Saintvida.com has opened shop! Set up by a friend of mine, it offers a range of stylish wear for the fashion conscious crowd. Do pop by and take a look, personally I'd recommend the ladies' tees..
PS: Princess, anything caught your eye yet? :p
Thursday, July 28, 2005
The Sixth Tuesday
Excerpts from a book I read in ICT.. quite a meaningful book by Mitch Albom. It was a bestseller and a very popular book read by millions of people around the globe. It belongs to the 'self improvement' genre of books I'd suppose but the author writes this book with a unique way, kind of like a recollection of accounts. Go read it if you haven't!
---------------------
The small horrors of his illness were growing, and when I finally sat down with Morrie, he was coughing more than usual, a dry, dusty cough that shook his chest and made his head jerk forward. After one violent surge, he stopped, closed his eyes, and took a breath. I sat quietly because I thought he was recovering from his exertion.
"Is the tape on?" he said suddenly, his eyes still closed.
Yes, yes, I quickly said, pressing down the play and record buttons.
"What I'm doing now," he continued, his eyes still closed, "is detaching myself from the experience."
Detaching yourself?
"Yes. Detaching myself. And this is important - not just for someone like me, who is dying, but for someone like you, who is perfectly healthy. Learn to detach."
He opened his eyes. He exhaled. "You know what the Buddhists say? Don't cling to things, because everything is impermanent."
But wait, I said. Aren't you always talking about experiencing life? All the good emotions, all the bad ones?
"Yes."
Well, how can you do that if you're detached?
"Ah. You're thinking, Mitch. But detachment doesn't mean you don't let the experience penetrate you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully. That's how you are able to leave it."
I'm lost.
"Take any emotion - love for a woman, or grief for a loved one, or what I'm going through, fear and pain from a deadly illness. If you hold back on the emotions - if you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them - you can never get to being detached, you're too busy being afraid. You're afraid of the pain, you're afraid of the grief. You're afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails."
"But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your head even, you experience them fully and completely. You know what pain is. You know what love is. You know what grief is. And only then can you say, 'All right. I have experienced that emotion. I recognise that emotion. Now I need to detach from that emotion for a moment.'"
Morrie stopped and looked me over, perhaps to make sure I was getting this right.
"I know you think this is just about dying," he said, "but its like I keep telling you. When you learn how to die, you learn how to live."
---------------------
The small horrors of his illness were growing, and when I finally sat down with Morrie, he was coughing more than usual, a dry, dusty cough that shook his chest and made his head jerk forward. After one violent surge, he stopped, closed his eyes, and took a breath. I sat quietly because I thought he was recovering from his exertion.
"Is the tape on?" he said suddenly, his eyes still closed.
Yes, yes, I quickly said, pressing down the play and record buttons.
"What I'm doing now," he continued, his eyes still closed, "is detaching myself from the experience."
Detaching yourself?
"Yes. Detaching myself. And this is important - not just for someone like me, who is dying, but for someone like you, who is perfectly healthy. Learn to detach."
He opened his eyes. He exhaled. "You know what the Buddhists say? Don't cling to things, because everything is impermanent."
But wait, I said. Aren't you always talking about experiencing life? All the good emotions, all the bad ones?
"Yes."
Well, how can you do that if you're detached?
"Ah. You're thinking, Mitch. But detachment doesn't mean you don't let the experience penetrate you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully. That's how you are able to leave it."
I'm lost.
"Take any emotion - love for a woman, or grief for a loved one, or what I'm going through, fear and pain from a deadly illness. If you hold back on the emotions - if you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them - you can never get to being detached, you're too busy being afraid. You're afraid of the pain, you're afraid of the grief. You're afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails."
"But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your head even, you experience them fully and completely. You know what pain is. You know what love is. You know what grief is. And only then can you say, 'All right. I have experienced that emotion. I recognise that emotion. Now I need to detach from that emotion for a moment.'"
Morrie stopped and looked me over, perhaps to make sure I was getting this right.
"I know you think this is just about dying," he said, "but its like I keep telling you. When you learn how to die, you learn how to live."
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Greatday.com
I was reading this particular day's quotes and it talked about suffering setbacks and encountering low points in life. Well to most, that's just all that meets the eye..
