Victoria Sapientes Elegit the minimalist blog by syarif

As per my last entry, I was yapping about the platoon vs platoon of the original bootcamp. Yes, it was tiring, but man, I have never felt so glad that I attended the event!

Well the day started very early when I woke up around 4.30-ish to prep myself. After a major err... "dump", I had coffee and a few smokes. Armed with minimal gear and mixed state of mind, I braved through the morning chill to the meeting point at Taman Metropolitan Kepong.

Along the journey, I tried as much as I can to relax and just stay clear off anything negative. I rolled down the windshield and just breathe in the cool Sunday morning air.

When I arrived, it was roughly 5.30am. The first thing that I noticed was the KL Team. My god, they were scary weh! With their red bandanas and black war-pain ala Samoan, they were singing their war cry; their lungs out! I was petrified by that moment. Huhu!

Then I walked over the PJ side. Not much significant noise. I can see in almost everyone's face that there's this scary feeling. The situation is a lot like the silence before a storm. Serene and calm. Most of us looked half dead. Well, it might just be that most of us were awake like 30 minutes before that. And I can seriously bet my leg that the majority of us didn't take any shower; and literal breakfast for that matter. What I can conclude was, we were the absolute THE under dogs.

By that time I wanted to quit. I don't want to be the guy who made my team lose even lower. But somehow the team mates, upon roll call that morning- began to have high spirit. Out of sudden, laughter burst, people were screaming - the PJ - the ASTAKA Warriors suddenly becomes alive! My heart said leave, but my guts said stay.

So I stayed.

And thank god I did!

It's hard for me to describe why. But perhaps one of the task that I needed to do for my team was to carry a big rope with another 4 team mates. We were asked to set the pace. Proudly I can say that we set the pace so high, we had to do a slow jog to wait for the others! My confident boosted really high, that I started to run up and down the file to motivate the others :D

Then comes the bazooka, rifles and tyres to add things to the challenge.

Sadly, after roughly 2.5km of the circuit, we noticed that we were lost. Honestly, at that time we really thought that we were leading, as we can't see any other teams in front or anywhere near us! Hahaha! It was a funny situation, I can tell you!

We arrived at the last point roughly at 7.40am - with the knowledge that we missed a few checkpoints.

Obviously, with that notion, it can be seen that the PJ would lose this pl v pl.

But I can gladly say that I believe we have won even at the first station (ini kata-kata orang dah kalah la... :p).

Seriously, like in my Bravo team, most of us don't really know each other and I met most of them the first time minutes before the event started. But, we all manage to do things as a team, communicate as one voice, and move with one mind. As an experienced trainer, it is quite a feat to see that number of people could just click and help each other without any disputes.

And as the last team to arrive, RJ, one of my team member, suggested that we do grunts, in good spirit of OBC.

And for the first time ever, I agreed to the motion with a smile.

I actually said yes to the grunts, as you can see in the butt-sticking-up picture of mine :p

Guys, to get more pictures and full details regarding this OBC Platoon vs Platoon, kindly visit http://arminbaniaz.com, under the subject "PLATOON VERSUS PLATOON... Amazing Race".
(Armin, I hope you don't mind)

To get more info about OBC kindly visit www.bootcamp.com.my

Or perhaps just visit the FB Group: ORIGINAL BOOTCAMP - Malaysia (open to public).

Guys, it was not easy. But it sure was a good workout. Hooyah!

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device via Vodafone-Celcom Mobile.

In the spirit of 1OBC, the bootcamp is organizing a platoon vs platoon telematch this coming Sunday. One of the main reason for this event is to actually build the rapport between the current 2 platoons of OBC Malaysia; the PJ Platoon and the KL Platoon. Despite having communicated in FB page, there are quite a number of recruits have never met each other- even in the platoon itself.

This is the chance.

And to make things more, err, interesting, there will be a donation drive during the day that will be submitted 100% to a charity body (which I seriously couldn't recall now).

Well honestly I'm not worried with meeting strangers and I absolutely have nothing against a charity drive. As you guys might have noticed, the abovesaid event is actually 6 hours away from the time I'm writing this entry. You see, roughly 16 hours ago, I just finished an OBC session at Padang Utara PJ. I have only 3 hours of sleep the night before, and about 4 hours left before tomorrow.

That's what worrying me. I signed up last friday in a wide hope that I could sleep soundly tonight. But the newly acquired PSP games made me wide awake since this morning, despite having sleep deprivation.

And to add spices to the situation, there were not many recruits from PJ signed up for the event. Making this handful of blokes the only hope to make PJ proud. The term ASTAKA Warriors (Padang Utara = Padang Astaka) have made the KL Kiasu (yes, the KL Platoon) all psyched and ready to combat sharp at 5.45 am.

I'm under pressured and overtired. Oh, to make things worse, it's raining now in PJ. Making the battlefield (Tmn Metropolitan Kepong near FRIM) would be a muddy arena. Darn...

Well, at least there will be sandwiches. I could now only pray that it's not as demanding as normal OBC session.

Sadly, I've heard rumours that it's going to be like Hell's Week. A bloody (literally) 2 hours of pain.

Aiyyyyyyy.......



Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device via Vodafone-Celcom Mobile.

I woke up this morning with not so high spirit; as I know I'm gonna get tired for the OBC. But it was lifted to a great extend just after the warm up session, as (as usual) we need to do grunts as penalty for the AWOLs. Somehow I managed to do 20 without the need for the 5 second break. Maybe it didn't sound much, but it was a great feat for me.

And the morning got better as I took a light breakfast, good coffee and arrived to work early. Cracked a lot of jokes the minute the clock turns 9, and seriously, I really felt like a million bucks.

But all that turned into despair when I heard the bloody news towards lunch time. Well, to save everyone's breath in this story, let's just say that it's involving money and budget from all sides.

I have tried for the past years to save on the expenses of ALL departments. Proposal after proposal after proposal have been submitted. All were accepted, but never executed.

But now when the finance screams that less expenses must be made in order for us to sustain in the next 5 years, all eyes were on me.

The worst part is, they were talking behind my back (as per what my informant told me), that I have done a terrible job in managing all that.

Hey! I'm just the messenger. I proposed, but things were never executed. What can I do? I'm just delivering the information la!

Well, I guess it's human nature. We've seen in all cultures and we've seen in a lot of movies (i.e 300, The Gladiator and even LOTR 3) that all messengers were killed.

And don't get me started on what are they saying about my life behind me. Yes, I'm not a good man. And not the best Muslim in the world, but hey, who do you look up for when you need something to be done? Bloody hell it's me! ME!

And I'm always glad to do it.

Haih... No point already. Things had happened. What can I do?

Perhaps just go with the flow.

Perhaps.



Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device via Vodafone-Celcom Mobile.

Well, the glass is empty. But you can see at the back of it, one of my fav drinks here: the Mixed Fruit Tea Cocktail.

Rather refreshing and somewhat energizing!


Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device via Vodafone-Celcom Mobile.

Bitter heart, bitter heart, tries to keep it all inside.

Bitter heart, bitter heart of mine...


Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device via Vodafone-Celcom Mobile.