It all started off with shopping in Topman @ Knightsbridge.
Buddies waited outside Topman while I tried out the clothing and finally made my payment. Gave them a call and they told me they were outside Topman, went out and couldn't find them anywhere except for a group of 7 people(I went out with 4 guys). Scanned my surroundings once again and oh yea, they were part of the 7 people standing on the left. Walked over and saw them holding on to some huge Coca-Cola can, looked like some donation tin to be honest. Initial thought was, people wearing Coca-Cola T-shirts asking for donations. Who would have knew that they approached my buddies to do a 8-10 second video for coca-cola, the videos would be uploaded on the Coca-Cola Sg facebook group and gather friends to help vote. Top 10 videos will win a pair of VIP tickets to catch Maroon 5 Live at the Indoor Stadium.
I was pulled into the damn video thing, did some ridiculous stuff in the video although it was just a mere 8 sec one. You may view the video embed below, a very retarded one. I decided to just play along and participate in this whole thing. Nevertheless I wanna thank the 192 people who voted for me! Props to armymates, they helped the most. Haha! Special thanks to those shared my video on their own facebook wall. I didn't even have to gather my entire group of friends to vote! Quite lucky =D
I was leading all the way, until the last day another guy managed to somehow shoot way past everyone to clinch the top spot. haha! My aim was just to secure a comfortable spot and not go crazy on the last day.
25th April was the day of their concert. Took half-day off and went over to Jiemei's house. Realised her mother hand-washes most of the clothing, insists on doing that because she says that washing clothing in the washing machine will spoil the clothes easily.
Since the tickets I won were VIP tickets, I was told by the staff that someone would chauffeur us to the indoor stadium.
This uncle is so nice! Willing to wait for another 5-10mins for Jiemei to change. Princess-treatment indeed. HAHA.
I like this picture alot, PRETTY RIGHT!
As soon as we reached the Indoor Stadium, was greeted with a shock. Video/Camera Crew all there to interview and take pictures. They were supposed to document the entire process of us and 9 other pairs throughout our whole VIP treatment. I was soooo not used everything at the start.
Uhm.. yes this is 1 of the interviews that they conducted, felt so weird! After all the initial interviewing, the Coca-Cola crew brought us to a room for the Meet-and-Greet Session. We were totally not prepared for this!! This was actually my first time having to attend a meet-and-greet session. Got their autographs and even took a picture with Maroon 5! =DD
This is a scanned picture of their autograph!
PRIZED PICTURE OF THE DAY.
After the meet-and-greet session was dinner provided by Coca-Cola SG, part of the VIP treatment! AWESOME!
Why did I say it's awesome? Cause I expect something like... packet mixed-rice or some normal catering. Who would have thought the dinner was at Vansh!
Vansh focuses on casual chic dining. I'll let the pictures do the talking!
After the dinner, made our way back to the Indoor Stadium!
Leonard, HY, Jadyn(Jiemei), Me
Leonard was there too, I encouraged him to gather votes for his video too. HHAHAAAA.
I THINK the tickets(8000 people!) were nearly sold out, cause it was literally packed in the indoor stadium. Walking into the indoor stadium brought back vivid memories of me participating in NDP marching contingent back when I was in Secondary School with the Scouts. It was quite an experience, I got so sick of KFC and Pizza Hut because they sponsored our meals for every rehearsal! Of course I made alot of friends in the process as well!
Back to the Maroon 5 concert, this concert was actually planned to promote their latest album, All Hands Over. I was quite skeptical about going for the concert because I was afraid they won't be singing any of their old songs like "She will be Loved", "This Love" and "Sunday Morning". I also heard about the bad reviews on their 1st concert back then in year 2008. Thank God they sang their greatest hits too! =D
I have to say, they exceeded my expectations this time! Nothing like the reviews I read for their 1st concert. I'm guessing they were bent to not make the same mistake. They were more interactive this time. I still remember a sentence Adam said during the concert before performing the song "She will be Loved". He said this,"Girls are the most incredible people in the world... As men, we're obsessed with you." This was his response to all the questions pertaining to why all their songs revolved around women.
I think that one sentence sent all the women in the indoor stadium into a near-orgasm state. HAHA!!
