[Thursday, 04 May, 2006]

Today was another hellish day in camp.

I missed the first bus because I failed to catch the train for that timing. I dozed off so early the night before but I simply could not wake up on time.

I hated checking of bags at the gate because everyone had to go down and waste time instead of having the shuttle bus sending us right inside. But since the BOSS was Lionel Tan, I questioned him about the favour he owed me yesterday and he had made it quicker.

I had a cold sweat when I talked to Shep about my medical appointment. Ben helped me and we won the war since we really had enough people to prepare for the parade the next day since we got helps from the lab technicians as well. Actually, I preferred to join them as we would most probably be playing Worms in the office at night, illegally.

I was told to go back to the office first while the rest were involved in setting up the PA system for rehearsal. It was definitely a worse life in the office for the tightness of workload. People came in to draw and return keys, borrow extra chairs when we had already loaned some out. A platoon came for FFR cables when Siu Hang had already loaned them to another platoon for tests; the timetable crushed. Quek called to ask me to get a complete desktop set ready for Eric Tay and I had not done the stock check for the forty-five laptops supposed to be in the office after the exercise in ROC completed. I had to get another laptop from LTA Lee as well and I did not realise he had changed his number.

Just when everything came in at the same time, none was there to help me except Gilbert who came in and out of the office due to his work at his lab. The worst thing happened as my gastric pain started again and my mind almost went blank. A terrible stomache came at the same time. Ben had called to get some helps with finding microphone cables but since Rongji was asleep while Gilbert could not stay in the office, I could not leave the room for there were too many clients.

There were too many things I did at everyone’s absence. I gave a call to LTA Lee at the number written on the voucher for the expired laptop and he promised to return it by the end of the day; I gave excess chairs from the office to the trainees; I called Siu Hang who told the trainees to get the FFR cables from another platoon whose test was pushed to the afternoon and I passed them an extra pair from the mock-up room; I checked out the storeroom for the computer’s components and called Eric to push the due timing to after lunch; I listed down the serial numbers of the laptops with the help of Gilbert.

When the rest returned, I announced to them about the desktop but none really bothered. I finally had the chance to go down to the storeroom myself quietly and tried to settle it by myself. I managed to fix up some of the buses and power cables inside two CPU I chose but the hard-disks did not seem to work. I was tired as well as lost, sweating as much as I was walking briskly. As time went on and I could not solve the problem, I had to call Ben for help. He took over me to try out the two CPU and countless of hard-disks, while I began to doze off in a sitting position. He managed to find a hard-disk which we previously loaned to the CDT and everything was properly installed.

I tried to catch some sleep after lunch but work were never ending. There was a need to setup the Spectrum again; though I needed not go over but they called for cables again as expected, causing useless trips over. People from DSTA came over to look at the CAI and server rooms as well. Then, trainees continued with their usual problems.