Another CNY comes and goes.
As usual, during every CNY, there are bound to be questions relating to girlfriends and marriage.

The most in-your-face question: 'Have you go apply for flat yet?'
To which I answered 'Must got bank wanna give loan leh'

The most tongue-in-cheek question: 'Eh, haven 请我喝茶 lei?' to which I offered a packet of 菊花茶. This was quickly followed by '我要用小茶壶倒的那种 lei'

Bo bian lor, then I brewed a small pot of tea and 靖茶 but my adorable auntie still dun give up.
'乖' she said 'Must practice more for the real one'

-_-'''

TODAY'S HOROSCOPE - (January 24, 2009)
You'll be strongly inclined to construct a wall around your love nest and to lock yourself up there with your beloved one, totally apart from the exterior world. If you think that it's the best way to protect your love, then you'll be wrong!
You'll react very well to trying situations, and you'll be really the pillar of your family circle. Be astute enough not to make your merits known by words but solely by concrete acts and a discreet comportment.

Which probably explained wat transpired recently.

SIGH... ... ...

Has it gone thru at all?

When will it be?

Will it ever be?

Time and strength, faith and patience.

Finally, the dreaded in camp is over.

Survived gruelling missions, having to walk thru forested areas in the wee hours of the night, trudging thru swamps and mud, under an additional 30kg of weight, surviving on muesli bars and water, the unit with 50% fighting strength managed to complete ATEC with a recon 2A.

And no more in camp till Oct 2010.

And I have cleared my IPPT for 2009 as well.

Good bye SAF for the next 21 months.

The army never fails to amaze me with its usual time wasting, inefficiecy and wayanging (for the gals, this means 做戏). The impressive recruitment ads are the greatest testimony of the wayang portion. Any guy who are smart enough not to have signed his life away as a regular will vouch for that.

Whenever we are in camp, time are wasted waiting for the imbeciles to slowly plan and paper play and then, we got deployed out in the fields to act out the plans they put on paper.

This year is the year for us to act out the biggest play of our in-camp cycle, Atec evaluation.
This can be considered an examination whereby the unit's fighting capabilities are assessed by making us (yes, old soldiers by now) going thru the shit that we went thru when we were 18-19 years old. And if we score Recon 1 (equivalent to Distinction in normal exams), the CO will be worshipped like a freaking war hero throughout the SAF. It doesn't matter if the CO is a regular or just a NS men like us, the vanity is the same.

For us ordinary NS men, it will be a torturous in-camp if the CO is very de siao on, like mine. So prior to this in-camp, we were recalled nth time for stupid things like overnight mobilisation on a SATURDAY and 3 fucking route marches.

Hmmm now with 50% of us being physically unfit and overweight and another 20% having medical conditions, I wouldn't be surprised if we can still get Recon 1 this year, cuz well, our CO is wayanging very well up till this point. We even got Recon 1 for Atec Phrase 1 liao lor.
So technically, any unit will be the best fighting unit if the CO can show that he has done all the planning and training to 'equip' his men in times of war.

Anyway, 5 more days to go and we shall see if my prediction is correct.

My whole point is, we are most productive during the initial 2 years of NSF where we are locked in camp with nothing else except going for training after training and mission after mission. As soon as we ORD, like it or not, we dun give a fuck about the army and war. We are more worried about ridding ourselves from debts that our good gahmen rewards us with for sacrificing 2 years of our lives, in the form of HDB loans and high COEs, ever increasing transport fares, utility rates and GST.

So pardon us, cuz to us, in-camp trainings are simply a waste of our time. We go back cuz we bo bian and not cuz we wanna prepare ourselves if ever the button is pressed. That is wat the gahmen paid you imbecile regulars for ok? Its your job cuz you are paid to do it but not us, we have our own rice bowls to look after, especially during these bad economic times. We go bak chiong for the unit, for the country. Will the unit, country chiong for us and say 'You no need pay your bills' if we got retrenced? National liability my ass.

The only positive thing out of all these stupid in-camp trainings is that we get to see our friends.

It's amazing that, as we get older, we are getting more and more musically inclined. There are only 8 words that can describe the decibal level of the snoring a platoon of exhausted soldiers can produce after completing a mission: 威震四方，如雷灌耳.

Hahaha think you peeps will not believe the number of in camps that I have to go thru for the past one year.

Am going for another freaking 13 days starting from tomorrow =(

So until then, take care peeps

Looking back 2008, there were quite a few ups and downs. Looking forward to 2009, hope all is good and well.

Work wise:
Unhappiness once in a while. As usual, there were times I felt frustrated at how certain things were handled in certain ways and how things were moved slower than how it should have been.
But all in all, things seem to be ok till now and hopefully, it continues the way it is now, if not better.

Study wise:
Bo bian, back to school again after one year's break. The next 2 years will be tough but hopefully will be able to reap the fruits of labour at the end of the 2 years.

Family wise:
Alrite lah. Mum's naggy as usual, Dad is grumpy at times, brothers squabble once in a while but other than that, all is good.

Friends wise:
There were bonds that were strengthened and there were bonds that could not withstand tests.
Redefined 'friends'.
Nice to be catching up with old friends regularly for meals and updates.

Love life wise:
Been through some serious roller coaster rides.
Redefined 'love' and I think my understanding of this word has yet reached another level =)

Hope 2008 is now a year of reflection for you peeps for which to make 2009 a better year ahead. Ditch the unhappiness, treasure those around you and cherish the happy moments.