January 2010 - As Suanie Sees It

Selva announced that there would be a special Original Bootcamp Malaysia session, whereby the OBC KL platoon would compete against the OBC PJ platoon. Apparently it’s something that the OBC Australia does, and the OBC recruits would come out and participate akin a family day as well as make a donation in aid of a selected charity.

Initially I didn’t want to join because I’m active and sociable like that. Hello, bootcamp sessions 3 times a week then ask me to wake up before 5.45am on a Sunday morning for more exercise? You must be kidding me right?

But after some persuasion from Tate (as well as a promise by Sergeant Sim that he would make Tuesday’s session hell if we didn’t participate), I signed up lor. In the process, I helped to make sure that some of my fellow PJ Bravo recruits sign up as well. After all it wouldn’t be fun without your fellow team mates, right?

So last Sunday I woke up at 4.30 am, got ready and joined a convoy to Metropolitan Park @ Kepong. The only thing I know about the place is that people literally fly kites there, and that it’s a huge ass park. Reached on time to see the KL platoon recruits with red bandanas and war paint. They also sang a lot of songs that I didn’t comprehend, only ‘cos I was less than half-awake and was busy warming up.

I was expecting the session to be hardcore tough, maybe something like 500 grunts to be divided within the platoons, then steal the other party’s equipment + 50 push-ups at each station + prisoners and guards + 100 squats or mountain climbers in order to get to the next stop… I don’t know, something akin to our regular bootcamp sessions lor. Minus the mud and dirty water lah, because Metropolitan Park @ Kepong is a darn well-kept park.

Turns out it was a search and retrieve competition, with about 4 questions to be answered at selected stations. All we had to do was to follow a map that goes around the area to retrieve ropes, sandbags, tyres, mock rifles, backpacks and bazookas. The questions asked were (1) What is the OBC van’s number plates? (2) some Math question that I didn’t pay attention to because I suck at Math, (3) Where did the first OBC in Australia began?, and (4) When did OBC began in Malaysia? Each group also had to keep together within 3m of each other. Occasionally the OBC van would zoom by with a grinning Selva, Sergeant Sim and Corporal Jason checking on us.

At the end of the session, PJ platoon missed 3 stations whereas KL platoon missed 2. We all cannot read maps one mah, heh. KL platoon also won the Platoon VS Platoon challenge by 1 point. I am still very gutted okay… but c’est la vie, heh.

Sigh. Give me 2 weeks to get over it, then I can be gracious about us losing the challenge 😉

But it was a lot of fun, and a very bonding event. Won’t go into the high jinks that we got into during our run 😛 I understood that the initial PJ platoon turn out was to put it mildly, pathetic. On Sunday we had a strong 50 recruit turn out! Recruits whom we’ve never met before (due to different PJ sessions etc) came together and worked great as a team. The spirit was high and everybody did fantastic. I was, and I still am so proud of us, the Astaka Warriors 🙂

We also raised RM3000+ for Rumah Ozanam. Great work, everybody!

Thanks to Selva, Sergeant Sim, Corporal Faizal, Corporal Jason, Corporal Elin etc for organising the event. Thanks to my fellow OBC recruits for being such great team mates! Looking forward to the next one!

A friend posted on her Facebook that a teacher from our high school passed away this morning. Encik Ahmad Amir taught us Bahasa Malaysia and Sejarah in Form 1 and Form 2. It was a long time ago so I don’t remember the exact subject for the year.

I remember En. Ahmad for 3 reasons. The first was that he was always dressed immaculately – a crisp light-coloured, short-sleeve shirt tucked in a pair of black trousers held together with a belt. His shoes were always shiny, his beard nicely trimmed, basically a clean, sharp appearance.

The second was the way he walked. En. Ahmad did not just walk through the corridors of SMK Convent BP – he strutted. His chest would be puffed up and his head a little higher and he trotted confidently but not in any way arrogant. I often wondered how he could see what and where he was walking because his eyes were always straight ahead. Well he did slipped into a drain once so I suppose that didn’t work out too well. A few of us were near him when he fell – of course we sniggered but he took it in his stride.

The third and most memorable was a lesson that he taught me. I was the opposite of the perfect student, and such did not always… errr, complete my homework. I thought his method of making us memorise the history book redundant, plus I was lazy to write a lot. Naturally I would always try to escape from him until one fine day when he finally caught up with me.

“Why are you afraid? Just own up that you did not do your homework. If you are afraid of something, you will eventually be scared of it. Fear leads to hatred. I don’t want you to hate me. That is not what I am here for.”

A Malay version of a Jedi Master, eh? Rest in peace.