Apparently the sooner we accept that these challenges and obstacles are part of life itself, the sooner we will quit whining about them and get over these difficulties. That life itself matters in the journey, not the current nor the end point.
Pretty useful stuff for a troubled mind anyday~
Apparently the sooner we accept that these challenges and obstacles are part of life itself, the sooner we will quit whining about them and get over these difficulties. That life itself matters in the journey, not the current nor the end point.
Pretty useful stuff for a troubled mind anyday~
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Public outrage!
Phew.. just finished reading todays papers and 1 whole page was dedicated to the NKF/TT Durai affair. Which was the Forum, only 1 article called for level headed thinking, the rest were more or less from angry/irate/irritated/disturbed readers.. *shakes head*
10-12 months of performance bonus.. that already is terribly uncommon in the public sector. 25K/month and add the bonus in, up to 600K per year.
Mrs Goh said it was peanuts.. sure it was peanuts if NKF was a profit-making outfit but it relies on public donations man. Anyway I think she did the right think by publicly supporting TT Durai because if she also condemn him, then NKF might really cui..
I saw the online petition's link yesterday but didn't sign it because I thought it was kind of bo liao.. I always thought that online petitions can't be taken seriously. Why?
The following is an illustration only..
99. Mr. A (TT Durai has tarnished the reputation of NKF and therefore his resignation is only rightful such that public confidence can be regained)
100. Ms. B (We will not continue to donate until TT Durai resigns and the $ is properly taken care of)
101. Mr.C (F*** you KNNBCCB you LIAR I HOPE U HAVE GONORRHOEA AND UR MOTHER FATHER AH KONG AH MA *****************************************)
Well at least that's what I always see in online petitions. But what to expect, when thousands of people are physically marching in the Philippines to demand President Arroyo's resignation, we can only switch on computer and sign petition. What? Better than nothing what..
Mr X and FKN are fictional characters as below hehe...
Now I'm just wondering, is there any law that governs non-profit organisations on transparency etc. Like at this point of time, would Mr X get into trouble with the law? From the way I see it, that we have decided to donate our money to FKN, we have a right to know where our money has gone. Since FKN's CEO hasn't been accurate about how the money has been spent, would that count as fraud or breach of trust? The public's trust that is.. well that's a question I've been pondering.
10-12 months of performance bonus.. that already is terribly uncommon in the public sector. 25K/month and add the bonus in, up to 600K per year.
Mrs Goh said it was peanuts.. sure it was peanuts if NKF was a profit-making outfit but it relies on public donations man. Anyway I think she did the right think by publicly supporting TT Durai because if she also condemn him, then NKF might really cui..
I saw the online petition's link yesterday but didn't sign it because I thought it was kind of bo liao.. I always thought that online petitions can't be taken seriously. Why?
The following is an illustration only..
99. Mr. A (TT Durai has tarnished the reputation of NKF and therefore his resignation is only rightful such that public confidence can be regained)
100. Ms. B (We will not continue to donate until TT Durai resigns and the $ is properly taken care of)
101. Mr.C (F*** you KNNBCCB you LIAR I HOPE U HAVE GONORRHOEA AND UR MOTHER FATHER AH KONG AH MA *****************************************)
Well at least that's what I always see in online petitions. But what to expect, when thousands of people are physically marching in the Philippines to demand President Arroyo's resignation, we can only switch on computer and sign petition. What? Better than nothing what..
Mr X and FKN are fictional characters as below hehe...
Now I'm just wondering, is there any law that governs non-profit organisations on transparency etc. Like at this point of time, would Mr X get into trouble with the law? From the way I see it, that we have decided to donate our money to FKN, we have a right to know where our money has gone. Since FKN's CEO hasn't been accurate about how the money has been spent, would that count as fraud or breach of trust? The public's trust that is.. well that's a question I've been pondering.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
2nd week continued..
The 2nd week was by far much xiong-er than the previous week. And with that comes more 'legendary and breathtaking moments' with the men of signal platoon..
I remember that we didn't have much to do on Monday because as usual the officers are planning and planning. So it goes without saying that the guys tried to gamble themselves crazy with bouts of in-between and blackjack~ By then WWM was attacking Digital Fortress and I was finishing up Tuesdays with Morrie.
