Reminiscing Old PLKN Memories.

There was I, clearing my room, throwing STPM papers and some other stuff, stumbled upon my old National Service (PLKN) CB books. Just the other day, my friend told me he was gonna leave for NS, and wanted to know the activities that are carried out there. So, I decided to blog about this book before these books hit the recycle box. And oh, this book is used in classes you'd attend in the morning @ your respective PLKN centres from 9.00 a.m. to 12 noon. :)

When I was first given this book, I was SHOCKED by the content inside. I'm sure you'd do the same if you ever have the chance to get hold of this book. The book covered character building stuff, mostly motivational lessons, like "Impossible to Possible", "Attitude", etc. activities, but with pre-school/primary level style of questions. The classes were kinda boring, and childish, though some were quite fun. Usually, after having a long day the day before, this would be the time where my friends and I would try to get some shut eye, though we were often caught by the teacher, which jolt us up.

That's all for this module, I can't seem to remember anything more. :)

P.S. In this module, there is this activity called "Aktiviti Kapalterbang". You'll be given some newspaper and stuff to make an airplane. Remember to think OUT of the box to get your airplane the furthest! Hint: Which flying object is round and can go furthest when thrown like a ball? :D

PLKN Case 6: The 3 Missing Wiras.

A NEW CASE!!! =D (but this case happened just before the semester break)...

PLKN Case 6: The 3 Missing Wiras.
I don't know what is up with cases happening on Sundays, but this is definitely not the first time. Let me tell it from the time I got back from church...

As usual, the van will drop us in front of Urus Setia. On that Sunday, only the 5 of us (out of the usual 6, and out of the total 8) went to church. Dave didn't attend church that day, he had a football match against Delta that day (unfortunately, Alpha lost that match). The van parked outside the office, we got down, and proceeded to the dewan makan! The other trainees would be in the hall, listening to some talk by one of the jurulatih's. In the midst of us eating, the Chinese trainees, who are also out for prayers, would come back, and join us for supper (they have dinner before they leave, as they leave later).

Everything went on as usual, after supper, roll-call. As usual, the procedure of the leaders of each company reporting to the main squad leader in PLKN CASE 1: The Missing Person would be carried out. To our dismay, the squad leader reported 3 trainees from Wira Charlie were reported MISSING. And all of us were thinking, "Oh no! Is this going to be another night waiting for that bunch of idiots, and causing us to lose our precious sleeping time? Where are they going to be this time? Under the rubber tree?". Fortunately, they were found in the second search hunt for them. Guess where they were found sleeping.... In the hall's toilet! Apparently, they had found the talk rather boring, and they headed to the toilet for some shut-eye (as you can't sleep in the hall in peace, because the teachers would seize any opportunity to catch you sleeping).

Because of them, all of us lost 30 LONG MINUTES of our sleeping time. Agh!

Case 6 ends here... =D

PLKN Case 1: The Missing Person.

PLKN Case 1: The Missing Person, for the list of cases, click here.

You must be thinking, how can a person go missing in National Service? Impossible, right? After all, every move NS trainees make are always under the watchful eyes of the jurulatih and discipline teachers. During one of the night's, we had a free do-what-you-want night. We had our supper as usual, then roll-call, before going to sleep. And roll-call is held on the padang kawat lama.

The normal procedure began. First, the company's squad leader will shout "Baris... Baris... Sedia!", followed by "Dari kanan... Nombor!". Soon, after all the companies have completed the process, the overall squad leader would shout "Baris... Baris... Sedia!". When all of us are in our sedia positions, the overall squad leader would again shout "Ketua Kompeni... Lapor!". And the process of the squad leaders reporting the company's strength (attendance) to the overall squad leader, and after this is done, the squad leader would report to the teacher on duty. And guess what, 6 people (from different groups, and all were GUYS!) were reported missing! =.=

Then, the whole process of finding began. We were given orders to sit down, and each company would send volunteers to help "hunt" for the missing people. It was done rather systematically, I would say. You could hear them shouting, like a big war was going on. Finally, the search ended, and only 5 trainees were found. And all of us were like, "Where was the last one?" Another search was launched. By that time, all the other trainees were getting restless and angry. It was already almost close to 12. But still, he couldn't be found. Finally, at midnight, we were allowed back to our cottages to sleep. And the missing person remained MISSING.

