Retreat: Oct 17 - 18

Waking up at noon last Saturday, I pottered about at home and took my time packing up my clothes for an overnight AWLT retreat at the Beringgis Beach Resort. It was the team's 13th annual retreat and my tenth! I only left home at 1.30 p.m. while the rest had gone up earlier at 9 a.m. for a game of paintball.

Here are some pics of the paintball session from Debs' and Wun2's cameras.




























Craving for really fatty food, I made a stop at Burger King and bought a BBQ Double Grilled Onion Cheese burger set that comes with free onion rings! The onion rings were superb! The crispy crunchers sent me down an aromatic memory lane. I think it has been more than 10 years since I last had BK's onion rings. The burger was delicious too.

Yummy! Nom nom nom...

Confession: I ate all of them while taking a leisurely drive to the venue, hence the turtle-paced journey. Definitely not recommended for fast-driving and amateurs. Note to self: Will not eat and drive, again...

I arrived just in time for the 3 p.m. indoor games session handled by Debs, Fifi (labeled by James) and Wun2. It was a smaller group this year compared to previous years' but nevertheless, we had great fun.



Yup, we found out that Uzbekistan is a country name that is hard to pronounce under stress and the three female musketeers thought that San Francisco is a country ;)



At 4 p.m., it was free time. Tradition has it that the boys and men will be in the shallow pool for a game of water basketball.

The boys warming up

Bel2 and Mel2 in the kiddie pool

Aww... cute Bel

Fifi's failed attempt down the water slide

The girls, as usual, snubbed me for a decent photo of them :P except for Wun2 :)

I went for an evening walk along the beach with Susie. It was windy and cooling. The cloudy sky protected us from the harsh glare of an evening sunset.

Serenity

A jet plane cutting through the sky

I returned from the walk to find that the girls had also joined the boys for water basketball. It was definitely a first for the team! They gave the boys a run for their money because they could play really well! Bravo!

Every year, someone is bound to be a victim in the fun but violent game because of kiasu-ness (fear of losing). One would think that the men would play and behave more gentlemanly since it was the ladies' inaugural participation, but no!

This year's first and thankfully, only casualty was Victor, who suffered a long, unsightly but fortunately, superficial scratch on his chest... *painful*


I had a dip in the pool too and stayed on with Wallace to shoot some rings long after the rest had gone. He was the runner when my shots strayed because this aunty was just too lazy to move much. Warning: You may call me aunty only if you are young enough to be my children :P

As I made my way to the function room after dinner, I passed by the lobby and saw this simple flowery decoration.

Samson led worship before we had another round of gelling time. It was a round of Michael's famous stretching and massaging exercise before Debs took over.










We found out that some of us are quite poor in relaying visual and audio messages but are decent 'actors and actresses' ^^ We capped the night session with some hot beverages, courtesy of James.

But the girls were not ready to call it a night as they visited Debs' and my room on the pretext of studying for school exam. Fifi and Nana actually brought their Maths books to the retreat for revision -.- Of course their noble intention failed miserably as they were soon enticed by Wun2's (the 'too free' post-PMR student) suggestion to play guessing games - white magic.

Debs and I also chipped in and introduced some games that we used to play when we were young from ages ago... black magic, 9-squares, Johnny woops, Mrs Pearson, pencil trick, blah... blah... topped with potato chips and more jokes before they left our room at midnight.

I dozed off soon after but woke up sometime in the night and couldn't go back to sleep. There I was tossing and turning for nearly two hours, I think, before sleeping soundly again. Both Debs and I overslept and only woke up around 8.30 a.m., with just another half an hour to spare for brekky. We made it nevertheless.

Sunday morning saw Samson leading worship, Michael sharing his sermon, all of us taking a groups photo and yours truly facilitating the group sharing. It was the time where we shared what we have learned for this year, how we can contribute more and our hopes for this team. It was also a short time of encouragement and I hope, openness.

After a buffet lunch, it was time to go home. The short retreat had come to an end.

Here, Wun2, the 'entertainer' held her audience captive with her black magic.

 
I was to send Nana and Wun home but the 'post PMR student' was itchy to make a detour to somewhere else, anywhere, before going home. We ended up going for roti canai. Surprisingly, Nana could finish what's before her and took another bite from Wun's plate! It was also Wun's first roti canai -.-

Nana finally posed for a pic. No choice, or else walk home ;)





Girls, sedap right?

