RSAF Open House 2008 - The Children of Unity Primary School class 3E

Its the 1st day of RSAF Open House and the date was 27th August 2008. I have the honour and duty to be the National Education ambassador for 32 students with their form teacher Doris of clase 3E from Unity Primary School. They are truly a energetic, exciting, enthusiastic group of students. I really have fun been their guide and felt pretty proud on this day being a Senior Tech of the RSAF when they tell me how impress and excited they are to be at the open house. It seems every aircraft is like a magnet to them and been children, they can't wait to get their hands on every nooks and crannis, panels and wings of the planes and helicopters.

Haiz...looking at them is like looking at a mirror image of myself 20 years ago....but times have change. Children now are so much more advance compare to my times. They have digital camera, they have more cash in their wallet, they have camera mobile phone and they are only Primary 3.

Their visit was a bit too short in my opinion and I wish they have more time to learn about the people in green, blue and civis who work “no day no night” to protect the skies of Singapore. At less they went home with a good note and after watching the aerial display of RSAF arsenels.

RSAF Open House 2008 Ambassador outfit

Pretty nice Polo-Tee we got for the RSAF Open House 2008. Its orange and funky. Remind me of the Holland Soccer team. Its definitely limited edition... I think its really easy for visitor of the open house to spot us.

Burning the weekend this week for our 40th Anniversary...

Got the arrow like a few hundred others to serve as Ambassador for the 2008 RSAF Open House. Its like a customer service staff, tour guide, crowd controller and public spokesman for the RSAF all roll into one. This is the first time in RSAF history that will be featuring Ambassadors like me to create an "E & E, Entertaining and Enriching" experience for the public visitor during the Open House.

Frankly, to term this job an "arrow" makes the whole experience seems like a chore when in fact its a role pretty new,exciting and enriching in my opinion. Instead of flashy advertisement and scripted speech of the RSAF public spokes person or career recruiter, the RSAF now is fielding the real people who have walk the ground (or the air literally) to meet the public face to face during this 2 days event over the weekend. A role without a script and all purely entrusted to the personality of the individual Ambassador. Can you smell the creative chaos when instead of a strict military regime of top to bottom instruction, rules and regulation is now replaced by just under 2 hours of briefing and few pages of written guide? Yes there is still a chain of command but there is lots of freedom to the way we can make it a unique experience for each visitor.

I think this healthy dose of entrusting in the Ambassadors doing their very best in the RSAF Open House 2008 not only will show case the very best of our Hardware and Software but also the heart-ware and human-ware that makes it all run like a clock work.

Since photography are allowed during the Open House 08, I will not hesitate to snap some pictures a make a blog out of it. It will be insightful to be the National Education guide of a certain group of school kids this Thursday and the Ambassador for the public this Saturday and Sunday. To get to compare their view of the RSAF with mine. I believe theirs will be a glamorous image of Fighter Pilots, Weapon firing and fast moving fighter jets compare to my view of bolts, wrenches, oil, grease and high noise chopper environment. Interesting...

Here is the link to the Official RSAF Open House 2008 website. Be sure to come down to Paya Lebar Air Base this weekend from 9am to 7pm. There is not excuse for not activity this weekend... Leave the car at home for bus ferry services are available from Eunos and Hougang Interchange.

RSAF OPEN HOUSE 2008 Official Website

"The Chopper is not glamorous like the fighter jet but it can land almost anywhere on the earth, delivering soldiers, firepower, food, medical aids and finally evacuate lots of people from area of danger. Its the unsung hero of military aviation overshadowed in limelight by the flashy Fighter Jets thanks to TOP GUN. Maybe everyone should start watching Tour Of Duty, Apocalypse Now, Black Hawk Down and listen to 'Rides Of Valkyrie'."

Found a baby bird!!

Found a baby bird on the ground. Must have fall off the nest or got abandon by parents. It was attacked by ants but was rescued by my mum and dad who happen to spot it on the ground. So it was brought back home and now we have to take care of it till its able to fly off by itself. Maybe I will be able to domesticate this baby Mynah and keep it as a cage-free pet. An experiment in progress...

Completed my 2nd 21km run

I admit, I have pre-run anxiety, tossed and turn in bed and only falling asleep at 1.30am this morning. Just after 3 hours of sleep, I'm awake. 4.30am, its time for breakfast of egg and bread before driving downtown at dawn for the Singapore Bay Run/ Army Half Marathon. My last run was almost 3 years ago but this year run is holds much more aesthetic to it as all runner will be crossing the Marina Barrage.

