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once again, in true ncc fashion, jocelyn and hariz were both late again for our little date hahaha. granted, they werent all that late and the weather was terrible, so this time i forgave them (:

time really flies by. the last time we met up was before my enlistment. now i’m already one month into BMT, and i’m passing out in less than 2 weeks! jocelyn and hariz both commented that they couldnt get used to the way i looked without my hair though, with my fringe covering my forehead or wadeva.

anyway, since the weather was so terrible, our little "picnic" at the singapore flyer had to be cancelled. the 3 of us decided to head to marina square instead, and we ended up doing some window shopping. jocelyn was looking for her brother’s 21st bdae gift, and i just wanted to look ard for a cap or a polo tee. in the end, we just walked abt marina square talking nonsense and catching up. the weather cleared up after a while, so we decided to walk to the flyer right away. but just before we left marina square, i ended up walking into clubmarc just to browse the stuff, and i finally found a cap to my liking whoo!

so then we walked to the flyer in the rain, even though i was sick, and we ended up having dinner at popeye’s. it’s probably the 1st or 2nd time i’ve eaten at popeye’s, and i swear the portions are too tiny to be filling. jocelyn was the onli one that had enough to eat i think, hariz and i were still hungry after finishing the rest of the food. that was when we decided to head out for more food, even though we had no idea where on earth we should go. hariz suggested that we go for lao par sat satay, or rochor tao huay, or island creamery. but when we walked out, my eagle eyes spotted a gelatisimmo (or however you spell that) right outside popeye’s, so we just had our icecream there.

jocelyn had smooth hazelnut in lieu of the nutella flavour, hariz picked caramel chocolate, and sean picked forest berries just so we could all have a wider variety. the girl that served me was so funny. i asked for 3 scoops with 2 waffles, and she told me that waffles only came in small and medium. after i looked at the menu and smiled at her for a while, she finally realised wad she said was absolutely out of point xD super cute. she then corrected herself, and told me that they didnt have waffles today, so we settled for just icecream alone! i must say, it’s a pretty interesting experience to have good ice cream, share them with great company, while watching old ppl line dance at the greek theatre hahaha.

yeah, today was pretty awesome. even though i spent 10min in the toilet just coughing really hard and spitting phelgm out every 30 seconds, and went through my day feeling pretty zombiefied, meeting up with friends made me feel much better, and i feel better already (: church tmr, can’t wait!

i didnt have the time or energy to blog yesterday, but here i am today for my weekly update of my humble blog!

this week was a pretty psychotic one, as i mentioned earlier in last week’s post. range was terrible, since we spent the whole freaking day at the range, with a certain platoon sergeant going rabid and anal abt the littlest of things, and giving us instructions that made absolutely no sense. for eg, "ulysses company, i give you 10 seconds. fall in in your details, platoon level. MOVE!" tell me lah, how are 9 firers supposed to form up into a platoon, and the whole freaking company has like 10 seconds to move to their respective positions. or picking up the litter from the ground at night, without switching on the lights at the admin shed, and we’re not allowed to use our torchlights either.

but anyway, abt the shoot itself. having shot the m16 and the sar 21 before, i kinda had an idea of how i was gonna do lah. anything other than marksmanship would be an insult to me, and ncc. but omg, the worst things happened during my shoot. during my day shoot, i missed my first 3 shots because my sar was absolutely not zeroed to my sights, and i had to aim at the grass to hit my target. for the rest of the day, i was aiming at the grass below my target. the night shoot was not much better, when my rifle decided to ia with every single freaking bullet i shot, so i had to shout iaiaia and squat down to remedy the situation before every shot i took. retarded.

in the end though, i managed to shoot well enough to not go for the 2nd day of shooting, so i spent monday mostly slacking off in bunk, cleaning the bunk, and cleaning my rifle (4 hrs omg). 

