~Raven Outdoor Consultant Sdn Bhd~

WAT A EVENTFUL GATHERING…

It all started out when I met SiQi on the MSN, she was initiating for a gathering for the “U” Team. We discussed about the plan and we decided to meet up at Paya Lebar MRT at 1930hrs.

I met up with LiMin and then we met the Si sisters(SiMin and SiQi) at the location. Then came a stupid joke from Ryan, he SMS SiMin and told her that he is not coming for the gathering. SiQi and the rest of us were so fed up and we just left without him when

Leon

arrived.

Then half way thru the journey to the Fermented Bean Curd stall at Geylang, Ryan join in from the back. What happened? I was puzzled at the beginning, then he told us what happened. He wanted to bluff us that he’s not coming and he will standby at the stall to give us  surprise. In the end? He got lost while he was on his way to the stall and he ended up surprising us from the back. Hahaha… Life’s full of surprises when he’s around.

Then we joked our way to the stall. This is the 1^st time SiQi is going to try the fermented bean curd so we tried our very best to describe the worst case scenario of the smell to her. We ordered 1 piece of fermented bean curd, 2 fried pork intestine, 1 desert egg, 2 duck meat pie, 1 lychee ice, 3 red bean ice and 1 sea coconut ice.

After the meal, we proceed to our next location – 永和豆浆. But sadly it did not open due to festive season. We then proceed to the stall next door to have the famous beef hor fun. We ordered a beef hor fun for 2, 1 satay bee hoon and some drinks. The beef hor fun’s beef is very tender and smooth with the thick sauce. Recommended!!! Die die must try!!!

As we were waiting for the beef hor fun, we plan for the next move. Durain was next and everyone agreed. So after the beef hor fun, we head to the durain street where its famous for durains.

We had lots of fun along the way. While passing by a temple, we saw a procession in progress. It was the Tua Yah Pek. We stood and watch for a while as it’s Limin’s 1^st time seeing the procession.

Soon after that we reached the street where all we have to do is to cross it and we can get to some delicious durains. But we were waiting and waiting, trying to cross the road where cars were flowing non stop. Ironically, many uncles and aunties just crossed the road right in front of our very eyes, and we were still standing on the same spot where once in a while we would move a step forward and take 2 step back wards to avoid the cars. Then we finally decide that we should take the easier option – traffic light. Then we saw a window to cross the road and we all dashed across the road where ryan nearly dashed into an on coming vehicle which stop suddenly in front of him. The whole situation was so funny.

We  then settle down for 2 durains which cost us S$20.00. its quite worth it as the flesh is thick and it have a very strong smell. We were playing some games when just across the street, 1 truck driver and 1 cyclist were cursing and swearing to each other.

“F*** You!!!” claim the cyclist.

“F*** YOUR MOTHER! YOUR MOTHER IS BORN TO LET PEOPLE F***!!!” return the truck driver.

The cyclist and the driver then went on it’s way. Then soon after that thick black smoke filled the whole area. Thinking that its some vehicle with a faulty exhaust pipe we carry on our game. A few minutes later, I heard a siren and a police vehicle. Soon after that as we decided to leave. We got out from our seat and then SiMin claimed: “Hey look, the house is on fire!!!” I quickly took out my phone and dialed 995 for the SCDF.

“

SCDF

 

Call

 

Center

, how can I help you?”

“Err… Fire well alight along Lorong 17 Geylang.”

Then I heard the officer hitting the key board. “Sir, is it a shop house fire?” He asked.

“Yupp, that’s right!” I replied.

“Sir, my men are already on the way to the scene” explained the officer.

“Okay thanks a lot.” I answered and then put down the phone.

Everything happened in an instance, as I put down the phone, I saw Ryan making payment for the durains, and I can see SiQi running to the fire scene.  We follow her and we were just opposite of the fire.

A Red Rhino, 1 Combine Platform Ladder(CPL), 2 Trooper were on the scene. All the firefighters with Breathing Apparatus got out from the CPL and went to work immediately. The 1^st task they need to do is to locate the fire hydrant.

“Where’s the hydrant?!?!” asked one of the firefighter as he was running across the street to locate one.

“Hydrant found! Hydrant found!” “Down there! Down there!”

2 firefighter went back to the CPL and rolled up the roller shutter and took out a few hose and connect them. They’ll need to relay the hoses from a distance to the pumper.

We then proceed to the next better location to have a good view of the action. This time we were closer to the scene, just about 200meters away. A few firefighters had their hose ready and were standing by at the back of the restaurant. All they need now is water.

“Water! Water!” the pump operator shouted. And soon the hose was inflated as the pressurized water was pumped through the hose.

Then jet of water were aimed at the roof of the restaurant as the firefighters were putting out the fire. It took only about say 7minutes for the firefighters to bring the fire to a control. The firefighters then conducted search & rescue and damping down of the fire to prevent relighting of fire. They were busy at work going up to the 2^nd floor and searching for victims and making sure the fire is really out.

“BOLEH! BOLEH!(Okay,Okay)” shouted the firefighters. Finally the fire was totally out and no victim except the restaurant’s kitchen.

