Book Out!!!
It feels so good to be out... To be with the people I love and care about. After 2 and a half weeks of physical and mental strain, it feels good to be able to relax again. However, the feeling on the ferry back to Singapore filled me with mixed emotions. I was glad to be able to come home, but I felt slightly anxious about returning to Tekong on Sunday. It would be another 2 weeks of tough, if not tougher, training. I know I'll be fine though.

Some scribblings I made during the free time I had...

3 October 2004, Sunday
Today has been quite relaxing. 5 days here and I've learnt so much. I've also learnt that fear is a poor motivator... It eats at your being and make you unable to function. Its almost comical to see the sergeants yelling in the faces of blubbering recruits.... ALMOST, if it wasn't so painfully pathetic. Trying my best to leave the fear behind is essential. I guess me being able to understand the sergeants helps alot. Unfortunately there are still some who just don't get it. And the whole platoon suffers. I don't mind though. I take it as an excuse to get free personal training.

There are a few who may be good at one thing but crap at another. For example, there's this guy who can do dozens of chin ups for fun. But he can't march well. Or another guy who can run 2.4 very quickly but cannot swim or shoot... I believe I'm one of the few who belong to the category which you might call, 'blessedly average'. Doing just well enough to stay out of trouble but still requiring effort to be good at certain things.

Like I said... So many things learnt in the past few days that I can't even remember what I did yesterday. The encouragements from friends and family have been timely and helpful. Especially yesterday when I wasn't feeling well. Thank God I managed to get through. I can do all things through him.


6 October 2004, Wednesday
I'm in the lecture room again. Another national education talk. They're trying to brain wash us!! Hahaha... They keep repeating how good, prepared and technologically advanced our SAF is. Which is true in a way. The SAF is good but I don't think we would last if there was any real enemy. Our army is like concertina wire barriers. They're there to hinder and not to stop. Whatever the case, I'll just do my best and obey God. It hasn't been easy though. Every morning I wake up and my mind tries to find some excuse to skip training. But my spirit doesn't allow me too.... How can I even if I wanted to? He is my protection and also my medicine when I'm sick. So there's no reason why I should be entitled to that kind of rest. The training has been mostly bearable and even enjoyable in some cases. My Platoon Commander (PC) was saying that the standard to be considered for OCS is at least a silver but I'm still quite a long way from that. I'll just keep training.


7 October 2004, Thursday
Just finished my IMT range (simulated shooting range). It was quite fun. Had to use an eye patch to aim properly. Right now we're just learning the techniques of shooting. I don't want to be a marksman. Aiming is uncomfortable for me because my left eye is open behind the eye patch.


8 October 2004, Friday
We're relaxing in the canteen after visiting the e-mart. The mood is generally relaxed today except for a new sergeant (future platoon sergeant). Super strict, super vulgar, almost hateful. But I think it'll be good for the platoon to have some discipline. Some aren't putting in effort. We were pushed this morning. 3km run followed by conditioning (push ups, 1.5min squats, superman lifts). Had a chin up training regime just now too... Still stuck at 5 the first time, but I did 2 more sets of 3 as well as one more set of 6 assisted chin ups. Thank God I just got half gloves so its gonna help a lot in preventing more blisters.

Signed up for life insurance by Aviva. I think it'll be a good investment. The speaker was trying to instill fear into us by implying that those who didn't sign up or those who didn't 'believe' were more likely to get into accidents. Had to pray and make sure that the reason for signing up was not because of fear.