Had not actually had time to update on this but yup my birthday celebrations was on last weekend. Saturday and Sunday to be exact with the actual day on Sunday, the 25th of March. Celebrated with dinner at Cafe Cartel and some shopping around the city link area on the 24th, then it’s cake cutting and well wishes on the following Sunday with my family. Mum wanted to get me one of those solid cuff bangles in silver and matte black, presumably as she thought that “thats the in-thing with youngsters now” but nah that don’t really float my boat, considering that I am actually quite selective of what I wear on myself. Good thing she brought me to stores before purchasing at least she didn’t get something I didn’t like! I don’t really demand a present from my parents so anything in is just a bonus to me, in fact I am still feel obligated to give both my parents some of my earnings I’ve got from my current school internship, something which would also be a feat too get them to keep the money.

Got myself a new phone - FINALLY! a HP rw6828. So finally I can get my moblog back up and running again. It’s the Black Titanium version, so that very much set me with an additional stylus, battery and 1GB miniSD card (which I topped up with a 2GB of my own). Spent the last few days installing all my favorite applications, plug-ins and games, now I only have like 6mb of free ROM space left… But at least it beats carry 3 devices around, it’s both a camera, phone and PDA in one now.. and much more! Now wait till I hijack those TVs in coffee shops and best denki with my universal remote software…

Sheena upgraded her Motorola V3 to a Nokia 7390 3G fashion phone. The phone looks really spanky, compact and is incredibly lighter than it looks. Brought some new screen protectors from SimLim yesterday to install on her phone and mine. I love the black colour on my rw6828, but would be looking to get a silicon cover soon.

Given the trips over the weekends, it’s kinda weird now without a car and traveling around on public transport on weekends do gets kinda husky at times, but it beats finding a parking spot and paying for gas. My yearns for a hybrid car but the $89,000 price tag cannot justify the desire to switch considering a Lancer or Nissan Sunny costs half as much in Singapore, go figure - cars here can cost as much as a house in the states.

Thx to all who sent in your well wishes! Cheers!

An up and coming event. If you love hill work this event is for you! The highlight of the race is a mid way climb up the hill itself and down all the way thereafter. Registered today (Bib No 1577) and for $10 it’s a steal considering you get goodies and a dry-fit Mizuno Tee to go too. My recommendations.

Mizuno Mount Faber Run
Date: 22nd April 2007 Sunday
Starting Point: Henderson Community Club
Distance: 10km
Reporting Time: Start at 0630 hours
Race Start-Time: 0730 hours

Categories:
Men’s Open, ( NO AGE LIMIT )
Women’s Open, ( NO AGE LIMIT )
Men’s Veteran, ( 45 yrs & > )
Women’s Veteran ( 40 yrs & >)

Registration Info
Registration Fee: $10 (includes a Mizuno event tee)
Closing Date: Sunday 15 April 2007
Participant Cap: Limited to 1600 runners

Mode of Registration:
Participants are required to register personally at the following designated locations: -
1. Mizuno Paragon #04-37/38
2. Mizuno Marina Square # #03-120/121
3. Mizuno Ang Mo Kio #B1-38
4. Mizuno Viivocity #02-16
5. Isetan Orchard Sports Town Level 4 Wisma Atria
6. Jurong Point Sports Town #02-29
7. WOS Heartland Mall #03-10
8. Velocity @ Novena Square #02-68/72
9. Henderson Community Club 500 Bukitmerah View
10. Cairnhill Community Club 1 Anthony Road

Event Form	Route

Race Route
The race route picture is blurred but at least you can get a rough picture. I will elaborate the route in words. The start and end points will be at Henderson Community Club itself, the route will bring runners out to Henderson road through Bukit Merah View up towards Safara Mount Faber (Telok Blangah) into Morse Road and Pender Road. It will be an uphill climb along Mount Faber Road finally exiting at Bukit Purmei Ave, running past Jalan Bukit Merah/Lower Delta Road and finally back to Henderson road.

