Sunburnt on Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Once u stepped out of the ferry, u land on a platform with a path that leads you to entrance to Pulau Tekong. The sign reads, "welcome to Pulau Tekong". To many parents and civilians who first come with their enlisted children during their enlistment, the sign seem to innocuous. However, many nsfs who are working Tekong island have come to see that sign with contempt and mockery. "welcome", what a ironic greeting.
Having been posted to bmtc as an instructor, i have taken as of now 4 batches of recruits. The life of an instructor in Tekong can be pretty mundance, but we have grown to find our own source of entertainment.
First and foremost we have our Tekong mall, which is situated at the instructors' bunk. One the bunks had a dvd player, with loads of vcds and dvds, which my colleagues will play almost every night. We called that room Eng Wah. My room has stereo speakers which blast music everyday, to songs of R&B nature. We call that our music junction. The bunk next to mine had a super duper disgusting stench which when one open the door, he will not hesitate to slam the door close. We call that our "Scent shop". Last but not least we have a bunk who whole day long play PS2 games, and we call that bunk none other than the "arcade".
As you can see, life for instructors in tekong can be pretty fun, often oblivious to the naive recruits. Recruits are always recruits. They will exclude and deprive of any privileges which we can solely enjoy.
Second source of entertainment is that as instructors, we like to disturb our recruits. Whenever they see us, they will "DIAM"!" and greet us, follow by the permission for them to carry on. However i have added something before they can carry on, that they must report to me how many days i have left before i ORD. Hmmm, that will be fantastic isn't it. Recruits can really do silly things can times. SAF repellent, a green tube of transparent gel that stinks, SAF camouflage cream, green or darl brown. .... on one fine night.......something happened.
"Recruit Benjamin, why is your face so black...charcoal black?" shouted a sarge into his head.
It was in the dawn, on a day of the SIT test, the situation test for dipl/a level students. Recruit Benjamin dapped his face with his fingers, and look at his hands. Truly his hands were stained with black camou cream. As he tried to recall, he came upon a fatal realisation. The night before, the camp site was swarming with sand flies which bites can be irritatingly itchy. Recruit benjamin, being inside his basha(tent) in the middle of the night, delve into his pouches for his tube of repellent. He had mistakenly taken a black camouflage cream, happily applying to his face never to realise the embarrassment that he is going to go through the following day.
"Now everybody, i give you exactly ten minues, no, eight minutes to camou your face, and my time starts 2 minutes ago...." Bellowed a sergeant, with a sneering satisfaction on his face.
Out of a blue, i shouted at this particular recruit, recruit Ng.
" Oi Ng, what are you doing with that mirror?" I was so stunned that he brought a mirror to the field camp. NOt juz a mirror though. A round mirror, with a longitudinal handle at the bottom, with prints of flowery designs on the back.
" What the...f...., you think you are SADAGO is it? huh? " The rest of his platoon mates suddenly burst into fits of laughter. It was really unbelievable.
Nick was out in the sun at
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