Crush and Burn

11th Feb 07 0029

This wk had gone passed filled with ups and downs! Political disputes and dramatic scenes had surface throughout the entire wk! Damn…

My course now is going through a major change with Officers taking the role of an advisor and cadets taking the lead to head each post as they were assigned to. We have shower the cadets too much that they take things for granted! Its time they understand why our ranks are in black thick bars and not white thin strips!

Thursday was supposed to be our course orientation night rehearsal but since there were soo many political disputes, we took the whole entire evening thrashing out problems and clearing it off once and for all. Some went quiet, some break down but this is the process of boys turning to man! Humans dun change overnight, it will turn days and wks or even months to get it right. But I believe we have started somewhere…

~ Today is the FIRST day of your many DAYS to come. DO IT RIGHT and DO IT GOOD! ~

Friday was our orientation night! Invitation was extended to the Base Commander and even 79th SQN and 2FTS. They were pretty sporting and came in with an out heart to see us monkeys perform! Pilots, instructors and even tower controllers took time off to spend the evening w us! Talked to a few of them and understand a little more of how the guys within the base operate. Awesome people I would say…Highlight of the evening was our performance and the drinking session at the end of the night. Performance was kina screw up as CO had put it as watching it painfully. Painful as it may seems but it’s the effort and the though that counts!

The evening ended with another initiation to the mess plus to the SQN. This time round, it’s the real deal of rubbish and the test of unity. First up is the “GROG”. For some who do not know what a “GROG” is, it’s actually a concoction of a lot of other “mixers” and sauces and topping it up with raw eggs. Anyway, the first test was to share a yard of grog with the entire course! Of course, there are rules to the game, there can be no spilling, holding of the yard must be correct as well and of course there is time limit to how much a person have to drink to a limit, if anyone of it is broken, then the senior course will top up the yard with more grog to the brim. Just image, drinking something so slimy, smelly, thick, shitty in color and not forgetting there are bits and pieces of whatever the mixer particles have flowing around. But nevertheless, we did it all even thought they have topped it up about 4 – 6 times for us. There was a challenge post to drink it with our course commander and Dy course commander. Officers of the course took up the challenge and did a wonderful job of showing how commit we are and not saying crazy enough to do it.

Last part of the grog ordeal is to earn our course badge that we will be wearing everyday. Everyone of our course badge were thrown into the grog. With each badge in a cup filled with grog and a raw egg topping, we have to drink it all up and remove the course badge without our hands. This is the culture and tradition of 130SQN.

First simulator lesson started on Saturday for me with a few other guys. Although it’s not the actual flight out but it’s a good start. Silly mistakes were made but was the first of the course to take off in the simulator. It was awesome and the feeling was great like the first time I flown in Tamworth. Can’t wait to get out into the first flight for the area and go for my first solo! Wish me luck…

To all bros and sis of Lah-Goo-Nah beach, this coming week will be Valentine’s Day! So I would like to wish everyone a happy Valentine’s Day. May this be a special day for you and take care always! ~@~