Day 1
Pretty much just camp establishment, but obviously since I havent been to camps with them, I didnt really know how to do stuff, so I just tried to do wat I can, like maybe hold up the vertical poles at the side of the kitchen tents and watch the others tie the knots until I learnt how to tie one myself, lol. It was quite a great show of teamwork among the patrols, helping each other to build the kitchen tents, since they required large manpower to build. Us, KF and Owl were helping each other, and the other three too, i think. Same for the sleeping tent, couldnt really do much, except maybe peg? Oh yes, and I sort of smashed my own leg with the mallet while pegging the kitchen tent. So, that was the sad thing, haha. And I also got a small splinter stuck in my palm, which came from a bigger splinter that I removed only the back portion of, lol. And I couldnt remove it, so over the next few days, the skin just grew back and now its still stuck in my palm, maybe I will cut it open sometime and just get rid of it, lol. But its not serious la, just...something there? I feel bad, but I dont recall much about working with my own patrol for this part since it was quite a mess, all mixed together, and I dont know them that well yet. Lunch was packed food. Then i think we worked on the gadgets and stuff, I helped with the shoerack, which proved to be quite useful for the next few days, cos they could be kept dry easily by just putting a groundsheet over, and we didnt have to keep them in so many times. The others were tying the table and dresser. The table was quite cool, cos we had an ingenius idea, and sort of weaved a net using ropes at one part of the table and we could just throw things in to store it. very convenient, haha. Then after tying some of the gadgets, Kevin and I started on the trestle frame for the gateway, which I was also still quite unused to, but luckily I did some pioneering before at open house preparation, so could handle this quite okay. The sec 1 'koalas' came in to help, hugging onto the vertical poles while we tied them- Hai Xiao, Wesley, Daryl and Zi Wei. Then dinner was packed food too, the packed food were not bad, but they were all the same...and so I didnt really like them, haha, I prefer a variety of not-so-good food to good but uninteresting ones. But what can I say, they were all talking about how this would be the last 'proper' food we will have before we are cooking from day 2 onwards, lol. The night activity was Iron Lungs (campfire songs) i think, cos got quite confused with reading other peoples' blogs and trying to figure out which is the correct order, lols. And its hard to remember cos all the nights were dark obviously...and we were all tired. So the campfire songs was okay...our singing was average, but credit must still go to Tak Wei for knowing how to sing 'Scouting Light' cos thats the song we chose and without him we would have gotten a 2 points penalty. haha. Then we learnt many other songs like the 'second storey window', lols. and 'why we cant go to heaven' which were the 2 I can remember and liked the most lols, cos you can just create something and insert it in. and the second one involved lots of suanning too, lol. Then we had the Game of Li(Fe) where we had a board game kind of thing on the ground and we had to complete tasks in order to progress. There were physical and non-physical tasks, but we could only do the physicals ones lol. Cos the non-physical ones were really very difficult like sing the scouts hymm. (again, like during the cooking race) We did okay for this one...about 4th... A lot of tying and doing stuff today, so we got a slacker night activty, lol. Then went to sleep, chose to sleep outside, cos the night was really cool and I couldnt resist the soft grass and fresh air. Slept at about 12? Counted only one star that night.
Day 2
Woke up and just ate, lol. I realised I eat more than usual at camps compared to normal days. haha. really. I ate like 6 slices of bread. We had mixed fruit jam with our bread today, haha nice. Then while the others went to continue to pioneer and play the Iron Finger (Carom Challenge), eight of us from 4 patrols signed out of camp and went to school for our SMO (Singapore Mathematical Olympiad). I was the only sec 3, there was also only one sec 1, Zi Wei also from Falcon, and the others were from sec 2. Zi Wei was quite a quiet person, but he had the look of a genius and acted like one, really. We had a nice trip back to school, which I slept most of the way... Notice that among the patrols that had people going, the average level was equal, haha. Then got back to school slightly early, and I went around borrowing stationery, cos I wasnt planning on going for this, but decided to go during camp when I saw quite a number of people going and becos our patrol was doing quite well ahead of the others at this point. Thanks a lot to those who lent me their stationery...Dominic, Yen San, Zi Xuan, Samuel and Hui Hao. (hope I didnt miss out anyone) The competition was just bomb. Couldnt answer many of the questions...was foaming during the 2.5hours, lol. Heres one easier one to let you try: "A bag contains 30 balls that are numbered 1-30. Two balls are randomly chosen from the bag. Find the probability that the sum of the two numbers is divisible by 3." Okay, then went back to Farrer Park Primary by MRT this time, but the sec 2s keep wanting to like to shopping, or purposely lag behind, etc. So it was quite hard trying to get them back... Thats just the morning. After we got back and had to return our valuables, we got back to our patrols, and Zi Wei and I were just in time for lunch lol. The lunch was great, if I remember correctly, we had potato with corn for our staple, my favourite sweet potato soup for the soup/dessert, and brocolli for the veg, i think... cant really rmb the others... Can only remember special ones lol. But the food was really delicious overall. Good job to the chefs, haha, it really brightened all of us up. After lunch and some washing, we had the annual rain, lol. It is said to happen every AC, and was one of the realy fun things I enjoyed at AC, trying to prevent the tent from falling together as a patrol, pushing the water out