It's a Quiet Week at Home

Earlier this week, I went to the dentist to get a filling done. It was quite painful. It felt like he was scraped out the inside of my bad tooth then put in a metal screw and some paste that hardened after it dried. He told me that if my tooth hurts, then he will probably have to remove the filling and perform a 'crown'. Thank god my tooth stopped hurting after the second day or else I will get sleepless nights.

The dentist also mentioned that my braces should be ready to be taken off in a few more months. I am wondering if he is serious because every time I look in the mirror, I don't feel that they are ready yet.

This week has been a typical work week. I go about with my usual net-surfing and video-gaming. Unfortunately, my three-month-old television set appears to be spoilt. Every few minutes, the picture would go fuzzy and there would be a loud buzzing sound. I suspect that my TV got damaged because my old air-conditioner started leaking again. It's the same problematic air-conditioner that killed my previous television set when it dripped water all over it. I should've asked my parents to get it fixed a long time ago. At least I can still play the PS2 with no problems. I'm currently playing Monster Hunter 2.

Scary Movie 4

I watched Scary Movie 4 on last Friday. As expected of the series, it is very funny & entertaining though the plot makes no sense and the ending is abrupt. The thing I like about the Scary Movie series is that it spoofs other movies and sometimes, it makes me want to watch or read up about them. This time, the main plot follows War of the Worlds. Good thing I watched that before so I could grasp the jokes. The show also pokes fun at the Grudge, The Village and Saw (I went to read about Saw at Wiki and it is a totally sick & sadistic movie).

The most funniest scene to me has got to be the 'boxing match'. haha. I was still laughing non-stop minutes after the scene was over. It was hilarious. The show really makes me want to re-watch the first 3 Scary Movies. I wonder if anyone has any 'lobangs'.

Anyway, this is the second movie beginning with 'S' that I have watched this month. The last 'S'-titled movie will be out this week. hehe.

Silent Hill

I went to watch Silent Hill with Darrell, Calvin and Wende yesterday night at Cineleisure (since not all cinemas are showing it). Every time I see the movie poster, I am somehow reminded of this emoticon. :X

The show lasted 2 hours and was quite intense. Most of the scenes were intended to be freakish rather than scary. I felt that the plot was pretty good and, at the end, all the questions are answered. I think I have not watching a movie in Cineleisure in a looooong time because I didn't realize that there were toilets in each cinema. This is great for people like me who needs a toilet break during long movies and not miss out too much.

This is the first of the trio of movie titles beginning with 'S' coming out this month that I plan to watch. I think everyone can pretty much guess the other two.

Monster-Hunting Addiction

I am still addicted to Monster Hunter Freedom. I even changed my deskstop wallpaper recently. I think it's kinda nice. Sorry, nothing else to type but I just didn't want to see my blog empty.

Everything Back to Normal

Oh, well. Things have returned to normal now after my ICT. I have gotten the week off so I am quite free. I am wondering what I can do to pass the time again.

I am still addicted to my PSP. Clocked nearly 150+ hours on Monster Hunter Freedom but so long as there are friends to play with, I don't think I will ever get sick. hehe.

There seems to be several interesting movies this month; Silent Hill, Scary Movie 4 and Superman. I hope to be able to watch at least Scary Movie 4 and Superman. hehe.

Starting from next month, I will be going for RT. I hope it is not too tough. I know I will never be able to pass my IPPT but at least I hope I can lose weight through RT.

Hell Week is Over

Finally, the hellish week was over. No more ICT till next year. Wee.

[ Monday ]

Booked into camp. Morale was very low. At 1:30 pm, we loaded stores and boarded the 3-tonner. We arrived at the site at around 3 pm. The near-bank TCPs (Traffic Control Points) deployed first. Mine was TCP23, the last checkpoint before the river crossing. It's just a sandy road leading to the harbor. We are also in charge of a Holding Area, which is just atop a hill for people to park their vehicles before they cross.

We started operating at 6 pm. My duty was from 10 pm to 12 midnight. Since it was the first day, no vehicles attempted to cross the river. The 2 hours passed veeery slowly as I chatted with my section I/C, Andy. The motorcycle platoon smuggled in chicken rice. It was heavenly. At night, I tried to get some sleep on my groundsheet. It was horrible; every few minutes, I would hear mosquito buzzing around my ear and I would try to swat them away. This repeated throughout the night and I don't think I got any sleep. At 2 am, some tanks came into our Holding Area to do practice support fire.

