it ends today... almost 2 wks of block leave after tekong... tml i gotta report to a new place, in de next stage of my NS life... signals institute in choa chu kang.. a rather unknown place for me, coz my frens are all either sispec or OCS, so i heard lots of stuff abt those 2 places, but not signals institute.. haf heard many versions of stories abt life in signals... some say it's a slack vocation, some say it's not really that slack afterall... but i guess i juz hafta go experience de life there myself...

packed my bags ytd nite.. hafta admit that i became a little short-tempered during de process of packing... guess my always laid-back attitude towards army life took a little turn ytd... mayb there's a sign of grumpiness involved.. grumpy that i gotta serve de country, especially after 1 wk plus of civilian lifestyle... kinda regret that some of my behaviour towards my mother was rather unacceptable ytd nite, juz becoz i dun feel gd..

this 1 wk plus of block leave was quite well-spent... really sort of like returned to my old lifestyle.. kicking ball, watching movies, 'swimming', going out wif frens, especially those i havent seen for 10 wks.... i tink i'll try to make time for these frens, so it wont be another 10 wks b4 i meet them again...

some days back, was flipping thru de video tapes i got, and watching thru some of them... was quite surprised that i got videos of some stuff which i forgot i haf... one of which is a jap drama which i followed quite some yrs back... its english title is 'always de two of us', jap title is 'itsumo futari de'... i do watch jap dramas, but i rarely follow all, meaning i juz catch a couple of episodes for some dramas... to say de truth, de jap dramas that i do follow are those that star takuya kimura inside... however, itsumo futari de is de only jap drama which i followed which dont haf takuya kimura... n now i re-watching de whole drama agn online, but i doubt i can complete everything by today... but nvm, i'll continue next wk when i book out...

ytd nite watched de 2 variety shows of jacky wu on channel u... in 1 show, there was this game involving chinese idioms, and one of de idioms tested was 'sui yu er an' (随遇而安 ) for those who dun understand, this means not to worry too much and be calm as life goes on, even if stuff crops up.. i tink i shld haf this kind of mentality as i move on in life... i haf been too much of a worrier, and this isnt exactly gd for me... kinda forgot abt asakura yoh from 'shaman king', who wants a easy life but wont worry too much... his fav phrase is 'de situation will sort out itself', de chinese version being de one abt de bridge straightening itself when de boat reaches... guess i shld be like that...

oh man, wad a messy entry sia.. thoughts flying everywhere and de paragraphs dun seem to haf a link to each other =/ well anyway, tink i stop here first ba... next time den continue wif another entry..

been a real long time since i last updated... everytime de book outs are nvr enough and time are spent either wif com games or going out.. gonna graduate in 2 days' time.. my time at tekong isnt really considered monotonous, coz a lot of stuff happened.. i guess 2day will be de time i pen down some of de experiences n feelings i had in bmt..

Warning: this post may be very long, coz it depends on how much i remember abt wad happened over de past 9 wks...

could still rmb de day b4 enlistment when i was thinking abt which company i will enter.. was thinking that mayb it will go in alphabetical order, so likely could be coy L, M or O... that day heard from ant that coys L, M and S were filled up that day, so i wont enter it... so it leaves coys O, R, T, U, V, W left... of all de coys i haf heard of their names, wad Leopard, Mohawk, Orion, Viper, Whiskey etc etc... only de coy R i nvr heard of its name b4..

on de enlistment day, heng heng tio that i got into de R company, and learned its name since on... Raven... since that day on, physical training, regimental lifestyle all came along...

had 3 IPPT in total in BMT, first 2 were juz simulation tests, while de last one is de actual test... failed de first 2 terribly, as my 2.4 timings were horrible.. first was 14:11, second was 14:48... till now i still dun understand how my timing can worsen wif all those physical trainings... on de day of de last test, i was determined not to fail, coz i dun wanna go back for re-tests, especially during block leave... chiong all de way in 2.4... at abt de 1km mark, both my shins were starting to hurt a lot, but i juz pushed on... at de first 2 tests, at de last stretch of abt 100 to 150m, i was able to sprint till de finish line, but de 3rd one i juz had no more strength to do so... in de end my timing for 3rd test was 11:54... finally a pass and i was real glad abt it, although after that i couldn't march back wif de rest of de platoon as my shins were too pained to do so...

