Happy New Year!

35 more min to the Dog Year.

Wishing all friends and your love ones a Happy Lunar New Year!

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Wow, its already the Dog Year now!

The number of SMS greetings I received for this yr has far exceeded the previous yrs. And there are also 2 interesting cases: 1) I was sending a CNY greeting to this friend and have just finished pressing the sent button when i received a SMS from her at the same time. The timing can nv be more zun! 2) Yday i suddenly recall this uni fren who has helped me quite a lot during my yr2 days, but i have lost touch with him and also lost his contact num. Jus nice, he smsed me tonite with a CNY greeting. His name is Jiayuan.

I was chatting with a junior who has jus entered the army earlier. He has been released back home for the CNY hols. While talking to him, I recalled my very onw CNY eve experienced when i was a recruit. I may have repeated this story many times in my blog, but still, I wish to mention it again tonite:

It was the eve of CNY. On a typical book out day, we wud not be catered lunch and shld be able to board the ferry back to Singapore mainland by 11am. But this CNY eve book out was an exception, we had our lunch catered - which our instructor tried to appease us by saying its a 'CNY Special lunch'. But i remembered it SUX big time, although it came with a pathetic mandarin orange. Forcing jus a few mouthful of rice into our mouths, we ended our lunch in double quick time. Naively, we thot we wud be able to go home faster by eating fast.

By 12noon, we were all sitted at the training shed, looking forward to be sent to the jetty so that we can take the ferry home ASAP. But we were terribly wrong, as the wait has provened to be much longer than we have expected. One by one, we saw recruits from the other companies happily mounting up the 3-tonner to be sent to the jetty, but we remained sitted hrs after hrs. It seemed that the entire P.Tekong were fighting for the ferry back home to Singapore Mainland. The companies have to draw lots to determine who to go first.

By 3pm, i really felt like crying. It was the first time in life for CNY eve tat i didnt make it home at such a late hr. For all the yrs, I wud be back home helping my mum with the food and prayers to my grandparents. I was full of exasperation. The instructors could see from our faces that we were getting impatient. He made some of us sing CNY songs. It did help a while but v soon, the effect ran out. Everyone was getting very impatient. Finally near 5pm, it was our turn. By that time, the entire Tekong was almost empty. Yes, we were the last company, and it was not until today then I guess I know the reason why. MSN me if u wanna know the reason :P

When I reached Changi Village, I was glad to see my dad was still waiting there with his 'big fat white merc' - the exact words which my instructor (Sg Suwandi) sometimes used to tease me. BY the time i reached home, its dinner time. My mum's eyes were all red. I guessed she must be more anxious and impatient than I was.

Well, it sound like a boliao story, but its definitely a day which I will nvr forget, esp during CNY eve. That was exactly 8 yrs ago, WOW.