Kg Chai Chee CC WEC Colouring Contest

26 July 2009

The colouring contest is organised at the Community Centre in conjunction with the Emergency Preparedness day at the carpark right outside the CC.

After taking up the position of President at Kg Chai Chee Mandarin/English Toastmasters Club, one of my aim is to create more speaking avenues for members through involvement with in grassroots and partnership with the CC's Women's Executive Committee. The Toastmasters Club is a subgroup of the WEC. I am honoured to be the Master of the Ceremony for the event.

The Club's VPE Adelene helped set up a publicity booth for the Club. The response was better than expected and some parents actually left their particulars down for following up.

WEC Assistant Treasurer & the Toastmasters Club Sponsor, Mdm Sim and myself conducted some games for the energetic crowd of children. The enthusiasm was so overwhelming that I found myself surrounded by all of them when I just requested for one participant.

The prizes were presented by the Guest-of-Honour, Mr Lee Yi Shyan, Minister of State for Trade & Industry and MP for East Coast GRC.

I was heartened when a parent requested for me to take a picture with her children. The boy had just won the contest, and the girl had participated in the "5 cute poses" game that I conducted.

13th Eunos CC Youth Executive Committee Biennial General Meeting

25 July 2009

In camp training for the past week was a good time to catch up with friends and an opportunity to refresh myself on the equipment and knowledge.

Time flies, and the 12th term Eunos Community Club Youth Executive Committee has come to an end. I still remember attending the 12th Biennial General Meeting 2 years ago, and now I'm attending the 13th one.

Within these 20 months, the YEC has organised 32 activities. I have chaired the organising committee for Youth OUT! 2008, Trip to Southern Ridges, represented PAYM in the Hong Kong - Singapore Youth Exchange and mentored Bedok North Secondary School Service Learning Club students in organising the first-ever SLC forum in Singapore. My greatest joy is being able to work with a team of friends. After attending the trip to Southern Ridges, my schoolmate Chee Lee became a YEC volunteer and subsequently got nominated to be a candidate for the 13th term YEC. Pristine, a girl I met during a market visit by our Adviser, also became a candidate. During a Chinese New Year event at the market, I met Hui Li, who subsequently expressed interest to join the YEC.

Attracting volunteers, especially youths, to help out at grassroots may be simple or tough. But the sense of achievement when people join you after finding out more about grassroots volunteering from you is definitely a motivation.

Hock Rong and I started working on the BGM at 6am. I fixed the introduction video while he worked on the presentation slides. The video took me till near noon to complete. I was glad everyone enjoyed the video, and felt real great when Ming Choo told me she nearly cried after watching it.

There were 2 rehearsals prior to the actual meeting. And the planning took months.

At 4.30pm, a queue started building up at the registration counter. By 5pm, our quorum of 100 was reached and we were good to go. Malay Kompang performers chaperoned the Guest-of-Honour, Mr Zainul Abidin Rasheed, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Adviser to Eunos Grassroots Organisations to the theatrette.

The hip hop dance group, "Love Anthem", did the opening performance before the video was played.

The achievements of the 12th Term Eunos CC YEC video:

The presentation of the Chairman's report, Secretary's report and Treasurer's report followed next.

The Chairman of the 12th term YEC then called for the dissolution of the committee and members proposed Mr Stephen Chia PBM, Vice-Chairman, Eunos CCMC to be the presiding officer.

One by one the candidates for the 13th term YEC went on stage to introduce themselves.

Then members of the Youth Club casted their votes. The emcee, Azhar, conducted the gameshows "Are you a Movie Junkie?" and "Don't Forget the Lyrics".

Certificates of Appreciation were presented to the 12th term YEC by the Guest-of-Honour.

Welcoming the 13th term Eunos CC YEC:

Together, we took the PAYM pledge, before heading for refreshments and the Key Office Bearer's meeting.

PAddle Pop Outing

19 July 2009

The long awaited YP Eunos outing is finally here. The creative minds of the Young Activists gave birth to the title of "PAddle Pop", with the abbreviation of PAP. PAddle = Cycling; Pop = Popping Coconuts. The trip was planned and by Chee Lee, who also came up with a photo hunt game for us.

YP Eunos:

This is a real cheesy signage put up by a drinks stall.

After the photo hunt, we took a rest and did the "Pop"!

Pulau Ubin makes a good getaway from the buzzy island city dwellers. As we cycled around Pulau Ubin, we saw many ripened rambutans about to drop off from the fruit trees.

What a huge moniker lizard?

Prize Presentation:

NUS Student's Political Association Appreciation Dinner 2009

17 July 2009

The NUSPA Appreciation Dinner was held at NUS Guild House, Suntec City. It was a great time to catch up and make new friends.

Member Relations Committee:

Policy Forum Committee:

Receiving the Certificates of Appreciation on behalf of Policy Forum Director from NUSPA President:

The NUSPA family:

Eunos Zone '3' RC Block Party cum Multi Racial Food Fiesta

12 July 2009

Reached Singapore at about 2am. Mother, Lin Qiang and Hock Rong were at the airport to welcome me back. By the time I could get into bed, it was already 4am.

At 8am, I went to the RC centre to prepare for the Block Party cum Multi Racial Food Fiesta. Luckily, Mother had helped me bought game prizes for my games segment. Feeling goggy, I floated around getting my script ready.

At 9am, residents began to gather outside the RC centre. The cooking demonstration was conducted by Mdm Hazizah, who taught everyone how to cook a delicious set of Mee Siam. It was a a beneficial lesson for some who always couldn't get their Mee Siam as tasty as they wanted it to be.

