postscripting the life of an average singaporean guy

Sunday, October 31, 2004

Apologies

Apologies Apologies!
My last weekend was so short that I did not have the time to blog... and even if I want to, guess what, my computer died on me! It was the first time my computer has given me problems!!!
and I was having my SIT test (short for SITUATIONAL TEST)

Basically they give you a few situations about 12 and sometimes other situations might arise within that situation...(Not to mention making you shag by asking u to march and run long distances)Well all these are basically like a criteria(the reservist officers taking you will observe your behaviour during situations) for going to Commander school like OCS or SISPEC

As I was still in the midst of celebrating my good luck that my 2 previous fieldcamp were sunny and dry...SIT test came as a total morale drop to me.

The moment we reach the campsite it began to rain... and it wasn't drizzling, it was pouring...It was only in the late afternoon did the rain stop and we started pitching our bashas which is like a tent but smaller...Right after we pitch our basha, we were given some time to learn how to tie different kind of knots.There were lots of knots to learn and I could only remember a few even then I still could not remember the name.But hey now I know how to bond something #puns intended#

We then proceeded to learn various things depending on what role you are assigned to, I was assigned to the LAW aka Light Anti-Tank WeaponThe word light does not mean it is light, it is meant for light tanks, if you give me a heavy tank, that particular weapon will be useless.There were other roles too, like the navigator, signaller, demoman, medic, claymore expert and the minefield clearer.

Had our no movement timing at 1030 and fall in timing at 0600hrs the next day. The night was good and cooling until around 4am when it started to drizzle...My buddy woke me up, asked me if I would like to move to the training shed since water has started to drip onto him. I was too lazy to move and told him if he wants to he may go.Lazy me!

It was going to be a shag day for us and I must admit I did not know it would be that shag, I was lucky that my detail assistant accessor took us on short cuts but short cuts also meant a casualty(where we have to strectcher the person) and artillery drill where we are suppose to run!!!

Night came, time to sleep, as soon as we had our powder baths, it became to pour!All of us requested to sleep in the training shed as we did not want to sleep in our "waterbeds"!

It was really cold sleeping at the training shed but guess what not only do I have to suffer the cold,I had to sleep beside a 5 tonner(most powerful snorer in my platoon)!

I know I know! You must be wondering still somehow you will be able to sleep right when you get use to it after a while.You see the keyword is after a while. For me is a long long time! Unlike other snorers, this platoon mate of mine has no rhythem in snoring...It can sound like a 5 tonner starting it's engine very now and then or a motorbike starting its engine, it could oso be smooth flowing like a BMW engine and sometimes come to an abrupt stop as if realise there's a red light camera!The best part is, this platoon mate of mine could even congratulate me for braving the snore!PS: As if I want to! I had no choice, I was late could not find a spot so have to squeeze beside you when everyone avoids you! (Oh yeah, he happens to be my primary school(Loyang) classmate as well but I cannot recall him, apparently he was damm thin and now he is fat whereas I am big bone all the way!)

The next day went by quite fast, perhaps it's the thought of finally booking out, even though it may be a short weekend, it is nevertheless a chance to breathe singapore's air, check out gals, wear any other colour but green and yes, FRESH RATIONS!

Would love to show you guys the aftermath of my SIT test which is my rotten foot! Yes! Foot rot! But I figure such a website of mine doesn't render disgusting pictures!

jh out!~

Sometimes The Road Ahead Is Paved With Anything But Good Intentions @ 11:32 AM 0 comments

Sunday, October 17, 2004

Oops, I left this out...

"When John Kennedy promised that by the end of the 1960s we would put a man on the moon. Everybody, including the scientists, shook their heads in dismay. But we did it. We can cure spinal cord injuries too, if there's a will. What was possible in outer space is possible in inner space." - Christopher Reeve
Yes guys, I have left this out, the actor Christopher Reeve known for his roles as SUPERMAN has passed away last sunday 10 October 2004 ironically was my sister's birthday too...

Let's all remember the man who started the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation for paralysis research.
http://www.christopherreeve.org

jh out!~

Sometimes The Road Ahead Is Paved With Anything But Good Intentions @ 11:24 AM 0 comments

FieldCamp...... 2.....

Before I start, I would like to comlain about my wife.... yes, you heard it right... "MY WIFE"!!! The M16S1, is an extremely lousy weapon at least for now when I am undergoing training(I was told M16S1 rifle in units are much more new and cause little problems), still, I feel BMTC should offer me at least a rifle that can fire a few blanks at a go without me holding the rifle in an extremely awkward position when charging the enemy!Yes, I have to do a clearing of rifle or clocking after every shot fired... imagine my shock when I was handed 90 blanks to shoot.... Needless to say, there must be a reason why I am complaining about my wife..., well truth is I must misfired.... so I guess I gotta be doing another guard duty very soon.... You see my trusty wife had all a long not given me any problems when I went for my Live Range aka shooting real ammo! My sergeant explained that blanks cause later air pressure to pull back the handle and thus we require the use of a blank attachment(so that pressure can be trapped and thus firer need not clock weapon)... apparently for me and a few others even with the blank attachment we have to clock our weapon after every shot...

