Post camp thoughts & recollections

Well its finally over, here i am back home infront of my beloved computer making this super long post. Like i said in my previous post i went away for a 3 day 2 night st john camp in school. And what a BORING camp it was. I have done basically every activity in the camp, only this time i didnt take part in most of it. Although i did get to plant the flags for the war games, and i also patrolled the upper sec campus during the course of the game. Most of the instructors came back as expected, audrey, chin keat, shi jian, jia jie and stephanie were all there during the 3 days and 2 nights. What bullshit, they said this camp is run by us, the NCOs. Even during parades they will not be there to suddenly show "SEMULA!" at us whenever someone or the corp makes a mistake. But what happened? Audrey does it all the time! Why cant it be like old times where there are no instructors and only officers to assist the NCOs? I dont recall seeing any ex-students attending weekly corp trainings or camps when i first joined st john. Why is it that now all of them are coming back to make our lives miserable? This isnt fair, its supposed to be our camp. Therefore we should be the ones running the show, not the instructors. Their presence just makes NCOs look no different from the cadets. This means we dont get as much authority as we are supposed to when they are around. That certainly is fun....

Anyway heres a summary of what happened each day.

Day 1
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Woke up later than i was supposed to, and it was hot that morning as well. What a way to start the most boring UG camp ever. -.- Quickly changed and took a bus to school. Everyone else was already there outside the school gate, because it was still too early and the gate isnt open yet. So Shortly after arriving the side gate was opened and we all entered the school from there. All proceeded to the upper sec canteen where the cadets started arriving. Changed into full uniform and began first parade. After parade, handing over of valuable belongings and changing back to PT kit. All went to the hall for checking of belongings, i didnt bring extra batteries (Even though the ones in my torchlight are brand new), track pants and something else i forgot what it was. All went back to lower sec campus and proceeded to our bunks (Classrooms). Mine was class 2A on the 2nd floor. Right beside us was class 3L1 which was the instructor's bunk, which is also the operations room. After that had bunk inspection. Once that was done everyone had group interaction in the locker area behind the building. It was raining heavily as well as we were all delayed since first parade was a screw up. As a result footdrill was canceled. Went straight for field cooking after that. Like what i did last year, i only ate canned food which was tuna. Potted games came immediately after that. Wei jie, wei liang and i had nothing to do so we helped do some labour work by carrying stuff from the home econs room to the operations room. When i was heading over to the toilet to grab a mop for area cleaning the audrey bitch asked me to go over there and look for a gummy worm in the pail of flour (Its used for one of the potted games station) that bitch (as predictable as always) suddenly whacked my head with wet flour. How lame, that made me pissed because flour removal is a pain. So anyway after that was our bathing time. Which was 2 hours long because of the condition of the toilets. A little too long as a matter of fact... It went well, i managed to remove most of the flour from my hair. After that was flag lowering. So after bathing we had to go back to the toilet to change into full uniform, that was when i accidentally dropped my pe tshirt on the wet toilet floor which dirtied it. And it has to happen just after bathing -.- Didnt bother me much though, so i went on with it. After that was more group interaction followed by dinner and war games. Unfortunately it was postponed to the next day since we could only use the nexus campus for the game. And it would be a lot harder to hide flags and more boring since everyone would be enclosed in one campus. So it was replaced with flag raising and parade lectures and TOC. Had supper after that. Before we go to sleep we had our debrief. I couldnt wait to sleep, so i went back to the classroom. For some reason though, i wasnt able to sleep at all. So the instructors came inside at around midnight and caught mingzhe and i awake. They made us go down to the canteen as a result, lame. Initially they punished us by making us stare at each other before finally deciding to do this new thing called "bridging". By which one person goes into pumping position across 2 tables and another person goes under to support him. Mingzhe did the pumping position, while i was asked to lie down across 2 benches under him. Although my position was better, it was really uncomfortable as there was a big gap under me. And it hurt a lot. After that nicholas and wei jie were there taking turns to support mingzhe by letting him rest on their backs. Not an easy task. Towards the end i helped mingzhe by letting his knee rest on mine. We had to continue doing this for 1 hour before they let us return to our bunks to sleep. And i did sleep after that.

