Tuesday, July 15, 2008

One day, at CMPB


"Machiam CIA leh!"

Well, i reckon i had better blog as soon as this laptop's powered up, or else i'd lose my train of thought. That usually happens when you have a long and quiet walk home alone, which in my case, is a daily affair.


Yours sincerely, Google Maps.

So today was the NS checkup at the Central Manpower Base(CMPB). Woke up at 5am on the dot(for once), and set off at 6.20am to pick Valerian up at Tampines MRT. My dad drove us all the way to the place.

After the safety checks and securing of handphones, we settled down at the canteen for breakfast. Zhihao came along soon and we reported at 7.50am (albeit a tad too early). Registration was quick, and on we went to our medical stations.

Number 1 : URINE TEST

(Pardon me for the lack of pictures, and dry text. If i was allowed the chance i would have snapped away with my phone relentlessly. But, CMPB's a serious place, so chance taken away.)

We had an interesting task at hand(literally). To pee on litmus-like strips of paper(luckily they're long strips, too). The tricky part was to wet the coloured parts and not get any piss on your hands. Valerian and I took the cubicle, while zhihao the adventurous tried his luck at the urinal ^^. A check with the medic denounced any fears of urethral abnormalities and we're done.

Number 2 : BLOOD TEST

The infamous test. Valerian got the old man, who persistently tried to distract him with light-hearted talk(but failed), while zhihao and i got the trainee, or rather, younger medic. We lost 2 vials of blood for the nation, willingly. The medic coughed while drawing my blood, and i swear i could feel the needle move inside the vein.

Number 3 : AURAL TEST

We sat in this soundproof cubicle and listened intently to occasional beeps on the headphones, raising hands to indicate left or right side. One of the easy tests.

Number 4 : X-RAY

Nothing much needs to be said here. Just had an X-ray of the chest. The machine was cold to the touch of bare skin.

Number 5 : DENTAL TEST

Had my teeth examined. Heard the dentist mutter something which sounded like "buckle space 47...". Nothing much.

Number 6 : VISION TEST

Pretty standard. Test of eyesight by reading letters off the wall.

Number 7 : ECG TEST

This one's interesting. Everybody went TOPLESS. 4 electrodes were plugged(or rather suction-cupped) to your chest. They took your heart rate. Unfortunate situations include having those electrodes attached onto your nipples. Thankfully, i'm not a victim(otherwise my heart rate would have gladly spiked). I noticed certain irregular spikes on my BPM(beats per minute) chart, but the medic said nothing, so all's well.

Number 8 : THE EVERYBODY-PULL-DOWN-THEIR-PANTS TEST

Hoho, this has spread far and wide. With only my pants on in the room, I was told to pull them down(yes, with the underwear), to knee level. Luckily the process took a mere 2 seconds(it was freezing cold!). The guy wrapped up by saying i was PES A, combat-fit and all.

I proceeded down to the final station, the tediously long vocational assessment. Physics, math, pattern questions, etc, had to be answered. It's the most draining of the tests.



Similar, except for the colour

After that was photo-taking. Apparently the photographer was a fan of the Armani hairstyle(spray water, comb straight up). No more tests, so we left at 11.45am.


I swear we were rocking to the beat

We had our lunch at Tiong Bahru plaza. Killed time by heading to Challenger and trying our hands at fifa street and the legendary GUITAR HERO III !

Returned to school at 3pm and attended the Math revision lecture at 4pm. I took 12 home with Guanjie, discussing about certain affairs, of which i will not divulge. We're planning to have a Stupid Video Competition, posting video replies of nonsensical videos which we see on each other's blog. Soon, guanjie, SOON. This post's getting too lengthy already. Sorry man!

A day(almost), at CMPB.

Goodbye.