.:. Day after confinement .:.
BUSSTOP!!!
Thats the first thing my platoon mates shouted out on the bus when we are leaving the ferry terminal, shows how devestating 17 days in tekong can do to you sia. So ya, my ultra long confiement period is over, gone like that. Imagine my thoughts when I heard that we weren't be going back for labour day holiday, max sianz. And while normal confinement is 14 days long, i got 17 day confinement, thats almost like 3 weeks of normal book in timing. But what to do, I am an NS man, just deal with it.
So here I am blogging after 17 days. Due to SAF regulations and such, I am not supposed to post about things regarding to SAF and such (I dunnoe the exact details on what I cant/can blog about), so I am gonna blog about my feelings and opinions in camp these 17 days, steering clear of the technical stuff as much as possible. I'm just gonna blog about whatever comes to my mind first if i can remember, so things shdn't be in a particular order.
Let's start with my bunk mates. They're a great bunch of ppl, lively ppl. Its quite surprising how fast ppl can bond together. Put more than 10 ppl in a bunk, go thru a few activities together and voila, we can start talking nonsense together like nobody's business liao. They were even planning to go out straight after confinement for a meal at macs together la, but cos I am a homely person so i had to give it a miss. Dunnoe how it happens, just did, so things are cool. And its definite a section has to be very close-knit for BMT to be a great experience, so if things continue the way they are, then things are looking up.
My sargs and sir wise, I can onli say its welfare. My sargs are very nice people, can joke and laugh with one. As long as we dun do anything stupid or screw up, we're safe and they're nice. Its just 1 times good one. So far we hvnt been pumped much by our sargs and sir (note by our sargs and sir). Its a very...hmm weird feeling when there are we sitting down and then seeing the platoon opposite of us being yelled and scolded yet by their sargs. And more than once we are sitting in our bunks, and we can hear the other platoon doing pumping. It also helps to have your sir, after a long day of PT n training, come up to you and say "Good effort people. I see people putting in their effort, so good job, keep it up ok". Really brings a smile onto those shag faces. Or maybe cos its just the adjusment week period so they are letting up on us, then when I re-enter, they will kill us. Hope not.
Food at BMT there is good too. Definite a huge leap over the stories about how coffee is made from using socks as strainers in the past. How bad can catered food get. We get food that is comparable to foodcourt standards, the quantity's good too and there's always a variety. Nothing tastes better in the morning than having bread with thick layer of kaya on it. Good food is really a huge mental sustenance. I go thru the day, looking forward to the mealtimes, makes time goes past faster and easier. But one bad thing is that on 3rd day i already kena sore throat :( so that means I had to control myself from consuming the almighty cordial juices for lunch n dinner. And also I cant buy drinks from the vending machine. Oh well I've gotten kinda use to it liao, just by using the weekend for good food as my motivation to want my sore throat to heal. And since I am on the topic of food, my appetite now is definitely a level higher than what it used to be. I myself am shocked. Normally in mornings, I dun eat much for bfast. But in NS, I eat like 4 pieces of bread with kaya for bfast, or just pieces when there is beehoon provided. And for the 1st time I was able to deour the subway regular meal (which iwas never able to) and still had space left for more food. I am like OMG. I dun wan to grow fat leh. NS man with huge appetite coming thru!
Wet. That's something I experience alot in NS. While doing things like PT or marching, its amazing how fast sweat can come out of my body. I dare say I've never sweat so much before in my life. During the physical activites, I can sweat until my whole singlet is wet, and I mean throughly soaked, to the point that when more sweat drips on it and the droplet simply slides off and its not absorbed. Needless to say, underwear and shorts are definitely soaked too. I ever saw a guy while doing cool down his pants was drippping sweat la. OMG. But I figured out its mostly water. Cos before any activity, we have to drink like 500 ml of water to prevent us from getting heat exhaustion. So I figured what we sweat out is mostly water la. And it certainly helps cos if say a day has 2 activites, after the morning one I will just hang the singlet out to dry and then re-use the same singlet for afternoon PT hehe.
