A couple of hours spent aimlessly wandering the Internet while seated in front of my laptop performs wonders as a shock back into civilian life. Though it does have the unfortunate side effect of ridding my mind of all coherent thought, so this will be pretty messy.

I think I'm really fortunate in that each time I bookout from camp, I have a very understanding and accommodating family to welcome me home. Perhaps too accommodating, but I'll leave that for later haha. It's one of the things you learn to treasure more in NS I guess. Despite the mess I left my room in when I left for SCS, things were relatively orderly when I came back, no thanks to myself. I found a new set of bedsheets on my bed, new charcoal pillows which apparently offer better support (I'll have to read the maintenance manual later..) and a new bolster as well. Though my siblings do sleep in my room when I'm in camp, I'm really touched by the thoughtfulness behind such things. Honestly, I think I may be too pampered when I'm home over the weekends, with little expected of me, which I guess may be some manifestation of the oldest child syndrome, which my uncle gleefully terms primogeniture; though I find myself doubting whether he's using the term correctly.

I found myself enjoying the past week in SCS. No doubt it was merely the first week, and things are definitely going to escalate from here onwards, but I'm reveling in this newfound freedom afforded to specialists' in training - ie SCTs - and appreciate the focus on learning and mastering the relevant knowledge and skills rather than the preoccupation with discipline and regimentation we had in BMT. On Friday alone, we learned how to strip, assemble, load, unload, and to perform the relevant IA Drills for the SAW (Section Automatic Weapon; it's bloody unwieldy), the GPMG (Some grenade launcher attachment to the SAR21; it's freaking heavy), the Matador (A disposable rocket laucher; feels even heavier, not to mention bulky) as well as their specifications, capabilities, safety concerns etc. Also learned how to operate the ACES, GPS, and radio headset; and all that before 6pm. Everything's really alot more efficient than it was in BMT, with all the procedures stripped down to the essentials, and much less waiting time between events.

The freedom is simply legendary. We finally have more than 2 hours of admin time each day, not to mention the knowledge to "jailbreak" our SAF-issued notebooks passed down from our seniors to avoid external surveillance. The most epic part is that there're actually games like CS, Pokemon, DoTA, etc available to play in camp. I see mass LAN sessions in the near future haha.

But I guess responsibility comes along with the freedom as well. I shall see more about it in the coming weeks, but basically when we're responsible for keeping ourselves on schedule, and responsible for maintaining our own standards, we have to do a good job if we don't want to be screwed sometime down the road. It should be good training as well :D

Not much else to add about SCS; maybe just that I'm honored to be a member of Bravo Coy, and really lucky to be in it with so many of my Bronco platoonmates who I can freely talk cock with; makes things alot more interesting (Y)

I guess I shall go to sleep soon, though I don't doubt that I'll find myself waking at some ungodly hour in the morning, so accustomed early morning reveille I am that I no longer need to bring an alarm clock into camp..

A weekend awaits, and so long as I'm able to look upon the world with fresh eyes, each waking day shall be a wonderful one ;)

Edit: The fact that we're gonna have to run 3km every morning next week onwards (we started yesterday) on top of PT before meals AKA Meal PT, and that on top of everyday training should show that we don't simply slack in SCS xP Managed to scrape silver for my IPPT this time around for my Cat test, so I'll aim to maintain and hopefully whittle down my 2.4 timing when the next one comes.

Short term goal: Cut away 1 min by the 5th week of SCS!