of the top using short poles, lol. Owl was sad, cos their kitchen tent was rather weak and collapsed quite a number of times during the rain, but help came from the other patrols and alhough they suffered, they were safe, just that the patrol members had to spent their nights in other patrol's tents becos their sleeping tent was flooded quite badly. However, the rain was really cool, it did the exact opposite of dampening our spirits, lol. It made us bond even more closely together, all of us trying to save our one big tent from collapsing in the rain. This contunued until the late afternoon, when we only managed to do some clearing up, and got packed food again. We didnt manage to cook becos of the rain. Same food again...sad. Today's night activity was Skill-O-Rama, which the patrols took turns to showcase skills they have in the different categories, and we didnt do too well for this, quite bad, but not too bad cos we were lucky that we have a capable PL which could come up with some nice stuff, haha. Hawk got first for this cos of Hiok Yang, who did many pro physical skills, and got many points lol. Today was rather okay, had fun in the rain and didnt do a lot in the afternoon. But my mind was still burnt from the competition. We got 3rd/4th for both the Carom and the Skill-O-Rama, but got 1st for cooking today! Slept outside again, and counted 2 stars, lols.
Day 3
Woke up earlier today for the annual cross-country in AC. Didnt have breakfast, only had it after the run. =( But still, I think it was really fun, running about the area and seeing lots of stuff. The worst part was near the temporary Tekka market, where the whole place just smelt of raw meat, lol. Falcon did well for this, especially the sec 1s, who surprised us by getting a few of the top positions. Well, I did well too, guess the jogging paid off...lol. Falcon got 1st for this and placed a joker on this, getting double the points, lols. Then we had breakfast, which was bread and marmalade, but changed to kaya. Then was the Sports (Fe)sta (supposed to be Fiesta) which we did really bad in, lost all our matches haha. Guess we cant play as hard as we work, lol. Jack is a dull boy? lol. But I did enjoy the games, like ultimate frisbee and basketball. Lol, I slipped and fell in basketball and wetted my pants. Because of the rain...what were you thinking? lols. Anyway, the annual rain came again, and this time, though smaller, we had much more fun. I learnt the techniques of controlling the rainon top of the tent and using them to wet anyone entering or exiting, lols. I know its bad, but its fun to see people getting shocked and drenched, lol. Im sure the others will agree with me on this, lol. Had a lot of fun, really a lot. We even threw a tennis ball around, from patrol to patrol, in the rain. This rain was even better than the last, haha. More fun then then the last. Then we had dinner, which was rather horrible compared to the past meals we cooked. Like we had apples marinated in pepsi and green tea, and curry with sago!! Guess they have run out of ideas? lols. The night activity was Stupid Quiz. Haha really funny. I didnt imagaine it to be this fun, cos the first question was misleading. Explain why the marathon is 21.195km long. But then we also got things like: 'What is referred to as 'the dood' in the J1 room?', 'What the written behind the door of the J1 room?', 'Who is Dick Assman?', 'What is the 185th pokemon?', and lots of more hillarious questions, lol, very fun. Then was fright night, lols quite fun, but some parts are boring too... Started by saying they want to reward us by showing us a movie. They showed us Chicken Little. And I actually believed them. But after like a few minutes, they said there was a technical error and then they were trying to fix it, while Mr Oja told us a story about physical selves and spiritual selves, lols. At this point, I was still 'naive and innocent' lols. Thinking that Mr Oja couldnt think of any other things to tell us, so he picked this ghost-story-like thing. But then I finally got it when the technical fault was fixed. The movie now shown was The Victim, lols, a thai horror movie, which wasnt really that horrible. I watched until the part where they showed a headless woman, when Yi Ming and I were called outside and told to blindfold ourselves. (We were the first pair, haha) It was fright night. So we did, and then we had to hold on to the raffia and walk. Dunno whether it was planned to be like that, but I had to climb over many things and even banged my head into some board at least 3 times, making a lot of noise. We also passed through some trees and so ants were like crawling all over us. I thought that they were really pro to even have ants planted on us, but found out later that it was unplanned...woa unlucky...and I got many bites... I felt that the most scary was the part where the raffia led us into a toilet cubicle, and then the door was shut loudly behind us. Haha, I was like dam random and said 'ouch' there, lols. After that we heard wrongly and proceeded back into the activity room to watch the movie, but then a while later JunJie asked us to go out and continue with the walk. Now not blindfolded, and so this time we could spot many of the J1s and could make better decisions, like going to mess with the J1s, haha. Then the last part was a toilet which we were asked to enter, and led into a cubicle again, tied to the toilet bowl, but this time no one was there asking us to do anything, and when we turned around we saw another raffia, so we just followed it and exited...when there were actually more 'fright stations' inside which we missed, like the hanged bear and a wet treatment... Then when we finished, Ben Hong just appeared from beside us and asked us to sit somewhere at the canteen. So we sat there and waited...and waited...and waited...for a really really long time...until we started seeing people appear from where we came from, and asked to sit somewhere else...and I noticed that theirs was different from ours, theirs was blindfolded all the way, but ours was just half. And PLs had to go on the trail alone, lols. Then we were all tired and just plonked...and slept. Couldnt count the number tonight...too many.
