Thoughts of a peaceful, bucolic weekend were shattered by a call I got on the MRT back after Weekend RT. I suppose I'd never get a social call from Tse Ming (who seemed back to his usual self). So off I trudged back to camp, laden with food bought for the other duty personnel. At least (as is expected), I get a day off, though I'm not supposed to tell even my bunk mates. Well they don't read this blog.
When I was at the gate of camp, I saw some of my School of Armour friends (Edwin Kek, Jianwen and Robin) I was booking in as they were booking out. Gah.
Saturday, I had to send a guy who cut his hand with a saw first to Tengah, then to NUH. Because the vehicle sent to pick us was on another detail, we had to wait from 8:30 to 11:00 for it, and I only reached camp at 11:40pm, to find the rubbish not thrown (my job but they're supposed to help me deal with it if I'm not around), a big mess from dinner on the table and the 2 other duty personnel and a specialist reading Sammyboy forums on the computer - Commercial sex in Japan - Fulfill yr sexual fantasies. Gah.
And on Sunday, I found that, with the recently completed extension of the medical centre, I have even more tiles to mop for my area cleaning. Whee.
Supposedly, with great power comes great responsibility. However, in organisations where rank is paramount, the ability of underlings to question doubtful flaunting of the authority is impeded. Witness the time Sergeant Koh, in BMT, made my whole platoon crawl across the field because guard duty personnel didn't come down when called. I suppose that's why we have a chain of command.
Yaodong has probably pushed it too far. I'm told that, while I wasn't around, he came to see the Doctor one day complaining of stress, poor appetite and insomnia, but only the sarcastic one who's good at flushing out skivers was around. What passed between them is unknown (well, not unknown if you have access to records) but he came out crying and was referred to the Institute of Mental Health. He's now at Alexandra.
Ethan, the reviled RJ medic one year my senior, reads the Economist too - I was pleasantly surprised to see it on the Duty Medic's table one day, and when I looked up I saw him (actually yhis is the first time I've ever seen him. Ahem). Hmm.
Although we've no Malays in our camp, racial balance is still maintained in a way, by means of... Pseudo-Malays! These people have Chinese or Indian names, and aren't Muslim, but somehow, they look Malay. Whoever said there was no racial tolerance in the SAF?
Yogen Fruz, that apparent attempt to capitalise on Haagen Dazs' appeal by setting up a chain with a similar name, seems to be in the doldrums. I was at Great World City and the branch there has diversified. They now sell, among other things, muah chee, canned drinks, hand scoop low-medium class ice cream (the Green Tea flavour, 2.4 times the plainer flavours' price, wasn't very good) and Madeleine's Portugese Egg tarts.
There was this trailer on Channel 8 which used the "Across The Stars" theme from Attack of the Clones as the background music. I bet they didn't pay royalties. Sue sue sue!
Some Islamic Orphanage was having a flag day on Saturday. I didn't have small change, so I gave the girl (a Chinese schoolgirl mind you) $1. I hope I didn't just help fund Jemaah Islamiyah or Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) activities. So much for accusations of racism. *Cough* And that's more than I can say for one Islamic groups in Ma-laysia with nothing to do (don't they all) some years back, which kicked up a storm about some Christian charity, proclaiming that Muslims shouldn't donate to it, whereupon the charity had to reassure the worried masses (ahem) that they also funded Islamic causes. I always thought charity was a non-partisan affair. Aside: Did they really give out real flags last time? Must've made a boatload of losses, what with flags being expensive.
The obsession most countries have with "Defence" is rather disturbing. Perhaps they are all paranoid about being conquered (Ahem - The lessons we learned from the Japanese Occupation...) but I trust most countries err on the side of, shall we say, caution. It's mind boggling to calculate what the peace dividend could be. Perhaps the most telling piece of evidence - Why does everyone call their War Ministries the Ministry Of Defence? At least Saddam's honest in naming his. It's probably just the boyish fantasies of all those men projected onto a big scale. "When women are depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country." - Elayne Boosler
I went to check it up. They have soup for the souls of (among the more ridiculous):
- Christian Women
- Golfers (2nd helping)
- Pet Lovers
- Dog & Cat Lovers
- Writers
- Prisoners (I can get one...)
- Surviving + Unsinkable soul (what's the diff?)
- Dentists (???)
- Sports fans (!!!)
- Singles
- College Students
- Expectant mothers
- Garderners (!@#$%^&*())
- Nurses
- Teenagers: Tough Stuff (isn't this what the original 4 or 5 books for teenagers were about?)
- Baseball fans
- Volunteers
- Travellers
I kid you not.