I was just reading the latest YF Comm meeting minutes when I noticed that I've got a new title now - Ministry team Advisor. Nothing against it really. It just sounds very much like when Lee Kuan Yew stepped down as PM and became Senior Minister (and then Minister Mentor of course). Kinda amusing.

So anyway I just got news that in June, as part of the department reorg, my branch may get shifted to Pasir Laba camp, next to SAFTI in Jurong. Kinda spoilt my mood for the rest of the day. I DO NOT want to get moved to Jurong.

1) Like I've ranted on before, it's on the other side of the freakin' island. I literally cross 4 expressways just to get there. Going once or twice is bad enough. To have to go everyday till I ORD in Dec will be a nightmare. Let me put it on the record that they cannot expect me to arrive at 8am in Jurong everyday. Not unless they're willing to send a car over to pick me up. Going home will take me 1 1/2 hours. What, they're bored with wasting my time at work so now they wanna waste my time after office hours too?

2) The food sucks. MINDEF food is still the best around, though that's not saying much. There's a cookhouse there so I'll save a ton on meals but I'd rather pay and get MINDEF quality. Have you seen the utensils in the cookhouses? I've found grains of rice stuck in forks on countless occasions. And I'll not scare the future NS boys by telling how they wash the utensils in the Tekong cookhouse.

3) MINDEF is full of pretty faces. Female faces. Pasir Laba is 98% male. Not that I go ga-ga over every pretty face I see like some wolf but it's still a valid point against moving to Pasir Laba.

4) MINDEF is in Bukit Timah, which is alot more happening than Pasir Laba, which is located deep in some deserted jungle. Ok it's not really a jungle, but it's seriously isolated and void of anything cool. The only consolation would be the Burger King opposite SAFTI.

5) Throughout the department renovations the guys in my branch were used to move all the paperwork laden cabinets. Even stuff that belonged to the other branches. All 40 coms in G6 were set up by us. So after using our muscles (or whatever's left of it) they're sending US to Pasir Laba? Seriously we did all the work in this renovation while the other branches were too "busy" to help. I just think it's pretty unfair that they get to enjoy the new office while we don't. Petty, but a point nonetheless.

6) Ok I don't have a point 6 but if I think hard enough I'm pretty sure I can make a good case for not moving. Crap. Who am I kidding? This is the army. There's this line in that famous poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" - "Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die". Basically as peons we just do as we're told.

Obviously typing all that isn't going to change anything. LTC Ng doesn't visit my blog (let's hope he doesn't), and I don't think any of you out there have the power to make such decisions. I'm just typing so it'll look like I have a nice long entry.

I don't wanna go to Pasir Laba.

posted by NEB at 11:37 PM

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