Thursday, June 28, 2007
School Visits
After a long hiatus, I finally met up with a few of my JC classmates. We went to cycle at ECP first. William was incredibly late. I could have left home about 50 minutes later.
We had a good time cycling up and down ECP. For lunch, we decided to visit our old school VJ. To get through the main gate, we had to pass the security guard and change our ICs for visitor passes. It felt a lot like booking in. As we made our way to the canteen, a PE teacher yelled at us and asked us what we were doing in school. We told him we were old boys and had come to visit teachers and he finally let us on our way. No one was happy with his attitude. It really discourages old students from visiting.
Many of the old stallholders are still there, and unlike the PE teacher, they're very friendly. I went back to the Western stall. They have cheese hotdogs now, which taste pretty good, but new regulations mean they're only able to serve chips and other fried stuff on one day of the week, so there were no fries and I had to replace them with potato salad and my old favourite ham and cheese omelette. The food tastes just as good as I remembered, and it's nice to pay school prices.
Had a cup of watermelon milkshake after that, for just $1. What a big difference for the $2 chris paid for fruit juice outside. After a good lunch, we went to walk around the school to see if there were any teachers we know. Quite a few who taught us have left, so after a quick walk around we just left.
Went for a badminton game with platoon mates after that. It was quite fun as it had been a long time since we played badminton. We used some low quality shuttlecock which kept flying apart. As we neared the end time, we decided that the next time a shuttlecock flew apart, we would end there. True enough it did so.
Went to TM for dinner. At first we couldn't decide what to have, but after much walking around, we decided on Phin's. Had the steak, which was quite good. The full meal also came with soup, garlic bread, ice cream and a salad, which made the meal very complete. In the end had to pay $24 after all the taxes.
On Wed, I went back to my sec school with a few other friends to visit. This was a very different experience from Tuesday. We strolled through the open side gate. After a long time of renovation, it's open once again. We didn't have to change for a visitor pass. When teachers saw us, those we knew greeted us and stopped for a chat, those who didn't just left us alone. No one yelled at us and told us to get out. The school has changed a lot. New buildings have come up everywhere and the place looks very different. We prefer the old colour scheme. The new colours make the place look too modern and soulless, and it doesn't even match the older buildings.
We had a good time cycling up and down ECP. For lunch, we decided to visit our old school VJ. To get through the main gate, we had to pass the security guard and change our ICs for visitor passes. It felt a lot like booking in. As we made our way to the canteen, a PE teacher yelled at us and asked us what we were doing in school. We told him we were old boys and had come to visit teachers and he finally let us on our way. No one was happy with his attitude. It really discourages old students from visiting.
Many of the old stallholders are still there, and unlike the PE teacher, they're very friendly. I went back to the Western stall. They have cheese hotdogs now, which taste pretty good, but new regulations mean they're only able to serve chips and other fried stuff on one day of the week, so there were no fries and I had to replace them with potato salad and my old favourite ham and cheese omelette. The food tastes just as good as I remembered, and it's nice to pay school prices.
Had a cup of watermelon milkshake after that, for just $1. What a big difference for the $2 chris paid for fruit juice outside. After a good lunch, we went to walk around the school to see if there were any teachers we know. Quite a few who taught us have left, so after a quick walk around we just left.
Went for a badminton game with platoon mates after that. It was quite fun as it had been a long time since we played badminton. We used some low quality shuttlecock which kept flying apart. As we neared the end time, we decided that the next time a shuttlecock flew apart, we would end there. True enough it did so.
Went to TM for dinner. At first we couldn't decide what to have, but after much walking around, we decided on Phin's. Had the steak, which was quite good. The full meal also came with soup, garlic bread, ice cream and a salad, which made the meal very complete. In the end had to pay $24 after all the taxes.
