dont mention ORD in front of me cos i'm a regular now! lol. that was my contract above. i finally got my LSA - local study award. Signed my fate on 6th Jan. But they back dated my service from the time i joined OCS so it was 30 Apr 2005.
Few congrats and gave me blessings. Many questioned why and some even why i was so foolish. I think joining the army has gave many negative perspective. i've seen a few who are happy to be in the service. I believe if you have the passion (if it does not die off), determination (refute all negative comments or thinking), correct learning attitude to ugrade and develop yourself, joining the army aint a bad choice. politics? where in the working world would u not face it? secure career, benefits and welfare... what more to ask for?
everyone wants to earn more money and what makes people think that they can earn more money if they are not in the army. True, but not everyone can. Sometimes i feel that i had to be realistic, be less complacent. I always thot i have the chance and capabilities to be up there or was made to achieve greater things. But after going thru' my jc years, getting to know even more people, army, not getting what i deserve after what i thought i have given my best, i think humility is important. Ever since being a regular, i felt different. i feel small? but i feel there's a lot to learn from, especially from those understanding seniors.
anyway, move away from the serious tone, had very busy week so havent been updating my blog... lol. thanks ed, sam, leo... for ever so supportive of my blog. had to book in early last week cos of some safety briefing for commanders for the apb training.
then the week was just apb training. it was a tedious training and i dreaded it ever since i was a cadet. Plus, knowing i have an overnight exercise in feb, on my birthday somemore... sian x 2. but i can always celebrate my birthday for 15 days, you know? lol. and once i get my regular pay i need to treat a few people. ok, i hear people shouting their names... :P
my OC's really nice. have i mention he dont believe in giving extras cos he dont believe in doing more duty officer duties would help us learn from the mistakes. :) he really looked into welfare of the commanders. bought breakfast for us waking up at 4.45am... supper for us when we were back from apb training. that whole week spent my night watching dvds in the mess till about 12-1am then waking up at 6am again.
being a platoon commander, for me, being a rather shy guy, my toughest task was to talk to the platoon. there were a lot of considerations... i wanted to give them a good impression so i had to plan what to say. it is not the case like dealing with cadets when u can just tell them your expectations and say everything in english, talk about discipline and fitness. definitely it would be good if you know something about each of them or even their names. First impression lasts and i wouldnt want to screw it up. then one of my senior had to keep pushing me 'hey i've talked to your platoon and they say you are very quiet' then during apb training, he was like 'hey go and talk to your platoon leh'. i mean he meant well but i am the person if i want to do something, i must make sure i'm able to do it well and definitely know what i am going to do. Not just go talk to the platoon without knowing what to say. u will need some skill. for me, i got one of my sect comd who is very 'gum'(good) with the platoon and while i talked, he helped me to make people talk more. soon, i found myself talking with them non-stop. they were more interested in who i was, where i come from and what kind of training i went through. It wasnt the time to tell them my expectations and discipline matters as everyone was quite tired.
my platoon had a dinner on fri and my upperstudy happily volunteered to sponser 200 bucks cos my PS gave 100. My PS not the kind who go harsh on the platoon and my upperstudy is someone who is kinda rash in his decisions and sometimes not very serious. But still, i have a lot to learn from him.
well, the PCs in my company really bonded very well, crapped a lot, but my fellow pc, maureen and me sensed something amiss. well... will have to wait and see.
admin work started to come in, i have to update lesson plans and let the CO endorse. Still got platoon interview to conduct. Monday supposed to be company off but there's a live firing ex going on so my OC suggested us to go along and learn. still waiting for his reply.
fri had a steamboat dinner at tian tian with the platoon. wah seeing my men drive cars, the more i want to start learning to drive.
btw really love Rachel McAdams... she's really versatile in her acting... rented a few DVDs, one of which was red eye. also got american pie: the band camp which i watched in mess and one of the senior officers came in and i was freaked out. but lucky the dvds were original.
anyway next week would be quite slack and hope advance pay come soon... going to celebrate my birthday... anyone got any suggestions... gonna have many mini celebration this year.
till then. adieu.
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