Posted on Monday, 30 June 2008
The past 5 days had indeed been pretty crazy for me. from wed-fri (25-27 June'08), i was doing Guangyang Sec 2 leadership and adventure camp. it was special in a way as it was kok choy's 1st camp as a CIC. in addition, it was nice going back to Guangyang Sec as i had done their Sec 1 day event back in March. when i was walking down to the canteen, i heard someone shout "Potato!", and i looked back, it was my favorite female camper from my group during the day event, called rachel. she was together with another few more people, whereby some of them were from my group that time too. it was really nice to see them again, especially when they still remembered me after 3 months. when i was sitting in the canteen having my breakfast, i saw many eyes looking at me, giving me the "do i know you?" look. haha! nevertheless, it was really nice to see the Sec 1s again. =)
Day 1 of camp (25th June'08)
When i finally met my group at the hall, the 1st impression that the entire group was really bad, as the majority of them gave me the "i don't feel like coming to camp" look. i was really blessed by God for the time as a camp facilitator as He always gives me a group whereby they will be obedient and listen to me, and can be gelled together very well and display very good teamwork. when i look at my group, then i asked myself, will this be the 1st camp that i will be cui? (cui=lousy campers+no teamwork+add in all those negative stuff in a lousy group) then i told myself, never mind, no matter how bad it may be, it will not be that bad.
Upon reaching the campsite, what can make things worse->having campfire preparation as the 1st activity after safety briefing. what a way to kick-start the camp! as usual, they did not come out with something constructive, so i just carried on with kayaking and rafting. lucky for my group, as our kayaking is the 2nd slot, so we need NOT carry the kayaks down, and we need NOT carry kayaks up; thus, in this way, we saved quite a lot of time. kayaking was really nice, as my group managed to all stand on the raft-up kayak, and sing twinkle twinkle little star while clapping their hands. when they were singing the song, i could slowly sense a little bit of teamwork spirit in them le... after kayaking, we did rafting. as time was pretty tight, they did not manage to finish tying the barrels to their raft, so i decided to simulate like what i did for Kent Ridge Sec camp, asked all of them to sit on their raft, and imagine that they are out at sea, while i spray water at them. it worked perfectly well for Kent Ridge Sec camp, whereby my campers practically went crazy. initially, i was afraid that it may backfire for Guangyang Sec, fortunately, it worked well for me and the campers went crazy too! =) with the magic combination of kayaking and rafting, it was able to unleash the teamwork spirit in my group and slowly, strong bonds of friendship are forged.
During their 1st dinner at jbac, i requested them to shout 'POTATO!' after the hungry cheer, which is actually my test on them whether they will support me or not, willingly or unwillingly. they did a pretty good job and shouted 'POTATO!' loud enough to make an impression. after dinner, it was KIDNAPPED! although my group did not come in 1st, they displayed very good teamwork spirit and perservered throughout the activity. to me, KIDNAPPED! is always a turning point for the group; whereby if they enjoyed the activity and showed very good teamwork, it will work well for the group, but if they do NOT enjoy the activity and did not show any good qualities, then the group will have a very hard time to gel together and put up something decent for campfire.
