It's been a week and I still can't get used to life in Pasir Laba. It's almost surreal. You really can't believe that this is happening, and you just keep wishing that somehow you'll wake up and find that it was all just a nightmare.

Things here are a whole lot more regimented, and we're not as slack as we were back in Mindef. No wait I take that back - we're just as slack but the officers make us put on a very garang front so the public can't tell. It's all wayang lar. Today we were forced to go on a run to show the other branches that my branch isn't a bunch of slackers with nothing to do (which technically is true) Starting next month, I'll have to do 24-hour duties. In the words of the RSM, I'm just supposed to "sit at the guardhouse to show people that we've got somebody on duty". And if my 24 hour duty happens to be on a weekend, well it's tough luck. No offs-in-lieu over in Pasir Laba.

Today's only saving grace was the fact that we had western food for lunch. Not the best around, but still palatable. If Pasir Laba's cookhouse is really the best in the SAF, then I pity the soldiers in the other camps.

Honestly it isn't that bad. It's more a matter of perspective. If Wee Koh or Peter got posted to Pasir Laba they'd probably be on cloud 9. I on the other hand just spent the last 1 and a half years in an office where I could raise cain and nobody'd care. To have to follow all the new rules now is a pure pain in the butt.

Wake me up when December ends.

posted by NEB at 4:53 PM

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