Concerning the Different Groups (ICT FOC Day 1; Part 2)

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MAY 16, 2005

Our bunk is well air-conditioned, though if you set the temperature too low, glacial temperatures would result in the middle of the night. I have assigned myself a spot, second table from the door. All footwear is to be deposited at the front, and we sleep haphazardly. That is, until the OC decided to add *more* groups to our bunk. At present only 2, it rose to 3, and finally it was decided on 4. We slept that night looking rather like corpses lined up at a morgue, what with our sleeping bags, and the equal distribution of space that was necessary for such large numbers of people.

Oh by the way, for purposes of posterity, I will disclose the names of the eight different groups (in no particular order): Cherokee, Blazerz, Ozone, Fire, Bull Shit, Hi-5, Summit, and Samurai Six.

Blazerz. We are a strange group in that there aren't many talkative people, save for Terry and Jia Xian, who create most of the conversation during mealtimes. Even they cannot be buzzing all the time. We strategize, cooperate, comment, and suggest. I was the unofficial navigation leader, and performed well I think. It was partly due to my thoughtful provision of the Singapore Map and Transport Guide. Another member, Edwin Toh, brought the same thing, and thus became our second navigator. We Blazerz are good people.

Cherokee. Mad people, according to Timothy, a member of our group.

Ozone. A concise name, and they could call themselves O³ if they wanted to. Exists in that group an associate of mine.

Fire. They lost miserably during the beach games at Sentosa (on the 3rd day of camp.) Well, Fire cannot play water games, as my associate put it.

Bull Shit. Their aptly chosen name is the laughing stock of the camp, enough said. There are one or two slightly corpulent members, and the group is adept at games using playing cards.

Hi-5. Childish name but good. Likeable people. Quite sporting. Jovial.

Summit. An ally for the Water-Strike game at Sentosa, it soon changed to enemy when they appeared to be using dubious methods to thwart us.

Samurai Six. Quite a lot of team spirit they had, but weren't so prominent, somewhat.

So, on the first night we had a game called Battle Royale or something; before, we ate a distasteful dessert (it's *supposed* to be distasteful) and appointed some boys as our "shims", but more on that later.

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About the Terrible Food, and the Spoilt Handphone (ICT FOC Day 1; Part 1)

I began writing this in a book during the second day of the camp, the 17th of May 2005.

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MAY 17, 2005 AROUND 11AM

There shall be a little section in this Book written about Malaysian civil engineering. Quite atrocious stuff. Unfortunately, now it is time for brunch and I'm not in Malaysia. The section devoted to this subject will be kept for later. But it deserves an honourable mention. Now, I shall elaborate on the aforesaid brunch.

This brunch is just one of many meals served during the Freshman Orientation Camp of the Singapore Polytechnic Info-Communications and Technology Club I am currently attending. The absence of a proper breakfast was due to our unearthly sleeping hours the night before (which was due to the compound activities of a NightWalk (sort of) and a certain battle game.) Therefore, brunch.

As usual it is not good.

The food (if you could call it that) tastes like metal, plastic, and wood respectively. There are also strange shades of green in the vegetables. It is generally agreed that the food is tasteless. At least the breakfast is more decent, consisting of bread, jam and nyonya kaya.

However, the opposite could be said for drinks. The drink for breakfast is terrible, whilst the ones for lunch and dinner are good, though a bit bland (what do you expect? They made it themselves), and consisted of grape cordial or lime cordial.

The drink for breakfast was some substance made of Ovaltine, sugar, and warm water. It is an experiment not to be repeated.

Grape cordial wasn't so concentrated. It would take more than 1 bottle (which was what they used) to sweeten the amount of water in the drink canteen. Quite bland.

The lime cordial was much better. It was more concentrated than I expected for cordials sold in that kind of bottle.

On the first day of the camp we were told to create a name for our group. There were lots of proposals, but none sounded convincing. Our group was singularly silent, and names like Crystal Ballz and Bratz and 4u2c did not sound right. The other teams were buzzing with excitement, but ours followed the maxim of "I see you, you see me", to the extent that our Group Leaders pleaded us to speak.

