Here we go

Nothing much has been happening over the last few weeks hence the lack of updates. Its all about flying, duties, studying, eating, sleeping and the occasional trip to edmonton. I wouldnt wanna bore whoever reads this blog with the same old same old.

whats all the interesting stuff thats been happening?? well i think the term 'interesting' varies depending on your interests and such, and such, and such. And such.

Here is a list of what may or may not be interesting that have happened:
1) Had awesome dim sum in edmonton followed by a great meal at red lobster the following day. (It takes 6 hrs to get there and back! So it better be interesting!)
2) Did a bit of shopping at the West Edmonton Mall last week. (If any of you have anything you want me to bring back for you from here pls let me know)
3) Caught 9 and The Informant last weekend.
4) Flew at 150ft at 420kts.
5) Started to do simulated bomb attacks at the range.
6) Listening to a few good bands. The Used, Pearl Jam, Kings of Leon, Rise Against, DCFC.
7) Eating alot of fast food. haha
8) Cooking abit.
9) Cleaning my room
10) MEL PASSED HER DRIVING TEST!!!! YES!!!!

So proud of you dear for passing first time!! See, you must have faith in yourself and dont give up all the way up till the end! haha.. now i can finally sleep and someone else drive.. :D

Cheers and God Bless!
Matt

Time

Its been a year in canada.. Cant wait to finish.. See you soon.

Cheers and God Bless!

Matt

Income tax

Statement is in.. Payment has to be made.. gonna cherish this one cos from next year on, its gonna look quite different.. just thank God im not taxed 60%..

life in cold lake is coming along.. its summer so weather is nice and warm.. not too humid which is awesome.. feels actually abit like sg.. just more comfortable.. i really miss home.. really miss the food.. really miss my friends, family, mel, church..

but i really have to thank God for the opportunity.. its been an awesome experience.. probably thats why ppl emphasis how studying overseas has more pros than cons.. i think it probably all boils down to independence.. in that problems u face will have to be fixed by u and only u..

one thing i know definitely is that ive put on some weight.. thats ang mo for u man.. had breakfast at humptys and the food was so oily and salty! argh..
so we ended up cooking curry chicken just now for dinner.. awesome man.. miss changi villages' curry fishhead.. cheap and nice..

its raining now.. its not just rain.. its raining hail.. my poor car.. sigh..

cheers to all!
God Bless!
matt

pigs

why didnt they call it the pig flu but the swine flu?

grad in 3 weeks.. but the weather aint that good... hmm... hopefully I can finish in time with room to spare.. cant wait!!

time to go golfing again.. arms and hands aching from yesterday.. played my first 9 holes! haha.. gotta get my irons under control!
6 deg outside and we're still going. thats what i call passion..

cheers and God Bless!
matt

love yellowcard-keeper

beans spilled..

More pictures from the easter trip..

have no idea who they are.. but great fun.. haha

Town of Banff early in the morn aft it snowed overnight.. Nice!

Typical tourists.. haha

On the way to Banff..

Calgary tower with a glass floor.. I wasnt scared la.. :P

everyone is different.. no one disputes that.. so are we more similar or different from one another, discounting the physical side of things?

we all obviously share different values and mindsets to varying degrees.. but why is that so? arent we all brought up in the same education system, watch roughly the same tv shows and movies, listen to the same songs, subscribe to the same Singaporean mentaliy?

i have no answer to that.. all i know is that i strongly believe that how a child is brought up through the years greatly determines how he behaves and lives as an adult..

yes as we grow older, external influences will start to play an exponentially larger role in shaping our thinking and morals but at the end of the day, the cornerstone laid by our parents in our hearts and minds of whats right and wrong will indeed be that guiding compass as to which we'll rely on throughout our lives.. hopefully, life's experiences and lessons will add on positively, not negatively, to that guiding light as we transverse the ups and downs of adulthood and working life..

working life has not been, and will not be easy for me or anyone else.. there will be difficult decisions that will have to be made and hardships along the way..

something i feel i particularly lack and wish to improve on is in the realm of people management.. to my utter dismay, i am completely incapable of reading people's minds.. nor am i able to 'push' thoughts into their minds like in heroes.. haha..

thats life.. :D

God please give me wisdom..
Cheers and God Bless
Matt

p.s. cant get enough of Grapevine fires by DCFC..

