just came back from jakarta this afternoon and well, it was the usual over there.
well, come to think of it, not really usual.haha.

meet timothy on the immgration line in jakarta, he was standing right next to me, with his mum and younger brother. talk about coincidence! but the stupid officer in my line couldn't find my fiscal in my passport and i had to requeue all over again. a bad start. oh! and i was quizzed by the same officer about where i was living.and i was thinking, the place in jakarta or singapore?

saying that my new year eve dinner at crystal jade at grand indonesia was eventful is an understatement man. my grandparents(from my dad's side) booked about 4-5 tables at the restaurant and started singing their church songs, do their prayers and conduct somewhat of a mass at crystal jade itself! while we were eating! there was even a bloody programme sheet and invited a paster, a singer and brought along a sound system! i wanted to dig a hole and bury myself into it. it was that bad. and the other customers also complained. oh ya, besides my immediate family and my dad's brother and his wife.oh! another one of my dad's younger brother, his wife and my cousin, didn't really know the rest of them. as in, i saw them before but never really talk. you know those extended family whom you see once a year. ah! and for most of them, i havent seen them since '06 or so.but the food was good.lol. jz that you need to shout over the bloody PA system to hear what the other person is saying.and thank god my favourite uncle and his wife sat on same table as us, if not, i would have died.

visiting day wasn't that bad, just tiring. stayed at grandparents' house(mum's side) till 12ish, then left for my granduncle's house near bakme permata there(haha.anw. i love eating there). i think my dad coordinated his visit with his cousin. so ended up meeting my distant cousins there. specifically, janice,james and i forgot the other one. and my sisters and i were literally forced to talk with janice cos we were, xiao jie xiao jie, their words, not mine. and we BS(bullshit) all the way, talking about school, singapore, NS,IB and sibilings.oh!and facebook. left for my dad's mum's place at around 12:30-1ish pm?and why dad's mum...eh...very very very complicated and long story. anyway, we were late cos dad lost his way there and had to call the same uncle who sat the same table as us for directions. from being the earliest to reach, wanting to break the last one to reach tradition, we were the last one to reach.again.

LOL. oh! technically, my other uncle's family reached there-when we left already.haha.so he is the last one to reach. ah! ate lunch there(as per tradition) and dad's cousins's families were also there. ah. yes. i was told to get in touch with a distant cousin, specifically tricia and stefan. ah! why do parents think that jz because we are cousins by blood, we have to get close? and distant cousins!! anyway, made plans to eat dinner with the same uncle and wife(in order to escape obligations). went back to maternal grandparents place to meet my cousins(this time, is my mum's younger sister's family), slacked until 7pm and went to eat lowery with uncle budi and aunty yanti.

tuesday. slacked at home the whole day and woke up really late. at around 12noon. and pretty much slept all day. and had dinner with maternal side, as in dinner with my grandparents and my immediate uncles and aunty's families. with mum having 3 sibilings and tons of small kids. it was chaotic. no teenager to play with besides frances. the rest are all 11&below.

nice CNY? the only nice rewards, was really, the hongbaos, the rest. endure.

Camp Inspire 2009….wasn’t as good as Camp Inspire 2008, better in some aspect, a lot worse in others, through no fault of the Cat High Scout Group. In fact, I think the ones who cause the most dramas were the guides and the sec 1 girls.

The undisciplined aspect of it actually already started while I was at MF(the rest of the leaders were already at Cat High preparing for Telematch), with no sec 4s there, Joey and Yanying simply didn’t have the means to discipline everyone so everyone was all scattered everywhere and they wanted to go inside the conference room and kept on knocking on the door, irritating the hell out of Kelvin and I. Then Ms Ho and I had to rush the Scouts cos they were taking a looong time to get ready and we had to get on the bus by 8:15am and the last bus only left at 8:30am. Upon reaching CHS, got scolded by Andreas cos I wasn’t with the girls and I didn’t prepare the whacko stick so we had to impromptu by doing it with the scouts.

