projekt draco

Hi, I’m back. Actually I was back yesterday but I didn’t have time to jot down this entry because I had to leave home again. And when I returned, it was like 0400hr already.

My environment

First of all, I’m blessed with a company which is facing the sea because you get sea-breeze almost all of the time (Ulysses) — imagine finishing physical training with a body full of sweat, and then standing by the window waiting for the cool wind to engulf you, bringing you into a state of trance.

I also spend most of my waking idle hours by the same window with a can of drink overlooking the waves crashing onto the shore. Every low tide, a bird will camp very still on top of a signal post waiting for its meal to swim past. In fact, I spend so much time watching this bird that the whole section recognises that bird(s) and will alert me whenever it’s there. Sounds idiotic to you? Well, that’s just about as much fun as you can have when you’re having free time.

(And you can see the Changi Airport Control Tower from my window!)

My bed is number 7, again, it’s the bed by the window facing the sea. And no it’s not good because my bed is lower than the window sill so I don’t get to enjoy the breeze at night. And fuck, being bed 7 also means I’ll always be the last to get the newspaper. Yes, the last part which will always be the obituary. Without fail. So while the rest of the section read about what’s happening around the world, I spent 2 weeks reading who died daily. Then when I actually get to read the actual article, the piece would have already lost its element of surprise.

The people

For the first 2 weeks, my platoon sergents and commander are pretty cool. Though they punished us alot, it was not uncalled for — we fucked up, alot. I suspect if we just behave we would be fine for the next 11 weeks. We’ll see. Oh and they would encourage us whenever we are almost giving up on the physical exercises which helps.

My platoon mates are cool too, with a few exceptions. It will always be the same few who would repeat the same fucking mistake daily. This same dude will forget to bring his 11b for breakfast every morning. Somehow. Godlike. And like every other recruits, they are bound to meet platoon mates who can’t fucking lock their elbows when they march. God knows why.

And there’s also this dude who would fart (loudly) wherever he goes. And the system is that whenever someone breaks wind, he has to punch his fist into the air and shout “Ulysses!”. Man I tell you, he’s like punching the air 24/7. So much so we titled him the Ulysses King or the Bomberman. Kudos to his bombardment, you have no idea.

Eventful days

The days are estimated, so actual events might not happen on that day. Bah, like it matters.

Day 1

First day of independence. Couldn’t sleep at night — thought over a million of things while tossing around in bed.

Day 4

First physical training day. Ends with aching all over the body. The body that had so little energy initially now totally drained of it.

Also seen the first female human entity today in 4 days. Not pretty ones though. Sad.

Day 5

One dude out-of-course because he sprained his ankle and had to take a 12-week rest from physical activity. Life’s so fragile.

Day 6

Suffered a fall. Bleeding from the arms and right knee cap. Twisted the right ankle, fucking pain but still did the training. And there were people who saw the bleeding and had to ask if I fell or if it hurt. WTF? Do you wanna try it?

Day 7

Ankle still hurt but did not want to report to Medical Officer because I was worried I would be OOC too, like the dude in Day 5. So I applied my own oilment and massaged the ankle on my own at night.

First stand-by area inspection. So when the platoon commander was walking around testing for dust, he landed his finger on the noticeboard which no one realised needed cleaning. Then he did some funny “eee!” and tried to rub the dirt onto the platoon IC’s shirt, which made me laughed. Fuck. Then he saw my teeth and exclaimed, “Ah Sunny, laugh right? Next time you will be in-charge of the noticeboard, if I find anything.. you will know.” Alamak! Now every inspection my mates will walk past me and say “Got clean noticeboard anot?” and chuckle away. Turkeys!

Day 8

Feeling the effects of lack of sleep. Sorry 5-6 hours is not enough for me. Down with flu and minor headache.

Officially learning the army cheer songs for the first time in the training shed. Now I have my 2 favourite army cheers. Our platoon also came up with our own smoking gang cheer, which is bloody nifty. When I remember I’ll post it up.

