Seems like everyone is complaining about the heat these days.

The heat is so bad that I don’t even feel like complaining any more, since the act of complaining would heat me up even further. It’s a good thing that it’s a little cooler this evening, meaning that I now have the presence of mind to blog - something which I haven’t been doing very much these days.

While the heat is terrible, it brings back memories of the time when I was still in National Service, when my battalion had to go to Indonesia for 8 days.

It was a memorable 8 days, mostly for the wrong reasons.

You see, the whole battalion was housed in the camp compound of an Indonesian army unit. Perhaps “housed” is a misnomer, since where we stayed was really a jungle clearing, with each platoon occupying a large military-style tent.

Within the tent, each of us occupied a safari bed (a low canvas stretcher-like bed with a light metal frame that’s easily dismantled) and some ground space to put our alibaba bag (the big military duffel bag).

It might have been a fun camping trip if it lasted for a night, but this was 8 whole days.

Let me try to recall what happened during the typical day:

5am or so - wake up, do your usual morning routine like brush teeth wash face etc.

Breakfast at the cookhouse (which was nothing more than a shed) followed soon after.

7am - After breakfast, it’s back to the tent, to do your own thing. Mostly just sitting around and chatting. Or reading for geeks like me.

10am - The sun is already blazing, and you start feeling the heat. Activity slows down.

11am - No unnecessary activity. Everyone is lying on their safari beds, fanning themselves, waiting for lunchtime.

12pm - Lunchtime at the cookhouse.

1-5pm - Back to the tent. Lying down. Fanning. Minimal activity.

During this period, if I had to do anything that required more than a few actions, I would break it down so that I could cool down in between. For instance, if I needed to take out a magazine from my bag, this would be the process:

1. Sit up on my bed (from the lying down position).

2. Fan myself to cool down.

3. Open the bag.

4. Fan myself to cool down.

5. Dig around the bag to locate the magazine.

6. Fan myself to cool down.

7. Take out the magazine from the bag.

8. Fan myself to cool down.

It took a while, but hey, we had 8 days to kill. In fact, by the middle of the week, I had finished all my books and magazines, as well as everyone else’s.

And during this time, if you do make the mistake of dozing off in your safari bed (something hard to resist), you will wake up to find a wet patch of sweat on your back and your safari bed.

5pm or so - Dinner time at the cookhouse again. This was the time I looked forward to, because it would finally get cooler.

Don’t ask me why we were doing this for around 6 or 7 out of the 8 days there. I was just a pawn. A baked pawn.