Blog of a CPL in VS NCC(Land): My school blog

my life in the little red dot.2009-12-16

NCC (Land) December Training Camp 2009 Part 3

After 6 hours of sleep, I woke up with lesser cramps compared to the previous night. Glad that I slept even better this time, quickly immediately after I closed my eyes. I think this was due to the tiredness accumulated from last night and the DIY "pillow" made from clothes stuck inside my sleeping bag's cover.
Soon, I fall-in in my detail level in the Wushu area. Then I knew that there would be no PT on the last day. I was quite relieved though. But the boring thing cane: We had to clean up the place. Our detail was in-charge of the school canteen. I was in-charge of cleaning the tank that was used to dispense drinks for our meals. It was indeed troublesome to clean that up but somehow I managed to. After the clean-up, we waited for inspection. After the inspection, we were told that the benches that were not in use by us were unclean. Our sergeant Major told us that even though we did not use that area, we should also help to clean up since this is our school. So we took another 10 minutes to clean up that area and waited for another inspection.
After the clean-up was feedback time. Our sergeant Major asked us some feedback about the camp events.

The first question he asked was how was the Inter-detail Games. I would think that it was quite fun and engaging, it also bonded us as a detail. But at the same time it was quite boring waiting for quite a long time and the fact that it was quite dangerous playing with legs tied.
The 2nd question he asked was how was the War Game. I would think that the War Game was also quite exciting and engaging. It taught us the importance of being strategic in whatever we do. But I felt that more time should be given for the game.
The third question was how was the Amazing Race. I would think that the distance covered was too long, from Paya Lebar to East Coast to Simei! Either the distance covered should be shorter or should be longer with the use of public transport.
The forth question was how was the Cadets Night. I would think that it was quite fun and engaging with the auctioning session before the actual event. In between the skits, there were games to keep you engaged. I feel that the Cadets Night should be longer.
The fifth question was how was the Night Walk. I would think that it was not scary after all. More props should be used to increase the scariness of the walk. More types of actions should be used instead of just popping out and yelling. The distance covered should also be longer. Overall, I think that the walk was not as good as last year's and the specialist had failed in some ways.
The last question asked was how do you find the camp overall. I would say that it was quite well organised, especially compared to Camp STEEL organised by the NCC HQ. It was also quite engaging and exciting even though extremely tiring. I feel that the camp should be longer to keep us engaged during the school holidays.

After that, they gave us some feedback forms. Inside they asked some questions regarding the camp, can't remember all the questions. But I remembered 2 questions. The first was which was your favourite activity. I hesitated for some while and put down Night Walk. I hesitated as I find many flaws in the Night Walk as mentioned earlier. But that was the event I looked forward in the camp. The second question asked was what rating (1 to 10) would you give the camp. I gave the camp a solid 7, much better than Camp STEEL, where I gave a 4.
After that was the prize presentation ceremony. There was the best cadet award in every detail. For my detail, another Part B cadet got the prize (a mug). No surprise-he was much more enthu than me, he was the one who came out with the food cheers. There was also the Best Part A cadet award (a plug) and the best overall cadet award (a plug). For me, I did not really mind not getting an award. The most important thing was that we learnt the importance of teamwork and many skills required for NCC.
After that we Bersurai and broke camp and HOME SWEET HOME!
(This post was done much later due to some technical problems with my computer)

