Bookout post (up to 27/2):

When last I left, I went to the East Coast for dinner. While there, I saw a girl in pink floral berms, which went past her knee. I believe this is the first time I've seen floral printed bottoms which are so long!

Restored Post

There was a screwup on the first Monday. They ran out of food [the disgusting Chicken Pau and Lor Mai Kai], so we had to wait while they fried sausages and fish patties. Even at this stage in my life, I am called "Xiao3 Di4" :) They are very wasteful in the cookhouse - they throw away the end parts of loafs, the ones which no one wants to eat.

One of the tastier soups that the cookhouse brews, which does not taste like plain water with pepper and/or msg, is the one with pork bones and salted vegetables and is a bit sour, and which I like, incidentally.

My section made comments about the soft toys (of sorts) that I brought in. I've been sleeping with them every night for a while now - a rabbit, a leopard and a rainbow coloured bear, the first 2 given by Screwed Up Girl and the last by my mother. The latter 2 are Beanie Babies (which my section mate persistently calls 'Beanie Bears').

People like to chatter in Mandarin, but it does not mean that they have a high standard of Mandarin. In fact, I daresay I am better than some of them in that language. Incidentally, my brother-in-law's mother thinks that my Chinese has improved. Gasp.

We had a very interesting Stand By Rifle. The sergeant walked in and asked "Whose weapon is clean?... Those who never put up their hands, go and carry on 20" and then walked off.

I've noticed that no one curses in Malay or Indian languages. The most they go to is "bhuto" (whatever) and since that means idiot, they aren't actually cursing per se, but just scolding someone. Why this is so is a mystery. Another mystery in the area of cursing is why people like to curse "chee bye" but not "lan jiao". I think no one curses the latter except for my Platoon Sergeant. My theory to explain this distribution is how I explained what "lan jiao" and "chee bye" were to Huijun and Huimei when I went back to RJC during Chinese New year - "lan jiao" is what they have, "chee bye" is what they want".

When people 'borrow' soap from me, they always squirt out a lot. Usually, the amount they take to wash their hands is more than the amount I use in a shower. My previous Body Shop Jasmine Exfoliating Body Wash just drains away.

The bias towards women and children, and by definition, against men, that pervades society irks me sometimes. Males are always deemed inferior, or more worthy of blame. I once watched this Channel 8 drama serial where there was this "ethical" killer who proudly proclaimed, "I don't kill women and children". More recently, and what sparked this paragraph, the Commentary column by Asad Latif on 25/02/2002 quoted this woman on why she'd saved some Bengalis as saying, "Because they were women and children". I don't really understand why men are seen as evil (for lack of a better word) and women and children are innocent and free of blame. All are tainted by Original Sin, and I don't think women and children manage to avoid adding to it along the way.

And someone finally used the word "column"! I was sick of hearing "rows" when people meant "columns", then one night the sergeant said, "form up into 5 columns". However, he still issued the command as "bergera kerkiri ber tiga tiga" when it should have been "ber lima lima", since tiga means 3. Oh well.

Some sick guy was leading the marching song, and he changed "As the cold wind blows" to "As my girlfriend blows". Eww.

We were forced to watch 'Defence Watch' again, and they were showcasing the soldiers in East Timor. They showed one giving biscuits to a boy. It was the rations from the field rations. We were all quite amused at his apparent generosity.

The bookout criteria for the 3 obese companies seems to be quite similar, at least for running, something like 14:00 for Delta and 14:45 for both Bravo and Gryphon. This is really quite unfair since the Gryphon people are maybe twice the size of the Delta people.

Occasionally, we get this thing called 'Birds' Nest Cordial' at the Cookhouse. I wonder how much Birds' Nest there is inside. Maybe it's 1 PPM (part per million).

We have come to the conclusion that our dear Bunk Cleaning i/c Chee Hwa is obsessed with Bunk Cleaning. You should see the fire in his eyes when he says, "Do your bunk cleaning". The passion and the drive are unmistakable.

A few beds down is Tze Li. Unfortunately, he OOCed about 2 weeks ago, a really bad time to do so, because our course is ending and knowing how long the SAF takes to post people out, he'll probably be here after POP. Poor him.

One really disgusting thing is the way people's shorts and trousers keep coming down. Maybe it's because we've lost so much weight, but whenever many people move, their shorts ride down, revealing their underwear. For some people, their instincts have been honed to the point where their hands will subconsciously tug at their shorts to reveal their underwear the moment we are free for extended periods of time. And sometimes people even deliberately pull their shorts down.

If people try to cheat during Water Parades by drinking less water, they are made to drink more water, as a punishment. This really isn't appropriate as it will instill a dislike of drinking water into the recruit. A vicious circle thus results.

For a week or two, Platoon 1 had an interesting rhyme to chant during water parades, after reciting the 7 SAF Core Values as part of the not-so-subtle indoctrination scheme. It goes, "Drink water good, drink water good. Don't drink water get heatstroke. Get heatstroke, you will die. Then your whole platoon will cry. XXX days to POP!".

I am told that, even after 12 weeks in BMTC, I still bounce when I march. Oh well.

OC night was when the various platoons put up skits about our BMT life. Ours featured Khairuldin and his infamous jock strap, and had someone imitating him ironing his Smart 4 after Lights Out, wearing just the jock strap, while donning webbing for the light the torch afforded. And then someone came by imitating one officer (who was imitated in all *4* of the skits) who was rather perturbed by the sight. Of course, no evening would be complete without a cross dresser, courtesy of Platoon 4.

One of our sergeants decided to be funny, so on two occasions, he made our file contort while marching by issuing, alternately, the "empek kiri" and "empek kenan" commands.

I realise that there's one person whose voice is rather like En Ming's, especially in the way he gives commands.

The rest of the bookout post will be posted after I return on Friday night, since it is now 1:38AM and I am tired.


Quotes:

"[On why I should have scanned the RJ yearbook and not the RGS one] RGS secondary school right? The girls haven't develop yet. (is a secondary, developed)"

"[On Taiwan] You will go there and fight with the people there... You will suffer through sleepless nights, 4 days. That exercise is called R&R."

"For those of you who want to sign on, you can compare it to marriage. Why marriage? Because it's the stupidest thing you have done as a man. (will have)"

"This is my first obese batch. It's been one of a kind. The smell also is one of a kind."