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Solace of the Shadows
Saturday, April 26, 2003
Its been a pretty long week. Coming home was good after what feels like eternity.
Quite a bit happened but i mean its usually the same old stuff. Sometimes i think most of my entries are just repeating themselves heh, but heck. On Tues, we went on one of the usual runs outside the compounds but for this run we ran pretty far from the academy all the way to Macritchie. Then it started to rain while we were running on one of the stretches along the long pavement. Running in very heavy rain is no fun at all man. All of us were soaked to the skin and my feet were cushioned with water. We ran to the nearest bus stop (which wasn't very near) and sat down and waited for the rain to stop. Waited for a good hour or so before we started to run again and by the time we got back my skin was pruned all over. Wed began with more running. All i remember of the day was that we did our normal morning PT following which my instructor told us we would run the usual 2.4km route at a 15mins pace. So the whole squad felt so relieved that we'd be having relatively slack PT for the morning. And as such most of us jogged happily toward the end together; before falling in and getting ready to have a hearty breakfast at the mess. Then FI proclaims, "ok so much for warm up, now you guys get ready to do 2.4 again at your best pace". Everyone : wtf.
Thurs was pretty interesting. The officer's mess is directly linked to this hall which was used about 2 years ago as a heritage room which housed various exhibits about famous cases which the police have been able to solve and stuff. Its like one of those mini museums. Only thing is its supposed to be closed down and all because now they've converted the building into our barracks. But of late we opened the room up again and wandered around on that night. The queer thing about this (which is giving me goosebumps now) is that all the exhibits have been removed except for one, which is Adrian Lim's stuff. Even the lights and the touchscreens work, even though the place is supposed to be closed. The windows are newspapered up. I only vaguely heard about this case before coming to police about him being the famous murderer in the 1980s and all but after reading the article the stuff he did was really horrible. He commited voodoo and sacrificial rituals, practiced black magic and killed two children. They confiscated all his stuff and placed it in a display case in the heritage room (which is just directly above my barracks). The stuff they confiscated is really creepy. Many weird objects the most prominent of which are these bunch of tiny wooden heads with strings flowing out of the necks to simulate well...decapitated heads. Its just a place to be seen for yourself. Not like anyone would be able to. I don't intend to go back to that room again. Well maybe.
Friday was spent running once more. We were woken up abruptly by our FI at 6 in the morning who then brought us on a long run in our half awoken state all the way to town. It would have been pretty fun if we had actually run through Orchard but we only stopped at Lido before turning back to run to the academy. Running out of the compound in the mornings is pretty fun, get to see all the school kids and houses when everyone is just getting ready to start the day. At night we had free time which we spent in the officer's mess again. The guys were watching American History X which looked like a really interesting show but i didn't watch it because i was playing CS with some of the guys. Hopefully i'd be able to watch it sometime, has anyone around here caught it before? Anyway i caught the next movie they watched which was Army Daze, which is damned hilarious, especially after one has been through BMT and all. Its a classic local movie man, it should never be forgotten.
Well thats about it for the week. I'm exhausted and i slept all afternoon. Going to swim tomorrow morning before i book in tomorrow night. Til then, take care as usual, folks.
Thursday, April 17, 2003
Short break cos its a public holiday but still gotta book in again later tonight.
Pretty much gotten used to the less rigid program here. For some reason, i take alot more baths now. On the average its around 3-4 a day. Keeping clean and smelling good is a priority haha. Its also for the whole appearance which goes with the uniform. As for PT, i don't know how much more running i can take though. I hope the swimming pool gets reopened soon. Damned SARS. Every morning there's definitely a run, and immediately after which we have to go for flag raising at the parade square with our legs trembling, trying to stand up straight. The FI is pretty good at varying his training though. On one of the usual long runs, this time we ran from the Academy towards CJC before cutting through the expressway to SJI and around SCG before running back. We covered a good 10km or so. Anyone who would've seen 40 odd guys in white attire running up and down overhead bridges must have thought we were nuts or something. But it was damned fun running together observing everything though. One of the idiots which i have begun to really hate in my squad went to disturb this SJI kid by talking some rubbish to him when we were told not to disturb anyone from the public. When i told him off, he acted like he didn't care. I mean how would you like it if some stranger running came over and said something stupid to you. If it wasn't for the fact that i could get out of course for beating the pulp out of him, i would've had his blood on my fist for sure. I can't believe such morons can find their way to such postings. I think the people at CMPB screw up the posting sometimes. Either that or you can never escape morons wherever you go.
