Anyways, here's what i managed to accomplish during the time between the last entry and now.

1. Quit smoking

It took me the better part of july to do so, but i managed to totally drop it after mid july. It certainly helps when you're not doing anything stressful or whatnot. Now i feel much better then i did before, no more constant tiredness and the best part is the black eye rings are dissapearing/ not as intense as they used to be. So well that's a little encouragement for those yet to quit, you'll really feel/look better, and best of all you won't have to worry about hiding the smoke smell from others. Take it from me.

2. Stone and do nothing for the better part of these 2 months. You try it.

3. And what inspired this next article, yes i'm learning my class 2B (Motorcycle riding license below 400cc), or least i intended to rush it cos it took me 11 months to obtain my class 3A (Auto transmission motorcars). Wtf? So i intend to explain the process i went through and how to possibly shorten it so that people who want to learn and ride can do so in the shortest possible time. I'm only up to practical lesson 5 and now at a standstill waiting for my theory test date which is one month away. So here we go:

Chris' Guide to learn Riding in Singapore (The easy way)

Introduction

I've had the luxury of spending time since mid july to fully focus on learning motorcycle until now. In that period of time have learnt several things not so much about the technical aspects, but the way in which Singapore's driving centres (there are 2 in Singapore, one in ubi and the other in yio chu kang soon to be relocated to woodlands by next year april, or so i'm told) technique of teaching. I'll be talking about Singapore Safety Driving Centre (SSDC) located in Yio Chu Kang, since i learn riding there.

Theory

Since there are no "private instructors" like there are for learning cars, you will have to go through their course regardless, Lan Lan suck thumb. Here's how it works. After you have registered, you are free to start your practical lessons and/or you theory lessons. Theory consists of 4 one and a half hour lessons and they usually all fall on the same day. I.E. lessons 1-4 will all be in one day on individual time slots. There's also an option for you to take all these 4 lessons online via "e-learning". Unless you are hopeless with road rules and regulation theory, take the e-learning. Seriously, don't waste your time. I already had all this knowledge from car theory, it is essentially the same and yet i still attended all 4 lessons in one day from 8-5.

After "clearing" the lessons you must book and sit for a "Theory Trial Test" (TTT). Yet another time wasting activity, it is essentially your Riding Theory Test (RTT) and u MUST pass this in order to book RTT. Wtf. I don't see what's the point of this process, although there is a "practise session" in TTT, you only can choose the test, OR the practise which tells you which questions you got wrong. You must book 2 seperate TTTs on different slots if you want to do the practise AND the test. Don't waste your time, just study for it and its all common sense. RTT waiting time is about 1 and the half months so its better to clear your TTT As soon as possible to get the riding theory faster.

In case you are wondering, RTT is needed to obtain your Provisional Driving License (PDL), which is needed for practical 6 onwards and to apply for your Traffic Police (TP) test date, whose waiting time is also a bitch. Till now i'm still waiting for my RTT to come next month and i've already reached prac 5. So essentially there will be nothing for me to do till then. Don't let this happen to you! Clear it fast so that you do not have a waiting "downtime" while u loose touch of your riding skills.

Practical

Hands on sessions consists of 99% of your riding course and the most kickass hard to clear, i suspect due to ulterior motives, more on that later. There are a total of 7 practical lessons, each focusing on particular riding skills. Lessons 1-5 are circuit lessons and 6-7 are on-road and circuit sessions, that's why you need a PDL to drive "on road" from prac 6 onwards. Each prac lesson costs about $25- $36 depending on the lesson you are at. A surcharge of $2 is also applicable from 5pm onwards (or so it states, i got charged $2 for the 3pm lesson, wtf!)

