Blog Of Notes

Merry Christmas 2007

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!

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Day before council camp

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Yo... I've been blogging a lot lately...haha. Tomorrow's Council Camp and I finally manged to get all i need for the Formal Uniform. Court shoes, council badge, blouse, etc. My formal uniform is too big though... and its the smallest size alrd... being small is bad. Hope I wont get scolded for it. This will be the last camp of the year for me and I hope it turns out well. I'm still a lil unfamiliar with some cheers though... have to revise again, including the pledge. I'm guilty of not knowing all the names of the Elects too. Must get that all done by tonight. This will be my first council camp... better make sure I'm prepared. Cya. Will be back on 19th dec.

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Out with Calean :)

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Hiya. Went out with Calean today. She asked peiling too, but she had sth on... owells. Haha... went for lunch at Mac in Plaza Sing and waited for Charlene and Yuxin. It was really fun chatting with all of them cos this time, I really chatted with Calean for a looong time... without having the Company-Leader-respect-barriel. Not that I've never been able to speak to her like a friend... but it was only for short periods of time. Talked about guides and family... camp...farewell.

I went to their church thing.... is it called service? Not too sure, but we started of with christmas carols and a dance-like performance. Then Pastor Jeff (i think that's how he's called)came and talked about Jesus and God. I find what he said meaningful. Sang more songs after that. Then, they asked for all those who would wish to start on the journey of knowing God to come to the front and prayed for them. Calean asked if I wanted to go too. She shared her experience after joining when she was in Sec 2 and asked what was holding me back. In the end I didnt go... feel kinda bad actually, but I feel i'm not ready yet.

Anw, when it ended, we went to the food court with a group of their Church friends. I met Bridget, Sherlyn and.... cant rmb all their names... but they were all very nice and friendly. Ate longan with almond jelly while Calean had Pulut Hitam. We talked some more with Charlene and Yuxin and started to tell cold jokes... ahaha. Was really fun. After hanging out with them and their church friends for about an hour, Calean walked to the mrt station (though it was drizzling) with me and we talked some more. I was like talking and talking.... especially since we didnt talk much as she was really busy as CL. Well, we parted when I reached the gate thing at the mrt station.

After that, I went to J8 to get Court Shoes and smsed Calean...haaha. Asked about the bear we recorded "good afternoon m'am! Permission to fall in m'am! Calean! We Love you! She said she could only hear the last part, so she had to ask chinwen with meiting. Said it was really sweet. I'm glad she likes it...haha. Had fun today, though at one moment I was a lil stressed about the joining god part, but Calean and Charlene was really nice abt it. The church people were really warm too, though they didnt know me. I'm glad I came today and got to meet them :)

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Farewell 2007

Friday, December 14, 2007

Heya, i m just back from NYGG Farewell 2007 :) Let's start from the start shall we...

bright and early in the morning.... at some ungodly hour like 6.50 am, I reached school for Cooks badge. I m in the tofu group. Things went on quite peacefully when I was cutting the veggies and stuff. All was fine.... UNTIL the cooking came. We were pretty slow when cutting I guess, so we did not have a lot of time left for the cooking. I was frying the tofu cubes.... but they refused to turn brownish. Baddies. So, Claire took over after a while and I went to cook the veggies, mushroom and sauce. It was pretty stressful ok.... we did not have much time and the tofu cubes were still not done. In the end we decided just to have white tofu. Our quantity was to little though. The chicken rice ball group were also having a hard time. They did not have enough ingredients and the rice was taking a long time to cook. In the end they had to go to the supermarket to get more ingredients. Those in the apple pie group did pretty well and the pies were ready. As the chicken rice ball group needed more time and the tofu group also had some stuff left and needed to help them all of us besides huijun and i did not go for the rehearsal for the handover ceremony. Both of us had to go as we were going to be patrol seconds next yr and needed to be clear of the procedure

The rehearsal went on quite fine even though I had to give timing when we were marching and all that. We were suppose to have a 10 min water break, but since those in Cooks still needed more time, they decided to start half and hour later. Meanwhile, all of the sec 2s, including those in Hostess went up to help. Finally, the food was ready.

On to the actual ceremony. It was pretty much the same as the rehearsal, just that this time we saluted colours and incoming PLs, PSs, CLs and ACLs received the ribbons that will be sewn on the epaulette. I received mine from Ms Chen and did the guides handshake. Now i'll have one ribbon on each side. During the ceremony I also noticed the PGA, Gold Badge and another badge i m not too sure what it's called on Calean's and Gao Min's uniform. That's uber cool :) They are so pro la!

