You are the cow of my contentment.
My mum was just telling us about how we should have went to visit the already-demolishing railway, and how much of a waste it was to not have been there spending quality family time.
Family time, to me, is watching pirated movies at home while eating junk food.
Leave such outfield experiences to NS.
Which makes me wonder why everyone's fascinated by these one-dimensional rails. Sure, it's part of our history, but why are we interested only when we're about to lose it?
I sat on the train once, it was part of our Sec 3 camp experience. Between the stop at Woodlands and Tanjong Pagar, I saw some cool stuff--people jumping off the train. They probably live somewhere in-between and didn't see much of a point in travelling in a one-dimensional way, so they simply slid open the door and took the plunge.
They also had a cafeteria which serves mee goreng and I saw my friends clamouring for it. Luckily for me, I was a genius and bought cup noodles before boarding the train, so I simply asked for boiling water which they reluctantly provided (I earned envious stares from everyone else, apparently the food sucked).
I remember alighting at the Tanjong Pagar station and being completely lost, with seemingly all of my friends gone because they alighted at Woodlands.
I wouldn't want to be taking pictures of me standing on the track, I'd rather be on the train because tracks aren't tracks anymore if they are not going to be used.
Where is the fun in taking pictures with these tracks if you aren't living in the thrill of getting out to avoid incoming trains? Where's the fun in lying on a road if you know the road's not going to be used, if you know there won't be an incoming truck to honk you out of the way?
Most people don't think of it this way, but feeling a sense of loss and trying to create memories with the tracks is like attending the wake of someone you completely don't know, but felt compelled to do so--awkward.
Why are we trying to cherish things, intrinsic to Singapore, which doesn't affect us at all? Why are we making more memories to cherish?
I just read a book (in camp, we get quite a lot of time, I read around 3 books a week), "Going Bovine". It's about a 16 year old boy who leads an aimless life, simply existing. He was afflicted by mad cow disease and has only a few months left to live, when he starts to learn how to treasure life. I don't know how to do book reviews. I'd just say that I like it enough to blog about it, out of the 6 books I've read (not much of a standard to compare against).
Perhaps we should look into spending our time more constructively rather than have a been-there-done-that attitude towards life. After all, you can't grieve over everything that is destined to be scraped.
Urgh I don't know what I'm talking about I don't get to write too often in camp and there's too much input and too little output and I will end this as such.
-- 7/31/2011 06:51:00 PM
Nav.
Night navigation is no walk in the park. The earlier you finish, the better, because with more people around comes more torch light, and that in turn helps you find the checkpoint, which happens to greeting-card sized paper hung on trees. These checkpoints do not glow in the dark and that makes it very difficult to find the checkpoints from 1930hrs onwards, unless there are others around shouting "CHECKPOINT 4 IS HERE".
I could find checkpoint 3, 5, 6. I couldn't find checkpoint 4, and I couldn't proceed.
Life sucks. But then again, this is the only test I've failed in SAF. Quite paiseh when I emerged from the woods though -blushes-
Being stuck in the woods alone is creepy. Tree branches almost seem invisible, poking me in the eye, scratching my spectacles, et cetera. Stumbling around uphill/downhill isn't the best exercise I could think of, but it was quite an experience nevertheless. Throughout the 2 hour ordeal, I didn't panic at all.
I despaired.
I knew it in my gut that I won't be able to complete this simple course, because I couldn't even find the start point. It was terrible enough to feel alone in crowded areas, it's worse to be alone in a dark, almost-enclosed area. I guess "desolate" pretty much sums up what I felt about that place.
Being a Thursday night made things pretty much worse.
Creepy lah seriously, it's not something I'd like to experience again, what with the Hungry Ghost month coming up and stuff. I just want to finish any future night navigation ASAP and get the fuck out of the forest. One experience is enough, and I know that I'm deeply scarred for life.
I exaggerate. Maybe I should stop talking about the ghost month because of the 6 day field camp coming up =.=
It really disturbs me that my female friends are all going to whatever university they applied for, getting into "hall", stuff like that. Maybe "disturbing" isn't the right word to describe it, but it reminds me of the civilian life out there--a life that I won't be living for another 19 months. I'm not complaining, just commenting. I'd think that I've gotten numbed to the fact that I'm an NSF.
At least I don't have to study (;
-- 7/31/2011 01:37:00 AM
-
I wouldn't be surprised if this doesn't make sense to you. It doesn't make sense to me.
I'd be a complete parasite if I were to elaborate, so bye.
-- 7/26/2011 09:37:00 PM
Bloody elderly lady.
During my previous bookout, I went to Cold Storage to buy some snacks to book in with. I was at the counter behind an elderly woman who was making a lot of purchases. I should've moved to the express lane, but I didn't. That was kind of my fault, but I guess I can only suck thumb while I wait. It would've been quite malu to move away from the original queue anyway.
