By 10am I was already up, just thinking about tonight sickens me. Breakfast was fine, lunch was better, the usual chicken rice. Met up with Hwaee for a while and just slacked the rest of my time. Shufen came by to pass me a gift, thanks, but don't have to bring your sister too right? That wasn't part of the plan!
The time came, sianz... Even the sky was 'crying' on my way back. Parents insisted on buying dinner for me despite having no appetite. Before I stepped into camp, Kiong Wee called me asking me out tomorrow to go ice skating. Felt even worst, like rubbing salt into the wound, not that he did it on purpose, so I don't blame him. The outing, not only I like the activity but also had people whom I would love to hang out with.
Spent the night packing up for tomorrow's tranfer. Kinda sad, if not given my current situation, I would have chose to stay on in Charlie, and not go to ADA like most of the other guys.
Monday:
No 5BX for me, they went two rounds, clockwise then anticlockwise. With LTA Isaac, running extra is guranteed. LoL. Transferred to AirWing, very troublesome. Spent the day doing adminstration stuffs and also briefs by Master Steven (funny guy) and our WSM.
Boring day I could say, went back forth between Charlie and AirWing, did the ceremonial rehearsal, leg hurt like crap. The OCS song is quite nice, especially after hearing the recorded song played on the PA system. Its like I can already visualise myself on the Commissioning Parade ground, ready to receive my rank. Truly inspiring! The song also burns me to go pick up that trumpet again, oh man.
For tomorrow's field camp, was appointed the section commander. We drew maps, compasses, and a whole lot of other things. Practically rushing from point A to B, very taxing on my leg. All I can say is that the organisation and planning is extremely poor. Was very agitated, totally lost my mood.
Lucky for Jonathan, I should have rested at home too, rather to risk my ankle around.
Tuesday:
The dreaded field camp, actually meant for the commanders to 'teken' us only. Supposed to get a turnout for the initiation, but only Hotel and part of Charlie was disturbed. We were lucky the seniors forgot about AirWing. The ceremony was to remove the white band we wore during the first two weeks, thus all sorts of leniency by the instructors also cease to exist from now on. The breakfast queue was like a train, luckily we were the first few.
With status, became a SK warrior, shifting planks and poles, pushing the tonners' trailer, filling 20 sandbags and setting up the areas. What nonsense, I should be resting my leg, who's going to pay the LD with it breaks?
Spent the whole day at that particular place, made new friends and exchanged our presentation topics. Walked to a nearby checkpoint where they had to think of ways to cross the river to collect all the stores. We witnessed three teams attempting to cross, two of which coming out was commendable ideas, the rubber float and the one which looked like a mini 'sampan'. But I was still surprised to see many of them considerably wet.
Walked back to the gathering point, after going merry-go-round with the poor directions given to us by Hotel's WSM. Unloaded more stores, ate dinner, powder bath. The night was all dark before they whipped out the lamp, only the moon providing us with some light, truly spectacular!
So somewhere in the middle of Lim Chu Kang, I spent the night in the wilderness, just like how Ridzuan did when I was training to be a specialist. Wondering if they'll turnout us tomorrow... Closed my eyes at 2215.
Wednesday:
Bang! Boom! Sirens wailing, instructors shouting and cadets scurrying. Total darkness, absolutely chaos.
"Take your time, nevermind, its okie, your whole platoon is waiting for you in pushup position."
With a loud hailer and a low perfectly calm voice, "Down, Down Down, Down, Down Down...".
"On your back, on your belly, on our back, on your belly, on..." (Non-Stop)
"You see LTA xxx, I want you all to leopard crawl there and come back, now move". (Mind you the ground is all full of big sharp rocks)
"Jumping jacks, 80 counts of 4." (With rifle)
"Push up position change, jumping jacks position change, crunches position change..." (Change and change and change...)
When all hell broke lose and finally calmed down a little, set off to another campsite. Every section had to turn turns on having a injured man, so carrying the person was imminent. Walked about 3-4km before reaching. Once at the training shed we stationed previously for the Chemical Defence package, more leopard crawling and nonsense, before finally some rest. Time was from 0317 to 0600.
Woke up for breakfast, then set off in a convey of tonners to do our map reading/identification hands on tutorial. We were brought to many places, relating the land features we saw to the ones on the map. I like the one which was at the Puyan Reservoir, where we were already at the end of Singapore, could see Johor across the sea and the Tuas Link. Ever wondered why the bridge on our side is higher? Think about it!
Suddenly it turned cat. one, all went into tonner which dropped us deep in the vegetation. Had lunch with the rain pouring down on us, just like the field camp I had back in BMT. Returned to wingline to get more stores, fill up 15 jelly cans. Collected dinner from the dining hall and set off. The driver went by the other way, giving us a fresh breath of civilisation.
