My near death experience

It all started when KH invited me for his officer commissioning parade, so me and 6 other guys went to attend it at OCS. The trip there was fairly uneventful and after braving a light drizzle, we finally got to see KH on the parade square. Wow, he looked totally different, his face is now sharp and angular from losing all his excess weight and he looked damn smart in his No.1.

We left to have a quite pathetic dinner at OCS as well, initially the plan was to meet Adrian straight so that he could pass us the wedding dinner invitations but somehow Enz and Jing went into the buffet area so we followed suit and started eating.

Took the shuttle bus back to the parking lots. Jing, JS and Chao left in 1 car. Enz, TCS, Keng and me took the other. Somehow along the trip, Enz seemed to be quite distracted and drove fast, fast enough for me to bio the speedo and for TCS to make noise. We also overtook Chao's car which isn't the norm cos Chao typically drives quite fast. Later on, they zoomed by us anyway.

Jing also felt weird that we overtook their car as Enz is normally a safe driver and generally we wouldn't expect him to go above 100kph. My last bio at his speedo was slightly over 100kph. As we went on, Enz overtook this lorry or some vehicle from the left. (Overtaking should always be from the right) Keng reminded Enz that we needed to keep right to get onto PIE. Somehow this comment simply didn't register in Enz head so he kinda just continued going faster. It was only when Keng reminded him a second time, when the road was gonna split, that he finally realised that he was on the wrong route!

At this time, I suppose he was a bit anxious and wanted to get onto the right path so he started to change lane without checking his blindspot. Our car inched closer and closer towards the taxi on the right. I managed to shout out be careful in chinese. Bam! We hit the Prime taxi and it felt like we were really done for.. We started going sideways ala Initial D except we're on the fucking expressway..

As we were turning right at the point of hitting the taxi's front left bumper, essentially the taxi nudged us sideways and our nose is now heading straight for the center divider. Enz hits the brakes and I can see him just grabbing on to the steering wheel. With the center of mass transferred to the bonnet, the tail of the car is now free to slide out even more. None of us are shouting, we're just bracing ourselves for that sinking feeling of not knowing what we're gonna hit or what's gonna hit us..

2nd impact: BAM! Hit a Mitsubishi Grandis on its rear quarter. The impact takes off some speed from our car and .. BAM! We hit the center divider on our right side. (I'm seated on the right, behind the driver)
After that Enz managed to bring the car to a halt with its nose facing the road shoulder.

I was so bloody disoriented I looked out the window and was simply unable to figure out which side I'm on and is it safe to get out of the car or not. Ran over to check the Grandis driver (apparently his car spinned 4 or 5 times without hitting anything) and he was very dazed. The poor Bangladeshi/Sri Lankan was driving his boss' car home and was innocently knocked by our car.

In the end, everybody was OK except for the car which sustained quite some bad damages to the bonnet area..

Lessons learnt:
Don't speed.
Always signal/check blindspot before changing lane.
Never change lanes aggressively. (Taxi didn't even have time to horn)
If its too late, just take the wrong route.
Never overtake when in convoy.
Always put your seatbelt on. (I was belted up, TCS wasn't)

PS: Enz if you somehow read this, I'm not mad at you or anything. I'm glad we're all ok and that matters the most.

Back from the 5th in camp

Yeah! As per topic, the 5th in camp training (ICT) has been cleared and I managed to get silver for IPPT. Although this is my first CatY IPPT, my 2.4 timing still improved compared to last year. Some training always beats no training. Hope my buddy will be able to get IPPT silver upon his retry..

The platoon really has got some very colourful characters and never fail to make the bunk a lively one. Here are some of the main characters...

Kelvin: The resident blur king and eccentric soldier. New UDM (Ultimate devastating move) is peeing into a plastic bag on the moving 5 tonner.

ZW aka 'qi2 cai2' or 'rare prodigy': Really funny guy whose mindset was under assault by the Master of Persuasion. UDM is playing card games with zero facial expression.

TK aka Master of Persuasion: The man who can turn day into night, good into evil, and so on..
UDM1: Shitting beside my 5 tonner.
UDM2: Reverse brainwashing (especially on Kelvin and ZW)
UDM3: Making up super funny nicknames.

Chin aka Mickey Mouse/President Cockanathan: The mumbler who never fails to have a cock up occasionally and ends up being .. mickey mouse 'wan ren mi'

Chew aka 'niao ci' or lao shu: Sometimes grumbles and is the type that refuses to lose. Has to be handled by TK.
UDM: Eating other people's food.

Willis: The tall one. Make it very tall.

Chan: Contagious laughter and likes to tease Chin, Kelvin and ZW.

Weiming: Goody 2 shoes, occasionally comes up with a wisecracker.

Edwin: Loves to fish, ogles at FHM and Maxim to no extent.

Jason: Goes on and on bragging about his 'friend's friend'. Can be irritating sometimes. Helpful guy though, is part of my team.

