➡ Yesterday.. was a typical day where I could wake up get dressed in SBO & make my way to the SOC to cover safety in the morning for the platoon without consciously knowing it, just like sleepwalking or just say on “auto mode” where no brain power is needed to execute anything at all… even before my coffee at ATC. Evo is a new addition to our bunk now, a young 1 week old puppy who just learnt to walk. John found him around wing line & everyone in the platoon was a mystified & charmed by its cuteness & so they decided to keep it as a platoon pet. Les do they know that he’s such a good for nothing furball who yip yeps all the way into the night, very much allowing me to catch a glimpse of my alarm clock up to 4 times at regular intervals throughout the last night, cursing at each interval. We came to conclusion to stop him from sleeping too much in the day so that we would, at night & instead of Evo being a nocturnal yipper. Afternoon saw the night of nee soon camp, where our CPR course is held. We were taught on the steps of CPR & given situations to tackle. We were also taught how to save people from chokes using the Heimlich maneuver & chest thrusts. Practice & tests followed suit on Annie the dummy & we were all certifiled CPR trained, we even have a lifesavers card to keep. The platoon booked out from nee soon straight after the course, kinda one of the few moments where you can book out & head home in uniform. Razzy!

😛 Heres some basic steps for anyone who wishes to learn about CPR, who knows anyone may encounter a situation when such a procedure is needed:

Shaun’s CPR 101
Upon approaching the victim, try to check his level of consciousnesses, if unconscious do the ABCs after calling for help/ambulance. Here are the 3 basic steps of ABC:

Airway must be clear!
1) Use thumb jaw lift (clear foreign objects from mouth)
2) Head tilt chin lift to clear airway (tongue may fall back)
Substeps (confirmation, shouldn’t take longer than 15 secs):
3) Look, listen, feel for breathing.
4) Give a ventilation (see breathing steps 2-4 below) to check for clear airway chest should rise, give 2nd ventilation to confirm airway clear.

If chest don’t rise, go back & start from step 2. If chest still don’t rise after 2nd try give 15 chest compressons (see circulation for steps & position below) 4-5cm deep above the sternum to force choked object out of airway proceed to step 1 to clear foreign object.

Breathing. Is there oxygen circulation?
1) Look, listen, feel for breathing.
2) Pinch victim’s nose & put a tight seal around mouth
3) Give a long deep blow (400-1000ml of air) into the mouth, chest should rise.
4) Release nose victim’s chest should deflate.
5) Do 2 sets (steps 2-3).

Circulation. Is there a pulse?
1) Check for circulation by placing your index & middle finger near the victim’s neck ridge/Adam apple at the side towards you to feel for the carotid pulse.
2) Place heel of one hand on lower part of victim’s sternum. With your other hand directly on top of first hand, interlock.
3) Compress downwards with arms straight, don’t bend, bounce
4) Compressions must go at 100bpm following, saying 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 10 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 15 to keep in the pace.

15 compressions should be done followed by 2 ventialtions thats considered 1 set, do 4 sets.

Situations, notes:
If theres pulse but no breathing, perform Rescue Breathing similar Breathing step 2-4. But the procedures should not take longer than 5secs each. Perform 12 sets, lasting 1min in total, check pulse thereafter.
If theres no pulse, start CPR again with the 4x(15 compressions: 2 ventilation) cycles, check breathing & pulse thereafter & remedy accordingly.
If need arises continue until recuse personnel arises.
If both circulation & breathing is present, put victim in supine/recovery position. Monitor breathing & circulation until help arrives.
Perform CPR on a hard flat surface, move victim if necessary otherwise compression won’t be effective.
One life saved!

😎 Ah, its the time of the ahemm year again? when I get to do camp guard duty as part of wing regiment duties. & so how was duty as guard 3 I/C yesterday? well Shoik! thats the first time I can ever say this short 2 hour gate shifts from 6-8pm. Then rest then 11.30pm to 1.30am then SLEEP till 5am to collect breakfast. The luxury of the duty was largely attributed to the immediate personel involved such as the guard commander who was an avid “ok if everything is ok why turn out?” kind of person otherwise a nice chap to chat to on his experience as a regular 2nd SGT in 46. The guard 2I/C was a complete idiot in guard duty, which puts me second on the I/C hierarchy based on duties & experience. He not a very lucky guy either, as a thunderstorm started immediately after I swapped gate duty with him.. poor guy, even with the rain jacket hes drenched head to toes with “puddles” in his boots, & yes did I mention his socks as “wingable dry” The last person to determine the mood of the guards would be lastly the DO, who was fortunately a big blurry LTA from HQ. Due to the storm he even told us to bring all the relavant books for him to sign all the way from guard room to HQ, which is good as this mean the lack of an overwatching person in the guardhouse when he drops by, IOW there would also be no turn out either no one to “find fault” or be questioned by like what most DOs would do if they drop by. This one was relaxingly exceptional.

