Mee Siam Mai Hum

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Allievated at last from the tortures of camp. Too many things to blog, nothing I can remember. Oh my... Before I delve into the finer and more boring details of the camp, I shall illustrate an example of being too smart.

Having lost my pencil case, my mum was lecturing me.
#@*^$*^!@$&*#@!%$&^!@%!!!!
"Ok..."
"Orh..."
"Ni nong bu jian xiao de mei na me xin teng, ni bu jian na me da de!!!"
"Na xiao de ke yi bu jian la!"
WHACK~!!!
Okay, so I was hit. For acting smart. Not particularly humorous, but the moral of the story is evident. LOL...

Okay back to camp. This will be exceptionally long and lengthy with all the irrelevant details thrown in, because I have lost my camp reflection sheet (which I wrote almost a thousand words in...) and am currently left with no other alternative to record the happenings reliably. Without a timetable too.
First thing on Monday we had our usual long list of awards and achievements... first second and third in a Chinese Speech competition. Wootz (thats a word...)!! Never mind, nothing to do with me. Then we prepared for our long awaited science test. With ever increasing trepidation, we trudged in resolute silence towards our graveyards. Our first ever examination in Hwa Chong. Relating back to P1 and P4, I never felt this afraid. Perhaps it was because of the intense pressure to do well, having had my MSG pulled down by Lit, English and Geography. The oh-ever-so evil teachers (joking...) made us keep all our notes and "cheating devices" in our bags and put them at the back. Utterly defenceless, we began our barehanded defence against a wall of AK47s. The exam was easier than I had thought. Forgot some basic stuff like how to read vernier calipers, but that's beside the point. I remembered the 4 equations of motion. Wow... and forgot to bring my pencil. Thankfully OSS lent one to me. Yeah and my stapler was being passed around like god-knows-what. From a fully loaded set of staples, it came back empty. I suspect someone took it. After I had finished my paper I sat back and slacked for the remaining 2 minutes.

*NOTICE* The following might be rude or disrespectful in SOME areas. But no profanities, no vulgarities, no flaming.

The iSparkies stood at roll call in the warm sunshine, feeling the gales in our hair, lugging huge backpacks/luggages/handcarries/plastic bags. My carrier of choice was a nice big backpack that had a dual function as a trolley. I didn't use it at all, except to piss some people that I didn't have to lug my stuff around like they did. Enduring some bruisings and a din of madness, we arrived at Chinese Gardens, where the Aphelionians (dumb name) were already seated. Taunting us. Bleargh... they didn't have to sit for an exam did they. Preliminary briefings lasted for an hour, after which we created a groupname and groupcheer. Rather monotonous and boring, forecasting the future like some old geomancer. Someone suggested polarbear, then piggy, then humans, then birdies, then crows, then hummingbirds. Then some smart aleck (yeah, its me.) came up with the ugly name "falcon" that strangely reminds one of a bad word. Well people laughed then we settled with it. The art geniuses designed the campflag while the "literary geniuses" (snortz... we just the leftovers sia...) got to work with the cheer. Thirty minutes later we still were a disorganised bunch of losers with no concrete ideas. So we gave up and ate lunch. Which wasn't exactly nice. Decent. But not nice. Too bland and dry. Not like the soupy mess with lots of gravy I liked. Forced it down that stubborn gullet, with much opposition and friction.

Then team activities. Our group of 20 consisted of me, Yuxuan, Muk, Peter, OSS and others which I can't remember. First we trudged off to build a ropebridge. Dum-dee-dum... Nothing much happened here. People slogged... While slackers like me threw sticks into the river until we got scolded, then we did 5BX until we got scolded, then we gathered dry grass and put them in a pile. Testimonial to our "sianness". Soon the operation was called to a halt where I made a smartalecky comment about the group not having a leader. Yuxuan elected leader unanimously with some sabotage from Yin Hong. He was rolling his eyes, cocking his head and laughing. We continued slacking while the almighty Xuanxuan tried to coordinate our forces in a skirmish against the mighty ropes. Wrestling with the head and the tail, the supply lines and the all-important general, we were called to halt again! About slackers this time. Fingered the grass while he droned on... Nearly fell asleep. Yusof got a lot of saliva... What the... fifteen minutes later we started again, whereby the other team had already completed the bridge. Wootz. Their trees were shaped perfectly for the purpose, whereas ours... Whatever so we continued slacking. Called to a halt again for the same reason, blah blah. Grrrrr.... finally we got more coordinated and cooperative and more communicative because the instructors came to inspect and help us upfront.

Toilet break whereby the 60 of us squeezed into one toilet. The smarter ones used the Ladies, but being a prudish person, compromising my dignity was perhaps a little too much. Scolded for being late by a few seconds. (NO SENSE OF URGENCY) I decided Instructor Yusof wasn't a nice person in the least. Uncle Zailee much better. Lecture cum debrief... anyway this demonstrates my disregard and despise of corporal authority (nvm if no such phrase, I create it!), or any forced authority for that matter.

