Ha.... i've been waking up at like 12++ noon for the past 3 days. It's been so long since i get to enjoy such indulgence... Haha

Anyway, went to Johore on friday afternoon with Eugene and Ben. Only bought some snacks while they bought some movie dvds. We went to City Square, Plaza Pelangi and Leisure Mall(i cant remember the exact name). Only reached home at around 11pm with a little jam at the causeway.. ha

Went to play Lan at Park Lane with the usual people yesterday ie saturday. Played 4 rounds of 'DOTA' and my team only won once.. haha. Think im getting addicted to warcraft again after so long...

But my frozen throne original cd is with Wei Long. So i've got to get it back from him to play... Ha. Im gonna download DOTA and try playing if i can... heh

Yay... and so im on leave again. Good to have a break.

Was feeling so dull when i went back on monday for standby and duty. But i think the worst was some of the things that had happened that were making me feel terrible as an I/C...

Incident 1 - On monday(standby), Eugene, Robin, Nash & Amos were questioned by the 3 sergeants for what happened on last friday. I wasnt present cuz im on leave. So i only got to find out they din keep the under carriage mirror after their last duty at parade square at 6pm. Yah, by right only 2 should be responsible but in fact all 4 were involved cuz they changed duty somehow. Then the lamps at the mirror were on throughout the nite and then one of the fluorescent lamp fused. So the sergeants held them and me responsible. But since i wasnt there, david was called in. But david went to buy dinner that time, so he din remind them to keep the mirror also. And so they got a warning. Later Sgt Koh the hypocrite told me he had FIGHT for us with PC already and that the next time such thing happen again, the 2 involved will sign 3 confinements and I will sign 1 for not ensuring the mirror is kept. Fine.

Incident 2 - Same day. After the duty ended at 7pm we got to send arms. Then later, Sgt Huang found out Augustine had forgotten to sign in. Damn. I called Aug and asked him to come back immediately to sign since that day we had nights off and he went out. So now this translated to 'it's my fault' cuz i din ensure everyone sign. Well, i only checked the number of magazines cuz Sgt Huang asked me too. And i was sitting outside the armskote room til everyone had sent their arms. I din really check if everyone sign. Sianz.

Incident 3 - It's duty day already. And after our duty and lunch, we were called to clean the old OPs room since we have just moved. Damn. We were the duty section and we were resting. Such cleaning jobs should be the job of the standby section. Well, I answered the call from ops room and received the orders but i din say much. The rest grumbled about it and so Eugene called back. In the end, we still have to clean. But it was nothing much. Just cleared some rubbish lying on the floor and tables. Argh.

Incident 4 - Max and Victor woke up late in the morning to open gate B. By right gate B got to be opened at 6am, 6.15am the latest, but they only woke up at 6.30am and it was me who woke them up. They probably only opened gate b at around 6.40am and got to face a few angry staffs who were waiting outside the gate. Well, it was probably my fault again. I woke up at 6.11am and wanted to wake max up. He was late already but cuz i just woke up and was still in a drowsy state, i went back to sleep, thinking maybe he would wake up at 6.15am. Victor was also sleeping soundly throughout til Max woke him up. Crap.

Incident 5 - And so it was our last 2 hours of duty before our duty ended at 9am. I wasnt doing duty cuz im the extra person. All other 7 people were already at their respective stations. So my job would be walking around to each stations. So i went to gate B where Max and Victor were. Max told me 2IC already came and he came at around 6.30am. That was early. Then 2WO Lim, our OPs 2I/C came to me.

"So Pok, you know what had happened?" 2I/C asked me.
"Erm.. what?" I answered, thinking maybe it's gate b incident.
"You dont know? You all last night duty right... huh, you dont know what happened yet?"
"Erm is it gate b?" I asked softly.
"No lah. u know what happened at gate a just now?"
"Aaahh.. they took over late?" Well, actually gate A was taken over at around 7.15am. By right it should be 7am.
"Wah lao.. i came in at 6.30am from gate a and only saw 1 people there. The other one wasnt there at all..... ... ..." Then he continued to talk about how it wasnt right to leave 1 people on duty like that. If 1 of them has stomachache then ask for replacement. blah blah blah.......

