..:: 488. The One With 1st Day at Mindef ::..

embarrassed. that pretty much summed up how i felt at the end of the day. i was almost killed by boredom and later embarrassment. first, i had to report at 8am and so i did. waited at the lounge with another guy and we practically read all the newspapers there and did nothing for the whole day. Our bosses werent in the office and the staff was busy 'fighting fire'. I am involved in something rather challenging, or rather i am assigned to a department that has very high security cos i handling documents and info that is higher than confidential which of course i cannot reveal anything here. So far i have only touched restricted and seen confidential.

I know you may think, so what's the big deal... i was the most junior officer there though. walked around the office, at least a captain, if not would be major, ltc or colonel. I am definitely going to learn more from this attachment, build connections and strangely i am working with rather high-profile officers, who were once sword(merit/honour) holders. What is worse, even the clerk there who is just a corporal is a PSC scholar o_O... so now u see how small i felt.

here comes the unpleasant part. i was coming back from lunch and there was this guard who stopped me and told me:

'sir, i have to write your name down. Your hair is too long'

i looked at him, frowned, cos i cut my hair before i came in... i pointed at my hair,

'you mean this is considered long' in a rather stern voice, almost sounding like dont mess with me.

he then claimed it was my sideburns that were too long. so a gungho corporal embarassing an officer. that is something new... not that i am throwing my weights but i was pissed cos of 2 things.

First, one of the officer with me was surprised by his action cos my sideburns were not shaved but they were not long...

Second, the 'psc' clerk told me the guard 'is like that, always so gungho, catching people'

Also, in the morning while walking with my friend into the camp, he told me a guard stopped my friend's friend for long hair. He was lucky to have his boss with him so when the guard told my friend's friend the same thing about booking him and writing a letter to his superior, his boss turned to the guard and said,

'so what you want to write to me about?'

At first i felt amused but when i experienced the 'trauma' myself, i understood why the boss acted in that way. The guard was such an ass. If you tighten security then i would say good job, but go around catching long hair which was not long in the first place... My friend's friend and I were only 2LT so i guess we are quite an easy target. I bet i go to the canteen i saw people with sideburns longer than mine.

why am i so mad? cos my boss havent even met me and the first thing he would get is the letter and it doesnt speak very well of me, right? damn pissed. now i have to explain to him on mon, hopefully he is understanding enough. To think i have to ask my boss for offs and leave for school events and personal stuff, i cannot imagine how much harder it would be. hopefully, he sees it as a trival matter, if not later he give me extras duty, that would pretty much sucked.

once you get into university, it is very hard to shave off that sideburns. Cant we keep the sideburns and be neat? Does it really affect the professional image the army is projecting? I guess i have to suck thumb and shave my sideburns like i used to do. i have to pay to eat at the canteen cos there is no cookhouse? darn. transport there already burning my pocket. i know i am earning a substantial amount but if you can save on meals, why not?

you can see my first day was not pleasant. bah.

went to catch spidey 3 with my sister. bumped into steven. admired his coloured hair and he maybe going to aust to study medicine. wish him good luck! the doctor who clubs. spidey 3 was the best i felt... though some felt otherwise. minus the audience - some guys think it was funny to laugh loudly at commercials, while one guy beside me was commenting aloud when the lin junjie's mtv-like commercial played, 'wah now play chinese mtv, cannot play trailers?' wah i felt like asking to shut the f up.

the movie full of touching moments and action scenes were great, feels like watching marvel vs capcom double duels. so noble for harry to sacrifice for his friend... even when we are desperate or in distress, we still can make the right choice. (rephrased)

like for me, i didnt punch or curse that guard :)