Tat's paradise =)

1st day

2010-01-04T20:17:00.001+08:00

1st day of sch. biz law was bad. i was so lost. and when my prof asked me to speak i got no points to speak. omg.. must salvage this situation next week. but she got nothing much to teach, lesson took only 1hr 30 min. left damn early..lol..

i feel so unprepared for lessons today.. =( i need to start mugging.

2010-01-04T04:26:00.001+08:00

holy................. really ill-prepared for the term.... got so much readings on vista and i didnt know..... what a bad start...... I want and will do well................... all the best to me for sem2 . =)

2010

2010-01-01T04:20:00.002+08:00

i wonder when was the last time i mentioned "time flies"

i would like to mention how time flies again today.

i remembered year2000 vividly because we entered a new millennium and i felt so lucky because a small proportion of human beings get to live through a millennium.

today marks the end of the 1st decade(2000-2009) of the 21st century. within these short 10 years lots of events happened (strait times came up with a series of articles showing the changes and major events for the LAST decade) rampant terrorism, improvement in technology, financial crises etc etc etc..

i did not do much reflections or set any resolutions this year(maybe later) and ushered in the new decade at home =)

sch opening

2009-12-30T03:58:00.003+08:00

few more days b4 sch reopen. gonna have another day of fun b4 i settle down and mentally prepare myself for sch

uni life so far is still okay for me and i enjoyed myself. i am glad i chose to study in a diff place as my friends(most are studying in the west).

i still remember vividly how depressed i was when i got "kicked out" of my ideal JC into my 2nd choice after 1st 3 months. nobody except myself knew how i felt then. i must say it had the biggest impact on my life so far.

I am someone who can do very well at a moment and fail the next moment. I used to spend alot of time on computer gaming and soccer and CCA when i was in sec sch and JC. Thus, neglecting my studies at times.

I wanna and will do well in uni! 1st sem has been great for me. i want a good future =)

pls remind me not to be complacent and work as hard for sem2.

random blogging

2009-12-14T04:59:00.002+08:00

i always have the urge to blog in the wee hours( or is it early morning?) when i will feel abit emo and when i will have random thoughts.

I love the quietness when everyone is sleeping esp from 2-7am. yes i am nocturnal.

I was tidying my table when i chanced upon all those notes written by my friends(u know those kind when every1 writes a short msg to each other?) yes i still keep them and i keep alot of things =S reading all these evoke all kinds of feelings which are very difficult to describe in words.

i feel that i have grown alot ever since jc days. i have my own opinions on issues and i do not conform with ppl. i have my own philosophy in life and i understand why certain things happen.

abrupt end to my thots..haha....
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results

2009-12-11T18:24:00.002+08:00

results are out.

i guess my results are rather good.. some really unexpected performance... some could have done better if not for project....

overall........... satisfied!

gold

2009-11-27T03:57:00.002+08:00

just read the straits times....

some1 predicted that the next financial crisis will be in 2012... hmmmmm... same sentiments.. my prediction will be in 3-5 years times. meanwhile every1 should join in the market frenzy and push stocks market up up up up...

US should do something more than just keeping interest rate low and having ballooning budget deficit......

now people are dumping the greenbacks(USD) or using them to buy gold or invest in emerging markets...

gold gold gold..... u will be the next bubble to burst =)

just some random thots at 4am.. bb

sleeep

2009-11-26T06:36:00.001+08:00

hahahahahaa... i got really weird sleeping pattern... no1 is comparable to me.... cos mine is really the opposite :S

exam

2009-11-24T03:01:00.001+08:00

!!! exam!!!

9am. all the best to me...

taking 1 paper FA this week and 2 papers next week. 3rd paper on next wed =)

and i will go to KL for some fun with smux =)

2009-11-23T17:20:00.000+08:00

hahahaha..... so many ppl dropping bids and rebidding at again just b4 8am... so funny... luckily i got back my bids... phew =)

2009-11-22T06:20:00.002+08:00

borrinnng..... sometimes i wonder what i really want to become when i graduate. yeah i am very sure i want to enter the financial sector which was why i took up acct. but i dun really want to become an accountant which was partly why i chose this "diff U" because i can take up a second major, so i can have more choices.

1.5 more weeks to break =)

Apple

2009-11-15T02:56:00.003+08:00

Apple

I am not gg to discuss about the fruit:apple, but rather the company:apple. =)

I was talking about iphone to my dad and so spoke to him about the company and why is it so successful.

I am really impressed with the business strategy of apple which is unlike others. There is a reason why apple is the most admired company and the brand will be even stronger in the future.

Have you ever seen a company which has so much bargaining power esp when they sell their iphone? (u have to sign a plan to get a phone and ppl willingly paid high price for them) Do you think companies like nokia and samsung are able to do this? Have u seen a company which believes in developing their own hardware and software?

Apple has reached the next phase of their business strategy in iphone which is to increase market shares after giving exclusivity to a telco in each country. For instance in SG, the market is already saturated because there is a limit to the number of 2year plans ppl can sign and those who really want it have already gotten it by paying a premium for the phone. What's next? Sell iphone to starhub and M1 and increase market share for iphone 3g and 3gs. Why is this a smart move? Not only is apple able to increase market shares, they are able to sell iphone 3g/3gs(totally similar designs) b4 launching the next generation of iphone in 2010, and thereby creating a new market.

Why iphone is unbeatable? Apple is able to create a single model and cause a craze in the market unlike other handset makers which produces many models. Apple has their own complementary products(software) esp the itunes. They have APPLICATIONS with "an app for everything" literally. Products in itunes are either free or paid which create another market for apple to earn money. This means that even if other handset makers are able to create better hardware, they will still lose out to apple. Congratulations to apple. You will be dominating the market 5 years down the road and goodbye to nokia.

You have already dominated the MP3 player market, then phones, then computers?

end of lesson

2009-11-14T15:25:00.002+08:00

yeah... end of lessons for year1term1... !

can't believe how we did our FA project.. only started to panic on the nite of submission and managed to send our project to our prof at the last min!! 2359hr :S lol..

3 papers coming up. FA 40%, TWC 20%, STATS 40%. taking 4.5mod this term which means by proportion i've completed 3.5mods of grading.. yeah..progressive grading.. class parts and projects.. :S

2009-11-05T20:39:00.003+08:00

yeah i dun blog often now... just here to whine.......

i just want to say about the recent bidding of courses and i dun feel very good when my friend changed bid without informing me... in the end the person got the course and i didnt get... wth.......

that's soooo unethical okay!

and to another person, please dun make empty promises so many times.......... promises have been made at least 10 times and delayed at least 10 times......... what a joke.......

although i didnt reflect my real inner thoughts and unhappiness, these events just made me feel a little... just slightly bad...

for me, i still hold on the belief that these are just passing facets of life =D bb~!

recess!

2009-10-02T03:22:00.002+08:00

recess week!

just had my stats mid term.. i am quite worried i wun do well.... =(

yeah recess week... but i will end up gg to sch more often than normal sch weeks. ohh well..