Its kind of weird after passing out of BMT, getting screwed by seargents and all and coming here, some of the trainees seem a little...reserved whenever they see an OCT. I had to go collect something from one of the junior squads for one of the instructors and they were like wondering wtf an OCT in white attire was doing in their barracks. They were so polite and courteous (we're talking about a squad of crazy mats here heh) i couldn't help but be amused. I guess if they could treat a cadet with that respect, i promised myself that i'd reciprocate the same way when it comes to doing provost duty in the near future. Then again its a pity because some of the jc guys who didn't get to do BMT and got posted to police straightaway deserve the chance to become OCT as well. Dunno why they never implemented the plan to transfer some over though.
Wednesday was the first walk out of camp we got. It was only for a few hours though. From 530pm to around 9 we'd be given the chance to leave camp and basically go out. Most of the squad went to town. Which was more or less deserted sheesh. So to people out there...if you go to town at around that time look out for a bunch of goondus wearing a blue tie and black nametag clad in white shirt and bluish pants, can't miss it. When some of us went to Guardian pharmacy at Taka, the lady at the counter was asking me "eh police ah? got special occasion dress until like that?" and i just said it was our book out period. The security guard also started talking to this other guy in our squad wondering why we were dressed that way. Sheesh.
Argh my batch got picked to be guard of honour for the police contingent at the National Day Parade. Its quite a pain in the ass. The practices are bloody tiring and long although only once or twice a week for now. Can't believe i'll be performing at the NDP. I don't even bother to watch the damned thing in the past haha. Its the same thing every year anyway. But the senior batch 2 years ago got to hang around Jamie Teo woohoo. Dunno how it's gonna be like now though.
Ok so well thats about it for now. Gonna go back to sleep. Got home last night and slept almost immediately from 9pm. Exhausted. Later folks. Happy holidays.
Noel : You don't have to swim 2km in BMT!! Haha no worries man...i'm sure you'll enjoy yourself...Tekong is fun. Just make sure you don't keng! You're already handsome so when you'll come out you'll be dark and handsome haha.
Serena : No i'd look dumb with a bandana! Anyway take care see ya around yeah
Sarah : Not gonna be able to book out that often yet. Only after commissioning we'd get an 8 to 5 post. But that'd be in December heh. And my hair is still so short! We went to the barber Yesterday. At least its an improvement. I shampoo my hair like 3 times a day in the hope that it grows longer. Yup catcha round yeah. Have fun with Pehon, hope the two of you are doing great :)
Saturday, April 12, 2003
Whoever said that training to be NSPI was going to be easy must be insane or something. Granted however, that it does have its perks. Here's a recap :
Monday
After getting acquainted with our new barracks, we had to undergo a series of the usual boring talks welcoming us to the wonderful establishment of the police academy. Of course at that point of time, everyone was probably thinking what an unfortunate thing it was to have landed up in here. The condition of the barracks can't really be compared with tekong, although it does have its own rustic charm. The beds are double-decked, and i ended up getting the top bunk (whether good or bad i don't know). Amazingly, the same buddy i had for 3 months in BMT is going to share the lower bunk with me for another 9 months, which is good heh. Directly above the lower barracks there's this storage room where they say Adrian Lim's (the murderer from long ago) confiscated black magic paraphernalia are kept. I have yet to look inside the room but i'm quite sure it exists. It doesn't help that the academy itself is quite old and the buildings are rather run down in comparison to tekong.
The food there however, is damned good! After 3 months of crap in tekong, the stuff they serve here is one heck of a change. I look forward to mealtimes all the time. They even have a DJ playing music in the canteen. The officer cadets do get alot of privileges (e.g. me) as compared to all the junior officers (those who didn't go to army for their bmt) like having a special area to sit where the rest can't, being able to collect their food from a different place so as to avoid the queue, having an officer's mess in their barracks, and alot of other stuff. Even though i think its unfair at times, the training the rest of the junior officers undergo looks pathetic. Most of them can't be bothered to even march properly. Speaking about the officer's mess, the seniors enjoy using it everyday to watch TV or playing computer games every night during the free time. So far i've already played CS on one of the nights haha. There's warcraft 3 also.