😈 The last attributing factor would go solely to the force of mothernature herself who called upon the storm to bring across everlasting CAT 1 status over our sectors. Something definitely the prowlers would like (btw the troopers are from the same 46 “S” coy sct troopers who I’ve worked with my last GD itself, coincidence! I bet I could occasionally hear their prayers in the guard room to prolong the rain). Therefore no guard turnout, staff parade either! Not to mention no guard mounting! I love this GD, esp the feeling of drinking a nice ice nescafe coffee in the drizzle at the gate, soft rain pattering down the shelter in the shrill quietness of the night while listening to Bon Jovi on my music player. Unreal!

Oh well thats all for the duty today… Oh yea talking bout guard, congrats to Lester for passing out from MP school.

😯 poke poke poke, thats the theme of today, as it was the last day of our five day medic course held in-camp for this whole week of end nov-start dec. During the week we were taught hot to arrest a hamorrhage, treat fractures & wounds, tie bandages & tourniquets. The highlight of the course was of the the intravenous infusion practice where everyone in the platoon will get to poke each other in buddy level inserting a roughly 16cm long needle into a vein which we identify by tying a tourniquet. Then inserting the neddle, sliding the cathera into place & finally “drinking” the pateint with the IV “hattmen” solution. I got to buddy up with Chonggen (CG) where I voluteered to go through th odeal first, it went well & I didn’t lose much blood. I did a clean one on my turn, scoring 100% on my scoring recon 1, while CG scored reasonably high as he forgot a few steps here & there, like forgetting to remove my tourniquet… ouch numb.

😉 The funny thing was that CG was considered an underdog in doing dangerous jobs, usually “messing up” & all the specs in the platoon kept mocking/tauting him & telling me that I am very very “lucky”, to get him as a partner & maybe I should buy more insurance. I thrusted CG to get the job done though my life was in his hands as he is administering the needle & fluid, mistakes like accidentally injecting air bubbles into the blood stream can definitely prove fatal. We showed them & both as us cleared it one’shot-one-kill (meaning one successful infusion at 1st try as coined by our supervising senior medic). While others are laughing funny with 3-4 tries, esp Brandon who just kept poking john on both arms, Neo, CG (yes he volunteered again) & eventual on James before he can actually get a pass! Now whats left ton my arm is just a small little hole, patched up with palettes to form a protective very much like a small mole on the arm, hope there would be no scarring.

Dad received a Suzuki Liana catalog from uncle tony, who was my dad’s old friend working in Champion motors. First thing he did was dump the book to me & say, what you think of it? haha a 1.6L MPV? definitely I would want a new car, but given our family budget I think that the most we could go. Though I was dreaming for a M3 convertile… maybe, maybe next time.

Watched the first episode of the Dilbert DVD series this morning while having breakfast.. dang I should stop tempting myself to eat in front of the computer, with the exception of bread crumbs & tea stains all round the keyboard. I won’t be amused if my desk is the worst bacteria hot zone in my home. Felt slightly nauseated while playing half-life 2 today, very funny though & I thought only wimps or my visitors in roller coaster tycoon get this kind of feeling. Rested away from the computer by reading the daily papers, not to mention the sunday comics before finding out that my computer refresh rate was accidentally set to an all time low- 60Hz while it should be at 75-85hz. Sooo thats the casue of the dizzness…

😎 Looking forward, next week seems to be a week of administration at work/camp. With OVM stores to return and so. The 4 armoured M113 Ultra on the scout side is gonna be returned soon, so are the signal, optics & OVM. Would be able to see few months free of mounted training. Haha just say its an alliance between us sergeants to rid these stores, if not its just inviting “unnecessary training” our officers always want us to do for our troopers, even our troopers are sick of them already. Based on the schedules, next year would see a possible chance of heli-brone training, specifically air-insertion from a chinook helicopter. The closest I could see to that was the rappelling training I did back last year.. haha & yes it was fun… A medic course would be on next week & the highlight would be buddy to buddy “dripping” that involves.. erm poking each other with needles, oh hello bruises!

Friday & sat in glorious truetype text… long but otherwise, quite a good read.

Friday
Last night was life firing day, it very much needed us to go through bashing through muddy treks & crossing rivers to assault an objective, AI dismounted style for times in all (day blank & life, night blank & life). Us specialists chonggen, janan, tanyi, neo, AI maocheng & yiwei & me were all very much involved in the firing doing safety. So much for that, while the run of the troopers & specs get to stay at camp, DOING NOTHING! moreover, they get to BOOK-OUT on friday evening too… while we finished the life-firing round 11pm only to reach back at camp slightly before 12mn, sob sob can’t book out then, only the next morning, slept around 12.30am dang was I tried.

