The Part about being Conjured into Delerium...

031006SEPT2005ZT

woah...i've spent a motherload on money these past few months due to being 'drugged' by super music. It all started when i bought a chill out in ibiza 3 album. most of you reading this know i have a 'thing' for chill-out/ambient music. Whereupon i heard a track called Silence and it was from a group or artiste called Delerium. The track featured Sarah McLachlan whom some of you out there may or may not know...Delerium is actually a duo consisting of Rhys Fulber and Bill Leeb. Fulber eventually spinned off from Deleriium to set up his own solo project called Conjure One-but more on that a little later.

anyway...when I heard Silence then i knew that it was simply a mindblowing track. Silence was pure aural genius. simply breathtakingly beautiful and haunting. I kept listening to it when i was in Brunei on my 2nd detachment. When I came back, I chanced upon the 'Best Of Delerium' album-which was essentially the best music/tracks/songs which Delerium thought they had written/composed. Somehow or rather fate led me to it. Since I bought that album and assimilated it to my MP3 player, I searched out for the remaining earlier albums and bought them since that day. Semantic Spaces, Karma, Chimera and Poem. Geniuses created these beautiful haunting ethereal pieces of heaven. All with just the right amount of middle eastern percussion, gregorian chants, and electro-pop-ambinet-chill out constructions. (not all in the the same amounts). I jus realised that I'd been ignoring my other MP3s!

I've enquired other ppl about it and apparently obody around here listens or heards of Delerium before! Except of course save perhaps the Lush 99.5 crew to some extent. The only other person who may have heard about it was my cousin Sharon, who shares a similar music interests as I do. Oh BTW, for those of you who enjoyed Canto alla Vita in Josh Groban's (which he sang with The Corrs [my all time fave irish group] ) album-u might find it interesting to note that Rhys Fulber did the producing for that track...

Conjure one is Fulber's attempt to write songs similar to those he had done for Delerium in the albums of Poem and Chimera. The initial album is great too..though maybe not with the lush ethereal sounds...but the definate eletronica groove worthy of being savoured in a wine bar or with a cup of earl grey on a sunset beach front is still evident.

The Part about being Roped in...

201240AUG2005ZT

for a parade...and I have to say that--I HATE PARADES..unless of course i'm the parade director/coordinator...

yeah well..roped in to be a member of the supporting contingent in the RSAF Day Parade. Supposedly its out Air Force's 37th Birthday...and we're ALL carrying the M16 rifles...thank god...non of that SAR 21 crap for me thank you very much... Its actually an overhyped technological piece of sh*t.

right...CT is organising her 25th anniversary celebrations..her biggie birthdae. i'm already envisioning a sweet secrets chocolate royal b-dae cake...HUGE one...to be cut..by yours truly on the nite itself...sighz..

but of course, its pipe dream till me and the team assemble everything together..i want it to be a painless affair..for the organisers...but we're gonna FORCE ppl to dress up properly for the event. no jeans or ties or polo tees pls...we're gonna be telling the guests..else ya get ur sweet arse booted out of CT's prison gates by our 'bouncers'. hehe

The Part about saying Goodbye to a beloved friend

131412JUL2005ZT

Yes, i've been back in Singapore since 2nd June. 'Fans' of my blog appareantly have missed me and are calling for me t write again and so I shall.

The fact that I have not been posting as due to several reasons:

1) multiple times I fell sick
2) busy work with SJAB/CTSS & Zone Nine
3) Drawdown of the UH1H aircraft from RSAF service

Yes the venerable UH1H helicopter has flown their last flight on 11th July 2005 at around 1500 hours. Guest of honour was our Chief of Air Force himself. For weeks since my return to Singapore, we've been preparing for the day. Decorating the hangars, sprucing up the UH fleet making sure that all of them are flight capable for the final day.

I performed by last Before-flight airframe serviving on aircraft 260-which had taken BG Charles Sih (Chief of Staff-Air Staff) and marshalled aircraft 254 flown by LTC Sunny Yun (our ex Commanding Officer) & CPT W Wong.

Last night was the commemorative dinner which we saw videos which highlighted the UH & SQN's acheivement both. Some former and present members of the UH1H community did not leave without a dried eye. Mine included. Though the time I've spent working on her was short-but it was well worth it. I've learnt alot, forged new friendhips with both from the squadron and the supporting UH-ALS community as well.

I'll miss the Hueys but embrace the incoming Apaches left to fill the void. Soon 120SQN will belong to another new era of a 3G fighting helicopter force. The time is now for them to make history their way.

The Part about servinga 2nd Deteachment in Brunei

071455MAY2005ZT

'well u got urself into this mess in the 1st place.' said my brother Shaun. Truth was i was told to do so (read: forced/co-erced) as part of quote" serving your duty to the country' unquote.

i really miss Singapore now...my family (in a way-well i dun miss my family's hysterics), my friends back home, my 'children' (sic: not) my clubbing nites (hehe) and bed!!!! i so miss my bed and bolster and pillows...sleeping in the bunk give sme a headache everytime i wake up in da morning.

since our arrival here to the sultanate, a 'series of unfortunate events' took place. cos someone in my bunk watched Lemony Smicket's A series of Unfortunate Events starring Jim Carrey i think. anyhow i for one am not the type who goes believing in superstition...(most of the time anyway) but seeing how watching this movie is somewhat taboo...

our own version of unfrotunate events were actually some technical failures on the aircraft-which left alot of ppl in the detachment groaning and moaning...heck u dun hear of the pilots and aircrew complaining do ya???

sighz....a few more weeks....