The difference 1 second made

The story is fictional but based on several true accounts.

I woke up to the shuffling of slippers outside. I opened my eyes and turned to check the time on my watch. It read 5.50 am. A sense of dread hit me as soon as I realized what was going to happen later.

On the way to the toilet, Toh saw me and told me that he was going down to the armskote. He reminded me that I could draw my sar21 after I came back from breakfast. Thanking him but still feeling sian, I went to brush my teeth, empty my bowels and proceeded to the cookhouse to scan my card. Absolutely wrong timing to be there because those AISL corporals and OTW cadets were forming long lines for the food. No choice but to wait in line for 20 minutes.

Drew out my sar21 (butt no A34), empty magazine and bayonet from the armskote after the breakfast. Went up to the bunk and changed up to the dirtiest no 4 I had. I decided to just stone in bunk before the whole dreary event began.

The duty spec soon shouted "Attila company fall!!" He had to shout at least a few times before anyone came down. I really envied the people doing saikang. Just hope that I could pass soon and end this hell. After going through the routine warming-up and conducting officer's brief, we made our to the starting point.

The starting point used to be beside the medical centre but had since shifted. The commanders were in the earlier details so I had to wait for quite some time. All the butterflies suddenly flew into my stomach and the adrenaline was really rushing in my blood stream. Made repeated visits to the medical centre toilet but no pee came out. Yeah it was that tensed.

Finally it was my detail's turn. Some of my friends would be pacing me. However their encouraging words did little to sooth my nerves. I lined up with the rest of the detail, hoping this would be the last time. Ready..... GO!!

Running down the first stretch, some of the quicker ones were already breaking free of the rest. Told myself not to be nervous and just go at a steady pace. It was important not to get punctured before reaching the obstacles. At the Armour Heritage Centre junction, I check the time on my clock. I took slightly over a minute.

I already started to feel the strain when running along the cookhouse. Check the time again when making the right turn at the HQ Armour ramp. Over 2 minutes had elapsed. I could see some of the frontrunenrs already slowing down. Reminded myself again about the importance of pacing.

I slowed down as I approached the low wall. Took me slightly less than three and a half minutes which was my expected timing. The low wall required more of upper body strength to push yourself up and over the wall. Next up was the parallel bars which I hated. Struggled with that all the time.

I don't know what was the name of the 3rd station but it was probably one of the easiest ones. Only need to step on a wooden beam and jumped over the non-existent con-wire. (They had since repaired it.) Monkey bars was next. It was an obstacle many people had problem with and some even ended up with bloody hands. The key to overcome it was momentum and never hang on the bar thinking about the next move. Just go on without stopping and you will be amazed it wasn't that hard after all.

Low rope changed from my most-hated obstacle to my favourite one. I didn't know the technique at first and couldn't go up easily. Once I understood the technique it became much easier. It became my favourite because it was the last xiong obstacle in my opinion. The subsequent ones were much easier.

Had to unsling the rifle and cross the wooden beam followed by walking on the swinging bridge. Witnessed Tang Shi Feng fell down reminded me not to dash across it. Balancing beam was scary the first time and my legs were trembling. Got used to that after so many training sessions. The window was fairly easy and I didn't have much of a problem with Jacob's Ladder. I landed on my knees in the sand after jumping down the low ramp and picked myself up for the last 600m.

Struggling to sling back my rifle, I checked the time again. Six minutes gone. Still have roughly three and a half minutes to reach the finishing point. The pacers were either encouraging me or fucking me to go faster. It was really damn fucking shag. I was panting like siao already. My lungs were going to collapse if I went any faster.

Along the canteen stretch I could feel my legs giving way. However passing this fucking test was the only thing that motivated me to keep moving. One last time, the timing was good, don't fucking screw it. Mind had to be stronger than body.

Down to the last stretch after turing right at the HQ Armour ramp, I could see the finishing line. However the distance seemed fucking far for me now. It really tooked an eternity to reach the finishing point. The pacers were really shouting themselves hoarse. Come on... you can do it... last time already... open your legs bigger... the finishing line is just in front.

As I went across the finishing line, the storeman Jeremy past me a number disc. A sigh of relief came over me. I was panting as if I was suffering an asthma attack and my legs just gave way. Some guys dragged me to the side and helped me take off my SBO and rifle. Another guy had a cup of water ready for me.

