NS Recollections

Time flies, 2 years have come and gone. during this time, a lot of changes have happened. my girlfriend has left me, my buddy has left the world, i have changed personally. thinking back, i never regretted my time spent serving the country, it has been a very meaningful experience. i have seen many kinds of people.. geeks, ah bengs who changed, ah bengs who never change, uneducated but nice people, kind, etc and i made some good friends. i just feel like expressing my thoughts on this 2 years.. it was big sacrifice nonetheless but it's all worth it. here are the profiles of the different men from my platoon whom i spent 1.5 yrs with.. some i don't want to mention cos i don wanna waste my time on them or am not close.

Kang Guan- knew him since day 1.. once from the MO club, who would expect he would get ippt gold? always has a very exaggerating reaction. conservative fella.. don't like people to act gay or pinch his nipples.. haha

Weicai - knew him from the recce interview in bmt. initially i thought he was some mr nice guy.. like quite polite ah.. but he turned out to be retarded!! hahaha. the joker of the platoon.. never fails to amuse people with his crazy antics. very fit also.. always the clear ippt and soc at the first try while i keep on going at it.

Ah Lum - mr holy holy. he has been devotionally writing his revelation and reading his bible every single day we're in camp. sometimes when he's pissed he'll still give u a politically neutral answer, it's ok i know sometimes u just wanna say.. "who the fuck he think he is?!" but u can't. a very fast runner too.. 2.4km i tink 9.2 min.. very impressive.

Seng Choong - i thought he was ok but he turned out to be so gayish.. and he just got worser as each day passes. he needs weicai in his life. he walks kinda gay, start buying purple t-shirt and he's got weak lungs! but nvm lah get used to it. nonetheless, a pretty helpful friend. it's just that, i still don't understand how he thinks.

Mingjie - a perfect make of a smart person.. cos all the smart alecs are weird. this guy is so slim he hide in between the locker and the bed u can't even see him.. like ju-on. he never fail to surprise you with his actions. at one point he may be sleeping, the next he'll just wake up and whack you. he's a pro at ignoring people he dislikes.

Yew Yee - this guy is a perfect example of comic overdose. spends all his time and money on the weekends on comics.. and he brings 8 books to camp to read every week.. just imagine his collection at home. he behaves like a.. gentle giant from some kids educational programme. he is one of those whoz fitness just suddenly improved.

Jenn Yueh - classic ancient china hero. i really respect him from the bottom of my heart.. cos he's so thrifty.. he can resist all sorts of temptation, even at taiwan he spends minimal. he is a very upright person, never willing to report sick or fall out cos he believes he has a role to play in the team. can't tell from his look, he loves wwe and he loves parade just like me. he's in love with the contingent sm from the police goh at ndp 07.

Macwyn - i thought weicai was easy to bully. he's even easier, that's why everyone bullies him.. except me..haha. he's like me, like to try new things.. adventurous. he's got a lot of weird board games at home. i'm still baffled how he can do some many chin ups.

Guoli - he's really good in chinese.. but he's not a chinaman like golfer.. he speaks not bad english. he's a one woman man..but too bad the woman don't appreciate him. happy go lucky kind of person.. never really see him stressed out about anything. fun to be around with, i sat that u-shaped rollercoaster with him twice!

Eric- i don't understand how his mind works. i know he can be playing game for the whole day. he would borrow psp or ds from others and play the night through while everyone is sleeping.. amazing.

Shuyu- a neutral person but quite suay cos he always get accused for cao geng. he has a good attitude, training himself.. achieving a silver in the end.. he was a zero fighter when he came in i think.

Ziyang- he's a obedient and nice goat..hahha. he always complains but never do anything in the end. he's a good listening ear when u need him though he isn't of much help.

Biao- my smoking kaki outfield and in camp. i forgot how many sticks have i given to him.. but ok lah i'm not so calculative. very fit guy.. motivates the people around him to improve their fitness. he's got this amazing ability to remember routes. i think not many people has really seen him shag.. but i have..haha.