Day 2 of camp (26th June'08)
The first 2 activites were general stations and low elements. we managed to attempt golden finger, all-on-board, rebirth, high and low wall, broken bridge and 2-line traverse. throughout all the stations, my group managed to display very good and commendable teamwork spirit, whereby they were willing to help and encourage one another to complete the stations and most importantly, overcome the time challenges i had set for them. after lunch, we did challenge rope course; whereby i managed to clear half of my group. after that, it was abseiling; whereby i managed to clear ALL of my campers, except for Joshua who had a backache. after abseiling, it was campfire preparations again. in the end, as they really got nothing constructive or decent to perform during campfire, i decided to teach them Tarzan and Jane; whereby i was kinda sad when Charles and Kelvin (from Grp 10) decided to not do the dance. however, as i said, it is challenge by choice, if you do not want to do, i will respect that. after the dance, i taught them about 6-7 cheers, which is my standard i set for my campers after performances. during campfire, they really went crazy for me, and put up a very good performance and cheered really loud for me. it was pretty obvious which group's cheer was the loudest. judging from the performance, my group really deserved the treat from me - potato chips and Coke! =)
Day 3 of camp (27th June'08)
My group got to wash the staff toilet, while Grp 10 cleared the campfire pit. luckily, my group listened to my instructions to how to wash the toilet, and they cleaned the toilets with a smile on their faces. it was really very touching and heartwarming when they could actually work together as a team to wash the toilets, especially when they all come from different classes. i nearly teared when they gave me their PE t-shirt as a memento. overall, it was a very good and nice camp =)))
To Grp 9: I hope you all enjoyed camp, just like how i did too. please do not forget the values that i had taught you all at camp. if there's anywhere i did wrong and caused discomfort to you all, i apologize. i believe this camp will be as memorable as it is as memorable to me. take care! study hard! pass your exams with flying colors! =)))))
ACTSCALIBRE CAMP (27-29 June'08)
After Guangyang camp, i went straight to ACTSCALIBRE camp, which was held at NTU. although i was very tired and shagged out, i decided to just hold on there and press on with the camp. red bull did the magic, plus the $1 cheng-teng from Canteen 5. haha! =) overall, the activites were really very well-planned and were really very fun and engaging! i just got a few shout-outs to make:
SIM freshies: Without you all, there's no point of having this camp. thanks for participating actively in the camp. your never-say-die spirit is indeed commendable. you all never fail to surprise us and seeing you all working hard together with us for all the activities is really very heartwarming and touching, especially for the last night, when you gave each of us a personalized memento and a lollipop, which really caught us by surprise. thanks a million and look forward to seeing you all in school! =)))
SIM seniors: Without you all, this camp would not be successful too. we all know that this camp and the activities before camp are to allow the freshies to assimilate into our SIM culture and forge a strong friendship bond with us. i feel that all of us deserve a pat on our backs, and we should carry on the friendships forged with them, especially they are starting school soon! =)))
ACTSCALIBRE committee: Thanks a lot for organizing this matriculation program for the freshies. the activities are indeed very fun and shows that a lot of hard work has been put in for this ACTSCALIBRE. Thanks again and God bless! =)))))
SOUTH AFRICA ROCKS!~!
potato signing off 6:04 pm
Photos =)
Posted on Wednesday, 25 June 2008
potato signing off 12:10 am
Posted on Tuesday, 24 June 2008
21.06.08attended a HOT WHEELS event organized by ACTSCALIBRE. it's held at pasir ris park; whereby there are 2 parts to the event. 1st part is cycling relay; whereby we had to cycle 1 big round around half the park, using single and double bike respectively. initially, we were at 2nd place, till our single and double bikes both broke down, resulting in us coming in LAST. however, it was still FUN and teamwork is ever-existent in our SIM team, SOUTH AFRICA!!! in the 2nd part of the event, it's called MASTERMIND; whereby we had to guess the sequence of the color combination. liping contributed significantly to the success of coming in 2nd for MASTERMIND, not forgetting the people who contributed physically to the event; namely ah cong, michelle and ME! haha! because of this event, we rose from 6th position to 5th position (just fyi, there are 12 countries altogether.) i'm so looking forward to ACTSCALIBRE camp, happening from 27th-29th june, which is a good close to my holidays as my school is starting on 30th june. =))) GO SOUTH AFRICA!~!
