The best group of friends

Yesterday and today were great :D Only thing is I'm injured and physically tired. damz, hope I recover soon. Spending post-As at home is no deal.

Anyway, we had a fun time chatting with Mrs Ng last night, where she spent bulk of the time telling us about her dating/relationship experience, dealing out advice to a friend, and 'encouraging' us to date. haha it was quite cool and refreshing to hear her stand on relationship, which diverges from common consensus among our parents' generation. She mentioned that her mum used to tell her to date (we thought that's quite radical!) and be open about it. Apart from that, she does offer common threads of ideas that seem to be prevalent among the less-young (the 'o' word is taboo) generation - that is, we should not be too overly-idealistic about a relationship and that it takes tries/opportunities to find out the best fit person I guess. Ya, something along those lines.

After that, she was giving a friend some advice on what to do. It was probably the most amusing part of our conversation. Atmosphere very important - go to a beach (cold, can hold hands) or go to mountain-top (can't remember how it helps). Timing important. Common hobbies/traits important. Etc... lots of funny stuff.

She also said something that struck a responsive chord with me, and it goes like this:

There will always be someone who's prettier, smarter, more intelligent, more capable, more charming... out there, so love shouldn't be about such things. Otherwise you're going to get into trouble when you are working with a sexy co-worker next time ah.

haha yea I totally agree. It's important, but it isn't the most important thing.

Another advice she gave was to look for someone in JC now, because when we get to university and stuff, the kind of people we meet may not be who they really project themselves to be. Which is kinda true. Right now in JC, we spend so much time together with friends that we know how our friends are like at their best moments, at their ugliest moments, and basically get to know who they are. When we're at uni or some random work place, we won't get to spend so much time to know one another, and there will probably be a lot of superficiality at play.

haha ya then we got her to tell us about her dating experiences and stuff. Altogether, it was an entertaining night (:

This morning was spent playing soccer, which was superbly fun after such a long time of inactivity! haha but the highlight was really the lunch. We spent 3h talking about everything - Heroes, Prison Break, Lost, UFOs, ghosts, dragons, planning for our activity next Tuesday after Physics, scary girls, etc... Dragons supposedly exist in the past - check out the youtube documentary by searching for 'dragons - a fantasy made real'. Interesting theories, but I'm still sceptical about it.

Yup, to cap it all, it was totally amazing after months of stagnating in front of our books. haha the time spent with the scoutie are really one of the most enjoyable moments - because we have known each other for so long, endured through all sorts of hardcore physical/dirty/muddy/crazy/painful activities together, and are committed to keeping our friendships alive, we are absolutely carefree with one another. haha in fact, I think we even got to know one another better during JC despite our busy and unique schedules. It really goes to prove that quantity of time spent together doesn't matter as much as its quality. :D

Alright I better sleep more and hope it's nothing.

of farewells and batchmates

haha today has been a pretty fun and exciting day! First up was CIP discussion where crazy ideas were brainstormed before we finally toned down and became more pragmatic. Got my buddy a bread thingy to mark her first ihc of the year haha what a milestone instead! BREADWINNER is too irresistible a pun xD

The second exciting thing was Waterfeste. Watching the new housed in work really brought about a little twinge of nostalgia... being reminded of how we had to do the same things last year i.e. staying up to call people, preparing for ihc, screaming and cheering, and all those little stuff. BBHouseD0708 ftw! haha glad we're still keeping such close contact despite the conclusion of council =D love my housed!

The third thing (and by far most memorable and heartwarming) that happened was a farewell planned for us. We were really pleasantly surprised when the Sec 2s passed us the jerseys with our names on it! I mean it's like o.0 0.o o.0 0.o never really expected the farewell to be so extravagantly prepared for us. The subsequent soccer match where we kinda played badly but had lots and lots of fun; the video screening that featured us, with juniors and teachers alike speaking about our batch; the photo frames. At this note, I really really really think Mrs Ng is the best teacher ever! What she said really reminded me that she has seen us through these 6 years, watching us grow from awkward and immature Sec 1s to become who we are today, and all the time she has been patient and really nice. haha our batch is really lucky to have worked so closely with her (:

And I have never really experienced a welfare initiative done on such a large scale for me, for our batch. haha in fact, I'm usually the one preparing this kind of welfare initiatives I guess. Really makes me realize how much a little act of appreciation could go a long way, let alone when done on a larger magnitude. wheeeeeee scouts!

Finally, we got a dinner treat from the teachers! haha we spent lots of time fooling around, catching up, talking nonsense. Really enjoyable moments, and being around these guys, we could talk about anything anywhere at anytime. So carefree! haha the ultimate game we played was this silly game where we took someone's phone and send a random message to a random person xD had an amazing time conjuring all sorts of prank like we used Kok Thong's phone to send 'I love you, you love me, we are one big family?'. haha we're bored people but some of the replies were really amusing!

alright I'm quite tired now. Just wanted to say that these scouties are really one of my greatest friends, and I can imagine myself still meeting them 30 years down the road, introducing our kids to one another and sitting around as usual, doing nothing, yet doing everything at the same time.