in infantry life there's always outfield training, and de two major events of outfield in BMT is field camp and sit test... field camp is 6 days 5 nights... i believe field camp is definitely a new experience for all, if not most ppl, even those who go for camping or wadsoever.. 3 nights were spent sleeping in bashas, somewhat similar to tents, while 2 nights were spent sleeping in shell scrapes, oso known as 'graves' to some ppl... in de 4th day there's a technical break, where we finally can haf a shower and haf out-rations as meals.. out-rations are like takeaways like that, takeaways from de cookhouse... while de rest of de days we didnt haf showers and only had combat rations as meals... combat rations are food that are packaged in packs, juz imagine squeezing pasta out from a packet and that is abt how combat ration is like...

sit test is short form for situational test... a 3 days 2 nights thing... de 2nd and 3rd day consist of 'missions' for us to complete... for eg de overall mission is to rescue a hostage from a cell, n each mission consists of 6 small sub-missions for us to complete, like trying to cross a river of corrosive substance using several wooden poles... each group of recruits consists of ppl from different platoons, so we get to mingle wif ppl not from our platoon... at each sub-mission 1 guy is appointed as IC while another is appointed as 2IC... throughout de sit test we are judged by officers who came for their re-service, so most of them are like in their 30s or 40s le... for me, i was only appointed as 2IC for one sub-mission n that sub-mission was a total failure... we totally haf no idea of wad to do, or even how to start, but it doesnt really bother me as i wasn't really on into doing good during de sit test... oh ya, and each person was appointed a role during sit test, for eg navigator, medic, demolition etc, and each has their own roles to do... i suay suay tio medic and i hafta carry de stretcher all around during missions, which is damn tiring, considering we hafta walk a long distance during de missions...

in BMT we oso get to work wif weapons.. we each haf our own M16 assigned to us and we did haf a chance to fire live rounds, ie rounds that can kill... i wasnt really that nervous or scared coz i fired live rounds b4 during sec sch ncc... however i was oso cautious not to mis-fire, which means firing when not given de permission to... luckily i didnt but i heard some ppl did and in 1 case a sergeant was almost killed... i heard that it's like de firer thought his weapon is clear, ie no more rounds inside, but in actual fact there is, so he fire off and a bullet came out, when de muzzle is damn close to a sergeant... also, we oso got GAC, grenade assault course, whereby we get to throw real grenades... for this i was quite nervous coz after we got de grenades we hafta wait for de previous grp to finish b4 we go in, so we gotta carry de grenades wif us, and i was quite nervous that later de grenade accidentally explode or wad... but in de end de whole thing was quite fast as we juz threw and took cover and that's all le... de explosion wasn't as loud as i expected...

of coz in BMT, there are also de route marches, where we had 5 in total... 4km, 8km, 12km, 16km and 24km... couldnt really rmb wad happened for de 4km one.. 8km i had a tough time coz i was at de back and i had to keep jogging to close up as de front ppl nvr stick close enough... 12km was de easiest for me, although i duno y... 16km was still ok.. i was quite tired after de 12km mark but since only left de last stretch so i didnt really care and still held on... juz finished my 24km one 3 days ago... it's de graduation route march in BMT, meaning after this there's no other major event in BMT aside from POP le.. was tired after de 12km mark and from 12km to 16km and 16km to 20km was marched mostly in de dark and these 2 stretches are de worst for me coz de darkness around makes my eyes heavy and i keep wanting to fall asleep, while marching... but at least i managed to complete de whole thing...

there's also a Games Day in BMT, which was 4 days ago, where companies sent out teams to compete in different games... Raven was ranked last in de last batch Games Day so we hafta organise this batch one... this time round de Raven coy was much better and we had quite good results in several games, and we ended up 3rd overall! it was a real good result as i heard that Raven always didnt have this kinda good result in Games Day b4 de...

9 wks juz passed like this... juz when de platoon ppl are getting close... could really see de bonds between each other in de platoon now, and it juz has to end here... i oso wonder how do de commanders feel at this point of time... in BMT recruits only stay for 9 wks to 13 wks, and so de commanders see batches of recruits come and go, juz when everyone has gotta close and den they hafta separate again... mayb it's like wad my section mate say abt them becoming used to this liao, but i dun quite feel this way though... i do feel mayb they will feel a bit... hmmm, dun really noe de word in english, but de chinese is 'ke xi'... for those who still dun understand it's sort of like feeling a bit wasted that de relationship built up has to go so easily...

but i'm really glad that i'm in Raven 3, coz most ppl are good to be wif... there are funny jokers around, while there are oso ppl who are focused and responsible... of coz there are those who 'wayang', ie they act enthu in front of commanders but are actually irresponsible and lazy, and those who wear 'masks' around.. luckily it's only de minority and i tink i'll miss de 'Why muz we serve?' chants after i POP...

perhaps to end off, i would like to say 'shit happens in life'..