How did it all started? Just my dream. Nothing more. I always dreamed of playing in one and since Dr Lowly never liked the idea of driving a car and looking for treasure, points orlandmarks in those yearly SingTel race (usally in malaysia i think)... my chances of participating in such races is ZERO. Then i thought about the YFers and it would be fun for them all. We had group leaders outing (of which they went round Orchard road looking for places identified from photo shoot) and food outing (taking public bus to look for eatery place). And so i thot why not a race that involved cars??
This thot came about when i returned from NTM & just before YF camp. Then i chatted up Carol and she welcomed the idea. Next i approached Alvin and he loved it too. Lastly, i asked Sharon and then the exco and yup... no one seemed to have objection, except that some were asking "are we having it for the sake of fun?" Not exactly. I did have in mind to have bible quizzes and questions and activities to do during the hunt... so as to make it more mind challenging. But then again...... so what if we are having it for the sake of fun? What is wrong with that? Outing.... is also fun and physical.
Anyhow, next came the biggest problem. The cars. I had already zeroed in on the drivers. It was supposed to be the youths themselves, including David (4th driver). Yes... they are not experienced like adults but i believe they are responsible and careful. Knowing youths, they would love and embrace the idea of driving the vehicle in their own groups to look for clues. This is really fun... as in not having a driver. I would love to do that too. And yes, being inexperienced and looking out for clues... it would be a two-time NO for me to get past the adults whom i would be approaching to borrow the cars... MPVs in particular. I reckon our YF would be divided into 4 groups of 7-8. Since i only had 4 youths who can drive and so it had to be 4 groups. I knew it was against all odds for this but since the youth drivers i spoke to prefer to drive themselves, i had to give it a try.
Angela was ok with the loan of her MPV but it has to be Alvin driving it. Then Joyce said yes to me (that was because she thot she was driving it...it was only later on that she told me Dr David wont allow anyone else to drive their cars). And Aunty Patricia... she was most supportive. She said she prayed very hard and at first she had no peace. Then she realised it is just something material and if we really needed it, she should lend us. If anything untoward really happen, God is in control and so she was able to tell me she had much peace after committing to God. But i was still short of 2 cars. The other mpvs were not available as in drivers using them or not in Sin. So, this self-drive thingy has to be shelved.
Next, i needed to look for more cars.. smaller sized ones plus drivers to cover the event. Alan, Michael, Ian, Eld Boon had to be roped in to help. In fact, they responded when i send out many smses to selected adults in the church. Thank God for their help. Initially, Angela, Joyce & Peggy were supposed to be in my comm to help in the planning. Joyce did help with some suggested places and when i knew she had to drive, told her not to participate in the planning anymore. Peggy too. But when i needed to do a recce, i had to enlist help. Couldnt do it alone. Angela & BK were happy to help out and Angela promised to pretend DUMB on the actual day when she drive the youths.
I did my homework before the recce. Selected few places that Joyce mentioned in an email, studied the entire street directory 2008 and plucked out places from North, South, East and West. Charted them down and indicated where to find them, as in which map page and square. This took me one whole day.
During our first recce... which was mid or early Jan, we managed to cover East & South. Couldnt cover West & North. We spend the whole day and it was hard. At our first stop at Changi Chapel Musuem, Angela advised me not to go back again to physically place the clues. She told me it would be very taxing on me and difficult too and looked like i might not have the time to do it. Calculating the no. of people who indicated they were coming, it was a total of 30-32 people. That meant i needed 7-8 groups. Considering each group had a set of 7 clues, i needed to plant 40-49 clues before the actual race. It would be madness. Yes, i could have put everyone the same route but i didnt want that coz everyone would be looking at one another and sometimes, they would not even figure out but follow the other.
Besides, vehicle too was a problem. Dr lowly had to be sent to work so i could use the car. He stayed in the office the whole day (i.e. he had no meeting that day) and i picked him up in the night. As much as i wouldnt mind doing this a few more times, i didnt have the luxury of this being repeated. He needed the car most of the time.