Labels: camp, NCC, part 3, school

another day in the SINGAPORE ; 4:11 PM

my life in the little red dot.2009-12-11

NCC (Land) December Training Camp 2009 Part 2

After 6 hours of sleep (weirdly I slept much better this time with hard floor and improvised pillow made of my clothes compared to Camp STEEL with spongy beds and decent pillow).
We reported at the Wushu area at 0630hrs. There, attendance was taken in the formal way. Each detail would be an IC (for our detail it was another Part B), then the Ic would report to the Company IC, each Company IC would be in-charge of 3 details so there would be 2 Company ICs. I was appointed one of the Company IC. I felt damn shiok when I could command half of the whole camp mates, especially my friend Ahmad Aqashah who hated me commanding him during practices. I would then had to report to the OIC. The whole process was rather screwed up as this was our first time doing it.
We then flew to parade square for PT. The PT was far slacker than first day's. Only 5BX, 10 counts of 4. I still found some difficulty in doing so as I had cramps due to yesterday's scary PT. We then only had to run one round around the school but better shouting were expected.
After that we had our breakfast was our drills. We changed into our no.4 and flew up to parade square. We were taught 2 songs, where we were supposed to scream like some jokers over and over again! After that was just some marching.
After that we had our Amazing Race briefing. There were 6 checkpoints altogether. You were supposed to do something at each checkpoint. We then pressed the stopwatch to see which detail stopped at an exact number first, that detail would start the race first and followed by second, third, etc. Our detail started second.

The first checkpoint we went was East Coast Park. There we were supposed to find 2 ping pong balls each blindfolded on the grass.
The second checkpoint was at Paya Lebar Singpost. I was surprised that the checkpoint was situated at such a faraway place and I was totally shocked that we had to WALK to there. It was freaking tiring and took close to 2 hours walking there! However when we saw the building, I felt a great sense of accomplishment. This is the longest distance I had ever walked in my life!!! Anyway, when we reached the checkpoint, we were supposed to guess the price of some items.
The third checkpoint was at Eunos MRT Station. It was another long walk to there. We had to play some matching games until we found all the matching numbers.
Then we took MRT (we were supposed to do so) to Simei MRT Station. We were supposed to transport water using sponge, so we threw the sponge to one another until it reached another bucket and back.
The fifth checkpoint was at Bedok Interchange. We decided to cheat and took the MRT but sadly, our ASM spotted us. It was another long and tiring walk of 1 hour + before we reached Bedok Interchange. On the way we met our ex-sergeant who would be coming later for cadet's night. At Bedok Interchange we just had to shoot some tissue paper using water gun.

The last station was in school. However, we decided to cheat and took the bus back to school. At school, we were supposed to throw water bombs at the selected guy in our detail. It was damn fun to throw and see him being drenched. After that we had to go to the canteen and find some paper which I found it on the other side of fire extinguisher. There ended our race.

We got the 4th position in the race (the first position was won by my friend, Ahmad Aqashah's detail). Later it was found out that 5 out of 6 details cheated-only Aqashah's detail did not cheat and they got first!
After that was our free time, followed by dinner. We then made our last preparations for our cadet's night.
Before the cadet's night started, there was some auctioning game. We were given paper money (amount based on our performance in inter-detail games, War Game and Amazing Race). There were 16 items. Our detail won a packet of twisties and a voucher to perform our skit and cheer first. When the cadet's Night started, we were the first to perform the cheer followed by skit (some joke war scene). After 2 details performed, there was some game where you were supposed to pass a message-to see if message became distorted by the end! After another 2 details, our ASM called us up to dance with him, quite fun though. After all details performed, there was a game which was something like Pass-the-message, except you did it in form of acting it out. Every detail would get a turn. After the game marked the end of Cadet's Night.
After that was the activity that I looked forward-Night Walk (or Confidence Walk). Before that, they showed us some Japanese horror movie called "Infection". Soon it was my turn, together with one of my Part B platoon mate. We were given ice-cream sticks to put one each in one checkpoint.

The first checkpoint was the Sportsman room next door-a specialist suddenly popped out under the table (I found it lame), then we watched part of some movie.
The 2nd checkpoint was at the gym toilet, where someone hid in one of the cubicle and pulled our legs.
The 3rd checkpoint was at the spiral staircase. One of the specialist suddenly shouted like a retard on the way up. It was lame compared to last year where someone suddenly dropped some scary doll with scary music.
The 4th checkpoint was inside the toilet near the foyer. Someone just popped out and screamed.
The 5th checkpoint was some bushes but no one was there to scare us.
The 6th checkpoint was outside the D&T workshop but no one scared us though ASM was there, I guessed he already knew that we knew him hiding there.

