Same old rhythm.

Guard duty tomorrow.
Why do I feel like I'm having a short weekend for every alternate weekend.
Sigh.

The ORD mood is seriously getting into many of us.
Not to me though, but I've still got to fight my laziness to get things done.
Yes, I don't ever think the ORD mood will get to me, if there's anything stopping me from doing my work, it'll probably just be my own laziness, as usual, as always.

Then again, it's refreshing to see number slowly dropping by one every time we book out.
And from counting down by weeks, we would soon start our countdown by days.
People should really use this as a form of motivation for them to make even more full use of their remaining time in army to do something meaningful, than to see it as an excuse to stop putting in effort at all.
Really though trying to just motivate the men, and now we've got even greater problems when the commanders see no point in doing work as well.
Well I still believe that we are all here for a reason, and no matter how reluctant you can seem to be in doing work, I know the good in us naturally will push us on as long as we're still here.

Realized that I've haven't been out for ages.
Actually it's just more of haven't been to the theatres.
Haven't met up with Chandan they all for quite a while already.
And I don't even talk to them that much for all this time that we're not meeting up.
Should really catch up with some old friends to find out how they've been doing though.
And to me friends are not defined by how often you talk to them, hang out with them; but by the fact that they will be there for you whenever you need them.
There's this big bunch of people I've not talked to in ages, but I do still treat every single one of them as my friends and anytime they need me, I'll do my best to help.
Not sure if everyone sees this the same way as me, or treat me as a friend like I do to them, but it doesn't really matter as long as I carry on with this mindset I guess.

Now I also begin to wonder how many friends from army would I have after we all go separate ways after our ORD.
The guys in 2SIR are the ones I spent the most time with, the guys from BMT and Foundation are the ones I started my army life with, and there're still many from Pro Term which I've gone through shit with and at least had a good talk, spent great times with before.
Would really be a pity if I've just stop talking to them for life, considering that we had all once gone through the same shit with each other before.
And talking to ZH last night with her mentioning something like this allow me to realize that it's normal to think this way.
Still, spending too much time to think about the past isn't a very wise thing to do all the time since there's even more to consider about in the future.
It doesn't hurt that once in a while we put ourselves back into our past to reminiscence the times we had though.

Sometimes, it's not the places, but the people.
And even at other times, it's not the people, but the memories.

Slept the first half of the day today away.
Always same thing happen, always regret not waking up.
Why the hell do I even need more than 9, 10 hours of sleep every weekend?
Even if it's to make up for lack of sleep during weekdays, it's too much isn't it.
Especially since I'm booking in tonight, I've gotta learn to cherish the daytime at home even more.
Though it's not like I've got any plans for the day too....
Perhaps I should finish my last two episodes of Sherlock and get started with Alcatraz.
And then there's still the Arsenal match tonight which I'm still considering to watch or not.
I guess life after army will be pretty much spent on watching shows, reading and such, seeing how much I hate to spend my time on these thinking that I would be able to invest my time in a more meaningful way, yet finally realizing how untrue that is.

1708hours.
Less than 8 hours to booking in.
That's a lot of shit I can do now if I would just end my post here at this point.













Byeall.

From the past, to the future.

Army Half Marathon today.
Well our battalion ran only 5km though.
And that's why I might as well not run at all, simply ran quite a bit before walking for the rest of the 'race'.
The 'race' which I didn't even complete.

Anyway was just waiting for the whole event to end so that I can meet my section mates from BMT and SCS Foundation.

Highlight of the day.

After such a long period of time in army, the time I spent with them seemed so insignificant and short compared to other phases of my army life.
However, it's the quality and not the quantity that matters and the times we had would never be forgotten, at least not by me.

To me, having such a fantastic section just after enlistment is like a gift from heaven.
And at that time I seriously thought very highly of our section, even if now it does not seem that everyone has accomplished as much.
Still, it was a section filled with fun, joy and laughter, helpful people, and friends you would definitely want in your first nine weeks in army.
We had all grown so much, even more so in each of our own specific areas that we were posted to.
And we were all from everywhere in Singapore.
Yet come this date, 10th Feb 2011, and we were all the same, gathered together to live with one another for nine weeks and some for even longer before we were split.
2SIR might have been the place I've stayed the longest in my NS, SCS might have been where I went through the most, especially in Pro Term.
But BMT brought me into army, changed my life completely, and allowed me to meet these bunch of people.
We might not have always meet up, hang out, talk with one another.
But we share the same memories starting out in the army and I believe these are the memories that will still stay with me forever.

