ah, what a week. my original idea for a blog post changed as the week changed. Ok i must be very careful what i blog, cos it's an offence to publish on the Web anything about the army. i dont know to what degree it is la.. like.. if i say 'SAF uniform is green' omg is that an offence.
Hence i'll try to be as vague as possible when i go into the details. (whee what a paradox eh.)
anyway. the first 2 days were ridiculously slack. it was shooting practice and only 2 platoons could go at once, so that resulted in alot of free time. We could even take afternoon naps. ha. But it got back to normal on wed, then thurs/fri was the live range, where we had our shooting test. I THINK i passed, not very sure though. :S
The rest of the entry is quite long and wordy, if you're busy , you can stop here. thanks for coming chowz
i actually made some blog entries while i was in camp. cos alot of waiting time and stuff, so i wrote like a diary kinda thing.
So if you wanna ask 'how is army', here are my thoughts for various days.
I fell sick on Mon (well i was already coughing since the previous week but it escalated), so here's an entry from then:
"Misery. A feeling evoked by external factors, unfavourable and detestable factors. Waking up to not being able to swallow saliva without feeling like someone's twisting my oesophagus (throat). Nose going all runny as it was raining in the early morning and it was really cold.
Holding on to the small glimmer of hope that i'll get better as the day progressed, these very hopes were dashed as my fellow bunk/platoon mates announced their own misery with synchronized coughing. How does one get better with trillions of germs surrounding him?
I hoped that 5BX would be toned down due to a slight drizzle and wet floor, but i was terribly wrong. The pace was normal, or even quicker than usual. Getting wet with sweat and rain all over my body with strong gusts of wind accenting the effects. Doing crunches and pushups on soaking wet ground. Then changing to a Tshirt which absorbs as much sweat as plastic. I was stuck with a layer of water on my body while marching. Oh yes, the wind was relentlesss. With the onset of fever, i had to gobble down the oily tasteless noodles and a cold hard square chicken-filet thing.
I continue my fervent prayers in hope that at long last, God will actually answer my prayers. Doubt creeps in and queries form, but i cannot falter. i cannot lose faith. In an environment of little rest, hostility, sickness, misery, we all need something to cling on to, somethign to look forward to, something to seek comfort in. Hope is a very dangerous thing to lose.
As i squeeze my eyes shut to end the nightmare, i can only open them to the harsh reality. There's no escape. I have to press on."
And another entry on Wednesday:
"Time flies past. Time comes to a standstill. It's ironic how the only constant in the human world can be perceived very differently at different times.
In army the anecdotes are simple. The physical trainings seem to never end. Yet, when we have our breaks, these breaks seem to end before they even begin.
I feel alot better now. The medicine that the doctor gave seems to work, though they have a weird side effect of raising my heartbeat. I timed it, and my heart was beating at 100 beats per minute when i was just lying on my bed. It kinda frightens me that i may get cardiac arrest or something.
Was having an interesting conversation with amanda last night, something along the lines of 'if you could change something about your life, what would you change?' Like.. go back in time and do something differently.
In this scenario, perspective once again comes into play. One of my biggest regrets in life is now no longer a regret after meeting amanda. If i hadn't done things that way, things wouldn't be what they are now. =)
Vague, i know. If you wanna know more you can ask me personally :)
~~~
ok that ends my post. probably gonna go sleep. bye.
Friday, 1 February 2008
Saturday, 26 January 2008
how is army?
The above question has officially made it into my 'top 10 most rhetorical questions' list, among 'eh you cut your hair ah?' and 'how are you'.
I was asked this about 12039 times today in church, all of which i gave the vaguest answer in the world : 'ok'. And when i felt like talking more i just added a 'quite tough, but can handle' and when i felt like saying even more i'll add 'everyone is fallin sick' (the Tekong virus thing i mentioned previously)
grr, didn't get to play basketball, as the cars totally covered the whole court. and the meeting ends at 3pm, i've to go by 4+. so.. no point staying in church and wasting time. nvm, come home then can nap.. and can slowly pack. sigh, book in again. see you in a week.
