Because my unit is a battalion of excess, this often means that the activities carried out are often overly-excessive.

This also means that there are sometimes more people than is required, hence, there are situations in which I am channelled to do things which have not been done, or which no one else has thought to do.

One of these random things involves buying random presents for specific people, so yesterday, I was sent on a very specific mission to buy something random for a specific person who is about to leave my unit.

So yesterday, I had a lot of fun going downtown in the middle of the day to shop for the present, because at least I had something to do + I got to drive.

Drive what? A tank? No, although I wish I were as lucky as those four guys in Full Tank!.

One of the other officers volunteered his car for the mission, so Lieutenant S and I happily hopped in and headed down the PIE with me in the driver’s seat.

Since getting my licence in 2006, I haven’t had much opportunity to practice driving, so getting a random chance to drive to random places and try to reverse park was quite an experience in itself for me.

That’s what I like about National Service - as dreary as it can be sometimes, there are always these unexpected surprises which can be rather fun and interesting if you know how to make the most of it.

Which brings me to the next story that I am going to tell, culled from a story that someone else told me.

After Lieutenant S and I came back from our expedition, we had a fitness test, following which, we had dinner.< Lieutenant M had asked Lieutenant S to take-away food from the cookhouse for him, so S dutifully obliged.

The only problem was: how was S supposed to ‘da bao’ the food? S went to the cookhouse to ask the messing warrant for help, and this is the conversation that ensued:

    S: Hi Encik, how do I pack out-rations?

    Encik: Oh, you have to pack the food into the out-ration box, and put the box in the out-ration container.

    S: Okay, so where do I get this box from?

    Encik: You can get it from your CQ, it should have been issued to him. There are rules and regulations, and we must follow them!

    Silence.

    Exit S.

That’s the SAF for you, ladies and gentlemen. More stories heading your way tomorrow.