Outfield!
Well we moved out at about 10 or 11am on Tuesday, not that sure of that timing now but I remember we went out before lunch. Oh well, Willis gave me a little priviledge for my bad back so I sat at the vehicle commander's seat in front. Ahhh~ air con just before moving out.. what a godsend!
When we reached the concentration area, it was so damned familiar and I remember this was the conc. area that 42 'pioneered'. Perhaps for ATEC or one of the countless full troop exercises but who can remember? Well as a welcome gift, the jungle soil had a stranglehold on the tonner and we got stuck in the mud. So well, we just stopped and deployed there and then. Haha!
The worrst thing was that, we were beside a swamp and we were damned sure it was like the mother of all breeding grounds for those sickening mosquitoes. Bloody hell.. thank goodness PC gave me some mosquito coils to use and WWM had a lighter so we smoked a lot there.. oh by the way the lucky ass PC didn't need to move out at all because he was attached to PNR platoon and so he was dead bored in camp and could sleep till dusk till dawn till dusk till dawn.. Arghhh..
We got ready, camouflaged our vehicles, did our line-laying job and then just waited. There wasn't much to do but to wait for lunch and when it came, it was almost 2pm. Freaking hungry if you ask me..
For those who had been through countless outfield exercises like us probably finished our job quickly and thought of little else as we waited for the dark of night. For people like BSO who had only been through AOAC, well he was forever a kanchiong spider and kept asking us to tidy up this and tidy up that. Fark man, be lucky we still know how to operate our equipment, it was nice and tidy everything was up and running so why you just go find something more constructive to do?
Ughh, bleddy replacement..
Deep in the dark..
Still didn't have much to do since CO gave instructions that external lines were not needed except for BnSA and mortar. And when we did reach mortar platoon, they were going back to camp. Paradise liao, nabey... lay so long for f***! Not to mention Ong WK gave us a lot of problems dunno chut what pattern. We were on a land rover and then he opened a dispenser pack, ran the line through the roof of the rover and then gave it to me and Willis to do rift knot. And I think everybody doesn't know how to do a rift knot except for the 2 of us. LCP K Lim is automatically striked off so that only leaves 看医生 and 贼神, with the former leaving for Canada permanently and the latter still in polytechnic.
Anyway I could see the exasperation in the brigade "pui-gade" guys and they were really quite dulan with Ong WK. Well which is no big surprise hahaha..
In the end go back to conc. area, TK and Chin had invaded the line tonner and were sleeping on the benches. K was sleeping in a weird position as usual and Willis was sleeping on the bench too. Leaves no room for me so I went to find WWM and talked kok with him until I got hungry. That's when I collected my ice-cold popsicle.. hur hur!
Weird sleeping positions..
LCP K Lim wasn't nicknamed "All Terrain Sleeping Machine" for no reason. He has the ability to doze off standing up, in superman position, seated on a chair and head on shoe cabinet as well as.... upper half body on tonner bench, legs on the ground sideways. Its hard to describe but he's sort of like doing the twist but with his eyes closed.
Well Chin went back to his BX to find a spot to sleep so that left G, me, Willis, K Lim, TK Tan(sleeping like no tomorrow) and Ong WK. With an army of mosquitoes to fight off as well as the midnight heat. Its a wonder how TK, Willis, Ong and G could actually fall asleep. The air wasn't even moving and Ong could bloody SNORE. KNNBchao turtle..
Suddenly, K went like "阿!! 我的背!!" A few seconds later amidst some struggling there was another "阿!! 我不可以动!!" The silly ATSM had finally found a position tough enough. Although he was able to sleep, he was finally awoken by the pain caused by sleeping in his ultra funny position.. -_-"
That would be the joke of days to come.. as well as TK ooh-ing and aah-ing at around 4 or 5am.. Almost like he was having an orgasm.. wahhaha!
Paradise now OUT!!
WIth the orders to RTU, we quickly packed up our stuff and kept the camou net back into the tonner. We were never happier to see the clean white sheets of our bed and plop onto them. Not before having an ultra long shower though! We reached camp at around 2pm I suppose. GX didn't come back till 5 odd and he was cursing and swearing at his commander.