Day 2
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Woke up at 5+ in the morning, iman and i were going to the toilet to wash up when audrey caught us. Iman told her he was going to brush his teeth and she scolded us because commitee briefing was starting. What a bitch. So we quickly changed into full uniform and proceeded to the canteen for the so called briefing. After that we headed back to our bunks to wake up the cadets. Everyone went to the parade square in the upper sec campus for first parade where it started raining cats and dogs. So we had it under the walkway cover thing. It was a screw up, and took longer than it was supposed to. Had PT after that, not too bad, was kinda slack though. Had breakfast after PT, never felt so hungry to have breakfast before. After that was the war games, which spread out to the upper sec campus. Some of us including myself went out to plant flags in hidden areas. By then the school was swarming with students, and especially the band members who were using the field and corridors for band practice. That made it noisier as well since they will be playing their music most of the time. So anyway the war game went pretty well, although it drizzled a little. Had field cooking after that, and it was already raining cats and dogs by then. Again i didnt bother to cook at all, anyway it was raining so heavily and we had limited space. So cooking would be troublesome as well. That was when i saw yin kee eating canned food as well, most probably because she was influenced by me. =D There was a change in schedule once again since it was raining. After group interaction will be community singing and knowledge explosion. This is probably the most free time i had during the camp, so i played a bit of yoyo in the classroom. There were band members outside along the corridors and it was really noisy. I still managed to sleep for a bit though hehe. So after 3 hours or so of not doing anything. I changed and proceeded with "footdrill" which was supposedly canceled. However wei jie suspects that the footdrill session was only a cover up for changing of DNs and DOs. The entire parade took 31 minutes because the DN that time kept messing up. We even had changing parade as punishment, the NCOs werent part of it though. Instead we ensured the cadets come out of the toilet properly dressed. As for me i took care of the bunks to make sure the cadets dont waste any time. After that we had dinner. Everyone was really hungry by then, i even ate a little more tofu and one more hot dog. And it still wasnt really enough, so was supper. Since it was the last night we all stayed up later and slacked around in the girl's bunk on the 3rd floor. But since we were all so tired we ended up sleeping. I was too lazy to take out my sleeping bag and fold it back the next morning. So instead i used it as a pillow and covered myself in newspaper for the night. I regretted doing that because i forgot it'll be really cold when i wake up. So cold that i had to lower the speed of the fan when i woke up in the middle of the night.

Day 3
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Like a 100m sprint to the finish. The camp is reaching its climax, all we have to do is survive for a few more hours before its homeward bound. First parade went pretty smoothly, the best during the entire 3 days. PT was fine as well. After breakfast everyone went back to their bunks for cleaning and inspection. Went well too. After that was debrief and prize presentation in the AVA theaterette. Overall best group went to group 4, which was alvin's group. Yinkee was incharge of them too. I wonder if this has anything to do with some of the tips ive given her hehe. =P So after some talking by mr ezra, the cadets were finally dismissed. However the NCOs had to stay back for debrief. Starting from the first day of the camp. So we were held back until like 1pm before we can finally leave.

Phew, finally....

So there you have it, thats what i did. As you can see, nothing interesting has happened. There was no campfire, because more than half of the UGs in school werent even present. NPCC was there from monday to wedensday. But it only consisted of sec 1s and 4s. Scouts and guides are camping in some dairy farm in bukit timah. NCC are having their camp in some army camp elsewhere. This leaves st john the only uniformed group with full strength camping within the school premises. Well that sounds like fun doesnt it? Besides theres no campfire as well, which is probably the MOST fun part of the annual UG camp. Without the presence of the other UGs, the atmosphere is just too different. Especially at night when we're all thats left.

Ok enough of the negative points. There were some laughable cases in the camp, as well as memorable ones. I'll post some of it here.

Day 1, during field cooking.

Yinkee: Where do we throw all this? *Holds mess tin with soup and left over noodles*
Timothy: Dunno... What you can do is you drink the soup then throw the noodles into the trash bag
Yinkee: -.-
Timothy: Why do you all even bother to cook in the first place? Just eat canned food la, thats what i did
Yinkee: *Thinks for a second* Ya hor... True...

