Let's Take A Walk 2008

A walking event.. Overnight with a distance of 50km.. After doing a marathon, you might think..Aiya.. Walking only what? How shiong can it get right?! That was the fatalistic thought that was on our minds when someone (Though shalt not name) clicked on the mouse that signed us up for a night of FOOD and lots of PAIN ! HAHA..

Well Lets Take A walk is a charity event organised by Raleigh Society and Minds. They raise money through this event to fund their activities. The event began at 8pm for us at Tampines Stadium and the end point was at SMU. Along the way, I think we put on the same amount of calories as we burnt them. We were dressed to kill.. synchronised in our Stanchart Finisher T-shirts.. We had something to live up to. IT would be face-throwing had we been "Finished" and not finishers..

We began by warming up at the Tampines Stadium..

First Check point ! Makan meatballs and Chicken Wings @ Ikea ! Chinseng's version of Ice Lemon Tea comes from Carlsberg...

On Route.. We went past Pasir Ris Park where we met Chin Poh, then went Changi Village for BBQ Stingray, Prawns and Sotong.. Then ECP for Mac's Breakfast. In between was real hardcore walking. I suffered cramps and pulls on my muscles.. It was really bad.. I guess im not cut out for walking. My mind was seriously shut down and just walk and walk and walk... (ok u get the idea)
Our Shagged faces at SMU (The end-point)

I was so tired that whilst bathing, I actually slept in the toilet ! for a good 20 minutes i snoozed.. then got my act together to finish the bath ! Haha.. It was that bad.

Conclusion is, Respect the distance and Respect walking.

There's a reason why we are not Jonnie Walker..

Hilltop Teppanyaki @ Jurong Birdpark

We were supposed to eat at Carousel today. But Tiff was one HOUR late. (If you're reading my blog please repent ! ) So JY brought us to this hilltop place for Teppanyaki ! It was decent.. food was something that I had not expected.. Lots of garlic and wine.. but no typical blackbean sauce smothering over the meat and seafood that would mask the original tastes of the food.

We had to wear ORANGE bibs though.. It was rather funny. We left the place smelling like our food.. Coz all the smoke was trapped there.

After dinner, we headed to timbre@OldSchool for a drink and to catch the live band. But it was nothing to shout about. Really. The band was lacklustre and so were the drinks. Both did not do it for me.. Wala is so much better.

Need to start running again.. Havent ran since stanchart though ! Haha. And I have lets take a walk this sunday. More details at letstakeawalk.sg . Its a 50km walk..

Crazy fellas.. Should be able to survive la.. Hmm.. Now think of where to eat along the 50km route..

Blessings!

NIE ISG Ultimate Frisbee Champions !

It has been a real privilege to join the NIE ultimate team. Still a rookie in the game but now im kinda like hooked on it as its really quite fun. The experience of playing in a proper team with teamwork and shouting for each other was really cool. The camaraderie was evident when everyone cheered the team on and we would shout "UP !!!" when the disc was airborne..

Mass Team Pic..Team Gathering
Team Briefings are always a must.. Captains would tell us the formations and the stats of our opponents.

Stretching sessions..Time for Cheers ! Andrea has this cool one but its quite a mouthful.

And Finally coming in as Champions !

Funnily though, I played in today's ISG soccer and I didnt find it fun.. Maybe coz I was made to play Center-Back. but its quite a scary thought.. I think I really have fallen for ultimate. Haha..

Anyway Thank God for his Grace and Abundance:

1. Year End Bonus in !
2. Good Results
3. Good Stan chart Timing : Did 4hours 27mins ! Cool time without training much..
4. Zhenghua Race was a Success..

Results !!!

After a long hiatus from taking exams and then exam results.. I just got back my first semester university results ! And I have to say that VERY happy about it. Praise the Lord for it.

For those who know the circumstances that i faced this semester, it has really been such a tough 4 months for me even though i tried my best to enjoy it and lived it to the fullest. I had to handle domestic issues, head the adventure race project, be part of hall sports subcomm and deal with 7 mods.. It was really a handful. but therein shows the faithfulness of God in my life regardless of what happened.

The breakdown:

Intro to PE A-
Growth and Motor dev't A-
Principles of Games A-
Critical Perspectives A-
Educational Psychology B+
Bio Mods B-

Overall cap: 3.88

REALLY thank God. I knew i put in the effort and left it in his hands.. Im very grateful for this grades and will continue to press on from here! To my friends thank you also for supporting me the past semester!

Zhenghua Adventure Challenge 2008

I have come full circle. From a participant racer, a marshal, a coach in 5th Coy's AQ team to eventually being the race director of an adventure race.

Some say this is the pinnacle of Racing. Where one truly experiences the different facades of AR. Maybe next time I would be much nicer to the race director of the next race im participating in. Haha..

Well the chance to do this race was through the mentor who introduced his head pupil management ( Chin Seng) to me and asked me to organise and adventure race for his CSC. I thought it would be a good idea to collaborate for my GESL project and the CSC would provide the funding. Only thing is this would be the first time ever that I have organised an Adventure race single-handedly.

Well, friends encouraged me to take on this project and I was glad that through this race I saw who my real friends were as lesser ones just fell by the wayside. Nonetheless this project caused me lots of heartache and headaches through the months of stalling with the authorities like NParks and PUB.. I dealt with logs, finance, t-shirts, medals and what-have-you... It was crazy and there were MANY times (trust me) I asked myself what I got myself into?! And im not even a full time race director.. Im a student! Gosh.. all this planning whilst handling school work? Only the Lord could sustain me. Thank God.