Ok, so i was asked to gather everyone later behind the OPs room building after our duty ended and he wanted to talk to us. Sigh... why must such thing happened. It was Eugene and Aug on duty that time. So i thought maybe Aug had gone to buy breakfast and thus left 1 person on duty at gate. And also, they were quite unlucky cuz 2I/C came quite early and got caught. A lot of people always do that - buy breakfast and go toilet and din get caught. Sigh.

So i went to OPs room first to check the ammo book if everyone sign and also to sign book out before going to parade square to tell eugene and aug about it and also gate a....

Incident 6 - When i thought that morning was bad enough already, i was told of an even worse news. Upon entering OPs room, Ngo (the duty clerk) told me 3 people din draw ammo. Oh what the fark. Ngo told me probably the 3 at gate A now din draw. Well, they signed the book and din draw! Then David came in. He was shocked and angry also. I thought so this was my fault again. I never thought they would forget to draw ammo. When the 3 of them went to OPs room at 7am for duty, i stayed in the bunk to make milo before going to OPs room to check if they signed. So this means i have failed to ensure they draw the ammo...Probably I shouldnt have make milo and should have went to OPs room with them....

I went out of OPs room, following david cuz he said he wanted to scold them already. He went to gate b while i went to parade square. I told eugene about what 2I/C had told me and found out it was Eugene who went to toilet to pee.. I already felt so angry that at this time, Augustine, as usual, wanted to go toilet and had already taken out his SBO and asked me to take over him for a while for him to go toilet. I told him to wait lah. Im going gate a first cuz it was a more serious case. Yet he still said he needed to go. I ignored him and walked away and said 'later lah' loudly at him.... i havent told them about the ammo case yet.

And so i went to Amos who was at roundabout first. I asked him if he draw ammo. His face gave a wierd look first before checking his magazine and later turned to a stunned one. Yes, he realised he had forgotten to draw ammo. I told him all 3 of them din draw ammo and that 2I/C wanted to see us later. I went to gate A where Nash and Robin were. "So did u all draw ammo?" I asked. Both of them checked and gave me a shocked look. I told them 3 of them din draw. They were worried but i told them 2I/C din noe yet. Also, i told them about the Eugene case. I went back to Amos who was so worried. But i told him 2I/C wanted to see us was about leaving 1 person at gate case, not the 3 of them. He was relieved. Then Sgt Poh - the duty specs for last night came. He knew about it. He talked to the 3 of them.

I went back to gate B and told Max and Victor about it. They already knew cuz david told them already but they only thought 1 of them din draw, not 3. Then i saw David went to OPs room with Sgt Poh. So i left with them.

David with Sgt Poh quickly discreetly loaded the 3 magazines with ammo while i was told to go out and keep a look out for 2I/C. Shortly david came out and passed me one loaded magazine to keep in pocket. We needed to go back to gate A and passed them back. Problem solved. Thanks to Sgt Poh. If it was other sgts, probably the 3 of them would have signed confinement already.

The gate B case was nothing much since 2I/C also din realise about it despite he met Max outside OPs room at around 6.40am. He only asked Max who had replaced them so early and max told him they were actually going to open gate B. Luckily 2I/C din say anything after that, only smiled and said okay to them.

What's left was Eugene case. Sigh. Later 2I/C met us and warned us about this. He said next time he caught anyone leaving 1 person at the gate or even sleeping during the nights, that person be prepared to be charged.