The next day, we found out that the ketua jurulatih had made a report to the police at 2:30 a.m., reporting that a trainee from this camp was reported missing. A guess what, at 2:45 a.m., the trainee was found! Guess what he was doing from 11 p.m. to 2:45 a.m.? Sleeping (It is said that he was sleeping under one of the rubber trees at the girls area)! A fight broke out when he returned to his cottage. His roommates weren't too happy of him causing them to lost of sleep (Basically, almost everyone wasn't happy).

Thus, this is PLKN Case 1: The Missing Person. =D

NS Has Come And Gone. :S

I can't actually believe that I'm going to say this, "I MISS PLKN KUALA NERANG, KEDAH!" :S

Yesterday, my mum came and took me out from National Service (NS). Now I'm back home, sitting in front of the computer screen, uploading photos and blogging about NS.

So far, out of the actual 440 trainees that were supposed to attend the training, 49 have left, and there is more leaving as the days go by. Some because of their health, and others got IPTA, matrix, or an offer in some college. Form 6ers are NOT allowed back early, but only for 3 days to lapor diri in their respective schools. This means that the trainees who are going to do form 6 will miss 2 weeks or more of school and a minimum of 5 weeks of tuition? Will they be able to catch up with the classes they miss? I mean, form 6 is known to be tough, and if the government is NOT going to let them out, and because of the missing of classes, who will shoulder the responsibility of their failure? I thought it is written in one of the akta's about studying, that NS will not interfere with the trainee's studies? Oh well...

Anyway, the 5 days after semester break were the best days in camp! I wish I could have stayed longer. :S

I'll blog more about NS soon! =D

PLKN Friends! =D

I must say having new friends in NS has made my days in National Service pass much faster (MUCH MUCH faster) than I imagined it would be. Comparing to the first few days in NS, time was passing very VERY SLOWLY for me. And the only people I hung around were my two schoolmates, and fyi, one of them has already left. And it was a little hard for us to get to know the other people, because we were all introverts. Now, time is now literally flying by me. I can consider myself having a good time in NS. And, I SERIOUSLY can't imagine that a month of NS has already passed by.

This some of the pictures I took with my friend's camera. =D

This is Jin Xi (Perlis), Jared (Kulim), and Dave (Sungai Petani).With the other Chinese guys... (Sorry... I'm not into posing =D)Monkey and Rav.Notice that we have a guitar there...? It's Jared's! =D

At nights, we have basically nothing to do, when the Muslims go for their daily night prayer. We occupy ourselves with chess, UNO and the guitar! =D

PLKN CASE 2: The Spot Check Till 2 a.m.

PLKN Case 2: The Spot Check Till 2 a.m.! For the whole list of cases, click here. For Case 4, click here. =D
What caused the spot check? And why was it till 2 a.m.? I think most camps don't do such spot checks? It so happened that one of the trainees reported to the jurulatihs that there were trainees smoking in the cottages. The reason it was reported because that trainee couldn't tahan the smell of the cigarette smoke. And thus, the ketua jurulatih launched a full scale spot check for GUYS only. The girls were excused, and could go back to their respective cottages to sleep. (=S No fair!)

And thus, at about 11 plus p.m., the spot check begun. All of the guys were in their respective groups sorted to their respective cottages. A whole company of guys took about 45 mins, and there were 4 companies. Imagine that. By 1 a.m., a sight of wiras could be seen lying on the tar road sleeping. =D

The spot check ended at about 2 close to 3 a.m., and we slept for about 2~3 hours before getting up for the following day's PT Pagi. Argh!

The weird cases of PLKN! :S

PLKN CASE 4: The Keeping of Handphones.

CASE 4: The Keeping of Our Handphones! For the whole list of cases, click here. Out of the 5 cases, I think I'll blog about 4, one of them seems inappropriate to be blogged about (only those who know, will know). =D

11/04/2010

Today was the day the camp commanders decided to confiscate our phones, for the time being. This camp had a known history of not keeping the handphones of the NS trainees, compared to the other camps.

