Had a fun Fathers Day today!

Just discovered someone who left a really deep impression on me, about what he did for his dad... Frankly, Im a bit of a procrastinator. So I leave things to the last minute, even what i had prepared for my Dad...Soorry Dad! =( Haha, anyway, so I was staying up late last night, finishing up my gift, at about...3+am? (Dont tell my dad, pls) So I saw someone else, online, and asked him what he was doing. Unsurprisingly, same as me. BUT, he was actually doing a video for his dad...and in addition, he has already baked something! Wow, and he didnt sleep until like 5am!! O_O All the while, trying to come up with something for his dad...wow. I was really impressed, even felt a little guilty about myself. And I told him something like, your dad will be so proud of you. really.

Ok, so back to today, we had kind of a family gathering thing, where we celebrated all Dads together! Lots of delicious food! haha. and again lots of people! =D Well, just hope that all the Dads, especially MINE, enjoyed today (yesterday)! Think being a good Dad is not an easy job ok...so I salute all Dads! =D

Im going to the Discovery Centre tomorrow! (for a project actually...but yea still fun) Tee Hee! I wonder if anyone knows this...

VLC
The last weekend was spent all the way north of Singapore, at Sembawang, in a particular campsite, the Terror Sea Scouts Camp... Haha ok, nothing to be afriad of. I found the name bad too, but when I was there, it was actually quite ok. There are bunk beds. THERE ARE BUNK BEDS! Haha. Lols, that was one of the best! =)

Yep, so I was saying I was at the Northeast Area Venture Leadership Camp, and I was allocated into ex-co 3, affectionately called Marlot! =) Haha at first glance, truthfully, I didnt really think much of the people I saw. But, we were all soon going to become better buddies through the course of the camp!

I think we all had mixed feelings about the camp. The first thing that came to mind was: All the lectures. Because it was kind of a 2-day intensive camp, they had to get as much as they could into our heads. So in one day, we pretty much had about 4 lectures, each lasting at least 1 hour, and some even for 2 hours. You must be thinking: we do that in school every day, so whats so difficult? Ok, we sat on the floor. Isnt that enough? When you sit cross-legged, your thighs hurt. When you change to a position which doesnt strain your thigh, its your butt's turn to complain. Yea, so what can I do except to switch frequently between the 2? Any other position would seem kinda rude though. Haha. Yea, and its just not my habit to be listening to lectures during camp. The word 'camp' doesnt give the sense of lectures... Haha.

Then again, camp also doesnt really give me the image of bunk beds, great cooked food and fans, haha. Im sure everyone there agrees with me that the food was simply excellent. Thanks so much to the cooks there! We all loved the food, and it definitely played its part in motivating us to stay awake during the lectures! Haha! Easily some of the best camp food I've eaten.

The camp also made me think...I mean throughout the camp, they were asking for volunteers, looking out for people with initiative and all, but then why do I get the idea that that is the main criteria which is used to assess us? Oh did I forget to mention, that this camp is also part of a standard which ventures strive to get. Yea so there is a pass and fail for this camp. In other words, its graded. Haha, yea so back to my point. I understand that having initiative is part of being a good leader, but it just doesnt seem right to me when they are the only ones who are found to be exceptional...I mean this is my observation at least. Because like it was mentioned in one of the lectures, leadership entails far more than just initiative. Although yes I agree that its one of the important ones that we must begin with. I was going to say that initiative isnt everything, although I do acknowledge its vital role. Another area which I find has been rather neglected is also whether these people are giving others a chance. But of course I do appreciate the instructors efforts in doing all that they did!


Ok, but of course, I've also gotten to know some new friends, especially those from my ex-co! Dont think I will forget you guys for quite a while! Haha, Joseph, Jun Hao, Jia Ying, Bian He, Lim Yi, hui Jie, Jasper, Chandan, and of course Tak Wei, Gabriel Kok (the tallie) and Xian Zheng! Plus also, some of the people I have met beyond my exco in the short span of just 1+ day, haha! People can get to know others in the weirdest of places, lol. Like how I first got to know Juno from queuing outside the toilet, and how I got to know more about Joseph during the night walk. Haha the guys I just mentioned, and of course 01! and some who I didnt mention, you guys are really special! Thanks so much for being a part of my VLC experience! =D This Jack person here surely wouldnt have had the same fun experience without you there! Hope we still keep in contact after this ok!