after service, went to Cheryl's place for a mini catch-up cum gathering session over steamboat and apple streudel. it was nice seeing her again, and most importantly, i can see that she's very very much in love with han wei, which to me, as her daddy, i'm really really very happy that she had found someone whom she loves so dearly. all the best between you and him k? =)))
22.06.08went down camp office for pre-camp brief (pcb) for kok choy's very 1st camp, guangyang secondary 2 leadership and adventure camp! it was really nice seeing an old friend in HA becoming a CIC, remembering the times when he was an EFI and i was an instructor... anyway, the pcb was short and sweet, as all the instructors had done jbac camps before. to kokster: don't be too stressed over your camp, me and the rest of the instructors will go all OUT to make sure your 1st camp is a ROARING SUCCESS!!! =)
after pcb, me, ahmad, natalie, yuanshan, adha, jestyn, kailee, maiosia went down to Liang Seah St for a good steamboat dinner. among all of us, i think adha enjoyed the food the most, eating and not talking for most of the time when we were there. haha! to sum it up, steamboat dinner was satisfying and GOOD! after dinner, i managed to psycho yuanshan to sponsor me the scooping game; whereby yuanshan contributed $30, ahmad $40, jestyn $20, myself $10->altogether, $100 worth of tokens, imagine that!!! the jackpot prize that we were aiming for is the pair of hippo, which is super duper cute! i started playing, while the rest cheered on. i spent almost $20, then ahmad and jestyn started playing the same game beside us. at the $50+ dollar, the roulette hit JACKPOT and everybody screamed man! haha! as there were 4 girls (maiosia, kailee, natalie,yuanshan), we decided to play the scooping game again, so as to get 2 pairs of hippo for them. i continued from where ahmad and jestyn stopped. in the end, after spending about another $40+ dollars, we got another JACKPOT and won another pair of hippo. we weighed the total amount of candies gotten, it was 1.7kg; whereby i managed to psycho the staff there to allow us to exchange for 2 Last Night Before Christmas soft toys; whereby supposedly, we need 2kg to exchange. me and jestyn each got 1 of the toys; thus, leaving ahmad with NO toys. on hand, we were left with 10 tokens. i tried 2 tokens at the big mickey mouse, but failed. i tried another 4 tokens at small mickey mouse, but failed. thus, with the last 4 tokens remaining, i decided to try and catch the mini hedgehog. once the 1st 2 out of the 4 tokens remaining was inserted, i told ahmad that if the last 2 tokens were not able to catch a toy, do not cry. haha! i failed on the 1st attempt; whereby i decided to try my luck with the LAST 2 tokens. while all of us are waiting for the countdown, ahmad asked me what does FATE means in the roulette wheel behind, then i told him it means that once the arrow stops at FATE, the grip on the pincers will be extremely tight, and is so-called sure get de. then as the countdown hits 0, the arrow on the roulette stopped at FATE, and we won the toy!!! it's simply unbelieveable man!!! all of us were screaming and shouting! haha! in the end, all of us each got a toy, and everyone went home with a smile of their faces. after all of us reached home, i drove to amk hub to pick up yuanshan, ahmad and adha, as they coming over to my place to stayover as we need to report to Compassvale Sec at 7am for a day event. by the time all of us reached my home, it was already 2.15am. i suggested going to watch the EURO 2008 Quarter-Final match, Spain vs Italy at the nearby 24hr coffeeshop. the rest ok-ed and we walked to the coffeeshop. it was a pretty boring match, with a little bit of excitement here and there. in the end, after 90min of match time, 30min of extra time, Spain won Italy in penalties. it was nice watching soccer again, after so many years... after the match, we went back to my place and caught about 30min of rest, then we made our way to Compassvale Sec le...
23.06.08it was pretty good day event for Compassvale Sec 4/5. it was my 1st time taking sec 4/5 students; whereby my group 11 is all made up of sec 5 campers, all coming from Sec 5B. there were 2 main actitivities for the day: Multi-Level Captain's Ball(MLC) and Casualty Challenge(CS). i felt that my campers enjoyed the MLC more than CS, myself included. with the existence of Mark in my group, who is from cross-country and very fit and agile, we came in 1st for MLC! despite having 3 defenders guarding against our captain catching the balls, we still came in 1st! Well done POTATO!!! =))) after MLC, i suddenly had a very sharp stomach cramp, which caused me to cannot even stand up. i prayed hard to God to take away the pain as i need to conduct CS, and miraculously, i felt no pain and managed to finish conducting CS. overall, it was still a pretty good event. =)
to Compassvale Sec 5B Group 11: although it may be a short 1 day event, please remember the importance of teamwork in whatever you all do. cherish the friendships you all share with one another in the class, especially this is the last year together in school already. all the best in your upcoming O levels, and trust me, you reap what you sow. Jiayou! you all can do it de! i have absolute faith and confidence in you all! =)))