Batchmates (:

happy bdae marcus!

haha and so today was marcus' birthday. We got him a card and the book TEN which is some training guide for men to get hot bods xD Additionally, we brought him to Island Creamery and treated him to ice cream (: haha had an absolutely fun time there talking about very interesting topics M&M - magic and movies! We have a senior in scouts who is a trained magician and we were just talking about how amazing and realistic his tricks are. The conversation then shifted towards magicians/illusionists/entertainers (whatever they choose to call themselves) where we exchanged stories of amazing feats that seemed impossible. haha and we were all regretting not paying the money to learn how to do those tricks back in the old days o.0 it will be totally cool man

After that we talked about nice movies like The Prestige, 21, Untraceable etc... and lamented how Oscar-winning movies seemed to have a tendency to disappoint, where Dennis told us about some lame movie called Country with No Old Men or something like that, which has about 15mins worth of narrative in the whole duration of the movie :O

Once we decided it was getting late, we went home where Funx and I were reminiscing the old times in scouts where we would stay back in school almost every day playing carrom, table tennis, patrol meetings, soccer, etc... Talking about how sad scouting in 02 is now with politics ruining sentiments within the existing batches... Recounting the funny times in camps and realising how fantastic our batch really is... In the end, both of us concluded that it was really luck that brought the few of us together and kept the friendships going strong. I guess it must be human nature or something, but from observation, it seems like many people have the inclination to prioritize the new over the old.

I think it is most probably because in these new friendships, we are chasing after an ideal or pursuing a positive end in the relationship e.g. becoming better friends, and the fact that we haven't achieved these goals led us to prioritize it ahead of old and trusty friendships. Perhaps the knowledge that these steady friendships will be here to stay has made us complacent, in the process lowering our valuation of them.

In any way, the clock is really ticking. It's a mere 10 weeks before the prelims descend upon us.

camp

i'm sort of dead tired now, but i need to write this down somewhere before the feelings attached to camp become blurred by sleep.

camp has been mentally rejuvenating. between orientation dry run, grad nite and camp, my energy has been totally exhausted. oh well, but i survived anyway, and i must really thank my batchmates for allowing me to take naps when i felt too drained to continue, even when they themselves were tired from the hike and activities.

i rarely get agitated. and i seldom raise my voice. and to have to shout at my juniors, it wasn't a pleasant task to do. but responsibilities remain, and no matter how difficult they are, i can't shirk away from them. and i raised my voice. the first time happened during war games when cheating had become blatant. the message was conveyed. but for a more honest appraisal, i must admit that i was feeling apprehensive when i shouted. it was something very out-of-character for me, and to have to overcome this barrier of sorts expended a lot of energy. but i finally crossed the invisible line and in a way, i felt that i have grown there and then.

today was a totally different experience. it was reflections for the troop, the time when we will have to forcefully make them reflect back on what they have learnt together as one through physical means, hoping that this temporarily pain will etch indelible lessons into their minds. it was a different kind of shouting. i was tired this morning, but i slowly broke out of my lethargy. because while shouting, i felt something.

how do i explain this intangible emotion that was aroused unintentionally? i think many times when we berate the troop, we enter a mechanical mode where the logical part of us takes over and we base our scolding on rational reasoning. but this was different. while shouting, i had inadvertently triggered something. it was when i started asking them what '02' really means to them.

i think at that moment a thousand thoughts cluttered in my mind. what does 02 really mean to myself? are we the 02 scouts past generations used to be? have we lived up to the name? and my feelings and emotions - they have woven themselves into the whole physical process. it was no longer a step-by-step punishment of their errors and failures. it has become an emotional moment of trying to make them understand, and to relate to their feelings. somehow, the fire that used to burn to brightly, the fire that has diminished this year, the fire that continues to burn because of my friendship with fellow batchmates, it burst into a towering conflagration. and for that moment, i was no longer using the logical part of my brain to speak. i know. it was my feelings that spoke.

and most importantly, it seemed like it worked better. there was greater urgency in the troop's movement. there was louder encouragement, cheers that were not inspired by fear, but rather, shouting because they really felt something and wanted to raise the spirits of their fellow friends who were suffering alongside them.

towards the end of reflections, something happened that really touched me, that made me think 02 has a much brighter future ahead, that our message has finally gotten across, and that all my admonishment was not done in vain. i asked the sec2s to recover from their push-up positions and move to another area for r&r.

but they refused the command.

"we are one troop, and we move together."
this simple sentence crystallized that moment in its clarity.

i do not know if, after today, everyone will go back and forget about everything.
i do not know if, after today, things will revert back and problems will continue to persist.
i do not even know if, after today, anything will change at all.

all i really ask for is that, after today, all of them will remember what we have been trying to grill into them all these while - that 02 is family, and that we are brothers.

cliche. but i don't care.

to the greatest friends one can ever have - funx, marcus, vinod, weizhi, samuel, raj and all my other batchmates,
to the greatest teacher 02 will ever have - mrs ng,
and to the greatest troop with such immense potential in them,
everything i wish to say to them,
can be summarized into two words.

thank you.

