Talking army again

At ten pm Fri­day night, E called and asked for tea as per usual. I drove to pick her up and we had a jolly good time at a dif­fer­ent loca­tion this time. We went to the beach at East Coast Park and had beer and chicken wings, cooled by the sea breeze and I would like to have said, lulled by the waves, but the res­i­dent Mat Rok band at the pub put paid to that notion.

While we talked, a man around my age (can tell because he’s soft around the mid­dle) walked up and called my name. I looked up and rec­og­nized him and we spoke a fair bit, exchanged num­bers and promised to catch up. He was a com­pany mate of mine in the Army and the last time we saw each other was when we ROD’d in June 1991.

At a lit­tle past mid­night, the beers and noise were get­ting to us, so we decided to call it quits and head home, and while dri­ving her home, E’s boyfriend calls to ask what we’re up to, and she tells him, and she sug­gests meet­ing him for more sup­per. He says he’s tired, and she hangs up. She had wanted to have Chee Cheong Fun with him at this place up north in Sem­bawang. The men­tion of Chee Cheong Fun makes me peck­ish, and I sug­gest we go there any­way, with or with­out him. As cour­tesy, she calls him to notify her inten­tions, and he grudg­ingly decides to come along. After all, his girl­friend can’t always have fun with­out him, right?

We get there, order food, he comes, we eat, and we’d have gone home, but he starts talk­ing. Nor­mally, he and I would have noth­ing to talk about. But here’s the Sin­ga­porean com­mon­al­ity, the glue that bonds all Sin­ga­pore males. Noth­ing in com­mon? Talk Army. Always works, always has. Ten­tera Sin­ga­pura. Yang Per­tama dan Utama.

We spoke of get­ting lost in Thai­land, hik­ing hills in Tai­wan, get­ting sand in our eyes in Aus­tralia and so on. We were about to go full cir­cle and talk about get­ting lost in Thai­land again when E very abruptly said “Go home, can?”

I am very thank­ful she did that. Else I’d be stuck in Army lingo land with her boyfriend, just like I get stuck in Army lingo land with just about every other Sin­ga­porean male who has had com­bat train­ing in the Army.

At least, tonight, the Chee Cheong Fun was good, it was the melt in your mouth vari­ety, and cer­tainly a lot eas­ier for E to swal­low than our conversation.