The list of selected partipants for ARR (Armour route relay) are out, & errr I am inside? Wondered how did they go about the selection & stuffs. I didn’t get IPPT gold, neither I am that fantastic at running, but the thing is that am I really up to it?

🙄 So I since I am in the team now, I guess I did better make the best out of it, not to mention a goal in mind during training. The last week saw my regular training regime of 9kms runs 3 times a week plus ARR training one mondays, wednesdays & fridays. All ending the week with a 1hour continuous lap swimming on the weekend (this morning). Wow quite.. come to think bout it, quite insane right?

Last year, team ATW my company came in last for the relay, since then my ingchik can’t stop remembering the day of defeat by hanging up the singlet he woar for the event in his home, reminding him of the relay everyday. “I don’t mind last place this year again, provided that eveyone puts in their best effort in running & training, I am satisfied, however lets aim for better positions this year” he says…

With this much training, feeling so much fitter already, last check on BMI, 21.6 aiming for 20 by next month.

Before ending this post, & hey, its past the aniversary day of www.shaunchng.com. Whee the site is one year old already. Guess what I gotta do is get traffic down to the site as it had been quite dead these days. So whats makes a good blog? here are some pointers you can read here, here & here. Not to mention the blog awards!

Its time again where area cleaning is done around the bunk at camp. Well partly because our OC gonna conduct a stand-by area on monday afternoon, so the COY very much went amock in soaking (literally) the whole building & flushing it cleanly of it inpurities. Come to think about it I think its easier if we can just pluck the whole building up & give it a few shakes upside down, like a baby to a toy brick.

This is the second time my bunk had done such “wash out” cleaning, yea since we’ve enlisted, like firehoses & squishes everywhere. It had been some time too since I’ve packed my personal cupboard, esp the deep reaches, only to find out that some lovely six-legged friends of ours decided to move into the nice warm cozy confines of my clothing, my SMARTEST 4!- crawling with ants not to mention their eggs all laid nicely in the folds of my pants. urgh! Too bad I ‘ve to rid them, they were very much uninvited guests either. After some cleaning & disinfecting, I finally got rid of the mushy smell in the corner of my cupboard, for the pants.. uhh, guest I have to not to dust it clean but set it alight to disinfect it, otherwise, theres always soaking it in dettol.

Mmm ants, very versatile, yet amazing- a colony in my brown army pants?

Theres the usual morning ARR training today conducted by inkchik for all the specialists, but the only thing is that late comers reporting after 7.30am have a price to pay- treat everybody for breakfast after training. & yea, I was late, so was 4 others who joined together into chipping money (it turned out to be $7 bucks each after discounts from our canteen auntie). It was good & was voluntarily. & hey they just can’t stop thanking us. It turned out that some specialists even wanted to pay us back for their breakfast. But nah.. its a treat.. For myself, just try not to be late next time…

Wish me luck for my ippt test tomorrow!

🙄 The day started with IPPT trail tests in the morning where my John & great moronness more or less gone for some rugby training. Leaving very much me in the bunk left to do DI duty for the day, so it seems… Lunch was on the early side around after drawing arms around 11am then its coordinate & get ready at the vehicle shed for more 40 AGL training for the day. Then Chen, our PC appeared & started commenting on the troopers discipline, slackness & putting up random FAD checks. On his 1st check, he caught 1 trooper, Chye without FAD with such luck (of 1 in 20), he could have won the lottery. Because of this, to PC, it seems to him that everyone’s not bringing FADs along, but it wasn’t the case. He was on a bike course the last few months so he didn’t really get to see or experienced anything from us. Like a complete stranger, not to I learn what many people think of him…

Training ended with PC takaning the troopers with a small pumping session at wingline. Followed by a demand for a standby area 1 hr thereafter. The troopers, demoralised were devastated when they learnt they have to clean toilets not assigned to them too. When they are all up starting on the job, LT Ken our AI PC approached me volunteering to help on the situation. I was rather pleased & surprised about the offer, he immediately sent one fo the new AI spec to gather a whole AI section consisting of troopers shaun tay & gang from section 2 to help aid the scouts in the scouts area cleaning (& neglecting theirs), thus speeding up the process greatly. A plan thought by LT Ken to meet the early bookout timing as planned.

😎 PS, LT Ken & me were there to supervise the cleaning. Standing back & looking at the rather exciting (as the troopers were) & the degree of cleaning activity followed thereafter, it seems like this offer indeed brought about the scouts & AI closer together, working in harmony without hesitation. We even have lookouts (observation posts) as feared of discovery by LT Chen from Ken himself on the “helping out”, adding to the covertness & eventual excitement of the “operation”. It turned out to be a rather good cohesion event & I can’t stop thanking them thereafter. Inspection is on thereafter on average each bunk given about 20 jumping jacks for punishments based on “never thought about, dusty spots” ended with the toilet inspection & he left thereafter. I can sense the degree of insecurity & in-confidence in his inspection, constantly asking me wheres next to check & so, very uncertain of his job. Reliefed were everybody after the inspection as they all completely everything in record time & on schedule too for dinner & book out.

😉 Looking back, does it seems that we are “betraying” our new PC chen in this process. Its an alliance between the scout PS, specs, troopers, AI PC & troopers doing “things” behind him, ironically, for him. I got to learn from chonggen later that most officers in the wing do not like Chen as well, anyway it was the AI PCs who took the scout platoon in the months of Chen’s absence too. This too is disliking is fast growing in disrespect among the troopers & its undeniable given such punishments in this case, its showing.

On a last note, farewell to our platoon spec Janan, who would be leaving for Australia Feb 12th this year for studies in physiology.

😎 Its a nice sunny sunday, a perfect time to spend some time in front of the computer typing my blog… & bitchin’ about stuffs & such… oh yea let me touch on some happenings for the past week…

Last week saw the first time myself condcting a saw lesson (got it?). Yes I saw myself conducting a Section Automatic Weapon (SAW) training package. Kinda weird for specialist to do such a job, considering this being an officer’s job, we were are short of such carbon-based walking entities in our unit anyway… I guess us specialists are just the more experienced bunch compared to our officers presently. Overall conducting was relatively easy & cool headed, I don’t see myself having a problem talking in front & organising my minons to teach 30+ odd people how to use, load/unload, strip/assemble an object built to kill & dismember people beyond recognition, but hey its the army anyway… Talking about developing lecturing skills: this is something which I never see myself able to do few years back- I was just a stage fright freak. But not now…

😥 Received a letter from SPH yesterday congratulating me on my 3rd place winning on the graffiti artwork competition, big deal. I was aiming for at least 2nd place, with a nokia 7260 for tops, not to mention a 40GB apple ipod photo for 1st place. All I get is a dinky $150 77th street shopping voucher. Third best in Singapore? I SUX! The worst thing is that I gotta collect it personally with identification, fingerprint/voice/iris scans, (just kidding) before 4th Feb during office hours on weekdays. HOW the HECK am I gonna do that when I am in CAMP?

And yea, my name & NRIC displayed in all its humiliating glory, check out the front page of yesterday’s Straits Time classified (22th Jan 05) argh!

On a light note, my calculated my BMI today, a healthy 21 they say?

Mmmm