Only a few of our members put forward names for consideration. We were reminded that the name chosen would be the one we were to use for the duration of the camp, and therefore must be concise and memorable. The other (newly-formed) teams had finished and were permitted to enter their bunks.

Finally it was just us.

*Other* Group Leaders (or GLs) noticed our plight and stationed themselves around us, giving encouragement.

Our GL, peculiarly nicknamed Bash, suggested Blazerz.

Blazerz it was.

Then came the part about the cheer. Our minds were completely drained. For lack of ideas, our *other* GL, Sonia, gave us a cheer, which we promptly accepted.

After clearing our bunks of the tables and chairs (it's actually a classroom), we went for lunch. Vegetarian. Out of the 50 sets, 40 were vegetarian! There was some error, so we ended up eating rice with vegetables.

There is a running joke amongst us, which began when one of our eight camping groups decided to call themselves Bull Shit. It was received with great amusement, and started off a great series of jokes. It is now presumably still in circulation. Even the seemingly serious Organizing Committee (OC) members could not stifle their laughter. Bull Shit also created an equally Bull-Shitting cheer (one of those jokes.)

Oh yes, during the aforesaid brunch, there was a Highly Singular Occurrence! It involved a spoilt handphone speaker. The phone was owned by Jia Xian, a member of our group. The problem was noticed in the morning, during which only the vibration alert was working but the ringtone was absent. Later on during brunch, someone suggested that he blow into the handphone, as if playing an instrument. Miraculously, it worked! He blew into the speaker itself, and the music started only when that happened. When he did not blow, it stopped. He proceeded to demonstrate the anomaly to the rest of the group.

Suggestions were then propounded. Some thought it was a neat trick; some thought he was operating the Pause button; but no, he was not. We were in amazement.

It may be that the speaker was compressed (in some way) and could not vibrate and produce sounds. Therefore, when air pressure was applied through blowing, the speaker was free to vibrate. It would not work if you press it with your fingers; then, the speaker would not vibrate.

He has yet to switch to another phone.

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Voices (The Epic)

My internship in Year 3 was in World Scientific Publishing Co., in 2007. Voices is the name of a lunchtime concert we held at the end of July in the library on the first floor. Sharon was the receptionist in the lobby. And with this brief introduction, I begin the poem proper.

On 31st of July at 1.03
There was this concert in First Floor Library
Alamak, some came too early
They think we start already
Actually practice-practice only!

A lot of people came down to see
There was standing room only
Got one song called "Stand By Me"
This one Alvin sing
Then got another song by Rhaimie
"Save the Last Dance..." or something

Everyone clap.

After that we eat KFC
And pizza with Chicken Tandoori
The pizza a bit cold already
The rest we gave to Sharon in the lobby!

WAWAS! - "Tooooo the Lion City!" and Reminiscences

--18 of 19--

And now it was finally time to make our way to the bus stop and board our bus. Laden with our bags and our shopping, we crossed a bridge to the other side of the road where a simple bus was waiting. We had great expectations, but this would do. At least the bus had 3 seats per row, a benchmark of quality.

There were complications as to the arrangement of luggage in the bottom compartment, but we managed to settle it in good time. I sat in the second row along with Zalinah and Haddad. We bade goodbye to Encik Harun and Cikgu (she studies here) and the bus glided into traffic. We were on our way home!


I had time to scribble a few sentences in my black book until dusk set upon us, rendering me unable to see. We shared tidbits, drinks and even ice-cream!--from Zalinah, and we three in the second row passed it among ourselves, making sure the bus driver did not see, because as far as we knew, only mineral water was allowed in the bus. By tacit consent, it was made sure no one behind us saw either, else the ice-cream would finish in a blink.

