Note the date. Yes, I screwed up the last post. Apologies all round.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
In the land that I heard of
Once, once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare you dream
Really do come true
Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds
Are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops that's where you'll find me
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Wow. I've been so busy/tired/dead in general that I almost forgot to post at all lol. So I'm going to rush one right now. I have half an hour before I will be forced off my computer, and set running to pack my bag, shower, and get ready to leave for camp again. Time is a hard taskmaster.
Warning, serious bitching below.
Ok. This week once again broke the record for the worst week so far in my NS life. Even the instructors were calling it hell week. Since Tuesday pretty much, I've been living on about 4 hours of sleep a night. All the way until I booked out this Saturday. Tuesday was a navigation exercise in some Nature Reserve in a CATCHMENT AREA (Why. Why ffs.). It rained, of course. We were out there until what, 11pm? Slept by 1am. We started out at about 7am by the way. Damn tiring, the load we have to carry is just crazy, and the signal set is killer.
One thing about navigation, they make it look so easy. Hell, it feels so easy. Just grab your map, plan the route, when you're there just follow the azimuth and distance, and there you go. What actually happens: you follow the azimuth and the distance, despite messed up terrain conditions (heavily forested areas (as in cannot walk through), insane unscalable slopes etc). And then when you should have reached the location, you just aren't. No checkpoint in sight. That we got back at 11pm was a miracle. Did I mention we even had an instructor attached to us since this was our first navigation exercise outside? He couldn't even help much. This coming Wednesday, everything's the same, pretty much. Same place, but different checkpoints. Oh, there won't be any instructor this time.
Wednesday was Live Firing for SAR21 and SAW (Section Automatic Weapon). Wake up at 5am as usual (4 hours sleep). I was the Detailing I/C, a hell of an appointment. The nights before, burnt sorting out details and organising everything. On the day itself, no rest. There's also night firing, by the time we got to sleep, 1am.
Thursday, first day of field camp. Get up 5am as usual (4 hours sleep again). Field camp sucks. It's like my ultimated hated thing about army. You live in terrible conditions, come out with rashes, bites, fungal infections, cuts, you name it. No showers, mud ubiquitous of course. No roof. Oh yeah, it was also in a catchment area. Oh yeah, it also rained. At night. AFTER my turn for guard duty. Total sleep: Around 4 hours. Again.
Friday, another terrible field camp day, by the time we got back to camp after a final 4km march: 10pm. After everyone cleaned their weapons and got packed, most of the company booked out at about 12am. Me? Rostered for Company Duty on 180408 night. Stay back. Sleep at 1am. Wake up 5am. Not even supposed to sleep technically, lest I miss calls. But yeah. See why I'm still dead? If not, keep reading.
End serious bitching.
My aunt isn't in this weekend, she's in Thailand or something on business trip. Then I remembered the laundry. Oh shit (you can imagine the laundry after a schedule like that). Made a trip to the laundry drop-off place before going home, made them do it on express so I could collect on Saturday (they don't open Sundays).
My grandparents were here this weekend, so I had to go meet them for dinner on Saturday night. Spent a few hours at home, left again to pick up laundry, then off to the hotel to eat dinner with Grandparents and Aunt (both father's side, they came from Sri Lanka and Brisbane respectively and met here for some reason). It was sort of nice, but let me tell you this: Meeting your grandparents by yourself for dinner, when your parents aren't there, is quite gg. You sort of stare at each other and go "So... Yeah. How's life." Awkward lol. But damn the Chinese Restaurant was good. Shark's fin and Abalone pwn.
Some good news! Wow, rare stuff on my blog these days huh. Just before this, I recieved word that I've been accepted for the Medicine Test and Interview! W00T! That puts me in the top 750 applicants, if i'm not wrong. 250 get in, and I mean to be one of them. Haven't got any official letter yet, but it's online. Somehow going to have to squeeze the interview and test through my training schedule, hope it works out somehow.
Then there has been the issue today of sorting out my portfolio, which I must somehow conjure up within the next 2 weeks. I'll not be booking out next weekend, only back on Wednesday. That makes it even harder, sort of, since the test is on the Monday after that, and the interview the following Friday (I intend to try and change this to a later date. Interview on the last day of this courses GG field camp is not a good thing.) Trust me, I won't elaborate, but getting letters of recommendation from teachers overseas while in the army makes me cry. Together with writing personal statements and lists of achievements, all while I'm in the fscking army.
Ok back to my standard form. I won't be out next weekend, because the instructors told us: this week is hell week. Next week will be Hell++. Indeed it will. Last Tuesday to Friday will be replicated from Monday to Thursday pretty much, and then we get no break, more Live Firing and stuff, and a third field camp on the next Monday. Good game.
Time to go, no time left. The words of my instructor have been sort of ringing in my head recently (my section commander is a nice guy, despite expecting high standards). "If you survive this company, you can survive anywhere in the army. Guaranteed." I'm inclined to believe him.
Next post should be around mid-week on the following week, unless I cannot be bothered or am dead, in which case it will be two weeks from now on the weekend ^^. Look forward to it, because I certainly am.
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