Siew Hou- the shortest man of the platoon yet the oldest..what irony. he's also a fast runner. he's a pretty serious guy.. cannot play those physical jokes with him wan.. at least he has a strong passion for something.. and that is cars.

Boys to Men
10th September 2005- d-day for me as i was due for enlistment. i didn't know what to expect as i have never undergone regimentation in my entire life. i joined scouts and sjab in my primary and secondary school respectively but i quit within 3 months because i couldn't take the regimentation and i was not made for such hands on stuff. it was a saturday afternoon, i had all my daily necessities ready.. alarm clock, underwear, sleeping attire and some stuff i bought from beach rd which would seem useless afterwards. i had kuay chap with mum,dad,popo at macpherson.. i remember the clock seemingly ticking so fast.. i would be away for 2 weeks. i wore my esprit jeans and adidas bag and reported to safft. i remember politely asking some sergeant something and he was so guai lan towards me can, i didn't dare say anything, i was just a recruit.

i still remember vividly on this day today, 9th sept, ying er was still in school. she just suddenly messaged me in the afternoon telling me she wants to see me after school cos i'm gonna be away for 2 weeks. i've already spent almost everyday with her one week prior to enlistment and also on the 8th, she cried. it just feels nice to be loved like that, unfortunately 1 year plus later it would not be the same scenario, being away for 5 weeks and not even half of that urgency. maybe i just dwell too much in the past but i think the past are important reflections of what we are today. so as i said in my earlier entry, i got cheated of my pink ic and to the audit for oath taking. i was with amos, hardly the company you will want but no choice, he's the only person familiar around there. i met kang guan at the audit, we exchanged a few words but later on he was posted to another platoon. haha maybe it's fate, it the end we still land up in 1 SIR scout platoon. after the meal with my parents, 1SG Didicazli brought us to get our duffel bags and boots. it was so ding dei.. imagine climbing up 3 storeys with civilian bag on my arm, duffel bag on the other and boots on the hand. 1SG Didi was already starting to clear his leave, he's handing over his duties to chung.. imagine when you just enlisted and you have to contemplate with the sight of someone going to ord.. it sucks! 3SG Chung went through the list of things that we are suppose to have. all of us had a blur look on our faces, who would know what's a toggle rope, L-torch, sbo, No.4., admin attire for a normal layman like us, we'll just know them as rope, torch light, that bag which looks like a vest, green uniform, army t-shirt. sometimes i really don't understand why saf must make those things sound so cheem. a very good example is ASA (administrative support asst) and logistics asst. what the hell clerk means clerk lah.. storeman means storeman.. need to name until so nice meh? anyway, for 3 months i'll go through thick and thin with this hawk platoon 3 section 3.

the confinement weeks were hell, we did mostly PT focussing on agr and strength training to build up our fitness. we were always punished because of some cocksters in the platoon that were uncooperative and did a lot of push ups. of course, the only people you can really count on during these hard times were your section mates. i remember being closer to ivan and rudy in the beginning to discuss about our girlfriends. it was always good to talk about such things to divert your mind away from military life. i was in culture shock, there were a lot of military jargons to learn, i had to learn tying knots, handling straps, taking instructions and not having a say in it though i know it's stupid, sweating it out in the sun and then rushing to quickly change into no.4 for some talk without bathing. it was hard, but we learn to pull through. each day, we sing songs to count down our time to our first book out. we had to earn it, chin ups before every meal. i really sucked, i was the worse, i went in as zero fighter and i think only after 1 month i managed to pull 1. subsequently, i managed to pull 4 standard ones by pop. i missed home dearly, during the 1st week i almost cried when i spoke to my family and belle. i missed belle a lot, it was only through my ns did i started to cherish her.. of course i hoped it wasn't too late. i would message her early in the morning when i wake up at 0530 before training to tell her how much i missed her. i would sms her whenever i can in the day and never fail to call her at 2130 and talk till 1030 when lights out. i loved her, she was understanding towards my service and knew i didn't choose to be here rather than spending time with her. she knew whatever time i had i would spend it with her, even on weekends. we hardly quarreled, most of the time just consoling her cos she missed me too much. i felt she was different, unlike other girls who run away with other guys when their bf is in camp. she was my pillar of strength, the only drive to keep me going during my route marches, even in unit, when i'm worn out and feel like giving up.. i would think about her.. erasing my tiredness.. just telling myself to walk faster, "the faster i finish this, the faster i'll get to book out and meet her".

