Fucking tired – sums up the camp and the run

Day 1, Friday – 30th July 2004

After spending some time at the computer lab, I went back home to prepare for the upcoming scout’s camp. I rushed to school at 2.30pm, only to find it wasn’t even ready yet. Pn Tuan Zainab (coordinator of the school mag) asked me if I knew Jon’s number, and I said I didn’t. I volunteered to go to his house and asked him to go to school because she needs certain files from the school mag which happened to be deleted off the main computer by someone. =/

It started to rain – oh phooey – and there we were at a dampy start of the scout’s camp (helped by 61st troop from SM Subang Jaya). Pasukan Kadet Bomba held their camp with us as well, although our activities are separated. After dividing juniors (yours truly included, as I joined scouts last year) into their respective patrols, I was nominated to be the patrol leader by both Rebecca and Sheng Lim (seniors in my troop). I accepted the post (can’t convince them otherwise anyway >_>), and on a quick glance through my fellow juniors (who are years longer), I thought Jo Yee would be the best bet (unsure of the spelling, purportedly to be the one Kai Shen likes but I’m sure it’s just a teasing :P). She looks small in stature, but she seems very reliable, and able to take care of herself.

So, my patrol’s appointed as Patrol Alpha, the rest being Beta, Charlie (ugh, watta name), Delta and Echo (I thought Epsilon best fits here, as it’s a Greek letter as well but I didn’t tell them of my suggestion >_>). Everything seems fine so far; we were given papers for our scout’s tests/exam tomorrow, and were taught some scout songs. Then we headed off for dinner – rice with chicken and eggs mixed with some vege, plus some sausages. Ribena made by Suet Li was tasteless, and she blamed it on the lack of Ribena supplied to her XD :P (Felt some fever creeping up – didn’t feel well ever since I stepped into the computer lab with its extremely cold air-con)

Next, there’s that Malam Kebudayaan. We weren’t told at all that there’s gonna be one and we had to prepare for it (although I roughly know few days back there’s gonna be one, from what my classmates talked about – I didn’t pay much attention to it). RB told us off why we didn’t prepare after dinner, and I said flatly that we weren’t told about this at all (I suppose SMSJ scouts were suppose to tell us about it).

So there goes last minute, spontaneous planning. After losing at the bomb game (again, first team to got kicked out), we were asked/forced to perform. Initial ideas about doing “She Bangs” aka William Hung failed ‘cause we didn’t know the lyrics well =/ So we had to do some rather lame-ass UTTERLY SPONTANEOUS sketch, with Rebecca as the narrator.

It’s about some students camping around a fire when a long-haired ghostie appears (Jo Yee). At one point Rebecca said, “Then Clement said…” and she looked at me and I stared blankly at her. Her face read, “GO ON! SAY SOMETHING!!!” I curled my voice and said something right out of my head, “I think I just heard somethinggg…”

Said sketch lasted less than 2 minutes. Heh. Other sketches by other patrols were mediocre, some funny while some plain lame. Performance by my very own seniors were great, who sang some Chinese songs with RB and KS on the guitars. Sasi and Azim acted funny by sitting in front of the group while performing some weird dance moves. XD Sir Ivan Hoh taught us some nice songs, my all-time favourite being:

O – ale le,
Ale le chika boomba,
O ale o ale o alo a.

Sounds simple, but it’s damn chun, and I think it’s a favourite even for my friends as well.

Finishing that, we had the Upacara Lilin (Candle Ceremony) and each of us lined up accordingly; Sir Ivan standing in front, Ryui Bynn behind him, the ten OCs behind RB, the patrol leaders standing behind the OCs with their patrol members behind them. We were to pass on the fire on the candles, and I thought that was most interesting.