dear lord, please bless every single one in compassvale sec 5b group 11 to have the wisdom and knowledge to get through their O levels, giving them strength during their mugging times, not forgetting to bless them with good health to take their exams in their best ever conditions. may you also bless them to pass their O levels with flying colors and get into their dream institutions. in Jesus's most precious name i pray, amen. =)
potato signing off 2:41 pm
Posted on Friday, 20 June 2008
19.06.08met maiosia for scooping and dinner. she agreed to treat me to a round of the scooping game, so we decided to meet at bugis junction. before going to play the scooping game, we went to MOS Burger for a BIG cup of milk tea to soothe our throats before going down to play the scooping game. after the drink, we went down to the scooping machine and started our $30 massacre! haha! i decided to play for the Stitch clock, whereby it's in the shape of a mini-surfboard, and the clock is in the centre of the surfboard. (hope
she will like it.) after scooping, went to liang seah street; whereby there is this stall that sells pretty delicious hokkien mee. we ordered $8 hokkien mee, $15 tou fu ring with seafood inside and $8 lemon fried chicken. to sum it all up! DELICIOUS!~! after dinner, went to Starbucks and chilled and nua-ed over coffee. it was a nice catching-up session with my ex-mirror for serangoon sec =)))
20.06.08met chermaine for brunch. it was the 1st time meeting up after several exchanges of smses. it was nice and funny, as we 2 could break the ice easily and enjoy one another's company. she is going to be my UB junior, so must take extra good care of her. hee;) met jaclyn after that to help me waive her registration fee for signing up a new Singtel line. she managed to get a number that is nice and similar to her house number and IC number =)
~potato is looking forward to kok choy's 1st camp~
potato signing off 7:54 pm
Posted on Wednesday, 18 June 2008
kent ridge secondary 3
camp resilience 2008
group 1: jagabee
andrea.joell.clara.clement.atika.junyuan.esther.
zhihui.hweiying.beverly.hazman.dalila.alvin.sufi.
mr mohd basheer
it's already 9.12pm le... by right, after i break camp, i will go lunch with instructors, then head home and bathe and sleep till the next day. however, for today, after kent ridge camp, we instructors went to jurong entertainment centre for lunch. after lunch, we decided to go watch get smart, which is a super duper funny agent movie. despite our tiredness, the humor managed to keep us awake till the end of the movie. after movie, is a 24-stop mrt journey home..
this camp is indeed special to me, just like the past camps that i did. at every start of the camp before i actually meet my campers, i will always pray that my campers will be obedient and participative; thus, in this way, i will not be screaming and shouting, resulting in a waste of precious energy. for this camp, kent ridge sec 3, group 1 aka jagabee, they were a bunch of fun-loving and respectful campers. at the start, they were very quiet, with the exception of hazman and sofi, the 2 noisy male vessels. lol! and also, i appointed hazman to be the group leader.
day 1
our 1st activity was kayaking, whereby they really enjoyed themselves, as the bulk of them never tried kayaking before. joell was forcedfully thrown into the sea, haha! (sorry!) anyway, kayaking was indeed a good ice-breaking activity for my group. after that, i taught them the dance steps for tarzan and jane. they responded positively to the song, and were pretty excited. after dinner, it was kidnapped! i purposely chose hazman to be the kidnappee, so as to see whether with the absence of the leader, can the group still function properly and well. in the end, they really overcome all odds, and not only they managed to complete all tasks successfully without hazman, they came in first for kidnapped! tell me tell me who's the best! jagabee jagabee is the best! =)))
day 2
we did challenge rope course and rock wall. dalila impressed me a lot at challenge rope course. it is because although she had a fear of heights, she still attempted the multi-line traverse and pole and tire. she was practically crying and screaming all the way, but ultimately, she overcame her fear and did it! i'm so proud of you, dalila! =) during rock wall, most of my group attempted, and then mojo pull stunt on me, psycho-ing my campers to ask me to climb the rock wall to show them too. luckily, mojo was the belayer and helped me quite a bit, if not, i don't think i can reach the top of the rock wall. after lunch, we had general stations; whereby we did pole and tire, all on board, and high and low wall. my group displayed pretty great team spirit, and what really touched me is that hwei ying was supported by the entire group to participate in all the general station activities, and hwei ying also displayed a very positive participative