100% home-grown Singaporean artist decides to leave Singapore | The Online Citizen

Tear-jerker. Just what the fuck is wrong with Singapore?

I was supposed to go for a morning run every weekend, so that by week 4 of SCS, I'll be able to get my IPPT Gold, with an extra $200 put into my account as well as a IPPT Gold badge to wear on my sleeve. Because I was arranged COS [Company Orderly Sergeant] duty tomorrow (on Sunday), I'll have to book in at 8am instead of 11pm. So that ruined my morning jog plan, and I just came back from a short night jog.

My fingers are still really on the edge (and shaky) as I'm typing this and beginning to share the story. I opted for my usual morning-jog route to the scenic hill at Potong Pasir, but halfway through I took a detour because of heavy-traffic on the road. I started the jog into the forest beside the Bartley road cemetery, at around 7.15pm, with the evening sun still shining weakly. I discovered an amazing looking tree branch / forest log which formed a rainbow over the forest floor, almost Alice In Wonderland looking, vines creeping about and around the log, the rainbow-shaped log forming a kind of aisle along with knee-length grass on either sides of the route with gravels. I thought to myself, I'm definitely bringing the camera along on one of my next jogs, to capture the scenery around the place, and well as the scenic hill which I've always loved.

I continued on my jog at medium pace, looking into the sky as I did a short mental planning of my jog, so I wouldn't be late for the meeting with Benjamin. A mental schedule also, to ensure that I get out of the woods before night-falls. I figured if I ran to the end of the forest (at the main road at Marist Stella) and make a U-turn back, everything should fall nicely into place. Halfway through the jog, I heard a shout from a man coming from the forest opening, through my earpieces and music. It was a quick shout from behind me and it stopped almost immediately after it started, so I figured he wasn't talking to me and carried on my jog.

I don't have a habit of wearing spectacles for jogging, but then as I jogged forward into the forest, I saw a figure of a woman standing in front of a tree beside the pavement. I didn't think much of it at first (and didn't have time to anyway) but before it registered into my mind, I got closer to the tree and saw the woman. Initially looking up into the tree, she turned as I jogged closer. She had the figure of a slightly plump man, broad shoulders and thick legs. Wearing a knee-length velvet purple dress, a red handbag hung around the elbow as well as a red pair of heels. It was only when she turned to look at me did I understand what I saw. A face closely resembling a man, heavily made-up with blushing cheeks and bright-red lipstick. I saw the face, turning towards me as I approached, with a frozen wide-smile and an unchanging face.

Once it registered in my head, I bore the words of my mother in my head - repeatedly reciting the Buddhist scripture, running forward and never looked back. It was then that I realised the night was falling very quickly, and that the Marist Stella end of the forest had tall fences blocking it from the main-road. Running back towards the opening was definitely out of the question. I sprinted through the tall-grass and uneven terrain out of the forest, towards the nearest opening of light I could see. I carefully sprinted out of the forest, avoiding holes on the ground and the many tree roots coming out of the ground because tripping in the forest has always been the next encounter by the protagonist in horror stories.

I'm safely back at home now, but goosebumps still fill my entire body. Every inch of it. Till now I still wouldn't be able to tell if what or who I saw was really a ghost, but the feeling was as close as it could be.

Had a midnight jog today cause I thought it's been long since I had some alone time to think about stuff and really just enjoy the nature around me. My Tekong cough-virus is probably at it's third stage of evolution now because of my laziness to do anything solid about it for the past nine weeks. I felt stitches ten minutes into the slow jog, then (relatively bad) chest pains another ten minutes later. Fuck, I better drink my cough syrup obediently this time.

