Guard duty..boo hoo..

Whooo it's over!!! Twas' a wretched time over there i must say...read on with me as I struggle to pen down the highlights of my trip to the guardroom....

The night before (Monday 12/01/2004)
I wasn't feeling too happy the whole day with what happened in the morning... AO and me kena niao-ed (bird-ed) by CO when CO found out that we weren't prepared to meet him to discuss items to be purchased...truth is.. I didn't even know what was expected of me before I entered CO's office... All I got from AO was..."Later we go and see CO..." And that was it.. I don't blame AO though.. He's a nice fella...offered to do the welfare projected expenditure for me at the end of the day because I was clearly tired from doing all the make up work after that meeting with CO. Anyway, I was feeling kinda down from thinking about my attachment to the guardroom for the next 24 hours...mainly because i would have stayed in camp 3 days straight...anyway...ZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

That dreaded morning (Tuesday 13/01/2004)
I woke up.. said a prayer...committing my next 24 hours unto God.. I've strayed away from God so much I can't really focus on Him when I pray. I guess its like what happened in an email sent by Diana about this driver who went about in his brand new Jaguar so fast that a boy had to throw a brick at the Jaguar to warn the driver of a fallen boy in front...I think God is telling me something...I hope I'll not only listen..but actually get down to doing it..

"Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!" God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It's our choice.

Coincidentally, in that same email... this is what i felt God was telling me about me...

I knelt to pray but not for long, I had too much to do.
I had to hurry and get to work, for bills would soon be due.
So I knelt and said a hurried prayer, And jumped up off my knees.
My Christian duty was now done. My soul could rest at ease.

And how true that was.... I never bothered much with Bible reading in the past.. quiet time was a mere routine in the morning.. reading one or two chapters and passing that off as quiet time... My prayers were filled with "God please help me with this.." or "God, I pray for your favour for this situation..." Never was it .. "God..let your will be done in my life.."... well almost never.. until God decides that it's time to throw that brick at me...

Reporting at the guardroom (0800hrs)
Jeremy and I arrived that on time. We hung around for a while before we were told by the Provost I/C (2SG Poh) to go for breakfast and return by 0930 hrs...

0930 hrs
Not too bad i thought...wasted the first one and a half hours with meals.. only 22 1/2 hours left...We arrived back at the guardroom to find that the RSM (everyone's favvvoourite 1WO Chris) was about to give a roll call to his RPs... When he saw us, he went.. "Eh.. those from SAFWOS (my unit) and War Games go and rest in the room..."

In my heart I was like "Huh? sure anot? Haven't do duty already go and rest ah?"
Of course, Jeremy and I knew a possible reason for this. 1WO Chris would still have to come back to my unit for course and maybe promotion.. He couldn't afford to offend the people from SAFWOS mah...Besides, it was the first time SAFWOS people were attached to the guardroom (yes..i get the dubious honour of being the first in SAFWOS) and so he had to make sure we gave good feedback to our superiors...

0935 hrs
This is actually where the nightmare begins.. and honestly.. it lasts till this moment...We entered the bunk... only to be greeted by a dark, dingy room, with mattresses strewn over the place, bootmarks over the walls, dirt on the red-tiled floor and worse of all... the pungent smell produced by the lingering smell of sweat in the air. The room was actually well-ventilated, but I doubt that the fans were useful in ridding the "aroma"...
We changed the sheets and promptly went to lie down...Zzzzz....

1200 hrs
One of the attached guards came in to call me for lunch.. Jeremy had already gone for the 1030 shift.. He wouldn't end till 1230 plus...so i decided to go off first... i went back to SAFWOS to enjoy the air-con...Like what i was telling Fauzi.. you'd only appreciate SAFWOS after being attached to the guardroom..

1500 hrs
My first duty... can you believe it? I rested and waited a cool 7 hours for my first scheduled duty...Jeremy and I were stationed at the vehicle checkpoint.. like those you see at the causeway checkpoints...Our jobs were to just ensure people don't bring in stuff like laptops..pirated cds... drugs...bombs.. :) That went on fine actually.. and i thank God for that...to be honest.. i felt pretty "empowered".. like a heavy responsibility had been placed on my shoulders.. ohhh...but whatever... it was just a normal checkpoint..

1700 hrs
Duty ends... We go back to find out that we can go for dinner...We have 45 minutes from 1715hrs to fill our stomachs for the rest of the night...Jeremy and I though, decided to back to SAFWOS for a shower.. That, seriously... was a superb decision.. We ate leftover beehoon and sandwiches from Cafe de Warrant...and by 1800hrs...we were back at guardroom...on the way back, we learnt that schedules for the rest of the night is out... I was down for prowling from 1900 hrs - 2100 hrs, sentry from 0100 hrs - 0300 hrs, and vehicle check again from 0600 hrs - 0700 hrs...

2300 hrs
Fauzi came over slightly after the end of the practice for turnout drill... for those who don't know what turnout is..it's a drill meant to wake tired and bleary-eyed guards from their sleep...the alarm goes... guards wake up.. echo the words "turnout, turnout!"... rush to draw their rifles..."fall in" on the road in front of the gate....and hentakaki.. if that's how you spell it...it means marching on the spot.. then the guard commander does some drills and the guards are supposed to thrust their rifles forward and go..."Ya-ya"...IT'S SILLY...i tell you....

0000 hrs
I went to sleep after about an hour's chat with Fauzi... wasn't exactly the best decision.... cos' it only meant that i was super tired when i awoke at 0100 hrs...

0100 hrs
This time.. no boo-boo... i was on sentry for real...from 0100 hrs - 0300 hrs... was okay actually....met this guy called sidiq.. who was really friendly.. we chatted the time away...i was told that we should be expecting nobody at this hour as people are not allowed to enter camp after 0000 hrs...during what they call "something" hours.. is it light or silent hours? i can't remember...BUT...this unit was on exercise and so we were kept busy opening and closing the gate...

There was this incident where 2 people from officer school came in their car and wanted to use our medical centre...apparently, one of them had a cooton bud or wool stuck in his ear! yikes... pity the MO on duty... having to pick a cotton bud covered in human ear wax.... :)
By this time i was like super tired already...

0215 hrs.. (wha... left 45 minutes...)

0223 hrs.. (eh what time now ah?) (don't ask.. the more you look at it the more you think time passes slower...)

0230 hrs..

0245 hrs.. (wha song... 15 minutes left...) (you don't so happy.. the guards from the next shift might come later..)

0300 hrs
Finally... shift ends... now i down to the last one....vehicle check again from 0600 hrs - 0700 hrs...off to bed... i went to the office to sleep.. in the comfort of the aircon......ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

0555 hrs
I woke up with an aching back for sleeping on the floor... I saw the cleaner aunties who cleans our unit.. they were exchanging passes... i'm like..what time do they wake up man?

0600 hrs
Vehicle check....this duty should pass pretty quickly i thought.. given that it was only an hour...

0700 hrs
It did... and i went back to sleep...this time in that horror room...who cares if the room reeked of sweat...i just had to lie down.... and i did....

0826 hrs
Was awoken by one of the guards... the guards on duty the next day had to bring the mattresses out to sun... so glad i didnt have to do that....we waited a while longer and we were dismissed... back to SAFWOS...

We earned a half day off for our efforts the night before... we weren't supposed to actually.. AO was kind enough....so i stayed the rest of that day...showered... and finally went home that evening after 3 days in camp...

It's amazing how i still remember these details... thank God....