3 weeks gone... 13 weeks to go... how to tahan? Got so much to spill from my heart about NS, but dun feel like writing out at all....well first off, tomorrow I have a medical appointment at NUH, so I will be spending one more night out than everyone else cos they are booking in tonite, so my spirits are pretty high now... okay let's see where shall I start?
11 December 2002- a day that will never be forgotten by me lar.. of cos...woke up pretty early to savor my last breakfast of fried kway tiao with chicken wings, sausage and fish cake cos I now I won't touch this kind of stuff for at least 4 months to come... packed everything the night before but still felt very agonized inside, dunnoe whether it is the thought of hardship inside or me simply rejecting NS as a whole... seconds ticked by and I had to depart. The journey to Pasir Ris was really an unforgettable one... I took no notice of the road along the way, my mind was preoccupied with images of the time I spent with my family and friends from primary school to JC...it feels as though I have been given a death sentence and I am on my last part of my life journey. Pasir Ris have never seemed this far before, but no matter how far, the bus interchange was soon in sight and very soon, the greens flashed in front of me and despite arriving 10 minutes earlier than the 9:30am deadline, I was told that the last bus was leaving soon and I had to get onto it... first look at the SAF "cockupness". Oh well, the TIBS bus took 15 minutes to reach the SAF Jetty and soon we(me with my parents) were on our way to Tekong on Penguin Tekong... from far, it really looked like a holiday resort and when you first disembark, it really felt like one, with words like "Welcome to Tekong"... duh... but reality sets in pretty soon when a signs splits you and your parents (Parents left, and enlistees right, up a staircase to unknown territory...) Exchanged my I/C for that dreaded green 11B and we were actually made to rehearse the ceremony to be held later, duh... After lunch with your parents, it is time to say goodbye... I was not sad at that time, just a little overwhelmed...
Then, it's on to the real stuff, we were made to collect our duffer bag and checked everything inside and tried on the sizes and that sergeant told me that my jockey cap fits well when it is too big... duh... and that was how i spent the whole afternoon and oh yah, the hair cut, the end result was what I would normally get when I come out of the barber shop, but you don't get to clean yourself off and the hair just stuck to my body and it was really uncomfortable.. and yah, the cost of $2 have to be paid by yourself...I was temporarily allocated to Charlie Platoon 4 and we had 2 jabs, 1 drip and 1 malaria pill regime all in that day...
The first three days did not see too much activities, we basically slacked in our bunks, only with occasional drill training and stuff like that, cos the unit is not really yet since more people are enlisted on 12 and 13 Dec...then finally I was in Charlie Platoon 1, basically all of the Chalrlie 4 people got transferred to Charlie 1 and the new recruits entered Charlie 4, well we were basically told we were the morbid obese recruits which will serve as storemen, clerks and drivers when we graduate.., duh... then what the heck do we need BMT for?
Since it is december, showers with lightning and thunder aren't a rarity on Tekong and I had never loved the sound of the public siren system so much especially if it is followed by three sounding off of " CAT 1, CAT 1, CAT 1" which means all outdoor activities cease.. woo hoo!
Funny system they have there, your writings cannot touch the line (then what are lines for)... no cancellations allowed (huh? you mean everyone's perfect and makes no mistakes?)... no insertions using arrowheads (duh....) and not to mention the logistics over there, more than half the toilet flushes aren't working and for the items that are distributed to you (like pails, trench diggers etc.), pray that they are not spoiled cos you will just have to find a way out yourself, no replacement available...
And oh yah, the language, who can not notice it when you enter? Here's the instructions to learn the SAF language...
1) Articulate your sentence as you normally would, but change your good grammar to something less perfect....
2) Take note of the punctuation, all you commas, full stops etc.
3) Replace all punctuation with vulgarities (e.g. KNN, CCB, F***ing etc.)
And yes, it took lots of will power not to be influenced by this language....
On the day of enlistment, you will be told that lunch and dinner is 1.5 hours long, dun be fooled. Yah, 1.5 hours is for the cookhouse to serve its lunch, but you will get at most 20 minutes for your food and if you get that, thank god. If not, strive to eat as much as possible in 10 minutes, including queuing up and clearing up... hmmm that leaves you about 4 minutes to gobble down your food....
