Defending The Little Red Dot

On reservist for the next two and a half weeks.

Quite xiong as we are with one of our subsidiary battalions acting as facilitators/assessors for their turning operational high key ICT.

I have to complain about the camp we're stuck in. Of all places we're housed in the one and only 1950s-styled camp still standing today. The bunks are the old-school locker-beside-bed, 40-man barracks with no air-con (ok I wasn't expecting that), no attached bathroom (not that either), no mosquito netting (yeah not expecting this too) and one door on either side, dormitory-style. Even my life in BMT was vividly better than this. Only the mattresses have been upgraded from sponge 3inchers, to ooh-la-la low-grade King Koil. Still better than nothing.

My biggest beef is with the toilets which are situated 100m away in a separate block. 20 blocks of bunks around camp and only one huge-ass toilet in timbuktoo, past the wide gravel pathway, past the large grass patch, past the cookhouse, across two drains. There. Right there. What the hell, they expect us to walk 100m just to floss?

And we're cut out from alot of communication with the outside world. No newspapers, no TV. Luckily I have my trusty old-school non-camera Blackberry to tide me through. But even still, some places have no wireless signal at all. Sad.

But aside from all these grouses, things are not that bad lah. Good time catching up with old friends as well as making new friends. Free food and lodging. Sharing and updating of our lives and army jokes. What more can we ask for?

Heading to New Zealand in July. Whoa. Fierce.