Baris Sediya!

Well.. to start off, I wld like to explain my title of my blogpost today.. For those of you who are not able to converse well in Malay or have not attended NS at all for your whole life (darn!) or you are only going into NS after 2-3 yrs time, the phrase simply means "the people on the Parade Square to stand at attention!"

Well.. you may ask me why the sudden NS command posted on my blog! Oh well.. read on to find out more..

For those of you who did not know, TODAY is the FIRST day tat GOH is together as a shift lah!

This morning went to camp half awake.. slept late last nite and was super tired lah.. so ya..

After some dragging of time in camp and other unforeseen circumstances, we had our first GOH briefing at like 1000. During the briefing, we were told the days we are mounting duty (yes! The GOH shift has to mount duty as well! All thanx to the low manpower in camp!) And yes.. I'm doing duty for 3 consecutive Saturdays.. so this means tat I wld not be able to go to church.. haix.. =(.. not only wld I be doing duty on Saturdays, I wld also be doing duties on wkdays (which sadly to say I also have 1 day mount, 1 day dismount duties.. so beside juggling with drills, we wld also have to do duty!).. This yr GOH much shiong than last yr loh!!

Not to mention tat we have to do P1 duties too! We are scheduled loh.. but thank goodness tat my sgt let us choose which ppl we want to do with.. so ya.. so my P1 group is group 4 and the ppl are me, weiliang, yeow siang & randy!

And the first GOH rehearsal (for the upcoming Chief of Air Force change of command parade on 24/03 - yes! one day after my 22nd birthday; and u koe wat this means? I have to be back in camp 2230 on my birthday! Haix.. this is the 2nd time I spend my bday in NS again! haix..) would be on thurs (24/02) at Tengah Air Base.. haix.. sianz! Moroeover, its 1pm-5.30pm somemore.. haix.. but the good thing is tat my P1 wld be on thurs.. so dun really get "jia" so much, becos of the reharsal.. unless it ends early lah!

Then had lunch.. lunch at cookhouse was ok, except the food is tasteless.. its like they have inconsistent cooks! Sometimes the food is so darn salty, and sometimes (juz like today) is tasteless! Did they forget to add salt or sumthing? NS ppl (or at least my friends in camp) said SAF Cookhouse has free salt and oil! Their stuff is always salty and oily! Horrible! But what do you expect NS food? To be first class? No way.. but as the chinese ppl say, if edible, juz eat.. dun be fussy!

Then, its drill loh! And yes.. the trainers were one of my last yr GOH sgt, and another sgt frm Dog Section. The sgt frm Dog Section is a MP (Military Police) and his training is real slack! Not tt slack if you think it! Its juz tat he understands how we feel.. he told us in the beginning tat if we have morale high, then our drills wld naturally be up to standard.. and this is true.. and *ahem*.. this is the words of a GOH "old bird"..

Drills then started.. and it like have no kick! It doesnt seem as tiring as last yr.. probably we have been drilled too much last yr tat we dun feel so much.. we are numbed already in other words.. Fortunately my drills were ok.. not to the standard of perfect, but to the standard of acceptable lah..

Then after abt an hour of drill, my sgt told us to go up to bunk to "practice our drills".. but then there was one person, Randy (the 18 yr old guy whom I call him "ah boy"), who has some problems in the drills.. he's afraid of dropping the rifle when executing the drills.. so ya.. and he is quite slack lah.. so tats why his drills not sharp enuf.. well.. I wld think tat he coming into GOH is good.. at least he can be disciplined! Juz hope he improves loh..

Then as I was coaching Randy, juz realise tat Weiming had a problem with his drills also! So frm coaching Randy (which another person help me coach him and also at the same time, he was busy lah!), I shifted my attention to Weiming.. After close to 15 mins of sheer going thru over and over again, he finally got it.. then when we are almost done, I gave 3 of the ppl (Randy, Weiming & one other guy) command to execute the drills tat I commanded! And then my staff sgt came over and like interrupted lah.. but this is good.. at least he take over for a while.. I was quite shack lah.. judging frm juz now the drill revision lesson as well as not enuf sleep yesterday nite loh..

Then in the end, my staff see Randy cannot make it.. so he pulled Randy to one side and coach him.. Weiming on the other hand, my staff call me to continue to perfect Weiming's drill loh! Felt so honoured and for once, I felt like a true trainer! Ha.. I juz love teaching ppl lah.. I dun koe why.. When I teach ppl, somehow my drill wld be suddenly so "zai" and also with other ppl's praise, I wld even excel better!

Then send arms and bk out.. Watched 2 hrs of TV (for the first time this yr on a wkday!) and then bathe, on computer and now blogged!

So how's tat for the first day of GOH? Quite fun I suppose.. What's in store for me in GOH during my future days? I dun koe.. but wat I koe is tat the tailor wld come tml to measure our GOH No. 1 uniforms and therefore, he make loh.. soon or maybe tml, we'll go to Paya Lebar to draw our substandard No. 1.. its juz like last yr loh! no diff.. but after drawing the stuff, I dun koe wats in store liaoz.. so ya.. keeping my fingers cross loh!!

Well.. gtg and do other stuff liaox.. gonna sleep early tonite.. am super tired.. dun think I can stay awake for the Campus Superstar results.. but then, I recorded liaox.. so not much of a problem.. the only problem is tat when do I have the time to watch? ha..

** I'm still counting down the days LEFT to serve.. its 240 DAYS to ORD!!

Guard-Of-Honour forever,
<<< abriel >>>