Yesterday's prop session went well... There was supposed to be 7 people around (including those i roped in) but due to personal reasons, only 4 turned up. Peiyueng and I started at around 1plus. xuetying and vivian came later. Since i got most of the props' materials ready, we could start on some. However, as we made more, we realised we were short of materials. Hence, we got xuetying to get them for us. Some of the props look really nice due to the colour combination. Luckily my house was near a shopping centre. We had the convenience of rushing down to get materials and continuing with our props making. The interesting part was the ppt slides production. We altered website contents (even though that may be illegal). I don't think they'll sue us for that? The cool part was the photoshopping part. Peiyueng seems really experienced at that. We were supposed to meet up on sunday, but since we were almost done, we decided to cancel the meeting.
Today, it's Melvin's birthday. We celebrated his birthday at his house. I could still remember last year, i didn't attend his party because i was busy mugging for prelims. One year passed really quickly and so many things happened. Family gatherings are like that... We get plenty of nice food and I'll always gorge myself on those food. Zhen was busy with those chicken wings and she didn't eat! I was shocked... She's always the first to rush to those food. After a while, the usual Zhen returned... hahaz... She stuffed herself with at least 4 slickes of cake and chocolate accompanied with the cake! Lol... Not forgetting, marshmallows, satay, otah and whatever food you can find on the table.
Laoyi was telling me about the photos she used to take of me. I think, when i'm young, i'm a huge POSER. I love posing with innocent looks. You know... hands cupped round your face...standing with hands on your waist... Those photos were taken when i was 2 years old, according to her. She wanted to pass those photos to me on that day. I think i owe it to her when i was young. She took care of me when i was 1year plus old to 3years plus old. She used to feed me lots of food, especially roti prata, fishball noodles... hahaz... I think that explains why i've always liked eating... Since my dad likes to take photos, there are like, tons of photoalbums with photos of me posing. He even enlarged a pic of me when i was young. That pic used to be hung up on one of the walls at my kindergarten school. I felt paiseh whenever i see it up...
I had a talk with eelin later. She's like the "me" one year ago, just that she's less mug than me. Apparently, she seemed distracted during dinner. I think she's bothered by all the studying and exams as well as what she may do in the future. At this point of time last year, I had an idea that i wanted to do nursing already. I still remembered arguing with my dad over this. I was especially motivated to study really hard to get into nursing in NUS. I think getting into the course was what really spurred me to work hard to pursue something i wanted. Eelin is still thinking currently. She hasn't figured out exactly what she wanted. She had a vague idea of becoming a policewoman. Though not realistic for her and more realistic for Zhen, i would encourage her if she really wanted it.
Perhaps for people like us, deciding what we are doing depends partly on our interests. Well, for our parents' generation, it may seem like a bad thing. It may seem as if we are unrealistic and we didn't really think about our future in monetary terms. However, if we really want to persist in a certain profession, i think interest or passion plays a part. If you like something, perhaps overcoming obstacles would become easier for us since we have a fixed target. Anyway, it's not like we don't think about money either...
Hanakimijapan epi8 has been released! Sano has been more active keeping himself BUSY around Mizuki. Hahaz... this is getting good...
Thursday, August 23, 2007
I wanted to blog yesterday, but google died on me and blogger. i couldn't access any blogspot blogs either.
