But Balls.. Were Not Caught.

Thankfully this title does not refer to our bittersweet lukewarm touch rugby escapade in the Singapore Nottingham games. Lukewarm.... who am I kidding?! It was bloody freezing. Not even joking. Especially when I forgot to pack shorts, or trackpants, and my scrawny legs were exposed all day and all night to the merciless cold, cold wind. Bittersweet in the sense that we didn't win it, unfortunately. Obviously we wanted to. This was matched by a strong keening yearning desire to get out of the damn wind. Quite a conflict of interest.

We got into the semifinals without losing a single game in our group stage, an alarming result considering we faced a rather strong team of bufflords and 1 x pretty (quite) girl, ex-AC people I think. Then we lost in the semifinals in sudden death. My mind was sad but my body was happy. We immediately forfeited the 3rd/4th placing match to scurry into somewhere with blessed shelter from the cruel elements. And a hot bath. Best bath of life. I didn't expect them to give out medals for 3rd place though, cause everyone knows I live for medals. Sigh.

Was a great weekend though, deepest of gratitudes to limahkow for hosting me over the weekend, and kinonn10 for returning me some much needed ££££! Hooya friendship, clearly not about exploiting them for monetary benefit or anything like that... Probably gonna play bridge or monopoly deal at the next games cause the UK winter (who am I kidding, it's only autumn) is too much for my poor thin-skinned tropically-attuned sweat-accustomed body. If I'm even going, seeing as I was the only one from my school to go. Outcasted much. Pfft.

I did meet a couple of people as well, quite surprising considering that I almost was beginning to feel like I knew no one at all in the UK, a poor lost child stranded thousands of miles away from home in a place that rains in the morning, in the afternoon, and more than likely hails at night. This modern tragedy. I met the boys for touch rugby, a girl I'm not particularly close to despite having known her for a staggering 7 years or something, and a colleague, one of my juniors in the navy although I don't think she saw me. Although for a gathering of more than.. 500 singaporeans or thereabouts, that's like less than 2% of the population. Clearly not socially beastly.

My title instead refers to this lecture that I attended. LAND LAW. Law of Land(fills). (Out)Land(ish) Law. Or more simply and accurately as THE BANE OF HUMAN EXISTENCE. I went in almost completely ignorant of the topic to be covered. I came out completely ignorant and confused. Balls were not caught. Enlightenment was not attained. I was sadness.

I really need to start buying my textbooks, instead of merely typing in a random blog post that I should be buying them. Huh. Maybe that would help..

Actually while I was in Liverpool we went into the Oxfam shop there, with its untold treasures of thousands upon thousands of second-hand books. This one particular book caught my eye, in large part cause its title was Got Singapore. £3.49 later I was the happy possessor of said book and all was good. I got through all 270 pages of it on my torturous (the root word being tort a la Law of Torts, how sad can life get?) 5 hour long ride back to the deep south west. It's by one of the Straits Times editors apparently, a Mr Richard Lim and the book was made up of many different articles he'd written in the time he's been with the paper. I've almost never read a book about Singapore, or by a Singaporean, and I expect if I did I'd cringe (quite unfairly) at the terms used, or the character names etc. I sometimes think Singaporeans are too harsh on fellow Singaporeans.

Anyway the book covered a range of topics, and since they were pretty much all in a local context they were quite immediately relatable, so it was definitely quite easy reading. I found all the articles quite good, and being articles they were inherently easy to read anyway. Some people say the measure of a good book is in how much it makes you think afterwards. Not something I normally subscribe to cause I believe in books power to suspend thought, cause sometimes that's what you want instead of encouraging thought. But in this case, the book did make me think and I think the book is all the better for doing so.

What makes a nation? Is it an idea, its ideas, or its people? Of all people I think this question is most relevant to me, as someone who's chosen to defend his nation. I think when people try to justify signing on, and I do mean justify cause for some reason we all have to defend our choice quite vigorously, they're very defensive (or at least I usually am) and start pointing out things like scholarship, metal rice bowl, stable career, bo bian etc. No one ever really mentions the key notion of defending our nation, largely cause that's not a cool thing to say. It sounds horribly camp and more a droll cliche than anything. But surely it's crossed all our minds at one point that that's what we elected to do? No matter how much we try to gloss over the fact (and I know people who really try) that's an inescapable fact.

So the follow up question to what makes a nation is: What am I defending? A way of life or a certain group of citizens? It bears thinking about, given what's at stake. Or potentially at stake. My life, possibly, if it comes down to it, is on the line. At the very least a couple years of it is, until my bond ends. And I don't have an answer to the question yet.

Having had the privilege, or utter misfortune, to have studied a little bit of law, the concept of the social contract is one that I have had to deal with recently. It's when an individual gives up certain rights and freedoms to the state in exchange for the promise of security, or the right to safety. I hope I'm not getting it totally wrong actually haha. That means that everyone who subscribes to the state's laws i.e. curtailed their personal "rights" to do anything they want including theft murder etc. deserves to be protected by the state i.e. the armed forces.

That seems to make sense, but it seems a little bit too transactional. There's nothing in it about ideology or any sense of nationhood about it at all. Which is perhaps the key to what I'm driving at here. When I say I will defend my nation, what exactly is it I'm protecting? I'll figure it out, hopefully sooner rather than later, so we'll see how that goes haha.

Umm actually lost my train of thought there for a really long while cause I got caught up in other things to do so I've had this stuck in my drafts for at least 3 days now. Which I do all the time cause I'm horrible at finishing stuff I've done halfway e.g. ESSAYS although the problem with essays largely lies with the beginnings..

So yeah, suddenly I'm heading to Manchester tmr for The Killers and crashing and CPT HO's place till Saturday apparently. Time has got wings and they are not deep fried. Therefore they are capable of flying. Real fast.

And soon it will be the Christmas break and exciting things are in store somehow! A friend from ages ago, and I mean waaaaaaaay back, recently contacted me cause she was intending to travel around europe this winter. Quite the pleasant surprise, and all of a sudden it seems as if I might have actual plans for Christmas. We'll see how that goes though, since nothing's set in stone yet and planning to travel together is always such a tricky business. Hopefully it works out well.

And.... yeah I guess that's it. Only a few days overdue on this post especially since aforementioned lecture happened last tuesday sigh. Law of landfills indeed. Poot poot smelly smelly shit rubbish dump.