Monday, April 11, 2005

Pl live firing and POI !!

Wow... It seems like a very long week this week. On Monday, we had our Platoon Live Firing. I was praying for a easy appointment, for example, firebase. To my relieve, I am part of the firebase. I am one of the M203 gunners who sit on a sandbag on top of the knoll! Haa... I don't even have to prone down on the wet floor. Those who are not firebase have to do the fire and movement drill, up the other side of the hill. From my direction, I am able to see them moving up. Looks very shag to me as the slope is quite steep.

Even though I do not have to prone on the floor, I am still soaking wet. It rained for the whole day and I was drenched during the morning rehearsal. In the end, I got abrasions. What a terrible experience. As a "reward" for that, I got the chance to fire off the White Star Illum. Best of all, it is not 1 White Star Illum, but 4 of them! What a chance. The tip of the White Star round is white, twice the length of normal grenade round. The experience is unexplainable. One word to describe it - Shiok! It feels better than firing the TPT (training purpose) round, aka, Curry Powder. Of course, the real grenade round explosion feels good too. But we did not use that during this live firing as it is quite dangerous.

Luckily, my abrasion is getting better the next day after I applied medication the previous night. Tuesday is the day we are heading back to Pulau Tekong for our POI (Protection of Installation). The Wing is divided into 2 platoons. Platoon 1 together with half of Platoon 2 and Platoon 3 with the other half of Platoon 2.

So now, new Platoon 1, Red Force, which I am in, is located at the Old Malay School and new Platoon 2, also our enemy, Blue Force, is at the old School Camp 2. This is also my first time having to sleep on concrete ground with shelter in Tekong for 5 days. It seems like a chalet. We are allowed to shower in the toilet. Best of all, we do not need to dig to shit! Proper sanitary system. This is what I called, civilization! The platoon is further divided into 6 sections. Each will have a mission and each mission is 8hours long. There are 6 missions spread across the 5 days during our stay; Ambush, Fighting Patrol, QRF (Quick Reaction Force), Reece, PAC/VAC (Personnel Access Control/Vehicular Access Control), and POI (which consist of sentries and prowlers).

My section's first mission is Ambush. It is a night mission therefore we have to be very tactical. Along the way to our ambush location, we had to look out for any enemies. It is one of the most enjoyable missions out of the 6. Along the way, we met enemy's Reece team. At first, we thought they were the fighting patrol, therefore, we took cover in the vegetation immediately seeing them in front moving towards our direction. When they were moving pass us, we fired at them, they ran. Later on, we then realize that they were not our primary target. What's even close is that before we attacked them while we are in hiding, they stopped right in front of us. One of them was even standing beside one of my friend and was talking, never even realize our existence! Haa...

Then, we continue to move on, and we also met the enemy's ambush team. Why do we always get onto the wrong target? Moving on to the ambush site, this time we could not be wrong because there will only be 3 teams moving out of their installation for missions. It is always the ambush team who wins the battle for training purpose. We have to go through the motion and let the enemy learn how to retrograde from an ambush.

The next mission is Fighting Patrol. This time, I had the chance to be an enemy. Not enemy of the other platoon but a group of people who try to disturb the operations of our own installation. So a group of us acted as terrorist with rifles, infiltrate into the installation and killing the Red Forces. It is very exciting even though we were killed in a very short while. Then here comes the FilmCrew. We were requested to run the whole scene again for them to film. Being enemy in the installation is a good advantage. We had a lot of sleeping time. I think I slept until I got a headache.

Third mission is QRF. It is also another slack mission. We were only activated when enemy, like the terrorist attack, is attacking our installation. This time, we were dealing with riot. When we went out to catch them, I was pulled away from my team and became a hostage! But it is also quite good. I can sit in the Rover and enjoy the cool breeze when the Rover moves.

4th mission, we did Reece. It is one of the most tiring missions. We have to go all the way to Camp 2 and get up-close to their installation to get information of their POL. I even ran out of water halfway through the mission. Worst, we were contacted twice and we had to run very fast to take cover into hiding. The first contact is when the enemy saw us walking along the road. The second contact is when someone at the PAC or Sentry saw Kelvin leopard crawl. A few of us fell when we tried to escape. That a shag mission. But in the end, we managed to get the information we needed. Lt Enric lost his map during the Reece mission. But the map was found by me when we had to take cover into the vegetation when a Rover is approaching on the way back to our Red Force installation. What a luck he got. If not for the Rover, I guess his map will be lost forever. By the time we got back to camp, it is already past midnight.

