Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Well, its over. Its finally over. The journey I started out on almost 2 and a half years ago has ended. My last day in NS ended on a happy note on tuesday afternoon as I left my posting for the last two years, the Civil Defence Heritage Gallery @ Central Fire Station.

I still remember entering NS in dec 2003 and going through BRTC and stuff. All the great times there.

It had been a good two years. I feel that I've made the fullest of my two years over at the gallery and really used all the oppurtunities that were presented to me effectively. I've managed to learn a lot and develop myself in many areas. I kinda also feel that I've contributed a lot to the gallery and the force and have managed to leave a kind of legacy over there.

And more importantly I've made many great friends. YewMing, Khairul, Terence, the guys at PAD, Frank, pk, aalok, Agil and so many others. Truly fantastic.

During the workplan seminar last week, I met LTC Subhas, my dept's director. he wished me well and gave me some advice on how to pursue studies at university.

On the last day, I decided to come to work super early. Come in early, change into my uniform and just have a look around the whole place before anybody else comes in. (I dunno why, but i'm like a super sentimental guy. A SNAG, if I say so myself) Then Encik Rosly and PK came in one after the other and we went for breakfast. After that went back to gallery and took pictures with everyone. haha. More importantly, i realised I still had a bit of stuff to hand over. So I sat down with my successor and handed everything over to him one by one. Encik then gave me the day off, which for some reason I was reluctant to. I decided to take one last group around the gallery. Then I decided to wait for Cpt Subandi to come by before I left. When Captain came, I told him I was already going off and he insisted to take us out for lunch despite some protest (not very strong though) from me. We went to Burger King. It was pretty cool. Came back, packed the rest of my stuff. Captain Subandi signed my clearance cert, I shook hands with him and handed him a letter I wrote. I find it difficult to say what I need to say when I'm leaving a place so I wrote a letter a few days earlier and passed it to him. After that I left the office and went to the counter where I said goodbye to Anthony and he gave me a nice little keychain. Then I said goodbye to Encik and left through the same door I first entered the CDHG by. And then it was all over.

A few glimpses of my NS life:

Bringing Kids around the CDHG


One of my major projects organising a web design competition for primary schools:



Another one of my projects conducting a course for volunteer guides



My colleagues




My Service Excellance Award given to me by Deputy Comissioner


My office....aka the "dark room"


I don't know why but I felt some sadness at leaving the place. Perhpas its because I had a lot of good memories from the place to take back with me. I was also kind of dissapointed with someone on my last day, but perhaps sometimes I expect too much, so never mind. Haha.


I would like to thank everyone who I worked with or made friends with during the last two years for making it a great two years. :)

So now onto the rest of my life. :)

And guys, if you read my blog, please be nice enough to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link below or leaving a message on the tag board. :P

Ok guys, have fun. And for the last time, Don't play with fire!

Monday, April 03, 2006

"A Long Long time ago in a Galaxy far far away...."

Last Wednesday, I really wanted to go and see the Star Wars exhibition at the Science Centre. It was going to close in the next few days and there was nothing going to stop me from seeing the exhibition! I needed to be one with the force.

I quickly called my buddy Kevin, whom I also know to be a Star Wars fan, (praying that he hasn't gone to see it already) and made arrangements to go and see the exhibition together.

What could I say? Meeting Kevin after almost 2 years was wonderful. It always is when old friends meet after such a long time.

Old memories aside, the force was beckoning us. We found our way (rather Kevin found the way) to the science Centre and we quickly got in. It was like amazing!See some shots below:






Then we went to this interesting section called the Jedi Gym. They had like these fantastic games testing your jedi powers. There was this game where two people will sit at opposing ends of the table and wear head bands with metal strips which can detect brainwaves. By relaxing, a participant can manipulate a ball placed in the middle of the table to move towards his opponent without any physical contact. Kevin and I played it and Kevin won all the time! He tried to console me but I have an inner feeling that he is actually a jedi in disguise.



And here's a picture of me with my very own pod racer!



After that we went into this theatrette where they showed various films highlighting the different aspects of making the Star wars movies. My three favourites were the ones on props, darth vader and kenobi. We could have been sitting there the whole day watching the stuff.

After that we departed to the nearest macedonalds where kev and I caught up on old times.

And definately, it was a day well spent!

May the force be with you!

-HoZe-