Sunday, 14 December 2008
07 December 2008, Sunday
Volunteering for the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon was rather fun and the experience was priceless. It was very encouraging to see so many people sacrificing their sleep to volunteer for this event. Although the management was poor, making us wait for about three hours just to wait for the bus to get us to our respective areas of duty, I still enjoyed myself. The lack of sleep did not seem to exist while helping out at the drinks station.
The elite athletes took only about one hour to reach my station, which was located at some 20km away from the starting point. They were led by patrol vehicles to clear the running route for them. About five of them were running together and they were all Africans, probably from Kenya. It seems that they were only a few steps apart from each other and all looked very composed. Upon crossing the drinks station I was at, they grabbed the cups so fast that it caused the other cups to fall. Many of the volunteers including me were left in awe after seeing them run at such a fast pace after covering such a long distance.
The other participants took way longer to reach the drinks station. The last participant only crossed it at about eleven plus, which was about five hours after the first runner passed it. Shortly after the last person crossed, we started to pack up the place and waited for the bus to send us back to the Padang to collect our token of appreciation.
That is not all. Already lacking sleep, I still had to travel down to SAF Yacht Club in Changi to sail my boat back to National Sailing Centre. I took rather long to rig up my boat because I was not familiar with the procedures to do it. In the end, I took about two hours to get it rigged up. I then set sail to National Sailing Centre, which took about two hours. Ended the day by sleeping at nine.
08 December 2008, Monday
Being a public holiday, my family and I stayed at home until evening, where we went to IMM to shop. The drive there took about half an hour as it was located in the far west. We walked around for awhile before heading down to Redhill Market for dinner. The fried prawn noodle we had was delicious although the serving was small. The queue for the food was quite long and we were lucky to buy the last few plates available.
09 December 2008, Tuesday
Daryl came to my house early in the morning for a run. We took the route which was from Aljunied to Lavender. At Lavender, we headed to the ICA building to get Daryl’s passport problem settled. The queue was very long so we went to eat breakfast before heading back. The minced pork noodle was not bad, but it lacked the taste. Upon arriving back at the ICA building, the queue was still quite long, so we sat there and waited for about three hours before everything was settled. Chester came to my house in the evening for a swim. After that, we went to the steam bath and talked for quite awhile before he left.
10 December 2008, Wednesday
Besides going to the gym in the morning, I also met up with Daniel to collect some stuff. After that, I went to bowl with Chor Boon before having lunch. We were the only ones in the bowling alley and it was very quiet until we started our game. The silence was interrupted by the crashing of our bowling balls into the pins. Japanese food for lunch was good, but the serving was small.
I met Chester to go down to City Hall to shop, where I bought a pair of slippers, while he bought a pair of leather shoes. Waited for Daryl to come but he was held up at church, so we decided to pop down there to find him. End of the day by accompanying Chester for dinner.
11 December 2008, Thursday
I cannot wait for tomorrow to come. I am going to sleep now and tomorrow will come in no time.
12 December 2008, Friday
Start of church camp. The bus I was on board was the first to reach the hotel. However, we were behind schedule, so our free time was used to do the briefing and the allocation of rooms instead. I roomed with Jeremy but we invited Boon Teck over to sleep at our room since there was an extra bed. I love the hotel room as it is rather spacious and the bed is really comfortable, like the bouncy kind.
13 December 2008, Saturday
The sermon by Pastor Henson Lim this morning was really great. God spoke through him and I learnt a lot about growing deeper in the word and the spirit. During the free time, the youth ministry went out for shopping. Jonker Street was filled with many interesting things to see, and I love the fried ice cream best. At night, I played bridge with my friends till late before heading to dreamland.
we invite defeat when we remember what we should forget