Lights Out!! Leo's one and only blog

...I can get posted out and back to OCS for infantry training to then convert to Guards. Just asked S1 for the form to apply for regular absorption. Please, please god get me out of ETI asap, I really cannot take the monotonous drudgery of being a combat engineer because I'm a very combat orientated soldier. Action's in my blood. Action and action alone... I hate clearing the path/building a bridge/creating a path etc. just to see people off to all the action.

Saw Jiva at army market while getting my stuff for Brunei and found out to my horror that they're starting heliborne ops!!! What the hell! I wanna do that!! That's waay too fun!! And the last exercise, ex-panther! Heliborne ops to a landing zone, then coastal hook and finally fibua!!! All in 1 exercise!!! Just the type of exercise I wanna be the exercise PC of!! Tell you, field appointments are the best you'll ever have. In addition to learning, getting f***ed by instructors and having fun, you really feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of a mission and an overall sense of well being knowing you did your best! Also, I met Tianle who is now a Commando sergeant. Talking to him rubbed salt to the wound because on top of the cdos going to taiwan during cslc(commando section leader course) he told me to sign on as a commando officer! But alas, I'll most probably be confined to bridge building(which sucks!)...

Went to Holy Spirit Church for x'mas mass and a TK sleepover at Basil's place. On the way there, saw a group of young girls talking amusing stuff. The one that made an impression on me goes like this: What's the difference between a man who falls from the 4th and 40th floor? The man who falls from the 4th floor will *makes a thud sound* and AHHHHHH!!! The man who falls from the 40th floor will AHHHHHHHH!!! *then makes the thud sound* haha. That very same girl was also the cutest and sweetest girl in the group and during the journey we kept exchanging glances but I did not make any move even though all her friends left long before her stop because come on, she's like only 15 or16. If she is 17 or 18, I say! Confirm ask for her number wan! So, when she finally alighted from the train at amk, she turned around and looked at me the last time but before I could smile at her, she turned back. Alamak, should've made a move. 16 nevermind lah, can start as friends, then tutor(maybe? aiyah, close friends but not too close) and see where we can go from there... 17 then make a move haha...

Anyway, back to the TK x'mas. After mass, we went to Basil's place and his parents got indian food for us. Then we exchanged presents. I got a adidas perfume from our clan leader, TK Chew. TK chew wanted the biggest present which turned out to be a mug(by the little pervert) and he was not very happy about it haha but it was the biggest present wat... Soo lim(little pervert) got aftershave from Basil who got "Thank you"(merci, pronounced, mehr-see) chocs from Augustine, Bradley got the picard keychain holder by yours truely I cant' remember what Brad and Augustine got already haha... The Absolute Vodka I took no matter how little(only 2 cups lah, mixed somemore!) did it's job in erasing some of my memory! But before the end of the TK x'mas, our perfidious clan leader had to chabot minutes after he got his present! PERFIDY!!!! PERFIDY I SAY!!!!! HAHA anyway, at the end of the sleepover at Basil's place, Basil was kind enough to send all of us back to the step of our houses via his Ford "mustang"!

On x'mas day, went for a TS meet up! This time for dinner at swensen's. Our leader, DONkey was late! Just because one of us said that she would be late he assumed that everyone was late and when I reached out meeting point, he messaged me that everyone is late making me walk around till I met Xiong Di who was there together with her BF, Amy and Steph. Our initial plan was to go around orchard in costumes and sing x'mas carols outside swensen's before and after we had dinner. Don was santa, Piggy was the snowman(woman), Steph was the x'mas gift, Mun was the reindeer, Amy would be the elve and I was the x'mas tree! Whatever became of our plan Don? So, during the course of dinner we had our gift exchange, Xiong Di got the "Drama Queen" cup I bought, I inturn got the box of chocs from her(good, I could bring them to camp and makan them whenever I am hungry which is like everytime!). Don's gift was the BIGGEST. One very big but light box and Amelia got it, opened it to find that it was the SAF shoe box that contained a micro sized waterbottle! Mun got condom sized sweets, Don got facial products and I for got about the rest... effects of vodka was still there hehe... So after dinner we went to my usual bar(read my back posts) but this time the service attitude of the staff was BAD... imagine your waitress saying to you that you have to pay a fixed amount of drinks like this: "it's only $200, we're not asking you to pay $500 right?". That was the final straw, we stormed outta there and went to TCC where we had a much better albeit cold time with a waiter who asked: "do you want iced water or cold water?", believe me the temp was really cold there even though I was wearing my(thick) sweater.

