Saturday, September 10, 2016

Field Camp is the key milestone every Singaporean soldier will go through before passing out of BMT. I looked through my blogging draft folder and found this nearly 2 year old post sitting there, begging me to relive those wretched memories.

note: the events that occurred during this field camp don’t feel as dramatic to me anymore in hindsight after going outfield countless times, but it was memorable as the first I’ve ever experienced.

See we had this system of booking in camp every Sunday, however the ones in control of our lives decided to toy with us by ordering us to book in on a Saturday and starting the Field Camp on a Sunday. The reason given was because the FC was 6 days long, so by starting early we can book out on Friday as usual. I call bullshit on this.

Falling asleep that Saturday night proved to be a tougher task than usual; after all, everything we have trained up for will be tested here, both physically and psychologically.

Plit plat, plittery fucking plat

We woke up to the melodious tune of rain falling outside our bunks. I thought: “Great, now everything’s going to be postponed because of lightning risk”.

Haha nice try brain.

The truth hits me dead smack in the face as we hear the dreaded words, “Everything on!”. Marching 8KM into the forest with full combat gear in the rain, how bad could it get? Oh damn I jinxed it.

At the 5KM mark, we got to take a short break by putting down our field packs that felt like it has been steadily getting heavier. If not for fatigue then it has to be all the rain it has been soaking up. As I watch my buddies remove the load off their backs, a strange phenomenon happened that I have never before seen in Singapore.

Their bodies (including mine) started smoking. There was a proper, visible steam coming off our heated bodies. That should give you a pretty good idea of how much heat we were producing, as well as how cold the weather was. A short rest got us through to the destination that felt way longer than it’s supposed to, thanks to the rain that just kept falling on our helmets. “plittery fucking plat”

If god exists then he must’ve been playing us like a video game; as the moment we reached our destination, the rain magically stopped. Looking on the bright side, this has softened up the ground for our camp site so getting all the poles and pins down securely was noticeably easier. The location actually feels rather calming, with rows of big trees that seemed to provide some form of natural shelter from elements.

We then proceeded to do some soldier-y stuffs, after ensuring that we are drained, the SGTs released us to rest for the night. Night time in a forest is really dark, 伸手不见五指 kind of dark. We can rest easy knowing that the made-up horrors of our over-imaginative mind will accompany us to sleep in total darkness.

“Plittery fucking plat”

Sleep is of course conditional, if we can even get any as it started pouring in the middle of the night. Rain has this annoying ability of finding it’s way into any open space and splatter all around us. It gave me a free foot bath at 2AM that I did not request for, along with it a free industrial grade air-conditioner. I kept myself warm by hugging my wife. Remember the big trees I just mentioned? Man were they pretty standing there doing absolutely nothing.

Day eventually came, we owe that knowledge to our incredibly accurate watches that rang some time before 6am. After stumbling around to get ready for another day of exciting adventures and free showers, everyone was rounded up for some adrenaline pumping rifle PT.

The rest of the day proceeded with soldier-y stuffs of practicing movement and firing blank rounds. It was a hot, tedious day where we cultivated a very close relationship with nature, until my SGT messed up big time and made all of our days.

While my platoon was taking turns for some activity, a civilian looking car came into view and parked some distance away from us. Who the hell drives a car into a jungle?! I didn’t have to wonder for long, an old man in uniform stepped out of the car with 3 crests on his chest.

The only Colonel on this island, the highest ranked, and also the commanding officer of BMTC.

Back then we were recruits, scrubs worse than maggots; I haven’t even fully understood the ranking system yet. None of us knew what to expect from this encounter.

My SGT followed procedure and saluted the higher ranked officer. It was at this moment that everyone realized, he fucked up. He was holding a document on his right hand; because of that, he unconsciously saluted with his left hand.

“Sergeant, are you sure you are supposed to salute with this hand?” - Col

He did a quick switcheroo, but the damage was already done. We had to slap each other (not on the face) to stifle our laughter. We did not see him for about 3 hours after that, I’m sure he was just watering the plants with his tears. The other SGT told us not to broach the topic to him. Rest in peace Jordan, I will always remember your name because of that you did.

After a long day of activities, night eventually fell. We cleaned ourselves, then finally lay our backs against this plastic sheet that totally shielded us from rocks underneath. Fatigue started setting in and my eyes closed for a good night’s rest.

“Plittery fucking plat”

to be continued in part 2

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Wednesday, July 15, 2015

The 2 years is finally over. It’s interesting to look back on my posts, or the lack thereof.


I have done my duty to my country and it's time to move on to the next chapter in life. It felt surreal when I receive this file telling me that it's really over. (well, there's still reservice to come...) I didn't jump in joy and scream through the corridors like a maniac like I imagined I would.

It feels like there's a little hole in my heart, since I just lost my second home. That crappy little shit hole that I spent 17 months in, is 17 months that all of us spend trying to make the place as comfortable as possible. Hot pots, drinks, snacks, bedsheets, bolsters, personal fans. Honestly the only things we're missing are air-cons, WiFi and computers.

We've had our ups and downs; and the downs are really so shitty to the point where I will laugh at my own misfortunes. Other people will never understand the kind of things we went through, similarly I will never understand the kind of shit other NS guys go through.

This however is probably the bonding force among the males in Singapore, as almost everyone goes through this 2 years. You can go up to pretty much any guy, ask him about his experience in NS and he'll be more than happy to share with all the funny/hard shit that he has gone through.

Without going through all the little things, there are a few things that I've learned/experienced during my time in the army.


1. Sleep everywhere
Even though I was already pretty good in this area, being in the army has brought my abilities to the next level. I used to be able to sleep on my school desk, public libraries, on the bus, standing on the train or in some really awkward position; but NS really drew out my hidden potential.

I am now able to sleep instantly on any moving vehicles, or out in direct sunlight, sweating and while mosquitoes are picking me apart; out open under the moonlight without nothing but the night wind as my blanket. I’m sure many people can help testify for my ability to sleep everywhere.


2. Understand bits and pieces of Hokkien
Probably one of the more vulgar sounding dialects we have in Singapore but it is the core of what makes the SAF #UniquelySingapore. Back in the old days we would refer to them as hokkien 兵(ping), which makes up for most of the regulars/superiors that we have.