Anyway so the late night run prevented me from taking my normal route (beside the cemetery), especially with all those Tekong ghost stories still in my mind. But hey instead I discovered another wonderful place - Bishan Park. Not sure if I'm slow on this, but most of you probably don't know about it yet - all east people huh. A large half of it is still undergoing development, but for what I can currently see, it's definitely worth a trip down. It's extremely naturous, for all nature lovers to take note. There are streams winding all around the park (not yet filled though) which leads to pools of water in the centre of the park. Very modern / zen type of park design concepts, wood-based suntanning (or probably just relaxation) beds for couples scattered with a calculated distance between them and also a typical couple's bridge. As I carried on with the run, I saw more amazing things. They've built a nature-themed wellness centre, a garden cafe and bar, a skating rink and probably a few other small things centred at the park. The park's bloody huge anyway. And the bar! Bloody nice nature-themed, I also saw this sign which says there are live band performances, so fuck I'm definitely giving it a go! Also, this particular board mentioned that they are planning to stream Kallang river's water into this park. Honestly my geography of the island isn't great so I can't tell if it will work out, I might have misinterpreted the board, but it sounds pretty cool. If you ignore the fact that Kallang's water isn't very sightly most of the time, of course.

If you've run out of places in your head to go with your girl / guy, I urge you to go to Bishan Park before the crowd sets in, cause the park's real quiet (at least tonight) so you could do all the sleazy making out in the public, minus the weird stares. Thrill + nature-environment = good fun. No, don't judge me. Mark my words. Mark my words. [purposeful repetition] Give it half a year, it's going to become as crowded as Esplanade rooftop. The crowd might not be as cool though, given that we're all heartlanders pretty much just hanging out / dating downstairs from our houses.

I hope I wouldn't be late for Sentosa tomorrow. Quite a lucky coincidence though, both my platoon meetup and volleyball date with the Dunmanians falling on the same day at the same place. Great way to make full use of my block-week day. It's kind of evil and pang-sehish though I admit. But then I hope you forgive me when you realize that I've only got a mere three days in Singapore for my life before I go back to the two-year commitment of NS, cause I'll be going on a family trip to West Malaysia from Wednesday night to Sunday morning. Can't wait for the trip though, like a short escape out of town.   

I remember a couple of posts ago, I was ranting on and on about how late Raven books-out, how early we book-in, how tough was our training and for a swift second there, I almost hated Raven. I remember saying that I miss all of my life and freedom I've previously had, I look back at every single activity I've participated in or things I've done and never had I looked back with negative emotions. I hoped being in Raven in BMT wouldn't be an exception.

So these nine weeks are more or less concluded with our POP after a 24-km route march across the whole of East Coast and finally through the Gardens at the Bay and into Marina Bay. The "stairway to hell" was no kick at all for all of us tough platoon 4 mates who climb five storeys everyday, whether it's with our duffel bags or field packs or PT-kit. Our last two weeks were honestly one of the best BMT experiences recruits could have, or at least I say so with my observations. The first seven weeks of high-key events saw a company with extremely low morale, tortured and shouted at, but everything changes with Games Day. Games Day was the start of everything great, after we won, our morale shot up from the bottom of BMTC to possibly the top.

I'll never forget that moment after lunch on one fine day, when the four platoons of Raven COY marched in a long chain of platoon level back to COY line, singing "We Are the Champions", doing the perfect hentak kaki and "Count By The..." cheer, executing the perfect ke kiri pusing with a single, loud bang, then hearing Pegasus uncontrollably let out an awe amongst all the sarcastic cheering when they heard it. All of us Raven recruits holding it there before the senang diri, beaming with pride at our success and our morale.

Think I'll miss my section cause they've been a real bunch of friends to me during this period. Next time I'll look back and think about all the fun we've had in the many weeks, gathered around the table and having chats, singing along to songs blasted out of speakers, suaning Chidam's ass-crack and Desmond (and my) height and so many others. I'll never forget that I'm a Raven recruit.



It's great that I got to see so many people at the parade though I missed photo opportunities with so many cause I was busy running around looking for people I wanna take photos with. Special thanks to my family and Alisa and Wenxin who specially came to support! And then I gotta thank my brother for all the beautiful pictures. I'm such a douche I forgot it was his birthday on Saturday. =x

100% home-grown Singaporean artist decides to leave Singapore | The Online Citizen

Tear-jerker. Just what the fuck is wrong with Singapore?