Ice breakers weren’t any better. The girls didn’t SHOUT LOUD ENOUGH for everyone to HEAR their names, so everyone naturally didn’t get each other’s name cos they were speaking so damn softly that only a mouse can hear what they were saying. Joey and Yanying tried to take control of the situation, but albeit, with no results. Luckily Yew Choon helped me with the poncho game, If not I think I would have died there and then. To make the situation make chaotic, poor Guang Liang came in at the wrong moment and asked for the namelist for lunch, so while Yew Choon was taking charge of the poncho game, I was arranging lunch for everyone, running here and there to look for Ms Ho& Ms Tang and Guang Liang. I think I screamed down the phone when Edith called saying that unless they didn’t want to eat then I wouldn’t arrange lunch with Guang Liang cos Andreas got angry that they wanted to arrange lunch that early. As you can see, it was only ice breakers and everyone is already so short of temper. Imagine what the rest of the day will be like…

Didn’t really take part in the setting up of Telematch, Chanel, Jiayi, Cai Er and Edith were doing it and I had no idea what was going on so I stoned with Xiangjie and Hazel at the sidelines while they briefed for Telematch. Lester being Lester of course took tons of pictures starting from Telematch onwards and during then, I was mostly at Bryan’s, Miao’s and Amos’s teams’ side, helping them with the Telematch. Encouraging the girls were just soo difficult, seeing that they didn’t master any enthusiasm at all, making it more difficult to make it fun for them. Is playing along THAT DIFFICULT?OH MY TIAN.

Then on to obstacle course, I was with Hendarto and Kok Wei(bong), Kok Wei bullied aka made me try the Jacob’s Ladder without my hands and Mr policeman of course did it with ease. But really cannot la. So while waiting for the teams to come, the 3 of us just stoned at the top of the Jacob’s Ladder, almost fell asleep man. Teams wise, the Scouts were actually all okay, they tried their best to climb it without using their hands and doing it “ 1 leg 1 pole” but the guides, really man, they complained about it, saying what if they fall down and the sec 1s made a big deal of sitting on the grass. Oh yea, they also cheated and clearly didn’t listen to any instructions. They completely ignored the 3 of us man. By the time the 2 guides groups finished, I was really pissed off with their attitude. Like literally WTF. Thank god the last group was Amos’s group and they were a pretty not bad team and someone gave us popsicles to eat, which was pretty shuang cos it was damn hot outside.

Finally it was lunch, not surprisingly, chicken rice.LOL. and by then, Edith had already started to rant to me about the girls and about the sec 1s vs guides war about some stupid game which they took personally. Not to mention sec 1 the girl who was super drama, which almost made Andreas, Chanel and Jiayi not being able to take their lunch cos they were super nice in ensuring that they ate their lunch. I think the leaders ate our lunch in record time cos we were simply behind time. Edith had to personally invite the sec 1 girl to lunch so that Jiayi and Chanel can eat, really, this is not her house lor. The girl really has BIG AP ISSUES! But before I can finish lunch, the bill for lunch got kinda mixed up, cos Guang Liang combined the 2 but it got settled over survival cooking so it was okay.

I guess this is 1 of best parts of the camp bah. Rather than the war games, which I was kinda hoping the leaders can have a full round of battle with the participants. 1st up was the firelighting. The Cat high scouts taught the girls how to start a fire and we got to eat pizza, bread and marshmallows among other things, which was good! HAHA. And their bread was curled around the stick and I think the leaders were eating away at that station.LOL. the Cat High Scouts are good cooks, I have to admit. But Huishan and that sec 1 girl made a BIG ISSUE out of wanting to roast the marshmallow on the embers. 2nd station was the structure playground, in which there was their award winning ship structure(which took 15 school days to build!!!) with a crow’s nest and everything. The girls were pretty scared that the structure was instable and it might not able to hold their weight. At some point, it got pretty crowded at the top. But really, it’s CHS’s structure, it has to be really damn stable. Then they played with the cannonball in which they shoot water bombs to oblivious. Last stop before MF was the frog killing station. The girls were pretty grossed out by it and they kept on shouting “EEE…..” at the top of their lungs. Here is how to kill the frog, you have to hold their legs and slam it down on the table till you can see their tongues sticking out(which is a sign that it is dead). Then decapitate their head and take off their skins at 1 go. After that take out their guts and start cutting the frog up then you can start cooking. Cat High’s recipe for it is good, with the herbs inside. HAHAH. And the boys have to do that before they can pass their outdoor cooking. Then it was back onto the bus to MFSS.