I did not run with registration thus without a race number tag. However, I was not alone as I spotted several non-competitive runner among crowd, running unofficially just like me. The starting point was a prominent inverted "U" shape gantry but what humors me before the flag off for the non-competitive 21km run was the ERP gantry just 20m ahead of the start point. Those official runner have a ID tag tied to their shoe lace that track their timing as they past the finishing line. I wonder if they have to pay S$1 every time they pass an ERP gantry. The commentator at the starting point never miss the chance to use this episode as a good morning joke.

21km...half a marathon. Its training day for me and although this is the second time I run 21km, I told myself to pace the run as though I was running a full 42km marathon. However, I got a confidence beating today when after I cross the 18km check point, my leg starts to fail me and I have to fall back to a slow jog. I am not out of breath, its my leg...they are giving up. The only time I got a boost of strength was the last 200m run to the finishing line. Looks like I got lot more training to do if I want to complete the Marathon this December. Suddenly felt like giving up man....hahaha. Ok, can I give a lack of sleep excuse for my poor performance today?

The drinks for this year half marathon was absurd. Ice Mountain instead of H2o or 100Plus. Isn't really fair for the registered runners. Drinking Ice Mountain mineral water give runner stitches in the stomach due to the poor absorption rate. H20 and 100plus being isotonic drinks get absorpt by the the body and into the blood stream more rapidly instead of staying in the stomach and churning around while running. I hope they don't serve us runner Ice Mountain water/ Evian/ New Water for the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2008. Absolutely poor quality drink, obstruction to performance.

Next, which ever unit in-charge of the route that distributing banana got to stop doing so next year! Yes...Banana is a good energy source for the runner but its also a source of hazard when some bastard runner start throwing it in the path of fellow runners. In the end, a few responsible runner from the Army unit pick it up and throw it to the side of the road, on the grass. Can't tahan this people, already give the liberty to throw drinks cup and mobile trash along the side of the road but still want to hurt people with a banana skin. A really ugly sight of Singaporean in the view of many foreign runner among us.

One of the toughest route in my opinion is the "New Expedition" man by the Combat Engineer. A few kilometer of poorly paved route at the west end of East Coast that link to the Marina Barrage. They really look like a path the Combat Engineers bull dozed and constructed overnight, getting the combat engineer to man the route can't be more appropriate.

Best running route will be across the Marina Barrage. On my right is the entire Singapore cityscape and to my left, our southern seas with countless container ships. Of course the last few hundred meter to the finishing point is a priceless sight too.

After the run, I headed to One Fullerton hotel to shower. Well, my Sis and our family friend Jessie indulged themselves with a one night hotel stay from Saturday and will only be checking out at 3pm. So a very tired me headed to their room to enjoy a shower in this 6 star hotel. Really great hotel staff they have. The front desk staff assume I was a resident of the hotel and ask me how was my run and such. Every housekeeping staff I saw along the way never fail to greet me good morning. I never been to a five star hotel let alone a six star so I really have no idea how I would compare it with 2 and 3 star hotel I stayed in the past but its a really nice hotel. Beside the staff and the shower facility, the room is really cosy with a nice balcony view of Boat Quay, Padang, Esplande, the Singapore river...etc...etc. Even though of booking a room over the weekend with my girlfriend or wife next time. Money money money...hope I have lots of money...

The Human Race

Billions of human around the world, in almost every big cities of the world, a 10km race in each...its the Nike Human Race 10K.

http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/humanrace/index.jsp

Happening in Singapore next Sunday however I won't be able to join as registration is close. I will be unofficially taking part in the Singapore Bay Run/ Army Half Marathon tomorrow morning. Unofficially=Running without registration. This will be a good training opportunity for the Marathon I will be taking part in December.

Drinking Choya...Watching Death Note Movie

After finishing the Death Note Anime few months ago, I finally got my hand on the live-action movie version of it. So right now I'm watching Death Note Movie -The Last Name and drink Choya.

Revoltech Series: Yotsuba Summer Vacation

This character is really Kawaii!!! Yotsuba is her name... I'm collecting Revoltech toys now and this one really caught my attention with her sunshine look! Perfect decoration for the office desktop to take the work stress away.

Bye Bye!!!

Photo of the week.

I was arrowed to do a video for the base, fortunate and unfortunate. So a video production need lots of raw material to materialize thus for the past few days, I have been browsing through tons of photo from my life in USA...thousands of them. Came across this few pictures I like to share with you. Some took by me, some took by my dear friends still enjoying their life in the states.

Respect the person, not the rank!

Keep the tools tidy...

