A.S.P.I.RE.

woo back from camp at last. am seriously damn tired. cuts and mosquitoe bites everywhere. my legs are unsightly now manz haha. all the red patches over. A.S.P.I.RE stands for Adventure, Self-reliance, Physical well-being, Initiative and Rescue. so bascially i was doin activites related to these themes in my 4 days. extremely long entry. pls do not read if it doesnt interest u haha.

*****

Day 1

i juz found out the previous day tat i have to report at telok blangah hill top at 8 in the morning. was on the car with my big bag and starting to feel the stress of the camp. anyway i met my frens and had to walk up to the hill top to assemble. there were all together 8 candidates for this camp and 5 are from chinese high. so 8 of us stood in 1 line to wait for the leaders's instruction. after 15 minutes of standin in the sun there were no further instructions and in the end png told them tat we were ready and onli then did the leaders started to speak. it was supposed to be some form of initiative test -_-''.

we had inspection after tat meanin we had to lay out our stuff and pack them up quickly after the inspection. we did tat for twice and onli then did i realise tat my bag started to have tears here and there and some of the side pockets have holes already. even my strap was goin to come off. den i decided tat i will abort the camp once my bag torn haha. and i dun understand wads the meanin of barang barang (which they use to refer to our bag and stuff)

we changed to our PT kit and had to move to another side of the hill to do physical test. had to run up this hill and on the way do 8 pull-ups, 30 push-ups and 50 sit-ups. hoa was damn tired after tat. den we had to do another round. this time carrying our heavy bag along. juz when i tot it was goin to b over we did another round. tt was damn shit manz.

had to cook our own lunch after tat. we were given spaghetti, mushroom, minced meat and tomato to cook. i am nv goin to eat spaghetti for a long time. it seriously sux manz.
after tat we had to hike for about 6km to our nxt venue...which is Labrador park. on the way we had to draw maps of 3 other checkpoints. i anyhow drew tat cos i was simply damn tired alerady. it's supposed to be some historical site. den we had this activity called Self-Reliance Initiative Test (SRIT) which is to test ur ability to lead ur group to do mainly first-aid activities. i performed quite badly for tat cos i wasnt too sure wad it was about. had to pretend tat we were doin CPR to the service scout and also call the ambulance etc. callin the ambulance means u have to say all the necessary info to the tester...which till now i still find it quite stupid.

each patrol had 4 pple so after each got a turn we had time to rest and have our dinner. had a game after tat. we had to explore the whole Labrador Park and answer 30 qns on the question paper. after doin it half-way it rained damn heavily and we had to abort tat activity. den it came to night time when it was time to sleep.

we were brought to this road where we had to cut into the side which is the forest section and had to pitch our barsha (shelter) there in the dark with the aid of our torch. half-way pitchin thru and it started to rain. damn my shirt was wet and had difficulty seein things. worst thing was tat everytime i pitched my barsha already when i was goin in my knots came off and i had to come out and tie again. i realised tat i used my bigger groundsheet as the one for me to lie on while i used the smaller one as my barsha. so effectively i restricted myself to a very small space. after much difficulty i managed to pitch it and i went to slp after tat without building my dustbin. and when i was pitchin using my torch...i realised tat on the ground there were small wood lice and cockroaches crawling about. cockroaches big and small wad size u wan all have. so basically the whole night i was sleepin with the bugs. and at night i was damn cold cos of the wet tshirt and the strong winds. haiz morale at the lowest pt at tat time manz.

slept at 3.30am.