My commanding officer clearly came from that era as he gave most of his speeches in Hokkien, causing the auditorium to resonate in laughter; except for my indian friend who just laughs along with a blank look on his face.

The last memory I had was a few days before I ORD, when some officer basically shouted in my friend's face
"YOU FUCKING CB!!!"
Well, he may have kind of deserved it but still, that was a pretty depressing way to end off his national service.

3. It only works if (almost) everyone works
Well, I'm not quite sure what kind of lesson this is but it's kind of like, everyone has the same tasks. And it's expected that everyone finishes it. But there will be some motherflipping butthole who refuse to cooperate and do it; finding ways to chaogeng as much as they can.

If too many people chaogeng, everyone fails overall and goes through some kind of unreasonable punishment.

But if JUST the right amount of people chaogeng, everyone still passes through the stage, albeit putting in more effort. The frustrating thing is that the slackers actually get away with it.

Which is actually pretty similar to doing a school project. That butthole who slacks off still manages to pass on his subject, he gets his grades and pat his ass goodbye. Sure he may not have any friends but he was never the kind to mingle around anyway. It's not like we can do anything to him anyway, he would rather watch everyone sink with him than try to do something about it.

I really detest people(burdens) like these. So much pent up angst.


4. There is more to life than whatever I'm going through right now
This realization has probably saved my sanity more times than I could count. When I go through a 5D4N camp every single week for months at end, I started to lose track of my own life. I felt like camp was all I had and all there is to my life at that moment, I would worry about my duties even when I'm outside, I view booking in as going back to the "normal" life.

But it's not,
Everything is only temporary.

Sure it makes sense thinking about it but I'm sure there were many guys who sank into this kind of mentality. I am lucky that I was given many opportunities to get out of that mundane lifestyle, given the chance to look at the big picture. It made me realize that I am more than just a tiny cog in a huge machine.

Sometimes life takes a bad turn, and it stays that way for a really long time. Long enough to make me "resign to my fate". Through BMT I really understood that things will get better, it's just how long.

Like my friend always said to me,
Winter always turn to spring.


5. Idiots
Sure, I've met idiots along the journey of my life now and then; never were they all clusterfucked together in one camp. I can't count the number of idiots I've seen so far, it's not just about the stupid ones.

5.1 Stupid idiots
Stupid people who can't seem to get shit done. I can teach them how to do things and they will do it completely wrong. When questioned, apparently "I taught them that way". (thankfully the main culprit isn't in my section)

5.2 Kind idiots
Kind people who let others take advantage of them. The group of people we try to help, to tell them to grow some balls and fight for their own welfare. Sometimes I don't understand why they will just let others walk all over them.

5.3 Fucking idiots
These are the kinds whom you should never interact with, cause their idiocy is infectious. These are the kinds your mother warn you not to fight with, because they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.


6. You know who goes through shit with you, and who throws shit at you.
After going through all the outfields, I know who are the ones I want to go to war with; and who I will shoot on sight. I won't classify my experiences as particularly extreme, but it's still enough to weed out the bad.

The selfish/self-centered people are really easy to spot, not just about sharing things but it's obvious when they only care about themselves. The ones who'll probably use me as a meat shield.

The neutral parties doesn't annoy me but I get a little exasperated looking at them. It's kind of hard to explain, but they don't try to enjoy the job that they're doing. It's like they get thrown into the sea and instead of learning how to swim they just continue walking. They just do things at their own pace, but they do their job regardless so I can't complain about that.

Then there are the people who will really go in neck deep with me, who will laugh and cuss about all the shit that we went through. Friends aside, I'm glad my boss is one of these people. Fighting a war in the jungle/desert has been much easier thanks to his company/leadership, the amount of shit he goes through with us is truly commendable.


7. It pays to be smart
It sounds like I'm praising myself but hear me out. I am. Kidding.
I don't mean intellectually, but more of street smart. In the sense that you gotta know what's going on around you, gotta know how to get things done. Establish that you're the guy to go to, and your words will start to hold more value.

I'm not saying this as a way to slack off, no. In fact I usually work as hard, or harder than my peers. Though it wasn't intentional at the start, this allows me to allocate work I don't want to do, to other people.

Take for example the removal of the tank engine, the usual role I take requires me to remove 9 components, while the other side will only need to remove 4 components. I will usually take a lesser time to accomplish my task, not because I'm better but because the other role is repetitive, pain in the butt to do. However, doing this 9 components role so many times made me the most skilled in this area, you see where I'm going with this.
(p.s. sometimes I remove no components because I operate the crane. not the easiest but probably the least effort.)

Point is, you still gotta put in the hard work and understand the situation that you're in. Choosing what to do afterwards sets the difference.


8. Suck thumb
Life will throw you a lemon from time to time, most of the time you can make a lemonade out of it; but sometimes, you just gotta eat it as it is. You just gotta accept things as they are, that there is absolutely nothing you can do within your power.

Or put it this way, the consequences of dealing with the unpleasant situation is worse than going through it.

Life has already taught me this lesson time and time again, but I think the army brought it to a whole new level. What's worse than going through it, is the dread that comes before it. eg. My constant bitching about the dread I feel before any outfield.


There are so many things that happened in the span of 2 years I think it will take an extremely long post to finish writing it. These are the more outstanding ones that I can think of. I finally got around to writing this 1 month after my ORD and it definitely turned out a little different from what I expected it to be.

The past 2 years now feel like a dream to me, all the experiences/memories feels as if they weren't mine. But deep down I know they're true, all the shit that we endured really happened, and we have nothing to show for it. In retrospect everything seems fun and exciting but I remember exactly how I felt during times of despair.

I have seen so many people get injured in my line of duty yet we have no risk pay, we go out into the jungles, towing back vehicles and carry out legitimate recovery missions and yet there's no combat pay. The things we've done and yet people think that we're a slack vocation.

I have learnt so much, and even though I don't like to admit it, all these experiences probably changed me. I'm probably different from when I first entered the army, for better or worse I'm not quite sure.