Haha I really thought I might fail this. But I passed, so yeah! =D Will heed Wolf's advice to continue to try harder! haha. The road back home.

Sewing and 601!
Yea, so I went to school on wednesday to sew many many badges onto a piece of green cloth for den renovation! We had a fun time there! Haha, talking crap and watching funkers funk while sewing. It got me a lil frustrated at some parts (eg. when the thread was too short...) haha but overall still went ok, and thanks for buying my lunch guys! =)


Yep, so after we finished everything, Kenneth Kuan and I went to Hougang Sports Hall together for the 601 gathering! (need the sirname to differentiate...both from 601 and 01..haha) Anyway, I had a great afternoon, catching up with the old mates haha, and playing badminton together! Still think that our bunch of 601-ers are the greatest! Haha. =D It was really nice to see that quite a number of us were there, 12! Are we going to get more the next time? =) It was just an afternoon of fun and games, and chatting, and a great workout too lol. oh yes, and maybe also a little of merciless killing by some people, lol! No offense, =)

Dinner was at NYNY at heartland mall, where Darren joined us! Haha we were all saying funny stuff at dinner, and laughing! Wished that dinner would last longer...haha. But well, all good things must also come to an end, so after that we went home... From the gathering, everyone still looks good to me! All still so lively and handsome and beautiful...lols. Ok, but seriously i had a wonderful time!

This is koped from the class blog, sorry for all the pro-chem things and the excessive info provided cos thats what Mr Koh wanted. =)

Today a group of us from 4T went to VJC for some fun chemistry workshops!! We signed up voluntarily and we weren’t disappointed. (Alvin, Teng Chuan, Manfred, Jian Wei, Mervyn, Dominic, Ben Chin, Jim and Me) We went into the VJC campus, and after the registration, travel declaration and stuff, we took a walk around before entering the lab.

Our first workshop was titled: Snacks- Recipe for a Horizontally Developed Body? It was basically about what our food is made up of and what make you fat. So to get us awake he showed us some random videos…about turning water into ice and some painting video haha. But quite interesting la. He also explained how the 2008 compound of the year- melamine, increases the protein level in milk, haha. Anyway the lesson proper, first part is about the stuff we learnt in bio, like all the carbohydrates, lipids and proteins, plus trans fats. But then the second part was about reading nutritional labels on food. And like how calories are used in our body- 60% on Basal Metabolic Rate, 30% on Movement and 10% on Dietary Thermogenesis. Also how to gain weight, haha, for those underweight people! LDL (“bad”)and HDL (“good”)cholesterol, and about the only food with negative calories! The celery! Im just writing out the concepts, find out why yourself! Or ask the people who went! =D




Then we had an activity where we were all given something like this:





Regret not going right…lols. Anyway, we could choose to keep what we were given, or do a one to one swap among ourselves, where we could exchange something we don’t like for something we like. And at the end, the calorie values were given and we could actually measure how much we would have gotten. Mr Lim told us that, the amount of calories given at the start was actually what is required in a meal, about 600+ calories, but we wont feel full even after eating whats in the bag! Due to the nature of the food…hmm…think about it…Oh and yes, we got to keep the food. =P haha.


Ok so after that we sort of had an empty slot, so we went out to lunch together at Parkway Parade. It was quite fun going all the way there to eat, at least something different from the usual J8. Hm..ok maybe not, cos we still ate at a restaurant J8 has in the end… Well, after lunch some people had a change in plans…

Anyway, we* went back to VJC and had our second workshop titled: Going Bananas!- The Chemistry of Flavours. We learnt that flavor is actually a combination of taste, sensation and colour transmitted by receptors in the taste buds. And esters are a key component of the aromas of fruits (carry the bulk of the signals). Esters tend to have distinctive, generally pleasant odours, and are made from the reaction between carboxylic acids and alcohols. Flavours are usually created using a complex mixture of esters, and food manufacturers use them to make artificial flavouring.

