NDP cover is very tiring.

And it appears that Tim's Cat High teachers have found his page! My cover is now blown.

I'm leaving tonite for trengganu!!
Bye bye everyone... till later. Supposed to be back in singapore on 7 july.

And she got her sweet revenge (*wince*)!!!

Andrew gan

Yes indeed. A Pes E soldier getting posted to a camp in Khatib when he's actually living on the other side of the island isn't exactly what I'd call a carefully planned posting. Heh. That said, I actually quite like my posting. Other people say they like my posting too, but I wouldn't know about that.

At least you don't get your food prayed over in a SAR unit :) Heh. That, at least, addresses one of your pet peeves, does it not?

I must thank Bioware for producing yet another soul-sucking, social life destroying, GEM of a game. Must... play... more... not blog now.

A grammar mistake that I was irked by, but forgot the name of - Dangling Modifiers.

Restored Post

Had my Life run at East Coast this morning. The pace wasn't too fast, which was why I was able to complete the run without collapsing, albeit finishing almost last. It ended at about 9:30, and then I had the rest of the day off. Oops. I was -forced- to take leave for the rest of the day. Sigh. Apparently we can adamantly refuse to take leave, but I think it'll cause trouble.

Everyone but us was wearing the unit singlet, in dark green and emblazoned with "The Cutting Edge" on the back. However badly designed it might be, at least it beats the stupid default Army singlet with a dull "ARMY" printed on the back. And there's some weird tradition where everyone will gather, touch each other and shout suddenly. What an exotic culture my unit has.

They indented breakfast for us, but didn't provide cutlery. So we broke bits off the styrofoam box the noodles came in. Actually I suspect that breaking the styrofoam releases carcinogens. Oh well.

They're thinking of holding Life runs every Thursday, as the schedule permits, and then giving us half a day off. Doesn't sound too bad to me if every time is like today's.

I don't look forward to my 3 week stint in Australia with my batallion. Ugh. Maybe I'll see Andrew Tan and all my friends in Armour units there. And we can kill Kangaroos, Dingos and Koalas and roast them together. Right.

Rather tired now after the run. But I had lunch with my father at Copthorne Grand (He's bought the gourmet card so there're discounts at restaurants owned by the Copthorne group) - Antipasti, Scampi Risotto and a most excellent Plum Pie with Lime Sherbert. And I'm going to meet Kairen, Andrew and Screwed Up Girl later for dinner. And a real PJ girl. Gee, imagine that. [NB: I debated the relative merits of using "Gee" and "Wow", and I think "Gee" gives that subtle shade of meaning, so. Kind of like that stupid Chinese poet who thought about whether to use "tui1" or "qiao1" in some poem about a monk banging on a door in the middle of the night. Or something. And look what other stuff "PJ girl" brings up.]

Bookout Post:

After a day, I'm back home again.

Restored Post

Reviewing everyone's posting again today, many of us have come to the conclusion that posting is haphazard. Or maybe, in fact, done to spite us. People are posted far from their homes, when other people are posted near their houses. And PES A people who can clear their SOCs and IPPTs get Airbase jobs while PES B people who can't go to 2SIR and Armour Regiments.

42SAR only picked us up at about 2pm, when few of us were left. After a long ride, we ended up in the middle of nowhere - Sungei Gedong camp. Of the camps in the area, it is the most remote and the most far in. It's about 50 minutes at most from Chua Chu Kang MRT on the 175 (!), which means a safe timing from my home to there is 1 hour 40 minutes. I think I can forget about going home during nights off already, and can become a Lot 1 kid like Andrew Tan. The place is somewhat new and beats SMM. But then almost everywhere does, so.

Again, our so-called leave is being burnt - half a day tomorrow and 1 day on Tuesday, and some more after the National Day Parade because, just arriving, we have no "off" days to use up. So much for 14 days' annual leave.

I tend to be depressed the first few days of my posting to a new unit. BMT, SMM, and now 42SAR. I hope it passes. Since I'll probably be there for the next 103 weeks (thereabouts).

The requirements for my unit: IPPT Silver and SOC timing of 10 minutes (for those who've been there for 1 year or less) and Marksman at range. Remedial training (RT), here I come! Or some form of injury, which is likely. I just hope I don't get scheduled for weekend RTs. On the other hand, the requirements are IPPT Gold and SOC <9:30 at Andrew Tan's 41SAR, so.

To make things worse, most of us will probably become platoon medics, which we are told means that we will be armoured infantrymen, running, or at least walking, alongside the tanks. Oh well. And apparently my senior Edmund's wrong - platoon medics aren't attached to the medical centre when not on exercise.

