Trouble with a capital T...


    Chapter #21

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by

    sane

    Anyway glad that u r back and to share of more

    Take your time to write, good stories gotta wait..

    Looking forward for new updates!

    Right-i-ho….here it comes…

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    Post #44
    0 comments
    Chapter #22

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    Alrighty readers…as stated earlier…part 2 cannot be squeezed into a short version…so…

    Here is part 2A…enjoy…

    *********

    As I watch the cigarette smoke rise in front of me…my thoughts are brought back to the good old days…

    Isn’t it strange how at that time, we bitch and moan and curse our circumstances…how much we hated what we were going through and how unfair we felt life was treating us at the time…but once it is in memory mode…it is always the good old days??

    We were in platoon 8…the mixed bag platoon…some high flyers and some O level drop outs….some speak with a kantang stuck in the mouth and some hokkien peng…

    My buddy and I were both educated abroad…and while he is the quiet type…I was mr. Gung ho…and even though our thinking were similar…and we had each other’s back…we do not always see eye to eye about things…

    I felt that to survive the course…we must band together…he felt that we all had our own destiny..and that some will go on to become officers and some will be stuck as privates…no real point to merge everyone…I did not agree…

    Anyway…my efforts to band the group together met with more resistance than I originally thought…herding dissimilar people together takes more than just talking…when people disagreed…logic often fails to bridge the gap…

    There was this Chinese educated guy in the platoon…he was quiet but somehow all the hokkien peng kinda respected and followed…and then there was me…the loud mouth kantang guy who can intimidate all the higher educated guys into following…and so it became…after 2-3 weeks…two gangs in one big bunk…

    This quiet guy…let’s call him Chong…seem to be an ok guy…he was honourable…did the right things and even I had to say I respected him…a bit…but it grated on my nerves that he always looked out for only the hokkien pengs…nevertheless…overall, he is a good guy…and we tolerated each other…

    In my mind…the best way to forge platoon unity or to get a mixed group like ours to band together…nothing will help better than to throw a few parties together…

    Whether rich or poor, educated or not, speaking Russian or Singlish…put a few cute girls into the mix and the guys will suddenly have a common topic and goal…all the guys become brothers in front of women…

    I got one of the Kantang guys to be the GSO…he was the stud of his JC and no doubt he has a black book larger than the yellow pages…and so it was decreed…a party for the weekend…I went around the bunk and got 90% of the guys excited and looking forward to the party…

    As usual…Chong had other ideas… and he went around convincing all the hokkien pengs to decline the invitation…and soon…only 40% of the guys are going to this party…

    Naturally…I wanted to confront Chong…I mean what the fuck man…not say asking you to pay for everyone…each person only come out a few dollars…why block here block there??

    My buddy told me to leave it alone but would Mr. Hot head listen?? No…

    (to be continued…)

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    Post #45
    1 comments
    Chapter #23

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by

    henabi

    Seems like an exciting story coming…

    *with my backpack filled with camping equipment, I walked over to where Wiz is, dropped my backpack onto the dried, cracked ground and began pitching my tent…*

    Thanks bro…

    2 episodes today…

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    Post #47
    0 comments
    Chapter #24

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    (Cont…)

    I cornered Chong one evening after night snack to ask him why he was being difficult…

    My hokkien was at primary one level…the same level his English was at…and even at the best of times, we found it hard to communicate properly…but with some shouting and raise voices…we had no idea what we were saying to each other…

    Of course…Mandarin was the medium of choice…but neither of us wanted to ‘back down’ to ‘lower’ ourselves to make the other person understand us better…

    Very soon…raised voices became shouting…shouting turned to pushing…and pushing turned to shoving… I do not remember who threw the first punch…but I think it was all the ‘helpers’ around us that induced it…my buddy and some other Kantang gang members tried to hold me back and push Chong away…some of the Hokkien peng gang members tried to hold Chong back and push me away…someone must have hit someone in the face…and the next thing I knew…Chong and I were traded punches.

    It was over pretty quickly…maybe 40 seconds…and I am not proud to say…I won simply because I was more aggressive…if the Kantang gang wasn’t there to hold me back…I believe I would have seriously hurt Chong….I think my buddy took a couple of punches from me for Chong even…

    Oh great…with all the commotion…the sergeant and other NCOs arrived and the two lead culprits were rounded up and brought in front of the P.C…I had nothing to say to him and surprisingly, Chong kept quiet too…I thought he would bury me since he had the scars to show for it…

    The P.C made us stay in the office for the night…a tiny room with a table and a chair only…and the table was full of files and crap…we were suppose to sleep there…what the fuck is the guy on??

