A Retrospective Perspective

ORD. A date many of NSF look forward to. But what lies ahead? School. Phooey. It doesn't start for 6 more months.

I miss my office! No juniors make fun and bark orders at, no tense confrontations with the overly sensitive grown man who has the emotional depth of a four year old boy, no more being the loved NSF in the office who gets free food and drink 'just because'. No more having CD to blame for my boring life. No more nightly sit downs with Fran or Michelle, and getting paid handsomely for it.

What irks me now is that I order no one. And I get ordered around, though politely and with quite a bit of wiggle room. Drive me here, pick this up, help me carry this. Argh. Shawn, I'm sorry I took you for granted, and you should relish the position you're in now. Dept IC there is the best job ever. All the perks, and all the subordinates to help with the responsibilities.

But I guess the biggest gripe I have with ORD life is too much time, no money. As the saying goes, no money, no honey.

I miss the expendable income I will get no matter what, on the 12th of every month, and the tuition money..

At least I secured another year of tuition with Fran. Michelle is going to be a challenge because I have to teach A maths. Told her to take 3 sciences, but she didn't want. I hate maths. Ugh.

I guess I'm a rather materialistic person. Not in the 'I will kill you for cash' kind. But I use it as a motivating factor to ensure that I succeed in life. Some people want to raise children, cure cancer, or save the environment, I want to be rich enough to buy my Carbon Specialized Stumpjumper, my Audi SUV to bring it to BT and M'sia, my Audi R8 for the weekends and my BMW R1200S which I will get when I'm around 40.

So it kinda of pisses me off that I only have a finite nonrenewable source of cash right now. Does not help that the job market now sucks shit.

Enough griping la.



My bike reached the 2,000km mark. Woohoo! Was going to send it for servicing when it reaches 3,000km but the NTU bike rally on 15 Mar means my bike needs to go for its first servicing, Can't have my precious hubs and BB getting worn down by year-old dirt during the 128km route.

Went to Bukit Timah trail for a 2nd time. It wasn't half as scary as the first time, and the place where I lost control the previous time is now highly doable, with the right application of my brakes at the proper time.

What I really cannot take is the stupid climb up those never ending stairs near the end of the trail. After going through almost the whole course, to carry my bike up so many flights of stairs really is bloody irritating.

All in all, BT is the most challenging trail I've been on so far, the most tiring one also. But hey, there's still Kent Ridge in the running. After a few more times at BT, I'll be off to try kent ridge, which would probably have easier climbs than BT but the here say on the forums are that KR is the most technical trail when it comes to the descents.

So wish me luck, and hope I don't wreck my bike, cos I'm as broke as an Icelandic funds manager.