Medical Attachments.

Things are getting intense now.. Now that we're going to be passing out as Sergeant Medics we are now undergoing rigorous training. We got attached to Medical Centers to learn about Medical center procedures. I got posted to Tuas Navy Medical Center andIt's so slack over there oh my gosh. During breaks they have a rest room where they can play fooseball and table tennis and watch television!!! Argh .. I'm so sad I won't have a chance to be posted to a naval base.. Anyway it was really fun we got to draw our blood and keep them as a souvenir (even though we're not allowed to)

As I'm writing this blog post in Sittin in an ambulance cause I'm having my ambulance attachment and I just witnessed my first death case :( we got a call and we rushed over to their flat and there lay a woman in her 80s with no pulse or breathing.. The medic then did CPR but couldn't revive her.. :( sigh.. 

The whole day was full of minor cases though like this bimbo she cut her hand while trying to reach for a plate at TCC and it dropped on her hand.. And on the ambulance she was taking photos instagramming herself so annoying.. Yea that's about it for now, hopefully I don't encounter anymore serious cases because I don't know if my heart can handle it...

Weekend.

So.. While having dinner with my family a few hours before bookin back into camp, I suggested to my family to have a photo shoot in our house and my mom thought I was mad and I pushed the idea and we had a spontaneous photo shoot haha we're so retarded.. I've always wanted to take a photo along my corridor with my stuck in the middle so I thought this was a good opportunity to try it out. And I'm wearing a sweater I LOVE which I got from ASOS.. Here are a few photos...

  Me and my brother doing a retarded face..

Over the weekend we also surprised my really close friend, Mabel, together with the rest..

Had a surprise picnic opposite the istana which was basically a giant fountain place ... 

Yup.. That's about it for this weekend! Back to my mundane army life now..

Life in Specialist Cadet School so far

Oh my gosh. How long has it been since I last recorded my thoughts? I think it's like a month ago or something.. So many things have happened since then. I'm currently in my professional term of SCS (Specialist Cadet School) and I'm so fucking thankful I'm not in infantry.. In fact I'm in a medic course training to be a medic specialist. Oh my god I think this is the SLACKEST course anyone could be posted to. I mean I was just hoping to not be in infantry and I didn't mind signals but I never thought I'd be posted to medics, especially since I'm a fucking arts student and I think I'm the only arts student in this course in a midst of nerdy charismatic science students.. When they called my name for medics I was like 'what the hell is that!?' And now I know. And I feel really lucky because my entire cohort comprises of only 38 people out f the original 1000 people in Specialist Cadet School. So I feel crazy lucky. Anyway the hardest thing in this course is basically staying awake. It's just lectures back to back and practical sessions with minimal physical training other than the occasional runs which I find enjoyable.. But I've seen so much blood through the 7 weeks here I don't even find blood disgusting anymore.. There are so many holes in my arms I look like a drug addict from Intravenous Cannulation (IV), basically one of the important core skills to inject a needle into someone and allow fluids to enter the body.and we have to complete 10 successful sessions altogether. But I think I've been pierced more than 20 times already... And this course is so boring with no drama at all.. The only drama we get is the occasional explosions from our Officer-In-Command who scolds us and our sergeants for the littlest things..

Okay enough about Medics... Let's move on to my social life. Okay basically non-existent since I'm only free on the weekends and it's so rushed now that I have to cramp everything together and study..

These are my medics bunkmates! On our first and only nights out so far :(

Clubbed with Natalie! Oh my gosh Natalie has changed so much she used to oppose clubbing so much and now he's a hardcore clubber it's crazy.I love this new and improved her!

  Cafe- Hopping with Mabel. Trying out new cafés at Bugis..

Also went to a halloween party at Mink.. It was so spontaneous I didn't even wear a costume !! UGH SO MAD. I would have loved to dress up as Michael Jackson.. Sighhhh... Never mind. I had so much fun with the peeps! The ang mohs (Caucasians) are really crazy fun their costumes were so cuuuuute!! I loved this mario and lugi pair..

That's about it for my weekends now. Just chillin' and hanging out with friends and seeking nostalgia and trying to relive my freedom days from the beginning of the year until the day I lost my freedom ( enlistment day) . Sounds sad but I really appreciate the little freedom I have in life now.. 

