what goes around...

'The world is fair,' yada tells me gleefully. He used to be my platoon
mate in ocs, and after spending 9 months traveling the length of s'pore
to reach camp (while getting laughed at by me), he's understandably
delighted that our roles have been reversed at our new unit. I envision
being laughed at for the next one year, while having to endure the
pan-island experience everytime I book out. Terrific.



Somehow I got the feeling that reporting today was a really dumb thing
to do. Our battalion was away training in tekong, and only came back in
the late afternoon, so very few ppl were around. The chief clerk told
us we were only expected on monday. They weren't certain about our
appointments at all, coz the CO wasn't around to confirm them. And,
thankfully, we couldn't stay in because there weren't any beds for us
(although to be fair finding 13 beds in a hurry isn't the easiest
task).



As a result, all of us new officers ended up bumming around the canteen
and the unit conference room, chatting to some of the personnel who
happened to be around, forming our own first impressions of the place,
and making nervous jokes about our future charges and problems (I get
the impression those two are synonymous).



It wasn't a very productive time, and that's an understatement. But I
was happy to see a familiar face during lunchtime, and later, when the
battalion returned, I bumped into teck, my london flatmate, in the
canteen.



The SAF is smaller than I thought.



Things moved slightly faster after that. The CO met with us for a
while, we bummed around a bit more, then booked out in the evening. And
I had a bit of satisfaction when one of the officers asked if anyone of
us stayed near the camp.



'I do,' yada cautiously raised his hand.



'Good! Can you give me your IC number and handphone number? I need you to report by 0715 tomorrow to be a neutral for IPPT.'



Proximity ain't all that it's cracked up to be.