Friday, April 21, 2006
I booked into camp yesterday sometime close to midnight because I had to do a 7-1 standby for shift 4 this morning. There was no way I can make it by 7am at Changi East because the first train that leaves bt batok mrt station is 5.45am. It will take close to 1 hour to reach tanah merah mrt station and not to mention I've got to take 35 to tanah merah ferry terminal. It's either I take cab from the ferry terminal or wait for the rover to come fetch me. Either way, I'll still be late and it's a waste of money by taking cab in the long term. Call me a miser or whatever, nsfs shouldn't be paying for their own cab transport when it comes to reporting to camp at obscene hours unless it's the normal reporting time of 8am at base. Unless you're a nsf technician where you can claim your cab fares, let's just forget about taking cab in the long term.
So yesterday I met Raja at 11pm at tanah merah mrt station and we really took the last bus to the tanah merah ferry terminal with this bangla worker who obviously works in the construction site nearby. If he wasn't in the bus with us, it's just us and the bus driver. I've always got a soft spot for the night shift drivers, be it bus or cab drivers because you don't really know who are the passengers you're picking up. Be in the drunk, rowdy or the paranormal ones if you get what I mean. Especially for the bus driver of 35. You're driving into that part of Singapore where normal Singaporeans won't venture into unless it's to fish or if you work in the air or naval base. I'm sure he was glad to to have 2 guys who were wearing green to accompany him through that lonely stretch of road. We could have asked Jeremy to pick us up using the rover but considering the time it was then, I figured it was better that we take a slow walk to our camp which was around 3km away from the ferry terminal. Like I said before, maybe we're misers and whatever you can think of us when it comes to taking cabs but nothing beats walking. We sound nuts but it's really difficult to find people who share the joy of walking.
Obviously, if it's within your distance and means, go ahead and try it because it ain't always that you get the chance to. You need the find the right company who can make the walk enjoyable and before you know it, you've reached the gate of the camp or whatever destination you want to go to. How many people dared to walk at midnight through the straight route ofthe tanah merah coast road alone or with just another guy by your side? Not many I would say. The trees on the side of the road look different from the da, they kinda reminded me of the rubber planation back in tekong. Me and Raja talked about everything under the night sky, from studies, relationships to army life. There was a police car who was patrol and slowed down when they saw 2 people walking at such a hour and probably wanted to stop and asked us questions. However, they slowed down but drove us after seeing that we were army personnel. Need they ask what were we doing? It obviously ain't a night route march but booking back into camp. I normally won't have the desire nor mindset to walk if I've not been trained to literally walk while I'm in the army. Back in jjc, cody once told me he and his friends walked from town back to their home in choa chu kang. The journey took around 6 to 7 hours. Yeah it's long but when you're with the right company, you can overcome anything.
I'll be spending alot of time travelling from one part of Singapore to another part during these 4 months till the GOH guys return from their national day duty. Due to the shortage of manpower, we're helping the other shift to do duty and vice versa. For readers who don't understand what I'm talking about, take for example, my shift is divided into 4 groups who will be helping shift 4 do the 7 to 1 and 1 to 7 slots for both days of their mounting. In return, they will do the same for us. The downside of doing the 7-1 slot is that for those living in the west, you've gotta book in the night before. It's like if I book out at noon on the same day, I gotta book in on the same night. That sucks doesn't it? That's why we don't have a proper dismount day and free time. Like the upper management give a shit right. The next week where I've got to help shift 4 do the 1-7(we switch slots and days to make sure it's fair for everyone), I don't think I'll be going home cause my group has been chosen to start the 7am duty on the next morning(my shift's mounting day). There's no point going home really, it's just too far and it doesn't make sense to. I'll probably give myself a night's out and book in late at my own sweet time.
Every place has got it's own problems. For the east, the transportation is a real big problem. For the base, I heard alot from my friends where the S3 is giving them alot of trouble with his planning or should I say no planning of manpower. To my friends and changi batch, this shit is gonna make us stronger so let's bite our teeth and go through this together. By september, we will be the senior batch and we deserve to slack and make sure the plab, sab and the changi batch who are gonna take over us know what we went through.
Like Raja says, we belong to the SAF for the remaining months of our nsf lives. No point complaining about it but as usual, it's ok to bitch around if it makes us feel better.
I'm thankful that at least I'll be seeing the marcus, mok and eugene(the east guys who got posted to merah) now and then. I did viper 1 with eugene and marcus today during standby and we took the 6 hours to catch up. As for mok, I'll be seeing him when we book in flight now and then. I know it sucks for everyone at the moment, east ain't the same without them and the GOH guys so let's all just hang in there. I forsee myself falling into depression now and then because of this but I reminded myself to stay focus and try to see whatever positive elements I can see from this. It's obstacles like these that will only make a person stronger and no doubt it will take a bigger one to knock one down. However, I ain't gonna be defeated. It's ok to have mood swings? Just make sure you pull ur socks together and not think about this issue too much.
Back to camp as usual tomorrow, now all of out there know what kind of life I'm leading right now. Basically no life no thanks to our upper management. Rumors said that our oc wants to quit the army life once his contract is up. Heard that he couldn't take the stress and agony of having to do everything his superiors hand down to him or to put it in simpler terms, clear up the thrash. At least he still can quit when he's still young or it might be too late to do so when he's older.
I will always try my best to update my blog even though I'm spending less and less time outside of camp because it allows me to vent my frustrations and at the same time, make sure I can still write a proper sentence. Give me strength.