Special for all registered runners:- goodies bags include an exclusive Mizuno Limited Edition Event Tee worth S$39.90
- a chance to win attractive lucky draw prizes
- 30% on mizuno regular-priced merchandise at the point of registration (excludes selected nett price items)

Psst: If you are observant enough you will notice the front picture of the registration brochure is actually taken from he Mizuno 2005 wave run at Kovan, rather than Mount Faber itself!

With this new found time comes new found exercise time!
It’s Saturday, the 24th -Shutdown day! and I am still using my computer! LOL. Anyway with the given spade of Internship and the rather early morning wake up calls for work, I am actually waking up automatically early in the morning these days! Whoa! no more rise and shine for lunch, it’s breakfast this time.

It feels great to get your body clock re-calibrated. Saw the daybreak at 9am today. With this new-found time, what’s no other better way to start the say with a 12km run along Uncle LKY territory? Finished my rather short 12km run within the hour and half before 10:30am then headed home to get my swimming stuffs for a 1 hour continuous recovery swim at Delta Swimming Complex, which means dropping by the nearby Henderson CC beforehand too to register for the Mizuno Mount Faber Run 2007 happening on the 22nd April (I will provide more info on the event at a later date).

Getting New Phone!
The sun is great today and I guess I caught enough of it on today’s run and swim, little chou-ta already. Would be dropping by Cityhall area later for some shopping and purchasing my next new phone - The HP IPaq rw6828 Titanium Black Communicator. The thing which favored me to buy this over the Dopod D810, 838Pro and Eten M700 is the size, form factor, price ($598 w 2yr plan) and most important of all, re-knowned and best service and support for Pocket PC Repairs and technical assistance in Singapore (Sis Technologies for Dopod and O2 can go fly kite).

My Pre-birthday dinner celebrations will come later in the night! Man… I will be 23 tomorrow so old already…

Millege for week the week (7 day period)
Wednesday - Redhill/Tanglin Canal Route 3 Rounds (16.22km)
Friday - Redhill/Tanglin Canal Route 2 Rounds (12.56km)
Sunday Noon - 1 Hour Continuous Birthday swim 50m laps for 60mins
Total Running Millage the week: 28.78km
Total Accumulative Millage for 2007: 215.38km

Day One, Saturday 17th March. It’s all dark and anticipative upon waking up. Met up with Elrick 7am at Golden Mile, Derrick, Val and Ruth are already up in KL on an overnight bus, so we will be meeting them up later in the day. It was a bonus when we were told that our standard VIP had been upgraded to a VVIP coach with leather massage chairs and personal movie entertainment screens for free. Not that I actually needed those as I intended to actually sleep the whole journey up to KL, on-ride DVD movies were rather choppy and the massage chairs isn’t the perfect definition of comfort- though there are several modes available, they are all about the same and makes funny groaning noises when activated, it’s like sitting on a large vibrating handphone! Nevertheless had breakfast II (breakfast I was at home by Dad) at Yong Tong bug stopover and lunch (AhYat Timsum, as dragged to by Elrick) upon checking in at our Hotel (Swiss garden hotel) after a 4 1/2 hour bus journey.

Thereafter we made our way to Wisma OCM which was just around the blocks to collect our race packs. Amazingly registrations are still open! (duh) nevertheless weren’t told of the 20RM deposit we had to make for our race chip and the event shirt is COTTON! bhhawrr! man do it look horrible! nevertheless theres a small sports exhibition and promoters for Addias, Powerbar (where Elrick met his GRC rep, who was rather popular there) and even the upcoming Penang bridge Marathon.

Dropped by Merdeka Square (aka the padang) after a short 30mins walk from Wisma through Chinatown. That is where I came to realise how small the City was as opposed to my previous visits. I remembered taking a monorail from Berjaya and 2 stops to get to Chinatown, little do I know that’s an excessive big loop when I can actually get to my destination from my hotel after a short route planning on the city map.

