Sunday, December 28, 2003

   i juz got to noe this webbie from jinny that tells u your fairy name. mine is Columbine Elfwand. you can get ur fairy name too.. juz click on this link.
Blabbered bean @ 18:54 //

   So Christmas's over!! presents anyone? haha.. i benefitted from christmas 5 ten-dollar cash voucher at Swensens. all thanks to aunt elsie n uncle john. (aka godma n godpa) a nice grey INSTYLE collared, short sleeved shirt. i like it !! thanks aunt pui yee n uncle cheng hoo.. i liked it so much i wore it for christmas. haha... it's been a while since i last wore a collared shirt. (other than the SAF smart 4 that is...)

   Friday morning was spent sorting out the "Char Bee Hoon"(aka D-10 Cables) left over by the previous batch of trainees at the School of Signals. afternoon was spent in a practical exercise on laying cables n setting up the exchange on a switchboard. after we succeed to comms thru the laid cables, the sergeant began his fault-finding exercise. what he did was he messed things up by cuttingthe cable at certain parts, connected cables to the wrong places n the killer was when he cut the cable of hongyu's group. he cut then green taped it. on the surface it looked innocent but... heh heh.. damn... luckily i was the group setting up the exchange. so after setting up the exchange, i sat there picking up calls n looking at them slog..

   haha.. finally evening was supposed to be ippt training. but instead, we did only a one-round run then ended the exercise. this was becoz we had been granted "nights out" by our Course Commander(CC) 1WO SivaRaja. After a "chop chop" dinner n bath, we booked out for Lot One. hongyu, bryan n me walked together. shopping n eye balling. haha.. had an extra dinner at long john silver too!! there was a pasa malam beside the building n we walk thru it too... hongyu bought an original chinese game about the 3 kingdoms @ 15 bucks. then we went over to another shop n it was selling at an amazing 40 bucks!!! overall it was fun n tiring.

   upon reaching our bunk, we bathed in our now doored-bathroom. yes, it has a door now. unlike in bmtc. our toilet is high class sia.. newly renovated n we all thought we would really trade sleeping in the bunk for the toilet when we first came here.. fyi, my bunk will commence renovating april'04 where all the kingcoil beds are moving in. so, we had the worst of luck sia.

   saturday we had an exercise for us to try out laying cables across soil paths, metalled road, overhead crossing & culvert crossing. firstly, we had to dig a small trench for the cable. lay it across n in the trench n then cover it up n comms thru. upon success, we proceed to do the metalled road crossing. this took a rather short time for my group as i took initiative n lead my dettachment well. i was detachment IC for our group of 3 including Ng ShuWei & Foo WeiKwang(who was one of the few ppl i wanna avoid to be grouped with coz i find him irritating.)

   then we did the metalled road crossing. we had to lay the cable across the road. this is done by laying a stripe of soil diagonally across the road. next we lay the cable over the soil which acts as a cushion. finally covering it up again with another layer of soil. note that, the soil must conceal the cable fully n must withstand a kick by the sergeant without revealling the cable before you could pass the part of the exercise. the reason for it to be diagonally layed across the road is so that at any one time, there'll only be one tyre on the cable. the digging was okay i find. it's the transporting of the dug up soil from the hoe to the sandbag n then to the road which i find troublesome.

   then we did the overhead crossing. the cable was brought up one tree then across the road & then finally down the other tree. the height must satisfy the 6 metre requirement. due to inexperience, we were rather slow n often discovered mistakes only after committing them. worst part was forgetting to bring along our 2 TAs to comm through n test the laying of the cables. but thru the experience we did learn quite a bit. & i'm sure we'll do a much better job than this first try. culvert crossing's next.

   culvert crossing... hmmm... how should i start.. you noe beside roads there're always those pavement for ppl to walk on? then on those pavement there're those drain covers? the square ones? sometimes got gap in between for rainwater to drop & seep through. our CC opened up 2 of them. told us to carry a R-11 in our SBO attire which includes the webbing, helmet & m-16 rifle and get across from one opening to the other. simulating laying cables thru it.

   firstly to do culvert crossing, the water level's gotta be lower than waist level. then we basically duck-walked thru the culvert. the worst part was in the middle there's a drain rushing water in from the side into the one we're walking in. i was lucky i din wet myself much. only a bit on my right sleeve. i din even feel it. i guess i'm lucky as my sleeve wasn't wet so thoroughly that it'll seep n touch my hands. others like hongyu had his whole sleeve wet. haha.. but, it was a special n unique experience overall. i remember in my primary school days i did try to walk thru one of these drains too.. haha... but then i was so small n moving around was much easier.