That's about it. Can't wait to pass out as a third sergeant once this course is over!

Saw my sergeant at a gay club..

Decided to party a a gay club last Saturday and guess who I saw.. One of my sergeants in the army!! A staff sergeant oh my god I was freaking the fuck out.. I was so high I did something stupid I went to shout his name 'STAFF CHUA' in his ear and walked away.. My friend who was with me was like 'you shouldn't have done that' and after partying me and my friend sat outside of the club (Play) and he walked past. And stupid me again shoute 'staff chua!' He turned around, looked at me and turned around and walked away.. ARGHHH IM SUCH AN ASSHOLE HAHAHA... Hopefully he doesn't recognise me in camp.. Now I know why he's 32, single and lives alone!! And he dresses well for someone who's in the army... It all makes sense now.. (Okay ignore my personal stereotypes). Okay hopefully this week goes smoothly without any cracks..

Past few weeks and field camp!

Oh my god another field camp.. It was the field camp I dreaded most because well, it was the second field camp in my army life and the first one was basically a horror movie so I was scared out of my mind for this one. But surprisingly, it wasn't the commanders or sergeants who tortured us, but the fucking rain. IT RAINED THREE DAYS STRAIGHT for every single training in the forest. My body ached and it was so uncomfortable walking around with mild foot rot as my boots were filled with water for the 3 days and I didn't even take out my boots to air my feet because I was just so scared to see the state of my feet and was afraid it would be so painful to put my foot back into the boot. So I left my feet in and it was so fucking uncomfortable.. Sleeping on the muddy ground was so disgusting. And lucky me, I got an ant infested ground. And I'm not joking when I say any infested. The ants in that forest are fucking VICIOUS. They bit through my foot packets and maggie new INSIDE MY BAG PACK and literally built an ant's best in my bag pack in a couple of hours. There was a freaking colony in my bag pack and when I came back from training I got a shock. I had to overturn the bag and pat it so many times.. Anyway here's a picture of my feet after field camp..(Disclaimer : I am not responsible for any nausea relating to the photo below, scroll at your own discretion)

It was so fucking cold in the night. Sleeping with a wet uniform, mud filled boots and in the cold was torturous. It was like I was in Japan or something. I woke up every 2 hours shivering to death and had to light candles to warm myself up but ended up burning my hands instead... Well, at least I'm luckier than one of my friends who got bitten by a centipede.. Yea.. At 3am, his finger swelled up..

Sigh army life.. And I've been really depressed the past few days because I think I got partial hearing loss in my right ear due to the gunshots ... Last Saturday we had section live firing which was shooting simultaneously in a group of 7 soldiers. And while running for cover my earplugs came out and being unaware, I just kept shooting and spamming my rounds and only after the shooting I realised I couldn't hear. At first I thought I couldn't find my earplugs in my ear, then. I realised I kinda lost my hearing. I'm hoping to regain it over the next few days but according to the Internet, a small amount of damage is permanent..

Sigh army life..

Okay now back to my civilian life... Recently I've been obsessed with redecorating my house and I got a new clock which I LOVE SO MUCH!! Even though me and my parents have a hard time reading it because it has no numbers.. We decided to leave the clock on the wall as an art piece and refer to our phones for time.. ( I know my family is so weird) 

Isn't it gorgeous!? Or at least I think it is..

Oh and my current music playlist :

Applause by Lady Gaga

Brave by Sara Bareilles

I absolutely LOVE applause it's my new army jam... Okay back to army life for now...

Birthday, Shooting Range

So the past week was full of scoldings for me. From being scolded at the shooting range for so many mistakes which I made to being scolded for not wearing my identity tag (A necklace with our IC number on it which is supposed to be worn at all times). and worst part of all, I had to celebrate my birthday in camp and I actually spent my birthday navigating through a forest.. So damn tiring but fun. Okay I shall start with the shooting range..