After going for 10 sessions already, i am convinced that SSDC is out to eat your money. Each lesson is subject to the instructors evaluation to pass you for that lesson. Most of the instructors there are jaded and just bored, as if they were working for a government institution, just go there take their pay and don't care. If they don't care, you have to take care! You need absolutely flawless riding for that particular lesson in order to pass, because a mistake is a mistake and if they see it, you're more or less condemned to repeat the lesson no matter how good you ride later on. Worse still if you kana those uninspired minimalist instructors. To put it simply, only if you are really kickass good on the bike, you may pass a lesson in a single try. If not be prepared to come back again and again. Average rates of clearing a lesson is 2-3 tries, it will be boring because if you repeat a lesson, it would be exactly the same as before. 

Personally i was a new rider having no "illegal riding" experience whatsoever (yes they will ask you at the start of the first lesson, its better if you have and say then you can move along faster), i took 3 tries to clear the first practical to get used to it, passed Prac 2 on the first try and repeated once for pracs 3, 4 and 5 pending 2nd try. And i do consider myself to be confident at handling machines without prior experience. You can try to gauge yourself and plan in advance how many practicals you would take to clear the course. I've seen some really hopeless people who struggle 4 times on the same lesson over and over again, that's why i decided to write this article to help new riders like myself to SAVE MONEY and SAVE TIME from the blood sucking SSDC practical sessions. I make the mistakes so that you don't have to beacuse in this ruthless asessment system, one mistake is all the difference made between passing the lesson in one try or coming back for a repeat. (Lessons 1-5 cost $25-$27 each including GST, you do the math, and yes, repeat sessions cost exactly the same).

Prac 1

This lesson will cover the bare basics of bike riding, in a nutshell completely new riders (like myself) are guarenteed to come back to repeat this prac in 2 stages because getting the basics are the most important.

New riders will practise in a small "baby" mini-circuit while those with prior experience will ride in the outer circuit in rounds and practise their braking and gear changing and eventually the mini "twist and turn" circuit to practise sharp turnings.

Things to take note:

• Try not to cock it up by  repeatedly stalling the engine, get used to clutch controlling at right time to prevent this. (If you do not clucth-in when the bike is moving very slowly or at rest you will stall the engine)
• No overtaking for lesson 1! Unless you want to kana fuck
• Do not overshoot the stop lines for fast and slow stopping, not very difficult to do, just apply brake
• Change gears smoothly I.E. lower gear when going slow, higher gear when going faster
• Follow the route and do not knock over cones in the twist circuit. Do not be scared to bank the bike at sharp angles, if you have enough speed it really is almost impossible to fall off the bike. Leaning forward while turning helped me abit
• Some bikes are already so worn, you might have to change to neutral gear to restart engine. If not just clutch in and restart at gear 1 if it stalls

Remember i took 3 tries to clear all these. You should be able to do so in 2 or a single try if you are really good. Take this opportunity to get a feel of the layout of the whole circuit, i actually got lost when an instructor gave me unclear instructions to get to the twist course and i had to repeat because of that. Wtf man. 

Prac 2 

For this lesson you will be doing the crank course and figure of 8 course and slope. Not difficult if you were good at the twist course from prac 1.

Things to take note:

• Pay attention to the route used to get from crank to fig 8 and back to crank again. Don't get lost!
• You will have to obtain a fast speed when entering crank and figure 8 otherwise you will loose control if you go slow. There's no way to explain this, you have to try it for yourself
• Don't exceed 6s and 11s timing for crank and fig 8 courses respectively. Speed up on the straight portions, maintain speed on the bends
• You can try to "clutch-in" when entering the left turn for the crank course to let the bike roll in for better control
• Rmb where and when to turn on/change/cancel signal for the route! You don't want to repeat because of this "kucing-kurap"(dirty cat) matter do you? They CAN and WILL fail you for not cancelling or wrong signal. Took me awhile to get used to it
• You shouldn't be stalling when the instructor is watching, at least don't get caught when you stall. This is lesson 2 already for chrissakes!
• If you put your foot down in any of the courses because you loose your balance, GG (gone game)
• If you mount or touch kerb, GG
• Running of course also GG. I once saw a guy run off course and smack into a tree. ouch! GG!!!!
• Slope wise is simple, apply brake and open throttle while maintaining half clutch.
• If you do roll back, chill. Apply brake first in any case. Opening throttle further to increase power will make you look like a fool if you haven't released your foot brake. So much noise and not moving... GG!

