What's my posting?

Monday morning, I returned to Tekong, and reported back to my coy line. For the first time, I see a nearly deserted School 3 (only the PTP enlistees in S coy are still around), and there were new guys around the coy line. I waited awhile before I was brought to HQ BMTC to wait for my next posting. There I met another OOT-ed recruit like me, whose period of MC has also finished. So it was nice to chit chat with someone else in the office. Among the things we did were:

• Having canteen breaks (For the first time!)
• Shredding papers (Classified info ...)
• Sharpening pencils (until I damaged one of the sharpeners. Oops!)
• Going to the medical centre to endorse our MCs (only to find out my MC was endorsed the last time I made the visit to the medical centre...)

Tuesday morning, I returned to Tekong, and I was told that my posting has been confirmed, but the NSF clerks wouldn't tell me what it was until 2 hours from bookout (3 pm). And when I found out I was to be a storeman, i couldn't feel more relieved! (Thank god I'm not a medic!)

Wednesday morning, I made my way to my new unit, which was the HQ of a certain formation. Apparently there was a major event on that day, so I was roped in (together with 2 other newly posted in NSFs) to help out in the event.

Thursday morning, I returned to my new unit, only to be told that there is a chance that I may be posted out to one of the hubs. Then during an interview with the Manpower Officer, I mentioned that I would rather be posted out as a storeman than to remain as a clerk in the HQ (effectively, since no storeman is needed in the HQ). After the other 2 newly posted in NSFs were interviewed, we were then told of our posting. One of us (actually me) was supposed to stay in the HQ, but I requested not to stay in the HQ, so I was then given the alternative of posting out to another hub. Only to be told (as I left home) to come back to HQ the next day ...

Friday morning, I returned to my new unit, and met another one of the NSFs who also rather be posted out to the hubs than to stay in the HQ. I asked him if he also received the same call as I did the previous day, and yes he did. The admin officer then told us that HQ actually needed some extra manpower (to replace the guys who are ORDing), thus we had to stay. So what else can we do but to do this:

So now I'm (effectively) a clerk in this HQ. How would life be as a clerk? I don't know, only time will tell ...

And here come the end of my MC ...

Finally, after 7 long weeks of recovery and rehabilitation, my MC has come to an end. This means that I will have to resume the life of a NSF, one that was thrown aside when I fractured my toe. Frankly, having lived much of the past few weeks with a civilian mindset, I think I may find it a challenge to assimilate back into the military culture, where there is little freedom, much restriction, and the like. So in a sense, I would need to adjust my system back into the "NSF mindset" ...

Anyway, I would be going back to Tekong tomorrow morning to retrieve my next posting. I recalled that during my first week at home nursing my fractured toe, I was extremely worried about my future vocation (no medic for me, please!!!). However, as time went by, I found out that I wasn't so worried about my next vocation. Therefore, while I hope for the best, I am very much expecting the worst (read: medic), though I guess any vocation would be fine for me.

Oh well, I gotta go to bed soon; I need to catch the first bus to reach Tekong on time tomorrow morning!

So now's my block leave ...

Into the middle of my last week at home, I'm still pretty much living life as I did over the past few weeks: FB, 9gag, blogging and Sudoku puzzles. It would have been my block leave right now had everything went smoothly in BMT, but I guess it was not to be. I certainly hope that the company clerk don't take away 5 days of leave from my quota (of 13?), because I'm still on MC, otherwise I would be real mad!

Anyway, over the past few days, I have been trying to get my right feet used to the normal walking posture (whole foot down instead of just the heel). Right now, I'm walking around with my SAF-issued sandals (not bad, BTW), with the straps loosened as much as possible. Soon, I'm going to need to walk around wearing shoes and eventually boots as well. Hopefully, my right foot would be able to adjust well to wearing shoes as well as boots!

Tekong Day Trip #2

Yesterday night, I received a SMS from my PC, asking me to go back to Tekong the next morning to retrieve my belongings and sign some forms. Which meant that I had to wake up early this morning, something that does not happen very often nowadays.

And I left right in the middle of the morning rush hour. I realised it was a bad decision later on, when I was caught in massive traffic jams. Because I had not factored traffic jams in my travel plans, it meant that I would probably be late for the 1030 ferry from SFT. So at Pasir Ris, instead of waiting for service 89, I tried to hail for a taxi, but there were none, so I gave up and took the bus to SFT instead.

Therefore, I arrived at SFT 15 mins late. So no choice, got to take the ferry that departs 1 hour later instead (ie. wait for 45 mins). But before I got to wait for the ferry, I was tekkaned by the security trooper at the guard post. He was very niao, criticising my bearings, like my hair, facial hair, fingernails, etc. Hey, back at school, this kind of bearings was acceptable, OK? He was just too particular about my bearings, and wanted me to do something about it in Tekong, or else he'll book me when I leave SFT later. After he allowed me to move on, I thought, "I certainly can shave my facial hair, cut my nails, but what about my hair? How to find Tekong barber? Tekong barber got on-call service meh?"

While waiting for the ferry, I did some Sudoku puzzles, and also alerted my commanders that I didn't make it for the 1030 ferry ... and after quite some time, it was 1130 hrs, and I boarded the ferry, along with some other recruits/contractors. And of all kinds of shows to broadcast at that time, Channel 5 broadcasted some home shopping commercials. And of all kinds of products to promote, bras were being promoted. Therefore there were closeups of ... ahem ahem. So let's just say that this is how I felt:

When the ferry arrived at TFT, I went on a slow stroll back to P coy line, with a stranger who was going to PTMC. I guided him for most of the way, and when I reached P coy safety corner, I pointed him to a straight path leading to PTMC. Then I saw some platoon mates who were resting at the safety corner. I later found out that they were excused from the GP rehearsals, so they were just resting. And there I sat with the rest of the status people until the rest came back for (packed) lunch. Then I was told to pack all my stuff upstairs.

Finally, I went upstairs to pack my stuff (why couldn't this instruction be given earlier?). Then as I packed my belongings slowly (I needed to figure out how to pack my stuff in the most compact manner), my section mates came into the bunk, as they finished their lunch and it was their rest time now. When everyone came back from lunch, somebody commented, "It's been a while since everyone is here." Yeah, I thought, quite a while indeed.

Once I packed all my belongings, I returned the store items (my UMPC was gone already), and was ready to leave Tekong. Except that it was nearing 1400 hrs, which meant I would miss the ferry departing at that time. So I thought, might as well have my lunch first. Lucky there was an extra packet, so I took my time for lunch. As I had my lunch, the COS decided to get boxes of ice cream from the cookhouse, and then distributed them to the status people; apparently there was a surplus of ice cream as many people had packed lunch instead of going to the cookhouse for lunch. The COS even gave ice cream to the contractors that came to the coy line - LOL!

Then I asked the COS to issue me an off-pass. Since he was eating ice cream, he asked me to complete the off-pass on his behalf. So I essentially wrote my own off-pass - how cool is that?

Fast-forward a bit, and I was on the 1500 ferry out of Tekong. And when I reached the guard post of SFT, there was also another recruit that was apparently caught for hair length. Apparently, he was also an OOT personnel. So I told the security trooper (thank god it's a different fella!) that I also OOT from BMT, here to collect my stuff. Thank goodness he didn't book me; he merely told me to "screw off" from Tekong. Phew!

So that kinda marks the end of my second day trip into Tekong. And oh boy, time does flies - it's already 6 weeks into my MC, and my section/platoon mates will POP this coming weekend!