It was concluded that the drivers would have the set of clues but with jumbled up numbers. This would prevent some from cheating and open 1,2,3,4,5 and all to see what was inside. We wanted them to follow the sequence and then do it step by step. And the drivers were supposed to just drive according to the command of the youths. They were not supposed to volunteer to know how to get there per se. But it didnt mean if they were on the expressway and they knew the exit and purposely went the wrong one.
While waiting for my next opportunity to use the car, i started reading Pilgrim's progress again.. so that i could give them some questions from there. After all, i had to give at least one question to match the name of the game :) Btw, i couldnt plan or write clues coz i had not scouted West & North and needed to know those places I marked out are still existing. It turned out that 3 places i marked existed no more.... hmmm...why is the 2009 directory still indicating their presence in the map of Singapore???
CNY came. In fact, i needed to stop preparing before CNY. What happened? It was the NTM video. I had written in my earlier entry about the nightmare and so my preparation time for this race was put to a halt. When did i resume? Friday 30th.. one day before the race. As much as i would love to get all things done, i couldnt. Time was not on my side. I wished like Angela to have a 48hour period but nope. I was already suffering from lack of sleep while doing NTM video but thank God on Fri morning, early at 6.20am, i was able to wake up and drive off to pick BK. Why this early? Because i needed to bring the car back to Dr Lowly by 11.30am. He had an important meeting and i asked God to enable me to finish. I had 20 over places to visit and it seemed like an impossible task with 4.5 hours window period to play with.
Made a mistake that morning. I thot BK & I could grab a burger along the way and so i didnt eat my breakfast. I wasnt even thinking coz i forgot my route was Lim Chu Kang, Sembawang & Seletar... where to find burger. Not even coffee shop or hawker centre lor! And so at 8am, my stomach was growling badly. I didnt bring my usual bag and no gastric pills to pop. Only thing i had was a bottle of water. By that time, we had covered close to 15 places. Thank God... all concentrated within Lim Chu Kang. Our next stop was Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. Whew.. there should be an eating house there... i thot to myself. Yes there was but it was before opening time. Thank God it was just 5 mins more and the cafe outlet was opening up. The lady just started work and i was her first customer. I asked for the easiest... bread... not even toast. She said i had to wait but the fastest food she could prepare was sandwiches. Why not? And so while waiting for her to prepare, i bought off the shelf packet choco cookies. Whoa...food never tasted so delicious...hee..... Within 10 mins, i got my sandwich all packed. BK came out from the toilet long ago and she was helping me to finish the cookies too. She told me she did eat oats before she left home. At least she was smarter than me.... :)
With sandwich on my lap, i ate and drove on. Sped up when finished eating and energy boosted, By 10am, we covered slightly more 20 places. Then it was the long distance ride to Punggol. I told BK that if i didnt drive to Punggol, it would be a wasted trip alyogether coz i needed Punggol to break the long drive from North to East for some of the teams. With only 1.5 hours left to get there, find the few spots within Punggol and return home (thot i wasnt able to send BK home), i sped. Really CHIONG... Angela's lingo. In fact, i had been speeding all the while and thank God for safety and protection and no "stopping" by TP. Reached Punggol and was able to locate 2 or 3 places out of 4 and had to go back. It was about 10.50am. I drove at 120-130km/hr all the way on SLE and was able to bring BK home (since i was on SLE & went on to KJE). Stopped her at the stagmont road and turned back home. Reached at exactly 11.30am. Dr Lowly....he wasnt even ready!!! He was not changed and he told me he needed to see the car before he went on to change. SIGH... guess he didnt really need it at 11.30am but told me a time so as to get me home early. Anyhow, i was thankful he let me use the car and so no more complaints.
After lunch, i spend my time printing out all the photos for clues. Then i plotted & confirmed the routes for each group. After that, i went to the map of Singapore with all the areas shown and used a ribbon to measure the distance. I needed to be sure each group had a similar distance to cover. Discovered group A had a very short route and i changed. Found out group F had an unsually long route and changed that too. Measured one more time and almost all groups had equal length.