Anyway, i'm so slack everyday there's practically nothing worth updating about. I'm just driving driving driving everyday. I've started tutoring my cousin. Apparently, her physical appearance changed a lot. I'm not sure about her character and stuffs. However, when it comes to dealing with seniors like us, she maintains a level of respect. I didn't had much trouble teaching her but, she didn't quite understand most of the chapters taught so I think i may have to re-teach her. She's taking physics this year and it's like, one of the sciences i'm not veri good at. I taught her all about "light" that day and i think i'd be teaching "resistors" soon. i hate chapters related to electricity =.=
Oh ya... talking about driving... I've been having revision lessons most of the time. So every lesson, it's a repeated cycle of circuit + route, circuit + route. Like what most people said, revisions are the lessons we learn and absorb most things from. after stopping for 3 months, i clean forgot when the blind-spot checking times were. During the first few revisions, i was quite amazed that i could still do most parts quite well. For eg. parallel parking, vertical parking, slope, directional change and S-course. So far, other than occasional small mistakes (or kerb mounting), i don't have much problem in the circuit. Practices are still important la... but durin my revision lessons, i changed like 5 instructors already. For my normal lessons, i had 2 main instructors only. However, i managed to gain more experience and advice from different instructors. Each taught me different things and reminded me about different blindspot checking. So when i compile everything together, i practically can't stop checking blindspots. i'm afraid i may sprain my neck... i had a few assesments already. I failed almost all of them, but by a little (if u exclude the immediate failures). most of the demerit points come from the test routes. somehow, when i'm not having an assesment, there wouldn't be much of a problem. When i'm having an assesment, something interesting would happen... There was once i nearly hit down an old lady if i wasn't paying enough attention. There were 2 pedestrains. I spotted only the first because he was wearing a dark shirt and it was raining. I slowed down initially. He managed to cross safely before i was near him so i sped up a little since it was still green light. However, when i approached the junction, i noticed an old lady behind him. I was so shocked i simply braked the hardest i could. Luckily i stopped before hitting her. Traffic light was still green and i just stopped there while the old lady continued to cross slowly. i was still shocked and i think, the old lady was equally shocked... That earned me 8 demerit points.
I've just started watching a new kdrama called "the first shop of coffee prince". It's the latest and hottest in korea. I didn't know about it until recently because it kept appearing on newspprs. it's something similar to hanakimi in the sense that the protagonist behaves like a boy but is a girl in real life. Both of them kept their real identity a secret until later.
i'm watching tons of dramas now. I've just watched gokusen. It's something similar to GTO where they have a real violent, but understanding homeroom teacher. I like the students... cos they are cool-looking... lol... oguri shun and matsumoto jun from hanayoridango are both acting as students in gokusen. I like narimiya tho... he has a cute smile =D
Anyway, i'm so slack everyday there's practically nothing worth updating about. I'm just driving driving driving everyday. I've started tutoring my cousin. Apparently, her physical appearance changed a lot. I'm not sure about her character and stuffs. However, when it comes to dealing with seniors like us, she maintains a level of respect. I didn't had much trouble teaching her but, she didn't quite understand most of the chapters taught so I think i may have to re-teach her. She's taking physics this year and it's like, one of the sciences i'm not veri good at. I taught her all about "light" that day and i think i'd be teaching "resistors" soon. i hate chapters related to electricity =.=
Oh ya... talking about driving... I've been having revision lessons most of the time. So every lesson, it's a repeated cycle of circuit + route, circuit + route. Like what most people said, revisions are the lessons we learn and absorb most things from. after stopping for 3 months, i clean forgot when the blind-spot checking times were. During the first few revisions, i was quite amazed that i could still do most parts quite well. For eg. parallel parking, vertical parking, slope, directional change and S-course. So far, other than occasional small mistakes (or kerb mounting), i don't have much problem in the circuit. Practices are still important la... but durin my revision lessons, i changed like 5 instructors already. For my normal lessons, i had 2 main instructors only. However, i managed to gain more experience and advice from different instructors. Each taught me different things and reminded me about different blindspot checking. So when i compile everything together, i practically can't stop checking blindspots. i'm afraid i may sprain my neck... i had a few assesments already. I failed almost all of them, but by a little (if u exclude the immediate failures). most of the demerit points come from the test routes. somehow, when i'm not having an assesment, there wouldn't be much of a problem. When i'm having an assesment, something interesting would happen... There was once i nearly hit down an old lady if i wasn't paying enough attention. There were 2 pedestrains. I spotted only the first because he was wearing a dark shirt and it was raining. I slowed down initially. He managed to cross safely before i was near him so i sped up a little since it was still green light. However, when i approached the junction, i noticed an old lady behind him. I was so shocked i simply braked the hardest i could. Luckily i stopped before hitting her. Traffic light was still green and i just stopped there while the old lady continued to cross slowly. i was still shocked and i think, the old lady was equally shocked... That earned me 8 demerit points.