After the elderly woman moved off from the queue, I went up to the cashier. She was looking at me expectantly with the bill of $200 plus staring in my face. I placed the 5 items I was buying on the table when she asked me if I was going to pay for the elderly woman or not, because she claimed that I was her grandson.
At this point you might think that I'm bullshitting you, but trust me, I shit you not. I got a bit anxious and pissed, so I left the items there and went up to the elderly woman to clarify this matter. When I called out to her she simply ignored me, so I tapped her shoulder. She shrugged my hand off and continued walking. So, I chased after her and told her to pay for her bills herself. That was when she pushed me, hard enough for me to hit the floor.
I got fucking pissed, so I pulled her leg, like how I'm pulling yours right now.
I got that from my ex-buddy who is now only my section mate.
I don't know when remedial training would start, but FML, not getting silver by 7 seconds for 2.4KM is really really very screwed up.
What a great way to spend my Friday evenings--in camp.
-- 7/20/2011 09:18:00 PM
Sampan~ sampan~
What if everyone preferred big comfortable cruisers and not cozy sampans?
No one's going to board my life buoy and all I can do is suck thumb.
-- 7/18/2011 09:27:00 PM
A lot more shit to go through.
For the ignorant ones, I was admitted to the hospital for 2 days, from 11th July to 12th July. From this, I can conclude that July isn't a month that agrees well with me. As a result of my hospitalization, I couldn't go to SCS for the first 2 days, which resulted in a lot of catching up to do when I was finally released into the wild.
OK, it wasn't that bad, I didn't get hospitalized, but it was bad enough and frankly speaking, I'd rather be hospitalized for that 2 days I spent at home doing nothing.
I was doing nothing because I could do nothing. Having a perpetual fever makes one sleepy all the time. The only thing I woke up for was meals, and TV (I couldn't even do other necessary things in life, like playing the computer, surfing porn, and masturbation).
Being hospitalized isn't so bad, because I could still get my meals, my rest, and my TV, and my mum wouldn't go "Should we go bring him see doctor" every 5 minutes if I were in the hospital. And the medical bill is free.
The fever effectively robbed me of 4 days of youth and 0.6kg. I was told that I looked very different because of the weight loss, so now I'm eating like a cow again.
SCS has been OK so far. I don't know which bugger back in BMT said that the training program was slack. It's not. It seems rather packed. Maybe the day ends earlier because we don't get tekan-ed as much, but trust me when I say that 6 months seem like a long time to get the real chevron stripes. There's still a lot of shit to go through.
-- 7/16/2011 03:06:00 AM
SCS.
Comd SAF BMTC wishes you all the best in your future posting. |
| | |
Your Posting Order is listed below: |
| | |
1. | You are posted to | SCS & WSAS |
2. | Your vocation is | INF LDR |
3. | Your are to report to: | Pasir Laba Camp, Blk 276, #02-15 |
| Reporting Date/Time: | 11/07/2011 at 0800 - 0830 hrs |
| Person to report to: | Chief Clerk |
| Contact Number: | 64105597/5594/5533 |
| You are required to report in smart no.4 uniform (PES E recruits to be in No 3 uniform), except for those assigned to Police Force. |
4. | Special Instruction: | Report to Pasir Laba Guardroom in Smart No 4 Uniform. No Camera Handphone, thumb-drives and MP3/MP4 are allowed. You are required to bring along your duffle bag/field pack complete with the SAF issued items given during BMT. You are expected to stay in.
|
I'd be a full-fledged sergeant in 6 months time, drawing a sergeant's pay of $900, making me effectively richer than most other NSFs. I need to know when sexactly do I get my rank, so that I can set a new Facebook birthday.
I'm not exactly sore about not being able to go OCS, because of my physical limitations, namely cannot-run-fast, and this is totally expected, but it'd have been nice to be given a chance to go OCS, because I want my parents to help me put on that one black bar; to make them proud.
But then again, having chevron stripes isn't altogether bad either (;
On an entirely different note, what does the WSAS mean =.=
-- 7/08/2011 01:18:00 PM
No. I'm not going back yet.
He had the option. He had an easier way out--he could simply lie there and let everyone else do everything for him. It is, after all, what he's entitled to. But no, he'd rather trouble everyone by not troubling everyone; he'd rather do it himself.
I'm not at the stage where I'm worried about whether I might reach his stage, so I don't know for sure why he does things the way he does. He ignored the pain and discomfort, he ignored the mess he created, he ignored the warnings/chiding of everyone else--he carried on insistently, hastily.
Because that makes him human. That makes him more alive than ever. That's his way of saying, No, I'm not going back yet.
We all need something to feel alive. Being idle makes one restless.
I hate feeling restless.
POP loh. The 24km route march was fun. I'm sleepy. Bye.
-- 7/05/2011 01:28:00 AM