i remember meeting her on my first book out. i so missed holding her. that day, i pampered myself by going to andersens at suntec to enjoy some ice cream. she had the brownie and i think i had banana split. she cried again when i needed to book in, already spending maximum time with her was not enough but there was nothing i can do. every week was like this, she would come over to my place and take a bus from pasir ris interchange, by the time she reach home was probably 9pm.

7 days field camp made things worse. no handphones were allowed so i was not even allowed to call her for 7 days. i remember having to spend my 1st anniversary in the field, not even allowed to sms her. the weekend before that was hari raya, we celebrated our anniversary in advance. we had lunch at far east. i bought her a fossil watch. she bought me a nike jersey, nike cap and adidas perfume. the first time out in the field was terrible, it was raining for a few nights that even our basha was of no use, water started to seep in and our uniform were all wet. alex and i were cursing inside. alex was great, i liked him, he could work but never does extra stuff. although we were all tired, we worked together fast to build our basha quick so that we can settle down quicker. we had section trainings, arty training and concealment. another good friend was zhenhui, never failing to help others, outspoken and ever a optimist. he would have made a good commander if he wasn't unfit. i remember it rained on our last night.. we had to dig our shell scrapes, i was suffering, even needed rudy's help. eventually, i did finish it. it looks all good, damn shiok can have a hole to sleep in.. and having field pack as a pillow. then it started to rain. i couldn't sleep already cos the rain kept splashing on my face. i got up and saw ah de, zhenhui, ivan, alex talking on one side and joined them. it was starting to turn cold so we cooked some noodles and shared. the field camp was probably almost the end of bmt. we just spent our night chatting and talking about our training so far, and how our future will be after we separate. bmt was like our childhood.. just like how we are military infants. i was so surprised to see in the morning some people could actually sleep in the mud, they are really there man. one of the many things which i appreciate from chung is his ability to discipline his men. he doesn't look fit but does have his way, he is never afraid to scold others. he is also a perfectionist in drills, always expecting the best.. he always say that drills are a reflection of a platoon's discipline. needless to mention, our drills were the best among all the 5 platoons and our discipline tip top, we were always earlier than the others.

midway through bmt, i had a MP interview and recce interview. i never expressed interest in MP so i never got in. i was thinking kranji camp is so far away from home. i was banking on the hope that safsa will send the letter for me to post me to guards.. it's at bedok and so near to home. unfortunately, it made no difference as i was posted to mandai hill camp. during the recce interview, i met weicai who was at hawk platoon 5. i remember looking in awe at capt teo beo khon, sgt jason and ps yuen. i was thinking who were these people in jungle hats. my oc is only a lta and here comes a capt.. like one of the biggest shot i've ssen. my ps was a 3sg.. this 1sg must be damn fierce. capt teo told us he was from 1SIR support coy and we are here today cos we are almost confirmed to joined the strength in 1sir. i was like shit, am i not going to guards anymore? sgt jason interviewed me and told me all sort of bullshit to psycho me to join scouts. i guess almost every single one in the room refused to join cos they heard of how siong it is. too bad, the fact that we are there we were already selected. one thing that really attracted me to scouts is wearing the jungle hat and not needing to wear my helmet anymore. i hated the helmet, it just feels like shit around my head.. so uncomfortable. also, i heard they wanted people who can run, at that point running was my forte so i felt i could contribute to the platoon. we were also told that we will be trained to be the elites of the battalion.. which i think is still true.

