The Amazing Race! (ICT FOC Day 2; Part 2)

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MAY 17, 2005 AROUND 10 AM
Later on we gathered in the T19 Foyer (or Lobby, as some prefer to call it). We were instructed to form radiating lines around a yellow pillar. Then we were told to feel sleepy. All of us stood with eyes closed.


Suddenly someone whispered in my ear, "Psst! Open your eyes! Come!...Just follow!"
I was led all the way to FC6 on the 2nd floor, where I hid. It was fully lit, although there wasn't a soul there, save for the painters and cleaning uncle (who were all wondering what I was doing there.) I waited.
The cleaning uncle came and asked for one of the remaining brunch set meals. I assented to his request. The sight of me hiding in that corner evidently amused him.
Finally my team found me! We went back to the foyer to get our first Clue.
And so we went to the Moberly, untangled ourselves; to SP CARE, where we created a cheer even the Game Master forgot; to the Childcare Centre, where I was blindfolded to find something, and where the Clue led us outside campus (finally!). Something about an immobile Mercedes, we headed to Orchard towards its suspected location, courtesy of Timothy. The Race began, proper!


In the MRT train Mark did his sleeping thing again whilst standing holding onto a handgrip.
Nous arrivons! We discover that Cherokee is ahead of us by one road crossing.
We had to pass long pieces of food from mouth to mouth. Not for the more hygienic.
The Next Clue led us to the Orchard Geodesic Dome (it's *Not* a golf ball), and we used anything we had to knock down some stubborn drink cans. The Game Master didn't cover the gaps on the sides, though, so the Stray Items Collector was kept busy. I should have brought a longer umbrella, so I could hit more cans.
Then to Lucky Plaza, where we searched for people and blew up condoms. The general public was amused.
Our next stop was the Istana Park. Halfway along the journey there, we stopped to repose ourselves. Half of us went to an Old Chang Kee stall to eat, and the other half went to a nearby building's toilet. Some of us did both. (The building was the Heeren.)
Then Hi-5 passed us!
We quickly gathered ourselves, then ran like the wind to get ahead of them. Luckily our group could run for prolonged periods.
We managed to get ahead of them, separated only by a busy street. There were already some groups at the Istana Park pit stop. After performing our cheer, we had "ICT FOC 05/06" and our group name branded on our arms. Then one member went into the fountain pool to retrieve our next Clue.

To the Fort Gate! We brought the house down with our rendition of "She'll Be Comin' Round The Mountain".

Then to Clarke Quay, where we wasted time counting windows. I don't understand why we had to do so; we could've just asked the receptionist inside that MICA building. We had to cross the road countless times counting the different coloured windows. The hidden ones tested our patience. If we wanted to see them, we had to cross to the diagonally opposite side of the nearby junction (marked in the illustration below by 'X'). But that junction only had one crossing--to the other side! The other three roads had no pedestrian crossing (typical of chaotic roads in the city.) We had to cross at another traffic light further down the road, once we crossed to the other side at the junction.

There was a traffic policeman controlling the junction at one point. During those times, whatever the policeman ordered, we did. Though the traffic lights seemed perfectly all right to me, we followed his instructions. I resisted the temptation to dash across the road even when the green man was visible, since the policeman knew better. Some tried to disobey him: a taxi nearly ran over him as he tried to halt traffic. Well, it *was* rush hour.
We had been there for an hour: from 6.30pm to 7.30pm. One hour counting windows! By then it was twilight. The Final Clue led us to the Esplanade. We were told that we were in 5th position, out of eight. It was a slightly comforting fact.
Unfortunately all of us agreed to walk there. That was because we didn't expect such a great discrepancy in location: the place *wasn't* the Esplanade, but 750 metres further than expected, and not even included in our Singapore Map and Transport Guide (inexistant location!)