I've just started watching a new kdrama called "the first shop of coffee prince". It's the latest and hottest in korea. I didn't know about it until recently because it kept appearing on newspprs. it's something similar to hanakimi in the sense that the protagonist behaves like a boy but is a girl in real life. Both of them kept their real identity a secret until later.
i'm watching tons of dramas now. I've just watched gokusen. It's something similar to GTO where they have a real violent, but understanding homeroom teacher. I like the students... cos they are cool-looking... lol... oguri shun and matsumoto jun from hanayoridango are both acting as students in gokusen. I like narimiya tho... he has a cute smile =D
Sunday, August 12, 2007
i like delaying my posts... but anyway, i just watched hanakimi(japan) epi6! It ended with a hug between mizuki and sano... ahhh... what will happen next? love will blossom? i can't wait for wednesday to come... I think i'm biased, but i just dun like hanakimi(taiwan). perhaps it's because it's too similar to the manga and since i'm an avid fan of the manga, i'd probably choose the latter. but hanakimi(jap) has a similar basis as the manga (having a girl attending a boys' school) but the content is different, which is why i preferred hanakimi (jap) to the taiwan one. and yea... nakatsu (xiuyi) and sano (quan2) are more good looking =p
been slack nowadays. I had my driving pre-test a few days ago. The instructor was one who had a real sense of humour and kept distractin me from driving. I made a hundred mistakes because i was laughing and laughing away. For eg. i didn't signal when i was changing lane. Well, that earned me 2 demerit points. In the end, i supposedly got 18 demerit points. And i admitted to a mistake which i've made repeatedly (for starting off on a wrong gear at the same place). so i got a total of 20 demerit points. Before that instructor left, he told me..."you got 16demerit only la... 14 initially..." i was shocked! after making so many mistakes, i got only 16... i think he's lenient. Anyway, he likes talking. When i'm on the slope ready to move off, or parking vertically, or parallel... he'll be talking. And while i waited for him to finish talking...his colleague will be like "you can move off already...lol.." nice instructor and comical...
been slack nowadays. I had my driving pre-test a few days ago. The instructor was one who had a real sense of humour and kept distractin me from driving. I made a hundred mistakes because i was laughing and laughing away. For eg. i didn't signal when i was changing lane. Well, that earned me 2 demerit points. In the end, i supposedly got 18 demerit points. And i admitted to a mistake which i've made repeatedly (for starting off on a wrong gear at the same place). so i got a total of 20 demerit points. Before that instructor left, he told me..."you got 16demerit only la... 14 initially..." i was shocked! after making so many mistakes, i got only 16... i think he's lenient. Anyway, he likes talking. When i'm on the slope ready to move off, or parking vertically, or parallel... he'll be talking. And while i waited for him to finish talking...his colleague will be like "you can move off already...lol.." nice instructor and comical...
Monday, August 6, 2007
Back from OBS (2 days ago) !
Anyway, OBS is quite fun but tiring. I had a few interesting encounters too.
on the first day, we met at the jetty early in the morning. Fortunately, punggol jetty is extremely near my house, so i woke up rather late. I couldn't really sleep well the night before probably because i'm not used to sleeping early. Our instructors were Selamat and Chinyong. The 2 teams we were split into were dhanabalan and engsoon. I belonged to the engsoon one. There weren't many people at OBS at that time (since it isn't the school holidays). We had a few teambuilding games initially. There were plenty of briefings in the morning, and discussions about aims and objectives. during one of the games, we had to piece pictures together to form a continuous comic strip. However, we did not get to see each other's pictures. We had to shout out the content of our picture and get people with related pictures to be grouped together. It was more of a game that tested our communication skills. It requires us to be more detailed when trying to portray something.
It was only until afternoon, did we have our first taste of adventure. We tried the inverted tower and it was more of a buddy-based adventure. We had a target set as part of a scenario-based campaign. Xuetying and I volunteered to serve as the campaign managers to raise funds for a cause. There are 2 routes to take, the ZZ-log and the chimney climb. All of us took turns to go up and we exceeded our time limit greatly. Xuetying and I paired up (even though we were not supposed to since we were both campaign managers). We did the chimney climb. It was quite tiring for us partly because we had been belaying and assisting all along before our turn. While we did the rockwall, i slipped once and fell but continued nonetheless. I decided to just, "heck care and climb". I just hung on to anything i could. Unlike common rock wall climbs, 2 of us were attached by a tether and we have to maintain a close distance between each other. By the time we reached the tyres, we were already half dead. I was merely clinging on to the tyres and i couldn't proceed to the last part. Well, i'm rather physically unfit plus i'm quite heavy. I guess that's why i can't pull myself up that easily. In the end, xuetying and i ended up clinging on to the tyres for quite some time and we couldn't complete the climb to obtain the maximum points. =( sorry xuetying! We couldn't achieve our target in the end (the entire team). however, we gained quite a lot from this climb, like teamwork and courage.
