1-5 dec: This year saw me sitting out of vbs completely. After the first day past, it kinda didnt feel that bad. Most things can be gotten used to. I got a shirt and it did make me feel a lot better, haha.
6 dec: StanChart rubdown saw me working with a really vulgar and boisterous woman. I was so furious. May we find ourselves far from degenerating to that kind of management of ourselves and circumstances.
12 dec: Adventure race with jiaxian and philip. Let me try to recount all that happened.
I got up bright and early and packed my bag. Packing took me longer than expected. Had a good breakfast, drank up and left home. Met teammates at tampines interchange and waited for the bus. We packed and reorganised bags on the bus since we could only bring 2 bagpacks on race.
We got ourselves registered and put on our bibs. Looked around and saw a few strong teams which jx dutifully explained their v. strong points and all. I saw my lecturer and lab assistant taking part in the staff category. Visited the loo and I kept rubbing on sunblock (which is the best smelling sunblock i've ever smelt. it makes me happy.) Did a bit of stretching and talking and we sat against a rockwall in the shade and we read from 1 Cor, the chunk from which meta theme verse is taken from. I felt a bit silly. We prayed and decided that we'll race in a way to win the prize, but we'll play fair and not be overly competitive and forget to be kind to racers who need help.
So fast forward to flag off. We started running and that paced us out pretty well. Reached our first stop after much running and we had to count the number of pillars on those old colonial fences. We kept getting the number wrong. We counted over 300 pillars. We were going mad counting. Finally got it right after more than 5 tries? More running..
 Ran to the next stop and we had to match pictures to objects, identify words and from there form another word. It wasn't too difficult, except that it was up this long stretch of slope. Was quite tiring. But the search proved a distraction and we worked pretty well together. We were definitely not leading...We saw a number of teams finish and move on. After we got it right, we got our next clue. More running. This part of the run was a little bit long...didn't really feel like running at some parts, but it was good that it wasnt Too sunny.
Then we had to find a stranger to finish a piece of pizza. We found a family with two lovely girls. Pros: They were so sweet looking, i had a good break watching and chatting with them. Cons: They took such small bites. We were saved when their daddy came along and gobbled everything up after he knew it was a race we were in.
We had to get on the ferry to pulau ubin. Dried up a bit and replenished sunblock. Refueled water and food on boat ride. The weather was Mega hot for a very rainy week. I began to dread what was to come on ubin... Got on ubin and ran.
Then we got our bikes. Rode. Reached the next checkpoint and we had to break and dehusk a dried up coconut with no man-made tools. Here's when jx and philip went barbaric and broke the coconut into smithereens with their barehands and rocks. I did nothing. Well, i prayed they wouldnt get hurt. They really went all out. The camera crew had a good time. My hands were hardly dirty. But...ahh...I can't do something like that...kudos to their violence and aggression.
We had to keep the smashed up coconut to pass our final checkpoint so we carried it along. We cycled on. The uphill bits were tough sometimes. But, still okay. We guessed our way around and referred to the maps and instincts a bit. Got to our next station and we had to leave 2 bikes behind. The two guys ran and I got the bike. I offered to carry my very heavy backpack. I could barely pedal up the steep parts. I got a bit of help, to be pushed up the slopes a bit.
Then we had to get to the next station and put on life jackets. it made carrying the bag even more difficult. But because I got the bike, i should not complain, reaalllyyy. Then we ran/cycled some more. At the next station, we left our bike and bags behind and ran. It was very rocky. I kept thinking 'please dont trip, dont fall, no sprains...where are we going...i dont want to get drenched..ooh watch the rocks. oh where do i place my feet on the next step.'
We reached a quarry and we jumped in. To my surprise, it was wonderful (: Swam a bit and got up. It was superduper refreshing. I still prefer swimming pool water, but yea. Thereafter, in our drenchedness we got our bags and I got on the bike, the guys ran.
More running. Then somewhere along we finally got to remove the life jackets. We got back on our bikes. And rode and rode. The trails were lovely. I loved how every turn and every slope and corner was different. Concentrating on maneuvering the bike kept my mind occupied, and that was very good of course. The guys were singing :D God bless them. and we just kept riding. It was hot and humid but the skies were gorgeous. We biked some more.
