Monday, November 14, 2005
When you can't fend off an arrow...
you just have to accept it with grace...
This is a happening day i would say. Hmmm.
I reached the campsite at 7.15am, expecting to be a happy camper as usual. HA. I know I am the 2 IC these two days. Well, 2 ICs have nothing to do anyway. Or so I thought. Until OIC called to report sick!!! I nearly fainted I tell you. The impossible has happened!
So, there I was, reporting the strength of the course to warrant in a funny manner. Though I am quite familiar to all the commands, I admit i was quite scared today that I just gabo gabbla. HA.
The first thing in the morning, we got up the bus to go for the IMT. After briefing, we took our chance at the foxhole practice. I got lane 15. Super paiseh… gotta reshoot like 3 times in order to get the readings. HA. The officer kept calling out my lane. I really wanted to find a hole to bury my head in. Well... I am literally in a hole as a matter of fact. HA. After the shoot, i couldn't find my file! I left it on the chair and apparently somebody took it to play a trick on me. I really panicked sia... walked up and down the room in search of the missing file. Haiz.
Ermmz the talk on risk assessment was the best. I had to report strength to the major and b4 that I gotta asked the course to sit still (which of course I didn’t know what to say) I said "course, can you all be in attention?" Warrant nearly fainted. He said, “NO! You must say, course! Sit still! ” Then I reported the strength and asked the course to “sit easy”. Err… it was really awkward. After that, i was made to sit alone in the front row and sigh, no way can i fall asleep without being noticed.
After the talk, major asked us to stop at 345pm and didn’t give further instructions. At about 4pm, I walked to the place where the two other groups are, to find out what happened, only to realized that each district leader will take over each group. Sighz… what a big boo boo that I made on the first day. HA. The OIC better come tomolo and take over this pile of ermmz loh, else i dunno what’s in store for me tomorrow. RANGE.
flew into your heart at [9:52 PM]
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Sunday, November 13, 2005
1st week @ full blast
Wow, one week passed... just like that.
It was quite a hectic week actually. Besides mentally challenging activities like lectures n lectures, it was physically tiring as well, esp on wednesday.
We had low elements, high elements, Adventure course, flying fox, paint ball and rockwall climbing. Talk about some that left the deeper impression on myself:
Low Wall ( or so they named it ): This wall is 3 metres tall. No one could ever get up the wall by himself. Girls were being raised up by guys holding on the soles of their feet and on top on the wall, there's two guys (who climbed up there by the stairs) waiting to grab the girls and assist them in climbing up. Trust me, the feeling of being vertically raised without any support is really scary sia...
Paintball: That was my first attempt. Cool... it was fun! haha. Though some of us went back with bruises here n there due to the impact of the paint ball, guess we still enjoyed it since these are part and parcel of the game. My contribution to the team? I hit down one of the two bottles! haha. oooh...
Rockwall climbing: My first attempt as well... TIRING! My hands and arms ache like no body's business after that. Couldn't even lift them up. I realised that this is more of a mental activity then physical. To ring the bell on the top, it really takes a lot of mental strength.
Due to unforseen weather conditions that day, my group did not manage to go through high elements and flying fox. I personally was very very disappointed. We brought it up to some of the instructors there... lo n behold! Tomorrow we will get a chance at it again!!! Yeah! I am very very happy. Hee.
Anyway, the best takeaway from this camp is the friendship bonds that developed in this camp. 10 of us actually went for KBOX on friday night after the day's activities-- not in our number 4 of course. (Though some of us still have our boots on) haha. Well, i thought these were quite cool. Honestly, i wasn't really looking forward to take over the duties of this cca, but now, i am quite excited and felt so privilleged to be in this ministry. :) One more week to go... POP on 18th NOV. Hmmm... think i will miss the people there, but then again... 天下无不散之筵席...
flew into your heart at [7:18 PM]
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Sunday, November 06, 2005
魔鬼训练？还好啦。。。
4th to 5th of nov... the start of my two plus weeks camp.
These two days are meant for non NS personell like us. Let me give you guys a brief writeup of what i went through.
The first day
Not knowing what to wear, i arrived at the camp in PT kit. Stuffed the whole uniform n boots in my haversack. Haha. Reaching there, a female CLT was asked to teach us how to wear no. 4. Wah that took us more than half an hour i think. SO, we changed into the awfully green wear and laughed at each other. Next, we were told to fall in. Simple foot drill commands were taught to us. That was no problem for me of course, since i had four years of sec sch training. :) The funny thing was, some people were late. To make matters worse, they actually come in the wrong uniform. They came in no. 3! Imagine having to march around the whole day in no. 3, in court shoes... OMG. I thought that look hilarious. Anyway, you can jolly well imagine how the whole squad looks like, with people wearing different uniform and headdress. One word i can use: rojak.
Another skill that was taught to us was how to strip and assemble the weapon. I thought that was cool and quite fun. Ha. Believe it or not, i think i am quite good at it. Haha. : ) charging handle, retaining pin, firing pin, bolt cam pin, bolt carrier... oooh... you name it. Loading unloading of magazine n bullets.. ooh. exciting.
DAY 2
ARms drill... arms pain. They go hand in hand.
These commands are quite new to me. After all, there's no arms for girl guides. haha. Anywayz, i won't say i have mastered this. But okay lah. Would be prefect with more practice. Hopefully my arms would be conditioned to the weight by then. By the way, there's a bruise on my left palm now. haha. i hit my neighbour's weapon while marching with it. OOps.
Range card and juding distances and hand signals... ermmm theories which i think i will forget after the course.
Ooh.. camouflage. Yeah, i did it. Didn't take a picture though. The memory will always be with me. We had to do some "dunno what that was called" on the field. Take cover, then crawl on the ground, then roll here roll there. haha, i thought we really look funny. One thing i must comment. The camou very difficult to remove loh. Think i rubbed away a few layers of skin before i succeed in coming out of the toilet with a clean face. HA.
Ok i shall stop for today, more to come for the two weeks to come of course.. :) so stay tuned... !
flew into your heart at [9:16 PM]
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