Hello all, this is, as usual, another rushed post barely hours before I leave for camp once again. Isn't it fun how you expected this little spiel at the beginning of the post, making excuses about the hurried nature of the overall structure of the piece? Ok fine. I'll stop.

I only got home about 4pm yesterday, due partially to the general incompetency of my company, and also to the fact that we had sports day in the morning. Well, it was supposed to be in the morning. A thunderstorm and a thousand drenched trainees later, all 2 hours after lunchtime , said otherwise.

Anyway, this week in camp has been even more physically intensive than all the others so far, we had physical training sessions pretty much every day, aside from all the various other physically demanding activities which aren't quite as official. In short, very demanding.

The stupid thing is, and I've learnt this to be a trait of the company I'm currently in: we wasted a huge amount of time this week. Huge. Now normally, that wouldn't be such a bad thing at all, staying up in our bunks, doing nothing is almost a luxury in a military context, free time to do whatever we want. Except, with my company, you don't get that. Much. At all, really. Throughout the day, it's non-stop all the way from before dawn until well after dusk. If we're lucky, we get time to get a proper bath at night.

You must be wondering... How can so much time be wasted but we still not see a glimpse of elusive, precious admin time? Simple. Inefficiency. We rush around, getting to the next location for the next activity, only to end up sitting on the floor, in our files, with all our gear on (quite heavy actually), waiting. For something to happen. The situation varies slightly each time, but in essence it's the same thing: We rush to wait, then wait to rush. Repeated over from the day we book in until the day we book out. In this way, the company manages not only to get very little done, but even accomplish their secondary (primary?) aim of wasting all of our free time, spent idling in over 10kg of gear/in the sun/on scorching concrete/etc.

We have found this to be almost solely the fault of our OC (no significant proof here, not that it matters. Trainees don't get the luxury of proof, full stop.). He pulls the strings of the company, and is largely responsible for the horrendous time waste in general. Even the lesser commanders complain about him in the shadows, on occasion even loud enough for us trainees to overhear. Not very morale-conducive either. Snatches like this spread like wildfire in the context of military camps, especially one where any information about the state we're in is all but completely concealed from us, purposely or not.

I took up the habit of smuggling my book around with me as much as possible for non-physical activities, to much avail in the past week. Here is a rough gauge, based on the amount of reading I managed to do in the week. Overall, I read close to 300 pages from Monday. Not much you say? How about when I tell you that none of that was during our "free time". Not that we get any of course. Basically, I ninja-read 300 pages (and I like reading slowly) in the mind-numbing hours waiting.

From next week, the physical training cuts down significantly it seems, in favour or more military orientated training, such as field camps (fsck) and other outfield activities. Not looking forward to it at all. We have a navigation exercise in Lower Mandai (some god-forsaken heavily forested protected area in Singapore), on Tuesday I believe, and then our first of many field camps on Thursday. Don't know what to make of them so far, not actually having been outfield with this company before. Just going to trust God and pray.

My medicine application is still pending, however I will probably recieve word one way or another during the week of whether I have been selected to take the test/interview. Scared, worried, feeling everything associated with that really, but it's sort of all overshadowed by the alternate life I'm living at the moment in camp. This sort of lifestyle is NOT good for you, or your braincells. I'm personally losing them at a truly alarming rate.

I've really got to say, I'm quite glad for the company of my friends in Australia, probably David especially. Thanks to them, I've got something to look forward to every weekend when I book out, something that's sort of constant in my life amidst the chaotic state it's currently submerged in. It's a very powerful mental motivator, something to assauge the bleak hand life's dealt me.

I'm off, going to squeeze the little bit of leisure time I have left to do something useful. Get prepared for my essay and interview, for instance. It's hard studying for stuff when you don't know what to expect, or worse whether you'll have to do it at all. But I'm keeping the faith. It's all I have, really.

Bye.