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Hey guys :D It's getting so inactive now...

URA

On March 4, 2011, NPCC Unit Recreational Activity (URA) was held. URA is an event held every year for cadets to have fun and to promote bonds between the levels. This year, we planned to play 3 games for URA, namely ultimate frisbee, handball and dodgeball. However, it rained during the first few hours, so we decided to watch a movie while waiting for the rain to stop. After the movie, we split the cadets up into 12 groups and proceeded to play dodgeball and handball. Points were given accordingly to each team after each match to determine a winner. Following that was prize presentation; each team were given prized depending on their points. Last was birthday celebrations and cheering.

As we were sec 3s, most in my squad were involved in URA in one way or another. Being in Operations Department, I was part of the OT for URA. I feel that this year’s URA was a success, with an exception of a few areas that can be improved. For example, some of the stationmasters were not very clear about the rules of the game and thus there was some confusion when the teams switched games. Some also had less chances of playing as only one substitution was allowed per game. However, I feel that URA was successful overall as all of us had fun and enjoyed the day. =)

11/2/11

Hello ppls

Yesterday we had our first advanced drill training since a long time ago, and I was somewhat disappointed at our behaviour yesterday. All of us should have sensed that we were noisier and less disciplined than usual. Moreover, the sec ones joined us yesterday, and I think we were not being a good example to our new juniors, so I urge everyone to have some control, especially when we are presenting ourselves to people that we have not met before or seldom meet. There was also the issue of the uniform, and I know many of us must be elated after being promoted, but it really does not give us the excuse to slack in uniform preparation. If you are a sergeant, prove that you deserve to be one. If you are a corporal, prove that you deserve to be one. And also during training, many of us have forgotten about form squad and change direction in static, and a lot of time was spent in revising those. So in future, I hope that if you are not certain about something that is the focus of the next training, do revise on it, does not really take up a lot of time, so no training time would be wasted and we could probably get more rest and fun if we perform well. And that would more or less sum up the training. -- Wei Zheng

P.S. To Eagan: Enthusiasm is not measured by ranks, but it is measured by attendance.  (Well said.)

CAPE (28/1) - Reflections

Hello guys,

Here are some of the reflections I received :)  I will type in more in a while...  I also received a few interesting quotations that will be part of a vote to see which we can use as a squad motto XD

"CAPE results were released yesterday. Although we do not know our specific scores for each of the component, we do know if we passed or failed. If you did not meet the mark for CAPE this time round, look through your score sheet and find out what went wrong. Since there are 3 CAPEs per year now, it is still possible to catch up in terms of rank. Feeling discouraged is normal after a setback. However, do not be too affected by this failure and continue to work hard, especially in the areas that we are weaker in. (especially since PIR is coming) For those who passed, do not get complacent and continue to work hard for the upcoming PIR.

CAPE is a major event in NPCC. I believe that it was an interesting and enriching experience for all, may it be for the invigilating NCOs or the cadets. I hope that we have all gained from this experience and may it help us in the next CAPE in Term 3. " -- Kim Yao (You owe me 829 words* -- asterisk, hint hint, check the end)

"It has been a few weeks after CAPE and everyone was awaiting the results of CAPE. When the results of CAPE came on 8^th February 2011 at approximately 10.45pm, there would have been those who were pleased with their results and those would felt a sense of disappointment and sadness.

There will be failures and successes in life for everyone. For those who didn’t make it this time, there’s always the next CAPE for you. There’s no need to feel depressed or disappointed as there is a second chance. As long as you work hard and improve on your previous mistakes, you will pass eventually.

There’s a quote which says “Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines”, and I believe that no obstacle can stop you if you are willing to do so.

Personally, I felt that CAPE was quite tiring as we stood for quite long due to the rain which caused 2 groups to merge, making the uniform check of the whole large group be a very long one. Tent pitching was still relatively okay for me just that I had pegged wrongly for 1 peg due to my carelessness. Survival cooking was great except that I could not boil my water, only small bubbles formed at the bottom of the mess tin. Rifle Drill was still okay but it might be better if the uniform check did not take up so much time. " -- Mister Yu Jia

"Personally, I felt that we had all prepared a great deal for this CAPE.  From people's FB posts and blogs it is evident that we really saw the importance of this test.  While some results may not be satisfactory, it's the effort that counts, so just JY in the next CAPE.  