Next came the clue thingy. This took up soooo much of my time. I didnt know if i should give clues to the place or just something to spice up. It also didnt help when my comp couldnt connect to internet!!!! I had to use Rachel's laptop and tried and then shut down and turn on many times before it actually worked. I think it could be singnet fault too. Sigh. And so while experimenting and typing, i progressed very slowly. Time checked and it was night already, probably 9plus. The picture clues were already printed out and sorted by the groups. In fact i was telling myself if i could just finished them tonight, i could drive over in the morning and physically plant some clues for the groups... at least 1 or 2 spots they could hunt for real thingy. Alas, my brain cells and juice was just too tired to work.
For group A, i didnt use comp to type and print out the clues. I wrote them out at the back of the pic. Then i decided to be smarter and typed out the clues from group B onwards. When i got to group D, it was like 2-3am. I was really really exhausted but i had to go on. No amount of coffee would ever help me then nor any SIAN DAN. I plodded through and then i realised i should have indicated on each clue the next envelope to take or else there would be broken chain or link. For the bible verse and pilgrim's progress question, that one they were supposed to form or answer it and then send me sms for me to tell them to proceed to take the next clue. And so from group D onwards, i really planned properly and rechecked severally times. Very soon, daybreak came. Think i did doze off for 10 sec over several instances and needed to pinch myself to keep awake. Mind was awfully sluggish but my whole life dream could just only happen this once and the determination to get it through was so strong that kind of pushed me on. Besides, i didnt want to disappoint the YFers and it would be a total failure if i just gave everything up. I was quite harsh on myself because i wanted exactly 8 clues.. thinking anything lesser, it would take too short a time to complete and end the game.
At about 10am, i needed to redo group A-C clues. When i almost finished, it was close to 12noon. Looking back, i realised i was slow because i spend much time checking to ensure clues had no broken links but sad to say, there were some lah and i felt bad for not making it "perfect" for yfers.
I also realised i had not sorted the people into groups!!! I already planned who were the group leaders... the street smartest among the youths (at least i think they were). Angela helped me to pick them too during our recce trip. Did a quick grouping and i guess some groups were a little unbalanced. Sigh....
Got my quiz questions for them to do while traveling. WHoa.. no time to bathe and freshen up. Did a quick change and didnt even eat my lunch and raced down to church. Supposed to be there at 1pm to brief the drivers. I was late like 10mins and eld boon was "grumbling" away... smilingly.
Started to brief the drivers one by one. Realised group B had some broken links and so i purposely passed to joyce coz i thot as a lady, she would be more careful and meticulous than man. Besides, i thot she would listen and understand the briefing better. Men always look at big picture, even with the one-to-one briefing. Take for instance Eld Boon, i explained and told and retold and what did he do? he passed the envelope of bible verse to his group and they even started forming the verse while we were still in church!!! And Alan & Eld Boon never listened to instruction and thot those pointers i wrote on the envelope were the actual steps. I already said NO but they never listened. And so David were given the 6th or 7th clue without having to go thru 4 clues before that. That was why they ended up in Pasir Ris Park sooooo early! My fault again.... i probably didnt brief and prepare properly....argh....
Poor Joyce, she got confused at the end. And very soon, i heard the drivers actually passed the big envelope to the group leader and let them take control. Hmmm.. this wasnt right too. Sigh... i wished i had more time to brief the drivers but somehow they really werent listening.
Oh yes, Michael was not able to drive (he was having fever) and i had to rope in Mona. She wanted to participate too and thank God for her. I also asked my bro to stand by coz i was afraid i needed to use the 8th car... but then again, i couldnt coz i didnt have the 8th set of clues. Peggy agreed to drive Pat's car. And so at about 1.30am on early Saturday morning, i send a confirmation sms to Mona. She didnt read that. At 1pm, she didnt turn up. 1.45pm no sign of her. It didnt occur to me to call her. I thot she was delayed. 2pm and still no news. The youths were all ready to go but the 7th car was not here. I called her but failed. When i finally got thro, she said she was waiting for my confirmation. At that point, i honestly thot i fouled up this one and didnt tell her. Did i not tell her and thot i did?? Anyhow... what happened thro the night was rather blurry to me ...so many things to do and yah, i apologised to her and asked if she could quickly come down of which she said yes. After putting down the phone, realised the rest might not be able to wait and so decided to let the game start. i then drove James' group to meet their car and driver at lot one. Sped and spotted her car. They hopped over and finally i was able to go home, bathe and eat my lunch.
