Back in Green

Busting out the ol' uniform again...

While being in green again does bring back some nostalgic feelings, it also once again reminds me that I'm not that young anymore. Walking around the camp with my thick and shaggy hair, while I see alot of botaks marching around. I can't believe they even phased out the Brown Admin Tee that we used to wear. It felt pretty new to me, since before my batch they were using the Grey coloured one. And there was no reason too, since it's basically the same material. Then again it might not be that new anymore, maybe I misjudge my age again. Haiz... It's not the age problem, I'm not afraid of growing old. It's just that I still haven't achieved my ultimate goal in life, and with each passing year, let's just say the chances don't increase very much...

Before I get too far off topic, I should probably continue my story.

So I when back to camp yesterday for a stupid one day ICT. I had to miss the closed bidding period for my modules just for that, but that's not the worst part. Thankfully I secured the module anyways. The worst part has got to be the waiting. How would you like to waste 10 hrs of your life?

I woke up at 5am yesterday, rushed breakfast and got into uniform and left my house by 6am to take a 1hr+ journey to camp. Arrived there at around 7.30am to register for In-Pro, and only left camp at around 6pm. So that's a total of more than 10hrs, give or take. That's some long day of training! What were we doing? Would you like to find out?

The answer is: Nothing!

I arrived there, WAIT to go in. Entered, WAIT in line to register. Move to auditorium, WAIT for everyone to arrive. After some briefings, we go to the hall for some admin stuff, and then WAIT for lunch. After lunch we gather back in the hall, and WAIT. Army loves it's standard few phrases, and i think the appropriate one here is: "wait for further instructions". And so we did. We basically just sat in the hall and waited for further instructions, and wait, and wait some more. When something finally happened, they just gave us a final debrief and dismissed us.

Seriously MEGA WASTE OF TIME. I kinda knew it already, and half expected as much, knowing the "efficiency" of our oh so mighty army. But this one is quite the record. I think we ended last year at around 3-4pm? This year it was a whopping 10 hrs! To be honest, the briefing could all be completed in 1-2 hrs. Lunch, probably at most 1 hr. Let's also give them 1hr for moving and processing time. There doesn't seem to be any reason to exceed 4-5hrs. In other words they took twice as long as needed. -_-"

Enough ranting. It wasn't a complete waste of time per se, just that we wasted a little too much time. The only good part was that I got to meet up with many old friends. Reservist doesn't seem too bad when there are so many familiar faces. It's like half my platoon from NS were there. With so many people you know, it's like NS all over again. For my other NS friends who were not there, guess who is support company CSM? None other than our joker ex-sec-com, Kelvin Yip. Can you even call that guy "Encik"? Looking at him makes my wanna laugh my ass off already. Ah yes, reservist life shouldn't be too bad. :)

Speaking of which. One thing that stuck me, was when they mentioned that: "this will be the people you will be working with for the next 10 yrs". I mean, 10 yrs?! That's a long time man. That's a huge time commitment! That feels like marriage! Seriously, I don't know where I'll see myself in 10yrs time. Good? Bad? Successful? In debt? Happy? Lonely? So much uncertainty, so much to hope for. Yet, so much to do to get there.

Where do you see yourself in 10 yrs?



Before I end off, I just wanna give a couple of shout-outs to my NS-mates, and fellow comrades for the next 10 years.
Aspiring NTU business student Zhi Wei. Why your GPA so pro one? :(
Pastor Daniel. You sure have many stories to share, fun talking to you.
Mr. Know-it-all Garang soldier YiFan. We are in your good hands. Haha.
Ho Siu Chuan and Brien. We hardly talk, so I still barely know you guys. Hope to chat up more next time ya?
And of course, our beloved CSM. "Encik" Kelvin. Don't defer! We want you to be our CSM!