The entire officer's cadets barracks is divided into two sections. One for the junior officer cadets (OCT) and the other one for the seniors. There's about 40 of us juniors and 41 seniors in total. Another nice thing about it all is that the seniors really treat us like younger brothers. It was pretty amazing to see them come over on the first day and start striking conversations with us and asking us if we needed anything. My senior buddy passed me this friggin bag which has been in existence for like 10 years passed down from batch to batch with signatures and all over it. I hope it doesn't fall apart in my locker.
Wednesday
The PT you gotta undergo here is pretty hellish compared to BMT. On the first day already, we had to undergo an "orientation" run. We ran all over the friggin academy, up stairs and down slopes, covering at least 6km. The FI (field instructor, sort of like a seargent in army) is mad. He took part in ironman or something and on first glance one would think he's a little plump, but the guy can bloody accelerate like a cheetah. He doesn't like to run, he LOVES to run. I started groaning when i heard that.
The FI can be quite a joker
FI : "I know there can be quite a number of cats around here, but i don't want to see any of you try to keep pets in your bunks, no cats, hamsters, goldfish or whatever. If you want to keep pigeons, i don't want to see more than 40 pigeons in the barracks at one time, is that clear?"
Trainees : "......" (think carefully what it means ha ha, yeah lame)
On wed we had our IPPT test in the morning, AFTER we did like 3km of WARM UP running and the circuit exercises. That was killer.
Then our course manager (CM) showed us a few tapes later on in the classroom about the police which was really interesting. Pretty motivating to stay here for 9 months after all. They showed a tape the seniors 2 batches ago made. They did alot of interesting stuff. Its like the CM said, all the army trains the OCT's there to do is to become mindless drones only aptly prepared for more physical stuff, but over here its a combination of both. They gave us a thick stack of books on Law, which we have to study for EXAMS. I don't really mind because at least my brain won't be rotting as if i were still in the army.
There will be this period of around 2 weeks where we'd be issued warrant cards and posted out to various divisions to patrol the streets with the regular police officers. The seniors said thats the time where one would see the most peculiar things happening. Its like actually living the police videos we see on tv. Breaking up gangfights, arresting people, seeing traffic deaths due to accidents. I wouldn't actually know until i see it with my own eyes.
Friday
The morning before we would be getting our junior term bars (the rank on the shoulder). We were violently awoken at 1am by our seniors asking us to fall in in our PT attire in 3 mins time. Stumbling in our half awoken state all of us falled in and immediately they began shouting at us for falling in late. So they gave us another 7 minutes to go back and change into the full dress uniform with the police cap and fall back in again. Following which we did only to get shouted by them again. They started catching some of us for improper wearing of the uniform and at that point of time made us feel like prisoners in our cells. So after the whole thing, they told us to go back to our bunks. Then they came around to explain that the whole thing was planned to show us that we would have to be ready for anything and that they hadn't meant to shout at us on purpose, but because they were instructed by our course manager to do so. So we went back to sleep at 2.30am. At 5.55am, we were woken up AGAIN to fall in in 3 mins time. Obviously most of us were damn pissed with the seniors by then thinking they had lied to us and all. Following which we commenced a long morning run with them until we reached the parade square where we all sat down and again they explained the importance of carrying out such a thing. They had actually meant to wake us up another time at 2.30 but because the first shift had taken so long they cut it down to only twice sheesh. Basically all of it was to make us realize that we had to earn our first bar. Later in the evening we would have this ceremony whereby the seniors would fix on the junior bars onto their juniors to mark the beginning of our junior term and all.
Saturday
We had to do morning PT as usual, with a wicked twist. While doing the usual 3km run with circuit exercises, all of a sudden our FI joined in and brought us on a run outside the compound all the way to MacRitchie area where Mediacorp is. We ran through the residential estates and up and down overhead bridges. Altogether i think we covered a good 10km that morning. Immediately after we had breakfast and we had to change again for the parents visiting ceremony where we would meet our parents (mine didn't come haha) and watch this show before we would FINALLY get to book out.
So thats the week. Can't really describe well how its been but there's a long way more to go. 9 months in here. Just have to wait and see. So til the next book out, take care folks...
