Bootleg Cigarettes and other Nights-Off Tales

Comin from a combat side unit based on the mainland of Singapore, i find that one of the few consolable pleasures to the long, hard nights on operations is the fact that nights off, when they are given, allow for a wider scope of 'operation'...in army parlance, so to speak..

Just yesterday, my fren and fellow spec Melvin, who drives and had parked his car in camp(another benefit) offered to give my mates n miself a lift to 'town'...which is a euphemism for the suburban neighbourhood of Choa Chu Kang ,which is linked by half hour on-the-road to the rest of S'pore (n thus not all dat far)

he's an impatient driver who swears when honked at and cuts lanes like a bandit's getaway vehicle..and he offered to give us a lift on the condition that he would first get a pack of cigarettes from the Kranji area, which could only be accessed by certain backroads from where we were...n another fello spec fren o'mine decided he wanted 1 as well...

so off we went down the backroads that made mi feel i was in my armoured vehicle drivin cross-country on an assault manoeuvre, wat with e grass, trees and narrow-gauge track we were on...towards the Kranji Beach WW2 Battle site, then past the BBC Far Eastern Relay Station(did u noe they had a physical presence on S'pore?) and then past the local S'porean Fisheries and Bird sanctuary(not an everyday sight huh) and down Sungei Kadut before exitin into the Yew Tee area where my fren pumped some petrol at a 70's style petrol kiosk with the cash register next to the petrol pumps where only cash was accepted...also where cigarettes were to be found in super-close proximity to petrol pumps..

and speakin o' cigarettes, melvin then turned into a junction where he bought his cigarettes...imported Marlborough Reds, Menthols and Dunhills from Indonesia...duty unpaid n without the (in)famous after-cancer-effect photos on e front from Indonesian workers (a reversal of roles;consumer and manufacturer)...a pack for 5 sing dollors...a real steal these days in a land where e govt (supposedly) intends to raise prices eventually to 20 dollars a pack..not for mi la...

and all this before the real Nights-off adventures at the shoppin mall we were bound for took place...like catchin that chic Corpse Bride movie just in time...n wastin ourselves at e video games arcade on Virtua Striker and Silent Scope after..these nights-off from camp can be such a voyage into e unknown sometimes...must tell of the time my good buddy signed up for life-long insurance at e mall just to get to noe this sweet insurance lady sometime...now that takes guts or testicular fortitude as radio DJ Glen Ong once called it..