Mmm, its saturday, but it feels like sunday, partly because of the deja-vu of booking in tonight. Yes tomorrow is a work day for me. 😥 I can say that its also a very short weekend for me too, booked out of camp around 8.30am today & hello camp in less than 2 hours from now…

On a brighter side, let recap some of the happenings for the week. It started off with a nights off on tuesday for John & me when we recce-ed the AHM water point at east coast that afternoon. Our WSM, (aka angchek) allowed us to carry on & make our way home from there in the evening thereafter. The 2nd consecutive nights off is an official one on the following wednesday given by OC. However, the need to for me to go to the safti MI straight the next (thurs) morning granted me the green light to stay out by angchek, who was really a very understanding & nice guy, I salute him. Thursday was a demanding day at Safti MI, but otherwise a very fun day too (see previous blog post for more details). Work ended at about 8.30pm on that thursday where I made my way home with Zhuang to Boonlay, taking MRT & reaching home at around 9.15pm. Rushed to upload some photos & type some captions, readied my items & gear to book into camp thereafter at around 11.00pm where I met a rather cheerful OC who I told of the events of the day, esp the one with the encounter with chief of army. Very entertaining, I say.

Moreover, I forgot to mention previously that I’ve contributed 12 pull ups during my last official visit to the Safti MI army open house 2004 in count for the Guinness World Record for most number of pull ups done in a single event.

My family would be dropping by Safti MI tomorrow for army open house, the event which I had been so painstalking preparing for the last few months, too bad as an official for the event, I won’t be able to join them- something my mum told me would be very much better if I could follow. However, I have nothing much to worry, they will have lots of fun there, as part of the committee, I can guarantee it. 😀

There will be a long holiday break coming up next week in compensation of the working days spent for the event. Would most probably book out on next wednesday night & break lasting till the upcoming sunday thereafter. Furthermore I would clear an off owned to me on that following monday, the 13th of september to celebrate my mum’s birthday. 😳

And finally, you can check out the final uploaded albums of both the Army Open House 2004 photos in the site’s National service photo gallery.

And so it was the visit to the first opening day of the Army Open House 2004, held at SAFTI MI, Singapore.

Its started with an innocent visit to the MI to check out the progress & experience the action we had been planning & promoting so far, very much a welcome to relax & enjoy the day. Met up with zhuang & karpal at the busstop at 7.30am & made our way into the hotpot. Met up with SSG Ken & Maj Goh where we got our official passes & attended chief armour officer’s “motivational talk” at the mini stage. Helped in the packing of the media goodie bag thereafter (it will always find us) which we too, were issued one each consisting of a dryfit AOH polo shirt, cap, badge & litle niffy items, dirnks & snacks. When thats done, we very much went around taking pictures leisurely checking out the displays at the neat parade square & stuffs, not to mention mixing around with school children who came & experienced the fun headon around noon. Quite a fun bunch. Dragged ourselves to the MI library where I borrowed some military manuals our OC wanted us to research on.

There was free food from our sponsors KFC, thus saving us some cash. The life slacked in the afternoon deep in the air-conditioned corners of OCS main building. Then came the rather 😯 interesting news of us (esp me) being the Chief of Army’s personal photographer.. ahha challenging… & so there I was meeting up with Chief of Army later in the evening to take pictures of him & his family, going on the live safari ride with him, the MI army rides & following him round the exhitbits & the parade square thereafter. It seems that COA have this “repelling power” to officers, esp the Majors & LTCs who seem to undergo “sponateous replusion” whenever chief comes in their way… weird… Anyway, I was just a photographer. 😉

With that done, why not feast yourself & check out the photos (& that with the chief of army) of the event here! maybe I might consider submitting them to the digital photography competition. (Note: mind the photo captions, they are not all fully up yet, woulda be workin on it on my next bookin!)

Here I am at home enjoying whats left of my weekend.

