*This post is referring to the week starting 29 jun 2009*
So much has happened, I do not know what focus I should have…
First, of course, was the all-important theory final exams that spanned over 2 days. Important, cos the final exam covered 70% of our academic results and the academic results also covered a major part of our overall scoring. If we ever flunk this part, we could well say bye bye to the course.
Paper 1 was on Wednesday, which consisted of open-ended case studies that allowed us to apply what we memorized learned. A significant part was on legislation (which meant a lot of flipping through the legislation textbook that we had, wondering if this this this and that that that section would apply) and of cos rehabilitation. Only about 30 marks were plain giveaways, which just needed us to regurgitate our data.
The next day was Paper 2, which was essay; 5-choose-3. There was not much to prepare, except to read through all the external papers and articles that we researched on. I saw so many people reading through WADS of paper, that I knew I would not be able to finish in a matter of a day. In contrast, I only had about 10 pages of words, of which, I realized upon reading, was not really relevant to what we would be tested on. hmmm… Rape in prison? Very saucy but not academic-friendly. *lol i just cut and paste whatever info I found on the map without reading through, that’s why…*
I ended up doing last minute research, going through National Statistics Board and intranet to copy whatever I thought was suitable. Sieving through several years of annuals and tonnes of webpage in a few (wee) hours was exhausting. In the end, I just scanned through microsites on the intranet and copied whatever quotes that were made by the Director of Prisons. eh… Worst come to worst, throw in some of his words, the marker should give some face right?
I was right. I managed to throw in one of DP’s quotes right at the start of one essay. I managed to manipulate the data from Natstats in another and another one from the annuals for the 3rd. hmmm… Seems like my last minute research was more effective than the one I did over the last month…
On Thursday morning, which was also the day of Paper 2, we were awakened to orders made over a Nazi-style loudhailer-PA-system at the JO bunk, in the wee hours of 4am!! Apparently, there was a confirmed case of H1N1, who although was not in HTA when his symptoms came up, walked through all the bunks during his incubation period. So all the JOs had to remain in their bunks before they were cleared.
We were so… relieved that that guy did not come to the senior officers bunk; that would make us unable to go for our exams!! yaya… You may say that I am so unfeeling, all I cared about was my exams and not the poor guy who kena swine flu. But my Paper 2 was right before me while that guy was already comfortably staying in bed at home; he was in good care, not me.
Anyways, our trouble really came AFTER the paper. Halfway through our afternoon PT, we were gathered and told to pack up our stuff, and then move to the company bunk where the guy with swine flu was in. hmmm… To be frank, the 1st thoughts that came to our minds was: Thanks ah! Throw all the prison peeps into THAT COMPANY.
The terror did not end there. We had to shift our stuff to a corner outside the building, cos the ‘affected guys’ had not shifted out, and they had to wait till the bunks that we shifted out of to be disinfected before they could shift in. And after they shifted out, we had to wait till that bunk was disinfected before we could shift in.
It seemed straightforward enough, we and the Echo guys just swap bunks. But we don’t know why, the whole academy was shifting. The road linking the bunks was swarmed with people pushing trolleys of fridge and TVs, hanger-full of clothes, barang barang… Macam like market place. Apparently, some people from Bravo had to shift to Delta, Charlie to Bravo… What the…
haiz… Better talk about ourselves than other people… For me and my poor bunkies, we had to make 4 trips in order to shift our stuff to the temporary store area. After all, we had a whole wardrobe full of stuff to shift, and we were wondering how we could squeeze all those stuff into the little cabinet that the JOs had.
Our shift went well over midnight; By 10pm, all the other police officers were settling into their new bunks, but we, prison peeps, were still out in the open, playing with pebbles, chatting, doing exercises and lying all over the place in order to wait for the shift-in. The camp biggest guy did come to give us a prep talk, but… talk I also know how to talk, who could repay us the loss in time? It was not as though we had nothing to do at night. Our original plan was to have a KFC feast treated by those who finally got IPPT Silver, to celebrate the end of exams and then to watch Shuang Zi Xing rush for the projects and all the upcoming events we are to organize that we shelved in view of preps for the exams.
But I guess my real loss was when I lost my temper during the shift in and hurled, for the 1st time in training, emotional and harsh words at Mr Teh. But that did not spoil our relationship lah. haha… I had a heart-to-heart talk with him after that, something that we did not do in the past too, when we had a room to ourselves.
As for Friday… We basically slacked openly. There was no plans for us, since we finished our exams and were waiting for leadership training to start next week. The state of our bunks was described as ‘Old Folks Home’/'Dangerously Ill List’/'Class A, C and D inmates’… For the 1st time, doing nothing could be so torturous.
haiz…
Book out was just as busy. I actually spent a whole afternoon and evening with my squad mates to shop for our Nepal training. There were so much discussions as to what we should and should not buy, since each purchase we made could easily cost us $30 (for a pair of socks) to $200 (for a pair of trekking shoes). Saturday… If I had not met my ZPS gang for lunch earlier, would have spent totally on training again… haiz…
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
One day before the move, we had gone to collect the uniforms that were ‘tailor-made’ for us. The apostrophes were there cos there were many of us who felt that the uniforms were either too big or too tight…
We were amazed at how the new uniforms made our butts perk, and I wanted to see how mine perked. but hmmm... I can't understand why people can't understand the fact that when you click the shutter button, you must HOLD the bloody camera for at least 1 sec!!
But then again, a lot depends on the ones posing for the pix too. You must also know to HOLD your position 1 sec after you see the shutter button pressed...
Roomie teaching the gals how to fold the sleeves a la SAF way, of the tactical uniforms, which, we are most unlikely to wear
