Hurting Soles, Aching Legs, Drooping Eyelids, Rotten Eggs, Ruined Shoes, Hurting Ears, Sore Throat, Blistered Palms - How I Love Feeling Like This Now

here i am...eating assorted biscuits out of a long tin can, with a fan blowing at my face at speed 2 and music being played in the background, while sitting infront my macbook and and typing what is supposed to be reflections for the Basic Training Camp organised by the SP Sabre Shark Rover Sea Scout Crew. did i get that right. hm, my mind is exhausted, and so is every part of my body. well, not really every part...but you get my drift. okay, i'm just like vomit everything about the BTC...but i'm not gonna put all the detail cause of legal issues.

anyway, do read up. for the 'BTC 08'-ers, there are credits and all that other stuff. you can also search through the sub-headings and all that if you're too busy to read all this crap. it's very long i think. peace.

DAY ONE

My bag was hanging onto my dying shoulders. i had came super early. trained to sp via the first train. then figuring i had nothing to do til 8 (the reporting time), figured i'd just roam round the campus. the air was pleasant. cool and refreshing. wanted to go for a jog around the campus. anyway, met ming yang at FC3. slacked there, waited for people, stopped myself from sleeping, drank water. then we were welcomed by the rovers with the reminder that the chairs would snap shut and lock our asses into the seat forever and ever if we didn't walk with wide strides all the way to the badminton hall since it was 15 mins past the reporting time. had a great laugh with the floor after that.

hm, sarcasm aside. it was a sudden wake up for everyone. if you thought this camp meant strolling about in havainas across the sarimbun camp ground with a glass of pineapple juice with a umbrella at the rim in one hand and a sarimbun camp tourist guide map with all the attractions and other sights listed in the camp ground, then the door was open for us with a grand exit. leave with honor. you're the first one to say no. hm, crap...why am i talking like this.

anyway, after everything, we were left to build our tents once we reached the camp. tents were up without problems. then had macaroni for lunch with baked beans and sardines. i don't eat sardines so i forgoed it. ladies and gentlemen, you are in a camp, you are not at home. don't expect everything to be like what it is at home. there were many events after that to keep us occupied. T-E-A-M-W-O-R-K. did PT together because we were not together. got scolded together because we were not together. it was a pretty long day. dinner was a hell load of instant noodles. cooked it ourselves with a LPG and stove. interesting.

oh did i mention that we had to have this egg buddy thingy. damn, my bag is like wet casue of it. three eggs broke and spilt into one of my section pockets of the bag cause it happened when i put my bag down in the bus or was it from the bus going back home. now my bag stinks. anyway, through all the events and lessons and all that in that day of which i slept through most of it cause i was tired after having a three day scout camp and work which ended 8 hours before camp. so that meant that i had like 3 hours of fun, cause...well, left at 5. anyway, slept quite badly the first day cause we had pt at 0615 and we slept at 2 plus. so i knew if i went to sleep soundly, i wouldn't be able to wake up. so yeah, first day was already kinda shag. but the supper was nice abit. biscuits.

DAY TWO

PT...opeining ceremony. hell yeah. inspection. hm, how i love inspection. just throw everything. hm, i envy those with the standard haversack that has like one to three compartments. just open all the zips and throw everything out. within a minute you can have everything nicely layed out. mine's like crap. gotta open here and there and here and there. but it's kinda good cause they inspectors may not know the inside's and outs of my bag so hiding stuff is easy. anyway, i found out that i never exceed 10 mistakes. i think most is 8 mistakes. why, egg never take out from container. then forget to take out fork spoon from mess tin. then mostly is cause never standardise with the OIC. then got one mistake because of wax. i was like to sleepy to ask why is gatsby wax a mistake. "Instructor, i need to have a strong morale and having spiky hair boosts my morale."

had pancake juice. damn nice. i didn't know it tasted that good. we tried cooking it, but it was unsucceeful. we even had proof to show to the Food IC. bet no one expected that. then lunch was like instant noodles again. enjoyed that. biscuits were like always there to keep us satisfied and stop our stomachs from growling. hm, growling stomachs...hm all of a sudden i remember those times in gen opt lecture when my stomach would be growling for food so loudly that the people sitting the row below can hear it. but i was like never very hungry during the camp. cause biscuits...