On Wed, I went back to my sec school with a few other friends to visit. This was a very different experience from Tuesday. We strolled through the open side gate. After a long time of renovation, it's open once again. We didn't have to change for a visitor pass. When teachers saw us, those we knew greeted us and stopped for a chat, those who didn't just left us alone. No one yelled at us and told us to get out. The school has changed a lot. New buildings have come up everywhere and the place looks very different. We prefer the old colour scheme. The new colours make the place look too modern and soulless, and it doesn't even match the older buildings.
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Wednesday, June 20, 2007
IPPT
Went back with hock, chris and zq to take IPPT at our old camp yesterday. As we walked up the long drive up to the gate, memories of old times came back. It felt a bit like booking in, except we knew that this time, we would be out in a couple of hours or so.
When we saw the guardhouse, we noticed that some things had changed. New shelters had been constructed, giving the place a more imposing and professional look.
We made our way to the training shed and used the free lockers to put our stuff. We wanted to come back to this camp as we knew the place, but when the PTI started explaining things, we realised that they are now using new electronic equipment to test us, which automates everything and stores the result into the electronic number tag, allowing us to get our results immediately after the test.
Up in the MPH, we saw the new machines, all of which looked large and imposing, especially the chin-up bar, which looks more like a huge airport security scanner. We started with that station. With every chin-up, the machine will count it off in a mechanical voice while the LED screen will update the score.
After that, we went for the shuttle run. At first we thought it would be harder since there would no longer be human errors and nice PTIs to give us a little headstart, but the machine gives quite a generous headstart. Everyone had nice fast timings with little problem. The nice thing about using machines is that everything is done at our own time. We start running when ready, we start doing sit ups when ready.
The standing broad jump station was next on our list. We could choose the order in which to do the stations, everything was relaxed and at our own time. The machine can detect line faults, which makes it impossible to cheat it. There are also no markings, so the best we could do was to aim for the end of the green lights. At the end of a legitimate jump, the score is automatically shown and the machine will record the best of two attempts.
Sit ups were last. Instead of someone to hold legs and do the counting, the machine has foot straps provided and counts automatically. It can even detect butt lifts and sounds off an alarm when this occurs, but it still records the sit up. I suppose it's to alert the PTI. They all carry PDAs and can reset attempts wirelessly. I suppose they can change the scores too if a repetition should not be counted. It's all very high tech.
Finally, it was time for the 2.4 km run, also timed electronically. The timing starts when we ran under a wire, and ends when we cross it for the third time. Our fitness levels have all dropped and we ran quite slowly. Personally, I found it more difficult than I remembered to complete the three rounds around the running route. My legs felt heavy and they're still aching today, but now I won't have to worry about IPPT until after my next birthday.
When we saw the guardhouse, we noticed that some things had changed. New shelters had been constructed, giving the place a more imposing and professional look.
We made our way to the training shed and used the free lockers to put our stuff. We wanted to come back to this camp as we knew the place, but when the PTI started explaining things, we realised that they are now using new electronic equipment to test us, which automates everything and stores the result into the electronic number tag, allowing us to get our results immediately after the test.
Up in the MPH, we saw the new machines, all of which looked large and imposing, especially the chin-up bar, which looks more like a huge airport security scanner. We started with that station. With every chin-up, the machine will count it off in a mechanical voice while the LED screen will update the score.
After that, we went for the shuttle run. At first we thought it would be harder since there would no longer be human errors and nice PTIs to give us a little headstart, but the machine gives quite a generous headstart. Everyone had nice fast timings with little problem. The nice thing about using machines is that everything is done at our own time. We start running when ready, we start doing sit ups when ready.
The standing broad jump station was next on our list. We could choose the order in which to do the stations, everything was relaxed and at our own time. The machine can detect line faults, which makes it impossible to cheat it. There are also no markings, so the best we could do was to aim for the end of the green lights. At the end of a legitimate jump, the score is automatically shown and the machine will record the best of two attempts.