Struggling to catch my breath, I asked around whether I had passed. To my amazement, my timing was fucking 9.30!!! This was really the ultimate timing to get. I don't know whether to be bemused or pissed. The consolation was that there would be no remedial training for me today. knnccb.... There would be people encouraging me and told me how close I was but there would be others who kaopeh me (Zhihong?) for getting the timing.

My PC was the conducting officer and he told me that I would be attached to Cheetah 2 days later to take my test again. How to recover within 2 days... Sian sia... All because of the freaking 1 second.

Irresponsible Neighbour

what a big dent....

I was going out to have dinner with family just now and to our rude shock we discovered that our family car was banged on its right side. My father had parked it near the carpark entrance at about 11 am and when we went down at about 5 pm it was already wrecked.

From the damages, we deduced that the car responsible was probably a white SUV because the there are white paint stuck on the dent and only the bumper of a SUV can inflict such a big dent. My father went to find the security guard while my mother, sister and I went around to see if the car responsible was still around. The security guards later joined in the search as well. We didn't find any car with dents and it was pretty obvious that the car was driven away.

The security guards said that they can only check the CCTV tomorrow because the cameras are still running now. The culprit definitely stays here because the carpark is restricted to residents only. It's only a matter of time that he/she will be found. Even if he or she can't be found, the management should be held responsible for the damages.

The whole incident leaves a bad taste in our mouths because the neighbour chose to run away. Probably he or she is just a new driver who is driving the parents' car. However that does not make him/her less liable. Perhaps I can use my law knowledge to sue for damages.

Saikang

It was kind of weird when I received a sms from Ken Ang yesterday afternoon. He asked me whether I was free in the afternoon and could help him with some decoration stuff. He promised that it would take about an hour plus to complete. Being a nice guy, I agreed to help him.

I met up with him at the library and while we walked towards the Business School to get some stuff, a familiar figure caught my eyes. It turned out to be Fabian, our classmate from secondary school. It was really a surprise to see him as he is studying in NUS now. He happened to be in the area and had time to spare before his Young Lions training . He couldn't find any space at the national library and decided to study on one of the benches outside Business School instead.

Fabian was commenting on how nice SMU's environment is and he already saw a few pretty girls walked past him. I would say it's more of the case of the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Ken decided to bring Fabian to the admin block conference hall where he would be doing his decorations. The air-con was super strong and the condition there was much better than the haze outside.

While Fabian settled down to do his stats tutorial, Ken began his decoration of the stage. There would be a SSU Awards presentation ceremony today and Ken volunteered to be part of the organising committee. I was like... ermm... Ken... haven't you done enough saikang in NS....oh i forgot... you only s**k your CO.....haha....

The other decorators had something on and Ken was the only one left. I was dragged along to accompany him. We managed to finish preparing the tables and tried to do the decoration of the stage. It was rather tedious and I gave it up after a while but Ken persevered. In the end the decoration was too ugly and Ken decided to wait for the other decorators to do together in the evening.

Although I didn't help him much, Ken still treated me to the promised dinner. But unless he treats me to lobster the next time, I'm not willing to do this kind of saikang job again.

Bike Trip in Pengerang

Today I went for the SMUX bike trip in Pengerang, Johor. I signed up for it 2 weeks ago with Ken and was supposedly to be in the same team as him. However we got split up and I thought that I would be in the same team as Guangjun aka Weibo. In the end both of us were assigned to different groups and I knew none of the people in my group.

It's not that bad since you don't really need to talk much while you are cycling. My group consisted of 2 year 4 gls (group leaders), another 2 year 4 girls and 7 freshies including myself. On the boat trip there I managed to strike a conversation with the female gl (happened to sit beside me). She told me about her CIP at Cambodia, biking trip in Tibet as well as her exchange at Belgium. While listening to her colourful university life, I realized that she is exactly the kind of student every school hopes to produce. It's obvious that her time in SMU has been fulfilling and she has accomplished a lot of things.

For a moment, I am wondering what kind of university life I wish to lead. Is it either only just studying or doing the minimum required? Is it about having fun or achieving the goals you set? It will be good if at the end of the 4 years I'm able to look back and be proud of what I have accomplished during my university days. However not everyone can be like the gl. Passion, an important factor, is something which I sorely lack (according to Kok Wai and I agree that it's rather true). I have to admit that my desire or rather the lack of it hampers the realization of my full potential. All it takes may be just putting in a little more commitment but the step seems too big for me most of the time.

