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Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Haven't been updating too often these few days, my apologies. Since it has been so long, looks like I have some helluva updating to do then. Even though I've not been touching this blog for a long period of time, a lot has happened in recent days. Hm, I don't even know where to start...
Hm, let's start with something more 'natural' then. Has anyone been to the HSBC Treetop Walk @ Venus Drive? It's somewhere near the MacRitchie Reservoir. May I suggest that it's perfect for anyone looking to overcome their fear of heights? Anybody interested? Ke Xin? You should really visit that place.
The Pure Geography class trudged there with Mr Sam Soo, Mr Zainudin and Ms Fizah (Sorry, my spelling of Malay names isn't good at all.) on the 29th of October. As expected, any place with the presence of Mr Sam Soo, laughter is bound to follow. However, this time, the laughter was felt to a lesser extent. Probably because Mr Soo didn't have the energy left over to joke. Last I know, he was panting heavily nearing the end of the trip He wasn't the only one though, the trail was a hard one, consisting of kilometres of tough forest terrain. Well, Farnana kept asking me how come I didn't look tired after bashing through so much of the forest path at the front of the pack. Frankly, I WAS tired, but I just wanted to keep my eyes peeled for every single trace of forest life I can find. Funny how such things appeal to an urban fella' so much...Novelity, I guess, one rarely sees such scenic beauty in the city.
The highlighted route was around 7 km in length. And that was only the amount of distance we have to cover before we reached the entrance of the Treetop Walk.
Monkeys were spotted as we neared the Ranger's Station.
As we stepped afoot onto the Treetop Walk platform, things got a lot more shaky...
This picture was taken from the Treetop platform. For those learning Geography, you can have a fairly accurate guess of height from where I was standing. The tallest layers in a tropical rainforest are the canopy and emergent layers. As you can see, this place is already above the canopy, and we're at just about the same height as the emergent at the top right corner. If I didn't remember wrongly, this is 30m above the forest floor. Which is an estimated height of 10 storeys worth of HDB apartments.
All of us had to walk in single file down the narrow platform. It was around this point when Kevin started swaying from side to side, the resulting screams were much to his delight and to the horror of others.
After stepping down from the high-rise platform, the rest of the trip consisted a lot of staircases like these. Mr Sam Soo revealed to us an interesting fact about this Treetop Walk. All the stairs here were constructed entirely without nails, and it took around 8 long years to complete, all due to ecological protection purposes.
As we walked along, he also pointed out to us some fungi growing on a decaying stump. He also related it to our studies regarding how the forest naturally recycles dead materials into humus (the topmost layer of fertile soil) through the aid of fungi.
Depressing to find a strong influence of humans inside a forest, but this find excites me nonetheless.
Found the casing of a bullet in the undergrowth on the way back to the bus. Managed to dig it out with much enthusiasm. Looks like the army soldiers use this place as one of their training grounds. By measuring its size against my palm, it has an estimated diameter of 8-9mm. It should be a .32 caliber high-velocity rifle bullet, judging from its lengthier dimension and sharp nose tip.
Oh yes, did I mention that a part of the forest trail was just beside the Singapore Island Country Club? It's a comfy place to reside in for some of the most powerful politicians in Singapore. The car in the background is a Mazda RX-8, a sports car which signifies wealth flowing around the whole place. However, the RX-8 would be dwarfed by the one which I saw driving past me before this, the Bentley Continental GTC. Sadly, it sped away before I could capture its mesmerising beauty between my camera lenses. But the point is, this place is stinking rich.
For those interested to know, the Bentley Continental GTC I saw looks something like:
Stinking, filthy rich.
Despite the the toughness of it all, this journey of learning was an enjoyable one, what better form of learning can there be other than this? Being the first one to run for the bus together with Si Kai at the end of the trail was an exhilarating race, especially when we saw the bus trying to drive off... (Until now I still don't know why the Bus Driver did that, but we did catch up with him in the end.) When my tired body laid upon the backseat of the bus during the return journey, I contemplated imposing upon my mind to recall the beautiful sights once more, but dropped it. Instead, I let it drift somewhere sweeter.