We learnt 2 methods of synthesizing esters. Method 1 is simpler to understand: Condensation reaction of alcohol with carboxylic acid. The 2 chemicals we used are Methanol and Butanoic Acid, and we also needed to use c. sulfuric acid as catalyst, and heat it over a boiling water bath. Cant heat it over a naked flame, as alcohol is flammable. We got a smell closest to that from an apple from this experiment! Ok, fine we couldn’t really tell that well…(remember a flavor is made up of a combination of esters?) But still we had to learn how to draw the structure of the methanol and butanoic acid, and how they eventually formed the ester with the apple smell, and of course water, being a condensation reaction. The very nice teacher’s assistant taught us this! (something like Xin Yan, Yen San or Zhao Yuan…haha) So we had to know how to identify an ester. It’s a C with one single C-O bond and one double C=O bond, so it’s like O-C=O. That’s an ester.

As for Method 2, the reaction of alcohol with ethanoic anhydride, it was basically similar steps in doing it, but adding different stuff. We added alcohols such as: Octan-1-ol, Propan-1-ol or 3-methyl-1-butanol, to an acid derivative, Ethanoic Anhydride. Think its because the acid derivative is more reactive… So, from these, we got the smells of orange, pear and bananas!! (respectively) Again, these smells aren’t that obvious, except for the banana, which most of us are able to tell because it has a more distinct smell. Really nice! Haha. After that, this time, they only showed us the chemical formulas for the substances, and wanted us to draw out the structures of the esters that would form as a result. Slightly difficult to understand at the start, but simple once you get the hang of it, haha. Its quite interesting how they are able to tell the information of the substance from its name…like the prefixes: Met means 1 C, Eth means 2 Cs, Prop is 3 Cs, But is 4Cs, and Hep is 5Cs. (a lot of Singaporeans like Hep? Haha!) The teacher said that we are going to learn this in organic chemistry! And, we have to remember up to 10 Cs for our A levels…yea so learn 5 first lor… and then also if the name ends with –ol then its an alcohol, with an OH functional group…yea this sort of thing.

We were also supposed to do it in something called the reflux setup, which actually just means heating with an attached condenser which helps to condense the vapours which evaporated back into liquid form for heating, as the organic compounds are very volatile.





This second workshop has a lot more new content for us, still the level pitched was okay, not too difficult or easy, so its understandable la. We were a bit overwhelmed at first, but after a while, with some help from the assistants, we were good to go, haha. And its quite fun to get to conduct the experiment yourself, and smell the fruit flavouring you created!

Overall, I enjoyed both the workshops very much! And we had quite a fun time engaging in the activities while having learning chem! These workshops have given me a chance to get to see more of the uses and applications of chemistry! =)

What can I say to my class? Told you it wouldnt be so bad. Tax is a really interesting subject...


Property Tax...




Old tax calculators! (cost $75 each lol)


Whats so interesting? =)


3% GST?? Haha




Income Tax structure


Alvin trying to act helpful, haha! But great food, lol. Thats where our tax money goes to? haha

Now for some group photos!


Turned out surprisingly good...haha =P

The second morning started off almost uninterestingly, haha, maybe it was because of the long night…woke up so many times, and heard Hiok Yang, Sup and Zi Heng talking, lol. Ants? Anyway, we all woke up and started to pack up/tour around other groups’ campsites. Haha, quite surprising to find that our shelter was actually quite good! Haha. We then had breakfast just beside the road, out of the forest. Oreo and bread and milo powder. Think that’s what we had. =) Took a hike over to some mrt station…Yio Chu Kang? Lols, kinda forgot… and refilled our bottles there. Think people find us a nuisance, cos we were all hogging the taps, but it was also partly becos the water flowed so slowly… Yea so after quite some time, we went on the MRT and took this long train ride to Tampines. Long but fun, haha! We were all chatting and talking about random stuff. Really a relaxing ride. Big change from the day before when we walked to get to places.

