037: Zovb Ball!

Zovb Ball!: 14 Jan 2012

Liu Hsu Ying! <3 

The Taiwanese is all ready to plaaaaaaaaay!

 

On the 14^th of January, a group of us year 6es gathered in school for a fun, exciting activity – BLOOP! Bloop. What does this amazingness?!?! Basically, we squeezed ourselves into huge “very light” air-filled rubber zovb balls and played various games, namely soccer, dog and bone, wrestling and bowling. ALL WHILST IN THE BALLS WHOOOAA~~ 

All ready for a day of fun and games!

 Look at all those intense faces

We were divided into two groups, the amazing Adi-buddies and the jolly Jun Kiat! The first game we played was soccer. This game was rather slow paced, as we were just getting used to carrying the balls and moving around in them, but we soon got the hang of it and had lots of fun knocking each other over, all in good spirit. We soon discovered that we could crash into the person in possession of the ball to get the ball for our own team. However, this too required some amount of strategising. If we were to hit the other person too hard, the impact would throw us off our feet as well, and it would be difficult for us to get the ball in time too. However, with his mad skills and almost-telekinetic abilities, the soccer was dominated by the golden boy JOE HO JUN KIAT! :O :O. But this game was merely a warm-up. Little did we know, more intense games were to begin…
 

 Hsu Ying :D and Zenn D:

 Games briefingz. Look at Hsu Ying! Such a boss!

Dog and bone was played with a soccer ball being the bone, and we were allowed to bump each other while in the zovb balls in order to knock the other person off his/her feet to seize the ball; there were even extremely educational and challenging Mathematical questions asked to determine who was to go for the bone. This meant that both physical and mental agility were required in this insanely strenuous game! This game was again dominated by team Jun Kiat! 

 Soccer, dog and bone and wrestling!

Joe Ho Jun Kiat thinks the games were tooo easy for him.

After a short break, the teams were reshuffled to ensure a fairer fight and encourage more mingling. Following which, we had a round of wrestling in the zovb balls, in which each team sent a representative into the circular wrestling rink in the middle, and both sides would engage in an intense battle of strength, agility and guts (or sag for short). Our very own WONG LI DE BRIAN and AARON CHONG NGIAP SHUEN dominated at this game, their sheer beastliness overcoming opponent after opponent. Brian made a valiant attempt, managing to plough through about 4 opponents, only succumbing to his fatigue, while Aaron the conquerer succeeded in overcoming the instructor for the activity! WOW AMAZING~~ 

We have a champion~

Zenn and Hsu Ying rolling the balls..

We then moved on to bowling. In this game, participants were to stand in a triangular formation similar to that of bowling pins, and one member from each team was sent to the front, their task being to run from a distance and ram into the “bowling pins”, knocking over as many as they could at one go. The pins stood their ground and were resilient in not being knocked down, making it challenging for the “bowling balls” (Aaron and Brian). They made an intrepid attempt, though, and plowed down four pins!
 

TAIWANESE IN A BALL! OMGEE SO CUTE!! XD

At the end of all the games, we were exhausted and aching, and some of us even had bruises on our knuckles from bring scraped whilst carrying the zovb balls. But through all these games, what stood out the most was the meaningful time of fellowship we had, together as a cohort of Year 6 Primers. Through all the laughter and sweat expelled in this wonderful opportunity for us to bond and enjoy each other’s company, we’ve learnt many valuable lessons. One of which was perseverance – even as we were tired from carrying to heavy zovb balls and running around at the same time, all under the sweltering, blazing sun, we continued to persevere so that we could continue to have fun playing the games with everyone else, and supported one another with words of encouragement, and what a worthwhile decision that was! This time of sunburns, bruises, and most importantly time spent in unity, will forever remain in our hearts and minds a lovely memory of our final year in Primers.

~Written by:

SCL/6 Zenn Wong

Ephesians 2:8

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God."

Birthday Celebration!

Alas! Noel and I did not attend Zobv ball as we had to teach the Year 5 Old Boys Drill 3 Commands. Thankfully, they picked up the commands really fast and were good at executing it. Now I wonder what I'm going to teach them for POP and PLC...turnings on slow march? :D

Anyways both our activities ended at the same time as so, we joined up with the rest of the Primers who went for Zobv ball for a time of CE and sharing. We watched a video on cities in the Bible before being split into smaller groups for discussions led by our own peers. After everything was over, we proceeded upstairs for dismissal and then... CAKEEEEEEEE!

Taiwanese and SR prepares the cakeees~

Two cakes for November to January babies!

The cakes were bought by Jeanette, who unfortunately was too sick to be around (get well soon jelly beanie!). However she was still there with us in spirit (as were those who also weren't at parade) and we had cake! We celebrated the birthdays of those born from November to January!

 Aaand the birthday celebration starts..

And everyone paaaartaaaaaays!!!