Wow, I haven't typed such a long blog entry for such a long time already! But so what? yesterday was Angel's B'day! Happy 21st gal! Went to her place with my 2 sisters. My younger sis who is 5 was so excited she called me when I was in orchard getting this Volkswagon beetle model I've been eyeing for quite some time saying: "Gor gor, I dress up so nice already. I dun wan to wait for u, jie jie and I take taxi and go without you!". She seemed to excited but even before she reached Angel's place, she cried in the elevator saying she missed mummy when my elder sis and I told her that she had to wish Angel happy birthday... Haiyo. So what to do? I sent my mei mei home and went back to Angel's place lor. So we had a countdown at Angel's place and then her husband popped the sparkling drinks and we wished everyone happy new year even though I felt like it was still the same as last year but heck lah, must have the spirit! The old year has passed and in comes the new with new things to surprise us with!

And finally yes, hopefully I get posted back to OCS to continue infantry training... To all my friends and readers, Have a great and meaningful new year this 2006!

Booking in on the 27th to a unit I will dread. Combat engineers. Feel like I've been screwed over many times. What have I done wrong? EIed(expressed interest) that I want to sign on, Infantry(so that can convert to guards) was first choice, Armour(because I like to destroy stuff) was second but in the end, I was posted to a unit that I never wanted to go to... Why? What the hell is going on? Seems like all the good shits gone. Does the higher-ups care about how its servicemen feel? Now so many of my friends who want to sign on are frustrated and don't want to anymore because of the erroneous posting system. For me? Do my best to get out of the engineers and carry on with infantry training or get posted to school of armour so that I can either be Ready to Strike or Swift and Decisive! I am still very bummed but even though I may be daunted, I am NEVER defeated! Right now I really need alot of luck!

Melancholy aside, managed to meet up with Yeow Ming, Washington, Si Xian, Arman, Shaun and Yong Jie for an OCS Alpha 3 meet up. Went for lunch and found out that ever since Yeow Ming recovered from the meningitis he contracted during field camp he would not be able to recourse... crap, there goes a good guy. After that, went to taka to get presents to exchange for the clan and syndicate... and to my dismay couldn't find anything. Time is really running short sial. LI! Later that day, met up with my aunty, al, sin, pastor lim and my cuz at marina for steamboat... wah all meat, meat and more meat manz!!! Have to fatten myself before I book in to camp next week haha. A good end to afew sad, sad days. Another sad day starting tomolo when I start thinking of the engineers till I start my x'mas celebrations at basil's place where we have loads of alcohol and the world will be colourful and the flavour will return to food again :) life will be fine for a good while after that. But if for awhile...

So how did it end up? Not as boring as I thought it would be because I heard horror stories from some friends from other wings who went for theirs. Actually, the saving grace of the @ wing social night was our SINGH, the emcee. Without him, it would be a total bore. Everything that came out of his mouth caused a massive hysteria of laughing. Making fun of the instructors by copying their traits and habits had us up in fits, even our dates! One example: "LTA Haniff just came from ROM today and he just signed on again, this time in marriage. Let's hope it lasts." Another one, While the projector was not working(only the company logo was on display): "*Name of Company* is saving alot of money in advertisements... so y'all know not to buy its products in future...".

At the end of the night, we had a lucky draw... I won 2nd prize! A DVD player and 5.1 speaker home entertain set, wished I won 1st prize though... IPOD NANO... shucks. Lucky dick that guy. But before I could escape from camp and enjoy my long weekend, the bearer of bad news dropped the bombshell, "the following cadets please report at pasir ris mrt station at 0645(I got home after 1am) for combat engineers selection" and my name was called. KNNBCCB! Si mi lan jiao! Bo pian, went for the F***ing selection today and I told them I was not interested because I want to sign on as guards or armour officer and they told me to leave a form blank and state I want to sign on in those units. Bloody waste my time! Just because my dad was a combat engineer doesn't mean I have to be one right?! This coming book in have to request Wing comd and TCO(trg co-ord officer) I wanna be posted to infantry(so can go guards mah) or armour liao... fingers crossed..

In case y'all didn't know. Since I had a hard time calling friends to be my date for social night... Have to call those who either stay SAFTI MI or my place mah. Send them home more convenient wat. All cannot make it BUT lucky my sis was in Singapore(HENG AH!) so she was my date! When we reached SAFTI, the senior cadets just booked out and since my sis wore this dress she got from the UK(that made her look HOT) they gave her all sorts of whistles and whatever calls until their appointment holders berhenti them and gave them a scolding haha! Hopefully my comp could work properly one day and I could post them up on friendster!

Anyway, lelong! Lelong! Home entertainment system on the cheap! DVD player with 5.1 surround sound speakers on the cheap! Not yet open and $120, price negotiable... Call me or leave a message!

