Final IPPT

 Applied for a half day leave today to attend the very last IPPT I will ever have to take in my life.

Still headed for work in the morning and from now till tomorrow, my goal is just to do as much work as I possibly can, so I can go enjoy my Taipei trip in as much peace as possible without having to think about the mountain of work I will have to get back to once it is over.

My IPPT session was at 5.00pm today, so I left the office at 2.30pm, reached home at about 3.30pm and the afternoon heat was intense, I am just very grateful my job is an office bound job because I don't think I can brave the afternoon heat like I did in the past as a Project Manager when it was a norm for my shirt to be completely drenched in sweat. Thinking back about how bad it was now, it's ridiculous how I managed to find that type of lifestyle acceptable.  

Anyways, I got home, was able to chillax for an hour, changed into my exercise attire and then headed out for Maju Camp.

Again, insane weather, just the fucking heat is nuts, doesn't help that the bus stop is directly facing the Sun, so anyone waiting at the stop was at the full mercy of the heat. 

Managed to reach the camp on time, placed all my stuff in the locker, went to grab a number tag and I was assigned the number 666 , which was really ominous. Once again, I forgot to bring a bottle of water, and because it's a post Covid world right now, we are not allowed to drink directly from the watercoolers, so those without water bottles, like myself, were given a disposable plastic cup by the PTs for us to fill up with water from the watercoolers and drink from, it was really quite a pain to carry the cup around, whenever we were doing our static stations, we had to leave the cup outside the station zone and I was just constantly worrying about a gust of wind potentially blowing it away, but I can't complain I guess, that's the price I need to pay for not bringing my own water bottle.

I scored decently for my Sit Ups and Push Ups, I don't train my Sit Ups at home, so I only managed to get about 34 reps, I have seen a bunch of guys who were before me just going ham, their body just slamming the ground and then bouncing right back up like they are using their spines to cause massive damage to the machine, those guys did around 45 reps, I couldn't do that.

I do regular Push Ups at home, so I did manage to score 47 reps, didn't have any "no counts" for all 47 reps, so that was great.    

For the 2.4km run, I scored my usual 13.30 mins timing, which is fine considering the fact that I have never trained for my 2.4km, the last time I ran 2.4km was for my last IPPT, which was probably more than a year back. I'm just impressed that I didn't stop running and start walking at anytime during the run, I just powered through and maintained a steady pace. I am usually the last runner at the start of the run because I am just pacing myself, the ones who are at the front are either the ones who have trained for their 2.4km or the untrained ones who think it is a great idea to just sprint at the start to cover more distance, but then end up reverting to a walking pace by their 2nd lap. We have 6 laps to cover, if you are already walking by your 2nd lap, then you are as good as screwed. 

In the end, I managed to score a Pass with Incentive, so I was immediately transferred $200 after returning my tag. It's a nice bonus for me, like a final gift from SAF. It will either go towards extra shopping money for my Taipei trip, or a new bottle of perfume from MFK.

I decided to take a shower after the test because I want to be considerate to the commuters on the bus and not be a walking human stench, so I did that and when I came out of the toilet, I actually ran into an ex-colleague of mine who is currently still working at the furniture store, honestly, the odds were so low because he happened to have collected his tag and decided to store his belongings in a locker that was directly facing the toilet entrance, and I just so happened to have completed showering and had stepped out. He saw me first so it was a very pleasant surprise. 

We had a quick catch up and not surprisingly, he is planning to submit his resignation soon as well. He shared with me how much worst the company is becoming, how my ex-boss has really ramped up on the micromanaging and just how unfulfilled he feels working there. This is honestly a shared experience that everyone has working there and it is really a reflection of the competency of the boss is. He isn't a toxic boss, he is just an incompetent one. 

Anyways, after that, I wished him all the best and proceeded to head back home, the final weight of my National Service duties finally lifted off my shoulder, now I can officially, and very properly, MR on 1st April.