I'm well again! And so is Zheng Wei! Yayz! Praise the Lord! I quickly grabbed my bottle and drank all I could in a couple of gulps to secure my wellness, then went to wash my face/brush my teeth and head out with my room(s)mates for breakfast. Reported to Mdm. Rani that I was well again, then joined in the Breads (Yay!), Pancakes (Megayay!), French Toast (Ultramegayay!) and PRATA (SUPERULTRAMEGAYAYZ!!!).
After my carbo-loading, we lined up at the Lobby again to board the buses on a trip to the beach again, this time not to pluck plants again. Instead, we went to search for Ghosts Crabs and Hermit Crabs. On the way there, a small group of us were making fun of the Ghost Rider character in those Marvel comics. You see, his famous catch phrase is:
"You! Guilty! Stained by the blood of the innocent! Look into my eyes!"
So we were showing each other how it'll be said if he was something else, like:
- If Ghost Rider was Indian.
~ [Bobs had] "You! Guiltey! StAined by duh blood of duh innucent! Luke inthu my ayes!"
- If Ghost Rider was French.
~"Vous! Coupable! Souillé par le sang de l'innocent! Regarder dans mes yeux!"
- If Ghost Rider was Mr. Dave Tay.
~"You! Gulty! Get out of my class!"
- If Ghost Rider was Mr. Francis Soo.
~[With a big smile] "You! Guilty! Stain with the blood sample! Look into my smile!"
- If Ghost Rider was Obiwan.
~"Guilty! You! With the blood of the innocent, you have been stained! Look into my eyes, you must!"
- If Ghost Rider was constipated.
~"Yoooooooou! Guiiiiiiiiiilty! Staiiiiiiiiiined by the bloood of the inoceeeeeeeeeent! Looooooooook into myyyyy eyyyyyyyyyyyyyees!"
- If Ghost Rider gets distracted easily.
~"You! Guilty! Stained by the... is that a bird? Hmm, rather facinating specie... WAIT A MINUTE! Where was I? Oh, right. Look into my... Oh, a poodle! I love poodles..."
- If Ghost Rider was a Prefect.
~"ACS, ARE YOU READY? [Signal: 'Carwash']
YOU! * ARE! * GUILTY! **
YOU ARE! * YOU ARE! * GUILTY! **
BLODD! * OF! * INNOCENT! **
STAINED BY! * BLOOD OF! * INNOCENT! **
SUFFER! * FOR THE! * INNOCENT!
MY EYES!
[9*] MY EYES!
[9*] MY EYES!
[9*] MY EYES!"
And so on. By now, epople were commenting on how I dressed - A branded singlet and 'flooded' pants - and how it made me look like "a surfer". Hit 'da waves, Dude! So once we were there, we did our search for crabs and creatures of the like.
And that's where Reuben met Chuck Norris. No, not the Hollywood actionman. I mean the act-alike aggressive male hermit crab that sliced our guide's thumb the momment he took it out of the box. (In Australian Accent) And this creature is a real meanny, I tell'ya! A real meany! Once placed in the container, he got his entire body out of its shell and started attacking the plastic walls of the container for half an hour or so before climbing back in. When we punctured a couple of holes onto the cover of the container to let Chuck breathe, he jumped up and clinged onto the holes for the next ten minutes, puncturing more and more holes into the plasic until it looked like shattered glass. Andhere's the bugger. Meet Chucky.
So during the 'Show 'n' Tell' session, Reuben just showed his crab in the box while we had our females crawling over our arms. Zheng-Wei had some trouble making his hermit feel comfortable and safe, so he passed it to me. And after a few more minutes together, she was crawling aroud the extent of my elbows. We even shook hands/claws for a few seconds, so I stated in the Show 'n' Tell that I named the little lady Friend. She was nice and shy, but after a few more minutes, we had to dismiss them back to the beach. It was fun handling with the hermits, even if they had itchy legs. I'll miss Friend, but that's just one of those things you've got to let free. How sad.
