Thursday, December 22, 2005
Didn't manage to post an entry the last time because I was too tired, probably from the soccer that was being played on saturday afternoon at acjc. It's been a long time since I last played soccer with the ac guys for reasons we all know why. Most of us are in the army with different schedules, some went overseas because of the festive season while some of my friends were retaking their A levels. Daniel called me the other time while I was in camp on a weekend, how great isn't it. It's a pity that I'm unable to join up with the rest for soccer everytime I want to due to army commitments.
Many of my friends who enlisted in march/april with me are already sergeants or officers to be. On the way to acjc on saturday, I had a talk in depth with Nickypoo about his stint as a fitness spec in Khatib camp. I probably found someone who has an equally terrible schedule as me and that's Nickypoo. He works from 2pm to 10pm everyday with only a few days break in a week if he's lucky. He works on weekends sometimes as well because he has to conduct ippt for ns men. That means he burns his weekends. It's either the Saturday or Sunday or even both. However life as a fitness spec is good, you don't have to wear the no.4 uniform for the remaining of his nsf life. His normal attitre is just shorts and the tank top. Even for the coc parade he had at his artillery camp, his attitre was polo t shirt with track pants!
The number of people who's coming for soccer isn't as great as compared to life before enlistment and after the A levels. Soccer is not just about coming just to play the game anymore, to me, it's a good opportunity to catch up with your friends and find out how they are doing in their nsf life. Like how Yuhao is the most senior batch of cadets in ocs now after the previous batch just graduated. Sometimes you feel that people like Darren, Daniel and Kamil could have become great officers but somehow they choose to be a man.
Wanted to go town today to buy some stuff but the rain that started in the early afternoon spoilt my mood and in a way, reflects my gloomy mood. During the duration of my fdc course, I remembered telling my platoon people like Boon Kian about my worst fears like how I forsee myself holding a gun and doing guard duty on public holidays. Me and my big mouth. My "wish" has come true, I'll be in camp doing duty on xmas eve. The feeling totally sucks. It's like I picture myself doing duty at Viper 2 or guarding the F-16s at Delta 5 just before midnight. Just before the clock strikes 12. It feels worse when you start to torture yourself by telling yourself that you could have been outside partying or having fun but instead, you are here doing your national service. I can even torture myself even further by listening to xmas songs that I've transferred to my mp3 player. I'm that kind of person, sadistic in a way if you can call it.
Heard the lastest news that 3 more of my platoon mates from the fdc course just got posted out. It's like after so long and they're still posting people out without realizing that they're having a shortage of people themselves. Jin Xing got posted to the same camp as Weili while Xinhe and William went to Paya Lebar Airbase. I stumbled upon some Singaporean NS forum in the internet and many of the just newly passed out recruits from Tekong were expressing their fears and anxiety about their posting. The unlucky few that got posted to PLAB were cursing their luck. Well, I've been been and done it so I kinda pity them. It even led to one person commenting that airbase rps are the worst lot of all. "They don't get weekends and public holidays"
The thought of booking in tomorrow totally sucks but taking "paid leave" is not an option because 2 of my friends are taking leave. I don't want them to get recalled. It's like having mounted at East together for so long, there's a bond between all of us and we want to help one another. The thought of getting recalled when you're taking leave is really horrible as I've been through it myself. I read Guo Sheng's blog yesterday and he relates his own experience of getting recalled for "no reason". Who can blame him for being pissed off and he ended up getting 2 extras from his master. You know honestly it's the first time I've heard of SAF band people getting extras. It's like they will probably be the last vocation to do such stuff.
