Yay! M2's back from hospital and he's looking fine again. Got the morning off to return the "courtesy" Soluna to the NTUC Co-op at Tampines Mall then collect M2 from IDAC Braddell where I had left him last week.

I first went to the Esso station near my place to get the Soluna washed at the Wash 'n Go. It's a fun experience -- a foam party for cars. First the entire car is splashed with buckets of water, then sprayed with loads of soapy foam, then sponged down by hand, then rinsed with a pressure hose, then finally, towel dried by hand. It took about 20 minutes as there was a bit of a queue there already even early in the morning.

By contract, I had to return a clean car, both inside and out so I extracted the car mats to beat them free of dirt and grime. The Wash 'n Go operator kindly allowed me to have the mats sprayed with the pressure hose too, so that took care of that problem. I also had to top up the fuel tank which I did.

I arrived at the co-op at about 0900 (I might have arrived earlier if I didn't get lost on the TPE) but was told the uncle would only be in at 1000 to take the car back. So I went to the nearby McDs for a leisurely breakfast to pass the time. The Soluna was clean enough to pass the uncle's standards so there was no need to apply the $10 cleaning fine. The car wash cost me $6 so I saved $4, though it wasn't quite enough to pay for breakfast.

Caught a cab to IDAC Braddell where I finally took back possession of M2, one week after his mishap. It was a minor accident, with relatively minor damage, so the whole process was largely painless. Still, it helps to have good friends who will see you through the difficult times (thanks, guys) and the attentive, amiable service provided by the IDAC staff, Eileen in particular. Without them liasing between the insurance company and the repair shops on my behalf, I would have been pretty much at a loss as to how to proceed to get M2 fixed. Bouquets and roses to y'all!

M2 is home now, where he belongs.

Exactly a year ago today I started experimenting with blogging, so Happy Birthday to quidestveritas!!! *whistles and confetti fill the air

I'm pretty proud of myself for keeping this blog updated almost daily; a couple of lapses here and there, but I've always found something to say eventually, at least so far. Must thank everyone for dropping in regularly and thus encouraging me to keep writing.

So how did I celebrate today? Well, there was PW tutorial first thing in the morning. It was my CT's first PW session with me and because one of their PW tasks involves the study of properties of a particular aspect of nature, I took the group outside the college compound to stare at the canal and otherwise observe whatever Mother Nature allowed to grow around the HDB block there. I'm not sure what the kids got out of the exercise, but they'll learn less about nature confined to a classroom, I think.

Then I had a 3 hour lecture to give. That is, the same 1-hour lecture given 3 times over within a span of 4 hours. Same exercise, same tired old jokes, and by the time the last lecture came around I was drained.

Then Drama Club rehearsal when we encountered problems with the ending and that part of the play had to be rewritten. Tina, me, Mel, Aaron and Ben trashed out some possible ideas till 2030hrs and hopefully the script will be more streamlined by the next write.

Then I went back to the Civil Service Club for bowling training. The last couple of weeks I've been bowling crap. Very disappointing scores, and tonight was little different. Back to averaging 120+ again, and the tournament is next Thursday! Good luck to us all!

Returned home to a wife who was livid over the psychodrama Cat Auntie and Lau Ban Niang are putting her through. They report that Skull is now dying from same affliction that has struck down many of the other cats in the Square. If they had told us earlier in the weekend when they had noticed his condition, we could have had him seen to, but their info today is too late for us to do anything about it. Flirt, her baby (missing), the black kitten, and now Skull. I don't know how much more of this we can take.

Didn't mean to begin a new year on such a downer, but it's been the truth so far, and long may veritas rule here! Happy birthday, blog!

Early morning wake-up call. Collected in-laws from their place at 0630. First stop: Chong Pang for brekkie. Any later and there would have been long queues for the best food there -- the chui kueh and the yu tiao. Neither are plagued with the too-much-oil affliction and they're great eaten fresh and hot. Too bad I wasn't feeling hungry 'cos there's plenty other stalls that look promising.