After the ceremony, we went to the canteen for lunch. The hostess people gave all of us and identity card that has a picture and particulars of a famous person. THey also named the canteen famous land. haha. I received Arron from Farenheit and some people were like crazy over him. Before this, I did'nt even know who he was. haha. Some people received characters like Mojo Jojo, Romeo, Ariel, etc. Haha. Ms Teng received Susan from Narnia. She would's let anyone see it at first. Everyone was pretty chatty about their new "identity". Back to hostess. They served the food we cooked. oya, our dishes were Newton's apple pie, Qu Yuan's Chicken Rice Ball and Gandhi's Tofu. The rice was kinda uncooked though... owells, we tried.

After lunch was patrol corner, when we gave presents to our Sec 4s. My patrol's gift was a box containing pom pom balls, sweets and a ferris wheel photo frame. Hope Calean and Hui Min like it. They both received a box each. Calean also gave as a box containing sweets and a letter. Hui Min also gave us a letter :) Then, Peiling and I presented them our gift to them which were 2 jars containing glow stars, "kisses" chocolates and a note. Then, we also took lots of pictures and I went around giving presents to Valerie and Gao Min, and also gave chocolate to some others. The sec 2 batch also tried to record "permission to fall in mdm...(pause) we love you calean/meiting!" using a recording bear for each of them. Our batch is quite "attached" to the both of them as they were our footdrill commanders and they really had a lot of patience with us.

Up next was the party. We quickly changed into our costumes for our perfomance and went to the conference room. The sec 3s already decorated it. They started off with a catwalk by the Sec 4s. It was really fun. haha. Gao Min and Calean were the Men in Black, while Shuli was Jay Chou and Renice was Jolin Tsai. The rest of the sec 4s also took on costumes of characters like Dracula and the powerpuff girls. Next was the items by the sec 1s, followed by the sec 2s. Ours was a musical about Dos and Don'ts of NYGG... Fairytale style. It was rather funny and I was Ariel. Apparently Ariel was sleeping in a tent when it started to rain, flooding it. Then, I had to lie on my stomach and pretend to swim while the rest sang "out in the rain... out in the rain" to the tune of Out in the Sea. Next was a montage by the sec 3s. It was really nice to see what the sec 4s did when they were in sec 1, all the way to sec 4. We saw them being the "victims" of sabotage... to being the organisers of the camp. THe sec 3s also danced and sang for their item, so did the sec 4s. Their dance was really fun and they also threw us sweets. Next was a song session when everyone just sat in a circle to sing. We sang about friendship and about leaving. We all shared this special moment whereby we were connected by the songs like peng2 you3 and wo3 ke3 yi3, etc. Finally, the hugging session came. We started to hug all our seniors and even our batchmates. I hugged Calean first, then Hui Min, Renice, Gao min and shuli. By then I have already started crying. I just felt like crying ok.... and I was the first one. My tears just flowed freely. The sec 4s I hugged were like... "don't cry..." , including calean while she patted my shoulder and hugged me the second time. The sec 3 also said I'll still see them sometimes when they come back. I know all that... but I still cried. Few minutes later more sec 2s started to cry, many others were teary-eyed. I was like crying and crying... not the sad cry though. I was still smiling and I wasnt wailing.... just that kind of smiley face with tears flowing down. It just dawned on me that I have already spent 2 years with them... having them teach me new skills and guide me along the way... and I won't be seeing them much from now onwards. I cried that sort of I'll-miss-you-all cry mixed with a lil sadness and gratitude. i've never noticed how attached to them I've become after these 2 years... until I really realised they will be leaving for JC. It was tears mixed with smiles. I also chionged down to get the recording bears for calean and meiting that i left in the canteen. When I got back with meiting, ms teng was halfway through her sorta speech for us. Luckily I managed to listen to her... it was really meaningful. When she was done, our batch gave calean and meiting the bears. They were really happy... haha. Calean also jested that Gao Min was jealous... haha. We're all really thankful to the sec 4s...... and said dunno how many "we love you"s. At the end, we addressed our sec 4s, including the former CLs and ACLs as "seniors" for the first time, and not "sec 4s" anymore. We also greeted the new Company Leaders and Asst Company leaders as CLs and ACLs for the first time. The sec 1s greeted us Sec 2s for the first time. It felt like having and ending meshed together with a new beginning. It felt kinda weird cos we usually addressed the former NY guides in JC as "seniors". I'm also so used to addressing Calean and Gaomin "CLs", Shuli and Renice "ACLs". But the sec 2 sorta half screamed and squealed when we heard the sec 1s greet us cos we onli needed to greet se 3s and above. We all moved up a level after the handover ceremony I guess.