Some two hours later we reached a resting point. Within it was a tidbit supermarket, filled to the brim with crackers, cuttlefish, fish snacks, drink, and sweets! Its sole purpose was to provide customers with tidbits, and tidbits only, so no detergent or diapers here. Most were sold in gigantic packs. No such thing as "take a little bit" here. You take all or you take none.

After toilet breaks, burgers, drinks and tidbits, we were off again.

I remember some of the things we did which I did not have space for in this chronicle. Call this an Appendix if you will!

Let's see what we have here. I recall with some amusement the "Thank God!" affair with Adillah, when she was spotted in her room speaking on the phone, with a photo of her boyfriend in front of her, on which was written the words "Thank God I found you!" She was playfully reminded of it to no end!

We had the rare opportunity of playing a gamelan set in the middle of our rehearsals, thanks to Encik Harun, who granted us permission to do so. It was located in the foyer of the Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka itself, right in front of the hall doors.

Then there was Jeff, who burst out into laughter in the middle of his prayers at a comment made by Didi. He recovered and resumed. Suddenly he dropped out of his prayers *again*! Seeing as we were watching a video of the second performance on Haddad's laptop, he simply could not concentrate on his prayers!

There were also spoonerisms reported, concerning Mai and Jad (short form for Jihad). They were mispronounced as Mad and Jai.

WAWAS! - Hainanese Chicken Rice, and a Journey on the LRT

--13 of 19--

After clearing Stor Teater of all our stuff, we headed back to our rooms. Sash reassured me that we would organise an SSP ice skating outing once we got back to Singapore, which made me feel quite hopeful. She said the last time *we* had one was back when she was in Year 1! (!) I wasn't part of SSP then, but I'm sure it was fun.

An hour's rest in our rooms; then promptly at 8pm we got out again for dinner. We went straight to a Chicken Rice Shop near the cafe where Cikgu and Encik Harun were left the other day. (Actually it wasn't *the* Chicken Rice Shop but a Hainanese chicken rice restaurant.)

Our seats on the second floor commanded an admirable view of the crowds below, through large, full-length glass windows covering the entire stretch of the restaurant facing the street. The food there was sumptuous and well seasoned. We gobbled down our chicken rice in record time, and those who couldn't finish it donated their portions to those who could.

After dinner we had a spot of people-watching through the full-length windows built for that purpose. There was a lot of fun to be had playing "Spot the Person/Sign/Colour". Totally picturesque, the scene was. I even spotted a person wearing the same beanie as the Black Cat in Kucing! We played for quite some time, gazing boldly into the street as if no one could see us.

On the contrary; everyone did. Once downstairs, we looked up and there it was, our seating area! Every person on the street could see us, as clear as day.

Next stop: the Petronas Twin Towers! (A.k.a. KLCC.) Pushing through the masses of People, we reached an LRT station. Up we went, and waited in a corner for Haddad and Jihad to purchase tickets. It was no less crowded up there. Downstairs, a great hoo-ha was occurring. We looked down and saw groups of people amusing themselves with aerosol cans of confetti and foam. Clearly, the Spraying had begun!

Feeling inwardly relieved that we weren't down there as well (it was New Year's Eve, by the way), we got our tickets and went through the fare gates into the station. No Adventure for us tonight!

The experience of entering the station and going up the steps was like riding a rollercoaster--for some reason, it was quite exciting and novel to us. (Of course, there was the customary snapping of pictures and capturing of videos.) It felt like some theme park monorail.


Everything was going smoothly until we reached Dang Wangi, an interchange station, where we had to switch trains. But every train that came was full to the brim! You couldn't even put a finger in there, and fitting all 21 of us in the same train was out of the question. We decided to split up into our 5 groups (S,I,N,G and A) and meet up at KLCC later. I was part of Group A, consisting of Efin, Aidil and Suhaila. We managed to squeeze into one train, clinging to each other for safety.

WAWAS! - The Excursion to Sunway Lagoon

--12 of 19--

True enough, we woke up at 9am. The transport that was supposed to take us out comes at--9am.