[ Tuesday ]

It began to rain very heavily from 8 am onwards. The weather was reported CAT1. Everyone stayed in the 3-tonner and chatted for hours. Thanks to the rain, I skipped my 10 am duty. Everyone prayed the rain would last all day and it'd be an 'exercise cut' but I guess it is wishful thinking on our part. The rain finally stopped in the afternoon. No vehicles again for the whole day. It was a waste of time.

At night, the first convoy came by and everyone was real busy. I was very nervous during my duty at 10 pm. Andy told me to man the telejay while he halted and directed traffic. It was quite horrible as the convoys arriving did not tally with our vehicle sheet; seems like commanders switched convoy numbers at the last minute. It was hell. One senior guy named Wong came out to assist us cos' two guys were simply not enough. The telejay kept ringing every five minutes and it was stressful relaying information between my section-mates and the Exchange. Our PC complained that we needed more men at the Holding Area, so everyone who got off duty had to go there for... even more duty. I slept at around 2 am but could still see and hear convoys coming in.


[ Wednesday ]

I woke up and was surprised to hear that we were down to the last few convoys. This means that vehicles kept constantly coming in throughout the night while I slept. Unfortunately, I had food poisoning. My tummy was hurting like mad. Had to go do my business on a hillside and I saw pieces of tissue everywhere, too.

My duty was at 10 am again. It was quite busy. As usual, the telejay buzzed like crazy. There was a miscommunication and I almost got F'ed by the Exchange. The senior, Wong, was still around and helped talked things out with them (I would later learn that Wong actually was being a super-man by assisting every single duty personnel that needed help, in addition to his own duties.) With a lot of help, the last convoy left to cross the river. The exercise was cut soon at around 1 pm. Everyone was elated. My tummy was hurting. On the way back to camp, I almost puked due to motion sickness. We were allowed to go home at night.


[ Thursday ]

Returned to camp in the morning to do washing and accounting of stores. Nothing happened. Spent most of the day sleeping and booked out at night.


[ Friday ]

Alas, the final day. Everyone was in high spirits until a series of major screw-ups happened. We were supposed to out-process in the afternoon at around 2 pm. Suddenly, it was reported that the Medic platoon lost like 5 stretchers (the thing is so big, how is that even possible?!). Everyone was held back in the training shed while investigations were going on. Time passed very slowly. We did nothing and idled till around 6 pm (that's 4 hours!). It didn't help that one idiotic Captain kept pestering us to do area cleaning 3 times. One of our guys finally broke down and openly said he was going to lodge a complaint since it felt like the Captain was doing it on purpose. With everyone's low morale and bad mood, a few sided with the guy and started hurling abuse at the Captain. It was a nightmare for me; I just want to book out and what they were doing weren't helping. Our PC & PS came to help calm the situation.

Finally, at around 7 pm, we were allowed to go. After each person forked out $2 to pay for the lost stretchers, of course. It was so late already. What a waste of time. I just hope what the 'complaint guy' did will not make the unit condemn us when we come for our next ICT.

ICT - The Finale!

*Sigh* I am having the same feeling as last Sunday all over again. Feeling scared as well as having low morale. Thanks to everyone who spent the day playing MHF with me.

Tomorrow I will be going for my outfield exercise. I will probably be back by Friday. I am just scared that I will screw up my duties. I hope that I will be back safely. We'll meet again next weekend.

Weekends Are Here! A Break from ICT

Friday was quite hectic for me. While in camp, we mainly loaded stores and made other preparations for Monday's exercise. We were able to book out at around 5 pm My mother came to pick me up. I thought of asking her to fetch me to Ang Mo Kio while I changed clothes in the car, but then I asked her, "Do I smell... really bad?" She just nodded and it was then I decided it was better to just go home and take a bath first. I arrived at FunZ Centre at around 6:30 pm and immediately started playing MHF with Orchi, Darius, Calvin and Michael. It has been a week since I have come out to play. It was really refreshing and a fun.

On Saturday, Himura invited me to his birthday dinner with Lionel, Orchi, DS, JokerZ. It was a buffet at a Chinese restaurant whose name escapes me for the moment. This was unlike other buffets I've attended; we just ordered whatever we wanted off the menu and the waiter would bring them to us. It was very filling. I was glad to have a good proper meal after one week of ICT.