field camp started on tuesday, and man did it start on a bad note. it rained the moment we reached our field camp site, so everyone had to pitch their bashas in the pouring rain. that day it rained for 8 hrs, so it was cold and miserable for everyone. it didnt help that 3/4 of our field camp was wet either, because the rain decided to visit tekong everyday for the past week, after it didnt show up for the first 2.5 weeks i was confined inside. so many ppl fell sick everyday it was ridiculous. as the onli armskote 2ic vaguely competant enough to handle the ic’s job as well, i also had to deal with the drawing and sending of the rifles every night for the ppl that came back to sleep in their bunks every night for the whole company. so lemme summarize each day of field camp for you…

day 1: getting ready for field camp, packing of our field pack and loading up our resupplies onto the tonner etc. some went for the 6km route march to our field camp site, while the ppl with excuse rmj (running marching jumping) had to trek to our field camp site in our fbo (full battle order: no.4, load bearing vest, rifle, field pack) while the ppl on the route march onli had to wear vest slacks and their lbv. retarded. by the time we reached out camp site, half of us already felt like dying from the weight of our stuff. we then spent the remainder of our day building our bashas in the rain, and hoping that tmr would be better. back at company line, things were pretty insane for the armskote. nobody knew how to send arms for just a small fraction of the whole company, so we had to come up with a system that day. that was when i was appointed to be in charge of the armskote personnel for the rest of field camp, me and my big mouth really.

day 2: awesome day. the weather was warm, but at least the place was really dry. we learnt abt moving in formations, camoflage, fire movement and generally very interesting stuff all day long. we even got to have our lunch beside tekong reservoir, so the awesome scenery and great weather made the shitty field rations taste a lot better. the best part of the day was after all our lessons, and our platoon commanders decided that we should put what we just learnt today to the test, and ambush other platoons on their way back to the campsite. it was absolutely awesome. we managed to ambush platoons 2 and 3, even their sergeants were stunned by our stealthy movement and brilliant camoflage. everyone had good fun that day (:

day 3: super terrible day, i swear. it was shell scrape digging day, and everyone was really exhausted from the lack of sleep and all the activities by now, so it was really difficult to get our engines started. my shell scrape was in a pretty bad position, cos we were in between 2 trees, so we got like 574812907 roots to deal with while digging. and when we’re almost done, we had to pack everything up and report to the training shed. our oc had a long chat with us in there, abt our lack of discipline, morale and lousy performance. and just when the feedback session ended, and we were all sent back to cover up our painstakenly dug shell scrapes, a freaking thunderstorm decides to come by and drench the shitload of us, and flood the whole freaking jungle. by the time it let up, the soft loose dirt we dug had become waterlogged mud, so it was really difficult to fill the holes back up. to cut the long story short, it rained so hard that our oc sent the majority of us back to camp, while those that had to complete the battle inoculation course stayed (in the training shed) for one more night. it didnt help that the thunderstorm decided to unleash its full power upon us during out march back, so the majority of us were drenched so badly that i think abt 1/3 of the company is ill now, myself included.

day 4: other than those who did the battle inoculation course, which is basically leopard crawling for abt 400m with bullets flying over your head, everyone else were in camp cleaning up every single freaking thing. stores were washed, fieldpacks washed, lbvs washed, rifles cleaned, bunks cleaned, boots kiwi-ed… it was a freaking mad rush for time, esp since everyone wanted to book out asap. i kinda booked out the previous night cos i had to go back to acs to collect my scholastic award, so i onli joined in the cleaning when i came back to camp at abt 4ish. still, we cleaned like there was no tmr. we ended up taking the 9pm ferry to book out, and now i’m back here again in the comfort of my home typing this blogpost.

well, all of my big impt events are finally over. bmt should be pretty slack from here on out for all of us, with the little exception of me being appointed to be ic on sunday and monday. hopefully i recover from my sore throat, cough and cold by then, and my knee stops acting up after 6 days of wearing combat boots. finally, a saturday i can enjoy fully (: sleeping 4 hrs a day for 4 days really took its toll on me heh, but i’ll live.

dinner date with jocelyn and hariz tmr, woots!

goodbye again world, it’s back to tekong for me.

i’ve never  been happier to go back to school, if onli to book out of tekong. the scholastic award is just a little bonus lol.

see you guys again when i’m out next week! ((:

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happy bdae rebecca! haha my mind doesnt fail even though i’m in army, major achievement. continue your steady growth as a leader, and i hope you use the brilliant intellect that God has blessed you with for the good of all mankind. (ok maybe that’s a tad extreme, but i’m sure you know wad i really mean heh.) the youth, and continue in your faithful service to Him (;

sean is attempting to blog after waking up (and being woken up) abt 4 times during his 6 hr sleep last night, so please forgive him for any slip ups in his language and try to sympathise with his inability to think coherently after spending more than 3 weeks in the saf.