The party was not the end for us sec 2s (plus some sec 3s) though.... we had to clean up the kitchen and canteen. We took forever to scrub the pots with chao-ta rice and stoves and ended pretty late. Some sec 3s stayed with us all the way to help too. I think it is this type of care and commitment the upper-sec guides have for us that made us bonded as a company. Unknowingly, we have experienced 2 years of effort put in by our sec 3s and 4s. Though they might be strict with us sometimes... we still can feel all that they have done for us...even if we might not realise it immediately. All this while, they having been giving and giving, while we received. I remember being quite afraid of Gao Min at first when I was in Sec 1... but she's actually really nice. I really feel all of our sec 4s are really nice actually. Soon, our batch will go on to sec 3, going through the learning journey our seniors have gone through and receiving more responsibilities including guiding our juniors. Let's try our best and not disappoint them kks? :) Jia You!

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Guides Camp

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

After international camp, it was guides camp :) 4 to 7 dec. What we did was similar to last year's actually, but the experience was different

There were a few stuff that were quite different too. Wide game was island-wide and we had to go to places like little india and the civilian war memorial. Had fun too:) Night Trail was also diff cos this time there were costumes and makeup. The seniors really looked scary.... in addition, they also had great acting skills. My patrol was screaming like mad so i ended up dragging some of my members. haaha. Strangely, when I became focused on dragging my patrol, I was not scared myself anymore. It rained quite a bit during camp, so we only slept in the tent on the first night and in the classroom for the next 2 nights.

Well, as a sec 2 camper, I guess we'll have more responsibilities more to improve and morereflections.

Sense of urgency
We were really slow. Late for almost all the activities and did not run to the locations. some even strolled.

Respect
Greetings were not as good as before. We used to stand up and greet all the time, but during the camp, we sometimes did not greet our seniors when they walked pass.

Footdrill
MUST PRACTICE!!! The Sec 2s used to be quite all right due to the thinking day performance. We used to practice all the time to prepare for it. Now............ o man. The FCs put in a lot of effort teaching us, we can't just slack off just because the HQ abolished coporal punishment. No pumping is not equals to no effort needed.

Leadership
I think we still have a long way to go learning to guide the sec 1s. We need to care for them, but at the same time be firm with them. Need to gain their respect too. This batch has a rather large range of personalities. Some are really enthu about guides, some really dislike guides, some really don't care, some are really quiet. Let's help them all develop the interest in guide kks? Cos they do have the potential, we just have to be patient.

Well, I guess the seniors are disappointed in us. Actually, I do agree our standard has dropped in many areas. Be it footdrill, discipline, respect, sense of urgency. We'll be in sec 3 next year already... we have to buck up if we don't want to allow the standard to drop further. We're bound to have more reponsibilities, but we'll make it through. We just have to stick together and press on. Jia You!

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International Camp

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Heya, I came back from international camp on the 2nd of December, but was too busy to blog about it ... so here it is.

International Camp (28 Nov - 2 Dec)

Day 1
Well, day 1 was basically setting up of camp site and mingling around with other guides from other schools. So we pitched our tents and gadgets. We also learnt to say 'welcome' and Good Morning" by our Sri Lanka friends in their language :) I forgot how to say them already but nvm. We also got to meet our former guider, Ms Ng and felt she was a really good guider.

Day 2

Backwoodsman Cooking !!! Haha, it was fun. Unlike our normal outdoor cooking, we did not have pots or pans. We were taught to use green twigs as skewers by shaving off the outer layer and then sharpening one of the ends. We also heated it above the fire to disinfect it. I was in the turfing part though, so I didnt do the skewers. We turfed for awhile until we found that there were roots underneath, so we had to move to another place. The instructor wanted to quicken things up, so he helped us turf. haha. He was REALLY fast! He managed to turf a pit under like.... 20 seconds? The pit was really nice too, with straight sides and all that. Anyways, we started to firelight and finally after burning lots of wood to obtain enough ember, we could do ember cooking. Its like barbecuing :) The food took forever to cook though.... or maybe I was just too hungry...haha. Had a great time though:)

Recycling Art... kinda slack, but useful. I learnt toe-weaving.... sth like friendship bands. We had early bath time though :)

At night...
We learnt line dancing :) Quite fun:)

Day 3

Horse Riding... It was interesting having a tour around the stable and learning about how the horse behave and live. I even brought back a horse shoe which they gave for free. We also rode the horse. It was really nice to ride on a horse again.... we last time i rode was a long time ago. I found that horses are actually very sensetive as they can sense whether you r scared or not. They stop walking when they feel that you are afraid. That happended to me at the beginning as I forgot how it felt to be on a horse after so many years. We also took lots of pics:) They are really cute and friendly:)

Archery:) Archery was fun! I thought it was going to be very hard just to set the arrow flying but this was quite all right. I managed to shoot one balloon and the bull's eye once :) But it was all by luck.