   1200h we booked out! thought of going to visit jm at OCS coz his parents not visiting him. but, jonas din collect the tix from his parents n kp n dn either couldn't make it or wasn't "ON" in visiting jm. haiz. he'll be out next weekend. actually he's already veri lucky liao. coz when david was confined, he was confined entirely. while jm n kelvo were "confined" while there were public holidays in between. had lunch with apple, saw her home then went home to surf surf surf... haha.. i have so much to do online eh? lotsa reading lah... catch up on some news n also check my mails n blogs of others.. add testimonials for my friends on friendster too... too much to say lah.

   evening i went over to uncle john's place as usual wanting to catch the soccer action at nite only to be disappointed. coz due to the fact that they played on boxing day, the usual saturday fixtures were shifted to sunday. to add salt to my wound, they're showing newcastle vs blackburn at 9.55pm on sunday. yes! S-U-N-D-A-Y !! the day i had to book into Stagmont Camp at 2100h.... Grrrr..... ok, i'll stop here. updates will continue next wednesday! when it's new year's eve. here's looking forward to it now... cyaz
Blabbered bean @ 18:39 //

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

   Booked in on Sunday night in civilian clothes! great feeling man.. Monday we had foot drill lesson in the morning after area cleaning. haa... it shocked me when i knew it was for only 15 minutes. it's quite "nua" here man... i've never got foot drill lessons for less than an hour before n now it's for 15 minutes. After drill, we had lessons again. i had brought in a new pen and a new notebook to copy down notes. the previous week i had exhausted my pen and my notebook ain't left with much either..

   Knowing that we could book out on wednesday sure did bring the mood up... Tuesday was more intense with lectures n lotsa final revisions conducted. the Communication System Engineering test is on wednesday morning !! tuesday night i'm on guard duty from 4.30pm to 7.00am the next day.. gotta study harder liaoz.. the structure of the guard schedule is such that me as a prowler is free to rest or do anything i want for 2 hours before i am supposed to prowl the compunds of the Signal Institute for 2 hours then vice versa again. n so me n hongyu intended to study during the 2 hour break initially.

   however, it became obvious that we needed to study harder n faster as time was running. having a headache during my guard duty wasn't the best of things to happen to me at that time too ! Fish !! it did remind me of the late nights i spend studying for poly exams the night before too.. heh.. as u may have noticed from my phlog, we sneaked off while supposed to be prowling to the lecture block corridor, where we had light, to study.. for the three 2-hour shifts,we supposed to prowl 2 rounds in each shift. which then total up to 6 rounds. imagine me n hongyu oni prowl for 2 and a half rounds oni. the rest of the time, we're either sleeping in the corner of some building or studying our heads off somewhere..

   wednesday arrived with much fatigue as we dragged ourselves for the final round to wayang n waste the time away. we were too tired to wanna revise more. so we had left our manuals in the resting room designated for us. the test is oni a few more hours away n i was still at chapter 5. 2 more chapters to go... i gotta buck up.. the resting time for us, guard-duty personnel to catch up on our sleep i used to study too... heh.. the rest fell into their bed saying they had finished their revision. i was aiming maybe too high.. i was looking for something like 90+%.. it'll be a 50 qn mcq test.

   the warren officer 1WO SivaRaja conducted a last revision with us minutes before we have to do our test. that probably is designed to give more hints/tips.. heh.. the pressure were on us to deliver as punishments had been set if u failed. the previous few platoons all had about 1 to 4 failures each. the punishment sure hurts.. 2 hours prior book in on christmas nite. meaning, we had to book in by 10pm by standard. but failures would hv to book in at 8pm.. failures would not be allowed "Nights Out" this week. u have to take a retest n if u too flunked that, then u'll be confined for the next weekend guard duty.

   in the end, i got 88% for that test. n our platoon achieved 100% passes for the test earning the right to book in at 2300h on christmas.. quite happy yet a lil' not satisfied to hv just missed out on my initially set target of 90+%. the disappointment was made up when i heard someone saying the highest in class is 84%.. haha... i've gonna keep my mouth zipped on that one.. hongyu got 76% n he's the oni one who knew that i got 88%.. heh.. so i'm so shagged by now. me n hongyu went to macdonald's for a quick bite then shared a cab home. upon checking my emails n reading up on some news, i plonked myself into bed..

