All About @lienphu@
17 / libra / 28 Sept 1987
epps > vs > tjc 20/04
tjco.percussion
allanphua@hotmail.com
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Sunday, August 13, 2006
Good riddance, national stadium.
Yes, i'm proud to say i've no feelings whatsoever for this gigantic gray architecture. my buddy agrees with me on that point too. it always gives me the depressing feeling. please dun give me the crap that it has 30 plus years of history and has witnessed countless events and i'm supposed to feel sad that it's going to be torn down. i would be delighted to apply my demolition skills to destroy it though =)
some reasons why it should have been gone years ago:
1. the track has already started melting. walking on it normally with boots will cause imprints. now you know why the annual national track and field championships changed their holding venue years ago.
2. the toilets are definitely the dirtiest in singapore. even dirtier than some portable toilets located at construction sites. even dirtier than MRT station toilets. and the water that comes out from the tap can be just 3 mm wide. it's that pathetic.
3. there are plenty of mosquitoes there. i believe it has the highest mosquito density in an urban area in Singapore. of cos the spectators during NDP may not feel it cos the mosquitoes have many options. but during one night when i was guarding the fun packs delivered there by my company, i thought i was in outfield.
if you dunno yet, 1st battalion singapore guards (or 1 GDS), the unit i'm in, is in charge of NDP 2006. that is assuming you know that SAF always organises NDP. of cos, one big event like this needs the help of other units too... armour, combat engineers, blah blah.
wondering what i did for NDP in what i term it as the 'Great NDP Saikang'? read on. (saikang is hokkien for 'fatigue work', which simply means the work behind-the-scenes)
it all started with the calling centre. we are supposed to call everyone in singapore who are successful in the ticket balloting. i had one weekend burnt because of this. actually, when informing the winners, we only know their NRIC number and the number of tickets they were allocated.
so wad happens next when we tell them they won tickets? we have to give them their tickets. so i became a person clad in red hang ten 'i-love-singapore' t-shirt sitting behind a counter giving them tickets. that had to be the best day of my NSF life since i get to enjoy air-con, work on a laptop, interact with civilians and eat at a japanese restaurant for dinner. heard that the set meal cost $18.50. too bad i only did this ticket collection thingy for one day only.
then some singaporeans decided to wait till the last minute to collect their tickets. so we had to call to remind them on the 2nd last day that the ticket collection will be over soon. i burnt a saturday because of this.
now comes the 'fun' part. we now need to pack fun packs for all 3 shows, namely the NE show for pri 5 students, the preview and the actual NDP itself. every company will take turns to pack fun packs every day, and the target to meet every day is 10000. my company was the only one to cross this mark every time we packed. while the other companies argue that the reason is bcos we have more people, i say it's because we concentrate on wad we do and not slack so much.
towards the preview and NDP, the logistics dept of HQ decided that we need to pack 13000 bags a day. and they are prepared to let you pack till night time as the bus will leave the warehouse at 9 pm. (we pack the bags in another camp in clementi) but of cos my company won't take that long to pack. we finished at around 4 plus and by 5.30 i was on the bus back to bedok camp. our OC (Officer Commanding, something like the principal of the company) promised us we could have a nights off all the way till 11.30 pm if we can meet the target everyday. a 'nights off' means you can book out to the civilian world and for people like me whose house is near my camp, i can even go home.
wad do i do during the shows then? i mentioned 3 shows: NE, preview and NDP.
for NE show: i was the Army Liaison Personnel (ALP) for edgefield primary in punggol. so i need to go to the school alone in my uniform and ensure every pri 5 student gets on the bus to go to stadium. i had teachers to help me of cos, so it's not that bad managing 11-year-olds. plus, at the stadium, i get to sit down and enjoy the show. however, i had to follow the buses back to the school itself after the show. since the entire country's pri 5 students are here, there were not enough buses and i waited till 11 pm when my school's name was called to board the bus.
for preview: i was attached to charlie company (my most hated company in the battalion, why i hate them so much is another story) to help them give out fun packs. sounds easy? it was definitely not the case as we had to constantly refill fun packs at the counters and the refilling rate was slow. the fun packs were stored in boxes of 12 and were quite far away from the counters. plus every fun pack contains 4 things that make it heavy: 1 bottle of distilled water, 1 bottle of newater, 1 Yeo's packet drink and 1 sports drink u've never heard before called Activade. while we are working our ass off refilling fun packs, you have our dear charlie company people just standing down there looking at us while they count the number of people that went past them using a pacer. u see, their OC is so good, assign the easy jobs to them, give the difficult jobs to us. dun tell people that the best soldier of the month came from that company.
for actual NDP: my platoon complained about doing too much work for preview so we were assigned much easier work this time. some of us manned pigeon holes. they are just the different entering points into the gallery of the stadium. we could only let the crowd enter at specific holes so we need to man them in case they take away the barricades or open the gates themselves. i was an usher in the gallery though. i was supposed to 'pack' or squeeze as many people on a bench by constantly reminding them to move in and put their fun packs on the floor or lap. however, my platoon sergeant decided not to do this and i became underused. so i slacked around and almost viewed the entire show too. except that before the fireworks, i had to give umbrellas to those sitting at the top few rows of the gallery in case they get hit by fireworks debris.
for all 3 shows, we ate KFC for dinner. sounds good but by the time i got the food, the oil from the chicken had already been absorbed so much by the paper box that the bottom part of the box can give way any time.
after every show, there were always saikang to do (moving barricades/leftover fun packs/keeping umbrellas blah blah) but of cos, my company always finishes so fast that we need to help other companies. as a result we can only go off at about 11 pm in our sweaty uniform. luckily i always share a taxi with 3 other people living in pasir ris... so the taxi fare is quite cheap.
