I've found a friend who died for me

heylo.. im finally back from taiwan.. the whole training took abt 3 weeks.. kinda homesick during tis period.. well, im back anyway.. (:

took an taiwan airline, ava, to there.. the plane departed on an early morning.. and arrvied abt 6.30am.. taiwan is pratically like a desert.. not as in landscape but the weather.. very very hot in the day, and very very cold in the nite.. also the day starts very early in the summer season.. probably abt 4.30am? ya, so u normally wake up with the sun shinning at u.. also the day is long, from abt 5am to 6.30 pm.. when u ar used to singapore time (btw, singapore and taiwan timezone are the same..), u have serious problem in the day in taiwan.. the sun is already sorching as if it is noon in singapore, but when u look at ya watch, it only nine.. gee.. tat y most of us got sun-burned when we juz arrived..

initally i thought the camp in taiwan was quite layback, but to my surprise, i was wrong.. pretty much like some normal singapore camp.. the reason why we went oversea is to assist the leaders for training.. well, we were the "enemies"of the leaders.. at 1st i was supposed to join my course in going to the field to assist the leaders, but a small lucky number of us were selected randomly to take up certain appointments.. i was appointed as signal oic.. kinda shack though.. hav to sit in the office whole day listening to the com set to have a good update on how the training is progressing.. so when events or incidents happended, i will be like the 1st few to know.. n coz im always in the office, the instructors always ask me to do some admin stuff.. thus in a way im a clerk.. i too help out in store, meaning storeman, and occasionally in arns too, hence armskoteman.. gee, worst of all, im a runner for the wsm.. hav to follow him all over the place when im not manning the coms.. signaller, clerk, storeman, armskoteman and a runner.. phew.. and to think the rest of the coursematez think tat im still in the office enjoying the aircon and listen to radio..

i dun blame them though.. cause i know its tough to work in the field.. esp the weather is so unpredictable.. it juz rain n shine, shine and rain.. tough on them.. n i heard constant arguments occured among themselves due to poor morale.. salute to them..

it was quite happening in taiwan.. esp the incident tat took place where 2 singaporeans died in a taiwanese airplane crash.. i was the 1st few to heard abt it.. kinda glad tat we were safe from harm.. but felt sad for the affected battalion for their lost of friends.. it could juz easily be us if we trained in tat location.. worst still, they ar ns men like us.. still got so much to go in life.. die for ur nation..to call it an honour or disaster?? wadeva the case, these grp of ppl came to our camp to seek refuge as their camp was damaged and handed over for investigation.. to my surprise, they were smiling and laughing despite what happened.. yet when u looked into their eyes, u see sorrow and weariness.. haiz, they were really juz like us, 19-20 years old men..

i was abit disappointed with the local news when i collected the newspaper(mailed over from singapore) from the office.. the media protrayed too lightly on the air crash issue in my ppint of view.. the sorrows of these victims were juz mentioned in one or two pages of the whole papers.. on the other hand, the taiwanese citizens claimed the dead pilots as heroes for crashing the plane into the camp instead of juz letting the plane crash into the cilivian area..i cant juztify whether is it right or wrong of the pilots act, but i can fully assured tat at the split second of their lifes, they made the toughest decisions in their lifes..to crash into the cilivian housing tat will kill their own ppl and not risk diplomatic ties tat taiwan n singapore built upon closely, or to crash into crash into the camp to protect their fellow countrymen which they swear upon protect with their lifes, but inccur the wrath of the singapore government n ppl, or to juz eject from their plane to safety which left the plane to crash into wadeva tat comes in its way.. i personally find it hard to decide.. i was initally angry for the pilots' actions for causing the death of our country soldiers, but after some thoughts, i understand.. in fact i learn to sympatise them.. they definately know they wun make it as the plane was already flying too low, they parachute wun open in time to save themselve.. plus they hav alot to answer for, to both the taiwanese n singapore government, victims of the crash etc.. they also hav a high chance of going to jail for crashing the plane.. which leave them with only 2 choices.. at least, they died with pride..

r n r came.. we went to numerous places, kenting, gaoshiung, taipei etc.. ate quite alot and got food poisoning!! gee.. nothing much to play though..

coming fri is my bac(basic airborn course) test.. it is an important as it decides if i stay on in commando.. hopefully i can make it ya..

received letters from ntu n nus.. ntu offered me mechanical eng while nus offered me civil eng.. nothing from smu so far though.. dun think i wan to go smu .. dunno why, but i feel smu is not the sch for me anymore.. how i used to hope i will get into smu.. guess i will more or less go for ntu.. kinda interested in the uni though it is abit cheena.. oh well, lets see..