Overall the whole experience was exceptionally extraordinary! Felt like a VIP(other than the awkward interviews.), I really enjoyed myself. Think my jiemei also enjoyed the whole thing too! (Although we initially draggggged ourselves there cause of the interviewing.)
Last picture =D
Special Thanks to Jun, who liaised with me from the start till the end.
Special Thanks to Coca-Cola SG for giving me the opportunity to watch Maroon 5 Live!
If life separates us and we end up in totally different places, I'll always remember when out paths aligned for this period of time, I'll be thankful for that.
And I hope that wherever you are you'll be thankful too.
Wow, so much weird ass thinking for me in a day after having to hear some good news from the therapist that my wrist is recovering well. So i started thinking about the word "Recovery". And somehow it led me to penning/typing down my thoughts. It's quite general I must say, hope this won't bore you because it's all words and no pictures.
The road to recovery has never been easy for anyone, whether physically or mentally hurt.
Being physically hurt, the closest I can ever think of would be some form of illness or abuse. We cannot explain why some people can be so "fortunate" to get a illness even at a young age. But one thing's for sure, these people are young and they will naturally have the drive to fight off the illness. They want to be able to walk down the road of life to at least, celebrate their golden jubilee. As for the elderly/middle age, they face different problems like having to worry about the well-being of their family members. Elderly people usually think differently, they want to go off as soon as possible to not become a burden to their children. Lets not forget about the words filial piety, take a moment to think. When was the last time you actually help your parents to do something? Not doing it because they requested for your help, but because you volunteered to do so.
Moving on to the topic of physical abuse, no one would be able to take all these. It will lead on to a bad case of mental fear in the victim. The usual cases of physical abuse usually starts from home, all the way to getting bullied in school. Worse case scenarios are parents who repeatedly hit their children because they themselves are unable to control their actions. We've heard of alcoholic parents who come home with bottles of beer and end up physically abusing their family members. We've also heard of cases of rape, I personally think that is the sickest thing that a parent can even do to their own child. Forcing them to perform sexual acts on them? What a disgrace to parenthood. These victims grow up physically, however they're unable to grow out of the shadows of their past. These memories stick with them for life, they will naturally have difficulties having to trust people. If you can't even trust your immediate family members, who else will you trust?
What's the most important value that people need in any relationship? I say it's Trust. No trust, no relationship.
There are many forms of mental hurt. I can think of a few.
1: Relationships, everything is sweet from the beginning. Until something, somehow happened. Both parties are unable to be like before. Compromising seems to be out of the question even though both parties still love each other. This I believe, causes some form of mental hurt. Usually happens when you still have strong feelings for the opposite party, however it's almost impossible to get back. It generally takes time to mend, usually involving a time of thinking through and reliving all the shared experiences. It takes time to re-evaluate your choices from beginning to end. Even the slightest normal activities can trigger thoughts, what seems like a brief relationship can take a long time to get over.
2: Abortion, only the females will go through this kind of mental hurt. It might be a temporary solution to the existing problems that the female might face at that point of time. But it seems like they tend to start wondering what would things be like if they did not abort the child. They live with regret, this would definitely have a great in impact in their lives. Some fall into the deep pit of depression, having nightmares over the unborn child coming to haunt them. Images floating in their minds. How did the "happy" news about becoming pregnant become something so terrible and fearful? Moral of the story : Better use contraceptives
In general, I think mental hurt can have more adverse effects on oneself. Simply because the human brain is the most influential, more powerful than anything. It affects your mood, your senses and how you would react to things. You can question your ability to think when one is mentally hurt, don't even talk about "listening to your heart".
I expected the blog to be as deserted, nearly zero footprints left behind ever since the day I entered OCS.
Well I got out-of-course in case anyone doesn't know. Thanks to a leg injury. Thought hard, didn't want to risk losing a leg in the midst of attaining a prestigious rank. Well that led to me thinking about how much can someone can sacrifice in physical terms to get something he really wants. I chose not to re-course because I didn't want to eat into my Uni days. Being a guy, we've already lost out 2 years of working experience as compared to females. I'm not willing to lose anymore years. I had to decide, I chose it.
Probably the only leadership position that I'm unable to attain till today. 18 sept 2010 was the worse day of the year (Should have been the best). Every commission parade reminds me of bits and pieces of the training that I've been through, whether short of long ; it's still an experience.