But it wasn't breakfast that got me out of bed early. Today is the day of my in-laws' annual visit to the final resting places of their departed folks. Well, not just my in-laws but for many Chinese families here as well.

As I was previously short of personal transportation, June and I have always been excluded from this visitation. However, this year to celebrate my acquisition of wheels, I became designated driver for the day. Don't know if it was a good thing, but as my M2's still in the shop, it was my rental Soluna that made the trip with us.

Great-grandma's tomb is up on a hillside at the burial plot up on Sime Road. Never been there before in my life. The place is just a bit creepy but beautiful nonetheless. It's like the jungle and the dead have forged a truce with each other. It's a largely uncultivated landscape, full of trees and grass, and rays of sunlight streaming through the branches overhead. If you look upwards, it's stunningly pretty, but we tend to keep our eyes on the ground to avoid walking over peoples' graves.

My in-laws place joss-sticks on the ancestral tomb and burn paper offerings in front of it. The tomb seems quite well taken care of, considering the last visit was probably last year. The grounds keeper has been doing his job well. But the adjacent tombs are overgrown with weeds and it's obvious they've been abandoned by their surviving families for a long time. At these tombs my in-laws generously spare some joss as well, visiting them in proxy of people we don't even know.

The immediate next door neighbours belong to one family and they have their tombs guarded by a pair of statues of Indian militia. Apparently the patriarch of this clan was someone important in the CID when he was alive. It's sad that it's only the statues that keep the tombs company now. Not that it's sad for the deceased, because it doesn't matter any more, but for the living who have lost the memory of their past, of the people who were once close to them. Perhaps I'm over-romanticising, but a place like this brings such thoughts to the surface.

A peaceful place, quiet, contemplative. Dutiful people arriving to remember those long-gone, armed with gardening implements and burnt offerings of paper money, paper clothes for the after-life. Other tombs waiting for visitors who will never arrive. This world is, after all, for the living. May the dead rest in peace.

We also visited June's grandparents, whose ashes rest in the San Jiang Gong Columbrarium on Dempsey Road.

Hmm... when was the last time I visited my dearly departed?

My previous post was a load of trash, and I know it. Goes to show how tired I was, writing nonsense like that. So the fact that I'm making another entry right now is totally illogical, especially when my alarm clock is set to ring at 0530hrs this coming morning. The reason why is for my next entry.

Today was another crazy run-around session, mostly work though the evening was quite fun. Morning I was at Tina's studio with the Drama Club. It was fun watching Shah choreograph the kids and watching their jaws drop in amazement at what he wanted them to do. Then it was gratifying to see them practice over and over again and get better every time. We have a really good show this year. Great director, great choreography, great accompaniment, great music, visionary set BUT too little time to pull it all off. Another couple of weeks would have made a lot of difference for us, but too bad we can't have 'em. So we'll make do and hope it'll be good enough.

Having a 'courtesy car' while your own car's in the 'shop can be a real pain when it comes to parking. Without the benefit of season parking, the tearing of chad off individual parking coupons is such a tedious chore. And knowing that each coupon is a dollar's worth for every hour of parking adds insult to injury especially when your season parking's already paid up for the month. I want my M2 back...!

In the afternoon I was busy preparing for Monday's lecture. A solid 3 to 4 hours of looking through material and condensing it all into PowerPoint slides, and I'm still not happy with the presentation. It's boring! I'll lose my audience in 5 minutes unless inspiration strikes tomorrow. Then again, it's been a week already and I have yet to be inspired. 1 more day left to think. *Fingers crossed.

Rewarded myself by joining Anthony, Weng, Celine and their dates at this wonderful eating place at the KTM railway station in Tanjong Pagar. The station is technically Malaysian territory so there's a major Malay food court operating BEHIND the main building, hidden away from the main road. We ordered an assortment of foods: Ramlee burgers, mee goreng, kambing (mutton) soup, murtabak, kebab in pita bread, satay and later in the evening, Weng ordered a seesha (secret ingredient was to put ice cubes in the water chamber to make the smoke smoother and more flavourful), forming the centrepiece of our table.

