1.5 weeks and I'm almost dead

It was a horrible forthnight for me. Starting with the enlistment of the pes c batch. Recruits this time came from all walksof life, unlike my previous jc-ed recruits. It is intimidating to take a platoon of recruits with half of them sporting "ang kongs"(tattoos) all over their bodies. It does not help when a quarter of them speak to you in hokkien and claim that they do not understand English. Sheesh

To make things worse, most of my recruits are much older than I am with the eldest at 25 years. The rest are the same age as me. Bah! Some are married. One had 2 kids already. I was really intimidated by these people initially. Several had criminal records ranging from theft to gang fights. What have I got myself into? However, my impression of these guys were changed as soon as it was formed. If there was one word that would describe them, it would be MOTIVATED.

Despite being in pes c, most of them are extremely hardworking and eager to perform. They are also tougher in terms of being able to withstand the shit that we threw at them than the previous pampered-to-the-max jc batch. Yeah. My self-coined instructors credo : Nothing make an instructor work harder than seeing his trainess hard at work. Guess it sums it all up.

Along with the pes c also came the chao kengs. recruits who report sick at the slightest reasons, be it rashes, flu, colds, coughs, dust-allergies, depressions etc. The list goes on. Which makes me quite happy actually to hear that for the month of May I kena one weekend duty. At least no need to handle recruits and juz slack in the office.

Then came another group of recruits. The super blur type. Recruits losing their id tags, id cards, helmets(thankfully not rifles), handphones etc. On the second night, there was even one recuit who came knocking at the company office at 10pm when all of us were watching tv, drapped in his green towel and clutching toiletries. The reason? He can't find the toilet.

ROOOOOOOOAR!!!
"WHY CAN"T YOU ASK YOUR PLATOON MATES INSTEAD?"
"YOU MAY BE BLIND BUT I EXPECT AT LEAST ONE PERSON IN THE PLATOON TO KNOW WHERE THE TOILET IS WAD!"

Boy was he royally screwed.

All the nosh that we have to go through daily. It was indeed hectic tending to all the many needs of the recruits while training them simultaneously. Life was horrible. 'Cause YOU were not there. I miss YOU.