I managed to sleep for 1 or 2 hours when I was waken up by Conan, telling me that I am the next mission, PAC/VAC, section commander. At last I had a commander appointment since I stepped into OCS. PAC/VAC mission is simple. There is nothing much to plan except to organize the time table for shifts and the things they need to know, do and react. My mission was cut half way. We were told to retrieve all the concertina wires around our installation perimeter. We were also briefed we had our last and finale mission. We are going to send out a platoon size out to infiltrate and attack the Blue force, so do the Blue forces going to do to us. I am now part of the POL force doing sentry at on of the OP, Observation Post.

I heard stories about the Old Malay School, scary stories. I never expect to experience it during the stay. But that night, it creeps me. During stand-to, I can hear drums, Malay drums. At first, I thought someone from other OP is hitting the ammunition crates. But as time goes no during stand-to, the drums come to make sense. It is Malay drums we normally hear during weddings or special occasions. Beep beep beep, whistle signaling us stand-down. After the whistle stops, the drum stops. Creepy. It comes from a distance, most likely from the FIBUA (Fighting In Build UP Area, normally we used this to represent a build up area) village nearby. Not only I heard it, everyone in the Malay School heard it. It is not once, but twice, during another stand-to and stand-down.

Forget about the music I heard, it is very distracting. At night, visibility is poor. That’s why NVG, Night Vision Goggle was invented. The whole night during the mission, I was quite active. I used the NVG to scout around the area for any movements of the enemy. Looking through the NVG is fun; it is even amazing when I point it up into the clear dark sky. What do I see? Stars of course! I see hundreds and thousands more stars from the NVG than from naked eyes. The stars are beautiful. I could not think of any other words to describe it. It even the faintest stars were brightly seen through the NVG. As a astronomy fan myself, I enjoyed looking up the sky so much. Looking at stars through NVG stands second place before looking up the sky for shooting stars which I experienced when I was in rural Thailand more than a year ago.

Blue Forces arrived and tried to get into our installation, but were killed twice as we kept throwing grenades, simulated by light sticks, at them from high ground. They were completely wiped out as they concentrate their forces at one of the gap around our installation. Therefore, we were banned to use grenades and allow the enemy to infiltrate for them to go through the motion of having to attack us in FIBUA and over-run us.

After the mission, we retrieve most of the stores we needed to bring back to mainland and went to sleep. We moved out in the morning by Tonner, took a ferry to mainland and bus to Wing line. Cleaning the rifle is a tough job, especially pulling through the barrel. The carbon was very thick. Luckily I cleaned the other parts of the rifle in Tekong. It is much of the barrel to be cleaned. Later, it is book out after lunch!

Saturday, I spend my whole day resting at home. Sunday, at last I can have a whole day out shopping at Causeway Point with Yong Kang. I bought a few VCDs and music CDs. Time always seems to past so fast during weekend.

Now, Monday, I have to book-in at night. My buddy, Jeffrey, have to book-in by 3pm for his 16km road march he missed the other time. Oh well, that’s all folks. Time to enjoy my last few hours at home.

tata...

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Sunday, April 3, 2005

Boring week

It had being quite a boring week in camp. Most of the days, we only had lectures and more lectures. And not to forget, a lot of fatigue duties. We had to clean and return all the stores we borrowed from QM and also the commissioning parade fatigue duties which had ended yesterday night.

Yesterday, a number of us from my platoon was part of the carparking wardens. We are supposed to be only in-charge of the car traffic coming into the camp to the carparks allocated to them. It had being a long, busy, but exciting job. During the night, it is chaos. From out of no where, guests start pouring into one of the carparks, carpark G, and waiting for buses to pick them up. But there are no buses available there. We had no idea why they went there. Where had the Hotel Wing's marshals gone? Guests start to get impatient and 2 of my friends got scolded by the guests and even got their names written down.