Beware the satay, though. They tell you the waiting list is half an hour long. It's actually 3 times the estimate. By the time our order came, we were too full to eat, having ordered other things while waiting. We acted 'blur' and when the server went back to check the order, we decided it was late and left to go home. Do we feel bad about abandoning our order? Not really. Other people would have snapped up our satay and have been grateful for it.

Early day (even earlier than regular schooldays) tomorrow. Must grab whatever sleep I can. 'Night!

Updatine this blog may become sporradic over the next couple of weeks. Rehearsals for Drama Night are about to go into nightly mode and I'll be coming home later and later as we approach production. Too late to write or even think about writing as the brain breaks down into incoherence.

Oops, fell asleep typing this entry. It's now a couple of hours since I started writing. Must... finish... entry... There. Good night...!

The saga of my poor M2 continues. Must thank Vince, Anthony, Weng and Amy for their advice and assistance yesterday in getting me on the next step after a bang-up.

From Vince, I learned about the Independent Damage Assessment Centre (IDAC) at which the inspection of the damage to the accident vehicle seems quite thorough. The closest centre to the College was at Braddell so I drove over with Weng accompanying me.

There, the inspector wrote up a long list of problems that had to be repaired. Looks like the back gate and the bumper have to be replaced, amongst other things, so the damage was worse than I thought. It was bad enough to make my back door unopenable.

On the admin side I had to make a report on how the accident occurred and I was judged to be not at fault. My insurance is with NTUC, as was the errant truck driver's. NTUC's position in such a case is that since I was not at fault, I could claim for the damage under my own policy without affecting my premiums in subsequent years.

IDAC appointed a mechanic early today so I drove back to IDAC Braddell and left the M2 there. Poor thing, being hospitalized already. This time, Anthony drove with me so he could give me a lift to Tampines Mall where I received my courtesy car (it was either this or a transport claim worth up to $50 per day) from NTUC Income.

So I still have wheels while the M2 stays in the workshop. It's an old auto-drive Toyota Soluna, a saloon model so I have to get used to the length when parking. It may be old, but it's quite well-maintained by an attendant who seems to take great pride in keeping his rental cars spotlessly clean.

The Soluna drives quite well, considering its age. The brakes and the accelerator feel a bit stiff and the engine is noisy -- something else I need to get used to -- but I think it still has some power to spare though I haven't exactly been testing its performance today. It feels retro-mechanical compared to the M2 but it should be ok for my needs until my baby comes home.

This week is getting dramatic. I just had my first traffic accident way early in the morning. At the T-junction of Yishun Avenue 1 and Avenue 4 my instinct was to follow the rules of traffic signals instead of common sense. On 'amber' I stepped on the brakes (a bit hard, mind you), but the truck driver behind me thought I was going to clear the 'amber' and continued his forward trajectory hoping to clear it with me. The inevitable happened and now the M2 has a big, beautiful dent on his backside. Fortunately, that's all that happened.

Now I get to investigate accident reporting procedures, as well as the process of going through insurance claims and the machinations of the car workshop. First person to call (I hope he'll be awake) will be Chew to get his advice on what to do next. I'm sure I'll be getting lots of advice from Anthony & Co too.

I'm not sure what to make of this event. On 'amber' do I stop or go? I guess that if there's still speed to bleed off by the time you reach the lights, it's better to continue because it isn't 'red' yet. Also, it's good to check the rear-view mirror and not assume the guy behind you is just as law-abiding. >___<

doh.

Flirt has been laid to rest under a tree in the open field in front of our block. Cat Auntie and the Malay cleaner saw to it that she had a proper burial. This is one instance of inefficiency by the environment ministry that we can be thankful for. At least for Flirt, we have closure.

What's more worrying is that this evening another kitten died. This little black stray had moved into the Square a month or so ago and sort of insinuated itself with Flirt's brood. It developed symptoms of diarrhea and lately refused to eat regardless of what we tried to feed it. As it looked particularly weak today, June decided to bring it to see Dr Casey. Sad to say, the kitten died enroute in the taxi.