I was supposed to go for a morning run every weekend, so that by week 4 of SCS, I'll be able to get my IPPT Gold, with an extra $200 put into my account as well as a IPPT Gold badge to wear on my sleeve. Because I was arranged COS [Company Orderly Sergeant] duty tomorrow (on Sunday), I'll have to book in at 8am instead of 11pm. So that ruined my morning jog plan, and I just came back from a short night jog.

My fingers are still really on the edge (and shaky) as I'm typing this and beginning to share the story. I opted for my usual morning-jog route to the scenic hill at Potong Pasir, but halfway through I took a detour because of heavy-traffic on the road. I started the jog into the forest beside the Bartley road cemetery, at around 7.15pm, with the evening sun still shining weakly. I discovered an amazing looking tree branch / forest log which formed a rainbow over the forest floor, almost Alice In Wonderland looking, vines creeping about and around the log, the rainbow-shaped log forming a kind of aisle along with knee-length grass on either sides of the route with gravels. I thought to myself, I'm definitely bringing the camera along on one of my next jogs, to capture the scenery around the place, and well as the scenic hill which I've always loved.

I continued on my jog at medium pace, looking into the sky as I did a short mental planning of my jog, so I wouldn't be late for the meeting with Benjamin. A mental schedule also, to ensure that I get out of the woods before night-falls. I figured if I ran to the end of the forest (at the main road at Marist Stella) and make a U-turn back, everything should fall nicely into place. Halfway through the jog, I heard a shout from a man coming from the forest opening, through my earpieces and music. It was a quick shout from behind me and it stopped almost immediately after it started, so I figured he wasn't talking to me and carried on my jog.

I don't have a habit of wearing spectacles for jogging, but then as I jogged forward into the forest, I saw a figure of a woman standing in front of a tree beside the pavement. I didn't think much of it at first (and didn't have time to anyway) but before it registered into my mind, I got closer to the tree and saw the woman. Initially looking up into the tree, she turned as I jogged closer. She had the figure of a slightly plump man, broad shoulders and thick legs. Wearing a knee-length velvet purple dress, a red handbag hung around the elbow as well as a red pair of heels. It was only when she turned to look at me did I understand what I saw. A face closely resembling a man, heavily made-up with blushing cheeks and bright-red lipstick. I saw the face, turning towards me as I approached, with a frozen wide-smile and an unchanging face.

Once it registered in my head, I bore the words of my mother in my head - repeatedly reciting the Buddhist scripture, running forward and never looked back. It was then that I realised the night was falling very quickly, and that the Marist Stella end of the forest had tall fences blocking it from the main-road. Running back towards the opening was definitely out of the question. I sprinted through the tall-grass and uneven terrain out of the forest, towards the nearest opening of light I could see. I carefully sprinted out of the forest, avoiding holes on the ground and the many tree roots coming out of the ground because tripping in the forest has always been the next encounter by the protagonist in horror stories.

I'm safely back at home now, but goosebumps still fill my entire body. Every inch of it. Till now I still wouldn't be able to tell if what or who I saw was really a ghost, but the feeling was as close as it could be.

Had a midnight jog today cause I thought it's been long since I had some alone time to think about stuff and really just enjoy the nature around me. My Tekong cough-virus is probably at it's third stage of evolution now because of my laziness to do anything solid about it for the past nine weeks. I felt stitches ten minutes into the slow jog, then (relatively bad) chest pains another ten minutes later. Fuck, I better drink my cough syrup obediently this time.

