The Retrocession

Let me see what I've done this year..... 1. Crossed 浊水溪. 2. Been to parts of Singapore that I've never been to, and worse never heard before 3. Went to clubbing. 4. Had drank more varieties of beer. 5. Learn not to judge people by their cover. Shall add more once I think of it. Do you know where is Ama Keng 亚妈宫 ? Or Pasir Laba 巴西拉巴 ? Or maybe Ladang 拉当 or Sanyongkong 双洋港 ? Hahaha of course you won't know if you don't don green. And sometimes even if you don green you may not heard of or been to these places. I've never heard of these places too till now, and actually, why would you wanna go there if you don't belong to the forest. Pulau Tekong wild boar (infamous for stealing boots!) Nostalgic, my men? Punggol Point Nee Soon PO Nee Soon Barracks Do your Navi here guys, sini Pulau Tekong.... Neo Tiew abandoned flats.... You'll get this when you come a 28km "Journey to the West" Wikipedia...

Okay I don't know if I am infringing copyright now, but this is by far one of the best photos I've seen in my life. By the way the man in black is Paul's boss in SCS.

Today is not a very good day to start. I was waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting. And I did nothing. The camp is nice, scenery very good, air very fresh, on a hilltop. Reminds me of Maris Stella located on Mount Vernon. But of course this camp there won’t be traffic jams during Ching Ming; in Maris Stella the Ching Ming meant a great excuse to go school late. The people here are nicer. MUCH NICER than those in Pasir Laba. Of course I am not implying that there all the Pasir Laba people are freaks and evildoers but they treat us OOCs really like 粪土. Here they treasure us better. Oh well, it’s too early to judge anyway. The day is ending soon, yet I don’t know what is my job scope. I don’t even know where is my bunk and where is my bed and what to prepare for each day. This ought to be improved. Or maybe I am too 渺小 that no one notices me. But it’s unlikely; this camp is WAY SMALLER than our mighty Pasir Laba. FAR FAR AWAY IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA AH~~ [oops I forgo...

I want his camera. Damn cool. Esplanade. Raffles Hotel. 五脚基. Five-foot ways. Renaissance style. The Sumatra Exhibit. So Friday I was at this Raffles City Starbucks in the morning. Waiting for time to fly before the National Library is open (I didn’t go there in the end anyway, decided to go on sightseeing instead). So I was drawing some random temple I see off the newspaper (yeah you’ve got it, it has to be Zaobao. I am still repulsive to angmoh papers; too heavy!), and then these angmoh tourist-looking couple walked past. The Starbucks was damn crowded in the morning, full of angmohs also. But anyway I offered to share my table with them. The woman went to buy drinks while the man sat down and started looking at me. Man: “Hi, we’re from Australia, are you an artist?” Me: *stare, thinking you blind ah, this sketch so kanasai don’t insult our local artists leh* “Erm… Nope, just trying to kill time.” *fake smile* Man: “Oh. Is that a China Temple?” ...

There’s a river called 浊水溪 (Zhúoshǔi Xī; Dirty Water Stream) in Tapioca Island that divides it into two halves. I’ve never been to the Southern half until this year, where I have to visit the jungles and kampungs in that area. Still remember that blood-spilling China Studies project last year, and that series of maps I made myself? Well now since I have been to more places, I can show off them here once more: Orange means 路过, Green means I’ve been there done that, Blue means… 汗颜啊, must go there some day! Well it was an achievement, since the 浊水溪 has always been a division (source of friction, rather) among the Tapioca people. People in the North speak Mandarin, hold wedding dinners in restaurants and hotels, and are richer, more urbanised, and are pro-Redland. People in South speak Hokkien, hold dinners at kampung CCs or roadside/void decks, and are poor, country bumpkins and hate Redland. For a man from Redland like me to stay in the South for 3 weeks is already a feat...

有没有那麽一种永远 永远不改变 拥抱过的美丽 都再也不破碎 让险峻岁月不能 在脸上撒野 让生离和死别都遥远 有谁能听见 有没有那麽一滴眼泪 能洗掉后悔 化成大雨降落在 回不去的街 再给我一次机会 将故事改写 还欠了他一生的 一句抱歉 有没有那麽一个世界 永远不天黑 星星太阳万物都 听我的指挥 月亮不忙着圆缺 春天不走远 树梢紧紧拥抱着树叶 有谁能听见 有没有那麽一朵玫瑰 永远不凋谢 永远骄傲和完美 永远不妥协 为何人生最后会像 一张纸屑 还不如一片花瓣 曾经鲜艳 有没有那麽一张书签 停止那一天 最单纯的笑脸和 最美那一年 书包里面装满了 蛋糕和汽水 双眼只有无猜和无邪 让我们无法无天 有没有那麽一首诗篇 找不到句点 青春永远定居在 我们的岁月 男孩和女孩都有 吉他和舞鞋 笑忘人间的苦痛 只有甜美 有没有那麽一个明天 重头活一遍 让我再次感受 曾挥霍的昨天 无论生存或生活 我都不浪费 不让故事这麽的后悔 有谁能听见 我不要告别 呵呵　应该是自己神经病作祟吧，三更半暝还在沉思当中。

Today went to my that relative’s son’s school and gave that boy a ONE TIMES GOOD ONE. Phew. I really should be a tour guide. A Chinese one of course. Today I went to visit the Asian Civilisations Museum. The Exhibition on Sumatra. AWESOME. Especially when you can relate things you learn here to the things you learn in school (eg. Minangkabau culture, adat berpatih, Jambi, Aceh, Palembang, Bengkulu, Riau-Lingga, keris, Srivijaya, etc). I have finally set a LIFE GOAL today. Which is to find an answer to a question. And I swear I will use my lifetime to search for this answer.

Hmm I’ve left Pasir Laba Camp. Next week I’m going on to Stagmont Camp. Somewhere in Teck Whye area. Much more convenient than Pasir Laba. And I have more choices when I go for nights-out: Lot One, BPP, West Mall, or I can just take bus elsewhere. And nearer to JB too, hahaha. Well these new cadets I’ve received these 4 days really amuse me. They are very… courteous. Outraging courteous. Or maybe it’s because they’re new they don’t realised that we Corporals aren’t very much bigger than them. But anyway I was so outspoken because I had to teach them a lot of new things. And from their RESPECTFUL look I am so relieved and happy. It feels like I did society a good thing hahaha even though all these cadets are at least a year older than me. Most of them are from Poly lah. They knock on the door, they look up to me and ask me for advices. They greet me, got one idiot even thought I was a Staff Sergeant. They apologise when they forgot to return keys. I say what they do what, and keep s...

First and foremost, I got my new postings. Thursday will be the last day of my work here in SCS. Next week I will be in this place around Teck Whye playing with radio sets. Sounds slack? Yeah right. 这种好康的东西通常都不是我的。I am indeed going there to handle radio sets and be a good Signal Sergeant. But, I am part of some chiong-sua and garang and full-of- big -shots department. And I would assume I am carrying the signal set and running in the forests, like what I always did before I OOC here. Hmmm. I loved Route Marches. Cos it's one of the few things that I excel at--walking. 说到走路，actually it is fun walking around alone, especially when travelling. I can spend hours walking around towns, eat drink look see chat, and I think I'll gain much more than attending those tours. Of course lah when in museums I'm sure the existence of guides are helpful, but I wouldn't like people following me while I walk along the alleys of Geylang right. While I was in Tapioca Island the las...