Hiaz.... I was feeling so down after that. I just came back on monday after a 4 days break and i've got to face all these. Cuz in fact all these that happened, im to be responsible directly or indirectly since im the section I/C. David was partly responsible also since he was the I/C but now he is going to ORD in less than a month, so by right all these jobs fall onto me. So in the end, i've only got myself to blame for not ensuring everything is okay, in place and done. But then all these rarely happened in the past. It was only when the relative new guys came and such things such as forget to sign this and that, forget to draw or return ammo had surfaced...

Ahhh..... Feel so stress. I've never wanted to be an I/C cuz i've foreseen all these huge responsibilities. But they chose me cuz im the most senior there already. Sigh. Eugene is the 2I/C and he wont have that much responsibilities... And i told quite a few of them i wanted to step down in January... but i know it is quite impossible..

Well, what to do? I still have 188 days before leaving this dreaded place.........

The thought of going back camp tomorrow is so dreary. Ahhh... have been staying home since thursday til today. Yah, 4 days break.

Ha, i wanted to have sufficient sleep for 4 nights at home with my 2 days leave but it turned out not with my 'night activities'. Haha..

Anyway, on friday night, went to Elvin's house for majong. We were supposed to meet at 11pm but because of the nice cooling rainy weather and *ahem* YH, we were sitting beside the car porch and chatted til about 1am before starting on our majong. Well, it ended at about 5.15am and i reached home at 5.45am, thanks to Hope's lift. Ha, i slept from 6am to about 3pm then....

It wasnt a night sleep!

On saturday, after waking up at 3pm, went to watch The Incredibles at AMK Jubilee at 6.30pm with JX, JL and Alan. It was quite a nice movie. Quite funny also. Ha. Anyway, YH called me during the movie and asked us to go for KTV. Well, told him i will let him know after the movie.

So in the end, we went to Crown Prince Hotel Party World for KTV. The session was from 10pm to 2am. We had 8 people. We were playing dai dee also. Ha. Then we went to play Lan at cineleisure. The lan shop closed at 5am so we stayed til it closed.

Anyway, the lan shop is a cheater. We played less than 3 hours, so supposedly they should charge us less than $7.50 (rate is $2.50/hr). But we were charged $7.70 for about 2hrs 40mins. I still remembered i ask that person why it was $7.70 since we played less than 3hrs. He still blatantly replied they charged by the minutes. So i asked how much is 1 hr. He said '$2.50'. So why is it not less than $7.50??

He didnt bother to help us check the receipt, only asked us to check ourselves. It just showed he was not concerned about the discrepancies. And why? Because it is obvious to me he knew the computer system is out to cheat money. He realised we have found out and were calculative. That's why he said 'they charged by the minutes' when i asked him. Just showed he was prepared to use such an unable-to-challenge answer to deal with us since it was the computer who calculated, not him.

Well, later when we were standing outside the shop, deciding whether to smash the shop's glass door or leave, we thought that maybe they charged us $3 per hour which was the rate for internet usage ($2.50/hr is lan gaming). But hey, he said 1 hr is $2.50 when i asked him! Damn. Cheater! But since the rest didnt want to pursue the matter, we left.

It was 5.15am already.

Simon and his friend left in a taxi. Well the 6 of us wanted to have breakfast. So we went to Jalan Kayu in YH's car to eat roti prata. Ha, was playing 'asshole dai dee' again. And we left the place at around 7am. Ahh... i only slept at 8am, but til 4pm. Ha.

Yah, it was the second night i slept in the morning.

This is bad. We are like living in London - based on their time (Singapore time is GMT+8. So minus 8hrs and we probably will have London's time.) So when i slept at 8am, it was 12am in London.

Anyway, at least i didnt waste my leave doing nothing but stayed at home. Yah, i have to go back tomorrow already but on the bright side, wednesday is my off, and thursday and friday are my leave again. Haha... Will have break from wednesday to sunday...

Cool..

Ahhh... finally. Im on leave tomorrow and saturday. Will be going back for standby and duty on monday.

I think i really need a break and yah, the leaves come in handy, though quite short. I already have applied my leave for this year. Total of 8 days.

