Resolutions and remedies

On January 9, 2007 · 23 Comments · In Army / National Service

And I left my phone at homeIt’s a pity mobile phones and record­ing devices aren’t allowed in mil­i­tary instal­la­tions any more. Or else, what a rich tapes­try of you know, stuff, a blog­ger could take out of the things that go on in mil­i­tary instal­la­tions that are really, you know, inter­est­ing.

I’d wish one and all a Happy New Year, but truth be told, I’ve been so depressed lately, it’s been hard to offer well-wishes.

I even found it dif­fi­cult to muster a chuckle when lis­ten­ing to the Phys­i­cal Train­ing Instruc­tor (PTI) at Reme­dial Train­ing speak in the lingo we know and love as Army-Speak, whereby you talk like that, alright, and you punc­tu­ate your sen­tences alright, whereby you will be able to be heard loud and clear, alright?

But I am glad for Reme­dial Train­ing. For the unini­ti­ated, RT is what hap­pens to you if you’re so unfit you keep fail­ing the Indi­vid­ual Phys­i­cal Pro­fi­ciency Test the Army makes you do until you’re 40 years of age; or if you, like me, couldn’t get organ­ised enough in the past year to remem­ber to attend the Indi­vid­ual Phys­i­cal Pro­fi­ciency Test.

This is my sec­ond RT stint, the first being three years ago when I for­got to attend the Test because I went fishing.

It is incon­ve­nient, this Reme­dial Train­ing, because you have to take time off work and book your­self in to an Army Fit­ness Con­di­tion­ing Cen­tre (FCC) twice a week for a month, after which if you still can­not pass the Test, they make you book your­self into an FCC thrice a week for another month.

It almost makes you wish you were fit­ter, bet­ter organ­ised and more motivated.

But I digress. I’m talk­ing about Reme­dial Train­ing here because it’s inter­est­ing how it’s changed in the last three or so years. The PTIs actu­ally keep ask­ing after you, how you’re doing, whether you’re feel­ing well, and if you don’t think you can push your­self to run harder, it’s actu­ally ok with them.

In the words of the Com­mand­ing PTI, who said last Wednes­day, and I quote,

“We don’t expect you to be train­ing whereby you are like prepar­ing for the Allumpics”

And I find that strangely com­fort­ing.

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  • http://www.planetnewsviews.blogspot.com scott

    I want to see that movie. I think I dated that babe. Oh no…really? lol :) any­way, er, take care.

  • http://www.planetnewsviews.blogspot.com scott

    I want to see that movie. I think I dated that babe. Oh no…really? lol :) any­way, er, take care.

  • http://karmadgeon.blogs.com Muffy Wong

    Chin up, whereby I don’t mean the ones you do with the bar and your hands, alright but the kind whereby (hey I think I used it incorrectly-correctly this time) you take a deep breath.

    I’m sorry you’re depressed, the hol­i­days can do that to a lot of us. What’s inspir­ing is how you man­age to find a sil­ver lin­ing in things! Keep on keepin’ on.

    Or some­thing like that alright?

  • http://karmadgeon.blogs.com Muffy Wong

    Chin up, whereby I don’t mean the ones you do with the bar and your hands, alright but the kind whereby (hey I think I used it incorrectly-correctly this time) you take a deep breath.

    I’m sorry you’re depressed, the hol­i­days can do that to a lot of us. What’s inspir­ing is how you man­age to find a sil­ver lin­ing in things! Keep on keepin’ on.

    Or some­thing like that alright?

  • anony­mous

    From your NS pic­tures which you posted pre­vi­ously, you looked very fit!

  • anony­mous

    From your NS pic­tures which you posted pre­vi­ously, you looked very fit!

  • http://www.haato.com.sg Lin­coln

    Hey Cheer up man…

    :-)

  • http://www.haato.com.sg Lin­coln

    Hey Cheer up man…

    :-)

  • http://stardomdreams.blogspot.com Adrian Tan

    hi miyagi

    suf­fer­ing same fate as you. half way thru RT phrase 2 right now. just failed my IPPT today by 6 #@$% secs on my 2.4km.

    It sure is a bloody waste of time. I didn’t feel it when it’s twice a week but when it hit 3, oh man.

  • http://stardomdreams.blogspot.com Adrian Tan

    hi miyagi

    suf­fer­ing same fate as you. half way thru RT phrase 2 right now. just failed my IPPT today by 6 #@$% secs on my 2.4km.

    It sure is a bloody waste of time. I didn’t feel it when it’s twice a week but when it hit 3, oh man.

  • http://miyagi.sg Mr Miyagi

    I am so not fit. The other day at RT, I was wear­ing the heart rate mon­i­tor… ok that’s a blog post. BRB.

  • http://miyagi.sg Mr Miyagi

    I am so not fit. The other day at RT, I was wear­ing the heart rate mon­i­tor… ok that’s a blog post. BRB.

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  • holy­hunk

    It’s com­fort­ing to know there are STILL so many out there strug­gling through the Sin­ga­porean way of keep­ing fit. You know what I mean!

