Hello Dear!!

Hey dear! You’re still out on exercise and I’m in office on a rainy Thursday morning! Hope everything’s going fine for you over there… I read your latest post! I know it definitely takes time for you to get used to the Brits’ lifestyle. And I do agree that you don’t have to do everything that they do in order to fit in! It’s good to go there and experience new stuff, and if you don’t like it, then just take it as a learning experience and that’s that. You’ll be home soon and you’ll be living and working here for the rest of your life (probably). So it’s okay! Don’t feel so stressed thinking that you have to follow them and do whatever they do :) Continue to talk to me if you have anything you wanna rant about alright? Don’t keep everything to yourself! I’m still here to listen and to advise! :)

Anyway, I didn’t get to play Floorball this week. There was some event going on at Tembusu MPH so it was out of bounds to us. But I had dinner with my friends at Sapore instead! Tried this drink called Black Russian… it’s a mix of coffee and liquor! I love it!! And I didn’t get tipsy on it at all! And yesterday night I played badminton with my colleagues at West Coast CC. Hahaha I must tell you about it la. They’re not as zai as I thought la so I wasn’t so stressed playing :) They all grow fat alr lor! When I grow up and start working I cannot let myself turn into a fat blob!! Although I’m not very good at badminton also. When you come back we must play okay? I wear shoes and guard this time so no more excuse! Set ah!

The people I played with are all NUS grads and they went to NOC (NUS Overseas Colleges), like in Philadelphia, Silicon Valley, Shanghai, Beijing, Stockholm, etc. My boss was talking to me about his experience in Silicon Valley and he really recommended that I try out for it too, rather than just do SEP (Student Exchange Programme) like everyone else. But it’s for a year. And I’ll have to graduate in 4.5 years instead of 4, on top of my double major. I’ll talk to you about that when you come back okay? We can chat about it on Oovoo!

Alright I gotta get back to work. Or I’ll be caught slacking >_< Text me when you’re back kay!! Talk to you soon <3 Love ya!!!

Yours, Claire!

What is happening? There is a run tomorrow and I am running my ass out with the Brits, not that I don't enjoy it but I am just not use to the enthusiasm that they have. The fact that they want to put in more effort to improve, not being afraid of having a sore muscle on the run the next day. This is not new but I feel that I am still not getting use to it, still feeling a little bit of a culture shock. But all it does is to make me stronger, so no harm done I guess, not like I was hanging out, I was actually feeling quite good. Maybe I am just getting use to the change in culture I guess.

Thursday! Ms Yang has not replied, the boys are going out on a lash. What am I suppose to do? Go on a lash and get wasted on a Thursday night right before Ex Druids Ridge? I am lost, must I really do this to fit in? I would rather just have a day off, go to the gym, go shop around London and then be back. Hmm..

Dear, I have a confession to make. Don't know why we did not discuss this but I think that its a little bit difficult at times. I think we did touch and go on this topic, just like I feel that I am too competitive and I am tired of being competitive, having to represent Singapore and the need to do Singapore proud, I feel that I am not enjoying myself as much as I want to. I find it a little stifling at times, I am sure I told you this before, I feel like I speak to you more in few hours than I do for a week here. At times, I just want to complain, but I just don't know who to go to. I do miss you a lot, especially during the weekends. I know you are having a camp now, so don't worry, reply me when you are free ok? I feel better typing all these out! Thanks:)

to my dearest

Hello dear! I'm blogging again in a very long time! To be honest I actually forgot completely about this blog because we always communicate via Facebook or Whatsapp or Oovoo. And the occasional email. But I'm really glad that you're making good use of this blog! It's nice to see you updating about your life over there and your attitude towards your peers and any events that you may have.

So I'm going to blog more often too! I'm going to update about my work and stuff, although there isn't really much la. Not as exciting as your life over there! Tomorrow night I'm going back to Tembusu to play floorball. Really looking forward to it! I always feel really happy when I'm meeting up with my friends to play together. They're a really fun bunch of people :) I feel very fortunate! Sigh. That's why I always hope that you can come and meet my friends! Cos I love all of y'all. But things never really turn out the way I hope they would. I guess that's only to be expected though... so it's okay! One step at a  time :)

Okay. I'm not feeling very well tonight. After work, my eyes hurt and I had a headache. But I still had to go meet my friends to discuss orientation. Heng they ended the dinner meeting early and I reached home at around 9.30pm. I brought my laptop home today to do some research actually because I felt that my work was getting a bit meaningless. Everyone's working on this really cool big project and I'm stuck with Facebook... which hardly anyone cares about. So I wanted to do some research and come up with some ideas but I'm just too tired tonight. I guess I might go to work earlier tomorrow morning and research instead.

I'm going to bed now! Love you dear! <3 Reply soon!!