Thank you army, thank you Viper, Viper Platoon 3 Section 2.
Hope that we can all meet up together again, every single one from the section.



All these aside, we're really less than three months to our ORD.
And the topic which would followed that should be university.
Nice that Kelvin and YG are both in FASS with me.
I might change my choice next year, but I doubt I'll really do that though.
Would be cool if all three of us major in psychology too, since YG's already set his mind on that as well.
At least I know I'll still somehow be able to keep in contact with my army friends even in uni thanks to them.
And yes, ORD will definitely make me feel lost once more.
Just like how army came and took over my life, gave me a complete different lifestyle, ORD is gonna do the same thing to us once more.
And after living in such a regimental, army life for two years, I always believed it'll be hard to live like how I did in the past.
This will be true no matter how much you tell yourself that you just want to get out of army and live as a civilian.
Well, at least this will be true for me, and anyone who spent time in army meaningfully instead of constantly trying to chaokeng do nothing be a loser and so on.

But before these three months' time is up, I must really try to plan my schedule nicely and keep myself occupied well so that I can continue to live meaningfully after ORD.
Make use of all the time I could have before going university, so that I'll continue to improve much as well.
This is always what I said, and to make a list of to-do things after ORD is always the best way to start.

However, maybe I still don't feel it yet like how some others are in the mood already.
Perhaps when the day comes even nearer, I'll be pushed to really start working out how my life after ORD should be like.
And the day I breathe freedom once more, shall mark the day I start working hard for myself.










Byeall.

Outfield Week, out of so many weeks.

The so-called tough week is over.
Toughest week in many many weeks.

But still not comparable to other days and training phases.

ATP on Monday, actually quite an easy day since we just have to go and shoot and not do anything else.
Still, it's relatively tiring after weeks of not going outfield.
Didn't feel too well in the morning though, possibly because of my lack of sleep the night before.
Grabbed the chance to have a good nap before lunch and felt just okay after that.
Went back to camp at around 2plus and only managed to settle down, shower, eat and finally sleep at 4.30am.
Intended to wake up at 8am to clean arms, but failed to in the end since I never really wanted to clean arms anyway.
Only woke up hours later, had lunch, went to CO dialogue and then blah blah blah random stuff and that's all for the day.
Force preped myself a little for the following day, Platoon Prof Test, then tried to have an early night.

And so it's finally Prof Test day.
Did the usual stuff, headed out and started to dig our shellscrapes.
Didn't really think much of the Prof Test even though we had not been out in the field for so long.
Well but I actually quite miss outfield just before we went out, and felt a little bit excited too.
So the typical routine started, and I just went around making sure things are right before resting a little here and there.
The day went on and the night came, so damn dark and I took the chance to rest more since I thought that nothing much would happen at night.
Finally came the time to break conc, I started much earlier than the stipulated time and by the time most other people started to break conc, I was pretty much done and so was my section.
Had around an hour to spare and with my section's bottles even filled already too, I went on to take an hour's nap before getting woke up by the movements of other sections.

It's movement time and I was pretty much just thinking about how we would be back in camp in 12hours' time.
Never did I realized how shagged this movement phase can be and how desperate I was to see the sunlight upon us.
After reaching Charade and a little further, we got semulah-ed and walked all the way back to Datsun, the Startline.
Worse still, the H-Hour is still the same so it means that we'd probably miss it already.
PC seemed kinda stressed with OC nagging by his side all the time, and within an hour's time I was so tired out to even try and help him anymore.
Seriously I would say the toughest movement phase of any training I've done in army.
So much wanted to just give up sigh.
But luckily I didn't.
No one would let me anyway.

