The morning was spent sending my clothes for laundry, area cleaning and drawing. I remember yesterday at St Malo, there was a man sitting by the shore drawing a picture of St Malo. I took a peep at what he drew and wish that I could draw like him. After that I wrote down the plan for my weekend tours. I don’t really think I would go to the island next weekend because I had enough of beach and sea for now. The island stay would probably be in April. Next week would be to an inland town called Dinan but I was hoping of course to go to Paris and meet my friend. I realized that by traveling every week, I would have gone to all the places worth going in Brittainy. So one of my weekend was planned for Caen, a city in Normandy. For the last weekend, I have decided to tour Rennes itself although I had done that already during the first month here. However, with the guide, I should have a deeper understanding of the places that I am visiting. At around noon I made a call back home but my parents were not around. So I told my brother to tell them to call my hp. Then I went to cook rice and by the time I returned to my room, I had 4 missed calls from home. I quickly went to the phone booth to make a collect call. There was an Indian there using the phone and so I waited behind him.
After 5 min, he was still on the phone I guessed he was like me, making a long distant call back home. I went back to finish my lunch. When I returned to the phone booth, he was still there and I waited for another 10 min, walking around him just to irritate him. In the end I gave up and went back to listen to some music. That’s when my parents called again and I sent a sms to my bro telling him there was an Indian using the phone. I was quite annoyed because he had been using the phone for over half an hour. And he didn’t seem to notice my presence. After 20 min, I went back again and he was still there! This time I had enough and asked him how long more he needs to use the phone. He said just another 5 more min. After 5 min, he ended his call and I thanked him with a smile but in fact I was swearing at him under my breath. My dad answered my call and I told him about that Indian. He said never mind lah, people also need to call back to their own country mah. I guess it was because I only spent 10 to 15 min on the phone when I was calling back home and expect everyone to be like me.
This is a bad trait in my character. I remember in the army, I was an instructor in the school of ammo. A trainee requested to be excused for a day as he needed to attend his bursary ceremony. My instructions were to only allow trainee to be excused from training for valid reasons like sickness, medical appointment, family problems, etc. This is because each trainee has to clock a certain number of hours of training and if he misses some lessons, I as the course commander has to allocate other instructors to stay back and give that particular trainee extra trainings. I didn’t want to cause any inconvenience to my colleagues as everyone wants to go home at 6pm. I myself wouldn’t want to stay back either. Anyway, I had such bursary since secondary school and never had I attended the ceremony because I felt it was a waste of time, waiting for 2 hrs and then go up the stage and shake hand with the MP. So I would always go to the community centre to collect the money one week after. Therefore, I was expecting that trainee to do the same. The trainee although looked sad and disappointed, agreed to my suggestion, or rather obliged to obey my order. The next day, there was a complaint letter shot directly to my OC by fax. It was however intercepted by a clerk who secretly showed me the letter. In the letter, the trainee’s father mentioned that I was being unreasonable and had abused my power as the course commander. Addressing to my OC, he said he had no choice but to bring this matter up to higher authorities. I was very angry with the words in the letter because I see myself as a just and fair instructor, never takan but also never get too close with the trainees. Still I went to see my OC with the letter and he said there was no choice but to allow the trainee to go. He just didn’t want to blow up the matter. Even though I felt that it was really unnecessary to attend such ceremony, I had no choice but to obey and in the end stay back myself to train that guy. My CSM learnt about the complaint and said that not everyone is like me, who doesn’t bother about such ceremony. He himself was an ITE student just like that trainee, and to them, being able to get the bursary is something to be proud of and his parents would definitely want to see their son getting the award from the MP. I thought about the issue for awhile and realized that my CSM was right. Things that were not important to me don’t mean they aren’t for others. Just like after my BMT, my parents never bother to come for the Passing-Out Parade because I was a “nua beng”, and really had zero hardship then as my status was Pes C. However, some of my BMT mates’ parents were so joyous to the point of tears to see their sons returning home. Ok, I think I had digressed too much to my army life. Although there weren’t much to talk about my army life, I think I would publish a separate blog on that in the near future. And perhaps another one on my sec sch days, and one on my canoeing days, and another on my Hall2 days. Combining all these, I would have a biography of myself.
I told dad my adventures yesterday, how hot the weather is lately, eating of raw oysters. He warned me don’t try anything funny like eating raw oysters because he was worried that I might get stomach upset. Then it was mum’s turn to speak. She heard from the news that there were strikes in France the week before and said luckily I didn’t go on any trip. I told her I changed my mind last minute and went to Fougeres but all was well. The transportation was fine. She said it seemed so long since I have been here and it is only the 2 months now. I told her I find that the time passes pretty fast here. I am already beginning planning my end tour and by end of April, I would have finalized everything.
After promising to call again 2 weeks later, I went back to my room and watched “Enemy at the Gates, Stalingrad”. It was an average war film and I had already seen it before in cinema back in Singapore. However, Jude Law was very charming with his blue eyes and British accent. The female lead was too flabby for my likings and Ed Harris although was old, was charismatic. So all in all, it was still entertaining. After that I made some recording of my singings again and fell asleep on the bed! Singing lullaby to myself, haha. I guess I was just too tired after yesterday’s trip. I intended to check out the location of Carrefour today but my legs were aching so I decided to leave it till next week.
