11/23/2007
7:27 pm
Yays, i'm finally back from that gruelling 9 days OBS course.
Civilisation never felt so good. The computer damn nice to use, lol, even though this one is a little laggy.
We mostly kayak over there, let me tell you about my stay there lols.
Day 1:
sat boat to pulau ubin, got into our new groups and had some ice breakers, settled down in our bunks and had some leadership workshop. I'm classified under the "interactive" leader type. XD
Day 2:
Had Kayaking 1&2, basically we learnt how to paddle, capsize, upright the boat, all the basics of kayaking. Had eugene as my partner, so coincidental, he was in my wushu class last time =o, he's a nice guy la, very patient with me even though i kayak super slow.
Day 3:
Kayaking 3, had a short "expedition" to prepare for our sea expedition to Batam. Changed my partner to Thiliga cuz Vera will get seasick so need guy to partner her. *sobs* must paddle harder liao. Anyway it was good, Thi is nice to talk to, quite nice to kayak with her even though we suk like crap when we kayak together. lol, she likes to sing too, got a new singing partner haha. at night, we prepared for the expedition, all the way till midnight.
Day 4:
first day of our expedition. started out quite okay. quite tiring but still coping well. we had to bring dry food rations to eat on the kayak for lunch. so i ate quite alot of biscuits, then i got thirsty so i drank quite alot of water. then i gotta pee, but i couldn't pee in the sea... =/ so I beared with it. When we got to the turning point at Changi Naval Base, the current turned against us, so we couldn't move, we just paddled and paddled but were still stuck at the same point, dam sian la, so hard to paddle and i my bladder was so uncomfortable... so when my sprayskirt fell out and i couldn't put it back, i literally broke down. so they got me to the motherboat to let me pee, embarrassing sia... one of my fren also have the same problem, lol. anyway after that, i was all good again, i let my tired friend who had been helping me paddle most of the way while i was holding my pee to rest while i paddled like siao.
Just as we were about to catch up with the front ppl, the instructors signal to us to come to the motherboat so that they could tow us. so we paddled there and hooked ourselves to the towline, along with a few other kayaks. As soon as the motherboat began moving, my kayak started to tilt to the left, in no time, our kayak was vertical. I realised we were gonna capsized and me and Thi jumped out of the kayak. when we surfaced, we grabbed onto our capsized kayak. The motherboat was still moving, then later, we saw our food rations float away.... lol, then cherie tried to get it back with her paddle, but they lost it later on anyway lol. so we were holding on to the kayak while the boat pulls all the other kayak. suddenly, I heard Chu Ai, our instructor, yelling at us "Quick, save yourselves using the method we taught you. Hurry up, upright your boat!" I was kinda confused, aren't we doing just fine pulling us along. Then I heard a loud horn. A tanker was just about 50m away when i looked over my kayak. "O crud.." I thought to myself. Me and Thi frantically tried to upright the kayak but failed. (we weren't even able to upright the kayak with ease in calm water, cant expect us to upright it while the motherboat was pulling it) so later the speedboat came to rescue us and brought us up the motherboat. Heng sia.
Actually changing my partner to Thi was a blessing in disguise, being one of the slowest kayakers, we were rescued first, and brought back to our campsite at 6.30. But the other kayakers very poor thing, they had to paddle into the night as late as 9pm, 4 hours of treadmilling in the water and not moving, somemore they cannot afford to rest cuz they will drift away. It's like they were paddling for their lifes. =o but everyone cameback safe and sound. =] but many were kinda traumatised and exhausted. being the first few to reach the campsite we cooked hot milo and maggi mee for the other kayakers, so that they can warm up and recover when they get to shore. =] It was the most unforgettable night we ever had.
Day5:
continued our trip to Batam. This time, the starting was a breeze, me and Thi were actually able to paddle to the front. Yays. Then we started singing "For a moment like this" by Kelly Clarkson, lols. We were like the noisiest boat singing lots of songs. priscilla also sang with us quite enthusiasically cuz it will help take her mind off her seasickness.
Halfway through, the current went against us again. We were treadmilling on the water again. the back ppl were once again rescued first. too bad me and thi were the last of the front ppl so we werent rescued that early. After the back ppl were rescued, they asked us to chiong to shore. So we started chionging, but i was already putting my 100% effort just to stay in the same spot. Kinda demoralising to see the front ppl get further and further away. so I tried a 120% effort. But soon I had difficulty breathing, and i couldn't keep up that pace for long, but cannot stop paddling, if not will drift away. Sorry Thi! for splashing water at you and rocking the boat so much. Was too tired to coordinate my body properly. so 2 guys towed us for a short while before another speedboat went to rescue us. couldn't feel my legs when i got up, but i still beared with it la. so later i squat down infront and held on to the kayak which was also brought up the speedboat. Shortly after, they rescued another 2 ppl who were too tired to paddle anymore. the boat quite fun lol, like rollar coaster like that.
We finally reached Batam when we got to shore. again, I couldn't feel my legs, it was worse this time. I got out of the boat and just stood there, the intense "needle poking" feeling prevented me from walking. Then someone shouted, "Ey, help to bring up the kayaks!" Dam sian man.... moved my feet a little and that "needle poking" feeling slowly went away, but my legs are still like jelly and cannot walk properly, plus i had an abrasion in my inner thighs, so i walk like penguin like that. after helping to push the kayak up, I went to sit on the table at the campsite and started stoning there, was damn exhausted la.. in fact i was closing my eyes and almost wanted to sleep.. Cherie very nice, she passed me an orange to eat. so I happily took it. haha. after i eat finish, i started stoning there again...