Great Rush! Never had we dressed up so quickly before! "Cikgu is already at DBP, waiting for us!" Haddad agitatedly announces. People come in and out of the toilet. A waiting list quickly forms. "Whoever's ready go down first!"

In due course we left for the old DBP, in disjointed groups. A van passed us at the gate, containing those who had come down earlier than us. A second van was waiting inside. We packed into it and off we went--to Sunway Lagoon!


At Sunway we took care of our breakfast. I spent a great deal of money on a Tuna Foccacia Sandwich at Starbucks which I thought cost RM2.90. I didn't notice the 1 in front of the 2.


The rest had found an A&W restaurant, a fact which those of us at Starbucks found out too late (it was a rare but delicious and cheaper restaurant!)

We didn't do much at Sunway Lagoon, I regret to say. Yes, it had a theme park, and most of us planned to go to it, but the dry rides were extremely exorbitant and the wet rides about so. Some of us couldn't afford the ticket price, rumoured to be around RM45 or so. One by one we backed off, and the rest who could afford decided it was not worth it going in such small groups (for there were only a few left). We turned to other recreational pursuits.

There was ice skating! We rushed eagerly to the rink but alas!--it was undergoing resurfacing. It won't open for another half hour. We resolved to go bowling to pass the time. The rest who didn't fancy either skating or bowling had gone off shopping (I didn't come all the way here to bowl!) so I simply sat and watched the rest play bowling. And waited. Tried to enlighten the pages of this Book, but inspiration didn't come, so I stood up and had a walk around the mall, buying a cup of Root Beer from A&W.

Time passed. 1 o'clock. We started at 12. We had purchased two games. The ice skating rink was already available from 12.30. We had to be back by 3. The first bowling game had just concluded. At this rate, we would finish at 2! How to go ice skating like this?!

I voiced my concerns to the rest of the group. They understood, and the second game was played, but with a sense of urgency and not as energetic as before. I sat restless, wondering if we'd ever go ice-skating.

At 1.45 the game finished and we hurried to the ice skating rink but alas again!--it was going through yet another resurfacing! It would only finish at 2.30, and by then there'd be insufficient time for skating. We went away gloomily, with me feeling it the most.

With whatever time we had left, we went shopping. Not a very productive activity, I thought.


After some time we got tired of shopping and waited at Starbucks near the main entrance. The rest gathered, some laden with shopping bags full of purchases. The vans came; we piled into them and started back to Stor Teater, where we'd do some cleaning up.

We lamented about the lack of fun we had at Sunway Lagoon. It was supposed to be a great time. Jihad fully agreed. We should have played just one game of bowling earlier. But then, 3pm was quite an early time to leave; we should have been given more time--the whole day, even! I was feeling particularly dejected. I went to Sunway Lagoon and didn't enjoy myself...

WAWAS! - A Night of Celebration!

--11 of 19--

It is unanimously agreed among us that tonight's show was the best out of the three shows. There are improvements to be made, of course, but that would be for later. Now, we must hurry and get out of our costumes, for tonight is a night of celebration!

There were two choices available to us. We could either go watch a movie, or we could go to a karaoke lounge. Most of us were tired of singing any further after Wawas, so a decision is made: we go to the movies.

Then the question arose as to whether we should all eat before or after the movies. A light dinner had already been consumed earlier, before the performance (provided by Cikgu), so we decided to eat afterwards.

And off to Times Square we go! Cikgu, Encik Harun and Zalinah, on the other hand, chose to go to the karaoke lounge.

Once there, half of us went off in search of toilets, and the other half waited for us at the cinema. Zana delights in irritating Efin with the harsh squeaking of her shoes.

Jihad settles the purchase of movie tickets. We buy enough refreshments to last us the whole movie and march through the ticket gates to Hall 9.

Aliens vs. Predator 2! That is the movie we are watching. It starts off rather promisingly at first, and ends with a big bang, but in the middle are some parts which are rather tiresome (and gruesome) to watch. There are lots of conveniences here and there, and at times I thought I was watching a pirated movie (because usually the pirated movies I watch look like this). We were left in a daze at the end of the film, wondering "What the heck happened?"

