OBS experience

seriously must thank God for preventing YET another loss of my wallet today. Honestly I dunno how I can achieve good grades for stuff and yet do the most inane, foolish, careless things EVER. went to order dinner at a foodcourt @ Meridien and after paying I just took my tray and went to sit with Ed and Linken, leaving my wallet conspicuously lying on the COUNTER-TOP of the STALL for like a FREAKING 10 MINUTES.

only when I was about to buy drinks did I realise the loss lor. amazing man. then I panicked and dashed back with a sense of impending doom. Yet, it was still lying on the counter-top amidst the people queuing to order food.

WAH THANK GOD MAN. serious. I'm like the most careless person alive.

talking about today as well, went to Ben and Jerry's @ Cathay to try out their ice cream. The design of the stall is pretty cool with plush cushions and nice tables and because Cathay is still like ghost town, there's still lot'sa seats. Aniwez had a "Merlionster" with the rest of my friends and succesfully prevented Edwin from ordering a sorbet as one of the flavours.

HONESTLY. i dun like sharing ice-cream creations like Topless Five with people who have exotic tastes and go on suggesting clashing tastes of like Durian and Mango Sorbet or what mixed with the normal "classic" flavours of Cookies and Cream and so on. eeeks.

Aniwez, meant to blog about OBS, basically it was a 5 day course of Marine Mobile and went to a watch called Barker (which was a pretty decent name compared to the bleak alternatives of Sui Sen and Munshi. yuck.) Really didn't know what to expect lor, considering my last time to OBS wasn't too appealing and then I still had flashes of my army experience tinged with it.

Day 1 - Vertigo Challenge
So Day 1 was all on orientation and warming up, I kena-ed Store IC due to my QM introduction (-sianz-), and we basically worked well and I even conquered the Giant's Ladder which I honestly thought was impossible when I gazed up. (yah.. cos the separation of the logs get further and further) U really needed cooperation between the two people up there and hence I was super super glad to be paired with someone who was really confident and helpful. haha! That was one great reminder liao of how really I must forget myself and work together as a team to achieve a target.

Day 2 - Setting Sail, Camping @ Quarry Area
Learnt how the sail worked, learnt the different functions of the different sails and so on, which was a chockful to handle. It was a miserable rainy morning but things improved in the afternoon and I got to be Captain for the later part of the journey to the Quarry Area. Got to know my watchmates better and we started sharing more about ourselves.

Camping at the quarry area was pretty miserable at first considering we only reached shore and night and realised we forgot to bring stuff like can openers and funnels, which I obviously attributed to my fault... =( But we did fine and cooked up an impressive delicious meal of Chicken Curry and rice and so on. WAH... was really impressed with the girls and their ability to cook rice. Cos honestly my impression of cooking rice outfield is like burning to rice or ending up eating hard uncooked grains. Night was spent trying to sleep like packed sardines as 4 guys shared a tent.

Day 3 - Quarry Rafting and Sailing to Sembawang
Morning was spent building the raft and trying to let it float. And boy, again I was surprised our junk-look-alike actually managed to float and do pretty well amidst water fights. hehe.. goes to show that scholars DO indeed know some stuff well enough not to screw up.. like knowing that your raft pretty much disintegrates if you places barrels directly underneath the poles.. and compared to the previous OBS where the RJ guys/gals tried to make the raft work to no avail (the raft fell apart once it touched water), haha, take THAT man. (hmm.. do i sound bitter?)

Set off for sailing again and I realised as the days went by and we got to know each other better, we got crazier and started crapping more and our focus shifted from manning the sailboat to that of chit-chatting and trash-talking. Like on the first day we were still interested in wind direction and how we can only sail in close haul or what, and were just bristling with excitement when we were supposed to perform a seemingly tricky manouevre of tacking or gybing the sailboat. Then as the days got by and the winds did not pick up for large parts of the time, our attention shifted to playing inane games like "First Object, Second Object", doing silly stuff like water bottle manouevres that were done during JC(which I apparently sucked at doing), and just agonizing each other out by singing irrelevant silly songs from Powerpuff girls to National Day Songs (yah.. i nearly got seasick over them)

Basically it was like we would play play play, laugh, joke and talk and then when the hapless captain shouted orders for a jyb or a tack we would momentarily react to the situation for that few seconds, adjust the sails and then get back with our conversations.. haha.. din think our instructor was too amused with the situation..

Sailed to Sembawang and ate another good dinner before adjourning to the cutter sail to spend to night. I "insisted" on sleeping on the bow of the boat but then soon grew a little regretful at my decision when I was pretty much grasping at the railings at the edge of the bow whenever the sailboat started to rock, and even the assurance of a rope attaching me to the mast did nothing to assure me that I wouldn't fall off the boat into the sea in the middle of the nite. but it was a very interesting experience lah.. haha.. once in a lifetime mah

Day 4 - Shitting on the Ship, Sailing to OBS Camp 2 and Playing Polar Bear
I awoke with a urgent need to shit, which was kind of a problem aboard a sailboat. See, even with peeing and so on, one needed to head to the stern of the boat the then just get the Captain to say "Eyes on the Bow" before he/she took care of their business standing/sitting whilst grasping the mizzen sail mast. Which is honestly kinda tacky. I mean, peeing ain't that bad for guys lah, but SHITTING?

hence really it took a REALLY urgent need to motivate me to go and shit. (and i turned out to be the ONLY PERSON to shit on the boat) How did I do it? Basically it involved me grabbing a bucket and then heading to a rubber dingy boat which was attached to the stern of the boat, and then scooping up sea water into the bucket before sitting on the bucket and shitting.

which was REALLY miserable lah. imaging grabbing one side of the sailboat trying to keep your balance whilst getting into the mood of shitting whilst worrying other sailboats might see you. but the WORST PART was taking the bucket and pouring the brown muck with floating bits back into the ocean. EEEEEK.

the worst part of everything? we had to jump off the sailboat to "kiss the bow" shortly after that. Uggh. haha..

had another fun sail experience that day especially when the winds picked up during the squall of a storm and wah.. was fortunate to be in the position of the Jib Sail Helper where I was tugging at the ropes connected to the Jib Sail for my life, fighting the strong winds. Literally I can struggle with all my might and pull the rope and yet the rope would adamantly start slipping from my hands due to the strength of the winds. it was that point that our instructor was glad that everyone was taut in attention and watching every change in wind and just having fun and the true excitement of "real" sailing. We had to switch sitting positions whenever the main sail switched sides in order to balance the boat(whereby I coined the term deadweights) and the boat was really tipping alarmingly at times such that one girl even screamed when she thought the sailboat was about to capsize.

sailing adventures aside, at night we got our first chance to bathe and then head for a nightwalk as well as an underwhelming "labyrinth" escape. mine was particularly unimpressive cos once I reached the main labyrinth area the person before me opened the exit door and I saw everything lor. basically lasted in there for like 50 seconds? bleak.

after that we adjourned to playing polar bear which turned out to be GREAT addictive fun as the confused villagers tried to figure out who were the polar bears and so on. I was deemed a STUPID VILLAGER cos I ended up "helping" the polar bears take out 4 innocent villagers in one game, leaving there to be 2 villagers and 2 polar bears. So when I wondered out loud why I hadn't been killed before the polar bears said I was like a semi-polar bear myself. -_-

Day 5 - Ending
Nothing much lah. Basically just shared our feelings about the whole experience before it was time to say adios. Really bittersweet cos it was really very fun and yeah.. would cherish the time spent there.

-end- =)