Tomorrow is Sunday already; my last day to enjoy myself. The past week in camp had been super-slack but Monday will be the real deal. I think I am going to be worried sick over it. Coincidentally, though, Miya told me that he will be involved in an outfield exercise next Monday and it happens to be the same as mine (EX Tiger Strike aka Giant Buaya). I will be on MP duty at TCP 23 and Holding Area 9 for 3-4 days. I wonder if I will be able to see him. hehe

Middle of First Week ICT

The past few days in Seletar East Camp has been very slack. Tuesday was especially crazy; we booked in at 8 am and the commanders had nothing for us to do. We slept all the way till 4:30 pm and booked out. I have never felt so sick of sleeping before. Now I know why people say ICT is a good way to take a break from working life.

Anyway, this lull period in ICT is going to end soon. For Thursday and Friday, there will be a lot of work to be done and preparations to be made for next week's outfield exercise. To be honest, I am actually quite horrified of it. I can't imagine spending four whole days in the jungle doing standard MP duties. It's something that I wouldn't mind if I was still an NSF but, for god's sake, we are reservists! *Sigh*

Oh, well. I better treasure my time this week. My ICT isn't as terrible as I thought it was. At first, I thought it would be torture everyday for the whole of two weeks. Now I realize it is basically slacking for the first week and extreme suffering for the second.

ICT~ ICT~

Yes, I am at home. It turns out that my ICT does not require us to stay-in for the first week. The hint came when the CSM said that dinner was not indented and we were not issued any pillow cases or sheets for our beds. So this means every night, I can book out and return the following day before 8 am. However, the real deal is next week when we go for the 4-days 3-nights field camp which means no one can go home. There is even a possibility we have to move out this Sunday (please, not Sunday). I dub it hell week. I still can't believe that the field camp is so long for reservist. Damn.

I finally know that I am with 316 SCE's Provost company. I talked to a few seniors and learnt thta we were there mainly to give support to the main body who will be executing Exercise Giant Buaya. So at least I am not the one building bridges and crossing rivers.

Everyone spent the whole day at Seletar Camp doing in-processing. Basically just idling around, going to the e-Mart or canteen and then finally being assigned a platoon/section. I managed to befriend two guys, Andy and Zee. I am not really close with everyone else probably because of the age gap. So many old bird reservists and I am a freshie.

Oh, well. I have to go to sleep at 1 am every night now so I can wake up early. I think I am quite fortunate that Seletar East Camp is 20 min from my home by car. hehe.

Sunday - Last Day Before ICT

Today was quite a hectic day. I actually wanted to stay home but then I decided to go out. I went to get my hair cut first at 12 noon, then after that, I went to FunZ to meet the usual group to play more MHF. Even in such dire times, I am still addicted. MHF has consumed my soul.

I left early, though. I reached home at around 7:30 pm and began packing and sorting my stuff. My brother reassures me that reservist will be very slack but what I have is fear of the unknown cos' I have absolutely no idea what I am in for. Some people may feel that I am being paranoid over nothing. That is true to a certain extent but I also don't want to be overly optimistic about it then go there to find out it is a living hell.

I played more of MHF to pass the time at night. I managed to hit my target (i.e. completing single-player 5-stars) before putting my PSP to rest until I can touch it again the next time I come home. It is quite late now. I have to report to Seletar East Camp at 7:30 am and I am planning to sleep at 1 am then wake up at 6 am. All my stuff are ready and I am still very scared. I hope that everything will turn out fine.

The past week had been very fun for me. Thanks to everyone who had made it very enjoyable, especially the MHF gaming sessions.

I will post again when I get a chance to book out, which I hope will be the following weekend.

Saturday - Feeling Down

I was quite excited today as it would be a fun-filled Saturday. I went to FunZ early at around 12:30 pm. I hung around and waited till Orchi and Darius came before going to McDonald's to play MHF. We were joined by Calvin and Michael later for more gaming fun. I didn't realize before how time flies when playing MHF. We did several quests and it was already 5 pm.

In the evening, Himura came with Joker, Jeffrey and Darrell. We went to watch X-Men: The Last Stand at 6:50 pm. The movie was pretty alright. There was a lot of action and it was great but I felt that the way they handled some of the charaters was pretty wrong (from a comic-book fan's perspective). Overall, the show was quite dark & sad.

After the movie, I began to feel moody. Maybe cos' I was back to reality. It was night already and I was beginning to feel the pressure that I had one day left. At first, I thought I was imagining things but even Himura pointed out that my face looked pale. I am back home now; I can't really explain my feelings. I had planned to stay home on Sunday but I think I may want to go out one last time and reach home early to make preparations.