The police then came and seal off the area, and then we think that its time for us to leave as its getting late.

We walked to Kallang Mrt station and just as we were about to reached Kallang Mrt, we saw a vehicle stalled on the center of the road. We walked passed it and then we decided to go back to help the victim as it was a lady, and I bet she must be panicking as she kept turning her car keys again an again.

Ryan and I went up the her car and I signal for her to wind down her window, she open her door and I asked ”Do you need any help madam?”

“I can’t start my vehicle, I was driving and then it just stalled.” She explained.

“I’ve called the SAAB mechanic and they are on the way.” She continued.

“Is it alright that we push your car to the road shoulder as it’ll be safer for you and the vehicle too.” I explained.

She pause for a second and then she agreed.

We instruct her to put the gear to neutral, but she couldn’t do it, so Ryan offer to try instead, while I went to direct the traffic.

“Madam, do you have a triangle plate?” I asked. “Oh my god, I was so panic just now that I can’t find it.” She said.  I try to clam her down by talking to her as I saw lots of mandarin oranges in the car boot. “So you just done your new year shopping ya?” “That’s right!” she replied and at this moment I found the triangle plate. I quickly set up the triangle plat about 15meters away from the vehicle. At  this point of time, Ryan had also managed to set the car to neutral gear. Ryan went to direct the traffic while I move the triangle plate to the road shoulder. I then get to the back of the vehicle and tried to push the car to the road shoulder, leon and a passer by assisted me in the pushing too while Ryan supervise.

We finally managed to get the car to the road shoulder and then we bid farewell and wish her a happy lunar new year before we set off to the Mrt again. We all felt so good after doing a good deed. I’m really happy to work with such great friends. The coordination was perfect even though there isn’t much communication between us. Maybe this is made possible by the many years of knowing each other.

It was indeed a remarkable night out with all my good friends.

   

 

     

   

It was on a Wednesday morning when I suddenly decided to bring forward my appointment with xiuxian earlier to that very afternoon.

Upon arriving at Dover MRT, the memories started to flow back to me. Passing by T12 link bridge where we conducted abseiling during the RTT 24hrs Selection Test, then to the study area below SALC where we conducted many of our events and meetings there. Passing by Daiko Drum club and the beating of the drums were so familiar.

Upon reaching the staircase up to the poly centre, I have to keep reminding myself that the new den is on the right and not the left any more. I’m actually quite glad that someone is in den. Jun Ying and my favorite Fatima(Debbie), I smsed Xiuxian to informed her that I’ve arrived and then I chatted with Debbie, we talked about RSS, RTT, current strength and situation of Rover. Got to know more about the situation now.

Then we were joined by Xiuxian, Tian Han & Rain. We had fun chatting and crapping around in den. This is one of the thing I missed most when I left SP Rover. I’m very glad that not all is lost… The feeling is still there, just that the people are getting lesser and lesser… The current year 2s and 3s are the one that are still keeping the club going. I believe what they need now is strong support from all sides, especially from the troop members themselves.

Kind of thinking of it, who are going to be the next PLC? We have currently only 8 BTC candidates, O RTT candidates. Which could possibly mean that there will be no RTT and RSS this year round, as there are no new instructors available. We now have the RTT down, next up will be PLC. Any body keen to be a Leader? Too much stressed? Need to do proposal for events, need to stay back in SP for meetings, Saturday need to come back for trainings etc. All these are the common reasons the current PLC and Ex-Co faced whenever they are planning for events. We used to have all these problems too… Its not new. When I was a key appointment holder in Rover, I faced all these problems with my committee too… Communication between the committee is paramount.

This lack of communication, lack of manpower, lack of support, lack of motivation is bringing the current rovers almost to the bottom of the valley. But, seriously, I believe all is not lost(yet)… There is bound to be something that we could do. But things are still crawling, no obvious movements from anyone, even from top down. All talk and no major important action. Maybe things are getting underway, how about at least voiced out to all, Together Everybody Achieve More is the common phrase I heard in rover then. Where is it all now? Discuss with us!!! There are so many alumnis out there wanting to assist or to help the situation now.

I believe we the alumnis not only want to be present during events only, many of us would be willing to assist in program planning, advising, coordinating and stuffs.  If you were not to voice out how would we know where to help? Isn’t it?

After I left den, my mind was filled with many questions, questions on how to assist the current rovers to endure the current situation and the many years to come. Will I be able to attend the 30^th anniversary Dinner & Dance? I did eventually tot of something(which Rane shared the same idea with me the next day), more of operation, event planning and skill development. If some of the alumnis were to plan and conduct some skills based recreation events, will it be beneficial? But an idea was soon overcome by many questions, Will there be any people attend these leisure skill based events? Will I get the support from the current rover? Will I be the only one participating in the event? How many participants can I get? How many lives can I touch? All these are so unpredictable…

But eventually, I’m glad that there are still plans of an overseas expedition going on. I’ve voiced my interest in participating in the expedition and I seriously hope to execute the plan together with rover once again. Maybe this is the only way an old rover boy can show his Passion-In-Rovering which will be burning deeply inside his heart after the flame have died…

Bless us Lord B.P

Raven…

What would you do if its end of the year? Well, this is wat i did…

Have been selling Snow and Streamers spray cans for Justin and Frank for the past few days dating back to last Christmas.