So basically the sergeant there threatened to charge me 2 times..sigh.. I know it's my fault and I don't mind being scolded but the feeling inside of me when I get scolded..The sense of disappointment.. I just don't want to disappoint anyone, even people I don't care about.. Anyway the first mistake which I made was not looking through the scope properly while firing...Stupid me.. the master sergeant who was in charge shouted at me 'EH BOY! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!? YOU ARE GOING TO GET CHARGED, 14 DAYS ENOUGH!?' and I was so shocked because I actually looked through the scope but my eye wasn't pressed directly on it..So I said sorry and he shouted 'I AM GOING TO CHARGE YOU!!!'.. The next incident was when I checked the chamber of the weapon, I didn't check it properly and inside lodged a round which was lodged so deep I couldn't see it the first time I checked. but thank god I checked again and there it was and I told the sergeant there and he shouted 'WHY DIDN'T YOU SEE IT THE FIRST TIME!?' 'YOU REALLY DESERVE TO GET CHARGED IF I COULD CHARGE YOU I WOULD..' I was so scared but at the same time I knew I was in the wrong and would accept anything that came my way..But I guess he realized that I learnt from my mistake since it was the first time I handled such a weapon and he let it go. I also got one extra guard duty (which I'm serving tomorrow) because I forgot to wear my Identity tag..Sigh.. What a stupid mistake.. and there goes my long weekend cut short...

Okay on a brighter note, my good friends (Mabel,Davin and Natalie) surprised me with a birthday celebration! and I thought surprises would never work on me because I pick clues up very quickly and piece loopholes easily but I was actually SURPRISED! So in the afternoon Mabel asked if I would like to surprise Natalie (As she just came back from New York on a University trip) and I was like 'sure' and I headed over and stupid me got lost... I was supposed to take bus 196 but I saw the Whatsapp chat wrongly and took bus 198. Oh my god I went all the way to the highway before realizing I took the wrong bus and got off in the middle of the highway. So I had to take a bus back to where I was in the first place..Anyway, long story short, I finally arrived at Natalie's dorm at NUS Yale and met Mabel downstairs and she was all like 'Natalie doesn't know you are here so you have to surprise her' and so Natalie came out and she was like 'Oh my god why are you here!?' and we proceeded up to her dorm. As I entered, suddenly a birthday song started playing and there Davin was sitting in Nat's dorm with 2 brocollis with candles on them and my favourite Nasi Lemak rice.. (They knew that Nasi lemak with only an egg was my favourite food and since I was a vegetarian they gave me a 'brocolli cake' ' . I was so fucking touched oh my god and so surprised... Anyway here are some pictures...

Natalie & I!

Davin & I!

Mabel & I!

                    

They are really the sweetest I love them so much!!!!

Now back to army life.. Sigh..

New Chapter in National Service

 Visited the art museum with my gurllll.. Mabel..(just an excuse to post this very nice photo of me)

 

Anyway I gotta tell you guys what my mom did.. Being the cutest most adorable mom ever, she wore my army uniform and photoshopped herself into my army photo.. It was the cutest thing ever and she sent it to me .. At first I was like WTF but it's my mom so nothing should be a surprise..

So my POP(Passing Out parade) was about 2 weeks ago.. and how I miss my BMT life since then... during my block leave (A week of break we have after our graduation) I basically just played Pokemon on my nintendo (Yea I know it's weird but I've been craving to play Pokemon since BMT started so the moment I passed out I literally ran to buy Pokemon Black).. and we also had our platoon barbeque/chalet which was sooo much fun I really love my Platoon.. Every single person is genuinely nice and selfless and really want to help (well, most of them) but I really love them so much!!!

Me and my AMAZING COMMANDERS in BMT

Anyway, we finally got our posting last friday.. I was just hoping not to be posted as a rifleman because that would equate to slavery and I was really happy to be posted to SCS (Specialist Cadet School) to become a sergeant..well, I was happy at first..

Anyway the night before I couldn't really sleep because I was so excited/nervous/scared/upset/happy just all the mixed feelings because I really missed my platoon in BMT... even through all the tekan sessions and all the punishments we went through.. It only made us stronger..

Okay so.. first week of SCS... WAS A NIGHTMARE.. It was again like Kestrel back in BMT but with a new set of people..although my new platoon was made up of people from my company, I was in a new section. The people from my platoon were mostly in another section while I was in a new section with a few of my ex-platoon mates!!Sigh...and my sergeant major is CRAZY... basically my impression of him is sadistic.. He would make us do push ups and when he shouts 'MORE PAIN' we are supposed to echo 'MORE PAIN MORE GOOD'.. 

and he would add 10 more push ups and this would continue until we are moaning and he would recover us.. and my section trainer is also a crazy sergeant who scolds vulgarities in EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE.. and I am not exaggerating when I say EVERY SENTENCE..