After the cooking demonstration, everyone headed in to the centre for games. The enthusiasm of the crowd fuelled my drive to deliver a good show. It was a very interactive process and that kept everyone engaged.

The first part of the game was a quiz about multiracialism, followed by a game involving participants to act out and pass the message to each other. The message was "Little Nonya wants to eat Roti Prata". Games usually excite children, and sure enough everyone was entertained by these young ones.

Many residents also left their names and I/C for the voting of Hock Rong for the Favourite Nominee of the Stars of Shine Award 2009.

YP Bonding Trip to Chengdu, China Day 4

11 July 2009

Time flies. We are now at our last leg of the 4-day bonding trip. After checking out from the hotel, YP Aljunied took a group picture.

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Some facts about Chengdu:

There's a popular saying that goes "少不如川，老不如广" (If you're a youth, why not go to Sichuan? If you're an elderly, why not go to Guangzhou?).

A long time ago, there was a lunatic ruler that cut off all the left hands of soldiers and all the 3-inch feet of ladies upon his reign. He particularly adored a scholar, to a point that he felt weird not seeing him around. To prevent himself from missing the scholar, he killed the scholar. The killing in Chengdu was so rampant that the new county governor could not find a single person in the area.

The vacuum in Chengdu was quickly filled up by migrants from other parts of China. Perhaps due to this history, the Chengdu people are more open and tolerant to immigrants.

Sichuan dishes are spicy but the chilli was an imported spice from South America. Chilli helps to warm the body and thus was easily assimilated into the local society due to the cool weather. Mao Ze Dong once said, "吃辣椒搞革命，不吃辣椒不革命" (revolutionists eat chilli, non-revolutionists don't eat chilli).
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The first visit is to Du Fu Thatched Cottage (杜甫草堂). Du Fu is a famous poet. During the Anshi rebellion, he resided in a cottage. This cottage is now turned into a tourist attraction.

A thatched cottage was rebuilt to depict the actual living condition of Du Fu.

The Hall of Odes feature the 7 famous poets in China's history.


Xin Qi Ji 辛弃疾

Su Dongpo 苏东坡


Li Bai 李白Qu Yuan 屈原

Tao Yuanming 陶渊明

Bai Juyi 白居易
Not forgetting, Du Fu 杜甫:

Tang Dynasty Artifacts:

Lunch was at a Chong Qing (also called Ba Guo 巴国) restaurant. Along the way, snapped some pictures for memory keepsake.

The bus stop:

Another patriotic billboard...

The Restaurant:

After a satisfying lunch, we headed to a silk factory to learn about how silk is manufactured from the silkworm.

The uniqueness of the Sichuan silk is that the cocoons contain two larva instead of the typical one. We were allowed to keep a cocoon.

Removing the cocoon from the larva:

The cocoon is then extracted to produce silk.

There are many benefits of using silk blankets and pillow covers, including the prevention of bed bugs and dust mites.

Following next was the visit to the Jinsha Site Musuem (金沙遗址博物馆), an archaeological museum.

With the tour guide Ying Yong:

The highlight and trademark of the site is the Sun-God birds of Jinsha site (太阳神鸟). It is a very thin piece of gold carved with the shape of a sun in the middle, surrounded by birds. After being discovered through an archaeological site, the authorities requested blacksmiths from all over China to reproduce an identical piece but none of them were able to do that. This is a symbol of pride for the Sichuan people.

Archaeology is really not for me...

During the travel to the airport, the tour guide shared many interesting insights:

Zhang Yi (who lived during the period of the Three Kingdoms) made an observation about rats in the padi fields and the toilets. Despite the fact that rats are scavengers, the rats at the padi fields are fat but those at the toilets are very thin. This led Zhang to conclude that being hardworking is not sufficient, sometimes the environment does matter.

Sichuan, also called Country of Shu (蜀国), has a saying that goes 蜀犬吠日, literally meaning Sichuan dogs bark at the sun. The idiom is used to mean getting worked up over small matters. Indeed, the sun rarely appears in the sky of Sichuan.

Guanxi 关系 is very embedded in the culture of the Chinese. Hospitals have long queues and a lot of times, people need to use guanxi to get themselves a place in the hospital. Everyday, about 1000 people make a living by helping patients wanna-be to queue outside the Huaxi Hospital. The wards are so packed that a 4-bed one would be converted into 6-bed one and there would be other patients sitting around the ward. Patients rarely get to see the doctor, who would be leading 10 trainees. To ensure a successful and smooth operation, the bribe must go to the doctor, nurse and the anaesthetician.

In June, when the weather gets hot, students will carry fans to school and fan themselves while the teacher conducts lessons. Their fans would carry the message "六月天气热的热，我的风扇借不得" (June's weather's very hot, don't even think about borrowing my fan).

Sichuan got its name at about year 1001 AD, when the authorities combined a few areas into one called 川峡四路, and thus the abbrieviation 四川 (Sichuan). Chengdu got its name from being the capital of Sichuan, 成为一个都 = 成都

The traditional Chinese marriage banquet in Sichuan would take about 3 days. This is because, relatives and friends might live very far away from the newly wed. The first 2 days would consist of mahjong sessions, ending off with the 3rd day when the wedding dinner is held. Many Sichuan people would try to find various reasons to throw a banquet as it is profitable ($ from angbaos).

Home Sweet Home~

Goodbye Chengdu!