IC(T)

I had been decidedly coy and ambiguous in talking about reservist matters for two reasons. One was that i had little idea what i would be doing in the first place, given the general scarcity of information that i could get a hold of plus the fact that this was my first one anyways. The other was that it could potentially fall into the overused yet nevertheless still somewhat compellingly secretive if-i-told-you-what-i-did-i-would-have-to-kill-you category.

Well, after the first few days, i realized that there was no need to worry about the latter reason at least, simply cos i've not been doing anything, which means that there's nothing to accidentally divulge to anyone in the first place. Yes, all that initial last-minute bother and panic about what to bring and what i was missing after more than five years of blissful, military-free years of existence came to naught within a couple of minutes of booking back into camp, when it turned out that the highlight of the day was, well, nothing. And while of course there's some action injected into this close-to-three-week-long program from time to time (like ippt, which surprisingly enough i passed with minimal difficulties, and $100 to boot), it looks like i may be getting that break i was hoping for after all. A bit too much in fact - imagine that- now here am i yearning for more to do.

Good thing though is that i can totally get used to this kind of existence, and at least any initial trepidation on not knowing what the decade(s) ahead of reservist liability may have in store is now gone. Also good is that there's been a good number of people from long ago, many of whom i've not met in the aforementioned blissful span of more than five years, whom i've had opportunity to touch base (and kill time) with again. Of course, not all the cycles will feature such a schedule, so well i'd better enjoy them while they last eh..

freshman slump

It's been a rather busy few weeks and even more so because as i'll be away from work for just under three weeks from tomorrow (no, not for a vacation, not a typical one anyways), over the past week or so especially i've been dealing with a lot of work that has to be done before i go away, lest i come back to an avalanche of issues to deal with (though actually, either way, that will probably still be the case).

And in the midst of all this i must say that, for what it was worth, whatever initial euphoria there was at being liberated from the chains of nie has long since vanished. It has since been replaced by plenty of last-minute scrambling to settle what i should do for each upcoming lesson, more than one's rightful fair share of non-essential work to deal with, and, perhaps worst of all, class upon class of dissatisfied customers who are getting more and more comfortable with being openly unappreciative of the lessons i conduct.

Here, i have to say that the latter is far from being entirely unjustified. I must admit that a lot of my lessons nowadays, if they were to be used for assessment purposes, could not be saved by the wayang-est of wayangs. Yup. The dreaded chalk-and-talk, or to be entirely accurate, marker-and-talk. That's due, i'd like to think, to not being able to find enough time to prepare for a sustained period of quality lessons. Perhaps though, it may also have to do with mental fatigue - the rather novel ideas that used to come to me rather naturally are now buried somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, if they're even there anymore. And also that honestly, the students nowadays (oh i feel so old just typing that) are much harder to appease that those of not even more than just ten years ago. Many a time have my virtual hands throttled the virtual neck of many a student. But well, at least idealistically speaking, i did think i was better than that.

But anyways, whatever the cause, the fact remains, and come to think of it, as badly timed as this involuntary break from work is, on the other hand it's also perfectly timed, that is, of course, if there'll be sufficient time for me to escape, if not mentally, then at least physically, from work, and possibly achieve that most elusive of goals, recharge myself for the remaining school year (where much more awaits). Who would've thought eh..

Seeing red, but not wearing it...

While i welcome any opportunity for a non-working day as much as anyone else, sometimes i don't welcome as much the reason behind it (though it being a non-working day i tend to keep my complaints to myself). Together with CNY, National Day ranks as the holiday that i'm least enthusiastic about. I'm probably the last person you'll see wearing red anything on these days, though on other occasions i've no issue with doing so.

While in school, i wasn't as turned off by National Day as i am now. I even voluntarily went for one NDP when once someone offered me a ticket. However, no way would you catch me being like one of those who would try and predict which army camp would be the one handing out the free NDP tix that coming year and stalk the camp gates like a hungry pride of lions a sick, old bufffalo - thank goodness for the relative sanity of the recently-implemented balloting system (and extra points for thwarting the ambitions of the serial NDP attendees). Whilst still in choir i even managed to grin and bear my way through leading the singing of national songs in school and at other functions.

Then came NS, which i guess was when i started to shift from a mood of ambivalence to sheer and utter annoyance. Overkill, to put it lightly.

