Bookout post:

Restored Post

Walking into camp, I saw that tanks have license plates. Ooo, how much should I bid for a tank COE? And I can just imagine a tank being pulled over for speeding.

After 2 real days in the Medical Centre, it is apaprent that when it is slack, it is very slack, but when it is busy it is very busy. On Thursday morning, we were so free that after 10am there was nothing to do and I could even talk to recruits (see below). But in the afternoon, some ADF people training in the area were suffering from physical exhaustion, brought on by trudging with an over-heavy load from 5:30am-1:30pm without any refilling of waterbottles, and their refusal to eat combat rations because they taste bad. Dave was one of the casualties - "Now you know how xiong my unit is". Oh, and I was called to IV one of them. Of course, I missed.

My thermometer is apparently very good. Someone else's is $12. Gah.

The canteen operators have a drawer in the filing cabinet for their medical dockets. Right.

Kumar in 40SAR gets a night off everyday unless there's night training. And the clerks wake up at 11 or 12. Oh well, the benefits of being in the Best Combat Unit.

I was walking to the Medical Centre when I saw some people gathered around this tube stuck into the soil. Apparently there was some rat in there and they'd killed it by pouring Printol in and were now trying to fish it out. Erk.

Seeing Staff Sergeant technicians, I was joking about Officer technicans. And one day I really saw one. Oh well.

I think I've found the reason why they're so ridiculously strict about many procedural matters - ISO. Stupid ISO.

We were having a Duty Medic 2i/c briefing when I chanced across the patient record board. And I saw, "S8311418E PTE Clarence Lun Yaodong. Unit: HQ/NDP Diagnosis: Asthma. Admit/Discharge: 030702 ATTN B 1 Day". Ahem. And there's some discrepancies with the log book - apparently he was admitted on the first, and was a private at Armour HQ, and had asthma and got 2 days ATTN C. 2 days later, he became a recruit (or was it the other day round?) at the School of Armour/STW. Julian heard a rumour that Yaodong went to DB for 2 years. Aww.

A batch of PSC LMS scholars, in their second year of indenture (apparently local scholars disrupt only in year 2), came for their Fit For Infantry, pending disruption. The SAF is so kind. They give you a checkup both before and after they enslave you.

We were waiting to knock off work on Wednesday, our first real day in camp, when an officer came up after jogging to ask why so many medics were sitting around. Then he got us to take his blood pressure.

I've finally seen one, and only one, cat.

A bought a black bag to sling by my side at E-mart, named, very succinctly, "China Bag". Very convenient for bringing stuff around, it is. And cheap too - $5.50, enthralling even non bargain seeking me. However it's very plain, so I should find some ways to personalise it.

The E-learning centre is fun. However, it seems that the only thing everyone learns is how to check their email!

There was a plump girl who came to report sick. This rather surprised me as I thought plump girls didn't have the desire to join the army. Maybe she joined the army to lose weight, as most females I told about my weight loss during BMT professed to want to!

I'm thinking of getting new nametags for my No 4 shirts. "S Q Seah" is just a touch impersonal. I'm looking for something with a bit more character. Maybe I'll even get one saying "Agagooga".

I was talking to some mono-intake recruits from AETC (Armour Engineers Training Centre). They all are of private diploma education level and lower. They're quite happy they weren't sent to Tekong, where they'd have to drink the bitter Tekong water and be bitten by the Commando mosquitoes there. Some of them may be lucky and become drivers after their BMT! Lucky.

The treatment room, from smelling of Printol, suddenly smelt like salted vegetables (kiam chye) on Thursday. Hmm.

I visited Somchaya's storeroom during lunchtime on Thursday. It's a veritable house of unknown pleasures! Ahh lucky storeman. The air-con is very cold and comfortable so he can read his book (at this moment, Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind)in comfort. On that visit I also found out what the first, second, third and fourth kind, a la "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". Apparently the first kind is when you see a bright light. The second is when you see a UFO. The third's when aliens come out and the fourth occurs when you are taken inside the UFO. Yet another eternal mystery solved!

The pidgin bastardised tongue that passes for Mandarin in the Army, and indeed much of Singapore, really irks me, much more so than proper Mandarin. The grammar is wrong and all words above Primary 4 difficulty level are not used and English is substituted for them instead, so that you have sentences like "Wo3 yao4 take responsibility" when the correct sentence would be "Wo3 yao4 fu4 ze2 ren4". So much for a populace that's effectively bilingual. I, at least, can say that I am effectively monolingual. Most of Singapore is effectively "non-lingual", for lack of a better word. My damning indictment might sound harsh, but I insist it is true.

Folie snapped the tourniquet trying to find my veins, so they used a glove as an improvised tourniquet. Smart.

Before booking out Thursday night, we had a barbeque. It was the first time I started a fire for one, and my second or third time using a lighter too. Oh well. The Camp Commandant's Officer (CCO) Senior Medic had prepared some crabs for us. How rare. But Seetoh tricked me into thinking that the crab crap was crab roe. Grr. Towards the end, I realised that all the other new medics in 42SAR had sidled off, so I cleared up a bit and left myself. Since a taxi was coming out of camp, I took it. And was shocked at the $15 taxi fare. Ugh.


Quotes:

"[On A Levels] You want to know what I got? ABFF... F is for econs... management... A is for absent... [The] B... [is] together"