   3 solid hours after, i was awoken by a phonecall by kp n jm. 1120pm we'll be watching LOTR 3.. now, i'm waiting for jm n kp to come. heh.. probably spend some time together chatting then go Yishun to watch movie loh.. so merry christmas to all... this joyous n festive is there for us to enjoy.. a time for reunion n get-togethers.. haha.. n of coz presents.. ciaoz... ;)
Blabbered bean @ 19:31 //

Sunday, December 21, 2003

   It's like poly life all over again !! i'm studying studying studying all over again. only difference so far is no projects.. to clarify what i've juz said, i'm studying so many restricted manuals of the SAF now. there'll be tests etc too man! every Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday we would hv lectures conducted n the whole day would be filled up by lectures, labs, classrooms(yes, i said classrooms not tutorial rooms coz they are in the dilapidated state of reminding me of my primary school tables and chairs...). No Physical Training at all on these three days. purely study. not even 5BX. gonna grow fat liaoz.. haha..

   Monday, Wednesday & Friday would have a period of about 2 hours dedicated to Physical training. very slack training also lah compared to the other units' PT. the rest of the day? Tutorials, Labs or Exercise lor... exercise as in practice what we learn. like how to connect the D-10 cables etc lah... the major exercises will be conducted in singapore at a place call "ah ma keng" n "ulu sembawang". it sure must be ulu sia. that'll be shiong as i'll be the ones running around laying cables for communication within the camp.

   the living conditions at stagmont camp is realli shoddy.. my bed is now a double decker bed. the metal frames are soooo rusty.. urks. my pillow is outta shape. my bed? do u call that a bed? it's juz a yellow sponge abt 5 inches thick covered by a white cloth. the bunk? the bunk looked like a oldern warehouse plus windows that's all.. lotsa us miss the tekong bmtc bed.. my emart opens oni on tuesday n thursday. has so limited stuff.. pathetic man.. even the vending machines are out to cheat our money. they overcharge us for most items lor.. once i tried to buy a pack of peanuts n after paying n selecting the item, it refuse to drop down. poor thing ah we all? :(

   then i heard of the bizarre news. news that my company, gryphon, had cocked up our data sheet to be submitted to the man power for selection into sispec, ocs or the various other units. The thing is OC Coy G LTA See ..and other Coy OCs had a meeting with CO BMTC .. and they all agreed that trial test IPPT results can be used.. BUT BUT BUT ...Training branch dunno what the hell happened ..they didn't use our trial test results ... they ONLY used the actual test RESULTS and Those RE-test Results ... thus, me... who passed my ippt test at the trial test was probably given a fail coz they submitted the test results oni which i din attend. heard from PS Faizal that our OC is now trying to appeal to CO.. through a petition. But its been a week.. SISPEC and OCS started training liao.. The whole COY G 's Postings got screwed up ..but Training Branch dun wanna agree... Finally that accounts for the many platoon best Recruits being posted to Weird posts like technicians.. what a pity.. fish man ! though i might not long for getting into the command schools now, i still pity the ppl like zhixun n marcus who did their best n showed their leadership.. haiz...

   finally, i'm prepared. i've already bought lotsa stuff to bring into camp today.. minty sweets bought at cheaper price than the vending machine n of coz more reliable also lah i take from the shop n save shelf surely in my hands not like the machine i put in money but nothing drop down. %^&*.... i bought chocolate bars too n also oreo biscuits. n magazines for me to read at night. arrggghhhh.. oni thing i forgot was to borrow a book home from my uncle place. looks like i gotta go back to reading The Pelican Brief liaoz... ok, cyaz next weekend ! no i mean christmas eve...
Blabbered bean @ 16:16 //

Saturday, December 13, 2003

   Friday morning I was awoken by a call from dn saying the eposting are out ! i got up n started naviagting my way in.. i had taken for granted that i would go sispec at the very least. damnz, i was dumb-founded when i saw the words "HQ Signals" on my reporting location. Vocation: Signal Operator. hmmm... i was in a dilemma. i knew i had disappointed many with this "poor" results.. but, i heard that life as a signal operator is quite relak.. thus, i din feel so bad..

   however, many expected me to go ocs. thus, i feel i've let them down. but i'm over it. i noe of ppl more worse off.. that makes me feel more fortunate. then i'm happy again. haa.. thanks dav, thanks ghost... =)

   had a night walk to think it over all by myself. i took a bus to centre. most shops close liao. haa.. walked around till i sort out my thoughts. then waited at the mrt for apple to knock off from freehand lesson. hmmm... juz good to see her lor.. i dunno how to put into words lah but we had a nice chat as i walk her home.
Blabbered bean @ 11:55 //