Merdeka Square (Pre-Race)	KL City	Post-Race Photo!

We were greeted by vast open fields and the tall flag pole bearing the Malaysia flag at Merdeka square. Interesting, though it’s like 12hours to event time, the start point was not even set up! Not to mention few half set up tents here and there. After all I think it’s gonna be a small event, so not much pre-preps are actually required as compared to SCM, but hey both are international marathon events too right? Did some shopping (and lots of walking) for the rest of the day around the area till late afternoon, where we linked up with Derrick and Gang for dinner at Tong Ren Tang Restaurant along Jalan Alor Street, which is a rather popular night eating hangout. Shopped around Jana Bukit Bintang and Imbi before heading back to the hotel to retire for the night around 9pm.

Day One, Sunday 18th March. Hotel wake up call 4:45am, but woke up at 4:30am from my PDA alarm, then it’s a quick change in sleepy mode into running attire and breakfast from some kaya bread we stocked up yesterday. KL city is very dark and quiet around 5am, with regular crowds nucleated around the late night coffee shops, otherwise it’s nice, cooling and non of the polluting day time traffic- perfect for a half-marathon.

The Race. The race was flagged off my the KL mayor soon after I am seeing myself pacing myself along the KL highways for the first 10km of the run which is rather hilly I guess, though the smooth highway the roads are always going up and down, always good on the way down but demanding the uphill at the later parts of the race where fatigue starts to kick in. Otherwise, the hills are a good place for overtaking, up (people slow down/walk on up) or down (most don’t open up steps down) too. The crowds generally eased from 5km onwards where the first water point is located, from there ou can always see an open space for you to run ahead. It’s after the Airport-tollbooth where the Sun rose and temperature starts rising, that’s also when most of us start to make our way into the heart of the KL shopping district and City (Jalan Bukity Bintang) running pass familiar shopping locations.

A finisher!	SGrunner’s TLR and family	Event shirt and medal

I remembered one point where the 10km runners merged with us half and full marathoners, then an Indian kid asked me how much more to run? haha I can only reply “maybe 5-7km? why not ask the people at the next water point?” Considering the only distance marker I saw was at the 10km mark! Man I could not pace myself well at all! One confusing part involves running loops round the last few kms before finishing at the padang. Was told Elrick ran like 3-4 rounds as he did not get the lap ribbon on one lap, lol. All I can say, after 15-18km, seeing the familar flag tall landmark flag pole at the Merdeka square can really put the power back in your speed to sprint the last few Kilometers to finish the race.

Finished the race in 2.05 Guntime and 2.04 Nettime, a new overseas record and faster than my last year’s Sheares Bridge Run timing. Good thing there is always water and 100-plus at every water point, not to mention medics, though this meets the international requirements, it would be better to have more points and even mobile toilets stationed there (alot of runners can be seen running in and out of the side bushes during the run).

More commendable points includes fast baggage collection, which took less than a minute to retrieve my depostited shoe bag, very impressive indeed. Baggage security was decent but not overly protective, otherwise it still gets the job done. The only thing I have against it is the stapling of the tags to our bags - it would be better to have a detachable tag to cable tie to the bags, rather than stitching your bag with 2-3 staple bullets to hold the tag in place. Also, it would be un-wise to hand a baggage collection receipt to runners written in markers which could possibly smudge in sweat, considering the runners have to actually run with it. Alternatively, runners can use their number tags (Bibs) to collect the baggage, that would be better, since the receipt only contains that.

Met up with Derrick and gang and even the SGrunners (esp TLR and this family) for post race gathering and photos before pigging out at our Hotel’s international buffet breakfast- yummy! It’s like we had not ran 21km at all- we walked back to Bukit Bintang after washing and checking out at 12noon for more last minute shopping (aka part II) till 3pm, where we collected out bags back at the hotel from our rather hospitable and very friendly hotel bellboy.