2009-09-20T00:20:00.002+08:00

suing. sg uni games

yeah it's over. took almost 12hrs to bowl 9 games total. bowled like shyt and totally disgraced myself..haha.....i am not really concerned since i am in team3 and the expectations is low. but unfortunately, my sch only claimed 1 bronze medal out of 18medals. :S we were really emo-ing and disappointed esp when the team this year seems quite strong.

yes, the lane condition increased the level of difficulty to bowl and most ppl did not get high games. however, my sch as a whole failed to perform which is really weird and disheartening. every1's morale was very low after the comp esp when we know we have to potential to do much better as could be seen during training and NUS open few weeks back.

well, wat's good is that cca commitment is over for the moment =) i still love bowling

SUniG 2009

2009-09-19T00:27:00.003+08:00

it will be competition time in a few more hours.

when i came into uni, i told myself that i will nv join bowling again cos i wanted to do something diff, fun and non-competitive.

it's more of a fate that i joined the team, when J(senior) came to approach me, i told him not to convince me becos i had made up my mind of not joining bowling. then i approached zh(jc bowling partner) to see if he's interested and finally decided to join just for a while to compete.

i dun regret my choice and am getting all excited over competition =D no doubt competition is intense, i will do my best and experience how it's like competing again. yes, i like to feeling of striking. feelings of ups and downs etc etc. all the best to us!

2009-09-05T06:10:00.002+08:00

arrghh.. i hate aw.. oh well... i dunno if i am coping well..... but i still love my sch =D

bowling

2009-08-30T20:43:00.003+08:00

yeah. nv expected myself to be competing in bowling again in uni :S

had my 1st competition after 3 years... nus open. bowled quite well i should say.. 185.5 ave for 8 games. 2 more weeks to SUniG.. singapore uni games.. i am suddenly so enthu about bowling again.. hahahahaha.... strike!

2nd week of sch

2009-08-27T02:06:00.003+08:00

2nd week of sch.. so far so good??

friday skating clinic and sat nus open(bowling).. so much things to do in sch but so limited time.... sighhh.....

freshman bash today ...

ultimately results is the most impt.....

1st day of uni life

2009-08-18T03:59:00.002+08:00

it's the start of my uni life... yeah.. the career svc talk taught me to "begin with the end in mind". yes, u have to know what u want so u will work towards your aim.

taking 4.5 mods this term and guess what my cca is... bowling (again.. duh!). but truthfully speaking, i don't feel as commited as in jc period. I feel that training is wasting my time and i would love to explore diff ccas. training is tougher now as competition is near. 3 days a week!!
for goodness sake.. and i realised i cant bowl properly.. ahhh.. i want a change!!

5 more days to party

2009-07-25T05:36:00.001+08:00

5 more days to party

in the midst of preparation.... having cip later.. oh no... zzz

ftb run 3 !!! =S

1 more week

2009-07-23T03:52:00.002+08:00

woohoo.. i just got my lappy.. yay..! and i am using it right now.. drove to henderson industrial park to get it cos i need it for my bday celebration.

hmmm... 1 more week to my party... haha.. and i am gg to place order for catering and bday cake soon. like today? hopefully..... got 40 confirm guests which is not bad =) excluding relatives..... and lots of ppl who maybe coming. of cos i expect ppl to fly kite and some classified under maybes to attend.

actually i dun really like the idea of having a party.. it's just quite weird for me.. ppl coming to celebrate MY bday..wow.. i am just a ave guy on the street.. not some celebrity or some high profile guy...

but something interesting i realised... like wat my dad said (which is true).. no matter how busy a person is.. if he/she is my close friend.. he/she will try to attend no matter wat...

and i am realllllly glad becos i have a few of such friends.... my colleagues who changed their working shift just to come for this.... and 2 person who offered to help out with my party even without me asking...

of cos on the other end.. some ppl nv reply despite reminder... oh well...

end of emo talk.. time to sleep.. hah....

lasik

2009-07-20T19:31:00.001+08:00

2 weeks on... the doctor said i have 6/6 vision.. but i still feel my vision not so clear yet... well.. at least i am relieved =)

smu?

2009-07-17T02:07:00.003+08:00

smu?

it has been weeks since i last blogged. blame it on my pure laziness.

something interesting i found out about my blogging habits... 80% of my entries were posted b/w 12am and 5pm... haha... seems that i got really bored at this period...

just some quick update =)

as of end june, i had FinallY!!! ended my 2.5 months torture doing customer service. y so torturous? because i faced unreasonable customers everyday and had to argue everyday! coupled with looong working hours.. awww..

july is the period for school camps.... unfortuantely, i did lasik recently and had to forgo smux camp =( =( as of now, i had attended 2 camps.. one for cip and one for my faculty.. the last one would be FTB run 3.

WWDC

2009-06-09T00:33:00.002+08:00

WWDC 09

Though i am not apple's fan, i am getting excited about the wwdc coming upp soon... new iphone??

marathon...

2009-06-06T01:06:00.005+08:00

My 1st full marathon

marathon timing... went to sundown website to check my timing as well as my position... lol.... 6hr plus of pain... really thot i could not make it even during halfway through.. lack of sleep plus worked for the whole day b4 the run...

https://register.hivelocity.com.sg/results/index.php?pg=42&div=115&tg=0&sort=0&ord=1

Gun Time: 6:22:40.26
0-10km: 1:08:08.34
10-20km: 1:33:48.03
20-30km: 1:32:47.64
30-42km: 2:07:56.25

rank 2060/3827 not bad considering it is my 1st time =) plus no training at all.. haha...

My first Marathon

2009-06-02T00:51:00.002+08:00

My first Marathon

YEAH! I successfully completed Adidas Sundown Marathon 2009 42km =)

I worked on sat(i hate it!!) and went straight to Changi village to start my first ever marathon at midnite. I thot completing marathon was not that difficult but i was totally wrong! Halfway through I was having problem walking already.. with all my muscles tensed up and had occasional cramps. Furthermore, I lacked sleep and was like a zombie for part of the marathon. It was definitely not easy and i really respect ppl who managed to complete the ultra-marathon. Long distance running truly test the limit of the human body and mind.

=) another lifetime goal completed!!

customer service

2009-05-30T00:57:00.003+08:00

i saw an article on customer service and decided to blog down my thoughts. before i got a job as cso, i always told my parents that "customer is always right". no matter how nasty and unreasonable they are, we need to please them and retain them as customers. however, after my short working experience, i realised customers may not always be right. just to briefly share wat happened today, my 1st customer of the day commented my service is ****edup and left immediately, and he actually came back in the evening and paid for the phone... lol!(luckily my colleague served him) how i wish i could tell him "dun let me see u here again". but well.... we were told to 'listen' to customers' complain and scoldings and let them vent their frustrations on us... wow.. wat a noble job ;) the following is an article i chanced upon on the net. enjoy!

When the customer isn’t right - for your business

One woman who frequently flew on Southwest, was constantly disappointed with every aspect of the company’s operation. In fact, she became known as the “Pen Pal” because after every flight she wrote in with a complaint.

She didn’t like the fact that the company didn’t assign seats; she didn’t like the absence of a first-class section; she didn’t like not having a meal in flight; she didn’t like Southwest’s boarding procedure; she didn’t like the flight attendants’ sporty uniforms and the casual atmosphere.

Her last letter, reciting a litany of complaints, momentarily stumped Southwest’s customer relations people. They bumped it up to Herb’s [Kelleher, CEO of Southwest] desk, with a note: ‘This one’s yours.’

In sixty seconds, Kelleher wrote back and said, ‘Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb.’”

The phrase “The customer is always right” was originally coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge’s department store in London in 1909, and is typically used by businesses to:

1. Convince customers that they will get good service at this company
2. Convince employees to give customers good service

Fortunately more and more businesses are abandoning this maxim - ironically because it leads to bad customer service.

Here are the top five reasons why “The customer is always right” is wrong.

1: It makes employees unhappy

Gordon Bethune is a brash Texan (as is Herb Kelleher, coincidentally) who is best known for turning Continental Airlines around “From Worst to First,” a story told in his book of the same title from 1998. He wanted to make sure that both customers and employees liked the way Continental treated them, so he made it very clear that the maxim “the customer is always right” didn’t hold sway at Continental.