Wednesday, December 10, 2003

   Tuesday was spent slacking at home sleeping, napping, cm-ing, chatting, surfing net all alone at home. drats ! i was so bored. evening time, me along with jm n kp went to dn house to help him move house. strange y i agreed. maybe it was the longing to see my frens maybe it was boredom or maybe i plainly followed coz i juz couldn't muster up the words to reject him. gosh. shhh... :X

   after getting 3 pickup loads of stuff over from the old house to the lift lobby to the ground floor onto the pickup down the pickup n up to his new house, we decided to watch champions league soccer overnite at my place. i followed kp to his house to get his van. then he drove over to jm's place to pick up dn n jm. then headed over to my place for games n soccer.

   it was gross to hear of how dn was "de-piled". silently i heaved a sigh of relief that i din opt for the operation. winning 11 had to be on the itenery somewhere.. so after a bout or two of dynasty warriors n cm4, we played PES till 0330h. champions league soccer starts. we swopped over to watching soccer n only slept at around 0530h. waking up 0820h, we got ready for our planned trip to Casuarina Road for pratas!! Yummie ! i juz like to eat the cheese prata. crispy n huge.

   next up was soccer again. we went over to Temasek Polytechnic. A game was arranged at the basketball court of TP. the word around TP was the short skirts n the pretty girls. haha.. immediately, kp asked jonas to bring us to a canteen for lunch later where he could get an eyeful.. haha.. i realized the culture there is different from NYP. it's been simplified into 4 word by me. "NYP pants !! TP Shorts !!" yes, the dress sense. feeling a lil' guilty, i tried not to look.

   reaching home around 1430h, i updated my blog n am now ready to embark on a nice bath n a good day's sleep. then gonna meet up with apple around 1730h n hv dinner together. that's good. i missed apple. =)
Blabbered bean @ 15:18 //

Monday, December 08, 2003

   A lil' catching up to do here.. so saturday i went out with apple. we went shopping for her sandals.. we walked so many shoe shops that i dropped dead asleep in the middle of watching the second live epl match with my uncle.. but,.. our efforts were in vain as nothing realli caught her liking. sometime in between, i had a tip-top cury puff for a late breakfast. my favourite 'curry pok' has to be tip top's. wonderful ! =)

   However, it might just be so sinful to eat the puff that i caught a terrible headache. awful ! >.< sunday was as usual a day i sorta devoted to my soccer pals. we played soccer in the morning right till around 1400 hours.. then we go back home to surf net, take a bath n some rest.. then play ps2 right till the live epl match at night. then after the epl match we'll alternatingly play CM4 or PS2 games till the wee hours of the morning.

   i opened the bottle of wine that cason gave me on my birthday to try it with kp n jm.. jm din drink even a sip coz he insist on being a non-drinker. not even a sip to try.. haiz.. a bit unsporting or not? dunno lah.. that's him n his principles.. kp drank a few mouthfuls n found it quite strong. he din like the taste but he kept asking me whether i'll drink it coz i'm a non-drinker too.. i juz wanna try.. it wasn't nice at all in my opinion. haha.. i STILL dunno how to drink.

   the funny part was the part when we tried to open the bottle cock. the tool, you noe those that resembles a pig's tail?, was an old tool n it was straightened by us while trying to use it to de-cock the bottle. hahaha !! =D kp suggested to cut the cock out bit by bit.. which he gave up half way. i used an ice picker to press the cock into the bottle ! then we proceeded to taste the wine. kp then developed a headache which made him doze off rather early. jm played ffx-2 till he, too, was shagged out..

   monday morning was realli pleasant ! the fact that we're still in singapore on a monday morning is good 'nuff to stretch a smile from ear to ear already ! we woke up late like 0900h++. yes, i mean late. coz in camp we are usually supposed to rise by 0530h. 5BX by 0545h.. we had breakfast at MacDonald's which was juz a block or 2 away from my block. no more porridge n pau !! haha.. we all hate that in army coz it couldn't fill us n the porridge is awful..

   by evening time, jm n kp left. so, here i am, all alone again.. longing for tues night or wed night when we could get togetherwatch champions league, talk cock, play winning 11, cm4, dynasty warrior or final fantasy X - 2. spending the night over in my room. waking up together. these days will soon end. we all know. it'll be impossible when we start working. so i'm trying to enjoy these precious time together..

