Changi Beach to ECP, in 1 hour!

As a leadup to the National Vertical Marathon 2012 that I have signed up for, I decided to challenge myself to cycle from Changi Beach to ECP within 1 hour (the route I took is shown here).

So I decided to start from Changi Beach and head towards ECP, and turn around and go back towards Changi Beach when I have cycled for about 1 hour. Turns out that in 1 hour, I was able to ride all the way to ECP, slightly past Marine Cove (where there used to be a McDonalds outlet) before I needed to turn around to go back to Changi Beach. So this meant I could cover 38 km in 2 hrs, making an average of 19 km/h. Hopefully I can cover this same distance in future at a much faster speed!

Overtime week!

Being a clerk is good, so they said.

Being able to stay out everyday is good, so they said.

These are the two common things that just about everyone says about my current position in the SAF now. But are they really that good?

"Being a clerk is good" - Good only in the physical sense as you don't get drained physically. But mentally you can get stressed like hell, especially when you have so many things to do ...

"Being able to stay out is good" - Good only when you stay close to the camp, otherwise the travel to and fro camp is equally hell ...

Anyway, I wanted to bring this out because over the past week, I have been working overtime for all 5 days! And the average was going home 1.5 hrs after official book out time, so it's fair to say working overtime isn't really the best way to use your time efficiently ...

Oh well, hopefully with this experience I don't OT like mad in my working life as an adult in the future :)

Induction

After 3 weeks in my current unit, I was more or less familiar with the unit. Still there is a need for a formal induction program, which pretty much covers the same ground as what my colleagues have told me about the unit since my stay here ...

Meanwhile, I have a lot to learn from my upper-study. Thank goodness there is 3 more months to absorb whatever knowledge he has garnered over his stay before he ORD, so it doesn't seem so bad ...

First public holiday in my NSF life!

Since I first enlisted in end-Jan, there was only 1 public holiday, which was Good Friday. But that day did not feel very special, since it was somewhere in my long 7-week Att C period.

Now that I'm back in action serving my 2 years, Labour Day is actually the first public holiday that I get to enjoy, since it's time away from SAF. And Vesak day is actually just round the corner, so this period of time does feel like a lull period, where there is little motivation in just 'chionging' all the work.

However, after Vesak Day, the next public holiday is National Day, almost 3 whole months away! That's nearly 3 months of no breaks from work (apart from weekends of course), which is such a contrast to school, whereby the longest period of schooling is about 10 weeks! While I may have 13 days of leave available for me to use, I do intend to use them only in Nov-Dec, where I have some activities planned for that period, like volunteering in StanChart Marathon Singapore 2012 and participating in Swissotel Vertical Marathon 2012.

Of course that is only possible if my BMT recourse does not fall within that period! Right now, there seems to be a few possibilities for my BMT recourse dates:

• BMT batch that POP on Oct 12
• BMT batch that POP on Jan 13
• BMT batch that POP on Apr 13
• BMT batch that POP on Jul 13
• BMT batch that POP on Oct 13

I'm hoping that my BMT recourse would be the batch that POP on Apr 13 or later, so that I can take part in the activities listed above ...