Army life is finally coming to an end...So many things that I will miss doing. To me, army days were about...

Sleeping under a canopy of stars...

Using my SBO as a pillow...

Worrying if I would get confined the following weekend...

Spending lazy afternoons in bunk with endless cups of sweet instant coffee...

Fooling around in the company office.

Stealing a nap at the 800-series shelf in Master Mary's store...

Skiving in the lines store...
while pretending to be reeling lines.

Swimming in seas of lallangs on moonlit nights...
Clawing my way up cruel ridges and knolls...

Pretending to march to the cookhouse...

Reporting sick for blisters...
but enduring sprains and fevers.

Doing COS Cookhouse duty,
and thinking of ways to smoke the DOS and the DO
into letting me go off earlier.

Stuffing crap into my field pack,
and praying they would not activate us over the weekend.

Polishing boots and cleaning my rifle because there was nothing else to do.

Flying all over the world
and getting involved in other people's exercises.

Countless rounds of PT
all because of one man's obsession with physical fitness...

Sweating it out
on the hot, black asphalt of the Division Parade Square.

Playing DOTA at Bukit Timah Plaza during nights out
and having supper at Boon Tong Kee afterwards...
And who can forget the infamous LOT ONE?
A shopper's Purgatory, but a soldier's Paradise.

Imitating OC and CSM to much laughter from the other soldiers.

Sharing a Rover ride with Thai and Taiwanese soldiers...
all older than me.

Going for shooting at the Tekong and Mandai Range...
and having to clean up the stupid lane afterwards.

Setting up radios and rebros...
both the lifeblood and the bane of signallers...

Being deployed in lim Chu Kang, Ulu Sembawang and Pasir Laba...
where the mosquitoes and sandflies show no mercy.

a clandestine smoke break, under cover.

evil packs of combat rations...that even dogs and wild boars would reject.

Above all, army days were about taking yourself less seriously...about true friendship...about teamwork and brothehood.