It is really not our scope of job. One of my friend at the carpark G ran all the way down to carpark I to get one of the buses over. It is like a ET run. "They are just cadets. They are useless" is the comment my friend got by one of the guests. How can he say such a thing? Is he trying to say that his son was also useless? Sometimes life is just like that. There is nothing in this world we can do it perfectly.

It had being a very short weekend this week. Coming week is our platoon live firing. I got a 2nd M203 appointment. I always wonder why I am not holding any important appointments till now. Maybe it means I am most likely going to Artillery, so instructor is giving the appointments to the others who are staying in Infantry. Or maybe I am staying in Infantry therefore they hold my appointment back till when I am in pro-term, I will be given a more important role. But I really wish I am able to get into Artillery.

Sometimes I really wonder if I am in a very welfare Wing. Since I joined OCS as a cadet in Charlie Wing, I attended a number of Happy Hour. Hotel Wing was said to be welfare but they seldom have any of it, even thinking of having long weekends. I feel I am quite fortunate to be in Charlie Wing at this period of time. The day before the commissioning parade, we had our Happy Hour at the pool. BBQ and buffet were organized and we were allowed to play in the pool. And we really played. Some of us were tossed into the pool, including myself and some were even stripped naked. Luckily I was not one of them.

Time seems to fly fast and sometimes it is so slow. Another 6 more months, I will be my turn to commission; if I had that chance. Who knows what happens to me during the course before commission. Life is so unpredictable.

Forgot to say about the 16km road march on Thursday night. It had being months since I had my last 24km road march during BMT. It is very tiring and it is even worst when I was not feeling well being having flu that day. But luckily the H20 saved me some of my life even though I was almost dead at the end of the march. The pace was quite fast; covering 4 km in about 50mins. We completed the whole march in about 4 hours with a slow, about 500m, jog back to Wing line. As I always say, my Wing Commander is too 'garang'. At least I am still surviving here. And it really builds up my endurance.

So far for now, I am going to enjoy my last few hours at home. See you all next Saturday when I will have another long weekend. Pulau Tekong, here I come again!

tata...

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Friday, March 25, 2005

Ex. Spade

Hello all. I just came back from my Ex. Spade yesterday.

Today is Good Friday. Anniversary of Jesus' death on the cross. According to the Gospels, Jesus was put to death on the Friday before Easter Day. Since the early church Good Friday has been observed by fasting and penance. In the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Anglican traditions, the celebration of the Eucharist is suspended; liturgical service involves veneration of the cross, the Passion narrative from the Gospel of St. John, and communion using bread and wine consecrated the previous day, Maundy Thursday. Other forms of observance include prayer and meditation at the Stations of the Cross, a succession of 14 images, usually on wooden crosses, depicting Christ's crucifixion and the events leading up to it.

Back to Ex. Spade. It is the most difficult and shag exercise I ever had. First day first night, we have to did a Shell Scrape each and Fire-trench in buddy level. We dig and dig and dig and dig and dig for the whole night till next day afternoon. At last, we managed to finish about 90% of the Fire-trench by about 12pm. The only thing which needed touching up is the width of the trench and the Fire Overhead Protective Cover aka FOPK. What can get better than 2 of my instructor used my exercise buddy, Say Yei, and my Fire-trench to demonstrate how to build a FOPK because our trench is one of the better ones among the whole platoon... hee... They help us to widen our trench and build the FOPK but of course we did help out in removing the Clay soil and filling up the sand bags.

That will be 1 night with out any sleep. It is a important factor not to sleep during Ex. Spade because we will get either extras or confinement or both. In the end, fighting with Z monster is very much a difficult task; very physically demanding. During the first night, a few were caught sleeping. During the second night, the number increases and by 3rd night, it is also getting worst. The number who got caught in the Wing is as much as a platoon size. But that isn't the worst yet. Rain is a nightmare during this exercise. Soil is soft indeed but clay isn't. They are wet, sticky and heavy. Worst, it floods our Self-scrapes and trenches. My trench was covered with yellowish water from the clay. Slowly, I leveled myself down to find out what is the water level and it turns out to be above boots level, which means water will definitely flow into my boots. Say Yei is lucky as his side of the trench is higher than mine so I got all the water instead. Therefore, I used a bag to scope up the water like a pail for a well. But it is very time consuming. In the end, I gave up and jumped into the water. Inside my boots was only a bit wet, but now, it is flooded. The moment of time i jumped into the water, my mind could only think of the rotting feeling of my feet and the number of days to end of the exercise. My feet felt crumpled and wet that night that even when I change to a new pair of socks and poured a lot of powder in my boots, it is still bad.

