IF YA SMELL WHAT THE HOCK IS COOKING??!!

Memories...

Sunday, December 17, 2006

~OF MEN, BROTHERS, AND GUNS~

Finally back from reservist. 1 week of In-Camp-Training, with lotsa memories once again. There were e reminders of the xianness of military life, which reminded everybody why we were always looking foward to ORDing when we were in active service. The sai kang, e regimentation, waiting times, n other assorted bo liao stuff are some things which ll never change in the army.

On the other hand though, ICT was a great time for our platoon to catch up. 3 years since we left and last trained together, it was refreshing and heartwarming to see everybody back again. haha, indeed we spent most of the 1st day chatting n chatting n catching up on old times. Good to see most of us doing well in our civilian life. At the end of each night, we also sat at the canteen for kopi n more talking cock. Too bad we could only play soccer once. Yeah, but the bullying of kaiheng and e late nights of male-bonding heart-to-heart sessions brought back lotsa nostaglia of the past.

Granted, a lot us got rounder n more bellies, haha. But while fitness for a reservist soldier drops, he makes it up with greater experience, maturity, and streetsmartness. Esp for scouts. I tot it was quite good that adult management was adopted in ICT as well, in e sense that everybody treats each other as adults, rather than go so strictly on rank basis. But was a little peeved that little things like haircut are still so particularly niao.

Perhaps the most sore point of our entire ICT was our new PC, this chap who has never experienced unit life, nor fought a real battalion exercise nor scout platoon exercise. Even though he prides himself as a former OCS instructor, but nobody in the platoon seriously gives a shit about it. In fact, those from Schools generally tend to be more idealistic, n he definitely was one such type. He talks a lot of theories but grossly dun understand the practical realities at the ground or during outfield. Neither is he fully scout-trained, nor bike-trained, nor A-vehicle trained, nor CST-POW trained..n talks so much. Yawnz.

And to top it off, he gave the wrong coordinates/ locations during outfield, n gave the impression that he dun really bother to talk to the men, only the sergeants. That got a lot of us turned off, for scouts be it troopers or commanders, generally dun like to use rank to differentiate each other coz when we re outfield, most of the time we re alone with and rely on each other in small teams, unlike the armour infantry troops. In the end we thought about teaching this officer a lesson, but decided against it coz mayb he's still new n need more time to fit in with our platoon (who have chionged tog for 2 years n noe each other for a further 3 years) But we re waiting to see how his behaviour ll be like during the next ICT in July next year.

Our new PS on the other hand, though new, was much much more humble and fitted in well. Its kinda wierd though, coz he's actually my junior in FASS political science..haha, so we got to chat quite a bit bout what mods to take etc..ll be taking EU and ASEAN with him next sem hah..

Yeap..so much for reservist.. it gave me a lot of impetus to train n work out more on my fitness as well..haha..

I still got a lot of SMUN stuff to prepare for PS Soc..while tom is FOP tender interview..it wud be interesting to see who will rise to be the next Arts Club legends.

And i m flying off to Krabi on tues with Princess Shuang Er! Yay.. n_n

The Incredible Hock