Next up was Burung Hantu, I think, though it hardly seems that way. I thought it would be the slightest bit creepy although I didn’t think I would be scared sitting/standing alone in the middle of the padang blindfolded. We were to put our hands on the person in front’s shoulders. We had to crawl, jump over imaginary longkangs (I assume), walk, walk and walk. I was pulled away from the line by one Chinese girl (from her voice, Su Lynn I guess) and was asked to turn myself 20 times, then repeat that by another 20 times again. It was weird rotating your body in complete darkness (being blindfolded and all), and at one point I felt as if the land had dipped into 45 degrees. /swt

Later I was left alone and after waiting for some time with no one approaching, I slept on the ground, with my back on the grass. Some people screamed at my ears (Daniel, by the voice), someone shrieking (Shawn). It wasn’t at all frightening, in fact it’s amusing – not until someone threw some rock on my stomach, and I scratched my elbow in the process of removing that sharp-jagged rock. =.="

Adrian Wong, patrol leader of Echo, was reported missing when we were rounded up (it all turns out that some scouters from SJ decided to punish the OCs for making too many mistakes, and by having them scolded by Sir Ivan). He was found later.

After this particular event (which was about 12.30am), I showered at the school’s toilet with Ridzwan in the same cubicle. It was rather dark, the only light being some kinda electric lantern brought in by someone and I bathed in my boxers while Ridzwan in his briefs. It didn’t occur to me that it was weird having two guys showering in the same cubicle half-naked until now, and I assure you nothing sexual crops up. XD (It all started with both of us rushing for the same cubicle, and I was fighting for it saying that “I came first!”. Not sure who dared who to shower together, but I think it was Ridz. I agreed flatly – was too tired and dirty to care.) That cubicle couldn’t be locked either, so we left it at that.

I couldn’t sleep properly at all. Four guys (me, Khazwan, Bernard (Form 1) and Lee something-something (Form 1) squashed in a single tent. Those bloody idiots from the next tent (Beta’s) kept making noises. I yelled at them to keep quiet from my tent, until I got up and walked towards the tent and talked to Thevadass, their patrol leader and asked them to keep their voices down. Yet, one persistent Form 1 idiot talked loudly about not being able to sleep in such a squashed condition (ironic) and about the Adrian Wong incident. Heh.

I guess I slept at roughly 1am-1.30am.

Day 2, Saturday – 31st July 2004

Woke up at 5am to yells of “IT’S RAINING!!!”. God, I kept all the shoes inside the tent – my mistake is leaving the zip of the flaps of the entrance halfway ‘cause I didn’t think the rain would be that heavy. And to our utter discomfort (and me pissed off), rain started to seep through our so-called waterproof tent. Amazing how waterproof it can get >_> We spent the entire hour trying to dry the floor of the tent, but we gave up. I volunteered to get out in Khazwan’s raincoat and used some tied-up plastic bags to cover the top of the tent to minimize the leakage. Some of my things were wet - my colour pencils rightfully became water colours.

At about 6am, we got up to eat breakfast (two pieces of bread and some and clean ourselves a bit (I didn’t take my bath, knowing that we’ll be sweaty later). After running around the school for 5 rounds, and did some stretching exercises, we were off to prepare for our tests. I didn’t quite look forward to the tests before I came here, but I realize that it’s pretty much fun too – all the rush to pass the tests, the penguji asking us questions that we knew would come up (when we asked our fellow scouts who passed XD), and there are many occasions when the pengujis would give hints – some subtly, some in-your-face.

I passed every single test without being asked to repeat it (except for my dua simpul knot – other knot stations were cancelled as we supposedly didn’t learn yet). We were given up to 12pm or something to complete every station’s test, my final one being Sejarah Pengakap Malaysia. This guy was damned cheong hei, talking nonsensically and asking questions like it was a gameshow, ala Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (even giving me his so-called tiga talian: talian pertama – tanya saya. Talian kedua - tanya Shaun [from SJ], talian ketiga - pilih satu muka surat daripada buku untuk dibaca [turns out I have to ask for that particular page that I want without looking at it >.<] - but I guess in a way I felt that it was fun, since he wasn’t that strict :P He speaks Bahasa in a baku way XD

Lunch commenced, next up was inspection. I didn’t see a point to this, but we had to take out every single item from our bag and lay it out for the scouters to check, underwears and all (arranged from head-related items to feet-related items). I put my towel at where my pants were, and they said it was wrong. By their logic, we hold towels in our hands. Cool. So I had to don the towel around my waist for making that supposed “mistake”. I felt slightly embarassed, but I didn’t show it outwardly.

