Bad Day turn to a Fantastic Day

Bad Day:
Starts in the morning at 5am. Had to book in by 7am for extra lessons on planning. I started on wheeling the lines back to its original state to get it ready by Mon Ex-Virgo at Lim Chu Kang. Very very xiong indeed. I didn’t really touch on the planning norms of the presentation in the afternoon. But overall the day just wasn’t good for me. Presentation of the planning took 3 hours and we had to book out at 5.30pm.

Good Day:
I managed to contact my girlfriend after I booked out and she was on her way home but was at the Bukit Batok station. I asked her to wait for me as I waited to meet her as well as have dinner with her. We had dinner at Causeway Point and had a enjoyable time seeing her.
Next we met up with Yinmei for tea session. I think she was excited as both of her best friends are seeing each other. Nevertheless, we had quite a hearty chat and due to my poor command mandarin, some of the statements were interpreted wrongly by them and they were giggling at it. Huixiang also joined in halfway through the session. But meeting up with old friends really make up for the poor day I had in the day. All thanks to them, I end the day with a high note.

P.S. I have succeeded in holding her hands for the first time, the feeling was undescribable. Haha!

Cheers

EX Gemini

The week kicks off on Sunday when I booked in. I was so suay that I was appointed Syndicate IC for the planning phase of EX Gemini. To say, it was one of the toughest appointments as I had know what tasks to get it done and assigning work to my group members. We had 3 sleepless nights as we were required to execute what we had planned at the Mandai area. For the execution phase I was appointed the line Sgt for the Offensive part and Officer-in-Command (OC) for ‘C’ coy for the defence phase. Got mocked up by the proud and irritating 2nd Lieutenant for the whole of the defence phase.

To add to the misery of this week, I had my Combat Comms Exam 2 early today morning. Didn’t complete my paper. I guess I gonna failed this paper liao. Haiz

What a miseriable miseriable week.

She Made My Day

Went out with her yesterday. Our first since last Feb but the wait had been worth it. She looked as beautiful as before. We had a fun time watching the movie @ PS - The Shaggy Dog. We meet up at the MRT as she got lesson beforehand. We chat a lot and still feel like we are on a first time date. But still there is one thing I have yet to do yet and that requires courage. And it is for u to find out and for me to know.

She make my week better…

Another week in Stagmont Camp

As another week as Signal Trainee past by, things get more difficult and complicated. I had to MAPEX (Map and planning exercise) for most of the week. It kicks off with a offensive planning then followed by a defense planning exercise.

Physical exercise was focused more on SOC test. At last, I have cleared the SOC for the first year of my service with a timing of 8:39. A personal best timing for me. No more SOC for my rest of my course. It was then followed by a 24km route march from East Coast Park car park G to B. Very shacked indeed.

Next week will be a major exercise on Offensive and defense planning in Mandai, hope that exercise would not be a messed up one. For those who got the posting yesterday, congrats to all those who got their choice.

Cheers

Guardsmen

Sad to say, my weekend was virtually burned due to guard duty on Sunday. A 24 hrs duty for the whole of Sunday started from 8am till the next day 8am. I am very shacked indeed. I could feel my legs were giving way after 12 rounds of prowling around the camp.

SOC training – Quite satisfied with the unofficial timing of 9:11. It is definitely a boost to my confident in next week SOC trial test.

Radio practical and theory test – I think I had done enough to pass the practical test but failed the theory test by 4 marks. Ai yo yo!

16 km route march in ECP – First time I am marching in an urban area in East Coast Park. From the start, we already attracted a lot of attention from curious passersby. I saw a group of botaks (Juz pass out from Tekong) coming to greet us and overheard them saying: “Eh, eh, 3 white bars, must be captain”. Juz to remind all of those in army, 3 white bars is unofficial rank and is lower than a Private. Some even said, “left right left right” while some who were barbecuing, asked us whether we had eaten. This march really attracts too much attention. I also wished to “Thank” the person who complaint of disturbance by other unit marching in the same area from their singing. We were told that we were not allowed to sing. The whole march end at 0145 and we reached our camp at 0240.

Shacked and tired…

Went to NTU open house tdy……
It was first time I stepped into NTU. The whole environment was around the same as NUS. There was quite a huge crowd as it was the school open house as well as exhibition on student’s projects.

