Jurong Island

//Jurong Island//

As my 3 week driving stint in jurong island is nearing an end...there are some things I feel like I have to record it down here...

1) I hate to make small talks
Having drove for both bravo and charlie, I must say that being stuck in a small little confined space with someone you barely know for 3 patrols per duty, 1 hour+ for each patrol (it almost feels a little too clastrophobic for me) is NOT FUN at all.

With some luck, I may get a vehicle with the aircon working (which is extremely important for day shifts). However, that's as good as it can get. Because other than enjoying the aircon, the rest of the 3 hours+..is just filled with awkward silence.

Let's be real, how long can a conversation with someone you barely know last?

It usually goes like this...first, we will talk about the past. We will find out each other's name and school. Then the topic will turn to which BMT company we were from, and that's where we start dropping names, like "oh you know so and so? he's from your company/school!" And if we are fortunate enough, we would have some common friends, whom we can talk about in order to prolong this awkward agony.

So after talking about our past, we would proceed to talk about the present! Questions like "what platoon you are from" will pop up. And once it's revealed that I'm from signal platoon, the first thing they will all ask is "oh..so what you all do" (it's so so standard that I think I repeated the same answer at least 6 times already) This is the point where I will proceed to try to make the conversation more interesting by bitching about my ex-PC (whom none of them know) and share the story of how my entire platoon is being dragged to this shithole (I think I repeated this story at least 4 times). Then since they ask what we do, of course I will briefly explain our jobscope, and naturally, after they find out XX is my boss (where XX = mr.seagull), the first question they always ask is "is he f-ed up". This is where all the juicy stories (well not exactly juicy...but exciting to a certain extent for them I guess) about our respective bosses will come out, like how YY hates to camou, how ZZ makes his signaller fills his water bottle, how QQ just throw the handset into the tall grasses and expect his signaller to find it...

Once both of us finished sharing stories (actually it's usually me), we will proceed to talk about the future! What school are you going, what are you studying. I dread this part the most. Cause there's NOTHING to talk about. Not that there's nothing to talk about, but I don't see a point in sharing my whole story of getting a place in UCL but not getting a scholarship with them, so my answer always end up being one line "NUS, studying business and communications".

So after all this, about half an hour would have elapsed. Then random questions that I hate the most will start appearing periodically for the next 2.5 hours or so. One that I hate particularly is "What do you do when you book out?" I mean what am I supposed to answer? Erm, I eat, I sleep, I go out with friends? "To do what" will be their response to my answer of going out with friends, and I would end up answering "erm...to eat lo." So it just makes the whole situation even more awkward. I guess I'm just a boring person and bad conservationalist, so asking this question is like the kiss of death seriously.

However, thank god...for most of them, they will just start to fall asleep when conversation runs dry...

Well, looking on the bright side, at least now I totally have no problems with driving and talking at the same time. I'm horrible at multi-tasking...so this is a big improvement for me!

2) I learnt how to change tyres
Not that I don't know how to change, I always knew how to change a tyre...the steps that is, but I never quite had to change my own tyres. So unfortunately (or fortunately), my virgin tyre changing experience had to be on jurong island. Well to be fair, I probably did like 20-30% of the work, ian gan did the rest...well but no one can beat joshua's record of changing tyres 3 times in that 1 day.

3) Always remember to bring the fuel card when you go to top-up.
It's super embarassing when I went to top up fuel for my vehicle with bravo csm , only to realise at the petrol station that I left the fuel card in the bunk. Thank god he looked more amused than pissed when I told him I forgot to bring the card.

4) Jurong Island is pretty at night.
I think I mentioned this before, but it's actually really quite pretty at night. It reminds me of Atlantis in the show "Stargate Atlantis". But of course it's prettier when I was on fam course, cause back then, I don't need to drive. Now, when I'm doing day shift, I would be too busy with trying to get back to the base as soon as possible after my duty ends to really look around, and when I'm doing night shift, I would be too sleepy while driving to appreciate the beauty around. And of course it comes with extremely bad air (central sector really stinks!), and it's so bad that when I wipe my face with a wet tissue, you see black stains.

5) Charlie is really a heaven in this hell that we are in.
To quote myself "don't you just love charlie?"

6) Dogs can run as fast as a military vehicle.
Serious. I'm not joking. Are the dogs fast or are the military vehicles slow?

Anyway, I'm kind of dreading going back. I call it the post-out-of-shithole-for-too-long syndrome. After you leave a shitty place for some time, going back to that same place will make it seem exceptionally shitty. And everytime I return to that place after a period of absence, I am ALWAYS greeted with guard duty...weekend guard duty somemore. And this time even more power, sunday guard duty 3 days after I return, and a 4 days outfield 1 day after that guard duty.