Somehow, I woke up, managed to read the papers and saw the bus just as I was walking towards the stop. Everything went well to the extent that I reached Brani at 7.30 today. The whole day was spent on Navigation class with SSgt Tay. Its a good that he's not boring, or else I would have ended up like Kadir. Sleeping whilst sleeping. The best thing is that he scores higher on the tests than the guys who seat at the front of the class.







The whole day was spent on charts and reading charts. They're charts, not maps. Both are world's apart in terms of detail accuracy and size. It is like just a more detailed sec 2 geography class with SSgt Tay teaching us on how to calculate the bearings and the magnetic pole using old maps. He ended the day's class by managing to confound us all with the terms "deviation" and "variation" - terms used to describe the compass' error due to physical factors.

Halfway during class in the morning, Sgt Pang came into class to tell me and Liang wei to report to Kallang Base after work today and to stay there till 8 p.m. Apparently, we have to serve our "sentence" which we though had been forgiven us. I guess its no big deal. Just that for the other guys, OC came down and "set them free" at 7.30 and we can only go at 8.

Today's lunch was probably one of the best ever. It was actually edible and tasted good. I think someone fired the cook at Tracom already. Even the rice has improved. I just hope they can keep up this standard. Quite alot of the malay guys are sick of the catered food, instead opting to bring along food from the newly renovated Seah Im hawker center across the world trade center. They boast a large range of muslim stalls. Understandable. The food here sucks usually. Most of the catered food ends up being thrown away. Today was no exception - they threw away 30 meals! Almost one whole entire crate worth of food! How wasteful!

Seemingly, I did not get to sleep in class today during "happy hour". Apparently, a whole pile, of at least half the muslim guys in the squad did not bother about going for their friday prayers. Funny, I find it odd that the Muslims are so quick to use their religion as a defence or a reason for so many things, yet when they're supposed to be committed, they shirk away from the responsibilities of being a good muslim?

Ok so I am bieng hypocritical, I did skip church myself last sunday. Nico pointed out to be in an ad in one the papers today that there was going to be RUNWAY Cycling on sunday at Paya Lebar Airport! I wanted to go so badly, but I figured it would be better to spend some time with God at church.

Last year at about this time when dad got me my new bicycle, the stall owner asked me if I was going to go for the runway cycling event tomorrow. For which i went "huh?" How ironical that this time, I have the opportunity to go, yet I choose not to go.

I rode on the NEL, North East Line today. It was the opening of the NEL and SBS was expecting glitches. Somehow as Liangwei and I were heading to kallang, we decided to hop off at Outram park instead of Dhoby Ghaut. So we ended up taking on an additional 5 stations in a sqeezy carriage on the way to Kallang. Even though it was the first day of operation, the NEL was very crowded.

I realised that using the NEL, you can skip Raffles Place, City Hall, Bugis and Tion Bahru if you hop on at Outram Park and then jump off at Dhoby Ghaut. It saves time and you don't have to jostle for space amongs commuters heading to switch trains. Something like a "heart bypass" train route.

Liang wei and I reached Kallang base only to realise that both OC and SSI John had left the base. SSgt Tan (HE ROCKS!) graciously offered to call them, clarify the situation and even offered to open a classroom for us to "rot" in. The guy is really too nice. Even though he's a boring teacher, he is VERY dedicated to helping trainees pass the exam. I really salute him for his committment to his job and his excellent attitude.

So it ends up that Liang Wei and I end up in the canteen, sitting there. I endedup writing a half done essay for the "CP Essay competition" and Liang Wei ended up calling his cell group members to talk with them. Time soon quickly passed us by and I left for home. Reaching home at only 9.

The best thing is that this weekend is a LONG weekend. Our first and probably last in the Coast Guard. I don't have to report for work tomorrow! Yay! But I have a sinister feeling that they will activate us to ruin all our plans. Sigh. Hope that that does not happen.

The pictures of the NEL are a little blurred as the phone camera cannot take photos of subjects at such a distance clearly, and although it shows up nicely on the handphone screen, once loaded into the computer, the pictures become slightly blurred.