and so i POP on 7 december.. finally free from pulau tekong. soon after that, i organised a section steamboat at my house and we brought our girlfriends if we have one. ivan brought grace and ah de brought victoria. not the entire section was invited, only zhenhui, ivan, alex, ah long, ah de. we great fun talking about our bmt days and played some murderer game after dinner. it was fun. at the end, these are where the different individuals got posted to:
Huat - MP PC at 6 sir Jacobson - ATGM fall out at 1 sir
Ah Long - MP spec Alex - Line spec downgrade/ CQ at 3 guards
Ivan - Signal spec at 7 sib Ah De - Signal ps at stagmont
Zhenhui - Signaller at 6 sir Me - Scout at 1 sir

Men to True Soldiers
i remember the first day reporting to mandai hill camp. i don't know what to expect, we weren't greeted very nicely. as i walked through the mustering square, the batch from the mono were all standing at the railings mocking us who came from tekong.. it wasn't the best welcome one could get. S1 asked me to follow him to the hq lecture room, i dutiful listened cos i was wondering who was this captain. although my bmt oc looks much fitter than him, i was amazed how come this guy was a capt, must have some special capabilities. we were made to go to the drill hall, ps made a introduction of the scope of the platoon, say until damn nice only, no need to fight.. we are very special and all these crap.. only smart people can become scout. we were introduced to the first yr commanders, my first impression was wah these guys look so young, do i really need to call them sgt? all of us took turns for interview with the 3 sect com and ps. i was interviewed by this damn fierce guy named sgt ang.. all i knew was his english was damn bad..haha! i remember how the interview went..
sgt ang: so how any problem with this place?
me: er not really.. very far.
sgt ang: far meh? singapore how big only where got far?!
me: *lan lan suck thumb*
we were told briefly on our training schedule for the mono.. bike course in feb, lancer in april, ispc in july, taiwan in march. it all sounds damn fast and cool, but a lot of preparation were needed to be done for all these activities. we were split into 3 bunks, 1 was a 4 man bunk. i quickly went to chope bed.. just didn't want a corner bed. i had a lot of familiar faces in my bunk. weicai the mr nice guy with 5 fingers at that time was sleeping beside me, melvin i knew through sit test, raymond was ralph's friend, augustine my bmt mate. that afternoon, ps asked us to fall in and to report all our injuries. he scrapped away 11 out of the 24 people in the original platoon he felt were people who cannot make it,and in came another 11..people like nick, kg, sc. we were all very fit during the initial period leading to the vehicle courses.. we had pt sessions every now and then, power pt really improved our fitness a lot.

come feb 2006 we had our bike course. the drivers were deployed a few weeks earlier for their jeeps course, for them the driver slot is almost guaranteed. i must say those days were really the time we had the most fun, we had our sect coms and pcs learning the course together with us. it was a stay out course and it was near home so i could always go out if i wanted to.. at least i managed to spend valentine's day that year, too bad it didn't went too well. many of us didn't have civilian license and wouldn't consider getting a 2B cos it's too dangerous, well at least this is a good chance for us to try something we will only do in army. after the bike course, lta joel interviewed us to better understand what appointment we would like..basically only basher and signaller was available. i chose to be a signaller, cos i felt i would do better with coms and the chance to ride the bike was to hard to resist. in the end, i was selected to go to 54E with sgt gavin, langar, seng choong, biao, ruixiong.

