Daredevil

The days of basic training are about end.

It seemed like only last week that I first walked into that academy as we were directed to some classroom to be stripped searched. But all that really happened 3 months ago. And now, we're left with only 5 more days till we have to vacate our barrack.

But during those 5 remaining days we have there, we will be practicing for our POP.

My dad warned me that we will have to train all day long for our POP and he was right. Yesterday, one of the FI who was conducting the POP drill said that starting from next week onward, we will have to train in the morning, after lunch and in the afternoon which may extend till evening. Just the thought of all that scares me because just the morning drill alone made me wet my entire polo-T shirt and some bits of my pants. Just imagine the drills after lunch in the hot sun, and may I mention that the hot season in Singapore has finally arrived. I'm gonna have arms as dark as armpit hairs and a brain as steamed as a cooked dim sum. That's because our attire throughout the POP practice drills will be the police peak cap, white polo-T, dark blue police pants and black-once-shiny-kiwi drill boots.

Help.

There are things I could say about myself about what I've been doing in the police force but I really don't feel the need to promote myself in informing the whole world of what I've been accomplishing in there. I just wanna say that whatever I've done and whatever I've been able to achieve in excelling in whatever areas, I owe it all to God. Without His hand upon me in there, there wouldn't be a chance of me getting all these wonderful things and so I wanna thank Him for all the blessings I've received.

However,
There are some things I can note that you guys already know; like the great instructors that we got.

Our FI is the best in the academy because he even told us, he doesn't want to be strict because there are other people already treating us like robots, so he wants to have some leniency with us. He will close one or two eyes whenever it comes to some things because he acknowledges that we are all humans and that we need to have some 'luxury' items to keep up our morale.

Also, our OC is definitely the best OC around. At least I think so. He's a great man and I really admire him for his integrity and attitude towards things. We are his first squad and I hope he found some joy in taking us despite the little annoyances that we cause him at times. XP Well, of course I never create any problems for him XD

I mentioned this to my friend about our OC the other day as we were marching back from the classroom:

"You know, just looking at our OC, he isn't really all that much to look at. Just by judging his outer appearance, you'd think he was some scrawny little nerd with not much of a life. (haha, ok .. well, maybe I didn't use those words. But it's to help you guys visualise his build and appearance XP) But after getting to know him, he's so much more and a lot wiser than we think. He deserves so much respect for what he has done for the police force and the effort he has put in to get this far. He has a really strong character and I can see why his wife married him. It probably wasn't for the outer appearances but probably for the other great traits this man has."

Police Academy 4: Citizens On Patrol

In 3 weeks, it will be over.

I believe our intake will Pass Out somewhere between the 10th to the 13th of July but I think it will be on the 12th. Until then, there are still things to be done.

One of which is the law exam which takes place this Tuesday. I can't say that I'm ready just yet. By running through some past exam papers, I find myself not scoring as well as I hope I should be at this point in time. So what am I doing here blogging? That's a good question. I guess I will have to try to keep this short so I can study.

Last Thursday, we had our Scenario Based Test and I'd say that I did pretty well overall. The role playing part was quite good. It was only the post-questions after that that got me down. The OC in charge asked us some questions regarding our actions during the SBT but somehow or rather, my mind was blank and blur. Maybe it was because of the pressure, but either way, when he asked me some questions, I had to try to convince him one way or another that I at least knew something about what he was trying to ask - although I was perfectly aware that what I was saying was not what he wanted. It's tricky. These law stuff can get really confusing and contradictory. Like for example, if someone committed an offence of indecent exposure, we as police officers are not allowed to arrest the person for it because we did not see the offence and we'd have to advice the complainant to lodge a Magistrate complainant to have the offender charged. However, if we do see the offence, we are allowed to arrest the offender. Get it? Simple right?

Well, kinda. During our 2nd SBT, that was the incident that we got and when we were waiting to get called in, we watched them act out the offence which was what made me confused. We watched them do it and then we were called in to control the situation. However, I was not sure if we witnessed the offence or if we were making our way to the scene as watched and so I was wondering if this was a case where we can arrest or not.

So when the OC in charged asked us whether we could arrest the offenders or not, I wasn't too sure. That was when I stood there like an idiotic 'police officer' not aware of his powers. It was humiliating.

Yeah, and there were other questions too but I won't go into it cause it's confusing.

So far, we've knocked down 4 assessed tests - SBT, PDT, Shooting and IPPT. In total, they are worth 43% of our overall marks.