The calls kept coming in and smses. I tried my very best to respond. Each time one came thru, i stopped my car along the road and answered. When i reached home, my nightmare just began. James' group clues were with me in my car. I didnt pass to them when they hopped over.... OH MAN!!!! I could never forgive myself. And so, over the phone, i told them their 2nd clue and what to look out. Find it, take a group pic and call me for next clue.
In between the flood of smses, i tried to eat my lunch. And i am truly sorry if i responded slow. David's group asked me the most questions and i spend time on the phone with him till i couldnt reply the rest. Why didnt i get people to help me? I did but they were soon roped in to be drivers. And last min, i couldnt get any Tom Dick or Harry....Anthony volunteered but he had to rush out the accounts and plan for his chairing on Sun and since he didnt understand from head to toe and i really had no time to explain to him, i had to be the only one giving out directions or answering replies. I had already typed them into my communicator phone during the night as i planned the clues but i forgot to tell the youths to sms at that number. I used this method for the food outing and thot it was pretty ok. But i guess it wasnt this time. Everyone was so impatient and i would be too if i was playing.
What else went wrong? My routes... all from Lim Chu Kang, North or West and led up to East. My reasoning was that no one would like if i made them go all the way to the east and then come back to west. I thought if step by step progress would be more confident booster than the other way. Little did i realise so many people were unhappy that when it all ended at the east, there was no dinner involved. I had a family cny dinner and so i couldnt stay. I would have loved to dine with yfers.
Once again, YFers & the adults, i am sorry that you had to go all the way to the east and then went back home. Everyone was rather concerned about getting home. I was told that if i had planned for them to first go to the east and then back to west, most probably they could have dinner together and travelled home. Now that the drivers needed to go home, yfers had no choice but to rush back to the west with the drivers. Honestly to me then, what's stopping everyone from having dinner together and later go home on their own? It is fellowshipping together and Sin is not that big lah. Traveling on MRT or buses can be a blessed time too. But since it was the general sentiment, i stand corrected and yah...
Oh yes, i forgot to even mention after my quick bath, i needed to be at the ending place to greet them. I have asked Aprel to help me buy potato chips and mineral water and so isaac went with me in a cab all the way to Changi. Thank God we were early and about 30mins later, the first group made their appearance and the rest were history.
Looking back, i am thankful for so many who came and gamely played. Tho they didnt have physical clues to look for, they had to look for the place or the spot and so in a way, it was like a hunt. And also to put up with the pok clues and some broken links....thank u YFers for your patience. And to the drivers who were so kind to offer their services... i salute you too.
Lastly, i thank God for enabling and it was a really eventful JANUARY as i started the new year. Thank God too for good weather during recce and actual day. Only half of my dream came true that day. Not sure when it would be fulfilled totally but i am not complaining... already contented that part of it came to pass in my lifetime :)
Here are the pics for recce of which i didnt have photos from YFers to pair up coz 4 groups didnt email me their photos ;(
This is Angela's BIG FAT idea of making it look spooky...haha!!! mADNESS!
Thanks to my 2 faithful models who made life easier for me :)
These are pics taken that were matched with YFers on actual day - a replica :)
Chapel was closed when they got there and had to take pic from outside :)
All in all, the YFers were rather creative. Hope they have enjoyed their day and yes, would definitely do it again if i have the opportunity :) Shing commented perhaps there should be a comm and roped in YFers. But that would mean some couldnt play and it was my every intention that all to play and enjoy. Yes... this event was mega but thank God for enabling to do what i could with the little time i had.
Many thanks for Angela & BK for helping with whatever they could do, esp Angela who had so much things to do in Jan. She even tried to "borrow" Anthony's car for our recce. And BK... she was soooo sweet. She thanked me during the 2nd recce for asking her to come along. She said she was grateful to be brought around Singapore & to places she had never been to nor known they ever existed. :)
2 comments:
you are most welcome!!! sorry i should have helped more so you wont need to rush so much and work thru the nights
NVM lah :) You were busy. Xiao Shi Qing!
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