hi, guys

Saturday, February 10, 2007

2.35pm
so i put my blog add back in my msn nick. if any of my bunkmates happen to be reading this now.... man, i thought you guys had lives. go away.

no, seriously. go away.

so, ninja field camp is over. to be honest, it wasn't as murderously horrible as i thought it would be. i did not cry by day three. in fact, day three was the most sian and super fucking slack. in all honesty, my platoon is super welfare by ninja standards. anyway, i've just thought through the whole of IFC and i've realised i don't want to blog about all of it, after all, most of you have done/are going to do more or less the same ol shit. so..... highlights!

absolute worst part of field camp has to be field discipline. high kneeling everywhere is so much of a fucking pain that i have to use annoying font changes to emphasize the fact. wearing a helmet and lbv everywhere is shit.
no rain for the entire field camp. fucking lucky. honestly, what the fuck. no rain. no mud.
day three. admin cockup, no tonner to transport us (only platoon 1) to the new campsite. we slack around for eight hours doing absolutely nothing and reach the new site at 4pm. we get our lunch resup, we eat. an hour or so later, we eat dinner. fuck!
i didn't take a crap for the whole field camp. seriously, no shit. omg i'm hilarious, rightrightright. anyway, by the last few days my body was sending all kinds of warning signals. "nature's call" itself was well suppressed, if you know what i mean, but i could feel that my gut, the internal fabric of my being, had slowly reached maximum capicity. i had no appetite. there was no space for the food. i subsisted on pocari sweat and biscuits for the last two days.
and about the food... rations are... overhyped. for all the bitching and moaning and defending and support for combat rations.. well, it's just food. the noodles are all pretty decent, but for some reason the ones that taste the best at the start of the packet progressively get harder to swallow down. and the rice ones are okay too, despite all that's said. except maybe for chicken pongtay rice, wtf. i didn't get to try it... but still. wtf. the ascessories packs were pretty decent, pocari sweat kept me alive. the biscuits are really beautiful. amazingly filling. and making cake with the biscuits is another cool army-style once-in-a-lifetime experience.
night movement. ooooh shit, what do i say. especially when the guy that i have to follow has 'the eye'. truth be told, i was just pissed about having to bash through all the vegetation and how our sergeant was getting us lost.. and i didn't notice the 'significance' of his little actions.. like asking our sergeant not to point his torch so high. (the light was pissing the ghost off) or asking us to number off again. (he heard an extra count right before his turn to number off) there are other instances but i'm honestly trying to forget them. our sergeant must have noticed, though, because he got freaked and started smoking. in the middle of the forest. ..well, whatever calms you, dood. i spook really really easily, but only when i'm alone. one thing i've learnt about myself: i don't get scared when in close proximity to others. without my buddy, i'm sure i would have gone mad at night. seriously.
ah yes, the nights. as long as i can't hear stupid insect buzzes by my ear, that's all i need to fall asleep. without rain, life was even easier, like i said. it's weird to wake up, feeling fucking refreshed, and then realise you've only slept an hour. and then go back to sleep and wake up tired in the morning. oh, and every night, at least once, i would wake up, and get freaked out by what appeared to be some figure standing nearby and watching me, before it turns out to be a tree or something. i mention this because there was one night♪ (there was no light♫) where the figure that i saw was actually a prowler guard on duty, and he FUCKING MOVED. TOWARDS ME. holy shit my balls dropped. anyway. i felt stupid afterwards.
attack drills! GROUP!!!!!! STRAIGHT AHEAD!!!!! 100!!!!!! ENEMY BEHIND TREE!!!!! REGULAR!!!!!!! FIRE!!!!!!!! GROUP!!!!!!!! ADVANCE!!!!!!! ON!!!!! ENEMY OVERRUN!!!! GROUP!!!!!!! ICE!!!!!!! GROUP!!!!!!! SPIDER!!!!!!!!!!! GROUP!!!!! ICE!!!!!!!!!! GROUP!!!!!!!!!! ORANGE!!!!!!!! NUMBER OFF!!!!!!!! 1OK! 2OK! 3OK! ALL OK!!!!!! GROUP!!!!!!!! BACK TO TRACK!!!!! MY 6 O'CLOCK!!!!!!!!!! FOLLOW ME!!!!!!! MOVE!!!!!!!!!! it's so easy to blog sometimes. oh, oh, how bout this: ARTILLERY!!!!!!!INCOMING INCOMING INCOMING INCOMING INCOMING INCOMING INCOMING INCOMING INCOMING INCOMING INCOMING INCOMING INCOMING INCOMING ARTI LIFTED!!!!! *chiong*. fun. oh, and everyone's favourite: IA IA IA IA!!!!! *bang bang click* IA IA IA IA!!!!!!!!
powder baths. bloody hell. powder baths rate a close second to field discipline for the most annoying thing about ifc. it's troublesome. it's a hassle. it's fucking annoying.
third comes hangnails. half my fingers have hangnails. i hope i don't have to explain how annoying they are. i have no blisters, even after digging (and refilling and digging) my shellscrape. but hte hangnails, fuck, they just keep appearing, and surprise, no one brought their nail clippers to outfield. so i'm left with my jacknife and my jacknife can't cut it. cut it. holy fuck, i'm a professional joke maker. or even a joker. just like sergeant ghanim. although i can't talk like a robot here. or... type.. like a robot... wait a sec... this is getting nowhere.
BIC. basically it was just tiring. leopard crawling is fucked up on burning hot sand. forget the explosion pits and the live rounds overhead, that's just background sound. but inching along and wondering why the fuck you're moving so slowly and why the stupid sand path never seems to end and why you didn't tape up your sleeves and why can't i just baby crawl for a bit, just a few metres, i mean it's so much faster, please? but i must admit it was pretty funny to crawl through the wreckage of previous details. stray comms corde spools and eating utensils and a thermometre... they added that tiny bit more... 'atmosphere', shall i say?

anyway, the best thing about field camp is that it's over. am i a better person? honestly, i don't think so. but i know i understand myself better now. i'm not sure how to put it into words, but i know how i mentally cope with tough situations, how i deal with stress. and i must admit, it's not a very postive thing about myself that i've discovered. i.. just suffer. okay, this is starting to sound stupid. like i said, i don't know how to put it into words. i guess i was expecting to, i don't know, find some inner strength or some shit. or come out of it a stronger person. with some sort of discernable character development. and i can't see that in myself. for the past week, i've just suffered. endured, if you want it to sound nice. but, i haven't changed. i'm still the lazy, complacent bastard that i was before i left for outfield. for a few moments after coming back, for like half a day or so, i thought i had learnt to appreciate the little things like flat ground to sit on and light clothes. but right now i'm starting to wonder if i still have that with me. if, a week from now, i'll be back to taking everything for granted again.

i guess, at least, it's good that i'm thinking about this stuff.

Labels: bmtc2, field camp, ninja