Had steamboat at the popular goldenmile basement restaurant, the place was still quite packed for a weekday, amazing. Anyway its time I’ve eaten there since the cavein at Nicoll highway, the place kinda stabled already, I am I won’t be amused if that place becomes the safest and strongest place in SG since the incident. Things…

On a sidenote I wouldn’t be around for the whole day tomorrow as I have camp duties. Would be back in time for vesak day in the morning. In the meantime, chill!

Woke up to another lazy morning, dang bout 10am to be exact, didn’t have much time to prepare anything myself. But kinda found time to get the site up & running smoothly again. hehheh & finally, the FTP’s up & working again (yippee more uploads!)

What kinda impressive are my host’s (as in the guys who were paid to store all these stuff online) replys to “my tons of messages” sent to them regarding the damned downtime yesterday (& yea, regarding the spam issue by IDA, heh I didn’t spam them mind you ).

Mmm did find some time for fixes around the site & re-done the guestbook, more friendly & won’t gobble up the typical idiot . Then its off for driving at BBDC again, this time with a simlutor lesson (aka crash, bumpercar lesson) which too, also serves as an auto transmission car lesson. Furthermore I’ve got a woman instructor for my practical today , not very much a joy for her being “close to the 40s” but what kicks are actually the silm chances of having them to take you. (& a change from the all male instructor thingy), also considering the school having only 2 female instructors! After all that, 6 more lessons to go till the final driving test. hehheh

Well, its off to dinner now, heard its steamboat, wonder what mum and dad have in store now…

The site was down yesterday, (damn host) which kinda delayed the upload of the new art gallery. Anyway, its all up now with full glory, check it out!

Ok its recap time again… life at camp is starting to get rather interesting these days.. or can I say, am I making it more interesting. Here are some “gisses” for the week:

Finished the Anime TV series Hellsing within one day.

Allowed my troopers to blanket those birthday boys this week (it can get rather cakely messy at times, otherwise much needed entertainment)

Army open house is up in july (I think)…. wee up on designing a shirt for the event, If I win 30000 people would be wearing it on that day, whoa!a

Some captain called around early this week, telling me that 2 of my platoon mates & me are selected to join the national army water polo competition team with a match due in july….

Waterpolo training would be on 1-3-5 (6,7 optional) so thats mon, wed, fri, the numbers representing the days and so. The consolation is only much of our coach being from the national girl’s polo team coach so having the girls around for training can be very much of a pleaser & welcome too, with the excpetion that they are so much more conditioned then us weak pokes, argghh! losing to them!

There will be 2 driving lessons tomorrow at bbdc around noon. Wandering into stage 2 already, aim to complete all theory by end of the one week block leave, next week, then book the traffic police test by mid june. *drools* targetting to get my driving license by late june, or by july.

Ok then work time, things to be done for the week:

Complete all driving lessons, book test

Purchase the Hellsing guns

Buy birthday present for sis

Finish up incomplete artpieces to be scanned

Play more computer games

Clean up my room

Site related matters:

Do up & upload new art gallery & sections.

Minor site code fixes & upgrades.

Revive the damn guestbook

Oh a sidenote, I am quite cash strapped at the moment, partly because of the large debits these few months comprising largely from my driving fees which I have to personally fork. Feel free to support me by dropping a job or a tip, I did be glad!

Finally, I’ve managed to complete all my driving theory lessons before schedule, ahha! end of those boring sleep inducing lectures & up come more exciting practical driving.

Decided that I need to catch up on my weekend drivings I more or less managed to book a last minute afternoon driving slot after my morning swim. My driving instructor this afternoon is Md Rizal, partly because he just fresh out of reservist, hes just to though yakky, bout army & stuff. And out of that 100mins of driving I get to know that hes from artillery, a recovery driver in his unit, his experiences in exercised overseas to him getting hold of the new New-Balance shoes at the camp’s E-mart… yea that power heh? It is all but otherwise good entertainment though as the car don’t have a radio anyway, & I guess it taught me one more lesson of the day other than fast speed driving & passing obstacles- to drive with distractions! Drove up to mandai & made a u-turn before night safari. Why so far? As explained by Rizal its a new route they have nowadays & the learner driver boundaries are very much more extended than before. Learnt a new abbreviation from him today- BMW, & come to think about it I did go to BBDC today by BMW (and that is Bus, MRT, Walk) Then there hes goes talking bout his previous students & experiences… blah blah & yea did I mention hes rather funny at times? you can see the car veering occasionally off course ‘cos of too much errmm laughter or the occupants, not to mention the all imfamous babe alert at 9/3 o’clock positions- argh distractions! (& theres goes the joke bout bbdc paying choiubus to walk around on test dates… lol) Overall the session ended with him commending on my driving, all in hand not very bad at all as a driver at this stage1 he says. One thing he was rather impressed ( that I didn’t know) is the smoothness of my driving, esp on my gear changes up or down, as if I am *one* with the car. Really much remind me of Tak in inital-D. I dunno bout this, but hes even confident about me taking the traffic police test now on the road, with the way I drive confirm can pass one. All in hand I guess its still quite a long way to go than & I still have lessons to go- perfection thru future lessons is the way to go. In the end, it was a rather enjoyable lesson & its chao! hope to bump into you as a student again, he says.

In conclusion I guess I did make a good choice by not having a fixed driving instructor, though I ‘ve been getting a different one everytime, it opens up various challenges, viewpoints, techniques & tips instead from a single source, not to mention going easier on the pocket too!