21 april we departed for brunei, our first overseas training stint being only 5 months old. everyone was saying how siong brunei was and all that. we really needed proper training before walking through the deep terrain. the platoon carried 3/4 jerry can to the cookhouse every meal, and there was also route marches to boost our combat fitness and to also train the battalion up for csb. that was a terrible period for me, with the problems i'm having back in singapore and needing to leave it all behind to focus on my training. sometimes, i felt like crying, felt like giving up. it was very tough, climbing knoll after knoll not knowing where the hell we are and still needing to find the check point, you know it's very near on the map but u may need to walk very far to reach it. i remember during ex confirmation, we had to walk abt 3km on the track to the landing zone which was also our resupp point, the weather was so hot and we were drained out like mad, we treated vaji like god when we saw him coming with ice cold 100 plus. i just laid there touching the can on my body to cool off. i took one pack of bubur terigu and threw it into the ice box, it was cold when i took it out, it was shiok man! it doesn't help that last light was very early, i think around 1700 to 1730.. i still needed to set up my dipole, hammock, powder bath and eat dinner, all these making use of the remaining light. in brunei, when it's last light it's totally pitch black, even a torch light can only help this much. thankfully, seng choong really helped me a lot. he really suffered in brunei, carrying my stuff on top of his, as well as his saw, his load was heavy. no choice, i needed to carry the signal set and i've only a small field pack to content with. at last light, he would help me with my hammock while i'm setting up the dipole. everyone would be sleeping at night and i'll be lying on the hammock manning coms. there were nights which were real bad, i remember there was one night it started raining very heavily for the whole night.. i harboured far away from the rest, probably around 10m away cos my tree i chose to throw the dipole was there while the rest slept around each other. it was cold that night, they lit up the candles to keep themselves warm while i could just stay there cos even the ground was so muddy and i did not have my boots on. my clothes were all wet, the groundsheet didn't help much, i cuddled myself and smoked to keep warm. at that time, the only thing that kept me sane was cigarettes and my adidas watch which she bought for me, i'll always light it up at night to see whenever i miss her out in the field.

swamp walk was another defining moment. we took 6hrs to finish the 2km walk. through it, we walked through swamp and crossed rivers. at the very start i got stuck in the swarm, sc, sgt cai and some others had to help me up, the mud was at chest level already i thought i was just gonna die there cos each time they use more force to pull me they will go deeper into the mud. section 3 linked up with section 2. ps led in the navigation while biao did the bashing, chopping off the trees that were in the way. canteen sessions were great cos the food in the cook house was bad. we ate from metal trays that were sometimes still oily cos they always ran out of dish washing liquid so we could only use water. moreover, the portion was always so little. we would go to the canteen after nomad, swamp walk and confirmation. each time we went there, we ate like hungry ghost, stuffing our stomachs with everything that we possibly can. i spent most of my time with seng choong, bitching about sgt max, changzhi and his heroics, swamp walk, etc. our favourite topic was always sgt max, cos we both can't stand him. when you start to go through hardship, you can really see who are the people you can really trust. these 3 weeks in brunei i have concluded that sgt max and rx totally don't deserve my respect at all even if they are in my team. sgt max is selfish and unwillingly to give room for mistakes even when you're new. just because i didn't water proof my signal set properly and just because i don't know something doesn't mean i don't deserve to be in the team. remember, we hadn't even gone though ispc but you have, he was suppose to mentor me. even at ord parade i was sitting beside ah biao, he didn't even say hi.

the rnr was very memorable. even in such a screwed up place like brunei, we're just happy to be out of the jungle and within civilisation. me, nick, sc, wc, mj hung out together, we just felt happy that we'll be back home the next day. i remember us sharing a tub of ice cream outside the shopping centre and seng choong buying his stupid you tiao. at night after dinner, we chilled at a cafe watching F1. that night, schmaucher finally won alonso.. nick explained to us how to watch F1. all of us were nearly broke from our canteen sessions, thanks to lta joel's advice not to bring so much cash. brunei's cigarettes were cheap so i kept smoking so i could buy more, hahah i guess i smoke too much that night i became giddy and felt like puking. just needed a rest badly.

after resting for abt 2 weeks from lancer, we needed to get ready for ispc already. we were in the course together with the men from adf. they were also the same people we met at the bike course. it was tough, i would say even tougher than brunei. brunei was tough because of the weather, but this is tough physically. most notably was the 12km fast march and ex long walk. before this, the maximum we had for fast march was 8km in sbo at tekong. but this is 12km in fbo. again, there were times i felt like giving up, i remember martin was there to push me and so was sgt jason. i just couldn't push myself faster any furthur. long walk was the most gruelling of it all, i don't even know how much we walked, i only know we started around 1500 or 1600 and finished around 7 plus in the morning.. it was more than 12 hrs long of walk through the night. wearing tights didn't work, i still had abrasions on my inner thigh. that night, weikai and sgt gan followed us.. weikai did well with the navigation.. sgt gan walked super fast that everyone else couldn't catch up with him. we walked through the cemetery.. i though it was supposed to be eerie, we were told not to eat pork. it wasn't that scary after all, even late in the night there were people burning joss paper, banglas sitting around. we even slept in the cemetery and at the bus stop. it's really an experience of a lifetime.. i wouldn't dare sleep in a cemetery again. and then there was ex network, which we were out there for 4 days, but it didn't feel very bad maybe cos it was 2 exercises combined into 1 so we had different missions. that was also the only time i went to recce but i didn't even see enemies. we had many memorable times in ispc, sweating it out together. those were also the time where people start to downgrade cos they can't take it or dono what reasons, some others may feel tempted to follow suit but we stood by our own conscience. unfortunately, the most saddening part of our ns experience was also a death of a good friend.

