Tuesday, May 25, 2010
blog
550 Airport Road. A familiar address to me for the past 2 years.
I still remember my first day over there - "Wah, this place seems like a heaven." And it didn't disappoint. In most senses and purposes, it was pretty far from its intended purpose as a military school. Nevertheless, the memories I accumulated there possessed both quality and quantity. Throughout my time in the service, perhaps only Tekong provided memories of similar quality (but the quantity pales in comparison).
Sathia and his I-am-Command-Chief-Warrant introduction, the female MSG from TMS who looked a lot like the nightmare Plt 2IC from Delta Wing but her attitude was the exact opposite, C3 Wing and LTC John Chan with his What-Have-Yous, 23rd/27th WSO-of-awesomeness, morning water parade and reciting the 9 core values half-awake, the 5BX which were in fact just 5 Basic Stretching, the post-breakfast nap, the thrice-weekly parade, post-morning parade comms check, the need to send parade state when you are weekly IC (and therefore no post-breakfast nap), the almost weekly Wednesday nights out, the Friday 4.30pm bookout, the ability to escape wearing headdress as a cadet (it was a godsend) by avoiding the first floor, post-lunch nap in the pink classroom with lights off, wrats room where darkness, terror, fun and laughter can coexist, the high quality gym and dave-the-not-so-kilat-pti, ippt on wednesday mornings and the post-ippt bath (and occasional nap time), sports/downtools on wednesday afternoons, occasional night badminton, visits to the mess, almost free access to the canteen during free time (a privilege that most army cadets never get to enjoy more than once), cyberspace in library every lunch time and manning it after office hours till late for internet access, the cosy 2 man bunk with my favourite 933 on every night, the plotting every night time with James (purpose is Top Secret), the turn-outs we conduct for each other by lifting the person out of bed and drenching him in power and water, the late night talks in ben chong and elsley's room, the daily 9pm rush to watch Beach Ball Babes (or rather Dawn Yeo) in the recre room, the little whiteboard outside the toilet which notes down stuffs to be done, the scrubbing and cleaning for an area cleaning which lasted an average of 30secs per room, the underused pull-up bar at the bottom of the accomdation block, the daily Aviation Wing parade which will disturb a good morning nap and the Sunday book-ins by 2300hrs.
And that was just trainee life which were the first 6 months. Although the memories endure, the people have long moved on. Nevertheless, there are some things that do not change - the taxiway which one has to pass before getting there, the roundabout where one can try to pull a 1G turn, service 90 and 94-of-horrendous-frequencies, the familiar blue and grey structure etc. As my time there winds down, perhaps my memories of it will be slightly tinged with a bit of nostalgia and flattery as time passes.
I sure will miss it when it's time to leave. Maybe "for all about 2 hours" as Benja said.
shermon blogged @ 10:04 pm
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