thoroughly enjoyable.

I'm referring to the Singapore Bay Run which I participated in last Sunday morning. My event was a non-competitive 12 km run, which has its starting point at the Esplanade Drive, stretches to Shenton Way, to ECP all the way to the Fort Road exit, then to Mountbatten, Republic Ave and finally to the finishing point at behind the floating platform. It was thoroughly enjoyable, soaking in the morning wind along the ECP, especially the upslope and the downslope between Rochor and Fort Road exit. Entirely shiok! (Salman, if you're reading this, I think you will understand me cos I've told you before that I feel like running down that stretch of ECP after Ophir slip road.)

Now, enjoy some photos!

Before the start.

two-and-a-quarter half marathoners

A killer concept picture.

Can you see how short you are now? Hahha.

The End (literally).

Next up: New Balance REAL Run 2007 on 28 October.

i want out.

Well, here's a quick blog post, amidst my rather busy period.

Some people might know that I'm currently tutoring two kids, one of them being my officer's son and the other being the younger sister of my ex-gf. This blog title suggests more aptly for the latter.

The reason?

In situations where effort from different individuals is needed, it is best that everyone puts in more-or-less equal work in order to achieve whatever goals they set out for. You see, the reason I want out is that, I don't feel the other party is putting in as much effort or at the bare minimum keeping a mental note of the next tuition date and time. So you can imagine me going to her house, pressing the doorbell and the next thing I see is her looking perplexed. "EH? today meh?" Of course, I am not the type who would be straightforward enough to show my annoyance there and then. So I just said that I was tired (I really was, after the 12km Singapore Bay Run that morning) and I will sms her again soon and then walked off. How foolish I must have looked.

You see, I have been contemplating whether I should or whether I can continue tuition for her entire 2 years O level course. That made-me-look-stupid incident just affirms everything. Firstly, I have fresh plans after ORD. Secondly and more relevantly, I want the least to do with my ex. Lastly, I never want to make myself look stupid anymore.

what would you do if you were me?

My OC recently told me this: 'You're the most senior in terms of rank in the squad, but I realised that you have been very passive in leading the guys.'

I don't know whether to say that it came as a surprise or not when he said that. On one hand, I agree with what he said. On the other, I felt the need to defend myself.

For your information, my squad is made up of NSF officers, most of whom are of ITE background. Now, don't you stereotype them upon reading the previous sentence. They are much better as individuals than I had initially expected. The catch is, I only feel this way about most of them, not all.

The other guys, whom I find most difficult to communicate with, are almost getting on my nerves the entire time. Yet, there has never been a time when I lash out at them for their many short-comings. I suppose I have learned to be tolerant with people like them. VERY fortunately, I would say, most of these people, are going to ORD in a few weeks time.

Hence my reply to my OC was: 'Yes I know, sir, but how would you expect me to exert my leadership when the subordinates refuse to listen, comply and at the very least, respect each other? Give me some time. I will prove you wrong, once they (he knows the people whom I was referring to) ORD.'

Well, his stand was, if I could practise my leadership with these group of diffult people, it would mean that I can practise with any kind of people. I could use it as an avenue to hone my leadership. He's absolutely right about that. And to be honest, I was speechless when he said that.

What would you do if you were me?

out of sort.

Somehow, there isn't much National Day feeling for me this year, despite much truth about it being the most spectacular one ever.

Perhaps, a major reason would be because I had to be on 24 hrs standby that day. By right, that would mean that I could catch the parade and performance on tv, which I prefer to watching it live. By left, that wasn't meant to be.

At 1903hrs, my squad was activated for a missing persons case at Geylang Bahru (in the middle of watching the ndp!). It was actually a 10 years old boy and a 4 years old girl who went missing. They're totally unrelated, but actually neighbours. The odd and depressing thing is that the boy has had a recent record of outraging another girl's modesty in public. In particular, he pulled down the skirt of another 6 years old girl. That's the worrying thing about this case. My squad was activated to attempt to search both the missing children, before the boy commits any similar offence. But it wasn't not too long after we arrived at the scene, that the boy went home himself. Case closed (for us). What actually happened in those few hours when he got missing was not for me to know.

