21 + 14

Did a lot of stupid things again in camp.

Had a challenge with Bo (Clive) on the chin up bars. First it was who could do more chin ups. Then it was who could hang on the longest with one hand. Then it progressed to trying to kick each other off the bars before becoming chin up bar humping, with him being the bitch. haha.

Before long we trying to see who could swing to the other's bar first, who could take off their shoes with only their feet first and who could take off their shoes and socks first. I won the shoe thing hands down but Bo won the shoes and socks thing without breaking a sweat. From the way he spoke about his past, I'm not surprised. ;-)

Then there was the thursday where I was sleepy as fcuk for some reason and began laughing at random intervals for no particular reason. It could just be a simple conversation and I would start laughing at simple things like how the words were pronounced or how the guy was sitting when he spoke. At one point, I ran out from the smoking point to the compound and shouted for everyone to keep still there. Of course, as luck would have it, there was no one there. But it felt good. haha

Made some pretty good friends there. Everyone is a laojiao (experienced [soldier]) to some degree.

There's Hansel who's a crazy bastard who is as funny as he is insane.

Then there's Bo who's from Burma and Syed who's unphased by anything, speaks freely and always wakes up late.

There's Talos who's a bit weird with his Wicca practices but quite smart in my opinion and gives great massages. He used to steal my food after certain meals but I put a stop to it once I had him figured out. Thank God He protects me.

There's also Samuel who's a semi-worldly Christian who's quite placid in that he's trying to figure everyone and everything out.

'Medic's a blur and miserly but funny-in-his-own-way kind of guy. 'Driver' (Desmond) is another blur one but still relatively street savvy.

Then there's Jacky who's quite honestly one of the nicest and open guys I've known. You can't tell if you are friends with him but if you take a step back and analyse him, you'll see it.

There's Bernard, the Yankee storeman who with me, will most of the time walk around in our underwears.

Santos is a Filipina who considers me Malay because I can't speak Chinese. Then there's Joel with a really colourful history but he's a good guy, but still has some of his past on his shoulders.

And that's just my section, who all happen to be smokers by the way. All in all, we're all mostly quite close to one another with the exception of a few bad apples. 'Orchard Road' is an ass who is a blatant follower and compulsive liar. Most of us have given up on him. And of course there's Thiban who's probably going to be charged soon.

There are really too many friends to fit into this post though. And oh yea, Richard and Ryan are Catholics too. Both are relatively insane, just like me. Then there's Amos who's thinking of converting to Christianity. Whether Catholicism or Protestanism is still on the debate table for him.

We all go through the same shit together. Like almost all of us had scratches all over our body due to the stupid Battle Innoculation Course. The course was damn short but the soil was damn soft so leopard crawling was very tough. Amos who was behind me was cheering me on sporadically but my arms had never felt such pain before and my legs, well I couldn't really feel them.

Then there was the live grenade throw where there were 2 nades that didn't explode, both belonging to persons from section 4, a section notorious for having a very bad discipline record. We planned to celebrate their 'birthdays' but alas we were short on time with the training schedule so tight this week.

Had a great debate with Talos on a few subjects which I now forget and an exchange of opinions on the topic of homosexuality and evolution and Darwin's theory of evolution. I came out with my points at first but as it was just an exchange, I prodded him for his own points. Found that it was not quite as straight forward as it usually was with him and I found myself arguing for the legalisation of homosexual marriages and etc for a while. I finished the remaining sticks in my half full pack of smokes while talking to him. Sometimes though, he takes his debates too personally for me to enjoy learning from each other. I don't always want a winner in a debate between friends, i much prefer the sharing of opinions. Bbut for the most part, we both share some very unique opinions and positions.

Took 6 sticks from Murali after he bought a new pack from my friend from the office because his gang and him finished up a significant portion of my last pack because none of them had the sense to buy more packs, despite this being the 6th week of training.

Ended up going to dbl 0 that night with Syed, him driving his car and me driving my own. His people are crazy bastards who had the skill and energy to make that night one of the most fun nights of my life.

Happened to meet Ben and Sophie there and the latter introduced me to Maple. Quite a cute girl but she was very young and looked pretty naive in terms of relationships. She was clinging on to her ex (who's name I forget) as if they were still together.

Syed is damn power with his pickup skills, from my observations with him and Maple. I was wowed by the stunts he pulled but he refrained from doing too much mainly because by extension, Maple was my friend. I swear I gotta learn from him.

I tell you, the longer you serve in NS, the more fun (but tiring and routine) it gets because everyone stops giving a shit to a certain point and we start filling our time with other more entertaining pursuits.