The bus trip back to our surprise is another deluxe VVIP coach, I remembered the lady in Konsortum saying, the bus back may be different, together with some nightmare stories as told by friends about bus companies normally con-ning customers with old dinky buses on their return trip. Guess we can set those fears aside on our trip back. Reached home about 10pm (not much of a jam at Tuas checkpoint despite school holiday’s sunday) and went out for family supper thereafter.

Didn’t take much photos, but you can view more of the event in the photo album.

Well man, I am back from KL and man am I tried, after few whole days of shopping, then running the half marathon, then shopping again, man am I spent! Will update again tomorrow.

Millege for week the week (7 day period)
Thursday - IPPT 2.4km Maju Camp (2.4km 10:18mins)
Sunday - Ambank KL Marathon, Half-marathon event (21km)
Total Running Millage the week: 23.4km
Total Accumulative Millage for 2007: 186.6km

Bags are all packed and ready, my bus trip up will be at 7 am tomorrow at Golden Mile, should be a lazy bus journey up. Then it will be lots of walking and recce-ing to do after checking into the hotel (Swiss Garden KL), not to mention collecting my race packs and stuffs from Wisma OCM. Looking for a Sub 2 hour race and a nice breakfast buffet following thereafter the event in the hotel! Will be back Sunday night. Wish me a safe trip and all the best for my Half-Marathon!

Remember my last Tuesday’s IPPT which was void due to rain? After a hassle and rush to clear my window before my birthday, today is rematch day and my 2nd IPPT in 3 days.

Reached Maju Camp with an overcast sky and strong winds, even the sound of distant thunder prompted cheers among the RPs (who are seemingly delighted with the approaching rain). To my dismay, it’s like deja-vu all over again. Thing didn’t get better either during briefing with strong winds & constant thunder, before the static stations started, the heavens leaked.

My legs were still aching from last Tuesday’s IPPT, which particularly hindered me alot on today’s standing board jump - with large diminishing returns on every new jump. In short here are my result for all 5 stations:

Chin-up- 12 reps (5 points - A)
Sit-up- 40 reps (5 points - A)
Shuttle Run- 9.4 s (5 points - A)
2.4km Run- 10:18 mins (5 points - A)
SBJ- 221 cm (2 points - D) Bwwharr!!

So thats a 22/25 point PASS wahh! Yes I know, my standing board jump (SBJ) is a great giveaway. Actually I got 234cm on my first attempt but I threw myself so forward I fell back, watching my 234 change to 180 on the screen in a second. The first one is given a fault by the PTI so I got 2 more tries. My 2nd try was at 225cm but the same with me falling back. My third (and last try) was a disappointing 221cm and it could not get any better. If only I quickly curled myself forward on my 1st jump to maintain my 234cm (4 points).

I remembered hearing someone quoted this before but dunno from who:

Following on Dad’s told me few days ago - I should learn be satisfied with what I have, considering that I’ve not taken IPPT for almost close to 2 years, so I reluctantly left the static stations with 221cm for my SBJ. The rain stopped after our static stations, which came as a cool welcome doing the 3×800m laps round the camp which is rather pleasant to run I say, very very much beats running laps on the track - my recommendations if you want a good 2.4km route for your IPPT. I believe I could get better timings than 10:18mins if my mind won’t so clouded with disappointment then about my SBJ distance. There’s RT going on too during my 2.4km, can see the look on the races of the non-ICT RT personnel when they see us finish the 2.4km with glee - ENVY!

Got a pass with incentive in the end, so thats $100 excluding make up pay, which is about $10 for specialists. Come to think about it, $100 is the same amount I get for silver during my active days.

Cheers to Jarrod whom I met similarly on last Tuesday’s IPPT as well, he’s around today and cleared his window (which closes earlier than me on this coming sunday) as well too! He’s from the 1981 batch and a teacher teaching GP and philosophy in RJC. Haha thanks for the cab ferry to Clementi thereafter too!