'kaninabu,fuck,cheebai,kaopei,cock,chaocheebai,asshole,cunt' basically he's a walking textbook of English/Hokkien vulgarities.. and he claims to have slapped a minister's son too, telling us that he can do whatever he wants and he's the boss. But I guess I have to conform..ONCE AGAIN.. in the army.  Compared to other companies, our company restricts us in so many ways it's sad. It's so sad to wake up at 5am and fall in so early and watch the building opposite us having no lights on,filled with sleeping cadets as they wake up later. sigh. Quite unlucky I guess, but I just have to pull through...

So far, week one has been quite bad..But hopefully it gets better!! And my birthday is next week.. Sigh I'm gonna spend my 19th in camp.. How depressing..

I found this quote somewhere and I thought it's very relevant in my life right now..

That's all.. Look forward to a good week ahead!!

Passing Out Parade!

What a journey it has been these 9 weeks! I can't believe I survived BMT! Anyway the 24km route march on Saturday night/Sunday morning was a killer... Halfway through my thighs and literally the entire bottom half of my body was aching really badly.. And one guy from my platoon fell out(unfortunately). I dropped my phone during the route march too.. Because during the march I decided to play party songs and I started dancing and my phone dropped out of my vest's pocket and now my iPhone's button is spoilt.. Sigh. Anyway, once we reached the f1 Circuit we were already celebrating..Then we were told to change into our smart fall (which we so painstakingly folded to make the sleeves perfect) and guess what happened right after we changed..  it started raining.. (Literally raining on my parade) .. And we were soaked! We were rushing to take cover but we were still drenched. Thank god we had 2 hours of break before the actual parade and we used it to sleep.  It was so fucking uncomfortable but it felt like heaven just to lie down and rest and I can't believe I actually slept quite peacefully on the concrete car park floor.. With a rifle on my body and the rock hard field pack as a pillow.. 

A photo my friend took of me..

Anyway, here are some photos..

A photo taken from the audience from by my mom.. Look at the perso on the top left corner.. Yup that's me. What the fuck is up with my face!?

With Vais and Hairizad.. Who came down for me..

My amazing platoon.. Platoon 3..

Bumped into so many people from school!

Me and my sergeants..

The moment we threw our jockey cap was a feeling like no other.. It was a weird feeling of sadness and happiness at the same time. Happy that we are over the bullshit punishments and scolding a we got every single day, but sad because we got punished as brothers, and created real bonds..

Now, I'm going to embark on a new chapter in my NS-life. Hopefully the bonds I forged wont break...

BMT Ending Soon

My Official photo.. Okay I added in the frames to add a little cuteness to the photo..

Wow I can't believe it's already been 6 weeks since I enlisted.. Time really flies when I look back but during the course of the first few weeks I felt like time just froze..

This is my name tag. Cool or not? In the first few weeks the fitness instructors made fun of me for my name tag. Tey laughed at my name tag haha. And then I cupped my hand over my ear and pretended to scratch a CD.. And the y laughed even more.. Okay I'm going to split this post into 3 parts. The hi-key events..

11B

Basically my new 'IC'.. From pink to green. And it is the worst photo of me I have ever seen I my entire life. 

I remember the day the photo was taken. The stupid photographer swept my hair to the side and messed up my bangs. And when I smiled he told me to app smiling .. So now I have to suffer with this photo of 2 years. I look like some mental patient who committed murder and had the mugshot taken... Sighhh

My Wig Cap

I actually made a cap which had hair on it lol. Everyone was shocked when I wore It out. I actually glued my old hair (which I shaved off myself) to the front of a cap to make it seem like I have hair.. So here's a picture of it..

Convincing right!?