Saturday morning
The next morning, our PC chen junming admitted being not in a clear state of mind yesterday, therefore allowing the rest at camp to book out. Actually they should stay in camp for integrity reasons, even our old PC, poh was pissed. Chen assured us that it would not happen again. As we guess so, even chonggen’s intel on OC allowing us to book in on monday morning was a dammned hoax, no compensation for us. oh well thats the army. Its going to be quite a day ahead…

Booked out around 6.30am this morning & got a lift from chonggen (CG) to his usual adam road busstop where dad fetched me home thereafter. Concussed the moment I showered upon reaching home, woke up around 11am with cg bugging me to go to simlim with him to buy his new computer parts. Ate breakfast mum prepared & left the house around 12.15pm. Took 855 back to adam road where CG & his loyal uncle fetched us to simlim. Shopping for parts was fast, as we kinda did our “homework” from previous sls pricelists I’ve collected before heading out, purchased everything in 1/2hr comprising of a Geforce FX5500 256MB, P4 3.0GhzE & a Gigabtye mobo. Met maocheng at simlim itself, & he’ve gotten HL2 too, its a small world dude.

Saturday afternoon
Headed back to CG’s house to upgrade his current comp only to find out that his current Dell 8100 system have very limited upgradeable features, like missing a few molex & mobo power plugs. The only way out is to get a new PSU & casing. Even opening the dell casing was a feat, with so many unconventional levers & release hatched here & there… argh I just hate boutique PC casings,.. so inflexible. Moreover, its already 2pm & time is now on our side, considering that I have another movie meetup with my BMT friends at around 3-4pm. Leaving the computer aside, it time to drop by funan to get the Half-life 2 I’ve preordered. Purchased HL2 collector’s edition at $125, while CG got the standard edition at $69.90 consisting our 6 cheaply packed CDs without jewel case & manual, rather disappointing though. If you want a better buy, the collector’s edition is the way to go, though the “free” T-shirt proves to be quite cheapskate as well…

Got a call from dom about “The incredibles” movie showing around 4.10pm. Its already 3.30pm & I am still with CG at funan having lunch (dang & he said he wanna treat me to lunch.. ) at the complex’s basement food junction. Got another call from Dom then later updating me about a 4.55pm movie which he’ve got instead.. 4.55pm? cool just right I can actually reach GV marina on time! But dun VG marinaplex have only one screen for one movie at a time? strange.. 4.10pm & 4.55pm shows? too good to be true…

CG had his uncle unlight me around rich-carlton/GV marina area, where I met up with dominic for some chatting & catching up on times. It was later then we found out the tiks are for 6.55pm, NOT 4.55pm when the ticketing auntie told us that a show is still on. Arghh! wrong tiks! so no incredibles. Dom was rather sorry about his box office blooper, this time I was not on intervenation!… Luckily theres a 5pm show on at the box, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Got the tiks subed & the next thing we were seated 4 seats just behind the screen at center (incredibles was worst). When the movie is starting dom suddenly ask me in a worrying manner.. “shit I did time indents for my artillery life firing yesterday, I hope I saw timing right…”

Saturday evening
Overall, the show was good, same Bridget, but a brand new diary, laughs & adventures. Guess I would have to catch incredibles some other day then. Then dom suggested watching it next week… haha if that is so I would be watching movies with the same bunch for 3 weeks in a row now… & now is that bad?… It was 6.45pm then marina square is still under major renovation with lots of stores closed, so we decided to walk to suntec to chill out for some coffee or so till 7.30pm. Dropped by Dell’s “try it” booth while at suntec to make enquires about the Dell x50v pda. to my joy, its out! the sales rep told me it came out today, well why don’t I be the first in Singapore to get one then.. haha at $911? I guess I would wait a little while more for the price to drop or when they decide to offer online discounts or so. Checked out tower records & PK computers.. mm man do the collector’s edition of HL2 a rare item around stores.. luckily I’ve got me tucked with me for an install later at home! 😉

Got a call from mum & dad that they are in the suntec area already. Aide-ohs! to dom, catcha dude next time then.. Headed back to marina square, Hans eatery for dinner with my family. Overall I still prefer the food at this hans branch rather than the one at home, maybe the portions are bigger/tastier, or was I just hungry.. oh well downed a silion steak set meal & salmon mixed vege rice while dad had fish & chips & mum, chicken chop.. (yes I guess I was hungry). Next stop the Singapore motorshow 2004 at suntec convention & exhibition center at 8.15pm, walked the area till closing time 10pm, theres not many people around as its the 2nd last day of the event now. Dad met up with some old friends doing cars at the honda & suzuki booths. The thing about cars now is that most people are scrapping their 5-6yr old cars now for new ones due to exponential car value depreciation, furthermore the COE is quite low now, I guess this is the trend, wonder is dad considering a new car or not. But otherwise he expressed rather great interests in the mazda 3, honda stream & suzuki liana. For me I was totally out with on-board ride entertainment & concept cars, wow.. those subwoofers, theres more, let the photos do the talking when I upload the photos of the event soon…

Headed home thereafter, installed & tested out HL2 while typing this blog. Would be tryin’ the game out tomorrow.

UPDATE
The photos of the exhitibition are UP now with captions. Feel free to check it out here or navigate your way to the photo gallery “miscellanous” section to check it out!