Day 4
Today was also HaiXiao's birthday! So we gave him some time off and less work to do, lol. He deserved it. We also bought him some moralisers to celebrate. (like root beer and mentos) The morning was as usual, but since the campsite and gateway grading was in the afternoon, we were all busy fixing and making the gateway and gadgets more secure. Some of us were still trying to fix up the pulley system which will open the door when you pull it. Since that was a last minute plan though up within 90 minutes of the judging it wasnt too bad, lol, but it still didnt work very well. But it was alright...we got 2nd for both pioneering and campsite, haha. Then after that was the preparation for Parents' Night, and we all had to cook a dish for our parents. Falcon was chosen to cook the shrimp paste chicken we cooked yesterday. And so we bought many packs of chicken and cooked them. I marinated the chicken, and so I got a really 'nice' smell of shrimp paste and raw chicken on my hands even later at night. But it was fun to cook with friends, lol. We all had fun making jokes and laughing at each other, haha. But soon it was time and I changed into my scout uniform to usher the parents, lol. But in the end I only brought my own around, lol. We talked and then I brought them to the activity room for the talk, where Wesley was. I then went back to the Kitchen tent, and saw Kevin and HaiXiao still there cooking...pity them, cos they looked very sweaty and oily when they had just bathed, while I feel so nice. So helped them a little, by holding the light...lol. Then we placed the food at the table and waited for the parents. Saw some of my friends' parents and siblings too, and even had a nice chat over dinner with Rong Jun's, haha. Then after that was the announcement of last year's patrol standings, and everyone except the sec 1s were really hyped. They even had a watermelon eating competition, lol. Then we had another washing up session, which was tiring, cos we had to scratch off the soot stuck on the pans and woks at the sink. And my back ached after that, from all the bending over... Festival of Lights was next, and all the patrols had to put up a show of lights at their structures. We got third I think, it was a pretty interesting thing...looking at the structure which was decorated with lights. Some patrols did not do as well due to their safety, like some were burning other stuff, i think... Then we had a batch talk about our batch dynamics, becos they noticed some things happening...and so that was my first (F[e)ar] session. We also talked about some very meaningful things like what we want to achieve by the end of the year and for those who have joined for longer periods of time, what they have learnt or gotten better in, since they joined 01. Then was the backstabbing session, which many PLs were reluctant to participate in, and were lucky, since there was an option to not backstab anyone this time round. Some still did, but many didnt. I think thats what changed the political situation at that point in time... Then after that we returned and untied the dresser, the dustbin didnt need untying, lols, and then didnt untie the rest cos we still needed them, like the table and the shoerack. Counted about 4 stars tonight.
Day 5
Had a leg cramp in the night...probably because of the cold night...so woke up with pain in the calves. But it got better later, as we untied the stuff, like table and the gateway...the kitchen tent too, with some help from KF. And so we ended up clearing everything the first haha. Then had to tie the poles into bundles, like on Day 0. Then after we did some work, we changed into our scout uniform for the last flag break. And the announcement of the results. After 5 days of hard work, Falcon got 1st! Followed by Hawk, KF, Eagle, Kestral, Owl. Then we continued to move the poles and stuff onto the lorry, then proceeded to Braddell Westlake, using Sarun's 'shortest route', lols, to move the poles into the poleshed...while suanning Francis...lik(yee) th(yee)s.
Since Im not the photographer or anything, only have pics from Parents' Night =(, but here they are:
Jim and I at Falcon's campsite, can see hardworking people cooking behind too...
The food!
