before i get to the point,
http://www.zradio.com/index/listen/
for edifying music. w00t!!
anyway.
i felt rather better after that rant. one of those things about having two hours of sleep is that suddenly everything seems incredibly funny to you. or to me, anyway. spent a considerable amount of time laughing hysterically. which is quite an achievement considering that most people who know me simply CANNOT imagine me laughing hysterically. well.. its your loss. =)
monday was an alright kind of day. survived, although i was really getting quite annoying near the end of the day, being short of sleep and short of temper.
approximately 15 hours after posting that last post there, i had answered prayer. praying for direction, for open doors... someone invited me to lead worship at tuesday's prayer meeting.... seems that my name had popped up mysteriously, my name specifically. i forgot to ask what time my name popped up... if someone told me it was 4am, it would be so cool.
funny thing is, after doing it once again, i don't think that it's something i'm really called to do... im just, ambivalent about the whole thing... like, i'll do it if you ask me, but i won't be the one stepping forward. hmm...
and at the end of tuesday, i discovered that i could go to range with a much better attitude towards the whole thing. hallelujah.
i really thank God for keeping me throughout the range... i was kept and protected and sheltered, and given enough for me to overflow to others too... even though my branch's recognised (multiple-award winning) skiver did his usual thing and got himself an MC to excuse himself, as was expected.
it didn't start off particularly well... i discovered that the foresight tip (non-SAF-personnel: it's an aiming device of sorts) on my weapon was faulty... stuck at maximum elevation, can't bring it down. after much deliberation, i got my weapon replaced. then i found out that all the 3SG's (that's me!) were slated once again to be the official sai-kang elite warriors for the range... clearing point IC, along with 4 more guys as chamber ICs, which means 5 people out of a total of 8 on duty at any one point of time... this not inclusive of the time actually spent firing... i wasn't particularly happy, but i was peaceful, which is miles better than how i was at 3am on monday.
the other reason why i'm not particularly eager to go for range, besides the noise, is the fact that i'm not particularly confident handling my weapon... not particularly fond of handling highly explosive bits of unyielding metal, especially when they are placed inside a device designed to make them explode. i am danger-averse, adrenalin-shy, amongst many other things.
but i thank God for this, amongst many other things, that my new weapon was working perfectly. not once did the weapon jam and cause me to take immediate action to rectify the problem (i tend to stress out here), most of the guys which i had to supervise had absolutely no problems with their weapons, and the few which did have problems managed to resolve the problem without much trouble. between the earplugs and the helmet i got quite a headache in mid-afternoon, but that cleared itself up with a little rest. the only time i had a weapon problem (it was the magazine, not the rifle) was so late in the day that i had become reasonably confident to sort out the problem.
and between all my duties and taking my test, i was kept just busy enough that the day passed quickly, uneventfully, pleasantly, with just sufficient rest to keep me going. i think i actually scored high enough to get marksman, but seeing as i was on duty when the marks were read out i don't know for sure. the whole thing actually came off really well, and i have only pleasant memories of a day which i had dreaded for so long. it's almost unbelievable.
most of this post was written over a week ago, but i was interrupted, ran out of time, and didn't find time to continue till now... oops. =)
