Erhm XY commented that my blog is getting emo. Hmm. Is it? Maybe the previous post sounded emo.
I’m in a narrative mood so here comes a really long post:
We had Pre-ITC Training today! I had to wake up at 530am just so that I could reach school by 730am. A bit kiasu ah? It’s just that I always wake up 2 hours earlier before a non-school day meeting time so that I have 1 hour to get ready and another hour to travel to school. Anyways, I woke up and realised that my white long socks disappeared. Inferred that they got thrown away after OLC. So I smsed almost all the ODAC girls to ask them to bring for me an extra pair and THANKS TO LAUREN I got a pair for myself. But I felt quite bad because her socks were new =/
Rushed down to the grandstand to assemble. DIs gave us a general briefing and passed on the time to the QMs for tent pitching. We were split into 2 groups. I was in Group 2 with GT, JN, JX, MS, QA, SH, SK & WI. Our first clue was “Where 6 colours combine”. Our first guess was the House Comm board but it was wrong so we went to the House Den where we found our next clue that said “Do not assemble in the Hall. Look for your respective QMs.” We spent quite some time looking for PO. We went from the House Den to the grandstand to the Parade Square, around the Hall and finally found him outside the PT.
The next clue was something like “Jetty of the 5th MRT Station of the green line” which we inferred to be Bedok Jetty. So we walked/jogged/ran all the way from school to the jetty, about 4km. We took the chalet underpass while the other group took the overhead bridge which we felt takes a longer time. So we were in the lead all the while until at the last part where the other group ran past us and we could not catch up with them. We ended up being the later group to reach the jetty. At the jetty we were shown a photograph for 10secs and had to run all the way to the end of the jetty to where JN was. JN showed us the same photograph with 5 differences for 10secs and we had to run back to tell PO the differences. Actually we could only remember 4 differences and somehow someone mentioned about LH’s face in the photograph which was the last difference. We were actually the first group to complete the task but because we came to the jetty after the other group, we were given a 5mins time penalty.
Our next clue was “Cast A Leg without the ‘G’” which we inferred to be the small castle we saw on our way to the jetty.It was about 1km or slightly more than that. Upon reaching the castle, the other group was almost done and left shortly after we reached. But I guess it didn’t discourage us because we had fun doing the task at that station. It was Charades. We had to act out several words such as “Dancing Queen”, “Womanizer” etc.
After that, we proceeded to “Amber Beacon” which is all the way the other side of ECP. About 5km, maybe even more if my estimation is bad. GT didn’t feel too good so we slowed down a little but managed to catch up with the other group at that station. Our task was to look for a tent peg bag which was buried in a demarcated area. The other group had been there for quite some time already. Barely 1 minute after stepping into the area to look for the bag, SH found it! Not bad ah SH. So we left the other group behind while we went on to the station with the clue “The Nearest End”.
We went all the way to the end of ECP, about 2-3 km. Along the way we modified the OLC Song to fit ITC. The song goes like this
ITC 2008
Where I spend my holiday in
Only ICs and buddies
There are no chiobus to see
There are no yan daos to see
Only ICs and buddies
Where I spend my holiday in
ITC 2008
We all hope to be stronger
Wo men yong yuan bu fang qi
Even if we buay tahan
We will still zai jie zai li
All our hardships and our sufferings
Are all normal to me
So come on everybody
We are ODAC 25th
At the next station, we had to do push-ups; 50 for girls and 100 for guys. Seeing that the guys were not yet done with their 100 by the time we finished our 50, we joined them in at their 60. Which means we actually did 90 push-ups! Way to go, girls =) We saw the other group coming while we were walking to our next station ie. “Where we preach and pitch” which is obviously the piece of grassy area where we normally hold our tent-pitching sessions. The walk back was rather long, probably another 4-5 km or so. SK didn’t feel too well which kind of scared me a little ’cause at one point of time she actually stumbled (I don’t know what’s the verb to describe it but it’s like how drunk people walk) a few steps and almost walked into a tree. But glad to say that we actually reached the next station before our proposed time! =D
The last station was the game that we played at Hougang CC during B2B. QA was the blindfolded person and we had to direct him and answer questions along the way. We were quite lucky ’cause most of the time we guessed correctly! And we were done!
Our estimated time given by the QMs was to reach the tent-pitching area by 3pm but we actually finished our last task before 11am. =)) It’s not that we were fast, it’s just that the QMs UNDERESTIMATED us. Tsk tsk. Haha. We had our mobile lunch break. I ate my cereal and sadly the yogurt bits melted in the heat of the noon sun =( After that we spent about 1 and a half hours pitching and unpitching tents and our best timing for 3 4-men tent & 1 8-men tent & 1 2-men tent was about 4:15mins. It was a satisfactory timing but I’m sure our batch have the potential to cut it down much much more!
Walked back to school and had a water break before commencing on our Bashaa & Firelighting Session by the Air Chiefs. We were split into groups. I was with AD, PO & ST. It was okay lah. Everyone was a little tired and sian after the tent-pitching session but my group got more enthusiastic during the Bashaa-building session! I think we’re a little suay. At first our groundsheet didn’t have holes to put the comscord through so WI gave us his groundsheet. Then we “spoiled” his groundsheet and could no longer use it so WI had to run back to the ODAC Room to get a new one for us. But despite all the time delay we still managed to finish by the same time as the other groups! =)
After Bashaa & Firelighting Session was Pioneering “lecture” by the Pioneering Chiefs. We were given an insight on our task for Pioneering session during ITC and had some time to discuss and organise ourselves. I’m to build the flagpole with AD, LH, YY, YO and a few other people whom I couldn’t remember their names.
And FINALLY, First Aid Session. Nothing much. Just recapped on ‘DR ABC’, ‘RICE’, recovery position, 2 & 3 & 4 hand lifts and evacuation drills.
But that’s not all. We had briefings from the different ITC committes. For Field Cooking, I am in Group 1 with AD, KA, LH & TB. Our menu is rice with chicken and vegetables. All of us feel that our dish is the hardest to cook. I mean like, come on, look at WT’s group who have to “cook” tuna biscuits and soup. Just take a spoon, scoop some tuna and piak it on the biscuits. Then pour the soup into the mess tin and put it over the file to boil and ta da, you’re done. But we’ll cook the nicest dish, just you see! HAHA. For campfire item, I am in Group 4 with AD, BW, JX, SH & WI. Don’t know when we’ll get to discuss our item though. Nothing much happened after that.
We went back to the ODAC Room and each waited for our “Consultation Session” with the ITC DIs. 43-ed home with JX & MS. SK stayed on for dinner (I think). Came home intending to catch the Singapore-Vietnam soccer match but missed the first part of it ’cause I went to bathe. Didn’t feel like watching it halfway so I turned to the computer. Rushed out when everyone screamed GOAL only to find out that the linesman called it an offside when although the Singapore guy might have been offside, it was obviously the Vietnam guy who headed the ball into his own goal. My mum commented that it’s unfair that they’re playing 13 v 11. And I was like, huh. She said it was because the referre and linesman are on Vietnam’s side -.- The game ended 0-0.
My sis keeps complaining that the tapping of the keyboard is disrupting her sleep. And she insists that I type slow and quietly but I can’t ’cause I’m used to typing at this speed. I’m fast what, what to do. Haha. Okay lah, give her some face and shall stop blogging now.
