Home Sweet Singapore

Man. It feels good to be back. *pants*. Took a while to push my way through the horde of SAF personnel, at the same time searching for my duffel bag and totally avoiding the duty-free shops. Apparently, my gruff and irritated tone stressed out the poor cabby, who drove at 120kmph, even though I was just tired, not angry.

Taiwan. Sadly, I did not lodge at the legendary camp where OCTs train, but rather a run-down one at Kaosiung. 35 days in a foreign land (=first to enter, last to leave) allow me to make a few observations...

Insects:
Foreign bugs are highly-trained combatants. They like to attack in groups of six or higher. My comrades managed to catch a humongous mosquito (might be a prehistoric one). Its total length from the mouthpiece to its long slender legs is about the size of my palm. -.-'. Talk about instant blood donation....And they also have the ability to either bite through my jeans, or attack me under the pants. Unlike Australia where flies are dumb creatures, the flies are highly evolved. In the end, my friends decided to conduct a science experiment by capturing 20 of those critters and stuff them in an air-tight container. It was an extremely disgusting sight at the end of three days. The flies apparently ate each other and laid eggs on their fallen ones. In the end, all the flies perished, leaving maggots behind to eat the leftovers. Sick. Threw away the bottle by the end of 3rd day. Bed bugs are another menace. Tolerated the bugs for at least a week, before I got so fed-up that I hauled my whole bed up the rooftop and burnt them to hell with sunlight.

Internet:
SAF kindly provided an internet service. Unfortunately, it costs around $3 an hour, in which a Taiwanese guy would happily convert all your cash notes to coins. Played many games of DoTA on them just to pass the time after exercise and before R&R.

Containers:
As I was given the responsibility of taking care of one container, I had to stay there everyday during the exercise to issue stores. (I was converted from a signaller to a driver to a storeman). While my fellow peers are mugging feverishly for their exams, I was working feverishly under the sun and rain under my makeshift shop, cursing myself everytime a guy request for an object. (I had to shift crates out of my way)

SAF Medical Centre:
Should have paid attention to Dingjie when he was talking about his medic days. He really meant it when he said most medics were atrocious (in terms of skills). My friend happily got six jabs in a row just to put a drip in. (2 from medic, 2 from a sergeant, and guess what, 2 from the Medical Officer). For all aspiring doctors, please don't be like that. (begs) UNfortunately, I reported sick due to dehydration, sore throat and a fever.
Though my situation was not as bad as my friend (read=two jabs), it could have been worse. The first jab went badly. The medic attempted (note) to poke me with his needle. After ten minutes of thrusting through my tendons and nerves, (without hitting my vein of course) he withdrew his needle. Meanwhile, during the process, he kept reassuring me to tolerate the damn pain. After the failed process, in an attempt to explain his failure, he said that I jerked and remarked that I had a low tolerance of pain. -.-" !@#@#@!#@. OF COURSE, I would feel pain if you spent 10 minutes of your time happily feeling your way through my nerves without(emphasis) hitting blood. Just that I never screamed it out or pretended to faint, though I almost bit out my tongue and made some grunts of discomfort. Btw, I laid my hand as still as I possibly can to let him practise.
The next was the drip. I think the flow rate was a bit on a high side. I could literally feel my arms being flushed. Thankfully I did not fall asleep. Otherwise, I would not have alerted a Taiwanese medic to help me remove a friggin huge bubble in my tube....

Rest and Recreation:
It is ironic, if you recall, that one year ago I spent my first year grumbling about packing condoms for the troops in Taiwan; and now I am on the receiving end of it. While my senior comrades will surely utilise the box of CAREX and focus on the carnal side of things, I prefer to have 100% fail-safe protection, rather than 99.999999999%. Spent my time doing window-shopping (eye power) to keep myself busy. Why let your fountain be dispersed and let others drink while you despair in agony?

Finally back home. Thankfully there is no more overseas exercise for me until ORD. Time to let my body recuperate and adjust back to Singapore.