Anyway, the main point of the ride was to get to the starting point (lol) of our run. We were going to run from the Tampines MRT to Changi Point! And our VTLs so cleverly, planned our route to be the same as the Adidas Sundown Marathon route! And furthermore, it was only the day before when the Adidas Sundown Marathon took place! Guess what this means. The stations haven’t been removed. And there were still drinks along our route! Lols. During the 8kn run, at one of the stations we actually rested and took the drinks there! The 100 plus was just so refreshing and revitalizing haha. But some people, were kinda greedy and took 8 cups? So they got bloated. Haha. I took about 3 cups, and felt really good after that when running. It was quite amazing how I just didn’t feel thirsty after the drink, haha. Could run much better after that! It was quite an enjoyable run overall, again a change from the previous day. (not that it wasn’t enjoyable, but that its not the relaxing kind of thing) Mr Chan and Hiok Yang were with us the whole time we were running, but on the car instead. W! (inside joke, sorry! haha)

Next was lunch, so we had lunch there at Changi Jettty, opening up all our instant noodles and canned food! I ate Chicken Abalone noodles with braised peanuts, baked beans and curry chicken. Sort of the usual food we eat at camp. Haha, and then for dessert was Jubes NATA DE COCO! And in 3 flavours thanks to sharing between groups, haha. Sorry for that ad. So after all that running, then cooking using water for our noodles, naturally it was again time for refilling our bottles. But this time the cleaning auntie there wasn’t happy about it, and didn’t allow us to refill our bottles. So we had no choice but to look for another toilet at the changi food centre, where we were supposed to pay 10cents for every entry, but managed not to becos the guy was sleeping and we assumed he didn’t want that 10cents. That toilet was better, considering the water flow was much faster and less people used it. So we did a fast one, and escaped unscathed. We then carried the other logistics like the firewood and aluminum foil and stuff and boarded the boat to Pulau Ubin!

I was carrying the toyo box, so it was kinda heavy. Lols. But that’s not the point. We reached Pulau Ubin and then walked to the familiar beach area where we put down all our stuff. This was the place we slept at during our sec3 OBS. And of course there were the ‘friendly’ dogs which were always around there. About 5 I suppose. Once everyone was there and we rested for a while, we started to dig a hole for use as our fire pit. It was going to be a beach barbeque!! Lols, one of the best things that can ever happen in a camp?

Haha so we all got excited, and helped out the food preparation. Cracking and beating eggs, wrapping potatoes, contributing the stones we all have been carrying throughout the camp…lots to do. Andwhile we were just placing the food into the fire, we realised one problem- the water level was rising and was going to reach the fire soon! Haha, we literally underestimated the tide… So in an attempt to save our fire, we actually dug trenches in front of the fire in hope that the water will collect in the trench instead of reaching the fire. But as you should have guessed, the attempt was pretty futile and we had to relocate our fire in the end. (and some of the food got extra salt in the process, bleh..) Still, we got quite a nice dinner, with the chicken, pork, potato, fish…only the egg is ruined by the seawater. Haha, eating by the beach is just different. Feeling the breeze, while enjoying your food and chatting with friends. What a great feeling.

That night, we also set up a campfire, and roasted marshmallows! Lols, the classic kind. We simply picked up any stick we found on the ground, strung the marshmallows through, and then sat beside the campfire and talked, and sung songs, and listened to stories… oh yes and also looking at the flaming ashes from the fire flying about! Really beautiful…

There was nothing more for the night, and after sitting around the campfire for…who knows how long (we all lost track of time…), we settled our night sentry duties, and some of us just went to our bashas and slept. I got the first shift, so Leonard and I went over to Amos and Zi Heng’s groundsheet and laid there. I didn’t sleep for most of it, was just listening to music and chatting again among the 4 of us, haha. The night was special. Love it. 1.5 hours passed, and it was time for my sleep! And then I was woken again at 4am, for my second shift. This time, the rest of them were sleeping, and somehow I managed to stay awake for the whole of the 1.5 hours alone, staring at the trees, the sky, and the sea. I didn’t want to lie down, for I knew I would surely fall asleep. So I just looked at these and reflected, and thought. About everything- camp, my family, my friends, my life, the reality I would be returning to, and what I was going to change. Haha, I admit my mind wasn’t the most alert then, but I liked the ‘spiritual’ feeling I got. And then, when my shift was over, I woke everyone up, and went back into proper sleep.

The next morning, I was one o the last to awake, for when I woke up, everyone was already sitting up and watching ‘the show’. Hiok Yang, Sup and Zi Heng were ‘performing a show’ for us, with their suanning and lots of antics. Haha. We all agreed that it was much better than television, and got a really good laugh. Haha. =D So whos the fat one?

