It has to be the last week when you find people that irritates you most, hang around you most.

Take Stanley for example. We had to try out the SOC once through in clean attire, or something like that, meaning nothing on except for your clothes. There was quite sometime left in the early morning till lunch, and also no one got injured or fell on his head at one of the obstacles, so the PTI (physical training instructor) decided that everyone will go once through again, but now in SBO attire --- webbing, helmet rifle on.

Apparently, there is a station called the Horizontal Bar, where you had to balance your rifle on your hands, run up a relatively steep flight of steps that look like steps on a chicken coop. Then you'll have to walk on planks that are about 2 metres high, then jump off the end.

Adil was manning this particular station. The ass that Adil is, anyone will have to redo his station if you jump off wrongly. Yours truely did an error and had to re-do the station and that's also only because I jumped off using the wrong technique that might result in breaking my knees.

After everything when everyone ran back to the starting point having completed all the obstacles, we were to take off our equipment and rest. Our dear Stanley came back moaning:

"Wah lao eh....what the fuck. Adil made me redo the Horizontal Bar TEN times lah!"

"Whoah," says everyone.

I was hiding behind Iqbal who happened to be infront of Stanley. This is when I told Iqbal he's the kind of pussy who complains about anything, however slight they are, and never contributes to the platoon. I thought nothing of this cos suddenly, someone from our platoon came back. Me being the KPO one went off to ask if he's okay.

Back at the bunk some 45 minutes later, I loudly complained that I couldn't stand Stanley (omg...is that a play of words? ;) ) Iqbal related Stanley was crying after he told us of the TEN times he had to redo the Horizontal Bar.

C'mon lah....you had to redo onlt because you did it wrongly for NINE fucking times lor. I'm willing to bet my entire life savings that on your TENTH time, Adil probably told you to get the fuck out of there cos you've been hogging the beam for far too long, and not cos you've finally done it right.

And kid, stop moaning like a whore everytime we get tekan-ed cos you've been putting your knees on the ground doing improper pushups.


****


I got SILVER for my IPPT!!! That's why I can book out last night. From a fail to silver, from 5 chinups to 8 in a week.

Standing broadjump from 212cm to 225cm.
2.4KM timing from 11.45 min to 10.50 minutes.
Shuttle Run from 10.6sec to 9.7sec.
43 situps --- reduced this from my 55 record to save some energy.

And so Ulysses Company sent out her people in waves last night as a huge reward for giving her good IPPT result. Those who failed stayed back in camp to finish the breakfast rations in the cookhouse. Bless section 2 bed 1,2,4!

HAHAHAHA!!

I never thought this time will ever ever come at all, because all the time, I'll be doing something like running around, of busy getting punished, like in pushup positions, crunches positions, doggy-positions, jumping-jack positions, alternate leg-thrust positions.

Platoon Sergeant Ryan has already begun to take his leave since yesterday when we booked out. Funnily, he was taking his chiong-swaa helmet along, which almost led me to think he was going to ride his motorbike with the SAF helmet. Haha! Anyways, Ryan was pretty slack about our discipline yesterday. During the strength training exercise when we were supposed to be doing the 'cool-down' exercise for the crab-walking, he walked across the sand patch instead of crab-walking! We were like "WAH LAO EH!!!" Nonetheless, all of us gave our best.

And both platoon segeants asked us to do an area cleaning, cos they'll be doing an area inspection in the afternoon. After our excruciating efforts to clean the living hell out of that bunk, we ended up not having an aread inspection before book out cos it's damn late already to make it in time for the 5 o'clock ferry.

Damn. My room isn't even as clean as my bunk.

> Bollywood movies
>
>
> Things You Would Never Know Without Bollywood Movies
>
> 1. A man will show no pain while taking the most
> ferocious beating but
> will wince when a woman tries to cleanse his wounds.
>
> 2. If a large pane of glass is visible, someone will be
> thrown through
> it before long.
>
> 3. The hero cannot fall in love with the heroine (vice
> versa) unless
> they first perform a dance number in the rain.
>
> 4. Once applied, make-up is permanent, in rain or in any
> other situation.
>
> 5. Village girls who live among cows and sheep have
> perfect skin and teeth.
>
> 6. A large group of gundoos can be shooting at the hero,
> but he will
> never be hit, unless of course he is attempting to save
> the heroine.
>
> 7. A large group of gundoos can be shooting at the hero
> with machine
> guns, yet they will always miss. Every shot the hero
> takes from his
> small revolver will knock down at least ten opponents in
> a line.
>
> 8. If you decide to start dancing in a field, everyone
> you bump into
> will know all the steps, and will be wearing coordinated
> outfits.
>
> 9. It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a
> fight
> involving martial arts - your enemies will wait patiently
> to attack you
> one by one by dancing around in a
> threatening manner until you have knocked out their
> predecessors.
>
> 10. A heroine will have time to change outfits several
> times in one song, however short.
>
> 11. In the final scene, the hero will discover that the
> bad guy who he
> is up against is actually his brother and the maid who
> looked after him
> is his mother and the chief inspector is his father and
> the Judge is his uncle and so forth.
>
> 12. Key English words used in the movie (usually said
> out loud between
> sentences) are: No problem!, My God!, Get Out! Shut-up!,
> Impossible!, Please forgive me!
>
> 13. 2 people can be dancing in the desert and out of
> nowhere, 100 people
> will appear from god-knows-where and join them in the
> dance.

