Daryl L.D.M

Sunday, July 31, 2005

yEAh manz... this week passed kinda fast... the first few days kept raining during the morning, thus the program was affected due to CAT 1... thus my SOC was pushed to thursday... was kinda worried coz in OCS i got the 9.29min passing mark exactly.. somemore the armour SOC has no downslope.. all the way flat.. but luckily end state maybe coz the instructor was running with me, i got in at 8.59min.. hahaz.. another brisk to what i targeted for myself.. (below 9 min).. just like my 2.4km (9.42min)... hopefully my fitness keeps going up... =]

been having lotsa lectures about gunnery skills.. been to that simulator that i went b4 in OCS Delta's army visit.. think this week is the end of our holiday period le.. gunnery package is about done.. so this week starting with driving... just when we're getting used to our instructors, they are gonna ORD soon.. haiz.. maybe thats why they're so understanding and cheery.. then the newly commissioned batch got another 4 instrcutors come to take over... its the overly-enthu and thus harsh on cadets kinda officers... ouCh.. >.<

yesterday's bookout was nice.. at 12nn.. earliest by far.. hahaz.. went kovan to get eat and buy games.. first to fight:US marines.. hEhz.. was playing it last night.. today i went to macritchie in the morning and paddled rescue canoes.. those kinda heavy bulky stuff.. but kinda nice to paddle again and see those compeitive races.. even saw some chiobus.. >.< but left by lunch to come home.. did my dummy grenades.. (dumb..) sharpen my ET blade and d/ling anime.. haiz.. since last week been trying to download some OST thats pretty catchy from some new anime i watching.. but to no avail leiz.. haiz.. hope can find it... the song just keep playing in my head the last few days... (MUST GET IT!!! aRrRR~~~)

ok lar.. gotta book in later... 10.30pm.. but wanna go back early to pack my stuff.. driving phase... wooHoo~!!

dEminG
goT abiT tannEd.. buT still WHITE!! arGH~! >.<

My mind's unweaving/ 4:34 PM

Sunday, July 24, 2005

just came back from kovan... met up with my classmates.. 2S04!!! hahaz... was great to see them again... of course not all came.. but slightly more than i expected... shuhui, fabby, kiat loong, yong shen, alvin, donghai, yvonne, evelyn, hua xiang, ruishan and me.. hahaz.. had a sumptous feast at pizza hut... ate alot.. also coz the ladies didnt really eat much... *dRumbleTs...* =D~~ went to play arcade then... was pretty noisy.. so abit hard to talk also.. hehz...

as usual like yesterday i also went to meet liang kiat, monica, li hua, marcus and weilun at tampines mall.. usual complaint of guys talking abt army all the time... it sounds the same to ladies.. but to us its all very different experiences.. haha.. so as much as i agree its abit bad to keep talking abt army... cant blame us too mahz?? hahaz.. the canoeing ladies will just give us that face with the "blabber blabber" hand sign... while our classmates will just do their fav talks amongst themselves.. hahaz..

actually i wish we had a BBQ.. or a chalet like the one i planned back in sentosa.. wasnt too well planned.. but it was fun... can still remember.. maybe sound add night walks or something too.. hahaz.. its hard to really go out for lunch or dinner and really catch up esp in big groups of more than 6... thru exp can say outing with grp of 4 or less is more outreaching yeah? hahaz...

frenz... it kinda struck me when my mom was telling me to list the frenz i go out with out of curiosity.. then i really thought of my social circle.. 1. my scouty mates back in st gabs.. fabby.. amos... benjamin... beng heng... 2. my classmates from SRJC 2(a) 1s10'03(huiying, lai bun, vincent..) 2(b)2S04!! 3. my canoeing mates.. 4. my canoeing juniors 5. my BMT platoon mates.. 6. my OCS DElta wing mates... 7. my current SOA AI platoon mates.. 8. my soTOng family.. 9. SRJCians... 10. frenz from all walks of life... hahaz.. theres so many... it kinda overwhelmed me thinking abt them.. its a kinda unspeakable bond... that kinda feeling when ppl you havent seen so long actually talk, msg, listen to you...

maybe im too used to being independent in army le.. discipline in keeping quiet and all.. that i dont have those previous symptoms of lovesickness and all.. hahaz.. but i still DO get depressed like today.. when i feel like theres more i could do to make those short moments with my friends worthwhile.. every second of it... hehz.. kkz lar.. better start studying le.. gals starting uni.. but i also got exams of my own... fail = confinements.. hahaz.. kkz lar.. take care 1 and all!! seEyA!!

dEminG
i juSt waNnA bE wiTh you...