My buddy and I went to the School of Computer Engineering booth and started asking questions. I just went there to find out whether is there any changes to the curriculum to the course. Next we went to the School of Civil and Environment Engineering. That was the point where we came across this friendly student who was on this open house helper and explain the particular courses (even though I think she was not really experienced). To my surprised, she came from the same primary School (Huamin) and started asking my name. When I told her my name, she suddenly mentioned my brother name. It was even to my astonishment that she could remember much even though I am not the same class as her for the six years. Then I remember that there was an article on the school twins’ brothers and sisters in the school quarterly magazine.

Even though I don’t know her, but we had a brief chat. I am glad that Huamin Pri could produce great students even though it was not the top choice to most parents then. Look at now, Huamin was one of the popular neighborhood school that can produce the same standard as every other school. A Huamin, forever a Huamin.

Cheers!

Turn Out Turn Out!

What a week of adventure this week. A week full of up and down and entering to another phrase of my training phrase.

Tuesday
IPPT test. Results as follows:
Sit-ups: 50
Standing Broad Jump: 234
Pull up: 12
Shuttle Run: 9.98sec
2.4km: 9:04mins
Overall Award: GOLD + Badge + $$$

Wednesday
Prep for Ex-VHF (Very High Frequency). Fixed up the antenna and radio sets to the rover. During the night when we were doing the planning for Ex-VHF, I was appointed the detachment IC for Rebro (Rebroadcast) station. Urgh, two appointments in a week (CCSM + Detachment IC).

Thursday
Dammed. I was not really prepared for the presentation and I sent my rest of my group to fixed up the antennas onto the vehicle. Everything was in a messed. I briefed the driver on the Mandai route (The driver knew the route beforehand.). Before we moved off to our location from HQ, one of the radio sets failed and we were forced to change the radio set and was delayed for half and hour.

At last, we managed to set off to Mandai. As vehicle commander, I am supposed to guide the driver but I think my map reading skills still sucks as I don’t really know which flyover I had passed thru. But nevertheless, we managed to reached the location on time. During the route to the .68 knoll, our vehicle stalled halfway and the vehicle couldn’t start for a moment. Luckily, the driver managed to start the engine and get it going again.

We manned the communication for the whole of afternoon and setup rebro for all the station from Jurong, Pasir Ris, Bedok etc. But most of the time we spent our time talking, slacking and sleeping since there was no officer around with us. By 5pm, the exercise was cut and we were back in our camp. We encountered a lot of problems with the radio sets due to the power supplied from the vehicle which might also be the caused for the stalling of the vehicle. Rest and Relax for the whole evening.

Friday
3:20am: Turn out! Turn out! The officers were banging on the door shouting and their faces were camouflaged. We were made to rush down to the parade square and rushed back up to change to our uniform. After the changing of uniform, we were made to do all sort of punishments and warm out exercises for the second part of the turn out. The worst thing was to soak the fieldpack to a rubbish container filled with water, can u imagined the stench on ur fieldpack; it was disgusting.

Next we went to our bunk for inspection. It was quite a fun part as our officer made us swapped places with our bunkmates and he started asking questions like who is sister, girlfriend blah blah… We were also made to do push up with our hands held together and shouting each other name.
After all the inspection, we were transported by tonners to a location nearby where we will march back to the camp to earned our blue beret. This turn out signified another milestone in our training phrase. It also shows our transition from infantry based training to Signal based training.

Now, instead of marching in jockey cap, we were be wearing the blue beret whenever we go. What a great feeling.

In the evening, it was the cadet mess opening. The mess was painted in bright colours and decorated with a retro theme. High-ranking officers and our seniors were invited for the event. The programmes are shown as follows:

1) Slide show of our past 2 months in Stagmont Camp
2) “Tong Hua” song performed by platoon 2
3) “That thing u do” hand gesture performance.
4) Beer drinking race competition among the commanders and cadets.
5) Band performance by platoon 1. Song performed: Howie Day – Collide, Vertical Horizon – You’re A god, OCS song
6) Musical Chair (Beer version): Beers will be passed around and when the music stops, the person holding onto the beer will drink it. I was one of the suay ones.
7) Guest performance by LTA Galen on his skills on the electric guitar.
8) A Stagmont life song performed by Tay.
9) 2nd round of musical chair.
10) A game where everybody had to go underneath a pole without falling backwards with a glass of beer in hand.
11) Tekan session by the seniors. All the beer will contain 2 eggs as a “GIFT” by the seniors.

It was a very enjoyable night and quite a lot of them were quite drunk indeed and we slept overnight in the bunk. What a week to be remembered of.

Cheers