This week felt really long. Dinner night, Company Prayers, Platoon socials, can't wait for Sunday to come so that I can have a little bit of "me" time. Despite the fact that I have to revise for PRACTAC and prepare for a presentation due next week.

Platoon Social: Go-Karting. It wasn't as boring as I thought, the previous knowledge I had about Go Karting was driving a slow kart around and bumping in the rest of the karts on the track, but what we did yesterday changed that my views entirely. It was thrilling and fun, although I wasn't as fast as I wanted myself to be.

One more week and we will be half way through our CC. About 50 more days to home! I don't really know why I am always counting down. BE POSITIVE!!

To be continued..

Nearly the end of Week 6 of the Intermediate Term. Had a great dinner night, was not as boring as I thought it would be. I think as long as you are willing to open up and speak to people, there will definitely be some common topics that we can all have a good chat about.

PRACTAC next week, the test of Orders and Estimate really, really want to just get it over and done with, but the fears or not doing well and not finishing in time are just creeping all over me. Hopefully it all goes well.

This week has been pretty good really. Monday was Ex Eagle Strike, orders process again, didn't manage to get to deliver a summary paragraph but I did rehearse through it in my room, hopefully that helps! Then they left for Regimental Visits and we are here to prepare for our presentation the next day. Was quite pleased with my presentation yet I felt some of the Overseas Cadets did not put in much effort into their own presentation. Especially some of them who took on very biased stance or hold a rather narrow perspective of the topic they were given. Looking at all the Overseas Cadets made me realized that the pool of us is really quite small as compared to all the British Cadets in the cohort. But it still seem really difficult to do well, who knows the competition could be the US cadet or my very own peer from Singapore.

Just got my PB last week and I was in the Middle Third. Glad and contented, my peer got the same stand as I did. But he but he has always been doing better than I did. One day he said, " Oh I am not going to give chance, I am clean sweeping everything." Well, he does blend in better with the crowd, slightly fitter, placed in a better position I guess. But that doesn't mean I stand no chance. Even if I know I am going to lose, I won't let him win easily. Where is the fun without competition?

Glad that we are nearly half way through the course, just got to get over Victory Building Duty today and PRACTAC! All the best to me.

Leadership

That was the topic we were on today. Major Nathan played Episode 7 of the Band of Brothers, even though I have the box I haven't had time to finish it, so I have never been across the episode, however, this one episode displayed the ethos of many characters in the series. However, I notice that there are always good and bad officers, be it in the Singaporean, British or the US army. All the system does is to sieve out the better officers while some just slips through the system. Yet, it is heartening to see that there are indeed more good officers than bad ones. Then again, the method of judging an officer differs from country to country too. Does doing well as a Cadet has a correlation as to whether you will become a good officer in the future. Maybe to a certain extent, with the fact that most commissioning courses tests the Cadets to the limit and doing well in it meant that one can handle both mental and physical stress. But what about the average Cadets, will they not do well in the future? I guess not. What is more important would be the spirit of learning, to never stop learning or be complacent. No one will be an eternal winner, but we can always have the spirit of learning going on, at least then you know you are moving along and not stagnating or 'marking time'.

C2DRIL was what our Commandant live by. Selfless commitment, courage, discipline, respect, integrity, and loyalty. These are the values and standards that he holds dear to himself and I guess every officers should have some core values that they live by. These will be the bedrock or foundation of their career, when shit happens, they know that they can rely on such values to make a decision. A decision that might not be right, but a decision nonetheless, so at least things will continue moving and not stagnate.

All in all, easier said than done. And those that emerge from the shittiest situation will be the epitome of a great officer.

I have decided that I should blog when I can, and use it as a way to rant or just to reflect upon my day. After Ex First Encounter, we are launching ourselves into the Faraday Hall stretch, lots of lessons and "intellectual stimulation". However, I still have yet to recover from the sleep lost from Ex First Encounter, still feeling slightly lethargic and not being able concentrate during lectures and lessons.

After going into the Gas Chamber today, we had two periods of PT and then a whole stretch of lessons. The lesson by my CABS (Communication and Applied Behavioral Science) tutor on creative thinking was good. The fact that as military commanders we need to think out of the box and at times consider a different approach to a certain situation was what we needed. Especially as Infantry officers, sometimes it is not simply about taking the objective from the left, right or center, creative methods could be applied into tactics and most of the time that is how you win a battle.

DIA however was boring, there seem to be no value add to the lesson, partly it might be due to the fact that I am not very well versed with the current terrorist situation all around the world but the tutor simply asks for input from the ground and does not really give us much information during the lesson.

In any case, it has been a tiring day. The problem with Sandhurst, too much curriculum, too little time, always rushing from point to point. Start of the Faraday Hall stretch, hopefully it gets better..:)