my cuzy woke me up twice cos my alarm was disturbing her sleep. i got up at 6.36am when i was set my alarm at 5.45am and 6am. i woke keong up. waited for him to change before i showered.
my bro and aunt came by at 7.05am. i quickly put on my eau de toilette and left the home. we took a cab to tampines interchange. got there at 7.20am. bought sandwiches and ice mountain from cheers.
had our breakfast while waiting for the MCYS' official que. we boarded the bus at around 8am. arrived at the zoo at 8.30am. we followed the official to pavilion by the lake. collected our survival kit and game pack. proceeded to the seating area. there was a talk by glenn lim, an ex drug abuser. he shared his life story which i thought was meaningful to share..
since young, he had thoughts of suicides cos he thought his parents didnt love him. he smashed things and he couldnt control his emotions. he was mad that he couldnt control his anger and because he couldnt understand why was he an angry young man. as he grew up, he mixed around with bad company and did everything they did. all because he wanted to feel belonged. he was introduced to cigarettes, alcohol and drugs. he was talented in music, he and gang joined competitions and they won. they even had a manager and they performed overseas. he thought that was his life!
overseas, the drugs were more accessible. he began taking drugs every single day to overcome the loneliness in him. soon, he started bringing in drugs. cos they were so cheap overseas, he could earn a profit when he sells in singapore.
one day in the year 1994 when he was crossing the customs, he was walking when he saw 2 policemen standing ahead. they stopped him and told him to follow them for a full body search. thats when he realised he was set up. they found all the drugs on him and he was locked up. he was charged for possession and importing of drugs. the sentence for importing of drugs was life imprisonment.
in the lock up, he remembered clearly that there were 2 policemen weighing his drugs in front of him and discussing whether he will be sentenced life imprisonment. he was allowed to make one call. despite disowning his family, he called home. his dad picked up the phone, he told them what happened and his parents broke down. they bailed him out.
while waiting to be sentenced in court, he decided that he wants to get his life right before he goes in. he called team challenge and joined them. after 4 months, he was in court. the judge told him "I have never done this before and this has never happened in history, im going to drop the charge 'importings of drugs' and reduced it just to 'possession of drugs'. he was so relieved, from 30 years to 6 months, it was like a holiday.
he went into the police van with all the other prisoners and he was the only one smiling. after completing the sentence, he joined team challenge and he stayed on for 3 1/2 years. he treasure the second chance given to him, he belives that he is living on borrowed time cos he is not supposed to be there at that point of time. his life has since taken a turn, it was so much more meaningful and better. he stayed firm and didnt went back his ways although his bad company encouraged him to.
hes now married with kids. he is thankful to his family for being there for him, being so supportive, helping him through.
after the talk, it was time for the family version of amazing race. 30 teams were disseminated every 5 minutes or so. we were the 4th group. we started our first game which was newspaper chase, we all had to step on a newspaper for 5 seconds, the newspaper will be folded 1 time after each round of 5 seconds until it couldnt be folded any smaller. we scored full for that.
then we went on to our second station, tropical crops. the name of the game was photo hunt. we had to write down the names of plants. we managed to find all of them in less than 5 minutes. 3rd station, puzzle at the polar bears. we had to wait cos there was a queue. we waited like half an hour before its was our turn. we managed to complete the puzzle but the official gave us only 4 points. sad!
we hurried to the next station, we had to pick out sweets from a tray full of flour. keong and ronald was responsible of that while my aunt and i held on to the tray and shook the flour onto the ground. 5 points for 3 minutes and we completed in 27 seconds.
5th station, 4 legged. keong, ronald and i tied our legs together. we strategized and were the first of the 3 groups. 5 points again. 6th station, sum it up. maths questions. scored 5 points. 7th stationed, the official says 4 person, 4 feets on the ground; 4 feets and 4 hands; 3 feets and 2 hands; no hands and feets. scored 5 points. it was already 11.50am. we had to stop the game but ronald didnt want to give up. we went up a slope where he saw people walking down from. 8th station was spider web. 5 points.
the 9th stage was the hula hoop and the last was family potrait. all 5 points. our total score was 49. 1 point away from the total. happily, we were for briefing and had our lunch. we had ice cream, cotton candy, KFC chicken and whipped potato.
after lunch, prize giving ceremony. ronald asked one of the 10 - 20th winner how much was his total, the guy said 45. we were so hopeful but we received only disappointment. ronald was pretty upset. he went to complain to his CSO. his CSO said he will check with the officials.
we walked to the main entrance, ronald left with the 1.30pm bus cos he needed to work. aunt, keong and i bought the tram tickets and we sat one round. video camed the animals. we went to shop near the entrance then to bens & jerry. we waited for the around half an hour for the bus.
i was so exhausted, i fell asleep. arrived at tampines interchange minutes after 3pm. went to coffee bean for berry tea. on the way, keong's mum called and he was reprimanded. instead of drinking at coffee bean, we take-away. we went to wait for the shuttle bus. he was so upset, he showed his emotions.
we boarded the shuttle bus and he just sat alone at the front seats while i sat alone at the back seats. i was frustrated, i decided to not be the bad person. i sent him off at the carpark. i was so upset with the way he was treating me. after i sent him off, i went to a place to cool down, to be alone and think things through.
after i got home, i showered. waited to be called to leave home. my aunt came and we took a cab together with eml and her bf. got to joo chiat at 6+. waited for everybody to arrive before dinner started. i was about to finish my food when keong called. i waited for him along the road. saw him and i crossed over to the car park. while crossing, this silver merz horned me and i got a shock. damn lady driver! i was standing at the cross line, she could bloody drive past me but she had to horn me cos her skills were lousy. idiotic freak~!
after dinner, keong rode me to simei to get newspaper and cake. we went to mirana but they didnt had fruit cake, went to prima deli but to no avail. then, we went to jacks place and finally, we bought fruit flan. headed home. had the cake ceremony before i sent keong off at the car park.
good luck for your interview future mr policeman~! im sure you will pass the interview. i have faith in you.
conscious that im taking a picture,
the leopard actually posed for me
ronald and keong
taking a breather at the air-con rest area
my aunt with my bro and i
keong and becks
many say we look very alike. what do you think?