    Anyway…no choice…being the alpha male…I took the chair…Chong lan lan sat on the floor…

    Once I had time to calm down…I thought through the fight…and the more I thought about what happened…the more I realised it is just a miscommunication…I felt bad for hurting him…and despite this incident…I have always liked Chong and respected him…

    I walked over to him…offered him my hand and said I was sorry in Mandarin…

    He looked at me for quite a long time…then he shook my hand…

    I sat down beside him on the floor…’Why don’t you want to come to the party?’ I asked in Mandarin…

    His reason actually made sense to me…damn the guy…

    His logic is this…everyone will pay equal amount…yes??….but the girls will all be JC girls and most likely going to University…yes??…then the non-English speaking guys will have almost no chance to tackle them right??

    Hmmmm okkkk….I never looked at it from that point of view…so??

    So…it is unfair because the non-English speakers are only there to pay for the English speakers to have a good time….

    Ok…he has a point…

    I offered him some logic…like every guy has a chance with any girl and so on…and we bantered logic for an hour or so…

    (to be continued…)

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    Post #48
    1 comments
    Chapter #25

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by

    papereleven

    Sometimes, the most sensible things only come out from a person that isn’t highly educated.

    Great story/recount. Do keep up the good work.

    Thanks bro…

    And absolutely agree…common sense gets worn down with additional education…

    Cheers…

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    Post #50
    0 comments
    Chapter #26

    Alrighty everyone…I’m flying off tomorrow and may be busy for 24 hours or so…so here is instalment 3…and more to follow tomorrow night and the day after ok?

    BTW…to her, I have been MIA for a while now…I hope she is all right….though I have no way of finding out…

    See you guys soon…cheers…

    .

    (Cont)

    Sitting on the floor is not something I enjoyed…so after a while…I asked for his help and we cleared the table…put all the files and crap on the floor…pulled the table towards a wall…and we could both lie down on the table with our legs resting on the back of the chair and against a window ledge….now this was much more comfortable…brought back a few files to act as pillows and we were all set…

    We continued talking…and I was impressed with his world views…his ideologies and his beliefs…we traded ideas and view points…and sleep was never an issue…

    He told me that he is amazed at my way of thinking too…like he would never in a hundred years dared to move the things off the table and re-arrange the room…but that I found it easy to do was strange and new to him…he has seen me modify orders given and still made it work…he has been fascinated with my methods while not really condoning them…

    There was basically too much man love and mutual praising that night…but we eventually got back to the party coming up…we finally came to a satisfactory solution…one of his hokkien peng GSO can round up their kind of women and we will have the best of both worlds…maybe many bros will breach the divide and cross pollinate each other’s flowers… heh heh heh…and the party was back on…

    Chong and I became good friends from that day and now with the two gang leaders working together…the platoon became a unified force to be reckoned with…We won every competition within the company and the rest of the ITD during our time there…

    Chong would always consult me about thinking out of the box and new ways to doing things…especially administrative things with lots of English writing…and I will always ask him about people management…for the life of me, I cannot grasp how effectively hokkien pengs can work together…no need written decrees, or expressed orders….they just banded together and did what needed to be done…we spent a lot of time learning from each other….and the most important I think I did for Chong…was to ‘force’ him to improve his English…

    It is not about pride…I told him…it is simple economics…the more we can communicate with the outside world…the better lives we will have and the easier it will be to do business….any business…he and I can already speak mandarin…some of the dialects…a bit of Malay…he needed English…I needed hokkien…and we both needed Japanese…(this was the 80s ok?!?!)

    And so…we enrolled into a Japanese class together…he taught me hokkien and I taught him English…and eventually…I got him to enrol into an English class as well…

    Mind you…by this time, we were out of ITD and were both busy with camp duties…he went on to be a lance corporal in an infantry unit and I was a corporal in a guard unit…we met every weekend for classes and to cheong together…I brought him into some of the Kantang parties and he brought me into the heartland parties…

    My buddy, who was with me at the guard unit, was eying all this and sounded his apprehensions…was I really trying to put false hope into a guy with unsuitable education…the disappointment that will come later may crush him if he doesn’t get anywhere after life in NS…I kept at it and disregarded my buddy’s warnings…and soon…he dropped out of our circle…preferring to hang out with only the Kantang crowd…

    2 months into our Japanese class…a seriously cute girl joined the lessons…let’s call her Ching…sweet and kawaii…no horse run type…and all the guys in the class were bioing her non-stop…

    (to be continued…)

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    Post #51
    3 comments
    Chapter #27

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by

    Tazzymercs

    so chong is the buddy whom you fucked the daughter or another buddy?

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by

    twinresist2

    Let me make a guess.. Chong is the father and Ching is the mum .. OMG

    HAHAHAHAHA…..bros…

    Na bei…you all thought what….selling tikum tikum here ah??