hm, i stayed awake today. had like practicals. did flagstaff. i pegged the peg the wrong way in. and there i was scratching my head and looking at it like an idiot. thought no one would ever notice. but once it was done, the instructors and all that were like making fun of my careless mistake. alright. well, at least i changed it immediately. then there was this tyre thingy. used my human advantage to lift the tyre up to a certain level. used my height. haha. we were successful. hell yeah.

then there was like other fun stuff. the entire thing with the blindfold. blindman's game? anyway, after a while i kinda knew where we were and all that. like water being sprayed at you. and just hours before they told you that the male toilet can't be used. hm, think thinking thought. alright. anyway, fun, but draggy abit. then there was the mudbath thing. cooling. hellyeah. everyone was like statues after that. the mud on our hair made us look cool. cool mud monsters.

anyway, the whole day was great. dinner was a competiton. cooked fried rice. fried rice with sand and mud. yum, crunchy. lucky i was always bugging my mom whenever she was cooking. "navjoth, fried rice is actually the easiest dish to cook. just cook the rice. anything you wanna add, just add then fry everything together, add some sauce to taste and enjoy". hm, cooking 101. the other group cooked fried noodles. hm, technically it's like cheating cause theirs was instant noodles without soup. but we won, so i won't say it was cheating. but theirs tasted damn good.

i knew there was a fire drill coming along. why? we we off to sleep early. justin (RSL) said "alright, just to let you know. please be careful cause they are burning wood over there so if there is a fire, get the buckets of water at the shed over there." it was the second night of the camp and the next night would be our investiture so they can't really tekan us after investiture. so yeah, expected. 

DAY THREE

i was like awake until maybe three plus. i was waiting for the fire drill to happen. was at first talking to sharon and galvin. but after a while heard them snoring and i realised i was actually talking to myself for half an hour plus plus. then i was like, hm, aiyah forget it. i'll just keep talking to myself. somewhere in the distant i could hear other voices. thought maybe it was my other mates. i was wrong. the next thing i knew i realised that there was another blanket on me (i don't blame you for not getting this folks...it's kinda like an inside joke). i woke up, stunned. if the tent hadn't been pulled down, i would have run and grabbed the water buckets. but i was surprised by it that i woke up, pulled the tent off me, took my egg and wore my shoes, put back the tent flap nicely lying down and made it neat for some apparent reason, and ran somewhere. over there did like waking up exercises. it was beautiful.

then after that, we had to bring up the fallen tent. we didn't really sleep. just napped at the PT place. PT was nice. usual. anyway we were then having kaya and bread for breakfast while the ants were having our blood as breakfast while (i assume) the instructors were having pipako for breakfast...so they can shout with clarity. breakfast ended fast..then stuff happened. for lunch we guys had to finish up all the food.

we had footdrill on that day too. it was cool. nice to finally be in a footdrill contingent after so long. though understandably everyone was not on the same page when it came to executing the cause as usual different units practise different standards. so yeah. i grew up with FDC and stuff. anyway, then we had the investiture rehearsal. kinda relaxing. the investiture was going to be in a matter of hours. and so did that mean that those hours was gonna be spent on practising on our performance (we were supposed to do a performance after the investiture) and slack in our tents and record down the shapes of the clouds as they pass by our heads in our log books? hm, the sweet answer is no. what was next for us...was *************. [censored for those who might want to try out for next year BTC...haha]

anyway, what really was in their made everyone cry. if not on the outside, surely on the inside. the bonding through the pain, the flags waving proudly around us, the pride in the each other's eyes including the instructors. it was amazing. it was worth it...for the blue scarf and woggle. after that event, it was chilled. everyone was hurt yet laughing and cracking jokes...how it should be. dinner was going to be after investiture. investiture was cool. got my stuff. met the alumni and saw their pretty little faces. imagined myself 3 years from now being there and looking at the new faces of rovers. then we went on with our performance. hm, what did i think of? a re-enactment of the camp while making fun of the instructors. decided to tone it down. did andy "T-E-A-M-W-O-R-K...you'll are stroooooooooooooling...what did i say last night...swift and fast" and then there were some other classics from the other instructors like "where's the indian pot?" and "why so sloooooooow" and also "what is this? you'll are leaving your friends behind". ahhh...good times.

