Sunday, January 29, 2012

Keep that faith.

Been so long since the last post.
And we are already heading into the second month of 2012.

Chinese New Year was over.
A good break for us from camp.
Though it didn't pretty much felt like a Chinese New Year to me.

PTP's ending this Wednesday.
And most of us won't even be there thanks to ASM and BSM COC parade.
BMT's starting soon and I hope we will all be able to get through this without much problems.
The recruits are finally gonna experience the life of a soldier.
And things will get tougher, both for them, and for us of course.
And once they finally POP, it's into the next stage of unknown.

Got past my 4 guard duties in 10days.
Celebrated CNY in camp before we all booked out to celebrate it with our families.
Booked back in with less than two weeks of PTP remaining.

And although the overall passing rate of IPPT for our coy is not bad,
I wouldn't say the same for our platoon.
Well hopefully we can push more of them to pass their IPPT,
as well as producing more Gold at the same time.
I'll definitely have to work hard too, especially for my running which is probably freakin' cui by now.

Heading into February, there isn't much I can say that I'm looking forward to.
Life's still more or less the same, taking one step at a time,
making sure that we don't make any wrong move.
Ten months left and we'll be free.
Not too long, not exactly short either, can only give our best while we're at it.
The few weeks surrounding field camp just gonna be hell,
hopefully we can still find joy in midst of suffering together in Tekong, or just in camp.



Sometimes, I believe, in each of us, we do doubt what we are doing.
Well, for most of us at least, that's what I think.
And that's the time you need to think back and reflect, the reason you were doing what you were doing in the first place.
Sometimes you might realized you did something out of a foolish reason, then at least you get to learn something out of it and not commit the same mistake.
If you realized that you actually had a valid reason for doing something, then keep the faith and trust your decision till the end.

At certain point of time, you might lose yourself, forgetting your goals and aims, or even get depleted of any motivation you might previously possess.
And when this happens, just trace back your actions,
gather your thoughts and think about what led you here in the first place.
As long as you can regain that belief and the motivation which once pushed you so hard and so far,
I guess you can already carry on for quite a while more.

We all can easily lose sight of where we are anytime, anywhere,
but the most important thing is just to remember where you are coming from.

If you can think of just one reason to keep you going,
nothing will be able to stop you until you get to where you wanted to go.

Dinner soon and booking-in tonight again, for the next two weeks most probably.









Byeall.

Sunday, January 08, 2012

The time you have, the time you lost.

First week into 2012.
Not much difference.

Perhaps it's because life still goes on for us in NS no matter what happens.


Inter-Formation Air Weapons Competition finally over.
Shot just 524.
Didn't perform again.
Sigh.
I might have just be able to get into the top 8 finals if I were to shoot 54x or even 53x.
After all I shot 550 once if I can do it once why not again,
there's even a 5 in one of the series anyway.
Anyway 3rd Div supposedly got 6th, an improvement from the 9th place last year.
And congrats to Chester for getting 1st in Air Rifle Men Finals.
Other than these, it just leaves me wondering when will be the next time I get to shoot again.

Haven't done anything ever since I got home this morning after guard duty.
Rested a bit, and used comp all the way without even trying to do anything constructive.
Feel so tired lazy and can't be bothered to do anything else when I'm in this mess of shit.
Already booking in tomorrow by 7plus and it's gonna be another weekend guard again,
with two throughout the week somemore.
So the Friday guard duty basically just started my guard duty streak of once per four days from now on until the one on Sunday.

Chinese New Year coming real soon.
Just two weeks away damn.
Don't think I'll even have time to do anything about it.
And the long weekend might just be the best one now that book-out time is so precious.
Hope that I don't just spend the time resting sleeping etc though.

Getting kinda late now.
Shall try to catch some rest and then it's gonna be another long week ahead.
Time gonna fly though,
and so we better cherish what we have at the moment.








Byeall.

Sunday, January 01, 2012

More to come, long way to go.

First day of 2012.


Didn't blog on the very last day of 2011 like I always do.
Didn't even blog as much in 2011 as I always do.

2011 had been a year of randomness.
Changes.
Learning.
Growing.

2011 is finally the first year I didn't spend in a school.
A normal school where I get educated that is.
Finally enlistment into National Service for me,
and what a gigantic change in lifestyle that is.

In just one year, so many things had happened.
From BMT to BSLC, then to ASLC and finally passing out and getting posted here.
Meeting people from everywhere, finding common points between us and also differences.
Glad that I had a great BMT company and section to start with,
and as I progressed on I met many others along the way.
Some of them stayed with me, some of them left.
This is just life.
Not just in NS, but in my past 10+ years of schooling as well.
And until now I'm the only infantry specialist from my BMT platoon.
Been a long way man.