By the time we got there, we were so tired we couldn't even give our cheer. Well, we didn't have to. Some time was given for rest. Then we did some silly charades game. Finally we were given another Final Clue: go back to the Polytechnic! Whichever team gets there first wins! (Of course some other team already got there first--we were in 5th place, remember?)
Thus we and some two other teams took the most direct form of transport to get back to SP: the bus 106, whose stop was conveniently nearby. We certainly didn't want to walk the 750 metres back to the nearest train station.
Blazerz, Fire, and the third group (certainly not Cherokee or Ozone) waited for bus 106. It duly arrived.
Our entrance was a sight to behold. Even the ez-link card readers were not ready, the bus having left the Marina Centre Bus Terminal just before this. Everyone wanted to get in. In the end there was standing room only. There were so many people, it seemed like we chartered the bus.
Members of the public who boarded the bus after that were equally surprised. Our profuse apologies to those who were looking forward to a nice good seat on the bus.
We arrived at SP, did our cheer, and were promptly crowned 5th (as expected).
End of the Race (How 'Amazing'!) at about 8.30 pm.
We showered and waited in our bunk for the next Event, the Shim Beauty Pageant. Whilst waiting, we played games and held amiable conversations within ourselves and several OC members and GLs.

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The Sleeping Prince (ICT FOC Day 2; Part 1)

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MAY 17, 2005 AT 8.30 AM
The second day began terribly. It was raining! We were allowed to wake up late, since we slept at 4.30am the night before. Some early risers had readied themselves, and some went to bathe, though the majority who woke up just in time for brunch didn't. Really, the irregular bathing hours! (Well at least we should have been told that there would be no bathing time given, so that we could awake and bathe earlier.) Our GLs told us to brush our teeth and freshen up instead, and report back to our bunk. We did so.
After performing the necessary ablutions, we went to the foodcourt for brunch (refer to Wednesday, June 8th 2011, for the full story.)
Then there was the spoiled handphone (refer also to Wednesday, June 8th 2011, for the full story.) Brunch finished and we waited for further instructions concerning The Amazing Race, a sort of obstacle race (the only amazing thing was the absence of a prize.)
After the episode of the spoiled handphone, there was Mark. A member of our group, he was known as the Sleeping Prince of our group, due to his strange way of catching up on lost sleep. He would close his eyes and nap in any kind of position he happened to be in. Currently he is sitting upright with arms crossed. Jia Xian took some pictures with his handphone. Someone remarked that a girl should kiss this Sleeping Prince and wake him up (which soon became a running joke.) The others giggled and had a look. When Mark was finally roused, he did not know that he was the centre of attention only some moments before! Absolutely Bizarre™!

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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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WAWAS! - Concerning Our Sleeping Habits

--16 of 19--

There is nothing much to say at this point. Once we were safely in our bunks we did the usual routine of either bathe/slack/or sleep, which we had been doing for the past seven nights. It was a completely open affair, everyone mingling about, an open-door policy. I made sure the mosquito coil, which was usually placed at the foot of my bed, was placed outside. Yesterday I had awoken with a tremendous cough in the middle of the night, and it was suspected that the smoke from the mosquito coil was the culprit. Hoping that tomorrow (our last day, our departure day!) would go well, I left my friends to their own devices and went to bed.

Dawn broke the next morning. A lot of us were firmly settled in our beds. Usual air of somnolence. Some of us were already up and running, most were still snoozing. Our sole agenda for the day was to go home, nothing else. We can do anything we want before that, but at 6.30pm, the bus leaves.

At this point I would like to bring to your attention the idiosyncrasies of our sleeping habits. During the night some days ago, we all could not sleep owing to the presence of Aizat's melodious snoring. Imagine our surprise when suddenly in the middle of this snoring came the mumbled words "air stewardess...". We greatly wonder what it was that made him say that! A very memorable dream, perhaps?

Shamil also. He was scratching up and down when suddenly he did the "pull to heart" action in our Intro. A novel way of rehearsing!

In waking up we also have our habits. Nizal, upon rousing him out of sleep, would start! Then he will slowly fall back to sleep. Wake him up a second time and he would start! again, then fall back to sleep. He is not one of those who are easy to awake, it seems.

Hadis is another matter altogether. He would wake up, look around with an extremely puffy face from sleep, then go back to sleep. Again he would awake, and look around sleepily. How would you know he was awake? Well, he would start to dance. (To the rousing music from Jihad's speakers.) Well *now* he's awake!

As for me, I have been sighted sleeping with my arms crossed in a professional manner. Very interesting!