On the positive outlook, I have picked up a new interest in photography. In fact I've been exposed to photography since a young tender age, having my dad to be shooting around with his SLR those days and my mum working in a camera company(Rollei) in the past. I guess it was time for me to take that up since dancing is really going up in smoke for me thanks to injuries. I don't have the drive these days to dance it out anymore, I don't think I'm as into it as before. I still love to watch dance though, that is why I'm extremely interested to shoot dance photography.
I've official owned a Nikon D90 for 1 year already, I've still got a long way to go in terms of technique and creativity. Props to my friends for influencing and providing me with tips, inspirations and opportunities to shoot all year round. Although I still think I've not shot enough of pictures. I'm generally more inclined to shoot event photography, of course I wish to expose myself to other types of photography. I've been on a thinking spree, perhaps I should do up my own personal portrait of pictures just for kicks. And now I've started, tonight shall be the night I'll upload 2 of my simple works.
First quarter of the year 2011 have been really different for me as compared to the past 21 years of my life. Had never experienced so many different emotions, never knew that they would have existed if not for the series. Honestly I haven't really gotten over it, but it's just a matter of time. It's good to share, however somethings just can't be shared. You know what I mean.
All the best.
Watch me bounce back Ladies and Gentlemen.
Thankfully I have my family and peers around to keep me going.
Hello fellow readers, i'm sure my readership has already dropped to a record low. I don't blame the army for not letting me post my entries. Lets just put it this way, i'm lazy.
Ok you guys have read the title this time. It's Oh See Ass. that's where i'm posted to after B MT. yea it's O CS. I woke up early in the morning just to check my posting, i felt a great sense of inner-joy from within. It's kind of like a bitter-sweet thing after a few hours, it's honour versus extras.
Congratulations! You have been selected for O C S. yays. i ran out of my room and told my mum. How exhilarated i was at that point in time. Someone once told me, initial feelings are mostly right. Because it comes straight from your heart, no time for your brain to think over.
Had a number of steamboats during my blockleave. 1st - with my bunkmates and platoon commanders. Felt really weird to call the commanders by name, afterall we're so used to addressing them as sergeant and sir. Sat directly opposite them during the steamboat, that felt even more awkward. Because we simply never eat with them during meal-times in the cookhouse. hahas.
2nd - With PPPPP. All at Jaei's aka Megan Fox(but failed) house. Ate prawns like there's no tmr as usual. I like her house. very white, somewhat similar to my house although mines slightly yellow/baige colour. Gives a very clean feeling. As usual we took pictures and this time the guys were all chatting about life in Army, talking about all the wants for postings, ghostly encounters, chaokeng techniques etc. Basically topics that girls will never be interested to listen.
And i had a oh-so-delicious buffet at Orchard Cafe (Orchard Hotel). I think i still prefer the durian puree at M Hotel than the one at Orchard Cafe. However, the oysters here at orchard cafe is.... heavenly. No heavy seafood smell. I kinda like the abalones they served too! Imagine free-flow of abalones, ate till i got so sick of it. As usual i had lots of prawns. Somehow i didn't really like the crab there, or maybe i was just too lazy to crack up those shells. You know... so much effort just to taste that twinny winny bit of crabmeat. The sliced beef with bittergourd was nice, standard cantonese dish there but i thought they lacked the black beans.. or maybe not enough of it. Sorry ah, no pictures =d
Watched Avatar in 3D. this time they provided better 3D Specs. And the 3D specs can rest on my spectacles! Bet many people gave a lousy feedback for the last batch of 3D specs. Anyway, i thought the plot was nice. Leo and Me discussed. Those aliens look like draenei, some world of warcraft stuff. The CGI is almost flawless because even the nitty-gritty details like veins within a body were done. But i wished i watched it without 3D. Made me slightly giddy after watching the 3 hour long movie. The scenery created is breath-taking. 4.9/5 =D There's no perfect movie, and i still believe that line.
Oh yes finally i went back to NYP and NP for b-boying. Never felt so good when i'm able to dance freely once again. but footwork seems foreign to me once again urgh.
Wished i had more time for more activities.
Booking in tomorrow to face my next phase in Army Life. Wish me luck.
