Monday, April 02, 2007
I'm sure for most guys who have just ord, there are certainly days that go by with you thinking about what've you done in army in the last 2 years. Maybe it's just me and me alone who thinks about such stuff. However, I've found out at work that there are a few guys out there that thinks the same way that I do. We're just glad that our service time in the army is all but over. Most will say they don't give a damn about what happened during their 2 years of service but I know that deep inside of their minds, they did have wonderful memories in the army. There will be more to add to that collection come the yearly cycle of in camp training but those 2 years will be the best of their lifetime.
For me, I prefer to stay up late into the night, sometimes even to like 5am or 6am before I feel sleepy. After midnight or 1am, the number of people in your msn starts to disappear one by one until you only see the usual regular owls. One of them is my army mate, mok. That guy is as crazy as me, sleep only when the sun starts to rise and wake up to a sunny afternoon. It has something to with his habits as well. He lives in the east and lives to go catch midnight movies or have supper with his friends. In my msn shift 3 group, he will the only one that online and not busy or whatever. One of the few that likes to do the 1am to 7am slot for guard duty. There are a few reasons why he likes that slot. I can totally understand cause I'm a big fan of it myself.
When I first started out doing guard duty, I've gotta admit that night duty was the worst slot that anyone could get. It was tiring and a challenge trying to stay awake for the whole duration of your duty. We would all be praying for a morning or afternoon slot. At the most we'll do the 7pm to 1am slot and have at least 6 hours of sleep(trust me, it's never 6 hours) before doing the 7am slot the very next morning. Slowly, I started to see the benefits of doing night duty in camp.
Let's not forget that every package has its own pros and cons. In this case, the pros outweigh the cons. You've gotta sacrifice your sleep and change your sleeping pattern. Even when you book out, the first thing that you'll probably do is to sleep till you make up for the sleep debt. By then, half the day would have been gone already.
From how I see it, that's just a litte disadvantage that I could do with. I've not even heard of let alone been to my camp before I got posted there after bmt. For those people who still think that I spent the last 1 year plus in changi airbase(west), you're partially wrong. It's my base camp and I do go back there once in while for safety meetings and settle whatever stuff that needs to be to be done. Other than that, i'm tucked away in the eastern part of Singapore that's reclaimed. It's called changi airbase(east). A new airbase built in 2002 for the arrivals of the f-16s. There's no public transport that goes there. It's just cabs and cabs. Many a times we had to fork out our own money to make our way in or out. Maybe that's why they pay us "allowances" for. I'm grateful for the fact that I'm not posted to changi naval base. It's even further in and 5 mins cab right from my camp. Can you imagine how much you have to pay if you take a cab in? At least $5 to $6. For those who still have no idea what I've been talking about? Think tanah merah ferry terminal.
There used to be alot of stray dogs that keep us company at night. They are used to having us around and vice versa. The funny thing is that they like to bark at us no matter how familiar we are to them. For people who believe in ghosts, they say that when the dogs bark at night even though there's nobody around, those are signs that those stuff are around. Well, it's up to the individual to believe in it. For me and my friends, we certainly welcome the extra company and they gave us the advance warning whenever cars are approaching. Something that I've never figured out is why they like to chase after certain cars and yet do not benefit from their exertion? Getting sleepy on the job is only naturally. The deadly slots according to nightly experts like us is around 4.30am to 5.15am. After that, you suddenly feel quite refreshed. Sometimes even after sending arms at 7am, you still need to wait for a while before sleeping. That's how refreshed you can be.
Everyone in my shift always pray that there's no night flying or any night exercises which requires the technicians and pilots to be back. Sometimes the night becomes the day and the cars starts to stream in like it's the peak hour at 8am in the morning when it's like 4am!? On good days like weekends and no night flying, it's really peaceful and tranquil. It helps when there's some cold wind blowing. When it's raining cats and dogs and strong wind blows, you really wish that you were in the bunk sleeping instead. Such a nice weather for sleeping really. You find things to do to entertain yourself and your duty partner. Walking around and even out of the camp gate to check on stuff and shouting like a mad man. That's because there's nobody around and you literally own the camp at those hours.
It's a pity that most of the stray dogs got captured and the young didn't make it because of the tough conditions. It was painful to see the carcass of a dead puppy in the drain one day covered with hundreds of maggots. The head was gone and the stomach was bloated. You just gotta let nature take its course. We can't finish the dinner and nightsnack everyday so we'll try to share it with our 4 legged friends. It will be a waste if those food were just thrown away.
We come into the camp seeing those dogs with bones sticking out but we left with them doing fine and well-fed. However, of them family of dogs that we first started out with. Only "first sister" was left. She was accompanied by 2 husky-like dogs. At least she will be in good hands and not alone. Maybe when I go back for reservist next time, she would have passed on and new stray dogs would have arrived to take over that territory.