In conflicts between employees and unruly customers he would consistently side with his people. Here’s how he puts it:

When we run into customers that we can’t reel back in, our loyalty is with our employees. They have to put up with this stuff every day. Just because you buy a ticket does not give you the right to abuse our employees . . .

We run more than 3 million people through our books every month. One or two of those people are going to be unreasonable, demanding jerks. When it’s a choice between supporting your employees, who work with you every day and make your product what it is, or some irate jerk who demands a free ticket to Paris because you ran out of peanuts, whose side are you going to be on?

You can’t treat your employees like serfs. You have to value them . . . If they think that you won’t support them when a customer is out of line, even the smallest problem can cause resentment.

So Bethune trusts his people over unreasonable customers. What I like about this attitude is that it balances employees and customers, where the “always right” maxim squarely favors the customer - which is not a good idea, because, as Bethune says, it causes resentment among employees.

Of course there are plenty of examples of bad employees giving lousy customer service. But trying to solve this by declaring the customer “always right” is counter-productive.

2: It gives abrasive customers an unfair advantage

Using the slogan “The customer is always right” abusive customers can demand just about anything - they’re right by definition, aren’t they? This makes the employees’ job that much harder, when trying to rein them in.

Also, it means that abusive people get better treatment and conditions than nice people. That always seemed wrong to me, and it makes much more sense to be nice to the nice customers to keep them coming back.

3: Some customers are bad for business

Most businesses think that “the more customers the better”. But some customers are quite simply bad for business.

Danish IT service provider ServiceGruppen proudly tell this story:

One of our service technicians arrived at a customer’s site for a maintenance task, and to his great shock was treated very rudely by the customer.

When he’d finished the task and returned to the office, he told management about his experience. They promptly cancelled the customer’s contract.

Just like Kelleher dismissed the irate lady who kept complaining (but somehow also kept flying on Southwest), ServiceGruppen fired a bad customer. Note that it was not even a matter of a financial calculation - not a question of whether either company would make or lose money on that customer in the long run. It was a simple matter of respect and dignity and of treating their employees right.

4: It results in worse customer service

Rosenbluth International, a corporate travel agency, took it even further. CEO Hal Rosenbluth wrote an excellent book about their approach called "Put The Customer Second - Put your people first and watch’em kick butt".

Rosenbluth argues that when you put the employees first, they put the customers first. Put employees first, and they will be happy at work. Employees who are happy at work give better customer service because:

* They care more about other people, including customers
* They have more energy
* They are happy, meaning they are more fun to talk to and interact with
* They are more motivated

On the other hand, when the company and management consistently side with customers instead of with employees, it sends a clear message that:

* Employees are not valued
* That treating employees fairly is not important
* That employees have no right to respect from customers
* That employees have to put up with everything from customers

When this attitude prevails, employees stop caring about service. At that point, real good service is almost impossible - the best customers can hope for is fake good service. You know the kind I mean: co(u)rteous on the surface only.

5: Some customers are just plain wrong

Herb Kelleher agrees, as this passage From Nuts! the excellent book about Southwest Airlines shows:

Herb Kelleher [...] makes it clear that his employees come first — even if it means dismissing customers. But aren’t customers always right? “No, they are not,” Kelleher snaps. “And I think that’s one of the biggest betrayals of employees a boss can possibly commit. The customer is sometimes wrong. We don’t carry those sorts of customers. We write to them and say, ‘Fly somebody else. Don’t abuse our people.’”

If you still think that the customer is always right, read this story from Bethune’s book “From Worst to First”:

A Continental flight attendant once was offended by a passenger’s child wearing a hat with Nazi and KKK emblems on it. It was pretty offensive stuff, so the attendant went to the kid’s father and asked him to put away the hat. “No,” the guy said. “My kid can wear what he wants, and I don’t care who likes it.”

The flight attendant went into the cockpit and got the first officer, who explained to the passenger the FAA regulation that makes it a crime to interfere with the duties of a crew member. The hat was causing other passengers and the crew discomfort, and that interfered with the flight attendant’s duties. The guy better put away the hat.

He did, but he didn’t like it. He wrote many nasty letters. We made every effort to explain our policy and the federal air regulations, but he wasn’t hearing it. He even showed up in our executive suite to discuss the matter with me. I let him sit out there. I didn’t want to see him and I didn’t want to listen to him. He bought a ticket on our airplane, and that means we’ll take him where he wants to go. But if he’s going to be rude and offensive, he’s welcome to fly another airline.

The fact is that some customers are just plain wrong, that businesses are better of without them, and that managers siding with unreasonable customers over employees is a very bad idea, that results in worse customer service.

So put your people first. And watch them put the customers first.

1 month of working

2009-05-22T01:37:00.002+08:00

1 month of working

It has been a month since i worked. I find that I dun really have much time to do other things as work takes up much of my time =( Hopefully i can terminate my contract earlier.

Work has been fulfilling and challenging so far. Meeting all sorts customers make me understand the true colours of human behaviour. Having argument is part and parcel of customer service. Only after working in customer service line that i realised customer is NOT always right.

The pay is better than admin job but not that fantastic after all, because any small mistake that we make will require us to pay. Worse of all, we have to listen to customers' nagging and shouting.

However, i am lucky to be able to gain valuable experience esp on how to deal with people.

3days of work

2009-04-26T19:42:00.002+08:00

just completed my 3 days of work from thurs to sat.. i enjoyed my work despite the long working hours.. which caused me to have headache every night... perhaps i've been slacking for too long.

It is my 1st time doing customer service and i feel i can learn much more as compared to admin work. I've met customers who are really fussy(even when i exchanged the faulty phone for a new 1), unreasonable(demanded a new phone because of 'short' batt life when she managed to use it for 1 full day!)..... there's this guy who is really unlucky, he put on screen protector for $50+ on the new exchanged phone and returned because the new phone has problem... .. =S

a new JOB !

2009-04-24T00:11:00.002+08:00

yeah... found a new job ...finally. the job post is customer service officer for a particular pda phone (shall not say anything in case i breach the contract). quite fun but working hours is loooong..!

update for the week

2009-03-28T02:09:00.002+08:00

update for the week

went to zirca on wed...quite good imo... though no crowd at all.

gg for a work for 1day (finally) tmr outside heeren.

tmr will be flying to jap. so if anybody wants anything inform me now. =)

passport/smu card

2009-02-28T03:48:00.002+08:00

went to collect my passport this morning, waited for 45min although it was off-peak period. just realised that new passport only has a validity of 5years (no extension) and i have been using my old 1 for the past 10years. seems like making passport is a lucrative revenue for the govt. $70 for online.

after collection of passport, i went down to smu to collect my student card(looks good). should i do the special term?? =S

slumdog millionaire

2009-02-25T05:16:00.002+08:00

Have u watched it yet? Definitely one of the better movies I've watched. Btw slumdog millionaire won 8 out of 10 nominations in the Oscars Award.

Perhaps y ppl like this movie so much is becos the lifestyle and living condition portrayed is a huge contrast to theirs. But let's take a step further and reflect.

I've personally been to india so i can understand more. Beggers are ubiquitous even in mumbai(the more developed city), so u can understand the condition there. I remember everytime after training when the convoy leaves, children would just swarm the area in search of anything we left.

We should be fortunate to live in a place where everything is well taken care of. There is no need to worry about having a roof over our head, to pursue the education we want and to fill our stomach with food.

bored...