We then took down our bashas, and then had our last breakfast! Lots of food again, choc chip bread, pandan bread, oreo, instant cereal, instant milo…we all had our full, while talking about stuff again. And then for the rest of the morning, it was mostly a reflection session, talking about each other, and ourselves, helping us learn more about ourselves, strengths and things to work on. For me, I think there was one on speaking out more, and one more I shall not reveal, because it is to my disadvantage, lols. To those of you who were there with me, please do help me to improve on myself! I will try my best too! =)

And then the final part. We were all blindfolded, and told to stand in a line at the beach. You know, like those things they do in the Japanese occupation, where they shoot the people at the beach… ok, not so terrible la. We were all told to think of three things: One dream, One Fear, and One Thing We Want to Change. Not being able to see anything, while only listening to the sounds of the waves splashing against the shores, I thought of my three.

Now when I think back, personally, venture Camp has really taught me about the importance of trusting the friends I have, and relying on each other. Not a single one of us could have done what we did all alone. Whether it was the survival night, or the beach cooking…it has to be us working together! Also, I feel that the VC has really given me the opportunity to try out many new things, just as my time in Ventures has been. I believe that we all have learnt something new about ourselves, and gotten to know something new that we can do. There are many things we know we can do. But there are many more we have yet to try out.

Gues what? the camp ended on 01-06. Haha, I personally understand this as, it only ends, if we want it to. Which kinda means it will never. Lol.

I really loved it! Thanks so much to our VTLs, the GC and AC for planning it! And of course all my batchmates in 0106 who went through everything with me, especially Alvin! Without which the experience would have totally sucked. Haha! =D

My choice in sec 3 is truly worthwhile. I feel so lucky to have discovered what I've been missing out... Thanks buds!

Sorry for the long and picture-less post!! Facebook has many of them though, haha! =)

Yay, just came back from our venture camp yesterday! It was more fun than I had expected! To tell the truth, I was actually pretty worried before the camp, cos I didn’t have a good idea of what it’ll be like, and the preparation seemed like a lot of work, especially when it was during the cct period. But thankfully, my fellow experienced 01 batchmates really helped a lot, haha in getting all the stuff needed for the camp, especially the survival kit, which in itself consisted lots of stuff.

So with all everyone’s help, I was really reassured closer to the camp that we were going to succeed and pictured us doing well! Haha, and I wasn’t wrong. (except that I of course I couldn’t imagine the activities we would be doing…)

Haha, and soon came the first day of camp. Getting there wasn’t easy, cause I just couldn’t find it on my street directory for some reason, and my parents weren’t free, so I took a cab there! The taxi driver saw me carrying the big bag, so we started on a conversation about scouting, which lead to his NS days, and jungle survival stuff, haha. It was really an interesting conversation! But the things I learnt couldn’t really be applied, unfortunately. Anyway, when I reached, thought I was early but some people were already there, like Francis, Anurak, Rong Jun. Tak Wei arrived same time as me haha. Most of us arrived early to do our sorting out of rations, and then came the GC, actually 4 of them, Zhi Xuan, Chee Yeow, Yan Wei and Hao Qin, with Mr Chan. Inspection time! Still scary as ever, but fortunately we had enough time. Still got pumped a little for latecomers though. Haha.

So after this we all left for our first activity- the close terrain navigation. First checkpoint- somewhere within the Bukit Timah Nature reserve. The walk there was quite fun, we were all chatting and trekking at the same time, so it was a bit slow, but still, good warm up! One place we passed which left an impression on we was the big flyover we walked on. Really beautiful place. People will scold me for this! But I kinda enjoyed looking at those ‘majestic’ ERP gantries, while the cars drove past them. Not because all the IUs were “di-ing” away, but because the general scene was quite impressive from where I was standing, haha.

Anyway, after we got to the checkpoint, which was rather easy to spot because Mr Chan was standing there, haha. The difficult part came. Looking for the white card to get our next clue. Only managed to find it after quite some time because, again, Mr Chan hinted us and said that he could see the card from where he was standing, haha. Thanks, sir! Haha, anyway, we were split into small patrols after this, and without Mr Chan’s hints, it was only going to get tougher.