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject:  News from Gleneagles Hospita
> Date:  Thu, 18 May 2006 15:34:38 +0800
> From:  Jenny Goh
> To:  undisclosed-recipients: ;
>
> Hi,
>
> Not sure it is true but....
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject:  [Fwd: [Fwd: News from Gleneagles Hospital]]
> Date:  Wed, 17 May 2006 15:45:10 +0800
> From:  Michelle Chow
> To:  undisclosed-recipients: ;
>
> Dear friends,
>
> Just take note...
>
> News from Gleneagles Hospital
> URGENT !!!!! from Gleneagles Hospital Limited
>
>
> Seven women have died after inhaling a free perfume
> sample that was
> mailed To them. The product was poisonous.
> If you receive free samples in the mail such as lotions,
> perfumes,
> diapers etc. throw them away.
> The government is afraid that this might be another
> terrorist act.
> They will not announce it on the news because they do not
> want to create panic or give the terrorists new ideas.
>
> Send this to all your friends and family members.

It's long time since I posted any pictures of Callista. Today, she feels up to it to show you one of her vainest photos.









And tada!

Dear Lim XXXX XXX

APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION INTO SINGAPORE MANAGEMENT UNIVERSITY

We have considered your application to SMU. We are sorry to advise you that your application has not been successful.

SMU's admission process is based on a holistic system that is highly selective and competitive. We have recieved more than 10,500 applications this year. As a result, we are unable to offer places to many applicaitons whom we are confident can succeed at university.

We thank you for your interest in SMU. I wish you success in your educational endeavours.

Best wishes.

Yours sincerely

Christina Leong
Associate Director
Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

Here's the time when everything is a blur. 2 months ago, I was a chao recruit, waiting to see how many pull ups I can do. Or rather, how many pullups I cannot do. 2 months later and 3 more weeks to my passing-out-parade (POP), I still look forward to coming home every weekend, eating all the food that Ma cooks. If not, I'll be raiding the kitchen for something to chew on, be it biscuits or bread or leftover curry from last week --- yeah, I'm surprised its still not spoilt yet.

And in camp, everytime we take long walks around a.k.a. route marches, some joker will sing "When The Cold Wind Blows". It's then I'll secretly cry to myself while swinging my arms wildly, desperately straightening my arms so as not to be screamed at by any of the commanders. It is also then I sing quietly to myself Daniel Powter's Bad Day.

....Where is the moment when needed the most 
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost 
They tell me your blue skies fade to grey 
They tell me your passion's gone away 
And I don't need no carryin' on 

You stand in thelight just to hit a new low
You're faking a smile with the coffee to go 
You tell me your life's been way off line 
You're falling to pieces everytime 
And I don't need no carryin' on 

Cause you had a bad day 
You're taking one down 
You sing a sad song just to turn it around 
You say you don't know 
You tell me don't lie 
You work at a smile and you go for a ride 
You had a bad day 
The camera don't lie 
You're coming back down and you really don't mind 
You had a bad day 
You had a bad day ...

And sometimes, while in the bunk resting for that mere 20 minutes before we have another training, someone like Anand will sing this again to remind me of the pathetic state I'm in.

Face it, anyone who appears garang will have their soft side, the vulnerable side that threatens to break out when under pressuring times. It's also these times that you "suck thumb" --- swallow your tears --- appear strong solely to benefit those around you. Because it's amazing how one's emotions can bring down even the gayest of your comrades.

During these tough times, it is also when you show your strength, to suck all your emotions in swiftly to assure those who are in tougher state than you're in, to show them if you can make it, there's not a single reason while they cannot do as well.

Not that the reverse is not true.