At night, after dinner, we had our nightwalk in the forest. All we had was a lightstick and we had to follow the people in front really closely. We reached a place where the tunnels were. Apparently, these tunnels are simulations of caves. we had to go through it individually. I was expecting rock walls and animal sounds. While i waited for my turn, qingshan, xuetying and I were sharing ghost stories to make ourselves more frightened. After i got in, the first thing in my mind was, "omg! are the tunnels large enough to fit my size? can i get through?" The tunnels are actually part of a maze and we have to find our way inside with the lightstick. I was crawling through the tunnels on my knees are frankly speaking, it hurts. i reached places where i really lost my way because i couldn't find alternative routes for a moment. I expect only horizontal routes but not vertical ones. When i saw an opening on top in the middle of the maze, the first thing i did was search for stairs. There were none! i tried figuring how to get up. The next thing i did? just climb. I was clinging there for a moment because i couldn't get up. There were some parts in the maze where the hole is really SOOO small i couldn't crawl through. I've to literally lie on my belly to crawl through it. There were no other ways. some holes were so small we didn't expect it to be the entrance to the next part of the maze. when i came out into a large empty space, i was searching for the next part of the maze. i didn't expect it to end that quickly. However, the moment i got in, i realised that the route seems familiar. I reversed out of the route in the end and searched for the exit. lol! i couldn't find the exit!! but i still got out in the end. I was quite relieved that i went through the maze safely. i got a few bruises on my knees though.
We had our sea expedition the next day. We spent the morning getting our stuffs ready for the expedition like ponchos, life vests, change of clothes, and food. We had to prepare the kayaks, floating on our lifevests, wading, and YES....capsizing our kayaks and getting on them again. I paired up with peiyueng. It was extremely difficult to get on to the kayaks again while floating in water. I couldn't get myself up. And when i got up, the boat capsized again when peiyueng is nearly up. When peiyueng got up, the kayak capsized again when i nearly got up. LOL.... we capsized 3 times in a row. However, we finally succeeded. So we swore, NEVER to capsize. We were required to take our lunch out at sea. So we packed our lifevests with food and loaded the kayaks with water and ponchos. Peiyueng and I carried extra oranges in case anyway got seasick. We set off in the afternoon. We had a lot of trouble getting out to sea and round the jetties because most of us are not used to kayaking or had never tried it before. When we were out at sea, Peiyueng got tired. but i guess, she's not used to kayaking yet. After some time out at sea, and replenishing our bodies with food and water, we began to go at a faster and regular rate. We went past kelongs and had kelong dogs barking at us. when we stopped to rest, we were swept towards the kelongs and ended up apologising to them. lol.. but we stabilised ourselves but holding on to each others' kayaks such that we would not capsize that easily. When we finally reached the river from sea, we had our rest and lunch there. I ate only oreos for lunch. The water there was much more stable so it was easier to move through it. However, we lost our way a few times and we had to reverse. Not only so, we had to cross certain mud banks and roads by carrying our kayaks over. It was really teamwork that helped us through. The instructors helped the 1st and last kayak. The rest passed through with the help from the other teammembers. not easy to carry those kayaks! they were extremely heavy. Luckily we passed through land, cos i didn't dare to settle my small business in the water since i had to get out of the kayak. I was afraid that i couldn't climb back again. While we were out at sea and in the river, i had no feeling of us being at Ubin. However, the moment we were crossing roads, i realised that we were in ubin! lol...lost my sense of location. When we reached our destination, we have rowed our kayaks for at least 5.5hours with only few 5-10mins breaks in between. We had our share of jokes too. For example, seeing people crashing into mangroves at the sides, joking about oranges falling into the sea or river, or seeing ourselves swept by the river current and frantically preventing ourselves from crashing into the mangroves/trees at the sides (since we had 5 kayaks holding on to one another, it was not easy directing the kayaks). After reaching the destination, we had to carry the kayaks up and tidy up our travel items before we could really have a break. Most of us were floating on land. We split up to do the cookin and pitching of tents. I was part of the cooking group. we had rice, curry and mushrooms. The rice was slightly burnt in the end at the bottom but relatively well-cooked. Tent-pitchers were done at the same time but we didn't have