None of my fucking problem!
CPL A was about to mount up his rover when his commander asked "Eh, how come don't have water? No jerry can?"
A: "Nobody asked me to draw"
Commander: "Where is my container? Don't have container how to drink water??"
A:..
Commander: "None of my fucking problem!"
His commander then went outfield WITHOUT him and left him stranded in camp, without a vehicle, without anyone to follow and he had to draw jerry cans himself. WTF! This type of shit coming out of an officer's mouth, I think we as ORD NS men deserve better than this type of shitty commander. Can tell him to go back to OCS or wherever he came from. Even if we did kok up, which we didn't, he could have treated his men in a nicer way. Bloody big fuck, I'm quite tempted to scratch his car. But nevermind ICT is over. That was one big boo-boo of ICT anyway..
Those of you who know who his commander is, just keep it to yourself. Later I kena sued ah.. then I really chao turtle liao.. appointment same as per 42SAR lor.
After the exercise, we didn't have much except for handing/taking over and some maintenance to do. Dismounting of signal sets etc..
The next few days were some lectures, talks about MIW websites and their services and another IPPT test on Thursday. 看医生 got a silver timing, bloody bugger I think he was engineered to run. (His best timing for 2.4km is about 8 minutes odd, he ran about 11 minutes odd that day)
Well we had a fabulous dinner the night just before battalion cohesion night where we played some really kok games, tug-o-war which HQ won and had some beer. As usual CO downed jugs and cans of beer like no kick. His belly really gives it away.. -_-" but at least he has slimmed down compared to the first time when we saw him.
Later on in the night, I told PC I wanted to download a song from Michael Jackson. He helpfully offered the following..
1. Jillie Bean
2. Save the world
Wahahaha!
Out-processing
We thought that it was over but it wasn't. Somehow the CSM arrowed us to go tidy up the washing bay just as we were about to fall in at parade square with our gear. We made our way there and cleared the washing bay and kept the fire hose back into its holder.
PS: The head of the hose resembled part of the male genitalia. Wahaha and the head squirted some water on Chin. Needless to say, Tk joined me with his cackling laughter wahaha!!
Back to our bunks, this guy from the next bunk nicknamed "Steamer part II" because he always looks super blur is still running around in smart 4. He doesn't seem to have any idea that we are about to out-process and the goon is dunno doing what. Really a steamer.. oh and if you were wondering who's steamer part I, its K Lim.
That's about it for the ICT.. bleah!
Oh and for those who want to cut their GIRO arrangement with the NKF, you can do it via Internet banking.
I've already decided I won't donate to NKF anymore, other TRANSPARENT charitable organisations could use my money.
I remember that we didn't have much to do on Monday because as usual the officers are planning and planning. So it goes without saying that the guys tried to gamble themselves crazy with bouts of in-between and blackjack~ By then WWM was attacking Digital Fortress and I was finishing up Tuesdays with Morrie.
Outfield!
Well we moved out at about 10 or 11am on Tuesday, not that sure of that timing now but I remember we went out before lunch. Oh well, Willis gave me a little priviledge for my bad back so I sat at the vehicle commander's seat in front. Ahhh~ air con just before moving out.. what a godsend!
When we reached the concentration area, it was so damned familiar and I remember this was the conc. area that 42 'pioneered'. Perhaps for ATEC or one of the countless full troop exercises but who can remember? Well as a welcome gift, the jungle soil had a stranglehold on the tonner and we got stuck in the mud. So well, we just stopped and deployed there and then. Haha!
The worrst thing was that, we were beside a swamp and we were damned sure it was like the mother of all breeding grounds for those sickening mosquitoes. Bloody hell.. thank goodness PC gave me some mosquito coils to use and WWM had a lighter so we smoked a lot there.. oh by the way the lucky ass PC didn't need to move out at all because he was attached to PNR platoon and so he was dead bored in camp and could sleep till dusk till dawn till dusk till dawn.. Arghhh..
We got ready, camouflaged our vehicles, did our line-laying job and then just waited. There wasn't much to do but to wait for lunch and when it came, it was almost 2pm. Freaking hungry if you ask me..
