Saturday, February 03, 2007

@_@ pUrgAtORy haS beGuN @_@

Went back to NS, happy happy, thinking of the slacky life there. Boy was I ever wrong. 'Gentlemen, your 2 weeks of honeymoon has ended. Let the pain begin...'
First thing when I booked in... "BAG INSPECION". Oh sheet. The 15 or so packs of mnm (fun size) in my bag. Somehow managed to stuff it under some clothes, where it escaped notice. Phew. Next time, shall find better hiding places for my food...heh heh.

Day 1 of field camp
Started off the day bright and early at 5am (as usual). think I'm somehow getting accustomed to 6-7 hours of sleep a day only. On the bright side, yay, more time to do stuff. After a hearty breakfast, it was time to sett off for the campsite. With a LOAD of stuff. Helmet - some 2kgs, LBV - with water bottle 1L and 3L waterbag, M16 - 2.85kg, and last but definetly not the least, the turtle shell, packed full as it was and heavier than ever =( Staggered around a bit during the loading, then somehow managed to lug the dam things over the 8 km to the rubber plantation, our campsite. Awesome flora an fauna - spiders as big as 50 cent coins, grasshoppers abound from 1cm to 7 cm, ants allover the place and 15 cm long centipedes. Wish I was there to collect specimens and not do some stupid field camp stuff. First time eating combat rations. Quite okay when hot but (some dishes) really disgusting when cold. Loved the acessory packs with their biscuits, powder drinks and sweets. Unfourtunately, the strangeness of the combat rations led to a little 'incident'. Woke up at 2am in the morning with stomach cramps, and had to trudge the 100 or so meters in the dark for a visit to the laterine. No torchlights allowed...

Day 2 of field camp
Trained in the basic field skills of a soldier today, like the range card, and the various types of crawls and reaction to enemy fire. The range card - a little bit of plastic to doodle on and make your own map of what you can see. The crawls - painful on the elbows and knees. Reaction to enemy fire - drop down on one hand and lower yourself down, akin to one handed pushups... There was also a camouflage test, in which we were given 3 minutes to hide in an area before the commanders came to find us. So fun. Tunneled under some bushes and that was that. Could'nt find me despite being only 3-4 meters away from them haha. Got to cook our first and sadly last hot meal of the camp - I got tomato noodle with chicken! Not half bad, and the milk tea was shoik.

Day 3
Practiced group battle formations in the morning. Learnt the value of good teamwork and cooperation under the “care” of our platoon commander who oversaw our training, as we were made to repeat the drills again and again and again if we did not do it correctly and up to(his high) standard. Packed up the tents and equipment and moved tactically (ie sneaky sneaky while keeping a lookout for enemies that didi not exist) from the rubber to the oil palm plantation, some 2-3 km, thank god this time without the field pack. My poor aching feet with their compound blisters >.< Cold snap at 4-5 am in the morning, where I woke up freezing, despite long pants and sleeves... Colder than my air-con at home.

Day 4
Group battle formations test in the morning, followed by FRESH RATIONS FOR LUNCH AND DINNER!!! Real food never tasted so good, which made me realise how very little I thought of and appreciated civillian food all these years. Sigh. Dug the shellscrape trench in the evening. The results of my hard labour - a hole some 2 m long, 0.5 m wide and 0.5 m deep. Back-breaking work, but fufilling in its own way (I dug the nicest and largest trench, hee hee).

Day 5
Touch up the trench they say, straighten the walls they say, inspect the trench they will, they say. After a cursory glance at our 'graves', they said only one thing - fill it in. OH GAWD. After all that hard work, its not even a half a day before they want us to erase all trace of our efforts, the pain of blood and sweat... o well. Insane they are, they are. Moved on to SISPEC, another 2 km away. Got one of the best sleeping spots near the commanders, within the 'dead zone' and range of their mosquito coils... heh heh.

Day 6
BIC - one word - OUCH. crawling on your elbows and knees for some 50 m, sand in your clothes, rub rub rub = abrasions. Not even this could dampen our high spirits when we heard that we were to book out that very night. Civilisation, here I come......

ĴÖÑ dosen't know what to do with his time @ 6:22 PM

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