____T.H.E. .P.A.S.S.

____Observe, and Put Things Learnt Into Practice

Whoa! I am getting lazy. I must say it IS hard to maintain a blog. It has become an obligation to "entertain" my invisible readers every other day but I must apologise to my loyal invisible readers for the recent inactivity. I have no excuse for this and certainly no reason. Life has been okay the past few days and I would not say I have been too busy to put in an entry.

I am still nursing my injured left shin incurred from last Sunday's Parry football experience. The person who came in hard must have had shins made from iron. I wonder if his still hurts today, but mine do. I will still make an effort to go to Parry to play football there because it gives the "training ground" feeling. But for today, from the looks of the weather, I doubt there will be "training".
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I look approximately two years back in time on the fateful day, 25 January 2002 and realise that my term in the SAF is coming to an end. I still remember I had to blink back tears when I was told that I were to defend my country. Not that I did not know beforehand. Just that some of the initial ceremonies were grand and solemn. Somehow facts hit hard, the pledges and vows were full of pride and emotion. Anyway, I realise, over time in the SAF, how crappy SAF can be. However, I will not go into detail of the incidents that make me think so. Instead, I will make an observation between the army working life and the coorperate world working life.

I woke up on Friday morning feeling great from the rest from work on Thursday (I took leave). And since Friday was my off day, I was relishing the fact that I have another day to slack at home and rest a bit more. The itinery of the day was the usual play computer games, lunch, sleep, play games and dinner, television, play games, sleep... Such was the luxury of a free day.

Of course, things do not always turn out as expected. Free from the army, but not free from my dad. At around 1000 or so, he called home to summon emergency worker - me - to help out at his factory. Since I was free on that day, I had to oblige. Afterall, it is a responsibility and the family business is the source of income that made me live 20 years. I have to admit I was pissed and irritated that my day's plans were ruined.

As I rushed out of the house, I began to see some similarities between this incident and the army. I was on recall! I begin to groan at the thought that I was virtually serving NS two times over. But, I thought again and told myself that it is all part about being responsible for the things that one has to be responsible to. I consoled myself with the fact that I am still quite reliable.

It did not take long to reach the factory as it was a single bus ride all the way. I was immediately put to task by my dad. The rest of the morning was spent rushing, doing odd jobs and packing goods and stuff. All the while when my body was busy, my mind was comparing this work at the factory and the work in camp. I had to note two points.

Firstly, the workload is tremendous. I see my dad rushing here and there, answering calls, giving instructions to me and the other two Indian workers, and also doing his work. It was not the first time I realise that he had been slogging away for the most of his life. As an odd job, I was not spared too. I had my fair share of work, no doubt less skills required, but still time consuming. The feeling is totally different from that of what I do in camp. My unit is a service sort of unit, dealing with NSmen, conducting IPPT and RT for them. Things are not so hectic in camp, but the tick-offs were certainly neverending. Which brings me to the second observation.

National Service is sort of a forced obligation. Nobody likes doing it and the worse thing is the politics that come along with rank differences. The NSFs were doing exactly what the NSFs think - serve and get lost. Thus, sometimes it has made most of us wonder the quality of the work done in the SAF. Minus the minority of those who are really nice people, like Fadzrun, in my camp, the rest, including me, had the NSF mindset. The explanation I heard once from one of my campmates, who like me is going to ORD, was that the work that we do in the army, had nothing to do with the later part of our lives. At that time, even though I was silent, I begged to differ. But on Friday, I realise that there was some truth in it. The work I do in camp did not matter to me, but the work I do at my dad's place was important. Not only did it ensure the smooth going of the production process, it also is important because it is the family business. Thus, the attitude towards the work there is much more enthusiastic.

Of course, behind all the crap and shit, the army has taught a lot of things in the background. It is only a matter of individual to pick up these important lifeskills. For me, one of the skills that I notice all the time is time, or rather, the importance to meet datelines and targets on time. I feel that it is a very important skill to learn because that ability to react quickly to changes and still meet the time target is one of the assets that my father possess and is one of the lifeskills that gives him an edge over his competitors.

It might seem amazing to be able to pick out the many things that army can teach but it is all about observing, sitting down and thinking about it. Now for the portion of putting things learnt into practice...

Currently Feel Like: Thierry Henry (Arsenal) wanting to go out onto the pitch but is being benched by the coach.

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