By indirect orders of Ms Piggy Gan, i am sitting right in front of my computer, logged on to blogger.com and typing away an entry. She has come complaining to me that my blog has been inactive for a long while. But wait, before you go saying that you’d also complained about my inactivity and why i’m not responding, i have this to say: Your words are also why i’m writing a new entry now. It isn’t just because of Ms Gan that i am doing what i’m doing now. It just so happen that she is the last person to have come complaining. In any case, i’m here to round up on the many things which have happened in my life. The last entry was dated 10 days before my Passing Out Parade (POP). Right now, 7 days have passed since the parade. And in these 17 days, one major event has occurred, other than POP, and it was the release of the A-Level results.

Everything is all about relativity, which is why Einstein came up with the Theory of Relativity. Okay, there is totally no link between the two but i’m just trying to mean something here. To me, my grade is not fantastic at all. Not a single A. But to someone else who has not scored as well, it may be a godsend. Straight Bs, including GP with a grade of B4. As far back as i can remember, for all major examinations, meaning PSLE, ‘O’ Level, and for the recent ‘A’ Level, my grades were all of straight something. For PSLE, they were straight As (3 As and 1 A*). For ‘O’ Level, straight As too (3 A1s, 6A2s). Comparing my latest results to my previous results in past examinations, i must say my grades are going downhill. So pathetic that i did not even score a single A, except for ‘AO’ Chinese where i can comfort myself a little with an A1. Okay, enough of whining. Everything is over and done with. The only problem plaguing me currently is on the course which i will want to study in a local university here in Singapore, preferably NUS. A B.Eng in Environmental Engineering or a B.Sci in Chemistry? Sigh. i chose Env. Eng. because i know i have a passion towards the environment since young. Please, i know you must be choking on your laughter when you read that line. But seriously, i do have the heart and interest to want to improve the environment so that we, as well as the many generations after us, will have a better world to live in. As for Chemistry, i am hoping to branch out to doing forensics in future, to be a Singapore version CSI. Yulin told me that for the courses which i have short listed, i will either be dealing with shit or dead people. Yes, literally shit. Then again, for Env. Eng., i can always major in other areas like purification of water or disposal of waste other than sewage. But will i have a privilege to choose what i want? It will greatly depend on my grades again. i hope i don’t slack off like i did in JC. Argh, i need to make a decision soon before i get posted out to a unit and get confined in there.

Okay, enough of academia.

Finally, i have POPed loh. No more travelling to one corner of the island in Pasir Ris. No more fastcraft to Tekong. No more Tekong’s infamous heavily-chlorinated water. No more Tekong itself. But other than those, i am going to miss the company i had. BMTC School 2, Taurus Company. Are you going to start shouting, “White horse Company!! White horse Company!!”? Yaowen would say it is a platinum horse company. But whatever the case, white horse or platinum horse, i cant say how much preferential treatment we have received. This is because i have nothing else to use as a comparison. Okay, maybe we are nearer to the cookhouse, we are nearer to the jetty (but Whiskey Company is even closer), and maybe we are the last company to be enlisted. Then again, even though we were the last company to be enlisted, we were also the last company to leave the island after POP. So, give and take la, huh? On a company level, i’d say privileges were few, if not none. On a platoon level, i wouldnt really know. The white horse isnt in the same platoon as me. The only privilege i have seen for the white horse himself was during one of the meals in School 2 cookhouse. On the table where he was sitting, there was a plate of sliced watermelon for him as well as the others who were there. That is only once. i’m not so sure about the meals at other times during the entire 9 weeks. In any case, i dont really care about those privileges. Right now, i am just so happy that there will be no more Tekong Cookhouse food in future, unless i’m posted back to Tekong.

Taurus Company Platoon 4. The 49 friends which i have made in a span of 9 weeks, i will be missing most of you if we are not going to be posted to the same unit. i’m so glad to have made so many friends from so many different JCs. During these 9 weeks of BMT, i have come to realise how important helping one another is. It really helps a lot when the going gets tough. It helps me to truly understand what teamwork is, how much we can achieve when we work together. But it is a also a period of time when i get to see how selfish people can become, particularly one person in my platoon. i shall not name names here. He is the first person i have ever seen how extreme selfishness, snobbery and lackadaisicalness can be combined and put into one person. But i wont be surprised because all these negative qualities are always used on a nasty person. As for my commanders, officers and specialists, they were really nice. Even my Officer Commanding (OC) was nice. When anyone threatens to complain to my OC, i don’t feel the threat going down my throat at all. That is how nice my OC is. Nice and welfare-spirited he may be, he still does an excellent job in his position of commanding Taurus Company.

Basic Military Training has changed me. It has allowed me to see many things which i have not cherished in my life, the many luxuries which i did not see when i was still a civilian. Can you believe that i have put the wind under my list of luxuries? Yes indeed, the wind is such a wonderful thing. They said that it is 1°C hotter over in Tekong than Singapore. i’ll say they are bluffing. It is at least 3-4°C warmer there. It is made worse if we have to wear Long No. 4, which is the camouflage uniform with its sleeves down. But when the cool air molecules run over your scorching skin, it is orgasm one after another. Serious! i have also come to realise how important and wonderful my family is. i have experienced homesickness before but never at such an extreme level. i woke up in the middle of one night, during the early stage of BMT, and asked myself in the darkness, “Where the hell am i right now? Why is there a fan spinning above my head?” Then, reality hit back hard on me. i realised i was in Tekong receiving military training to be a soldier. There was once when i almost cried when i called back home. The familiar voice over the line sounded so heartwarming. i wanted to get back to civilisation so badly. Fortunately, these pussy thoughts and feelings lasted for a short while. i managed to get used to the life in there and everything returned to normalcy soon.

Life in Tekong has its downs. But there are uplifting moments too.

Shooting live rounds at 100m. i have experienced this when i was in NCC. But nevertheless, it is not an everyday opportunity to get to shoot live rounds from a weapon in Singapore. Throwing a live hand grenade. The experience was earthshaking. The explosion rocks, metaphorically and literally. You get to throw a live HG once in your lifetime, and it is during your BMT. Moving around in total darkness. When you are out in the field far from civilisation, everything around you is just pure black. No, i’m not being racist here. But take it from a guy who experienced it, it is a whole new experience you will never get in the city. Seeing a new night sky because i was in total darkness. The skyline was beautifully decorated with stars. i have never seen so many stars in the sky in my entire life. Again, it is something which you’ll never get in the city. To describe the sight is just beyond my ability. My command of the English language isnt good enough. You have to experience it yourself to understand.

These were just some great moments in Pulau Tekong when i was undertaking my training to be a soldier. 9 weeks have passed and now, i’m waiting for my posting results. i sure do hope i can make it into OCS to be trained as an officer. But it is not going to be easy, both getting in there as well as the training to be an officer. Ooops, what a long entry. i hope this entry has satisfied your hunger and voyeurism into my life.