Tuesday, December 27, 2005

End of diary..

Didn't write for the last 2 days there...

It was an experience man..

Merry belated xmas to all =)

DAY 10

850pm

Finished the static display of our unit's equipment at noon. Then it's the packing of our stores to prepare for the journey home on Fri.

At around 4pm, we had a parade rehearsal for the closing ceremony. At first, I was in the front row. But after I cocked up on 1 bloody command, I was pushed to the 2nd row. Anyway, after the rehearsal ended, I was singled out by the rsm of 39sce (I'm from 36sce) and told that I showed attitude and my drill is worse than guys from ncc. This shows the army way of doing things. You need a scapegoat to wake therest up. I became one I think. I doubted I showed attitude. Afterall, I know myself best. I doubt my drill really was that fuked up, I was in the military band frm sec1 to 4. You see, pple assume. And sometimes they don't give you a chance to explain urself. My toenail is almost detached sir. But you don't know. Not a problem thou. My own officers didn't think much of it. In fact, I think they were a lil pissed off. You can smell rivalry here =)

My S1 then treated us guys frm 36sce to prata and a drink. Really generous of him. It's not cheap when you have to treat all 20 of us.

After finishing the prata, we had to 'show face' at the cookhse for dinner. But I ended up staying there for more than an hour I think. We talked to this Bruneian sargeant. Found out that it's against the law to be outside after midnight in Brunei. Whoa! hahah and he has 7 cars and owns 1 hectare of land. A sargeant. Not even staff sargeant. And if he were to retire 3 yrs later ater 20 yrs of service, he would get $800 mthly for e rest of his life and a lump sum of $100k. That's alot for a Bruneian!

I talked until I forgot I was holding the bunk keys. I forgot I'm bunk ic today. Shit. The rest of the guys managed to climb thru a small window to open the bunk cos they couldn't find me. They almost wanted to screw me when I went bk to my bunk.

Luckily, they knew I had a shitty day. So I'm still writing.. 2 more days. And tml's sera's bday. Will msg her.

Gd night.

DAY 9

Just finished the display. From early morn till evening. Nothing much to write about. Just want to go home..

DAY 8

800pm

Back to work. Had a rehearsal for the display of our units' capabilities. Lasted 1 whole day. Very bored.

I'm already counting down the days to departure. Come quickly pls. I miss home! Want to smell my pillows and bolster. haha

Come friday, I really want try go to a pub or something. No dota joe! Sorry!

830pm


Was closing this scrapbook when a leaf fell out. This leaf dated back to when me and anne were tgt back in 2002. Really old leaf. But still in very gd condition. Was very surprised to see it. I didn't even know the leaf was there! Gd memories.

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Xmas at Genting

Shall update the brunei stuff sometime later.. not much time these few days.. been playing so much dota and also made a wasted trip to orchard! haha but went to visit karin at her workplace, so not exactly wasted.

Hmmm will be back on the 26th. Then will have leave till 28th. After that, it's straight to changi chalet again for me. A chalet with the guards holding sar21. Cool sia.. they call it Selarang camp. Pretty exotic name if you ask me..

Saturday, December 17, 2005

DAY 7

2nd R & R day. Went to a market by the river. Then we continued on to a water village whr we had some snacks and tea. This village is only accessible through boats. And the boats were really rocky man. Was scared when I had to board and alight frm it, cos it was shaking lk mad! I dont wanna tk a dip in the filthy water(darkish brown)!

We also visited a museum ( think it's some Royal Brunei Museum costing $1.2billion . The museum was all about the sultan of brunei. It held exhibits given to the sultan by other countries and also celebrated some important moments of his life. It was pretty much 1 sided. As in they only showed the gd things. But the effort and money put into this museum is really very obvious. There was a replica of the throne of the sultan. In this room, all the stuff were made of pure gold! Spent quite some time here. Really impressed.

Then it was shopping all the way. I made some gd buys. Too bad I didn't bring enough money thou. Dinner was at a restaurant. The buffet spread was excellent! After almost bursting my stomach, we went to another shopping mall called The Mall. Bloody unimaginative. Made somemore gd buys. Had to borrow money. Then it was bk to camp.

DAY 6

1145pm

R & R day. Went for a 5.5km run at a beach. Thought it was gonna be tought at first, with all the sand slowing u down. Luckily we ran close to the shoreline whr the sand was harder.

After the run, we had games and bbq. I had fun flying kites. But my kite ended up in a tree, really sad man. Then I went around the beach on an ATV (all terrain veh) and it was damn fun. Oh, the bbq food was great too!

Then in the afternoon, we went to this Shell Oil & Gas Discovery center (OGDC). It's sth like our sg discovery center, cept it has some exhibits on oil exploratino and stuff.

For dinner, we went to a hotel for buffet. It was good man.. I practically stuffed myself with the butter prawns, sweet n sour fish, rendang chicken, blah blah.. paid for by saf.

Then after dinner, we went to Jerudong Theme park. Not much rides available since it's already about 8pm and many rides were under maintainence. So me and my buds went on the water ride. The one whr u peddle and peddle.. my 2 friends peddled while I steered. Can't be helped. I have a better sense of direction. Afterall, I can drive haha

Hmmm, then we played a shooting game whr the targets spitted out water when shot. Kept making e targets shoot at my friends. Was fun.

Finally we went for the bumper cars. Really fun this fun. Me n 2 other friends kept bumping this pretty chinese girl. haha, until she regconised us and gave me a gd bump in return. Girls. Haven't seen a chinese girl for lk ages already. So we had to feast our eyes!