By next week, we'll definitely finish the law exam, so there's another 40%. And I think we'll do our drill (5%) test too. Swimming (1%) and Police SOC (1%) should be next week as well. I'm opting to go for the Category A swimmers. The only difference between the Cat A and Cat B swimmers besides how we have to swim 200m is that Cat A swimmers have to tread water for at least 10 minutes. And of course, I could easily go for the Cat C swimmers, but seriously, how chicken would that be? I'm not that kinda person who would take the easy way out. Even if it's just 1%, I'd go straight for the highest. Even if it's worth 0%, I'd still go for Cat A. Why? Because in all things, I believe we should try our best - even if we fail at least we tried. Then and only then will we know that we got as far as we could. =)

Unsurprisingly, God is making a path for me to get into the Inspector course. The 'obstacles' of getting into the OCT (officer cadet trainee, if I'm not mistaken) course has been cleared. My Victorian certificate has been recognised by the Singaporean education system and now, I'm recognised as an A-Level student. This means that it's all up to me to perform now. All the admin work has been completed and now I have to prove myself that I am suitable for the officer course. I have to because my OC told me that they only accept 8 OCT each year for the job because most of them are actually absorbed from the army (OCS). But I believe I can do it. I know God will not leave the job undone. I will be allowed to go all the way with Him by side.

I just wanna thank all the people who have assured me that I will definitely get into the OCT course. It really means so much to hear that because even though I know God is with me, it's nice to hear people tell me that it will come to pass. It's really comforting to hear such encouraging words and it's because of that that I feel even more determined to push through. At first, people were telling me that it was impossible for me to get in and that there's no way I'd be able to even smell the first signs of getting in. But look now! So many people have now said otherwise and now I know I can go all the way! My friend even told me that our OC told him that I would get in for sure and that he would do everything that he can to see to it that I get in. Thank God and thank God for all these wonderful people. =D

Doom

I just realised that I had failed to elaborate on something that I said I would do in my previous post. Not sure why but I guess I forgot. In any case, the scenario based test involves us trainee police officers to answer to any of the four given non-seizable cases dispatched to us.

But yes, what are 'non-seizable' cases? This is just one of the many technical terms that we trainees have to understand inside-out for the exam. So in short, non-seizable cases are cases where police officers are not allowed to arrest without a warrant. One example would be punching someone in the face, or voluntarily causing hurt. Without having personally witnessing the attack, we are not allowed to arrest without a warrant.

With that in mind, we as police officers have to understand the basic procedures as to what to do when situations like this arise. We have to attend to the case with full knowledge of what our powers of action are. I'd guess that this would be the hardest part.

To be perfectly honest, I too was a bit scared about this because it really is a lot harder than it seems. But after having a go with our OC last week, I feel much more confident and am ready to take on the case next week! I hope I can handle the case without any problems which I can't solve during those few minutes.

What's really interesting about this test is that it will all be held in the Academy's 'Training Village'. In there, there are 'avenues' which duplicate the outside world. We were told that there was an MRT train, a MacDonald's, a bank, and many more which I don't know if I can name here or not XP But after hearing all these things which are inside the Training Village, it was amazing as to where they could possibly hold all these under one roof without us knowing where it is. We started to wonder where the Village could possibly be, and so far, we've only pin pointed one large building which seems to be somewhat heavily guarded somewhere away from where we usually train.

I really can't wait to get in there. I just wanna see all these things under one roof! Oh! I just wanna scream like a little girl! XD lol hehe

For me, this week has been considerably fast.

Nothing too interesting has happened. I guess the only possible 'excitement that came out of this week was the fact that the new intake came strolling in last Tuesday; ultimately making us 'seniors'. They were the new 'Prep-course' intake. Basically, these are the bunch of fat/unfit/lazy people who failed or didn't go for their NAPFA test prior to enlistment. They have to do an extra month or two of training just to get fit again. So every morning, while we are having breakfast in the wee hours of the morning, we see these prep-course trainees running. I'm just glad I passed my NAPFA test when I had the chance.

But besides being able to witness a whole bunch of people go through what we went through during the first 10 days of confinement (and may I add they are still being confined now XD), nothing too significant to blog about occurred this past week.

So let me blog about something other than the academy.

My bro and I just came back from watching the new Fantastic Four movie and I have to say that it is so many times much more interesting than Shrek 3. I don't mean to upset anyone or anything if you liked Shrek 3, but personally, I found Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer a whole lot better with a much more interesting story line. I'll leave the analysis to whatever else website you may read but for me, I really enjoyed it. It was a good few bucks well spent.