We then did CIP by cleaning up the beach oflitter brought up by the sea and by inconciderate residents/tourists. Painful, but at least we worked as a team, and I felt that it had cheap-thrill fun in it, especially when you discover bottles of modern drinks from a few decades ago. Even a MacDonald's ketchup packet with the slogan, 'That's my MacDonalds!". (That was their slogan before they had the recent, "I'm lovin' it!", for those who don't know). Shoved the garbage bag into the luggage compartment of the buses, then went back for lunch. If I haven't stated, a few of us found sticks to use as walking staffs for the traveling of long distances on the beach, and somo of these people brought their sticks back with them. Alex's one looked a lot like a caveman's bone tool, either used for clobbering, digging or farming. Here's Tim's stick.
"Junn Kit, how many times must I tell you to stop stealing from Gandalf?"After lunch, we changed into something light (Except for a few who were already in something light) and met up at he Lobby (urgh) for Obstacle Course (Yay!) and Rafting (Canoeistyay!) [Of which, I couldn't take photos of as most of the activities involved you getting wet and dirty.]. When we got to the grounds, we were told to fall-in on the grass fields. Not many people knew that the grass was Love Grass. Ouch. Thank the Lord they immediately asked for the leaders of teh groups to stand! :P We (leaders) were then given a short briefing on what to do. We were divided into two waves; one wave for Obstacle Course, one for Rafting. We'd do our waves first, then switch when done.
My group was involved in Rafting first, so I recieved the diagram on how to assemble the raft and the materials required. I lead my group on what to collect, guided through the construction and did a share of the work as well. Being use to the Canoeist habbit of getting the lifejacks (Our term for 'Life Jackets') on first, I grabbed mine and buckled it on, later to find that the rest of the team wanted to finish construction first, so I removed it and continued helping out. Once done, I, being the only Canoeist in the team, had to also teach the group in half a minute or less on how to raft properly. (I guess Rafting strokes and Dragonboat strokes are the same.)
If you think the way you paddle doesn't make no difference, you're wrong. Use the wrong arm to hold the wrong part of the blade and you can end up wasting precious strength on the wrong Lever System. And in Canoeing, we're always told that that can mean that few seconds, and in a race, lots of things can happen in a few seconds. We then assigned ourselves the seating plan, of which my advice for the strongest people in the front and for the direction keepers at the back was favoured. And in no time at all, we were told to carry our boat down to the lake nearby. We carried the raft like a coffin and moved along, leading the other groups to the 'starting point'. Having black-tire rafts brought around by marching men with paddles in their grasp. Welcome to the Black Parade.
We were the first group to hit water, and I assume that this was the first time my fellow members had touched underwater claey soil in their lifetime. There I was, walking with my legs fully submergedand guiding the raft on the surface like as if the ground was extremely comfortable, and behind me you see my classmates struggling through and giving comments, like, "Eww! What kind of swamp is this?" or, "I'm sinking! I'm sinking!". We all then climbed on board the S.S. Psle (Don't ask.) and paddled of to adventure.
I felt the same rage I would feel in a competition, but I was surrounded by my classmates, so I was shouting commands, but made sure they weren't said in a 'Mr. See-is-angry' style. We had to paddle a 'L' shaped course, making a sharp turn at a particular red flag to head straight for the start of the Obstacle Course. Looking back, I think it really felt like a 'Master and Commander' momment on that maiden voyage. Even the sharp turn felt like the one in Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl, where The Interceptor anchored a Starboard turn towards the Black Pearl to "Open Fire". (Basically, I just shouted, "NOW!", a command I briefed with the team that it meant for the Port Deck to quickly back-paddle and for the Starboard Deck to paddle hard.)
Once we completed the course on the water, we had to bring the raft back onto land and run with it all the way to where we started. Then the supervisor would check us off and we'd have to quickly disassemble the raft for the next team after us from the Obstacle Course wave. A splendid show, I must say! And proud to play my part in it! In fact, we all should be proud of our part in the team. A team effort never to be forgotten for the next great measurement of time or so.
