Sunday, September 11, 2005
♥ OBS

Morning! It's 9.30am in the morning and I'm wide awake! Haha, I actually woke up at 8am today. Let's talk about OBS! ^^"

Day 1
The bus drove us from school to Punggol Jetty, the place looked so ulu, like those typical crime scene for kidnaps, haha. Mood was high and excited. We were the first school to actually reach the place, hanged around for quite some time, before we took the boat to Pulau Ubin. Yay!

We assembled in the hall at OBS Camp 1, after sorting out the groups. There were 15 members in my watch, Tenzing. Andersonians include me, Ann, Grace, Weiching, Yilin, Arkar and Abelardo, Victorians Bryan, Benjamin, Wai Wan and Edmund, and from Chongboon Jia Ming, Liwei, Mika and Jovin. Our instructors were Juansa, Florence and Steven.

And then we sat in a cicle and played Identity Crisis. We were supposed to remember someone's name, likes and dislikes of the opposite sex and another school. Ha, and since there were odd number of people in my group, I did a self-introduction. ^^"

Juansa briefed us alot about our food rations and store. And then the group seperated into two, some to check the stuff in the store, and others to distribute the food rations in 15 portions. And then we saw our OBS backpacks for the first time, chose a number, and then packed the food into the bags. And then we filled our OBS waterbottles etc etc.

Then we had the rockwall climbing. We learnt belaying~~ So scary!! I can't remembered who I belayed, but whoever it was, he/she had been put in danger, lol. I think I was more nervous than the climber lol.

After that we went to our first campsite and Juansa taught us how to pitch tents and cook in the pots and mass tins. I left the cooking to the others, duh, and pitched the tents. By the time the food is cooked, it was already dark and we had to eat in the dark. The food was, erm, not that nice. The rice was half-cooked and honestly, the only thing I enjoyed eating was the canned sussages. =/

And then we cleaned our pots and mass tins at the beachfront with wet sand. We had to bury the food in a sand whole we dugged near the sea. Very disgusting. =X Anyway, we got detergent to clean the mass tins and pots again. Then we had a bath and all of us turned in. The first night was wonderful man, I could really sleep.

Day 2
We woke up early, unpitched the tents, had our breakfast (the rations) , brushed our teeth and packed our OBS backpacks with the clothes and stuff needed for the next two days. Then we met up Juansa where she briefed us again, about the things we need to take out of the store (the life vests, whistles etc) and how to pack our bags to make sure they don't sang-aeh. Lol.

When we were all ready, we set out for Campsite 2! The first time I carried the backpack, man, I really want to die. So heavy!! And then we walked to the Alphine Rescue area and played the game. We were supposed to carry a lifeboat of our waterbottles and ourselves across logs and platforms, and not land on the ground. I don't really know how to describe the thing but it just weren't as easy as I thought it should be. In any case, Tenzing did a great job! ^^" And we really bonded quite well together.

After that we loaded our backpacks again, and walked to Campsite 2, a short distance away. The place was meant for those on a residential course actually. But we got to enjoy the toilet and water supply there. And so we dropped our bags, had lunch (rations, again, I ate damn lot of prunes), refilled our waterbottles and met Juansa later on.

We did the high elements. Paired up with Weiching, and attempted the Double Dangle Duo. We couldn't get past the second log, and so we gave up. Arkar and Benjamin actually completed all 6 logs?! My idols, really.

And then we carried our backpacks to our camping grounds, laid them on the blue tarb (however you spell it) and pitched our tents. Dinner that night was provided by the cookhouse. Yay! We ate our dinner, washed our plates, bowls, cups and utensils and put them back into the locker. Then we bathed, and met with Juansa. We were late, but it doesn't matter, haha. After which we had supper in the cookhouse, green bean soup, and then we washed the bowls, had a debrief beside the swimming pool (woahhh) about the next day.

Turned in. The second night was not too bad because at least I could still get to sleep after some time. =)

Day 3
Woke up, unpitched tents, brushed up and went to the cookhouse for our breakfast. We had beehoon which was heavenly, lol. And then we washed up, and I stayed behind with Benjamin to let the cook do the check on our utensils and bowls. The key broke in the keyhole of the locker, lol. I was 0_0 when I saw the half of the key. Woah. We didn't have to pay, though. I don't know why.

We changed into our wet shoes and we started out kayaking!! :D We were introduced to it and I was so hyped up. -_- Capsizing was fun, haha. I partnered with Waiwan and pedalled out to let Juansa assess us. When all was done, we had lunch, refilled our waterbottles (two each) and then we set off! =) Bryan was the navigator and we peddalled a long long way. By then, Tenzing and Shackleton have combined to one Mobile D. We took one and a half hours for the journey, the other mobile took 4 hours lol.