DAY FOUR

anyway, woke up early again for something. but i won't say what. but it was FUCKIN-AWESOME!!! yep, it was kinda amusing when i woke up when i thought about it after the event was over. hm, well, three of the instructors woke me up. i was like so deep in sleep i didn't know what was happening. when they woke me up, i thought they were being concerned for my well-being by asking me to sleep with something over me to prevent myself from feeling cold. so what i did was take a shirt and put it over my body and went back to sleep. then they shook me again and told me to wake up. so i woke up and turned to my friend and asked him to wake up as well. then they told me "no, you alone". i stepped up clumsily, put on my shoes or something. then as they were leading me up a slope, i almost fell. why? cause one was pulling my up while one was holding me down. but everything was okay beside that.

hm, breakfast was good. kaya bread and scrambled egg bread (thanks ada (TCO)). hm, we spent most of the time slacking around and preparing to pack up. got bitten by two ants on the same thumb at the same time while striking down the tents and kitchen sheds. like what the hell, one's not enough? anyway, then we had to return back our stuff to the sarimbun equipment shed. xui min (instructor) ws pissed at the lady there for asking us to keep re-folding and re-folding again and again..."go ask that bitch to ask her how to fold". me and the guys however were singing along to hoobastank's 'the reason' which was being played on the radio in the equipment shed. made us smile again for hearing good music being played.

bus-ed back to SP. going there, everyone slept. oh did i mention that everyone overslept that day? yeah, there wasn't PT or whatever.  then we thought we were going to get shit. so we quickly fall-in at the PT place but there was no one. then we went to the main fall in area and shouted "we are ready" countless times. then one instructor came out slowly and saw us standing there. yeah...funny..laugh please

anyway, back at sp, did stuff there. then we had the closing ceremony. everything was good after that. had to do some stuff back home. missed the traditional gathering. camp was officially over.

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REFLECTIONS

it was a different camp. i knew i didn't regret coming for this. whatever that i gained within this 4 days...everything was worth the pain i went through. all the wonderful friends...all the memories...all the laughter...all the joy...all the sadness...all the tears...all the times everyone spent making fun of everyone. i can't help think that i actually was thinking of not going. cause i knew i could have made 176 bucks over the four days. i could have spent my days studying for my MSTs. but i just realised that i already made a commitment and i knew i had to fulfil it. with joy. and i really am happy that i didn't choose to pon (skip) this camp. i enjoyed it...really. hm, it really did show me a whole different perspective. really there was the importance and focus on teamwork. all the events was nicely prepared and informative (saying it from a normal layman's point of view, not from a scout's view). the crap that we made even with the instructors at those free time. ahhh...it was just great. next year, hell yeah i'll be there.

TO THE INSTRUCTORS

thanks to you guys for giving us the hellish time of our lives. motivating (and at times sometimes nagging) us. you also really made us see the importance of being a team. seeing you guys, we realize how strong and bonded a team can be. you showed us the seriousness of life. you showed us the consequences of doing things wrongly. you showed us that sp rovers love light sticks alot. thanks alot you guys. really appreciate everything that you guys put in for us. and just like to say that everything was nicely done. especially that after-midnight thing on day four, it was really really awesome. one of the most memorable moment in that camp. the most memorable? SHIT.

TO MY FRIENDS

hey guys, thanks for being a great team. you guys really bond well. eat alot too. hm, that SHIT time, man, that hugs were really great. the encouragement we gave each other. i don't care how gay i sound like now. i love you guys. peace for ever. sorry for you guys to bear with my crap. hm, each one of you...you're gonna do great.

Culda

P.S. this is not the end. this is only the beginning.

P.P.S. hm, if any of this needs to be erased/taken off/whatever, let me know alright.