Also during the confinement period, we had quite a few talks. Magazine talks, Safra talks and even talks for us to sign on to army. I mean, with our pay of 420 (or some say 500, i hvnt check yet), and here they are trying to make us buy these by that, isn't it abit weird (although I did sign up for like Discovery Channel magazine hehe). And also throughout the sign on talks, I heard many sirs talking about how they've planned like their life since ard our age. What they want to do, how much they need etc ect. Which really makes me wonder, what have I planned for my life. have I really thought thru thoroughly what I really want, will I be able to support the lifestyle I want? Hmm more on that after I've really tot about tis in later posts ba.
17 days in tekong also really makes me miss home adn friends alot. Its the longest period I've been away from home. And it's very depressing when you miss out on events like mother's day and such. It also dosen't help that I've been meeting GOF like more then once weekly before enlisting. At least I got to meet GOF on sat after confinement. After 17 days in tekong, and I finally got to see GOF and talk to them, celebrate bdays and even watched a movie all in a short short 3-4 hours. Tat is what i call quality time. I even got to slot in 2 sessions of jubeat before meeting em :) feels good man. Hope to be able to meet GOF weekly, but that really depends on my bookout timings n day la. So ppl if your reading tis, jus drop me random smses bout things thats happening k? Its very helpful.
One of the most important/apparent sight, or rather things I experienced is the mentality that ppl enter NS with. Its quite a stark difference between different ppl's opinion on entering NS. You have the ppl who complain, ppl who just go thru the motions, ppl who are super enthu to the extent you noe they die also wan to go OCS. I hear ppl complaining day in day out. I mean, its NS, every guy has to go thru it, complaining wun help you, so why complain? (I noe how ryan feels now). I tink its just about how you prepare yourself to go into BMT, go in knowing you shd suffer, and you will be able to look on the brighter side of positive things that happen (like me). Mentality really does play a huge factor in things. I recently did my route march, and I was dam shag after that. But when I did my hike on in blue mountains, which i believe was like 8 or 16km ( dun exactly remember but still many times more than the route march), I wasn't as shag. It just makes me conclude its the company and how much u actually wan to do it. I chose to go to the Blue mountain hike, had great bros company with me then, and the hike was great. Of course the scenery played a part too. So its a matter of choice la, you either enjoy the way there, or you can just complain and still make your way there. Like a speaker once said, " The training will end".
On the note of mentality, I also wan to question, how many of us enlisting are really enlisting into army. How many of us are really practicing our rifle skills so that we can protect Singapore when there really is war, and even to the extent that are we prepared to actually pull the trigger and see another man die in our hands? We enlist into NS with the purpose of protecting our nation, but how many of us actually feels the need to. Not to onli question ppl, I know I myself am not really prepared. One nite I kinda figured out my mentality was almost that of a field camp, a really long field camp, with higher regimentaion and the added bonus of firing rifles. And when I hear like my sirs wanting to go OCS cos they want to protect their families, its just makes me question me being there in tekong.
One last thing I gotta talk about, and am really annoyed with is the fact that because of the confinement week I had to miss my NIE interview!!! I mean like, this was the first time i really felt so helpless. I came to know about my interview in BMT, then it was supposed to be on 17th at nite. But because of some activity I definitely cant book out then even if manpower were to approve it. So i managed to contact MOE and got the date shifted to 14th afternoon. But then in the end, still NIE is not recognized and in the end I cant bookout early for my interview. Which just means that now I totally missed out on my chance to go for the interview. Can you imagine how I felt. Totally helpless...AAARRRGGGHHH. I noe its NS, but its like my university admission leh...haiz.
Ok tis post is super long liao. These are so far what I can remember that has gone thru my head in these 17 days. What can I say, its NS. So like my sir always like to say, what can I do, but "suck thumb".
Cya readers one week from now, hopefully.
Revealed on [7:59 PM]
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