The third campsite was not exactly a campsite. There were no water or toilet facilites. We drank from the water from water bottles and jerry cans. Toilets are the bushes. =X We went for the quarry dip. Very nice!! The water was so clear and cool. I was very afraid. Because the water is real deep, but I have the life vest lar, so it's okay. I was the first non-swimmer to jump, lol.

After that, we went back to our camping grounds to pitch our tents. The ground can't be pegged, so we had to tie the nylon twine to rocks. And so, the tents are very very very unstable. The knots, haiz, never mind. We cooked maggie mee =) and I ate. Then some of us went to the beach front to wash the mass tins, pots and utensils with wet sand. We had a debrief and then we went to bed.

With the unstable tents and all, I was really praying NO RAIN. The praying helped, until 5 plus in the morning.

Day 4
It poured, and the wind blew many tents down. The Shackleton guys were really helpful and protective of the girls, dashing out in the rain to grab ponchos for those in the tents (all tents were flooded with water). My tent was the first to collapse. =X We all stayed in because there was lightning and all, except for some guys, who were selfless and defended the team. ^^"

We got out when the rain got smaller, and I was shivering like crazy. The rain stopped after some time. By then the time was already 9 plus, we were supposed to meet the instructors very much earlier. I took off the poncho and started unpitching the tents. When all was done, I started getting really bad gastric aches. I couldn't even talk one full sentence without stopping. It was nice to see all care, but made me very paiseh, because some even started fire to make me milo. =/

I was okay after some time, loaded our backpacks, and walked to our start point for the hike. =) We were briefed, and seperated into Tenzing and Shackleton again. Benjamin was running a high fever, so he didn't join us for the hike. =(

We started out, with Abelardo and Bryan as navigators, in search of all the checkpoints. =) We stopped halfway for our lunch and chatted alot. Haha. The whole trail got easier towards the end. I became so energetic lol, although I didn't sleep at all the night before. I kept making Arkar tell me jokes lol.

"A helicopter was travelling round the globe. When it reaches the North Pole, it suddenly crash, why?"
"Because the pilot thought, very cold, so he turned off the fan *points above*"

Hahahahahaaa...

We reached our destination (Campsite 1) finally at 4 plus. Benjamin had came back from Sengkang Polyclinic and will be going home. So saddening. Then we washed our stuff (backpacks, ponchos, life vests etc), pitched up our tents, cooked maggie mee (I ate alot, really alot alot alot...), washed our mass tins, bathed, and finally turned in. The tent was sandy, lol, and I couldn't sleep well too.

Day 5
We woke up early, washed our tents, groundsheets, flysheets, laid them out to dry, and then we realised we have alot alot of time to stone. Lol. So we stoned, and tried to eat the huge amount of rations we had left.

Then we met up with Juansa, counted the things in the store, hanged back the tents etc, and went for our breakfast. So funny making fun of Bryan and his gu-niang-ness. The way he runs... lol.

Then we had our final debrief, a very touching one. ^^" A few girls cried, I didn't though. I was smiling, lol, because I was so happy, haha. As in, I wasn't happy to leave the place larh, but I was happy to have attended the course and have made friends. And I think I'm a better person already. Yar, and so I'm happy about that, and although I can't bear to have ended the course, I think it's a very happy memory to keep. =)

And then we were off! To the meeting place, ready to board boats back to mainland. We bought souvenirs from the store, crapped alot, and finally landed back to Singapore at around 3.

THE END OF THE OBS COURSE!! =)

I ate KFC after that. I really missed soft drinks. Lol. ^^"

Yesterday
Woke up at 8am, went to the Civic centre for some submission of some forms, I don't know what exactly are those. Met up with Anson, took MRT to Somerset and met with Sheryl, Naomi and Jiahao.

Then we went to KBox. =) We sang a few songs, then I went down to fetch Sokmui up. And then we sang sang sang, sang Sheryl birthday song, ate the birthday cake, the lunch (I still ate the most... I was very hungry). I did abit of the Maths Specimen Paper with the help of Anson's copy. Yes, refer closely, haha.

And then we took MRT to City Hall, and walked to Millenia Walk because Jiahao needed to test the piano for his coming piano exam. And so we spent our time there till 4.30pm.

And then we took MRT to Bishan and had the Earthquake at Swensens. Very nice ^^". Treated by Sheryl's mum, the KBox too. Very disgusting to watch Naomi eat, as usual, lol. =)

And then we went to MacDonalds because Naomi wanted to eat fries. Uh huh, then we went to take neoprints, twice. Then I went to Hang Ten to buy school shoes, and then we had nowhere to go, so we went home.

The end of my day yesterday. =)

`What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. -Anonymous