Dr Casey said that it could be an epidemic that's spreading amongst our younger strays. These symptoms are similar to those observed in Flirt herself, as well as one of her other kittens (who has since dropped out of sight, worryingly enough). June could only pay for the black kitten's cremation.

As far as I can tell, there are now no more kittens in the Square. Hopefully this will be the firebreak that will stop the spread of the disease (or whatever it is) to the other kittens in the neighbourhood. Wish there was a 'quarantine' sign we could put up that cats can understand.

Flirt
2004-2005

Very sad day. Flirt had been missing for a few days and Cat Auntie, Lau Ban Niang and June have been worried about her disappearance. This was after we had returned her to her family in the Square after her spaying. Spaying, for some reason, makes cats who have given birth before not want to live where they raised their young. As her mother before her, Flirt moved out of the Square but, unlike her mother, she moved across the street and made the drain her home. The drain isn't the best home for a cat.

Today, we went back to the drain where we had last seen her a few days ago, and there she was under the grille though it was just her body. Her spirit had moved on. June was in tears and I was numbed. The cause of her untimely demise is unknown, though I suspect she must have been caught in the drain sometime during the last couple of days that we'd been experiencing torrential rains.

Though she was a stray, she was a part of our extended "family." Good bye, Flirt. We miss you.

I am now thoroughly disappointed with KOTOR2. Though I said I didn't have time to play anymore, I couldn't stand not having a working game on my hard drive. So I tried various graphics settings and reloaded my older video drivers to no avail. Now places that didn't give me problems before are giving problems now. This sucks! Good thing I have already finished the game once through. Now, where can I go to get my money back?

Drama Night's looking better now that we've got the music in, Yee's new set design and the Roland keyboard finally works at last. The music has been recorded on a practice CD, but will be performed 'live' on the day itself.

Our choreographer came down for the first time to meet us today. He does wonders with non-dancers. Our performers may have some experience dancing to rap and hip-hop but for this production, they're learning jazz movements instead. Classy!

Until production in a little more than a month's time, we're going to be ending rehearsals late on many occasions, but we all have to make sacrifices for the production. Our Stage Manager (SM) said so as much as he shelled the cast for their tardy, laid-back attitude. Glad the SM is taking his role as Production Sergeant Major seriously and that he's bringing the whole production team, back-stage and on, under his iron fist. In a production like this under such a tight deadline there has to be a great deal of fasicism underlying the running of the show. We have indeed the right man for the job.

Despite my earlier misgivings, Drama Night is starting to look (and sound) good... stay tuned...!

The Ministry's bowling league standings are on-line and, as I promised, you can click the link here for an eyeball. Thankfully, we aren't at the bottom of the table so we haven't embarrassed ourselves too badly the first time out. We can still hope to do better with practice. This league is far from over!

Today I met my new CT for the first time. Though I agreed to take 4 GP tutorials, 1 PW and have a complete break from CTship, this year's batch of little dragons is so immense that this arrangement can not be met by our current human resource allocation. And here I thought we were worrying over the dearth of children in our country. Guess the parents of this year's batch just aren't with the programme.

So the arrangement now is for me to take a CT (and considering what Civics Tutors have to do this year, it's not funny), 3 GP and 2 PW tutorials. My workload has skyrocketed, but we'll adapt, won't we? After all, I just got promoted with effect from April, so I'd better work harder to deserve it.

Right now, my immediate goal is to refocus my mind on the many things I have left outstanding, and, boy, are there a lot of things. April is going to be a mad period with 2 major guest speakers coming down to campus for level-wide seminars, and 1 week out of that whole month I'll be off-campus on-course. All this to be followed up by the equally daunting prospect of putting together Drama Night on the 1st week of May. And this is all before I can even think about how I'm going to be conducting my tutorials and lectures and executing my duties as Civics Tutor at the same time. Even before the real work begins I need a vacation already. Too many unproductive late nights will do that to you.

Have to resolve to sleep earlier. That will take care of problem #1. The rest? well, we'll just deal with 1 crisis at a time.