enough messtins for all to eat from. So we had to share. We also lacked utensils so some had to make do with forks for their meals. i had my spoon and i shared with shan. My fork went to kaiming... lol.. anyway, after eating, it was pot scrubbing time. shan and i spent the entire mealtime scrubbing one rice pot and i spent half the bathtime scrubbing the other rice pot. I used soap, sand and gravel and stones to scrub that stupid pot and still, it wasn't entirely clean. The instructors have to complete the job while we went to bathe. Girls had the guys' toilet at the campsite while guys had the girls' toilet. There were no hooks in the toilet cubicle! so someone had to stand guard to pass us our items. The instructors din inform us to bring our soaps or stuffs like that. we ended up rinsing and changing into dry clothes for bedtime. i was still quite wet at the end, cos i brought only my face towel there! and we brought it on our own accord... At night, i slept at the outermost of the tent. The tent is simply made up of a groundsheet, and a top canvas. No doors, nothing. our feet were exposed to the outside world. initially, i felt comfortable with all the wind blowing at me (we slept near the seaside) cos i was wearing long sleeves, track pants and shoes. since i slept at the side, i was more cautious of snakes or animals. I wake up the moment i hear anything. Initially, i saw a stray dog stealing a pack of biscuits from our lifevest area (we left our food there unintentionally). I couldn't sleep cos i was afraid some dog will come sniffing at me. then i heard footsteps again and guess what i saw? A WILD BOAR! It was a huge wild boar! (people at tekong would have seen it many times, but i'm not in NS). It was running past the other side of my tent where qingshan were. They were sleeping like pigs and didn't see it. I woke peiyueng and nadiah up to see that wild boar. However, the boar didn't have much activities later. until about 12 plus, i heard dogs barking intensely. I realised that the boar is out from the forest again and the dogs are barking at it, apparently to make it go back and to stay away from our sleeping area. There was a guard dog and it seems like it was leading other stray dogs. They surrounded our tents, sort of to prevent the boar from coming near us. At a point of time, the boar was facing the other side of my tent and staring right in my face. It was so near our tent! (qingshan were still sleeping like logs!) peiyueng and I looked at its true face then. omg...huge tusks....Cool eh! the dogs chased the boar too. After all the commotion i went back to sleep again. I woke up at 4plus when i heard dogs barking again. this time, i see the dogs barking at the boar and the boar charging at the dogs. Omg... it was like a fight! and the dogs continued to protect us by standing guard near our tents. I was really excited and i was probably the only one watching the fight. In the morning, the rest were quite astonished that a boar actually ran about our sleeping area. Even though they heard dogs barking, they didn't see a boar. lol... peiyueng,nadiah and i are the only few who saw it. and i think i'm the only lame one around sacrificing precious sleep to stare at the dogs and wild boar. It looks like those maple boars u noe!
In the morning of the 3rd day, we had a phantom buddy revealing time. we picked our phantom buddies the day before and were supposed to observe them. Lol... initially, i'm the one receiving my phantom buddy, only to find out that xuetying was my phantom! hahaz...then when i was at the giving end, i was xuetying's phantom! i gave her a huge surprise just as she gave me one when she revealed herself. I had a hard time keeping the secret while she shared what she observed about me. Actually, we didn't have much to share either, since we were in different kayaks and we dun get to spend a lot of time together. Then, we played another game. We had to blindfold ourselves and set off from the starting point to the ending point as a team. No one could see the routes, including the leaders so we had to figure out a plan to reach our final point. We spent 20mins figuring out and the rest of the time walking. We got lost for a while but we managed to reach our ending point (which is a tree). After which, we have to row our kayaks back to the main campsite. It is only a super small distance away from our expedition campsite. Most of us felt cheated but relieved at the same time. Most of us had arm aches already, and bad ones. We nearly didn't have the strength to go back. We cleared up our stuffs before proceeding to....jetty jump! We had to jump from the jetty after saying out our commitments. I was awaiting that moment. Frankly speaking, i like swimming in the sea. Since some couldn't swim, those who could swim has to jump first and wait by. We had our lifevests anyway. While i waited for peiyueng, i was practically enjoying in the water...lol... Just that, the lifevest was really hindering me...i would rather it not on me (for the jetty jump only). After jetty jump, we washed our expedition stuffs and ourselves and packed up to leave the place.