to cut the long story short yet again, the last 3 days have been filled with nothing but cleaning and more cleaning. i spent 4 hrs yesterday morning cleaning my rifle alone, and this was after an inspection by the weapons specialists for cleanliness. in that same afternoon, i had a stand by bed which lasted for about 5 or 6 hrs. my duty instructor for the day checked the entire level, be it the floor, walls, corners, edges, ceilings or pipes. if one single speck of dust was found, he would give us time before his next check. needless to say, he burnt our entire afternoon away just cos we didnt know what to expect or how much to clean, which seemed absolutely pointless to me despite his "good intentions". (the lesson we were supposed to learn was: do it once, do it right)

imt today was pretty interesting though. coming from a guy that’s been shooting with ncc at imt ranges since he was 13, you know there’s some truth in it. the different positions we had to assume, the variety of the targets, the experience of shooting at night, were all pretty fresh to me. maybe that’s wad made today a little more exciting than any other day this week, even though we had a 4 hr stand by bed between lunch and book out as well.

i was just thinking to myself today, since we pes c personnel clean so damn freaking much, we’re gonna be pros by the time we graduate from bmt. that probably means that we can start our own cleaning agencies after army, and maybe even form a joint venture among ourselves, between those that clean the bunks and toilets, and those that do a lot of laundry. we can even train the domestic workers ourselves, how’s that for leading by example?

anyway, i’m still quite annoyed with having to book back in tmr evening. i was supposed to be on drums for worship this sunday, and it’s sth that i really enjoy, a form of service to God that i love. but because of live range on sunday and monday, and because of field camp from tuesday to friday, i’m unable to make it for service at all, which means i miss church for yet another week. sigh. and there’s also a soccer match against another church this sunday that i’m gonna miss, how absolutely depressing.

(to those who call me church boy, please try to understand the amount of pain that i go through with every sunday i’m confined)

next week’s gonna be a heck of a ride, so please pray for me. wont have access to my phone from tues to thurs, but texts before that are still muchly appreciated. see you all when i see you (:

church today was… fantastic. just being in the presence of God, soaking in the atmosphere, enjoying the fellowship with my friends. i missed this feeling so much, and i honestly hope i dun have to be confined over a sunday ever again.

the v day event at tea party was pretty interesting, i must say. good job to the organising comm, and although the games and efficiency of the event could be improved, it was still a very decent effort. may’s sermon was, as always, very pertinent to us as youths and addressed the many problems we face in today’s society. despite all you ppl who look to me for advice or just for a listener, and treat me like i know a lot abt such things, i learnt quite a bit about love today and what true love really means.

the purity ring ceremony was probably the highlight of my day. it might be a simple pledge to some, but i think that with the many temptations we face each and every single day now, it’s a very important pledge to make as well. perhaps we might falter at times, and make mistakes cos we’re human. but thank God for mercy and grace, that we’re able to be called children of God, that we’re able to love, and be loved.

time to book in ppl, take care of yourselves when i’m gone (:

before anything, it’s time to wish ppl happy bdae! so happy bdae blandon and alicia!

blandon, i know you dun really come online often, and i doubt you’re gonna get to read this either. but anyway, it’s been great having you ard as the gentle giant in .14, and it’s also very comforting to see you at company line. so what if we’re not in the same platoon, ulysses all the way man! so happy 19th bdae dude, see you tmr at 1915 haha.

alicia, another one that probably wont read this. by now, you’ve probably received like 7890751 happy bdae texts, so i’ll spare you the 7890752nd one. though i know you’ve been in a position of leadership all this time in netball, its still been encouraging to see you being groomed for leadership in church, and i trust that in time your natural leadership qualities will be a blessing to those you lead in youth in the future!