Part II
Today's mood was quite different from the day before. There was a lot of long pauses in between bouts of mindless fatigue duties. Lots of cleaning to be done, lots of inspections, lots of stores to be drawn and returned. The usual army stuff. Hurry up and wait.

Our leadership kept reminding us that this was to be our penultimate in-camp before we officially disband the 416th early next year. Indeed, it has already been 12 years and we old-timers are so ready to retire from National Service.

It's amazing to watch each other get older every year. We get wrinklier, paunchier, balding(er), and, sad to say, I myself am amongst the top 10 oldest guys in the unit. I've seen the kids in the earlier years return married, or return with more and more kids, or their kids are going to school. We men are talking more and more about family, kids and work when once we talked about how we wanna get wild and crazy and paint the town red with our nights-off.

Our CO and the Commander himself thanked us for our support and our attitude that we've shown over the years at the end of today's tasks. They spoke of the dedication and the sacrifice we've made in making the 416th rank amongst the best of the NS units in terms of training, seriousness and 'brotherhood.' That's one way of looking at it, I guess.

For me, a couple of weeks a year to spend time in-camp is a real pain-in-the-butt, but I see it as something that has to be done. So it's done. I don't have a business that might lose lots of money if I'm not there, I don't have kids who wonder where Papa has gone for so many days and nights; no, my students have a vacation when I'm not around. But there are men who do, and they want to go home as badly as I do. So it's done.

If there's a driving force behind why the 416th is so successful, it's because we know that what we do is absolutely necessary to maintain the lifestyle we are used to (though we may bitch about how 'meaningless' it all seems amongst each other). Hence, we want to do things right the first time, properly, promptly and most importantly, safely, so that as soon as ever possible, we can go home and leave all the army stuff behind us.

We are the army because we have a home we want to go back to. There is no other, no better reason to take up arms.

These last couple of days I've been wearing yet another hat. Helmet, to be precise. Kevlar construction, enmeshed in a camouflage net. Duty called and I answered. Late, because I wasn't familiar with the drive to camp and entered the expressway towards the wrong direction. By the time I figured out an appropriate course correction, I arrived 45 minutes past my ETA. They'll probably dock some of my make-up pay to make some kind of disciplinary point, but duh.

Objective of this in-camp was to familiarize the 416th with the new SAR21 personal weapon. We old-timers who are so used to the venerable old M16 now have to come to grips with this new-fangled rifle with its unusual shape, but oh-so-sweet refinements that make killing such a bigger joy. It's a heavier arm than the M16, but the trade-off is a built-in 1.5x magnifying scope, a snazzy laser aiming device, and the recoil is easier to handle making for more accurate shooting.

Now I can say from experience what had previously been hearsay: our new personal arm makes better shots of us all. I personally scored 17 shots out of 20 (12 day and 8 night shots). I'm not that great a shot to begin with but with the new weapon it really is almost point-and-shoot. I was dead accurate with the laser (4 for 4 night shots) though I could barely see the target in the dark.

Fine for non-moving plastic targets, but if it comes to hitting live, frantically scurrying -- or worse, charging-straight-at-you -- targets, we're going to need much more training, but at least for now I'm comfortable and confident in handling my new, improved and more deadly partner-in-war.

In case you think that I'm now a bloodthirsty psycho with a 5.56 calibre assault rifle fetish, there is the other part of the training that teaches one to truly hate, detest, abhor and have as little contact as possible with our weapons as well. The constant safety lectures, safety drills, checks and inspections at multiple levels on the cleanliness and general maintenance of the weapon, and the reminders (verbal and visually on posters) about using and treating it responsibly make picking up that weapon such a chore. It's best left in the armoury under lock-and-key, the less you see of it, the better.

Slept overnight in camp at midnight -- my earliest this week.

Thanks to yesterday's downpour, the M2 was looking all sparkly-gleamy last night. But under the light of day he was a total mess of irregular water spots -- the residue the rainwater leaves behind after evaporation. Water spots show up best on black cars and the M2 is as black as they come. No problem. Today is wash car day anyway. So we drove over to our nearest multi-storey parking lot, and parked close to the coin-operated tap. For 20 cents you get 30 seconds free flow of water; about 1-and-a-half buckets' worth.