If I had a choice will I do it again?
Hell no.

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Wednesday, April 22, 2015

It's done.

It's finally done.

I have finished the last high key event of my NS life. Let the gates of chaogeng open and may I siam every single possible thing from now on. The road has been long and arduous but the end is finally in sight!

As such, let me share the last glorious outfield story that I went through.

"It was good."

Yup, that pretty much sums it up. No ten paragraph long worth of whining and complaining this time round, because it was just that good. No, I'm not saying that the I enjoy the lack of sleep and the swarms of commando mosquitoes*, but this might be the best outfield we have ever been through.
(commando mosquitoes: mosquitoes that are resistant to insect repellents and stings through layers of clothing)

It didn't start off all well and swell though, we had to book in earlier on a Saturday then take a bus to Gedong camp. It wouldn't have been necessary if not for the "rally talk" that the big boss has for us. I really think that giving us more time/freedom outside is a heck lot more motivational than to summon all of us back and try to pep talk us.

Oh how glad am I that I was wrong about this.

I can't believe what I saw that day, one way or another they managed to bring siam diu to us. TO US. I don't think I can elaborate anymore than this but it seemed like the big boss didn't seem to know about how far they'll take it; and it was toned down mid-way. It was pretty amazing though, the guys who were there would know. We even had some beer.

There's a lot of little details that I left out but all in all everything turned out fine, so I'll fast forward to Monday when we finally moved out.

The weather forecast was thunderstorms for the entire week. I don't know who the weather forecaster is but he ought to get fired as it did not rain at all during the week, not just that, we were all destroyed by the searing heat of >33º celsius. However, the word thunderstorm was perhaps apt after all. The weather forecast of 34º thunderstorm held true; under the ridiculous heat there was thunder and lightning everywhere, just no rain. In hindsight I'm glad it didn't rain though.

The fight went on for 4 days. Similar to the previous outfield, other than one of our own vehicle no other vehicles from my company broke down. This is amazing on so many levels, we couldn't believe ourselves and didn't want to say anything to jinx it before it was all over. Even though it felt like forever during then, a couple of winks later it was already the last day.

Our last mission was holding the line for a set period of time, but for us it was just surviving at some remote corner. We were all facing the road where our allied forces were holding on to, if we see any enemy vehicles appearing it would've meant that we have failed the mission and that we're pretty much screwed. Around mid day, we saw an enemy vehicle sliding into view over the horizon.

Panic sets in for us as we were not sure what we're supposed to do. My job really isn't to fight off enemies and we didn't really have the equipment to "kill" them anyway. Further down we saw that our CO and RSM started their vehicles and were preparing to retreat; is this a real threat?! We have absolutely no idea but we held our ground and prepared our weapons to fire upon them, to at least scare them away even if we couldn't "kill".

Our officer was also caught off guard by the sudden turn of events and told us
"Anyone who takes down that tank gets 2 ranks promotion!"
or something along those lines. (cause technically we do outnumber them)

After a few minutes of being in high alert and waiting in anticipation, we got hit by an anti-climatic bomb. The enemy was already "dead" and merely shifted to the backline so that it won't clog up the roads. *epic face palm*

As we waited during the battle for something to happen, we were all hiding within the shady trees, away from the relentless heat. During this time, a few wild monkeys appeared and we decided to give them some food. We weren't exactly supposed to do that but since we're going to throw away our food at the end anyway, we decided to throw whatever excess we have left to them. It was incredibly amusing to watch a monkey stuff itself with luncheon meat and biscuits. They are so incredibly greedy that when they were done you could see all the food smeared across their tiny cheeks!

Slowly but surely, the battle came to an end.
And we all rejoiced.

Everyone gathered at the finish line and I finally got to see my buddies that have disappeared for the past couple of days; we shared all the interesting things that has happened as we sat in a circle around a mosquito coil; just because our mission has ended, doesn't mean that the mosquitoes' mission to make us miserable has ended. (damn you mozzies!)

The most amazing thing out of this outfield is that 2 companies has zero vehicle breakdown. I can't stress enough how improbable it is for that to happen; our bosses were naturally elated as well and told us that this is a really rare occurrence. Day turns to night and all the tanks slowly made their way back to camp and as the last vehicle pass through the gates, we can finally heave a sigh of relief. Our job is done, and for the first time, we went back along with the rest of the battalion. We didn't need to work overtime recovering all the vehicles that were left outside, everyone was back safely on time.

Even though this is supposedly the hardest outfield we'll ever have, it turned out to be the best one we've ever been through!

With the end of this outfield, it also concludes the last climax of my army life; all that's left is the conclusion and the summary which will be done within the next 49 days as of now.
49 days.
It's hard to believe that I have gone through so much in the past 22 months, so many awesome memories and so many fuck ups; so many lessons learnt.

I'll take the next 49 days to write about everything I've learnt in my service; maybe revamp this skin after such a long time as well.
p.s. I just got my laptop
p.s. I just got someone
p.s. Things seem to be falling into place. 

Labels: army, featured, historical, life, lordofgeeks

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Sunday, April 19, 2015

These posts are getting more and more sparse.

I figured it's mainly because being in Army, there's this group of people who goes through the exact same shit as me. We do the same things, we eat sleep and shit together. We cuss the fuck out of everything and it reduces the motivation for me to rant in this little corner.

UPDATE: I just finished my last ever outfield but still wasn't done with this post so this is more of a recap for me!

The outfield this time round is leap and bounds better than the previous one; even accounting for the fact that I had a flu the entire time.

Our vehicles are in pretty good condition and there wasn't much repairing needed to be done during the preparation phase so we didn't get tired out before we moved out. There are two distinct group of vehicles, I am going to refer them to group A and group B. With A being our own vehicles, the recovery/tech variants; and B being the fighting vehicles.

With our A veh being stuck the last time round, we really wanted to redeem ourselves and make sure that we don't have such a major cock-up again. 10 minutes after we left the gate, one of our A veh overheated and broke down.


I mean... There really isn't much that I can say other than push the blame away and state upfront that I am not in charge of that vehicle!