2009-02-23T04:41:00.002+08:00

sat was jx's bday.. so we went to this cosy place in haji lane near bugis to celebrate. then we went to a pub to drink beer and cab down to clarke quay to club (rebel boutique club). i seriously need a job...

UNI!

2009-02-19T06:23:00.003+08:00

guess what... i matriculated into SMU yesterday after much consideration. dun think i will want to change school already cos i paid the $200 fee!

btw my reserved place was Biz Ad all the while until i emailed the admissions to request them to change my course to accounting recently.

1 more month to ORD

2009-01-11T22:28:00.000+08:00

guess wat! 1 more month to ORD!!!! wheeehoooo!

Happy 2009~!~!~!

2009-01-03T04:39:00.004+08:00

HAPpy New YEar!~!~! how did u spend yr NYE? For me, I went to Siloso Beach Countdown Party with 5 other friends to celebrate! Well, i've always wanted to experience a beach party and glad that my 1st experience was a memorable 1. chatting while drinking beer, counting down with a large crowd (including lots of foreign workers... eeekkk), foam party etc etc...

btw, i've just updated the playlist with 25 of my fav 2008 tracks =)

meet up with sispec section mates!

2008-12-30T02:26:00.002+08:00

met up with my sispec section mates on sunday at vivo. we had lunch then movie then shopping then dinner....

we watched "yes man!" it's a hilarious movie, imagine saying yes to everything in real life =S maybe sometime in the future someone will come out with a motivational self-help seminar on saying 'yes!' every time.

christmas

2008-12-28T05:05:00.002+08:00

some update.

played mahjong on christmas day with sam, yh, and jx at yh's house. we played 3 rounds from afternoon to midnite. haha

on boxing day, i went to kallang to play soccer(really far from my house). anyway, the place is called "the cage" and basically it is an indoor soccer pitch with artificial grass. It seems easy and tireless to play in the cage which is of the size of a normal street soccer court, but in fact it was rather physically demanding because the ball wouldnt go out of play. Sadly, my old pair of soccer boots was so badly worn out that the right side spoilt while i was playing. Overall, it was a memorable and unique experience.

today i will be meeting my sispec friends at vivo. it has been more than a year since we pop-ed and this is the first gathering we r having. really miss life as a trainee =( less stress less politics less problems less saikang.....................

ip man

2008-12-23T01:47:00.002+08:00

watched ip man today. This movie depicts the life story IP MAN, the grand master of the Wing Chun style of kungfu and master of legendary kungfu superstar bruce lee. Other than fighting actions(wushu style), there are also subtle moments of humour. i'll give a 3.5/5 rating =)

any1 wants to go to siloso beach party this new year eve?? currently there is a small crowd of 6 guys... feel free to join =)

05s13 outing

2008-12-20T23:52:00.002+08:00

heyo... went out with army friends for lan gaming at paradiz last night from 8plus to around 2plus in the morning. we played call of duty 4 and DOTA.

This morning i went to PS to catch BOLT with jx,ch and sam b4 having class dim sum at crystal jade in taka. I must say BOLT is the nicest cartoon movie i've ever watched. quite touching towards the end, very well executed.

lost of wisdom

2008-12-18T20:35:00.000+08:00

went to remove my wisdom tooth this morning. it was quite scary initially... hah....

update for the week! combat shoot

2008-12-14T02:33:00.000+08:00

hello fellow reader, some update for the week.

the whole battalion went for combat shoot AGAIN this week so as to improve the scores for BUC. Well, it's quite heartening to know that this is the last range i am gg although i find it quite redundant to fire again. No one got marksman again.. not easy at all since it is team effort and the target boards always got problems.

Talking about live range, let me list the weapons i used since i was enlisted.... AR15/M16, SAR21, M203, GPMG, SAW, tripflare, matador, hand grenade (BMT), P226 revolver (due to MSK!) and not forgetting FH88!! I like P226 the best ...haha. I still vividly remember carrying the gun at east coast for duty.

Oh well, less than 2 months to ORD!! I really missed my PINK IC... I will jump for joy when i get it back in FEB. =)

Reborn of my blog

2008-12-08T02:24:00.000+08:00

Hello!! Anyone still coming to this stagnant or should i say dormant blog???

Yup.. i have given it a NEW look plus i managed to fully update unlike the previous skin which was less than halfway done. (took around 3 hrs) I really love this skin esp the music player =) added some christmas songs =)

2.5 months since my last post, i must say i lost interest in blogging (the real reason is my laziness >.< )

Hope to see ppl coming to my blog once again~!~!

acct

2008-09-21T03:46:00.000+08:00

acct

a quick update

i had completed advanced close combat training which required alot of reverse throws (yes i hate it) after less than a week of trainings. no more CCT!

gg outfield from sunday to tuesday... arrgghh... zzzzz.. hope all these painful days will be over soon.=)

army

2008-09-09T21:28:00.000+08:00

army

life has been stressful and hectic as usual. i dunno if it's just my unit or just my battery, we seem to have alot of workload. the moment we wake up in the morning, we only get to rest at nite. furthermore, we get alot of duties too... ds, guard, cos, sentry ...

just did guard last friday and cos yesterday and the next duty will be on saturday (standby sentry duty). i wonder if anybody has a suckier life in army than me.. for those who dun.. u r lucky.

today we had our stand-up parade again, meaning that for the next one month, when button is pressed(activated), we will move out to deploy.

on a brighter note, it's 5months 2days to ord!

outfield

2008-09-07T21:47:00.001+08:00

outfield

This week was quite a tough week for me. Tuesday to Thursday was outfield... i hate outfield! And we were made to camo our faces. Friday was guard duty. Wat a short weekend again... haizz.. spent most of my time sleeping.

6 more months

2008-08-11T22:42:00.000+08:00

6 more months

Yes.... 11 Feb.. the day i ord... 6 more months! thinking of having to go to india makes me feels sick.

i have not been blogging often.. not sure whether i am too lazy or not enough time.

but i hope from now on i will at least post once per week. =)

last few days of teenage life

2008-07-28T22:19:00.000+08:00

last few days of teenage life
so fast so fast..... friday bday .. but thurs having COS duty till friday morning... well.. too bad for me... becos life in green is like that..

update

2008-07-20T21:14:00.000+08:00

update
havent been blogging for 3 weeks. every week is still the mundane lifestyle. just did 8days of duty by the beach carrying a revolver 'hoping' that msk will appear. outfield exercises coming very soon and it will continue for months. *sob*

12 more days to end of teenage life.

duty

2008-07-06T21:46:00.000+08:00

duty
Yet another week has past. This week i will be having duty for 1 week straight, which means i will only get to book out next tues. 219 more days to ORD =D

Euro Cup Finals

2008-06-30T22:45:00.000+08:00

Euro Cup Finals
Congrats SPAIN for winning the Euro Cup. Luckily i was able to catch the match even though i was on sentry duty. My unit did a screening of the match in the cookhouse.

I remembered clearly the previous euro cup was 4 years ago while i was in sec4. Well, time flies! But not when i am serving the army =( 7.5 months more to ORD. It's still a long long way.. all the outfield exercises havent even started yet and i will most likely have to go to india for final evaluation exercise. =(((((((((

well, gonna book in now.

soccer

2008-06-23T05:25:00.000+08:00

soccer

the match b/w spain and italy just ended after extra time and penalty shootout. cant believe i stayed up so late and i didnt expect it to drag till so long. nitez

army life

2008-06-10T21:26:00.000+08:00

army life

i have lots to say about what i am experiencing in my unit and more specifically my battery. but then again, internet is not a place to voice out army related stuff.

life is stressful and miserable esp for most of the 3rd sgts. we have the most duties, do the most work eg stores, handle men who have disciplinary problems/ create troubles, bear with the higher management etc etc.

anyway while doing cos duty on friday, one minor mistake caused me to sign 3 extra cos and i have to serve immediately(means doing duties from friday morning to monday morning non-stop). i also got lectured by my commander in an insulting manner.