Second night was nothing much than touching up our Shell Scrape and Fire-trenches. As our trench is already completed, we went out to help out with other trenches. That was the night when Wing Commander came around to approve on our trenches. It will be either pass or fail. Those who fail will have to dig again during Ex. Dumping. Until now, I still do not know when Ex. Dumping is. Of course, Say Yei and my trench is approved and it is completed thanks to the help of my instructors.

I must say that it is the dirtiest camp I ever had too. Also, it is the most irritating period to get heat rash. It is quite bad during the second night.

Third day evening, we had a change of appointment. From a non appointment, I became a GPMG gunner. I was demoralized but also excited. I have to carry a over 10kg GPMG but got a chance to fire blanks rounds on a GPMG. It is a good opportunity and best of all, 250 blank rounds. That evening, there are 2 turn-outs. There are actually a lot of turn-outs during the past 2 nights but this 2 turn-outs are the worst of all. Say Yei is my GPMG Assistant and Jason Koh, also non-appointment holder from another trench, became my GPMG Commander. The GPMG trench, which is luckily prepared for us, was so far up the knoll and so far away from the Platoon Rendezvous Venue, RV (did I get name correct? I think so). During turn out, Beep Beep, 2 whistles, Full Battle Order, FBO, to assemble at RV. Not to our surprise, we were the last to be out there. My neck is breaking; slinging the gun around my neck with so many other accessories to carry. Say Yei's job is not easy either. He has an over 10kg tripod to carry too. The second Turn-out is in-fact due to Cat 1, Lighting hazard. Therefore exercises have to be cut and to head for shelter. But that night, there is no rain. Lucky, I do not want a wet GPMG trench for the last night there. We did rehearsals and also we had 2 missions to complete. First mission was to assault platoon 2 sector. Lucky for the exercise there are 2 GPMG teams. I am part of team 1 and team 2 is just a few meters away from the RV. Therefore, team 2 volunteered to be part of the assault mission as the mission only requires 1 GPMG team attached to 3 sections. So my team stayed in our trench and took turns to sleep.

That night was the longest night. We waited and waited for hours. We never even realized the assaulting team in my platoon went to assault until one of my platoon mate came to get Say Yei to GPMG team 2's trench to look after their tripod. After the assault, we waited and waited for platoon 3 to assault us. At last, when they started their assault, I had the satisfaction to fire at will with the GPMG. Half-way through the firing, I felt slight pain in my ears all because of the loudness GPMG produces. Jason even had to use ear plugs as the fire is tilted nearer to him. It is a sensation to fire GPMG.

After the mission, it is time to pack up and cover up every thing we dig. Not to forget, my heat rash is getting worst. By the time I reach camp and took off my top, my whole body was covered with red rashes. Some of my platoon mate thinks it is too disgusting to look at, so you can imagine how serious it is. I did not have a very good lunch in camp. Only ate the chicken wings and wedges. I could not finish the rice as the rashes keep irritating me. It is not itchy, it hurts. In the end, I went to report sick for heat rash. I was expecting an Att C but only got a excuse uniform for 5 days. Sucks.

Cleaning the weapon in camp is also a physically demanding. People kept falling asleep as they clean their weapons. Surprisingly, I did not but was laughing all the way when I look at them slowly falling asleep as they were cleaning. Now I realized how I look like when I fell asleep while I cleaned my GMPG yesterday during CAT 1 at Serria Wing's training shed. Opps...

I could not wait to go home that evening. By 5.15pm, I booked-out. Rushing for book-out, I forgot to bring my wallet home. Never mind, as I am not taking public transport. I slept in my dad's car so soundly that it seems a second had only passed when I saw my dad entering the carpark of my estate.