spirit for those activites. good job to my "channel 8 reporter", hwei ying! =) after general stations, we went for abseiling. again, hwei ying managed to overcome all odds and tried abseiling. glad that you enjoyed yourself, hwei ying! after abseiling, supposed to do zipline, but in the end, it started to rain; thus, cancelled. zipline -> ghost-story telling session. most of my group was freaked out, and it was cut short as the weather cleared up and i decided to go for rafting, even though the session left 45min only. after my group constructed the raft, and there is insufficient time to go down to sea, i simulated them going into sea by using the water hose to spray at them. i can see that they really enjoyed themselves, and they were actually smiling while dismantling the raft. right before dinner, we practiced our tarzan and jane dance and cheer medley, and i'm praying hard that jagabee will pull through the campfire performance. in the end, jagabee really "get high" and danced damn well and shouted damn loud during the cheer medley. to jun yuan, thanks for shouting for me, your losing of voice proves it all! =)
day 3
we instructors balloted to see which area to clean; whereby in the end, i got to clean female toilet. i was like what the **, as i also washed toilet for xin min secondary camp last week. luckily for elaine, she helped me coordinate and washed the toilet for me, while i was writing my comments to my campers outside the toilet. jagabee did a really good job of washing the toilet, and passed the check by chee wah! =)))
to jagabee:
thanks to all 14 of you for showing me the support throughout the camp. i really appreciate every single one of your contributions to the group. i sincerely hope that you all had enjoyed camp and hope that the values that i taught you all will be learnt and applied to your daily lives. take care and study hard!
p.s. to esther, i really very disappointed in you leh.. went off, never even say goodbye to me. anyway, hope that you will get to read the comment i wrote in your camp booklet and take care and all the best in your future endeavors~
~potato will miss jagabee~
potato signing off 9:05 pm
Posted on Friday, 13 June 2008
just woke up from a 16hour slumber... just break camp from xin min sec 2 leaders' camp yesterday. what more can i say? i'm indeed god-blessed again, giving me a group of 19 lovable kids, who are obedient and well-disciplined. 4 days 3 nights seemed to pass in a jiffy; thus proving that when one is having fun, time really flies!
belay school->kayaking->blind men's walk->general stations+low elements->zipline->abseiling->kidnapped!->rock wall->challenge rope course->campfire preparations->nature rumble->campfire!=> all these activites seem to go past in a flash! i especially enjoyed nature rumble as we attempted a new route; whereby the ending will be a mini waterfall, which is super shiok and nice. through the waterfall, we can do a wash-up there, and save on the time needed for a wash-up at boat shed. abseiling and zipline were nice too, as i managed to clear all 19 of them; whereby a couple of them have fear of heights and managed to conquer them=) campfire was superb, even though there were only 5 groups. the overall mood and tempo of the campfire was high!
message to all the xin min sec 2 leaders: you all made a choice and decided to come for the 4d3n camp. having fun is secondary; whereby taking the values that you learnt in camp and apply back to your ccas. that is the main objective of this camp. the spirit and attitude you all gave in for the camp is not wasted, as you all can see from the campfire. therefore, unleash your leadership potential in your ccas, and serve to lead! =)))
potato signing off 11:42 am
Posted on Friday, 6 June 2008
today woke up at 945am to give
someone a morning call, then went back to sleep for a while more, before waking up to go lunch with my parents. before going to beach road (as i got to buy bootees) for lunch, we went to this levi's warehouse sale at aljunied; whereby the jeans were at a crazy sale. however, the drawback is that the jeans there do not have sizes, so you have to use measuring tape to measure the size (dumb right?! haha!) spent almost an hour there, then went to beach road for the famous chilli noodle (must try man!!!) finally bought my pair of bootees and an inflatable pillow for
someone (hope that she will take it!) =) after lunch, went off to bugis junction to meet jaclyn. chilled over starbucks coffee at macs, then carried on with donuts fiesta at j co donuts and coffee. it was a nice catch-up cum chilling session, and i'm really happy that things between me and her can be resolved and we can be friends again. =))
"love is a beautiful thing. what for be so upset. if it's yours, it's yours. if not, just wait for the next one"
potato signing off 10:54 pm
Posted on Thursday, 5 June 2008
just woke up from a 15hr slumber... cos yesterday just break camp from tampines sec camp; in addition, the last night of camp i only slept for 45min!!! haha =) now i shall formally update all the camps i did after fairfield methodist sec camp.