This is certainly not the kind of life i want for the next 8 months. =(

random

2008-05-26T22:10:00.000+08:00

random

gg to book in again after off on friday and today. time flies when i am at home. having guard duty this sunday.

This blog is 2 years old

2008-05-15T17:18:00.000+08:00

This blog is 2 years old

I was browsing thru' my blog just now as a normal rountine and decided to check out how long this blog has started. To my surprise, my 1st post was on 15/05/06 and it was pure coincidence as i nv bother to look at how old this blog is. The avg no. of posts so far is 1.8posts per week and i believe the frequency at which i update is decreasing.

Countdown

2008-05-12T09:24:00.000+08:00

Countdown

9 more months

for those ppl who are wondering wat i was doing for the past 2 weeks, i can only say i was having night duty. too bad the internet is somewhat controlled and restricts what i can say over here.

i am not sure if every1 seen sunrise b4, but i saw sunrise several times in thailand and while doing duty. sadly, i wasnt able to fully appreciate as i was either too busy or too tired. i've stayed overnite at beaches not with friends but with army personnels looking at our surroundings.

anyway, i've got my class 3C licence a week ago at 2nd attempt. i was shocked when i got the same tester(what's the probability man~). i must say the test route is easier than the previous one.

the only constant is change

2008-04-20T21:25:00.000+08:00

the only constant is..?

CHANGE!

this is especially thru when applied to my unit.. or more specifically my battery. we were supposed to go for pistol training on monday when suddenly we got upgraded from 4NTM to 2NTM. this means that we cannot leave the camp at all! during 4NTM, we book out with a pager.

so what we did was conduct inspection on stores/ fieldpack again to make sure everything goes on smooothly if we got activated to deploy guns outfield. (anyway this is to test the operationally readiness of my battery)

on tuesday, nobody knows whether we will successfully hand over the standby to another battery and thus do ops(which is to prevent MSK from escaping). unfortunately, while handing over, we got activated and moved outfield for a few days. arghh.. hate outfield but i just have to live with it.

anyway, in this unit, whenever things are planned, there is bound to be major changes. being in this place trains me to be physically and mentally strong.. you may think that it's good but everyone is suffering.. oh well.... the worst has yet to come.

10 more months

2008-04-13T01:49:00.000+08:00

10 more months
1 year in army already... another 10months to go~!

we'll be activated to do ops again but this time we're more prepared to do so. we went thru' course and will be having pistol shoot on monday. on friday, all the commanders went to recce the diff. locations where we'll be situated. i must say that life is unfair cos some places r like rubbush dump while some r much better.

i will be having duty today(not ops) but sentry duty. hmmm.. weekend burnt again. .. haisss... expecting more shit to come... bb~!

army

2008-03-30T21:12:00.000+08:00

life is boring .. as usual...

preparation for standby

2008-03-16T21:56:00.000+08:00

preparation for standby

we had intermediate close combat training ICCT last week. it was not easy at all with all the different break falls. I ended up with aches all over my body esp on the neck.

anyway, I'll be having standby soon, which means that i'll get activated anytime thru pager which will be issued. this is life in an operational unit

11 more months

2008-03-11T20:35:00.000+08:00

11 more months..

today is a significant day because 11 months from now i will get back my pink ic. this also means that i had spent 11 months in the army. i had gone thru' 9weeks of basic military training, 10 weeks of basic section leader course, 13weeks of artillery specialists' course and the rest in 23rd singapore artillery. life has been rather hectic being in an operational unit.

cant wait for life after ns where i can have more freedom =)

life

2008-03-07T20:59:00.000+08:00

life

11 more months of hell to go thru'

i am in a place full of unreasonable ppl

i am in a place where work is nv ending

i am in a place where weekend gets burnt and nv paid back

i am in a place where we rarely get to book out

oh well... this is wat i will go thru' till i ord.

the past week

2008-03-03T09:37:00.000+08:00

the past week

i am finally allowed to go home last nite. It was not an easy week. I have to do duties in shift. Well... i have lots of things to say but not on blog though. Okay bb....

camp life

2008-02-24T22:15:00.000+08:00

camp life

i had a busy week in camp. i was the DS for monday and we went for IMT(simulated firing range) at nee soon. tuesday was preparation for live firing. wendesday was live firing and i got my marksman which include badge and $200. thursday was some arty 120th event. friday was gunner's ball at OCC.

this coming week will be busy too.

back

2008-02-17T19:57:00.000+08:00

back

hello.. i am back from my trip 3 days back on vday and i took mc because i wasn't feeling too well.

i've got lots of photos to share but it will take me hours to upload.

it's time to adjust myself back to camp. i haven't return to camp for close to a month already.

well, i have to book in tonite... will be the duty sgt tmr and will be having guard duty on SAT~! =(

on a lighter note, it's less than a year to ORD. =)

Happy CNY~!

2008-02-07T13:33:00.000+08:00

Happy CNY~!
hello all... it has been a long time since i last blogged. wishing every1 a happy CNY~!

i just returned from thailand few days back, it was a bitter sweet experience. shall elaborate next time. perhaps when i return from my china/thailand trip starting tmr for 1 week.

tt's all and good bye~!

Off to Thailand

2008-01-19T11:57:00.000+08:00

Off to Thailand
yup.. leaving for Thailand tonight by SQ8999 and will be returning by SQ8998 on 4th Feb 0225hrs.

i will miss my bro's 21st bday celebration at home on 2nd Feb instead of 7th Feb(coincide with CNY)

i am not exactly happy gg cos firstly i am forced to, secondly i am not gg there for tour. oh well =S

i will be the detachment commander of alpha battery gun4. but then it's not easy to be a DC as i am responsible for everything. if i commit any major error while doing live firing, then GG. whenever i say "gun no. 4 fire", a 43kg round will fly off to many KMs away.

good bye and contact me thru' email. will bring my phone over but most prob getting a sim card there.

Haircut

2008-01-10T22:12:00.000+08:00

Haircut

It was announced in the morning that everyone in the whole batallion has to cut hair. So everyone cut their hair regardless of what rank they are. The standard is 1-4. It's very close to botak... haha... cant imagine i have to cut this kind of hairstyle ever again. oh well..

Most of the people in the battalion will be leaving for New Zealand for Exercise Thunder Warrior on this Sat. I will be leaving for Thailand next Sat.

13months 1day to ORD. cheers~!

Updates for Jan/Feb

2008-01-08T20:37:00.000+08:00

Updates for Jan/Feb

I guess 2008 will be a really boring year for me since it will be a full NS year. NS really changed me a lot in the way i deal with people of different characters, in the way i do things, learnt how to push responsibilities around (haha..), learnt how to act blur, learnt how to do things w/o getting caught, learnt how not to act smart... etc. However, do not ever think that my morals have deteriorated, this is exactly how people survive in the army and will be applicable even in the future. Of course, when work has to be done, I will give my best. Anyway, the priority now is for me to communicate well with the gunners so that they will work for all the specialists.

Yesterday, 23SA had officially shifted to the new building(beside the current one). Thus, everything is new including toliet, bed, pillow... Unfortunately, my bunk is packed with 13 specs instead of 10 and i did not get to choose my bed because i was the COS yesterday.

