STAYWITHMETONIGHT
Friday, January 23, 2009
OBS.
19th jan - 23rd jan 2009
amazingly, i survived!(:
but arrived home with 5 blue-blacks, 9 mozzie bites and belgium chocolate colour skin-.-
oh and not forgetting muscle aches EVERYWHERE.
but also, i have with me such fond memories of the last 5 days(:
when i was asked to think of my most frustrating moment, i only thought that i was frustrated when i lost my sleeping bag. but no worries, tracy, shermaine and shira found it for me alr:D
my happiest moment has to be when we played the night games. Hillary was the first to set a record, and we were estatic. However, we were soon beaten my Raleigh. -.- nevermind, we still didnt give up and re-ran our race at least 5 times to improve our score!(: it was great as we really had alot of white blood cells, haha! (inside joke, literally. )
whatever it is, i have really learnt to appreciate all the simplest things in life. How nice it is to have a heater, a bed, a plate, a home, or even a matchstick.
Monday, 19th january.
reception, and 3/7 were split into 2 watches; Da Gama and Hillary<3
the ferry ride to pulau ubin was such a scary one. So many different feelings dashing in and out of my mind. Heart was racing.
Hillary met our instructor, Kiah Hong. (watch how his name mutates later in this post(: )
Did some camp work, folding tents and ponchos.
Lunch was bread and more bread.
Ice breakers came next. They were fun, but too short.
Dinner! our first outdoor meal that we had to cook for ourselves. We learnt both how to pitch the tents and cook with solid fuel tablets. i prefer cooking to pitching. (amazing huh! i hardly cook at home. )
For our first dinner,we had rice, campbell soup,peanuts and a taste of the outdoors. manymany ants. hm. haha. lots of screaming and flicking of insects!(:
more camp work was to be shared among the 14 of us, like washing up and packing.
for supper, which was not supposed to have existed, (only, it did thanks to Shiraaaaa.) butter bun! it was great. but kiah hong was HUH SUPPER? like as if we eat alot haha. (:
tuesday, 20th january.
quite a shocker as the sea expedition was super long.
started the day with 2 hours wasted on doing nothing much and getting scolded. missed out on all the fun morning games:/
we trekked a long long way to this tunnel, which was sooo scary.
tracy and tracy almost gave up, cos we're abit claustrophobic. but i went in when kiah hong said i was leaving my friends in there. so i re went in, and didnt regret it(:
accomplishing the long dark and hot tunnel all together was so great! like the whole 3/7 helping each other, supporting and encouraging each other to take another step forward. we really strengthened the trust between us(:
As we trekked back, we sang lame songs like fairly odd parents, barney and baa baa black sheep. it was such fun(:
The kayaking expedition.
6km straight through sea, 4 hours plus strong current.
This sea expedition was supposed to be headed by tracy x2. just because i kayaked twice before. However, Tracy lam wasnt feeling that great, so Ratana had to take over as navigator. Many times i felt like my arms were going to tear, my heart going to fly out because i was so afraid. It was very scary to kayak under pretty bad wind conditions while worrying about tracy.
The others had bad experiences at sea too. 2 kayaks crashed and were left behind by the whole group. They all started crying at sea.
we reached shore at 6pm,(we started at 2pm). it was such a relief to get out of the kayak.
However, no matter how tired we were, we still had to carry all the bags and kayaks up a steep slope. With teamwork, we formed a human chain that sped up our work.
It was quite fun although tiring. Ratana kept saying she was a man. a machoman. righttt. :/
haha. the sun started to set really fast. we had to change, cook and pitch our tents. Furthermore, we camped at a site that wasnt obs compund. Which means, wild boars, wild dogs, and illegal immigrants were everywhere. it was very scary. Splitting up into groups, we divided the work and managed to get most of it done by 8pm.