For those who had been through countless outfield exercises like us probably finished our job quickly and thought of little else as we waited for the dark of night. For people like BSO who had only been through AOAC, well he was forever a kanchiong spider and kept asking us to tidy up this and tidy up that. Fark man, be lucky we still know how to operate our equipment, it was nice and tidy everything was up and running so why you just go find something more constructive to do?
Ughh, bleddy replacement..
Deep in the dark..
Still didn't have much to do since CO gave instructions that external lines were not needed except for BnSA and mortar. And when we did reach mortar platoon, they were going back to camp. Paradise liao, nabey... lay so long for f***! Not to mention Ong WK gave us a lot of problems dunno chut what pattern. We were on a land rover and then he opened a dispenser pack, ran the line through the roof of the rover and then gave it to me and Willis to do rift knot. And I think everybody doesn't know how to do a rift knot except for the 2 of us. LCP K Lim is automatically striked off so that only leaves 看医生 and 贼神, with the former leaving for Canada permanently and the latter still in polytechnic.
Anyway I could see the exasperation in the brigade "pui-gade" guys and they were really quite dulan with Ong WK. Well which is no big surprise hahaha..
In the end go back to conc. area, TK and Chin had invaded the line tonner and were sleeping on the benches. K was sleeping in a weird position as usual and Willis was sleeping on the bench too. Leaves no room for me so I went to find WWM and talked kok with him until I got hungry. That's when I collected my ice-cold popsicle.. hur hur!
Weird sleeping positions..
LCP K Lim wasn't nicknamed "All Terrain Sleeping Machine" for no reason. He has the ability to doze off standing up, in superman position, seated on a chair and head on shoe cabinet as well as.... upper half body on tonner bench, legs on the ground sideways. Its hard to describe but he's sort of like doing the twist but with his eyes closed.
Well Chin went back to his BX to find a spot to sleep so that left G, me, Willis, K Lim, TK Tan(sleeping like no tomorrow) and Ong WK. With an army of mosquitoes to fight off as well as the midnight heat. Its a wonder how TK, Willis, Ong and G could actually fall asleep. The air wasn't even moving and Ong could bloody SNORE. KNNBchao turtle..
Suddenly, K went like "阿!! 我的背!!" A few seconds later amidst some struggling there was another "阿!! 我不可以动!!" The silly ATSM had finally found a position tough enough. Although he was able to sleep, he was finally awoken by the pain caused by sleeping in his ultra funny position.. -_-"
That would be the joke of days to come.. as well as TK ooh-ing and aah-ing at around 4 or 5am.. Almost like he was having an orgasm.. wahhaha!
Paradise now OUT!!
WIth the orders to RTU, we quickly packed up our stuff and kept the camou net back into the tonner. We were never happier to see the clean white sheets of our bed and plop onto them. Not before having an ultra long shower though! We reached camp at around 2pm I suppose. GX didn't come back till 5 odd and he was cursing and swearing at his commander.
None of my fucking problem!
CPL A was about to mount up his rover when his commander asked "Eh, how come don't have water? No jerry can?"
A: "Nobody asked me to draw"
Commander: "Where is my container? Don't have container how to drink water??"
A:..
Commander: "None of my fucking problem!"
His commander then went outfield WITHOUT him and left him stranded in camp, without a vehicle, without anyone to follow and he had to draw jerry cans himself. WTF! This type of shit coming out of an officer's mouth, I think we as ORD NS men deserve better than this type of shitty commander. Can tell him to go back to OCS or wherever he came from. Even if we did kok up, which we didn't, he could have treated his men in a nicer way. Bloody big fuck, I'm quite tempted to scratch his car. But nevermind ICT is over. That was one big boo-boo of ICT anyway..
Those of you who know who his commander is, just keep it to yourself. Later I kena sued ah.. then I really chao turtle liao.. appointment same as per 42SAR lor.
After the exercise, we didn't have much except for handing/taking over and some maintenance to do. Dismounting of signal sets etc..