we came back on 29th june 2006 from ex network, slept for one night followed by cst on the next day which is a friday. it was suppose to be a one day training to teach us how to find food, build shelter. for this course, we also had to each kill a frog or an eel and eat it before we go outfield for 3 days without food the following week. it was a book out day and the next day was my birthday. i missed ying er so much i even wrote some stuff on my notebook wondering what she'll get for me for my birthday. i sent nick home that day after picking my mum up from bkt merah. he looked pretty upset that day.. and asked me how to control his temper. he envied me for having ppl to celebrate his birthday with him.. and i told him we can always celebrate with him mah. after dropping him off at his home, my father suddenly felt the van parked outside his house somewhat familiar, i called nick to verify and indeed it was his mums. my dad and his mum were business partners. damn funny how the world is so small huh?

ying er came over to stay that night. early in the morning of 1st July 2006, my 21st birthday, i was still sleeping with ying er in my arms when my father called me telling me to calm down first, my friend had committed suicide and died. he didn't sound like he's joking, but i needed some time to digest the information. i knew he had problems with his girlfriend and i knew when he told me she must be the reason, i just couldn't find a reason strong enough to justify a suicide. reality has struck, i had to inform the rest of the platoon, yet it still felt as if if i called him he would still answer the phone. it was still unacceptable until i really see him at his place of peace. i called pc, he thought i was joking, still say wanna charge me.. i had to convince him man. that was a busy morning, calling people and receiving the same shock expressions and explaining to each of them one by one. tat day i had to go down to sib with ps while marinating the chicken wings halfway. don't think it's right to elaborate more.. but the good thing is many people remember him still. we had our admin shirt in memory of him.. someone set up a friendster memorial for him.. people still talk abt him. and me, another less smoking kaki.why didn't he think abt those people who cared abt him before resorting to this?

after 1 mth of poi duty, the whole battalion started to prepare for atec stage 1. we had to revise on all our drills... ccac, mg, vehicles, infiltration..blah blah. ccac was the most tedious one cos we keep forgetting and not being medics we don't deal with these everyday. before that we turn ops, which was also lta joel's last outfield. it was very respectable of him, going outfield with us though he's already in his last week. that few months was our busiest, always going outfield for exercises and all, became pretty immune to outfield comditions already. the only sian part is food, even canned food doesn't fit the bill now man. ever since i ate bah teng outfield, i never dared eat it at home already. we all did well for stage 1, scoring a redcon 1. one of my goals was to get the best combat unit but its a collective effort of the battalion. i wanted it because i always wanted to be in the ndp goh.. and to do that we had to win the bcu. who could forget ex pegasus.. all of us seem to run out of water.. the weather was so dry during that period we had to constantly hydrate ourselves cos the next minute our lips will dry up again. i still remember going to find frv with sgt jason, gavin and pc. the vegetation was pretty thick and pitch black.i was left with sgt jason to go back to rv.. but he can tell me he dono how to go back.. and tell me that he's very tired.. imagine your sergeant tell u that?! lucky he's not my tc.