Dinner was at east coast food center, though they had renovated the place quite sometime ago, its my first time there since they reopened. The variety of food there is very limited, though there are many stores & the ambience is actually quite good for a food hawker center (not to mention romatic at night), what they serve are mostly BBQ & fishball noodle stores, one duck rice store & no western food stores at all. dang!

Before that, didn’t go for driving at noon today as I was down with flu in the morning which I overcomed by mid afternoon after resting at home. Then accompanied John as an advisor to Simlim in the late afternoon to buy his new Gaming PC parts. After some research & homework, manged to get a P42.8Ghz E & an Asus mobo with DDR400, AGP8x, SATA for bout $450 a steal!

Sunday’s tomorrow, time for another morning swim, & maybe some driving or so.. and yea look out for a brand new art gallery format, plus 4 new artpieces I’ve been working on would be posted soon.

Went for my so called “weekly” morning swim since a year’s time at delta swimming complex. The sports council closed the one at bukit merah since the HDB moved out last year & say the place is so quiet ever since. The swim wasn’t that bad, considering that I hadn’t swam 50m lap consceutively since I enlisted in the army, somehow I stilll managed to clock a descent 50m lap time of 1min 8 seconds. My heart rate is kinda messed up and high now, guess its time I smack my sunday weekly swims again on my calender. Overall the place is rather crowded in the morning & I can reconise some of the usual bukit merah swimming instructors & swimmers at the new location, guess I am not the only one who migrated to delta as well. The place spots many sports facilties like a gym and large soccer field which Ididn’t take notice previously. Not a bad place in all.

And mmm, its coming to the end of another sunday, mother’s day. Tonight’s family dinner was so homely & nice, maybe we shouldn’t eat out so often on special occasions & appreciate the good old homecooked food, (esp that of my mum’s, with alittle help from dad ) You are super mum!

& hey! theres new photos added in the NS section.

Whee… tomorrow’s monday, may it be another fun week to come.

Went to the dentist today morning for some regular checkup, cleaning and polishing appointment my mum booked for me mid last week. My usual dentist, Dr Sandra Lee would be posted to the clementi clinic after today, so I can say today is her last day her at the BM branch. & man was I lucky to have this appoinment smack right on this last day after like, not visiting the dentist for the last erm.. 2 years?

Dropped down to NTUC unity thereafter to purchase some flu medicine, as I had been happy quite a bad running nose the last few days. NTUC bukit merah is very much revamped now, its big enough to even compete with their liberty supermarkets featuring very large spaces, checkout counter, not to mention a huge sushi and wine cellar. Can’t expect more as they’ve more or less taken over the whole floor area of the previous tendant, Bestway… The place is big enough for trolley movement now, unlike the previous cramped layout. All the fun for future supermarket trips!

The handphone PTT accessory I’ve ordered online came yesterday in a package. It was air flown from hongkong & I am quite happy with it ATM. Still have more testing before I can actually make fair statments on the product. *thinking of writing a review on it* duh

Armour Family day is on at Sentosa today, at tanjong beach so more of less theres games, food and even a freaking foam party at night… dang. & I have a dinner appointment with my family at night… mmm not to mention forgoing another activity tonight, an invitation BBQ with my BMT friends. dang! why do they all have to come at one go?

Oh yea & not forgetting…

Mother’s day tomorrow..

How can I mistaken mother’s day being today than on next next sunday. Anyway, gave my mum her mother’s day card this morning together with some cute little red heart shaped plushie thingy with ‘I Luv mom’ sewn on it. She was rather surprised too though, till she recieved the gifts & told me: “Shaun, mother’s day is not in till next week!” & yea there I was momentarily stunned, & yea its stated next week on the calender too… too late dang! The occasion seemed so near, esp with all the greeting shops stocking up on mother’s day gifts and cards, its hard to miss the feeling, & the rush too, it just felt too close. I knew it was sunday, but a wrong sunday! Well, I just emmm “told her” that next weekend may be quite rushing for me, esp the possiblity of staying back in camp (though the probablity is almost zero, it was just an excuse) & me going for a BBQ with my friends next saturday, may be staying over & till sunday & won’t be able to wish her mother’s day then. Though mum didn’t questioned me of my mistake, I can tell that she kinda brought the point of me telling her: “nothing beats the feeling of recieving a mother’s day gift on a nice sunday morning while having breakfast (thats what I actually did this morning). All in hand I can tell that she was rather happy with this year’s presents, & yea, she was not out to get me just for that!

whew!

Payday would be in bout 8 days time, & I guess its time it came too. Considering that I’ve spent almost $250 on driving lessons only just for a fortnight. Its freaking expensive, the worst thing is I have to pay most of the fees myself arghh! (Dad want me to go thru this myself, but how much cheaper was it last time when he took his leesons? minus inflation arghh!)

Never underestimated is the power of internet shopping, esp with me getting my hands (die money! wrong move) on a debit card with my name on it.. the feeling to impulsively spruge & spruge is great.. argh! convience argh! low rates so many things to buy! overload! anyway, got one of these for my phone today.

So much for debit, why not credit? The net is a good place to earn cash too. Been looking around e-bay.com.sg lately & found quite some nice deals there. Moreover, I have tons of old computer modems, ram, etc to sell possibly making some money too. Also if you wanna help out feel free to give the art commissions section a ring or so.