Final post of 2013 (how convenient for a title)

I guess the most relevant change for 2013 about myself that I can think about when it comes to opening this 'end of the year' blog entry is that... I'm really past looking at new years as momentous milestones where I pledge to become this, to stop being that, to start/stop doing this, etc. Because looking back at all that happened in 2013, I have to say I got screwed badly enough to really grasp the idea of having a lot of things that can't be changed thrown in my path. It's not that I'm raising the white flag and running away from anything that screams "commitment!" or "discipline!" or "responsibility!" quite like New Year's resolutions. It's more of the fact that it doesn't take a string of first of Januaries for one to choose to improve and better himself, as if they're coupons that entitle one clean slate or one second shot each. And mundane as most of 2013 may seem, it's also the year in which I felt I changed the most. I made choices that I'm proud of in response to various miserable situations and circumstances - choices which are, well, at least more significant than the me who's probably going to be sitting in front of my laptop tomorrow mindlessly scrolling Tumblr or watching movies. Well you get the point. Of course, the admirably self-disciplined deserve to have their New Year's resolutions taken seriously. But for those who aren't... I just hope that they're doing something more than seeking respite in a faux sense of control over their lives, especially once January's over, hahaha.

Picking up from where I left off the last time, man are the holidays vanishing too rapidly or what. It seems like just yesterday when I was spending what I thought would be my last day in camp for the year getting way too excited over my block leave, and now here I am at the year's cusp, with T-minus 4 days till the night I book back into camp.

I remember really enjoying the lone walk around Orchard Road the night of book-out day two weeks ago. For some reason I was soaked into the festive spirit, and it felt nice to just see lights everywhere on an evening that wasn't too balmy for my liking, with no schedule to keep track of and everything to look forward to. I guess it's good that I identify myself as an introvert in this sense, because it doesn't take a lot of stimulating activities to make me feel like I've spent my time fruitfully.

It was the SCTs' day on Friday, and I went down to see Christon pass out as a 3SG at PLC with Yi Ren & Sheryl. Saw too many familiar faces for my liking, and even bumped into 3SG Nat from my BMT days thrice, though he recognised me the instant he first saw me. And for that I felt pretty touched - it's always nice to be remembered, especially when I didn't go out of the way to 'market' myself during BMT days (I don't mean to sound bitter there, but I guess that's the truth for many people). The graduation parade also brought forth some old feelings of longing and inadequacy, but yeah, gonna go down with only myself if I don't stop thinking about things I can no longer change. :)

Drinks with the recce troopers of 42 SAR, which I was terribly late for because of said graduation parade. Nevertheless, I can say we had quite a good time celebrating the end of a work year, as much as it's supposed to celebrate Zhong Hao's impending promotion to 3SG. Though I couldn't help but ponder a bit about our dynamics for the coming year - how things will change, and how much when they do. After all, as much as I always try to cherry-pick the good parts and important lessons of my time in camp, I have to say the working atmosphere there is pretty pathetic. Here's to hoping it wouldn't be too much to ask for everyone to just do their job and familiarise themselves with the value in responsibility (heck, what am I saying lol).

Saturday meant Christmas service that day, though I have to say the drama production was underwhelming. Maybe I'm just not much of a kid-oriented or jingly person, and I didn't think I was one even when I was a child. Just thought it'd be better if they toned down on the dumbing-down of Christmas and focused on its less figurative themes... and by that I mean, yes, less of gingerbread men and Santa Claus. After service we did a mini gift exchange within the cell group, and when everyone began to part ways, we had one of our customary 'walks around town after service'. Stumbled upon a talented young girls' choir outside Esplanade which performed a number of Disney classics with praiseworthy gusto, and a walkway with shifting bright pink and purple lights. And talked and talked about slice-of-life random things in the name of an idyllic Saturday night.