Here's a model of my wife.... taken from mindef website..

The COLT M16 is one of the most combat proven weapon systems in the world. The M16S1 rifle is a 5.56 mm calibre, lightweight gas operated shoulder weapon capable of semi-automatic and fully automatic. <--- sounds impressive? my foot! unless the army gives me a model that is not as old as my father I would not use my current wife to fight enemies!!!

Now back to my week in the island known as pulau tekong...WEdnesday was the first time I saw an ambulance chopper come to tekong. As they say, when you see an ambulance chopper at tekong, it's usually bad news... And yes indeed, we were told by our sergeants that a 5-tonne trunk had overturn and 2 person were seriously injured with face injuries, the driver though escape with minor injuries.. 7 others were attended at the island's very own medical centre...Anyway, just for your info, my company was the company that cleared the football posts off the field so that the chopper can land... yup... you know why... apparently the driver called up a number he found after the accident and hit my "E"asy company! Yup... so while many of us were swimming at the pool beside the field, the rest who were excused from swimming were told to carry the posts away...There you go...

Oops....

I realise up till now still no field camp.... part 2 update...
Sorry for digressing...

Fieldcamp part 2 begun on thursday and ended on friday evening...This part 2 was more tougher than we thought... Already on thursday morning, I could already sense a low morale going on in my platoon after being repeatedly punished for mistakes we commit whilst building our basha tents.In case you might not know, a low morale soldier is as good as a soldier who has surrendered...But then again, this is Basic Millitary Training, I'm sure a soldier morale will go up and down unpredictability.

Got punished for helping other people build their basha tents whilst my was only 90% complete... # note to self: Be selfish and Kiasu, cover your own ass before covering the others... STUPID ME! Care for other soldiers too much #Anyways Punishment was guard duty that night...

The 2 days camp consisted of revision and more lessons on our movement when contacted by enemy... and there was sort of a practical test on friday afternoon... It was tough and tiring! BUT it was what I was always wanting to learn, how does our military works when contacted by enemies. FYI, I am always one who likes to play strategic team gaming, I belive with a strategy, everyone will at least be prepared on what to do and how to response thus half the battle won. Strategies really got to me in such a way that I enjoyed the war-related-battle films for it is where you can see live strategy in action. # Note: I do not however enjoy the killing and sufferings of the soldiers #

Our practical test came, I was elected sect comm by my section mates. Was quite confident with myself on what to do at each kind of situation to be tested on but however am unsure of some of my section mates and worried that my muslim section mates might not take it.

Good news is everything went well, cept for my misfiring and thus I can see now in my crystal ball a regimental duty AKA known as guard duty...

Got back to my company to clean our rifle and sending arms while having our combat rations # Note to self: YEAH! I did not touch a single packet of combat rations! I survive by my unused fats in my body, biscuits and lots of water! #Finally bedtime! Sleeping in our bunk is really much better than out in the open singing with all the insects and clutching my "wife" tightly in case some nosey sergeants decide to steal my wife.

Lastly,

Weekend is relaxing, need lots of rest, hope I can be fighting fit per se for my SIT test this coming week. Oh yah which means I will only book out on saturday evening this coming weekend. Haiz, short short weekend....Caught 2046, an artistic show that has quite a good storyline although it was after my sis explained to me briefly to view the show as a jumbled jigsaw puzzle, I give it 3.8 out of 5 trains! # pun intended! #

jh out!~

Sometimes The Road Ahead Is Paved With Anything But Good Intentions @ 3:34 AM 0 comments

Saturday, October 09, 2004

Fieldcamp.... 1.......

Ants, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, mosquitos of differents sizes and ranks from a trainee-to-be-commando to lao jiao or what you call veteran.... Those were the many insects I have been sleeping with for the past 2 days for my fieldcamp. Wildboars and snakes were roaming nearby so were the hornets. The best insect though would be the fireflies, it was the first time I have seen a firefly, though the dissapointment was not to see a bunch of them hanging together only saw one!.... Oh well, If I can see a few of them together, I will definitely try to bring it back to mainland singapore in one way or another... Always love fireflies, guess its the romantic moments of many movies which incorporates them...