When they told us that the other kayaks were at another beach and we will have to set up camp and cook food with whatever we have right now since the other kayaks will probably be only brought over in the morning, I was super sian and lethargic. we tried making a fire using a lighter and sticks, lucky got the MJ ODAC ppl, they pro at making fire. I didn't do much, cuz my abrasion made it really hard for me to squat down. So I went to rinse up in the shower, didn't had my clothes though, it was with the other kayaks. But anyway, i wanted to get all the sand off my clothing so my abrasion won't be so painful.(The sand at Batam is extremely coarse and hard) I came out dripping wet and cold so i sat next to the fire. All i did the entire night was trying to keep the fire alight. It was the only job that i could do if not I'll be too cold. ya, at around 10pm, the other kayaks were transported in, along with my groupmates and other ppl in the entire fleet. so we got back our clothes, but couldn't find our undergarments... sian.. Only found my undergarments at 11pm, but then at the time, we need to meet our instructor too, so I didn't even bathed, i just changed into dry clothing.. I noe i was very unhygenic at my stay at OBS, there were nights that i felt to tired to brush my teeth, on the last day, we overslept so we didn't brush our teeth in the morning either. lol
Day 6:
Community service at Batam. We went to a school to play with the children and teach them english. They are like so cute la, my little girl kept dragging around and showed me around the school, one time she brought me outside the school compound to see her house. so cute! It's really nice to see that we can touch ppl's life even though we are just ordinary normal ppl. In the afternoon we went to an orphanage to help them paint the house. =] I slept throught the first half of the painting section, cuz got too many hands, haha. Then later i helped to paint, lol, we were like talking crap while painting, dunno how we started a conversation about the mrt announcement"please stand behind the yellow line"
We went back to camp, had a very rich and nice dinner, lol, we have some very good cooks in my watch. ate,, noodles, spagetthi, soup. haha. O ya, our tent got flooded with water cuz it was raining while we were doing community service and the flysheet flew off. so we emptied it and put our extra groundsheet in it. still abit moist but just had to make do with it.. My torch got lost cuz apparently it looks like a police baton and it was really bright and ppl liked to use it. Then I found it at another watch(group), funny story.
Day7:
Started our journey back to OBS, my partner was changed to Jenson, since me and Thi cannot make it one, lol. Was abit not used to it when i first started kayaking with him cuz, usually i have to chiong alot, even though if our kayak don't have to move very fast. But Jenson can just single handedly paddle straight to the front. Then i couldn't syncro with him cuz he paddle too fast. but after a while can syncro le. then he ask me to rest alot even though i wasn't tired. i think cuz i looked like zombie on the second day of the expedition. Jenson is a funny guy, he gets tired when we paddle slow when the whether very bad and need to paddle fast then he not tired. Quite thankful that my partner was changed to Jenson cuz later in the day there was a very bad storm and the water was super choppy, I could hardly paddle, is like my speed became erm, about 5s per stroke. so Jenson soloed during the storm. =]] later i kana shoot down by a few ppl for slacking, aiya.. but is because i'll disturb his momentum while paddling during the storm. so i just lay down and made the boat as streamline as possible. u noe his speed is like 1s per stroke. Nvm la, Jenson very strong one.
We camped at Changi Beach, we didn't bother to pitch the tent cuz it was wet and kana scolded by instructor. slept at around 12, supposed to wake up for santry duty but didn't wake up lol. poor thi and brenda sleeping outside and did our shift of santry duty all by themselves.
Day8&9:
journey all the way back to OBS. Became the sweeper... at first was thinking Jenson no need to paddle so hard liao then not so tiring.. In the end he became more tired in the sian and bored way. So he slacked alot lol. Joker man, sit behind and slack and say "go chun meng". Fair la, he paddle alot the previous day. So we made it back to OBS. Yays. we washed the kayaks and life vest and water bottles and camping equipment. then we had this activity called colour mass, where we painted abstract art about ourselves and the sea expedition. then we finally had a decent dinner. then we went back to cut out our beautiful painting and frame it up with some paper and share with each other behined each of our picture. then we had supper. then we went to do stock checking. some ppl washed up and went to sleep but me and about erm 5 other ppl stayed back all the way to 3 am to stock check. I'm glad we stayed up even though we overslept the next day cuz, we quickly finished our stock thingies within slightly more than half an hour while washington was like rushing like siao, so a few of us went to help them i think. me and brenda went to wash the toilet floor.
after that we did high elements. quite fun. haha. dunno why none of the girls wan to go up first cuz i have actually done be4 during ABCamp. hard to climb cuz the horizontal poles were very far apart, i only can put my leg up but could not go over, so Jenson had to push me up again... lol, I like do nothing one, he keep on helping me stand stand up on the pole and getting on top of the next pole. =p
OBS was really a fun and enriching experience, although it is tough, i seriously learnt alot from it, especially how to persevere on during a crisis. U all should go if you get the chance. =p wow I spent like 1.5 hours typing this.. Aww, i'm gonna miss my watchmates... Brenda!! dun forget to send me the photos k? and must organise watch outing soon!
waiting by the river|`