We have our theory test next (a written exam). Easy I suppose, except for the parts where you had to draw the logo (I referred to the badge on my pocket XD) and ikatan buku sila. That’s about it.

After that, Patrol Alpha followed Jason of SMSJ (there was only three of us - me, Jo Yee and that F1 Lee kid) who was supposed to teach us knots. He did them all expertly, explained like a real, good teacher would but he went a bit too fast I guess (as I had already practised by knots before lunch after I completed by tests early, I found them easy :P). The pessimistic me who winced about knots now actually find them easy! (except for simpul manuk, which till now I can’t tie onto a tiang ==-== only pens =/)

I was his first victim - which was what he called me. I did all pretty fine, except for some questions on the English or BM names, and the uses. Jo Yee did fine as well, all except for that F1 kid (I could’ve slapped him out of frustration for his unable-to-comply-to-instructions way).

Next came the most awaited event of all… Halangan Komando! We changed into our PJ clothes – and our first obstacle was to crawl across wet, muddy grass with our faces 2 centimetres above ground. Not too bad XD Then we had to walk on a thick pipe with water splashing onto our bodies as a distraction (I did it without a clinch :D). Up comes the next halangan: crawling in mud water. The right side of my stomach/waist got cut by some rock – I think almost everyone got some kind of cuts from that particular rock as well. Boo for not checking the obstacle properly before releasing it to other scouts.

My clothes changed colour to a mud brown, and ah - to our utmost surprise, out came Ivan Hoh, bastardized version of the devil - yelling at the SJ guys - calling them stupid fools, useless, and other colourful adjectives. We had to cease every activity immediately, and I didn’t even had the chance to climb the rope! Fuck.

I experienced what I call utter dissatisfaction when all five patrol leaders had to do 10 push-ups due to mistakes not related to ours. Ivan Hoh was yelling for the patrol leaders and counted “1, 2, 3…” and our patrol members went as well. “I ASKED YOU TO FIND THE OTHER PATROL LEADER AND DID NOT ASK YOU TO CALL YOUR PETROL MEMBERS AS WELL!” I wanted to object rebelliously, but he didn’t hear me and continued on with his incessant yellings (which I think would be better to keep my mouth shut – he roared at me when I corrected him that we don’t have a fucking QM in our patrols).

My patrol was assigned to clean up the so-called “activity area”, that being the tapak perhimpunan and ruang legar. A senior in blue shirt stood watch, yelling as well (more due to being pressured by Ivan). 20 push-ups followed when we didn’t clean well enough (um, hello? There are only like 4 members in my patrol and we had to cover a large area in a short amount of time? What the fuck is that kinda injustice?). “Didn’t you learn how to arahkan your patrol?” yelled Mr Blue-Shirt-Guy. “No, we didn’t.” He shut up after that.

Poor Adrian was yelled at several times for making mistakes when trying to report. That bloody fucker didn’t teach us reporting yet, and we were supposed to make reports. Okay, logical. Being the last one who was called out to report, I learnt from other patrol leaders’ mistakes.

It ended about 6 something pm after upacara penutup. I had to bring back two tents – luckily Jo Yee was staying at Court 9 and Rebecca at Court 8 which was near my house; they would help me out to clean the tents. Apparently F1 kid Lee stayed at USJ 14/1H (WH’s row o_O), but I don’t think I’ll be calling him >_> Well, maybe I will when I feel like it.