The next few days were some lectures, talks about MIW websites and their services and another IPPT test on Thursday. 看医生 got a silver timing, bloody bugger I think he was engineered to run. (His best timing for 2.4km is about 8 minutes odd, he ran about 11 minutes odd that day)
Well we had a fabulous dinner the night just before battalion cohesion night where we played some really kok games, tug-o-war which HQ won and had some beer. As usual CO downed jugs and cans of beer like no kick. His belly really gives it away.. -_-" but at least he has slimmed down compared to the first time when we saw him.
Later on in the night, I told PC I wanted to download a song from Michael Jackson. He helpfully offered the following..
1. Jillie Bean
2. Save the world
Wahahaha!
Out-processing
We thought that it was over but it wasn't. Somehow the CSM arrowed us to go tidy up the washing bay just as we were about to fall in at parade square with our gear. We made our way there and cleared the washing bay and kept the fire hose back into its holder.
PS: The head of the hose resembled part of the male genitalia. Wahaha and the head squirted some water on Chin. Needless to say, Tk joined me with his cackling laughter wahaha!!
Back to our bunks, this guy from the next bunk nicknamed "Steamer part II" because he always looks super blur is still running around in smart 4. He doesn't seem to have any idea that we are about to out-process and the goon is dunno doing what. Really a steamer.. oh and if you were wondering who's steamer part I, its K Lim.
That's about it for the ICT.. bleah!
Oh and for those who want to cut their GIRO arrangement with the NKF, you can do it via Internet banking.
I've already decided I won't donate to NKF anymore, other TRANSPARENT charitable organisations could use my money.
Monday, July 04, 2005
2 weeks of pain, constipation and endless waiting..
Seriously there's quite too much content about ICT that's worth blogging. How about just some highlights? Hehe..
In-process
Me, Chew, Gary and PC met at Zhenghua's Kim San Leng coffeeshop to have an early breakfast. By then the 2 goons had already smoked at least 2 or 3 sticks of ciggies, blackening their black lungs further before I arrived. I was late because I had to pack my slightly damp clothes and stuff into my bag. Ahh.. the result of last minute underwear purchasing.. Hehe!
Also noteworthy was that LCP G aka 看医生 did NOT turn up in ONLY full uniform. Thankfully if I might add.. LOL!
Me and Chew kena marked for not having proper haircut so the 2 of us had to surrender our PRECIOUS pink ICs to the RSM's clerk or whoever he was. Then we cleverly went to our bunk first instead of queueing up for the barber's. We tuang-ed for a while and with our cunning sense of timing, we managed to siam the parade. May I exclaim "song bo?"
Later on, meaning the next day, LCP 看医生 finally found out his IC was confiscated because of his long haircut, not because the unit would return it to him at the end of 2 weeks. Winner... -_-"
Well as per the first ICT, first few days are full of planning so we had a lot of free time to ourselves. Some carried out their individual body maintenance (IBM), some read books (WWM, me and PC), some read and re-read and re-re-read the newspapers (practically everybody). One lonely soul was in S1 branch trying to get a chance to talk to CO and it was only when we went to E-mart that I bumped into him.
It was the glorious! It was the legendary! Or as quoted from LCP CK Chan "World's greatest" 笑饼!!!! LCP K Lim!!! He really was the 'star' of this ICT.
Cold, hungry, tired and to top it off, fuckin wet.
There was a live firing exercise conducted at Basic Main Range (BMR) and it would also serve as a showcase of Armour's firepower to the CDF (Chief of defence force) of Singapore and Malaysia. I won't go into details but it would suffice to say a PA system was needed and 2 sets of 29 inch television sets would have to be set up to show the CDFs some particular images.
We had set up the PA system the previous night as a mini-rehearsal of sorts so setting up the PA system on the actual day was quite a simple task. Next was the TV sets. After we had set them up, and everything was swee-swee, it started to rain as WWM predicted correctly. He quoted Murphy's Law by the way, basket...
Anyway what happened next was that the rest of the companies ran for cover while we ran towards the PA system and tried to get everything under shelter as fast as we could. Looking back, I can only say that the situation couldn't have possibly gotten any worse because I think it was raining damned heavily. We were soaked to the skin within minutes.. Big bloody F.. and it was only 9am. Cat 1 status till 0930 hours. Nabey Chao Turtle!
