methrowrock: (My Neighbour Totoro)
[personal profile] methrowrock
So I am back, weather-beaten, insect-bitten and all. (That was a rather smart play on words, yeah haha) And I'm in the mood for some long, unadulterated rambling. For five days in Kluang, all thought processes had to be sped up and abbreviated or shelved for there was always something to move onto to, some task to complete, some people to talk to. You were never left alone so perhaps, that's why it was hard to reflect. Looking back on the 5 days, I can't say I didn't make new friends, yet I can't say that I forged deep frenx4evaz bonds either. It was an in-between camp, with some high times, a few low points and quite some meh moments. It was neither too taxing nor too relaxed. It was intermediate and maybe that's why it is hard to describe it now. Perhaps I should start from scratch so something would get chugging in that lazy grey lump.


Kluang was, surprisingly, not that far from Singapore. It was only a 2, 3 hour journey bus journey away. Still, in that time, we were transported to a rural countryside- where buildings were no more than 3 storeys in height, where rusty zinc roofs were thatched, where oil palm trees sprawled to the edge of the horizon, where time seemed to slow down to a luxurious crawl. It was different. On the way there, it was card-games galore. Huishan, Nithiya and Mi Jie were desperate and our fingers were itching, so we created paper cards, which we abandoned once I got a pack of real, plasticky cards from the stopover at Machap. We were hardcore Bridge addicts, I tell ya. Mi Jie and I kept laughing at how beng and gruff Hui Shan was most of the time. Anyway, so that's how the bus journey went. We didn't do anything much the rest of the day too. There was some lame name game, then knots and lashings- when we learnt the Bowline knot, the Overhand knot and Figure-of-8 knot- cheers/songs, outdoor cooking - when my cooking group of Nithiya, Qiao Wei, Lennon, Ivan and Kai had fried rice with sardine. It tasted interestingly good heh- then some leadership talk. I can't remember much of the first day except that it was understated and underhigh. Suppose it is because we only knew each other vaguely and had nothing in common with each other. And so, that wrapped up the first day.

Oh yes, there was something that I was proud of. I actually went up and confronted people that first night, which is something highly unusual given my anything-goes nature. Bwaha, but really, the people in the other tents kept making a racket, even though it was past 12, and I could sense the blood pressures of the my fellow tent-mates rising higher and higher. So I snapped and heck, unzipped the tent and walked to tell them to keep quiet diplomatically. Damn. I should have told them off though, it would have been so much cooler. Jiaomei owns me hands-down in the department haha when she went up to them later. Still, it was something I didn't expect from myself heh.



Day two was more interesting now. There were three main things we did on Tuesday: the first being canoeing, second being river crossing and third, cooking. Many interesting things happened during canoeing. I partnered Nithiya and together, we conquered the world! Well yeah, not really. What was funny was that the two non-swimmers partnered each other. Smart decision really, because we were the only pair who capsized hahaha. But first, I have to give you the circumstances: See, Luther and Alan, Kok Leong and Filbert, Nithiya and I were chionging for a water bomb. Our canoe was going really quickly when WHAM! Kok Leong's canoe rammed into our left side. Stunned, Nithiya and I both leaned away to the right when FLOOMP, the canoe overturned, as did we. But hahahaha, it was so much fun! I was quite satisfied because I didn't panic, unlike before during OBS. It was cool, water off a duck's back- hang onto the paddle for dear life, hold your breath in puffy chipmunk cheeks, kick your way out and break surface to see the splendid blue sky above again and that you're okay, you're alive, DON'T PANIC a la H2G2. Kok Leong, Filbert and the rescue boat then proceeded to help us get onboard the canoe. Man, I felt like a fat seal trying to flap onboard. By then, Nithiya and I were high, giddy with the absurdity of it all. People around poured concern so that was nice yeah. All in all, canoeing was great fun. Nithiya and I worked pretty well as a team, I think. Even Sree said so heh. It felt super to slice through the water with the paddle and feel the gliding propulsion sensation, like to infinity and beyond! Yeah, so that's for canoeing.

River crossing was yeah, okay. It was fun to move like sloths. The water was warm then cold but gah, refreshinggg. Team building was more fun. It were standard-issue games- Spiderweb, Turn Over A New Leaf, Impossible Knot, Pass The Hula ecetera- but the people were funny. Impossible Knot took the cake, cherry, cream and all. You see, Eugene, Nikos, Kok Leong and Jolene were somehow stuck in very compromising positions. Eugene was best friends with Nikos' hair, someone made friends with another's underarms, Kok Leong kept using Jolene's hand to violate Nikos' butt HAHA, Kok Leong squeezed through a super small hole for nought, blatant cheating during cheering and then egging them to do some more HAHHAA and ahh, I can't remember what. I just remember that I kept laughing and laughing. It was especially amusing when you were untangled and free heh. Yeah, so that was fun heh. After that came cooking and sleep but before that, we were stranded in our tent...

