Still pretty upbeat about my soon to be confirmed relocation to the states or europe. Last friday about an hour b4 knocking off my mind was already wandering off to the stuff I could do if I can go off to the states. Top of the list would be to go and skydive!! I religiously went to check out available skydiving sites near indianapolis and managed to find some which looked quite professional and offered AFF (accelarated freefall). The problem is that it's probably gonna set me back by quite a bit of money but it's still gonna be much cheaper than sg. Basically for the first few jumps, 2 jumpmasters(JM) jump with you and as one progresses it reduces to 1 JM. On lesson 7 you're off on your own and after which you're qualified to jump anywhere! After hitting 25 jumps one can apply to be a licensed skydiver with the USPA (United States Parachute Association).
Now for the screwy thing, moving abroad means tat u probably need to have some personal mode of transport. It ain't like in sg where you can just take a bus or cab anywhere and the shitty thing is I dun have a bloody driver's license. Well I can only kick my own ass for not getting one all those years in uni. My only salvation now is to get my rider's license b4 leaving... Anyway, I just passed my lesson 6 today which means 2 more lessons to go b4 I can take the tp test, I'm hope all goes well and I can make it in time for the tp test which is on 28th July and pass it one time round.
Pretty much quiet for the weekend, last friday went to be a good grandson and bought the fried oyster I promised my grandma. Since Tiong Bahru Bao was near my office, I also went there and bought some for them. Sigh, I think I'm gonna miss them much if I leave and I guess I should visit them as much as I can now while I'm still here. After all, they're already getting in on their years and the matter of fact is we don't know when they'll be gone. Rather than regret not spending more time with them when they're gone, I always try and make time each weekend to visit them. It ain't right to live life with tons of regrets right?
Hung around grandma's until about 9 then went off for a drink at Paulaners with kiat. It's been like donkey years since I chatted with him, in fact I haven't seen him in almost a decade and I'm glad we're back in touch. After all, we're pretty good back back in lower sec, it's just that we kinda drifted off after we went off to diff classes in sec 3 & 4. Actually, sometimes it seems like we never really left vs... I guess most of us are still the same excpt that we are more aware of how vicious the outside world can be. It's a dog eat dog world out there, you have to be street smart to make a living. Academia life is pretty protected in the sense tat there is
probably less politics to speak off but hey I ain't a professor so I can't say for sure. It's just a gut feeling I have. I've since made my choice about going out to "chuang" instead of pursuing a PhD. I hope it's the right choice, at least things are pretty much going according to plans right now. Hey, whatever it is, I think I must still stick to the cdo mantra "Expect the unexpected".
Spent saturday brushing up my dissertation and watching lost. One thing that struck me was a part about the cocoon and the moth breaking out of it. Basically, the moth has to struggle pretty hard to break out of its hard cocoon into the outside world. One could of course make the process easier and make a hole in which the moth could climb out. But that would mean that the moth would be too weak to fend for itself in the outside world. Life's about a set of struggles, each one serving its purpose to make one stronger. I believe that man a pretty resilient creature, most of the time we give up because of our own inadequacies and not because the body or mind cannot take the pressure. In a way, I'm glad that I didn't have things easy for me throughout my teenage years. My family had its fair share of financial problems and it was hard to understand it as a kid about why there were so many things I couldn't have that my friends got. As I grew up, I understood the situation better and very much appreciate how my mum tried to keep the family together. It's funny now to think that I was so rebellious and always quarrelling with my mum (I even left home once) but we're so much closer now. Well at least better late than never, I'm hoping that I can build a bridge across to my old man also, but it's probably gonna take some time. The stint with the cdos pretty much tells you that one can take much more than one knows. Hell, I wouldn't want to go through all that shit again but if I have to choose where to serve, I would never want to go anywhere else.