But im really glad its over and there was an IMMENSE sense of achievement to see the race come to past and the execution was generally smooth. Weather was superb. Made all the torturing planning worth it. Thank God again.

Okay I'll go to describing the race proper:

We actually camped over night and "star-gazed" ! Haha at Rifle range that is. A few of us stayed over to look after the bikes. It was fun.. we had supper at Bukit Timah before heading back to sleep..

The race consisted of Trail Running, Cycling, Kayaking and Rockwall Climbing

Taking a group pic before the race began..

Started the race from Macritchie reservoir with a short run.My Kayak marshals (Jiahui and Eka) at the pontoon where the racers launched off..

Kayaking in the freshwaters of Macritchie..

My station masters : Vivian and Roby. They are in charge of kampong games like chapteh and five stones. Recreating the punggol picnic feel.
Caught the CSC cycling team in action.

Team AJC cycling at Bukit Timah

At the Zhenghua Rockwall with MadTiff and MadEven doubling up as a belayer.. ahaha.. Found some time to monkey around on the wall..Tiff made me and James wear masking tapes that had our nicks..

Mine was Lion and I gave a spastic look.. James had Skipper on his leg!

For the uninitiated, those are Madagascar characters !Me with Head Pupil Management : Mr Sng Chin Seng Team AJC (All 3 teams )
Prize -presentation ceremony ! Chinseng had to talk to stall time..
The overall winners of the race : AJC team 1Also doubling up as the emcee.. Haha.. This one I enjoy..My GESL group 12 : Aspirations !
Mass picture with Guest -of- Honour

Post Race Dinner with Jiahui.. Went home after the race was hour and K.O-ed for 3 hours then went makan with Jiahui at Xingwang HK cafe at Northpoint.. Haha didnt know she stayed so near me..

All in all, it was a damn Shack day but I LOVED it. Wouldnt want to have it turn out any other way. Bottom line is. God is AWESOME.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phi 4:13

NYDC

Today was really busy ! Went to collect medals, pass payment cheque for bikes.. Then met yiting and kelvin for dinner at Bugis. We settled for NYDC coz Kelvin hasnt eaten there before so let him try out.. Had the baked pasta for mains and two desserts which are featured below.. Nothing to shout about really..

The Jedi Mudster : Now this one's good. (My choice) haha.. Chocolate with choc chips on top followed by Macadamia Nut below.. Both flavors tick the boxes..
This one's called "Insatiable" but really it was anything BUT that. We were sick of it after 3 scoops.. It was way too sweet and confusing for us to even distinguish what the dish was about. Nonetheless we finished it and ended up with a sugar rush..

Tomorrow's the pre-race briefing! My first time being a race director and giving a pre-race briefing.. Kinda anxious but I'll just give it my best shot. All the components of the race have fallen into place and I really hope that the execution of the RACE will be done smoothly.

Things at home haven taken a dip down south. Im really sick of it. I want to just get away from all this nonsensical drama that has bugged me for the past 7 years of my life. Possible? Nah.. I think it'll be like this.. I wont go to the extent of saying LIFE sucks and why do I get this all the time.. (quite close though) BUT I need to BREAK OUT. HELP.

Ubin Cycling Trip '08 (Its an annual thing)

It was such a last minute thing- We decided only at 1am !!!

Haha but boy was it fun a trip !! There were 6 of us.. you'll get to see them in the pics below.. Had good food, great company and great weather as well.. Crack-a-lacking man!


First met at White Sands@ Pasir Ris.. Had breakfast at the Hong Kong Cafe..


Tiff and Vivian...Me and Mel..

Notice that this two are in SUPER WRONG attire for Pulau Ubin la !!! They ended up shopping at Sports connection for sports attire !!!HAhaa.. The ones in the right attire..

At the Jetty...

Bumboat pics...We packed food over to Ubin Jetty there.. And the uncles kept looking at us like we're weird or sth.. as though we were the PANSIES from S'pore that went to MADAGASCAR!! haha.. Kept asking us about the famous Nasi Lemak..
Haha Rustic street of Ubin..

For REAL ?? Haha we didnt bother to check them out..Okay.. we dumped our bikes and went into the quarry to begin with our photoshoot of the day!

Cool! 3 of us in the pic unknowingly..haha

First checkpoint: The bike stunts area..
First Rest-point: At the peak of the quarry..

Superb view calls for multiple shots.. You name it, we took it..

Jump shots, Pointing shots, Thousand Buddha Hands.. and Brokeback Mountain.. (All in Sequence) haha..

Central Ubin: Cookie Monster/ 100plus point.. We rested and re-fuelled with isotonic drinks..After which we headed to the right side to check out Chek Jawa.. BANDIT !!! haha.. He thought that he could rob some villagers or something?!

Next up: Poster-card pictures with cool seaside background.. or rather.. foreground..

At the boardwalk.. Were to see many fiddler crabs, mudskippers..bivalvia and so on.. its like Bio all over again with Prof Beverly..Spartans OG !My dear cuckoo friend here attempted to catch a mudskipper: Took 15 minutes but finally caught a baby mudskipper ! at the expense of his towel though.. Haha.. Then he posed like this with a victory speech caught in video.. I was wondering if he dropped it.. Its fresh SASHIMI !At the highest point in Ubin.. The viewing tower at Chek Jawa

Cycling back to the jetty.. It was going to rain.. and we were subsequently drenched !
Look at the shack-ed faces!!! haha.. Chiong-ed back in heavy rain !!!

On the bumboat back..

All in all, it was a damn fun trip la!! I so LOVE the nature and outdoors! Weather has been kind to us too!! We experienced both the HOT sun and RAIN !! Shiok..! My next pilgrimage there would be 2009.. Watch this space...