Oh yeah, I know, you know and we all know that I have not update this blog for a week. That is due to some internet connection problems I was facing when in camp earlier this week. Anyway, I shall do a summary of what took place over the week.
Monday
Our one and only platoon sergeant was away for some marksman thingy where he would be carrying his rifle from dawn to dusk so that spells freedom for us. The whole day was filled with boring lectures conducted by DXOs (Defence Executive Officers), the non-uniformed civilian staff of Mindef. The highlight of the day happened to be at night.
I was on guard duty that night and the CDSO (the big-gest shot) happened to be quite a fussy person who nags a lot and she's is a female, a female captain to be exact. The guard commanders, BOS and DO had no idea how to handle her. She keeps complaining how messy the guard room was when she arrived and shouted from a distance at people who didn't march properly.
Ok and I cheated. I only prowled one round instead of two during my second shift from one to three in the morning. My partner and I sat outside the library for almost an hour but continued using the walkie-talkie to inform the guard comm that we have reach each station when we were just at the same spot all the while.
Tuesday
Almost a duplicate of Monday except that there wasn't any guard duty for me and I tried out an online browser-based game called Adventure Quest. As many as half of my platoon were hooked onto it. Unfortunately for me, my interest in it only lasted for less than two hours as I realized that the monsters in the game looked hideous compared to Pokemon.
Wednesday
Outing! Woohoohoo! In the morning, we attended a National Education tour about water. It's those typical boring excursions led by a boring middle-aged tour guide talking about boring stuff. First, we headed to the NEWater factory at Bedok. It was my first time visiting the site as I did not know that the factory was located there.
The speaker talked about things like microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultra-violet etc. blah blah blah. It's a miracle that I can still remember the names. The place was rather cosy to tour around and relax. There was a corner where free bottles of NEWater were given out. I was somewhat slow and failed in getting one as there were surprisingly many other kiasu people.
Next, we travelled southwards down to the city where Marina Barrage awaited us. Again, it was my first visit. How sua-ku can I be in my own country? The tour guide explained how this multi-million project works and its uses but by then, everybody was busy looking around or talking among themselves. Even sergeant also couldn't care less.
The tour guide mentioned that Marina Barrage was responsible for alleviating flooding in areas like Chinatown and Kallang but I was more concerned that it ended up destroying Orchard Road to a certain extent.
Thursday
It was our first ever and only outfield activity. So much so for the word "outfield" when the event is conducted inside camp. Unlike the other signal vocations, we info-systems operators, have the least reasons to head outdoors for training as our job scope confines us to computers and air-con rooms.
This VHF (very high frequency) exercise was just made to let us have a taste of being a signaller. We were split into eleven groups of three plus two groups of HQ and every group had a radio set with them. If you get it, you would have figured out that we had to communicate through radio waves, speaking in a military manner that requires you to use code names.
I hope that is the last time I would have to wear my helmet in NS. It disables me to thinkproperly whenever I put it on my head.
Friday
The toughest physical training to date took place. It failed to rain the entire day although dark clouds were constantly hovering above us since noon. Our hopes of having the event cancelled were dashed but the morale was still high as we were a couple of hours away from booking out of hell. Had to do two sets of circuit trainings instead of the usual one.
What's more, we had to run four rounds in camp this time! I told Ming Hui, my buddy cum the week's platoon IC, that I had to do some big business in toilet hence, escaping from the run. I stayed in the bunk while looking outside the window until the first person came back before walking downstairs and blend into the crowd of sweaty people.
No area cleaning for this week. What a huge surprise and shock for every one of us. That's the way man sergeant, this is only NS, so WSS (why so serious?)
Monday
Our one and only platoon sergeant was away for some marksman thingy where he would be carrying his rifle from dawn to dusk so that spells freedom for us. The whole day was filled with boring lectures conducted by DXOs (Defence Executive Officers), the non-uniformed civilian staff of Mindef. The highlight of the day happened to be at night.
I was on guard duty that night and the CDSO (the big-gest shot) happened to be quite a fussy person who nags a lot and she's is a female, a female captain to be exact. The guard commanders, BOS and DO had no idea how to handle her. She keeps complaining how messy the guard room was when she arrived and shouted from a distance at people who didn't march properly.
Ok and I cheated. I only prowled one round instead of two during my second shift from one to three in the morning. My partner and I sat outside the library for almost an hour but continued using the walkie-talkie to inform the guard comm that we have reach each station when we were just at the same spot all the while.
Tuesday
Almost a duplicate of Monday except that there wasn't any guard duty for me and I tried out an online browser-based game called Adventure Quest. As many as half of my platoon were hooked onto it. Unfortunately for me, my interest in it only lasted for less than two hours as I realized that the monsters in the game looked hideous compared to Pokemon.
Wednesday
Outing! Woohoohoo! In the morning, we attended a National Education tour about water. It's those typical boring excursions led by a boring middle-aged tour guide talking about boring stuff. First, we headed to the NEWater factory at Bedok. It was my first time visiting the site as I did not know that the factory was located there.
The speaker talked about things like microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultra-violet etc. blah blah blah. It's a miracle that I can still remember the names. The place was rather cosy to tour around and relax. There was a corner where free bottles of NEWater were given out. I was somewhat slow and failed in getting one as there were surprisingly many other kiasu people.
Next, we travelled southwards down to the city where Marina Barrage awaited us. Again, it was my first visit. How sua-ku can I be in my own country? The tour guide explained how this multi-million project works and its uses but by then, everybody was busy looking around or talking among themselves. Even sergeant also couldn't care less.
The tour guide mentioned that Marina Barrage was responsible for alleviating flooding in areas like Chinatown and Kallang but I was more concerned that it ended up destroying Orchard Road to a certain extent.
Thursday
It was our first ever and only outfield activity. So much so for the word "outfield" when the event is conducted inside camp. Unlike the other signal vocations, we info-systems operators, have the least reasons to head outdoors for training as our job scope confines us to computers and air-con rooms.
This VHF (very high frequency) exercise was just made to let us have a taste of being a signaller. We were split into eleven groups of three plus two groups of HQ and every group had a radio set with them. If you get it, you would have figured out that we had to communicate through radio waves, speaking in a military manner that requires you to use code names.
I hope that is the last time I would have to wear my helmet in NS. It disables me to think
Friday
The toughest physical training to date took place. It failed to rain the entire day although dark clouds were constantly hovering above us since noon. Our hopes of having the event cancelled were dashed but the morale was still high as we were a couple of hours away from booking out of hell. Had to do two sets of circuit trainings instead of the usual one.
What's more, we had to run four rounds in camp this time! I told Ming Hui, my buddy cum the week's platoon IC, that I had to do some big business in toilet hence, escaping from the run. I stayed in the bunk while looking outside the window until the first person came back before walking downstairs and blend into the crowd of sweaty people.
No area cleaning for this week. What a huge surprise and shock for every one of us. That's the way man sergeant, this is only NS, so WSS (why so serious?)
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