18 Jan 09 - Two experiences over the weekend

OK, I've finally gotten myself to post again after such a long time. This time, it's about the events that happened both yesterday and today. This post is going to be longer than usual, so I hope you don't doze off while reading this post. I'll start with yesterday's events.

My alarm clock didn't sound off that morning, which was a relief from being jolted out of bed by the sudden noise. Miraculously, I managed to wake up without the noisy alarm. I got out of bed, not forgetting what I was going to do today. I was going to the Singapore Science Centre to support my classmates who had made it to the finals of the inaugural science buskers challenge. To be more specific, there were two teams of three, with Tristen, Joseph and Lie Wen in one team and Joejyn, Bok Woon and Jia Peng in the other. Despite being slightly behind time, I managed to reach school before the chartered bus had left. I scanned the small group waiting to board the bus, and I noticed that only four other people from our class had come down to show their support. I felt it quite a pity for our numbers to be so few, but at least there were a lot more people who came with us, along with a few other teachers. It wasn't long before we got on the bus and started our journey there. Nonetheless, we reached the science centre in good time and we quickly got ourselves organised.

At the entrance of the annexe building, we were sorted into 'cheerers' and 'voters'. We, of course, being from the same class as the two teams, were shoved by and along the PSLs as 'cheerers'. Initially, we tried to change their decision, but our attempts were futile. So we trudged along until we reached our seats. Then, we awaited the performance of the top ten finalists. The first few groups didn't score very well, but fortunately, our two teams were not in that category. When the time came for them to perform, they did so with confidence and a serving of humor. Tristen's team did well when it was their turn, but Joejyn's team scored what I would have called a landslide victory. I'm saying this because they received the highest number of votes(which accounted for 25% of the total score) and had the highest score from the judges too(which accounted for another 50%). I believe you all know where the last 25% would come from. Anyway, the day was interesting as the experiments performed by the contestant teams were really interesting. After the seventh performance, the guest of honour, Mr Vivian Balakrishnan entered the auditorium. After a brief address, we sat down and continued to watch the remaining three performances. At the end of the performance, all the teams were called back out onto the stage for the prize giving ceremony. They announced the third team, then the second, and finally the first team... Joejyn's team! For those who think I'm anticlimatic, you're very welcome... And so this segment ends here.

Now its time for what happened today. I went for church again today, but first I went for cell breakfast. I'll elaborate if you post a comment on this post or the cbox. When we reached Redhill Market, We split up to go buy our own food. I chose not to buy anything because I had already eaten at home. Later when we met up, we decided on a table where we sat to eat. As my seniors ate, my cell leader shared his lesson. When he was halfway through it, someone pointed out a Malay lady sitting in the middle of the road behind us. After a slight hesitation, my seniors decided that they should go persuade her to get off the road while we remain behind. At first, they had some trouble persuading her off, but eventually another bystander 'threatened' her by saying something like he'd call the police. Eventually, they managed to pull her to safety. She later got up and and walked off into the market. I questioned my leader about what had just happened and he told me that he thought she was trying to commit suicide(I'm not trying for the position of hero, if you thought so). Anyway, my cell leader was concerned that she would try to get herself hurt in some other way so he asked us to split up and keep an eye on her. I followed one of my seniors named Ivan.

We never managed to find her so my cell leader decided to do another sweep while we go back to church. We, however, decided to follow him on another sweep because we weren't going to be late for church just yet. On the second sweep, we still couldn't find her so my cell leader called the police and we waited for their arrival. When they did come, however, my cell leader was quite dissapointed. "Why did they send an ambulance?" he said. The police officers asked us a ew questions and were about o leave when my cell leader turned around and found her. "There! There she is!". I instictively stepped aside to make way for them and watched as they escorted her to the ambulance. At that point of time, she carried the same dazed face as the one i had seen earlier. I would say that was a big relief. These things dn't happen often and they often can have catastrophic results. Anyway, I'm glad some good came out of it and I had a good time in church. I'll end here for today and will be posting soon.

Ps: No offence there, Tristen and team. Also, I'm beginning to think i should have cut this post into two seperate ones...