Though not all of us went, those who did had a jolly good time. I know I did...


Something old, something new;
Of the past but mostly present;

Something revisited but not pining;
Not bitterness, only memories.

Life is meaningless without...

After the Sunday celebration today, the team went to Lintas for the famous Sang Nyuk Mien or Pork Noodle. I do not know the shop's name but it is a corner shop that is perpetually filled with people. So, yeah, I guess it is famous. I've been there only once many years ago.

It was very noisy there so we seemed to be shouting at each other to talk. I think we were quite loud because I noticed the patrons at the tables nearby glancing our way. Or maybe we were the noisy ones... :P

Anyway, everyone had their fill except for our poorest eater, Nana, who did not finish more than half of her food. Therefore, we admonished her for being wasteful... nag, nag, nag, nag...

We ended up talking about nicknames and therefore, if you hadn't noticed, I use nicknames here.

When Chris ordered a mango pudding, it started a chain reaction among the girls and they too ordered another three puddings.

Then, I noticed the different ways the girls scooped their puddings and I asked Debs how she would eat hers.

This is how Wun2 scooped her pudding:

From top down

This is how Phoebs and Nana scooped theirs:

From one end to the other

This is how both looked like, side-by-side:

Debs said that she would most probably eat like Wun2 while mine would be like Phoebs' and Nana's.

Then I took some random pics of the people:

Nana insisted on turning away from the camera

Terence also turned his face away... too handsome, is it?

Mr Sam Cool terpaksa pose for the camera because of something he had said...

Just before we were about to leave the shop, in his quiet, cool way, Sam proceeded to make the quote of the day to Chris which was announced to all of us:

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"Life is meaningless without pork."

@.@


O_o


T_T


Profound?

And because of that statement, Mr Cool was again forced to pose for another pic to be posted here:

Mr Sam Cool, makanlah all the pork you want... :P

P/S: I had not meant to blog this but because of Mr Sam Cool's 'profound' statement, I just had to, for remembrance's sake. Nah, it's all because of you, Sam... siok?

Pizza Rush!

The Abundant Life Worship Team had a makan session on the evening of 22 March 2009, which was on the Sunday before the school reopened.

Usually, we would order a few dishes to go with rice and noodles. However, on that night, it was pizza fest!

James took the opportunity to place pizza orders online because it was buy-1-free-1! (Still applicable now as long as you order online).

All together there were 12 boxes of large thin-crust and breaded pizzas!

Though not everyone had arrived (and also getting the bad news that our drummer, Oscar, could not make it because he had sprained his ankle earlier that evening while playing floorball), the makan session started at 7.00 p.m. sharp.

In our team, when it comes to food, late-comers will get the leftovers.

It started off with a (short) prayer before food...

L - R: Harold, Jeffrey, William, James, Christopher, Samson, Terence, pizza, 100-plus, pizza, 100-plus...

L - R: 100-plus, Rebecca, Wun2, Harold, Jeffrey, William, James, 100-plus, pizza, salads, pizza...

Late-comers (in no particular order): Debs, Phoebs, Easter, Tiffany, Chris, Samuel, Michael... (did I leave out anyone?)

After the prayer was said, everyone who was there early, dug in...

Cheers!

If you have not already noticed, there were only four pics from that night because it was hard to take pics when your hands were holding pizza... ^^

Very soon after, the rest finally arrived because they all knew NOT to arrive too late lest there is no more food for them.

Surprisingly, our drummer whom we thought could not make it since he had accidentally injured himself, came!

Limping through the door after being dropped off by his dad, he still had the appetite to wallop the rest of the pizzas though there was not much choice for him to choose from. (Poor Oscar.)

After food, Debs led a round of getting-to-know-you...

The topic? Describe two toilet habits that you practice... @.@ =.=

There was no shy-shy when everyone proceeded to share his or her habits (some were hilarious), and we all got to know each other grossly better, pun intended... ;P

Then, it was a round of quiz from the book of James and a sketch before we called it a night.

It was a simple, enjoyable and memorable night with fast-food, toilet tales and quiz.

I am definitely looking forward to the next makan... sushi fest? ^^