In closing, I always have a stand that Standing board jump is largely based on technique, and not largely dependent on strength, there are freaking long legged people who jump only 206cm and small short nibble ones who can easily do 250cm without a sweat. I won’t be taking another IPPT too soon, allowing this 2006 window to close next week with just an incentive ($100). Coming April, I will look into critically improving my SBJ and shaving that 30 seconds off my 2.4km for a <9.44mins for a safe CAT X Gold. I will tackle my 2007 window with at least 240cm for my Standing Board Jump with bi-weekly jumps from now on during my weekly runs.

The best way to face your fears, is to do so head on…

Had my first Electronic IPPT today. Amazingly for a whole group of 50-100 candidates, only 3-4 PTIs are needed to take them all, with one watching each station at every go. This is so unlike the IPPTs I’ve conducted before during my active days. The thing now is that you need not take the stations in sequence - I remembered last time that there was a particularly sequence to follow and you can’t ‘jump’ from station to station. But now you can!

You will be given a number tag upon registration, tagged to your NRIC where all your records will be stored. You can start a station after placing your number tag at the station’s own sensor pad then all your records will be stored in your Tag using RFID. With that, heres a run through of the stations:

Pull-ups
Placing your RFID tag on the holder, you can mount the bar with both over or under grasp or alternate grasps. The machine will count (in a ‘manly’ but rather awkward electronic voice) the number of chin ups you did when your head cuts the laser sensors (found similarly in ’smart’ lift doors and escalators placed above the head area) and go below the bar. What the system can’t really detect is the straightening of the arms when your head is below the bar, which needs intervention of the PTIs. Furthermore, if you do valid pull ups with very wide V style with hands at both ends of the bar and your “rest” point is somewhere with the tip of your head sticking above the bar, the system won’t count too.

Sit-ups
No more doubles/partner system here, courtesy of a Velcro strap to hold your legs in place. After placing your tag on the sensor pad, you can do whatever adjustments you want, stretch, bua long long… then just lie down, the timer will only start when you do your 1st sit-up (i.e by ‘freeing’ the laser line of sight by lifting off the ground. The system will register a sit-up count when it get a successful registration of the laser sensors being alternated (i.e On-Off-On). What the system cannot detect is you touching your knees and you can even register a sit-up by doing crunches! (not going up fully) which is what the PTI particularly looks out for. Another flaw in the system is that when you are done (but with your time is not up yet) and if you sit up with your arms behind you (cutting the lasers beams behind you in the process) the system will still count!

Shuttle Run
There are 2 variants, the one I personally seen is one with a gantry to register start stop (and not being at the mercy of notorious human reaction times) the rest is all the standard Shuttle Run Rubber mat, only there are no blocks but only marked lines to touch at both ends. The other kind have a whole “sandbox” like flat rubber “bowl” where you have to touch 2 metal plates at the end (was told this is so at Bedok Camp). But both registers time start and end at the end. Timings are more consistent with this system and it beats having to grab a wooden block which will not too often fly off your hands when trying to grasp them.

Standing Board Jump
Same, place your tag on the sensor pad to load your details be greeted and “ready” the system. The system will register a fault even at the slightness intrusion over the red start line. The system registers jump distances to the next lowest distance at set intervals, i.e …<216, 221, 225, 230, 234, 239.. and so on. So basically upon landing it registers the last unobstructed laser beam at whatever interval and returns the jump distance from there, that includes too if you happen to fall back and land with your hand behind you too - as standard procedure to the non-electronic version. There are green LED markers demarking target distances from 216cm onwards. It’s usually good to use the LED markings as an obstacle and try to jump over them, doing do can get your 239cm and above.

2.4km Run/Jog
I’ve not run this yet due to CAT1 in my test, but Maju seems to be better than the other camps. The 2.4km comprise of 3 rounds round a 800m camp perimeter with terrain, so its harder to pace compared to the 400m round track if you have not run the route before, but otherwise more relaxing and not so mentally taxing to run. This is the only station where you have to wear your number tag to run which uses the RFID to track your lap counts and timing (similar to the RFID number tags in the 2005 Safra Sheares Bridge Run, Army Half-Marathon or the similarly, like the Champion timer chip in SCM, VM, etc…).

