Ate breakfast at around 4pm, my uncle called me asking me why I needed the popular card later. So I went to meet him and Edmund at TM's ntuc. I got what I wanted and also ate dinner by myself, didn't feel like all the usual dinner family gathering. I met my vscb junior, Edmund in his Tekong book in attire.
LoL. What a small world. Well he spent quite some time talking and asking me stuffs, leaving his girl friend by the side all alone. Poor girl, I can tell you that no girl will do that for you unless she really really a very good friend, otherwise... So I chased him away and went on my way. Seems like my previous life is catching up to me, is it a sign?
In the car, on the way back, my Dad talked to me about our past, when I was still a little boy. He said I was the most independent, unlike my sisters who would cry at the lost of sight of our parents. There was this time when he and I went to Malaysia by train, we waited at the train station for our aunt to come pick us up. Because it was lunchtime and we were hungry, my Dad told me to stay put and look after our luggage so he could go buy A&W.
Can you imagine asking a 5year old kid to look after our stuffs? I can't! Even when I had to look after our stuffs! My Dad said he would look for that photo he told me to stand by myself and took, with the A&W in the background. Kinda looking forward to it!
Monday:
Woke up terribly, had a bad night. I woke up many times, with different nightmares at everytime. What is it trying to show me? Don't have time to think about it for now...
Here we go again! As soon as I changed to my pt attire, the rain started to come pouring down! Joy to the World! So 4BX only, at the wing common area. Went in our pt attire, had fried maggi mee for breakfast, the rain gave us some time after that, delaying our COC parade. It was never meant to be I guess, SM had to change the venue to the normal one even though we were all in position already!
Can you imagine we still have do to arms drills in OCS! Frankly, its redundent. The weather was good though, so it wasn't that bad. Then came all that lectures, my gosh! During lunch, saw Kenny in his navy no.3, not bad at all. Nice of him to ask about my leg, he's practically having his holidays there!
The night was allocated for studying. The recreation room was relatively empty, to my surprise, nevertheless, I wouldn't fail to turn up no matter what. I managed to fall asleep even though my buddy was stuck like glue to his bourne book.
Tuesday:
The 7km run was quite bad, the 'meesiam' from breakfast really kicked up quite badly. I was holding back a right stitch all the way, making it hard to get some speed on the run. Altogether it was 4 big rounds and 2 small ones of the route, making us climb that Stairway to Heaven 4 times! Mathematically, that's not 7km.
Looks like the next week's bookout timing will be extended. Before the lecture began, Keith whipped out the clip on the Thunderbirds, a group of top acrobatic flyers fyi. Inspiring, but made me think of the missed prospect I could have if only my dad...
Spent most of the day flipping through the books that matter, and some of the slides available to us. My buddy was totally relaxed, still reading his bourne book, man! Unbelievable as it seems, but I like it when the place is so empty, you know what I mean.
Wednesday:
Straight to breakfast, that's the way I like it! They came just moments before we left, always wanted to ask what they are actually going through here. The lectures lined up one after another, most of the guys were frantically flipping through the notes while others already gave, either sleeping through the breaks or just leaving it to be.
There was this Maj, a lady to specify, practically just murmuring to herself. Made it so tough for many to stay awake in order to avoid filling up the slots for the next 2 guard duties coming. However, the other civilian presenter, also a lady was very pro-active. We could really see she was very well-prepared and knows her work well.
A quick dinner before we all faced the test at CAI. And so it began, it was now or never. I took all the time given to me, but some of the questions really shocked me, because I didn't read it anywhere off any of the books. And so the final results was Saturday morning, I got 8 short of 70 for Friday night. So its going to be Singapore this year...
But I'm really glad that its over...
26/01
0400, up and ready. Draw the lousy, rusty M16. Rushed here and there, so we could set off at 0600. The goal was 12km in 2hr 45mins, technically, its supposed to be 4km in an hour. It started out quick, like a fast march, probably because the front guys were all long legged. It stressed the shin a lot, even had to jog sometimes to cover up the space between me and the man in front.
After the whole thing, the reason I managed to complete it is because of all my friends. Their help, encouragement and constant pushing prevented me from falling out. The route march can be summed up as double quick time march or short jog.
I cramped my whole leg, the thigh, calf, shin and hamstring, suffered blisters all over the strategic places on my sole. I didn't encounter them at all before during Bmt, why now? After all that, we resumed our normal programme. It was only then I found out I was going to take over Cadet Wing Commander(CWC) next week! So suay until like that, cannot make it man!
Straight away I had to take up the role, because all the commitee had a 'special' lunch with Dy Comd. It was pretty confusing, especially with all of them not returning on time for the excursion. The accounting of strength is going to be a big headache, must take note of it. Loaded onto the bus after they came back. Instead of my usual rest on the bus, took time out so that Raymond could brief me about the roles and responsibilities.
Our first stop was Bukit Chandu, a place quite off the road and out of sight. It was a hill where we used to read about in our history textbooks about the Malay Regiments who fought bravely with the Japanese during WW2. The short video experience was kinda realistic, felt a little jittery. Had to bring my group of the guys around too and coordinate the events. Pretty tough, especially trying to lead leaders-to-be.
We left to our second and last stop, which was actually just beside Jalan Bahtera camp. This was the place where I had my first camping during primary days, I still have the shirt they gave us for it too, but its a little small to wear it now. Looks pretty much the same, just a few new buildings and I still remember the flying fox and the abselling.
Back to why we went there, LTA Shirley told us about the historical background of the beach, we could see Malaysia pretty easily. The place where we stood now is actually the closest distance between Singapore's and Malaysia's borders. It was also where the Japanese harboured for the invasion. After that, we went to a training shed where everyone shared whatever history background they knew about Japan's invasion of Singapore.
Once back, attended the EODD with the committee members, gonna be very busy next week. So this is how the appoinment holders feel, always behind from the rest in terms of admin time. Oh well, the bright side of it is that I just gotta do it for 3days and its all over in terms of appointment duty for me.
27/01
Woke up, felt really sick. Decided to give the MO a visit, and he gave me 5 different medications, to treat my flu, cough, sore throat, slight fever and diarhoea. Consider the odds of them coming at one shot, well at least I didn't get the one thing that has been spreading around, sore eyes.
Joined in the lecture with Yong Qiang, after which our instructors came in, with a big issue at hand. Those guys, of all the places to do it, how dumb can they get? Well that caused a big 'hoo haa' to everyone, where a thorough inspection of the bunk was implemented, what trouble.
Had to dumb all our stuffs onto the bed, and later keep everything again for inspection again. I also had to see SM because I was next week's retail ic for Navex, lots of nonsensical stuufs. The mood was pretty bad by the end of the day.
Fortunately we had the school's CnY celebrations to lighten up the mood, something like the one we had for Christmas. The steamboat was nice, so were the girls on the stage, the fun and games were commendable too. At the end of it, everyone were feeling good.
Before those Friday night people could go, we had an EODD which included the previous CWCs and CFCs. It took quite a while, but they managed to bookout around 10plus. I was still in my civilian clothes when the officers on course conducted the bunk inspection, that really sucked.
Managed to wash most of my stuffs and also checked my bag for next week's super detailed field pack inspection. Tomorrow morning, wonder how life would be...
28/01
Woke up at around 0500, everyone pushing each other in order to bookout exactly at 6am. Breakfast was just scrambled eggs only, with milo. Managed to leave camp at 0615, got a ride from Vincent in his cool car.
Home at last, but an empty one. CnY is tomorrow, feels as though its just like a normal festive holiday.
9:15 pm;