Showing posts with label navy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label navy. Show all posts

Monday, 19 April 2021

I got the Moderna vaccine because I didn't know I could choose by vaccination centre

Dear Ministry of Health,

I am sort of a healthcare professional. Or at least used to be.

I was a medic in the navy during my national service and used to vaccinate shiploads of servicemen. That was hundreds of pricks. I mean the injections. The jabs were mostly for tetanus, rubella and hepatitis.

I became rather proficient with a syringe. I had good reviews.

So I am more accustomed to giving injections than getting one.

I wanted to share this fun fact about myself with the young woman giving my first dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine to show that I can relate to what she was doing.

She probably wouldn’t care, although that hasn’t stopped me before. Otherwise, this column would not exist.

But there was a long queue at Hong Kah North Community Club and I did not want to hold up the line with my reminiscence of injecting seamen 35 years ago.

The young woman was pretty deft with the needle too. Maybe even better than I was. It was over before I knew it. I barely felt the prick. It was like nothing.



The pain only hit me the day after and it hit like a sumbitch.

My left shoulder felt as if it had been punched by shiploads of servicemen. The rest of me was also out of sorts.

But I was fine by the next day, although I still feel a lingering ache in my left shoulder even now when I exercise, two weeks after the jab.

My wife, who had the injection at the same time as me, had the same side effects except maybe a little worse. She also had headaches.

She blamed the Moderna vaccine we were given because her mother, who is in her 90s, reported only minor side effects after getting the Pfizer vaccine.

Before you Pofma me, I should clarify that clinical trials for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have shown that younger adults tend to report more frequent and severe side effects than older people.

So my wife is wrong to blame Moderna for her suffering. She should blame being younger than her mother.

But despite all the unpleasant side effects, I am still glad I had my shot.

You know why? Because I got a free box of 50 disposable masks and small bottle of water out of it. Woo-hoo!

That is how you get more Singaporeans to go for vaccination – free stuff! Why aren’t you advertising this?

I later found out that a friend who went to a different vaccination centre didn’t get anything. So not everyone gets freebies.

It was only after our injections that we discovered you had published a list indicating which vaccination centre administers the Pfizer and which the Moderna vaccine – but not which centre hands out free stuff.

If we had known earlier, my wife would have chosen the Pfizer one since the Pfizer vaccine is supposedly 1 per cent more effective than Moderna.

That 1 per cent makes all the difference to her.



Don’t you find it funny that even for vaccines, people also care about brand name now?

When I was injecting seamen in the navy, I didn’t know whether the vaccine was from Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson or Dettol.

I didn’t know if anyone had a blood clot or a microchip tracked by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates implanted in them after getting vaccinated.



Nowadays, we seem to know so much about the Covid-19 vaccines and yet not enough.

Back then, I just made sure to expel any air bubbles in the needle before sticking it in to avoid accidentally giving someone an air embolism. Hopefully, I didn’t kill anyone.

I can’t wait for my second dose to get more free stuff.

- Published in The New Paper, 19 April 2021

Dear Mr Ong

I do understand your articles are meant not to be taken seriously. And I must say that it is humourless most of the time. There is also a lot of creative writing in your articles. However, I wonder where the boundary line is, as far as use of improper English is concerned.

You mentioned 'don't profma me'. Don't you think that the way you write has a great influence on the readers, especially those who are young and impressionable and those who have little or no proper education in the English language?

I have also seen a lot of others using 'whatapps me,' 'pm me', 'dm me', etc The list goes on. Could you possibly be one of those who are encouraging the use of improper English?

With regards
LEE Thien Poh Steven

Okay, boomer.

Tags: , ,

Tuesday, 1 May 2018

Mayday, mayday! Remember navy chiobu Clarie Teo? No longer navy but still chio



It has been a year since Clarie Teo left the navy with this Instagram post:

The day has finally arrived, not everyone is meant to set foot into this path, one that took my youthful 4 and a half years & one that I won't regret. I've been standing at the edge of the water, for as long as I can remember. My reflection slowly became someone I don't know, some how I cannot hide how I am, though I tried, worse than being Mulan, I was a movie character constantly on a high speed roller coaster. One thing that won't change is the feeling of being home near the sea but the line where the sky meets the sea, no one ever knows how far it goes, so here I am taking a leap of faith to back away and may the light continue shining brightly ✨ Thank you to everyone who have been on this wonderful journey with me thus far, for all the inspiring words, love, support and admiration. From BMT to NMI and Shipboard, to the batchboys, trainees, kids and amazing people from every single Parade. I hope the next 4 years will be as fruitful and exciting for me. Be happy for me ✨😇 I'll be back to answer all the 101 questions, till then, salute and goodbye to #MyUniformDays 🇸🇬⚓️ (Swipe to see all)
A post shared by C L A R I E. T E O (@xclarieacaciateo) on

Last September, she received a PSA scholarship to study mechanical engineering in NUS.