There seem to be no Malays in camp. Ah, it's been long since I had pork in an SAF camp!

Being a regiment, the place is supposedly quite regimental, so it's easy to sign extra duties. Oh well. At least we don't need to salute officers. And we are supposed to get a long weekend a month.

Interestingly, the bunk of the medics attached to the HQ have numerous printouts of Japanese-looking Asian women in bikinis. No Caucasians. Interesting - both the choice of pinups and the printing out - usually people choose Caucasians and put up posters as opposed to computer printouts.

I saw some book reviews on the table. Apparently the CO asked them to do a book review each recently. Eheh.

One of the medic has a Palm M10x, though he has no license. Ahh.

One of the medics who helped orient us took the train back with me. He was from JJC, and he says about 20% of the people there are A level students. It seems the rest are the mono intake. I wonder if I'll mix well. And apparently a BMI of 32 can get one downgraded! Ooh.


Bryan Ang has just sold his soul to the Army till he reaches the age of 38. It's been nice knowing you :)

Due to NDP, I probably won't be able to go for KMUN (Raffles Model United Nations Conference). Argh.

Went with Andrew Gan to eat dinner today. After much vacillating we decided on Nooch - we might've gone to Black Angus but it'd have busted our budgets. And after that we spent a while walking up and down Orchard Road and talking.

We saw Megan and her friend at Orchard MRT, after their late night studying session. She now has very pullable earrings and she's grown her hair longer.

"I think Grace would make a sweet wife" - Andrew Gan

I saw an SAJC girl on the bus from SMM. She was wearing a half zippered windbreaker. And no tie! Gasp.

POP post:

Restored Post

POP loh! Yes, I've passed out yet again, and I got my Medic Brassard (Armband) today.

I've been posted, along with Folie and Seetoh, to the 42nd Singapore Armour Regiment. Some say it is rather tough, while others say it is slack. According to Andrew Tan, in another armour unit, we only work when someone gets injured. But then my unit might be different. I hope we just get to sit in APCs. According to a guy 5 years older than me who fortuitously messaged me on ICQ today, the only things I have to worry about are SOC, Unarmed Combat and Overseas Exercises. Well. But then it is in Lim Chu Kang, in the middle of nowhere. Zhongyong and Somchaya, whose camps are in the vicinity, say that it takes 45 minutes, and 1 hour tops to get to Chua Chu Kang MRT station from the inner camps, though, so it is not *quite* that bad. Guan Hong suggests I buy a bike to ride there and back :)

The way they post us does seem rather random - some PES A people got cushy jobs. Yew Yew is off to Paya Lebar Airbase, with Simon, Jeremy gets to go to Tengah Airbase and Zahrenn, HQAMS. Argh. My buddy is staying at SMM to become an instructor, but he doesn't like the place. Aww.

Our Parade Commander, who is also our course commander, turns very funnily. He does a half jump, and it is very amusing.

Monday wasn't stay out after all - we were conned. And we didn't even get a night off either because the sergeants screwed up our parade rehearsal so much, they needed another one to prepare themselves (though admittedly they had more things to take care of than us). At least Tuesday's stayout so I've a night at home before I go to unknown perils in my unit!

We had a blood donation drive on Monday. Apparently in the past, it was compulsory to donate blood but nowadays, they've made it optional. And they give anaesthetic. Woo.

The cookhouse has sunk to new depths. They used Maggi Chicken Flavour Instant Noodle Soup Powder as a base for their "Egg Flower Soup" - you could see the spring onion bits floating in the soup!

Being very bored, people started attacking each other on the last night. Or at least those on the lower bunks of each bunk bed. At almost 12 midnight, I woke to the feeling of toothpaste on my forehead. Some had it worse, though. Kumar had toothpaste on his forehead and his bed was soaked with Hartman's Solution. And Steven's bed was strewn with combat rations!

I think most of the SCDF people are quite chubby. Though many of the male personnel are quite cute!

They were taupoking (they call it 'kerepok' here) people again. And someone jumped from the top level of the bunk bed. Today, we did it to our section instructor, and he was rather dramatic, going "Ahh!" and "Help!" all the time. Ouch. And there were pillow fights too. Many of us (including me) got hit, and it was rather traumatic. Adding some festive atmosphere, Folie threw a packet of powder in, making the air turn white. And our Platoon Best Trainee, Dave, get angry because the powder fell all over his uniform. After my turn at being whacked, I couldn't stand for a while. Even though the instruments of offence are pillows, it still hurts somewhat.

One of Justin's socks has such a big hole, his whole heel sticks out through it. I offered to sponsor him a new pair!