This was when we decided we wanted to go pee.
hm. no toilets, only long bushes. and a sea hole. haha. At first we went along one path which was terribly dark. all was okay until ratana and I heard the snorting of a wild boar which sounded really close. very freaky. i can still remember the exact sound and my feelings. we ran out of the path,and to another path, where we successfully did our toileting. it was hillarious(:
night watch for my tentmates was uhm. short? we spent the time going toilet again. hahaha. so we watch for like 10 mins only. busy peeing. -.-
cos ratana and charlene woke up and all went toilet together. hahha. rightt.
wednesday, 21st january.
learnt from yesterday, woke up early and didnt get scolding!
breakfast was 2 slices of bread with peanut butter which was horribly DRY. i cant eat dry food in the morning. so. i took like 1/2 an hour and i was still half way done on the second piece. -.-
land expedition
we had a taste of our land expedition early in the morning, where we only trekked 100m down to a nearby quarry.
our task was to build a raft which will float in the quarry and we can all sit on it and float. haha.
Hillary spent alot of time discussing, using sticks as models. we came up with a great design (haha! ego. ) but anyway we didnt have time to complete it. we spent 2 and a 1/2 hours. doing it.
but we were still sooo happy after that. cos we had so much fun working together tying knots and joking along the way. definitely bonded.
lunch was dry bread again. and sharon's VERY diluted isotonic drink. hahah. funny luh. (:
next, trekking.
sharon was our great navigator. really, i mean really great(:
she can read maps. i was like HUH. so i just followed. hahah.
first part alr go wrong way, and it was my fault anyway. cos there was a barrier. apparently, the barrier was a barrier for cars. thinking shallowly, we were like. cannot go. so turn the other way when we knew we were supposed to go right. walked for quite long, then kiah hong said.
are you sure you're going the right way?
walked back, and didnt make anymore mistakes!(:
while trekking, we had so much fun. we chatted about so much stuff, during breaks we joked and laughed as we ate. hillary was very happy(:
we kept missing the 2 checkpoints, so we had to put down our bags and backtrack.
the first checkpoint gave us a quote:
"we cant control what happens to us in life, but we can control how we react to it."
being so energized, we went quite fast to our next checkpoint, where we overshot again.
HAHA.
then we found it, and got another quote:
"what lies ahead of us and behind are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
so we rested at some shady place eating nuts.
okay then wang ye made this observation that singaporeans like. slowly slowly pick the nuts and eat. china people like. just grab and stuff all in the mouth.
so wangye took the packet, and slowly slowly picked the orange crackers and ate them one by one. hahah gosh it was so funny. she exclaimed:
" eh! zhe yang chi zhen de bu cuo leh!"
hahah gosh she's so funny. then shira grabbed one whole mouthfull and said it wasnt bad either! (:
this was just one of the many many times the scholars and locals exchanged ideas and shared culture. its great.
we reached our destination after a long hike for about 3 or 4 hours for 3km.i think.
we ended up at camp 1! i mean, outside camp one. we reached our goal, which was to finish trekking before 5.30. yay so we could properly SHOWER. it was like everyone's motivation. (:
camp 1 is so nice. like chalet. linhui so lucky! they even have a training pool. and nice toilets which dont stink. so good.
we spilt up into cooking committees and pitching committees. i cook! hahaha. amazing hor! haah.
we had all the can food for dinner, cos we didnt want to carry.
oh dinner was so happy and very HIGHH.(:
hillary was bonded after trekking and we didnt stay so cliquish alr. then we went to shower
IT WAS SOOO NICE.
didnt shower for more than like 48 hours.
then can all go shit.
so charlene wee. being very lame. came up with a new word that i still find super funny.
"i shat already."
right.hahha. past tense of shit. i thought its shitted but shat sounds much funnier(:
anyway.
at night we played 3 games.
first was like minesweeper, but its called: my (kiah hong)'s mine field.
must step step and find your way across. haha.
tracy lam was the first to go across. then after that quite easy alr.
next was the game we played at pb camp. the arrow one. just nice, it was mooer's game! (:
sharon and i were like. orrrhhh! so easy.
then last was the so called mini amazing race around camp 1. again, teamwork definitely showed(:
and somehow sometime, sharon mutated kiah hong's name to GAY HONG.
heheh!
night time!
before sleeping tracy tracy and shira were damn lame.
tracy lam likes this jap singer called KAME (kah-mae.)
so i was like. sounds like a sushi!
then shira and i laughed non-stop, until now im still laughing.
cos we were both imagining a singing sushi! HAHAHHAHAHA.
so like.
we were imagining at sakae sushi we say:
can i have a kame?