It was fun and i really learnt a lot from this OBS camp. Well, learning is one, applying is another. Yupz...meaningful stories were shared with us by Selamat and chinyong and yes.... after achieving our target, we should cheer! and after which, we share our experiences with others =)
I learnt about how we could go about achieving certain targets. since most of our adventures are team-based, there's 3 components we have to pay attention to. Product, people and procedure. Depending on what we are doing, the extent of each we have to concentrate on varies. there are many other lessons learnt from each adventure.
Sea expedition - teamwork (waiting for each other, rowing together, coordinating, carrying each others' kayaks together) and i guess, perseverance. We must have flexibility too.
Tunnel - how our future will be like... we have to walk our paths alone most of the time. we may feel lost sometimes but eventually we'll find our way. We have to find solutions ourselves and most of the time, there'll always be a way out, depending on our own perceptions. even if the hole is small, it could be the way, depending on whether we want to attempt it or not. At the end of our journey, we'll feel stronger and relieved.
inverted tower - courage and teamwork. We have to cooperate so that we can get to the top together. determination is impt. We should not give up easily. lastly, we must have the courage to try.
We learnt many other things through other games too... it was a fruitful camp =)
Anyway, OBS is quite fun but tiring. I had a few interesting encounters too.
on the first day, we met at the jetty early in the morning. Fortunately, punggol jetty is extremely near my house, so i woke up rather late. I couldn't really sleep well the night before probably because i'm not used to sleeping early. Our instructors were Selamat and Chinyong. The 2 teams we were split into were dhanabalan and engsoon. I belonged to the engsoon one. There weren't many people at OBS at that time (since it isn't the school holidays). We had a few teambuilding games initially. There were plenty of briefings in the morning, and discussions about aims and objectives. during one of the games, we had to piece pictures together to form a continuous comic strip. However, we did not get to see each other's pictures. We had to shout out the content of our picture and get people with related pictures to be grouped together. It was more of a game that tested our communication skills. It requires us to be more detailed when trying to portray something.
It was only until afternoon, did we have our first taste of adventure. We tried the inverted tower and it was more of a buddy-based adventure. We had a target set as part of a scenario-based campaign. Xuetying and I volunteered to serve as the campaign managers to raise funds for a cause. There are 2 routes to take, the ZZ-log and the chimney climb. All of us took turns to go up and we exceeded our time limit greatly. Xuetying and I paired up (even though we were not supposed to since we were both campaign managers). We did the chimney climb. It was quite tiring for us partly because we had been belaying and assisting all along before our turn. While we did the rockwall, i slipped once and fell but continued nonetheless. I decided to just, "heck care and climb". I just hung on to anything i could. Unlike common rock wall climbs, 2 of us were attached by a tether and we have to maintain a close distance between each other. By the time we reached the tyres, we were already half dead. I was merely clinging on to the tyres and i couldn't proceed to the last part. Well, i'm rather physically unfit plus i'm quite heavy. I guess that's why i can't pull myself up that easily. In the end, xuetying and i ended up clinging on to the tyres for quite some time and we couldn't complete the climb to obtain the maximum points. =( sorry xuetying! We couldn't achieve our target in the end (the entire team). however, we gained quite a lot from this climb, like teamwork and courage.
At night, after dinner, we had our nightwalk in the forest. All we had was a lightstick and we had to follow the people in front really closely. We reached a place where the tunnels were. Apparently, these tunnels are simulations of caves. we had to go through it individually. I was expecting rock walls and animal sounds. While i waited for my turn, qingshan, xuetying and I were sharing ghost stories to make ourselves more frightened. After i got in, the first thing in my mind was, "omg! are the tunnels large enough to fit my size? can i get through?" The tunnels are actually part of a maze and we have to find our way inside with the lightstick. I was crawling through the tunnels on my knees are frankly speaking, it hurts. i reached places where i really lost my way because i couldn't find alternative routes for a moment. I expect only horizontal routes but not vertical ones. When i saw an opening on top in the middle of the maze, the first thing i did was search for stairs. There were none! i tried figuring how to get up. The next thing i did? just climb. I was clinging there for a moment because i couldn't get up. There were some parts in the maze where the hole is really SOOO small i couldn't crawl through. I've to literally lie on my belly to crawl through it. There were no other ways. some holes were so small we didn't expect it to be the entrance to the next part of the maze. when i came out into a large empty space, i was searching for the next part of the maze. i didn't expect it to end that quickly. However, the moment i got in, i realised that the route seems familiar. I reversed out of the route in the end and searched for the exit. lol! i couldn't find the exit!! but i still got out in the end. I was quite relieved that i went through the maze safely. i got a few bruises on my knees though.