0930 hours, went to set up the PA system again in our wet and soggy underwear as well as SAF's latest "liquid cooled goretex boots". Morale at this point, was not even at ground zero because I had already declared morale has gone underground through quivering lips and chattering teeth to Willis and BSO.
Actually if you noticed, we didn't save the TV sets. That's right, we didn't. I was damned happy about it anyway because the TV would bloody spoil and it would be CO and BSO's own problem since CO arrowed the task to a super understrengthed and over-arrowed platoon and BSO gong-gong go and accept it. (Note: 9 men were taken by RSM to be sentries for the BMR live firing)
We later learnt that GX and BSO went to rescue the TV sets by placing them on a tonner. Problem was that the tonner's flaps were all opened because it was serving as the seats for the audience. Which meant that it might as well have been left in the rain.
Bang, boom, bang-bang-bang!
I witnessed my first armour live-firing that morning. With a huge boom and a small shockwave that followed, the AMX-13 tank engaged a target 800m away. My personal favourite was the 40/50, the BX engaged a target and fired 3 tracer rounds, vapourizing another target. I could only smile to myself as some cockanaden NSFs still gong gong wait for the tank to fire with their digicams. Why?
They didn't wear earplugs. Hur hur hur.. needless to say I think none of them managed to get a good shot because their hands were covering their ears..
Well, LCP K Lim got to go back to camp to get ANOTHER BLOODY 2 TVs for the VIPs but he didn't bring his earplugs. Well done.. Willis suggested putting ricola into his ears instead. Hahaha! Joke of the day man..
Anyway carrying those 4 TV sets was no joke and I ended up straining my back muscles quite badly. Bad enough to be unable to take a crap without grimacing.. chao turtle..
That was one of the main highlights of the week, the other one being IPPT.
No more SOC, no more IPPT, today is my book out day, doo da doo da dey..
We went to Khatib camp to take our IPPT test, which was ridiculously near Veggie's home. Hurhurhur.. the test is now fully computerised, with all of the stations using photogates to ensure that you do chin ups or sit ups properly. PTIs were also on hand to "no-count" people such as Steven Lim who did about 10 odd chin ups. I think all of them were no-count because his arms were not straightened. Cheers to our superhero..
Well, WWM told me to chiong the first 2 rounds of the 2.4km run so I tried to follow. Off we went and WWM ran at a very fast pace, I decided to try to follow suit and before I knew it, WWM tripped a guy and the guy fell onto the ground. Sibeh zer.. but WWM shouted sorry while increasing his speed.. wahaha! I also decided not to stop because if I e-brake, people will kick my ass and we'll all buang into one another into a huge ball and we'll roll out of the track..
Ok crappy jokes aside, I failed miserably at 13:10minutes. Bah... not even close to passing.. WTF! I was walking by round 4 and totally cui-ed by the time I finished. Conclusion: Chionging is dangerous and may not necessarily produce results. Chao turtle..
More about the next week's activities later...
In-process
Me, Chew, Gary and PC met at Zhenghua's Kim San Leng coffeeshop to have an early breakfast. By then the 2 goons had already smoked at least 2 or 3 sticks of ciggies, blackening their black lungs further before I arrived. I was late because I had to pack my slightly damp clothes and stuff into my bag. Ahh.. the result of last minute underwear purchasing.. Hehe!
Also noteworthy was that LCP G aka 看医生 did NOT turn up in ONLY full uniform. Thankfully if I might add.. LOL!
Me and Chew kena marked for not having proper haircut so the 2 of us had to surrender our PRECIOUS pink ICs to the RSM's clerk or whoever he was. Then we cleverly went to our bunk first instead of queueing up for the barber's. We tuang-ed for a while and with our cunning sense of timing, we managed to siam the parade. May I exclaim "song bo?"
Later on, meaning the next day, LCP 看医生 finally found out his IC was confiscated because of his long haircut, not because the unit would return it to him at the end of 2 weeks. Winner... -_-"
Well as per the first ICT, first few days are full of planning so we had a lot of free time to ourselves. Some carried out their individual body maintenance (IBM), some read books (WWM, me and PC), some read and re-read and re-re-read the newspapers (practically everybody). One lonely soul was in S1 branch trying to get a chance to talk to CO and it was only when we went to E-mart that I bumped into him.
