Don't mind the goofy self-talks i had with myself, it really is something i'd like to start off my blog with. Anyways, I think i ought to do a proper round-off with my National Service experience, and ladies and gentlemen, may you brace yourself for the longest single post in Dawson's Journal.
To start off, i actually found out that i was selected for National Service last year, and the government had done a really good job in concealing my future destination or rather, which batch i was in. I was actually quite relieved that I'm in the second batch, that meant that i could spend the whole Chinese New Year with my family. Then again, i was actually cursing my luck, WHY ME, i asked God, why me of all people. And then there was this wretched message :" Tahniah, anda telah dipilih untuk menyertai PLKN Siri 6." My world turned upside down, it was torturous, I've heard enough negative feed backs on NS to detest it so much. But it's either the chicken or the egg, i had to make a tough choice, of course, it was not about choosing to bring a chicken or an egg to the camp, it was rather, go for it or spend 3 years in jail, your call. DUH, the option's obvious right??
And there i was on the 20th of May, making last minute checks on the brings and don't brings, i actually didnt even bring a cellphone to the camp for the first 2 weeks, but then upon seeing others texting and calling, i ought to ask my parents to bring it to me on the third week, it was dreadful. Anyway, i boarded an air-conditioned school bus (DUH, i wouldn't want to be spending the next 2 hours on a filthy ran-down school bus).
The trip was quite short although it took us almost an hour to get out of the Stadium Hoki Sultan Azlan Shah, the wait was annoying, but i enjoyed the companion of my classmate, which i was very lucky to have one in the same camp.
Upon arriving, guess what, it was on a sun-scorched barren tarmac, with little shade around it, I was like, okay, maybe the facilities aint that bad. Then, we hauled down all of our stuffs from the bus. AND the majestic sight of the flour factory just beside the camp just "fascinated" me, that means we have to live with dirty and polluted air for 3 months, yuck!!
If you think the marching field which was basically a barren run of tarmac was dreadful, wait till you go into the mess hall. First of all, it's a mess as i was jam packed with people, with little air circulation and even less fans, the air-cond units were running but it hardly made a difference. It was dreadfully stuffy and hot, you won't stop sweating as your eat your petty, lousy and equally dreadful meal.
I didn't really run into any trouble on the first day, in fact, everything went on smoothly, i proceeded to picking up my new clothes (thats the fun part), and headed back to my dorm. There i was happy to see Alex, a strictly English speaking Indian with some knowledge in Cantonese(for some reason, he's really good in Canto-abusive languages), and there was Penguin, which we called by the name as he ran like a penguin strutting on ice.(chuckles)And then there was Tok Wan, Syafeq, Vincent(the boss), Jun Xiang, Thesigan, and many other, we all lived under one roof for the next 2 months. Can't say it's trouble free tho.
I was assigned to my company, the Charlie company. I've heard alot about the company, how the team failed to win more than an event in the camp during the tenure of the 1st batch, BUT, that's about to change. During the first few days, we had Tai Ko, a Camerons guy who was tall and big, tho i'm taller, as our stand-in leader, immediately, i found out something amiss, THAT poor guy didnt know nothing about marching orders, and i practically slapped my head. Luckily he didnt last long, phew, what a relief, then there was Penguin stepping up and he marginally did his job well for the first 2 weeks. His assistant, Shahrul was a pain in the ass, not only he's a jackass and an asshole, he knew nothing about marching. No wonder he got booted out during the first marching session between leaders.
And finally, my tenure as a leader began, the Charlie trainer asked if anyone was involved in uniform units before, you know, to replace the exiled Shahrul. I raised my arm and was surprise that no one besides me volunteered. He asked me to give an order, and to his disbelief, how loud was my voice that even the birds on the trees flew away, and there you have it, a permanent Charlie leader.
Thats all folks for the day, i'll continue my story in part II in the next few days, keep and eye for it.
Now, a photo of my beloved company, Charlie, i was not in it sadly.....
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