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interesting article on TODAY. author is mr brown (yes its the blogger).
It's every NSman's yearly rite of passage
Don't forget to suss out great buys at the army store during reservist training
Friday - June 2, 2006
every morning, my two-and-a-half-year-old son barges into our room with a hearty push of the door. My wife and I rarely need to depend on the alarm, because the bang of the door - when he pushes his way into our room - leaves a ringing in our ears that only goes away after we brush our teeth, and each day, a little bit of concrete from the wall behind the door falls like snow onto the floor.
Isaac almost did not recognise his old man because these few mornings, I have been donning my camouflage greens to report for reservist. It is a mad rush in the morning as it takes a lot longer to put on a Number Four uniform than work clothes. The boots alone take twice as long.
While to a man every reservist (or NSmen as we are called now) will bitch and moan about reporting for our duty, it is always nice to see old friends and make new ones.
The thing that strikes me most about in-camp training is meeting people from all walks of life. Between waiting for the next instruction from your superiors, there is ample time to talk and find out about each other. Executives, businessmen, bus drivers, technicians, insurance agents, property agents, bak chor mee hawkers, columnists ... we all hang out together for two weeks - brought together by this yearly rite of passage. It is a great leveller of men, this event.
By and large, everyone does what they need to do. There is no rah-rah patriotism, although I am sure we know our duty, but more of a stoic sense of "we're here, we've got to be here, so let's co-operate and get this done quickly so we can all go home on time and safely to our families and loved ones".
One thing about going for in-camp training is that you tend to forget what day of the week it is. Yet, the brain compensates by developing a heightened sense of the time of the day. Without looking at his watch, an NSman can know when is lunch, tea break, and book-out time.
It is an instinct, as if the part of the brain that tracks these details is turned on when one dons one's Number Four uniform.
The other thing that also returns to the brain is the word "canteen". "Where is the canteen ah?" is a very common first-day quest9ion. Outside of camp, we eat at food courts and hawker centres. Inside, it is cookhouse and canteen.
One of the interesting experiences about going back to camp is the visit to the e-mart, or army supplies store.
The Great Singapore Sale exists here too, as we men line up in the stuffy little store to buy our army goods with our army credit.
We pore over the track shoes, uniforms, boots, socks and helmet chin straps on sale. Some have to buy new uniforms, because they have become more, er, prosperous. That may explain why the large and extra-large shirts and pants always seem to sell out fastest when we reservists visit the shop.
Meanwhile, the auntie next door who cuts hair makes a killing sewing rank patches on newly-bought uniforms.
They have a mobile service where they set up next to the in-processing office on Day One to "help" servicemen who have non-regulation hair styles - either too long or in the wrong colour (black is the only right colour for hair in the army).
I kid you not. For a small fee, you get your funky highlighted hair dyed back to regulation colour. Of course, you are expected to report in the correct hairdo, or risk being charged. So it is best not to depend on the auntie on the day itself.
As part of this column's public service, I shall tell you what I think are good Great Singapore Sale buys in the army store.
Those running shoes are good buys, at about $40. Socks are also good to get, since, as one man puts it, "working time can still wear".
I happen to be partial to the Goretex boots too - a little pricey at $109 - but they are extremely comfortable, light, and waterproof. Sure it almost wipes out a year's worth of army credit, but it is good for a few years of reservist, I think.
Those boots go with everything you wear in the army, like green, green and green. And they can even survive the rigours of treks through the jungle and the trips to the canteen.
mr brown is the accidental author of a popular website that has been documenting the dysfunctional side of Singapore life since 1997. He has re-learned the ability to sleep, sorry, rest his eyes, in any position.