Anyway so the late night run prevented me from taking my normal route (beside the cemetery), especially with all those Tekong ghost stories still in my mind. But hey instead I discovered another wonderful place - Bishan Park. Not sure if I'm slow on this, but most of you probably don't know about it yet - all east people huh. A large half of it is still undergoing development, but for what I can currently see, it's definitely worth a trip down. It's extremely naturous, for all nature lovers to take note. There are streams winding all around the park (not yet filled though) which leads to pools of water in the centre of the park. Very modern / zen type of park design concepts, wood-based suntanning (or probably just relaxation) beds for couples scattered with a calculated distance between them and also a typical couple's bridge. As I carried on with the run, I saw more amazing things. They've built a nature-themed wellness centre, a garden cafe and bar, a skating rink and probably a few other small things centred at the park. The park's bloody huge anyway. And the bar! Bloody nice nature-themed, I also saw this sign which says there are live band performances, so fuck I'm definitely giving it a go! Also, this particular board mentioned that they are planning to stream Kallang river's water into this park. Honestly my geography of the island isn't great so I can't tell if it will work out, I might have misinterpreted the board, but it sounds pretty cool. If you ignore the fact that Kallang's water isn't very sightly most of the time, of course.

If you've run out of places in your head to go with your girl / guy, I urge you to go to Bishan Park before the crowd sets in, cause the park's real quiet (at least tonight) so you could do all the sleazy making out in the public, minus the weird stares. Thrill + nature-environment = good fun. No, don't judge me. Mark my words. Mark my words. [purposeful repetition] Give it half a year, it's going to become as crowded as Esplanade rooftop. The crowd might not be as cool though, given that we're all heartlanders pretty much just hanging out / dating downstairs from our houses.

I hope I wouldn't be late for Sentosa tomorrow. Quite a lucky coincidence though, both my platoon meetup and volleyball date with the Dunmanians falling on the same day at the same place. Great way to make full use of my block-week day. It's kind of evil and pang-sehish though I admit. But then I hope you forgive me when you realize that I've only got a mere three days in Singapore for my life before I go back to the two-year commitment of NS, cause I'll be going on a family trip to West Malaysia from Wednesday night to Sunday morning. Can't wait for the trip though, like a short escape out of town.   

I remember a couple of posts ago, I was ranting on and on about how late Raven books-out, how early we book-in, how tough was our training and for a swift second there, I almost hated Raven. I remember saying that I miss all of my life and freedom I've previously had, I look back at every single activity I've participated in or things I've done and never had I looked back with negative emotions. I hoped being in Raven in BMT wouldn't be an exception.

So these nine weeks are more or less concluded with our POP after a 24-km route march across the whole of East Coast and finally through the Gardens at the Bay and into Marina Bay. The "stairway to hell" was no kick at all for all of us tough platoon 4 mates who climb five storeys everyday, whether it's with our duffel bags or field packs or PT-kit. Our last two weeks were honestly one of the best BMT experiences recruits could have, or at least I say so with my observations. The first seven weeks of high-key events saw a company with extremely low morale, tortured and shouted at, but everything changes with Games Day. Games Day was the start of everything great, after we won, our morale shot up from the bottom of BMTC to possibly the top.

I'll never forget that moment after lunch on one fine day, when the four platoons of Raven COY marched in a long chain of platoon level back to COY line, singing "We Are the Champions", doing the perfect hentak kaki and "Count By The..." cheer, executing the perfect ke kiri pusing with a single, loud bang, then hearing Pegasus uncontrollably let out an awe amongst all the sarcastic cheering when they heard it. All of us Raven recruits holding it there before the senang diri, beaming with pride at our success and our morale.

Think I'll miss my section cause they've been a real bunch of friends to me during this period. Next time I'll look back and think about all the fun we've had in the many weeks, gathered around the table and having chats, singing along to songs blasted out of speakers, suaning Chidam's ass-crack and Desmond (and my) height and so many others. I'll never forget that I'm a Raven recruit.



It's great that I got to see so many people at the parade though I missed photo opportunities with so many cause I was busy running around looking for people I wanna take photos with. Special thanks to my family and Alisa and Wenxin who specially came to support! And then I gotta thank my brother for all the beautiful pictures. I'm such a douche I forgot it was his birthday on Saturday. =x

emails: chew.bolong.2009@vjc.sg (main) / bolong02@hotmail.com (dominated by junk mail)
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mobile phone: yeah you wish.