IPPT Silver!

Went to Maju Camp to take my first ever IPPT as an NSman yesterday, with Xiaoye. I had not done any serious exercise since June. My aim was to get silver and that 200 dollar that comes with it. Somehow I managed to achieve it, but barely. As usual, my worry was chin up and 2.4, and I just managed to bag 3 points for each of the station. Thanks to the support by Xiaoye, and maybe a little determination on my part. I don't sound excited at all, although it is something worth a small celebration. Let it take place in my mind.

ORD loh!

The morning downpour looks like the final obstacle I have to face. But after getting my pink IC, I feel like a pheonix reborn from the ashes. Who cares the rain?

a tribute

not sure how to start on this thing. i'm feeling lost and weird. the scope of life suddenly changed angle and lead me to a new place. the bmt bunk, the jungles in tekong, the parade square. things that i thought i have forgotten were back on my mind. i have not seen him since, and although it was a long period ago, it was not easy to forget him.

he was older than most of us, and being so was much more matured in handling that fact that we were enlisted in the army. there is always a competition going around to see who's the last person not to report/fall sick, and he was the last few standing. he was the one who called me muhammad liuyun. and only few days before pop i realised that we were from the same secondary school.

that was the last time i saw him, and just as we are all going to ord in 2 weeks time, he is involved in a motorbike accident. the kind of feeling you get is just overwhelming, and it was particularly so when alex broke the news to me. just like that, a person, with a dream and plan after ns, is gone, as if wind has blown away his life when the words were spoken finished.

may you rest in peace, mustafa.

Amazing thailand

The half a month that I spent in Thailand was quite an eye-opener. It deserved detailed chronicling. However, as I did not bring a camera, thinking that other people would surely bring one, describing everything i saw vividly is inherently difficult with my limited vocabulary. And as I do not want to talk too much about the army, most of the stories will go into my personal diary.

Here are just some points of interest about the trip.

• When I left the house for the airport on the 10th, I was trapped in the lift at my block for about 20 minutes. It was the first time I encountered a breakdown and I was all alone. Not much drama and no rescue team as well. The lift came back to life on its own.
• I have seen a transsexual for the first time. Maybe you are wondering what was I doing all my 20 years, but seriously it was the first time. The only obvious way to distinguish them is through the pitch of their voice. There are pretty a lot of them there in Thailand.
• There was a part of a railway that runs through a small market town in Kanchanaburi, yet there was not any barrier or warning device to inform the motorists of any potential danger. Though I heard that the trains will slow down when they are reaching such junctions, the locals are taking no chance. No one ever speed past this point, even though they disregard most other traffic regulations. So the next time the traffic police in Singapore want to limit the speed of the vehicles, just build one railway through the road. Lol.
• Thailand is a beautiful country. When travelling along the roads, I have seen herds of cows grazing on the grass and birds flying about. Near the road there are the rice fields; further are the trees and houses; In the background there are mountains shrouded in clouds and mists. Actually I shouldn't have included this paragraph, as the description was no where close to the actual beauty of the landscape.
• There is no showering facility in Sai Yok Camp. Instead, there is a water tank for us to scoop water to wash our bodies. Most of the time there would be lots of insects in the water. I have dubbed them “spices”, just like in the past whereby people added flower pedals to the water when they bathed.
• When an artillery fires, the ground will shake. And you can hear the sounds of the shell as it travels in the projectile.
• Certainly Thai people are better at field deployment. When the troops arrived at their deployment sites, ninja stores were already set up to sell ice-creams, fried rice and noodles to the soldiers. And they are a daring group pf people. I have seen a small boy around the age of 10 navigating around the artillery guns and command posts to sell drinks to the Singapore soldiers.

Sai Yok Camp

I'll be in Thailand from 10th to 27th this month. On duty for the army.

Mas Selamat bin Kastari

The news is all about him. The orange alert was released by Interpol followed by a red alert. His pictures are everywhere. Police Special Forces and Singapore Guards were activated for the biggest manhunt ever. But what do all these mean to me? Pretty much nothing… until last Tuesday. It was nearing 5.30 and everyone in my workshop was preparing for the RO and fallout. Then suddenly PC called and said that we need to do OT. Apparently the reason was Mas Selamat. Many Land rovers are utilized in the search for him, and there are insufficient vehicles for training purposes.

Despite the explanation that the higher authority has conjured up, the morale is super low. Can’t they just inform us earlier? There were no spares in the workshop too, and we had to go down NSDC to collect them. But what to do, who asks us to be in the SAF?

We still carried out work despite all the grumbling. Even the clerks went down to the workshop, but just to practice their acting skill. The four vehicles that we were supposed to finish by that night proved to be full of faults, and up until 10 pm, we could not pass out all. All the NSFs like me totally gave up. In fact, we began gathering around the smoking corner and sighing on our bad luck. We wondered how and why the escape of a single fugitive could nearly cause the mobilization of the entire SAF.

Finally we were allowed to leave, and thanks to Xian Cong’s mum, I managed to reach home at around 11.30. At that time, I truly felt the power and influence of Mas Selamat.

