Im home!!!...for almost a week already...

Exactly one week ago at this time in Australia, i was on the plane back home. Probably more than halfway through the flight already. It felt so great then. To have been there and done that and then get back home.

Australia has some really beautiful scenery and it was such a waste that i was training. Sometimes we'd pass by the peak of a hill on the way to the objective and the view is really breathtaking - but its like not you could stop and appreciate that - or take a pic with the camera.

Well...you know the stars in Australia? Amazing. In the training area far from civilisation, its so dark at night, and the moon so bright, and you'd see thousands of stars. In open fields, you'd see stars even while looking straight. And then there're stars so big and bright, and others so faint you can only see them when you look away from it. And then you'd see the Milky Way on some nights...

And on some nights there were shooting stars. In fact on just one night, there were so many, you'd see another one before you could make a wish.

You know the kangeroos in Australia? Amazing. There are so many of them and they'd just hop around in groups in fields so big you could build another Sengkang size town there. If i were a kangeroo i'd be much happier to be there rather than to be confined in a zoo. And kangeroos never ceased to fascinate us even until the last day when we left.

You know the tncc gummies in Australia? Amazing. One packet(200g)only $2.

The training wasn't tough but it was challenging.

The nights were enduring outfield, where there're no shelter and no extra clothing to keep out the cold. On some nights it was 8 degrees...

So it was really cold and i couldn't sleep past 4am on the coldest nights. I'd get the feeling that my boots were made from ice and my toes become numb. From 4am till sunrise, its the time when my men will start getting up to walk around, and then i'd fill them in on what we're expecting for today, they'd talk about how cold it is while we're all facisnated by the 'smoke' that we breathe out, talk about how fortunate those fat ppl are to be so fat and less affected by the cold and are still sleeping soundly...and then in the end there'd always be talk about home, and the best of its local food, and its weather, and then all the other things that we'd normally take for granted seems so important now.

Mission after mission...day after day...training was long but it just had to end someday. Then we had a simple 2D1N R&R.

R&R was fun though short - we stayed in this beach resort and my room, shared with my fren, a fellow comdr, was so big it had 3 beds in it and even had the sea view. My organisation is rarely so generous, so thanks.

That night i went to the beach with a few friends and there were kangeroos just downstairs! We tried to approach them slowly but i guess they were really shy and just hopped away.

A bus would bring us around Rockhampton to Yeppon, a small seaside town, and to restaurants where meals are paid for. Most of the time its buffet-style, and the meats are so large in portions, i know i'd definitely grow as big in size as the Australians if i had stayed longer.

And then the cookies are also cheap, Australian made cookies, and cereals, potato chips, and the chocolate milk was good, ice coffee was good, lamb chops were good, and beef sausages that are bigger than your... normal sausage you have here in Singapore. Yeah.

The whole package was a once in a lifetime experience. The training...tough is tough but getting to do things an average person wun get to do...priceless. And the R&R...the food...not bad at all. It was 3 weeks of my life well-lived.