One hour of splashing, scrubbing, drying and buffing later the M2 was truly a sight to behold. It cost us 60 cents in total for the water and a lot of elbow grease. Finished dusting off the mats, then drove our buckets and sponges back home before heading straight out to the Airport to collect June's brother and family after their week's vacation in Hong Kong.

Early in the morning, it was a bright and sunny day. As we drove to the Airport on the TPE, the sky suddenly darkened and poured down in buckets on us, yes the M2 got rained on again -- barely an hour after his bath! Now he's going to have to live with his water spots for the rest of the week. I haven't the time to give him another bath. Bah!

Apart from the Wong family, we also had Popeye's chicken in mind and lunched at the newly refurbished stall in Terminal 1. Ulterior motive, heh, heh. Popeye's is back to its high standards from the last time we ate there. Only, today there wasn't any coleslaw so we had mashed potato and french fries on the side. 2 kinds of potato, mmm... not. Hope they bring back the coleslaw soon.

Yes, collected the Wongs and safely deposited them back home, so don't worry on their account.

My brother messaged me that he had found my long-lost Rollerblades. A good thing too, 'cos I was contemplating on buying myself a new pair, for health's sake, you know. Collected them tonight. When I got them out of the box I noticed they had been coated with some kind of sticky, oily substance. So I took them into the bathroom to wash with MaMa Lemon. I very soon discovered what the sticky stuff was -- it was the plastic ankle cuff degrading back into the petrochemical it once came from. In water the plastic became brittle and crumbled into little bits and pieces. A handful of green plastic shards. I know what you're thinking, but I didn't do it on purpose. Honest. Um... June, can I buy a new pair of 'blades now?

Public holidays are good for the dog. Yesterday we took Q-tip out for a run at Bishan Park. This place has memories for her because she went to school here. Yep, Q-tip has a certificate in Basic Obedience Training, the dog equivalent of a pre-school education. The Bishan Dog Run is operated by the Singapore Kennel Club who hold classes for owners and their dogs. It was awesome to see what the more advanced dogs could do through the obstacle course, and then we have our own dog. Hrmph.

Today, Q-tip is in danger of having her certification revoked. What do you expect? She only passed because she was so small the examiner was distracted by the misbehaviour of other bigger dogs and passed her by default. She seems to understand voice commands only in certain contexts, and obeys certain commands given only by certain people. For example, she knows the "down-stay-up" routine just before dinnertime and only when I give the command, and she will only "shake hands" with June.

Anyway, Q-tip was off her leash for most of her run. Nice to get out into the sun once in a while. We lunched at the Acacia, the park's cafe. Dogs and owners sit outside on the patio under the trees. Dogs even get served a bowl of water, though Q-tip was too excited to even notice it. I had a very mushroomy meal 'cos I wasn't thinking straight. I ordered a very creamy wild mushroom soup and followed it up with a gratined penne in mushroom and cream cheese sauce. I didn't regret my order, though. It was delish, though I thought I could have used a bit more meat and veggies to round off my meal. June obliged me by not finishing her beef stew and letting me share the remains with Q-tip. Chunky, not-overcooked, tender beef with mashed potatoes. Mmmm... Veggies... does the sprig of parsely count? The meal was just a little bit salty so next time we'll remember to request for less salt.

Drove to Chinatown to pick up a few bottles of xuan mei shui (sour plum juice) which June has grown addicted to. It's a great thirst quencher, especially when it goes down very chilled though I hesitate to say that I like it because the aftertaste seems to me to be a bit... feminine(?). Not so good for my primitive macho image. I got myself a water chestnut drink instead. If you're looking for local cold juices and teas to-go, the stall is on the ground floor of the Yangtze Building.

