HEY I just realised that today happens to be the one-year anniversary of my blog! didn't notice it at first man. time flies. lol.

Happy birthday to you... happy birthday to you... happy birthday to bloggie... happy birthday to you.. haha. =D

Went to Sentosa with some climbers yesterday and the sun was unrelenting..! We weren't exactly dripping sweat though, in fact, it didn't even feel like we were perspiring. But some of us started looking like red lobsters after a while.. and it was quite painful lol. Had fun playing volleyball and climbing up on some gigantic boulder with the words "Siloso Beach" on it lol. I seriously suck at volleyball but I don't care la haha it's fun watching the balls fly high up into the air. of course I can't beat Darren the pro volleyballer la I'm noob. :D

After that had a barbeque with some army mates at Byron's house.. and seriously BYRON"S HOUSE IS THE BOMB! =D it's really long and spacious with 3 floors and a long spiral staircase. Each of the bedrooms have their own flat screen tv with cable box. Byron's room is especially nice la, the general colour scheme is black but his bed is red and there is this huge oval-like spaceship-shaped chair at one corner of the room and another comfortable red rug lying on the floor. heavenly! and I love the texture of the bedroom floor also.. wooden and very smooth haha. and he has this special clock beside his bed that will shine out the numeric time onto the ceiling so you just have to look at the red numbers on the ceiling and you'll know the time rather than going over to the clock to see. Damn cool! but that clock cost more that two hundred I heard. lol. lucky Byron! :D

Oh yes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHU HUI! =D

BMT is finally over.. So I'm kind of happy coz there's going to be block leave. I don't know if I'll have the discipline to maintain my fitness or not.. lol later go to the new unit after one plus week of slacking sure steam. :) well initially it was rumoured that for our batch there wasn't going to be any block leave but luckily in the end still have... haha important leh the block leave.. need the time to rest both mentally and physically and also to psyche ourselves up for the next phase of training.. which is only going to be tougher.. lol.

The 9 weeks in BMT passed surprisingly fast. I can still remember how it was like on the first day when we stepped into Tekong. Initially I felt time passed really slowly... especially during confinement week. I couldn't really get to sleep that quickly on my first night in bunk. I just lay there and kept thinking about stuff. When I opened my cupboard on the first day, I saw a letter, left there by the previous occupant.. and here is what it read:

"11 March 2008

To the next occupant of this bed, Zulu Platoon 3 Section 1

Hi.

You've just been enlisted. Maybe you're feeling jittery, maybe inspired. Maybe you're feeling depressed- that's the reigning emotion right now, or probably should be; it was for me.

I do not know whether that feeling will last. Chances are, it will, at least for a while. Do not expect things to be easy. Zulu Company, as you may have heard already, is not a company known for it's welfare. But do not be disheartened. Take comfort in the fact that there have been many who have come before you, many who will go after you and a number who will be alongside you.

Never lose sight of the future. These nine weeks will probably be the hardest weeks of your life. I, writing this on the eve of POP, certainly hope so. When you're down and out and your spirit is diminished never lose grasp of this fact- that is will one day end. That day will not be far off, though it might seem that way.

There will be queer people around you, and I hope dearly that you are not one of these. With these people I cannot advise you much; I cannot say that I, or we, have handled them as correctly as I now wish we had. The best I can say is, if their queerness is no fault of their own then do not hold it against them- this is not for your own good, but theirs.

Every man is good deep inside- there is a glimmer of hope for every man. This includes your sergeants and your PC. They may be nasty; even unreasonable at times. But hold on to the goodness of mankind; do not be discouraged.

Remember to pay attention to your technical handling test. It's damn important.

And lastly, remember that your occupation now is a soldier, but that still comes second to your unchanging nature of humanity. Do not let go of it. Hold it dear to you. That alone must keep you going. You will be called many things, you may feel inferior; but ultimately we are all human and that is the great equaliser.

I wish you all the best, from the bottom of my heart.

And not too long from now you will be on the parade square, and you will too say the words I will, tomorrow.

POP lo!

Keith
Z3105--Dec 15 PTP Batch "

I read it when I first enlsited, and two days ago, on the eve of POP, I read it again. And somehow, it felt different. This time, I felt like I could connect more with what he was trying to tell me. And so, I wrote a letter as well, for the next occupant. haha and it's happily stuck onto the mirror inside my cupboard in Tekong lol. =D

Time passed much faster after field camp, especially since we were booking out on a more regular basis plus having all the high profile events like range grenade routemarch etc. Slowly, we got to bond more with our platoon mates, okay maybe the majority of them except for the few "queer" ones around lol. There was this bastard who was hated by the whole platoon for a lot of reasons actually, but one of them is he is damn unfriendly and anti-social lol. Every time I said hi to him he didn't say back so after a while I just stopped saying hi to him haha. In field camp, I helped him dig his shellscrape for a while and he didn't bother to say thanks too lol. His was in a really bad state by the way.. it didn't look like it was even half completed after a few hours of digging. After helping him for a while I just went to help other people and just left him there saying "come help me come help me" lol it was damn funny.

Now it's time to sit back and relax for a while.. posting results next week.. scary! mahjong anyone? lol. long time never play soccer and climb also sia. haha. soon soon. =D

what a long and tiring week it has been despite only being 6 days long! 12km route march, SIT test, 4km and 2km fast march (and trust me it's really fast, especially for short people!), 16km route march and live hand grenade... Shiokadoo man.

Kind of happy that I felt less fatigue during the 16km route march as compared to earlier route marches.. hopefully my combat fitness improved.. :) I realise route marches train a lot of mental endurance.. if you think you're tired, you are. If you think the field pack is too heavy and your shoulders are aching, then they are. If you think you can't carry on, you won't either. So I hope I will be able to have the best mental state of mind when doing the 24km next week.. haha. =D

When I was carrying the live grenade in my grenade pouch today and waiting for my turn to throw the grenade, quite a few things were going through my mind.. I suddenly thought about my life and the past eighteen years.. and what would happen if the pin just came loose in my grenade pouch and I never had the chance to do whatever I wanted to or say goodbye.. really quite scary.. felt like I was holding a timebomb.. lol. thankfully nothing out of the ordinary happened.. when I threw the grenade the air beneath me actually shook, even though it was at least ten metres away. Can you imagine what the impact would be like if the grenade was thrown into an enclosed room.. lol.

this is the shortest book out yet.. booking out at 2045 just now and booking in at 1845 tomorrow.. what a move! haha.. next week should be rather enjoyable I hope.

POP in eleven days! =D