   yeah, n if anyone of you don't know why i'm still at home n not in camp by now.. it's coz i've 'POP'-ed.. n now i'm awaiting my posting. i rate myself as most likely to end up back on that little island on the eastern shores of singapore again.. yes, tekong ferry terminal awaits me.. haha... i realli hope me, kp n jm get into the same platoon in sispec. wow.. that'll be great !!

   okay, i gotta go eat dinner now.. granny's waiting for me.. 10 days of block leave. i'll be geting my e-posting on friday they say. they told me to try by thursday afternoon. i should be reporting at the new unit with all my barang barang on monday 15 Dec'03.. i'm not sure. i'll check with my mates later.. okay, now for some nice home-cooked food by my 'Ah Ma' !! =)
Blabbered bean @ 19:28 //

Saturday, December 06, 2003

   Added a few more frens into my msn messenger, icq and friendster... but what struck my mind was a quote i read somewhere which i realli cannot remember.. (i've a very very poor memory if u haven known me well enuff..) "To get a place in someone's address book is easy, to get a place in someone's heart is much much harder" though on the surface it seemed that we all missed one another, actually we're not realli trying that hard to be together.

   these frens on my address book, icq, msn.. what r the chances we're gonna meet up often? not likely in my opinion.. we've more prioritised events planned in our schedule. Thus, we're oni doing what we feel is the least we should do.. that is, to keep in contact by email etc.. i, for one, feels that i dun hv much time for others. coz mon to fri, i'll most likely be in camp for the next 2 years.. then sat will definitely be reserved for apple. sunday i'll prolly rest n book in again... so, there ain't much time in between. we juz don't have enuff time.

   Time is something everyone in this world is short of. From the students rushing their school projects to the executives rushing for the dateline of their company projects, time will never be enough. this is what i've learnt. Time to grow up & accept this cruel facts of life like a man, melvyn..
Blabbered bean @ 02:46 //

Thursday, December 04, 2003

   POP Loh !! Finally as some may add.. However, as i had realized 2 weeks ago or so... that.. i'm no longer looking forward to POP anymore... When you are first enlisted into army, you can't wait for the moment u can sing 2 more weeks to POP etc,.. when it's nearing in, yet i dun realli long for POP anymore... the reason is simple.. i'm a sentimental person. i dun realli welcome changes in my life. the future is scary... the future is a stranger to me.. i'll have to start all over again..

   Moving into a new environment isn't something i would like happen to me veri often... Furthermore, i enjoy my platoon mates' company.. (especially applies for my section/bunk mates) we've developed a sense of longing for one another. the jokes in bunk, the slacking and all the squabbles we have.. it's so endearing to my heart...

   And so, on POP today... it turned out to be a nervous, bitter and sweet day for me.. Nervous coz i realli dun wanna my Pass Out Parade to turn out a flop, Bitter coz i have to leave my dear friends on the island as i go out earlier due to my Prize-winner ticket stub & Sweet as all the hard work i've put in have been rewarded in the form of a title as Company Best in Physical Training & seeing all of us pass out after months of hardwork...

   Friends,... i'll miss you guys... i may not say it out.. i'm shy about revealing stuff like these... i dunno y.. i feel a lil' ashamed to hv the crying mood when it comes to these emotional moments.. i noe i won't cry coz i'm shy about crying too.. i'm afraid of showing the weak side of me to others... especially to ppl i dunno so well... i miss you guys... May the spirit of Gryphon Platoon 2 (250803 - 041203) continue to live on... names can be forgotten, but fond memories of us accomplishing one obstacle after another to pass out will remain in our mind forever !!
Blabbered bean @ 23:19 //

   Wrote a poem for my feelings for my BMT Platoon mates... pretty bitter-sweet... good to rejoice over those memories but realli sad to have to leave after POP... haiz... why can't i get over these feelings...??? it always happens and i realli hate that feeling... time to grow up n accept the fact that there isn't any banquets that don't end...


Poem Dedicated To Gryphon Platoon 2 Instructors


These four short months we�ve been through,
How we survived we�ve no clue.
We�ve gotten accustomed to one another,
So much so that everyone�s like a brother.

The many different characteristics of us,
There�re blur cocks we loved to curse.
But there�re also buddies we�ve made,
That are just great!!!

From field camp right through to POP,
Slackers or Garang recruits gradually we�ll see.
OCS & SISPEC await recruits who�ve performed well,
While the rest only time could tell.

So many army songs we�ve sang,
All due credit to the instructors we must thank.
Now that we�ve to depart and go on our different ways,
Let us not forget the time we�ve spent together in our BMTC days.


Melvyn Soong
G2304
(25/08/03 - 04/12/03)

Blabbered bean @ 22:16 //