*****
now that NDP is over, it's going to be normal training again... and of cos taking whatever fun packs that are left haha =)
Yes, i'm proud to say i've no feelings whatsoever for this gigantic gray architecture. my buddy agrees with me on that point too. it always gives me the depressing feeling. please dun give me the crap that it has 30 plus years of history and has witnessed countless events and i'm supposed to feel sad that it's going to be torn down. i would be delighted to apply my demolition skills to destroy it though =)
some reasons why it should have been gone years ago:
1. the track has already started melting. walking on it normally with boots will cause imprints. now you know why the annual national track and field championships changed their holding venue years ago.
2. the toilets are definitely the dirtiest in singapore. even dirtier than some portable toilets located at construction sites. even dirtier than MRT station toilets. and the water that comes out from the tap can be just 3 mm wide. it's that pathetic.
3. there are plenty of mosquitoes there. i believe it has the highest mosquito density in an urban area in Singapore. of cos the spectators during NDP may not feel it cos the mosquitoes have many options. but during one night when i was guarding the fun packs delivered there by my company, i thought i was in outfield.
if you dunno yet, 1st battalion singapore guards (or 1 GDS), the unit i'm in, is in charge of NDP 2006. that is assuming you know that SAF always organises NDP. of cos, one big event like this needs the help of other units too... armour, combat engineers, blah blah.
wondering what i did for NDP in what i term it as the 'Great NDP Saikang'? read on. (saikang is hokkien for 'fatigue work', which simply means the work behind-the-scenes)
it all started with the calling centre. we are supposed to call everyone in singapore who are successful in the ticket balloting. i had one weekend burnt because of this. actually, when informing the winners, we only know their NRIC number and the number of tickets they were allocated.
so wad happens next when we tell them they won tickets? we have to give them their tickets. so i became a person clad in red hang ten 'i-love-singapore' t-shirt sitting behind a counter giving them tickets. that had to be the best day of my NSF life since i get to enjoy air-con, work on a laptop, interact with civilians and eat at a japanese restaurant for dinner. heard that the set meal cost $18.50. too bad i only did this ticket collection thingy for one day only.
then some singaporeans decided to wait till the last minute to collect their tickets. so we had to call to remind them on the 2nd last day that the ticket collection will be over soon. i burnt a saturday because of this.
now comes the 'fun' part. we now need to pack fun packs for all 3 shows, namely the NE show for pri 5 students, the preview and the actual NDP itself. every company will take turns to pack fun packs every day, and the target to meet every day is 10000. my company was the only one to cross this mark every time we packed. while the other companies argue that the reason is bcos we have more people, i say it's because we concentrate on wad we do and not slack so much.
towards the preview and NDP, the logistics dept of HQ decided that we need to pack 13000 bags a day. and they are prepared to let you pack till night time as the bus will leave the warehouse at 9 pm. (we pack the bags in another camp in clementi) but of cos my company won't take that long to pack. we finished at around 4 plus and by 5.30 i was on the bus back to bedok camp. our OC (Officer Commanding, something like the principal of the company) promised us we could have a nights off all the way till 11.30 pm if we can meet the target everyday. a 'nights off' means you can book out to the civilian world and for people like me whose house is near my camp, i can even go home.
wad do i do during the shows then? i mentioned 3 shows: NE, preview and NDP.
for NE show: i was the Army Liaison Personnel (ALP) for edgefield primary in punggol. so i need to go to the school alone in my uniform and ensure every pri 5 student gets on the bus to go to stadium. i had teachers to help me of cos, so it's not that bad managing 11-year-olds. plus, at the stadium, i get to sit down and enjoy the show. however, i had to follow the buses back to the school itself after the show. since the entire country's pri 5 students are here, there were not enough buses and i waited till 11 pm when my school's name was called to board the bus.
for preview: i was attached to charlie company (my most hated company in the battalion, why i hate them so much is another story) to help them give out fun packs. sounds easy? it was definitely not the case as we had to constantly refill fun packs at the counters and the refilling rate was slow. the fun packs were stored in boxes of 12 and were quite far away from the counters. plus every fun pack contains 4 things that make it heavy: 1 bottle of distilled water, 1 bottle of newater, 1 Yeo's packet drink and 1 sports drink u've never heard before called Activade. while we are working our ass off refilling fun packs, you have our dear charlie company people just standing down there looking at us while they count the number of people that went past them using a pacer. u see, their OC is so good, assign the easy jobs to them, give the difficult jobs to us. dun tell people that the best soldier of the month came from that company.
for actual NDP: my platoon complained about doing too much work for preview so we were assigned much easier work this time. some of us manned pigeon holes. they are just the different entering points into the gallery of the stadium. we could only let the crowd enter at specific holes so we need to man them in case they take away the barricades or open the gates themselves. i was an usher in the gallery though. i was supposed to 'pack' or squeeze as many people on a bench by constantly reminding them to move in and put their fun packs on the floor or lap. however, my platoon sergeant decided not to do this and i became underused. so i slacked around and almost viewed the entire show too. except that before the fireworks, i had to give umbrellas to those sitting at the top few rows of the gallery in case they get hit by fireworks debris.
for all 3 shows, we ate KFC for dinner. sounds good but by the time i got the food, the oil from the chicken had already been absorbed so much by the paper box that the bottom part of the box can give way any time.
after every show, there were always saikang to do (moving barricades/leftover fun packs/keeping umbrellas blah blah) but of cos, my company always finishes so fast that we need to help other companies. as a result we can only go off at about 11 pm in our sweaty uniform. luckily i always share a taxi with 3 other people living in pasir ris... so the taxi fare is quite cheap.
*****
now that NDP is over, it's going to be normal training again... and of cos taking whatever fun packs that are left haha =)
~ the @lie[n] landed on Earth @ 4:05 PM