Uni times were slightly better, since for the first time i was no longer obliged to participate in any National Day celebrations. I remember the National Day of 2006 the best. Why? Cos for the first time i was out of the country, having left for the States a few days earlier for holiday and exchange. No better place to spend a National Day than in Portland, OR.

Last year i was so fed up with being made, involuntarily, to do a lot of crap thanks to the nie people that i decided to skip the culmination of this crap which was meant to be the nie national day celebrations. Didn't take too well to being back in the mode of being obliged once again to participate in such activities.

And this year, it has struck me that it's something that i'll have to get used to, at least for the next three years or so.. However i'm still trying to stay true to my (warped and, to some, meaningless) principles. I made a conscious effort not to wear red to school this morning (though it was quite a mindless choice as the only red top i have is pretty unsuitable for school wear). But, just to make sure i would not step on too many toes, particularly since i'm still new, i came in white instead. It's a national colour after all. That, together with my inspired choice of Rote Grütze for dessert the other day when i had dinner at Werner's, will probably be as so-called patriotic an act as i'm willing to pull off this year.

Did i already say this National Day stuff is something i'll have to get used to? During the school celebrations there were so many moments when i just had to close my eyes. No, not because i was moved to tears by the song singing, the message, or the multimedia presentation. Rather, it was so that i could roll my eyes in safety, without fear of being detected by anyone around. I had to go against my aforementioned principles a bit though, for during the singing of Reach out for the Skies, some overenthusiastic students of mine pulled me up on stage to join several other less-than-willing fellow teachers to do the elaborate waking up, heart-pumping, and fly-swatting exercise that is the accompanying cheesy dance to the song. Dance schmance. Hmm, i guess at least i masked my cynicism well methinks..

As i'm sure i've said before somewhere here (just look for the archived August posts), it's not that i don't like this place. Far from it. I just don't see the point in all these outward displays of patriotism, especially if they come just at this time of year or when we host some sporting event of otherwise token importance to the international community, but of ridiculously over-magnified importance here. This is along the same lines as the whole Sunday/Christmas and Easter Christian thing - the important thing is not how you are on the so-called important days, but on whatever day it is. It may be just me with this view, and i surely don't force it on anyone else. As long as my family doesn't drag me along to the parade i'm perfectly happy with letting my father enter my name for the NDP ballot (which thankfully for me we've not yet kena-ed as of yet). And i hardly think i'm the worst of the lot. Better to not display the flag at all than to hang it the wrong way round or with laundry draped on either side of it.

interdire

I, obedient S'porean that i am, usually am quite a stickler when it comes to following the rules. The theory behind it being God's call for us to submit to the governing authorities that have been put in place. To that end, whenever I fly i grudgingly adhere to the flight attendants' request that you leave your footwear on during takeoff and landing, as uncomfortable as that may be. As a student, i almost never skipped classes or other school-sanctioned events (which incidentally left me rather miffed by the end of the moe induction programme earlier in the year, but that's another story). And now whenever i have to cross the road, jaywalking is almost always out of the question, unless it's legal (i.e. cross on the correct side of the signs demarcating 50m from the nearest pedestrian crossing) or if i succumb to peer pressure.

So imagine my shock when it finally dawned on me after more than a decade of riding the mrt that when that lady with the contrived accent cautioned in an ascending register that "eating or drinking is not allowed in stations and trains", she meant every bit of it. I'm hardly like one of those toots who open a tarpow container of wanton mee and slurp it up happily on the train. Rather, i am guilty of the apparently equally illegal offence of drinking water on the train. When i read that they were now going to enforce an immediate fine for offenders i thought i was safe as, after all, it's only water. It seems though that even water drinkers are not immune, which strikes me as a bit much. I mean, even in the library, while eating and drinking were no-nos, at least they still did allow water-drinking. I thought it was a given exception to the no eating and drinking rule wherever you went in S'pore.

While i definitely understand the preventive rationale behind the rule, in that they don't want to inconvenience other passengers and risk messy spills, i wonder why (some) trains in other places have no rule against eating or drinking, yet remain comparably clean as our own mrt trains. While granted that a lot of these foreign metro trains are not air-conditioned, and so may not facillitate the spread of foul food odours as much as on an mrt train, there are other longer-distance trains of say the intercity variety which are air-conditioned and have no qualms about letting passengers eat whatever they want. Heck, some trains even have dining/snack cars. Which begs the question, is it just that S'poreans just can't be trusted with such liberties? I'd tend towards answering in the affirmative...