There ended our Night Walk. This year's night Walk was far lame and far less scary compared to last year's. I didn't even utter a single scream neither my partner. They should have used more props instead of just popping out and yelled some noise. After that we went to sleep.

Labels: camp, NCC, part 2, school

another day in the SINGAPORE ; 6:18 PM

NCC (Land) December Training Camp 2009 Part 1

4 days ago, 7/12/2009, it was my NCC (Land) Annual Unit Camp conducted by our unit's Sec 3 specialists. It was a 3D2N camp held at our school. This was my second time attending this camp (Of course I had attended the camp last year when I was Sec 1).

I reported for In-Processing at 0745hrs. After our attendance were taken, we were split into details. I was in Detail 1 with the name of "Eagle" together with 1 other Part B and 4 other Part As (which 1 of them went home later as he was unwell). Sadly I was not in same detail as my best friend Ahmad Aqashah (put in Detail 3) like last year.
After we got our valuables confiscated and bags checked, put in the hall, we were told to design a poster for our detail. So we decided to use our detail name EAGLE to make an acronym for Excellence, Awesomeness, Greatness, Leadership, Enthusiasm and we decided to draw an eagle eating some yummy food.
After that the nightmare of the camp came! We were told to do push-ups + Sit-ups + Jumping Jets and we were told to repeat many times since we screwed up in one way or another. After that we were told to jog 3 rounds around the school (about 1.6 Km)! Not only that, we had to shout while jogging as instructed by our ASM. On the way, we got knocked down another 30 for not running together and not shouting. By the time we completed our PT, I was 3 quarter dead!
After that we had our lunch, the food was quite nice except too much vegetables compared to meat. After lunch, we had our inter-detail games of soccer, floor ball and captain's ball. For soccer, we played as normal but for floor ball, we had to find a partner and had one of our legs tied together. It was indeed much more difficult to move! Due to accidents occurred during the floor ball match, we need not tie our backs together for captain's ball to prevent further accidents. For each game our detail played against 2 other details. Overall, our detail did not do as well. We got 4th for soccer, 6th which was last for floor ball and 2nd for captain's ball.
After that was our free time, which I spent bathing, followed by dinner.

After that was one of the highlights: War Game. Firstly, we had to buy a rank, each rank would be able to defeat a rank lower than it though there were exceptions (For list of ranks, click here). We were given 3 lives in means of puzzles. When we won a battle (by means of flashing their ranks together, the one which rank could defeat another won), we received their puzzle piece (gaining extra life), when we lost, we gave them our puzzle piece. When we lost all our lives, we went back to the base to wait for someone to donate lives and the winner takes your rank and sold it. Ranks could be switch between your detail mates. The detail who everyone lost their lives would be eliminated. The team with the most money and points (1 point=1 life left) won. Sad to say our detail screwed up like crazy, getting last!
After that we had our supper and went to the hall to sleep.