Hope this isn't too difficult for you, i passed it in a single try.

Prac 3

I realised that when you reached this practical lesson, you will observe that everyone is of a good riding standard (I.E. no repeated stalling people blocking your way). In this prac you will learn emergency braking/narrow plank and pylon slalom.In my opnion this is one of the harder ones cos till now my e-brake still cocks up slightly.

Things to take note:

• When accelerating to 30km/h in E-brake, you have to blast your throttle at gear 2, really open it like a maniac
• Must look up! If you look down, they'll fail you
• Close throttle at the yellow line; early closing is common and they will also fail you
• Skidding = fail
• Front brakes are less prone to skidding then back ones, just lightly tap the back brakes or you'll skid for sure!
• You should go up the plank at a reasonable speed, the bike is hard to control when moving slolwy and you'll fall off.
• Develop your own technique for balancing on the plank; personally i close throttle abit and maintain half-clutch without using the back brake.
• Don't knock over the cones in the slalom. Duh! This shouldn't be a problem
• Again rmb the right signals; signal right when moving off from e brake; signal right and check blind spot when moving out from the slalom although it seems silly since there is a barrier. Just do it if you want to pass!

I had to repeat this because i had difficulty in the emergency brake. It is hard to find the sweet spot to stop the bike.

Prac 4

This is a strange lesson cos it consists of a simulator training, it is not asessed so i won't touch on it. Its just in there just for the sake of showing high-tech training methods. There is also pillion riding for this lesson also just thrown in for the sake of learning how to pillion, no concern there.

What you should be concerned of is the actual practical test route. You are given 2 rounds to familiarise and the 3rd round will be asessment, they just don't want to see you getting lost or cocking up the hazard courses. There really isn't much to say, you must be good at ALL the individual courses and at the same time observe your signaling and not get lost. If in doubt, just follow the bike in front of you doing the same lesson as you are.. Be careful though, i once blindly followed another guy and got lost as well, hence the repeat.

Prac 5

This lesson is esentially to see if you can ride through the entire circuit route without chalking up 18 points and/or immediate failures. There is also pillion riding thru the circuit after you finish the assesment which is not assessed. Again thrown in for the sake of putting it in.

Things to take note:

• It is bloody easy to fail this lesson beacuse now you have observe the controller's hand signal and light signal for moving off. Failure to comply at any one station is an immediate failure
• Don't be fooled; the instructors vague explanation did not include the signal for moving off right at the start, if you didn't follow the signal there, you fail immediately at the start which i did cos i didn't know there was a signal off point there. Wtf.
• In every station wait for the hand signal; no hand, don't move. Better to stone there and kana fuck then to fail immediately. Its only the hand, don't mis-read head nodding, armpit scratching or any other movement; just the HAND.
• They are really out to kill you for this lesson, stay alert and think clearly

I've yet to pass this, going to redo in this coming monday, at least now i know rather then to have some half fuck instructor explain vaguely and you will be the one paying for it.

After clearing your prac 5 you MUST have a PDL, which means you must have already taken your RTT to get a PDL to proceed to lesson 6. All fine and dandy you say, except that waiting for a RTT that takes one and a half months is a bitch and you only get one chance to pass it, else you have to wait for another god-forsaken long time.