BUT, the food's really nice. NTUC foodfare's doing the catering and you will love it, but a word of caution here to those waiting to go inside, dun eat too much chicken drumstick or you will puke when you go inside....
Remember before the A Levels, we had a talk about memory and how our mind works... the one that says that our mind remembers the last thing we see or hear even though it may be the nicest thing to see or hear... and that is how it works... they barred you from all outside source of music and only let you hear the constant out-of-tune army singing and pretty soon you will have everyone singing it in the bathroom, buey tahan...
"Singapore was the impregnable fortress of the Great Britian, but we suffered the effects of WW II because we did not have a force of our own to protect the country...." damn it, I was made to sit through lessons like that, yes NE, but I prefer to call it propaganda, aimed at brainwashing all of us "to make us mentally prepared for NS, to sacifice for our country" duh... I won;t say much but whoever knows me well enough will noe how I feel about all this.. haizzz...
The physical training is progressive but what I hate is the warming up, it's so long and you are expected to shout until your lungs give way, what the heck, we dun even have enough breath for the exercise and they still want us to shout, why do we have to shout? Cos we are turning from boys to man? What the heck....
From time to time, you will get to see the control tower at Changi and at night as you look upon the mainland, you will find that Singapore had never looked so beautiful before. As planes passes by overhead, you would eish you were on it, flying out of Singapore to escape all these or be on one landing into Singapore so you can go home...
I still remebered one night, when I called my parents and they told me they missed me, tears almost fell out of my eyes and there was once when I got a leg cramp and I was told to continue marching despite of, I just could not control and almost cried again...but now that I am home for 2 times oredi, things looks better in the future...
Just some words of advise here, dun miss out a single spot:
- under your matress (the metal frame and wooden support)
- above and behind your metal cabinets
- under the bed
- between the bed and wooden cupboards
- windows ledges
- holes in the wall (to serve as patterns and to collect dust)
- mosquito netting
- fans and lights
- above the door
Actually there are many things that I really want to write, but either it would be classified as information not to be disclosed or I risk getting tekan if I wrote it and someone reads it and expose me cos those are my innermost feelings but it concerns specific people and so I shall not continue. Anyway, this is my longest entry yet...
<< Enlistment >>
11 December 2002- a day that will never be forgotten by me lar.. of cos...woke up pretty early to savor my last breakfast of fried kway tiao with chicken wings, sausage and fish cake cos I now I won't touch this kind of stuff for at least 4 months to come... packed everything the night before but still felt very agonized inside, dunnoe whether it is the thought of hardship inside or me simply rejecting NS as a whole... seconds ticked by and I had to depart. The journey to Pasir Ris was really an unforgettable one... I took no notice of the road along the way, my mind was preoccupied with images of the time I spent with my family and friends from primary school to JC...it feels as though I have been given a death sentence and I am on my last part of my life journey. Pasir Ris have never seemed this far before, but no matter how far, the bus interchange was soon in sight and very soon, the greens flashed in front of me and despite arriving 10 minutes earlier than the 9:30am deadline, I was told that the last bus was leaving soon and I had to get onto it... first look at the SAF "cockupness". Oh well, the TIBS bus took 15 minutes to reach the SAF Jetty and soon we(me with my parents) were on our way to Tekong on Penguin Tekong... from far, it really looked like a holiday resort and when you first disembark, it really felt like one, with words like "Welcome to Tekong"... duh... but reality sets in pretty soon when a signs splits you and your parents (Parents left, and enlistees right, up a staircase to unknown territory...) Exchanged my I/C for that dreaded green 11B and we were actually made to rehearse the ceremony to be held later, duh... After lunch with your parents, it is time to say goodbye... I was not sad at that time, just a little overwhelmed...
Then, it's on to the real stuff, we were made to collect our duffer bag and checked everything inside and tried on the sizes and that sergeant told me that my jockey cap fits well when it is too big... duh... and that was how i spent the whole afternoon and oh yah, the hair cut, the end result was what I would normally get when I come out of the barber shop, but you don't get to clean yourself off and the hair just stuck to my body and it was really uncomfortable.. and yah, the cost of $2 have to be paid by yourself...I was temporarily allocated to Charlie Platoon 4 and we had 2 jabs, 1 drip and 1 malaria pill regime all in that day...
