Amazing Marina Green Race 2009

21 June 2009

The Amazing Marina Green Race 2009 is held in conjunction with the Singapore International Water Festival. The festival comes right before the Singapore International Water Week, where delegates from all over the world would be conjugating in Singapore. SIWF is organised by Singapore Polytechnic and the Public Utilities Board.

The Race is conducted by the Chemical & Life Sciences Department of SP. Baohui is involved as the Publicity Head and designed the cool-looking event banners and posters. To support her, Mother, Aunt and I form the team - Team Marvel Heroes.

According to the briefing on Friday (19 June 2009), the teacher-in-charge disclosed that there are about 90 teams taking part in the race, with 10 group prizes to be won. With slightly more than 10% of winning and looking at the auditorium which was packed with highly energetic teens, I highly doubted that my team would come in top. Nevertheless, we still did well!

It has been a super-duper long time since I alighted at the Marina South MRT station. We were ferried by shuttle buses to the Marina Barrage. When I first saw the exterior design of Marina Barrage, I was not impressed. I thought it looked unpragmatic. I was wrong. Since we were early, we explored the Barrage and I realised it's a heck of a great place. I particularly like the flying kites. The wind is so conducive that even a kite tied to a bag on the other end, can fly by itself!

After enjoying the superb view from the rooftop of the Barrage, we assembled at the bridge, readying ourselves for the flag-off.

Game 1 & Quiz @ Marina Barrage: Find the hidden items

Baohui was the game I/C for this station. This game helped us to be familiar with the Marina Barrage. Hidden items (recyclables) are everywhere, even at the centre of the fountain! Due to time constraints, we only managed to locate 11 out of 15 items.

The quiz was relatively easier. We managed to get some help just by asking the security guards.

Games & Quiz @ Singapore Flyer: A little Physical...

On our way to the next stop, we saw contestants running across CityLink. Wow.

We had some advantage since Mother and I had just been to Singapore Flyer not too long ago. The quiz was finished in no time, with the assistance of the receptionist. The games were however a tiny-miny challenging as it was a little more physical. We had to get to push-up positions to retrieve some items across a gap. The other game involved Mother throwing a ball and myself catching it with a basket in varying distance.

Games & Quiz @ Esplanade: The Plane that didn't Fly

The Information Counter answered about half of the quiz. It was around noon time and the weather was excruciatingly hot. One of the game involved magnetic fishing from a pond. Another was to make a plane that looks good and flies good. Unfortunately, ours didn't even glide. It just went topsy turvy and did some somersaults before landing at the 2-point (out of 10 points) zone.

We headed back to Marina Barrage with great satisfaction, albeit the sweating and tireness.

Once we registered our return, we headed to the Sustainable Singapore Gallery.

The highlight of the gallery is the simulation of the actual workings of the dam at Marina Barrage. A "storm" broke out and "rainwater" fell on the reservoir. As the water builds up to a certain level, the dam opens up to release water to the sea.

The gallery is pretty interactive. Before we left, we took a photo.

We left Marina Barrage for the Active Aging Carnival at Suntec City. It might sound ironic, but I enjoyed participating in this event meant for Mother and Aunt. The most memorable would be the booths offering free Segway (the human transporter) rides and free motorbike rides.