Finally we said goodbye to our bikes, and got our triyak. We only had 2 pedals, and so I sat in the middle and contributed by encouraging the two peddlers and lending my bag as a backrest for jx. They were close to bickering on steering the triyak. But after a while, they were just really exhausted and we just had to be patient. We just chugged on slowly with sea water and sun on us. Finally reached the next jetty and we heaved the triyak outta the water. Then - we had to do a jetty jump bags and all. Jumped into gross saltiness and swam to shore.
Ran. Soaked in gross seawater. I was annoyed and irked, but too far along to care anymore, yes. I was at a campsite I saw at for obs in sec 3 (: All the memories it brought back (: Then, jx mentioned that there was a rockwall nearby. We were all pleading in our minds, hoping it wouldnt be rock climbing. I'm not particularly strong at climbing and the guys, having done all the pedalling, were tired too. I hoped that they weren't so cruel. Refilled our bottles, laughed at the state my bagpack was in and wondered what we were doing next. Flying fox?
No. We had to do this...I dont even know how to describe it. Crawlclimb up this slope of soapy canvas with mud at the bottom by hanging on to a rope suspended midway...and climb on top of each other with our muddy shoes and all...This was the station when I sustained an injury I never anticipated. I hung on so tightly to the rope with the weight of me and 2 guys and two bags hanging on to me. And I remember I kept repeating 'my finger is v painful...my finger's going to die...hurry up....my finger's gone...' Compressed a nerve. Still recovering. I'm just really gd at getting superficial nerve injuries. The recovery process is quite cool to sit through. alright, yes, because these are minor things.
But we were really good at this station! When we arrived ,they told us that we were top 3 in our category and we were so surprised. We cleared it in a try. Phew! More running! We were now into the jungly bits and good thing was it was much less sunny! Hooray. Ran and we had to navigate our way thru a maze. It was so dark. Got some scrapes inside but we managed to find the password and cleared this station!
After this was just A LOT MORE RUNNING. Unknown to us, we were 2nd. Then another group (with really gd runners) caught up with us and we both took the wrong turn! We walked thru loads of spidey webs and stepped on ant communities and we got overtaken when we finally followed the compass out of the woods. Finished 45 seconds after them, and came in 3rd. Was quite a good race, and i dont think i'd have survived without teammates. Not as bad as i thought! Phew.
13 dec: This year also saw me missing sky camp! I dropped by for worship on the first night. Was nice. Also had dinner with family cos it was my parents' wedding anniversary. Meanwhile, there was loads to work on for attachment. And also Christmas party. Quite a headache, but yea, a bit at a time. I still had a very good time with family.
14 dec: My email and facebook accounts got hacked into. I suddenly realised that my identity is very unique and important to me -.- Besides that, I was just plain Annoyed and anxious. I AM SO ANNOYED with those cyber criminals. Gosh.
19 dec: (and the many days leading up to it) was spent prepping for party. I'm so thankful for all the help I had. i enjoyed myself planning for this party, though there were fair shares of worries and solid discouragements. It's been a wonderful journey. Words just dont suffice anw, so I wont try.
20 dec: My sis got baptised. My dad planned for our whole family to be in the same shirt. Haiyo.
4th week of dec: Attachment was tapering down. So, talking about clinicals, it wasn't totally easy though I wished I was at outpatients. But I had loads to be thankful about. One most important one would be having a great friend, zhi rong to be with! It really made things much better (: Now I get a better idea of the many more clinicals i will have to survive thru. I had a friend who is dropping out of physio after this clinicals though. Sad because she's such a nice girl, but if this isnt what she wants, and if she has thought thru' carefully, it's a good thing.
 Christmas: (:
28-31 dec: Camp - Metamorphosis, Geared to Last. It was a good experience.
NYE: Coming home and having steamboat dinner with family. Had a good time talking about future dreams and dreams forsaken. I guess we can't have everything and we dont have answers for everything. Till we make better sense of what we're heading towards, I thank God for your lives and I love you with all my heart.
That's December in a gist!
p.s. this is awesome - origami a-z |
