fine weather, no cloud cover

just reached my 1st deployment ground, some 15.2 miles/24.32km from the field camp... back to Day 1... had actually wanted to do some blogging from the computers available there... but then, haiz... no time... the plane tt i took was SQ8931.. the services provided on the plane was much better than expected, with the standard? SIA inflight entertainment system, games and movies... didn't get to play the games or watch the movies though... it was eat and sleep, sleep and eat for me... well, there's always the return trip to enjoy the services... hehe... reached Rockhampton Airport at 0500hrs on Day 2, Aussie time... quite an experience walking down this stairs from the plane to the aiport ground itself...

1st time not using the bridge link/air bridge? to disembark... or issit the 2nd time? the airport is a small, neat bricky structure, the control tower reminding me of the one at Paya Lebar Airport... lucky, lucky, lucky, the people in front of me helped me to fill up the space allocated for the emptying of stuff from the bags... just some casual questions asked and i'm past customs, preparing to board the coach... waste me time in cleaning up my equipment... !%!^*%*... moving on... heard tt a 2-way trip from the airport to base camp would set the SAF back by A$700... take tt... sure a gd and easy way of earning some bucks...

the base camp got a 3.5/5 rating from me.. not too bad a place to stay in... the rest of Day 2 to Day 4 was basically unpacking/repacking of stores and taking over of vehicles... Day 3 was orientation driving, day and night... the land around here is pretty enjoyable to drive on as a whole... but when the land gets dark, the road starts to get less distinguishable from the short grass on its sides... sidenote: the vehicle tt i took over was in a pleasantly good enough condition and driving it was great... oh yar... did i mention tt SFI followed us from singapore to australia? omg! so si3 can2 lan4 da3...

Day 4, 20/10... moved out from camp and started our 1st outfield... had my 1st long drive, an unbelievable 29.9 miles or 47.84km... wow! wondered how i managed to survive through tt night drive... Days 5-9, 21/10-24/10 rounded up the outfield... very happy to be able to catch sight of a group of ~7 kangaroos lazing ard... managed to see some more kangaroos, a joey and an emu on later separate days... to be able to see animal life in their natural environment and up close... cool... now just trying to see if i'm lucky enough to locate a wallaby... oh... hmmm... realised tt i've jusst used up 7 pages of my new notebook to write down these stuff so tt i can blog them when i reach back home...

Day 9 saw us arriving at Diao camp, an open patch in the outback, with makeshift shower and shitting facilities... i give tt place a 2.5/5.. shithole was a ~8m deep hole where u see yr shit seemingly fall into a black hole... :p... gross? haha... it's a 4/5 toilet (bush toilet to be exact) on Day 9 and a 3/5 toilet on Day 10, as more er hmmm... human waste? start to pile up and generate more fragrance... Day 10 was service and maintainance, mainly catered for the vehicles... lucky only 1 of our vehicles in my platoon broke down...

seems quite a serious case to me... heard tt it's only coming back to action tml... and finally Day 11!, which is todae... set out for the BPT early in the morn... looks like Day 1 of the BPT is gonna be a slack one... heard yesterdae tt we'll be getting an additional dae of R&R... woohoo!!! shiok! guess the main tough things are gonna end after this BPT, so really looking forward to Day 14, 29/10, when we get back to Diao camp to relac... and get a gd bath too...