My mind's unweaving/ 5:22 PM

Sunday, July 17, 2005

hey hey heyZ!!!!! 4? or is it 3 weeks since i blogged? hahaz... chat box everything is stagnant le.. cant blame also lar huh? its been 3 weeks since i've been in armour.. think tml starts the 4th.. pretty fast hmm? but first i'll like to share abit about brunei for those going there for ex Lancer eh? =]

Brunei(Mt Biang)

for us, we were called the 'support arms' though our OC said thats just for signals and engineers... he claims armour is a manuerving arm instead.. loLx... anyways for us the main emphasis was orientation or navigation in the terrain of brunei... first lets correct the wrongs of all those rumours i've heard of brunei b4 going and the facts...

1.there arent mosquitos with probiscus the size of a syringe! in fact mosquitos were in much lower quantity there than singapore leiz~~! hehz.. esp when you hit the jungle.. mainly is on high ground.. so hard to come by mosquitos actually.. i didnt even use 1 drop of my mosquito repellent for the whole trip!
2. the thing about being so dark at night you cant see your own hand when stretched is true~! whoa.. though in the day i thought i can see thru the canopy.. when the night comes if not for the fire i think we'll all be blind mice~~
3. the jungle there is thick.. but it resembles the singapore forestation ALOT just that the plants are more well.. hostile.. thorns, uneven ground.. but as long as you follow paths you wont be too lost.. but if you decide to bash thru virgin ground.. well.. think you'll still be in brunei... =]
4. we all brought hammocks so we slept off the ground.. so thankfully i didnt get a single snadfly bite... cant say abt the others though.. hehz.. in fact i miss sleeping on my hammock!! =]

during the 10 days there, we stayed in the singapore overseas camp.. pretty poorly funded and all.. learnt navigation skills in jungle, tips to not get 'holland' (lost) some native plants like tongkat ali.. lOlx.. did a compass course there that make elephant hill feel like nothing.. >.< highlight was the 4 days navigation exercise..

we spent 1st day looking for checkpoints in an undulating terrain of ridglelines.. before embarking on a 4km route march under the hot sun on the 2nd .. then crossing a small stream... then hitting the climax.. MT BIANG... wah biang eh!! thats we all like to say.. hahaz.. the climb up was xiong at parts when it was really steep.. we were in full battle order.. weapons, full pack and SBO.. we were practically doing pull ups using the trees to slowly climb the mountain.. our hearts sank whenever we climbed high and then had to climb down alot before ascending up again.. (ravines for geography students~) despite so, my group was the first to hit the top of mt biang or the near top which was our checkpoint... there we resided for the triumphant night with 3 other groups that made it before nightfall...

the 3rd day we started our descent which was excruciatingly long.. we spent about 1hour and 15min to climb up but we spent like 5hours to get down by the other side.. esp when we hit a river and followed it down the mountain.. there were parts where its a nice stream.. then places with HUGE slippery rocks.. with no other better route, we went down alot of huge rocks, slipping and sliding in our FBO down.. got the most bruises the cuts on that way.. was really treacherous.. but it all paid off when we hit the bottom of the mountain to do our combat swim across to end the exercise.. my grp was third to cross but despite all the fatigue and the load, i felt light weighted and swam with all my might with 3 other guys to the other bank...

we then went back and spent the last 3 days resting, practically doign stores and packing up stuff and then slacking... going to the canteen like 3 times a day to splurge on cooked food and drinks.. like ice logan, fish and chips etc etc.. aint really good and quite ex.. but we all were so glad to be back in this small type of civilisation of our camp...

on the last day, we went on R&R.. we went to museums, water village and had some meals in average hotels.. at night we went to the sultan's amusement park that opened just for us.. just the 200 or so guys went ard to the few rides opened.. at first i thought it'll be boring, but it had this thrill of walking in this huge park with just a few guys.. rode a lookout tower, a mini rollercoaster, the drop down ride and this SUPER POWER roller coaster.. loLx.. legs free i nv sat on such a headspinning ride.. was damn fast and kept turning ard and ard.. till i could barely make out if i was upright or upside down when it ended.. hahaz.. was really fun... then ended it with a musical fountain unlike singapore's huge laser, it was just coloured lights.. but it worked more on the water shapes etc instead of just 1 huge sprayer and images reflected like on sentosa.. i felt it was nicer that way.. and delved in my own world.. if only.............

hahaz.. but well we went back to sleep and woke up at like 3am and moved the luggage and took our flight home to singapore!! of course i hit the DFS shop and got some drinks.. hehz.... was surprised to see my mom at the airport coz its a working day.. but we had lunch and talk abt things.. and tml will be sungei gedong!!!

