The year ahead, I expect, will be no different from the last one.
Miserable.
Painful.
(A continual list of negative adjectives)
I now realise I need God more than ever.
I'm not fighting to win.
I'm fighting for survival.
Gott mit uns.
Postnote: Wishing the visitors (if any) a Happy New Year.
Thursday, 1 January 2009
Sunday, 21 December 2008
Perth, WA
Sorry for the lack of updates. Here is a brief summary of the Perth trip.
Day 1:
Qantas flight to Perth. After reaching hotel, immediately depart for Perth Central to eat. After that we walked 2 km home. Thank goodness it was cool.
Day 2:
Trip to Bull Creek to see the RAAF Museum. They store a Spitfire, and this huge original Lancaster bomber. It took up the whole hangar. They also had this C-47 in which you could peek in the back door (the one you jump from). I looked in and then I suddenly remembered Band of Brothers. I then saw the static line up on the ceiling of the C-47. Then I looked down. Silence.
Day 3:
Trip to Fremantle. Went to this fish and chips place. Really good stuff. Highlight was the visit to HQ Western Australia University Regiment. They had this museum with all the WW2 tanks like M3s on the perimeter of the parade square. There was this re-enactor inside wearing the uniform of a Light Horseman in WW1. He let me wear his ammo bandolier (containing replica, actual weight .303 clips). Its quite heavy if you carry it by hand, but actually wearing it is quite OK. There also was this diorama called 'In Flanders Fields' with all the soldiers advancing over a parched, burnt land. There were also these mockups of a POW camp, with the cholera tent, and a figure with jungle ulcers. Awfully disgusting, to say the least. I wouldn't want to have any of those.
And thus concluded the Remembrance part of the trip. A wooden plank at the exit of the POW gallery summed it all up.
"When you go home, tell them of us and say - For your tommorow, we gave our today."
Day 4:
Swan Valley. Winery after winery. I'm a teetotaler. I don't drink, and when I tasted white wine, I think I was a bit doozy for a few seconds. I wouldn't want to down a whole bottle of the stuff.
Day 5:
City West. Bought 633 Squadron (book) there. Cheap secondhand books, but a very limited range.
Day 6:
Arrived in Singapore. Enough said.
I said it was going to be brief. I forgot to mention the flies going all over my beef. That was the worst lunch I had in years. And the most expensive. Price does not equal a good experience. Lesson learnt. Never eat next to a winery.
Day 1:
Qantas flight to Perth. After reaching hotel, immediately depart for Perth Central to eat. After that we walked 2 km home. Thank goodness it was cool.
Day 2:
Trip to Bull Creek to see the RAAF Museum. They store a Spitfire, and this huge original Lancaster bomber. It took up the whole hangar. They also had this C-47 in which you could peek in the back door (the one you jump from). I looked in and then I suddenly remembered Band of Brothers. I then saw the static line up on the ceiling of the C-47. Then I looked down. Silence.
Day 3:
Trip to Fremantle. Went to this fish and chips place. Really good stuff. Highlight was the visit to HQ Western Australia University Regiment. They had this museum with all the WW2 tanks like M3s on the perimeter of the parade square. There was this re-enactor inside wearing the uniform of a Light Horseman in WW1. He let me wear his ammo bandolier (containing replica, actual weight .303 clips). Its quite heavy if you carry it by hand, but actually wearing it is quite OK. There also was this diorama called 'In Flanders Fields' with all the soldiers advancing over a parched, burnt land. There were also these mockups of a POW camp, with the cholera tent, and a figure with jungle ulcers. Awfully disgusting, to say the least. I wouldn't want to have any of those.
And thus concluded the Remembrance part of the trip. A wooden plank at the exit of the POW gallery summed it all up.
"When you go home, tell them of us and say - For your tommorow, we gave our today."
Day 4:
Swan Valley. Winery after winery. I'm a teetotaler. I don't drink, and when I tasted white wine, I think I was a bit doozy for a few seconds. I wouldn't want to down a whole bottle of the stuff.
Day 5:
City West. Bought 633 Squadron (book) there. Cheap secondhand books, but a very limited range.
Day 6:
Arrived in Singapore. Enough said.
I said it was going to be brief. I forgot to mention the flies going all over my beef. That was the worst lunch I had in years. And the most expensive. Price does not equal a good experience. Lesson learnt. Never eat next to a winery.
Saturday, 6 December 2008
An Update
Well, back from Malaysia. Watched Madagascar 2 there.
and it was darn funny. The plot is quite well-woven if you ask me.
Funny lines:
***
Kowalski: [the plane has crash landed and the penguins are looking at a clipboard] Only two passengers unaccounted for, Skipper.
Skipper: That's a number I can live with! Good landing, boys! Who says a penguin can't fly?
***
(ultimate tough manly quote)
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit, and a whole lotta duct tape.
***
Alex: [to Marty] I broke your iPod!
***
Private: In case of a loss of oxygen, please place your masks over your faces to hide your terrified expressions from the other passengers.
***
Julien: [after Melman has announced he has only 48 hours to live] "If I had only two days to live, I would invade a neighboring country, and force my ideology on them, whether they wanted it or not."