Many people get out off and eventually drop out and prac 5 because they get bored waiting or they couldn't clear their RTT. I hope with this guide you can plan your practicals and test dates so that you will not loose valuable riding experience and not waste time repeating lessons for nothing and feeding the SSDC time and money. As for myself, my RTT is on the first week of september, so i'll have a 2 week plus downtime while waiting to take it to get my PDL. And even then i still have to pass it in one try otherwise its another month long wait for another attempt. Plus i'll be starting school next friday, there's going to be less consistency since i managed to rush on average 4 practical sessions per week. Planning is everything! There is no incentive for them to improve their service as there are only 2 places to learn riding and driving in singapore, giving them a monopoly and us consumers no say at all. Some of their bikes are lousy already and their automated booking machines are laggy if not totally broken down.

The system is seriously messed up and the odds stacked against you; don't become a victim! Take charge of your bike education today and clear it fast! 

I've been enjoying myself alot just bumming, playing lots of GTA IV online on the XBOX as well as watching endless amounts of movies and shows online. But at the same time i have been reading alot, mostly the papers, for current affairs, what's on TV and then the jobs section although right now i have pretty much no intention of getting employed, not anytime soon anyway.

I've also been reading this

Cos i want to be rich at some point of my life or another but i'm just to damn lazy to do something so i guess i'll just keep on reading and learning more first, more also because i'm not sure where to start at.

This book is not a "how to" book on what to do or what is best. Its more of a way of thinking, a set of principles these 2 people live by and their story on how they got rich. In case you don't know, (and i bet some singaporeans still don't cos they are much too concerned on when the next jay chou concert is coming to town, just kidding!) these 2 are real estate giants. Yes they made their fortune with real estate, except that robert deals in small properties while donald builds skyscrapers!

This popped in my mind as i was reading the book, gee when did i learn about these 2? When did they start to get famous? 5 odd years ago? As i read i discovered these 2 only started to make it big in the 90s, how old are they? Trump is 62 and "Rich dad poor dad" guy is 61. Holy shit! Don't get me started on Warren Buffet. So the thought here is that, it took these men almost the better part of their lives making it big. Its was a long process for both but in the end, they made it.

If you read it, good for you.You'll realise that These 2 actually go against money managing "rules" of study hard, work hard, and save. Quite true in today's climate, oil prices are not going to fall (have they ever?) and the world is feeling the heat now cos everything is so dependant on oil. Prices are increasing and i think we might be staring at another recession looming in the horizon. The most biggest bad ass one, ever. Once it hits, its not going to be pretty, jobs lost cos of downsizing and cost cutting.

I'm still quite into this cos i studied economics back in Junior College and i found out that i was actually quite good at it. But JC level economics is actually quite bare bones.

After reading that, you can try

Yeap by our very own adam khoo. Now this is more of a "How to" Book but also more of a "chap chye" kind of book, no focus on one particular topic. Its more of a brief summary on how he makes it big and some techniques he uses, you should read it while the material is still up to date. He relies alot on internet sources.

Not bad for seeing how a singaporean makes it big from an asian perspective.

After staying at home for a month doing nothing, i realised how fast we singaporeans are living our way of life. If singapore is a cage, them we are all rats running and scrambling to get on that little wheel thingy in hamster cages. Very much, running the rat race.  

Ok now this is just plain stupid. 

The whole of yesterday was spent wrestling with withdrawal symptoms. The urge really comes after meals, or when i get stressed. It was like an irritating nagging at the back of my head that won't go away.

I seemed to have passed the first test also, i went with ray my moderately heavy smoker of a friend. And managed to take any sticks from him to puff on. It probably helps that i'm not hanging around people who smoke that much anymore.

But right now i', just feeling sleepy and restless at the same time, all these would usually go away with one stick but not today! I've come a long way already, from reds, to one pack a week to lights, to one stick a day and now cold turkey.

Somebody shoot me. 

That's just the way you are.

All is forgiven.

Happy upcoming army life! ORD OH!

My aimless lifestyle now, in a nutshell, doing absolutely nothing, is starting to grind on me. It has me longing for the old days when i was still in NS. Even now I'm aware that I make comparisons, draw examples, and relate to situations increasingly from my time as a fireman. i try to stop myself, cos quite frankly, nobody really gives a shit about fire fighting experiences in singapore, but when i think of things it usually starts with ,"you know back in the day when i was in central..." et cetera. I have to put it behind me, the sirens have finally fell silent for me, but i long for it so sometimes.