And we're all halfway there.
The officers in our batch finally commissioning soon.
And entering this year we're left with 11months.
From then on it's a new chapter of our lives once again.

Really nothing much to blog about for last year,
as my life had been completely thrown into NS, and nothing else.
Of course, many things had happened through the year too.
And reading my previous posts should give me a good idea of how much I'd changed.
And how much the world had changed.

For this year, I just hope for myself and the world to change for the better.
And that we will all have a good and safe year ahead.

Let's all work hard together.

For there are still more to come, and a long long way to go.






Byeall.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Moments.

And after another guard duty on book-out day yesterday,
we're left with just two days in year 2011.
Left with one day now.

Nothing seems to be changing.

What have I accomplished this year?

Have I achieved any goals set out by myself?
Did I change to be a better person?

Many more questions which no one will be able to answer definitely.

And then there comes the next bunch of questions for the upcoming year.

Another year gone, another to go.
Will 2o12 be tougher, easier, longer, or shorter than 2011?
Only time will tell.
And by this time next year, life's probably gonna be much much more different once again.







Byeall.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Repetitive cycles.

So our two weeks confinement is finally over,

ended with a guard duty on Christmas Eve.

Welcomed our newly enlisted recruits to PTP,
and also tasted the life of being sergeants for the first time.
Dealing with men, training them, teaching them, leading them.
Much had happened in just two weeks and there's still more to come.
Dealing with people not just include the recruits,
but fellow commanders and higher-ups as well.

And now the year is left with mere one week,
with Chinese New Year less than even a month away.
Everything's just going so fast from now on.
And hopefully it stays this way until a year later,
if not then we might as well try to take things slow.

Attended three more training sessions during confinement.
And the very last one was on 21st Dec '11.
A memorable one, at least in my shooting career so far.
Attaining a score of 550 for the first time is seriously a great deal for me.
Considering I started shooting just two years ago, stopped after training for a year only,
taking up again a year and a half later to realize I've somehow improved,
and in just a few training sessions managed to improve my personal best to 550,
using different and unfamiliar guns instead of a personal weapon,
blah blah blah.
Trying to make it sound like a miracle or that I could've or can do better in the future.

But yes indeed it is something big.
At least to me.
I don't even know how many chances to shoot I'll have after the competition in Jan,
but at least in the future when I stopped shooting for good,
I can tell myself that I once shot 550, not amazingly good but still somehow amazing considering all the factors listed above.
Of course, once I had shot 550 I'll not be just aiming for that the next time I shoot.
And that is to prove that it wasn't just a fluke too.
I don't know if I'll continue shooting in the future or not,
but it's another great sport I took up along the way and however short
my shooting career may be, I'll never forget about it,
with this 550 being the highlight. For now.

And now it's a good break until Tues night for me.
Short week next week, but another guard duty for me before I get to enjoy the long weekend again.
Then it's New Year already.
How fast can it get.
2012 is finally coming.

For now let's just treasure whatever's left of 2011 and finish up all the things we promised ourselves to do in this year.








Byeall.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Not much longer.

30th November 2011.

And we're already entering the last month of year 2011.
How fast is that.
Same feeling every year.
Same thoughts.

But at the same time so many things had changed in the past year.

Training last Friday was alright.
Watched Puss in Boots last week too.
Chandan finally went to Brunei to find Andrew Sir.
Block leave ended with me not doing anything much constructive.

Only booked in yesterday afternoon to prepare for guard duty at night.
Was so 'warmly welcomed' by everyone who had not seen me for more than a week already.
Shagged out after guard duty, then booked out today afternoon again for training.
Did okay for training though, back to averaging around 528.
Should I say that I'm consistent or what?
But the time I dropped to 519, I shot 518 three times in a row before improving again.
And even though the total score seems consistent,
there had been many screwed ups in my series.
I can shoot 87, 88 etc for one competition,
then when I try again I might go up to 92 but also with series as low as 84.
Shot 93 for a series for the first time today.
Twice.
And also shot 84, 85, 86 for three of the series.
Doesn't make sense that you can shoot so much worse for one series when you just finished shooting so well for another one right?
Well things just happens and it's all in ourselves to control them actually.
Shooting is a sport I can say that I'm interested in,
but I can't think of any traits within me which fits it at all.
With low amount of patience and pure laziness,
I think shooting almost totally contradict with me as a person.

Experience tells me though, that, if you really do want to do well at something,
or desire a certain thing that much, you will somehow be motivated enough to work hard for it.
Work freaking hard for it.
If that does not happen it just means that you are not wanting it strong enough.
If that happens, I don't think there's any obstacles that can stop you in your way anymore.