No thanks to the sudden heavy rain. All 6 of us- Jolene, Hui Shan, Si Hui, Jia Yi, Nithiya and I were sitting around in our tent, packing our stuff like the neat souls we are ahem, when the skies opened up and let free buckets and torrents of rain. Being the highly strung people that we are, we panicked and set about trashbagging our stuff, oblivious to the rain growing heavier and heavier. Until, it was too late to get out and we were stranded. Lennon and Ivan came to tell us to get out but we kind of zipped the door on them hahaha. Door zipped down, ran pelted down, lightning flashed down, we were cut off from the world entirely. We tried not to panic so in a show of bravado, I took out playing cards. But we decided to further pack our stuff. When that was done, to comfort each other and dull our growing fears of danger, we sang familiar Chinese pop songs at the top of our voices, yelling out our apprehension yeah. It was quite fun, to tell the truth. The feeling of camaedaerie- of everyone being stuck in it together, of we-have-nothing-but-each-other-now, of heck-we'll-get-through-this-we'll-survive- yeah, it was heartwarming to experience. We kept peeking from beneath the tent but the people above just ignored us and continued playing so we figured that it should be safe. Eventually, Lennon and Ivan (it's funny how their names are tagged so naturally to each other) came and told us to run up so we got our stuff and made a break for it. Once up there, we realised how stupid we were to remain in the tent. But heck, it was quite the experience so yeah. :)

For cooking, our group kept to an eclectic menu. We had hard-boiled eggs, ain't that fresh. Although our noodles got progressively saltier, it made for a pretty satisfying dinner nonetheless. Sardinesss! Presentation night that night and it was yeah, okay. That night, we built a tent in the night and from a cramped 9men-in-8mentent-arrangement, we spaced out to be a comfy 6men-in-8mentent. Shiok ahz. The sandflies got comfy with us too though. Grr.



Day 3 was an interesting day as well. We had rafting first up the menu. Construct construct, pull ropes tight, lash ropes around poles, tie knots, pull ropes tighter, adjust adjust and voila, a floatable raft. Sure, it got dented towards the end but it managed to work fine anyway. Kok Leong and I were helpers and wahhh, it was so relaxing in the river. We were doing taichi, tanning our arms and just floating around under the cool river surface. Shiok ahz. Internal navigation was walking around the site looking for little keychains. Hahaha Huishan was hilarious here. She wanted to find one so desperately yet somehow, she always missed it by a little. Yakin owned as we blistered through 19 stations within the stipulated time. We were all eager to get back into the shade, perhaps. Haha, back at the house thinggum, we came up with the B/G cheer, which was, for the lack of a better word, cool. The instructor kept making fun of Letts. Lennon and Ivan kept making fun of Letts. Everyone made fun of Letts hahaha. Alan's WTF face directed to Kee Wei was HEEEELARIOUS. It was a perfect blend of disbelief, annoyance and pure, distilled WTF!? HAHA. So that's about it for navigation.

When we got back, the sky was dark again. but we were well prepared yeah! We waterproofed everything and headed up quickly. Can't remember what we did except that we played Guess The Number, Shoot Shag Marry and Truth AND Dare. Hahahha I had to go up to Berjaya, point at everyone before shouting "I kick balls" but before that, I whacked Xiao Peng across the face haha. Eugene thinks up of funny funny dares. Think: "I like it dirty", "I stil like dirty" hahaha. And Lennon's priceless dare to Letts to taupok himself and go "wah so heavy, so heavy" HAHA. Yeah that was funnytime. But good things come to an end so it was off to night walk. Before that, we had some discussion on whether to go or not and in the end, we still went, go Yakin. Partnered Ivan and we were the first pair. Gaaah, it was quite a letdown because it wasn't scary at all. The sky was so bright still. But we managed to see prettyful stars, that's a plus. And it was nice walking along, feeling the tang of the night breeze against your cheeks. So yeah, ambivalence. That night, Grace told me something about Cinderella which made me happy hahaha. Probably isn't me but heck. Heheh. :D