West is totally not where a East guy should be, especially one who must know his location. The place we passed seemed familiar, the KFC at Nanyang Community Centre. Kinda resembled the place when I was out with Liwei.
Once back in the bounderies of Pasir Laba camp, morale low again. Unloaded and waited for them to set off for the night activity, while we walked back to last night's last resting area in the rain. Rather to be dry then wet, I whipped out the Gotex jacket. Waited till around 2350 before we packed up and returned to wingline to wash up everything.
Tired, washed up and read through my phone. Seems like only when I'm away all the things come looking my way and vice versa. Talked to Liwei for a while before turning in at 0200, had to wake up by 0400, don't know for what reasons.
"If you want to learn biking, go ahead. But please try not ride one once you get your license. Don't play with death like that."
Thursday:
Did the two bar presentation rehearsal before the actual one, where LTA Isaac Ho and Wei Shun gave us our airforce rank. This is finally when we all go our separate ways. Changed and returned to Charlie to dekit. Now we are officially AirWing cadets.
A welcome brief by CPT Seah, followed by the long awaited lunch (we didn't have breakfast). Went to the cadets' mess for a get-to-know session, some team building games to establish relations and build bonds. Satay Beehoon for dinner, changed to civilian to attend a function organised especially for us. Changing to civilian but not actually booking out...
Had a lot of fun there, the mixing around, cheering, drinking of endless Tiger and stout. During the arm wrestling matches, the loser team had to drink a whole jug of beer and so was the Dress-Him-Up competition. Tze How wasn't Tze How, Zheng Nan wasn't Zheng Nan, dressing up of Zi Rong aka Tiger, laughed till I teared. The reason we won both were mainly because of Zheng Nan, with him outspeaking the other flights of our 3G soldier. A beer parade to end the joyous ocassion, only to find out the whole school had a blackout!
"So that's how guys learn to take up beer during NS..."
It totally sucked, couldn't bathe because the toilet was too dark, couldn't sleep well because the fan was down. We were already tired enough, so I slept at around 2200. Woke up in cold at midnight to find our room brightly litted and the fan at full power. Put on a shirt, switched off the light and recovered into the warmth of my blanket. "Be strong, that was the last and final advice I gave to you."
Friday:
Late for fall in, the CFCs got it. Lecture on CA2 on Paracounsellors by Master Steven. He shared his experience of his search and rescue operations with us on the Super Puma. The worst was him fishing out a pilot's helmet only to find the pilot's head in it too. (Shall leave out the description he gave us)
Next was the Maj inculcating us on the extra two values that the AirForce has. It included a group discussion with Yong Kok and Colin. After lunch, went to the CAI to go through some programmes on the RSAF roles and function and also about radion stuffs. It seems as though I need all my physics lecture notes to help me with all that calculations involving frequency and stuff. Kinda rusty but still can make it, miss studying...
Returned to wingline, CWC and CSC talked to us, shocked to find out I was tomorrow's CDO, must do from Saturday 7am to Sunday 7am! Weekend BURN...! Might as well don't bookout?Cleaned the bunk in preparation for tomorrow's standby bed, buddy MIA. Dinner was a bun with two sausages, one chicken patty, a slice of cheese, baked beans. Erm excuse me, doesn't it suit more like breakfast? Battery extremely low, sianz.
Luckily we did the weekend/holidays duty draw, and I got the normal days! But three people with no integrity didn't own up, one of which is the first day of Chinese New Year. Please no! Not fair at all! Luck don't always shine on you.
Saturday:
IPPT cat. test, wanted to just sit out but she insisted me on seeing the MO. Fine. So I got a week's of excuse lower limb, well I got to thank her actually. At least this time he gave me some cream to apply rather than just panadols.
On my way back, saw them heading out for lessons already, caught up with them in the CA2. During the WITS briefing, everyone was fighting hard with the enemy within, the most deadly of them all, the 'Z' monsters! In order to avoid weekend/holiday duties, people resorted to drawing pictures, calculating some maths, eating LOTS of sweets (going to get diabetes soon) and writing rubbish.
Next was the motivation lesson, which the lecturer did point out a good point. Instead of fining people $500 for littering, why not reward people for bringing them litter? Sensible but inapplicable. On our way to lunch, sang the bookout song, distubing the girls who were serving the first two weeks of their BMT (confinement time) who were already there. LoL!
Rushed to bookout early, but by the time we were out, it was 15mins behind the actual time. Got a ride from a friends, reached Tampines central by 1600, went with Jordan to buy games, got myself AceCombat5! Way fun and realistic! Spent my time going through the tutorials and several missions already. Can't wait for S211 to come... Please hurry okie!
"Don't be hopeful on anything you have on me..."
12:27 pm;