It's been a little long. Way too long in fact.
Hello everyone. I'm back from Australia.
I have a lot in mind to say here: What i saw and heard; What i learn; What i feel.
That is precisely the problem. So much things to say i have no idea where to start...but i guess i should still. Or i'll just be stuck here looking at the screen wondering what to type.
The specifics are way too tedious to go through, so i'll just summarise everything a little.
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So, over the course of 3 months i was deployed overseas to Australia to support the organisation's training. Not sure if i said this before, but what i handled there is very different from what i used to do back here in Singapore, so i had to learn and train before we can handle anything. It wasn't exactly tough, just tedious. Lots of things and words and abbreviations to learn and get myself familiarised with.
At the end of the day, today as a matter of fact, i think i didn't do quite bad. It's my first trip i took a plane to go to. Wasn't too pleasant for me. I could still remember, the flight was delayed for one full hour while we are onboard. The plane was already on the runway but went back to dock due to some 'technical difficulties'. I got scared a little, but eventually the plane took flight and the whole air trip lasted about 8 hours from Singapore to Brisbane. I still remember how much my butt hurts the after alighting.
It was morning when we stepped out the plane...and i could still feel the coldness of the air there. Even in broad daylight when the sun is high, the air still feels cold. It was especially noticeable the first morning i woke up to. I had to stand still for half an hour shivering before i can bear to move about. Tap water in the morning wash-up always feel like torture.
The first two weeks we were housed in Central Queensland University as the training area was not ready yet. Each of us were allocated single rooms to ourselves. The food was good and life was pretty much nice there. Until we were inserted into the training area...
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It was a difficult place to adjust to, considering the fact that we came from better places. There (Let's called the camp Sign Havoc or Havoc for short), we slept on a thin layer of cloth called cross-beds. It gets very cold at the night as the air ventilates from the bottom too, leaving your back vulnerable to the cold. I remembered my tentage (Yes, we sleep in tents) only consist of 2 person as the 3 others are permanently situated at the medical centre (They work there).
Havoc was a beautiful place in comparison to the place i would soon go. I'll explain that below shortly. Just outside my tent was a wide field where we hold roll call everyday (Yes, the convenience of this fact is marvelous). The bad thing is that it is a tad too far from the toilet, so when answering calls of nature in the middle of the night can be a problem, as the weather is very cold.
I work in a container. The office was not too big or small but enough for whoever needs to be there to work. A little movement in and out will get everyone shuffling for space but well, once used to it no one really gets bothered by it. I didn't have a laptop of my own so i had to use the official terminals provided. The internet speed was ridiculously slow so we can't do much with it.
Every now and then we would play frisbee on the field. It was a lot of fun and provides opportunity to sweat our stress out. I would run and throw and jump till i can't anymore due to tiredness. One time i ran so fast, i fell. My hands suffered some injuries but i lived.
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It happened in a flash, but i soon need to relocate to another camp (I'll call it the Castor's Grind). The Grind was...a really established place. Compared to Havoc where every building was formed from tents, Grind actually had solid and concrete buildings. This does not necessarily meant good, as there was no space for leisure sports. It really was a place where there's a lot of restrictions and stuff going on at the same time.
I no longer sleep in a tent. Instead, i'm in a concrete building that's very close to the toilet. Turns out to be a bad thing because the bunk smells real bad, not mentioning that it is also very messy. I moved out in 3 days to another tent because i couldn't stand it. I supposed no one will object to it when you're requesting to demote yourself.
I didn't have an office. Instead, we shared a building with other departments. This time i don't even have an office terminal to used, so most of the time i'm filing documents and correcting mistakes.
---
All in all, i had learnt much from this trip. I know i omitted a lot of information but well, it's either sensitive or i don't feel like putting them into words. Sometimes, some things in life you want to keep to yourself. Watching a live firing of tanks, sitting on a helicopter on tactical movement, doing sentry duty, getting surrounded by a forest fire...it's all things not everyone get to experience and not something you can always get to feel. Really thankful for the trip.