Everyone had a great time fellowshipping, having fun and eating cake. After taking a few more photos, we all said our goodbyes and went off. Some to Wah Chee, some to play soccer, some home. Whatever it is, you can be sure that parade was awesome (as usual) and we'll definitely be back for more!

 Service and Relations Committee 2011 

(Not in picture: Jeanette, Amanda and Dom)

PRIMERS!!! :D

~Written by:
SCL/6 Nicholas Lim

1 Timothy 1:5
"The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."

036: BB Day

BB Day: 10 Jan 2012

BB Day this year was held on 10^th January 2012, it was rather strange because it was held two days before the actual date of the event – 12^th January, but to accommodate for the secondary school kids who were leaving to their respective OEP locations, we had to push it up. Still, the excitement was not compromised whatsoever. After going through the rehearsals, we were all excited to be presented to the school with our awesome uniform, plus we would be the first UYO to have our Day with the new parade procedures! 

Well, the new parade procedures did have its setbacks though. Firstly, the contingent size was reduced by at least SIX TIMES to a meagre strength of 36 – 18 Year 4 Boys and 18 Year 6 Primers. It was really quite disappointing, especially for those who didn’t get to be amongst the 36 people. Secondly, marching was banned, well for the most part. Mr Keith Tan helped us get away with marching about 10m. Thirdly, it was planned to be kept within 15 or so minutes, way shorter than it used to.

Still, we were excited enough for that day! So everybody started reporting at around 0645 hours, though quite a few were late, we more or less started our rehearsals on time. We had quite a significant amount of new reserves though – over-enthusiastic people who wanted to crash the contingent. 2 rehearsals went by and we were all prepared to do the actual thing! Our excitement built up gradually at first, but by the time students started filling up the parade ground my heart was already racing and pounding hard.

And poof! The excitement all disappeared when assembly was cancelled because it was ‘raining’. Well, it was, but it was ever so slight, and it didn’t look like it would last long anyway (yea, it didn’t last long). Anyway, the school disappeared, and most of the initial excitement slowly faded away as we stood still facing the Senior Administration, Guest-of-Honour, and emcees. I do believe most of us quickly recovered from the disappointment though, some would probably have been relieved that it was cancelled, and by the time the Guest-of-Honour spoke, we were all listening attentively to the words he had to say.

The Guest-of-Honour (I forgot his name) was a really cool guy! He was CSM and Head Prefect when he was a Boy and became some other cool personality in ACJC. His message seemed interesting and I believe his words of encouragement really spurred many of us on in our journey in the Brigade. Yea. I like him.

Anyway, right after he gave his message and the message from the Brigade President, Mr Hodge prayed for us, and they started walking off. Sadly though, we didn’t get to do our awesome 10m march off, we just fell out and began dispersing to our various classes, while the Admin Key-Appointment-Holders and Steering Committee made our way to the Board Room to enjoy reception.

At first we didn’t eat though, we wanted to wait till our fellow Year 6 people had their recess before we started eating. It just didn’t feel very fair. The conversation with the GOH was rather awkward, yet interesting at the same time. We began introducing ourselves, our lives in the IB programme, what BB is like now… yea these kind of stuff. What was the really cool bit was the random photos we took though, with AND without the GOH. We had loads of fun arranging ourselves to form Oreos with our uniform and all… 

That’s about all that happened for BB Day this year. Rather short and unexciting, but still a precious day in our hearts! Plus, it was still extremely fun!

Oh! The next day Mr Hodge promised to read the BB Day message to the school, and made the flag raisers and myself come down in Full U. Hey but guess what? It rained again. Oh well, the school’s just not meant to hear the message. Bleah. Well, I cannot say being the PC twice in two days wasn’t fun though! 

peezout! ^^v

~Written by:
SCL/6 Thaddaeus Tan

Psalms 96:9
"Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth."

035: BB Day Rehearsal

BB Day Rehearsal: 6 January 2012

Parade on 6^th January was the first parade of the year, after a long break during the holidays. The company fell in at the parade square at 2.30pm after school, much different from having parades on Saturday mornings, when the weather is usually much cooler!

After falling in, we split up into our various cohorts. We were split into various groups – some Drill Instructors left to teach the Boys drill, and about 18 of us Primers were sent to rehearse for BB Day on 10^th January. The last group was to learn drill. Although I was initially supposed to join the group learning drill, I later joined the other Primers and Boys practicing for BB day as a reserve, along with Fonny. Although I was not involved in the actual parade on BB day, it was an interesting experience, and it was actually pretty cool watching the whole contingent synchronize their movements very nicely.

When drill had ended, we headed to the lecture theater at the IB block for Live! Praise, the first one of the year! During the worship and message, I felt really blessed to be able to be part of a Christ-centred CCA. Our school’s chaplain, Pastor Aaron Tay, gave the message about dedicating the year to the Lord, being a strong community and hearing His plan for us.