Easter

It was a 4 day break for us over here in canada this past weekend.. a good break finally since jan.. had a send off for an instructor on fri and then headed off on what would turn out to be a great road trip.. was 6 hrs of travelling time to Calgary worth it? yes.. its just hard to describe the feeling that i had.. think what made me happy was the food and the big city atmosphere.. something that ive kinda missed for quite awhile since the US trip..

here are some sights from the trip.. remember, a trip to canada isnt complete without visiting the rockies..

so we spent a night in Calgary, Alberta.. we visited chinatown, had jap food, drove and toured around and then headed to one of the pubs to check it out.. had hoped for better but its all still good. sunday was packed.. Calgary tower in the morning followed by DIM SUM!! YUM! next it was some shopping at one of the newest shopping centres and then off to Banff!

a great drive.. Banff is awesome.. on par with places like Queenstown and Tahoe.. much to do, too little time as always.. went up the gondola and then drove to Lake Louise.. korean food that night was good good good.. visited one of the night clubs aft that which was interesting.. haha

Trusty Car brought us there and back.. a total of 1500km..

The view from the top of sulphur mountain overlooking Banff..

monday was all about the drive back to moose jaw.. 7 hrs in a car is no joke..
this trip kinda reminded me of my trip to the US with mel.. sigh.. cant wait to see u mel! :D

Cheers and God Bless!

Matt

so..

looking ahead not forgetting the times passed..

the view of Saskatchewan at FL350. u can actually start to see the curvature of the earth.. haha..

thank God.

God Bless

Cheers!

look up

2 tests over and done with.. 2 more to go in MJ.. this past week has been hectic to say the least..
didnt really do well for the tests but im happy with the passes..
flew to calgary the other day and i must say that it was a great experience.. flying to a busy international airport is awesome..
some pictures from the trip..

Flight planning for the flight.. Like a transport pilot.. haha

IF flying here was quite interesting.. thank God for my ticket!

Nav and form here i come!

Im off to bed..

Cheers and God Bless

Matt

24

Just caught another episode of 24.. Nice as always.. Caught the movie I love u Man over the weekend.. not bad.. Fired Up was better..

Anyway its been windy and overcast today. More like winter. But its officially spring now so im confused.

Anyway this is a graduation video done by one of the courses here.. you should watch.. they made the theme something like the 24 series.. the first aircraft which u'll see is the harvard II which is the prop.. we dont fly that cos we dont do phase 2 so all we fly is the hawk, the second one which is the JET..

Cheers and God Bless!

Matt

Start Go

What better way to mark the end of winter than a revamp of my lonely blog, although i highly suspect that no one bothers to read the rumblings of a guy living far away in a land not really considered hospitable in winter. But hey, its a change! The very first change in fact since the very beginning when i was still in JC during the first 3 months, enjoying life.

How fast the years have passed. It was just like yesterday that i was a little kid in the playground playing with sand, trying to make a stupid castle with whatever i had.. Bliss, not a care in the world. No economic crisis, no planning for the future, no forward thinking required whatsoever. Just that little sand castle was what i had to deal with.

Remember when we were still in school, our parents would tell us how much harder life would be once we started working? That i can confirm, is very true. Thats why no matter how hard sch may be, its still better than being out there in working class society. I would however like to state that this may not be true for everyone. Makes u wonder if u enjoyed sch enough. I think i enjoyed too much. haha..

No matter what life throws at you, be happy. Thank God.
Cheers and God Bless!
Matt
p.s. hope the new template and scheme is nice.. no requirement for awesome. haha

Spring

spring is here and all cheer! Finally i dont need to clothe up like a ball just to go to the gym.. yes!
caught the movie fired up last weekend.. its one funny show.. as what the poster says, its not a cheerleading movie.. haha O M G!

cant get enough of 24.. action packed all the way.. i like..

This is K-OS.. Love song.. well it actually isnt a love song as u'll see.. (hint: to the music industry) haha..

Cheers and God Bless!

Matt

Seasons

The buddies in Moose Jaw now..

On the drive to San Francisco with the sun setting behind us.. awesome drive..

The main shopping district in SFO

New year's in Vegas with thousands of others..

The thousands of others

The walk to the strip from our hotel

What i endured when i returned to canada.. Freaking COLD!! -40 plus that night with windchill

Forgot to mention the snow..

I honestly cannot wait for spring! it was postive 4 today which was awesome with all the sun and all that.. no more full winter kit! (hopefully)

Hope u like the photos.. group holiday anyone? haha..

Study and work hard u all!! :D

Cheers and God Bless

Matt

Push

Watched the movie Push over the weekend.. not bad man. something like heroes which i just realised was showing every monday at 8pm..cant believe.. missed so many episodes already.. anyway push is about humans who have powers trying to evade the company which wants to use them as test subjects.. so they try to elude and at the same time, trying desperately to get to something that will take the company down.. its ur usual plot.. obviously the good guys win.. but there were twists that made it nice.. so there were those who could 'push' meaning influencing ppl into doing things or movers who could use 'the force' to move objects and a whole lot more.. interesting cos i was deciding if i was given a choice which would i pick? Pusher la.. haha..