I think it was near 7pm when I stayed back a bit, sipping the tea provided and munching on some biscuits (come to think of it, I barely drank anything since lunch). Azim wanted to borrow my bike to go back to his house for a short while, and I consented – lending him my entire bunch of keys as well.

I helped around moving tables, and I did mostly tying up banners together with Azim (and searched together with Dass for his missing log book =/). I thought that we could go home after the camp, but apparently not so as my “seniors” (I’m older than most of them where age is concerned XD) had to build a gadget for the Larian Mesra commencing the next day.

We spent till 10pm something with the banners and all, with Pn Vasantha staying back as well. I was tired - physically, mentally - damn tired that I felt my muscles, my everything would drop down dead. It’s hard to explain, but I assure you that I’ve never felt that tired before – it was a strain physically and mentally like an invisible rubber band stretched to its maximum. I felt as if I was at that maximum point, about to break down.

Auntie Wendy came along (I think Pn Vasantha called her). That was when I realized that Azim lost my keys – he told me maybe it was at his house. Auntie Wendy belanja-ed us at Maju-Maju and said in Cantonese, “Eat what you want!” The 8 of us gobbled down on our dinner/supper; she was being most generous - she brought out a plateful of chicken when we didn’t ask for it, and ordered the drinks to be large (I kept my kiwi drink ‘small’). My head was giving me a whirl, I didn’t have the mood to eat – after Azim revealed that my keys might be missing when he cycled back to his house (my bike was left at the school guard’s hands).

Pn Vasantha fetched some of us home, while Auntie Wendy tumpang me, Sasi, Azim, and Wai Hong. Sasi was the first to go home, next I drop by at Azim’s house with him and realized that my keys were really missing. I felt slightly pissed – both at myself and him but at that time I was too tired to care. I thought that I’d find it early morning the next day.

Three plastic bags not belonging to me were left at Auntie Wendy’s car boot - I had to bring them back to my house. I felt sick, felt tired. I didn’t even feel like using the leg massager my parents recently bought (earlier while setting up the gadget, Shawn massaged WH’s leg and WH said he felt soo much better. I wanted Shawn to massage me immediately after that, but then he asked to use the leg massager I had so skeptically dismissed – that it would really work wonders. Azim said, “Ish, aku ni sekarang pun rasa nak guna massager tu la,” after listening to the massaging tales.)

After showering, I tuned in to The Corrs’ Borrowed Heaven album, set the Sleep mode and flopped onto my bed. It felt so much better. 4 hours of sleep and hours of strenous work. My bed was my heaven.

Today (Sunday) – 1st August 2004

Woke up at 6 something, Azim phoned me saying he found my keys inside his file. Yay ^.^ I slept back for about 15 minutes, before waking up and eat my breakfast while using the massager. My poor legs felt better. I arrived late at 7:15am at school only to find that the perbarisan was over - I stood next to Shawn who was commanding and followed his final instruction - keluar baris! XD

I wore by brand-new Nike Air Max Turbulence, it felt sooo comfy and light that when I put that pair into my bag, I felt like I was carrying nothing. The Larian Mesra run was supposedly 7km, but when I ran it didn’t feel like 7km, unlike previous years’ SJ10K runs. I twisted my ankle a little when I accidentally slipped my leg into the tiny drain-hole. I can’t catch up with WH, I felt too tired. Kai Shen ran past me.

I rested at several intervals, and went past Ramesh - our olahragawan! I felt proud of it XD although I understand that Ramesh is only exceptionally good at short-distance runs. I got number 13, and I felt it was an achievement ‘cause I thought I’d lose (I even planned on just walking and enjoy the walk, ‘cause I thought winning it was impossible). I think it’s mainly due to many students were not there or even running.

That’s about it. I got so close at lucky draw – my number being B4101 while Daniel, whose number was B4102 got it >.<>_>).

I suppose this is my longest blog post ever, writing from 6:29 pm (while chatting to Heng Li and other people), ate my dinner then continue it till now, 9:12 pm. The title says it all, I’m fucking tired. XD