Fieldcamp was ok... I think what I mean is, I survive without much difficulty except when I am running around and carrying loads of stuffs for a long time! Anyway, my platoon and another of my company's platoon was tekan jialat jialat for not being on time and also cos a few smart ass brought in wet tissue papers when we were told not to bring, some of the tekaning was running to the 8th tree from dunno where..., wearing full battle order.... Well anyway, I think i have been thru some of the common things you will get in fieldcamp, one, sleeping with insects and all kinds of forest creatures, two, having ants crawl all over me and getting into my pants.... ouch..., three, powder bath myself with about 170+ people wearing nothing but slippers and underwear..., four, sleeping on ground which will turn soft if water happens to hit the ground are mix..., five, combat rations!!! Note to self: "I MUST LEARN TO APPRECIATE THE COOKHOUSE FOOD AND NOT COMPLAIN SO MUCH ANYMORE!"

I also learnt another thing, the people who came out with the army songs were really good, take the tekong no. 1 hitlist for example,

Training to be soldiers,
Fight for our land,
Once in our lives,
2 years of our time, (or replaced by What a waste of time)
Have you ever wondered,
Why must we serve?
Because we love our land, (or replaced by Because we got no choice)
And we want it to be free to be free...

Stand up,
Be on your guard,
Come on everybody,
Do your part,
Come on every soldier,
With soul and heart,
Do it for our nation,
Do it for our Singapore....!

Looking all around us,
People everywhere,
Children having fun,
While we are holding guns,
Have you ever wondered,
Why must we serve?
Because we love our land,
And we want it to be free to be free...

Especially the last verse, I can't help but agree that the soldiers who invented the song were right, children were indeed having fun while I am holding guns...# insert NO ORIGINALITY for I have been lamenting about children having fun for the past few posts! #

To add on something more, my section was the most fighting fit section, haha! Total strength 12 presence strength 12 until near the end of my second day where my total strength was down to 11, felt a bit dissapointed because all the other section had strength of 9, 10, 9 respectively and I really thought my section can do my section commander proud. Oh well, not many things in life are what you wished for what you get, you just gotta live with it!

Our OC was really fun, after the morning tekanning he gave us, in the afternoon, he was back to normal and gave us the green light to sabo our instructors! Yes! Camo! Powder! Insect Repellent! Hurah!!! Haha, we sorta had our revenge until we hear our instructors saying neh mind, you all wait for the next field camp. Haiz, I guess it means more Half-Left Down & running around like idiots, rushing for time yet when we arrive way punctually, we wait like idiots and then rush for time again, what a stupid system SAF have! Rush for time like idiots, followed by wait like idiots...

jh out!~

p.s: FYI, I gained 2 kgs last week but am confident I am back to losing weight this week!
p.p.s: combat rations sucks to the core!

Sometimes The Road Ahead Is Paved With Anything But Good Intentions @ 4:26 PM 0 comments

Bookout...

Another Friday bookout, just came back from fieldcamp, very tiring, very smelly, but well in the words of the sirs and sergeants somehow my platoon was having a very low morale... except when we were booking out of course... Oh well, somehow when I got home I suddenly felt as if my morale has gone low again, I really wonder whether am I the only one from my platoon to feel this now or what... will blog again, I guess...

Sometimes The Road Ahead Is Paved With Anything But Good Intentions @ 3:33 AM 0 comments

Sunday, October 03, 2004

Bored at home counting down to book-in

I saw this movie trailer just now, unfortunately I seemed to have forgotten the movie title but what is so interesting about the trailer is the quote, "If you belive in Love at first sight. You never stop looking..."

Don't you peeps think its true? I for one do not belive in love in first sight, it's my character I guess, I think what I'm trying to say is, all the girls that I have like or if I am looking for a girl, I rather get to know the person first and then who knows right?

Eh.... I think I am really bored... Forgive me...

jh out!~

Sometimes The Road Ahead Is Paved With Anything But Good Intentions @ 5:03 PM 0 comments

Woohoo Long weekend!

Army slogan of the week: Act Blur Live Longer!

I have endure for a while and have booked out on sats for the past 2 weeks. Finally, I get a long weekend at last. Booking out on Oct 1st to celebrate the last few moments of children's day, my platoon also sang abit of "welcome" song to Alpha Bravo & Charlie coy who have new recruits joining us this weekend among which were my friends.

Coming next week I be having my field camp, yes "delicious" combat rations! The ever-cooling powder baths! All the rumours I heard about the sergeants sneaking around at night to steal our "wives". I will be experiencing it first hand come next wed. Not quite sure whether I have the time to update you guys anot, but rest assure I will do my best.

Had my first 2 BCCT lessons last week, some of the moves they teach us were kinda crap oh by the BCCT stands for Basic Close Combat Training.

Learned how to communicate using hand signals only and also how to form a file section, all the Outfield lessons taught were interesting to me as why is a soldier position that way, each has got a position to cover and reason why. Intriguing indeed!

We got scolded on Friday left right upside down this week during route march. Somehow our platoon morale was very low, the singing wasn't loud enough and our steps were wrong. I really wonder why, I sang as much as I can already. Half -Left down, the words I hear almost every now and then followed by 2 claps and "ECHO!"
Did so much push-ups and running this week that my knee cap and other parts of my body has start to ache badly. I guess they were preparing us for the impending field-camp.

