Opening 2007

I finally have time to write, and this for good reason, because I’ve chosen to stay at home over a Saturday to balance my account books, or should I say to avoid further un-balancing them. I think it must be the first Saturday I’m at home for an immensely long time. It is the first time I’m writing in a long time.

A month ago I became an infantry officer. The mundane and at times dispiriting parade rehearsals sometimes succeeded in taking out the spirit and enormity of the moment. But somehow on the day itself the weight of the occasion crushed every single negative thought under it. Ironically the one person who insisted on subjecting us to the torture made the process intolerably fun with his humour.

Then I got my new posting. That was another story, and perhaps not best to leave here where so many people can read it. I’m indebted to people who I’m now quite unlikely to get to see often. It’s a very different feeling being a trainee and being an officer. Somehow it is worse having been from a jovial and noisy platoon. At times I enjoy the new quiet in my job, at others I miss the rowdy nonsense cadets used to put up. I’ll sometimes wake up missing their presence and wondering what they are up to, or I’ll just blurt out that “I miss XXX.” It’s something that I guess is unavoidable.

Right now I’m still getting adjusted to a different kind of environment, although it has been a much more congenial one that I had expected and could hope for. There are already many interesting moments – the way my boss chooses to call out to me everytime there’s some work to be done, the way an innocent question about where I live from a Spec led to the discovery that I was working in the same office as my next door neighbour who I’ve ashamedly never met, the way I’ve now been tasked to blog for the battalion even though I’ve largely neglected my personal blog.

But I’m glad that the job has allowed me to enjoy the extended festive season and catch up with so many friends. The year-end lull also meant that I’ve had a low-season for work throughout December. My first day of work was really the first day of my new job. So I’ve now well and truly began a new year and a new life.

There are two different kinds of private promises and wishes I make myself every year – one during New Year and one during my birthday. I don’t really keep up with New Year resolutions. I think they are silly. Actually both are silly, because they are just artificial marks on the calendar that somehow motivate me to make what often turn out to be uninformed, immature or ill-judged promises to myself.

But one thing they’re not is frivolous. And this year my new year resolutions are turning out to be quite substantive, probably because of the current circumstances of my life. So substantive that I shudder to put them down on record here in case I fail to meet them – as I suspect I doubtlessly would find out this time next year. Still, I’m going to do the most cliché, self-indulgent thing and list them down here.

First and foremost I’m going to aim to save an average of 600 bucks a month. This is to finance what I foresee to be my appetite for travel in the future, starting from a planned outing with the Oxford guys in spring 2008, probably to the UK. That is achievable with planning.

Secondly, I’m going to try to clock at least 12 km of running distance per week, with an eye on upping this to 18 per week by the time my IPPT window opens. This is going to be one of those difficult ones. It is only achievable with tremendous discipline and externally-imposed supervision.

Then, there are the less serious ones. I’ve started reading Bill Clinton’s memoirs cover-to-cover. I hadn’t done that before, choosing only to read the so-called “juicier” parts about his Presidency. Little did I know that the first twenty-or-so chapters about the first half of his life were such very enjoyable and readable page-turners. He writes as well as he speaks, well, almost, because he speaks so well. And I’ve learnt a lot from his account of his youth about life, beliefs and politics. It’s shaping up to be a terrific book from what I thought was a good one, and I like to believe it’s not just simply because he’s my favourite politician.

I’d love to read more, partly because I believe that since graduating from Oxford I’ve tended to read more and more specialised things in London, and then not at all since I returned. I had for instance forgotten how exciting it was to read commentary from something that I can hold in my hand until I started gobbling up my weekly Economist which started arriving after I came back from Taiwan. But I really want to start reading more books, so that my brains don’t fossilise after ORD. It also helps that I’m going to write for the newsletter and blog. Brain workouts are as important as physical ones for me this year.

Otherwise, I’m hoping to keep in shape, enjoy the rest of NS, and hopefully get a driving license. These are the more difficult ones and will probably need some effort and maybe scheming. One easier one is my hope to celebrate New Years Day in Taipei next year. I was captivated by the fireworks bursting out from Taipei 101 and I told myself I need to be there to see it for myself. We’ll see how this goes. That’s part of what the 600-a-month is for. I’ll try to get those done. The rest, we’ll see.