Zhang has a good figure, which is especially evident because he straps the velcro of his Smart 4 all the way. I think that now that his wife has given birth, his figure is better than hers!


Quotes:

"For many, this brings bad memories of the past 11 weeks (back)"

"[On both of us going to 42SAR] Just now I shook hands with you because I thought I'd never see you again... You better not become my buddy. Nevermind, you become my buddy good, got a lot of food to eat... If we go Australia I buy you another polar bear. (if you, it will be good because I will have, go to, will buy)"

Yes, folks, knowing how lazy Screwed Up Girl is, I called Wang Yi up himself. And he's not in jail. He's in the Air Force, doing Air Defence Artillery! He's just passed out of Suffer In Silence blah blah and finished his 1 week Air Force Orientation. So that's settled.

In other news of lazy people, I called up my sister's mother in law yesterday to ask her to buy fewer apples. Not seeing her son very often, she resorts to buying apples to show her love in some way. The apples are very juicy and sweet. Except that we get so many, we can't finish them, and have to use them in cooking. We were all getting sick of apples, and my brother in law didn't have the guts to call up his mother and ask her not to give him so many apples in the future, so I had to do it. And I was asked about my life and whether it was laxer than before :)

I am heavier than Nelson Kwei. Oh dear. Maybe I *should* lose weight :)

My mother just made my sister get upset and cry again. Sigh. This is pointless, and I wonder why she keeps doing it. Not like it makes her happy or anything.


I was sorely disappointed when I turned on the TV at about 6:40, to see some Mediabots show on Channel i. But on checking the listings, I see that a show called "Power Rangers Light Year" (bah) is on next Tuesday. Yeh. Maybe this is some cheapskate ripoff of Lightspeed Rescue.

If there's one thing I dislike more than football, it's movies about football! Just watched "Bend It Like Beckham". Twas okay, except for my principled (slight) dislike of football movies :) Except that it also had another overused theme - East Meets West in Britain, where East is Indian. Though Sheila claims this is only the second one so far. Well.


Yeh, we're stayout tonight and tomorrow night!

Audiogalaxy has been dead for some days. Oh well.

My stats (since May 2001): sent: 106,588.10 MB / recv: 5,344.72 MB.

I hope I made a lot of people happy :)

Bookout post:

Restored Post

As expected, many of those who'd done guard duty on Saturday got an MC for Sunday and Monday. 5 of the 13 of us, in fact. And 3 reported sick on monday morning. Though the Duty Officer kept his promise and gave the 4 who stayed back 2 hours more (till 11+) an off pass from about 12pm to 10pm.

The paos (buns) that we get for breakfast are provided by As-Sufi Islamic Food Industries. They often give us all sorts of disgusting and foul tasting paos, like sardine and sambal paos. To say nothing of the fact that our food is "islamic".

Sometimes, I feel like writing quite a bit, but often I just feel so weary, both physically and mentally, and apathetic, as a malaise comes on me. Especially when people are being asses and antagonising others to no visible end. Perhaps they are sadistic, bored, or trying to kill time, or they don't see it as antagonising others, merely as following their acerbic tendencies. Anyhow it is often easiest just to ignore them.

1/5 of my indenture is over! Yeh.

Tutty (Fruitti) keeps lots of goodies in her webbing pouches! Sweets, Oreos and who knows what else.

Quanxing and Xiankun are among the latest batch of people posted to SMM for the Combat Medic Course. They've been sweeping leaves the whole week (aww), and sleeping too. When I visited them Friday morn, the former was sleeping on the floor and the latter, playing Magic. Their course starts July 8th. Meanwhile, Chin Xiang's MP course starts in October. Gah.

We had an IV session on Monday, and I missed both Yew Yew and Zhang, 2 very easy to hit people! I put it all down to my (previously mentioned) sore eyes, of course. At least I didn't get poked at all that day due to my being in a threesome with Yew Yew and Chris.

Last week, my G2 Pilot pen disappeared when I lent it for the bookin/bookout book. Gah.

We had BCS practice on monday, and I was chosen to be a casualty. Poor riflemen.

Zhang is our Song i/c, but people don't like the creative songs that he comes up with, so he doesn't lead us in marching songs nowdays. Aww.

Inspired by Jeremy's putting a picture of him and his girlfriend on his cupboard door, I put a pic of Blue Bear on mine :)

Mr Ass Man came into our bunk at about 10pm on Monday to declare Lights Off. On the protestations of the rest, as they hadn't finished packing, he said "This is part of your night training". 15 mins later, everyone was spooked as his voice echoed down the bunk, but it turned out to be Jeremy doing a mean (as in good) impersonation of Mr Ass Man!