That's it for this post. Took me long enough. Watch out for my new year resolution and reflection soon!
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So, over the course of 3 months i was deployed overseas to Australia to support the organisation's training. Not sure if i said this before, but what i handled there is very different from what i used to do back here in Singapore, so i had to learn and train before we can handle anything. It wasn't exactly tough, just tedious. Lots of things and words and abbreviations to learn and get myself familiarised with.
At the end of the day, today as a matter of fact, i think i didn't do quite bad. It's my first trip i took a plane to go to. Wasn't too pleasant for me. I could still remember, the flight was delayed for one full hour while we are onboard. The plane was already on the runway but went back to dock due to some 'technical difficulties'. I got scared a little, but eventually the plane took flight and the whole air trip lasted about 8 hours from Singapore to Brisbane. I still remember how much my butt hurts the after alighting.
It was morning when we stepped out the plane...and i could still feel the coldness of the air there. Even in broad daylight when the sun is high, the air still feels cold. It was especially noticeable the first morning i woke up to. I had to stand still for half an hour shivering before i can bear to move about. Tap water in the morning wash-up always feel like torture.
The first two weeks we were housed in Central Queensland University as the training area was not ready yet. Each of us were allocated single rooms to ourselves. The food was good and life was pretty much nice there. Until we were inserted into the training area...
---
It was a difficult place to adjust to, considering the fact that we came from better places. There (Let's called the camp Sign Havoc or Havoc for short), we slept on a thin layer of cloth called cross-beds. It gets very cold at the night as the air ventilates from the bottom too, leaving your back vulnerable to the cold. I remembered my tentage (Yes, we sleep in tents) only consist of 2 person as the 3 others are permanently situated at the medical centre (They work there).
Havoc was a beautiful place in comparison to the place i would soon go. I'll explain that below shortly. Just outside my tent was a wide field where we hold roll call everyday (Yes, the convenience of this fact is marvelous). The bad thing is that it is a tad too far from the toilet, so when answering calls of nature in the middle of the night can be a problem, as the weather is very cold.
I work in a container. The office was not too big or small but enough for whoever needs to be there to work. A little movement in and out will get everyone shuffling for space but well, once used to it no one really gets bothered by it. I didn't have a laptop of my own so i had to use the official terminals provided. The internet speed was ridiculously slow so we can't do much with it.
Every now and then we would play frisbee on the field. It was a lot of fun and provides opportunity to sweat our stress out. I would run and throw and jump till i can't anymore due to tiredness. One time i ran so fast, i fell. My hands suffered some injuries but i lived.
---
It happened in a flash, but i soon need to relocate to another camp (I'll call it the Castor's Grind). The Grind was...a really established place. Compared to Havoc where every building was formed from tents, Grind actually had solid and concrete buildings. This does not necessarily meant good, as there was no space for leisure sports. It really was a place where there's a lot of restrictions and stuff going on at the same time.
I no longer sleep in a tent. Instead, i'm in a concrete building that's very close to the toilet. Turns out to be a bad thing because the bunk smells real bad, not mentioning that it is also very messy. I moved out in 3 days to another tent because i couldn't stand it. I supposed no one will object to it when you're requesting to demote yourself.
I didn't have an office. Instead, we shared a building with other departments. This time i don't even have an office terminal to used, so most of the time i'm filing documents and correcting mistakes.
---
All in all, i had learnt much from this trip. I know i omitted a lot of information but well, it's either sensitive or i don't feel like putting them into words. Sometimes, some things in life you want to keep to yourself. Watching a live firing of tanks, sitting on a helicopter on tactical movement, doing sentry duty, getting surrounded by a forest fire...it's all things not everyone get to experience and not something you can always get to feel. Really thankful for the trip.
That's it for this post. Took me long enough. Watch out for my new year resolution and reflection soon!
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