During these tough times, when everything is crushing down on you, your friends, you look up and see your best buddies shining brightly, like an angel's silouette hovering above you, encouraging you on to do that last few pushups so that they won't be tekan-ed furthur.

It's during these tough times you remember 'Tough Training Doesn't Last. Tough Man Do'

I took a fucking long time to make this post. 2 days in total.
Think about it.

SITuational test, designed to be monitored by learned (former) instructors who are trained with the keen eye to spot those who have leadership blood in them, and those who are destined to be man.

I had my 3 day outfield beginning on Tuesday morning, when the entire Ulysses Company had to route march 12KM from our company line to the camp site, situated somewhere in the middle of Tekong. Needless to say, the 12KM march was a killer. Just when we were thinking back in field camp, that the 8KM march was just about the worst any mother's son can possibly receive as 'tough training', the 12KM owns all.

We had 2 X 24 rations, the normal Packs 1 to 7, including the permanent guest of Pack 6 consisting of PT shoes and slippers, inside the field back. 2 filled-to-the-brim 1 litre water bottles, a 2+++ kg rifle with a rifle sling that contributes to most of the upper body abrasions that all of us have, a rather low-quality helmet that served of no purpose except to train your neck muscles, and finally dressed in long-4 whicj I suppose is to train the largest organ on your body --- your skin. Total, roughly about 10kg at a conservative estimate.

I was supposed to have an interview with NUS on Wednesday, but on Monday late afternoon itself, I was assured by my brother that he'll try his best to re-postpone this interview again. This by itself is very very importantly because if I were to be withdrawn at any point in time of the SIT test, I'll have to re-take the test. Saaamura.

On Tuesday itself, the march was terrible. I wasn't crying like Burt claimed himself to be. But more like sleeping through the entire march because on Monday, we had a fucking time doing PT (physical training), and all the way to almost 10.00pm. With 30 minutes left to lights-out, nothing much can be done when we had to do everything from managing the fieldpack packs, to packing the extra thingys into our SBO.

And about 47 people have to shower within 30 minutes in that ultra small toilet.

So anyways, the SIT test starts only on the second day. We had to do 6 'missions' per day. At any point in time, if any mother's son is to fall out, he will be withdrawn completely from the SIT test, thus have to take the re-SIT test on 27th May instead. While doing the first mission, I received a call from Ryan through Lugman's mobile.

"Shawn, your brother just called. You have to go NUS for interview ah."

"OK! *pauses* Wait. Who is this?"

"Ryan lah."

"Orh...ok. So I have to re-SIT test?"

"Yah. I think so ah."

"Orh...ok."

"Where are you now? I send Rover to pick you up."

"Err....dunno. Wait, I ask [Sergeant] Lugman."

Here's when I passed the mobile back to Lugman. Intially, I was so happy. I thought, yay, I get to book out from this jungle. And NUS's finally going to see me after all the shit. So the Rover arrived soon after. I told the Liutenent that I had to take my leave, fall out from the mission. He said ok, wished me all the best, and wtf all that courtesy.

Back at the training shack, Audie told me I had to re-SIT test while I was sitting down cleaning my rifle. Ngiam was beside him. The shock settled in half-way; the terror of the 12KM march, the 6KM fast march in the morning, the thousands of knock-it-downs in the morning.

The Rover came over around 11.00am to bring me back to the company line, took around 8 minutes to get me back. That's when I ran up to my bunk quickly, shit and took a shower. By 11.30am, I was all ok, ready to go. So I ran down to the platoon office to get my mobile and wallet.

Ryan told me to call my brother to get details cos the information he got is rather blurry. I called Bro. He said he thinks I might have to do phone interview instead cos the Prof is rushing for time to hand in the list of things by 6pm. If I can make it by 6pm, then I'll be good. then he told me to call Ani, the person helping the Prof concerned.

I called Ani: she said a phone interview will be good enough, cos the Prof is rushing for time, and it's also to save me the trouble. She forwarded me to the Prof.

I called the Prof: he asked me loads of dumb questions that's not at all concerned with my academics, but more to the charity work, the CCAs, the community work I've done. (Which sad to say I've not done very very much.)

Therafter, I'm told that I'll be contacted if I'm admitted. End of interview, bye.

WTF???!!!

Millions of things started spinning. 12KM march. By now you should have noticed that I seem to be going on and on with the march. It's really one of the most terrible things I have done in my entire 19 years --- sleep walking. Then there's the extra weekend that I have to stay back this weekend to complete the SIT test. Another one long weekend that I have to burn.

WTF???!!!

I walked into the office to gather my stuff and explained to Ryan that I don't have to book out. Then I made another few calls to Ma, Bro to sort things out. Obviously since I don't have to book out, I have to go back outfield as a 'fallout'.