Sunday, April 06, 2003
Ahhh...well finally got my posting and tomorrow will be reporting to my new unit...in some ways i am not really surprised with what i got but i think its really unfair and i will say it...the SAF IS SCARED OF MUSLIMS AND NON-CHINESE/INDIANS. Biased.
So for all you people who don't already know, i got posted to become an NSPI (National Service Police Inspector). If perhaps you were to watch heartlanders for some weird reason (heck i don't), inspectors are those guys with two diamonds on their shoulder sleeves. I'm pretty happy with my posting in the sense that police training is really quite slack compared with army training and for some reason police inspectors earn a bit more than army officers. Not to mention the lack of field camps and going into the jungles for training. Instead of doing my standard obstacle course will my helmet and rifle and webbing, its been reduced to a measly revolver at my waist. Sheesh. On the bright side as well, there's this "walk-out wednesday" whereby we book out at 530pm and come back at 10 just like that. Walk outta camp, go out, and come back. Like some hotel. haha. The uniform doesn't look too bad either. But frankly speaking, i'm gonna miss so many things about the army (yeah i'm a nut). I'd rather go outfield and everything. Heck i prefer wearing the camo uniform. Its just the whole experience i want to take back. Police might be boring, i wouldn't know yet, but i'm sure the army would be alot more enriching in terms of experience. Heck all the ocs people will be going overseas to train in brunei and taiwan, and where will i go? A 21 day outward bound challenge course! What is this, a camping expedition??
But in the end i guess i'm satisfied with my posting and all and i'm kind of looking forward to whats going to happen tomorrow. Guess i'd just have to wait and see.
After my posting on saturday i rushed down to meet up with my classmates for our "class outing". What utter bullshit man. Only like 5 of the guys turned up. And in the end? It was just helmi and i, 2 guys, out of the 24 people in my class, who ended up going to Sentosa. And quite frankly, i think it was better that way because it was probably the best class outing i've been to. I haven't been to Sentosa in like two years and wow has it changed or something (or maybe i'm just blind). The beach is pretty nice now and there were loads of people playing volleyball and stuff despite all the nonsense about SARS and even though it was already like 5pm it was still pretty crowded. Quite a few pretty girls there as well...:) So me and helmi just rented bikes and rode around the entire trail, before just sitting down at the beach and talked. It was nice just being able to relax. I think it would have been worse off if it wasn't just the two of us there. Would've had to listen to whining or disputes about what to do. Even helmi agreed that it was better that way. So the day ended off pretty well, i gotta make sure the next time i come to Sentosa i come prepared with more stuff heh. And a nice bunch of people too. People who don't play each other out!
Alright gotta enlist tomorrow morning...at the Police Academy...so have a good night folks...
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
Relatively ordinary day yesterday. Feels good to be able to have one after such a while. For some reason buses are still pretty empty (not that i'm complaining). I wonder how it'll be like when school reopens. That'll be when my block leave ends. Of all the luck.
Watched Punch Drunk Love with some of my section mates. I'm still trying to figure out whether the movie wasn't bad...or whether i had just wasted 2 hours of my life. Its not your everyday kind of movie. Recommended if you want to watch something different for a change. But i think i'd rather catch Adam Sandler's next movie.
Walked around for a while before deciding to head back. For some reason, weird things happen to me occasionally. While standing at the traffic light, this guy with the typical hairdresser/makeup artist kind of appearance with the clothes and hair and all comes up to me and asks
Him : Hello, would you be interested in appearing in a commercial?
Me : uh, no.
Him : Why not?
Me(suspicious) : I'm not..uh..interested
Him : okay but do you think i could just get your name and contact so i'd be able to call you sometime?
Me : uh..i don't think that'd be possible i'm going back to camp like really soon
Him : thats alright just your handphone number will do
I had a feeling that if i didn't give him something i'd be stuck there so i gave him some particulars and he gave me his card. I don't know what kind of company it is, but it said "Shiny Happy People" on the front. Never heard of such a company, and how the heck did they come up with such a name?! I could only wonder what the hell he wanted. I concluded he was either 1) a pimp, 2) needing someone to be in one of those "before" and "after" kind of ads for maybe plastic surgery and i'd be wonderfully suited to play "before", or 3) secretly trying to sell me drugs. I left really quickly after, but now i'm a little curious to know what exactly he wants.
Anyway, here are some pictures taken using Ben's camera during the last few days of bmt. View at your own discretion. Click on it to see original size.
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