I was asked this about 12039 times today in church, all of which i gave the vaguest answer in the world : 'ok'. And when i felt like talking more i just added a 'quite tough, but can handle' and when i felt like saying even more i'll add 'everyone is fallin sick' (the Tekong virus thing i mentioned previously)
grr, didn't get to play basketball, as the cars totally covered the whole court. and the meeting ends at 3pm, i've to go by 4+. so.. no point staying in church and wasting time. nvm, come home then can nap.. and can slowly pack. sigh, book in again. see you in a week.
the first bookout post
ok the previous post was a bit short for a never-blog-for-14-days-and-just-come-out-of-confinement-post but it was because last night i was pretty tired and rushing to unpack stuff and such .. so i decided to write another one. i dont know how long this will be, probably very long cos i've alot to rant about. i guess i'll write till i have nothing left to say.
so if you're a busy person, navigate elsewhere. alt f4 + u is a very quick and fun thing to do
Not that i'm not feeling tired now.. my flu is making me feel weak and drowsy. Yea i got the flu last tues i think. around that time. then recovered abit.. then got it back on friday night. Seriously, Tekong has a Tekong Flu Virus. about 80% of the camp is sick, and 90% is coughing. for example, during the last RO (routine order, something like a debrief of the day), every 3 seconds someone coughed. I'M NOT EXAGGERATING. i counted.
and well it doesnt help that i was with my sick girlfriend the whole afternoon. probably caught a few million germs. but it was worth it =) felt slightly recharged after meeting her. just slightly.
get well soon girlfriend!
so what is army like? you may ask. i must be careful what i post here because apparently it's a criminal offence to leak secrets of the SAF onto the internet. i dont wanna get charged and get confined (stay in for the weekend and can't come out) for no reason.
Well, it's tough. First few days were physically challenging, given i was slacking my ass off after As and didn't exercise besides the weekly basketball. After my body got accustomed to the rigorous exercise, it became more mental than physical. My mind told my body to quit when my body could perfectly handle the stresses.
I recall on the 6th or 7th day i was feeling extremely homesick. Missed my mom, who was delighted everytime i called and said hi and talked for 1-2 minutes. :S
missed my gf who is stuck with her mundane job for 5 months, whom i'm connected by just the sense of hearing, listening to her speak on the phone. touch, sight, taste, smell , all absent.
missed my bestie who kept saying she has noone to sms anymore when i was msging her every night
missed the people in church, whom i stil wonder how they will react when they see me again after 2 weeks.
missed walking from point A to point B without a given time limit.
It got better as the number of days to bookout got under 7, as it became a rapid countdown. every day was still packed with activities, sprinting and running and doing chinups and pushups and the lame 'warmup exercises' (CPT 1) which is done before every physical training which tires you out before the training even starts.
My happy countdown mood was dampened when i found out amanda was sick too, about wed or thurs? Couldnt fully concentrate on whatever i was doing, however fun it was. wed and thurs was ridiculous, damn slack and got canteen breaks. thurs and fri we shot with rifles, how fun =)
I got about 4/6 for both kneeling/squatting position, and a perfect score for standing position (snap target - target comes out for 4seconds and disappears)
i totally sucked at prone position. i just couldn't see the target, it was too small, and i didn't really get the correct position to be in. it's hard to lie on the floor and still prop your rifle up well to line up your crosshair thing with the target :S
Today wasn't that great either. amanda was still pretty much sick, coughing quite badly and feeling crappy. Hence i had to talk more as her throat probably felt really terrible so .. she can't talk that much la. i dawned upon a shocking realisation too, but i shan't say it here cos it's hard to explain.
I felt bad in the morning but took panadol so i was ok for the afternoon. met chris too, was pretty fun disturbing her, and just talking to my best friend. she zhai la, got 9 points for 'O's leh.
mood was dampened again when amanda called and said she couldnt come for the dinner we were supposed to have, as her dad was fetching her home. oh well.
now? i dont feel that great . kinda flu-y kinda feeling, hope i get well before i book-in , otherwise i'll be doing all the pushups while sick. zzz. (next week is 'punishment week'. the sergeants supposedly can't punish us much for the first 2 weeks. like can't pump us yet. then this coming week can le. so i suppose they'll tekan us like mad)
i shall go sleep early, as girlfriend suggests, it's rare that i get more than 7 hours of sleep.
ah yes, army has this policy that all recruits must get 7 hours of rest. yes, rest, not sleep. The lightsout timing is 2230 (10.30pm) and wakup time is 0530 (5.30AM) , so assuming we fall asleep immediately we should have 7 hours of sleep.
But of course that's not possible, it takes about 5-10 minutes for an average person to fall asleep, and that's assuming he isn't disturbed by the noises of people running to their bunks, people packing their stuff into their cupboard, and snoring buddies after lights out.