Day 9

Revelation day.

First, it finally rained after days of false CAT1 alarm. Rain had never felt so good before because previous the weather was really hot.

Second, got to know that a platoon mate had not pass motion for 10 days already. Bliss for the first time that my bowel movements are regular. And I used to think that going to the toilet is a chore — well I was too lazy.

First visit to the e-Mart to buy some more stocks of our shirts and pants++. There was this dude who approached the counter and asked if there are sales of 3 stars badges (rank) to recruits. Fucking made the entire platoon laughed. Even the sergent laughed away when the salesgirl looked pissed off.

Day 11

Could no longer bear with the drowsiness of the flu. Had to let medical officer attend to me.

Put on Att ‘B’ — can do only light duties. No I didn’t get to rest, the management will instruct the status (Attn ‘B’ or Excused from duties) personnel to wash the toilets, dig sandbags, sweep the leaves and the likes — odd jobs. And for those who are very sick, they will do buddha claps, twinkle-twinkle-little-stars and superman exercise while seated. 300-400 sets of 4, each. Go figure. :)

Saw magnificent fireworks display in the sky over Singapore mainland at night. Beautiful albeit being a little small.

Day 12

Day 13

Did not get to do anything much since I am on status. So all I did was cleaning the toilets, filling sandbags and doing the super-buddha-star combo exercise.

Beaten 2 opponents from other platoons at chinese chess on these 2 nights. The first dude was very impressed with my style that the next morning when he knew I was on Att ‘B’, he told me to perserve and not die before he could defeat me. Lol.

Day 14

Sick, so skipped the Route March and ended up being the Road Marshaller(I have no idea how to spell it) for the march. Finally get to sit in a vehicle after marching for 14 days everywhere I go. Lol, refreshing.

And then book out!! :)

Things I’ve learnt

1. That it’s true — impossible is nothing. When I first did my long-distance run, I could not do it. But when my sir told us that it’s a mental barrier, I tried to overcome it. Throughout the runs, I kept reminding myself of all the things that I didn’t fight for and how many opportunities I’d lost as a result, and I just egged myself on. It worked like charm so far (of course it’s not overnight magic).
2. That friends are those who stay behind and help in spite of being busily involved with their own tasks. I had many problems perceiving operations so I needed help along the way and thankfully my platoon mates had been patient most of the times.
3. That it’s perfectly okay to tear when in pain or having trouble I can’t solve and admit it. I got to know that my section mates actually teared under their blankets at night when their muscles were tearing damn badly, or that they had worries regarding other stuffs. I was surprised they would admit and talk about it since I thought most guys would want to act tough and manly. Lol.
4. That it’s a very serene feeling to be looking at my mates who are doing the same workouts as I am and are struggling because of lack of energy, and then them smiling back at me, effectively letting me know that I’m not alone in this shit. That makes me want to try even harder.
5. That people brush their teeth before they eat in the morning even when they brushed their teeth the night before. WTF?
6. That when there’s a will, there’s a way. I can vouch for it. If you don’t see the way, the time is just not ripe yet.
7. That learning is never-ending, so more to come in due time. :)

Contrabands

Dang. No more MP3 players allowed in my Coy. What am I going to do when I’m bored? Sigh.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to those who messaged me on the day of enlistment to wish me luck. I was surprised Mervyn actually called me — well you can’t get more sincere than that. And thank you Cheryl-Jo for keeping your words and remembering to wish me on the day itself although you were like half an hour late. And to the one who promised doing so but didn’t in the end, good luck to you.

And also to those who called me (even to disturb) or at least bothered to entertain me when I called you, thank you. That few minutes might be nothing to you, but when I was bored, it was the world to me. :) (well most of the time I’m pretty much enjoying myself in there but still thanks).

In a nutshell

Since this is the honeymoon period for me to get used to life in army. I wouldn’t count on it as a benchmark for my life in army in future, so I’ll stop here till I get whacked more.