Let me cut things short and update on what's going to happen in Jan/Feb.

10Jan- Pay Day~!~!

19Jan-4thFeb-- Exercise BattleKing in Thailand

4thFeb-5thFeb--Off

6thFeb-- Off/Leave (cant remember)

7thFeb-- CNY

8thFeb-14thFeb-- Overseas Leave(China then Thailand, in the process of applying)

I will share my NS overseas exercise and family overseas trip. So watch for updates. =D

Bad Week

2008-01-06T23:01:00.000+08:00

Bad Week

This week is really bad... didnt get to nites off and the whole battalion got confined until saturday 3.45pm without having lunch just because of a lost magazine(for putting bullets).

This coming week will be worse.. i have duty on saturday..... okay.. gotta book in now.. ~!

Goodbye 2007 and Hello 2008

2008-01-01T21:47:00.000+08:00

Goodbye 2007 and Hello 2008

i've been rather inactive in blogging these few weeks. in fact, the previous time i blogged was 13/12/07. tonite, i decided to post a short entry to welcome the arrival of 2008.

In 2007, most of my time was spent on army. Another large portion was spent at home. The lifestyle i am leading now is really different from the previous 12 years of schooling. I've got no time to say the difference because i need to book in soon. Perhaps i will have a longer post another time this week.

In 2008, it will be a full year of ns. Perhaps the 1st big event this year will be gg to thailand this month for exercise battleking with the officer cadets as their detachment commander.

Happy New Year to all (esp those who still visit my blog, time to book in, bb~!)

4 days of leave almost gone...

2007-12-13T19:41:00.000+08:00

4 days of leave almost gone...

had leave from monday till today.. the leave was chosen by the cheif clerk.. so we have no say on when to take the leave.. oh well..

another 2 days of leave was given to us on 21st and 24th.. this means that i will have another loooong weekend from 20th(Hari Raya Haji) to 25th(Christmas). Then 29th (Sat) i will be doing guard duty as guard 3IC

i will have to book in tonite and return home again tmr evening to enjoy my weekend.. wooohoo..

ASC Week 13

2007-12-11T00:43:00.000+08:00

ASC Week 13

1st Dec 2007- the day i pass out from this course

whole battery

with some friends

buddy

gun and me

this is the gun we trained for 13 weeks

The end of training marks the start of a new phase. I am officially posted to 23 Singapore Artillery(SA) Bravo Battery. The story continues....

ASC Week 12

2007-11-25T20:35:00.000+08:00

ASC Week 12

this week we had exercise giant. it was a combined exercise with the gunnery ppl. this exercise marked the end of the specialised training for the past 11 weeks. though this exercise was 1day1nite longer than dwarf, it was not as tough as dwarf. we deployed our guns at simpang, amoy quee and hong kah thoughout the 3 days.

on thursday, we had photo taking and beret presentation outfield. then we went back to camp to clean up the stores.

on friday, we spent the whole day cleaning the gun non-stop. it was a very tiring week.

i am now entering the last week of the course which will be mainly parade rehersals. 01/12/07(Sat) will be the final POP i will have in NS.

ASC Week 11

2007-11-18T17:10:00.000+08:00

ASC Week 11
this week we had exercise dwarf.. it was the toughest outfield i had gone thru thought it was 2days1nite.

we had to keep changing deployment ground, thus had to load and unload the heavy stores plus camou and uncamou the gun.

we went out in the morning and work all the way till 5plus in the following morning with very little rest. we were supposed to wake up at 6.30am but luckily there was rain and thus we managed to sleep till 8 plus.

this coming week will be 3days2nite ex. giant.... heard that the exercise will be much more relax... but gg outfield for so long is sianzzzz..

2 more weeks to pop~!

and most probably i will get posted to 23 Singapore Artillery(SA) to be a Detachment Commander or 2IC...... it's the worst place to go to ... T_T

Unhappy exp in camp

2007-11-17T12:38:00.000+08:00

yesterday.. we were told to form up and move violently... then we were told to talk and move like some retards in the open...... yesterday we were told to do 120 counts of 4 jumping jacks as punishment after area cleaning.... yesterday we were told to complete writing another 500 lines of "i will remember to account for all my stores in future" b4 we can book out.... these are just some of the ways we are being treated that i have nv mentioned b4.

ASC Week 10

2007-11-11T16:50:00.000+08:00

ASC Week 10

yay... finally 10 weeks are over... another 3 more to go..... come to think of it... this course is really long compared to 9weeks for bmt and 10 weeks for sispec.

it's exactly 13 more months to ORD.. i've entered the army for 7 months already. 7 months as a trainee is no joke and not fun at all.. luckily it's only 3 weeks left b4 turning into a junior commander.

this week we had laying exercise 2. doing all those drills again and again. camouflaging the gun is the most xiong and hated part in this course. this week the commanders purposely tk us and scolded us for every single thing..... the CSM even punished 2 detachments by writing 1000 lines of "i will remember to account for all my stores in future". =.= crazy ppl....

this coming week will be field camp exercise dwarf (2days 1nite) .. hope i survive ..

ASC Week 9

2007-11-04T16:26:00.000+08:00

ASC Week 9

had SOC test. i passed mine with a timing of 8min28s. 3rd fastest out of 50 over ppl. glad tt i dun have to do SOC anymore. it's the most physically and mentally tiring activity.

the rest of the week was operator maintainance(OM) course.

the coming week will be a short week from mon to wed. tues will be another laying exercise.

ASC Week 8

2007-10-28T20:29:00.000+08:00

ASC Week 8

did SOC trial test. managed to run below 9min.. hope to improve my timing for the test this coming tues.

this wed we went to sada hill at amoy quee camp for laying exercise for the whole day. quite tiring esp the camoflauging of the gun.. but luckily the weather is perfect.

this week and next week will be operator maintainance.. means it will be quite relax.

ASC Week 7

2007-10-21T19:59:00.000+08:00

ASC Week 7

did SOC this week... hmmm.. nothing much to say.. just training as usual ... 6 more weeks to pop! :)

ASC Week 6

2007-10-15T19:23:00.000+08:00

ASC Week 6

week 6 was gun drill. we did gun drills and more gun drills eg camoflauging the gun which was the most xiong. we also switched roles(no1 to no8 man) after every action front to familiarise ourselves with each person's role so that we can teach our man after we are posted to unit. luckily it rained in the afternoon for a couple of days this week.

this week is also gun drill week.

hmmm.. 7 more weeks to go...

ASC Week 5

2007-10-07T15:59:00.000+08:00

ASC Week 5

The whole of week 5 was driving. We drove the field howitzer(arty gun) around the camp. The gun itself is about 5metres long so during driving, there will be ground guide infront and behind.

The max speed is 16km/h but the speed we can drive in camp is only 4km/h.

This week i also had my 2nd ippt test. Finally got back my gold again, which means i will be rewarded with $200 and i can also wear the badge. It was not easy to get gold at all becos we nv do much physical activities throughout the course unlike during sispec days.

During sispec days, my company had at least 70% getting gold. But over here, only 10 out of 59 managed to get.

The next 2 weeks will be gun drills. This means that i will be under the sun for the whole day. Hope everything is not too tough. 8 more weeks left.