But her Instagram is still fire.











UPDATES:

















EARLIER: ME1 Clarie Teo: 'I'm not the Navy Poster Girl'

Tags:

Monday, 3 July 2017

I wore my musty old navy uniform to save $1.72 on NS50 Free Travel Day



That's it?

After 50 years of young Singaporean men giving up the best years of our lives in service of our nation, all we get is one measly day of free bus and train rides?

And NS50 Free Travel Day wasn’t even on a Saturday or Sunday when you can go out and enjoy yourself. It was last Friday when most people had to work.

Sure, you could take the train for free to see Britney Spears that night, but still.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have NS50 Free Travel Day on Saturday especially since SAF Day was on Saturday?

Or was the Government afraid to be seen as handing out free rides to Pink Dot on the same day?



But only current and former servicemen were eligible for the free rides and to prove you were eligible, you had to wear your service uniform.

And as far as I know, SAF uniforms don't come in pink.



Wearing the uniform isn't a problem for current servicemen, but for “lao peng” (“old soldiers”) like myself, even if we do have our old uniform, would it still fit?

Forget it. I’m not so cheapskate.

I wasn’t going to dig out my musty old uniform just to save $1.72 on the MRT ride to work.

But then I realised that I have yet to receive my NS50 Recognition Package consisting of $100 worth of vouchers and this Free Travel Day could be all I’m getting.



Who was I kidding?

I am a cheapskate.

I decided to dig out my musty old uniform just to save $1.72 on the MRT ride to work.

$1.72 is better than nothing.

It has been 11 years since I was “retired” from the navy where I was a medic.

I’m proud to say that as a medic, I may not have saved anyone's life, but I didn’t get anyone killed either.

Because I started my national service in the army before joining the navy, I have three different sets of uniforms I could wear for NS50 Free Travel Day.

Unfortunately, I can no longer fit into the pants of my army No. 4 and navy No. 3 due to all the rainbow cake I ate.



Fortunately, I could still fit into my old navy No. 4 because it’s a coverall, which is kinder to my 51-year-old waistline.

Unfortunately, the coverall makes me look less like a serviceman and more like a repairman.

Fortunately for current navy servicemen, the navy No. 4 uniform has since been updated to match the army No. 4 so they look like actual soldiers.

Unfortunately for me, I have only the old navy No. 4 onesie so I look like an actual mechanic.

To make sure the MRT station staff wouldn’t mistake me for someone you call to fix the air-conditioning, I wore a cap that says Republic of Singapore Navy right upfront.

The cap also helped to cover up another problem — my long hair.

Even though my Kylo Ren mane looks wildly out of place in uniform, I wasn't going to cut it just for one day of free travel. Two days, maybe.



Instead, I tied my hair in a ponytail and put on the cap, and hey, presto, I looked like I had an acceptable military haircut.

At least from the front.



I was basically cosplaying as an NSman.

All this just to save $1.72.

I couldn't wait for NS50 Free Travel Day.

Friday eventually came... and there was an MRT breakdown.

On NS50 Free Travel Day!



The morning rush-hour delay affected trains from Woodlands to Ang Mo Kio.

SMRT’s theme song should be Oops I Did It Again after it hit us, baby, one more time with another breakdown.



It was the fourth service disruption in as many days.

How can? This is the thanks we get for sacrificing the best years of lives for our country?

Hey, SMRT, never mind the free travel. Just get us to work on time!

I give you the $1.72.



When I arrived at my workplace, a colleague couldn't believe I actually wore my faded old SAF uniform just to get a free ride.

“Have you no dignity?” he asked.

No, I gave it up for $1.72.

At least I didn't cut my hair.

I’m still waiting for my NS50 Recognition Package vouchers.

- Published in The New Paper, 3 July 2017


Tags: , , ,

Monday, 20 February 2017

Syonan Gallery: Naming stuff is hard



Has this ever happened to anyone else?

I once told a taxi driver I wanted to go Marina Square and was driven to Novena Square instead.

I was nonplussed.

“You said Novena Square, right?” he said.

Did I?

That was when I realised how similar “Marina Square” sounds to “Novena Square”.

For a split-second, I half-considered getting out of the taxi and taking the train from Novena station just to avoid the awkwardness.