Pioneering.... IT WAS SUPER COOL! We made this giant catapult out of spars and had a water bomb fight with the opponent team. Haha. Water bombs were flying around and I managed to make it through without getting wet. Woots:)

At night...
We went night cycling :) We started to cycled at around 11 pm. First, we took a bus to East Coast Park to get our bikes, from there, we cycled to Orchard Road, The Esplanade, Padang and then to Fort Canning Park, before cycling back. I loved cycling at Orchard Rd cos we were under the lights. Its was really cool cycling under rows and rows of christmas lights, seeing them approach me before "moving" behind me :) At the Esplanade we saw a lot of lovers by the river though. A bit gross. Anyways, when we went up to for canning park, we had a long rest. It was a little scary when we were on our way, cos due to the traffic light, xiao en and I were separated from those infront. So xiao en was the first person, but we had no idea which direction to go. Thus, we jsut went straight. We made it though, we managed to catch up with the rest. Paddling up the hill was too hard.... so I got down and pushed my bike half way through. Almost everyone did that. While most of the people went to take a nap, the 4 of us nygg decided to tell jokes... cold ones.... lame one........ with ms teng. Haha. Was really funny. Was laughing the whole time. Quote from ms teng... "examining my torchlight is more interesting." Haha. That was when we were talking abt those really lames ones... haha. We were super lucky cos all of us got treated to Macdonald's before we rode back. By then it was almost 5 or 6 am and there were more cars, so we had to be very careful. When we were back at East Coast Park, we were given the permission to speed....... haaha. Was really nice having the cool breeze on ur face. We had to wait for the bus to come pick us up though, so huijun, sarah, xiaoen and I sat near the beach and had a rest. I fell asleep. haha. It was funny how awake I was when I was cycling and then a moment later, when I got down, I immediately felt tired. Ms teng joined us too so the 5 of us just sat by the beach to rest. Finally, the bus arrived and we went back to Camp Christine. I slept some more on the bus and got a bruise cos my head hit the glass window when the bus turned, but I was too tired to care.

Day 4
We had breakfast and had a bath b4 going to sleep. The tent felt like an oven but I still slept. Xiao En and Sarah only managed to get abt 15 min of sleep while I slept all the way like Hui Jun. They said my eyes were 1 mm open when I was sleeping and Hui Jun talked in her sleep. Maybe we were too tired? Anyway, when we all woke up, the rest went to chat with the other guides as it was pretty much free time as there was a carnival going on and we were not involved in setting up a stall. I think stayed in the tent to fold my sleeping bag I think, cant rmb. When I was abt to walk out of the tent, a snake suddenly came in. I didnt notice it at first when it was on our shoes. I was like jumping about when its head shot towards my shin. The snake's head knocked onto my shine but it didnt bite. I guess it was frightened by my jumping and slithered away. Phew! Later, I saw my lil sis and my pri sch brownies at a stall and bought a magnet from them. Slacked around a bit and practised camp fire item.

In the evening, it was camp fire. Everyone was super high la. We also present our item...

on the 1st day of I-Camp we went to camp christine
we all look so neat and clean

on the 2nd day of I-Camp we went to ride a horse
the horse got crossed
and we screamed till our voices were lost

on the 3rd day of I-Camp everything went wrong
the shower queue was long
my mood was gone
and I started to sing a sad song

on the 4th day of I-Camp
We gained a lot of weight
6 meals a day
like horses eating hay
heaps and tonnes we ate
all because the food was really really great

BUT...
By the 5th day of I-Camp
We've made a lot friends
AGNES ROCKS MAN
Packed up all our tents and though the journey was tense
we all enjoyed the camp in the end

Btw, Agnes refers to our subcamp cos we were called Agnes Baden Powell :)
After the campfire and all the singing, we had this dancing thing when they played songs and we just started to dance anything we liked. We also learnt the traditional dances that were performed by the different nationalities.

That's pretty much all abt the camp. We went home on day 5 and had a good rest:)

International Camp was a really good experiece for me:) Met many new friends and got to learnt new skills. I'll never regret going:) Everyone there was really nice and enthu, though we had our mistakes like no sense of urgency, but we helped make the guides from overseas feel welcomed. We will be sure to try and pass on what we have learnt to the rest of the guides in ny. Basically, this will be one of my best memories and I will miss this camp. I managed to get a few contacts though, so we won't totally drift apart. I really feel privileged to be able to particitpate in the camp:)

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