AFTRSHOK

24th November 2010

Wednesday

Sunny (Morning), Cloudy (Day), Rainy (Night)

Today morning I arrived at SMK Tropicana at around 7.20, just in time to learn what's happening and stuff. The juniors were gathering their stuff into their patrols and the S.L.A.V.E.S. were moving things into the lorry that will take all the tables and stuff up to Commonwealth Park. I got to put my bags in Amanda's car so I did not have to worry about it after that. I then helped out with whatever I got to help out with, pretty much nothing. Haha. Some of the scouters have already moved out with the S.L.A.V.E.S. in charge of setting up the place before the participants arrive at Commonwealth Park. After the buses arrive, Benjamin, Li May, Wai Sin, Chee Meng and I helped organize the scouts to put their stuff into the buses. Ben, Chee Meng and I then each rode in one of the three buses to go up to the campsite. When we got there, Ben, Chee Meng and I taped the general camp info on the usual whiteboard. Later, Chee Ming and I did the points system for the patrols; we stopped half way for lunch and after lunch, Chee Ming went out to buy stuff for dinner with Amanda and so Chee Meng helped me out. Time crawled because there was nothing much for the scouters to do. Chee Meng and I did rounds a few times and looked around for things to help out with. Later after the Dark Portal was completed by the S.L.A.V.E.S., Mr. Colin got all the scouts to fall in and we got ready for the opening ceremony. After the opening ceremony, we had photo sessions with the Dark Portal. Some how, the kerosene era of lighting has been somewhat replaced by this rock thingys I forgot what they're called but it's awesome but also smelly and hard to use. Kerosene lamps were replaced with this rock powered lamp thingys that work with the logic of chemistry which I obviously fail at. A bunch of rocks plus water plus fire equal lamp. Cooooool… Unfortunately it's hard to use because some of these lamp thingys can't work because it's chemistry and chemistry is a bitch, too much water, no fire, too little rock thingys, no fire. Ben, Chee Meng and I struggled for some time to get this one lamp to work but no avail. Whatever. Hahaha. After the rock-lamp thingy, I helped Amanda taste and evaluate the scouts' dinner and after that, our dinner, yay~ Nasi goreng pataya. Too bad the S.L.A.V.E.S. did not go a good job with the dinner, the juniors did better. Hahaha. After dinner, we arrange the tables and got ready for the Ice Breaking Ceremony. Yay~ It was awesome, only the activities the scouts played was kinda boring. Mr. Colin's Triplex: Aftershock opening video was awesome. Yay~

25th November 2010

Thursday

Rainy (Minutes after 12am), Cloudy (Morning), Heavy rain (Day), Rainy (Night)

So now it's 12:47a.m. and we are awake and I'm here writing this in Textedit because there is obviously no Internet connection in a forest. Hahaha. Oh yeah, I want to talk about Commonwealth Park. It's only been a year since I late came to Commonwealth Park and there are quite a lot of changes here. The building that used to be a broken down toilet is now a massive dormitory, the old torn surau is now fresh looking and there is this swimming pool next to the river. Why is there a swimming pool next to the river? Can't you just play in the river? So weird… The Indian temple next to the campsite also has a fresh coat of paint. Yay. It is still raining and it's really cold, my mucus have started to flow. Ahh… Mr. Colin just finish giving us our scouter's briefing for today's agenda. Yay. Now we are free to bath, sleep, eat, whatever. I'm gonna sleep, that's for sure. Later I'll be going to the waterfall. Yay~! But the water current must be really strong. Oh no. Just from this few sentences I'm pretty sure you don't know that I'm tired. Haha. I think I'll bath later before I sleep. Yeah.

