‘The Call Home’ actually reminded me of my army days. During my combat engineer vocation, i was actually a plant trained engineer, which is, to operate plants. So, these are some of my toys in NS:

motor-grader excavator bulldozer

so what do my toys remind u of? Yup, a construction site worker. We were actually issued a yellow helmet for one of our construction course where we complete projects such a road maintenance, river bank preparation for bridge or amphibious vehicle landings, and even making drainage systems(i.e. to make drains, this is the worst construction as it’s very hands-on… Heavy plants are of not much use here). We also obtained licenses to operate these plants, but they are just military license, i.e. only valid in military grounds, so we can’t just go to any construction site and start operating them. =(

I would like to bring your attention to the 2nd picture of my toys, the excavator. That long arm extended from its body is beautiful, isn’t it? Something like this happened: I was the ground guide for my friend who is operating the beauty, then i was using hand signals to guide him as to how he should dig (the engine is actually quite loud so we had ear plugs on, we will need to yell in order to communicate through voice). However, it does not seem like he is happy with my plan, so he signaled back to me. Guess what? His hand hit on the lever by the side of the operator’s seat, and the entire cabin swerved, resulting its arm to swing towards me. Before i know it, the bucket of the arm is right IN FRONT OF ME! LESS THAN 30CM AWAY!!! It took me some time to snap out of it, and the moment i came to, i was already hurling vulgarities to that friend in the cabin. At least i know that he felt rather happy to be scolded as when the arm swings, from his point of view, he thought the bucket of the arm had hit me, and that would also mean kicking the bucket for me (yeah, this is how scary parallax can get) Well, the most important thing from that accident is, I AM STILL ALIVE. Not a good thing to happen, but well, this would be the best that had happened.

So that sums up my worst death encounter (yes, i experienced it more than once… how unlucky can i get? But i’ll be skipping the rest of the experiences, kinda boring.)

Apart from the ‘job’ that i did in my NS is similar to a construction worker, the life is actually similar, far too similar. They have ‘Foreman VS Worker’ while we have ‘Commander VS Men’. Same scenario in both place, superior doubting the subordinate for feigning illness, subordinate taking extreme measures to escape from working (remember what ‘redpants’ mr Leslie said about someone falling down the stairs and breaking his leg, well, i also happen to witness something like that during my time. Guess that is something that will not change with time.)

Adding on, we also have all sorts of temptation and distraction around us in camp such as smoking(again, same as Kasi). Good thing i loathe the smell of cigarette and didn’t pick up this expensive habit. There was this one time when a Staff Sergeant, who happens to be our instructor, needed to demonstrate to us how we should use the excavator (yup, the arm of death again, haha). He happens to be smoking at that time so he passed me the cigarette for me to hold on to it while he demonstrated, since our safety regulation forbids smoking on plant. So here i am, holding that THING as far from me as possible until i return it back to him. When i smell my hand [Note: i was wearing glove], the smell is still there! I quickly removed my glove and smell again. NOOOOOOOO, it smells too! And the smell stuck with me till the next day, even after i wash it thoroughly with soap… So guys, please, don’t smoke. If you smoke, please don’t do it near me. >.<

Thinking back of my enlistment day, the feeling sucks. I went to a place i never knew, not knowing what to expect, not knowing who i will be meeting and worst of all, I do not even want to be there to begin with. I believe Kasi also feels this way after seeing the condition of his room. Then as the days go, we (Kasi and I) got use and blend in with our new life. Many feelings, many thoughts and even more complains i will like to say about NS but i will not do it on a blog (i still have a clear mind on where i was heading to), it’s too dangerous to do that (now everyone should know where i was heading to). But who cares to complain now, Mr Leslie, together now, ORD LOH! Don’t remind me about reservice and ippt… i know… haha -_____-”’

Movie Reflection: The Forbidden Kingdom

***SPOILERS ALERT***

Well, a weird show. We need not know why they can suddenly switch their language from english to chinese, so long it is funny, everyone will be happy. A rather normal and expected kind of story and ending, but that doesn’t mean it is a bad film. It also reminds me of ‘Wizard of the Oz’, without the singings of course.

There are 2 parts in the show which i really loved them. Firstly, the part where Jackie Chan n Jet Li fought over the staff. Being the first time co-acting in a show, that is an essential scene and i am quite
touched by that. 2 famous action star finally gets this chance to share the stage together at their old age (they are quite old actually…)

The 2nd thing i liked is the Golden Swallow acted by Crystal Liu (not because she acted xiao long nu ok?). It is the way she addressed herself as ’she’ instead of ‘I’. Only at the very end when she finally avenged (sort of) her parents death, then she addressed herself as ‘I’. I almost teared then, though hard to imagine, as the underlying meaning is so rich. It is like she finally regained her identity which she gave up for revenge long, long ago. Then she died, and i stopped feeling the tears in my eyes. Guess her death was too expected. =)