Anyway, had another PT on tuesday. Ran 5km with some static exercise. And now, my legs are aching, just after my arms had just recovered from that last PT.

Yah, it was my arms. Now it is my legs and thighs to ache.

Oh, read from newspaper that there may be meteor shower from 17Nov til 20Nov and between 2am til dawn. So maybe will stick my head out of my windows later to see if i could catch any.. haha

Ahh.... What a day!

Was feeling kinda mixed a few moments ago. But now, after thinking it through and cooling down, im quite okay now. Anyway, today im standby but Staff Toh, the duty specs let us go home but gotta be back tmr morning for duty. So here i am...

Here's what has happened today......

Sgt Huang actually told me at noon time before our duty that we will have physical traing (PT) at 3.30pm. Either he or Sgt Lang will take us. But after our duty has ended at 2pm, we received no further instructions from him or Sgt Lang... and so we went back bunk and rest..

At about 4pm, a few of us were sleeping then but not all. I was just about to go back to my bed when Sgt Huang came into our bunk and said, "Hey Pok, wake everyone up and go for PT now..."

What the hell, i thought. Our duty is at 5pm and now is 4pm already. Usually our PT, if any, is around 3pm. Well, i just mumbled, "4pm already leh," and trying to act defiant, i ignored him and continued climbing back to my bed..

Then he asked everyone to wake up again. Nobody moved. Me too. Eugene asked me to change but i told him not to bother about it. It's 4pm already leh.. This time, Sgt Lang shouted, "HEY WAKE UP!"

It worked. Unreluctantly, we went to change. When changing i felt so pissed. I called OPs room and asked for Staff Toh who was the duty specs.

"Staff Toh, we are going to do PT now and it's 4pm now."
"Huh? So late? Who asked you all to do PT?" He asked.
"Sgt Huang."
"Ask him to the phone. I'll talk to him."

I knew it. Staff Toh was not informed of such PT going on. Those attached sergeants always do many 'under the table' stuffs. But who can we tell?

Anyway i passed the handphone to Sgt Huang who was in the toilet and i went back to change first. We waited. But still we went for PT. The PT ended at 4.30pm and we rested for a while before going for duty at 5pm.

Later at 7pm after our duty. All our section were in the OPs room because Staff Toh wanted to talk to us. Yes, he said maybe Sgt Huang wasnt right to ask us do PT at 4pm since it never was this late. But he said Sgt Huang had assured him the PT will end at 4.30pm on the phone, that's why, he let Sgt Huang continued with the PT.

But he said after he talked to Sgt Huang about it and then was kinda surprised but disappointed that our section had reacted such way, that we din obey orders from him. He said Sgt Huang was quite angry about it and even thought maybe we had some grudges against him.

Then Staff Toh questioned me whether i did really go back to bed after Sgt Huang told me to ask everyone to wake up. I said yup but because i thought he was perhaps joking about it and thus i didnt treat it seriously. And i said something like 'hey it's 4pm already!' and a few others also told him 'It's 4pm already' but he insisted on having PT.... Staff Toh then said he was especially surprised to know i did such a thing.

Well, then Staff Toh continued talk about like respecting orders since they are all 3SG and hence are our superiors, that Sgt Huang is actually a good sergeant, that he is new here (This is bullshit i thought. This is the 3rd time he is attached to us. First was last year november/december. Then May/June this year and now. So obviously not new.), that he has not had any men under him before, so not much experienced. And also for what we did, or i did particularly, it will be quite disadvantageous to us in the future.... blah blah blah.

Okay, after all these, we left OPs room and get ready to send arms and book out. And then something interesting happened again -- Robin's one magazine couldnt be found. According to him, he and Amos had put the rifle and magazine at the chair before going up to OPs room. And now, it was missing.

