Duty is a Terrible Burden

2234hrs: Just went through a really long day which began at 0600 and is still going. Reported to my new camp this morning at 0800 but I was late. I got on the bus at 0650 and I was still late when I got there. Missed the shuttle bus but some nice corporal gave my friend and I a lift into camp. Spent 9 hours sitting on the concrete ground stoning. It was absolutely a waste of time. 9 freaking hours of my life wasted doing NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING NOTHING AT ALL...just 9 hours sitting on the ground staring at eachother and spent only 30 mins filling up some forms. But other than that, NOTHING! I'm so tired that my eyes are hurting and my brain feels compressed. Looked at the food in the cookhouse this afternoon and I lost my appetite. Ate plain rice for lunch but had a feast after work at Macs cause I ate little for lunch. I'm about 40mins pass my "official" self-imposed bedtime. I've gotta reach the camp by 0730 tomorrow morning so I'll have to wake up at 0530 and be at the bus stop by 0630. Aaaaahhhh...for the sake of the Fatherland I will be losing my sleep and my intelligence further in the next 3 weeks. Duty is a TERRIBLE TERRIBLE BURDEN!!!

Halt! Who goes there?!

2358hrs: I was asked(ordered actually) to do guard duty on National Day as punishment for sleeping during the day. Thanks to my truckload of arseluck I was the only one who got caught sleeping on the bed even though more than half the platoon were squirming in their beds. I booked in on Sunday night 080804 and reported back to my company building. I've never once seen Tekong so quiet before. And there was only one person back in the company building, my sergeant. Tekong being the 'hantu'(ghost in Malay) Holiday Inn that it is, I really didn't want to stay in one big building all alone. So I thought the sergeant would be sleeping with me in the bunk. But noooooo, after giving me some instructions he happily trotted back to the sergeant's bunk. Which was several blocks away. The company building was eerily dark and there wasn't a single soul in sight. I was really all alone. So I decided to switch on as many lights as I could and thankfully the recruit's mess was open. I spent the night in the air-conditioned recruit's mess with the radio on throughout the night. I almost freaked out when I remembered I had pork with me. Our senior officers did warn us not to bring pork because it'll upset the 'permanent residents' of the island. Just at the beginning of my BMT several muslim guys in my platoon got 'disturbed' in their sleep. Some heard people calling their names others got strangled and someone's bed shook. The best was the guy sleeping next to me heard scratching noises coming from MY cupboard. I really didn't need to know that.
TO BE CONTINUED.......