Onwards.
From what I gather, many GEMs are regretting their decision in joining up in the first place. Probably because of the long hours of commitment required of them. For me it's even worse, because Ms Mazlinda is giving me more tasks than the rest of them. Now even I am starting to shudder at the thought of GEM. But there is no choice, one can only persevere. Ms Mazlinda wants me to write out an article based on my perceptions of the day of the Charity Bazaar to be printed into the school Annual Magazine. It's my first time writing for something so large-scale, I hope that my best effort would be enough... Seems that she marked me down for this task after being "very impressed with your writing ability". I knew I should've used lower-grade English in my GEM blog...Damnit.
The period of exiting adolescence, can be defined as entering adulthood. What is it with me and parents nowadays? I enter into... more intense interactions with my own parents, other people's parents, and even soon-to-be parents. Looks like it's really time to improve on my PR (Public Relations) skills in order to accomodate this increased sword-crossings with adults...especially those with a parental nature. Anyone wants to give me tips?
The more recent event would include Hui Xian's birthday party on the 31st of October, Saturday. Erm...really sorry for this late post of gratitude, but I would like to thank Hui Xian for giving me the honour of attending her party and being part of the celebrations. Happy 15th birthday! I don't have any pictures, but it was a large event. We started off by playing games in the evening. Heck, playing badminton and Captain's Ball in a Polo shirt, jeans, and tie is really something...
After dinner, we sat down in the host's room to chat (/gossip) about...just about everyone. That was what I really like, close communications between people has always been heartwarming. There were several non-malicious backstabbing which really brought many a good laughs to everyone present, and even most of those at the centre of attention at that time were willing to open up their darkest secrets. Interesting.
I think my bucket of stories are just about emptied for now. That being said, there's still Bridging Programme tomorrow. Sigh, after having just attended 2 sessions of it, I think my eyes should be looking diluted and murky by now...
And Phil has been bugging me during these few days to take up Facebook. Well? Anyone thinks I should go against his wishes? Or go with it?
Hm, let's start with something more 'natural' then. Has anyone been to the HSBC Treetop Walk @ Venus Drive? It's somewhere near the MacRitchie Reservoir. May I suggest that it's perfect for anyone looking to overcome their fear of heights? Anybody interested? Ke Xin? You should really visit that place.
The Pure Geography class trudged there with Mr Sam Soo, Mr Zainudin and Ms Fizah (Sorry, my spelling of Malay names isn't good at all.) on the 29th of October. As expected, any place with the presence of Mr Sam Soo, laughter is bound to follow. However, this time, the laughter was felt to a lesser extent. Probably because Mr Soo didn't have the energy left over to joke. Last I know, he was panting heavily nearing the end of the trip He wasn't the only one though, the trail was a hard one, consisting of kilometres of tough forest terrain. Well, Farnana kept asking me how come I didn't look tired after bashing through so much of the forest path at the front of the pack. Frankly, I WAS tired, but I just wanted to keep my eyes peeled for every single trace of forest life I can find. Funny how such things appeal to an urban fella' so much...Novelity, I guess, one rarely sees such scenic beauty in the city.
The highlighted route was around 7 km in length. And that was only the amount of distance we have to cover before we reached the entrance of the Treetop Walk.
Monkeys were spotted as we neared the Ranger's Station.
As we stepped afoot onto the Treetop Walk platform, things got a lot more shaky...
This picture was taken from the Treetop platform. For those learning Geography, you can have a fairly accurate guess of height from where I was standing. The tallest layers in a tropical rainforest are the canopy and emergent layers. As you can see, this place is already above the canopy, and we're at just about the same height as the emergent at the top right corner. If I didn't remember wrongly, this is 30m above the forest floor. Which is an estimated height of 10 storeys worth of HDB apartments.
All of us had to walk in single file down the narrow platform. It was around this point when Kevin started swaying from side to side, the resulting screams were much to his delight and to the horror of others.
