Bintan Coconut Blast Adventure Race

Just came back from Bintan yesterday, helping out as technical crew for this 'Coconut Blast' adventure race organised by Base Camp. My first time doing technical rope work overseas, but it wasn't very much different an experience la.

The technical crew stayed at this 'Bintan Lodge', off the radar of most visiting tourists to the resort island. It is a chalet style place looking like a mini 3-room HDB flat when you go in, with living room, kitchenette and 2 bedrooms.
Don't think it's expensive, but there isn't any leisure facilities there, just like a place for you to stay. Going around will be a problem if you intend to stay at that place. But it is operated like any other resort, with the staff dressed in flower-print shirts and with food order services available.

There were three rope stations, and I was operating the tyrolean traverse that day, helping to set it up, doing despatch, and also taking down the entire thing, coiling up hundreds of metres of rope.
The view from the site had a nice view overlooking the 'Kelong', which is an upmarket restaurant beside a golf course.
After we set up the line, we ended up waiting about three hours for the first racers to come. There was a small shelter where had lunch, took shade, and napped. Some pictures from the place there...
After a grand total of 3 racing teams went by our station, we dismantled the station when 5pm struck (Night falls at 6pm in Bintan). It was tough work lugging all the hardware and ropes on top of the cliff down to the entrance of the place, and when we had finished packing, we had to wait around for the vehicle to pick us up. Even the tide went down by then, creating a 'Chek Jawa' mud plain. Man, it reminds me of the countless times me and my buddies have to lug kayaks and countless bags of gears across muddy low-tide grounds when we finished paddling for the day on our kayak trips.

After the initial hype of doing a race up overseas was diminished, I felt that the trip wasn't worth it, all in all. Maybe I lost my enthusiasm in such things already, or did too much of it. Time to move on perhaps?

Moments

Don't know why documentaries on cabletv has been getting to me lately - was watching this one about the reintroduction of wolves into aboriginal lands in the US, and how a wildlife photographer following the wolves interacted with them for the final time before they lopped off to explore their new life in the wilderness. They acted like huge intelligent dogs, extending their paws out to him as a gesture of friendship and nuzzling him fondly. The photographer said he'll never forget them, and that's probably true. He had an empathy with these wild animals that few others on the planet can claim, and am undoubtedly touched by it.

How many of us can claim to have such profound life-changing experiences, that makes us realise that our lives has been worth living and not lived in vain? And where shall we go in search of them?

Well actually, I think a lot of people on this island would rather go in search of other things. To each their own - I'll look for my moments of epiphanies still. Experiences that make me walk on the streets, surveying the crowd, and think: I know what they all do not, and it is that.

Flying Staccatos!

Alerted by Yaochang that there are videos on Youtube of Heifetz playing Dinicu's Hora Staccato, I went to take a look, and voila, there it is! Watch out for the flying staccatos, where rapid staccato notes are played all in one bow (by bouncing the bow up and down imperceptibly); incredible stuff.

Culture is life

Just watched a National Geographic feature on how courageous people in Afghanistan risked their life to protect their cultural artefacts when the Taliban came in and started destroying the country. A group of film archive workers built a false wall to hit over twenty thousand film negatives and created film prints for the Taliban to burn away, while an artist used waterpaint to paint over human characters in oil paintings so that the Taliban would not destroy them (Their fundamentalist religious beliefs prohibits the portrayal of human characters). An archeologist sought to unearth a long lost gigantic 'Sleeping Buddha' in Bamiyan, which will be almost double the size of the ones that the Taliban blown away in 2001, as a fitting way to spite the Talibans and uncover a glorious part of Afghanistan history.

It moved me so that people are willing to risk their lives to protect their cultural heritage, without which a country will lose its soul. Even in such a strife-stricken and war-torn country, there are people dedicated to preserving memory and the past for future generations to build their identity on. I almost wish I could go take a course in archeology right away and embark on a lifetime endeavour of uncovering ancient treasures for that country after watching the show.

Some reviews

Little Miss Sunshine
- quite a feel-good story about a dysfunctional family who embarks on a road trip so that the darling of the family can go for a 'Little Miss Sunshine' children's pageant. Dad is a loser trying to sell his guru management-success formula, Mum's...pretty sane actually. Uncle is a gay Proust scholar who recently tried to commit suicide cos his lover ran off with a rival Proust scholar. Son is a wierdo who think he's enlightened by Nietzsche and refuses to talk as a vow before going to pilot school. All losers in a way lah, but eventually they shrugged off their mental barriers one by one in the journey and came out more human. More clean fun than American Beauty, so should be a hit.