As for the CAPE itself, we were faced with several problems (particularly -- the weather wasn't the best for lighting a fire), but I would say we did a good job in overcoming them.  The drills component was...  challenging, especially when we had an hour of standing still for starters and we had to do twice the number of drills than normal.  For those who were not saved after the rain stopped and had to continue drills for a terrifying total of over 3 hours (if I remember correctly), amazingly done XD

I don't have a quote from Eagan, so I guess I'll end off here." -- Justin

Nice inclement weather program -- Wei Zheng

It was a interesting experience, and personally the result does not matter. What matters more would be knowing your flaws and working hard to get rid of them.  -- Tze Hou

In my opinion, my performance for last Friday's CAPE was satisfactory. I prepared myself reasonably well for each component beforehand and was able to recall most of what I have learned, in formal weekly trainings and from casual self-study, during the test. Topography was the comparatively simpler component of CAPE (CPL) and I should be able to earn an acceptable score assuming that I didn't make any careless mistakes. The foot drill component was also not too bad. Overall, CPL CAPE was OK and I look forward to receiving the results soon -- Shilin

(*Nah, just kiddin' :D)

Classification shoot

Today was our classification shoot. It is kind of an important (I think it was very important -.-) event as it is our one and only chance to get our marksmen badge. We had been practicing rigorously the past few months to prepare for this event ( i suppose?) and this was the day where we will show what we have learned.

We changed into our uniform and went to the HTA blah blah. We marched and blah blah. Then, it was our turn to shoot. When it was over, we realised that some of us did not do very well and as Mr Tan told us when we were back in school, our scores were the worst he had ever seen. Still, at least everyone tried their best, though i don't see why its so hard to get the marksman badge when even Jun Kai, who went there and started randomly firing rounds, got it.

Ok I promised I'd add on... So... While it may not be difficult for some of us to get a decent score, it may not be so for other squad mates. Everybody will have his strengths and if it so happens that a squad mate's weakness lies in this area then we cannot blame him for not doing as well as expected as long as he has tried his best.

And I was pretty nervous myself, I'm sure we all were. Perhaps we'd have done better if there wasn't so much pressure on us. Expectations are always scary... I don't know, anybody wants to add? It's a squad blog, remember :)

Guo Wei. and Justin XD

P.S. Yong Kiat, don't deny it.

Today's Training

Decided to post this to talk about my experiences in today's training(make this less dead).

Although I'm 'segregated' from the 'main' squad to train on the CPL CAPE, I certainly learnt a few pointers today. This training session was essential for me to brush up my drills since the holidays. However, I was kind of disorientated today, and ended up doing many things wrongly. Mock CAPE is next week, but I still don't feel quite ready for it.

The MASS PT session was rather interesting as it gave me a rough gauge on what I should expect and what I have to start working on. It was also rather suprising to see a Secondary 2 cadet doing 10 chin-ups when I was at the Inclined Pull-up station.

Overall, I feel that today's training was a rather fruitful one (for me) and good luck for the upcoming CAPE!

Yours Sincerely,
LCP PHUA TAI DA JOHN
SECONDARY THREE SQUAD CADET

Cheers,
John Phua

last pt training (for december hols)

hey peeps the last pt training is finally over!! for those who made an effort to turn up for every training, good job. for those who did not get any 'x's for attendance throughout, great job. for those frequent ponners, good luck, cos there's gonna be more pt sessions when school reopens, and it will be compulsory for the frequent ponners to go, and it will be recorded too, so if you pon again u willl get many many demerit points!! so dun pon. those who don't pon at all or too much will not be compulsory for u to come, but u can still come though. and after all this pt over the holidays, dun go start eating lots of junk food again, must eat healthily (like me) :)