Full Metal Jacket

Chucky from Child Play

How to appeal for innocent ERP fines

Sadly Singapore did not clinch the gold medal during yesterday women's table tennis final. The Chinese, the China one I mean, are just too calm and compose throughout the game. I sense our team is more than satisfied with the silver medal and from their smile and expression, the gold medal match is nothing but a motion. Silver medal and loads of cash, I too will be too relax and happy to even compete in the finals.

Well I definitely want to win in the battle against LTA/ERP or NETS. Obviously I'm not going all the way to Subordinate court for a fine like what "Hui Ge a.k.a Henry Thia" did in Money No Enough 2. So I drop a line to LTA this morning and was pleasantly surprise with an efficient automated telephone service which don't bring you in circles from 1 menu to another. Within less than a minute, I got through to customer service and was greeted by a sweet malay lady voice, a nice gesture which I never expected from a government department staff. Explained my case to her about the Orchard ERP gantry not deducting S$1 from my IU despite the cash card in place and she listen patiently and advice me to head to the nearest VIACOM inspection center to get my IU/Cash Card checked for free. Even gave me the address and contact number of the Yishun VIACOM. Later on, she called back again to advice me on the appeal process if either the cash card or ERP IU is defective.

Headed down to Yishun VIACOM inspection center moments later and learnt they got a dedicated ERP IU inspection station. Was served by Richard, a Filipino guy, a foreign talent in my opinion. Again I have to comment that he never delay the process and immediately scan my vehicle IU with one of those square silver box you find fixed to the ERP gantry. Next tested the IU with a different cash card and finally concluding that the existing cashcard I am using was defective. Filled up a few paper work, got a free new cash card and finally got a receipt for the service render which I also need to fax to LTA to get the S$10 fine waived off. In all, I only spend 20minutes at VIACOM.

As for the old cash card, you can get the remaining value refunded at any ATM.

In short, thanks to the numerous complain in the past and LTA attention to the matter, they have set up a one stop service center in all VIACOM inspection center island wide to meet the needs of innocent motorist like me. The process though take some effort from phone call, the driving the VIACOM and the wait for inspection. Until the government can come out with a better method to curb this problem which they claim affect 0.03% of vehicle passing the gantry, Singaporean motorist have to make do with this current appeal procedures.

Kudos to LTA customer service for their...erm...excellent phone customer service and also VIACOM for the 1 stop service center. Finally advise to all fellow motorist not to keep you cashcard in the IU for extended period of time. On the back of it, its clearly stated that it only got 4 hours heat resistant.

Table Tennis...Black cat, white cat...China Born, Singapore born...

"I won S$500,000!!!!"

Watching the semi-finals of the women's singles table tennis competition between Singapore and South Korea, I constantly heard the Beijing crowd chanting "Jia You Zhong Guo, 加油中国！！！". Its an obvious support for our China born Fang Tian wei but now Singaporean. Its also a reminder of their native roots. We are confirm with a silver medal now after an overwhelming victory against the South Korean, winning 3 straight rounds in a row.

Thus it turn out that Singapore second Olympic medal after almost 4 decades wait was clinch not by a local born and raised sportsman but an athlete and migrant from a different country. In the BBC SPORT website, she was term as an "Import from China like the rest of Singapore team". They were either speaking a matter of fact or a statement of sarcasm. But a medal is a medal and a Singaporean winning it is still a Singaporean whatever the media downplay on our athlete or the cheering of a different nationality of the spectators. If this medal was anything, it was a inspiration of our future generation to look at sports not as a academic diversion but part of a life achievement when winning on the international stage. Enough of Mathematics/Science Olympiads from those prestigious school, the brainy people of our population. There could be lots of sports talent just hidden in our neighborhood schools all waiting to be groom and lead by our sports leader, coach and manager.

Does having good academic results in math, science, history or geography means a fulfilling or full circle life? I disagree for I was part of that factory system. Its time our future generation make their choices earlier in life instead of letting the parents advocating and be the director of their life. It will turn out they will be merely actor/actress and by the time they are no longer in the "show" (independent from their parents), they will only look back and realize nothing much is done for themselves. Guidances and inspiration are needed instead of boundary of limitation.

Maybe when all the variables in the formula are right, from the sports association, parents, teachers, school and finally to the person him/herself, we might not have to wait more than a decade for another medal. And regarding our government use of foreign talents in the sports scene there is a term in China that sum it all up - “不管是黑猫或白猫，会抓老鼠的就是好猫”. "Black Cat or White Cat, as long as the cat can catch rats, its a good cat". Let us all put aside the differences and maybe bias, glue our eyes on the TV 7.30pm tonight to support our SINGAPORE OLYMPIC TABLE TENNIS TEAM in their final match against China.