Death Note
- apparently adapted from a Jap Manga where a genius picks up a death book dropped by the death god, allowing him to kill anyone just by entering the name and having the face in his mind. At first wanting to creating a crime-free world, he then used his power to kill off the detectives who are tracing him, pitting his wits against another genius called 'L'. The story is pretty cool (ignore the cartoon character of the death god always hanging around the lead), ends in a cryptic fashion that demands for a sequel to it. Hell, it better come quick...I can't wait.

The Bell Curve

My dear class rep, when Mr. Azhar showed us an example of formal assessment in PE, asked rather awkwardly, whether such a thing is possible to be implemented for students of lesser abilities in the lousier schools (seeing that the example is from RI). She said that attempts to teach the same game to students in two different schools produced mixed results - In her better school the kids could catch on immediately and play on, while in the other school the students had a hard time trying to comprehend the rules of the game.

I can't help but sense the awkwardness in the question and the following answer, where the teacher sort of have to explain, of course, the viability of assessment in PE, whether it's in a good school or a school with not-as-bright students. I think definitely, teachers have to tailor all their curriculum and content to the abilities of the students, but then it is almost as if it is politically incorrect to state outright that there is a sort of discrimination by intellectual level here.

I think we should all readily admit, acknowledge, and accept that there are both brighter and not-as-bright students, and 'good' and 'lousy' schools too, and make provisions when planning our lessons etc. The important thing is that we never state that as a fact to them, and not lower our expectation of them too much because of our perception of their abilities. Perhaps, PE can be the place where they can feel that they can be 'smart' in other ways too, not only book-wise.

The dismal classroom

During a session in an unproductive and redundant class, I suddenly had a moment of revelation - School had been a huge waste of time for me, all in all. I recalled that for most of my schooling life, I left the school gate after the day's session with no awareness of me having learnt anything at all. Learning only took place somewhat before tests and exams, the time in between was spent chatting/napping during class and playing football after it. When I went for school experience and stepped into the secondary school classroom again after so long, I felt the oppressive atmosphere between the four drab grey walls all over.

Is school such a big waste of time for most people? Could my schooling days be made more productive with a better environment and more dynamic teachers? It seems that the incidents and moments which left indelible impressions on me and moulded my character all came from CCA time, or the leisure time spent with my friends. The only exception is in JC, when my literature teachers all combined to give impactful lessons; or maybe by then I was mature enough to listen more attentively and absorb their words of wisdom better.

I want to start leaving impressions and making an impact onto my students' lives at that transitional moment of their growth. I think I can expect much more failures than successes in the attempts, but I must persevere and not waste the precious teenage years of my students, whether or not they appreciate it then. Hopefully, they will look back from their future and realise the impact of my efforts, and then in their own way help to contribute to other peoples' lives.

Bike Geometry part II

Had been feeling my shoulders bearing quite a bit of my body weight when I'm my bike last week (meaning that my body weight is directed down forward), I shifted my saddle nose to point up a little so that the saddle can bear more of my weight. I tested out the seat by getting up on the bike while it's rested by the wall, and out of curiosity, got my mum to took a picture of me.

The silhouette figure was unintentional, had to draw the curtains as the bright lights from the windows will make me a shadow anyway. What is surprising is that I see my back being quite straightly bent over the frame, as low as it probably can get. I had always thought I'm sitting quite upright over the bike cos that's how I felt, with my head a distance above the bars. I had thought that a good aerodynamic posture will bring some pains too, so it was a pleasant surprise to see my comfortable posture being a good one too.

Moral of the story: Road bikes ain't torture machines, you just need to customise it real well to your size!

The Raffles Place kitty again

After attending Wang Jian's cello recital 2 weeks ago, I was walking from the VCH to Raffles Place station when I spotted this kitty again!


Ok, so apparently it's a PR there, and it's pretty comfortable with the environment too, walking around a bloke fishing there nonchalently, and refusing to entertain my request for some pictures. This is like the 5th shot that I took of it. Due to its 'dao' nature, I don't think it is willing to let me stroke itself so I kept my hands off...

Mooncake Fest!

Mid-Autumn festival is here! Mooncake galore! Actually it's here for a while already, have eaten my fair share of it too. Now just waiting for the festival to end soon so that I can get good mooncake bargains and stock up lots of it for cheap! hahaha...

Actually, it's not only mooncakes that I like, but these too -

...had always liked these as a kid, not really sure what it is called, but these baked pastries smells so good! Ahh... have always preferred those original baked mooncakes over the snow-skin ones...