oRd loh! Carefree days are over...

It's been a long time. It's not that I neglected my blog. But on the last 2 occasions I tried to blog somehow things got interrupted, utterly destroyed, some parts of the web toolbar (like the picture loading options) failed to load, and so on. Just got so utterly pissed.

So many things have happened. Taiwan and back as mentioned previously. Malacca and back. I'm pleased to say that ye olde Soluna hit 140km/h on the downhill on the journey back. Tyres are incredibly noisy though. And it would seem that higher octane petrol really does last slightly longer...

Spent most of Malacca trip roaming around the town, tourist sights, sea sights, city area, Jonker Walk, Mahkota Parade, etc etc. I dig their chendol.

Drats it happened again. The upload picture window jammed on me. BLEAH! ok no photos then.

btw, I've decided to start using my Friendster account since I keep getting irritating nagging msgs about it anyway, so here goes www.friendster.com\praisevariants

maybe I'll start updating and tidying it up... who knows... *hah*

Had a call from Ms Goh from VJ it seems that there's no way I'll be going for contract teaching in a JC halfway through the year... so no GP for at least half a year... oh well.... by God's grace let's just see where I'll go... I'd like to ask for an easier posting and I pray I won't get such a 'tough' place... but more importantly I pray for strength to go through whatever it is that gets thrown at me.

Oh yes - 21 days left of full-time NSF came and went. Officially collected my IC yesterday with Henry the medic. Got a sprained foot. Bought a new pair of New Balance PT shoes. Chatted up with some old coursemates. Made a few new friends at the guardroom. Basically whiled my time away. Btw, BDE is much slacker than it used to be. The bunks are absolutely filthy. IPPT pass rate is so low. No I don't like regimentation at all but even the basic standards are not being met... zero discipline. And I'm getting fatter no thanks to the portions of food at the cookhouse, no matter how gross.

My tuition kid did alright for his exams Thank God... but we've still got vocab and comprehension skills to work on...

BSF leader meetings every Monday have been edifying... every since school ended I've never been as disciplined in doing any form of written work for a long time... practising leading a discussion group has also been very helpful. Praise God! Still have some church admin stuff hounding me though.... *sheepish smile*

My laptop's been fully revived with an expensive 7200rpm harddisk and I'm going to gradually shift all my usage to it... its got that irritating jammed F1 key that always gets on my nerves though... and the PC mouse has a crazy self-doubleclick syndrome...

There. Only 1 month left before I start work at a school. At this point in time I don't even know what school I'm going to. Or whether my application for teaching award has been successful.

Life isn't going to be the same anymore. The way we look at things here and there, and reminscence - only 1 thing stays the same. God be with us. Amen :)

they say that in the army

Back from Taiwan... and a major spending spree... not entirely because of the trip though

Spent $950 on the tour itself
$300 on the really AWESOME C5050Z with F1.8 super bright lens (Thank God!)
$185 on a 7200rpm laptop HDD to replace the dead one in my laptop.
$335 to repair the car aircon which had a cooling coil which leaked refridgerant

So if you see me scrimping and whining.... you know why... haha.... my bank account dropped to new lows and its been making me quite shaky. Btw my car aircon is like a freezer now. Good JOB i Love it :)

Taiwan is an interesting place... think of it as a much more orderly and civilized Malaysia...

Right now I'm serving the nation... for 21 more days haha... have some really sian sentry duty have to stay overnight for the next 3 days but after that things should be a breeze... new HQ CSM seems like a nice chap... talks to me like I'm reservist... cool...

At first I was feeling quite miserable but Thank God... things are ok here... just the next 3 days of sentry at a different camp but at least there are facilities to shower.