference really. *shrug*

Went to the hospital to see doctor for my cough after that. They had both chinese and western doctors in the house and gave us a choice. My mum opted for the cheena one, which meant bitter medicine (-_-’) Anyway this old grandpa doctor’s chinese was so heavily accented that I couldn’t really make out what he was saying so I just kept nodding. Lol.

By the way. I love pretty nurses.

*ahem*

ANYWAY, after we came back home I went to check out the gym. The estate is pretty big. The walk to the club house takes around 5 minutes. Almost like… Detong’s old house to West Mall. No. Twice that distance… Did some exercises I found on menshealth.com whilst going there. Geez it looks easy on paper: tuck jumps, squat jumps, power skips (sorta like continuous lay-ups), zig zag bounds and SBJ. 10 reps, 3 sets. By the middle of the second set I’d already reached the club house so I actually had to turn back! Haha. I totally underestimated the thing. Pretty damn shagged by the time I finished.

Walking back in the direction of the club house I saw some kids playing footie so I decided to go join in. Haha. But it was only for a short while cos they had to go do homework. Darn.

The gym was like WOW. They had equipment I’ve never even seen before. There was this bench press machine that was damn cool. The handlebar itself was attached to a piston. It has a hook and there are notches from top to bottom so if I do until buay tahan, can just hook onto one of the notches by twisting the whole handbar. It’s safe. It’s ingenious. And you don’t need an assistant anymore. The equipment is all state of the art. The treadmills even have 14″ flat screen TVs attached to them so you won’t be bored while jogging. Damn over-the-top. Damn fucking cool.

After dinner we played badminton. Wha lau. Don’t know how many years never play already. Got the rhythm going after a while though. Haha. Oh yeah. I even did a spectacular defensive move. I was racing to save the shot at the far right of the court. Somehow the sliding tackle action came out as I stretched low to hit the shuttlecock. Hot-wired reaction I guess. Hilarious.

Ok I think I shall sleep now.

You know when you’ve been playing too much Football Manager 2007 when…

Riquelme signs for Boca Juniors in real life and you stare in confusion for 10 seconds before you realise it’s REAL LIFE.

And so I’m back from my hometown. Actually I haven’t really had the chance to smell the sweet sweet air of liberty after ORDing yet. Hasn’t really sunk in that it’s finally over and I can shift out of army mode. Feels pretty darn good in a subtle kinda way though.

The state of Shantou, my hometown, was worse than I remembered. The streets were overcrowded with traffic. The motorbikes ignored the traffic lights. Rubbish was being thrown on the streets. I also observed that there is a pretty big gap between the haves and the have-nots. I kept thinking about how good it was to be more relatively privileged than others. And I have observed first hand how troublesome it is for 5 couples of aunts and uncles to take care of my grandparents. By troublesome I mean the amount of time, money and effort put in. My family only has 2 brothers. How are we to cope in the future if we go around chasing fleeting dreams?

So I guess the time for lofty aspirations as a writer and philosopher is over. Must. Go. Earn. Money. So superficial right? Sigh. I guess it’s just the way of the world. Money doesn’t buy you happiness but what it can do is buy you peace of mind. Security.

My mentality towards education has evolved. I used to hold on to ideals that education is for the sake of acquiring more knowledge. Ha. Then I realised that you don’t really learn much from school. It’s just stuff you need to know to pass the exams. I now believe that education is a means to an end. For that ticket to a well paid career. I will study because I need to survive. It’s funny how if you imagined yourself to be poor you’d study harder because you’d have no choice. It’s like a golden opportunity to better your living conditions.

I don’t want to be a have-not. I don’t want to be a mediocre writer who never gets published. I’m going to study econs and go do the thing I hate the most. Work in an office. Because I realised that following your own dreams is a selfish attitude that you’re allowed to have only when you are pampered. I’ve been pampered all my life. It’s time to stop and stand on my own two feet. I mean geez man I’m 21! My salary is going to feed 4 parents, my wife and I, plus ideally 2 of my children. That’s about 8 people. Fuck man. Time to wake up my idea.

Weilin organised this match between my camp mates and Ser Hwee’s team. I was looking quite forward to the match because I’d be on opposing teams with James, Felix and Marvin.