"You don't know what you got till its gone"

Pretty much i guess. And here i thought my social circle would expand after leaving the forces, not really at all, i still miss the idle locker room banter over cigarettes where we swap stories with whats going on in our lives, around the world.

So i thought i should move on. Yet another person from my past showed up, he offered me a job but declined really to elaborate. Turned out i didn't get it as they were actually looking for someone more permanent. I shan't really elaborate cos its not very nice. Must give some face to my longtime friend of the past, i already lost one longtime friend of the past cos he was an unrealiable asshole, i fear i am about to loose another one cos i didn't really do what he expected as it wasn't righteous to me. Are pple from catholic high really unreliable and/or assholes, i from there, i should know but sometimes the blatant disregard of right and wrong never fails to astound me. But we had our share of good times.

It became more obvious to me about my extended "nostalgia" when i totally failed to notice what date it was yesterday. I kept thinking it was June 10 something plus when in fact it was already the 21st (Stuck in the time vacuum of my ORD week =.=, gee did i really look forward to it that much that i couldn't move out of it?) and my old guitar buddy had called me out to a guitar concert on the same day.

I rushed down to newton (another place from the past, Cairnhill firepost) to some french community place but i had already missed the performance by Tomas (Yet another face from the past) and his Niibori guitar ensemble, but stayed on to catch another spanish guitar cum song and dance item. For your info, it was at Sarkies Rd, some ang mo-ish area where you can find singapore's expatriate community hanging out and the bananas (Asians or locals who behave like ang mohs due to prolonged exposure to angmoh culture and traditions, the lower class variety would be SPG, Sarong Party Girl). Hey hey hey, nothing against them or anything but i can't resist a good laugh.

So we headed down to newton to have some dinner (fried rice and chocolate ice kachang, more food from the past from my days at Cairnhill!) as we chatted about things, but more to our past army lives. Try chatting about some things about their NS lives to ORD lives to freshly ORD personnel and they would talk your ear off about it.

I guess its not that i'm stuck in the past or anything like that, perhaps its post ORD syndrome. Still no meaning or direction in my life, the only thing that did have meaning was my past, in NS. So that explains it i reckon.

And today's an all 80's weekend! All 80's music on 95.00. Excellent!

Looks like living in the past ain't half bad.

So was bored, checking out facebook today when i stumbled upon my old classmate's FB profile. We're talking about 5-6 years ago here, and he's been calling himself "Ichimaru Kyosuke" since sec sch days. I've been wondering about this for quite some time but dismissed it as the character from "bleach". Today however i was quite bored and gave it some more thought so i did what any Gen X-er would do nowadays, i googled the name.

Lo and behold! It was a name from a character from an anime (as expected) but it wasn't bleach! It was from an anime "My Wife is a High School Girl". To have shows like "My wife is a gangster", like that korean show is one thing, but to have my wife as a high school girl? That's really asking for it!

Picture looks harmless enough, even the cast looks PG rated and all. Lets have a look at the sysnopsis.

"Asami Onohara is a seventeen-year old high-school student with a secret which has not been revealed to anyone: She is already married. Her husband, Kyosuke Ichimaru, is a Physics teacher in the same high school as her. However, even though they are officially a married couple, Asami's father forbids them to have any sexual contact until after Asami has graduated. Asami has to hide the fact that she is married to Kyosuke while trying desperately to further their relationship, and it does not help when there are so many interferences and obstacles from her father and other third parties.

Note: Marriage is allowed from 16 years old (female) or 18 years old (male) in Japan."

You saw that? Now that is REALLY ASKING FOR IT!! LOL! O well how bad can it be? Let's see, ooh crunchyroll has it, can't hurt to watch episode 1.