I was waiting for my mom to be back home to cook dinner, but she was not home yet. I ate a slice of Swiss roll and some bean curd. Later at 7pm, I felt so tired that I lay on my bed without switching off my computer. Immediately, I fell asleep, so exhausted that I slept till next day 8am. I have never felt so tired even when I am in Poly doing all my projects and burning midnight oil.

What I had learned from this camp is that a team has to work as a team. Everyone has their part to do. Everyone has to help each other. Every single mistake, the team has to bear the consequences. It is about determination, endurance, commitment, fighting spirit, team spirit, contribution, selfless, attitude and discipline.

tata...

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Sunday, March 20, 2005

LWE

Long Weekend? I don't think so.

This book out on Friday is planned to be our long weekend, but is it?

No. We had homework to do.

What? Homework? Army also has homework? Cannot be.

Yes. For some reason, when you are in OCS, there will be.

I had not being enjoying my weekend much as before ever since I am in OCS. It is either due to homework or the weekend is very short. Haiz...

Anyway, this week was SOC test week. I met a timing of 8.53mins on Monday. But then Wing Com wanted more people to get 8.30 timing. Therefore, On Thursday, those who did not meet the Wing's timing will have to run again. That includes me. Gosh...

So I ran again on Thursday and got 8.42 timing. That is quite good already. But then Wing Com still wants more. He want those who did not meet the timing to run again during the retest next week with those who fail in SOC. By the way, the passing timing is 9.29 and below.

tata...

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Sunday, March 6, 2005

Barcode

A line of color can make a difference in life

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Platoon Field Camp

Wow... It had being a very tiring week. On Monday morning, and I mean morning, at around 3.30am, we had a turn out. And this is my first time getting a turn out and it is a nightmare, really. During the turn out at that time, I feel like I had not woken up but instead, it is like in a bad dream.

During the turn out, we were punished of course. Push ups and crunches are expected. Down, Down, DOWN...! Didn't do proper push up right? Never mind, start from ZERO! DOWN, DOWN, DOWN...! Didn't do proper push up right? Never mind, start from ZERO! DOWN, DOWN, DOWN...! You all are tired rite?! Crunches position CHANGE! Push up position CHANGE! Crunches position CHANGE! UP, UP, UP...! (And it goes on and on and on. I didn't even know how long we had being doing that. But I know that my arms are breaking and I could not raise myself up the floor once I go down. The worst thing is they find small mistakes that we made such as we did not update the parade state board.)

Continued...
Why some of you are wearing long 4? Never mind, whole lot, I give you all 3mins to change to your PT kit... GO! (After we are back from changing, we were again punished and then...) I give you all 8mins to change to your long 4 and fall-in in the parade square in your full battle order... GO!

It is really shag. My arms were shivering as I change into my long 4. The worst thing is not yet started. The push ups were just a warm up for the day. After we fall in, we were once again punished for late. No matter how early we fall-in, we will definitely be punish, no doubt. Then, we went on and move to a field and did a deliberate ambush. It is kind of like a refresh of our memory. Then, here comes the peak of the day. Artillery bombing! One injured in his chest! What's next? Stretcher out and evacuate him. We ran all the way from the field, around discovery centre and back to Wing line. Along the way, we had a few more casualties. So how? No choice but to carry them back? one of them dead, so have to fireman lift him back! It is really shag. When I carried the stretcher on my shoulder, it really hurts and my back was almost injured. We took turns at certain intervals. By the time we reach Wing line, it is almost 8am. Our Wing Commander gave a de-brief on the importance of the day's turn out. It is to test our readiness.

That whole day after the turn out, we were all fighting the Z monster. Lecture was after the turn out. We were all trying to keep ourselves awake during lecture but in the end, alot fell asleep... Stand! Sit! Stand! Sit! Stand! Sit! This is what we get for sleeping. I hate it when he commanded us to do that as it really hurt my back. Can't remember what we did the whole day already. I am so sleepy that I could not think.

Then, next day will be our platoon field camp. It is a Marsiling. Marsiling?! It is so near to my house! True enough, it is. I can see my neighborhood from across the expressway, SLE. When we were moving from the place where we alight the bus to the training shed near the expressway, we were contacted quite a number of times. It is a standard training package we get. Platoon movement is so much difficult to control than a section size. And there are alot of running to do. The best thing is the reserve section who is not attacking will be the ones who are relaxing while others do their job. During this field camp, you will see all sorts of people with their mask off. And it is the time when you can see how the person will behave and react to impromptu situation. When they get nervous, they will tend to do things anxiously and never plan their man well. It is a time to test their ability to think under stress and pressure.

