welcome to mainland

back from tekong! whoo! I have never missed home this much before.

2 weeks in tekong, and im glad to say im onLY 7 weeks away from PoP! it doesnt feel that close away.

I got posted to G company. It stands for Gryphon, not Gay. Platoon 2, section 1, bed 3.

My two weeks in tekong weren't that bad. It's not that bad a place, really. Nice island, i really love the coastal route. Just that we never have the time and luxury to stroll along and enjoy it. The weather is nice and warm, an average of 1 degree hotter than Singapore, which isn't hot enough. Erratic weather changes from bright hot and sunny to dark gloomy and happy really make our day, and we start chanting " Cat 1 Cat 1 Cat 1.. ". Rain and thunderstorms usually ensue, and a monotonous computer generated voice echoes our chant, "Cat 1.. Cat 1.. Cat 1..". And then all outdoor activities are cancelled and we happily make our way back to our bunks.

The food is really not bad, and for now im not really sick of it yet. Fruits are provided every meal, and there are always syrup drinks, or special milo-like drinks like vico-coco. Ice cream is a luxury treat which we get once every week, rocks! The only sad thing is that, even if the food is nice, it has to be in the stomach by 10-15 minutes, which means we never get to savour what we eat. Oh we get stuff like greenbean/redbean/barley soup too.

Training is... quite alright. Not very shiong, not very slack either. Only dumb thing is that they throw us physically demanding activities one after another, day after day. Our bodies dont even get a chance to recover, how to improve like that? Once the fatigue builds up our morale goes down and we cant really give our best effort anymore. They say progressive training, which is quite bullshit. In our first PT, we couldnt even complete 50% of what we were asked to do. The intensity of the physical sessions we have are the same, even if we have two back to back, as if we would be as fresh as we were before we started the first session. They expect everyone to be conditioned just because we are the enhanced leadership batch, which is quite rubbish.

And the worst part of training is that we have no courtyard outside our company, only a semi-barren field. That means that all our physical activities are conducted on it. Lying down on the ground really sucks, our sweaty clothes get dirty everytime when all the mud and leaves get stuck to it, and becomes we have to wash clothes quite often. One day i left my clothes soaked in soap water for a day, and the next day they all stank like mad. So yeah never soak your clothes in washing powder water.

Oh yes we had Cover and Concealment lessons, which meant going outfield to gather twigs and leaves to stuff on yourself so you look like a tree as much as possible. That was quite fun, except that where i lay had two ant trails. Luckily they didnt bite. One of my platoon mates got red ants. hahaha. Thankfully not the big one though.

Our uniform really camouflages quite well. At least good enough to trick the birds. One day when we were in our files, two Sun birds came and flew in between us, damn cute haha. Den our sergeant was like "it thinks you are trees! haha" That malay sergeant is very funny btw. When we were doing our crunches lying on the field, he comes to each of us and, standing over us against the backdrop of the blue tekong sky, he asks, "do i look like an angel?" hahah.

Discipline is not that strict yet, because it is only our adjustment period, my commanders are quite friendly. As of now.. We are allowed to use the softdrink vending machine outside our bunks! Rocks

My platoon/section mates are all nice people. For those that i already know, there's samuel lim from hc/ac, Julian Tay ac, colin hc, reuben lim ac. At company level there's Melvin from nj.

I was happy when i went in, but subsequently after the first few days i started getting damn sian already. I went in all garang and pysched up, ready to chiong and get tekan, but i was disappointed when there was really nothing much to do, and the commanders were so laxed. Nothing to chiong. My phone died on the second day, and i was cut off from friends. My radio never worked at all, and i was totally deprived of music. I got back injury on the third day, and got excused from all activities for the next three days. Back pain never recovered, and together with muscle fatigue from the activities i was no longer anywhere near fighting fit, I really couldn't chiong sua anymore. When i couldn't chiong, it's like there's really no motivation for anything anymore, and morale all disappear. So now im quite sian, i hope the back pain goes away, gonna see doc on monday. So sad =( And i dislocated my arm during the monkey bar thing of the soc.

On a brighter note i was bored during my status period, and came out with a sketch for company T-shirt. My Platoon commander liked it and now i need to come out with a proper design for it. =D. I wasn't shortlisted for medicine, but i got shortlisted for architecture! Aptitude test is tomorrow, and i hope i do well.

So that's it for now, i have much of civilian life to enjoy. In camp i dreamt of food everyday. Last night after i booked out i had Ben and Jerrys, and then my bro and cousin brought me to cafe cartel where i had waffle ice cream and a berrie smoothie. Whoaa heavenly :)

Okay i have to answer my Call of Duty 3 now. Field camp next week. till the week after.. bye!