ARMOUR (Sungei Gedong)
yup.. including the 1+ week in brunei, i spent 3 weeks in armour.. the 2 weeks in armour so far was eventful.. first day, our so called orientation run was relax and when we thought it ended, our course commander said 'you guys are PATHETIC' and made us run again to this multi storey car park where he scolded us and did that kinda lecturing you see in US boot camps.. like pulling your shirt and scolding you in the face for this guy who talked in a file..

he then made us do sprints up the ramp.. about 200m? up and down.. for about 3 times.. then he made us compete section against section.. the 1st section will stop and rest.. the others will continue to compete for the 1st.. until the last section is left and will have to do fatigue duties.. i really sprint like crazy up and down.. my section was 2nd for the 1st round.. 2nd for the 2nd round then finally 1st in the 3rd round.. then my head was spinning and was on the verge of puking already but the course commander didnt show any sympathy to the guys.. but when it ended he spoke with alot of pride and managed to convince me that we had to do this to be commanders fit to lead our men in armour..

the next day we had this happy hour at night where we spent alot of time doing team building and ended with a beer intiation tradition in armour.. we all drank 1 mug of tiger beer shouting "i am an armour officer to be!" was funny coz some couldnt drink at all and others drank it like water so fast that put some instructors in a spot.. hahaz.. i myself drank 1 then kana saboh to drink another.. but was still sober as compared to the guys when we marched back, giggling sillily.. loLx..

from then.. the last week we spent mainly on runs EVERYDAY.. min being 2.4km and 5BX on some days and PT training on others... pt was like interval trainings, sprint jog for about 3-4kms... all in preparation for IPPT this tuesday.. hope it did bring my fitness back up.. hahaz.. but unlike safti, the pace was even fast but i didnt find it hard to get used to.. after all that xiong training in the morning, we still had lessons, now being the gunnery phase.. our smallest weapon being the GPMG.. and learnt heavy machine guy (30kg) and an auto grenade launcher(33kg) shooting huge rounds.. lOlx.. infantry 1 company got 3 GPMG.. we armour 1 tank for 3 GPMGs and 2 more huge guns.. kicka** man!! hahaz~~

but of course i'm also enjoying myself more in armour.. coz i know more people here~! hahaz.. finally got kai kian, another SRJCian in my armour infantry course, and of coz my platoon mates from ocs like benjamin and melvin... other wing mates who i didnt really know but knew my name.. fabian and jianming too in spec wing who we stumble upon at times.. and of course the new guys who i already know all 51 guy's name in 2 weeks.. back in BMT and OCS.. even after 9,18 weeks, i could say i only knew like 30 or 40 of them well.. maybe coz i'm the admin I.C, safety I.C, the timer, sole song leader, publication I.C, i was pretty prominent from the start due to all the admin matters i did.. contributed alot and helped alot more.. + the times in the bunk that we slack and talk cock in brunei... maybe thats why everyone know me in such a short time and talk to me as though we have been frenz quite long le..

think armour is pretty fun.. learn alot of interesting stuff.. other than the worry of getting confinements if less than 80% of our tests (i already passed 3) and the tekan when our senior instructors return from safti, its really enjoyable as the instructors are 2LTs so can really talk and joke with them during this course.. though sometimes i think my course getting too slack le, lets stay and see yup!!!

hahaz.. long entry eh? but it basically sums up the 3 weeks.. booking in back later at 10pm.. my usual book outs are 3-5pm on sat and book in at 10pm on sunday.. though yesterday i was disapointed coz i was looking forward for practically the whole week to meet up with fabby and co, then he told me yesterday he had something on, i wandered aimlessly after i went beach road to buy eqptment.. walked from there to bugis.. on the way managed to watch the fireworks of NDP rehearsal... was beautiful and lit up my spirits alittle.. at seiyu i looked ard abit.. oakley, kinokuniya etc.. bought tori q and cream ouff before walking to the bus stop.. missed the first bus 80 so decided to walk to the previous bus stop about 500m away.. missed the 2nd bus that the bus driver ignored me and instead took 107 to potong pasir then took train back.. though can say its aimless roaming alone while everyone else were in couples or groups.. it just felt good to be so relaxed...

kkz lar.. enough blabbering.. watching 3 more new anime series, da capo season 2, full metal panic: the second raid.. shuffle!.. as well as catching up on tsubasa reservoir, erementar gerad and voices of a distant star.. hehz.. maybe watch a few more yeah? take care people!!! got any outings do tell me k?? been spending really uneventful weekends recently.. hope to see you all!!!

dEminG
the pRIde of thE lanD.. thE aRmouR.. thE bLack BereT

My mind's unweaving/ 3:56 PM