the best part of my national service is of course going to taiwan, fighting atec and ex high noon. unlike brunei, we are all closer to each other already and more experienced so we would learn to look at things more positively. most importantly, i didn't leave singapore with a laden heart. it was cool, we flew eva air and the seats were more spacious than sq man.. and some of the stewardess were quite pretty too. upon arrival at kaohsiung, we still had to sit a 2hr coach to heng chun. it was hot when we first arrived but it started to turn cold a few days later. i was feeling damn fucked up when i first saw the bunk, double decker with wood below and not spring. i mean tats alright, but there's not cupboard so where are we gonna put our things? we haven't even unpacked and it's already so disorganised.. and we had to walk so far to the toilet and one company shares one. imagine wanna pee also must think twice. general life there is ok, the cookhouse is air-conditioned, canteen not bad, cheap cigarettes, internet room, basketball court. after some time, i adapted to it well just like how a infantrymen should be. we spent abt 1 week or so to prepare ourselves for atec.. drawing stores, zeroing our tes system, tying down soi. everyone started to turn serious, even the troopers, we knew we all had a role to play. we had countless inspirational speeches by rsm and co.. and some happy hr shit to boost our morale. i was happy, free beer and tian bu la. my only regret in atec was not having the chance to go recce at all, wasn't given a chance to share the load. there was this once we were sleeping in the mango plantation, an auntie peed in front of us only to realise we were behind after that, i saw her whole butt can! hahha! then for mission 2, we went up a high point to stand off, that was great, even had shelter loh.. no close in recce. the bad thing is, with pc around i can't sleep. the cold front has set in and it was very windy at night, being at high ground is even worst, we only had goretex jacket to content with. thankfully, there were tables so we laid them to shield us from the wind. i smoked quite a lot that night, to stay awake and to keep warm. biao shiok only, sleep the whole night. i guess the receiving party of my coms can even hear the wind loh. after atec, we had a nights out at kenting, nothing much there, only remember going into almost every convenience store to look for "la sup" to buy back to camp, as well as some cup noodles to eat for supper. ex high noon, who could forget the super chilly nights which temperatures dipped to 15.. or is it 7 degrees. we had to set big fires to keep ourselves warm. people were getting hypothermia.. the first night was raining.. it was terrible. biao and i had milo noodles that first night. 2nd day was still cold, even when i pee got steam sia. at night, we went to collect our night snacks. while waiting, it was so cold we had to hide in the rover to keep ourselves warm. it was damn shiok, we had taiyang bing, bubor hitam for night snack. during aso, the whole team went out to cook cup noodles to share, come to think back i kinda miss these team bonding days..haha. oh and during aso, we went to buy food from ninja van while waiting for 2ic to come back from orders. wow eating tian bu la and the zua ping is absolutely fantastic. really missed the taste badly. it was definitely our last outfield and we were all happy about it. the last few days was really relaxing, we spent our time in the canteen watching movies, eating, playing bball, frisbee, etc. by the first 2 days we have already returned all our stores. we went to heng chun town for nights out, that was my favourite day out man. we tried all sorts of different food and chilled at this small cafe. i liked the town, it had everything that the people needed and it was quiet, no hassle of the typical city life. i was constantly thinking about home, but i guess she must be out with her friends, i could feel she didn't miss me as much anymore.. never even hear her saying she missed me.

we went to taipei for rnr.. it was around 10 hr bus ride to taipei. along the way, we visited 1 theme park, the one with the giant drop. i love theme parks, it leaves me in a world of zero worries. the theme parks in taipei is great, nobody one so u don't have to queue long for the ride. our hotel was not too bad, at least there was hot water and porn channel. we went to ximen ding and shihlin night market only cos we only had 2.5days. there was really nothing much at shihlin loh, i think it's pretty overrated. only the xxl chicken was nice.. and the puppies there really cute. oh and the few us spent alot of money at the games section.. playing that archery thing to earn that small lil pillow which i gave to ying er..now it's in my room but nobody uses it. our last half day had most returns, that was where i bought most of my things. first, we went to the temple to pray, it was a big temple, a lot of gods to pray to, then we took a train down to ximen ding. i bought my nike sneakers and t-shirt from there. the hello kitty stuff there were also very cheap so i got one set for her. not forgetting, the ah zhong mee sua is sibei shuang man!! how to describe man.. for $2.50 per bowl it's good worth. the broth is damn tasty and thick.. then they have a lot of ingredients.. intestines, pig stomach, oyster not like the one in singapore only got 2 oyster. jing jing you wei.

