35th BTACC Annual CNY Gathering '08

2nd 35th BTACC Annual CNY Gathering '08

It's here again!!! Yes! The much anticipated 35th Basic Target Acquisition Commander Course (a specialised Artillery Commander Course) Annual Chinese New Year Gathering.

Hey Guys! I've uploaded the photos of our event on Facebook. For those who have a Facebook account already, go to:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=19879&id=590478201&ref=mf

For those who DO NOT, please crawl down from the mountain/crawl out of the well/ or crawl out of whatever hole you've been hiding in.. ok?

We gathered at Eugene Fu's place as usual. But this year.. it was much different... we had Barbeque (BBQ aka 'Barbie'). There were chicken wings, shrimps etc.. and HOT DOGS (in Joel's hand)..

Joel with his Hot friend, Zach.Hmm.. is my name Zack or Zach?
Hehe.. ensuring Zach/Zack has his water parade.

As usual, I waited for the food to be ready as I'm almost hopeless at BBQs.. save for EATING and drinking.

After satisfying our hunger, we had some time for male + animal bonding:

Clockwise: Daxuan (in blue), Joel, Galvin, Eugene Fu, Samuel (with dog), Collin and Wee Hian.

Not shown: Captain Ong Wan Keong and Wife, who also graced the event.

Finally, my dear BUDDY, LTA Ray Tay has arrived... in Style!

Chef Weehian, with the help of Charlene prepares the traditional CNY 'Yu Sheng'.

Just look at the different ingredients in our Yu Sheng.

Guess we're bound to 'HUAT' (fa, or get lucky) this year.

Before the 'Lou Hei' (traditional tossing of the Yu Sheng)

*click* LOU HEI VIDEO *click*

The Aftermath of Lou Hei:

Everyone was in high spirits...

Check out the Instant Reminescence Function of the modern video cam:

After the excitement, we went up to Eugene's place:

C'mon boy'..

"Play Laid"

And it was time for soccer.. Man U vs Arsenal... In which Man U won by 4-0.

After that, we played Indian Poker and finished an Absolut Vodka Bottle. No no footage/photograph available due to nature of the activity and graphic content which may be deemed offensive to certain people.

Cant wait to return to Singapore next CNY for our Gathering again. Till then guys!

National Day Celebration 2007 @Velour

NDP Celebration @ Velour

121, Flinders Lane

This event was organised by SSS (Singapore Students' Society). The plan is simple: All UOM (University of Melbourne) Singaporean students were to gather in the (rather) small club, Velour by 2000hrs to watch the Singapore NDP Live Telecast. Yay! Oh so we thought.. the Parade came to us in bits and pieces.. refreshing at a rate of 1fpm (one frame per MIN). We did manage to catch a glimpse of key personnel like MM Lee, SM Goh (with cool looking new specs) and PM Lee.

I met my friend from OCS - Artillery Institute... Daniel Choo! Such a coincidence. It was really a pleasant surprise. He is studying in Swinburne University of Technology [SWINBURNE], about 4 Train stops away from the city center. His friend, a UOM student brought him in.

He informed me of our mutual friend, LTA Joshua, who EXTENDED his ORD to remain in the NDP. He was the Officer giving the command for Artillery 21 gun salute. Unfortunately, we weren't able to catch his performance due to 'technical difficulties' with the streaming.

I also met my ex-polytechnic senior, Dion. Who is now doing foundation year to gain entry into Medicine. (Sorry, no pics of him).

My BFFs, Rachel with Bourbon Coke, Jasmine with..Cranberry Juice. Haona and Me, Vodka Sunrise.

These are our friends. Soi, Xenia?(hope I've got the name right) and Yiwen. We went to KOKO Black with Yiwen 2 weeks before. Soi and Xenia and Medical students *gasps*

As the party progressed, everyone totally ignored the NDP on TV. We had games like.. Best dressed couple. Theme of the day was: DIAMONDS and RUBIES. Everyone was to wear Red and White, with as much bling as possible. Obviously, non of us won as we came straight from school (wearing 'school clothes' see?).. Yes Mum, I've been studying!!

