<body><script type="text/javascript"> function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) { if(window.addEventListener) { window.addEventListener('load', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false); } else { window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }); } } </script> <div id="navbar-iframe-container"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> gapi.load("gapi.iframes:gapi.iframes.style.bubble", function() { if (gapi.iframes && gapi.iframes.getContext) { gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild({ url: 'https://www.blogger.com/navbar/6891882?origin\x3dhttps://xuanz89.blogspot.com', where: document.getElementById("navbar-iframe-container"), id: "navbar-iframe" }); } }); </script>
xuanz's blog ♥
Friday, September 17, 2004

i'm back!!hmmz..kinda sad that 5 days actually past that fast!it seems like it was only yesterday that we went for the camp and now we're back..but i'm glad that i cherished my time back in pulau ubin.though i've onli known those watch mates for 5 days, it seems to me like we're old time buddies..rite..below would be the events that happened there..

13 Sept 2004, Day 1
well..we set off at 8am to Ponggol jetty where we board the boat to Pulau Ubin. we were dropped off at camp 2 where it was meant to be for mobile. there were many schools there..there was Victoria Sec,Queenstown Sec,Tampines Sec,Chua Chu Kang Sec, Gan Eng Seng Sec,West Spring,our school and two other schools if i'm not wrong. We waited until 11 before they start to plit us into our watches. Karina,Briti,Faizal and I went to Armstrong with 12 others from other school(Chua Chu Kang, Queenstown and Tampines).There were only 5 girls in the watch!! Our watch's facilitator cum intsructor cum safety officer was Connel.Initially i thought him to be really fierce but when he starts speaking, he was really nice!!Then we did a small introduction of ourselves and went off to our store to check that all the equipments that we need were all there.After which, we went to collect our food supply for 5 days and went to pitch our tents after we checking that we had all our food supply. It looked kinda easy to pitch a tent but yea, it was rather tough i must say. I kept tying the string wrongly!!hahas!but i finally got it right though..We learnt how to belay our teammates and it was quite fun doing that actually..We have a belayer, an anchorman and a rope manager.The belayer,of course is to bely the climber, the anchorman is to make sure that the belayer wont 'fly' if the climber falls.Lastly, the rope manager is obviously there to make sure that he/she 'feeds' the belar with rope so that even if the belayer accidentally let go of the rope, the rope manger ould still be there to hold the climber.We went back to the store and transferredour stuffs into another bag as we were moving out of our campsite tmr. After packing, we went to the beach to cook our dinner. We had rice and canned food.The guys ate alot and left almost nothing for the girls.Luckily one of our teammate,Michael saw it and he actually gave us his food.I was shocked manx..I actually wondered if I was dreaming cos this i the first time I see a guy actually 'sacrificing' his food cos we had almost none..After dinner, we first washed our utensils in the sea with sand and sea water before rinsing it with tap water so as to remove grease.We showered ourselves and went off to sleep.