Somehow horlan here and there everywhere then somehow managed to got close to the objective at 5plus.
Managed to walk till 100m to enemy objective and PC briefed us about the plans.
50m in, we stopped by and after the final briefing we finally crept in and lined out.
We somehow met the H-Hour by the way.
The attack commence and due to us assualting from the back, the enemies were wiped out in an instant.
Still, it wasn't supposed to be like that and even though PC changed the direction of assault we somehow still just continue with the mission.
Re-org, received instructions, and carried with the next mission across the road.
Finally done, and it was just 8plus.
Wondered what will happened next and who could've guessed that we were done already.
Finally headed to camp after one of the most shagged training I've been through.

The rest of the day were pretty much spent for recovery and nothing else.

Friday, woke up just in time to pack my stuff and booked out to SAFRA Yishun for air weapons training.
Really feel kinda tired of going there since I'm not there to train myself.
Still, it's a chance to allow me to book out early so it's not that bad.
Wonder if I can book out early though if the men were to book in back even after the training...

Wasted today away.
First by finally getting out of bed at 4pm.
Then doing nothing but sitting here staring at my computer for the past who knows how many hours.
Hope that tomorrow would be spent more meaningfully though, with AHM in the morning then meeting up with SCS Foundation's section after that for a meal and possibly more.
Monday too, should be spent nicely.
Would be good to play ball some time.
There should be time in camp next week though.
And this shall mark the start of a new phase of training, motorization will begin in 2SIR soon.









Byeall.

Ninety-nine. Final weekend included.

So it's finally September.
And we've all hit the hundred days mark.

It's two digits now.

Suddenly felt so... lost though.
Still don't know how I'll be facing life after army, because my life so far had been so different compared to the past, and I'm not sure if I can go back to living like the past after this.
Don't know how things will be like without us, what will 2SIR become in second year.

Well, guess all we can do now is to do our best and leave no regrets then.


Been two weeks since the last post.
Two weeks of nothing much, and even during the weekends I haven't got to really go out much I think.
One of the highlight was probably ATP on last Mon and Tues.
Slept overnight at the training shed to prevent wasting time, and got back to camp early with some of the others on Tuesday too.
Got the so-called easiest job of all for this time.
Slept much of Tuesday away, waiting for everyone else to come back.
Wednesday was normal too, then come Thursday where I was left alone after cadence run where all the other platoon 5 commanders cleared leave.
Even PS wasn't there due to his medical appointment in the morning.

Friday was another live firing rehearsal.
This time, for platoon live firing.
The whole morning was entirely wasted thanks to the bad weather and we finally began in the afternoon.
Then, dinner was canceled and everyone proceeded to book out early evening.

And even though these two weeks haven't been much, I've learnt so much more about some of the men, and so many changes had happened.
All 3 MG assistants got changed, and Charles got sent to platoon 4 to join their MG Team.
Our runner's pending down-pes and Ernest seems to be on his way back to be the runner again, really the ultimate utility guy.


The upcoming week will probably act as a conclusion for our time since end of Rot1 till now.
Platoon live firing followed by platoon proficiency test.
The very last time we will go out and fight at just platoon level.
And from here on it's all motorized training in building up for Rot3.
One and a half month of learning, training to do, and three more weeks of outfield to go for.
This pretty much sums up all I've left before I finally complete my NS.

This also means that I should start planning for my life after NS.
And probably make the list of things to do after NS starting from now.

Really wonder how life after NS will be like, just like how I've wondered how life in NS will be like.
But now, we can only think and do what we have to do.

At least I know I'll be able to say, these two years of my life had not been a blank space in my many years of life.
These two years of my life will go down to be just as important as any other stages of my life, and of great significance in making me who I am in the future.










Byeall.

Week in week out.

And so another week in NS concluded.

Was a really physically demanding week though.
Had a short field revision on Tuesday, basically on movement and crossing danger area.
Can tell that all our skills are rusty already, even the sectcomds themselves.
Much to learn from that.
And combat fitness is another thing to be much improved on too.

Had a vest slack cadence run on Wednesday, was shagged as hell especially with OC's additional PT included during and after the run.
Did the ridiculous lizard push-ups from on end of the parade square to the other end.
And just one day after that, yesterday morning, we had OC PT.
Yes, the program on the schedule is just OC PT.
And OC PT indeed it was, 5 sets of staircase run followed by rear lunges, star jumps, forward lunges then finally ranger hops.
All in 30 counts of 4, and 30 counts for star jumps.
Really some powerful leg muscles exercises there.

