Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Tanning @ the Padang

Once again, we've taken on a new role for the next two weeks - sun tanning at the Padang. Well, seriously as my CO (commanding officer) puts it (as he spoke to us today), we are construction workers. Yeah, we are the ones to do all the manual labour as my battalion dismantle the stands. We are on a pretty tight schedule as well, with the army half marathon in about 4 weeks, thus for the 2 weeks we are working, we have to work like mondays to saturdays (football nights!)

Our CO came today due to an accident to one of my platoon-mate yesterday, though I'm not at liberty to disclose what happened as its supposed to be a hush-hush incident, what I can say is at the moment the stands aren't as stable as they were 1 week ago.

Disgusted people wearing our vest slacks through Raffles City, you could tell by some of their disgusted looks. However, I can't really be bothered about how people perceive us anymore, not when you are in the sweltering heat and all you want is a brief washup in a clean (and not mobile!) toilet. Besides, no one gives a damn whatever we are doing for our nation.

The upside of this though, it means I can stay out everyday (other than the transport fees which we can forget about claiming when in green), go out with the missus more often, actually not book in for almost 3 weeks, and most of all - nothing beats being able to sleep in the comforts of your own home. Seriously even if you were to ask me to do all the hard, manual labour for the remainding one year or so of my army life whilst allowing me to stay out, I wouldn't mind. Yes, I certainly feel brighter not having to be in camp.
Once again, we've taken on a new role for the next two weeks - sun tanning at the Padang. Well, seriously as my CO (commanding officer) puts it (as he spoke to us today), we are construction workers. Yeah, we are the ones to do all the manual labour as my battalion dismantle the stands. We are on a pretty tight schedule as well, with the army half marathon in about 4 weeks, thus for the 2 weeks we are working, we have to work like mondays to saturdays (football nights!)

Our CO came today due to an accident to one of my platoon-mate yesterday, though I'm not at liberty to disclose what happened as its supposed to be a hush-hush incident, what I can say is at the moment the stands aren't as stable as they were 1 week ago.

Disgusted people wearing our vest slacks through Raffles City, you could tell by some of their disgusted looks. However, I can't really be bothered about how people perceive us anymore, not when you are in the sweltering heat and all you want is a brief washup in a clean (and not mobile!) toilet. Besides, no one gives a damn whatever we are doing for our nation.

We have Tricon sponsoring our meals everyday, leaving the Padang guards closed to being super sick having eaten it for the past 2 months (well about once every three days). However, I foresee myself growing sick of it too eventually and probably abstaining from KFC/Pizza Hut for the subsequent 2 to 3 months after.

The upside of this though, it means I can stay out everyday (other than the transport fees which we can forget about claiming when in green), go out with the missus more often, actually not book in for almost 3 weeks, and most of all - nothing beats being able to sleep in the comforts of your own home. Seriously even if you were to ask me to do all the hard, manual labour for the remainding one year or so of my army life whilst allowing me to stay out, I wouldn't mind. Yes, I certainly feel brighter not having to be in camp.

My auntie upon seeing me today ... (thinking she was going to commend on my red lobster imitation):

"How come some parts of your face red and the rest not red?"

Myself "..."


Whilst walking with Pte Lee today, got reminded of something he wasn't really proud of when we 1st went back to camp from our course. We had a parade at that time so he wanted to shave his sideburns, but somehow or rather he shaved it all away right up to his forehead level! Haha the whole platoon were laughing their head off at that time and eventually he managed to salvage the situation after the parade by going to shave the rest out evenly.

Isit strange seeing a guy in uniform holding a stalk of sunflower walking through the City Link mall? Seems to be, apparently from some weird stares I got and as Pte Lee was saying, 2 gals who passed by us were mentioning something about "Sunflowers". Wouldn't happen in Europe would it?

Whilst walking with Pte Lee today, got reminded of something he wasn't really proud of when we 1st went back to camp from our course. We had a parade at that time so he wanted to shave his sideburns, but somehow or rather he shaved it all away right up to his forehead level! Haha the whole platoon were laughing their head off at that time and eventually he managed to salvage the situation after the parade by going to shave the rest out evenly.

Isit strange seeing a guy in uniform holding a stalk of sunflower walking through the City Link mall? Seems to be, apparently from some weird stares I got and as Pte Lee was saying, 2 gals who passed by us were mentioning something about "Sunflowers". Wouldn't happen in Europe would it?


Original Post | Linus' Daily Antics




10 comments:

incognito said...

the part about your CO saying you are construction workers brings me back to BMT when my CO said there is no such thing as saikang!

k said...

Mmm hmm, it's called fatigue duty. Ostensibly. But I find saikang a far less demoralising term - it doesn't sound as tiring as "fatigue duty"

Finsology said...

I study behind the Padang..Lucky us get to feast on eye candy everyday...Army boys drive my girl friends nuts! Eeks!!!

Linus said...

then u prob study @ TMC @ capitol centre ... er eye candy @ the padang ... haha don't seem to see any

Unknown said...

Suggest that you view this dismantling task as an intelligent one... Remember the defence said they want to develop "Smart Soldiers"? :P

k said...

Oh no, not another uniform fangirl...

intelligent task? possibly..it all depends. It takes some brains to move big heavy things without too much effort. I've seen people who haven't actually considered the possibility of breaking them up into smaller component parts, opting to shove and heave instead.

Linus said...

yeah yeah so much for thinking soldier s ... oh don't worry we don't have to do much manual labour tis few daes its simply unscrewing the giant towers into its many pieces n leaving the rest of the work to the crane ...

and many atimes its like when you are the men on the ground you always think why don't we do tis instead and then u get officers (some wifout using their heads) telling you its only one way and no other method

k said...

Mmm, I wouldn't know, I haven't been in those shoes before. The one time I've been supervising army "banglas" was when they had to shift beds from oen bunk to another. They seemed quite satisfied with the decisions I made... but then again, I'm the MTO, and naturally managed to get them a 5-ton to shift 12 beds about 700m away...

We, the citizens... said...

now THAT'S a thinking ocifer!

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