Labels: camp, NCC, part 1, school

another day in the SINGAPORE ; 2:28 PM

my life in the little red dot.2009-09-05

Camp STEEL 2009 Part 2

This event was broken into 2 parts in case you get bored or confused by a whole lot of paragraphs. Anyway lets continue the event, Camp STEEL.
The second day was a TOTAL NIGHTMARE! I woke up at around 5.30a.m. since I could not sleep well. At around 6.15a.m. we went for our 5BX which involved as series of stretching warm-ups continued by exercises such as push-ups and jumping jets.
After that we went for our breakfast, that's the WORST BREAKFAST I had EVER. We had NasiLemak. The rice was okay, I ate the chili, it was not as spicy as tongue told me, so I finished the whole chili.
However, soon I after I finished my breakfast, I felt my stomach like burning! Guess I ate too much chili...However the pain got worse and worse, I could not take it and fall-out. I was sent to the clinic nearby. I told myself: NEVER EVER TAKE SAMBAL CHILI AGAIN though I didn't after that since I could not resist the temptation.
When I arrived at the clinic, I filled in some forms and waited for my turn, the wait was freakingly long! Finally was my turn to go in the consultation room. I told the medical officer everything about the pain. It was another freaking long wait before I collect my medicine. I asked the officers there when I would be fetched back to the camp, guess what? He said he didn't know! All he told me was to wait. I was worried of being trapped there alone. There went another long wait before they arrived and fetched me back. About 1 hour 30 minutes was gone...
When I got back to the camp, I was relieved that I finally saw my platoon mates. We were then doing rappelling. I asked them what I had missed. They said that I had missed the obstacle course (MOC)! Damn it! I had once again missed the MOC like I did in Camp FEAST! But there was no point crying over spilt milk. I decided to go rappelling since my pain was almost gone. When it was my turn, I started to tremble as I was afraid of height. The guy told me to look left look right look down in order to increase my bravery. I then started to rappel downwards. I was not as scary as I thought. That's the only good thing on the second day!
Then it started raining! Stupid rain! Our paintball was cancelled! We waited for don't know how long. Due to the heavy rain, we had to eat our lunch at the narrow dirty ground inside the bunk building.
After that we went to our bunk and packed up. We then went down and collect our certificates. Then boarded the bus back to school and HOME SWEET HOME!
Overall I felt that this camp was quite boring and relatively badly organised (since this was the first time they organised the camp) compared to last year's Camp FEAST. They should plan wet weather activities so we do not waste our time waiting like we did during the paintball time. Together I missed the MOC and paintball, what a pity! Nevertheless, it was an unforgettable camp. I HOPE THAT I WILL NEVER EVER GO TO A BORING CAMP LIKE THIS!

Labels: camp, NCC, part 2

another day in the SINGAPORE ; 1:23 PM

my life in the little red dot.2009-08-30

Camp STEEL 2009 Part 1

On 26/8/2009, its our Camp STEEL, a camp for Part B (Sec 2) NCC cadets, compared to Camp FEAST which is for Sec 1s. At about 7.30a.m. we met up at school and boarded the bus to HQ NCC, at Amoy Quee Camp.
When we reached there, it sures bring back memories of last year's Camp FEAST, which was held at the same place. We had our bags checked and we were split up into different platoons with other schools. I was placed in Platoon 3, with 2 other of my classmates and 3 other from my neighbouring class. I was also in the same platoon with 1 Primary school classmate. After that we placed our stuffs in our bunk.
We then went to the multi-purpose hall for some talks by one of the officers. Basically he was talking about some ways to become a good leader and successor. It was quite a boring talk but still, I paid full attention as a respect and wrote down notes. Anyway what the talk said is true, it made sense. There was no such talks in last year's Camp FEAST, it is meant for Part Bs only.
After that we went for lunch, the food was rather nice, I managed to finish up everything.
After that we went for the orienteering talk, which was also absent in Camp FEAST. Basically they talked how to read maps (like recapping what we learnt in Geography lessons). We then got to walk uphill, downhill or flat ground to count our paces.
We were then supposed to go to our obstacle course, what unfortunately, it was cancelled due to stupid weather, what a pity! We then went to some room for some talks where we were supposed to introduce yourselves.
After that, we went to the MPH again for some talks again by the same officer. After finishing the talks, we went for dinner. The dinner was some noodles, the difference was that we got to see the Muslims break fast and ate with us.
After dinner, we went to the MPH again for the survival quiz where we were given a scenario and had to arrange the items needed for survival according to level of importance. I was embarrassed to say that our group did very badly.
we then went to the auditorium for some military movies. The movie was very boring as I did not really understand but the good thing was that I got to enjoy the air-con, very cooling...
After that, we had our supper and went to sleep. The sleep was terrible! Though with spongy beds and a pillow, I still could not sleep at all! Guess I was not used to it. I only slept for 5 hours...

To be continued...

Labels: camp, NCC, part 1

another day in the SINGAPORE ; 12:44 PM