14 Sept 2004, Day 2
Woke up at 6am and unpitched our tents.Got changed into our wet attire(t shirt,shorts and shoes for wet activities.) We met Connel at 8am.We were supposed to put all our food in our bags and nothing was to be left dangling outside. so we packed all our food in and gosh!!our bags were all SO HEAVY!!but the lucky thing is we dun hafta carry our bags for the time being cos we are going for sea expedition!! so we put our bag in this boat and we learnt how to kayaked. before that, we learned how to choose our paddles. after that, we learned the basic thing abt the kayak,how to get inside the kayak blah blah blah..we went to the sea to learn how to paddle the kayak and did a 'capsize drill' but had to run for shelter after a while cos there was a 'lightning alert', had our lunch and waited for the rain to stop and for the connel to giv us the all clear sign. we had a briefing abt the route that we were going and wad we would pass by. when the 'all clear' sign was given,we went back to do our capsize drill near the shore and we had another one in the open sea(in case somebody's kayak capsized halfway during the expedition) initially we could set off at 2 plus but the 'lightning alert' kept spunding so we had to go to shelter a few times and only got to set off at 3.30pm. i paired up with briti(cos the prev person,kian wee,was scaring me outta my wits) and we set off with amundsen,the other watch. we were stuck near camp 1 for a really long time. many things took place there so we had to wait for each other and stuffs like that. first, michael's kayak capsized so we had to help overturn his kayak. it took us really long cos his partner,ras, couldnt swim so briti went to help and it took time real long cos it somehow fell into the sea again so they had to empty th water again. then there was a mass of confusion going on.i was getty panicky cos i couldnt really kayak and needed help to keep my kayak staying on track and we had to help ras get back onto the kayak. then some of them realised they couldnt coordinate with their partner and changed partners in the sea...and i end up changing partner too.i partnered with michael and briti with ras.(i hav the least idea how it happened actually) then we paddled again(finally some progress) and we headed for our next camp site which i hav no idea where it is. my main job was jus to paddle forward whereas michael had to control the dir. karina got to see jellyfish and she and boon kiat where the onli one that saw them twice!!*grr*haha!but yea..its fun larh..chatted with michael and yea..hes a great guy to talk to..we reached our next campsite at 6.30..and there were cries of happiness!!=P we unloaded our stuffs and some of the guys went to pitch the tents whereas the rest o us went to prepare dinner. had instant noodles and canned food..our 'toilet's were really 'beautiful' its the natural surroundings...and yea..we dun get to bathe..but luckily we dun stink..haha!erm..yea..guess that's all abt day 2 bah..

15th Sept, Day3
Woke up at 6am shivering with cold.unpitched our tents,washed up and had breakfast. Met Connel at 8am and we went to the quarry mine. we were told to build a raft that woucl hold the whole watch(16 ppl) and were given an hour's time to build it. Initially,our raft wasnt good enough so Connel gave us a second chance to improve on it. and tada! we made it! we let it into the quarry lake and all of us jumped into the lake.we got on to the raft and the guys paddled the raft..we took our own sweet time paddling and we paddled for ard 1/2 hr. then,we jumped into the lake and had to swim back to shore with the raft. and everybody's shoelaces started coming out. so we lifted our legs up to the raft and started tying our shoelaces.both my shoelaces came out so i tied them both(actually i wasnt the one tying larh..michael helped me cos my hand too short cant reach..heeheex..).but when i(or shld i say michael?i tried it myself first larh) was abt to tie my shoelace.argh!!leg cramp!!!so i panicked and scared those guys ard me..hehex..what happened after that was rather blur to me,cos all i rememberd was that i think i was trying to swim then dunno why michael somehow got me up to the shore.eh..shld be something like that bah..cant rmb much abt that..onli noe that my leg was hurting a alot.it was nearly 12 den i guess. we got up all the stuffs and put them back in the store and we changed in the make shift toilets.we were then put in groups of 3 to lead the wathc to 5 diff checkppoints before going to our next destination,camp 1. briti, daming and i were the first 3. the trekking was kinda tiring but yea,i made it manx!!thot that i would give up halfway de..but i didnt.hmmz..i'm mentally stronger now!!hahas..when we reached camp 1,Connel told us that we were the first watch there!!so we raced against time and quickly pitched our tents,got our food and cooked. we had rice and canned food. by 8.30, we met Connel at camp 1. and yea, we took a shower and i mus say that the toilet is so much nicer then the ones at camp 2 man! its bigger,cleaner and nicer! we went back to our tents after we met Connel after all of us had our shower.as karina and i couldnt sleep, the guys(michael,lincoln,da ming and kian wee) came to our tent and talk.we chatted until ard 1.30 am before going to sleep cos the instructor came to check..

