Jungle hat!

After suffering for 6 weeks, I have finally graduated from my course... I was brimming with joy as the Commanding Officer placed my jungle hat on my head during the ceremony; despite the adventure the night before (refer to last blog), the wet, soggy, dirty smelly clothes, the chronic lack of sleep. I will be posting my graduation pictures as soon as I can get my hands on them.

So now it's off to the National Day Parade Preview for me today. Ah, this should be a more relaxing job than being a scout!

Danger in sacarsm

I probably should be more careful in what I write. As you can see, in the previous post, I mentioned the word die. Well, it seems that I had a very close shave two days ago while I was having my summary exercise before I graduate from my course...

It was around 4 am in the morning, and we were trying to find a suitable location to harbour. My team commander was quite adverse towards the thick vegetation (full of lustful female blood suckers), and wanted to find a hidden clearing instead. We came to this steep slope in the middle of the clearing. Perhaps it is hard to think in the middle of the morning, but it did not strike us about the appearance of a barren knoll in the middle of a thick forest.

Too tired, we set up shop halfway up the slope, in a tucked away corner of the knoll, settled into our routine: one person manning the communications, and the rest sleeping away (probably an inaccurate statement, considering the number of mosquito bites we sustained) until 2 brigade reconnaissance sergeants woke my team commander up.

My TC: "What is it?"
BR: "Are you sure you want to harbour here?"
TC: "I don't see anything wrong with it"
BR: "I think the sign is too small, but in case you were not aware, we are now at an impact knoll for 84mm live rounds."
TC: (stunned)
BR: "(dryly) Ok, there might be blinds here, so we suggest you shift your spot, that is if you do not want your platoon commander to be delievering white letters to your parents"

So much so for military adventures!

Did you think that I was dead?

After a brief hiatus (three weeks, two non-existent weekends afterwards), I have finally managed to get online to post my blog. In case you were wondering where I went, here's the quick low down...

My vocation course (which is a scout, in case you didn't know) suddenly decided to conspire with the desperate people back in camp to sneak up on my weekends. So my last two weekends were spent in school on Fridays, the national stadium on saturdays to do dry runs for the national day parade, and Sundays recuperating my lost rest for the whole week!

And what a headache it has become. If you recall, I lost my identification card a while back, and was socked with 4 extra duties. Guess what, as of now, I have lost my combat helmet, and now the prospect of a weekend at home now looks even further away than before... One would have thought that the sound of a helmet hitting the forested floor would have prevented its loss...

My platoon sergeant gave me a strange look which was a cross between sympathy and annoyance, before he dumped me into the back of a rover, and drove all the way back into the forest, tracing my footsteps, in the faint hope of recovering the $150 equipment. That was when I discovered the following:

1. He is a speedaholic:
   (Especially when he was flooring the accelerator through all the humps, effectively throwing me a few centimetres into the air each time, in my full battle order, mind you!)
   
2. Never piss your platoon sergeant off
   
   He was cursing at the speed limiter which beeped each time he hit 50, and some of the choice sound vibes were ones I had never heard of before.
   

I guess I will discover my fate when I return back to camp. I heard that it would be 7 extra duties...