Sit ups were last. Instead of someone to hold legs and do the counting, the machine has foot straps provided and counts automatically. It can even detect butt lifts and sounds off an alarm when this occurs, but it still records the sit up. I suppose it's to alert the PTI. They all carry PDAs and can reset attempts wirelessly. I suppose they can change the scores too if a repetition should not be counted. It's all very high tech.
Finally, it was time for the 2.4 km run, also timed electronically. The timing starts when we ran under a wire, and ends when we cross it for the third time. Our fitness levels have all dropped and we ran quite slowly. Personally, I found it more difficult than I remembered to complete the three rounds around the running route. My legs felt heavy and they're still aching today, but now I won't have to worry about IPPT until after my next birthday.
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Thursday, June 14, 2007
Dentist Visit
Went to see a dentist today, after nearly a year of not seeing one. I don't like visiting a dentist. They have this huge machine with four instruments which whirl and make those spinning noises like the power tools I used to build sets for hall concert. Not a very comforting thing to hear, especially when you can't see what's going on. I thought of asking the dentist for a mirror, but decided not to. Ignorance is bliss they say.
The dentist was a young looking guy who was very friendly. He told me how he had stayed in the old Sheares Hall back in NUS, and thus could understand the difficulties of maintaining proper oral hygiene while staying in hostel. Along the way, he carefully explained exactly what he was doing, warned when it would hurt, and even drew diagrams to supplement his explanations. Unfortunately, he's only the relief dentist. The regular guy went on holiday.
On his advice, I just tried to floss my teeth. It's all very easy in theory. Just stick it between every tooth and scrub around. It's alright with the front teeth, but just try reaching those at the back. Your lips become terribly stretched. Even the upper and lower jaws were not created equal. It's easier to see what you're doing with the lower molars, but the thought of trying to reach the upper molars made me give up. Perhaps I'll try again tomorrow.
The dentist was a young looking guy who was very friendly. He told me how he had stayed in the old Sheares Hall back in NUS, and thus could understand the difficulties of maintaining proper oral hygiene while staying in hostel. Along the way, he carefully explained exactly what he was doing, warned when it would hurt, and even drew diagrams to supplement his explanations. Unfortunately, he's only the relief dentist. The regular guy went on holiday.
On his advice, I just tried to floss my teeth. It's all very easy in theory. Just stick it between every tooth and scrub around. It's alright with the front teeth, but just try reaching those at the back. Your lips become terribly stretched. Even the upper and lower jaws were not created equal. It's easier to see what you're doing with the lower molars, but the thought of trying to reach the upper molars made me give up. Perhaps I'll try again tomorrow.
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Sunday, June 03, 2007
Zoo Outing
Went to the zoo with my church youth group on Vesak Day. I think it has been 10 years or so since I went to the zoo. It has really changed a lot. There's now a Ben and Jerry's outside and the sign which says Singapore Zoo now looks a lot nicer and more attractive. Even the souvenirs have a tag with the zoo's logo on them and that makes it more memorable, although I didn't buy anything from the gift shop.
We only went to the zoo after having lunch at AMK, so we got there quite late, and it started raining before we even managed to reach the first tram station. We made our way through the rain from shelter to shelter, viewing what we could until we reached the Children's World, where we took a break before taking our one and only tram ride for 1 stop to catch the elephant show.
That's a picture of the elephant pushing a log out of the water. It shows how they work in logging camps. The elephants are really intelligent and well trained. We got there late, so it was standing room only and I couldn't get such a good view either.
After that, we went to watch the other show which showed the sea lions and some penguins. The penguins are so cute. I'm sure dwin would have loved them. Took the photo after the whole show, when I could go down and get a better view.
Here's the sea lion performing. Couldn't get very good shots as the light levels were quite low.
After the show, we wanted to take the tram again but just missed the last one from the first stop, so we just walked around the zoo some more before leaving. Paying $5 for a one stop tram ride isn't such a good idea, especially as the distances are much shorter than what it looks like on the map.
Here's a picture of Seletar reservoir. Nice and peaceful.