    KNN…read book sure first flip to the end one…the two of you….hahahaha…

    Be patient lah…more story coming tomorrow…let it unwrap….ok??

    Cheers for reading bros…

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    Post #55
    0 comments
    Chapter #28

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by

    oshkosh

    Lol, u may never know how things work out but there is a 0.01% chance that you will get to use the M word. haha.

    yea, if i am u i will also bail. how to face my friend and tell him: " bro, 20 years no see how are you!? btw, i up ur daughter le… zzzz."

    Anyway, just see how it goes lor.

    cheers!

    Yes bro….

    Very true….I cannot argue with that…always a chance for the M word to crop up…

    Yup…I also know no face to see him…so I run road…

    Not very gentlemanly…but under lose lose situation…lose less better than all lost…

    Cheers bro…

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    Post #56
    2 comments
    Chapter #29

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by

    curiouslala

    The first thing that came up in my mind is karma..

    Well, i hv no right to tell you whether its right or wrong since you’ve lived longer than me..

    But i do think that you’re playing with women’s heart..

    Bcos if I’m in one of your women’s position, I’ll be very sad to know that’s u hv lots of women to keep your bed warm..

    Well, enough for my-so-called-womanly POV..

    There are few of solution actually, but the easiest is to be MIA and not in contact with her anymore.. Why?

    Because if she liked you that much, she probably won’t be able to move on in 3 months..

    And, if you meet her again, she’ll grow stronger feeling for you..

    And then i think you should prepared for makan-makan and reunion plus additional drama..

    Several girl can be quite scary when chasing for the guy that they like (or love)..

    Say, she went to malay and can’t find u then her father told her to go n meet her uncle (u) in sg..

    Then.. Lalala~~

    Maybe it’s just me, but I won’t bring a guy whom i fuck or just a friend to meet my parents..

    And if my guess is right, she already like u quite a lot in 6 days when u with her..

    That’s why she want to arrange meeting between you and her parents to know how would they think about you (since you’re more senior than her previous guys)..

    Because i think its every father’s worst nightmare if their little girl is being played by a guy..

    Some more this guy is his buddy and he have lots of gfs all around the world..

    And if you’re in your buddy position, i think you’ll know what would you do if u knew that your buddy fucking and playing around with your daughter (or sister)..

    That’s what likely would happen to you..

    So, just move on, and find another girl to keep..

    And i hope that your friend won’t migrate back to sg as the small sg would be tiny for u..

    Yes sis…good scolding…I accept…

    But…

    Maybe it’s my thinking…but I really do not think I am playing with their feelings…

    As one of the bros mentioned…yes…while I do not promise any of them anything…there is also no exclusion clause….meaning anyone of them could be the right one for me….

    All the time I am with them…I focus entirely on them…and give them my all…

    I try to make them happy…try to show them a good time…get to know them…let them get to know me…and at no time will I promise them a future or even hint at one…it is more like a ‘holiday romance’ type concept…they have fun, I have fun…and then we see if we choose to continue…

    It seldom happens, but occasionally, a woman will ask me if I have other girlfriends…and I will tell them yes…they can then decide what they want to do…

    Obviously, I am not going to volunteer the information…

    Wouldn’t a woman rather have a fun time with someone she likes than to just sit at home by herself??

    Perhaps men think differently…but I know I sure prefer a woman I don’t dislike…come around to take me out to eat and show me a good time…sex or no sex…and enjoy her company…instead of sitting in my room alone…

    Alrighty…we can debate this point another time if you wish to discuss it further…

    Yes and yes…I agree…..hahaha…makan makan some more…MIA is the only way I can think of…hurt her in the short run…spare her in the long run…

    I reserve judgement on whether she wanted me to meet her parents because of her emotional state for me…possible, but I doubt it…

    Hahaha…she won’t come looking for me…I think I know her enough to say that…and her father will not send her to Sg…

    Oh…if they migrate back to Sg…that is fine with me…I do not live in Sg sis…

    Yes…very enlightening post sis…thank you very much and I will take your points on board…

    Please tell me, if you can spare the time…what is this obssession that women have about owning the man 100% when they don’t actually want 100% of the man??

    Cheers again sis…talk again soon…

    P/S…just read your siggy…interesting…care to discuss??

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    Post #59
    0 comments
    Chapter #30

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by

    yatachi

    Cant comment much as u “eat salt more then i eat rice”

    However my thought was that going MIA would be really unfair to a lady. But being in this situation it might be the best choices.

    Thanks bro…

    Please don’t say that…good ideas are not the domain of people who have lived longer…

    And yes…I agree with you…MIA is bad, no, seriously fucked up…but it is the best choice I have at the moment…

    Cheers…

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    Post #60
    4 comments