I finally found out why the MOCC always has 2 people marching at the side - one is the cadet platoon sergeant and the other the cadet platoon commander. Mmm.

As mentioned earlier, due to my fortuitous infection of sore eyes, I missed the field camp. And boy was I lucky. Though the first day was very slack - there was an opening address for some reason, and from 5pm-10pm, it was admin time, the other days were very taxing, mostly because it was very hot, and they failed to follow safety guidelines and have sufficient water parades - almost 10% of the trainees had heat exhuastion and concussed (and most were subsequently sent back to camp, with the more serious cases sent to hospital). At least they ate better than before - there are now 5 menus for field rations, and they've gotten rid of the most vile of the choices, like Pineapple Rice with Chicken and Chestnut Rice with Chicken. Every day now has one pasta dish, too.

I on the other hand had lots of fun :) Though I was the only one in quarantine, making it quite lonely, I did talk a bit with Yong Gen, Jason Lau and some of the medics. I caught up on sleep in the air-conditioned sick bay (until I got a headache), and also on some reading, finishing 1 1/3 issues of the Economist, and a good portion of Magii of Cyador. I also got to practice chortling to myself, thinking of the fun the rest were having at field camp. Oh yes and there was the terminal with Internet access which I used after office hours, when everyone'd gone home, and only the duty ambulance driver, duty medic and me were left.

There was also a small TV in the sick bay, which the duty medic carted outside to watch football on at night. I watched a bit on the first day, mostly Who Dares Wins (which now comes with a "kids, don't try this at home" warning). It was rather blurry, and after Who Dares Wins was America's Funniest Home Videos, which consists mostly of either animal antics or people falling down. Yeech. I didn't feel like further viewing, so I availed myself of the radio that had been left in the sick bay the first night and listened to 92.4 and the BBC.

My weight now is somewhere between 92.5kg (electronic weighing scale in the Basic Training Wing store) and 95kg (analog weighing scale in Maju Camp). Yeh.

Yong Gen claims that the SMM food is better than that found in BMTC2 cookhouse. I find that hard to believe. They forgot to indent my food for tuesday's lunch and thursday's breakfast, so I had to pay for canteen food (someone helped me buy fried rice for the former case and I was allowed to buy beehoon in the latter). Gah. Though they did provide Maju food for Wednesday's dinner and Thursday's lunch, and indeed it is substantially better than SMM's :)

I got tetracycline cream for my sore eyes, and it was very powerful! But then I'd already seen how powerful it was, having it seen its effects on the face of a certain someone who used it to clear up pimples :)

The driver who drove me back to SMM on Thursday (in one of the dinky station wagons) made a pit stop at the Maju mess to buy 4 Cornettos (they were on buy 1 get 1 free) for his driver friends. He was actually going to stop at Caltex, but the mess sold Cornetto :)

Most of the regimental police (RPs) in Maju are reservist! Their reservist duty is just to come back and sit inside the guard room, or stand around with a rifle. How fortunate! Apparently what my sergeant in BMT told me isn't true, that those in service vocations would become riflemen in reservist. For the drivers, only those who meet certain criteria can serve their reservist obligation as drivers, so the driver driving me told me.

My buddy tells me that during field camp, he smoked some. Sigh.


Quotes:

"Very funny - Gabriel. Every once in a while he will take out his notebook and write something down."

"[On kit replacement] You want [a] helmet, just go [to] HQ block and steal. There's a dummy of a medic with [a] helmet"

"[Sign] Nothing we do in peacetime warrants unnecessary risk of life (So what you do in war can warrant unnecessary risk of life?)"

"[Medical Officer on Quarantine] Don't you find it very enjoyable here? [Me: A bit lonely, better than field camp though] Yeah, I'd agree."

"[Medical Officer on Quarantine] Good life. Whole day, lie there, read book. I haven't had a day like that in many many years. [Me: Get sore eyes lah] You know what they'll do if I get sore eyes? They'll make me carry on working. [Medic: Wear sunglasses]"

"[Medic on Maju] All the medics here are quite plump"

"We went to Richard's funeral (grandmother's wake)"


After I booked out, Andrew asked me over to his place. He played with my polar bear and we had some fried popiah his mother made. I also gave him 24hrs worth of field rations (Menu 1), for him to give anorexic girls - one taste and they'll not want to eat anymore :)

Side-splitting SMS of the week: "Oh would you ever host me on your page ;) as a kiddie i fantasized abt gettin to live near yuchen and timothy."

Xiankun tells me they've skipped the silly idea of the 10 (effectively 13 because of the SIT Test) day field camp. Mmm.

My sister ate most of the Kettle Honey Roast Ham chips that Andrew Gan got for me! Gah.