That is all I have to share from my first Electronic IPPT! Good luck for yours!

Today is my first in-camp NS IPPT and my first with electronic IPPT scoring as well. But the system is quote idiot proof for anyone but noticeably there are quite a few areas of possible exploitation of the system, not something that I would do while not under the watchful eye of the PTI, but something noticeable after studying the mechanics and visually dissecting test equipment, seeing how they tick. Just as to say, by means like any system, there is still need for human intervention and is not completely “un-cheatable”. But don’t be imitated by it too, as there is still the old fashioned way of doing it - just approach the station PTI.

I am looking to maintain my silver just like during my active days, it’s possible to get 25points, but still a silver. Why? 2.4km as a marathoner is difficult to achieve below 9:45mins, having being so used to my steady LSD pacings. Maybe I should do more MSDs. So it’s quite uncommon for me to finish 2.4km without feeling breathless at around 9:59 tops and still raring to go another 20km (while others are all panting and collapsed), maybe it’s just me. Sub 10mins is 1:40mins of leeway from the silver cutoff timing of 11:40mins and I will still get the same $200 incentive just as someone who came in 11:39.59 for CAT X, bummer….

Nevertheless after clearing my pull-ups, situps and shuttle run with 5 points, with the exception of my Standing Board Jump barely making 225cm (3 points) for a silver, it RAINED! CAT 1. So much for that, my first NS IPPT - Drenched! ALL of us can’t take our 2.4km station and left with a “Failed, Try harder next time” dinky receipt with 0.00s for 2.4km station. You can only retake stations when you fail and can’t take anymore if get to a higher incentive, bummer!

What’s more as things couldn’t get any worst, the journey back is as demoralising - it rained so heavy, you can’t even make out the vegetation from one end of the parade square to the other. Waiting inside or outside of the camp busstop will get you drenched either way as any vehicle which passes by will send meter-high tsunamis into the busstop… DAMMIT!

On the brighter side, at least todays IPPT is considered an attempt, so I won’t be seeing a fine or MPs knocking on my door so soon, with the exception of maybe an RT letter. And there is KL Marathon to look forward to this weekend too. However, I would still want to take the IPPT sometime this or next week to get the cash incentive. Now if only I can get working on my Standing board jump technique to secure my sure-silver.

Coincidentally met my wing platoon mate Erick also took IPPT today too, also spent some time chatting with some of the old reservist uncles as well. It seems that most of the NS personnel taking IPPT are more than satisfied with a pass, but is definitely a “No-No” to me, considering the double multipliers for Pass ($100 incentive) to $200 Silver and $400 Gold. Recapping today’s event as told, my Dad say I push myself too much and should be more than happy with what I have or can achieve… am I being stubborn or the pursuit for the best and success blinded me? after all Dad is also like those happy go lucky pot-bellied uncles I mentioned previously too, “pass can already!”

Some old addition of millage I left out on calculation for last 2 weeks:

Millege for week before last week (7 day period)
Friday- Tiong Bahru Park - 13 rounds (15km)
Millege for last week (7 day period)
Tuesday- Redhill/Tanglin Outer Route - 3 rounds (15.5km)
Saturday - Redhill/Tanglin Canal Route - 3 revised rounds (17.7km)
Sunday Noon - 1 Hour Continuous swim 50m laps for 60mins
Total Running Millage for 2 weeks: 48.2km
Total Accumulative Millage for 2007: 163.2km

Today is results release date & similarly, didn’t really feel the heat unlike my peers since yesterday. My stand is that even if you check now or next week, your results won’t change, so why the rush? Came back from work around 7pm & did a short 15km run on a new refreshing running route. The Tanglin area is quite a nice place to jog in the evening, maybe I should plan more running routes round my home area, esp the canal route area where RP used to reside (and now UNSW).