Reason? There were many speculations made by the trainees on why our handphones were taken back. One of the many theories formed were one of the trainees were playing with their phones and did not call out a greeting of respect to the jurulatihs and tuans. Another speculation that was going around was the camp commanders wanted to stop the smuggling in of cigarettes. And from now, our phones would be with us from Thursday night to Saturday night (which was sadly changed to Friday afternoon to Saturday night later on). And, that's why our phones were taken. =(

And because of that, we Christians were late going to church! Earlier on, Jared, Benjamin and I had negotiated for the change of church; from Wesley Methodist Church Chinese Service to Wesley Methodist Church English Service, with the Timbalan Commandant, and he had given us green light. And today, when we asked the Urus Setia whether we were going to the English Service today, she said she hadn't any news, and the Timbalan Commandant was not around, and you know what she said? She said "Never mind larh, if this week cannot go church, no need go, next week only go pray." (Translated from BM) I was like, "WHAT? Just yesterday the Timbalan Commandant was talking about our haks sebagai pelatih PLKN, and now you talk like this?" I was so PISSED!

Finally, we managed to get to church, but we were a whole hour late, which was a pity. There was an invited speaker from out-of-town, and I think his talk would have been a rather interesting one. And guess what, the bus came and pick us a whole hour late! Come also late, go back also late! ARGH!

Interesting? Come to PLKN, and experience weird experiences. And you'll learn to stand up for your rights. =)

PLKN Kuala Nerang "Special" Events! =D

There were a few "unusual" events that happened in throughout the period when I was in National Service. =D

Let me see...

CASE 1: The Missing Person.
CASE 2: The Spot Check Till 2 a.m.
CASE 3: The Locker That Was Punched.
CASE 4: The Keeping of Handphones.
CASE 5: Scandal.

I think there are much much more, but I can't seem to recall others at the moment... =D

So, which case do you wanna hear first? Keep checking my blog for the full story! =)

A Note I Wrote on the First Day of NS...

29/03/2010

First Day of National Service.

At 8 o'clock, the sun shining. There was I, lugging my bag and pail along, to the stadium, where the buses to NS would be, waiting for the unlucky trainees who got selected.

I went. I saw. Buses. Loads of them. Zhean Wei was already there. He had already registered. And his was the first bus, leaving me and Poh Khoon behind on the second bus.

I arrived at Kem Dusun Minda Resort, Kuala Nerang an hour later. My first thought. Doomsday. I'm like a fish out of water here. I was surpised to see trainees there already. It seems that the Ipoh, Sungai Petani, Kulim trainees had already arrived. Oh, I thought, the Alor Setar group was the last to arrive.

Thank goodness I had friends from my ex-school, Zhean Wei and Poh Khoon. Without them, I think life for me here would be more miserable. And the other trainees seemed to have their own cliques already. :S Ah... making friends was never easy, especially when you are an introverted person.

Life sucks here. The toilet is dirty (probably because it has not been cleaned or used since the last batch of NS), the water in the kolam is yellow... How can one survive? Home... is a MUCH MUCH better place! =[ I guess I just have to pull through till NS ends? Just another 70 days. :S

I can't wait for form 6 to start! (And I seriously can't believe I'm saying this) Studying seems so much more FUN than this.

Going on to food. It's okay I guess? Fish, meat, veggies and fruit? And, that's what I'll be eating for the next 70 days of my life. :S

After lunch, my hair!... that took so long to grow after SPM, has been cut! T.T Anyway, the rest of the day basically was free time. And tomorrow, all activities shall start. :S

And now, I have completed 1 month of NS, and I must say, my views of PLKN has changed COMPLETELY from the first day I stepped in it. I'm actually beginning to enjoy it. The fun activities will be starting after semester break, and I am looking forward to some of it.

But alas, decisions have to be made to. To study or not to? And, I've decided to get out by May 10th to study. A right decision? I hope.

PLKN Kem Dusun Minda Resort, Kuala Nerang!

I'm back! (just for Easter! =D)

In my two days at PLKN, life is terrible! (or maybe I still haven't got used to the lifestyle there yet...)

