The First Week

Block leave was bad. I got too used to civilian life. Not that i wouldn't want block leave, but it just means that we've to get used to army life again.

So the first week is down. Well we got off to a (one helluva) rolling start. Monday saw us going through a 4-hour class-up evolution, the 'ceremony' that sees us cross over to PCP from BMT. I shan't elaborate much on it. All i can say is that we got wet and sandy, carried boats, crawled on a mimosa-infested field like dogs, etc, and the whole experience made all of us want to OOC(out-of-course). If you want the details just ask, i'll tell.

" DROOOOOWWWWNNN-PRRROOOOOOOFINGGGGGG "

Rest of the week was spent on drown-proofing and sea-swim practice. Both were tedious evolutions, and boy was i glad and lucky to have passed them. Drown-proofing almost had me seeing God at the end of it, and if you think drowning is a good way to commit suicide, well, think again. One word to describe it - HARDCORE. Again, ask if you want details, i'm quite lazy to elaborate.

2nd week's up next and 'THE' week is coming, if you know what i mean. Hooyah 31 lets push on.

Physical Conditioning Phase

IT STARTS NOW. PCP HERE WE COME, HOOYAH!

the very last, of block leave

hello hello, here's basically a(very!) summed up version of what happened during block leave.

monday - ndu 31st batch bbq

tuesday - shopping with jared

wednesday - beach vball at sentosa!

thursday - bedok reservoir run

friday - ndu appreciation day, 31st batch lan, swimming at night

saturday - caught terminator with sec sch peeps. great show. dinner together.

SUNDAY (TODAY) - the very last day of block leave omg. tomorrow marks the start of a new phase -> PCP. God help the 31st Batch.

Stuff packed and ready to go! Going to have lunch with my family before maybe meeting some peeps at safra. More later! (if i have the time) See ya!

HOOYAH

beach volleyball at sentosa!

First of all, sorry to songhon, samfoo and jared for being late! (but hey at least i wasn't the latest. hehe) After angus and yvonne arrived we headed to Siloso Beach to sweat it out with some beach volleyball. Daryl and arron joined us midway and of course it was the more the merrier! The only experienced player present was jared, but we picked it up pretty quick and had fun along the way.

The drinks at sentosa are obscenely pricey. 3.20 for a 500ml Coke? You must be kidding. Lucky they had offers across the road with stuff like 3.50 for 2 bottles, if not i'd have drank the seawater. By the end of the day, everybody was cooked till our skin turned gleaming red. I couldn't resist the chance to cool down so i grabbed the ball for flotation and swam a moderate distance away from shore. And i just lay there in the water, soaking up the evening sun with the seawater cooling my body, ah, the life.

Dinner was settled at Central, a Hongkong style restaurant at Vivocity which had surprisingly reasonably-priced dishes. Such that me and jared had 2 servings. Hooya. After which, me, jared and angus headed down to Tampines for some supper while the rest headed home. Daryl joined us again and we had a chat. Stuff about camp, how we couldn't sleep on the first day, the sometimes eerie thoughts that surfaced in our minds during camp, etc.

What a day! Tiring but fun fun fun. Time to rest, bye!

Of 31 BBQ and shopping

31 had a BBQ at East Coast Park Pit 31, coincidentally. Food was plentiful, enough to satisfy every stomach present. Warrant Tan, Master Teo and Instructors Jason, Seow, BK and Puy turned up. So we had fun, talked and ate. Some guys brought their girls along to enjoy the atmosphere. Lots of photos taken as well.

Halfway through, songhon me and shern hit the arcade for Time Crisis 4. Probably due to the abysmal frequency of customer visits, the credits for each game were significantly cheaper. That was kinda good, and bad. Good, because it was cheap to play. Bad, because I kept changing new tokens after each death, thinking it was cheap so it was okay. I died the most out of the three of us, and the final toll on my wallet amounted to 3.50, in comparison to shern's 1 dollar spent. Jialat la. After we got back the bbq was almost done, so we left shortly.

Well, that was for Monday.

Today was scheduled for shopping since my wardrobe is in dire need of fresh apparel. I had actually planned to go alone but Jared was free so we met and had a look around Tampines. Thank god it was a weekday and the usual crowds in Tampines 1 and the surrounding malls were missing. I got my stuff and Jared got his. Spent a (nuclear)bomb. Kinda satisfied but that familiar sense of guilt kicked in yet again. Eek.

Something that kept bugging me today was the constant URGE to shit. First thought that came to mind : the bbq. 2 times today already and i can feel the 3rd itching to come out. Argh.

What else. Hmm. Rainy day, guilty of not exercising, and oh, i need a new beanie!

Thats all for now!

The Black Hole

Cool. Aha.

(Temporary) ORD LO!

Okay, actually it's just POP. So......POP LO!!!!

Block leave here i come. More, later!


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POP day. Phew. Last, yes the very last day of a 10-week long BMT.

Got the ball rolling by a PT run in the morning. Nothing much took place in the day until route march was due. Instructor Koh had us do a pasar malam - laying out of fieldpack items - at the basketball court.

" I don't care how you do it, 30 secs camou on. Now! "

I squeeze the semi-liquid paste onto my palms and creamed up Angus' face, with him doing the same to mine.

" Whole lot, take a dip in divepool "

I thought it was actually fun. 31 batch ran to the pool and jumped in at the shallow end, with no.4 and boots and camou on, leaving the water slightly murky with runny camou off our faces.

And so, we started the 12-klick march with runny camou, waterlogged boots and being drenched to the skin.

POP-ed at Kranji War Cemetery, got our berets and we secured for the night.

But that wasn't all. Back at 29, it was a rush to get into our bookout-rig and then we had 9 mins to run all the way to the main gate to book out before it gets too late. And we did. Abrasions kicking in and all, we ran like it was another route march. Except that this one led to home and freedom.