Thai Express

I went to Holland Village on foot from Buona Vista in a drizzle on Sunday Afternoon... zzzzz....



Dun know which good friend tell me its very near (though I do need to thank the friend for many favours) and the map was so deceiving..



By the time I reached, I needed a coffee so I wun faint of excitement..



The DJ on 933 was just talking about dreams...



I dream a lot...

I am always dreaming about myself in many places.



Sometimes the dreams are so good because it was what I wanted so much that I would cry when I woke up and find out that it was not reality because it was always so real in my dreams. Those were big dreams.. I was all over the world. I was in front of a multitude...



Sometimes the dreams are so bad because my deepest fears materialised in the dreams and I would wake up in cold sweat all over..



I always wanted to be in the army.. so when I went to NS, I was excited I am going to be away from home which at that time was not much of a home anyway..



I prayed I would end up in the infantry and I was there.

I prayed I would not be doing just what everyone was doing and I rode the bike.

I prayed I would be strong all my NS life and I was.

So I was actually very blessed in army and I went to taiwan twice and thailand once.

If I could go for more exercises, I would..



I got injured in a huge race in my division. But I completed the race and I was not the last. I overtook many who were without injuries. I was determined to win that race. I scored 90% for the shoot in the middle of that race using a rifle which was not zeroed to my eye.

I proved what the adverts said, that SAR 21 needed no zeroing so the rifle is not that bad after all. Our team came in 7th, not fantastic but that was a victory. Everyone came through it in great spirits.



Some people around me thought the race was a huge crap. Some superficially encouraged me but they thought nothing of it. I shared my victory with the people in church and they congratulate me (with a what-happened? look) but I knew they had no inkling of what the victory was for me. I ran it with God. The division commander is the smartest guy that ever commanded the division. Infact even the regulars in the army din know what it was for.. they jus knew that it was a huge event... The huge race was to build up combat fitness across the units in the division much like the OPMs we have in church. Even those who have been in the army would spit at that and say that is huge crap but combat fitness has saved many lives and made armies won victories jus like OPMs.



Some in the army, on the other hand, took it too seriously. The Battalion CO gave out medals and formed dream teams.. I mean there was no glory in the race. It was all in the name of great fun. He treated it like a huge battle.. haha... I just wanted to run. Dun ask me what I have learnt or gained out of it, I did not.. I just wanted to run.. I was so happy then. The world was in my hands. All I did was all I ever wanted. I was always happy. I was on top of the world.

I would give everything up just to run that race again.. it was the best thing that happened to me.



Why can't things be just for fun? Why must it be for a purpose? Why must it be something important? Why must I learn something out of everything? Why would the army be wasting our time? I joined the mainstream flow and criticise the army with everyone else. but it was never what my heart meant... I long to be in the fields of Thailand and the hills in Taiwan than anywhere else.



Hard to believe right? but I have been dreaming about being in the army since I was a kid. I was who I am and was happy back then.



I went to the infantry because I knew that was where the real army was. I was so excited. But there was a few disppointments, infantry didn't turn out to be as exciting as I thought it would be... No one took the training seriously.



No one thought the infantry was important. Everyone thought it was the Airforce or the big guns in the Artillery or the big vehicles in the Armour Battalion... but all history has shown Infantry to be the single most important Arm in any army.



So many battles were decided by the quality of the infantry that I cannot believe how little infantry was thought of in the SAF. The Army will pay for this in blood if we ever went to war. You put the least educated, least trustworthy men in the most important arm and all you get is a screwed battalion.



And now some smart kids think mechanising all infantry would make it better.. lol. Another idea was to label soldiers with unit and arm tags.. lol.

I heard 10th Mono's CO was a genius. One 4-day exercise every 2 weeks and He would make sure his battalion books out on thursday on the exercise week. His battalion probably suxed at parade discipline and many other sai kangs.. but they beat the shit out of the ATEC company. They were the battalion to score a 1 against ATEC. We got a 2B..

Well its all over and I had fun...