ASC Week 4

2007-09-30T20:09:00.000+08:00

ASC Week 4

yay.. finished 4 weeks of training.. another 9 weeks to go =)

these few weeks of training have been rather slack.. mostly lectures then hands-on. this coming week would be driving which will be slack also. week6 marks the start of gun drill where outfield training will begin. our outfield training will be within the camp on a patch of grass. then there will be 2 fieldcamps (exercise dwarf and giant, 2 and 3 days respectively)

this week i went to pasir laba camp on wed and thurs to help out in the ns40 dinner. walked around the camp on wed to look for aslc friends and foxtrot instructors. i felt good to be back in my old camp. did my job as an usher on thurs to direct VIP to the leaders hall for security check. i think i saw most of the high ranking officers in SAF walking right in front of me on that day. at around 8pm, the PM arrived. the event ended at around 10pm.

booked out on friday at 8pm and booked in at 11pm for sat's guard duty. doing weekend guard duty is mentally tiring as we had to do in shifts for 24hrs until 8am sunday. which means my weekend is burnt and i am booking in again soon.. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

ASC Week 3

2007-09-23T19:03:00.000+08:00

ASC Week 3

the 3rd week ended... and it's only 10 weeks left b4 another pop! really looking forward to 1st december... by then i wun be a trainee anymore =) i really hope christmas comes early.. lol

this week is mainly GPMG.. spent a few days learning about the gun and went for live firing on friday. we went to temple hill(near lim chu kang area) and fired 35 rounds each.

have not been exercising much for this course. .feels rather unfit..hopefully i clear the ippt on tues..

anyway.. i am assigned guard duty on sat... this means tt i will do guard duty from sat morning to sunday morning and book in at nite ... i think i am very suay....

ASC Week 2

2007-09-16T20:26:00.000+08:00

ASC Week 2

hmmm.. end of week 2... things are getting better... not much punishments liao.....

everyday is lectures followed by hands on exercises..

the howitzer is very tedious to operate.. alot of things to learn..... i think they should phase out the gun .. lol..

anyway i cant even open the breech(the cover to insert the projectile) of the FH-88 with one hand.. =S and i hate to carry the 43kg round..

booking in soon~! 11 more weeks to go~!

this week we are gg to fire the general purpose machine gun(GPMG) ...

ASC Week 1

2007-09-09T18:41:00.000+08:00

ASC Week 1

reported to my new camp on monday.. . all the ppl are splitted into 4 courses... and i got into the most xiong course... suay suay... haiss...

anyway i will be gg thru the 3rd Artillery Specialists' Course(3rd ASC). it's 13 weeks long. so i will only pop on start of dec (cant wait to pop!!). the weapon i will specialise in is FH88 155mm Howitzer. it's a bloody big artillery gun... not those small small kind in ndp.

the bunk is in a very bad condition.. small and dirty... cant believe it... cos upgrading works are in progress.. every1 are shocked to see the bunk condition.. =(

plus the commanders in my course are the fiercest and strictest.. makes me feel worse than a recruit sometimes.. and i start to miss my times in bmtc and sispec.

the 1st day and 2nd day were full of shit job... moving of stores here and there... plus i am th store IC.. wtf...... okay okay.. slightly better than toliet cleaner bah...

i really have a big culture shock in the new camp.. the fierce commanders, giving RO in a formal way, the bunk, formal water parade. .... blah blah...

the 2nd nite we had a water parade outside the bunk and we were forced to drink 1 full water bottle and every1 felt so bloated... we were punished for not filling to the brim, for moving, for not standing still on time... wtf...!

the 3rd day i was appointed as the Trainee Seargant Major(TSM) and i had to handle lots of stuff..... from admin to disipline of the coursemates to standardisation of bunk during area cleaning... plus every1 will bombard me with questions.

standby area was an exceptionally bad experience... as the TSM, i had to be responsible for everything under the sun, and i got punished for everything. i had to do pumping in the toliet, jumping jack and alternate leg thrust in the bunk. zzzzzzzzz..

on the 4th nite when i was giving the RO, i told my coursemates to pull their water bottles down.. the seargant was ridiculous as he wanted the water bottles to be in a straight line until it was very neat... wth... this kind of treatment is worse than a recruit and very unresonable.

on friday, by right my TSM job was over and a new person should take over.. but the sgt did not assign any1.. and i continued all the way until evening.. and all these nites i dun really have time at nite to do anything cos i have to do TSM report also...

hmmm.. end of bitching... i hope things will get better for the next 12 weeks... and the most stressful week for me is gone. .

ehhhh.............. plus 1 lightest artillery round weighs 43kg... heavy ones are 48kg.... =.=

BSLC Week 10

2007-09-03T02:50:00.000+08:00

BSLC Week 10

hmmm... feeling feverish now... having fever for few days already.. shall go and zzz soon..

monday we had additional obstacle course(AOC)... but my company only did 1 obstacle ie high wall and went back

tueday we had confidence obstacle course(COC).. my section did only 1 obstacle ie reverse ladder and it started to rain.. =D

wed we had 28km route march aka graduation march. We had our Full Battle Order(FBO) on and listened to some speech b4 we started marching off. We walked round the campsite as well as to and fro NTU. After the gruelling march, we ended off by standing on the leader's square with FBO to listen to speech and then finally receiving our corporal rank. Anyway the march lasted from wed 8pm to thurs 4am(estimated) o.O

finally time for posting! those ppl who are gg to ASLC had their names read out 1st. every1 was praying hard their name would not be called(including me of cos!).. this is cos we dun want to get into the xiong D company.

lucky for me, i got into Artillery.. i was overjoyed. no more fire and movement, quick attack, nite ambush and all the drills. i dun belong to infantry anymore =D

BSLC Week 9

2007-08-27T02:12:00.000+08:00

BSLC Week 9
had grandslam in tekong.

day1- topography exercise called wanderer. managed to find all 4 day 2nite checkpoints.

day2- went for mission in the morning. nothing in the afternoon for me cos i was the SC for nite ambush.

day3- nothing for me at all

day4- clean weapon and back to coy

had chemical defence course on friday and went to gas chamber on sat morning. went into the gas chamber filled with tear gas with suit and mask. had to take off mask and say rank/name/ic no. before leaving the chamber. once in a lifetime experience.

pop on thurs morning after 28km route march and i will also know my next posting. tt's all!!!!

BSLC week 8

2007-08-19T18:26:00.000+08:00

hmm.. week 8 .. not much time to blog cos i have to book in by 8pm.

so this will be a short entry.. dun wanna waste my precious time.

had fieldcamp... quite relaxing .. but i hate fieldcamp..

had revision of wat was taught plus a nite ambush... where we had to stay at a place in the vegetation for the enemy to appear.

had urban ops on friday..

tmr will be gg back to tekong for 4days3nites.... =S

arrrrrrrrrr.....

BSLC Week6/7

2007-08-12T18:10:00.000+08:00

BSLC Week6/7

exactly 2 weeks since i last blogged.

had 4days3nites field camp from 30/7 to 2/8. learnt lots of stuff.. infantry stuff.. which i shall not elaborate cos those drills are quite impractical. =S there was a sudden heavy downpour during the 1st nite when we were all preparing to sleep.. suay sia... it was so sudden that we dun even have time to get into the basha even though we were just beside it.. .. result? drenched! luckily OC was nice so we got to sleep in the small training shed and i couldnt even fully straightened my legs... causing me to get serious muscleache the next morning.

wat i hate about field camp was that i had to carry the SAW(weapon) around. it's long and heavy... irritating! and running with it in the morning was tourturous.

1/8 aug. my bday. i will always remember this day where i spent my 19th bday.... i will also remember i learnt quick attack and saw live trip flare on this day =) and i made lots of wishes when the trip flares lighted up the surroundings at nite... lol...

2/8 returned from fieldcamp

3/8 learnt some 1st aid stuff throughout the day. plus the 1st nites off and i went out with my sectionmates to jurong point.