FOOD

I LOVE THE VEGETARIAN FOOD IN TEKONG.. It's really amazing .. Okay maybe the rice may sometimes be overcooked and hard. But I actually expecte baked beans and rice with maybe salted vegetables every single day. But they actually have mock meat and curry and sweet and sour and spicy and all sorts of food everyday! It's always exciting to see what they have for us. And  they are actually all quite tasty. I actually put on weight since I entered the army! About 4kg!! That's how much I eat everyday.. Yea so the food is good

RANGE

First of all the hi-key events was live range... Which is the rifle shooting at a 100m range. And was a requirement to pass to Pass Out from Basic Military Training. I actually loved range at first because I did so well during the practice. And then suddenly I became bad at it! I don't even know why. I started missing so many shots and I dropped from 31/32 to like 20/32. It was really bad. And something funny happened at range. We were drawing our ammunition and I forgot to take my magazine.. That's right.. I felt so dumb. I signed on the piece of paper that I drew my ammunition but I forgot to do it. So I went to the range without ammunition without even realising. And so I proceeded to the range and when it was my turn I touched my magazine pouch, I FREAKED THE FUCK OUT. I was like 'OH FUCK, I FORGOT TO TAKE MY AMMUNITION' and I knew then and there I was screwed. So I told the Chief Safety Officer and he shouted 'WHAT THE FUCK!?' And told me to go to go to the ammo point to collect my ammo. And as I ran I could hear a commander shouting through the speakers from the control room 'YOU ARE A DUMB CHEEBAI, YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO YOUR PLATOON AND YOUR COUNTRY!!' And when I reached the ammo point, I was shouted at again by the sergeants 'YOU CHEEBAI WASTE EVERYONE'S TIME YOU KNOW!?' And I quickly took my ammunition and ran back. As I ran back to the firing point I was scolded by another platoon sergeant 'CHEEBAI RUN FASTER LA'.. And when I finally reached the firing point I was already panting and shaking from all the running and drama. And because my hands were shaking I missed 6 shots! I was so angry and upset because I would only usually miss 1 shot.. I had to reshoot and I still missed a lot and I didn't get marksman in the end. I was quite upset. But right now I'm like whatever..

Push-Ups

The typical army punishment. 'STREAMLINE YOUR FUCKING BODY' was the most overused phrase in the army.. Or in Kestrel at least.. Push-Ups were the most painful in the first 2 weeks of BMT when they made us hold it in position when we were going down. It was so fucking painful I swear.. But when you get knocked down to push up every single day, you're more tired of it than scared of it and you're already like 'whatever, again?'..

Bunk-Mates

I loove my bunk mates they are so fun and nice. They are so genuine you know they are nice guys the moment you talk to them. I remembered we hung our torchlights on the fan blades with different coloured shades of torchlights tints of red and blue and turned off all the main lights and turned on the fan. And blasted music on the speakers. And we started dancing ..fucking fun party.. By the way here are my platoon mates..

That's me in the middle with the slanted jockey cap.. I love this photo. This was taken at the Singapore Discovery Center when we were forced to go there for an army tour. Oh my god it was so boring I almost died..

FIELD CAMP

Bought a pair of Dr Martens to reward myself for surviving field camp..

Field camp has gotta be one of the worst nightmares I had to ever undergo in my entire life. It was literally a nightmare I thought I could wake up from..

It really allowed me to appreciate my family and especially my mom. After all she's done I don't show any appreciation. One sentence my platoon commander said to us really broke me down in tears.. 'Your mom raised you an provide for you and love you, but when you bookout you go to your friends. Do up show any appreciation?' And I realised that's exactly what I did..

I cried and cried as I read the letter from my mom...

Insert letter here

PSI

I think one of the most memorable events here is the fluctuating PSI (Pollution Standard Index) due to the Sumatra fires. Thanks to the Singapore Haze, a lot of physical training was cancelled and we were cooped in our bunks to rest! Seeing everyone getting excited over the increase in PSI was so funny. People were applauding and cheering the moment there was a PSI update and it was also a huge shocker when it hit 400...So thanks my Sumatra sisters!

KESTREL LEGACY

I honestly knew NOTHING about Kestrel before coming to Tekong.Heck, I didn't even know a single company name. So I literally came in clueless. When I arrived here, the sergeants gave me a tag which wrote 'K' on it. I thought nothing of it. It was only when I arrived at the coy line and saw 'Kestrel' did I realise it was the company's name. And that was when I found out about the kestrel legacy from my fellow company mates. Apparently Kestrel is one of the fiercest Coy in terms of physical training and punishments and the most unreasonable when it comes to the welfare of the recruits. And as the days went by, I knew what it meant. And it was a nightmare. But I really thank god I'm in the Platoon which has at least fair sergeants and platoon commanders who really give punishments to those who deserve it and are able to joke with us. They even gave me a nickname 'Preying Mantis' because they think I look like a preying mantis when I do pull ups. Haha. But being in Kestrel, I kinda have a sense of pride, knowing that it's a company that's known.. So I guess I'll just take things as they come.. Go through it with everyone else .