When we entered the club we were each given celebrity names, I'm Justin Timberlake hehe.. so throughout the party, we can approach any girl who is holding on to the name of our respective celebrity's girlfriend. (all girls will carry a corresponding celebrity female name). Thing is.. I don't really know who Justin Timberlake's girlfriend is so I didn't bother looking for his partner.

Our guest STAR: THE MERLION!

Evidently, I have no pics of the Merlion. But he left his 'signature' right there on the floor after the drinking game.. Eeww!!

A scene of the party, dance floor on right of pic.

As you can see, I'm the camera man. So I'm not in most of the pics. When I finally got my own pic taken....

All the girls wanna punch me in the face.

Do I look that bad?

The party was not too bad. After NDP we had MAMBO JUMBO. The club's standard was obviusly not as good as Zouk's. But their bar was pretty nice (looks like my Officer Mess in Khatib Camp haha) and their bartenders are VERY skilled. When you order a drink, they'll use many 'patterns' i.e. Pattern Zui Ga Badminton to impress you. Really gives you the 'WOW' factor!

JJ Rating: 3/5

No smoke machines, 'Mambo night' but very few of our fav Mambo Songs. Lighting was too bright (maybe cause of steps on the dance floor)? Sound quality was mediocre. Few people went up to dance stage. VERY impressive effort on the part of SSS Committee.

Farewell Dinner (NS) 060707

Guess I'm not the only one leaving.. My friend, weatherman Eugene Fu from my battalion is also going to Australia to study as well. He's headed for UNSW in Sydney - Yes, THE uni which Asia Campus in Singapore was shut down due to poor enrolment and colossal losses. But that does NOT mean that UNSW is not a good educational institute !

What you see on top is Eugene and I, shamelessly flaunting our 'Farewell Gifts'. Well, its actually a picture of our 35th BTACC Commissioning batch. I'm nt authorised to tell you what BTACC stands for, if I tell you, I'll have to kill you... with cheese. Just know that we are all Army Lieutenants who had recently just become 'operationally ready' together.

Dinner was at Swissotel *wow* Merchant Court *chey* but it was pretty good! Ellenborough Market (where's that?) is the name of the buffet restaurant. It's an International buffet (hardly though), focussing mostly on local food, mainly chinese food. However, they do provide fresh sashimi, raw oysters, scallops and cooked octopus. One thing I really loved about this place is their DESSERTS section. They feature their speciality Durian Pengkat (Durian mousse) and lots of local delights. They also had a 5-tiered chocolate fondue fountain which was really sinful. Not a bad place to bring your ang-moh (caucasian) friends to sample the local flavour.

The whole dinner event was a very successful one. Many thanks out to Kuah Weehian for organising the event, and the rest for both the farewell gift and simply 'being present'. It's just too bad that my NS buddy, LTA Ray Tay (the only one who *gasp* *signed-on) could not make it as he was overseas.. As usual, we left out one person.. you know who you are.. Mike. Oops, did I think that out aloud.. with cheese?

*sign on - these 2 words when used together in Singapore, means to voluntarily enter the regular force of a given Uniformed group, usually the Singapore Armed Forces. E.g. Hey, so how? Have you found a job yet? Not yet? Then you better sign on man!
After dinner, most of them left.. the only 'stayers' are Collin (pink..as usual), Joel(black), Weehian(red). Xiaoping joined us after dinner. From Clarke Quay, we headed down to Prinsep St. to Mind Cafe. A really niche cafe whereby board and card game lovers frequently gather and frolic happily while sitting in a circle.
Game of the day: I'm the Boss!
Rules are simple. Find investors, seal the deal and make money. Player with most money at the end of the game wins. We stayed there till.. nearly 2am, before we finally could bear to part..(mainly because we got the 2 hr package so we couldnt leave until our time was up).

We had a really great time. At the end of the day.. I was feeling.. suprisingly sad. It was like, I didnt realise that after this 1.5 yrs together, the bond I've forged with these guys have become so strong! Not one who is good at farewells, I simply shook their hands and bid them a quiet good bye. See you guys in June 08!