Ended off the day and the week with Hari Raya Celebrations.
Nothing much to talk about there.

Went Safra Yishun today, after so so so long, finally back to the range.
Helped to teach and coach our pistol shooters, with four of them without any experience at all.
Luckily there was one YJC guy who's trained in pistol and that makes my life much easier.
Realized that I've lost my touch though, expected, after such a long while out from shooting.

Went back to Tampines at 3plus and had a late late lunch with Chandan before heading back to NAS and getting stopped by the security guards.
What the heck man?
And spent quite some time and trouble before we're finally let in.
That's why they should just stick to the same guards since our time, at least they would've recognize us right away instead of stopping us and giving some lame excuses for not letting us in.
Spoke to Fareeq Sir and the others, the P too, didn't get to speak to the Scouts or observe their meeting though, as it ended just before we were able to get in.
And we could've at least saw the end of the meeting if not for getting stopped at the gate.
Well many many things to work on for the unit.
And after trying to do my best as a sectcomd, I guess it's soon time to shift my focus again.
Still tons of things to learn though.

Probably meeting Chandan again later, along with GY and some others.
Will be interesting to hear what GY has to say about his bunk mates and new found friends in BMT.
Especially if it turns out to be similar to RW.

I guess that's all for now.
The long weekend's just started, and at least I made some use of today out at the range and back to NAS.
Hopefully the time will just get spent more meaningfully in the next three days.










Byeall.

Not screw it up and just pass it on.

My first time in a long while spending a Saturday at home, other than the time that I had gotten an MC.

Finally NDP's over, and this unfortunately means that we can focus on combat soon again.
No more Saturdays getting burn though, hopefully.

Another three days work week coming up followed by one more four days break.
Left with two more days before booking in again.
Balling tomorrow, no plans yet for Monday for now.

Better plan properly what I should do with the four days I have next week, even if it's just watching shows or reading mangas.
I should really finish my 'Understand Psychology' soon though, been stuck with it for quite a while already.
And then there's Giddens' 杀手 series which I just got into my Walkman.
Sounds like there's tons of things to keep me busy in my free time, then again, I've always been not willing to 'waste' my free time on these, constantly thinking that there should be more stuff for me to do to keep myself busy instead.
Sigh.

Will try to sleep early tonight, maybe in an hour or so, to keep myself energized enough to ball tomorrow.
Been so long since I've played ball outside with the guys already, hope I've somehow improved through playing in camp.

Officially less than four months left, and three months to so-called handing over.



Gotta do our best while we still can.








Byeall.

Step by step.

Started off last week with a COS duty on off in-lieu on Monday.
Then continued on as COS again on Tuesday since no one seems to want to take it.
The next three days are pretty much spent in playing ball slacking doing nothing much.
Can't really remember what I did too since there was nothing much important anyway.

NDP Preview on Saturday, the job was really a lot easier compared to previous three weeks.
Just hope that on Thursday everything will go smoothly as well and we can pack things up fast to leave Marina for the final time, and of course, get all our Saturdays back to ourselves again.

Went to ORD talk on Friday but slept through the whole thing so nothing to talk about at all.

Watched 'Total Recall' today.
Amazing show.
It's kinda fascinating how writers from decades ago are able to write stories like this, along with dozens other sci-fi fantasy novels which may not even come to reality in decades or even centuries to come.
Then again, this kinda things are hard to say considering the speed that technology has been advancing nowadays.
Just 10 years ago, I don' think anyone would've imagined the amount of smartphones, notebooks, tablets and such that are existing in the world to day and that new technology are still being innovated day by day.
People are constantly coming up with new ideas, first to make life easier to us, then to compete against one another, and eventually set to make historic changes to the world.
That being said, it is also at the same time hard for people to catch up with the ever advancing technology and ever-changing world.
All we can do is continue to move forward instead of stopping at where we are, as doing so for even just a while can potentially put you far behind others in a serious disadvantage now.

Three days work week this week, with the week ending off with NDP finally on Thursday.
Battalion Sports Day on Wednesday, gonna be quite lame though with the racial harmony rules, hope that our Basketball team will be able to somehow win.
And Tuesday is just some random rest day too I guess, with some time catered to training for the games.