Initially, tomorrow is supposed to be an off in-lieu in compensation of the burning of the upcoming weekend due to the army open house event. But it was taken away at the last minute, due to some AOH live firing issues on my company side. Tested is my new camera too which worked flawlessly to keep up with our ever hungry demands for photos. The eventual good news is that I would be getting an off in return for spending that sunday at work, well sometime in the days to come.

And so, stuff on the roadshow, it turned out to be quite a fun event, with kids, camo & crowds & stuffs, not to mention free pizza from our food sponsor, pizza hut.

Uploaded already are pictures of the event- The AOH Roadshow @ Toa Payoh HDB Hub!

Had my ATP-M (Advanced trainfire package ATP maneuver) test yesterday, very much like the run-down type range test I’ve last month, only that instead of using the 5.56mm Carbine I fired with previously, today’s firing was done with my company’s using the newer SAR-21 5.56mm Bullpup rifle.

Generally speaking, firing with the SAR-21 rifle have its good and bad points. It is much heavier, has a theoretical lower rate of fire, but compensated with its accuracy over long ranges. Overall unlike the older and less-reliable carbine, the SAR-21 is my preferred weapon. If you ever need a trusty and reliable weapon. Live-firing is usually conducted at the outdoors ranges in the Lim Chu Kang region.

Furthermore, shooting now is very much easier, especially at night with the integrated laser aiming device, don’t even need to use the included 1.5x optical scope. The rifle is very stable even firing up to 300m and I am sure it can do better further. To get a marksman you need a 32/40 score.

Heres is the rundown of the Advanced Train fire Package ATP the result of my day shoot:

Day Shoot

• 300m 6/6 (Random Fig 11, Fig 12)
• 200m 3/6 (Random Fig12, Fig 15)
• 100m 2/3 (Fig 11 moving target) & 2/3 (Fig 15)
• 50m 3/6 (Random Fig12, Fig 15)

I thought it was all over when I hit 16/24 in total for my day shoot, that means I needed 4 more to pass & 16 more to acheive a marksman. Yes a very pressuring and stressful situation I say. Heres the result for the night shoot:

Night Shoot

• 100m 4/4 (Fig 12 shadowed)
• 100m 4/4 (Fig 12 flashing)
• 50m 4/4 (Fig 12 flashing)
• 200m 4/4 (Fig 11 lum)

All in all, so that’s 16 folks, that means a total of 32/40, MARKSMAN! wheee! I am $200 richer now. 😀 This amount shall be paid into every servicemen bank account in addition to your service pay. Even by today’s standards, its is actually not difficult to obtain an ATP marksman. It had been so prevalent that it is almost a “company standard” now. All to boast trooper morale with incentives too to keep up good work. We all too, have an excellent and reliable rifle to thank.

Finally, on my regular television rants, the 2nd season of The Apprentice is now screening in the states. Lets see how much Donald Trumph and the fresh 18 candidates have to offer this time…;)

Had some fun here & there with my new powershot digi-cam & hey! *SHOOTS* a new moblog pic too.. well, I guess its time I updated it too… Today is very much a day spent at home, resting, helping out mum with some chores, doing little webcoding, gaming, working out & my favorite, slacking. A typical sunday, family day. But *sighs*I just can’t wait for the time when I wake up on sunday morning without having the dreaded thoughts of booking into camp that very night, very demoralising at times.

The problem with the army is that it takes out too much of our “youthful times” into doing things we have to force (& bluff) ourselves to like. We are supposed to be free & wild creatures, why the isolation? umm… with the exception of average pay, well too, I can’t really say life there suxs, it do have its ups & downs… But most importantly, the army is a place & job not much of a comparative advantage for me – I can do better elsewhere, fullfilling my wants & interests, therefore my remark.

Mmm, can’t stop playing, Outkast- Roses on winamp today, the songs drilled in my head, argh Kylie! why can’t you get this outta my head!