Thankfully after that we didn't have any other problems with our A vehicles. In fact even the B vehicles seem to be doing well this time round, except for one that got stuck in a ditch and we had to go and drag it out.

Honestly I can't remember much else since I didn't write anything down and outfield makes me so tired I don't have the energy to make any mental note of what was going on. But I learnt a lot from the previous one so we didn't starve this time, and I got considerably lesser mosquito bites!

With this there's only one last outfield remaining; I don't know what else to say about this because I've already gone through it by now. I only remember the incredible amount of dread because it's going to be the hardest of them all; with us being evaluated and a lot more restrictions/rules here and there.

Till the next one!

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Sunday, February 22, 2015

So... I went outfield last week; and boy that was a heck of a journey. Exercise Wallaby pales in comparison to the amount of shit we went through. It's hard to convey how hard it is because in all honesty, we did not do much work.
(correction by the time I finished writing this 3 weeks has passed since)

It all started on Day 1, when we had to set up camouflage for our tanks, and failed terribly. Poles meant to keep the net above the tanks broke in the midst of our efforts. The gods then decided to piss on us through a heavy downpour, soaking us to our bones. After thoroughly making sure that we are all wet, it stopped raining, the skies cleared up, bringing in the lovely, warm sunshine. But that lasted just long enough for our skin to become clammy, and for our uniforms to dry to the point of dampness.

Whatever we've done wrong to the heavens, it clearly decided to fuck us today of all days. Because it rained out of no where, and even harder than before. After struggling in the rain for eternity, we finally finished and took shelter. Except, there's one more vehicle that requires us to camouflage.

Night finally came, the one thing we looked forward to was fresh rations packets straight from the cookhouse in camp. Some warm food would definitely lighten the atmosphere.

But of course, for reasons known only to the devils, there wasn't enough food for all of us. 3 packets was all they could find, 3 fucking packets, for 9 people. Fortunately, we do have some food with us so the other 6 guys just had whatever we brought.

The night ended rather early and we prepared for sleep. I've said this before but I can't stress this enough, tanks are the polar opposite of the word comfort. It is pretty tough to sleep in a confined place where we can't stretch our legs fully or turn our bodies.

Morning finally came after a half-assed sleep, I had a full bladder as I woke and needed to "release the kraken", but nooooo. Of all things there was a swarm of bees above my head. And I'll admit it, I'm pretty scared of bees, not to the point where I'll run and scream; but I stay the hell out of their way!

That said, there really wasn't any way out for us. Turns out my friend behind me was having a mini panic attack as well. We tried many ways to repel them but to no avail, so we just shut ourselves in and hope that they'll just leave eventually; and they did, but that was an absolutely horrible way to start the morning.

The rest of day 2 was a waste of time as the fight began as the sun sets. We rescued some vehicles here and there, nothing really worth mentioning, until day 3.

None of us will ever forget day 3.


That's the entire reason for the title.
Firstly, our Bronco got stuck in chest high level mud. Then my vehicle attempted to rescue it. (keyword: attempted) In our efforts to pull it out, we got stuck ourselves before even reaching the correct position. I'm can't deny that it's my team's fault for being inexperienced, but honestly we have never faced a terrain like this before.

The location has tall grass all over the place, we checked the ground by jumping on it and making sure that it's hard enough for our vehicle to pass through. It wasn't exactly cold hard solid ground but it was pretty close; so we went ahead with it.

The moment the tank moved over that terrain, the tracks started sinking in way deeper than we originally expected it to. Turns out the surface was years of vegetation interweaving each other, forming some sort of a hard grass blanket over what was really underneath; sand. Just freaking loose sand. It's not that our vehicles can't go on sand, but it was almost like quicksand, and so, my vehicle got stuck as well.

We've started from ~6PM, calling help from 2 other companies' recovery team. tried everything we could've come up with. 10 hours later, we finally gave up at 4AM. We closed our eyes and tried to get some rest in our tanks within the armies of mosquitoes swarming around us.


At 6AM we got woken abruptly with someone banging hardly on our tanks.
"Take your rifles and all the important things and leave now!!"
I have absolutely no idea what the fuck was happening until we all gathered out on the road. Turns out some other unit is commencing live firing and we are in the firing zone.


I don't know what else to say about this. I also totally forgot to mention the lack of food and water because Day 3 was supposed to be the day we get our resupplies but because of our situation we were stranded some place else and they didn't even bother coming for us.

Day 4 was the day we caught up with our sleep because they just left us at some training shed with roughly 13 of us, with ~15 litres of water and 2 packet of combat rations (and some random small snacks); from 7AM till 5PM. Yup we just sat there, zoned out from our vehicles waiting for the whole exercise to end before we can move in and do our jobs.

That meant that by 5PM the entire battalion was moving back to camp while we have to get our own vehicles out, and bring back every other vehicle that broke down outside.

I know I'm complaining a lot but really, this is rather depressing.

We had to request help from our sister unit in order to get us out of the ditch. The other vehicle that was stuck in the mud had to be shovelled for 2 hours before they could find the part to hook up the winch. Thankfully the regulars were the ones showing their prowess so us NSFs just helped with the tools and what not. By the time we were done with our own vehicles and the other broken down vehicles, it was Friday 2AM.

We were all gathered and prepared to move back to camp but some guy in full gear came out of nowhere (in the forest) and told us that it's a no go for us. Apparently a different unit is starting their exercise now and they have effectively cordoned off the whole stretch of road we needed to go back. After many phone calls and wasted breath, we resigned to our fate of staying another night outfield.

Which wouldn't be that bad if not for the lack of water and food.

We gave up moving back at around 3+AM.
At 6AM a sudden heavy downpour just came all over our faces and bodies. That was one heck of a awakening call. Cutting down the drama in between where we get soaked and ran from vehicle to vehicle, I needed to tow a vehicle back to camp, which meant that I'm driving open hatch. Allowing the rain hit me everywhere it pleases.

Also, because my vehicle was stuck and all, the left track tension was loose so I couldn't go fast nor could I turn hard. Either of which will go very very wrong if I made any wrong moves.
To give you an idea of the situation in real life context:
Imagine a car with the left front and rear wheel not secured properly, you could still drive, but if you do anything stressful to the vehicle it'll come right off. And you're driving on wet mud.