Then finally, I'll get to enjoy Saturday again.
Furthermore, this time with a much deserved four days break.
Well, looking forward to sports day, NDP, and my four days break.

Shall take things step by step from now till the end.









Byeall.

Enriching your life.

Well actually gotta sleep soon but I still felt that I have to blog.
After all I wasted whole of my five days break last week and I didn't even blog.

Speaking of the five days break, I just suddenly got a random illness again but well it's alright now already.

And by the way the 50th anniversary was fine, was raining on the day itself, turned into a drizzle and finally stopped right before the parade.
Had a rest day the next day then another short day before booking out in the afternoon.
Went to Sentosa for battalion outing, did nothing much, walked around quite a bit in Vivo then headed home without getting any stuff.

And then starts my five days break which I sorta wasted away but went out enough anyway.

First went dinner with Suting and the others on Sat night.
Went to Maxwell there to have buffet BBQ, satisfying enough I'd say.
Been a while since I last went out with them and Kenny and GY are both enlisting this week already man.
Suting and Pan soon too in few months' time, just before I ORD.

So went to watch 'The Dark Knight Rises' on the next day.
Amazing film to end off the trilogy and mark it as one of the best superheroes movie series ever.
Probably the best now, and will still be one of the best in time to come when even more superhero movies will be made in the future.

Rested on both Mon and Tues before booking in for the short 3 days week.
Didn't have much things to do in camp too, and the thing I did most was actually playing basketball.
Finally able to play with the men more and it's gonna be so much more fun now.
We should just limit the number of men joining though and it would be great already.

Booked out on Fri alone 'cause Ser Kiat's COS agian.
Then it's another tedious day at Marina for NDP rehearsal.
Watched 'Hysteria' out of boredom and we totally didn't know what it's gonna be about before we watch it.
And even when it started it looked so boring and different from any other films I've watched that I totally don't know what to expect from it.
It ended up fine as it turned out to be a film of the story regarding the invention of vibrator, now that's something I'd have never expected when I stepped into the cinema that day.
It's some cool shit though.
Perhaps I should watch more British movies like this.

Met up with Teck Li today just hours before he books in.
And gosh it's been like, freakin', freakin', freakin' long since I last saw him or even contacted him at all.
Didn't even know he moved to AMK man but well it's been this way for like one and a half year already.
And also many other things we talked about, but obviously most of it was still about army.
Quite interesting to know that he's an audiophile though.
So happy to learn something new again about my friend, and obviously I'll want to be able to meet up with him more compared to how much we had met up since JC or even Sec Sch.
Damn glad that he took the time to meet up with me too, just simply after I left a message on his Facebook wall.

And this is just what I meant about putting in effort in doing what you want to see happen.
So many people had been saying 'meet up soon' that I know they don't mean it anymore.
And even if they do, no one really has the time or is willing to put in the effort to organize something, no matter how simple it is, for people to meet up together.
That's also why I'm so happy to receive his message while at Marina asking to meet up.
And so we did just now, wasn't that hard is it?
Perhaps when I get more free... and I realized no time/busy/whatever is just an excuse...
I'll try to contact more of my friends soon to catch up with them.
Doesn't mean that now with Facebook and whatever advanced technology you don't have to meet up with friends and chat face to face with them anymore.
Only that the fear of disturbing my friends had been stopping me from approaching many of them.
But well, someone has to take the first step anyway, and just by leaving a message on Teck Li's wall has gotten us to meet up.

It's as simple as that.

Facebook should be use as a platform for us to continually engage and keep in touch with our friends instead of an excuse to stop us from continuing to be friends like how people in the past did.

Well now that I've basically recorded my life in the past two weeks, I'm gonna catch some sleep before waking up in 3hours+ time.
COS duty... sigh I hope I either make good use of the time tomorrow to sleep enough or do some other stuff.
I classify playing Digimon World 3 as making good use of my time too by the way hahaha.

May this week be a great one, to be able to pass VOC, and that I'll get to enjoy my next weekend as much as I did for today and the last one.

Time to learn and start living an even more enriching life, which would soon be even more enriching after I get to convert back into a civilian.









Byeall.