25/12/05:

Sales weren’t that fantastic on the X’Mas night. But we had lots of fun playing the sprays, and then we had dinner at Lau Pat Sat before we headed back to Base in Justin’s van. Actually we planned for a morning jog at MacRitchie the next morning but we slept at 0430hrs in the morning and by the time we woke up… Its already 1130hrs, and raining. So? Run was cancelled.

30/12/05:

Went to BASE for pot luck, I brought some home made Macaroni cooked by me. Had hell lots of fun at the gathering and also added a few kilos to my weight… Haiz… haha… Then plans were made for the night after the pot luck session. We then decided to try our luck selling the sprays at Pasir Ris Chalets… We went to pick Doreen up at her friend’s apartment before we head to our location. Been a real long time since I’ve been back there… There are Challenge Rope Course there in the chalet mann… can’t believe that. We tried our best selling and sales weren’t really good as we were there late and people were already heading home from the chalets. So we had a walk along the park to scout for any possibility of sales. Nope… Not good… Down Town east was next… Justin, Darren and Doreen headed into the chalet while Frank, WeiJeah, Karyn, Limin and I waited outside and we tried selling… Not bad mann… a drunken lady brought 6 from us… haha… good start… Then we waited for the rest to come. Not good… So we decided to head to some where for supper, with the left over food from the pot luck that is… We headed to Labrador Park, along the way passing by Esplanade and Mt. Faber where preparation for the New Year Countdown 2006 is in the final stage. Along the way brought back lots of memories, it’s actually the route that we took when we ran from Outram to Labrador Park… It started off with Justin and me, and then Limin joined in, then Frank. Time really flies mann… in a blink of an eye; tml will be the end of 2005. I’m gonna make my finally day of 2005 a wonderful one!!! We had our there and we played some games to keep ourselves entertained… Then we sent everyone back home… I reached home at 0500hrs in the morning.

31/12/05:

Woke up after 6hrs of sleep. Then I slack for a while… Called Limin for some discussion of the plans for tonight activities. We were to meet up and head to Base to put our barang barang before heading to Boat Quay to meet up with Justin and co. Saw AE86 parked at the street. Then we saw Doreen and Karyn… We joined in the sales team. After a few rounds of shouting, a guy in plain clothes approached us… “Who is the boss here?” He asked while holding a warrant card bearing the Singapore Police Force crest and his photo. “……” we dare not say a word, seriously… We just looked at each other… “U all have to clear this place before we come back from a 2nd round of patrol, and we’ll confiscate all items here, is that clear?” he warned. What did we do? Of cos we agreed la… then we called our boss, Justin and frank. Final decision is to proceed to Frank’s location - Clark Quay. Along the way there Karyn was still trying to sell the sprays to the publics but not much sales. When we reached the Read Bridge where Frank was positioned, we quickly get into war mode and started to sell the sprays… The bridge was full of people and it was already a war zone there where strangers were starting up war with one another with the only Weapon of Mass Destructions we were selling… Haha… kinda think back now, we’re just like the U.S, we stared the war with passer by who did not have spray cans in their hands, then this make them buy sprays from us and fight the war with us… How brilliant… Thanks BUSH… We had all our cans sold out in just say about 30mins into 2006… we were worried that we were not able to get the sales done, but it did eventually. With the Fireworks from Esplanade in a distance, and everyone cheering to welcome 2006, we had just completed the 1st task, to sell all the sprays…

01/01/06:

Once the sales was done, we headed back to the van to roughly calculate the $$ from the sales. Then it was decided that we shall go for dinner…, supper?? Or maybe breakfast… Hmmm… Whatever u wanna call it… we settled down at a Seafood Restaurant at Geylang. Had a nice meal and we headed back home… and Base… We reached Base at Approx. 0430hrs… Had a shower and then we headed to bed…? The night was cool and then in the morning, it started to pour… so we kept sleeping till arnd 1030hrs. Nothing to do as it was pouring heavily outside and we decide to play Risk. Then till noon the rain subsided and we decided to start our 1st Resolution for 2006. MacRitchie run… This time round the distant is from Base to Jelutong Tower and back. It was a nice run… A nice view at Jelutong tower on a new year’s day… After the run, we went makan at Shunfu market. Then we go back to base to wash up. We also decided to call off the initial plan of going KTV as we r poor people… so we need to do things that doesn’t required $$… So we Play Risk again… And Justin was the Ultimate loser as the U.S (Darren) had once again proven itself by getting all its allies to fulfill his wishes (Getting rid of Justin from the board). Yes, Justin lost. But we still got to fill our stomach. So we decided to head to Thompson to have our dinner and supper… After our dinner at a Chinese stall, we head to the Prata house further down the road to have a drink. After which, we then finally decided that its time to head home… Long day of activities for my 1st day of 2006. Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Passion-for-exploration,

raven