<< Reshuffle >>
The first three days did not see too much activities, we basically slacked in our bunks, only with occasional drill training and stuff like that, cos the unit is not really yet since more people are enlisted on 12 and 13 Dec...then finally I was in Charlie Platoon 1, basically all of the Chalrlie 4 people got transferred to Charlie 1 and the new recruits entered Charlie 4, well we were basically told we were the morbid obese recruits which will serve as storemen, clerks and drivers when we graduate.., duh... then what the heck do we need BMT for?
<< CAT 1 >>
Since it is december, showers with lightning and thunder aren't a rarity on Tekong and I had never loved the sound of the public siren system so much especially if it is followed by three sounding off of " CAT 1, CAT 1, CAT 1" which means all outdoor activities cease.. woo hoo!
<< THE SAF >>
Funny system they have there, your writings cannot touch the line (then what are lines for)... no cancellations allowed (huh? you mean everyone's perfect and makes no mistakes?)... no insertions using arrowheads (duh....) and not to mention the logistics over there, more than half the toilet flushes aren't working and for the items that are distributed to you (like pails, trench diggers etc.), pray that they are not spoiled cos you will just have to find a way out yourself, no replacement available...
And oh yah, the language, who can not notice it when you enter? Here's the instructions to learn the SAF language...
1) Articulate your sentence as you normally would, but change your good grammar to something less perfect....
2) Take note of the punctuation, all you commas, full stops etc.
3) Replace all punctuation with vulgarities (e.g. KNN, CCB, F***ing etc.)
And yes, it took lots of will power not to be influenced by this language....
<< Food >>
On the day of enlistment, you will be told that lunch and dinner is 1.5 hours long, dun be fooled. Yah, 1.5 hours is for the cookhouse to serve its lunch, but you will get at most 20 minutes for your food and if you get that, thank god. If not, strive to eat as much as possible in 10 minutes, including queuing up and clearing up... hmmm that leaves you about 4 minutes to gobble down your food....
BUT, the food's really nice. NTUC foodfare's doing the catering and you will love it, but a word of caution here to those waiting to go inside, dun eat too much chicken drumstick or you will puke when you go inside....
<< Army Singing >>
Remember before the A Levels, we had a talk about memory and how our mind works... the one that says that our mind remembers the last thing we see or hear even though it may be the nicest thing to see or hear... and that is how it works... they barred you from all outside source of music and only let you hear the constant out-of-tune army singing and pretty soon you will have everyone singing it in the bathroom, buey tahan...
<< The Lessons >>
"Singapore was the impregnable fortress of the Great Britian, but we suffered the effects of WW II because we did not have a force of our own to protect the country...." damn it, I was made to sit through lessons like that, yes NE, but I prefer to call it propaganda, aimed at brainwashing all of us "to make us mentally prepared for NS, to sacifice for our country" duh... I won;t say much but whoever knows me well enough will noe how I feel about all this.. haizzz...
<< PT >>
The physical training is progressive but what I hate is the warming up, it's so long and you are expected to shout until your lungs give way, what the heck, we dun even have enough breath for the exercise and they still want us to shout, why do we have to shout? Cos we are turning from boys to man? What the heck....
<< Missing home >>
From time to time, you will get to see the control tower at Changi and at night as you look upon the mainland, you will find that Singapore had never looked so beautiful before. As planes passes by overhead, you would eish you were on it, flying out of Singapore to escape all these or be on one landing into Singapore so you can go home...
I still remebered one night, when I called my parents and they told me they missed me, tears almost fell out of my eyes and there was once when I got a leg cramp and I was told to continue marching despite of, I just could not control and almost cried again...but now that I am home for 2 times oredi, things looks better in the future...
<< Area Cleaning >>
Just some words of advise here, dun miss out a single spot:
- under your matress (the metal frame and wooden support)
- above and behind your metal cabinets
- under the bed
- between the bed and wooden cupboards
- windows ledges
- holes in the wall (to serve as patterns and to collect dust)
- mosquito netting
- fans and lights
- above the door
Actually there are many things that I really want to write, but either it would be classified as information not to be disclosed or I risk getting tekan if I wrote it and someone reads it and expose me cos those are my innermost feelings but it concerns specific people and so I shall not continue. Anyway, this is my longest entry yet...
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