The remaining admin matters were a pain in the ass but at least, after 4 days I finally got proper food in my stomach. I don't think I've starved so much before in my life, which made me realize what a privileged bitch I am.

All of these brings me to the point of my title. This was an embarrassing outfield. We were supposed to be the guys rescuing other vehicles and getting them to safety but we got stuck ourselves. I mean, I don't have the strongest sense of duty but I really have not failed so hard in life before.

Jin paiseh.

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Thursday, December 25, 2014

I officially had one of the unluckiest work week of the year. I can't believe I'm having muscle aches from work and not from some kind of exercise. As such, if the design of the blog changed the tomorrow, you would know what I've done on Christmas; else I should probably be heading out soon.

This is the season to be jolly, fa la la la la~! La la la la~! 
Disclaimer: I'm going to whine like fuck

18/12 (Thu) : Finally back for good from my long break. But because I'm currently in the active unit I could be activated any time and the tanks we're in charge of cannot be down for more than a day. Firstly, I was changing out the batteries for our own tank.

Whoever the fuck took them out the previous day didn't label the wires. Got a diagram from a dude and fixed according to it. When it came down to the last 2 wires, I realized that the diagram is fucking wrong. You think, "It's just batteries what! How hard can it be?"

Eh, fuck you understand.

There's 4 of them, each weighing up to 39kg each. We have to lift it up to a height of >2.0m, then lower it down, and slot it in within a confined space where you have to squat in a fucked up position and have to use strength. Not to mention that it's dark inside and a torchlight is mildly helpful at best. (because it was raining it is really fucking dark)

When I figured out that the diagram was wrong and was going to rectify it, got activated to help out with the vehicles that cannot be down (which will henceforth be known as FSV [fucking suay vehicle] ).

Some guys where doing servicing for the FSV and it was down to the transmission filter which is the most fucked up design you will ever meet. The person who design this should really just shoot himself in the head. It's hard to explain/describe the process but just know that you need a combination of strength, finesse, patience and endurance to replace the filter. Oh and also tolerance for pain/itch as the tiny fibre glass fragments will get embed in your skin as you rub against the exhaust pipes.

In the end, it was done after working overtime.


19/12 (Fri) : Nope. turns out that the transmission filter thing that we did yesterday leaked. Luckily, it wasn't due to me. Unfortunately, I have to fix it. I wouldn't blame anyone for it as it's really just fucking bad luck that such a thing happened. I then got briefed that it was cross threading that caused it to leak.

What's cross thread? The hole that a screw goes in has threading right? The threading in the hole got crossed, so it's fucked up and the screw can't go in fully.

Why is this a bad thing? Because the fucking transmission costs $500,000. We tried rethreading the hole which is a really high level task and no one ever did that for a transmission before. It didn't come as a surprise when we just flat out failed and gave up. Due to certain requirements, we had no choice but to swap the FSV for one of our own vehicles.

All these took an entire day so it speaks to how difficult it was. Oh yes I forgot to mention, I was down with flu, as well as yesterday.

20/12 (Sat) : Because my flu didn't get better I missed my friend's dance performance. Sigh.

21/12 (Sun) : City Harvest. I shall keep the rest of the comments to myself. Relieved stress today even though I had to go back to camp at night.

22/12 (Mon) : Had some talk in the first half of the day. The only thing I've learnt from it was,
卖靠北，靠自己
(first part in hokkien, go figure)
The next half of the day was bowling but guess what, I couldn't go for it due to guard duty. It isn't that bad, except that the system totally changed and we got blind-sided by it. Not to mention the uncountable dogs roaming our camp, barking/charging at us randomly.

23/12 (Tue) : Guard rest is until 10am. When I woke up at 940 I saw the message on my phone saying that my boss extended mine and J's rest until 12. I thought, "Fuck yes!". It's just second later that he turned my smile upside down. Apparently we have to swap engines. It's as hard as it sounds, too troublesome to elaborate any more on it.

We are swapping out the engine for the FSV as we need to put it back into service as fast as possible. So we used a working tank in our arsenal and cannibalized it. We had half a day to do the swap, which means preparing our own tank, and the FSV for the swap, removing the FSV's engine, and putting in the other engine, reconnect everything and put on the top deck.

It's doable, and we did it by 5+pm. But guess what, one of the connectors from the fuel line broke.

So... fuck it. We leave it for tomorrow.

24/12 (Wed) : Early in the morning we got scolded by the boss of my boss for leaving the FSV out of it's designated area. Like, "why didn't you finish it yesterday?". LIKE WE DIDN'T WANT TO. Son of a mother bitch only know how to cover his own backside.

Today is Christmas eve so it's half day. 

We've had until 12 to complete our task (roughly 3+ hours). Which means lifting the top deck, replacing the broken connector from the fuel supply line (something no one did before), put back the top deck, reconnect up and be done with it.

We did it by 11:10. Everyone heaved a sigh of relieve and gave a half assed cheer as we packed up the area and prepared to get the hell out of this place.

20 mins later, we got activated yet again. Apparently they closed the ramp door with human strength while the engine wasn't installed, so the cable isn't properly tensioned. I did not know about this as I wasn't there when they did it. My boss wasn't around due to his grandma's funeral, he forgot to mention it and my 2IC also forgot about it.

The moment some dude unlocked the ramp catch, the door just fucking fell to the ground, breaking the steel cable and linkages around it.

Sigh.

Fortunately nobody was near it or someone could've died. I'm not sure how heavy the ramp door is, it was attached to a hinge and it took 8 men to lift it.

The steel cable looked like it freaking exploded, the ends were frayed and it looks like fireworks. Here's the kicker though, we can't leave it alone. It must be fixed by today no matter what. So... for better or for worse, I stayed back along with 2 other guys. Let's just say that this is another task that no one had done before. I mean, we could roughly tell what steps needed to be done based on experience but no one had done it.

Hence began the overtime when we fumbled around with the mechanism figuring out how it worked, how to remove and replace it. We wasted more than an hour finding a replacement part some dude tell us we definitely had, we couldn't find it. So we resorted to cannibalizing our own working vehicle yet again.