During the last light, we did our harboring drill. It is actually a simple drill. We had to set up our harboring area and stay in there for the 2 nights. We were supposed to take turns to sleep to guard our place; instead, everyone went to sleep. The next day is quite a relaxing day. We had to do the Operation-Order, Ops-Order, for the following day mission. In the afternoon, we went to do our NVG or something. Went to the enemy site to access the situation there. It is like doing a reccee. Then, we had to go back and do adjustment to our Operation of move and attack to the information we collected and present our final Order.

We had rehearsals on how we are going to attack too. By the time everything is finish, it is almost 12am. At 2am, we are supposed to move off for our mission at .85. We reach our Assembly Area, AA, which is around Mandai area or lower. All I know is we have to walk around 3-3.5km to reach our Form-Up-Area, FUP. It is quite a slow walk and we "hollanded" once. But lucky it is not too far. One of the obstacles we had to cross is the drain. It is filled with muddy water which is around above my knee. What does it mean? there are water in my boots and we cannot air our boots until we go back to Wing line.

There are 2 attacks. First is by the appointment holders for Ex-Zebra. The rest who don't have appointment would have to do the 2nd attack which is to breach through the concertina wires before attacking up the hill to the enemy (from Hotel Wing). The second battle is much more interesting and there are more fierce fire fights. I was sitting there on the slope watching them doing their movement and it seems like a real war. But those who went for the 2nd battle fight got very dirty as they did alot of proning.

I do not really know I should thank the person who got Att C till Wednesday or not. If he is there, I would be the dirty team who went for the second battle fight. But in the end, I felt it is better to be a appointment holder for the exercise.

When we went back to Wing line, we cleaned our equipment and after lunch clean arms. We even had a lecture and discussion session conducted by Wing Commander. It is also the time when we fight with Z monster. At night, we were scolded by our Assistant Platoon Commander, APC. It is because we did not spend more time to clean our arms and some of us are caught by one of the instructor for sleeping while we are suppose to clean the arms.

I think I am getting more and sicker of the instructors. Sometimes, they are so unreasonable. When we are doing our things, they did not take notice, but when we are not doing anything when instructions are given, they saw us slacking. It is always the case. Sometimes, I really wanted to punch those instructors on their face.

During the night, I drop dead and everyone should be too. I almost could not wake up in the morning. We do not have any 5BX, which is such a relieve. But a self accessed lecture at the computer room. Then, we had a GPMG theory retest. The first test was done atrociously and around more than 3/4 of the whole wing failed. Therefore, we had to take a retest and god sends us 2 wonderful instructors to take us. They "helped" us in the test as they told us that they know that we do not have the time to study for the test and if they did not "help" us, we will sure fail again. True! We do not have time to study. Worst of all, the retest paper is even difficult than the one we had during the first test. Even the multiple choice questions were so difficult.

After lunch, we went to Peng Kang hill and the FOFO site to access the enemy location and surroundings. It is so tiring climbing the 2 hills. Moreover, we had to march there from Wing line and back to Wing line. SOC is the next lesson. It is the 4th lesson and there is a run down. Because we just came back from field camp, our fitness level had dropped and the timing for my SOC is quite bad. I did 11.01mins, and it is my worst record. Haa...

After SOC, it is Happy Hour! Lt Teo from platoon 3 is leaving us and is going to 1SIR to be, don’t know a CO or ACO. Not too sure also. He reminds me of my poly lecture, Mr Goh. The way they speak is almost the same. At around 11pm, at last we are able to book out without any stand-by-area.

Oh it is already 1am in the Sunday morning. Yesterday, I went to Wannie's 21st Birthday BBQ at East Coast Park. There are Qiuhua, Cheryl, Yong Cheng, Webb, Sept, Jenson, Patuma and Wannie's Secondary school friends. It is a small birthday celebration but it is actually quite a nice way to celebrate. She invited alot of people. But quite a number of people are unable to attend. Anyway, Happy 21st Birthday to Wannie! It is the most important year for her. Every time people celebrate their 21st birthday, it reminds me of my 21st birthday which is so lonely in camp during my BMT days.