After 5 min, he was still on the phone I guessed he was like me, making a long distant call back home. I went back to finish my lunch. When I returned to the phone booth, he was still there and I waited for another 10 min, walking around him just to irritate him. In the end I gave up and went back to listen to some music. That’s when my parents called again and I sent a sms to my bro telling him there was an Indian using the phone. I was quite annoyed because he had been using the phone for over half an hour. And he didn’t seem to notice my presence. After 20 min, I went back again and he was still there! This time I had enough and asked him how long more he needs to use the phone. He said just another 5 more min. After 5 min, he ended his call and I thanked him with a smile but in fact I was swearing at him under my breath. My dad answered my call and I told him about that Indian. He said never mind lah, people also need to call back to their own country mah. I guess it was because I only spent 10 to 15 min on the phone when I was calling back home and expect everyone to be like me.
This is a bad trait in my character. I remember in the army, I was an instructor in the school of ammo. A trainee requested to be excused for a day as he needed to attend his bursary ceremony. My instructions were to only allow trainee to be excused from training for valid reasons like sickness, medical appointment, family problems, etc. This is because each trainee has to clock a certain number of hours of training and if he misses some lessons, I as the course commander has to allocate other instructors to stay back and give that particular trainee extra trainings. I didn’t want to cause any inconvenience to my colleagues as everyone wants to go home at 6pm. I myself wouldn’t want to stay back either. Anyway, I had such bursary since secondary school and never had I attended the ceremony because I felt it was a waste of time, waiting for 2 hrs and then go up the stage and shake hand with the MP. So I would always go to the community centre to collect the money one week after. Therefore, I was expecting that trainee to do the same. The trainee although looked sad and disappointed, agreed to my suggestion, or rather obliged to obey my order. The next day, there was a complaint letter shot directly to my OC by fax. It was however intercepted by a clerk who secretly showed me the letter. In the letter, the trainee’s father mentioned that I was being unreasonable and had abused my power as the course commander. Addressing to my OC, he said he had no choice but to bring this matter up to higher authorities. I was very angry with the words in the letter because I see myself as a just and fair instructor, never takan but also never get too close with the trainees. Still I went to see my OC with the letter and he said there was no choice but to allow the trainee to go. He just didn’t want to blow up the matter. Even though I felt that it was really unnecessary to attend such ceremony, I had no choice but to obey and in the end stay back myself to train that guy. My CSM learnt about the complaint and said that not everyone is like me, who doesn’t bother about such ceremony. He himself was an ITE student just like that trainee, and to them, being able to get the bursary is something to be proud of and his parents would definitely want to see their son getting the award from the MP. I thought about the issue for awhile and realized that my CSM was right. Things that were not important to me don’t mean they aren’t for others. Just like after my BMT, my parents never bother to come for the Passing-Out Parade because I was a “nua beng”, and really had zero hardship then as my status was Pes C. However, some of my BMT mates’ parents were so joyous to the point of tears to see their sons returning home. Ok, I think I had digressed too much to my army life. Although there weren’t much to talk about my army life, I think I would publish a separate blog on that in the near future. And perhaps another one on my sec sch days, and one on my canoeing days, and another on my Hall2 days. Combining all these, I would have a biography of myself.
I told dad my adventures yesterday, how hot the weather is lately, eating of raw oysters. He warned me don’t try anything funny like eating raw oysters because he was worried that I might get stomach upset. Then it was mum’s turn to speak. She heard from the news that there were strikes in France the week before and said luckily I didn’t go on any trip. I told her I changed my mind last minute and went to Fougeres but all was well. The transportation was fine. She said it seemed so long since I have been here and it is only the 2 months now. I told her I find that the time passes pretty fast here. I am already beginning planning my end tour and by end of April, I would have finalized everything.
After promising to call again 2 weeks later, I went back to my room and watched “Enemy at the Gates, Stalingrad”. It was an average war film and I had already seen it before in cinema back in Singapore. However, Jude Law was very charming with his blue eyes and British accent. The female lead was too flabby for my likings and Ed Harris although was old, was charismatic. So all in all, it was still entertaining. After that I made some recording of my singings again and fell asleep on the bed! Singing lullaby to myself, haha. I guess I was just too tired after yesterday’s trip. I intended to check out the location of Carrefour today but my legs were aching so I decided to leave it till next week.
I feel that with the weekly mini tours, it brings excitement to my life here every week and breaks the monotonous rhythm of work. In addition, with the soccer game, the animes and the DVDs, my life here is pretty occupied. However, work-wise, I was a bit worried. I had completed most of the tasks set out for me and had reached the targets that were set to be accomplished by end of April. Which meant I had somewhat fulfilled all my IA requirements. But the bonus tasks added by my sup were really difficult and although they weren’t in the plan initially, I felt that those would be my real challenges. So although I have achieved my primary objectives, I am still working on the secondary ones. But I have to tell myself that I cannot expect too much and be too harsh on myself because all these while I had been working alone. I guess once my sup returns, with his help and his brain of course, I should be able to do better. So just don’t worry about work and enjoy traveling in Brittainy ok?
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