By the time we removed both tank's ramp cable mechanism it was about 330pm.
It then rained.

We had a choice, wait, and waste time; or do it now, in the rain. We chose the latter. The rain got heavier and heavier until it became a downpour; though we tried our best to work within the tank, we still got drenched.

It was until the last part, where we had to connect the cable to the ramp door that we realized a fatal lack of foresight. We didn't have enough people. There's no way we can lift it up with just 3 people. Well, 2 because one needs to attach the cable. I had to go and ask favours from some guys doing their duty. Managed to get 3 more, turns out 5 men isn't enough. We managed to lift it with roughly 8, honestly though I didn't bother counting but, eh~

Being the man tasked with connecting the cable, I had a mini panic attack when I couldn't slot the bolt through, because everyone else is withstanding the weight of the ramp door while I fumbled around and tried hammering it in with my fist. As it turns out, my fist is not a hammer, it took me 5 seconds to realize my futile efforts and quickly grab a hammer somewhere around me and started pounding it like a mad man until it went in. And trust me, 5 seconds is a really long time when you're holding that piece of shit.

By the time I reached home, it was 730pm. Which means I missed out on the guys' meet up at 630 and honestly I was really too tired to go. 

25/12 (Thu) : Today.
All that explains my lack of enthusiasm in going out today. We'll see.


Regardless, Merry fucking Christmas guys.

Labels: army, christmas, featured, historical, life, lordofgeeks, rant

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Sunday, November 23, 2014

I have never experienced weather that is hotter than Singapore before, more than anything, this exercise has really opened my eyes to how relentless the scorching sun can be. With daily temperatures of at least >35ºC, and really cold nights. The highest temperature we were notified on was about 39ºC; we barely worked during the noon that day.

Many, many things happened during these 3 weeks. Thankfully I kept a diary to help with my failing memory.

The journey was off to a rough start, I experienced Murphy's Law first hand.
"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."
I reached the airport late thanks to my "over-concerned" mother. Missed 3 buses right from the start, then couldn't board the next 2 that came because it was too crowded. Couldn't flag any taxi down, the bus that we finally managed to get on broke down for awhile, thankfully the bus captain was able to rectify it and get it moving.

Singapore Airlines, fortunately

Last stretch

Obligatory shot of the plane

Yeah, many more panoramic shots coming up. I love the effect

Doesn't get much better than this

The flight was unusually cold. My extremities were freezing and my nose transformed into a mucus factory. Luckily the staff on-board suddenly got bitch slapped by common sense and turned the temperatures up and made the remainder of the flight much more comfortable.

Read more »

Labels: army, australia, exercise wallaby, featured, historical, kindle, life, lordofgeeks, overseas

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Saturday, July 05, 2014

Last Thursday, I was embarrassed, ashamed of myself even.

It was competition day, I was representing table tennis for my unit and the day seemed to be proceeding smoothly until my captain told me that he's going to put me in as second singles.

I was surprised to say the least as I've only prepared myself for doubles in the first place. However, our next opponent(Guards) didn't seem to pose much of a threat to us; so I thought "why the hell not, let's do this. YOLO"

Long story short, even though I was second singles, I'm playing the last match because of certain arrangements. It was also the last match of the day for us. The front 4 matches went by in the blink of an eye, and we were leading 4 - 0. Everything seemed to be set in place for us to claim the top 4 position.

Until an upset occurred at the table next to us. Transformers won against RSAF.

Because both their teams have won against Guards 5 - 0. All of a sudden, my match became de facto for us to get into top 4. If I lose my match, we will be 3rd in our group stage and be pushed to the lower brackets competing for 5th or 6th place. I thought, heck, I can still do this. The stress definitely multiplied like bunnies, but still, I believe I could kick some ass.

Well I couldn't be more wrong.

For some miraculous reason, the head of my unit, the boss of all bosses decided to grace us with his presence. Now I don't know about you, but when a colonel is watching your match with his full, undivided attention, when you're the deciding factor if his team enters the top 4 or not, my heart and mind pretty much crashed like the great depression.

To make things worse, it's not just one colonel, but two. Accompanied by a Master Warrant, and officers with plethora of lines on their chest. Oh, and the commander of OETI was there, ME6. The commander of ALTI was there too, ME7.

I'm not trying to make excuses, but I was honestly blind sided by this turn of events.

I don't remember the last time I was in such duress, when the nerves totally took over my body and senses. My hands went cold, my legs felt stiff and I'm pretty sure I had tunnel vision back then. The people supporting me tried to shake me out of it but the curse already have a firm grip of me by then. It came without surprise that I lost terribly to a guy I should be able to defeat with ease in my normal state. 

I honestly just wanted it to be over and hide in a hole somewhere.

This is a shit experience, borderline traumatic. I know it's not entirely my fault, but with the way events turned out, I just can't help but feel that way.

This was not all bad I think, as i managed to learn something new about myself; that I was vulnerable to a panic attack when something unexpectedly stressful happens. But this only happened because I wasn't prepared for it. It'll be fine, because I will definitely prepare myself for the competition next year. And yes, I am playing next year as well.

For now, the competition is over, we were placed 5th(one better than last year). It's time to leave this saga behind and get on with my mundane work again.

Till next time.

Labels: army, competition, featured, life, table tennis

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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

It looked like it was going to rain but it didn't.

This happened like 2 weeks ago on the 12th but got quite busy after the overseas trip so I really didn't have the time to edit all my photos. Hopefully I will have the time this weekend to do up my Bangkok post.

Anyway, it's my first cohesion in 19AMB and overall it was quite fun. I mean, the part where over a hundred guys gather in Sentosa half naked really isn't appealing, but once beach captain ball got under way, it was both tiring and unappealing.

That's not to say that we didn't have fun.

Hooking him in

Presenting his ass

It was a hot sunny day

Bitch I'm fabulous

You can probably guess what's going to happen next

Walking into oblivion

If the photos feel a little lacking that's because it is and most of the fun is captured in videos, which... are kind of embarrassing so I'll just save them for Facebook. (if and when it ever gets up there)

Well we jumped into the water, willingly or not, most of us ended up in the water anyway. Played around for awhile, it was fun until I remembered reading about all the micro-organisms living in seawater.