16th Sept, Day 4
Woke up at 7 today cos we are meeting our instructor at 9am,also partly because we slept late last night. was shivering again cos it rained the prev night. we were early today. was already at our meeting place before 8. so we dilly dally here and there..hahas..our instrutor was late,really late. she came at 9.30,her name was Melissa and gawd,was she pretty!!hahas.=pConnel went back to mainland for a meeting u see..so we gotta pwettie instructor..hahas..tai chong mus be sad cos he wasnt 'motivated'hahaa!:P yup,we did some games that were supposed to build up our teamwork i guess?they were the 'crossing the river', the caterpillar game and the helium hoop. we played that until lunch time. had our lunch and we went to do rock climbing. gawd,it was scary manz..i actually teared cos it looked scary.teeheex..i'm a scared..hav phobia of heights larh..so yea..initially i didnt want to go up.but then all my watchmates was like saying, hey u can do it manx!so i was like,hmmz..gotta giv it a try larh..so yup,i went with karina. michael was my belayer(had more confidence with him too) when i went up, my palm was rather sweaty.i climbed till ard the 6m mark there i guess when i was seriuosly stuck.i couldnt find any rock to get me up,i kept slipping off and i was really scared that i almost cried!!*duhx*so i like, i wanna get down!!michael let me down!!but Melissa was like, no,i'll help you.so she asked me if i wanted to try somemore, was i tired mentally or physically blah blah blah..so yup,i told her i'll give it a try to go up somemore..so she helped me and tada!i made my way to the top!!then my watch clapped and i was glad i made it..=) i was let down and yup, i was trembling..tried looking for my fishie(siyu) but couldnt find her..hmmz..sime of the guys then went to try the more challenging one..climbed until ard 4 before we went to pack our stuffs and trek back to camp 2!!we took pictures along the way. the trip back to camp one was very fast but tiring. we went by the short cut and boy, the slope was really steep!!but yea, it took us only 10-15 mins..hehes...so yup,we went to pitch our tents while there was still light and cooked our dinner. it was instant noodles with canned food.we couldnt finish all so yup, we actually threw away some of the food..*shh..dun tell anyone!*we unpacked our stuffs and went off to sleep at 11. initially they wanted to talk but yea,karina and i fell asleep in our tents.

17th Sept, Last day
hmmz..its sad that its the last day le..the guys actually woke us up at 5.45!!and guess wad michael actually said, girls, wake up, its late already..hurhur..i wanna slp..so yup,woke up to wash all the stuffs and dry them.counted our stuffs and we lost an entrenching tool. so we had to pay 40 cents each.haha..we cleaned the campsite and checked that we had all our stuffs.we collected our valuables and went to buy souvenirs.bought two shirts and a key chain and i got another shirt for free. and erm..yea..we had a sharing session where we talked abt wad we learnt during this camp. it was really touching and sad.cos the frens that i've been seeing for 5 straight days, 15-16 hours a day, i might not get to see them again.*sniff sniff* but yea,everything has an ending,there's no forever. then we gave each other our certs. ishan gave me mine and i gave michael his..den we took some pics and went to wait for dismissal.when the first batch left, i watched the boat leave and i somehow teared,there was an emptiness in my heart somehow..karina,tai chong,min ru, deilia and i were the last to go.we took a speed boat back!wasnt that cool?we let pulau ubin at 3.15 and reached Ponggol jetty at 3.25 like that..

yup..so that was the details of everything that happened on pulau ubin. so much memories were left unforgotten i must say. during the 5 days there, i learnt more about myself. i became both metally and physically stronger and i overcome my greatest fear. i believe, without my watchmates to cheer me on,i would never be able to make it to the top ot the rock wall.here, i would like to thank a few ppl especially this two person..

Lincoln-thanx for carrying my bag up to my shoulders for me and down.yea, i mus admit that i am really weak and i would be able to carry that bag without your help.i'll rmb the 4 meals that i owe you.. Thank you very much.

Michael-thanx so much for all the help you've given during the 5 days.you showered me with lots of care and concern. without you,i might not be able to make through the trekking trip.without you,my leg might still be hurting.you were a really great friend to be with. i enjoyed the time i spent with you. what really surprise me most is that u actually dun mind sharing utensils.you are a great person.Initially i wanted to reall thank you when we reached the Ponggol jetty but you left the island first, so i couldn't get the chance. but yea, i really gotta say a big THANK YOU to you..=)

*for the rest that names are not mentioned, you are not forgotten.=)On yea,and there's this girl from amundsen that left a really deep impression on me and that's tracy!!hmm..she's really different from all other girls that i know.she is so unique i must say.in a sense that she really dun care much abt her 'image' and i think she's a replica of shing yee!!she's not afraid of being laughed at i guess..and yea,she's not afraid to say wad she thinks in her mind!hahas..yep..that wad i can say abt her!!

[to serve to strive and not to yield]