August 10, 2006

• The National Day parade reminds me of nothing but marching and I hate marching, since I am poor at it. Marching reminds me of National Service, as much I would like to stay away from blogging about National Service, it was the only period in my life that I had to march. More specifically, it was only during basic training that I had to march.

  
  

  From the very first day we enlisted, they tried to instill the importance of marching into us. Those who experienced uniformed groups in secondary school had a rather seamless transition. Others who were part of clubs or sports, like me, had more difficulty adjusting. Blessed with height, I naturally had to be the right marker, which I viewed as a curse. The right marker is placed at the top left corner of the squad (when marching) and the rest are supposed to take their bearings from him. I struggled to catch the timing of the marching, of being out of sync. Badminton, football or bowling rhythm no problem, but marching tempo no sire. It helped that those positioned around me were au fait with marching, they would silently prompt me to skip a step to get back into the groove.

  
  

  Just a month after familiarising myself with marching, we had to learn our drills for the passing out parade. In between, I thanked my lucky stars that my squad was not chosen for the Police Day parade display. The passing out parade drills were quite a bother, with rifles added into the mix. As if I was not having enough trouble with the drills, one fine practice, the commander announced that the best trainee of each squad had to perform a separate routine for the presentation of the plaques and certificates and I almost fainted. As much as the trainer complained about my slamming of the foot (supposed to produce a loud bang), I got the procedure correct. There was an indoor ceremony too, in case of rain and that was less complicated than the parade. As fate would have it, there was a downpour on the actual day and we proceeded to plan B. There were no hitches and that also signaled the end of a chapter in my life.

  
  

  Before I forget, happy belated birthday Singapore!

  • 6:22 am
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