Upon reaching MF, we let the girls off for a 10minutes water break and some of them actually have the guts to ask whether they can go outside and buy drinks. Seriously, this is not their first time in guides and they can still ask that question. Was in charge of Water war game with Hazel and she took charge of the situation upstairs while I was downstairs counting the points. The girls were ok-ish at this station, with the exception of Jolin, who INSISTED on wearing her socks. And Yew Choon made her take it off. Some of the boys cheated but they were mostly serious about it. Have to admit, it was good seeing Bryan, Miao and Yingjie with their maturity like that. Jabez at 1 point asked me to hurry up cos apparently something happened at the Shoe War station with the girls and they were fighting yet again. After the last group left, had to scream at the top of my lungs to get the girls to come to the parade square to debrief. Then screamed some more while some people were at the cannonball station using their “eye power” to help to untie the knots. Seriously, I never did scream at the last camp inspire like I did in this. Edith suggested asking for Jabez’s help so that they will dismantle the cannonball faster and he also ended up helping them. But during that time, Edith,Jiayi, Cai Er and I were at the shade complaining about the AP Issues of the girls.

While the girls were having the briefing for the campfire, the 4 of us were observing them. They were damn shocked when miaomiao asked them to sit by their patrols, giving that, “why are you giving me instructions” face. Then dinner, another thing I can vomit blood about, they were so picky with their food and also, some guides didn’t bring their full uniform(tell me, how the heck can you forget your damn SCARF?)and had to wear half uniform and they love gathering at Ms Ho’s and Chanel’s banner area. Then when I passed around the potato chips to everyone that it showed how selfish those morons are. 1 person to 2 packets of chips! No logic in that man! In the end, 1 packet of chips had to be shared by the last 4 people. Tell me, how difficult it is to understand that 1 person can only take 1 packet?! Even the boys understand it. They were like stones during campfire, absolutely refusing to participate no matter what, even the seniors; I was very embarrassed and disappointed. Edith had to force them to participate in the items games and we had to forcefully drag Joey and Yanying up to play Russell’s and Guang Liang’s game. If you tell me these 8 people will be the 8 people that will be joining guides come late January, I say that the juniors will be no different than their seniors.

After we broke camp, Edith, Andreas and I stayed back to watch the Scout’s presentation, which I think is good. Was like a trip down memory lane for the scouts, especially people like Gatsby boy, miaomiao, Benedict and Xiangjie.HAHAHA. And Andreas and my face was also there, from DREAMS 5.LOL. They showed mainly the preparation camp pictures.HAHAH. And we went off across to eat prata and chicken wings and Andreas dropped us off at AMK MRT station and we managed to get the last train home.

I guess we will have to lay down the ground rules for everyone during the 1st meeting with the sec 1s and make sure the seniors don’t come off with any of their stupid AP problems. Like the other time. If they do that again, then… behaving like Kelvin will become an option. show them we are not meant to be mess around with. if not, THEY WILL DIE A TERRIBLE DEATH.and i am imagining ALOT of pumping.

i think i am running on pure adrenaline right now.
went home at 11pm yesterday and there is about 2 more hours till i have to get up for camp inspire so i am functioning on very little sleep.