Maintaining The Soldiering Image
i was called back on a Saturday to take part in ndp rehearsal, it was still my block leave from roc. i had hardly enjoyed myself and keep my gf company and now ndp? i was getting really pissed. being in ndp means all saturdays burnt till national day. i left for taiwan in mid march.. which means i would have no saturdays for 5 months! i must admit my first saturday out after ndp, i was really not used to it. my relationship was already in shams having been away for 5 weeks and now this.. i was starting to feel afraid. i had a choice to go thailand for kocha singa for 2 weeks but i chose not to.. partly because i don't want to be away totally for 2 weeks, at least i'm here with her still. besides, i always wanted to be in ndp, though this time i won't be in no.1.. i figured out no.4 also not so bad.. not as if i am the performers, and this year i will be the first to step into the floating platform, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. hence, i took the risk for national pride. although we were nearing out ord date, we all had to maintain our professionalism and disciplaine to the public in order not to disgrace ourselves as soldiers. it's really not about saf but ourself as individuals. i mean we can't possibly let people criticise us for the identity we built for more than a year right? so just like that, saturday by saturday passed by, we had full dress rehearsals for 5 weeks. come to think about it, lucky we weren't in the goh if not wednesday there's training also. on top of that, there was still saf day. i still don't understand why they needed so many saturdays for the supporting contingents, it was very simple drills. when national day arrived, there was no amount of words to express how proud i was to be there, marching out from the tunnel hearing the kids scream. no doubt there were big sacrifices to be made, but pride comes with a price.

on 9th July, another half of my dream was fulfilled. though i couldn't wear no.1 in ndp, i could do it for 1 sir's 50th anniversary. it was the unit's golden jubilee and we needed to troop the colours, which means we had to slow march and do other difficult drills, all these to be achieved with a high drill standard cos every move we make can be easily spotted in the no.1. only one contingent troops the colour, so rsm had to pick the best out of the 4 companies. i wanted to be in that contingent so i did my best during the selection and got picked with weicai and robin. although this mono is fucked up, i'm honoured to be part of the unit cos she has a rich heritage. the unit's growth has helped singapore grow.. providing the necessary security for the country to grow economically. we had only one week to prepare for this parade and we couldn't screw it up cos coa and defence minister as well as other VIPs will be around. we all worked extremely hard that week, perfecting the tukak haluan.. slow march and marching in straight rows. in the end, it was all worth it cos i could see all of them wanting to make things work. it was also the first time i've seen all 4 companies coming to work together to want to make things right. we were perfect during the div com vetting but we screwed up on the actual day. oc gave the command to early and got everyone confused to the berhenti.. it was just that very last moment. everything was going on really well.

Saying Goodbye
as august approached, people started to leave. weicai, siew hou, macwyn all ord.. yew, mingjie, ruixiong all disrupted. suddenly we have 6 people lesser. even the specs had some who left. i had no one to play soccer with anymore. people start to change.. trying whatever they can to get out of camp. most of time, u won't see changzhi, ah biao, zhaocai. i've not spoken to eric for a long time.. oso dono what's up with him. there was nothing much to "do together".. i wanted to like call for a last power pt or smtg.. but in the end i felt there was no point cos not the whole platoon is around.. even the bbq was called off.

only at the last week did the whole platoon managed to be in camp. we spent the whole week practicing our ord parade drills. i went jogging with sc and jy.. after which we sat on the track chit chatting. as i jogged on the cmtl carpark, i realised the view on top is indeed a sight but i never appreciated it when i was around. the track was quiet, no more people playing bball or wad. it was a short, quiet heart to heart talk. we went back to bunk to enjoy our last chong pang session together.. just me, kang guan, seng choong, jenn yueh, ah lum.

during the ord parade, i nearly cried when the battalion song played.. i was thinking back about memories when i slow marched. it's finally over. i miss it but i won't go back there again. i thanked sgt gavin before i left and he hugged me asking me to take care.. that's my 54E team commander for you.