Well I have digressed enough. The cycling trip was pretty straight forward. We would cycle to the restaurant where we would have our lunch and then cycle back to the jetty to catch the bumboat back to Singapore. The one-way distance was only about 16km but my group actually took more than one and a half hours to complete that. Lunch was alright and the others were saying that they had better food when they last went there for recce. We managed to squeeze in a round of dessert after lunch before setting off for the return ride back to the jetty.

I took roughly 1 hr 10 minutes to complete the return trip. I couldn't really keep up with the fast cyclists which I think was probably due to the quality of the bike as well as my lack of fitness. On the whole, I feel that the trip was not bad. If there wasn't the haze it would be so much better. I reached Singapore at 6pm with my face, arms and legs sun-burnt. Now I can still feel heat emitting from my body.

Among one of my group members, there was this guy who was too ya-ya to my liking. Since I don't know him well, I won't want to judge him too quickly but some of his actions really turned me off. I could see that he was very knowledgeable but unfortunately not everyone was interested. He was too eager to share his knowledge in my opinion. Furthermore I still couldn't figure out the reason why he needed to bring his GPS along when the route was so straight forward and so many people had cycled on it before. Whatever good intentions he might have, I could only feel that he was showing off. I also got this feeling that I'm not the only person feeling this way.

Of course I didn't show any displeasure to his actions because there is a chance that he isn't what he seems to be and is possibly the most helpful guy around in reality. However my little advice for him will be a little subtlety when dealing with unfamiliar people doesn't hurt. Since not everyone can understand your true intentions, it's best not to have the in-your-face attitude to prevent misunderstandings. Well if he's really the sort of person that my first impression makes him out to be, hopefully our paths won't cross again in the future.

Something that happened to me today...

This morning I had business law class at the School of Business. As I knew that the lesson would be a long one I decided to visit the ground floor washroom before the class started.

As I pushed open the washroom door, I was immediately stunned by the sight. Oh my god!!! There was a girl inside!!! She was super stunned as well. The first thought that went through my mind was that when did the gents become ladies toilet... I double-checked the sign on the door and confirmed that it read M E N. If it was the other way round, I would be known in the whole school as a pervert by now. Most probably my name will be on tomorrow's Straits Times as well.

The girl realized that she had missed the urinals and made a mistake. She quickly apologized and left hurriedly. I bet that she must be super embarrassed and wished that the ground would open up for her to hide.

Well she needn't worry because I can't recall how she looks like already. Even if someone points a gun at my head to identify her out, I also cannot remember.

Hmmm... Anyway I decided to use the cubicle instead of the urinal just in case if another girl walks in by mistake again.

Al Kader Family Restaurant anyone?

Noticed that I haven't blogged in a week. I didn't have any new entry because I got nothing much to write about, not because I've been busy. Unlike the other SMU students who seem to be all busy mugging, I haven't been studying as much as I will like to be. Hmmm... What an irony.

Last Friday was supposed to be a good day because I was supposed to go to JB with the durian gang and Wai San. In the end, I realised that I forgot all about the Creative Thinking (CT) meeting and had no choice but to go for that instead. Well I can see that they had fun in JB but too bad I couldn't make it. For me I get to know a few of my classmates better at the end of the meeting. One of the guys was an officer in 42 SAR and both of us agreed that Chia Kin Wei is a bloody !@#$%. Haha... NSF so garang for fuck.

Saturday was the CT grading session. Well I don't think that I contribute anything very constructive throughout the planning amd neither did I play a particular important role in the performance. From my observation, working with such a big group is not an easy task. I can see that the big wigs were under quite a lot of pressure to come up with a good performance which everyone agreed to. Nevertheless I think that our concept isn't bad and it's job well done at the end.

Saturday evening was disastrous because Liverpool lost to Bolton. 3rd away defeat of the season so it seems to be another long season for us. We lack the cutting edge at away games and were quite unlucky with the refereeing decisions. I think that the league will be a lot more tighter because the middle tier teams like Villa, Everton and Bolton are getting points off the big clubs. Seriously I think that we are not out of the title race yet but Rafa needs to sort us out real soon. I believe he definitely has the ability to do that.

I was feeling quite pissed and decided not to watch both Arsenal and Chelsea games. In the end went to have supper with Aik Heng, Wai San and Shahid at Al Kader Family Restaurant. Chilling out and talking cock until 2.30 am. Quite fun sia.... Talk about everything under the sun....

So guys when is the next talk cock session??