Next was Obstacle Course, but the queue for the course was long, so they told us to rest first at the jetty next to the launching area for the rafts. My group played around while sitting on the jetty, and it really looked like one of those movie scenes where you see boys sitting along a jetty edge, and then they'd be sharing either something about their past, something meaninful about their present or what they plan to do or have in the future. Then there would be flashbacks that would explain loads to the viewers, then they'd return back to the jetty scene.
But anyway, we played around at the jetty, kicking water around, jumpng back into the water, people attempting to push Kirby in and so on. But after social hour, we had to return to the terrain. And a tough terrain, I must say. Once in the queue, we waited for another 15 minutes or so before we had our turn in the obstacles. While waiting, Dr. Ong payed us a little visit and watched our 'suffering'. Such nice timing. Kirby actually asked him if he'd like to join us and do the trail too. He replied saying that he's already done many of these already. Nice.
First was the one where you stand over the bars to get across. Extremely easy.
Then came the part where many failed. The rope. We had to swing across a body of water without getting trapped in the water before reaching the otehr side. Thank God I made it to the otehr side, and praise Him that others like Tim and Toj made it as well.
Then was the wobbly plank, where we had to balance over a thin and unstable plank to cross over another bod of water. When I did it, I recited the first half of Psalms 23. It was that slipery.
Moving along, we had the monkey bars next. And so the ussual Joe would swing across the bars and have the chance of slipping into deep waters below him if he doesn't catch the bar properly. But by God's grace, I had an alternative. With training at Nanyang, I climbed over the monkey bars and crawled my way to the other side. And the chances of me falling into the water only starts at 'When one of the rusty bars snap off''. Tim climbed up too, but Junn Kit prefered to swing, so we crawled/swinged to the other side as a group, until Junn Kit lost his grip half way and fell into the depts of the Lost White Socks (ZW has his reasons for calling it that.)
Once at the other side - dry and blister-free - I and the others who already made it to the other side waited for the rest before moving on to a short wall, of which we were suppose to climb over. Everyone got over it sucessfully, altough it took time for some people.
Then the barbwire. We were all suppose to crawl under the barbwire tunnel like what they do in NS training. Painful with the fact that we were literally dragging our bodies over 6 square meters' worth of dirt and rocks. When I got out, my whole front except my face had a light brown line, so I looked like road-kill. In fact, all of us looked like road-kill. Ah, well.
Last obstacle was the tall wall. And I mean tall. Even Mr. Tay agreed he had to help out a bit, and ordered Kirby to also be a base for us to climb on. Then Reuben and I went up and stationed ourselves on the top, leaving enough space for people to go through in between us. So the rest othe people would climb onto Kirby and quickly grab our arms and tackle their way up the wall before falling back down. Once up, getting down (or should I say falling down) is comparitively easy. Only Joel couldn't make it over, reason beinge had an injury on his leg after his attempt to climb over.
By now, we were all poofed and thirsty, and the water containers that were provided were long empty and the jetty was now crouded. Nevertheless, I decided to go to the jetty for another dip. I found myself a space to squeeze into and sat down, commenting to people beside me if anyone wants to take on water. Someone sarcastically requested to push me in to see what happens, but then Peter suddeny appeared and said that if the guy touches me at all,... I suddenly had a flashback on my life as a Primary 3 student and how I'd never knew that comment would ever be said for me. Maybe to me, but not for me. I was thankful to God that He blessed me with a beautiful turn of events, and fell into the water intentionally as planned. A good decision, as once I got out of the water for the fifth time, I was clean again, and no more brown lines on me! Yay! One of those momments when it's better to get wet than get dirty (Hee hee). Thanks, Pete!
Once we were all done, we helped eachother, regardless of teams, to carry the rafts back to the main shed where we started at. Welcome to the Black Parade. Again. Then we reported to our buses and boarded thm, not being allowed to sit on them as most of us were dirty and wet. Fun doing something new. (Riding a bus without sitting on it.)
At the hotel, we were disissed for our own time, and for that amount of time havoc reigned in the Conjoined Rooms. For instance, Zheng-Wei was showing off his underwear, of which fell into the sink and got wet.