Back outfield one hour later where reality finally hit me. The ATTEN B/excuse people looked like they really need it. Some of them looked like they're stoned from the excess soil flying around. Some looked like they never ever touched a weapon in their life. Some looked like the sirs will kill them for the BBQ if thye ever made a sound around the training shack where practically nobody is around. A bunch of sick birds, I say. Though I'm not that tough myself, I think I'm still capable of doing 200 pushups at one shot if told to do so lor.

I dumped my stuffs back in the basha, then proceeded to stone while drowning a bag of Maggi, an energy bar, remains of a Holicks packet, a chysentemun packet --- partly to trick myself of the sorrow that I have to saamura my entire SIT test. The heavy rain that came down suddenly didn't help. The basha started leaking. I was alarmed, of course, quietly reminding myself to cuss Drew later for his faulty hole-ly ground sheet.

Later on I picked myself up, broought the RCK to the training shack, where I talked to Sir Ngiam for a bit, mainly him talking to tell me that since I want so badly to go command school, it's perfectly alright to burn a weekend to redo the test instead of regretting for the remaining 2 years as a man in some unit. I took everything in with a few tears still. Think of it, it's really really depressing to have to redo anything, not merely just the march itself.

I was resigned to the ultimate fact already. What to do? Cannot reduce the percentage of how I perform in the missions --- at least the sirs claim that it's not up to them to decide who goes to what and where and who passes or fails. Suck thumb lor.

The entire thing went on for the rest of the day and the following. I think I'm a commando compared to the sick birds already. They were lazy, doing slip-shot work which results wouldn't have made any difference compared to the beginning. Sweep? No. There's still ciggy butts all around the shack.

During the night, Drew kept my mine off the re SIT test.

"What lah...the re SIT is on 27th May. Sumpa!"

"Confirm boh?"

*refused to talk anymore and instead choosed to nod or shake his head*


*****


The next morning was an about turn. I fell out in the morning cos I thought I won't be joining anyways. But to my surprise around 8.30am when the supervising guys came in on the tonner, and while I was busy loading the empty jerry cans onto the other tonner.

"SHAWN LIM....RECRUIT SHAWN LIM!!!"

That's the CSM. Running down the tonner, I could hardly have ran faster.

"YOU CAN JOIN IN THE SIT TEST."

Imagine the joy.

Bloody hell! I don't have to re-SIT test!!!

Andrew was also jumping for joy. Probably cos he's having a new challenger for his place in OCS. HAHAHA!

WTF??!! Even Chris Daughtry is out? Nevermind. Katherine is still in.

I scooted off to watch MI:3 when I booked out yesterday morning. Well. Not in the immediate sense. The washing of the FBO (full battle order), that includes the field pack, the sand-choked webbing, and yes even the helmet that some use as an ornamental equipment for holding some goldfish, boiling water to drink, to sit on, and more popularly as a support for the webbing when sitting down-helmets off-chilling.

As you can probably guess, that entire package is rather alot. The duffle bag is a must to hold all that nonsense, resulting in hordes of men in aweful-looking greens all over the island dragging black bags along, making them look like air stewards from a weird airline.

Coffee? Tea?

So anyways, I watched Mission Impossible 3. Being on the secluded island, one pretty much forgets what's going on in the box offices saved for the occasional 8Days that I buy for the Section 2 guys (then the magazine will disappear again for good. But that's another story altogether).



The storyline itself was abit of expected. Someone's kidnapped, then Ethan Hunt was given the mission to save that someone. Unfortunately this time, that someone's his beautiful wife, so that kinda gave Hunt the extra incentive to move despite having to die to kill the bomb that's inserted into his head through the nose. So the dumbass literally shocked himself, trusting his wife to resusitate him although all the while she's been suspecting him of having another woman outside.

Screen directing for the scenes were excellent, well-coordinated. Explosive actions are around the corner. Hell. Even the inexperienced wife can shoot properly to protect her husband. I rather liked the scene when the drone came to destroy the convoy, as shown in the picture above. Mainly cos I saw it before in Cruises's previous movie War of The Worlds. Cruise was also running and running like a mad man, last time to save his 'daughter', and this time to save little Cruise from being blown to bits by the drone.

And hor, Cruise was speaking Mandarin! OMG. I was like "HUH??" I had to turn to ask my half-deaf brother WTF he's saying while running down the bank of a river in Beijing.

"闪开！让开!" (Dodge! Get out of the way!)

Good movie to watch if you have time to burn during your weekends. Get the DVD.