    Allow me to share my thoughts, posted on the NS Por­tal forum last Novem­ber. Watch out for my other ver­sion of the acronym I.Pee.Pity!

    Four more days to my annual Intim­i­dat­ing Per­sonal Psy­cho­log­i­cal Ter­ror at the fear-inducing Maju Camp!

    Good news: I’m excused chin-ups. So I don’t have to carry my 70kg weight with my not-so-powderful-because-of-fracture-history fore­arms. Over the years I have been “com­pul­sively” doing 20–30 push-ups and dumb-belling to pump up my chest/arms, but my fore­arms remain rather weak. (Actu­ally I can do at least 3, and it’s a pass for my age, but every­time after try­ing my wrists will hurt a lit­tle, so bet­ter be weak than strong, and bet­ter be glad I’m excused…hehe)

    Not too bad news: I can score 5 points for shut­tle run, and at least 3 points for sit-ups and stand­ing broad­jump. (For­get about mon­e­tary rewards, since I only do 4 sta­tions in total)

    Bad bad news: The best point I have secured for the Ulti­mate Breath­tak­ing 2.4km Chal­lenge is 2. I went for two RTs a few years back because I failed the run by sec­onds. When I got my 2 points I almost wanted to hold a feast! But this week I can only pray for a bor­der­line pass (1 point) ‘cos I have not been in top form. (Will I ever be…haha)

    To all guys out there who feel they are over the hill already and are con­stantly sub­ject to fear of the ubiq­ui­tous Per­sonal Ter­ror, let’s jia you together!

  • holy­hunk

    It’s com­fort­ing to know there are STILL so many out there strug­gling through the Sin­ga­porean way of keep­ing fit. You know what I mean!

    Allow me to share my thoughts, posted on the NS Por­tal forum last Novem­ber. Watch out for my other ver­sion of the acronym I.Pee.Pity!

    Four more days to my annual Intim­i­dat­ing Per­sonal Psy­cho­log­i­cal Ter­ror at the fear-inducing Maju Camp!

    Good news: I’m excused chin-ups. So I don’t have to carry my 70kg weight with my not-so-powderful-because-of-fracture-history fore­arms. Over the years I have been “com­pul­sively” doing 20–30 push-ups and dumb-belling to pump up my chest/arms, but my fore­arms remain rather weak. (Actu­ally I can do at least 3, and it’s a pass for my age, but every­time after try­ing my wrists will hurt a lit­tle, so bet­ter be weak than strong, and bet­ter be glad I’m excused…hehe)

    Not too bad news: I can score 5 points for shut­tle run, and at least 3 points for sit-ups and stand­ing broad­jump. (For­get about mon­e­tary rewards, since I only do 4 sta­tions in total)

    Bad bad news: The best point I have secured for the Ulti­mate Breath­tak­ing 2.4km Chal­lenge is 2. I went for two RTs a few years back because I failed the run by sec­onds. When I got my 2 points I almost wanted to hold a feast! But this week I can only pray for a bor­der­line pass (1 point) ‘cos I have not been in top form. (Will I ever be…haha)

    To all guys out there who feel they are over the hill already and are con­stantly sub­ject to fear of the ubiq­ui­tous Per­sonal Ter­ror, let’s jia you together!

  • ????

    ??????????????????……????????????????????????

  • 圣洁猛男

    难得在米先生洋化十足的博客中出现汉字……简直大跌我的眼镜！苹果先生，我们可谓相见恨晚啊！

  • http://miyagi.sg Mr Miyagi

    … and my trans­la­tor wid­get says the above com­ment reads:

    ” rarely in the ocean full abun­dant guests appears
    the Chi­nese char­ac­ter in Mr. Mi… … Sim­ply greatly falls my
    eye­glasses! Apple gen­tle­man, we it may be said feels sorry not to have”

    OK then.

  • http://miyagi.sg Mr Miyagi

    … and my trans­la­tor wid­get says the above com­ment reads:

    ” rarely in the ocean full abun­dant guests appears
    the Chi­nese char­ac­ter in Mr. Mi… … Sim­ply greatly falls my
    eye­glasses! Apple gen­tle­man, we it may be said feels sorry not to have”

    OK then.

  • holy­hunk

    Good­ness gra­cious, that’s how dumb trans­la­tion machines are, con­vert­ing word for word!

    “Yanghua” (??)obvi­ously means “west­ern­ised”, but our smart con­ver­tor splits the phrase in half and trans­lates “yang”(?) to “ocean”(??).

    ?????????And this cor­re­sponds accu­rately to “I rest my case”!

  • holy­hunk

    Good­ness gra­cious, that’s how dumb trans­la­tion machines are, con­vert­ing word for word!

    “Yanghua” (洋化)obvi­ously means “west­ern­ised”, but our smart con­ver­tor splits the phrase in half and trans­lates “yang”(æ´‹) to “ocean”(æµ·æ´‹).

    我放下我的公事包！And this cor­re­sponds accu­rately to “I rest my case”!

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