Took June's folks out to Changi Village for dinner. The stall selling the famous nasi lemak wasn't open when we arrived at 6pm (it opens at 6:30 and the queue is unbelievable) so I settled for a less famous stall immediately opposite it. Wow! Mdm Rozzie's nasi was already so good. Crispy chicken wing, ikan bilis, fish fillet (extra $1) quite standard, but the rice was so fluffy and so lemak I was almost halfway through scoffing the lot before June returned with her bowl of prawn noodles. She insisted on trading on the spot so I took over her full bowl and she polished off the remnants of my nasi. Then she went to get another bowl of prawn noodles for herself. We were so stuffed after that. The walk along the beach helped a bit.

Came back early and still had time to watch "Robots," which was a pretty good story, though I felt it was more "Shark Tale" than "The Incredibles" in terms of excitement. Oops, my biases are showing.

Crawled in after midnight again last night. Chew, my Mazda Sales Exec, was right. Life changes when you have a car. Options open up to the once unthinkable, i.e., going home late, when there is no need to worry about transportation and midnight taxi surcharges.

Last night was the first game of the Ministry's bowling league. Result: the Gutter Boys got their asses royally kicked in competition. Things happened too fast to make an actual count of the team's score but we're running at least 200 pinfalls behind most other teams and it's a good bet that we've started the competition at the bottom of the table. (Will post a link to the official results when it comes on-line).

It's nothing to get upset about, disappointed with our performance maybe, but we have to remember that we already knew we had to raise our game to play at this level. Here is where the P's advice about 'being a big fish in a small pond' falls flat on its face. We're not competing within our own in-house league anymore. The champs of a small-time league now have a sea to swim in and the sharks, there are a-plenty. Everyone someday will have to move up to a bigger pond, to be the small fish again, or if not will forever remain the 'frog in the well.'

Most improved bowler in the team is Vince who has indeed taken his game to a new level. Very proud of him last night for raising his average to the 120s when he is usually happy just to reach 100. My own average maintained at 140, which for me is a good start, though I still have to improve to be worthy of the competition.

It's Anthony and Yee who, I think, have let the competition get to them. Of course, we've never had to share lanes with a team that bowls strikes and spares all the time (and our neighbours aren't even the best team) but this pressure just might be pushing Anthony and Yee into overachiever mode, which distracts them from their usual game. Instead of competing with their normal jovial, relaxed, poking fun at Vince and Amy style, they have become over-critical of themselves, which is a lot less fun than if they continued to just be critical of other people. That sounds contradictory but it's true.

5 more games left and our ass kicking last night makes us hungry to train with more determination. We may have had a poor start but we're going to end with with a hugely improved personal game and the right to swim with the sharks in a bigger pond. Da dum, da dum...

Amy and Vince's fellow Council advisors got together with us after the game and we drowned our sorrows in beverages and KTV. We had a mix of Chinese and English tunes, all from the mid-eighties and further back in history. Don't these people update their catalogues? Anthony and I lost our voices screaming projecting "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "When Love and Hate Collide" amongst other of the loudest music available for selection, well, not that there were many to choose from. There were a number of mellow ones as well, but you know our preference.

Other details, let's see... the Gent's was covered in puke and when we left at about 1am there were 2 couples left in the main lounge dancing to some Chinese techno song. One couple was an ah pek swinging his hips with his young lady friend whose hips were equally fluid. I hesitate to speculate.

Production has ground to a standstill because of block test week. Drama Night opens in a month and a week's time and we can't work on it until the tests are over. So far we've roughly blocked out about 3 acts of 8 with one act and a conclusion yet to be written. Music is beautiful but coming in in dribs and drabs, so far nothing produced that our choreographer can work with as far as major dance numbers go. The set materials have already been delivered but they still have to be worked with to see how they actually fit into the overall design of the show. Costume shopping scheduled for tomorrow and early next week.

So some things are moving but only 5 weeks left to get our act together and make a show for the college. At this time I still really miss working with Cara. Emotionally, it was good to know that someone else was equally obsessed with the production making it priority number one regardless of other um... obligations. I know my production staff and crew are doing their best, and I appreciate the contributions they've been making and will continue to be making in the coming weeks, but I still feel alone, like I'm the only one looking at the show as a major highlight of the year, and it seems to me that the others see it as just another thing on their plate (which is actually true, but still...).