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my first bookout weekend still feels pretty damn awesome. i think i went to bed at around 5, which happens to be the time i usually wake up. the idea of having no lights out timing to adhere to, and no 5bx to wake up to, after the bare minimum 7 hrs of rest… was totally awesome. 

so i ended up waking up at 1230! i almost went back to sleep again, before i recalled that i had a date with euodia and the 3 sisters. it didnt help that i had no idea what time i was supposed to meet them, and amanda texted me at 1030 asking me abt the meeting time, so i was in pretty deep shit at that time. thank goodness the meeting time was confirmed to be 2pm, which meant that i had enough time to eat my lunch at a normal speed and still get there early lol.

being in holland v was weird though. the fact that i’ve not been there since the .14 ppl went there to mug at starbucks, plus the fact that today is valentine’s and couples were swarming the place, seriously made me feel kinda out of place with my botak head and lack of company. thank goodness euodia, amanda, allison and abigail showed up pretty quickly, and we headed off to cold rock for some nice ice cream and great company. i gotta say though, listening to them talk abt their family is pretty scary. if any of you are reading this, i think some attempts to include me in the conversations (like NOT talking abt random things in your family 90% of the time) in the future, would be muchly appreciated (:

dinner at sakae with my family was pretty good too. the food wasnt very excellent today, and the service was terrible shit, but just spending that time with them was nice. i missed laughing at my sister’s antics at the dinner table, making fun of her and the amount of food she consumes, my mother’s exasperation with my sister and i, and my father’s random life lessons during mealtimes… heh. you really learn to appreciate little things liddat after they’ve been stripped away from you.

my grandparents, aunt, uncle and their little chihuahua came over after that to visit me at home. talking to them is hilarious really, esp with the weird questions they ask and the terrible impressions they have of army in general. seriously, the army horror stories of coffee being brewed using army socks, milo that turns into lacquer overnight, and all the other shit that comes along with army freak everyone out, but they’re really a thing of the past. thank goodness for that, if not i swear i wouldnt be able to survive on that damned island.

so all in all, valentine’s this year was great! not cos i had a special someone to spend it with, but cos i had so many special ppl to spend it with today. good food, great conversations, awesome company… heck, who could ask for more? (;

well i have to report at 1900 tmr at pasir ris bus interchange. if anyone wants to see me off, you know where to find me haha. i probably wont have a chance to post tmr, so (hopefully) see you guys in another week!

ps. i cant wait for church tmr, woots.
pps. if anything, just text me. i should reply you from between 930pm to 1030pm, so pray hard for me to have free time at night haha.

hello everyone (:

so yes, i’m back after 2.5 weeks in tekong. it was pretty dreary i must say, and it’s no surprise that everyone (or at least for my section anyway) gradually descended into primal beings with little regard for cleanliness, and we had so little use for our brains since all we did was obey orders and answer "yes" or "no". 

but God has been good. i have pretty nice section mates, although we did have a few heated debates about religion. it’s really not easy being 1 of the onli 2 christians in the bunk, and i’m the one that’s more capable of answering the questions or defending my faith. my platoon commanders are very nice as well, and the onli nasty one just ORD-ed 2 days ago so all of us have absolutely no complaints.

it was very hard at the beginning. i couldnt sleep at all the first night, and i really had to cling onto God for the entrie duration of the camp. everything was so unfamiliar, so different. it didnt help that i was in ncc for 6 years, and my position as a former c/lta just made things worse for me. everything the commanders did was so retardedly useless, things that 13 year old ncc recruits could accomplish without any problems. but as the days went by and everyone warmed up to the regimental lifestyle, i guess things got a little more painless as well.

anyway, being pes c does have its share of pros and cons. i do get a heck of a lot of admin time cos i’m excused from running marching and jumping, but that might onli be a temporary thing. the first 2 weeks, or the "orientation period" as they call it, is now over. the heat is turning up and things are just gonna get tougher from here on out. and being pes c, having all this admin time, also means that there’s at least one stand by area/bed every day.

so if anyone asks me wad i’ve been learning these 2 weeks in tekong? i learnt how to eat damn fast, eat more, issue rifles super quickly, and clean my bunk really well. i swear all of us pes c ppl are the ultimate bunk cleaners in tekong now. i also learnt that the medical officers in tekong are freaking annoying, but it gets better if you have a nice piece of paper that describes your condition and your medical history, and you can be excused from virtually anything. examples include boots, no.4 camoflage uniform, stairs, drills, +runningmarchingjumping. well, for me anyway.

i really wanna thank those who’ve been faithfully texting me all this time to keep my spirits up, keep my sanity intact, and just to listen to my constant rants abt the uselessness and depravity of that damned island, as well as to encourage me! euodia, amanda, may, sal, sarah… and all the other ppl that randomly texted me once or twice. thanks (:

all i wanna say now, is catch me when you can. i’m booking in on sunday night, so if you wanna reach me then hurry up! will be on msn, facebook, and available by phonecall or sms too. later peeps!