Ganesan aka sparrow: A very funny, happy go lucky guy who is helpful and responsible. Humour level has gone up considerably after his baby was delivered.

PC aka hardcore: Likes to outdo everyone in the hardcore way. Swears with a vengeance. Luckily he is helpful although it only extends within the platoon.

Beng: My buddy during active days and never fails to look out for me. Currently a fitness freak and we're gonna run the Stan Chart 21km half marathon.

Henry: Normally quiet and reserved, also comes up with wisecrackers at times. Can be considered to be the scholar in the platoon.

The Chronicles of )!(@#*&$! NABEH!

Watched this show free.. and I asked the princess to come along with me. Oh.. how I have sinned!! -_-"

Its a Troy ripoff.
Its a 300 ripoff.
Its a multiple Lord of the Rings ripoff.
Its even a SHREK ripoff.

And erm.. the seating really sucked and I was put into a weird situation.. thankfully due to a fortunate turn of events I managed to sit beside the princess..

Oh well all I can do now is laugh at those who paid to watch this show.

Of climbing the corporate ladder, or rather not.

A few observations I'd like to make since I was previously considered a blue collared worker before I bleached it into white. (Or is it the other way round?)

1. Office ladies are the same as kopitiam aunties in terms of behaviour.
2. The official language is English. I'm still kinda adapting to it though.
3. Over private conversations, Hokkien, Teowchew and other dialects take place.
4. Tissue paper rule is observed in Suntec/Marina as well. I thought it was enforced only in Tanjong Pagar/Raffles Place area.
5. The morning huddles are rather fun. This would be unthinkable in kopitiam environment.

6. The most important point. Food is expensive and sucks.. real bad.

Long time no blog yet again!

Yoohoooooo...

Haha, long time no blog. Hmm I got a job at .. a bank. Don't wish to mention which one lest I get into trouble when I gossip about colleagues or gloat about backstabbing someone etc.. haha!

Hmmm I finally finished reading, 'The winning investment habits of Warren Buffet and George Soros'. I liked the book a lot and I'm pretty convinced by the content. (Which is why I cancelled one of my savings plan with a finance company btw)

So, here's the first of many many quotes I've read in this book. And I myself like this particular quote the most.

Investing rule #1: Never lose money.
Investing rule #2: Never forget rule #1.
- Warren Buffett.

Btw is he the richest guy in the world now? I do know he overtook Bill Gates and he's valued at about 3x billion?

Audi A6 Test Drive

I took my cousin's A6 for a spin and boy, was my cousin right in describing it as a wolf in sheep's clothing!

First impressions, the interior is very nicely finished but due to the clutter and mess from everyday use its just hard to feel the cabin in its original form. The speedo and tachometer display the current gear selection as well as a myriad of other information which I didn't really notice.

Rather, I was more like distracted by the performance of the 2.0L turbocharged FSI engine. As well as the ultra responsive gearbox. First round was me taking the helm and I left the stick at 'D', leaving the shifts to be controlled by the ECU. Everything was fine and dandy and there were no problems overtaking even after 100km/h.

Soon, my cousin switched with me because he was more familiar with the car's limits, and he immediately left the gearbox selector at 'S' which is the Sports mode. Oh man, I've never experienced such a rush, the car showed no signs of slowing even after reaching highly illegal limits. I finally understood all the hoohaa about forced induction being the way to go, even marques like BMW are beginning to take the FI route.

There was this incident where a silly Corolla driver tried to cut into our lane, without signalling. That's ok but there really was very little clearance between us and the front car so my cousin blasted his horn and gestured the typical 'wtf you doing' with his right hand. (No it wasn't the finger)

After which, I don't know if the driver braked because he wasn't too happy about the horn was he was following too closely to the front car. Anyway it ended with my cousin hitting 'S' mode, overtaking every single vehicle from the left and literally blitzing away. At one point we hit 180kph and no, it really didn't feel scary or fast at all.

The only downsides of this car I feel would be perhaps its tyre chewing abilities. Without quattro to put the power down to the road, the front wheel drive setup gives the front wheels too much power to handle. Evident from the burning rubber smell after the drive. Like what the Pirelli ad says, 'Power is nothing without control'. Shed with Continental Sport Contact2 tyres, it should be pretty grippy but tyre age is catching up pretty quickly.

The TFSI engine is superb, having a real flat torque curve, loads of power but the only downside would be the noise intrusion into the cabin. Wasn't really expecting an Audi to sound so sporty from inside the cabin but you give some you take some. I can still relish nudging the right pedal ever so gently and being pushed back into my seat, with the grass, trees and everything zooming by so quickly. Lucky for me, there is a speed limit warning alarm that buzzed aloud at 130kph, reminding me to slow down. Oh well, almost thought I was on the Autobahn.

Perfect way to start a boring Wednesday =D