People

This has been a good week, except for a minor glitch yesterday.

It's really the people around me who made my week. It feels good to have a casual chat or just friendly banter with people who understand how you feel because they are basically in the same boat. Most of the sergeants are actually nice people, and given the fact that we share the same background (JC) and general mindset, it would have been natural to become friends if not for the hierarchical system that makes such relationships awkward and untenable.

Plus, I am back on course this week and most of next week! It's a pretty relac course, but the instructors and course material are a real bore. About the only thing that makes it worthwhile are the two teabreaks, which serve really good food. Argh, I am becoming fat, eating five meals a day, and with CNY coming up, all those CNY goodies.

Chatted with the other coy line signallers on course and there is a consensus that K coy is the worst - most (dumb) regulations and least welfare. I concede it's a blow, although this merely reaffirmed my suspicions. It's just difficult to accept that our lives are so drastically different when we are basically sleeping in adjacent and opposite blocks. It goes to show that it's not entirely the system, but more so the people (in this case the commanders) who decide how good/miserable life is for the men. And I just happen to have terrible luck.

Enough of mundane army stuff already. I have been too lazy to post reviews in recent weeks. Anyway I figured no one reads them. Bleh.

But there is an album I really want to recommend: Ayaka (絢香)'s First Message. Forget about "I believe", the song she composed that 石欣卉 ripped off. There's an abundance of other quality compositions in her debut album (15 tracks!), and she has a powerful and warm voice which does the material justice. For a 20-year-old, she really can sing! Her timbre and tone actually reminds me of Stef, which might explain why I took an instant liking to her when I heard her voice on the TV commercial. I am sure she will be the next Japanese diva to look out for.