Back to reality

*PHEW....*

Hah, my first weekend in 2 weeks where I can finally rest properly.
Had 2 long major events in the last 2 weeks:

1. CSS FOC 2006 (12th-16th June)
2. In-Camp Training (19th-23rd June)

FOC 2006

FOC was just superb! I really enjoyed myself the entire time. Even though I was just there as an extra helping hand/senior, this FOC was simply a different experience from the past few ones I've been to.
In 2003, I was a participant, a freshie; thus I was also rather aloof and shy and simply 'gong'.
In 2004, I was a facil, a 'new' senior, still learning the ropes of CSS, and simple too tired to truly enjoy the FOC due to some of the facils' responsibilities which included short sleeping hours and tiresome de-briefs!
In 2005, I was so busy with church and other church camps, I hardly had time and energy to be at FOC. Yet, I decided to go eventually for the last 2 days. Wasn't feeling well and couldn't really take part in the bonding properly. Was a bit of an 'outsider.'
In 2006, I came as a senior, helped to play/organise for a few prayer sessions, helped as a games station master, helped the facils out when they were busy. Really immersed myself in the games and the sharings! And I'm glad I went! "SHABU-SHABU!"

In-Camp Training

ICT...A word I really hate, especially when it occurs during my holidays. Why can't I enjoy my holidays for once without the SAF bugging and disturbing my peace??

Anyway, the ICT went quite alright. In fact, I dun think it was really very bad afterall. Had IPPT for one of the days, and I failed it. Haha...crap, I realised that my arms aren't as strong as they used to be! But I'm still glad I can run...managed to clock 12minutes for my 2.4km run. That's not impressive of course, but I still managed to clock a passing time...now that's still good.

Had an outfield exercise for over 2 days...Man, I hate that feeling of camouflage on my face, with millions of mosquitoes sucking out my blood, and having my camo-filled sweat drip down my face......AGGGHHH. Anyway, that's just what happened. Had to endure an entire night without real proper sleep; kept myself awake and alive with some combat rations. Oh, the combat rations have improved! Check out what goes into combat rations nowadays:

1. Ribena Packet Drink
2. Pokka Canned Coffee
   
3. Canned Milo
4. Cream Crackers (Peanut, Chocolate, Cheese etc)
5. Canned Tuna
6. M&Ms
7. And more branded food items...!

Haha, the combat rations are becoming edible again...! The old ones are still in circulation; in fact, these other branded food items come in soem sorta 'booster packs'.

Had some cohesion games/activities almost immediately after we all came back from the outfield exercise..Pure Madness. I think that most of us were actually hoping to have a good rest after the exercise, yet the unit had to pull such a dumbo stunt on us... BOPIAN, we all had to take part or at least support the event. Anyway, I was 'forced' to take part in one of the activities: A water-bomb game. Actually, I sorta enjoyed the game cos it made my ICT more fun and familiar. Just a week ago, I was also in the midst of a water-bomb game at FOC; thus this game sorta brought back good memories! :) Eventually, I was busy helping my company tie the water bombs. My style: Super tight bombs, Not too much water. And eventually, my company won the game! Hahaha...craziness... There was so much chaos and mortar fire in the game that after a while the game became a free-for-all...

ICT ended yesterday. Was glad I managed to catch up with a number of my old platoon mates and others here and there. Was glad I managed to survive the outfield exercise. All in all, it wasn't that bad. Haha, I even got my NS pay for those 5 days' ICT: about $100. Not too bad lah.

England 1 Paraguay 0

The English celebrating after an own-goal by Paraguay...sad,sad,sad...

Goodness me! England survived a scare!!!
Paraguay shouldn't be written off, cos they're really quite good.
Anyway, England really played very sloppily today.
I didn't see much of Gerrard, nor Crouch, nor Owen, nor Beckham. Only Frank Lampard did make two shots on goal; and really I think they were spectacular shots! However, the Paraguay goalie really made life difficult for the England shots...!

If England expect to win the World Cup, they've got to do something about their play! Omigosh, compared to Germany's performance in their opening match, I think England seems leagues away...which is pretty strange considering many of England's players are more renowned and skilled than the German team. (Or so it seems...)


Philip Lahm scores a spectacular goal for the German team!!

Well, I think the Germans seem set to win their group, and onwards to the Cup??
Hmmph, anyway I think the hosts have a chance to regain the World Cup title. England?? I think they have a slim chance, but it's still a chance.

My Dream Final: Brazil vs Argentina
3rd placing match: England vs Germany

Spoilers...!!

Damn.


Mourinho & Ballack


Mourinho & Shevchenko

Don't you just hate it when money spoils all the fun in sports?
Well, this is precisely what's been happening in the English Premier League. Just look at Chelsea and the two big stars they've signed: Michael Ballack and Andrei Shevchenko!
Okay, Ballack did go to Chelsea on a free transfer. BUT Shevchenko cost about £30million! That's like so much money for just one player...!
Anyway, this one club seems to be spoiling the market, cos they're buying their success! The past 2 EPL seasons have been won by Chelsea only because they could afford to buy almost an entire squad. Just compare Chelsea to the next 2 finishers of this season's EPL: Manchester United and Liverpool FC. Quite a number of these latter two clubs' players were weaned from the youth squads, whilst the rest of them probably cost a fraction of Shevchenko...

Do teams nowadays have to buy success??? Doesn't this just mean that the richer clubs will always be able to get the better (or even the best) players?? What about lesser clubs like Everton, Manchester City, Birmingham City, Sunderland and the rest of the teams from the Championship and so on??? Are they to forever dwell in the pits of English football? Will they never ever rise up to be like one of the successful English clubs? Does money really mean everything? Does every team have to wait for a Roman Abramovich to come to their rescue? Why can't they go back to the times when teams really trained hard to become champions?

Even if Chelsea win this upcoming season's EPL, it doesn't mean anything cos they bought success. BUT let's just look at Real Madrid. Even though they bought so many star players, they ended the last two seasons trophy-less, and worse still many of these star players have become simply too fed up with being left on the bench. Now, here's the real problem about having too many expensive star players on the squad.

1. They become too expensive to support.
2. They become too expensive to warm the bench.
3. There's too many stars vying for the same few positions on the 11-man squad.
4. The stars become impatient because they want to play some football!
5. Too many stars don't always mean that they can play well together... Selfish play has to give way to team-work, which some stars find too difficult to do.
   

Let's hope that Chelsea will finally self-destruct after having too many big names in their team... KA-BOOM!!!!

My last 2 weeks...

Well, it's been a while since I blogged huh... :p

Quite many things have happened since then...

• EIC played their last tune for a while.
• My eyes were opened after visiting a salsa bar for the first time.
• My video card finally met its demise after serving me loyally for 3 years.
• I changed my video card finally...
• I completed my scale model of a WW2 Pounder Gun at long last!
  
• I acted as a bumbling ninja in an upcoming skit for CSS FOC.
• I booked my flight to UK and back.
• I watched X3: The Last Stand, and I pretty much enjoyed it.
• Michael Ballack and Andrei Shevchenko moved to Chelsea.
• I watched England thrash Jamaica 6-0.
• I played street soccer for the first time in a very very long time.
• The CTK youth room has finally been cleaned up after more than 6 months!!

Haha, I dunno what to blog about so I guess that's the whole summary of my last 2 weeks.