happy 21st birthday soe! although his birthday was on the 28th.

heh.

beeping had all of us throw a surprise dinner for him at cafe iguana on the 27th friday night! cuz apparently soe's gonna treat his family to dinner on the 28th that night. his so-called "tradition dinner". poor dude, there's his parents, his 3 brothers, their 2 gfs, his 1 sis-in-law and niece. plus himself. 10 people total!

HA TOO BAD.

thanks to all the nice people, (from left in pic) jasmine ho, beeping, soe, me, kush, alvin, hafiz and stella! too bad htein couldn't make it; he's busy training in taiwan. haha!

you can't have the best of both worlds.

when you're complaining about the army. how it takes so much of your civilian time. you have to stay-in. sleep with your buddies. sleep in the jungle. shit in the open fields. take cold showers.

and the training. so tough. all the stupid chiong sua. field camps/exercises. physical and combat body conditioning.

then suddenly, you find yourself plonked on a chair, facing the monitor. beside you, some stacks of papers awaiting you to sort them out. you need to prepare some documents for the briefing, powerpoint slides for the presentation.

its weird... the tough times you've spend with your buddies. the bond that has been created amongst the section. and the times that all of us were kena fucked like dogs. and the many achievements we've gained. the body conditioning that was so fucked up that in the end we realised we're fucked up without them.

its a special kind of life.

it takes time to revert to a normal 8-5 life.

i'm sure i can manage that.

i found myself becoming more and more physically weak.

the first time i fell sick since i enlisted was 2 weeks ago. that's about 5+, 6 months with me staying healthy.

my bunk's on the fourth floor. everyday climb staircase. by the time i reach the 3rd level i'm panting a little.

i haven't been jogging for almost 3-4 weeks.

i haven't been doing Charlie's infamous 21BX (21 basic exercises) in the morning.

my stamina is decreasing madly.

when i could do 12 pull ups easily, now i have problems reaching 9.

pushups used to be a daily routine. now do 25 only, arms start to shout ACHE.

SOC was my favourite playground. now i can't play.



well OOC has its good and bad..... time to visit the chin-up bars again...

ahhh oh my, its already 6th March.

well well well.. so what's happening? okay i can safely say nothing much has been happening... i mean in my life. its just, national service.

suddenly i'm reminded of what soe just said a few days back.. we were slacking in the company office (OOPS) and he said..

eric did you realised what the army has done? can you like remember what you were doing before you enlisted?

me: of course can la.. i was working!

ya la, i mean thats the general idea.. you were working. but did you like remember any events or any outings?

i realised i could only remember roughly what i was doing, and not exactly any special days or whatsoever. i was working... till august. then i slacked at home... before i knew it in sept i was enlisted.

WE'VE BEEN BRAINWASHED =O

anyway nonsense aside.

i OOC-ed.

meaning, i'm "out-of-course".

which means i'll not be participating in anymore trainings until further notice.

which basically means i'm going to do sai kangs.. admin work.. paper work. until i get my new posting to another place.

why?

cuz i sprained my right ankle... like 3 times. goddamnit. i can't even play soccer now. hell, i can't even run now. running for more than 100m i'm already feeling the strain in my ankle.

i sprained it during field camp.... then SOC.. then the 28km route march...

how wonderful. then come to ASLC Charlie then OOC.

AHAHAHAHHAHAA.

so my friends will get their sergeant ranks much faster than me...

actually it doesn't matter now. as long as i've done my duty as a soldier. i'm still combat-fit though.. but the physiotherapist said my ankle is still weak. i can't stand on one leg on my bad ankle for more than 10s without any support. normal people can stand on one leg with their eyes closed for 20s.

LOL.

well so.. let's just get this ankle recovered first. and hopefully i won't get recourse back into ASLC. it really SUCKS to be in the infantry... the jungle will be your second home. the ants and spiders will be your sleeping buddies.

and not forgetting your camo... gives your face a whole new look.


last weekend i finally got the chance to meet up with my poly frens. kelvin, ek, salty and yian hong! hahahaha. had dinner, and slacked around in town.

just like the old times... after school (doesn't matter if we skipped or caught the lectures!) usually we'll head out, maybe town, or somewhere else to chill.. shop around. eat. sing kbox. play pool. go for gym! and how can we forget... checking out hot/cute babes.

ahhhhhhh. the freedom we had. although we were not getting any allowance (other than from our parents and sometimes part-time jobs) and not having full time job, nevertheless we had alot of fun.

thats youth. teenage. childhood.

thats HAPPINESS.

now.. EK went to taiwan for training. kelvin is attached to the police force. salty is still in tekong training. yian hong is also attached to the police force. miniwong is posted to artillery. TYY is in police coast guard.

and our future 2LT! jason! in air force..

and i'm in ASLC. and OOC somemore. LOL PAISEH SIA.

well. less than 1.5 years to go. or around there. im sure time will pass by fast.