The day didnt’ start off very well because our left back Ian was late and the keeper went MIA. The groundskeeper didn’t let us in without seeing the receipt, which was with the ref who came in late. Fucking hell. Anyway in the end we had no choice but to borrow Marvin as our keeper and Felix as our left back. When Ian arrived Felix complained he wasn’t feeling well so the substitution was made. Haha. Then the joker went on to score against us in the second half. Chao geng!

When the match started I was feeling all weird. Like there were too many people and my brain couldn’t process it. It just felt so confusing. I was caught napping a few times in defence so I thought, fuck, there’s no way I can do this. Switched Jeremy to CB in my place and Mushun to right back. That seemed to settle the defence down and they became more stable. Ian was especially impressive, doing his best impression of Gabriel Heinze. His tenacity was something I should have possessed for the game but unfortunately I couldn’t raise myself up to scratch. I’ve been kinda sick for the past 2 weeks and I went into the game with a cough. So after a while I created a new position for myself. I call it the Loudhailer. Haha. Yeah, so throughout the game I just kept shouting encouragement to my teammates lor. Nothing more I could do I guess because I couldn’t jolly well sub myself off because we only had 10 men. Haha. There were a few people in dire need of substitution but there was no choice.

In the end we succumbed 1-3 to the opposition but not without an attempted fightback. I caught Dave’s throw in on the fight flank and crossed it. The defender opted to slap the ball away with his hands, which was pure stupidity. The ref caught sight of the violation and rightly awarded a penalty. Terrence stepped up to take it. At first no one wanted to take the penalty like that so I asked him whether he was sure. He said “anything”. Like so nonchalantly. But I looked at his face and could tell he really wanted to take it! Haha. Then the opposing team did some thrash-talking, saying stuff like “don’t worry got NJ best keeper” and “sure got rebound one”, which really irked me so when Terrence calmly whack the ball down the middle I couldn’t help it but taunt them by mocking “wha! NJ best keeper ah!” Haha. It felt shiok lah. Haha. Like I was the one who scored. On hindsight I must have seemed like an idiot. Lol. But like I said, that day I was the Loudhailer so that was my best contribution of the game. Haha.

We also had a goal ruled out from a Dave shot which cannoned off the crossbar and bounced inside the goal. Even the opposing players later admitted it was a goal. Ah well. Screw the ref.

Really quite disgusted at myself for the recent string of bad performances for the past few weeks. Even thought twice about the school team thing. But oh well. Then again you’re only young once right? Don’t give up because you’ve given in to your fears. I don’t want it to become like it was for me in basketball. It’s only after I quit so long that I think back and realise actually I was quite a decent player. But sadly now it’s too late to pick it up once again. So I should just concentrate on getting rid of this fucking tekong cough and go for it again.

Gambatte. Keep your chin up.

K I know this is belated, but ORD LOH! Haha. Feels so good just to even type those words. Haven’t really had the chance to settle down and type out my thoughts because of laziness and the rush to china, but finally here we are!

ORD day itself was about hunting signatures and walking around the bureaucratic army mess. Gosh, after two years, I finally saw my retarded face on that pink card! The mood in camp really wasn’t that of delight however, mainly due to the fact that we had too many off days already so it was like no difference.

The army experience. I was on the plane when I had a sudden thought to myself: hey look, I’ve been through army dude! These suckers didn’t. Haha. I must have stood an inch or two taller at that moment.

Anyway, the trip to China was boring as usual. I entertained myself by ogling at the relatively good looking flight attendants =D Dude, I mean, these chicks were real WOMEN. K, looks aside, I still don’t really fancy china girls. Haha.

China weather is good man. When it’s sunny and you’ve got enough clothes on, the weather is like walking in air con outdoors. Damn shiok sia.

China is like stomach bliss man. My family always believes in not cutting corners when it comes to food, so my choosy palates are always satisfied. I’ve been watching my mum cook and I’m proud to announce I can now cook WANTON! Woohoo. Haha. I guess I’ll need to add more to my culinary list if I’m to survive living alone in Singapore (with Phuong and his girlfriend).