Oh yea, once I accidentally scolded 'Fuck You' to my platoon commander! Shit I thought I would get charged. Because he went through the photos in my phone to check if there were any photos of camp life.. And he saw a photo of one of my girl friends and said 'Who's this girl?' I replied 'My friend' and he flipped to the next photo of me and said 'Then who's this girl?' Then in a spontaneous reaction , I said 'Fuck you'. The moment I said it I was like SHIIITTTT!! I can't believe I said that.. Yea so basically that was it. I wrote an apology letter to him and even drew a portrait of him lol. Yea I'm so weird.

Games Day!

I was appointed to be in charge of the Kestrel banner for games day 2013! I was actually so excited to start painting again because army was the thing tha took away my time to do any art at all, but now it's making me do art. So here was an eagle I painted.. Eventhough a kestrel is apparently a smal bird. All the sergeants who saw it were like 'Woah that's nice, but it's not a kestrel' ... But why would you want a small bird on your banner.. So here it is while I was painting it..

POP!

Otherwise known as the 'Passin Out Parade' or Graduation Parade, is going to be held next Sunday.. Which I'm super excited about! I can't believe I passed SOC! I thought I would fail low rope because that was the station I was most scared about.. And I got silver for IPPT!! So that's great..

Guard duty

oh my god I was supposed to do guard duty on the last guard duty ever and I was so fucking upset. They drew lots and the moment they said my 4 digit number I screamed out loud in shock. So I was already mentally prepared for guard duty which was going to be 24 hours from 7am on Saturday to 7am on Sunday.. So basically I won't be able to book out and I would book out Sunday morning and book in Sunday evening.. Sad right? Anyway, because some people chao Keng by visiting the medical officer, the sergeant major of our company wanted to make it fair for everyone so our sergeants decided to let people volunteer for guard duty instead. And 2 people from my section volunteered! I felt dam bad because I was supposed to do also but whatever.. Sigh.. Either way I would have been fine with it...

Okay... Time to rest and get ready for the crazy week next week packed with parade rehearsals!!!

Pink Dot!

This year was the first time I ever visited pink dot!! And it's really touching to see so many people care about having a more inclusive Singaporean society.. Actually I didn't plan to go but Natalie(One of my close friends) asked me if I wanted to go with her and her (soon to be) uni friends.. So I went and we were lost for awhile at raffles place and we decided to just pick a random person wearing a pink shirt and followed him. Eventually we ended up there and It was so awkward for me because I kept introducing myself as 'Natalie's friend' because everyone else who were at that picnic mat was from Yale NUS.. And they were mostly international students. But then I found another girl who was also a friend of one of the Yale NUS student and connected on the fact we were both extras in the group . Haha. She's so funny I wished I got a picture with her.. Anyway we queued for cotton candy and it was so sweet we saw an older lady in the queue infront of us about 50 years old and started asking her if she was her alone and she said 'Yes, I came here to support you guys' . AWWW .. So sweet. It's so nice to actually see the older generation support such a cause... 

Me and my pink cotton candy!

Anyway the girl i met there, lets call her XX. She told me she was there at the first pink dot event and the crowd was so small people could literally form a circle around the performers.. And she was shocked at how huge it is now. It's really heartening to see Singapore becoming a more accepting society..

 Anyway here's a pic of the event

Botanic Gardens

Way back 4 months ago.. A visit to the botanic gardens to one of my best friends, Vaisnavi... When my hair was full and gorgeous... Just some photos..

Fucking scary there was a monitor lizard just swimming in the pond. And it suddenly climbed out!! Me an Vaisnavi decided to stalk it an i think it got scared because it started walking fastest and faster until we left it alone..

Sigh this is so nostalgic. I really appreciate the good times now. I miss freedom now that I'm in the army...

Army really makes you treasure those times you take for granted, the people, the luxuries, the freedom..