serangoon sec 2 camp @ jbac (14-16 may'08)it's a camp with student leaders assisting us=we don't need to do belaying. hee;) it's also the 2nd camp in 2008 i'm doing for andrew since east view sec 3 camp in jan'08. 1st day was rather low, as the student leaders do not take the initiative and were unsure of their purpose in camp. after the grilling and prep talk during 1st night's debrief, the student leaders became much more better on the 2nd day, and campfire was indeed a bang! =) a million thanks to my student leaders for assisting me and maio sia, plus a million million thanks to my class for making this camp possible! =)))
hope church camp @ sji (16-19 may'08)just break camp from serangoon, went for lunch with the instructors then reached home at 2pm. went to sleep till 7pm, then parents fetched me to marina south pier for church camp at sji. i was indeed shagged out by then, but thank god for the 5hours nap i had before reporting to marina south pier. i did have my restrictions with regards to the church camp, as i do not know what to expect from a church camp. but in the end, i still went and thank god that i did not choose to not go for the camp. at the end of the camp, it was indeed a refreshing and enlightening experience for me, and it also reaffirmed my faith for god. =)))
bedok view sec 2 camp @ lac (20-22 may'08)this is my 1st time doing a camp at lac, whereby the previous time i was there was when i co-hosted chijtp pri 5 campfire with veron =) i was a bit sad that i did not get to be chosen to do andrew's bedok view sec 3 camp, but never mind, doing a camp is for campers, not for cic. it was a pretty tough camp as there are a number of new instructors, but luckily, they are willing to learn and there's this new guy i really want to commend is aden! although it's his 1st time doing camp, he managed to handle an entire class himself and tell you all something, he is one of the 3 finalists for ngee ann poly xiao hwa xiao chao competition =) cool right?! bet the girls in his group love him to bits! haha! my campers were obedient towards me, considering that i had to handle an entire class myself. thanks a lot to my campers and hope you all enjoyed your camp! =)))
east spring sec 2 camp @ jbac (23-25 may'08)this batch of students can be considered the most obedient campers i had ever gotten. my mirror was wei yan. it was a special camp for me as i celebrated my birthday in camp =) it was especially touching when i woke up on the last day of camp and went for breakfast in the dining hall, the entire school sang "happy birthday" song for me =) campfire was good too! hope my campers enjoyed themselves! =)))
sengkang east pri 4 day event @ pasir ris park (27 may'08)the kids were really cute and as they are going to have their pri 5 camp next year, they asked me to do their camp and be their instructor, so sweet right? hee;) their speed in pitching and unpitching tents really marvels me.
tampines sec 2 camp @ jbac (2-4 june'08)this can be considered the most special camp ever i had done for ha. this is the last camp for andrew, one of my most favorite cic. the campfire was superb too, with the support of 63 instructors (including group instructors) rah-rahing the school, it was simply a fantastic campfire! initially, my class were not very responsive to me, candice and am. the student instructors attached to us were not very good and responsive on the 1st day; whereby after 1st night's debrief and prep talk, they improved tremendously and the campfire was simply a bang! in addition, i got to commend my class for the raft built during water rafting session. it was the best raft ever built in the camps i had done for ha; whereby it managed to stay as a piece from land to sea and back to land. they really went crazy when in sea. after that, we had a quick 15min lunch then went for nature rumble. it was really fun till that my army scandals broke! haha! campfire was super fantastic and my class really went crazy when doing chori chori dance and rocked like crazy over the rock song "chop suey"!!! the cheer marathon that we did was also super loud and zai!!! thanks to 2e3 for making this camp special for me, as the camp is special for me. thanks! =)))
potato signing off 10:29 am
just woke up from a 16hour slumber... just break camp from xin min sec 2 leaders' camp yesterday. what more can i say? i'm indeed god-blessed again, giving me a group of 19 lovable kids, who are obedient and well-disciplined. 4 days 3 nights seemed to pass in a jiffy; thus proving that when one is having fun, time really flies!
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