We were trying to find it. And i asked Robin what time he had put his rifle there. Then i said, 'Ha, maybe someone took it on purpose lor... like you-know-who?' Wei long heard me and went 'huh, cannot be lah...' Yah, i was implying Sgt Huang because Max, Wei Long and I saw him leave at around 6.50pm when we were at Gate B. Robin and Amos also went up to OPs room around that time also. So it was possible that he took it.

Robin went up to OPs room to look for it while some of us were looking for it in bunk. Then guess wat??!! I found it in the pocket of Sgt Huang's uniform which is hanging at the cupboard near the chair where robin had put his rifle. Eugene and Max saw the magazine in the pocket also when i said out loud that i've found it. Staff Toh asked me and I showed him where i have found it.

Staff Toh gathered us again and told us this was too coincidental. He said Sgt Huang could not have put there himself. It was too obvious. And that he had left early. Staff Toh even questioned section 3 about it. He was puzzled.

No one saw. No one did. No one knew.

Never mind. He just reminded us again about keeping our things, especially rifles properly before dismissing us.

Ha, i had thought it was Sgt Huang who tried to sabotage us. And i think he thought we would think he is not stupid enough to put the magazine at such obvious place (his own uniform). And hence he was not the one. But who knows. The mystery has not solved yet.

But anyway, im felt quite bad after that for what i did. Yah, because i will probably cause the whole section to get aim by the sergeants in future. Or even have a lot of tough PT in future. Well, i dunno if others will blame me for today, but who cares? I dont carry balls.

And hey, at least i did something. At least I informed Staff Toh, hoping he could stop the PT and know what these sergeants are actually doing. This is unlike of David who is our I/C and did nothing. Like last time when we were asked to clean the cigarettes-littered staircase. David just said, 'Ok, let's go.'

Sigh..... well, this is the SAF. This is the Army. Perhaps, i shall stay low profile as I/C in the coming days till i get out of this sickening place. This is perhaps for the entire section own good.

Be an obedient and favoured section!

At first when i thought im not going to taiwan anymore, hopes came back. Yah, i asked pple again and yay, im on the track of going to taiwan for tour this december..But hopes dashed when i went down to people's park to check with the many tour agencies there.

Damn.

Yes, a normal 5D/4N tour with Chanbrothers cost $700+ after taxes according to the website and is travelling with China Airline. Or a 4D/3N, totally free & easy tour with any agency will cost around $600+ with China Airline.

But when checked with them personally, we were told ALL flights with china airline to taiwan at december are fully booked! And we were left with Singapore Airline(SIA).

Ok then...... so when we added the price difference and calculated, the same tour with Chanbrothers rocketed to $910. And those free and easy ones are at least $800.. Too expensive to handle. So i guess, it's off again.

Well, maybe next year during off peak season then will go to taiwan. In the meantime, i shall consider to go cheaper countries like bangkok to shop.

The worst scenario is i shall spend my 7.5 days leave in singapore... at least after some planning, i could get 2 different super long weekends - break from wednesday to sunday & thursday to sunday. With just 7.5 days leave, i could get a total accumulative break of 18 days inclusive of off days that is!!!

Some consolation.

I shall look forward to my breaks i've been longing for.

Well... i guess most probably i wont be going overseas already... So sianz. Nobody wants to go. But at least the positive consolation is i got to save money for better trip next year. Ha.

Anyway, after david and jason ORD in december, I will become my section I/C while Eugene the second I/C. I dun really want to be I/C. Crap responsibilities. Worst, i will probably have more chance to come in contact with those OPs specs and even my PC and this is something i loathe.. But well, i have no choice. After david and jason, I am the most lao jiao already among all the 20+ RPs...

But perhaps to others, the benefit of being an I/C is that we dont need to do day duty, unless we are short of people. Yah, all 7 of them got to stand at gate, with SBO and rifle while i got to walk around with nothing but my beret. I experienced this once on last friday but more will come. Well, dont really like also because i simply dont know where to go would be best.

Still, i gotta do night duty. But I dont really mind it.

Ahh... im sleepy already. Peace out.