We had our sea expedition the next day. We spent the morning getting our stuffs ready for the expedition like ponchos, life vests, change of clothes, and food. We had to prepare the kayaks, floating on our lifevests, wading, and YES....capsizing our kayaks and getting on them again. I paired up with peiyueng. It was extremely difficult to get on to the kayaks again while floating in water. I couldn't get myself up. And when i got up, the boat capsized again when peiyueng is nearly up. When peiyueng got up, the kayak capsized again when i nearly got up. LOL.... we capsized 3 times in a row. However, we finally succeeded. So we swore, NEVER to capsize. We were required to take our lunch out at sea. So we packed our lifevests with food and loaded the kayaks with water and ponchos. Peiyueng and I carried extra oranges in case anyway got seasick. We set off in the afternoon. We had a lot of trouble getting out to sea and round the jetties because most of us are not used to kayaking or had never tried it before. When we were out at sea, Peiyueng got tired. but i guess, she's not used to kayaking yet. After some time out at sea, and replenishing our bodies with food and water, we began to go at a faster and regular rate. We went past kelongs and had kelong dogs barking at us. when we stopped to rest, we were swept towards the kelongs and ended up apologising to them. lol.. but we stabilised ourselves but holding on to each others' kayaks such that we would not capsize that easily. When we finally reached the river from sea, we had our rest and lunch there. I ate only oreos for lunch. The water there was much more stable so it was easier to move through it. However, we lost our way a few times and we had to reverse. Not only so, we had to cross certain mud banks and roads by carrying our kayaks over. It was really teamwork that helped us through. The instructors helped the 1st and last kayak. The rest passed through with the help from the other teammembers. not easy to carry those kayaks! they were extremely heavy. Luckily we passed through land, cos i didn't dare to settle my small business in the water since i had to get out of the kayak. I was afraid that i couldn't climb back again. While we were out at sea and in the river, i had no feeling of us being at Ubin. However, the moment we were crossing roads, i realised that we were in ubin! lol...lost my sense of location. When we reached our destination, we have rowed our kayaks for at least 5.5hours with only few 5-10mins breaks in between. We had our share of jokes too. For example, seeing people crashing into mangroves at the sides, joking about oranges falling into the sea or river, or seeing ourselves swept by the river current and frantically preventing ourselves from crashing into the mangroves/trees at the sides (since we had 5 kayaks holding on to one another, it was not easy directing the kayaks). After reaching the destination, we had to carry the kayaks up and tidy up our travel items before we could really have a break. Most of us were floating on land. We split up to do the cookin and pitching of tents. I was part of the cooking group. we had rice, curry and mushrooms. The rice was slightly burnt in the end at the bottom but relatively well-cooked. Tent-pitchers were done at the same time but we didn't have enough messtins for all to eat from. So we had to share. We also lacked utensils so some had to make do with forks for their meals. i had my spoon and i shared with shan. My fork went to kaiming... lol.. anyway, after eating, it was pot scrubbing time. shan and i spent the entire mealtime scrubbing one rice pot and i spent half the bathtime scrubbing the other rice pot. I used soap, sand and gravel and stones to scrub that stupid pot and still, it wasn't entirely clean. The instructors have to complete the job while we went to bathe. Girls had the guys' toilet at the campsite while guys had the girls' toilet. There were no hooks in the toilet cubicle! so someone had to stand guard to pass us our items. The instructors din inform us to bring our soaps or stuffs like that. we ended up rinsing and changing into dry clothes for bedtime. i was still quite wet at the end, cos i brought only my face towel there! and we brought it on our own accord... At night, i slept at the outermost of the tent. The tent is simply made up of a groundsheet, and a top canvas. No doors, nothing. our feet were exposed to the outside world. initially, i felt comfortable with all the wind blowing at me (we slept near the seaside) cos i was wearing long sleeves, track pants and shoes. since i slept at the side, i was more cautious of snakes or animals. I wake up the moment i hear anything. Initially, i saw a stray dog stealing a pack of biscuits from our lifevest area (we left our food there unintentionally). I couldn't sleep cos i was afraid some dog will come sniffing at me. then i heard footsteps again and guess what i saw? A WILD BOAR! It was a huge wild boar! (people at tekong would have seen