Our daily schedule:
0530 ~ 0630 Waking Up Time (Malays have their prayer at 6)
0630 ~ 0800 Lapor @ Padang Kawat Baru & Jasmani
0800 ~ 0900 Breakfast
0900 ~ 1030 Classes
1030 ~ 1100 Morning Snack
1100 ~ 1230 Classes
1230 ~ 1430 Lunch
1430 ~ 1630 Physical Activity
1630 ~ 1700 Tea
1700 ~ 1800 Sports
1800 ~ 2100 Dinner
2100 ~ 2230 Night Class
2230 ~ 2300 Supper
2300 ~ 0530 Lights Out

Every morning, I have to wake up early at 5:30 a.m. in the morning! @.@ Who on earth gets up at this HOUR?!? And we sleep at close to midnight every night. ONLY 5 HOURS OF SLEEP! T.T Moving on to the classes...

When the classes are on going, everyone is "fishing". (meaning that everyone is falling asleep listening to the speaker). And the worse part is, when the speaker is speaking, there will be officers walking around to make sure no one sleeps. One time, a boy was brought up forward to the stage because he slept. =.= Anyway, the sessions are actually quite interesting if you pay attention 100%, but it is so hard to stay awake, because of the heavy activities throughout the day, and waking up so EARLY in the morning. The only activity I HATE now are the kawating (marching) activities, because it is under the HOT HOT SUN! But am looking forward to the sports (hiking, flying fox, water activities, etc...) =D.

Moving on to the FOOD! =D The food there is not bad, I guess...? We have 6 meals a day! (I hope it helps me get FAT! @.@ Since so many people wants me to...) The only thing is it's always fried meat or fish, with curry, veggies and fruit (apples, pears and watermelon... so far). =D

And, every night, when I sleep, I sleep with ants! =.= There are a LOT of ants crawling about there. When I sleep, I suspect that there are at least a hundred ants that crawl over me... @.@

Pictures of the camp site! I forgot to take the picture of the male toilet though... Shall make a mental note to take a picture of that when I go back on Sunday... XD

Rest area.
My EX-dorm (D-1).
My EX-room with orange light! (I prefer this room!)Know why it is so hot in my room? Look at the fans!

The guys canteen.The old kawat padang (where we meet every night at 11:00 p.m.).
Leaving from PLKN Kuala Nerang to Shahab Perdana.

I liked my old room better than my current one! I prefer my old roommates (although there is 6 of us compared to my current one of 5)! T.T Oh well, I shall have to live with my new roommates for a month (at least) before I can get out for form 6! Argh!

I don't wanna go back to PLKN! =( It's torturing! Somebody help me!

PLKN Kumpulan 2 Siri 7/2010... :(

Aren't I supposed to get either news in the newspaper or in form of a letter about NS? The letter is supposed to tell us what we are to bring and a rough idea of what to expect, right? And, all of friends who I know that got selected haven't got any news or their letters yet...

No news, no go?
No letter, no go? =D

P.S. If I go, come visit me ya... =)

PLKN! T.T

I've gotten National Service Batch 2!!!

I'm posted to KEM DUSUN RESORT, KUALA NERANG, KEDAH! And I'm supposed to report on the 29th of March. It's about an hour from Alor Setar, which gives me a little comfort because my friends will be able to visit me! =) And, I have a friend who will be attending the same campsite as me! My classmate! He'll be able to wake me up!

I actually have not much grudges going for PLKN, looking forward for it a little actually. The only few things that I think would be a problem are, I need to wake up early everyday at 6:30 in the morning (even the birds are not up yet!)!!!... and bathe in the open showers (who invented that? People need their privacy you know...). Cutting my hair wouldn't be much of an issue, I think.... after all, I've been having my hair that short for the past 5 years, another month wouldn't hurt right? =)

I've tried to get more info for my campsite, but somehow, the Internet seems to be devoid of the info I want. PLKNers don't blog about NS much I think, and it's very hard to get any more info from the Internet except for wikipedia, which only gives the location of the campsites and the activities they do in NS briefly... Oh well...

Dusun Resort...Open shower... T.T