Yesterday I had wasted my whole morning and afternoon. I did nothing much at home, only using my computer to surf the net. Oh well, I had to get busy when I wake up later in the morning. Haa...

tata...

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Saturday, February 19, 2005

Social Night

This week is such a short week. Valentine’s Day on Monday and I get to book out at night and book in the following Monday morning. Yesterday, I get to book out again in the afternoon as my OCS Charlie Wing is having a social night at Hard Rock Café Orchard.

All of us are suppose to bring a date out for the dinner as it is part of the criteria for the night. We have to socialize with other people with our dates during the dinner. So I got Qiuhua to be my date for that night.

We were not suppose to drive that night because my Wing Commander said that he do not want anyone to get into any accident and get OOC from that. But who cares!! Haa… I still drive there. I went to pick up Qiuhua and head to Orchard. Not wanting to be caught, I parked my car at Far East Shopping Centre.

I was expecting a big café area in Hard Rock but to my surprise, it is small and quite cramp. A lot of people were there and quite a lot of us do not get to find a table. Shaun brought her friend Liqin and Allan brought Lynn, of course.

There are games, band and we even had our own Charlie Idol. They were all fun and exciting. There is one game which Allan had to kiss our instructor on his cheek. The game goes like these… 2 girls was called upon to the stage to join the instructor’s date. So, in the 3 of them, 2 of them have to kiss the instructor on the cheek when he is blind folded. The instructor has to guess whose kiss is his date. But there is a twist here. Instead of getting the 2 girls to kiss him, the girl’s date got up to kiss him! So, by the time the instructor made a guess after he took off his blind fold, he was surprise! Looking at his facial expression, it makes us wanting to laugh even more than when we were enjoying him being kissed. The even funny thing is Allan told us he has a hairy cheek! Haa…

After the dinner, we did a few photo taking sessions as a platoon and some of us head back home and some went clubbing. That marks the end of ST1 and the start of ST2. It is going to be hell!

tata…

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Monday, February 14, 2005

Happy Valentine's Day

Surprise Surprise... Good to see you all here... Today is Valentine's Day and I am allowed to book out for a night out!!

It is a privilege for us to book out during a non public holiday. But who cares! As long as I am able to book out, I will definitely take it.

Today in camp, everyone seems like in a Monday blues mood. We even had 3 stand-by area today, but was not punished for mistakes because our Duty Instructor, DI, today is in a very good mood. And best of all, we are allowed to book out at 6pm instead of 7pm.

But tomorrow I have to leave home at about 6am and by 7am I have to fall-in for first parade.

Anyway, enjoy! Wishing everyone out there a Happy Valentine's Day.

tata...

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Sunday, February 13, 2005

End of long break

New Year's long break is coming to an end for me today. In another 1 hour or so, I will be leaving home for camp again. This coming week, there will be IPPT trial and test. I really do not know if I am able to make it through this time.

During this long break, I ate alot, really alot. It caused me to gain some weight. It's bad news. If I do not pass my IPPT this coming week, I would have a high chance of getting OOC by end of ST1.

Anyway, the minimum I would like to get would be pass. Pass is enough for me at this time. I know my own physical fitness and my limits till now. It would be easy for me to aim for silver if I had the test few weeks ago. But I have not being doing well lately. Maybe is because of this New Year's feast I had, maybe I had been slacking, maybe because I am not pushing myself enough. One thing I must agree upon is that I am lazy when comes to exercise. But I am not when it comes to my favorite sports like, cycling, walking and hiking/tracking. There are many other sports which I like.

Got to have my dinner and prepare for the event I dread for later.

tata...

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Tuesday, February 8, 2005

Happy Lunar New Year!!

Hi everyone! Wishing all of you out there a Happy Lunar New Year!! Booked out this morning at about 11.30 and was watching tv since then at home... haha... Yeah... At last I can enjoy myself during this long break.

Now, I am waiting for the reunion dinner at home. So sad no one will be coming to my house to join us for dinner like previous years. Oh well... but they will be coming on the second day of Chinese New Year... haha...

tata...

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