HAHHAHAHA. lame.
thursday, 22nd january.
the end was reaching, but yet we weren't happy. i wanted like. another 2 more days or something. hahahah.
woke up early again to the loud whispering of CHARLENE WEE and RATANA WILDBOAR.
belaying practice.
i love falling(:
even though tracy lam almost flew up when i was falling down HAHA.
proceed onto the inverse tower, chimney and z-z log.
i got stuck at the cargo net. dropped. shit. should have gone further. too scared. heh.
but i was glad to have xu zhen support me on the way up!(:
we all took turns to be climbers and belayers and supporters.
i love belaying! hahah. but alot of friction when the person coming down.
we ate lunch, and trekked back.
quite short, but still fun.
tracy and tracy always trek together. hahaha.
when going down the steps we were supposed to count 1-2-1-2. so that we wont trip. it would be disastrous if we tripped. but the 1-2-1-2 became 1-2-3-4-5..... 52! HAHAHA.
so lame
we ended up counting the steps.
right.
being back at camp 2 after long expeditions was great. we unpacked, and kept equipment. and showered too! hhaha yay. in the make toilet. so empty compared to the female toilets!(:
celebration dinner!
ingredients:
10 eggs (these made me ESTATIC.), rice, luncheon meat, carrots, baked beans, long beans, onions, garlic and mushrooms. plus left over luo han chai.ew.
it was great discussing our menu.
hillary's dinner menu:
for starters:
baked beans and scrambled eggs.
for main course:
long beans and ommelette
luncheon meat and carrots
stir fried long beans, mushrooms,onions and carrots
stir fried cabbage, and what ah. carrots ah.
and rice of course.
for desert:
toasted bread with jam
who's drooling?
i know i am(:
cooking was so chaotic but fun.
like some hawker in the 60s, squat on the floor and fry(:
we gave 1 messtin full of food to gay hong, and then after that he came back saying:
waaah. im too full. eh. i threw 1/2 away. i want to vomit already!
oh gosh. all our blood boiled and eyes watered.
we took like 1 hr plus to fry leh!
(revenge is coming up haha.)
anyway. dinner was so cheerful.
than ratana wildboar ask me go watch sunset.
it was like. in the middle of blue and yellow so there was green it was so beautifulllll:D
oh the scholars said
any 2 people who see the green light right as the sun is setting will be very xing fu.
HAHAHHA
but no. im straight.
(:
anyway. it was so nice. tried so hard to take a nice photo for me to draw or paint man.
200s
which is about 3 mins 20 secs.
it was this continuous race that every watch has to play and complete in 200s.
gosh this was my favourite part of the whole camp.
hillary was the first to set a record! YAY.
but like 1 minute later, raleigh over took us by 2 seconds.
suddenly, all of hillary's white blood cells appeared and we immediately say, run again.
wow. our fighting spirit was ever-so- strong!
and red blood cells too(:
hhahhah.
in the end, we improved then deproved, but again, we were still happy to run together.
win together, lose together:D
became sticky all over again.
hahah
slept in the training shack.
shira took all the blanket and i woke up teeth chattering and whole body shivering.
why is it so cold in the morning?
is it because our obs journey is coming to an end?
friday, 23rd jaunary.
sad sad day.
woke up cold outside and inside.
we took many photos, packed bags and found lost stuff.
shermaine, tracy and shira found my sleeping bag!
i was so happy. i screamed while washing the pot.
sharing circle. replay of all the obs moments. so sad.
dismissed, left camp 2.
i didnt wanna leave okay.
obs is really a truly great experience that i would never forget.
the last 5 days, i spent out of my comfort zone, and i experienced and learnt new stuff i never thought i could do.
after this whole course,
even though there's going to be a new hillary with new people,
i hope tkgs '09 hillary would stay in our hearts forever.
i know it would stay in mine.
oh! i didnt talk about my new friend "circle" right?
(i bet when tracy lam reads this she'll show a diao face.)
circle is my worm friend i made during trekking.
its terribly cute, and it doesnt know where its going.
hence, it went in a circle(:
its so cute(:
ratana wildboar, im done now.
heheh. peekchas up another time. my whole house sleep alr. very scary.
ohno.
after sleeping in the wilderness,
and going through everything,
lets just say.
i'll get through any obstacle that comes my way(:
#TRACY``
THE LITTLE PEA
12:20 AM