0102

combined cycling was fantastic!
the ubin part was full of fun and laughter as we experience frisbee, dog and bone, as well as cockfight. hahaha just as the 01 scouts had misunderstood the nature of the game, cockfight, when i first suggested it, let me clarify that it is basically a game where 2 competitors each stand on one leg. so they basically have to hop around and try to knock their opponent down. haha it was quite fun and for my group we had a free-for-all fight where backstabbing and collaboration were prevalent xD

after that, it was dinner before the real night cycling began. actually, to be honest, i was a bit unsure of leading at first. somehow, the surroundings looked different at night, and the other time when we had recced, it was bright and sunny. however, once we started cycling, my confidence grew as memories of the paths urged me forward at every notch and turn. and so, we cycled from changi village to east coast.

but as the old adage goes, 'the best laid plans of mice and men go awry'. and indeed, it was only about 20 mins before the first unpredicted obstacle was chanced upon us. huikiat's bike broke down. like the axle broke completely. ggxx. but in the end we still managed to solve it.

next up - the incessant rain. it was the irritating kind of rain - the type where it is not so heavy that we have to start seeking for shelter, yet not so light that we won't be affected by it either. we continued to push on.

we reached east coast and rested for an hour at burger king. everyone was feeling put out and tired, and many did not wish to continue the next leg of our journey, for the luxuries of staying in the comfort of the food outlet was beginning to cast a sleeping spell over us. yet, we honoured our promises and strove on, for we are scouts.

we cycled to the end of the east coast track, somewhere along tanjong rhu i think, and from there on, kumaran led the way to the kallang river. haha it was a panoramic view - with the illuminated bridge and quiescent waters. i will definitely cycle there once again in the near future. in fact, i think i want to revive my cycling tradition once more.

it was 2+ am in the morning. we were crazy. we decided to cycle all the way back to changi beach park to sleep. and so we did. sometimes, the things we remember most are the hardest things we had to do. the most memorable part of this activity was travelling the stretch beside the airport tracks. due to the lethargy that had set in, i led a comfortable but slow pace at first. but after a while, i broke out of my reverie and started to accelerate until we reached an unbearable speed.

at that point, silence was the only speech. everyone was too tired to speak, and invested all our energies into the simple yet draining task of pedalling the bikes. for me, i relied on my trusty music to keep my mind awake and stay focused.

we reached the end of the track. finally. it was tiring, but it was also rewarding. hahaha. do you know that when you do not sleep for two straight days, your mind will start acting as if you were in a drunken stupor? and yes, i was quite tired then. and started singing 'home'. hahaha super funny and the rest joined in. our chorus of melodious voices was rejuvenating though, and freshened us a bit.

after that, we cycled on and reached our rest point. our luck pulled through - for it was not long after we stopped when the downpour began.

rested.
returned the bikes.
returned home.
slept.

it has been a remarkable journey, and i was glad i got to know the 01 a lot - teeyong, hiok, wenyu, chin yang, and not to forget their sec4s too. =) haha must start compiling the photos into a collective wallpaper too.

memories, crystallized;
bonds, formalized.

hahahaha retreat promises to be extremely fun and exciting! 1 MORE DAY!

scouts

wheeee... went to some food court at amk to have dinner with a few scouts before proceeding to the camp site. at first, i was feeling super lethargic having dumbly taken a dosage of cough medicine right before i left home =X but after a while the cloudy-hazy feeling sort of evaporated and i felt better.

haha i realised there are some people topics that have been croppping up frequently in our recent conversations. somehow it's just quite interesting to listen to my friend talk about his interactions with another friend whom he claims he no longer crushes, and as usual, we believe in him. or claim we do, at least. xD

then went to the campsite and looked around before proceeding to the hall. and there, marcus surprised us by playing the piano. =O haha eyeopener for us. he was accompanied by cm and both of them were super engrossed with it. lol actually it was more than an eyeopener - the thing about marcus and the piano. the concentration he displayed took us aback. so we concluded that he had a motivation, a source of inspiration. =) no further elaboration allowed =X

mmm then we played soccer! woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. it's like months since i last touched the ball! oh man, it's exhilarating to play soccer once again even though i'm coughing half the time =S kicking the ball around, dribbling it, and not to forget the most thrilling part of all, which is blasting the ball towards the goal! haha must organise batch soccer + lanning trip soon. hope i can fit in my tight june schedule -.- so much things to do and there are also cts to consider.

psst. they shld be having a meeting now at daqiao. pity i can't join them for stayover. zZz that's why being sick is bad. oh well, at least i'm finally getting a haircut tomorrow. after like 6 weeks. gosh that must be like some record for me! -.-

scouts rawk. =)

p.s. i want to get well and hardcore train up again! hahaha 'cos i know rite, i train up in hols, come council term, muscle mass confirm reduce again, with all the late nights craziness and 'happy' food aka fast food. x_X lol