Horray for skin cancer!

All in all it was nice that we all gathered out of camp for once.

Labels: army, cohesion, life, sentosa

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Monday, May 19, 2014

Man, I have so much stuff to blog about I just can't seem to find the time for it. Let's start with 2 weeks ago, where I flew off to bangkok on Thursday and came back on Sunday.

Followed by cohesion on Monday at sentosa, one day to rest on Tuesday (Vesak Day), work on Wednesday, followed by my ATP(live firing) from Thursday to Saturday; which I didn't get marksman for and was really kicking myself for it. Reached home really late, woke up on Sunday with half the day gone and by evening I have to get back to camp again.

Which brings me to today, the start of the new week where our busy schedule is set in stone, all thanks to the 2 audits we're having next week. Its going to test the entire team to get everything done.  Fortunately, thanks to table tennis and guard duty I get to avoid quite a bit of work.

I'm just going to ramble on a bit because I don't have any (edited) pictures to post.

I'm about 1 month away from being a 1 year soldier. I can't believe that it had taken so long for one fucking year to pass. Definitely going to write a post about being in the army for a year. It would be really interesting to read back my old posts and see how I've grown as a person.

Oh I'm not sure if I've already written about this but I'm playing table tennis for CSSCOM (my mother unit); the competition isn't until July but there's a SAFSA(SAF Sports Association) opens that I'm playing in, individually. The awesome part is that they've entered me for both doubles and singles. I must say that I am actually quite excited for this as I've not played competitive in years.

But, and I hate how there's always a but; I'm paired up with a useless imbecile as my partner. Hopefully he won't read this but if you do, come on man, you really suck.

On another note, I finally managed to play a match with the YOG player and it was a rather close match. Though he probably isn't playing at his best but at least I got a feel for how a "professional" player plays. Hopefully I'll be able to win some matches at the competition and secure some off days!

Anyway I think that I've sunken into a bad habit of speaking about doing this and never getting around to doing them. The worst part is that I actually tell people about it. I'm getting quite annoyed and frustrated at myself. The mountain of to-do lists I have on my phone just keeps getting longer by the day and it seems almost impossible to clear them out.

But I'm going to try. One fucking thing at a time.

The Bangkok trip post will probably take a little longer though. I've taken over 150+ short videos and it'll take a rather long time to get them done.  Trying to relearn Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects all over again.

Sometimes people get amused/impressed by the amount of things I can do, or trying to learn to do. Sometimes I just feel like they have the wrong impression because I do so many things so half-assedly.

Meh, I have about 1 year left to put all my free time to good use.

Labels: army, life, random, rant

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Saturday, March 29, 2014

I know that I've always called Sungei Gedong Camp the anus of Singapore, but after spending a week here, it's not the shit hole I had initially expected it to be. The journey to the camp was one of the more interesting ones other than taking a ferry to Tekong.

Situated at pretty much the end of Lim Chu Kang road, the forested area of Singapore is a fresh sight compared to the sparse greenery in urban areas.



The air instantly felt fresher the moment we alighted the bus, which was excellent if not for the scent of canine faeces fighting its way up our nasal canal. All shit aside, the camp looks way more civilized than I imagined it to be. With proper buildings, roads and signs.

As far as accommodation goes, it's many times better than my own unit, if you are willing to ignore the distance, then you would probably find living here rather comfortable.

Speaking of bunks, we have gotten ourselves female bunks! Up till that moment, I had no idea that such magic existed. It's literally written on the door "Female Bunk". I mentally prepared myself for the wonders that may reside within. As the key slowly unlocked the door to heavens, we were swept by a wave of disappointment, it was simply a door to more doors. (kind of like a gate)

However, one man isn't discourged by the situation and made the best of it. As each group entered their own bunks, I turned and told J, "You know, the pillow and beds probably still smell like females." His eyes lit up and said, "Really ah! You're probably right you know."

I watch in amusement as he picked up a pillow to his face and took a deep breath; "omg it does smell a little like a female!"

The showers here are amazing; it's of appropriate size and the size water current doesn't feel like it's some child pissing on you. As I've said before, the standard of living here is definitely better than my unit's 80's built bunks.

There were quite a lot of lectures, many which were rather self-explanatory. Fast foward.

On the third day we travelled on a Bionix for the first time. As most people probably wouldn't have the priviledge of being in a tank, I shall try to sum up the experience.

It was very loud, very hot, very dusty, and kind of slow. The noise levels meant that you really have to shout loud in order for anyone to make out what you're saying. For the heat, let's just say that you will perspire travelling it. And because quite a lot of people have this misconception, no a tank does not have air-conditioning. Not unless it's an advanced troop carrier (which isn't exactly a tank)

Right after taking a ride there, we were expected to start driving already; I'm okay with that. What I'm not okay with is that we were supposed to drive through dirt roads straight away. I mean, aren't you supposed to give the newbies some huge open space to actually figure out how to work a huge machine?!

You see the thing is, I've never driven a vehicle before. Naught license. The closest thing I've gotten to is a go-kart which really isn't much as I could control it which flooring the pedal.

It then comes without surprise that my driving was utter shit on my first try. If even I could tell that it's bad, it must have been really bad. Trouble with aligning the vehicle and I had zero clue how to control the stupid accelerator and it was pretty much bouncing in rythm to the uneven ground beneath me. Sweat trickled, no, streaked down my faces as I pour all my concentration into not crashing the tank.

With that horrible ordeal in the day, one would've hope for some rest. But no! Night training ensues.With my abysmal driving in the day, I can't help but feel a little nervous driving at night; there's a real tangible danger for me.

The rest of the training involves driving, and a lot of waiting, then driving; through uneven terrains and obstacle courses. The interesting part about driving up a steep ascent is when you're at a certain distance away from the top, you wouldn't be able to see the road at all. All you see is the blue sky while stepping on the accelerator, hoping that you don't hit anything unexpected.

