Reservist - Ex Wallaby, Australia

Day 1 (18th Oct 2005)

Gathered at the airport to prepare to board the plane. Supposed to wear a collared shirt, but forgot.. hee.. :P . Panic for a while, but after thinking a while, conclude that its not serious, not like i'm wearing slippers and beach wear.. haha

Day 2

Arrived in Rockhampton Airport early in the morning. Some of the people were randomly chosen for bag inspection. They had to take out everything in their bag, to check for soil, foodstuff, etc, cos Australia has very strict rules regarding these. From my tone, its easy to guess that I had that "innocent" enough look to escape from this.. hee

Arrived in camp by coach, and as expected from experience from last time here, the base camp is basically tentages. There are quite a big of changes from 10 years ago though. The camp is bigger, and there is tap water and toilets with flush! It used to be huge tubs and toilets which are basically holes in the floor, and with worms breaking the shit down. The bathing facilities are the same though, which is basically bag with sprinkler at the bottom. We have to pour water into the bags and then hang it up. There's a mechanical knob to turn the sprinkler on or off to allow the water sprinkle down until there's no more water.


The "Famous" pulley system shower

Work started immediately after we've settled down. I found out that a lot of the work had already been done for me, with some loose ends that I have to tie down. I had been so worried that this ICT will be very tiring, cos my able assistant is not here for this ICT. Thanks to a good friend, Ker, as well as prayer request email sent by Pris, I have much less work to do.

Subsequent Days

The rest of the days are quite routine.. going out for field exercises, going back to camp to prepare for the next one.. doing alot of checking equipment and changing faulty ones and test again. Gratefully, I have a few friends, who I made since years ago, who are very helpful, else I'll be so overwhelmed with so much to do. During the exercises, I kept looking out for some form of animals, like kangaroos, or wallaby, or emu. I was not so lucky...... haiz.. seems like all the kangaroos are hiding somewhere, cos my friends keep telling me that they saw one or two!

Anyway, the exercise is tiring due to the need to travel long distances and the summer heat. Its very cold, more accurately, freezing cold at night.. imagine very hot during the day and very cold at night.

But it was interesting also, cos I got to know a fellow soldier better. Seems like he's serving in an organization that helps Jews who want to be Christians, or help other organizations like churches to minister to Jews. I learn from him that Jews have very different views with regards to the Bible. The structure of how their books are arrange are different, not like what we have. He also gave examples of the significance of some festivals to Jews, festivals that we non-Jews may not feel is important. I remembered a comment that he made, that there are also a certain sect of Jews that believe that the Messiah (Jews won't know the word "Christ" cos it came from a Greek word) has already come. However, that sect believe in another person and doesn't fulfill all the prophecies. To be the Messiah, all the prophecies has to fulfill.. all as in ALL!! An example of a festival


Aspiring photographer trying to take cool pics


hee.. a nice pic, only my friend will know who this is.. hehe

Last Few Days

Yay!!! The tiring part of the whole ICT is over since the exercise is over, or so I think. The handing over is just as tiring! I even had to work overnight and catch like 1 or 2 hours of sleep. There are people who dun get to sleep at all too! But the thought of doing everything well and be able to get out here smoothly kept us going. There were alot of administrative things, equipment checks, coordination, counting and recounting of everything to be returned. Finally we're able to finish everything, and can relax.

R&R (2nd Nov 2005)

We have one day of R&R or Rest & Recreation. The Army paid for a guided tour to the Heritage Village, the Cultural Center and a trip to a shopping mall. The Heritage Village is interesting. They recreated the past, with horse carriages, Smiths, tractors pulling tour coaches, even games that involve driving tractors (too bad we didn't have time to play that). I even had my first horse ride!! (ok.. I sua ku, ok?). Will be more fun if can gallop though.. through a forest in Europe kind.. hehe


Antique Car Exhibition..


Farmer learning how to feed a goat


Imagining myself riding through the woods.... actually trying not to get thrown off the horse

Didn't do much at the Cultural Centre though. Threw boomerang (Deja vu cos did that at the same place 10 years ago!!) and walked around looking at exhibits of the aborigines' history. Next we were taken to a Shopping Mall. We have abt 3 hours of shopping time. With a sense of urgency, we proceeded with our shopping. One of the things I desperately needed was a pair of shoes, cos mine is currently held together by some ingenious tying using strings thought of by a friend. Found a very good one that was quite cheap. Then I started my food shopping. Bought alot of chocs for CG, family and colleagues. So much that I felt a bit embarrassed when I went up on the coach later. My good friend, Wengang, who's shopping with me wanted to buy a sunglass, and so I helped him choose one, giving my opinions as best as I could (like I know sunglasses.. haha).


"Artistic" shot near the place we had dinner.. nice right? The houses and the sea, I mean..


Another shot at the same place, people doing para-surfing.. looks fun!

This SAF-sponsored tour ended with a night's stay at a resort hotel, the Ridges Capricorn Resort. It was a beautiful hotel with nice pools and palm trees. Not a bad place to stay, if u're looking to just relax. Wee rested there until abt 3 plus where we had to wake up to take a coach to catch our plane. Did all the necessary checks and boarded the plane.


Attempt at 15 secs shutter exposure at the Resort Hotel..


Rare chance to take a plane up close


Shots from plane, taken with help of friend, cos my seat is at the wing side, same as when I came!!





Arrival (3rd Nov 2005)

Alighted the plane and all of us went to take a look at the duty free shops. I bought a few bottles of liquor (This is the first time I'm doing this, so asked a lot around.. haha). Took a taxi home. Messaged Irving that I'm back, and he told me that the CG is going for a concert at Nexus tonight. I agreed to join after I put my stuff back home.... To be continued.....