The good news of the week, my section commander is finally back after a long MC he took. Due to the removal of a lump in his legs, am really glad he is back with us, as firstly he's a nice guy meaning he don't really tekan us and secondly, our section always felt alone when we see other section commanders leading the section and we don't have. Felt very leftout I guess, I belive everyone of my section mate feels the same as me, well cos afterall I am section I/C!

Anyway so much for a small glimpse into my weekly army life, i treated my sister and her bf today to Tung Lok Seafood Gallery Dim Sum buffet for their upcoming birthdays, luckily I have some vounchers and thus kinda save a bit of money.

Caught the sneak preview of Wimbledon, what can I say 3.3 tennis ball out of 5. It is more like an autobiograhpy of a tennis player and the thoughts that ran in his mind! A relatively good movie made by the makers of Love Actually, Notting Hill, Briget Jones's Diary. If you like all the previous British romantic love comedy films I mentioned, I am quite sure you will like Wimbledon, besides Kristen Durst is quite pretty, ya?

Met up a few of my primary schoolmates for dinner and another movie, this time, White Chicks, a very very funny show!!! The Wayans brothers are really brilliant, all 3 of them, a director, 2 actors and all 3 storywriters! Oh and by the way, I give it 4.2 chicks out of 5! In case you don't know, they are the same lads from Scary Movie! The movie made me laugh so bad that my tekong cough almost got me choking for air.

Haiz, it's like a blink of an eye and my book in is coming already, I really wonder how come it takes me so long to spend the days by back in tekong and yet when I book out, the time just seemed to fast forward. If only my whole 2 years and 2 months of NS life can pass me by quickly and then I can go back and enjoy my civilian status and appreciate my pink colour I/C more.

jh out!~

ps: i think i will be screwed tomorrow... no weight loss last week(first time out of so many times I have booked out!), hopefully no weight gain, and hopefully field camp can reduce more of my weight!

Sometimes The Road Ahead Is Paved With Anything But Good Intentions @ 3:23 AM 0 comments

Saturday, October 02, 2004

I forgot to publish my blog last week...

Excuses Excuses Excuses... Yes, the Title is just an excuse... Being in the Army has taught me how to talk rubbish or birdtalk rather. So I apologise for nothing! Well the truth is I procrastinated. I was busy reinstalling my formatted PC. And booking out on saturday and reaching home at about 1pm did not help either. Not enough time!

Another reason was that I got guard duty on the 26th of September. Yes.... I signed extra. Because I have clumsily signed out of the small freaking box SAF requires me to do so. Guard duty was supposedly relaxing as so it may seem. I mean all u need to do is to be on patrol for 2 hours and you can rest for the next 4 hours. How great is that! But! The 4 hours when you were sleeping you are actually on standby mode, the moment those crazy superiors decide to test you or play with you, you got to be ready with your weapon and all in 5 mins time. Well, while I was on standby aka sleeping, my sergeant did try to give us a taste of getting ready in 5 mins time, Luckily we managed to be down and ready in less than 4 mins. Damm, I should have slept for 1 more minute.

Well, the good thing after the guard duty is that, you get to sleep thru the morning till lunchtime at about 11.30am unless there are important lectures or lessons to attend. A pity I just could not sleep with all my bunk mates who were non-guard duty personnel making so much noise!!! Arggh!!!!

So anyhow, caught Resident Evil : Apocalypse sneak preview. It's quite a good show if you don't care 'bout the ending. It just makes me wanna know more on what will happen next, what is program alice? Deserve 3.5 undead or resident evil out of 5.

My weekend was spent relatively fast, droped by at one of my senior ex-co, Jane's Birthday party at Aloha Loyang, met up with weiliang and derek whom will be enlisting as of September 30th. They were talking about shaving their head themselves before going in. HAHA! Nigel, Wenyao and I were talking about army as usual, all the half-left downs, and the way life and the food in Pulau Tekong. Midway talking, a few kids ran pass us and it dawn on us that really children were really having fun while we are holding guns...

After we left there, I made my way to yentah's place where he had held a mini bbq to "celebrate" shaun, wenjie & kangren enlistment on Oct 1st. I think I gave the 3 of them some sort of advise on what to expect and things to buy before I left for home.

Caught the latest Jackie Chan Movie outing on sunday and quickly rushed home to get myself ready for book-in later in the evening. The New Police Story was indeed one of the better Jackie Chan movies in recent times.
Deserve 4 Hongkong Police out of 5!

I guess that's what I have for my week from 21-28th.

jh out!~

Sometimes The Road Ahead Is Paved With Anything But Good Intentions @ 1:23 AM 0 comments

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