I felt foolish. And I was about to make the cabbie feel foolish too.

“No, Marina Square,” I said.

The driver was not having a good day.

“Aiyah, next time can say properly or not?”

So the cabbie very resentfully drove me to Marina Square while I sat in mortified silence.

Yah, I definitely should've taken the MRT instead.

You know who I blame for this? Whoever decided there would be a place in Singapore called Novena Square when there's already a place called Marina Square.

Why are we so bad at naming stuff?

Yes, that taxi anecdote was just my roundabout way (literally) to get to the topic of Syonan Gallery.



The name of the permanent World War II exhibition at the Former Ford Factory museum was criticised, you know, because Japanese Occupation.

It is roughly the same reason my father refused to buy a Japanese car. We had a Volkswagen and then a Ford. I doubt he had ever eaten sushi. He’s dead now. I’m not sure how he would feel about Pokemon Go or Syonan Gallery.

On Wednesday at the exhibition’s opening, Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim defended Syonan Gallery, saying the naming did not express approval of the Japanese Occupation.

He said:
“Some among older Singaporeans who lived through that dark period feel that the name legitimises the Occupation. Others among them say that Syonan was a painful fact of history, and we should call it what it was.”



But two days later, the name was gone.

Dr Yaacob said:
“I have reflected deeply on what I heard. We must honour and respect the feelings of those who suffered terribly and lost family members during the Japanese Occupation.

“I have therefore decided to remove the words ‘Syonan Gallery’ from the name of the exhibition, and name it Surviving The Japanese Occupation: War And Its Legacies.”
He also apologised “for the pain the name has caused”.

So sayonara, Syonan Gallery, we hardly knew ya.



Also this month, it was reported that Changi Naval Base will be renamed “RSS Singapura — Changi Naval Base” to help commemorate the Republic of Singapore Navy’s 50th birthday this year.

Apparently, our navy is going through some sort of mid-life crisis.

Can't it just buy a sports car and have an affair like everyone else?

The backstory is that RSS Singapura is the name of one of our navy’s first ships half a century ago.

At least one person has written to The Straits Times to complain about the naval base’s waterlogged new name.

Dr Sunny Goh wrote:
“Most people — visitors and taxi drivers included — will pick either RSS Singapura or Changi Naval Base. No one is going to blurt out the entire mouthful in everyday situations.”
Yah, Singaporeans already have enough trouble deciding whether to say Espla-naid or Espla-nard.

Dr Goh also pointed out that the abbreviation of the new name, RSSSCNB, is “unwieldy”.

I would add that at first glance, it appears vaguely vulgar too.

(KNNBCCB, anyone?)



Remember the uproar over Eunoia Junior College?

It may annoy ya to know that’s it’s still Eunoia JC.



Remember the outrage over 1 Sengkang Mall?

The name has since been dropped despite it having nothing to do with the Japanese Occupation and the mall is now Compass One.



And yet people are okay with Tampines, the spelling of which is so close to tampons but it’s pronounced Tam-penis.

That’s wrong on so many levels.

Is the problem the names or is it sometimes our overreaction to the names?

Whatever happened to sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never cause me to go on a social media rant?

Just remember, the next time you tell the taxi driver you want to go to Marina Square, enunciate.

- Published in The New Paper, 20 February 2017

Dear Sir,

I read your article with interest as you can imagine, how confusing it can be to direct taxi operators (when I visit Singapore) to the Singapore Institute of Management, which did not work. I then went through a few permutations of "SIM" or S-I-M and in some instances, giving the actual address.

Now, I found that with the more experienced (not older) drivers, telling them about "chee-pow-kai" or the Union Farm Chicken Eating House also works in getting me to SIM.

I can identify with Dr. Sunny Goh's comments which were refuted by accusations that Dr. Goh was "ignorant" of Singapore Navy history. To be honest, visitors wouldn't care. Nonetheless, I suppose in terms of international visitors, only locals would call upon RSS Singapura Changi Naval Base.

Dr. Sunny Goh's comments were pragmatic, and should not be taken as being disrespectful nor ignorant or history.

Singaporeans seem to have a fun, perhaps cynical streak, and it is bemusing to see that taxi drivers now accept the "Durian" as accurate instructions for the Esplanade.

To the chagrin of the naval traditionalists, perhaps one day taxi drivers will be confused over the old "Rasa Singapura" food centre which will be a manifestation of a Singaporean style tension between food history and naval tradition.

Best wishes,
Keith


Tags: , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

TRENDING POSTS OF THE WEEK