Tuesday, June 08, 2004
ok.. my last post was in the stone age, so this one would be long. i have been realli lazi 2 update this blog of mine. yup. basically ive been too tired to do so.
the last 10 wks in bmt was a unique experience to say the least. firing a live weapon for the first time, going outfield 4 military training, marching, pumping, water parades, and most of all, making a whole new bunch of frens. they say 'd' coy is filled with a bunch of sissies. i would be inclined to disagree. yup, i concur that we might have more 'welfare' than most other coys, but our training was in no way inferior.
the orientation phase of 2 wks came and went without much action, except to remind us recruits that we were now the lowest form of human beings on tekong. by the 3rd wk we shot our first live rnds, and i remember how afraid i was of chamber explosion, but thank God we all got through it in one piece. by wk 4 we had our field camp, a whole week of powder baths, combat rations and camo creams. i personally got ripped for bringing civilian items to field, a lesson i would do well 2 remember. after the camp, bathing and cookhouse food never tasted so good! realli.
then there was the sit-test where we were mixed together with another bunch of pple we did not know and were supposed to carry out missions together. i wasnt realli interested, but certainly some of my other team members were. they call it 'wayang', and it realli reflects badly on the person who goes all out to prove that he is a potential officer when clearly he's all talk and no action. i had decided against being a commander alreadi, so it made little difference 4 me.
after that it was again smooth sailing. the finishing touches of our basic-close-combat-training, or bcct, and doing our standard obstacle course, the soc. the bcct training was quite a joke considering how much we actually gained from the training - which was nothing. it did however had a nice climax in the basic assault course, the bac, which was quite fun, leopard crawling and all.
and of course there was the soc, which i deemed myself a failure. i did not pass it, tho i feel i could have if i wanted to. but the motivation was not there considering the fact that i did not want to be a commander. i did not complete the course until the last try, which was the first time i cleared all obstacles, and got a time of 10:55, 25 secs over the passing time. i was happy with the timing, considering i had an enormous blister on my hand which threatened to make me fail my swing-trainer and low-rope once again.
yet one of the most memorable things ive done was guard duty. i was fortunate enough to escape wkend guard duty because of my uni interview - more on that later - but still got a wkday guard duty, an excellent exchange in my opinion. i remember how i actually slept during guard duty and how we got to eat pizza during our break. bet no one has done a slacker guard duty than me! thank God for giving me a couple of nice sergeants in charge of that night's guard duty. it was realli boring and tiring at times, but fortunately it came and went without a hitch.
then of course there was the route marches, the most tiring ones being the 16km and 24km ones. actually, i do not find these distances too tiring to walk, but its just that it gets realli uncomfortable when u perspire like crazi and in the later parts ure practically soaked to the core with sweat. i got thru the 16k one without harm, but got a minor abrasion on my inner thigh for the 24k one. which was all right considering it was pop after that! anyway, the best thing ive done was to bring my receiver along for the 24k march, listening to perfect 10 top 20 while marching! haha.
passing out was great fun. i was looking forward to a break. in fact i would have taken the passing-out-parade away if i had a choice and went straight back home. but nvm, it marked a nice end to my bmt all the same.
thank God for being there for me when i felt i could not take the training anymore. and most importantly, thank God for answering my prayers, especially the ones for getting into the uni faculty i chose.
just 4 the record, i got all my top choices for each uni i applied to. it was unfortunate that the ntu one had to come so early, and i burned 100 bucks on the deposit for the course i least wanted, chem n bio eng. smu came with the double-degree later, which was a nice surprise as i never tot i had a chance. perhaps the interview went well lah. then, the one which i least expected to get was nus law. i tot my interview went rather badly as i felt my answers were not mature enough. also, the essay i wrote later had no clear stand, tho i amazed myself with writing 4-1/2 pages on a topic which had very little to talk abt. haah. a lot of 'padding'. anyway i will have to choose btwn smu and nus now, tho im more likely to go for nus law.
the initial fear that my 'pathetic' 3 As would get me nowhere are gone now. considering the no. of pple with 4 As, im realli fortunate to get all my top choices. thank God for that. now, im waiting for my nxt posting, which hopefully is a slack one. haah. and im also hoping to get a scholarship so that my parents woudnt have such a huge financial burden when i get to uni. these would be in my prayers everyday.
once again, praise the Lord for all He has done for me.