So now for me, the next movie on the 'must watch' list is Transformers. With my oh-already-so-low-and-tight-budget, I think I have to try to cut back on the number of shows that I watch. But definitely, Transformers is a must see for me.

Spiderman

Yes, I know .. the blog posts have not been coming. Even though I can probably come up with a hundred excuses as to why, I'll just say that I've been lazy.

With hardly any 'free time' when I come out, I guess this is what happens to less important things.

Anyway, I'll try to blog a little bit with whatever time and 'discipline' I have at this point in time.

For the last 3 weekends, my weekends have been burnt. Three weekends ago and this weekend, I had to play for church, so my Saturdays and Sundays were consumed from the practice. Not that I'm complaining about serving in church.
But something 'funny' happened three weekends ago when I went for practice.


Usually, the practice time is at 1:30pm on Saturday. So that Saturday, I went to church at 1:30pm as I thought it would normally be. But somehow, the notices that were 'sent' to me didn't reach me. I didn't get the SMS that was sent to me and I didn't get a chance to read my email because I was staying at my other auntie's place the night before and at her place, there isn't any internet. So I went there at 1:30pm only to find the door to the place locked. I first started to arouse suspicion when I walked into the compound, noticing that there weren't any familiar cars around, so I started to think about what I would do if there wasn't anyone around. True enough, I went up to the church and there wasn't anyone there.


Eventually, I discovered that the practice time had been moved to 4pm because they had an evening meeting so as to accommodate for the inconvenience of travelling, they moved it later to that time. Unfortunately for me, I didn't get to hear about this so I ended up going there way way too early. Two and a half hours too early to be precise.

Anyway, after much contemplation, I decided to head off to the nearest internet cafe I knew around the area which was like 40 minutes away.



Last weekend, we had the police day parade. I managed to gather 3 tickets from thin air for my family. On the actual day, I had to report into the academy's dojo hall at 8am. From there, we moved on to the stadium at 9am, getting there at 10am. There, we loitered around like little angels until we did our dry run which began at 10:30am. I'd say it went for an hour or two until we were fed at 12:30 - give or take.

After lunch, the food settled in, and we began to grow restless. Sitting on the floor the whole day waiting can be really boring; especially when you know that your performance will only last something like 2 minutes in total.

So we sat around, waited and waited and waited till 3pm when the 'fun' really began. The people were seated and we sat near one of the main entrances. It's funny how they held us behind these security 'tapes' as people walked by. We were like illegal refugees or something.

As we sat there, the parade began and to our pain and torture, we discovered that prior to the actual parade, the winner of the Singapore Idol would be singing. So ok, sure ... he is the winner, I'm sure he can't be that bad - seeing that I haven't heard the guy sing before, I guess we could give it a try.
But boy! Not only did he sing 1 song, he sang 3 songs! AhhhhHHH!!! But that wasn't the worse part. I just couldn't stand his singing or his choice of music! We sat there in pity for all those people seated in the stadium as they had to be 'exposed' to this torture. Good thing the prime minister or commissioner of police wasn't there yet =P

haha, ok ok ... I guess I'm being pretty harsh. But after having to sit around for hours, I guess you could give me that I was pretty tired and grouchy - and having a guy like that sing for what seemed like eternity, c'mon ... at least give me someone to blame it all on. lol

Well, 5 weeks till the end of the basic training. Approximately 3 more weeks till I Pass Out but strangely, we will have to return back for another 2 weeks to 'train'. I'm not sure why because our OC said that we will finish all our stuff before the Passing Out Parade (POP). So I'm not sure what in the world we'll be doing during these 2 weeks.


At the moment, we've finished two assessed tasks - Shooting and our IPPT.
Oh yeah, I didn't mention on this blog yet that I managed to get 97/100 for my shooting. Hehe, I guess I've got a hand in shooting revolvers =P

As for IPPT, we completed or thrid and final test and somehow, I managed to beat my 2.4km run time again. lol. I really wasn't aiming to beat it, but I did while trying to help my friend get the gold time for it. LoL. I don't think I need to mention what I got for it here. Just know I got Gold for my IPPT =)

So what's left? Plenty! XP From the top of my head, there's still the law exam (40%), scenario based test (SBT 20% - I'll explain more below), police defensive tactic (PDT 3% - which is like this week), swimming (1%), drill (1%), first aid (3%), police standard obstacle course (PSOC - 3%) and OC appraisal (5%).

The IPPT and shooting are both worth 10% each of my overall score during basic training.

By this time next week, I hope to be able to get another 3% knocked down from the PDT test which I don't think will be hard. Why? I can't say. XP