DO NOT DISTURD ME

i came back to camp today. was supposed to do my dental FFI followed by signing clearance. hm, but before that there was who knows got an arrow from 1WO XYZABC which took up the WHOLE AFTERNOON.

screwed up my plan. like that no time to go sign my damn clearance and ALSO NO DAMN TIME TO DO MY HANDING OVER.

seriously, i am damn worried about him. the workload of 3 of us now rests squarely on his shoulders. can he take it? i dunno. And i also dunno how much he knows.

But who can blame manpower branch for dragging their feet on this?

Coming back again to camp tomorrow, this time do give me some PEACE and let me complete my CLEARANCE and my HANDING OVER so i can ORD IN PEACE.

How much I want to wash my hands in front of the assembled mob ala Pontius Pilate. But, that washing of hands can come only when I finally reclaim my much awaited PINK IC, which is still 28 days, and 3 working days, away.

i don't feel like giving the ORD speech anymore. don't know what to say... sian.

not once before has ORD been so near, yet so far.

28 days.
672 hrs.
40320 minutes.
2419200 seconds.

to ORD.

till i once again behold the beloved pink ic in my hands.

till i gain back life as i know it, not merely a sordid existence.

till i gain back the most precious 7 letter word in the world.

FREEDOM.

In comparison with the shirt that Daniel wore today,the ORD shirt bought from Cres... at the back..'DO NOT DISTURD (sic) ME'...Yes I want to shout out loud to all those people up there...

"DO NOT DISTURD ME!!!"

One month to ORD~!

After 2 yrs and 3 months of serving the nation, I am proud to announce that I am finally going to ORD, in a months' time, in case you have been on mars all these years.

"Huh? ORD? But I haven't even enlisted yet!"

Too bad, ORD LOH! Enjoy your stay on Tekong or whatever 'paradise' you are in.I guess I am obliged to exult at this point what an experience NS has been, what good things I have learnt from it but (for those who have gone through it) who's gonna believe me if i do so ... i shan't.

I'm one of those who've been in the same camp throughout my army days. Hence, the thought of impending ORD is a bittersweet emotion. The same thing as graduating from school where we'll miss the good friends and the fun we've had. But the excitement that a new phase of our lives loom ahead of us.

So, in a month's time, I will report to Camp for the final time as a soldier, and leave as a civilian. I will leave with the pink IC, something I had not seen for 2 years and 4 months, which in turn symbolises the most precious seven-letter word in the vocabulary of soldiers.

FREEDOM.

To those of you from my camp reading this, past and present.. i'm sure we will meet up somewhere along the
way in future..

To those of you still in there... all the best. Endure and enjoy. Your time will come.

To those of you who have not went in... good luck. You'll surely have a better time than your predecessors, what with 2 years service, 5 day working week...-- 30 days to go --

One more month to O-R-D
Loo-la, o-Loo-la,
One more month to O-R-D
Loo-laa-loo-laa-lei

No more guard du-ty, No more ex-tra-du-ty
No need to see my En-cik face
Loo-laa-loo-laa-lei

(Adapted from the POP song sung by recruits in tekong)
--

O-R-D
Back to study
Got degree
So happy
Can't forget
Those army days
With my rifle my buddy and me--//

(This one, you don't know, i got no comments..)

driving

and now for updates about my driving...

i am currently enrolled at BBDC, class 3C course (manual transmission). For those of you also at BBDC, I'm at stage 2, subject 06 (U-turn and roundabout).

The roundabout was quite amusing. Drove all the way from Bt Batok area to Hillview to practice. Which coincidentally was where I used to stay. Too bad no opportunity to park the car there and go and check my letterbox (which i've got to do before they tear down the place.)

Actually my last lesson, on April Fool's day, was not that bad as my previous one. Except for one time that I didn't see the car behind me when I changed lane, apart from that is okay. Whereas the previous one i made quite a few mistakes and got commented by the instructor. But not as bad as one February night that the instructor was a kanchiong spider and kept slamming his brakes.. after that harshly commenting me. I have since gotten him blacklisted.

But seriously, I got to be better at checking blind spots. Else will get marked down during TP test where every point counts.

So I guess i am about 3 lessons more to the end of stage 2, followed by stage 3 (that's all the circuit courses.. S course, crank course, et cetera). Am aiming to complete my lessons by my ORD (5 May). Hopefully can get my licence by my 21st birthday..

And to put on record, I passed my BTT and FTT on my first try. Hopefully the TP Test will be the same thing.

Clearing Leave!

I am finally clearing leave!!!

Now I can go for driving lessons in the daytime where it's cheaper. And my e-learning for Engineering.. and all that.

Got lots of things I want to do during my long break before starting school... that includes finding a job though..