The thing that bugged me till now was the audacity of the boy to commit such an offence at such a young age. His upbringing must have played a huge part in him doing such things. Like what my OC speculated, he must have been with his father, watching 'blue' films together. It could be true, and if it really is, there's nothing much a third party can do to change.

So that was my National Day. Hopefully next year's will be a much better one...

I covered 112km today!

It will be crazy of me to cover that distance on foot. Well, it was covered on wheels.

On every thursdays and fridays of every four weeks, my squad will be attached to the Police MRT Unit (PMU) to do patrol duties at MRT stations/bus interchanges. This has been ongoing for about 3 months now.

My role currently is a reserve driver, which means to say that I will cover the duty of a driver if any of the two other drivers are unavailable. One of the drivers was on MC today, so I had to cover him at the eleventh hour. I must say that it is not a bad thing, albeit expecting to get some real patrolling work today.

These days, my OC and I will go on supervisory rounds, checking up on our guys that are on patrol at certain MRT stations. Of course, I will be driving around from station to station. It is becoming quite a challenge for me, because sometimes I've got to locate certain stations which I've not even been to. Other times, it will be the traffic condition that poses much difficulty to me. I wonder, sometimes, if these challenges are overloading for a driver with only almost 5 months of experience under him. On a more positive side, I would choose to think that one can only improve when he is given fresh challenges.

Today, I felt proud of myself. From my base in Queenstown, my OC decided that the first station to go to was Outram Park. It was rather easy, for I have covered the route umpteen times. It was to Lavendar next, another easy task, because that vicinity is where I grew up in. At the end of our patrol at Lavendar MRT, it was time for 'Official Ease', which means an official break for lunch/naps etc, so we headed back to base.

At noon, we set out again, this time for Ang Mo Kio MRT station. Now, it was a challenge because AMK is a foreign place to me, lest the route leading from Queenstown to AMK. Unlike the earlier part where I drove almost independently, I needed directions from my OC this time round so that we would not lose our way. Fortunately, we arrived at our destination after approximately 30 minutes. After some while, my OC decided that we should head for Kovan MRT and that was when I was like 'uhh.. I totally don't know that place', and then he was like 'me too.. never mind.. just drive around lah.. at most we drop by at some stations along the way'. Haha.

So off we went, via CTE (SLE/TPE) and almost in a matter of a few minutes, I was in Sengkang area. Phew, for a moment. But it wasn't to last. Previously, I had an idea that since Kovan's along the NEL, it could be near Sengkang or Punggol. And that's why I exited at Sengkang East, which was probably the wrong move cos we never got around to finding Kovan MRT. Haha. We found Punggol MRT though, and that was like a total ghost town. Buses and trains are running, but there's hardly a substantial number of people there.

The last stop was Tampines MRT, which I insisted that we go, cos it's quite near Punggol and we could also fetch our guys there back to base to report off. But the main reason is because Tampines's my home town! I drove via SLE (TPE/PIE), but then on the TPE/PIE, I hesitated to make an exit where I should have made, resulting in having to drive to Changi East area. Perhaps, it was over-confidence, or over-excitement. Haha. A detour was hence necessary, but we eventually made it to Tampines MRT on schedule. I even drove passed my own house! Haha. If I had time I would have even dropped by my house. It was barely a few minutes at Tampines MRT before stand-down was given. So we headed back to base, at Queenstown. 111.9km covered.

I have my OC to thank cos without him, I would probably have lost my way alot more frequently. He is the reason why I feel that my driving has improved. He renders me discretion on the road and makes me independent. Because of him, I am alot more confident and street-wise. Such once a month duty has been something that I look forward to cos we get to talk about alot of stuffs and I honestly feel quite comfortable communicating with him.

All in all, 111.9km covered, and invaluable lessons learnt (from my OC). =)