Timothy: You never eat meh?
Shi Hui: No la, no time to cook lor
Timothy: Just eat canned food la, thats what i did
Shi Hui: Eeyer! Disgusting lor, nevermind still got watermelon
Timothy: Aiyo... You ar... *Walks away thinking how women will survive if they go NS*

Just after field cooking

*Someone dropped an egg outside my bunk*

Yinkee: Timothy! How to clean up?
Timothy: Wah, egg i really dunno how to clean up leh. What to do now?
Yinkee: You help me clean can? I really need to go with my group now
Timothy: *Gives reluctant look* Aiya ok la, go la go la.
Yinkee: *Elated* Thank you! I owe you one!

In the end she also helped to clean lololololol.

Day 2, again during field cooking

Wei Jie: *Holding hot mess tin with noodles inside* Can put the mess tin on table or not?
Timothy: Eh i think better not, because hot later spoil table
Wei Jie: But instructor say can leh
Timothy: Dunno, put lor
*After eating for a bit*
Wei Jie: *Lifts up mess tin to stare at black stuff on the table* Oh shit...

Also during field cooking

Yinkee: *After unsuccessful attempts to use can opener* Timothy, you know how to open or not?
Timothy: *Opens can half way then notices leak on other side of can* Umm, yinkee... What did you do?
Yinkee: I didnt do anything
Timothy: Then how come the other side is leaking?!
Yinkee: *Watches in amazement*
Timothy: Did you create a hole in it when you were trying to open it earlier on?
*Baby corn syrup continues pouring out*
Timothy: What to do now? Cant open like that! *Looks around for solution frantically*
Yinkee: I know i know, go drain
*Goes drain to pour out syrup*
Timothy: *Thinks to self - "why didnt i think of that?" -.-*

After field cooking, during group interaction

Hilary: *Starts laughing like a maniac all of a sudden*
Anastasia: *While holding up hilary's and her lanyard* Do you see a difference?
Timothy: No leh, whats wrong?
Hilary & Anastasia: *Still laughing and holding the lanyard*
Timothy: Oi whats wrong? I dont see anything
Hilary: *Points to bent part of lanyard clip*
Timothy: *Begins to laugh a bit*
Hilary: *Explains how it got bent* (Was really stupid)
Timothy: *Also starts laughing like maniac*

During war games

Cadet: *Sees flag, rushes towards it*
Yinkee: *Quickly jumps in to block her way* Haha, cannot get now
Cadet: *Walks away*
Timothy: *Puzzled* Why did you do that?
Yinkee: Block her so she cannot take mah
Timothy: Huh, got such thing ar?
Yinkee: Ya
Timothy: This kind of thing can do meh?
Yinkee: Because if i catch her with the flag it'll get disquallified from the game. So she would rather leave it behind and get it later when im gone
Timothy: OH LIKE THAT ONE AR? I didnt read proposal so i didnt know
Yinkee: I also never read, i just now listen one
Timothy: *Walks away feeling like an idiot*

Also during war game

Minghan: Job week i go your house help u complete ace combat 6 unlock nosferatu you pay me $6
Timothy: Can, i left 3 more levels only
Minghan: I can help, 1 level $2 each

Day 3, during bunk cleaning

Nicholas: *Empties water bottle outside window*
Timothy: *o.O then goes to do the same*
Wei Liang: Oi what you doing?!
Timothy: Just now i saw nicholas do one
Nicholas: I never do, you got see meh? You humji la
Timothy: You then humji dont want to admit
Wei Liang: Nicholas dont empty this way, and dont anyhow accuse my advisor
Timothy: *Thinks to self - "owned" =P*

During camp debrief

Mr. Ezra: You learn a lot from this camp *Continues to give examples*
Nicholas: Sleep already next day forget
Mr. Ezra: You come out here squat down. Like to talk so much
Everybody: *Laughs*
*Miss ho enters room shortly after*
Miss Ho: What happened to him? Stomachache ar?
Mr. Ezra: No, its mouth got diarrhea

Wow that was a long post. Probably the longest one i ever had. Oh well, theres a first time for everything. Im glad the camp is over, this is also my final camp in BPGHS. Sadly, it wasnt good enough to end my final year in secondary school.