With that in hand this week marks my 4th week of Internship. Work is still very manageable, not to mention rather happy and fun at the same time, I love the flexible work hours and the happy working environment. Did I mention my company even has a “pok pok” department? Yea thats our company pet chicken clad in the exact corporate colours of my company logo, haha. I guess I have a soft spot for animals, especially chickens considering that my family had actually reared late Chirper before. I always find myself feeding it some food whenever I have leftovers on our tea-breaks, . It’s unreal seeing a chicken nested in the balcony of a penthouse office. Any problems? thats the pok-pok managerial department to you!

It was not till now, late at night, with some time to spare before bedtime when I finally logged into the student administration to check my results 2As and 7Ds. With that I also tabulated a progress graph of my results over time… Personally it’s quite stagnant.

*ducks and runs from tomatoes and water balloons*

Got a call from my NS bunkmate Daryl yesterday asking whether I was posted to a unit. Apparently most of us commanders even our troopers had calls on their postings over the pass weeks, except for a few including me. With my IPPT window closing soon comes the big question - must I take IPPT when I did not even receive any SMS, mails or calls at all? Is it compulsory?

Called the NS.sg hotline on the matter, apparently the operator will always give the politically correct answer to take it. They were especially panicky or “kan-qiong” after they learnt from the reocrds that my IPPT window will close in 2 weeks time, even I seem not much bothered about it all. But I guess I have to commend on the good phone operator service, they even offered to register and do a walkthrough of the new electronic IPPT system at the safra club venues, which I declined as I had to confirm my schedules and the proximity of the various test venues. Otherwise, not bad at all.

Chatted with my other NS Bunkmate aka long lost “Yohn” on MSN today, not only catching up on times but even getting to know that he already went for 1 ICT and took IPPT there, but failed. Unlike most of my other friends who told me to “only take when you receive a call-up/letter” or “maintain a low profile” (or risk your chances of being called up, i.e do not take IPPT like what some had done for 5 years already), Yohn recommended me to take it even I am not posted to any unit, just to “cover my backside”- Just as what I was thinking along the line as well better be safe than sorry, so I guess I should schedule one next week then, before my KL marathon.

I just wonder even if I do take the IPPT, if I am not posted to any unit, where do they send the results to? And who’s going to process my IPPT bonus when I get a Gold or Silver?

I guess as notorious and messed up SAF administrations are, even if I get a Gold or Silver, I guess I am prepared not to even get my bonus, just like missing my marksman bonus during my active days, anything in “out of the blue” would be just a “bonus”.

An update on the car accident, apparently the driver responsible for the accident had completely disappeared from contact, so Dad had been frantically running up and down to settle claims direct with the company (Applied Movers & Trading PL) where the driver works. The police won’t come into the picture as they said they will only do so if there are casualties or injures in the accident- we are told to settle it with insurance themselves. In the end, we only managed a small $3,000 claim from the insurance - not even enough to cover repair cost, furthermore spending money to repair a car we have for 8 years is unjustifiable considering that it won’t guarantee a fix “like new” fix without and free of problems.

Then Dad felt it is best to scrap the car, doing away with the dinky insurance claim (thats how they make our money folks). Dad got a few good scrap dealer contacts whom he know previously in his car line. Whats more if we scarp the car now, we get at least $21,000 OMV compared to holding it for another few years, which would fetch about $8,000 then. So we would be without a car for some period, till then.. oh well.

The thing which feels disturbing is that how can there be companies out there employing workers who are not even qualified or trained to handle their work tasks? The driver who left the Trailer Truck which rolled into our parked car had a Class 4 driving license, where he actually needs to have a Class 5 to driver a Prime Mover Trailer. If we sue, it would cost us alot on legal fees and we will end up forking more from our own pockets, so does that mean letting letting an offender just Scott free after all the things and destruction he had done? I think so for now. It just makes me so worried each time I see a mover trailer on the road, because, they are just like potential time bombs waiting to start problems.