It was the glorious! It was the legendary! Or as quoted from LCP CK Chan "World's greatest" 笑饼!!!! LCP K Lim!!! He really was the 'star' of this ICT.
Cold, hungry, tired and to top it off, fuckin wet.
There was a live firing exercise conducted at Basic Main Range (BMR) and it would also serve as a showcase of Armour's firepower to the CDF (Chief of defence force) of Singapore and Malaysia. I won't go into details but it would suffice to say a PA system was needed and 2 sets of 29 inch television sets would have to be set up to show the CDFs some particular images.
We had set up the PA system the previous night as a mini-rehearsal of sorts so setting up the PA system on the actual day was quite a simple task. Next was the TV sets. After we had set them up, and everything was swee-swee, it started to rain as WWM predicted correctly. He quoted Murphy's Law by the way, basket...
Anyway what happened next was that the rest of the companies ran for cover while we ran towards the PA system and tried to get everything under shelter as fast as we could. Looking back, I can only say that the situation couldn't have possibly gotten any worse because I think it was raining damned heavily. We were soaked to the skin within minutes.. Big bloody F.. and it was only 9am. Cat 1 status till 0930 hours. Nabey Chao Turtle!
0930 hours, went to set up the PA system again in our wet and soggy underwear as well as SAF's latest "liquid cooled goretex boots". Morale at this point, was not even at ground zero because I had already declared morale has gone underground through quivering lips and chattering teeth to Willis and BSO.
Actually if you noticed, we didn't save the TV sets. That's right, we didn't. I was damned happy about it anyway because the TV would bloody spoil and it would be CO and BSO's own problem since CO arrowed the task to a super understrengthed and over-arrowed platoon and BSO gong-gong go and accept it. (Note: 9 men were taken by RSM to be sentries for the BMR live firing)
We later learnt that GX and BSO went to rescue the TV sets by placing them on a tonner. Problem was that the tonner's flaps were all opened because it was serving as the seats for the audience. Which meant that it might as well have been left in the rain.
Bang, boom, bang-bang-bang!
I witnessed my first armour live-firing that morning. With a huge boom and a small shockwave that followed, the AMX-13 tank engaged a target 800m away. My personal favourite was the 40/50, the BX engaged a target and fired 3 tracer rounds, vapourizing another target. I could only smile to myself as some cockanaden NSFs still gong gong wait for the tank to fire with their digicams. Why?
They didn't wear earplugs. Hur hur hur.. needless to say I think none of them managed to get a good shot because their hands were covering their ears..
Well, LCP K Lim got to go back to camp to get ANOTHER BLOODY 2 TVs for the VIPs but he didn't bring his earplugs. Well done.. Willis suggested putting ricola into his ears instead. Hahaha! Joke of the day man..
Anyway carrying those 4 TV sets was no joke and I ended up straining my back muscles quite badly. Bad enough to be unable to take a crap without grimacing.. chao turtle..
That was one of the main highlights of the week, the other one being IPPT.
No more SOC, no more IPPT, today is my book out day, doo da doo da dey..
We went to Khatib camp to take our IPPT test, which was ridiculously near Veggie's home. Hurhurhur.. the test is now fully computerised, with all of the stations using photogates to ensure that you do chin ups or sit ups properly. PTIs were also on hand to "no-count" people such as Steven Lim who did about 10 odd chin ups. I think all of them were no-count because his arms were not straightened. Cheers to our superhero..
Well, WWM told me to chiong the first 2 rounds of the 2.4km run so I tried to follow. Off we went and WWM ran at a very fast pace, I decided to try to follow suit and before I knew it, WWM tripped a guy and the guy fell onto the ground. Sibeh zer.. but WWM shouted sorry while increasing his speed.. wahaha! I also decided not to stop because if I e-brake, people will kick my ass and we'll all buang into one another into a huge ball and we'll roll out of the track..
Ok crappy jokes aside, I failed miserably at 13:10minutes. Bah... not even close to passing.. WTF! I was walking by round 4 and totally cui-ed by the time I finished. Conclusion: Chionging is dangerous and may not necessarily produce results. Chao turtle..
More about the next week's activities later...
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