Before I get to what we did at Pulau Ubin on Christmas day, I returned to camp on the afternoon of Christmas Eve to do guard duty, which was something that caught me completely off guard. Applied specifically for leave on the 24th so that I could avoid this situation by pushing my name all the way down the list. But as it turned out, almost everyone came down with flu that day, if you actually understand what I mean lol. I felt annoyed and frustrated when I first learned about this of course, but I realised that it's sort of a blessing after all, considering how I can claim an off day from the guard duty, and how I've cleared all of my entitled off days for 2013 in one shot - something that's really reckless now that I think about it. Those involved in the guard duty for Christmas Eve didn't really do much anyway, since there was next to nobody in camp - for one, the four of us doing the first shift even went back to our bunk to sleep at midnight, when we were supposed to be prowling the place.

So on Christmas morning, I got the hell out of camp as quickly as I could (thanks Dad), slept a little on the bus ride to Changi Village and met the usual people for a cycling trip round Pulau Ubin which turned out really good. :) The weather was perfect, and all of us broke out a good sweat tackling all the upslopes and terrain. Chek Jawa Wetlands was gloriously windy that day, but we could barely see anything underneath the high tide. And although we set off looking for a quarry I only faintly remember from my childhood and failed pretty terribly in the end, the sights along the way were rewarding (even if they looked almost identical to those I saw when I was out in the field, but anywhere's better than that). Went back really fulfilled, something I haven't felt in quite a while.

Finally set off to Legoland on the 27th, after a day of well-deserved rest at home! And I'm quite ashamed to say that this is my first overseas trip with only a bunch of friends. I haven't seen this company in quite a while, what with uni and work, and it's great that we could still get along like old friends do when we met. It was a day worth remembering also because of how incredibly smoothly everything went??? I'm still quite amazed even now at how all the plans just clicked. We didn't arrange for any special transport to Legoland from Singapore, we only settled the details with a couple of exchanges on Whatsapp, and we still got to the place by 3 when we set off two hours late at noon. And I'm just gonna overlook the slightly longer time we took to get to and cross the Malaysian checkpoint because things could really be worse.

Legoland was... okay I guess. At least there's the occasional rollercoaster, and that was enough to make us moderately happy considering we only had slightly more than three hours to spend in that place. The environment was pretty impressive though, what with all the Lego sculptures and figures, big and small. As I grew older, such works done with Lego bricks became less and less appealing to me, but I still respect the time and effort it took for such works to come to fruition. At least they demonstrate a sense of vision and creativity which I can barely find within me now.

The second half of the day was spent around JB on eating and shopping, though there was quite a major hiccup at the point where we left Legoland for what we thought was City Square Mall. We ended up alighting early because we were misguided by this touter at Larkin bus terminal who kept repeating "KL? KL?" and gave us nothing more than a 'go ahead' gesture, when what we were actually asking was if the terminal was near City Square Mall. So apparently, after a few minutes of walking, we realised we were dead wrong and headed back to the terminal, where we saw a bus which said 'JB - City Square'. Of course, we couldn't get up the bus without something funny happening, and what was funny was that Sylvia insisted on asking the bus driver if we could jalan to City Square Mall, upon which the driver reacted in utter surprise, laughed at us and called us gila after Rashid translated her request. And yeah, we really were gila for thinking that, because it took us a good 20 minutes to get to City Square Mall and Woodlands Checkpoint.

What I really like most out of this JB trip was the cheap food. Which is criminally cheap considering its standards. We binged away at Sushi King, after which we walked around the mall for an hour with our happy stomachs. Didn't get much though, which was quite a shame since people usually get a lot of stuff from places like these (JB/BKK). But it was a great day spent with long-time friends, and surprisingly, we crossed the checkpoints and reached Queen Street early enough to catch the last train and last bus home. If our trip wasn't smooth, I really don't know what is.

OK, so those were the highlights of my block leave so far, and it took me really long to get here as usual. This is why I hate writing sometimes. Now it's less than half an hour to the new year, and as much as I'm not sorry for not feeling a certain newness to everything right now, happy new year. To quote Sara Bareilles, "Distill a whole year down into a day / Act like we all start over with a pristine slate". Yeah, no 'new year new me's this time, but more of hoping that 2014 will be better and more memorable somehow.