Thursday was City Trail + Gunung Lambak. It was the most tiring day in my opinion. Okay, city trail wasn't too bad. We managed to finish 8 stations within an hour, complete with breaks in between. We visited the spickandspan hotel washrooms, then the Red Donut shop and the petrol kiosk but still managed to catch up on A1 haha. Slack but yeah. Next was a 7km walk to Gunung Lambak. It was more of a jog-then-walk cycle gaaah. Along the way, Nithiya came up with snazzy taglines for everyone heh. Once there, it was a tiring hike to the midpoint. Gaaah, I was panting so heavily. Can die worxzxx. Fortunately, and weirdly, the climb up to the summit wasn't as bad. Felt like a monkey as I used all four limbs to clamber up the slopes, grabbing whatever I could find heh. Sense of achievement, jah-jang!, as flatted fatories spun into view. Then the long way down, which seems a pity since we exerted so much effort to pull ourselves up. Anyway, it was slippery-slidey, kneel, squat and grab. Was violated along the way but I acted cool and normal so it's okay. Shh, if you know who, don't say. Hahaha. At the bottom awaited dragonfruit juice which was the juice juicing up our motivation machine. Sat around and talked to Pei Qi as Nithiya perved at her loverboy and I lulled a cat to sleep with my lullaby voice hahaha. Talked to Pei Qi some more on the bus ride back and well, it was great to know her better. :)

Campfire was lotsaaaa fun. I am lazy to elaborate. But there was Helena beside me, whom I got high with, ahahaha, then some 1-2-3-4 game, some 有毛病神经病 game which Huishan kept getting wrong HAHA and which Eugene and I shouted at each other, sexyshymachoguniang frog which the teachers executed admirably sportingly, and dounchknowwhat. Clan performance and Yakin was unique though we sort of outstayed our welcome yeah. Yup, lazy to say more. It was cool, yeah.

That night was a night tailored for staying awake. The skies were clear, the stars were out in full regalia, the breezes were tender, yeap, everything felt tranquil and justright. Flumped down and crashed the Berjaya group of Mylene, Keith, Dilshaad and Chenchel. It was funnyfun. Mylene and I kept conversing in Chinese and juggling topics, 搞到Keith的头团团转 HAHA. Mylene and him are damn funny together. They simply talk crap. Dilshaad is hilarious as well and Chenchel kept dozing off hahaha. But just when we got comfy on the grassy slope, with our legs on the sleeping bag and toes tucked in...



came the Final Night Challenge. Suddenly, a loud hailer bawled and Johnston came yelling "Get out of your tents now" and "I have a lot of time", something or another. We were all jolted awake and looking back, it's funny to see how quickly we pelted off into different directions. Some sort of illegal gathering heh. Anyway, it was something like Elects Camp with that surprise bunk check, except that it was scaled up. Ran up and down the slope, "On your back! On your belly!", "Down! Down! Down!", I didn't know what was going on half the time. Then came the 8km run, though we didn't know it then. It was quite liberating to run in the dark. You simply stared forward and manoevered your legs in that direction. Simple, no brain energy used. The fresh morning air slapped me awake as well so it wasn't as exhausting as I had feared it to be. They were quite evil to play mind games on us though, going around in circles, stopping us to do push-ups, jumping jacks, and whatnots. Felt like giving up towards the end but gaah, I just winged it through. Enough of tiring stuff. Next the fun: Water Bomb War.

Heheh, Yakin was first scheduled to play against Berjaya. Man, we lost that and we were majorly pissed off at their tactics. So we pulled through to own Semangnat. But whoah, the S vs B game was super funny. We kept crying foul at B's members ie. "Wah lau eh! He got hit la! Stupid, sit down!", "Wah XXX got 9 lives siah" ecetera. Yellow, yellow dirty fellows hahaha. We were all united against B. And it showed in the sudden death match when Y and S allied and eliminated them first before dueling it out. And Yakin won in the end, whoo! Alan was super cool in the way he dodged the bomb with such flexibility yet still managed to smash the bomb at their feet. Luther too. The rest were all :O wah. Hahahaha. Yeah, that was fun, running and jumping around heh.

Okay, the journey home was mostly of sleep and Bridge. Enough said. Lazyy.


Now this has been long enough. I can't be bothered to make a summary but YLTC was quite an experience to remember. Yeah. I love those times when I bump into S11 people and have short chats with them. Heh. I'm too sleepy to think straight. Till another time. And it's damn heartwarming to find 8 birthday messages within the first 30 minutes of your birthday. :)

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methrowrock

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