***
(best quote in the movie in my opinion)
Julien:"Well, you gotta march right up to this woman, right? You look her right in the eye, you lean forward, right? Just a little - almost all the way. then you let her, like, lean forward, just a little bit until you're just a lips' distance away from each other. And then you just tell her...how much you hate her."
Funny stuff.
and it was darn funny. The plot is quite well-woven if you ask me.
Funny lines:
***
Kowalski: [the plane has crash landed and the penguins are looking at a clipboard] Only two passengers unaccounted for, Skipper.
Skipper: That's a number I can live with! Good landing, boys! Who says a penguin can't fly?
***
(ultimate tough manly quote)
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit, and a whole lotta duct tape.
***
Alex: [to Marty] I broke your iPod!
***
Private: In case of a loss of oxygen, please place your masks over your faces to hide your terrified expressions from the other passengers.
***
Julien: [after Melman has announced he has only 48 hours to live] "If I had only two days to live, I would invade a neighboring country, and force my ideology on them, whether they wanted it or not."
***
(best quote in the movie in my opinion)
Julien:"Well, you gotta march right up to this woman, right? You look her right in the eye, you lean forward, right? Just a little - almost all the way. then you let her, like, lean forward, just a little bit until you're just a lips' distance away from each other. And then you just tell her...how much you hate her."
Funny stuff.
Saturday, 29 November 2008
Self-Education : Pars Secunda
Still have one part to go before I finish Differentiation.
Will move on to Integration.
Also learning French, German and Japanese simultaneously.
Why?
"Not because they are easy, but because they are hard."-JFK.
Will move on to Integration.
Also learning French, German and Japanese simultaneously.
Why?
"Not because they are easy, but because they are hard."-JFK.
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Airman #1
This is a picture I did up in half an hour. Depicts an RAF guy with a moustache. I put in #1 in the title because there will be more to come. Place comments in Das Postfach.
Danke.
Monday, 24 November 2008
Self-Education
It is my strongest belief that self-education is vital for the learner, because it encourages self-motivation, which is a key trait a learner should have. It also gives less trouble to teachers. If everyone educated himself well before the lesson started, the teacher would only have to correct what the students did not understand during his program of self-education, and the teacher could then expand further on the concepts and ideas the pupil has learned, allowing the student to think deeper on the subject and consequently derive the greater benefit.
(Enough of the essays.)
(And now for something completely different.)
Well, I've come back from Hong Kong. It was a nice trip. Went to CAS, GFS, TST Fire Station, lots of other places. I have learned much.
Yesterday during YM, we touched on this topic of "Freedom is questionable". My goodness, this is Philosophy in Church. There could be nothing more fun. Argument, debate, logic, reason, and counter-argument.
What is freedom?
Within our worldly confines, there is none. We just move from one prison to another.
So is freedom attainable? Is it real?
Yes it is. But not worldly freedom.
The greatest freedom is the only freedom.
(Enough of the essays.)
(And now for something completely different.)
Well, I've come back from Hong Kong. It was a nice trip. Went to CAS, GFS, TST Fire Station, lots of other places. I have learned much.
Yesterday during YM, we touched on this topic of "Freedom is questionable". My goodness, this is Philosophy in Church. There could be nothing more fun. Argument, debate, logic, reason, and counter-argument.
What is freedom?
Within our worldly confines, there is none. We just move from one prison to another.
So is freedom attainable? Is it real?
Yes it is. But not worldly freedom.
The greatest freedom is the only freedom.
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Armistice
It was on this day on which the armies stopped fighting 90 years ago.
Today, Remembrance Day is a day marked to commemorate the sacrifices the Commonwealth soldiers made for us.
Unfortunately, very few know of this day here in Singapore. Have we forgotten the sacrifices of Dalforce, ANZAC, the Plymouth Argylls?
Over here, people stare at you with that "is that guy gay?" look when you wear a poppy you got from donating to the RBL (Royal British Legion for those who didn't know).
A simple poppy. Small but meaningful. Yet misconstrued badly in our day and age. I envy those in the Commonwealth Realms. At least they still recognise this. What happened to the rest of the Commonwealth? Did not the British, Indians, Gurkhas, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders fight for your peace, your freedom, your lives?
We take freedom for granted today.
We fail to recognise our freedom was earned in blood.
"That freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have courage to defend it."-Pericles
LEST WE FORGET.
Today, Remembrance Day is a day marked to commemorate the sacrifices the Commonwealth soldiers made for us.
Unfortunately, very few know of this day here in Singapore. Have we forgotten the sacrifices of Dalforce, ANZAC, the Plymouth Argylls?
Over here, people stare at you with that "is that guy gay?" look when you wear a poppy you got from donating to the RBL (Royal British Legion for those who didn't know).
A simple poppy. Small but meaningful. Yet misconstrued badly in our day and age. I envy those in the Commonwealth Realms. At least they still recognise this. What happened to the rest of the Commonwealth? Did not the British, Indians, Gurkhas, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders fight for your peace, your freedom, your lives?
We take freedom for granted today.
We fail to recognise our freedom was earned in blood.
"That freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have courage to defend it."-Pericles
LEST WE FORGET.
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