4/8 section live firing. this time i carried SAR21 instead of SAW. it was a memorable exp doing live firing together with my friends. though i must admit that i was rather scared. scared that some1 might accidentally fire off track. cos we did fire and movement where we had to fire and move forward with live rounds! as the 2nd LAW.. i was the sharpshooter also.. so my weapon had 3X scope.. woottt....... i also had to carried the 9kg matador on my back while moving... ;=S

5/8 cant remember wat i did... but we got our 2nd nites off.... this nites off was extremely long... the book in timing was 0800hrs the next morning.

6/8 had SOC... failed to clear low rope after like 5 tries... lol....... though i was the 1st in the detail to reach the obstacles...

7/8 had SOC again.. this time i passed... with a timing of 8min49s. today we had our 3rd nites off(within the 10days)

8/8 booked out in the evening to go to Chevrons.

9/8 national day

10/8 off-in-lieu

week 8- field camp plus urban ops
week 9- field camp in tekong(grandslam)
week 10- 28km route march until next morning---> POP

tt's all ... it's about time i return to the forest... hopefully i dun go aslc =)

BSLC week 5

2007-07-29T15:43:00.000+08:00

BSLC week 5

had live firing for SAW and SAR on monday. rather fun i should say.

had ippt. got gold

had gypsy2(topography exercise) at mandai. the 1st checkpt was only 110m from the startpt. we thot we would be able to find it easily, but after spending more than 2hrs, my team still could not find. so we tried to comms back to ask, but they didnt provide much clue. luckily a sgt was nearby, so he called for reinforcement.... 4 sgts came in to help. but couldnt find also.

unfortunately, during the process, 3 person got stung by wasps and 2 out of 3 person were sent back. so my team left 4 ppl. it was especially tiring cos we had less ppl to carry the load.

for the nite checkpt, we skirted the reseviour. after a long walk, the vegetation got thicker and thicker. surrounded by weird looking vegetation. =S we knew that for the checkpt, we need to bash even deeper.. but time didn't allow us to do it. it was a memorable experience in the forest with my friends.(nico, zx, and jl)

hmmmm... now it's halfway thru' the course already.! how i hope everythink can end soon.. heez..

this coming week would be fieldcamp. 4days3nites. monday to thurs. cant book out this weekend as they pushed forward the training programme to let us have off-in-lieu on friday 10th aug

so this book in will be 10days straight!!!!

august coming... which means my bday is coming too! too bad i have to celebrate my bday out in the field.... i dun know how i will feel on wed. no hp no comp to use! no bday cake.. no bday greetings..no presents..

so my father suggested celebrating lunar birthday instead. but when he checked the calandar, it falls on the same day. haha... i wonder wat's the probability of actual and lunar bday on the same day. cos the calandars are normally about 1 month apart. how lucky i am!

just wanna wish myself happy sweet 19 years old in advance.. plus 3 other BMT buckmates who share the same bday as me.

i shall end this post here. hopefully i get to book out on 8th aug and i will blog again!!!!

woOoOOOOoohooOOooooooO~!~!~!

BSLC week 4

2007-07-22T20:57:00.000+08:00

BSLC week 4

week 4 was quite slack... didnt have much physical exercises. ... .. learnt lots of stuffs... like M203(grenade launcher), matador(light anti tank weapon), night vision goggles...etc...

had SOC also.... this time i passed... muahahaha... and my timing was below 9min 15s (passing time 10min30s). was quite surprised i could clear so quickly =)

had gypsy 1 on friday. we went navigating in mandai. hmm... quite a good exp but i must say i dun like bashing thru the forest..... day checkpts were okay.. but at nite we were stuck in the forest for over 3.5hrs to find a checkpt 1km away . :S

okay..... about time to book in.. tmr is live shooting for saw and sar...! i hate booking in!

BSLC Week 3

2007-07-16T14:42:00.000+08:00

BSLC Week 3

hmm... did ippt test. got gold.

did SOC. failed the timing. lol..... running with load on me is tiring.

had fever on tues and wed. highest was 38.1. but my company dun realli let ppl see MO. my PC even told me it was normal to have such temp. wat a joke. .. but i was excused from the 5km fast march.

had signals lectures. and we had test on sat (and tt's how we got off on monday). the test was actually very fast, but the waiting time was long.

was the leader section commander for thurs and fri.

had basic navigation lectures.....

had a simple test of our navigation skills on fri. we had to use a compass to get to diff checkpts individually at a small plot of forest. the night test was quite scary and i just bashed my way thru to make sure i get out quickly.

have to book in at nite by 2300hrs. bb~!

BSLC week 2

2007-07-08T19:33:00.000+08:00

BSLC week 2
week 2 is still filled with physical activities. had ippt on tue and didnt managed to get gold. haha... i ran 9min 46s. missed by 2s to gold. had SOC lessons also. the 1st SOC this week was quite tough. although we only carried SAR21 to clear the obstacles, the instructors made us run 1 round after each obstacle. tiring =S on thurs was the actual full run down, i didnt manage to clear the low rope and the time i took was 10min10s. so i failed the trial. on friday was strength training, the PTI knocked every one down on the baking hot ground until every1 slighting burnt their palms.

we also had SAR21 and SAW technical handling test. some NE lectures .... and so on..

i only managed to book out on sat cos i didnt get gold for ippt or pass SOC.

i actually enjoyed my time in sispec cos everyone bonded very well with each other. everyday is full of laughter. =D

anyway on sat when i reached home, a person came to my doorstep and said "can i speak to lim yong tat...." at 1st my mum and i thot it's my friend but actually he's ... *wanted to type but i cannot reveal anything* .. he came in and i chatted with him on something. ...

that's all... ignore the last part.

sispec BSLC week 1

2007-07-01T03:04:00.000+08:00

sispec BSLC

completed my 1st week in sispec. life here is definitely tougher than bmt.

went to my new camp on monday and i am once again posted to the F company. but it's called foxtrox instead of falcon. heard that there was no intake for foxtrox for the past few batches so nobody knows whether life here is tough anot. after the sgt told us our platoon, i went to my bunk and the saw gilbert(my ex-platoon mate). then realised that he is my buddy too. haha...

for this week, we attended lectures(mostly on safety), self-studied and learn how to handle SAR21, SOC, ippt.. and more.

i got sliver for ippt cos my running was 2second short of the gold timing. the rest of the stations were gold standard. i believe that i will have to stay for training on this coming sat just cos of 2seconds.

i did guard duty on thursday. we reported late for it cos we had ippt earlier on. by right my duty was supposed to starts at 7pm to 9pm, however the briefing ended at 8plus. so the superiors were rushing us to start our duties. as the 1st pair of prowlers, we did not know the route and checkpoints at all, and there was no1 to bring us around. i was holding the walkie talkie and had to communicate with the guardroom. i have to say that everything was quite disorganised. my next duty at 1am was better cos my platoon mate and i walked slowly and spent 1hr plus to complete 1 round. there was this irritating turn out drill whereby the siren sounded in the middle of the nite and everyone has to chiong out of bunk with LBV, draw rifle, bayonet, ammo. nonetheless, it was a nice experience.

2 special things about my coy is that there are gers, and all the 9 of them are in my platoon. and my OC banned vulgarities. think these are qutie uncommon in ns.

expecting another tough week. bb~!

posting

2007-06-22T12:04:00.000+08:00

posting

sispec

POP

2007-06-20T21:18:00.000+08:00

POP

throwing of jockey cap
friends
friends
with platoon seargant

1 year ago
1 year later
wahahhahaaha