TP

The first thing that I would like to say is that finally I passed my SAF Driving Test.

After two and half months of training and being under intense mental stress, I passed the test on the third attempt. Hours of driving and months of staying in have paid off, as I earned myself a SAF driving permit and a certificate. This course may have been a breeze for many, but it was a struggle for me. At the start, I can’t even steer the vehicle straight. Although I easily aced through the theory and parking tests, my driving skill only improved slowly with time. When it comes to reacting to road situation, I was totally lost. A few left after the first TP, and more people were gone as the days passed, and in the end, there were only five of us left in the group. Fear and despair began to creep in and our morale is as low as it could get. And then one day the other four passed the test together and suddenly I was left alone. Booking in, staying in, eating breakfast and worse of all, facing the instructors every day all by myself.

This period was probably the most difficult time in my NS so far. Luckily there was Mr. Lee and my parents who helped to encourage me. They gave me valuable advice on how to face what life throws at me, recognizing our strength, weakness and emotion so as to better manage them. Every obstacle leaves its mark on the person who crossed it and accumulating experience so that we can face the future more prepared. I have learnt some lesson the hard way.

"veteran"?

I have already served one year in the army, and can consider myself lucky that everything is smooth so far. Given the little time I have outside camp, this anniversary would be a quiet one, inside my heart, that the end is not far.

Back to the jockey cap days

Barely a week after my BM course, I was sent for the class 4 driving course. I had always hoped to go for it, since I can escape my daily workshop chores, and in the meantime learn driving to for free. It is impossible for me to clock the 7000km needed to convert a military license to a civilian license, but the skill is much more important than that piece of paper. The downside, however, is compulsory stay-in.

As I arrived at Sembawang camp on Monday, quite a few surprises were in store for me there. Firstly, we would not be learning the driving at Sembawang camp; instead every morning we would be ferried on charted buses to go to Kaki Bukit camp. This means extra travelling and early waking up time, which is set a 5.00am. I believe many people may not have even slept by then. In addition, we have to book in and out in smart 4 and field pack, and wear a jockey cap instead of a beret. This closely and eerily resembles the practice at Tekong, and I feel suddenly I’m restarting my recruit life. Unlike BMT, whereby everyone is of the same rank and without much hair, my Group (something like Platoon) comprises of people from 1SG to REC, from Air Force and PDF to AMB and Guards. This rojak of technicians, guards, drivers, air defense personnel is unique compared to other courses, and possibly would be the source of all the fun and quarrel in the weeks to come.

In my bunk, there’s a 2SG who has lots of stories to share about his army days. His personal perspective adds on the news I read on the TV or newspaper, as he was present when airplane crashes in Taiwan and other stories. There’s also a PSC scholar and Harvard graduate with a Master degrees in Statistics, who has a very different view on the various issues I discussed with him. 2 Guards Sergeants also share the bunk with me, and they’re unexpectedly quiet and soft-spoken. And there’s an Indian guy whose vocation is driver and shares the same instructor with me.

Now let me talk about the learning experiences so far. The instructors are very fierce group of people. Most of them cannot tolerate the slightest mistakes. There are some people among us who already have driving license and they expect those without license to be comparable. On my first trial, I can’t even keep a straight course and my Land Rover would zigzag across the lines repeatedly. Despite my apologies and explanations, the instructor kept on scolding me. In the subsequent lessons, he kept on nagging and saying things like “are you trying to kill me”, “don’t you understand”, and so on. He sounded like I owe them millions of dollars. This applies to a lot of the instructors as they. I seriously think they should go for some anger management course and be more patient, and be aware of the fact that a person is simply not able to learn everything he is taught.

Nevertheless my skills improved and I can drive on the road without much fuss. It feels very fast just to travel at 50km/h, and I wonder why people want to speed beyond 100km/h on a normal road, without the slightest regard to their and other road users’ safety. Now waiting to drive my 3 toner.

1 MORE YEAR TO ORD!

FFI

Today went to medical centre for my FFI for OCS in the afternoon. Supposed to go sometime last month but can't remember the exact date, and got a serious scolding from WSM. I waited more than an hour just to get my unrine and blood pressure tested, and when I finally met the MO, it's such an unpleasant experience. Extract of our conversation:

(I knocked the door before I opened it)

MO: Hurry up come in.

(I murmured something like "good morning sir", which I doubted he heard. Then I sat down. He was looking at my forms and the computer screen.)

MO: So you got any medical problem?

Yun: I'm waiting for my MRI scan result for my lower back.

MO: So?

Yun: ......(I was wondering how to reply.)

MO: Who recommended you for the MRI?

Yun: The specialist at Changi Hospital.

MO: Who recommended you for the specialist?

Yun: The MO at Tekong.

(A puase, during which he copied my eyesight and some other medical information from the computer screen onto the form.)

MO: So why are you here when you're supposed to go OCS?

Yun: Oh the time the MO misdiagnosed, said I fractured my back.

MO: So?

Yun: Eh...... (Not again.)

MO: So you're unfit lah. Ok go and give this to the clerk next door.

(He handed he pieces of paper and I walked off from there.)