For our patrol, Alvin, Sup, Zhong Jun, Zi Heng and I, our second checkpoint was the most difficult one, it was located far from the rest, and deep inside a forest kinda thing. On our way there, the sky just turned dark and we heard some thunder. Ok maybe it might have been the shooting range in the vicinity. The temperature dropped. So you can imagine what it seemed like. Cool, dark, cloudy, windy. In a forest. Zi Heng correctly pointed out that it reminds him of the scene from Twilight. Haha, and I couldn’t agree more. It was like something fantasy-related was going to happen at any time, haha! Especially when the sun suddenly started to light up the forest, and rays of light were beaming through some of the tree canopy…woa… So, we did spend quite a lot of time looking for it, but Chee Yeow did give us some hints, again, and we managed to find it!

Just when you start to think that we are some useless scouts who depend on hints so much…see this. Some of our checkpoints are supposed to be for OCS training! And, we did well for our next checkpoint! No hints, nothing. And we got there fast! Just pure dead reckoning, as we call it. Lols. At this point I realised I like pacing. Cos I was getting used to it and it wasn’t that difficult, except that you have to really maintain your concentration.

But, I was supposed to navigate next! Haha, so I happily took on the role, and…yea started trying it out. I have learnt these skills before, but it’s the first time im putting it to real practical use! With some advice, I managed to plot and find our way to the next checkpoint! Erm…but wait. The way we got there…heh… What we could have taken: The boardwalk at the reserve, and just by walking on it and following the one-way-only path, for 500m or so, we could have reached it easily. The way we actually took: climb up this steep steep slope, some parts at about 70 degrees…while grabbing onto tree stems, roots and avoiding those thorny plants and caterpillars, haha. It was really challenging, and we took too much time, like really, compare the 2. But having said that, this stupid mistake we made could easily have been one of the most memorable parts of the close-terrain navigation, lols. Its puzzling how things can turn into something completely unexpected.

Not sure if the order is correct, but I think we went to the next checkpoint on top of a small hill. This time there was a road, so it was easier, but less fun, and the concrete road made me feel uneasy. Prefer stepping on ground during hikes, haha. Anyway, we met Kenneth’s patrol there on the hill, and apparently they have been searching for their white card for some time already! Zhi Xuan was there with them, and now Chee Yeow joined him. We, on the other hand, joined in the search. We were really lost, okay not lost. Just couldn’t find the white card after like almost 20 minutes. The VTLs, decided to be mean and not tell us since it was our last station anyway. Haha. But in the end, I think Alvin found it just behind some bushes on the left of the place we placed our bags…we have been searching the forward so thoroughly we forgot about the sides…haha. So Alvin like really saved 2 patrols and we all went off happily! Haha.

I remember stopping off at the ranger station for a drink and refilling, and then meeting the last patrol. Took some photos, had a short rest, and then hiked to Thomson Forest where we were going to have our survival night! Lols.

Survival night was a completely new experience, unique to the ventures. And so we were all really more excited than anything about going into the forest and proving that we can survive in it by ourselves, haha. We were given food, almost too much of it: Chicken, Fish, Mushrooms, Eggs, potatoes as well. My partner was Alvin, haha! Think we worked well together. Once we got there, we surveyed the area to find out which was the best place for everything, and decided on them. And then, since the shelter was more important than the food, we started on the shelter, building the structure and then gathering and stacking leaves on it. The traditional jungle kind of shelter. Haha. We spent a little too much time on it though, and only realised when the sky began getting dark. Alvin decided to go and cook, while I continued with the building. In the end, thankfully Alvin managed to cook us both, the mushrooms, egg and the fish. The rest were just too much to cook. He did a great job! Considering the forest was wet, because of a rain earlier, all the twigs and leaves we needed for the fire was wet and less effective. Also, the forest was so dark we couldn’t see a single thing after we turned off our torches…so yea! Alvin was a great cook! Loved the mushrooms. Haha. Luckily I didn’t let Alvin down as well and also got a decent shelter after my finishing touch-ups. The night was really tiring cos we all wanted sleep after the whole day of hiking, but night sentry was a must. And in a 2-man group like ours, sentry times were crazy. So, luckily we called Chee Yeow and explained our situation. He allowed us to rest from 2-5 am without sentry, and that was really helpful for more sleep! Haha! In the night, Alvin and I talked about lots of things, from 01 stuff, to class stuff and also played some games! Like the one where each person has to say a word and create a story. But I apologise to Alvin for the countless times I fell into slumberland while we were talking. Lols. So sorry!

-End Day1/Part 1-