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To navigate: Pencil: Profile Cloud: Blog posts Umbrella: Tagboard Snowflake: Affiliates and archives Sun: Credits Artist.
Loves to eat.Loves to cook and bake. Loves to kick. Loves to laugh. Loves to stone. Saturday, 31 May 2008 | 7:14 pm
STATEMENT OF THE YEAR: OBS OFFICIALLY ROCKS MY SMELLY SOCKS. Lol. Seriously. The 5 days may have been slightly torturous but in retrospect, they are probably one of the best days of my life. I cannot even imagine why I didn't feel like going in the first place. Every single thing that happened, I value every moment of it cos the whole experience won't be complete with any piece missing. For the benefit of those who are dreading or already despise OBS, allow me to change your mindset by recounting the eventful details for past five days. DAY ONE I can still remember the first day where we all gathered at the hockey pitch and proceeded to the Punggol jetty by school bus. Upon arrival, we sat in our watches and waited for our turn to board the ferry/bumboat. It was getting hot but after what seemed like a year, we finally got on the ferry and were on our way to OBS. Woohoo. When we reached OBS camp 2, we assembled in our watches and MY watch is TENZING!!! Initially, I fancied the watch name of Raffles but never mind. Our instructor was Hairi, who substituted another instructor on MC, Cyndi, for the first 2 days. He's not bad... just sometimes a bit too serious. MY TENZING WATCHMATES: Girls: Hui Yi, Jasmine, Jan, Debbie, Umairah, Ain, Farhana Guys: Brendon, Irfan, Jun Jie, Aylward (Oreo Man), Hong Liang, Long Siang, Kelvin OUR MOTTO: GROW UP LA. Anyway, we had some ice-breaking like playing with the ball of twine, saying our names and what we like (I like to SING...haha)... Then we assigned roles (I'm medic IC) and arranged our meals according to the food they gave us, like many loaves of Top One bread, loads of biscuits, buns and whatnot. Had some lunch too. Then we proceeded to our store to do some store check...can't remember the exact details. So, next we had kayakking practice!! It was fun despite fact that I don't exactly like the capsizing drill... Haha. The water was salty... Lost my specs in the waters near the shore and had to grope for it. Fortunately, I could recover it.. haha. I was thinking that if I couldn't find it, I could get new specs! Haha. But i found it. Lol. After that, we pitched tents and cooked dinner and washed up. The food tasted funny cos the veggies from the can tasted weird with the rice and the small hotdogs. Then we had lights out after repacking our essential items in bagpacks from our store cos we were to camp at different sites everyday... DAY TWO Had to hike from camp 1 to camp 2 in a heavy downpour, clad in a yellow poncho and extremely heavy bagpacks. It was so exhausting but we managed to reach camp 1 in one piece and proceeded to other activities. We had belaying practice and trust fall, both of which contributed to my actual fear of falling. Then, we proceeded to rock climbing. My watchmates who went before me could all reach the top of the wall so I was spurred on to do the same and amazingly, I did! Yay. Coming down was horrifying. We had to 'moonwalk' downwards after letting go of the tiles. At first I couldn't do it and ended up swinging to the side and scraping my elbow but I made it to the bottom at long last. Thanks for the encouragement and support, Tenzing! I still remember saying 'Inspector check' instead of 'Instructor check'.. Haha. At night, we had a game of Zoom where we're supposed to arrange pictures described to one another in order. We got 14 right and 2 other groups got 15. It's ok...we did our best =)) The food at camp 1 was more bearable I think... At dinner, Farhana got stung... poor her.. had to rest at the sick bay until the next morning. DAY THREE (Cyndi took over) Land expedition. Gosh. My bagpack straps were almost cutting into my shoulders halfway through the journey. We had to hunt for 'casualties' in a dark tunnel with only 2 lightsticks... Came out with butts white and grid references as checkpoints. Along with a ridiculous pot and poncho plus mess tins, we hiked through the forest, searching for the checkpoints. At one point where looking for a certain checkpoint took a long time, we rested by the path an played a game of tic-tac-toe on the ground with poles. Before that we played dumb games to