what an incredibly long week.

its week 12 (i think)..the last week of my sea soldier course in changi naval base. extremely fulfilling i would say. lets give it a boildown of what happened..monday to friday.

monday: had fire fighting course at CDA (civil defense academy). its a total of 2 day course. first day was basically just theory and simply practical lessons on fire extinguishing. interesting culture they have at CD. its nearly the same over at army/navy/SAF side..just that they wayang at a higher degree. haha. Mostly malays over there (dont question why)..they seemed closely knitted. so what we did after playing with water and CO2 extingiushers..we went over to the training shed and slacked there. haha. the circle ard us killed like 6 mosquitos and gathered all of them on a bench. haha..very funny 2 see like 4-5 ppl all lookin ard for mosquitos to kill. oh, and we get to play wif fire hose as well. its REALLLLLY powerful..the jet of water. i think they set the pressure at 9 bar ah? gosh..need like 1 man support u frm behind to stablize urself for the big hose. =x den can change the jet of water to a spray. lets juz say some "lost control" and got alot of ppl wet. :D

tuesday: the finale of fire fighting. gt transformed into hamsters to go into a maze to play ard. secenrio was that its simply darkness (yes..u cant see ur hands in front of u), u hv a buddy and an oxygen tank (very chor teng). then u navigate up down left right. very fun..haha. we're like..playing inside :p but its very xiong..cos u need alot of concentration. also, the pressure frm the tank allows u to breath super easily (study lung pressure). so breathin is like free..breathin out is hard though. anyawy..the bad part abt the breathing easily is that u cant control ur breath tat easily and thus, u'll tend to use up ur oxygen very easily. irritating but still..end of the day..so fun. :p had canteen break then went back to rest. no..correction..we had some sai gang to do. gettin the sea boats out into the ramp. so heavy......

wed: ok..our dear finale. sea expedition. the rumoured more xiong than SISPEC nutcracker event. what we basically do is we sit 8 ppl in a rubber dingy, provide them wif oars and let them row frm changi naval base (southern eastern tip of sg) to kallang basin (all the way in). inside our basin as we row..it was still pretty ok. there were no ocean currents to push us ard..and hence rowing was ok. but once we hit out of the basin, we begin to feel the waves. whether its pushin or pulling us along..we cant be bothered. all we knew was that we rowed our hearts out to try and get our boat to the resting checkpoint. 2 boats got stuck and literally was bounded for batam (or bintan?). 1.5 straight hrs of oaring and they were still stuck at the same spot. cant imagine the mental torture they went through. the rest who managed to hit the buoy rested, in this case nearly 2 hrs. in the end..to salvage the situation, CO onboard RHIB hv to ask for volunteers to swap rowers for them..if not they'll literally collapse from exhaustion. NB: we started at ard 0700. so there was like 5-6 checkpoints? i cant really describe the pain in rowing. basically..every stroke u do moves u like..ard 1 metre. the start was terrible. we rowed like man..hit the 1st checkpoint..glanced to our right and hey! we're still in CNB!! =x but when we hit to the coastal region with some babes (some only..so sad)..the morale became better. the best was when our platoon sgt managed to talk 2 VJC girls into coming into the jetty (i think tats wat its called..a structure jutting into the waters?) and they actually cheered us on by shouting and waving at us. GOSH!! imagine the impact (no comments on their looks..not at all :p). then we were like waving back like idiots too..haha. Yuan lai our PS also can work magic :p to think they're complete strangers and PS actually begged them. Kudos to PS!! u the man!! lol. this sea expedition was memorable. 1st..we became the 1st batch to actually hit to kallang basin. meaning..we reached our destination!! Yes! where no batches have done before!! haha. the 2nd thing was that we finished our expedition the fastest as well..around 1800. a good 11 hrs of rowing. ppl got sunburnt, seasicked and shagged. hai..it was a day to remember. i'll nver be able to appreciate solid ground, dry boots and vehicle transport (motors tat is) better. :)

Thursday: so we slept the night before..at ard 2230. totally not enough rest and we had to proceed to an operation. yep..this operation was a last min thing by our CO. as much as we protested..all our SWO could do was to comfort us with the words "I may disagree..but i will not disobey". so we went ahead with the operation. bascially..we had to do a POI at an ammo dump. it was crazy..since it was right after sea exp. it was from 1600 to the next day 0900. gosh..i've nver been so tired before. i actually cant resist sleepin on duty!! haha. when we had 1 hr rest during our shift..i fell so deep in sleep that my buddy (after shoutin damn loud) had to throw his helmet at me to wake me up =x. anyway..i/we planted a mole (haha) at the enemy base. he leaked out timin and events that will happen. to all those who sees this..please dont bao tou. thks! "8 pm molotov cocktails, fire @ store tentage 11pm, 12am machete, 2am vehicle bomb, 5am bomb sentry,7am sucide bomber+riot+car bomb with sch bus". u get the idea. it was a crazy night. e events didnt occur accordingly..bt its ard there. our poor commanders had a really crazy time coordinating everything. same as sea exp..that night was quite undescribable..just that it was crazy, fanatical, mad, extreme, and definitely ridiculous. we even had BSC assaulting us! haha. fatigue level was at the max from 5-7 onwards. at least for me. cos we cant really sleep during rest time with caterpillars (infantry and commando type. yes..they drop from the sky =x) and mosquitos everywhere. miserable night? oh yes..haha.

friday: our supposed POP date =x anyway..we slept in the morning and begin POP rehearsal in the afternoon. cant do much though..too tired. so SWO gave us a break (THANK YOU instructors) and we packed our bag, prepared for bookout! :) so here i am..still tired..but bloggin the longest but fun at the same time week of my course.

Extra notes: Mike Tango to Francis for fightin for me to go tuas. it may not be significant to others why..but it mean alot to me..both the fighting and the big favour CSM gave me. maybe there is hope in life n SAF too. should the outcome be changi..this post would be very diff. trust me. and thks to jon too, for listening.

outz`5th SSC, mighty among the mighty.