Guard

Booking out of camp felt best when done after a guard duty. Why? because you could actually feel that a burden lift off you as you change into your civilian clothes and sautered your way to the gate.

We toom panged one our friend's mother's car to Jurong Point. We could not really actually feel the flame of the best shopping centre come alive due to the uluness of the time we reached .My friends and I , all of whom were involved in the guard duty decided to take advantage of my Macdonald's student card and had our second breakfast there. Doing guard duty certainty had an effect on our appetite. The card unfortunately expires tomorrow. ( To those who are seeking a treat from macdonald's in the near future, chances are, politely speaking, very slim.)

Somehow I had a stomache after eating the breakfast and had to use the toilet. Already tired I had to hurry into the toilet in the knowledge that my two friends were waiting outside. I came out in record time only to find out that none of them were going to the MRT with me. They were both taking the bus home. Feeling rather weird and a tinge dissapointed, i made my way to the platform and waited for a train.

Miraculously, it appeared in front of me a few seconds later. I knew I had a funny feeling that I was on platform 9 and 3/4s. This fact was comfirmed later when I sat down. Beside me was Herminoe Grangers! Obviously this can't be happening. Suddenly the windows shattered and outside a hungry wave theatened to eat the train up. Droplets of rain started to pour in when all of a sudden the train stopped and a loud incessant *beep *beep sound was heard. I knew then that a dementor was coming for me. My head hurt. Just as I was about to cast a spell with my wand , a female voice spoke in my head " next stop, SIMEI". I woke up to find myself with a headache, drooling slightly with my mouth open. The rain drops were actually droplets of saliva.

Embarassed I pretended to open and shut my mouth as if in an attempt to stretch my jaw muscles. Of course, the passengers were not fooled and continued staring as if I were some alien who just landed on earth.

Trying to make things better, I gave myself a treat and bought myself an extended version of The Return of The King. Those who want the complete script can download it
at this address.

http://www.councilofelrond.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Subjects&file=index&req=viewpage&pageid=61

Funny espisodes aside, yesterday was an experience to remember as I was rather bitter about my being in camp when other of my camp mates were outside in the civilian world. Before the guard duty ended I would change my perspective of the matter.

I did guard with *John( names have been changed to protect the identify of the person), my fellow bunk mate yesterday. Despite being a rather famous "blur-king" and a cracker of lame jokes about anything he can think of, he was a person that I thought was rather unburdened. Scoring 4 As in his A levels, an expert on mathematics , many would have thought life had it good on him. But the rosy picture that we saw was not to be.

The story he shared with me he told only one other person and had this been a pirvate blog, would have disclosed the secret by now. Unfortunately this is a public blog and I am a man of my word.

The morale of the story?

Sometimes we judge people too superficially. When we begin to understand them, that is when we begin to see more of the world through their experiences.

Sometimes you just can't help but be thankful, not only for what you have, but also for the people who have been in your life.Friends are whats all the difference between a Good experience and a bad one. Doing guard duty yesterday gave me the opportunity to think about the people in the SAF who had influenced me the most and made me who I am today. Let me start the most recent and move down the timeline.

FRIENDS

One of these select few is Victor. He was from the same company and bunk as me when we were in Signal Institute, our training ground just before we entered where we are now, in Three Signal Battallion. Incidentally he was our company's best trainee and I knew no one deserved this award more than he did. The thing is , he is a person whose personality and attitude I want to model after. He is the one who changed me from a sorely bo chap, heck-care soldier to one that at the very least had integrity and responsibility. This of course did not take place over night. It took place in the midst of all the rushing for exercises, encouragement and even minor things he did like doing Area cleaning everyday( which left me guilty most of the time and joined in the cleaning) and of course preaching of his philosophy. Though I have different interests and religion from him it always ceases to amaze me how we can become so close in friendship.

Giving your best

I realised this when I gave my all trying to finish the *notice board( see previous post). At that point of time, my superiors were pressuring me to finish it in a allocated amount of time and on top of that demanded standard. Though I was not expecting to gain anything except experience from helping to put the notice board up, we eventually won.

Giving your best helps you to feel good about yourself. The satisfaction of putting in the effort of going that extra mile to help a friend in need will go a long way in giving you a postive outlook on life. Try it for one week. I'm sure you will like the results.

Treating others as you would want them to treat you

Basically this sounds very logical. But many a times we neglect to consider other people's feelings when things happen. For example for someone were to lose something, how far will you go to help the person find it? When something bad happen we all tend to blame other people but something we have to ask ourselves if we indeed did our job.

If should anyone try any of the above techniques and find them useful please feel free to tag me via my shout box. If should it get you into any kind of trouble dont remember this page and forget that you know a person named Daniel.

Really cannot take it liao. Got to go get some rest.

The Countdown begins tomorrow!