Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Till now I have yet to get my uniforms, and I think I will never. Officers are pressing me to wear one, because I am the only odd one out. Finally my 11B (NS identification card) has been credited with 170 bucks, so I went to the mart to purchase my uniforms. With this meagre amount of money which I cannot even buy more than 150 packets of Tong Gardens' cashew nuts, I could only get myself 1 set of uniform.
So what! 1 set?? The army expects me to wear this 1 set throughout the week??? I was told NSF would be provided 3 sets of uniforms FOC. It is good enough for me to purchase one using 11B.
Now I'm only left with a credit of 10 bucks. Obviously not enough for me to purchase PT attire and running shoes.
I am so not going to fork out my personal money to purchase, and I think none of the officers have the cheek to request me to do so as well! They will ask me to borrow others' cards to use, but I am not going to because I do not want to owe people bucks!
If the government wants me to provide service to this f*** king country of mine, then it should jolly well provide me with the necessities at no charge.
I called up the Central Manpower Base to complain about my situation, but the operator told me they are not in-charge of this matter, requesting me to deal with my own unit. My unit is unable to do anything, and I am not going to wear uniforms to work. So I asked if there is any higher authority I can speak to, and she gave me the hotline for Counselling as well as Personnel Managment Centre. I called the former, but he requested me to speak to my unit about my situation, and perhaps they will allow me to wear civillian clothings. I tell you, never before in history has a person wear home clothings to army!
But since I have a set of uniforms, maybe I should wear it on every Monday and Tuesday, before throwing them into the washing machine. So on Wednesday and Thursday, I shall wear civillian clothings? If the uniforms are ready by Thursday night, I shall wear it on Friday.
Tomorrow, by right, I was supposed to attend a cohesive day event at SAFRA Yishun. But last minute big boss asked me to stay in camp alone instead because contractors will be carrying out renovation work. I thought I could wake up at 8am instead of 6am, and could be dismissed at 5pm instead of 'don't' know what time. This is unfair, but then I have to accept it since I am the most junior of all. But all were given a day off on Friday. Hurrah!
This afternoon a new friend of mine came over to my office, cursed that I will one day be charged for
'AWOL,' or absence without official leave. But my superior, an auntie which I addressed her as ma'am, said I do not have to worry because she will 'protect' me. I wonder if her 'protect' is to give me more work to do, as evident on my first day with her, so I will have no time to go on AWOL.
Earlier today she dismissed me at 3.30pm, instead of 5.30pm so I can go Peninsular Plaza to make measurements for my 1 set of uniforms. But I'm lazy and returned home instead. Anyway I can go down anytime on Friday.
Many people taught me not to be
'garang,' which means doing things not within my job scope, because it's not worth it. Promotion is not based mainly on length of service, rather than performance. I just nodded my heads, and inside me I was saying "need you tell me?" Prior to that, a captain whispered to my ears that I shall not listen to those who teach me how to "
keng," which means skive in hokkien. I remembered a guy saying to me on the first day of my enlistment that "
buay keng buay choot peng," which means if I do not skive, I will never get out of army.
Enough of this rubbish encounters.
I came across Straits Times' cover page today and read that Genting will build a Universal Studios theme park on Sentosa with more than 20 rides if it wins the bid in the IR race. One word flashes immediately in my mind -> crazy.
Singapore, indeed, lacks a state-of-the-art theme park. Escape is just like a funfair to me, and not to the standard of a theme park. But the local's weather is scorching hot most of the time, so will people be so eager to hop onto the burning corkscrew? I wouldn't want to get the local residents into the picture. Those foreigners from China and Japan especially who are so scared of the sun so will they want to sweat it out in the park? To think that both countries are in the top list of Singapore's tourist arrivals' statistics. But of course the wealthy Indonesians (Singapore's top arrivals) are likely to visit, since many might be here along with their children for the casinos due to the close proximity.
|Melvin Ng| 6:30 pm|
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