Holiday Season! Coming to an end...

This March holiday has been quite enjoyable I must say. Although it was not a very long holiday, at least it is still enough to free my mind from school.

The week before the holidays started, we went for a camp at Sarimbun camp site. Overall, I found the camp OK, in the sense that it was not as good as the rest I went to before. The first day was horrible, our lunch was supposed to be at 1.00p.m. but the trainers delayed it all the way up 'till 2.00p.m.! All of us had to starve for an hour more! Have you ever eaten food with only your spoon? I did because my fork landed somewhere in my luggage so I had to eat without it... After lunch, we had a Sarimbun race challenge. We had to go to 4 different stations and complete all of it in the shortest time spent.

My group had to do the challenge"Walk to civilisation" first. We had to walk to through a forest! At first my group and I could not find the entrance gate to the forest. We walk around the perimeter and finally found the entrance, luckily. Inside the forest, you could not find your way out of it but luckily the trainers made a pathway through it. Even so, we met a detour, where we had to chose between two paths. On the outside, both paths looked all right but if you look closer into the forest, you could tell that was not the right way because it was so pitch black.

After making our way out, following behind another group which was way in front of us, we spent an hour trying to find the next location of the challenge. We were so blur as we walked into the area more than 3 times and we still could not find the place. Could things get any worst? Finally on the 4th time, our trainer found the small pot to boil water. We then realised we were supposed to use natural resources to make a fire! First we found 3 big rocks then we put many dried leaves into the hole in the rocks. We then placed the pot of water over the fire. We left a hole open to put in the fire. So we got started. We were given a whole box of match sticks to light a fire but the whole box went to vain even though we sprayed alcohol which was inside the insect repellent. After half an hour, the other group which was leading just now came by and saw us and started boiling water. It was only later onwards that we realised that there was not enough oxygen flowing into the hole for the fire to burn and found out that we should had used tissue paper or toilet paper because it was highly flammable! So we took out all the rocks and placed many pieces of toilet paper and tissue paper on the dried leaves to make a big pile, then we lighted it up. We created a huge fire then we placed two rocks this time to allow air to enter and to balance the pot of water. Finally we got the water to boil and we got past the challenge. What was funny about the other group was that they created a huge fire but when they placed the pot onto the fire, the fire was immediately snuffed out.

At the next challenge we had to stand on two heavy planks of wood with five people on it and we had to coordinate well with each other to tell when we lift up our right or left leg together. During the challenge with two other groups, one group cheated by going up close to the center of the place. The main aim of this game was to catch as many balls as possible with a basket. So the other team went up close so their team mates could just take as many balls as possible and just dunk them into the basket.

After that unfair challenge, we went to the last challenge which was to make a catapult with a few pieces of rope and 5 pieces of wood. We were supposed to try to shoot the water bomb as far as possible from the the catapult. In this challenge, we won the challenge again and shot the furthest bomb.

After the dinner we went to sleep.

The next morning we got up early and ate breakfast. We first went to do some cooking then we went to the "Milo pool". I cannot understand the trainers. Why do they call the pool Milo pool when it is not the same colour as Milo and the water was only polluted. Ewww!!! All of us had to do this dive but those who had open wound did not have to do this. Luckily I had an open wound and so did not have to dive. My friend said my wound was so small and was just scared. However when I asked him to let me see his open wound, his open wound was only one tiny prick! I could not believe my eyes. This is what I call a scared chicken!

After the Milo pool we played some team building games before we went for lunch. I must say that I have a few objections about the camp. Firstly, I'm in group 24 which meant we were last in doing everything. Getting food, getting our tent etc. Secondly, we Pro Ed and Ortus have to sleep in tents while I spark and Aphellion get to sleep on beds?! There must be a misconception here!

Anyway after the lunch, we went to play some Frisbee and catching before we discussed about our camp fire song. A few other people and I were tired so we went to sleep on the grass but the trainers did not seem to mind. In the end I slept for 40 minutes. Quite refreshing I must say!

Just when we wanted to go rafting, it started to rain so we did not get a chance to raft. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! So we had our dinner, went to bath, pack our things and come back for the campfire. Unfortunately, being in group 24 did not make become last to be called out to sing our campfire song... All I could say was we made a fool of ourselves in front of everyone... I'm too embarrassed to say what happened.

After the campfire, we went to sleep.

The next morning, we packed all our things and left it in camp Kristine on the ground and went to have our breakfast. Then we went around the whole camp finding lost and found items. After walking around aimlessly for more then an hour, we decided to stop finding so our job was done. But our trainer wanted us to help the rest who were cleaning the tents. This was extra so we did not want to go because we were too tired but we gave in.

Me and a few others wanted to scold the student leaders because they were so naggy. First of all, they keep telling us to use our hands to clean the tent when our trainer told us not to use our hands. The thing I felt very angry about was all they knew was to nag at us to use our hands, but THEY themselves DID NOT use THEIR HANDS!!!!!!! Just thinking about all this stuff makes me go angry again!!! Then another student leader came up to us and told us that we are doing a lousy job. Luckily, Kevin Yong had the courage to speak up and tell them that this was voluntary and that we could not have done this but instead we could have just sat on the benches and drink cold Milo.

Finally at 12.00p.m. we left the campsite. When I got home, no rest for me! I had to study for my music test the next day and I studied all the way up to 11.00p.m. By that time I was dead tired but I hoped I did well for it.

This whole week of holiday had been very tiring because I'm a scout and this is job week so I have to go around doing jobs to earn money. So far I have collected $78 by doing work and just need $2 more to get a bronze badge. Other than doing jobs, I had to memorise 35 Chinese idioms! That was one tough nut but I'm still managing to do it. After doing homework, a good rest is deserved ain't it? So I spend the rest of the day doing work and watching Simpsons with my brother. Well, I think I should go now because I have been writing for more than an hour on this article! By the way, this clock which tells me when I publish this article is wrong. I publish my article at 11.55a.m. which is now and they say it is published at 8.52p.m. There is something wrong with this clock...