:)

Clearing leave! Cheers! ORD LOH!

today

today was quite a tiring day at work... i fell asleep on the bus on the way home.. and bonked my head on the window. ouch.. doesn't hurt anymore though it did at first when i got home.

booked 2 theory lessons for this weekend :) got to find out more about the schedule and what's the next stage heh.

back from hibernation

so it has been that i have been hibernating for close to 4 months now.. haiz.. so many things have happened since then.. first things first, ORD is now an approaching reality rather than a distant dream! 113 days more to go... lalala... civilian life, here i come!

It's a new year now! Got quite a bit of new year's resolutions, but also got to keep them! This year is quite important for me as it's the year I leave army and enter uni. Need to find a job also, to fill in the time and make some money to finance my driving lessons (i just registered yesterday)... Think school starts in August so i have 3 months of break between ORD and then to go earn some $$. Will need around $2k for the whole driving course.

The next thing is university! i realised that like many other JC NSFs, we've forgot most of the stuffs that we learnt in JC! So this is one thing that we need to learn back. I've signed up for an e-PREP course, from NTU, that is meant to prepare those with a JC / Poly background for university engineering. Hope it comes in useful. First of all i need to learn to use the blackboard interface though of course..

With that, comes CCA as well! I will probably continue to be involved in St John for the next two years at best, until my 'successors' are more or less comfortable with their roles and I become somewhat redundant. Not sure if NUS will recognise St John as an external CCA though, probably not, but some other CCAs i am considering include Christian Fellowship, Red Cross Chapter and probably some sport like badminton.. heh.. will have to start planning for the next stage of my life..

today

today was kind of a long day for me... in the morning, it was army open house, so i went to SAFTI MI for it.. actually i got kind of delayed, so i took a cab to boon lay to meet my friends.. urgh.

the Commandos had a 'shooting game', basically they gave us a chance to handle a REAL GUN (MP-5) with paint bullets to shoot down cardboard targets while negotiating an obstacle course. but i was a bit too eager, and opened a small cut on my hand while at it..

after the whole thing i went to just walk around.. bumped into two old friends from secondary school days, frederick and bowan, both 3SGs :O i also got a 'souvenir', a 2 PDF 'iron-on' formation sign... guess in the days of the temasek green uniforms, this was what would be used.. but no longer.. actually No.1 uniform still uses formation signs, maybe i'll check out emart to see if got a not.. haha

2nd half of the day was my 2nd usher duty, which included traffic marshal duty and later on duty in the hall. Well this was my first time doing both these duties and nonetheless it was a good learning experience... and not to mention made quite a few new friends.. sis jasmine, serene (and the other sister forgot what's her name :P), clark, margaret..

went back quite late, tired but happy..

Flag Day... counting $$$

yesterday was St John Flag Day... so today was the counting of the collections... i went down to HQ in the morning to meet up with my cadets who were helping out in the counting. saw quite a few ppl who i know, like chen yie who was at the table next to mine =) but we were all busy so din talk much.... steve who was kinda running around when i saw him... anyway this yr my Corps' total collection is an improvement from last year's. =)

after that i went for lunch with some of the other officers and cadets.. at golden mile food centre.. quite a wide selection of dishes there so it's worth going down once or twice to get a good bite, and at competitive prices too... not to mention the top floor where there are not just army goods, but camping equipment and even streetwear at competitive prices too. that's where i'll go to if i need any such things next time =)

went back to rest after that... cos am still nursing my asthma... got to take care..

my first day on the job

woo.. had my first day of ushering.. it was an eye-opener... and i realise that there are still a lot of things that i need to learn...

Reached church at 2pm, upon which i had my support duty... which is to prepare all the bulletins for distribution during service... it's quite an eye-opener seeing all the various inserts being put together.. some more in a definite sequence... such that the final product really looks so professionally done... it's only now when i actually see what goes on behind the scenes that i know how important this seemingly simple job is. And it's fun, doing while also chatting with my fellow ushers.. got to know a few new ppl today.. Pearlie, Enoch then also got my ex-CG members, Lingqiang and Karen.. i know i'll get to know more ppl along the way...

after that, there was one of the ICs (i later realised that she's our section IC, Sis Florence) briefed us on what we need to do.. that really helped quite a bit... after that we brought down all the bulletins... and went to do 'traffic' duty... actually that meant standing in front of the doors to stop the members from coming in before we open up the hall...

all in all, a real eye-opener into what goes on behind the scenes in a church service. i'm looking forward to my next duty.

peace out

I'm in usher!

Just got a call today... I'll be joining Usher ministry, Section 4, Team C and will start duty tomorrow! I'm sure it will be great when I start to serve in the ministry =) am sure quite excited about it =)