Notice that he's smiling. And that he begged me to post this picture.
Then later, a millipete appeared in the shower.
So while my roommates and I had to borrow the other toilet, Ting Wei was having fun using his Ting Tea to splash onto the poor criter and roast it to its death. Sad. Then when Ting Wei needed to bathe, he gave me the walking stick he bought yesterday and asked me to protect it for him. I just decided to freeze there and act like one of those figures you'd see in Night of the Museum. Here's me with Ting Wei's stick:
And with Alex's stick:
Caveman, huh? Once everyone was clean and sheen, we marched our way to the Dining Area for a dinner I had been waiting for. BBQ!!! Chicken! Fish! Stake! Garlic bread! I had two rounds for that dinner, and I was praising the Lord that NONE of the items were spicy!!! FINALLY! A meal I can enjoy besides breakfast!
Once contented with a full belly (My body can't reveil an extremely full belly as the packs somehow hold everything back, so I'll still look normal. Unlike some friends I've seen, where for one minute they're flat, the next minute they're 'pregnant'. Abdominal rule!), I reported with the others tothe Conference Room for the little show Mr. Tay put up, using random people he selected. Here's the prizes laid out for presentation for the Prize Presentation in the fnale:
So let's see the programme for the show;
Act 1 - Kirby's Testimony to OEP, by Kirby
Act 2 - Ode to Desaru, by Kenneth
(Side Note: Hosts - Joel and Leon.)
Act 3 - OEP Skit, by Nicholas and Friends.
Act 4 - OEP Rap, by Michael
Act 5 - Speech la Gracious, by Guide Vincent
Then came the Prize Presentation part: For this one, my class was lead in circles by our teacher. He started moving from point to point of the leader he chose, and my class kept wondering which person he picked, never being certain about who he's talking about. The only way we could gain peace again was if he could just say the name of the lucky chap already, and finally he killed the suspense by announcing it was me. While being clapped at, I stood up, bowed and sat down again just like what the other awarded people before me did. And Iwas thinking he'd be saying it was Michael. Ah, well. By the way, my group won the most number of prizes, being Exampliary Leader of 2.10,
Best Sandcastle Sculpture,
And Best Group of Year 2 OEP 2007 - Desaru!
By now, Dr. Ong asked if I was a Singaporean or not (Photo, Above), after hearing my name being mentioned too many times in a Prize Presentation ceremony, and seeing me recieve prizes from him turn after turn. Anyway, after everything finished, everyone was dismissed but my class stayed back to take a photo with the prize:
We wanted to take a second photo, but then suddenly the foundation of the Tao Pok (School slang for 'Men Pile-up') fell off, and thus making the whole class topple over with whoever the guy was:
That's why even now, the prize is always tilting to the side: Cause more that half the class was on top of it once. Oh, and about the Portugese Man-O-War. A student was able to put a dead speciment into a botttle safely and showed it to the guide. He gave a short lecture on how the thing was dangerous and how it's not suppose to be here in Malaysia. Probably washed here by the monsoon. Here's a photo of the creature:
Not clear, but I was rushed for time. And here's the winning score that won my team the First Prize:
It's the one boxed in red, for those who don't know. Later there was a little confusion in the class, of which I still don't understand what happened so I shall not write about my assumption in case I go wrong anywhere and I recieve mysterious Hate Mail on my desk in school. But what I think I can type about is in a later part, when I made my way to Tim's room to play Poker with the ACPS Boys. To tell you the truth, I never knew how to play Poker until I got there, and to cut a story short, I won the last round, which had bets worth the whole game. I still don't know the order of valuable combinations in the card game, but I guess I'll learn in due time. Here's a picture of a villa in the hotel, taken during my search for Tim's room (I didn't know where the room was, so I had to deduce my path there the hard way):
Went back, had a Cup Noodle for supper, brushed up and went to bed, while trying to calm an energetic Zheng-Wei after his two plates worth of high-sugar content jelly he took during dinner. You have no idea how different he was for the next half an hour or less.
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