And oh my stars and garters, what can i say, japanese are japanese. Can make such a innocent looking cartoon, a cartoon for goodness sakes, raunchy without ever crossing the line into M18 territory. It even looks like those girly high school comedy animes, well it is.... to a certain extent. (On a side note if 'Sex and the city' is allowed here in singapore already then this is tame by comparison)

Needless to say, i sat down and watched the series for 5 hours straight. LOL!

And that wasn't the best part, i thought back of my sec sch classmate. "Ichimaru Kyosuke" indeed! LOLOLOL!!! (Those who know will know who)

Gee i can't believe i finished all 26 episodes in one day. 1-10 man 9 hours!!  

And now, its over. No more waking up at 5am. I finally have my sense of weekends and god bless... my normal sleeping patterns back. No more waking up at ungodly hours to rush off somewhere.

This Photo i think is still the nicest, taken. Its already somewhat outdated.. taken back in dec 07. Some have been promoted, some ORD. Goes to show how fast things can change over a short time. hey what do you expect? Its Central!

Time for the future. When pple ask me, so what are you gonna do now? I just tell them simply, nothing!

Its back to square one for me, no jobs no school no commitments! Perhaps ill wander singapore again. Perhaps i'll just stay at home and play games all day. Do absolutely NOTHING!! Once Lazy always Lazy.

So now its time to review the past 2 years, like someone i know who has "reflection time at every major point of his life"

Things i learned 

• Being always humble (Very hard to do surprsingly)
• How to deal with difficult/irritating people (without sucking up to them, it easy, difficult people don't have many friends)
• Following Orders without (much) Question (rather i have not much choice, thats loyalty in the government service for you)
• You can't please everyone
• But you can piss everyone off
• To do the most amount of work with the least amount of effort
• Since there are no incentives in the government service, much less NS
• People get rewarded for things others do
• People who deserve to get rewarded do not always do
• Do things without getting caught
• Don't do things (that are supposed to be done) without getting caught
• People who seem friendly to you will suddenly turn cold shoulder when you're in trouble (and i do mean big ass trouble, i almost got charged for a hole in the wall)

And the list goes on, now lets see the mistakes i've made

• Trying to change stubborn people. You'll just get scolded for your effort no matter how bad you think their behaviour is, just stop caring, its easier. (And they say singaporeans are apathic, its the circumstances that make us this way!)
•  Being loud and arrogant (cos nobody likes such a person)
• Picking up girls on the streets

Now i'd like to touch on the last part. Doing that is fine and all, but not in Singapore! Singaporeans are by nature, not shy but suspicious of others. Call it Kiasee or whatever, but you have to admit, when some stranger approaches you, you immediately have this sense of apprehension, "Who sia this guy? WTF"

We Singaporeans are trained from young to mind our own business, look pissed off when walking on the street, and frown and people in disgust and to the extent of being a "chinese Nazi" (Like somone i know, where is the love man?)

For instance i just read on one of my (girl) friend's blog, someone did something like that, tried to pick her up on the street. And she described in that she felt "scared to look at him" and when she rejected his "friend request" (facebook lingo!) She laughed silently to herself!

Not that she was cruel to do that to trhat guy or something, or perhaps that guy really WAS scary. But that's the thing you see, that what goes through singaporean girl's mind when you try to pull that shit off. Be polite, look scared and hopefully he'll fuck off.

What about those really open ones? The one you see at clubs? The wild childs? The ones who apply to go for FHM girl next door?

Psychomaniac!!! 'Nuff said!

Living in Singapore: Life moves so fast that we become either scared or mad. 

It is coming to and end soon. Pink IC is the salvation. Have to learn to care once more.

There's nothing more dangerous, then a man who has nothing left to loose.

No that's not me. But its too true.

Look around you.

i typed a whole article on the sliding pole incident but it got deleted. Cheebye.

Anyways this goes out to kamal.

Get well soon.

We shall ORD in one piece.