If you truly want something, go work for it.

Not many training sessions left actually.
And considering the fact that we won't get to shoot for two weeks before the competition,
we can already see how screwed up it is gonna be.
And we still haven't seen the official rules for this competition yet.
Got a certain weird format for this shoot.
And with our men enlisting next Thursday, I don't even know if I can participate in any of the December training sessions.
Hope our CSM is nice enough though.
He should be.
Right?

Shall try to rest up tonight since there's a full day of training tomorrow.
Gotta try to maintain my consistency and
at the same time correct all my mistakes in order to improve further.

Other than that, it's another off day on Fri and I'll only be booking in again on Mon morning.
Guard duty again next Tues and also another training.
Haven't spoke to CSM about December training but then again
that's because I haven't actually seen him for so long already.
Well let's just take one step at a time.
We are all in one way or another all worried about next Thursday anyway.

But then again, what can we do?


Shall just try to settle myself down in my new bunk quickly first.
My bunk which I'll be staying for the next one year until I ORD.


And other than these, with one month left in 2011,
I hope that everyone else and I would be able to complete what we set out to accomplish at the start of the year.
Your New Year Resolutions or any wishes remaining to be fulfilled.
Good luck people and let's look forward to the much feared year 2012 soon.









Byeall.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Holiday-like.

Been around two weeks already.


The first two weeks after UIP finally ended for us.
The first two weeks we spent at our very own company where we will stay for our next one year or so.
So I'm in Bravo Coy now, Platoon 5.
Quite a bit happened in the past two weeks,
then again it seemed like it's just 14days and all of that just occurred not long ago.

Anyway the weekend after UIP ended was a long weekend.
So on the following week, I went for training on Tues instead of booking in.
Due to Bravo having TBTL on Wed morning at Changi,
I went home straight after that and traveled to Changi on Wed for TBTL.
It's another night at home followed by one more day of training.
And then it's finally book-in time for me to spend my first night at Bravo.
After another full day of area cleaning and stuff,
we had our first guard duty.

The following week was quite a long one,
considering the fact that we are doing the same thing every day -- AREA CLEANING.
And also beautifying our coy line....
Supposed to have home visit programme on Thurs, but it was cancelled.
So all of us went for 3rd Div Sports Day on Thurs then booked out from there.
Went for training again on Fri, sorta deproved that day somehow.
And I'll be having training for the next three days,
hopefully can pull my score up to average around 9.0 and that'll be good enough I guess.

Had guard duty again on Sun.
Fortunately it rained for quite a while in the afternoon so I get to skip one shift or prowling.
The rain evolved into a storm and got quite scary though.
Came back home on Mon morning shagged out and slept for at least 5hours.

Did nothing much for the past two days.
And when I think about the training for next three days,
I realize the block leave can end before I even know it....
Shall try to do what I need to do and what I want to do by then.
The good thing is that I still don't have to book in until the week the men enlist,
except that there's guard duty next Tues for me again.

Shall end here and rest soon.
Tomorrow's another full day of training for me to shoot.






Byeall.

Monday, November 07, 2011

After which...

Must try to make myself blog no matter how lazy I am.


So yesterday was Hari Raya Haji, and thus here I am still at home at this time.
Ohh and tomorrow morning it's not book in to Amoy Quee,
it's finally back to shooting at SAFRA Yishun.
Quite glad that I'm able to shoot again after so so so long.
I'm probably almost as bad as I just started air pistol though,
after such a long period of time not training on it.
Hope that I'll still be able to remember what coach taught us in that one year or so then,
because even with such a little amount of experience,
I actually quite like air pistol as a sport.

The past week was finally the last week of UIP.
Had our Skills at Arms challenge on Tuesday.
And our section won the best in Skills at Arms!
I think I didn't do much at all but well that's all part of the plans man,
perhaps if I was the one taking one of the IBOS test we wouldn't have won it already hahah.
Well and that marks the end of all the training we had throughout UIP,
and also the last few days spent together as a section.
6 of us all went Bravo though, and glad to say that I'm one of them.

Went back to TJ to play ball for quite a while on Sat.
Alumni gathering seems like a fail but well,
I guess it's more for those who had graduated ages ago before my batch.
So for them it's probably a good time to get together again in the school they left long ago.

Other than these, nothing much really.
Went to Thomas' house on Fri straight after bookout for BBQ and chilling out.
Super super big and nice house.
Had a great time with my UIP platoon 3 mates,
with Jotham getting extremely drunk and hilarious after drinking just a lil bit.
First time seeing someone getting so drunk though.

Shall start packing on my stuff soon.
It's really getting quite late already and I probably should
settle my stuff to bring soon and get to bed.








Byeall.