No more travelling to Pasir Ris Interchange. No more TIBS bus rides to Singapore Ferry Terminal (SFT). No more fastcraft to Pulau Tekong. No more Taurus Platoon 4 Section 2 Bed 8. It is (***) now. It is (***). It is Alpha Platoon 3 Section 1 Bed 9 now. No more a recruit. It is Private G W Teo now. i sound as if i've just POP-ed. But no, i'm just trying to say that i'm no longer attached to BMTC School 2 and life in a unit is such a far cry from there.

i'm in a unit with sensitive information. No camera phones allowed. No devices capable of storing information is allowed into camp, which means no mp3 players. So, from now till ORD, my iPod mini will be staying home all the way. *sobz* i'm going to miss my Pandan Cake (the name of my mini). But i believe this is the same throughout every SAF unit in Singapore. Therefore, i have to be extremely careful about what i write in my blog in future. If you spot any spillage which i might have done, please do inform me immediately unless you want to see me in trouble, especially the guys who are undergoing NS. i'm sure you guys know it best.

In any case, life in an SAF unit is really tough. i'm not sure of the other units but mine sure is. Every pioneer's fitness is of such paramount that we are being made to do push-ups whenever possible. A pioneer just simply means a person. My unit, i guess, is just simply trying to sophisticate the term. As i was saying, we are doing so many push-ups in a day that my arms ache and shake at the end of each day. The weekends are the precious time for me to let them rest and recover, and of course to grow stronger. Other than push-ups, there is the chin-up regime before every meal. To get a silver for IPPT, we'll have to pull at least 8 chin-ups. For me, my eighth pull is always shaky. For my most recent IPPT Categorising Test, my eighth chin-up was solely based on my mental power. i didnt want to have to stay on in camp on Saturday to do fitness Remedial Training to get my silver in IPPT. Therefore, in cherishing my weekends, i focussed like i've never focussed before and pulled my eighth. Judging the kind of training i'm receiving at the moment, i feel that the gold award for IPPT isnt that far away. i'll just have to slash my 2.4km timing further and to pull another 2 more chin-ups from my current peak of 8. i've never ran sub-10 minutes for 2.4km before so i've always thought of the gold award as impossible. But the training we have and will receive, i believe, can help improve my stamina and mental strength further. There are a lot of long distance running incorporated into the training. So, 9:44 isnt that impossible anymore. As for chin-ups, many people told me the trick is to just keep pulling every day to build up the required muscles. i'm doing just that, and every day too, so i believe i can pull beyond 10 soon.

So much for the physical training. There will be tougher trainings coming up soon. (***) Argh!! This has made my urge to ORD even stronger. i'm just simply looking forward to that date everyday. The cookhouse food is slightly better than Tekong, but it still sucks. Worse, my Company Sergeant Major (CSM) does not allow us to bring food in. Die la, how to survive? Thankfully, my unit provides us with nightsnacks. But there was still one night which i went to bed with a hungry stomach. In any case, i believe this is for the better good. Snacking at night is pretty bad for our fitness. i wouldnt want to send my fitness tumbling down after i've put in so much effort in all my trainings.

i'm very much looking forward to life after the course. To keep thinking about ORD is just too tiring. 071107 is just simply too far away. i'm still in the year 2006 currently. i havent even smell the air of January 2007 and i'm thinking of ORD. How ridiculous can i get? i've heard about how my life can get easier once my course ends. Note 'easier', not 'easy'. This is a very important difference. No matter what, when i'm still serving NS, life will never be easy. By 'easier', i meant we can start bringing in food into camp so that we can fill our stomach when we're hungry. Also, trainings will not be so hectic and shiong and we'll mostly be on standbys.

To the people who left a tag on my tagboard, thank you very much. Y'all have added some activity to my pretty inactive blog. Thanks for the offer, Yulin. Seletar may be near your place, but when there are chances to book out, i'll still prefer home. At most, we can go down to Jalan Kayu for pratas. Or maybe to Casuarina too. Thanks for the encouragement, Fabian. Where are you posted to? You're serving NS too, right? i miss MYMCA! As for Samuel, i hope you're doing fine in Guards. i believe there will be something good coming out of all the shit you're going through. Find a chance to meet up. My standard book-out days are on Friday night. So i'll be free on Saturdays. How about you?

*** editted for potential spillage of sensitive information