Lesson from field camp:
-have your helmet on when they tell you to lest a log drops on your head... which happened to me. Was running up a hill during a mission when suddenly a log from the tree fell on my head, fell down and rolled down the slope. Luckily, my helmet saved my head!

I've witnessed so far... It was really a very good experience! Being the duty personnel really lets you see the parade from a different angle as this time you're in the main OCS HQ and could see the sisters and female guests(you should know what I'm talking about) and, the president came! At the end of the parade, seeing my seniors throwing their peak caps and officially passing out as 2Lts I've become more inspired to lead, to excel and to overcome in the next 6 months. Hope to see myself in the no.1 uniform soon!

Lessons learnt from Field camp:
-If you're surrounded by mosquitoes, dig a small hole near you, light your solid fuel inside, burn some twigs(dry or not doesn't matter).
-Pitching a tent tent is for sissies... NOT! A tent could save your life(...or groin)
-If I could remember somemore, I'll post it hehe...

P.S. Jon, I never saw u even you're in foxtrot wing... was at the east wing of HQ OCS ushering people to the toilets for commissioning parade today. FOX-TROT-WING-HOO-YA!

What a good day yesterday was! Met up with the TS for cakes at TAKA... can't remember the place already. Just remembered it was at the 2nd floor and that we saw huang biren there. Oh and did I mention that it was Piggy's birthday? Happy birthday gorgeous! Took some pics and later that day when we went through them piggy spotted a paranormal happening in one of them! There was this electric line linking yogi and munie! Could this be an indication of things to come? Probably not. Also, I happen to see my BIG aunty at HMV with her mom and youngest sis. Had a great though short time talking with them. Found out that Gladys is working at ST engineering which is good! But she is dealing with waste water which is NOT good, ewww....

After that, met up with the TK clan sans manson, jimmy, bernard, brad and square head. That meant only 4 guys were present. Went to Acid Bar(as usual) but it was full house! Suck thumb, we went to the bar at the back and started our drinking session. The difference between the session this time and the deepa-raya one is that there was no girl with lovely eyes nor bijin to feast our eyes on. WTH! T'was a bad day...

So how was my 8 day field camp? Great! ex-zebra and ex-spade combined together. First night, I was too lazy to pitch a tent so in the middle of the night you first feel a squirrel walking all over your left leg then a drop of water fall on your face. You wipe it away thinking it's morning dew from the leaves then after you first wipe the "dew" away, many more start falling on you till it start raining cats and dogs and before you know it, you're all wet! Even the gore-tex jacket doesn't help as your bottom will be all wet and you have a mini fish tank in your boots. But since training has to go on, we start our navex and drills till i discover I have abraisions everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE! Specifically, the OBVIOUS area, the waist, arm pits and shoulders! Last day of Zebra, I was the PC(platoon commander) runner for the final mission. Damned, that appointment was tough! Imagine running up and down the place with a signal set for 6 hours which is much heavier than the full pack and you can't put it down while everyone else can with their full packs! Towards the end of the mission, PC kana sniper shot, PS also. So what to do? I kana PC appointment! So have to organise casevac(casualty evacuation), navigate out of the "danger zone" and bring the guys out of there to HQ. Trust me Il n'est pas facile! At the end of the mission my friends told me that I looked very "zai" while running up and down with the signal set because I didn't look like was tired but the truth is, I was dying! But cannot give up wat so continue to chiong lor. After that, my shoulders were sore for the rest of the field camp till afew days after I went back to my bunks.

So that marked the end of 4 days of ex-zebra and then we embarked onto ex-spade. Another 4 days but this time its nolonger mission based but all about digging. So how? Dig continuously for 3 days with only 2 hours of sleep(we get to sleep more on day 3). 1 shell scrape, 2 fire trenches(had to help friends who were busy with their appointments) and 1 command post(with most of the guys from section 4)! It was damned shagged man! And my hands are still numb till now due to all the digging! Dun ask me how, even I am surprised how I can survive those 8 days because the other wings in OCS separate these 2 fieldcamps into two 4 day camps. Now, on the last day of ex-spade, we got turned out and then immediately went for our 16 klick route march. Imagine walking in your FBO(Full Battle Order) with 5 blisters on your foot, a cut toe and another toe which is bleeding and excreting pus... Pure painess. But it is all over and all we're doing now is sit back and wait for pro term!

Oh, Final SOC timing! 8:14 mins and an IPPT Gold(2.4 timing: 9:07 mins... try keeping up with me ha!)! Thank GOD! But apocalypse is dawning on me. In 2 weeks time, it'll be social night and we're forced to get a date(which I obviously do NOT have)! No date? Simple, become fatigue party and an extra to go along with it. Nice... Anyway, since my comp's been behaving awkwardly these few days, I better end this post before I lose it so before this post is deleted, LEO signing off!