Anything Considered

This year's celebrations for me were a little too much, too soon. Having a big dinner with the specs (which was really really good), steamboat buffet in camp, overnight lan, a Battery ORD function in Sentosa, and steamboat reunion dinner back home almost back-to-back is really exhausting. Now I've got a fever to start the holidays. And the prospect of guard duty on Sunday isn't very welcoming.

But good and bad are often mixed up together. Dinner with the specs, seen in the light of our last few days as NSFs together, was a wonderful get-together that really highlights the year we've been through. It isn't easy to make friends. And I daresay I'll be very much upset if I can't come back to press on with this bunch for ICT in the future.

Dota with the usual bunch last night was really enjoyable too. Even though we lost it was a match I enjoyed much more than others because we were trying to play as a team and have a go at it together. We need vent. Haha. And some daring enough to lead.

The Battery ORD function was a great time of reliving an army life soon to end. All the good times in India, the laughs, the people - you aren't wrong when you say these 2 years aren't about the chionging and the labour, but about friends found and the memories made with them. I am not a very good commander, but I have excellent men. And I owe a lot to them.

It's strange, isn't it? Army is (still is!) the bane of my existence, but somehow I'm starting to look back at a lot in a good light. Somehow as time passes and the hurts of circumstances fade, the one thing that endures is a friendship found and proven. And of these I have plenty to be thankful for.

The stained glass of a midnight sky stretches from peak to peak
Of Ancients furrowed and browed
They overhang a great expanse of fields
with gutted knolls and pools
These shimmer with Midas Gold.

The spirits grapple in a deathly chill
Of the Funeral
Oh what cries and yowls!
Sorrow reigns and soars as King with a scepter
Whose striking sound is the very gong of death.

Every man is the Lone Man, who
With his dark overcoat
Is the black dove, dead rose, and vulture lord in One.

The crow is silent upon the Tree
As it watches him walk by
Walk by
Bestride pools of lies and bleeding giants
He stops once
only
To drink from the well that is forever dry.

A hazy fog surrounds
This life is yours to live, and mine.

菊花台
曲：周杰倫

妳　的淚光　柔弱中帶傷
慘白的月彎彎　勾住過往
夜　太漫長　凝結成了霜
是誰在閣樓上　冰冷的絕望
雨　輕輕彈　朱紅色的窗
我一生在紙上　被風吹亂
夢　在遠方　化成一縷香
隨風飄散　妳的模樣

菊花殘　滿地傷　妳的笑容已泛黃
花落人斷腸　我心事靜靜躺
北風亂　夜未央　妳的影子剪不斷
徒留我孤單　在湖面　成雙

花　已向晚　飄落了燦爛
凋謝的世道上　命運不堪
愁　莫渡江　秋心拆兩半
怕妳上不了岸　一輩子搖晃
誰　的江山　馬蹄聲狂亂
我一身的戎裝　呼嘯滄桑
天　微微亮　妳輕聲的嘆
一夜惆悵　如此委婉

Yes I know I don't like chinese. But I like poetry, and good lyrics. And music that makes people sit down and listen without being overly self-indulgent or depressing. So er, flower beds it is for me.

Hai Tian Lo @ Pan Pacific on friday night was the highlight of the week. Good food in a splendid setting with raucous friends makes for a jolly good time. (:

It's quite amusing how the people who can't speak chinese well, if at all, were picking the dishes. But I think we made some good choices. Even if we almost over ordered. Peking duck, meat platters, scallops (with green things and white things!), tofu, spare ribs, etc. Loved the duck most. Loved the scallops with the small white things too (diced lobster wow). Ribs were ordinary. Tofu was good.

It's the company that stood out though. With all the laughing and the absolute absurdity of some of the things they did (handover ceremony in front of the hai tian lo signboard), I really hope we can make this happen every year. Kudos to SW for organising and getting the venue. Loved it.