Without boring my future self from all the details, we move to our last day of training, a 17km drive with a few challenging parts within. 17km may seem like a relatively short distance looking from the perspective of a vehicle; but it isn't. With a max speed of 30km/h, such journey takes quite a bit effort and concentration.

Our efforts have been rewarded at the end of it.

Sensitive details oh well

Some of the interesting things I've seen in the duration includes

• Monkeys rummaging trash
• Cat killing rat and another cat tried to steal it
• A Major asking us if he could top up his vehicle first (can we say no?!)

And I know that it has been forever since I've posted anything, sometimes I'm too lazy, sometimes I'm not in the mood. The past couple weeks haven't been smoothest sailing.

The next 3 weeks I will be going on course yet again. I need to learn how to blog with my phone effectively, or it'll take forever for the next one. On a side note, I feel like redesigning the blog again. If I stop procrastinating, maybe it'll happen in the foreseeable future.

Labels: army, historical, life, lordofgeeks, tank license

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Sunday, March 02, 2014

Well, the last post was on Valentine's. It's not that there isn't anything to write about, but the stuff I want to write about, takes up the time I have for writting.  I keep saying that I want to write more, but I give up. I'll just try to do this whenever I have the time to.

For the past 2 weeks, I pretty much gorged myself with good food. But I'm not just going to let all those excess calories take up additional mass inside of me, have to at least put them to some use.

At MJC

Play some table tennis in camp and attempted to train for my pull-ups, but it turned out to be a one-time thing. Really need to put more dedication into that. Well, let's not sweat about the sweat, and move on to the food.

Domino's | Finger to show size of pizza!

Met up with the gang and we were supposed to go out and eat something better, but after we met up at C's place and played a game or two of Dota2, we thought, "Ah, screw this, let's just order pizza." Or maybe it was just a couple of us who thought that; but this is the perfect example of how lazy guys can get once they bunch up together.

10pc KFC because we indulge in fats

A bowl of cucumber to make us feel better about ourselves

Went out with Y on a Saturday where she redeemed her one set of free lunch (a 2-3month late birthday lunch). Bacon is always awesome, not as awesome when stuffed with a buttload of vegetables, but I think that I should really make a conscious effort to eat more healthily.

Toby's Estate | @ Robertson Quay

French Toast | Really sweet and awesome

Some cheese grilled burger

Cross section

Caught The Lego Movie after this!


Definitely the happiest thing that I've watched this year. Got really hooked onto Everything is Awesome. The movie is made to look like stop-motion but it isn't as much of a turn off as I thought it would be. It actually some sort of meaning to the story though I'm not quite sure what it is.

Regardless, it's a good movie and I recommend everyone to give it a shot!
Got some sushi after that at Itacho's; clearing my cravings one at a time! Met some old faces while I was shopping for some clothes (tally: 2 jeans 1 jacket). They wore a suspicious look throughout the entire conversation, and I probably wouldn't blame them for that...







Moving on, I removed my glass screen protector because it wasn't applied properly and it has this hideous bubble on the top left & right. I was curious about it's anti-shatter properties, so I went ahead to shatter it utterly.



It really held itself together really well. There are some glass dust from the shattering but it kept in one piece no matter how I tried to bend and twist it. Me likey and approve. (have swapped to a better tempered glass protector by Nilkin and it's perfect now)

Attended my childhood friend's 21st Birthday. I'm ashamed not to have gotten him anything better but... ah, it was kind of last minute. Have to make it up to him some other day. We just kind of randomly got him a bottle of Famous Amos Cookies.



There wasn't much I could say about the party as it was small and cozy. With just his close friends and relatives. I've known him for more than half my life, standing at an awesome number of 13 years.




There was one Tuesday when I went for my physiotherapy (nothing serious) and because of some rescheduled event we got the priviledge to stay out that night. I live too damn far to return home but we did grab some pizza from Pizza Hut!




Watched Pompeii after food.



And it sucked.
Really
Really
Badly
I swear this is probably the worst movie that I've ever watched. The story behind why we were watching it is because we missed the best timing for Lone Survivor so we decided to troll this friend by watching something we already knew would suck. Bad choice.

Sunrise.



Woke up to this the next day, and it was freaking amazing. Totally pumped up to go through the day, especially since it was Wednesday and it's nights out day!



Finally met up with S after what seems like forever (POP day). Had a relatively weird experience shopping for some stuffs but then the food and catching up was good! (MOF). Kind of forgot to take picture of the food because we were too busy trying to camp about 4-5months worth of events into what little time we had.

But dessert, everyone always have time for desserts.




I think I should go out and meet people more often. But my computer needs some loving too. I point my finger at the Army for taking away my computer time. If only if I have that back I would be more inclined to go out often.

Speaking of computers, I bought a couple of new stuffs from the IT fair at MBS. Firstly is a new Dell Ultrasharp 24" Monitor (U2414H), and a portable router from TP-LINK MR3020. Got a freebie from purchasing the monitor, Razer Electra Headphones. Not including any pictures now because my room is messy as hell and it wouldn't be good to show off my computing environment like this; of which I finally have a dual-monitor set-up. Something that I have dreamed of for many many years. It is still not ideal yet due to different monitor models but one day, I would make everything look all good and neat.

I kind of messed up the chronological order but the gay gang had dessert on Friday night.

Family Deal | One of everything please!

All in all, the past 2 weeks has been pretty eventful as you can see. Thanks to that, my wallet looks like it has been on a diet. Need to conserve whatever monetary resource I have until my next pay.

As I turn my attention to the future, I'm going to experience something pretty awesome soon. For the next 2 weeks, I'm going on course at the anus of Singapore (Sungei Gedong) to learn driving starting tomorrow.

Drive what you ask?
A motherfucking tank.

Well techincally speaking it isn't exactly a tank as it's meant to fight people, but it sure does look like a tank.



Packed up most of my stuffs and I'm ready to head there to experience what living in an anus feels like. Looking past all the negativity, I am stoked to get a tank driving license. I mean, how often can you say that you have a license to drive a tank?!

Well, that's most of what I wanted to say sans the nitty gritty stuffs, hopefully the next update wouldn't be 2 weeks later...

Labels: army, featured, food, life, update

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