keep our minds off the long exhausting hike. Examples were bang bang bang who die?, around the world in 80 days, some party, "A is Bla, B is Blah, C is Bla Blah, what is D" and the leaf is falling falling fallen. Those games kept our spirits up until we finished our checkpoints and reached our campsite. During the hike, Brendon got 'raped' by ants when he placed his bag on some anthill and ended up slapping himself and dancing around to get rid of the ends. Hilarious. At the campsite, there was no toilet so nobody could wash up. To do business, we had to go into the green and relieve oursleves there. Disgusting. Before lights out, Ralleigh and Tenzing gathered after group interaction for a briefing on sea expedition which was on the following day. We were to hike back to camp 2 and kayak and cross the middle of the island, back to camp 2 again. Sleeping was like lying on reflexology pebbles. But quite ok la... DAY FOUR Sea expedition. After hiking back to camp 2, we carried our kayaks to the sea before setting off in a diamond formation. My kayak mates were Hui Yi and Long Siang. At first, we kept lagging behind cos our kayak always drifted in some other direction away from the formation. That tested my resilience to keep paddling since I was already pissed off at our inability to paddle straight. When rafting up, Long Siang joined another group and Sze Chew joined ours. After that, it was smooth sailing for us and I actually enjoyed the rest of the journey. We went into mangrove swamps and had to carry our kayak through them twice. Saw orange things floating that were jellyfish... Lol. I think we set off around 9am and came back at before 4pm. Luckily I did not suffer any injury or sunburn... When we paddled back to camp 2, we washed the kayaks and carried them back to their racks. Then we had jetty jump. I was hesitant at first cos 1) I'm can't swim 2) I felt cold and wanted to pee 3) I'm scared of falling. In the end, I had to do it cos a majority of Ralleigh and Tenzing wanted to. So, all for one, one for all. When I jumped, I really dreaded falling but reached the water before I could change my mind. I think I did it on impulse, like I just jumped, unthinking. I guess I didn't want myself to talk myself out of something inevitable. Once I reached the water, I floated back up thanks to my lifevest. Unfortunately, I drifted towards a small ship cos I couldn't swim against the current. Then, Irfan, my watchmate nearby pulled me away and towards the ladder. I still struggled to reach the ladder which was so near, yet so far. Someone had to push me forward and finally, I managed to climb up. Phew. What an experience. For dinner, we had a so-called cooking competition. Umairah cooked while I assisted her. The rice tasted funny but other dishes, egg with chopped luncheon meat and veggies (mushroom,carrot,cabbage) were nice. DAY FIVE I am sooooooooo sad that it was the last day. I feel like though I have gone through a lot, there's still more I want to do. After PT (Dodo dance + "Olympic Games"), we had reflection etc. Then, we had the trust fall again, slightly different cos we had to reach for a bell. Only Jasmine, out of the 8 girls, could reach it. Almost all the guys did. We then said our last words, like who we wanted to thank or say sorry to etc. Certs were presented to one another and photos were given out. I prefer the informal one but never mind... Cyndi gave us a pencil with a velvet cover each.. nice. Then we went souvenir shopping, I bought 2 T-shirts, one as a birthday gift for my sis and one for me. We gave out the leftover food (oranges/apples, bread, biscuits, raisins, milo/ovaltine/coffee/cereal/isotonic sachets, packet noodles)... Still a lot left but no one wanted them so they were wasted. Then came the time for us to leave OBS. I didn't have the heart to do so but everything has to come to an end I suppose. I definitely do not regret going through the whole OBS camp as I have overcomed countless obstacles and made many new friends. I miss OBS so much, my heart aches. I would like to thank my instructors, Cyndi and Hairi, for guiding me and my watchmates. Also not to forget my watchmates, for being there, your support, encouragement and friendship will remain unforgettable and appreciated. THANK YOU. I am bound for discovery, changed for life. irnasrina Notepaper.
My jar of goodies.
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