War games. Altar carriers included 5 1L people and the ever so cute (not in the gay sense.) Wei Xiang, chairman of 1M. We made a flimsy altar. It soon became evident that the wargames were going to be rather lame. And organised. Which is totally NOT the purpose of war. War is to rout, not to build friendships. They got the name wrong. Yusof kept scolding us for not doing our stuff, etc etc. War games commenced. Our altar got hit right away. But we still endured and got past the area. The altar down, they hit us HARD with the catapult-launched projectiles (plastic bags filled with dirty riverwater. AARGGH). We got past stinking and horribly drenched. We drew in the end, courtesy of a Javen and Jitwoon performance. Flouting the rules by venturing into the safety zone, we got a 10 minute squatting cum lecture session after that. Thanks, Yusof! Disqualified for that round.

Dinner was almost exactly the same thing. Mealtimes where you and sit around and idle and chat and do extra stuff like exploration woefully short.

Followed by an interesting activity. Blindfolding ourselves we walked in a line, using the person in front as a guide. I heard someone got molested, but thats ALSO beside the point. Think its only rumours... couldn't have a boy molesting a BOY? Nearly tripped, which would have disastrous consequences. Then Night Reflection. Showering in the Ladies, due to the inherent lack of toilets. Shall not elaborate, the intricate details are rather embarrassing to relate, especially by a prude like me. The day passed awfully slow. Time crawls when you are being tormented. Regretted joining the camp. 6 hours of glorious sleep.

Next morning Nasi Lemak bright and early. Muk ate 2 1/2 servings. I ate 3/4. OSS ate almost nothing. Warmups which were self explanatory, then the trek. 7 km through dangerous and uncharted terrain, lugging lots of stuff. Couldn't use the trolley because I tied my stuff to my bag. It weighed around 12 kg. 4 cm straps that were going to break anytime. Couple that with GSW's incessant remarks. Blessed torture. After 2 hours we reached, soles worn. OUCH! Brilliant. Alvin collapsed and was sent to the nearest polyclinic.

Lunch nothing much happened. Tents also inconsequential. Clement was looking very moody and I suggested he was suffering from mapleosis. The symptoms one experience when you are away from beloved Maplestory. Thank heavens I kicked that stupid addiction. A little too late though. Sob. My PSLE results... bleargh. Shall not elaborate. Then we had a treasure hunt! With lots of stops. I remember I had a million things to blog about here. But somehow I have forgotten them all now. Travelling in the unfamiliar Bukit Batok district, we wandered aimlessly with our oh-ever-so-sadistic instructors, who clearly knew our destination. They taught us a chiobu cheer which we were to do when we saw a chiobu. Something about wolfwhistles. Passed by Hillgrove Secondary. Paikia school. There was a group of 5 loitering at the voiddeck. 3 boys 2 girls. They were dressed unappropriately, even though in uniform. Shaking their legs and smoking. Kept staring at them. They looked very "buaysong" but they didn't dare antagonise the mighty force of iSparkies! See we so "zai"! Later we regretted not calling the police, because we would be portrayed as heroes.
"Hwachong pupils help crack student-led syndicate!"
Yeah that crap. Hwachong is discriminated against in the tabloids. When they quote IP schools they only quote ACS(I) and RI. Though we clearly are superior. Come on!
We wandered aimlessly for 2 hours, then headed back to camp where we did an obstacle course that was boring. (Because I am in a rush, I shall summarize things.) The campfire was called off due to unforeseen bad weather, thus we used luminous sticks in place. We still cheered loud. Whatever. Then we slept under the crude shelter of the basketball court "due to unforeseen and possible bad weather". The 1M chairman is really a nice person. He's from NCC, of course nice.... du-uh. Showering at the toilet was pretty much hell. 20 people in 15 minutes. Uninterrupted slumber that had been hard to induce soon came automatically.

The next day we unpitched the tents that we hadn't slept in and did random duties about. Bill got injured in the eye area by GSW. GSW's a walking catastrophe I guess... Then we went back to school. Its hard to describe the sheer euphoria that descends when you see your school for the first time in 3 days. Its like that every Monday. Taylor got an award for best buddy. Then we had to stay back.

First the Proed and Ortus consortiums could go.
Then the Aphelion consortium
Then the 1m and 1n
Then the rest

The slow ones like me had to help clean up. I picked up a luminous rod so that was rewarding. Thats about it. Need to rush ANGLES then hopefully my essay assignment. I feel in the mood for writing. Shall not waste this sporadic outburst.

2L @ 2:46 PM
"Sorry also must exprain"
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Hello Uncle...Bah Chor Mee one. I want chilli plus tur Kwa plus can I watch your CCTV playback of Jeff Lopez...=D