it many times, but i'm not in NS). It was running past the other side of my tent where qingshan were. They were sleeping like pigs and didn't see it. I woke peiyueng and nadiah up to see that wild boar. However, the boar didn't have much activities later. until about 12 plus, i heard dogs barking intensely. I realised that the boar is out from the forest again and the dogs are barking at it, apparently to make it go back and to stay away from our sleeping area. There was a guard dog and it seems like it was leading other stray dogs. They surrounded our tents, sort of to prevent the boar from coming near us. At a point of time, the boar was facing the other side of my tent and staring right in my face. It was so near our tent! (qingshan were still sleeping like logs!) peiyueng and I looked at its true face then. omg...huge tusks....Cool eh! the dogs chased the boar too. After all the commotion i went back to sleep again. I woke up at 4plus when i heard dogs barking again. this time, i see the dogs barking at the boar and the boar charging at the dogs. Omg... it was like a fight! and the dogs continued to protect us by standing guard near our tents. I was really excited and i was probably the only one watching the fight. In the morning, the rest were quite astonished that a boar actually ran about our sleeping area. Even though they heard dogs barking, they didn't see a boar. lol... peiyueng,nadiah and i are the only few who saw it. and i think i'm the only lame one around sacrificing precious sleep to stare at the dogs and wild boar. It looks like those maple boars u noe!
In the morning of the 3rd day, we had a phantom buddy revealing time. we picked our phantom buddies the day before and were supposed to observe them. Lol... initially, i'm the one receiving my phantom buddy, only to find out that xuetying was my phantom! hahaz...then when i was at the giving end, i was xuetying's phantom! i gave her a huge surprise just as she gave me one when she revealed herself. I had a hard time keeping the secret while she shared what she observed about me. Actually, we didn't have much to share either, since we were in different kayaks and we dun get to spend a lot of time together. Then, we played another game. We had to blindfold ourselves and set off from the starting point to the ending point as a team. No one could see the routes, including the leaders so we had to figure out a plan to reach our final point. We spent 20mins figuring out and the rest of the time walking. We got lost for a while but we managed to reach our ending point (which is a tree). After which, we have to row our kayaks back to the main campsite. It is only a super small distance away from our expedition campsite. Most of us felt cheated but relieved at the same time. Most of us had arm aches already, and bad ones. We nearly didn't have the strength to go back. We cleared up our stuffs before proceeding to....jetty jump! We had to jump from the jetty after saying out our commitments. I was awaiting that moment. Frankly speaking, i like swimming in the sea. Since some couldn't swim, those who could swim has to jump first and wait by. We had our lifevests anyway. While i waited for peiyueng, i was practically enjoying in the water...lol... Just that, the lifevest was really hindering me...i would rather it not on me (for the jetty jump only). After jetty jump, we washed our expedition stuffs and ourselves and packed up to leave the place.
It was fun and i really learnt a lot from this OBS camp. Well, learning is one, applying is another. Yupz...meaningful stories were shared with us by Selamat and chinyong and yes.... after achieving our target, we should cheer! and after which, we share our experiences with others =)
I learnt about how we could go about achieving certain targets. since most of our adventures are team-based, there's 3 components we have to pay attention to. Product, people and procedure. Depending on what we are doing, the extent of each we have to concentrate on varies. there are many other lessons learnt from each adventure.
Sea expedition - teamwork (waiting for each other, rowing together, coordinating, carrying each others' kayaks together) and i guess, perseverance. We must have flexibility too.
Tunnel - how our future will be like... we have to walk our paths alone most of the time. we may feel lost sometimes but eventually we'll find our way. We have to find solutions ourselves and most of the time, there'll always be a way out, depending on our own perceptions. even if the hole is small, it could be the way, depending on whether we want to attempt it or not. At the end of our journey, we'll feel stronger and relieved.
inverted tower - courage and teamwork. We have to cooperate so that we can get to the top together. determination is impt. We should not give up easily. lastly, we must have the courage to try.
We learnt many other things through other games too... it was a fruitful camp =)
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