Wads the next movie thats coming out? Wanted to watch Pink Panther 2 for the last 2 weeks but the guys didnt want.. sigh...

Anyway was watching svc the other day regarding marriage.. its interesting to note the differences between the needs of the male and female in the relationship.. haha.. better copy down notes and study man.. hahah..

Anyway have been listening to alot of incubus lately.. although their latest album came out in 07 it still sounds fresh ah.. One of my fav songs is love hurts.. Listen to the lyrics!

Cheers!
God Bless
Matt

thanks

thanks to all who remembered my bday even tho im around 5000km away.. haha.. good thing was that i got to enjoy my birthday over 2 days.. one sg and one canadian.. so this year is the second year in a row that ive been away for CNY and my bday.. makes u miss all that u took for granted.. like all the food and friends, relatives.. feeling hungry now.. life has been alright to me, although i havent been able to get a single sortie in since 2 weeks ago due to weather.. its actually a great experience.. never did i know winter created so much havoc..

ive been eyeing some watches lately.. with however little intent to spend on those that i really want.. abit the expensive.. ive been wondering why ppl spend so much on this gadgets.. the 3rd watch shown abv is around 20k i think and the tag heuer one is only a concept.. does the value of a sophisticated automatic watch really increase thru the years? honestly, i dont know.. hence i may just get the hamilton watch.. or i may do the right thing and not spend on any watch.. save the money for the future(car or house).. cant believe how much i spend.. sigh..

interesting convo last night with the guys(seems one of them has done his research).. haha.. it seems a built to order HDB flat is around 280k.. not bad what.. i always thought it'll be like 500k.. plus if u're first timer, u can get rebate of 40k? interesting... however there are twice the number of applicants than flats available.. or just add a level in my house.. KIV..

i wanna go to prata house and eat...

i wanna go to UDMC and have seafood...

i wanna go to 85 for supper

i wanna go chompchomp for all the food

i miss sg food...

Think im hungry now.. Off to lunch..

Cheers

God Bless!

The otherside

Christmas has passed, the new year has been ushered in and im back at work.. I must add that the 2 weeks with mel passed a tad too fast.. if only the year away would pass that fast.. nonetheless it was an awesome trip.. a bit hectic but it was all good..

We started off in LA.. Disneyland, Universal studios, Sea World, San diego, Santa Monica, Palm springs, Hollywood and a couple of other places of interest.. LA was great, except for traffic and the airport which sucked quite abit.. i loved the shopping.. pre-christmas shopping is the BEST! shopped at the outlet stores at palm springs and after spending 1 day there, we realised that there was another section of shops that we missed out. sigh. We then made the days drive up to San Francisco along the coastal route 101 which brought us up north.. It was a great drive with lots of things to see and elephant seals too.. haha.. the smell of the fresh air was refreshing and something i miss now..

up in san francisco we toured the city, shopped in the main city centre where there were H&Ms almost everywhere and the Macy's shop looked great.. in the morning we visted fisherman's wharf and the golden gate bridge.. sfo gave u a feel good feeling.. that was what i felt and it was different from LA.. its the vibe ya.. haha..

Vegas was the next stop with all the casinos, lights and other stuff(services).. hahah.. really SIN CITY man.. we visited the red rock drive and hoover dam and did a day trip to the grand canyon.. it was spendid.. weather was great too!! so much better than -30..

then it was the end.. our journey in the states came to an end as i sent mel to the airport to board her plane back to SG.. that feeling really sucks.. something i know all too well.. first when i went to tamworth, then to Brunei, then to Perth and then to canada.. trust me, its not fun.. i really cant wait to be finally in sg..

so how long did i spend time with mel last year=4 weeks.. yes 1 month.. sad right? what can one do? on another note, i guess we are blessed too.. God has given us the opportunity to go on 3 trips so far.. NZ, Thailand and now US.. He has given us technology which has makes it easier to communicate.. Thank God for Skype! haha.. And most imptly, God has given us patience.. I remembered when i first went into the army on 7th Jan 06, ppl told me that maintaining a relationship would be difficult.. It lasted. Then i left for tamworth and they said many would break up. We lasted thru.. Then it was 9 months in pearce and it seemed like no one could keep a long dist relationship alive.. We endured thru.. and now, its 1 year in canada.. u can say im tired of being away from my gf, family, friends.. its obviously true.. but i know this journey has taught me things that i would never have learned or even experienced and with this i think obstacles can be overcome..

how have we made it work? i really dont know.. alot of effort and understanding i guess.. but i think it has to do with sacrifice.. at the end of the day, u will always need 2 hands to clap.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

I love u mel!

Cheers to all

God Bless