And it's over. 24km that seemed like it'd never end, each interval seeming much longer than Lt Kai Xun said it was, as left foot followed right foot, and right foot followed left foot, one in front of the other, legs extending, for minutes that stretched into hours. It wasn't so bad initially, while we were still relatively fresh.

And I say "relatively fresh" for two reasons, the first being that my sleep the previous night was disrupted on two separate occasions, firstly waking up to a trickle, something cold and wet on my left cheek, and instinctively reaching to feel it with my right hand, only to find that it had been layered with toothpaste. Getting up in a blur, and seeing some dark forms in our bunk, which resolved into the faces of one J L TAN and someone else after I had fumbled for and subsequently put on my specs. Grumpy and pissed; who wouldn't be, getting woken up in the middle of the night by such bullshit, and having felt decidedly unwell the day before too.., I got up, confronted him, and found myself smearing the remainder of the toothpaste on my hand over his face, before going to wash up and getting back into bed. Next, waking up again, to shouting in our bunk, and groggily feeling a burning sensation on my thighs. Toothpaste once more, this time by some Platoon 3 jokers who'd come up to cause havoc, messing up shoes, spamming powder. It was an uneasy night. The second being having to do area cleaning repeatedly, up to our PS' standards, while the rest of the platoons napped.

But as we marched on, it seemed to take forever to reach the next rest point, which seemed to require an inordinately large number of steps. As the night stretched on, it became a battle of wills against the Zzz monster; to not succumb whilst marching, and also while resting as well, as it'd be so much harder to resume marching if we were to fall asleep. There were stretches where I just kept mum, looked downwards at the boots of the guy in front of me with half-lidded eyes and walked; kept only on the brink of consciousness by Darren talking to Jonathan about his dating experiences at ECP and such stuff. I don't quite know what it was that kept me from falling out; fatigue had accumulated, and I'd been suffering from a cold as well, so not exactly at my optimum condition. Abrasions starting to appear despite the Leukoplast Kai Chin could spare me, and muscle ache as lactic acid built up faster than my legs could clear. So sleepy, bloody sleepy and tired that I just wanted to lie there and do nothing, hugging my rifle and leaning against my fieldpack. And yet each time Lt Kai Xun barked the command "Everything on!" that's precisely what I'd do. Not as fast as I could have been, perhaps, but I still did it. A matter of pride, perhaps, of wanting to complete the whole BMT package, and not having to suffer the embarrassment of telling my parents not to go down to the platform cause I fell out during the march. Or maybe I was inspired by everyone around me; encouraged by the fact that everyone was going through the same thing, yet were not about to fall out. John, who was unwell during the 8km segment yet downed some Panadol and resumed the march, and Zhan Xiong, who was on Attend B
yet came down of his own accord to join us during the Changi Coast Road segment.


The CBD, Singapore Flyer and MBS all contributed to an awesome skyline view, especially from the Garden by the Bay area. It all contributed to a visible lifting of spirits towards the end, where we had seemingly broken through the tiredness and lack of sleep and were looking forward to finally reaching our destination. It was damn irritating though, how the Flyer would seem so close, yet we'd turn away from it and march one big round, or how the Sheares Bridge seemed to be moving ever further away from us haha.

It was quite an ecstatic moment, as I flung my jockey camp into the air, though tempered by having to trace its trajectory through the air to catch it, put it on and resume senandiri position once more, to wait for my parents to pick me up. The reminder, I guess, that BMT is/was only the beginning of this SAF journey ><

A week of leave I have to myself though, a week as a civilian; though graced not only with all the freedom a civilian enjoys but also faced with the realities of outside life, having to prepare for my interview and admission test this week :/

Oh and about the tag in the pic, it's an inside joke xP