After stepping down from the high-rise platform, the rest of the trip consisted a lot of staircases like these. Mr Sam Soo revealed to us an interesting fact about this Treetop Walk. All the stairs here were constructed entirely without nails, and it took around 8 long years to complete, all due to ecological protection purposes.
As we walked along, he also pointed out to us some fungi growing on a decaying stump. He also related it to our studies regarding how the forest naturally recycles dead materials into humus (the topmost layer of fertile soil) through the aid of fungi.
Depressing to find a strong influence of humans inside a forest, but this find excites me nonetheless.
Found the casing of a bullet in the undergrowth on the way back to the bus. Managed to dig it out with much enthusiasm. Looks like the army soldiers use this place as one of their training grounds. By measuring its size against my palm, it has an estimated diameter of 8-9mm. It should be a .32 caliber high-velocity rifle bullet, judging from its lengthier dimension and sharp nose tip.
Oh yes, did I mention that a part of the forest trail was just beside the Singapore Island Country Club? It's a comfy place to reside in for some of the most powerful politicians in Singapore. The car in the background is a Mazda RX-8, a sports car which signifies wealth flowing around the whole place. However, the RX-8 would be dwarfed by the one which I saw driving past me before this, the Bentley Continental GTC. Sadly, it sped away before I could capture its mesmerising beauty between my camera lenses. But the point is, this place is stinking rich.
For those interested to know, the Bentley Continental GTC I saw looks something like:
Stinking, filthy rich.
Despite the the toughness of it all, this journey of learning was an enjoyable one, what better form of learning can there be other than this? Being the first one to run for the bus together with Si Kai at the end of the trail was an exhilarating race, especially when we saw the bus trying to drive off... (Until now I still don't know why the Bus Driver did that, but we did catch up with him in the end.) When my tired body laid upon the backseat of the bus during the return journey, I contemplated imposing upon my mind to recall the beautiful sights once more, but dropped it. Instead, I let it drift somewhere sweeter.
Onwards.
From what I gather, many GEMs are regretting their decision in joining up in the first place. Probably because of the long hours of commitment required of them. For me it's even worse, because Ms Mazlinda is giving me more tasks than the rest of them. Now even I am starting to shudder at the thought of GEM. But there is no choice, one can only persevere. Ms Mazlinda wants me to write out an article based on my perceptions of the day of the Charity Bazaar to be printed into the school Annual Magazine. It's my first time writing for something so large-scale, I hope that my best effort would be enough... Seems that she marked me down for this task after being "very impressed with your writing ability". I knew I should've used lower-grade English in my GEM blog...Damnit.
The period of exiting adolescence, can be defined as entering adulthood. What is it with me and parents nowadays? I enter into... more intense interactions with my own parents, other people's parents, and even soon-to-be parents. Looks like it's really time to improve on my PR (Public Relations) skills in order to accomodate this increased sword-crossings with adults...especially those with a parental nature. Anyone wants to give me tips?
The more recent event would include Hui Xian's birthday party on the 31st of October, Saturday. Erm...really sorry for this late post of gratitude, but I would like to thank Hui Xian for giving me the honour of attending her party and being part of the celebrations. Happy 15th birthday! I don't have any pictures, but it was a large event. We started off by playing games in the evening. Heck, playing badminton and Captain's Ball in a Polo shirt, jeans, and tie is really something...
After dinner, we sat down in the host's room to chat (/gossip) about...just about everyone. That was what I really like, close communications between people has always been heartwarming. There were several non-malicious backstabbing which really brought many a good laughs to everyone present, and even most of those at the centre of attention at that time were willing to open up their darkest secrets. Interesting.
I think my bucket of stories are just about emptied for now. That being said, there's still Bridging Programme tomorrow. Sigh, after having just attended 2 sessions of it, I think my eyes should be looking diluted and murky by now...
And Phil has been bugging me during these few days to take up Facebook. Well? Anyone thinks I should go against his wishes? Or go with it?