And, some idiots who set their alarm at 430AM and snooze all the way till 5+ when everyone wakes out.
So it works out to about 5.5 hours of sleep for the past 14 days. wow, that's little. i averaged 8-10 hours during holidays. no wonder everyone in Tekong falls sick.
so if you're a busy person, navigate elsewhere. alt f4 + u is a very quick and fun thing to do
Not that i'm not feeling tired now.. my flu is making me feel weak and drowsy. Yea i got the flu last tues i think. around that time. then recovered abit.. then got it back on friday night. Seriously, Tekong has a Tekong Flu Virus. about 80% of the camp is sick, and 90% is coughing. for example, during the last RO (routine order, something like a debrief of the day), every 3 seconds someone coughed. I'M NOT EXAGGERATING. i counted.
and well it doesnt help that i was with my sick girlfriend the whole afternoon. probably caught a few million germs. but it was worth it =) felt slightly recharged after meeting her. just slightly.
get well soon girlfriend!
so what is army like? you may ask. i must be careful what i post here because apparently it's a criminal offence to leak secrets of the SAF onto the internet. i dont wanna get charged and get confined (stay in for the weekend and can't come out) for no reason.
Well, it's tough. First few days were physically challenging, given i was slacking my ass off after As and didn't exercise besides the weekly basketball. After my body got accustomed to the rigorous exercise, it became more mental than physical. My mind told my body to quit when my body could perfectly handle the stresses.
I recall on the 6th or 7th day i was feeling extremely homesick. Missed my mom, who was delighted everytime i called and said hi and talked for 1-2 minutes. :S
missed my gf who is stuck with her mundane job for 5 months, whom i'm connected by just the sense of hearing, listening to her speak on the phone. touch, sight, taste, smell , all absent.
missed my bestie who kept saying she has noone to sms anymore when i was msging her every night
missed the people in church, whom i stil wonder how they will react when they see me again after 2 weeks.
missed walking from point A to point B without a given time limit.
It got better as the number of days to bookout got under 7, as it became a rapid countdown. every day was still packed with activities, sprinting and running and doing chinups and pushups and the lame 'warmup exercises' (CPT 1) which is done before every physical training which tires you out before the training even starts.
My happy countdown mood was dampened when i found out amanda was sick too, about wed or thurs? Couldnt fully concentrate on whatever i was doing, however fun it was. wed and thurs was ridiculous, damn slack and got canteen breaks. thurs and fri we shot with rifles, how fun =)
I got about 4/6 for both kneeling/squatting position, and a perfect score for standing position (snap target - target comes out for 4seconds and disappears)
i totally sucked at prone position. i just couldn't see the target, it was too small, and i didn't really get the correct position to be in. it's hard to lie on the floor and still prop your rifle up well to line up your crosshair thing with the target :S
Today wasn't that great either. amanda was still pretty much sick, coughing quite badly and feeling crappy. Hence i had to talk more as her throat probably felt really terrible so .. she can't talk that much la. i dawned upon a shocking realisation too, but i shan't say it here cos it's hard to explain.
I felt bad in the morning but took panadol so i was ok for the afternoon. met chris too, was pretty fun disturbing her, and just talking to my best friend. she zhai la, got 9 points for 'O's leh.
mood was dampened again when amanda called and said she couldnt come for the dinner we were supposed to have, as her dad was fetching her home. oh well.
now? i dont feel that great . kinda flu-y kinda feeling, hope i get well before i book-in , otherwise i'll be doing all the pushups while sick. zzz. (next week is 'punishment week'. the sergeants supposedly can't punish us much for the first 2 weeks. like can't pump us yet. then this coming week can le. so i suppose they'll tekan us like mad)
i shall go sleep early, as girlfriend suggests, it's rare that i get more than 7 hours of sleep.
ah yes, army has this policy that all recruits must get 7 hours of rest. yes, rest, not sleep. The lightsout timing is 2230 (10.30pm) and wakup time is 0530 (5.30AM) , so assuming we fall asleep immediately we should have 7 hours of sleep.
But of course that's not possible, it takes about 5-10 minutes for an average person to fall asleep, and that's assuming he isn't disturbed by the noises of people running to their bunks, people packing their stuff into their cupboard, and snoring buddies after lights out.
And, some idiots who set their alarm at 430AM and snooze all the way till 5+ when everyone wakes out.
So it works out to about 5.5 hours of sleep for the past 14 days. wow, that's little. i averaged 8-10 hours during holidays. no wonder everyone in Tekong falls sick.
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