In 5 weeks the show isn't likely to be 'ready.' It'll be rough and in need of serious polishing but though I've asked there isn't going to be an extension. The show will go on as is, a work-in-progress at best. And somewhere in all this, I have to wonder whether someone else playing Producer instead of me would have done a better job controlling the production in terms of planning the schedule, setting and enforcing deadlines, scolding people when they needed to be scolded, encouraging people when they're down, and a whole bunch of other things that go on behind the scenes. Probably. I'm not blind to my own strengths and weaknesses.

The next 5 weeks are going to be hell not just for me but for everyone involved in the production. But then a good show is worth killing ourselves over in making it happen. I hope the Club, staff, students will agree with me on this and pull off a knockout production like we promised ourselves at the beginning of this season. The audience deserves our best and I truly hope we can deliver.

Checked out the competition for the Ministry's bowling league based on last year's results. The opposition is TOUGH. Our team, as far as current practice goes, places us about mid-table -- IF we're bowling consistently well. Comparing individual scores, most opposing team members average 170 per game. Then there are outstanding individuals, both men and women who are scoring in the 200 range. Ouch. This contest is going to be no pushover. Hopefully our weekly training sessions will improve our game until we're scoring with the best by the end of the tourney, sometime in September. Wish us luck!

Edit 01:
There! Fixed my graphics problem with KOTOR 2. Just switch off the "Grass" option in the game setup. It may not be as pretty as watching the grass part as your party runs through it, but the graphics won't screw up now and the game is now playable in the open spaces on Dantooine, Dxun and Korriban. Hope nothing else will go wrong now.

Edit 02:
I was wrong about Dantooine. Sigh.

Official last day for the J1 CTs before the permanent posting results are released tomorrow. It's kinda' sad, kinda' nostalgic as the kids sat together in the hall not knowing if they'll see each other again when orientation begins on Wednesday. Group shots and other photo opportunities all round and so the morning passed all too quickly for them.

Meantime, a couple of graduating students asked me for letters of recommendation and to fill up forms of personal appraisal to stand them a better chance of getting the course they are applying for at the U. This sort of request is usually by students who are applying for overseas Unis, but recently the local institutes of tertiary education are adopting a similar application procedure to assess candidates from an all-round perspective rather than just by grades alone. Another indication that things here are becoming more comparable to the realities of the rest of the world. Our kids have been too protected for too long. It's good to see that we are in a way beginning to let go.

Monday evening bowling practice for the Gutter Boys. Me with my new ball, leaving Vince who didn't have a personal ball, a situation he quickly rectified at the pro bowl shop. Shoes, ball, bag in a package and now our whole team is fully kitted up, no need to rely any further on the availability of house equipment. You could say we're taking this game quite seriously now.

But can we bowl? A slight improvement on my average (140 over 6 games); Yee needs to find his form again but he's slowly getting there; Anthony's doing ok (156 average over 3 games); and Vince improving his game too -- good first throws because with his new ball he has to deal with the increased weight and custom grip and so he's throwing with more caution and accuracy now; but we could all still bowl with a lot more consistency. Scattering strikes and spares isn't going to put us up there with the best this tourney has to offer. Will we be good enough? We'll find out this Thursday when we play our first match of 6.

Dinner at the bak kut teh place on Balestier Road. Anthony will kill me for publicizing this secret but there is a public parking lot hidden behind the eating places on Prome Road so there is no need to fight for scarce parking along the main road or park illegally in the area. It's free parking in the evening too!

The bak kut teh is in a clear soup, lots of garlic cloves and meaty, chunky bones to gnaw on. It still doesn't compare to the one that used to be at the defunct Hill Street Food Centre (now an overgrown vacant lot), but it's still quite good.

Turned down Anthony's suggestion to have another practice game after dinner. No point overtraining. Priority set for rest and sleep tonight. So what am I doing blogging? Um...