The last part of our time in the LT involved the Captain’s address, where Dr Yong made a short speech, involving the introduction of the Officers and teachers in charge of the different levels. There was also a short presentation on Adventure Quest (AQ), which was in the form of a video. It highlighted our company’s Boys at last year’s AQ, and showed photographs of them taking part in the various challenges such as kayaking, cycling and even shooting.

           

Finally, parade had come to an end. We assembled at the parade square again for dismissal. After being dismissed, however, the Primers reassembled near the front office as Mr Caleb Lin gave out the Anchor’s Award badges to the different ones of us who had fulfilled the requirements for the award. I think that all those who received the award felt a sense of pride that we had completed the 5 day BBSG shift, which we found tiring, but ultimately rewarding at the end of the experience.

All in all, the first parade of the year was an exciting one, and I definitely look forward to future parades!

~Written by:

SCL/6 Jeanette Loke

Galatians 6:9

"And let us not got grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up."

034: Primers Christmas Party

Primers Christmas Party: 23 December 2011

‘Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la :D Christmas time was nearing! On the 23^rd of December, the Primers had a mini Christmas party at Noel’s house to celebrate the festive season in a time of fellowship, fun and food.

 MARK YUNG...

...and friends...

 and friends!

AND FRIENDS!!! :D

A potluck dinner was held and unique dishes were contributed by everyone at the table. There was a wide array of food, ranging from the exotic Italian “Parmigiana de Mellanzane”, brought by Mark Yung, eaten by Mark Yung and friends, to artistic floating jelly on top of cream cheese for dessert, creatively designed by Aaron. Of course, there were more…normal dishes as well, such as good old spaghetti with meatballs, brought by Jeanette and a perfectly round omelette beaming from ear to ear with tomato ketchup :D all the food was delicious and everyone ate to their hearts content! Some of our officers also dropped by with a surprise of mini donuts to satisfy our tummies even more.

 Fellowship around the table~

Some of the food. Cupcakes baked by Sophia and Zenn. 

Zenn: Hmm... looks edible... hurhur

Sophia: Is Zenn gonna eat that?

Zenn: Oh well I'll just eat it. Nom.

Sophia: Waaaahhh....! Save me one too! 

Soon, everyone ate until they could eat no longer. It was then time for the….gift exchange!! Our gifts were laid out on the table- all of different shapes and sizes. Some were in paper bags, some were in colourful wrapping paper, others were more innovatively packaged, right Nic? :P Noel labeled the gifts and wrote numbers (in Chinese :p) on slips of paper. Everyone excitedly picked a slip of paper and bursting with anticipation, scrambled to open their gifts to eagerly discover what lay within. There were delightful surprises, such as a cute carebear and a bobblehead toy, as well as useful presents like ipod covers and mugs. Also, the “present” of having to eat all the remaining desserts was drawn by Noel! 
  

The Noel Challenge: MATH...IN CHINESE!!

 Gift Exchange! (100% A Girl's Idea)

 Nicholas' Narnia: 2 Year's Later

 Zenn and Jeanette admire Nicholas' amazing gift-wrapping skills

Once everyone was satisfied with the gifts received, we decided to engage in some action playing Wii. Raving rabbits saw Noel’s mum beating Mark Yung fiercely at a “work-out” showdown! Don’t worry Mark, after buffing up through NS, you can go back and have a re-match. We’ll be on your side brother :D the girls’ screams filled the air as evil bunnies emerged from the water to attack, but were slain by knights in shining armour victoriously spraying carrot juice at them. 

One Vice-Head Primer talks to stuffed animals...

After everyone was tired of fighting rabbits, we moved on to the next game- rockband! We ambitiously challenged ourselves to play “extreme” mode for the all 4 segments of vocals, guitar, bass and drums. Sad to say, it did not work out very well initially. We kept failing and had to restart the same song many times. It dawned upon us that we could improve the drumming segment if we worked together as a team! With 3 people working on the drum segment- each one focusing on either 2 cymbals or the pedal, the drumming segment improved by leaps and bounds. Also, with more discernment to pick a more suitable difficulty level for the other segments, we were able to complete a few songs successfully :D

You can't spell teamwork, without the 'team'.

Noel: You will man up, and you will play Rockband.

Mark: Ya, ya! Play Rockband! hurhur.

In the midst of the fun and laughter, a top-secret birthday surprise for Noel was being stealthily arranged. Oh, the look of complete shock on Noel’s face was priceless after a pillow, that we forced him to cover his face with, was removed and he saw a chocolate cake with the wordings “Happy omelette day!” before his eyes.  We sang a birthday song and all enjoyed yummy cake after. Happy belated birthday once again omelette! 

 The not-so-secret surprise..

 Look at Noel's surprised face. He obviously didn't see it coming

Time truly flies when you’re having fun and before we knew it, it was way past bedtime and time to head home. We bid farewell to one another and left with happy tummies and spirits from the enjoyable time we all shared that night!

WE LIKE TA PARTAAAAY!

~Written by:
SCL/6 Sophia Ng

Isaiah 9:6
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."