The Final Verdict?

No.

It wasn't very satisfactory, to say the least of the ending. The first one was far better, and at the very least it made *sense*.

Nevertheless the ticket price still had to be paid back to Jihad. He was slightly peeved upon hearing us joke that for that sort of movie, it was not worth paying the ticket price. But it was all in good nature, and soon most of the accounts are settled.

Back to the issue of nourishment. It is already very late, and we are too tired to sit down at a restaurant and eat. It is decided that we order from McDonald's and have it sent back to our bunks.

The McDonald's arrives very late, nearly two hours after we place our order. I stagger out of bed and we eat the meal in silence, too exhausted to actually taste the food. Well, at least it was not as silent as the other day during rehearsal when we were ravenously attacking our lunch. SSP had never eaten so quietly before!

We crawled back into bed after that. It was nearly 4am. At this rate, how were we going to make it early tomorrow for the day's activities?

WAWAS! - Room Reshuffling, Mama Indias and Cricket Lighters

--6 of 19--

On the morning after the Atrocious Snorings, all of us changed rooms. There were various reasons for this, some of which I shall not disclose, but the general agreement was that it would aid in synchronisation (for want of a better word). These new rooms, 3 and 4, were extremely spacious, 10 beds each and two bathrooms, so all boys took room 3 and the girls went into 4. Any communication between us would pass through faster this way, rather than having to relay messages between four rooms previously.

I also saw for the first time the Mama Indias! Not one, but three of them! They looked exactly like what I imagined: bright floral blouses and dresses, and a sarong around their waists. The Mama Indias were engaged in animated conversation, seated on a bench outside room 10 waiting for us to clear our rooms so they could do housekeeping.

The Malay lady in charge of the rooms was chattering away, reprimanding some of us for sleeping in the corridor. Well, we were guarding the corridor, in case anything untoward happened. She mentioned that she had not heard of any unusual event in all her years working there.

(At that point I remembered the other man's warning about not being too happy at night and wondered if she was wrong.)

In any case, after moving away from the inauspicious rooms (and corridor), we hoped for the better. We got dressed and went down for brunch at Kancil Restaurant.

The first thing I saw there was a sign proclaiming the sale of Roti Prata (or Canai):

"Attantion! Roti Canai ada dijual di sini!"

It led us to wonder about the sort of food sold there, whether it was as bad as the spelling.

Then there was the absurd impossibility of having "no plain pratas but got egg pratas". 17 egg pratas left, to be exact. Some of us chose to eat pratas, whilst the rest went to the rice buffet table.

Brief uproar over Cricket lighters. These are the ones that come in many different bright and solid colours, with exchangeable heads in also as many colours. Hadis had gone off in search of them, and returned with 10 or 15 lighters! Jihad saw one that he liked and a heated exchange of words ensued as to where they were found and whether he could buy one from Hadis instead, with the others joining in.

Our pratas came. They were Very Good! We ate to our hearts' content.


Brunch finished, and we headed to Stor Teater. Someone remarked that I looked very much like Hadis in my sunglasses, which led the others to agree. Photos were snapped for comparison, and yes, we looked quite alike in shades! It looked as if we were brothers! We all delighted in this amusing fact.

WAWAS! - Dinner at Jalan Kenanga, and the Atrocious Snorings

--4 of 19--

The Highly Entertaining movie ends. We clear the theatre. Outside, all the shops are closed, and it is quite warm in the mall. I have the faint impression that it is 3pm in the afternoon. Must be the overly bright display of one of the shops coupled with the warmth (it is 3am in the morning, by the way!) We make our way back to our bunks, having ridiculous as well as learned conversations about the movie on the way.

We reached our rooms. It was now 3.30am in the morning! The aircon was set to 23 degrees. My iPod was set up, playing soothing melodies. We slept.

Day 2 began quite late. Due to our very late sleeping time last night, everyone (nearly everyone) arose late. Breakfast consisted of two plain pratas.