*The author of this blog is still really piss off with the Singapore ERP system... to pay S$9.00 "administrative fee" or to appeal??? Maybe its time some hero go tear down the gantry one fine day."

Found my SBO and Helmet

So it was left in the base or should I say abandoned in my flight locker room for 2 years. Happy to find it... surprisingly its not covered with thick layer of dust. In fact its clean and dust free even though its left on top of the locker I used previously...

And for today exciting news... I drove down to Orchard road in the evening and have to pay S$1 ERP fee. Before passing through the ERP gantry, an electronic signboard shows the charges and I double check to ensure the cash card is in the IU. After passing through the gantry, I heard a long buzzing sound the the IU and found it pretty awkward. Than there was not display of my remaining balance which normally shows up after passing through the ERP gantry. After risking driving with my left hand and checking the cashcard + IU with my right hand... I was surprise to find that our multi-million dollar "Every Road Pay" system did not deduct S$1 from my cash card.

Now I'm just waiting for the summon letter to come and appeal the case. The fine is S$10. Turn out after a search on the internet that I'm not the only unfortunate soul to face this problem...

More motorists plagued by errors at ERP gantries

Guess I'm just part of the "More Motorist". Nowadays the avenue of revenue is not only from the ERP gantry but from unjustified fines to motorist like me...

Where is my SBO and helmet???

Its range day tomorrow, a day in a year where regulars like me got to familiarize with the M16 assault rifle and fire a few rounds at target 50m away. After embarrassing myself when I strip and assemble the M16 rifle without the charging handle, I am all ready for the exciting shooting session tomorrow.

Eager as I am...I got home from work, headed out for dinner with my good brothers (not the seventh month kind), have a couple of drink over pool game and finally came home at 10pm searching for my SBO and helmet. ITS MISSING!!!! and I don't remember bringing it to USA 2 years ago. A few calls to my fellow colleagues in USA and my former house mate Ricky reveal that no one bring SBO and Helmet for tour of duty in USA. Than where can it be???

Search the house high and low even to the extend of activating my parents to look for me. All in vain. Did I lend it to anyone? Maybe I did but forgotten who is it. I hope whoever read this blog tell me where my SBO and helmet is...

For tomorrow range, I have to resort to borrowing it from my section mate who are not attending range.

Love affair with my job....

Found on one of my colleague desk in USA...

Packing up for Holiday

Alright here is the plan for tonight. First I need to get off work early! When I reach home, I will start packing my clothings, toiletries, Nintendo DS Lite, Japanese Phrase Book, PDA, PDA Keyboard, some medication and finally the very important camera chargers for my Japan Tour II.

Will be flying off in the evening of Friday and since I will not be working the whole of Friday, I guess I will be using those free time to plan on my itinerary. Have not really give serious thought about it and was on the impression that I will just dive into the tour and plan it along the way. One of the places I like to visit will be the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Funny thing, my last trip to Tokyo, I never even alight at Tokyo station to explore that area. Since it I will be spending Sunday in Tokyo, its a good opportunity to immerse in the COS-PLAY culture at Harajuku, yet another of those theme I miss out during my last trip. Akihabara will be a definite visit by me as I got a bit of Otaku cultured blood in me. Beside landing my hands on a couple more Revoltech toys, I'll be checking out vinyl wall posters to decorate my bedroom. If time allows from the standard tour itinerary, I like to revisit Ueno Park or the Yasukuni Shrine, where the Japan's war dead are commemorate.

Since I got the Palm PDA bluetooth keyboard which is ultra-portable and works in conjunction with my Palm PDA. I will be writing a electronic journal of my trip each day. No more lugging of heavy laptops around this time round.

Hmm... just want to share something interesting at work. While working at the hanger, we turn on the radio and cannot clearly receive broadcast from most Singapore radio station. Turn out eventually that a certain radio station broadcasting Cantonese song can be clearly received. Later we found out that its actually a Malaysian radio station probably base in Johor.

吵死人 "Disturbing Dead Man"

Today is the first day of the Chinese Seventh Month, the month where spirits and ghost from the underworld is released to Earth for a month. Sensitive period I must say and everyone should be aware of certain superstitious taboo during this "Ghost Month". Sometime its better to believe in this taboo even if you don't believe it for a little effort from you could easily avoid getting into spiritual trouble. One of the things you should do is to turn off or put to silence mode your mobile phone during meeting and movie... You don't want to "disturb the dead man"