Bk to camp. Damn tired. Gd night! I'm beginning to lk Brunei already. But I sudd have this urge to meet up with old frens after this trip. Hopefully they will all be free.

Friday, December 16, 2005

DAY 5 Trek Out!

Trek out of jungle! So glad to go back to my bunk at Penanjong camp. But the trek out wasn;t really easy. Took us about an hr.
Highlight was a 70degree upslope. No safety rope or anything. But everyone went up successfully.

1017pm

Getting ready to sleep now. Tired. Missing some people already.

DAY 4 (day 2 in jungle)

Slept for most of the day at kampong Mariam. Tired you know! But I went to see the Bruneians' survival training area and also the booby trap area.

The booby trap area was pretty much the same as in those movies. Grenades tied to tripwires and pressure actuvated switches.

What really interested me thou, was the survival area where they built their own 'tents' and also traps to catch animals. Their 'tents' were totally made up of branches, leaves, and maybe small tree trunks. Very professional looking. I could never do that. And their animal traps, bagus! Totally ingenious. All their traps were made using stuff from the jungle. No metal, no plastic. Just branches and trunks as the springing mechanism.

Later at night, we had a night walk in the jungle. 2 parts, 1 with lighting, the other with no light at all. With the torches on, it was easy. But when we had to switch off our torches, it went crazy. Everyone had to hold onto the sbo of the person in front. Prob was, the person behind me was pulling me and the person in front of me was going too fast. Stretchin exercise for my arms. =)

I went to sleepp after that. I need to sleep.

DAY 3 Trek into jungle (diary)

Today started out with me thinking that the jungle trip was going to be easy. It turned out to be so much worse. The bloody jungle in Brunei has so many hills. We had to climb up countless hills while in our FBO. That means an additional 15kg worth of burden.

There were so many times when we were so bloody close to the clifs cos the path was super narrow. One slip in the muddy sand, god, I won't have the chance to become a father. So many small shoots and trees on the ground.

About 3 hrs into the trek, my legs gave way. Cramps. Bloody hell. I was overconfident and so didn't warm up before the trek. Heh, so my officers helped me carry the fieldpack. Shiok. Felt so light. But I got back my field pack after 1 more upslope. Have to be a soldier. Not a sissy. I'm gratelful to them forhelping me though.

After that, we did 1 knee deep river crossing. Our boots all became soaking wet. And from then on, the trek was even more slippery and muddy. Imagine, heavy boots filled with water. Plus the suction like effect of the mud. Pure agony.

But we trekked on. With quite a few dips and falls.

Finally after about 4 hr, we reached kampong Mariam. By now, our unifroms were all full of mud. I went 'dead' for about 5 mins man. Couldn;t speak, move or even stand. No one could stand anymore!

After that brief rest, all went to a nearby river to wash up. Shiok!!

Today was one of the toughest day in my life. But really very fulfilling. Glad that I didn't give up.

DAY 2 (diary)

1245pm

Just had prata at the canteen. Wow, it sure tasted gd! Better than the prata at jalan kayu, I think. Then I went to the cookhse to 'show face'. Cos actually the army meals really cmi. 1 plate of rice, 2 side dishes. The prata seemed a much better choice.

This morning, we went around to view some equipments. Nothing much that we don't have over in sg. So we weren't really interested nor impressed. But being soldiers, we paid attention and made them seemed to think that their equipments were really unique! Haha!

After the viewing of equipments, we had to rehearse for the opening ceremony of this exercise Bintis Bersama. The Bruneian soldor gave the parade orders. At first, we didn't understand those orders at all. So we did nothing. Haha, it was only after they showed us, then we knew.
Frm there, everything went smoothly.

1040pm

Tomorrow is the start of the jungle camp. Really hope everything goes well. I honestly don't want to drink water from the streams. So I'm gonna have to ration my water usage.

Good Night! Tml is gonna be the start of many surprises. =)

DAY 1 Off to Brunei (diary)

The flight to Brunei was uneventful, but the the seating arrangement realy sucked. It was squeezy and after just 1 hr, my butt started to hurt like nuts man.

When we reached Brunei, we had to unpack alot of stores. But it was still ok.

Then we were brought to this cookhouse. The Bruneian soldiers welcomed us by playing some malay instruments and gave each of us a flower tied tgt with an egg. It felt really gd to be treated like this.

Lunch was a simple affair. Plain rice with chicken and long beans. But the friendliness of the host more than made up for any short-comings mealwise.

Shall stop here. Might write again tonight.

1000pm

I can't sms my dad! Can only receive sms. Urgh!!

Very tired, feel like sleeping already. Hope I can dream of nice things tonight! Heh.. with my dream gal. Walking along the beach.. Sleep!

Sunday, December 04, 2005

off to brunei

will be flying off at roughly 0500 hr tml. erm, try not to msg me ya. it's really expensive over there. i'll be charged for both sent and received msges. BUT if u think i'll appreciate ur msg then just go ahead! won't be taking photos cos camera phones are not allowed.

will be back on the 16th. those close frens of mine.. make sure we meet up ya! Brunei, let's hope you'll treat me gd. come, let me blow a kiss to u guys.. hahahahha gonna miss ya man..

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Lunch today, dinner and movie some other day!

Let's watch a movie together some other day. After Brunei! Haha Do you know that the way you pout ur lips, hahah very cute ;)

P.s. Open the gift only on the night before your birthday k. Count the stars. They glow..