Day 2

woke up feeling hot at 6.20am. guess i had fever. anyway we did a bit of PT, had our breakfast and ready for inspection. inspection is every morning at at anywhere. so i laid my poncho at where my campsite was with those bugs -_-''.
we left tat place and went back to jetty to have our nxt activity. we had to swim in the sea for about 50metres to a bridge and swim back. hoa lucky i requested for a life vest cos i wasnt too confident. my frens without life vest all had difficulty and nearly drowned manz. so i was all wet after tat and my shoes were soaking wet. had another SRIT after tat and i dun think i did well again for tat.

we washed up (meanin wash face and wash legs ONLY) and it rained heavily again. we were given further instructions and were told tat we haf to go from Labrador Park to Yio Chu Kang road after tat by any means. so we took a bus and mrt there. they gave us soya bean milk b4 leavin haha. damn shiok to drink tat but after 1 full packed i felt like vomittin -_-''.
hoa first sign of civilisation manz. went to harbour front mrt to take mrt all the way to seng kang. all the pple lookin at us lar. we were damn smelly but we didnt care. all we wanted was to sleep haha.

reached our nxt venue after tat and we come to this kampong. it's a real kampong and the last in singapore. we had to explore the place and draw a map of tat place. it was a fun experience cos we had to talk with the villagers there and had to ask them for fruits which they planted. i got rambutan, guava, lime, yam, tapioca and pandan leaves from them haha. the pple were kind and helpful and some lived for 30 over years there. still cant imagine how they live there. alot of mosquitoes there but they seem used to it. didnt noe tat there was still a kampong in singapore.

hiked for about 4km after tat to punggol park. slept on a grass clearin juz beside a bridge. had to pitch barsha and b4 tat we were doin SRIT again and had to carry canoes for about 1km. had to do sewin b4 we sleep and i anyhow sewed haha.

slept at 4am.


Day 3

canoed for about 2 hours the nxt day manz. first time canoin haha. damn tired and the sea was damn choppy. we canoed to punggol jetty where we had to tie our bags to the canoe and go for canoe. hoa i capsized twice lar. but luckily i was near the shore when i capsized. but my bag was damn wet manz. canoed to a nearby island called coney island i think. it's like a forest manz. den got monkeys there also haha. dunno how they get to tat island also. was supposed to do trap and fire there. haha my trap was damn crappy cos my plan failed at the last minute and i had to improvised.

had backwoodsman cookin when we canoed back to punggol jetty. there was this scout leader hu is damn zhai. he could chop down 1 big tree by himself using a parang and lucky got him we had tinder to start our fire. i didnt do well for tat cos i used 13 matchsticks to start the fire when 1 was the ideal case. cooked lots of food and all my food had natural flavouring. my mess tin was initially used to scoop water out from my canoe. and i didnt wash the mess tin. so ended up the water evaporated and salt remained there. and i used tat mess tin to hold the fish chicken etc tat i cooked. ended up i had barbequed salty fish haha.

were told tat we had to build a bridge using natural materials. we had to chop down and carry trees to somewhere before we can start building. hoa the tree trunk is damn heavy manz. ended up we spent the whole night doin the bridge.

slept at 6.40am.

Day 4

woke up at 7am. had only 20 minutes of sleep. it's the last day! we canoed back to punggol park and carried the canoes back. den we washed up..had another inspection and dismissed at 4.30. haha after tat we went to kallang KFC for free flow drinks! yawnz damn tired. my both legs are gone. blisters abrasion everywhere haha.

*****

haha i think this camp was a very good experience for me. though i didnt do well cos i didnt prepare at all...i think i have learnt quite alot. have become a better person stronger mentally and physically. nice working with my frens. the onli bad thing was tat i didnt realli like the girl hu went to the camp with us and another guy. she was practically flirtin with the testers all the way lar. hmm but guess tat's life also. first impression counts. no point havin the quality but not havin gd relationships. reality of life i guess. and tat guy had no leadership qualities at all. when walkin hike he told us to follow his pace. but no one actualli did haha. quite stupid he was walkin quite fast in front but when u turned his head we were all quite far from him walkin slowly. mayb cos chs pple are uncooperative haha. tried to act like he's damn good but in actual fact all the things he said are quite crappy.

dun think i will pass this time round. but i will go for the nxt one. going there being more prepared and more experienced.

and i have come to think tat gettin PSA is no longer an issue to me. it's the process. muz thank all my bros for supporting me manz. these 4 days wasnt easy to get thru. wld haf been worse if we didnt support each other manz haha. oh and muz also thank another source of support haha.

great experience. i will cherish my things more from now on. and i have discovered what is truely important to me.