Very uneventful. Rehearsals were done, and lunch was eaten outside. It was delicious. Nothing much after that. We rehearsed again till 6, then went out for dinner at a Roadside Stall along Jalan Kenanga.

Now--we are at this very same Roadside Stall waiting for our Dinner! Our first performance has just ended at 9.46pm earlier, and currently four plates of savoury barbecued chicken wings have been placed on the table before us, awaiting consumption. We are only permitted to consume one wing and one drumstick per person, following Cikgu's Tips for Preserving Your Voice.

I catch drifts of various conversations around the dinner table. One topic in particular stands out--the atrocious snoring of some of our members!

"I even saw AJ stuff tissues in his ears!" exclaims Aidil. (AJ is the name I am known by in SSP, to differentiate between another Afiq who is a senior. It stands for Afiq Junior.)

Indeed! Of the 3 or so snorers whose snorings were powerful enough to be heard in the next room, Aizat's ones were particularly melodious. Some of them even sounded like a conversation! Stuffing the aforementioned tissues in my ears proved ineffective, so I rose and fetched my in-ear headphones, the closest thing to earplugs that I had.

Not 100% effective--because what is a pair of earphones without music? I got up again and took my mp3 player. It was better.

The others who were forced to listen to the rousing chorus of grunts, sighs and groans sat wide awake, unable to sleep.

Suffice to say, we did not have a peaceful night.

WAWAS! - The First Day

--2 of 19--

The Nasi Goreng, Telor and Teh Tarik from the train's Dining Cabin was delicious! Thus was the testimony awarded them by Nizal and Nadiah, among those of us who went there at the unearthly hour of 4am. (They refer to Fried Rice, Eggs and "Pulled" Tea respectively.)

Aizat was all enthusiasm the next morning. "We ate MacD!!!" he exclaimed.

Well! It is now 9am, and we are seated at McDonald's KL Sentral Station. We have just finished breakfast, and some of us have gone for a smoke.

Then, hailing five taxis, we depart for Wisma Puspanita, our accommodation during our stay.

Wisma Puspanita is actually a sort of hostel. Goodness knows where its students study, for I don't remember any educational institution nearby. It is currently empty, save for one "Mama India" residing in Room 2, who was kind enough to mop our rehearsal space for us, in the South Wing of the building so that we may walk around barefoot.

Girls go into Rooms 9 & 10, boys in Room 12 & 13. (I'm in Room 12.) Each boys' room had 6 beds and a toilet, plus a little balcony full of mosquitoes. Jihad promptly produced a mosquito coil, and it was lit. Everything had to be set up properly on the first day, according to him.

The man who led us up to our rooms told us not to be too frivolous during the night hours. "You guys don't be too happy at night," he warned.

And with this sinister pronunciation, he left us.

After a short nap and a bath, we proceeded to our rehearsal space and had a run through of the plays we were to perform.

Lunch was a tasty affair. The stalls we ate at reminded Nizal of Geylang, back in Singapore!

Enough of that. Now it is rehearsal time again at Stor Teater.

I might as well describe the reasons for us being here in Kuala Lumpur.

We have been invited here to perform our award-winning plays from Singapore. Cikgu Hasnah, our teacher and advisor, had arranged for us to perform in Stor Teater, within the prestigious Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka. All 19 of us were to go to KL, props, costumes, music and all, and perform Dot.Dot.Dot, Pelita Wawasan, Wawasan Anak Geylang Serai Roboh (better known as Kucing), and S.H.I.T, which stands for Selampit Hari Ini Tiada. There was supposed to be 20 people but Efin, our missing person, is to join us later.

This is what Suzana has to say (pardon the informal language):

"They've been rehearsing ALLLL day & I'v been sitting on È steps aLLLL day and I'm sooooo hungry...:("

And this is what Nadiah has to say:

"Not enough sleep!! even afta a "long" rest while the others train for kuching. At least something lar har. It's freaking cold in here!"

The rehearsals continue.