and school,guides,YA,MF AYW and MINDS have already taken over my life.truth to be told, its isn't as bad as my dreams5 days, maybe cos this is round 2. for andreas back in 2007, must have been a total culture shock, like it is for edith now, to jump in and be so involved in a SL experience like project linking MINDS.investing all your free weekends is no joke at all. this is the hardest phrase,as i learnt, for EXCO and participants alike, the planning phrase. this is when you see your team-mates till you can get sick of their faces(or your fellow EXCO's faces), this is when you sometimes dread opening your e-mails cos there will be tons for you to read and analysis and absorb and the though for just not working for it is tempting because its mentally and physically exhausting.add in school and the rest of the teenager things that we have to do, and you will get a bunch of people who will have no life for the next 6 months or so.

but for people like me who have gone through it once, the fruits of our labour are oh so very sweet, i can look back on that 3 months of dreams journey and still be smiling to myself like a fool 2 years later, at some random private joke. thats why i am pressing on now. because the road ahead isn't gonna to be easy, as i remembered lester said in 1 of our dreams e-mails eons ago so lets make it a memorable one. you may not see the light now, but it's there, shining in the dark. i can remember during the planning phrase for dreams5, bryan,yingjie and i were at the school library thinking up of what to bring for the equipment list and at that time, i really felt our expedition then was of a small magntitude, as compared to the JEP trip(they were practising their item in 1 room in the library and we could hear them sing) as we didn't openly have meetings and practise our hongdou during school hours or anything like that.

i realize my family values credentials more than personality. and its selective credentials. somehow, tiara did well for her EOYs and she gets a MAC book, frances did well for her mid-years and she gets a digicam. my chances of getting anything are close to nil. and when you do well, everything is not your fault, its the stupid person's fault,always. the one who can't go to poly, the one who "don't even try her best so lets make her quit school since she is not putting in effort", the one who spends most of her time doing don't know what. who is it, pretty obvious. so at home, i am the rebel(teachers at mf will be "what?no way, putri is soo quiet and she listens in class") and the one with the BIG AP.NICE. every 3 months, my mum will threaten to not pay the school fees unless i do something so there will always be a big drama then. btw, she also hates guides and mf with a passion, so all activities concerning them are a big no-no but its a double edge sword, i will die without them, psb is jz way too sian please. and their SC is lame-er than MF's SL, okay? needs tons of help.which goon will organise a "fantastic day@ sentosa" for OCamp you tell me? i can safely tell you that i can do that in my sleep. i'll rather be at cat high doing obstacle course then be at sentosa doing some game, oh, where i have to pay $5 too. anw, been to sentosa too many times already.

each of us came back from dreams5 with a different gift, a different part of us soften and heals, yet all of our souls were rejuvenated. maybe thats why i feel such tenderness and have such a soft spot for them. for me, they represent the people who loved and accepted who i am for the first time in my life. for them, they liked me for who i am, with the variation of attitudes and moods they saw me in those months. they became the family that i never have. it is such that i feel so comfortable with them till now.

45 more mins! to 6am!

been busy for the last week, 3 meetings in 1 week! what a record!
fundraising;with shoo wan;1st meeting with participants....
and i am getting back the feeling of being super tired and exhausted by saturday night from dreams5.

looking forward to the 1st meeting with participants tmr though. as usual, this project will put people who will not have otherwise met one another/notice each other at school together. i am waiting to see what kind of chemistry will be on tmr.hehe. to make things better, yingjie,chinhow and mingxuan will be on board too! HAHHA.so coincidently, 1 person each from Poiseden, Zeus and Morrigan! but now they are the seniors, sec 3s already.OMG! doesn't seem so long ago that they were sec 1, i can actually remember it quite clearly in my head. but because of dreams5, i am friends with them now...so...i have no idea how i will relate to them in this project. XD

transiting from a mere participant to a assistant project director[LOL,make me sound so big] is kinda a big....hmm...learning experience. but i think that will put me in a better position to know how the participants feel. and now i know how fred and lionel felt.

and i wish i was under the publication committee at some point last year! cos it is the only area now that is applicable to project linking MINDS this year. so yes, ADDIE,SIONGHUI, CHINHOW, MINGXUAN...HELP!!! or maybe i should jz put those 2 into the publication this year.HAHA.