Oh my God! Stomachache! For the first time in my life at a camp! Ahhh!! I've been practically been farting since I woke up. I farted so much I bet I could convert the gas energy into making a penny farting. Oh my God. Anyway, I was the last scouter to wake up but no fear, it doesn't mean I was late. Haha. I had three hours to prepare before performing morning inspection with Ben and Aaron on the Starcraftians. After morning inspection, Ben, Aaron and I went to the Warcraft camp area and look-look see-see Chee Meng, Ken, Wei Liam and JC doing their part of the morning inspection. The Airplex was already in progress, yay~ In the afternoon, Wei Liam, Yee Ying and I went to lead the Starcraftians up to Templer's Park waterfall. Yay! This would be my second time going up there to enjoy the waterfalls. Along the trip were representative S.L.A.V.E.S., Phui Yee and Ivan. Awesome. Because we are scouters, Wei Liam, Yee Ying and I got into cars and went ahead while the camp participants had to hike to the park. They were fast so they got there in time, according to plan. We got up to the falls and then climbed up against the current according to the activity but after passing the easy stage, it started to rain and the current got stronger. We had no choice but to get out and return. Along the whole way, a lot of the scouts got bitten by leeches, well, as usual, I did not get bitten, neither did Wei Liam and Yee Ying. But why?! I was wearing slippers! I had a bigger chance of getting bitten! So weird! Moving on, during the activity, Bernice, nicknamed Princess, because she had a deep bamboo cut on her thumb, making injury serious, getting a chance to take rests and always attended by Aaron, tripped in the pool and hurt her ankle, so she got to ride in the car with us. So the other scouts had to hike back, unfortunately, after the participants headed out to hike back to Commonwealth Park, it rained heavily. Wei Liam did a U-turn and told them to take shelter at the Shell petrol station that was ahead them. We then headed back to camp. At camp, lunch was waiting for the three of us, chicken with mash potatoes. It was awesome! Something not camp food-like. It was raining very heavily so all activities were stopped, the participants can continue to build their gadgets and stuff but the games and all had to stop. It rained for hours. In the evening, the rain finally stopped and the "stranded" Starcraftians got back to camp. Yay! Just in time to make dinner, mee hun kui! I went around to check on the juniors and help with tips and stuff. When I got back, dinner for the scouters was served, Li May made an awesome spaghetti olio for us! It was amazing! All of us ate together. Later, Mr. Colin requested me to help out with the carbide lamps. Yeah, the rock-lamp thingy is called carbide lamps. Yay. Intelligence increase by one. Well, this time a lot of the lamps could not work. Fook Hoy, Chon Giap, Chee Ming, Wai Sin, Roxanne and Dawson came and Fook Hoy helped us out because he knows how to work the carbide lamps. Fook Hoy explained to us that most of the carbide lamps were clogged and had to be cleaned out. Sad. So as Fook Hoy tried solutions, I went to have dinner part two! The S.L.A.V.E.S. cooked too much mee hun kui and could not finish all so I ate about three plates to help out. Yay! Right after that was Triplex Got Talent. The concept was similar to America's Got Talent mixed with Malam Kebudayaan. There were good dances and bad dances, one patrol even got scolded for going over board with inappropriate content. TGT ended with a movie-like trailer for a video made by some of the participants.

26th November 2010

Friday

Cloudy (Morning), Sunny (Day), Rainy (Night)

Well, it's 3.22a.m. now, not too long ago I confirmed that I had stomachache and was writing this. I think you should by now realize that this is written in a diary-like format but whatever. After TGT, Mr. Colin gave us scouters a brief for today's agenda after the Warcraft patrol leaders' meeting. Now everyone is going to sleep. Because of the heavy rain, the juniors and sleeping in the scouter's sleeping area. Luckily it's bigger compared to the last time I was here.

Yeah! Finally! After seven years of scouting, five years of camping and three years of going into leech prone zones, I finally got bitten by leeches! Yay! I was learning the route deep into Commonwealth Park with Chee Meng for the K.K.B. when I got bitten by one. I was so excited! It was my first time! Of course, the thing to do was to pull it out. The first one did not suck any blood, so did the second. Later on, during K.K.B., one of the juniors saw a leech bite mark on my calf. Whoa. Third one, without me knowing it. Some time later, I felt something cold and slippery in my pants. Whoa! A fourth one! This time it bite me on my thigh but somehow it fell off. I took off my pants and threw it away. JC said that I have good blood because the wound clotted fast adding on that leeches produce some kind of acid that prevents blood clotting the normal way. Later at night not too long ago, I was bathing and I found another leech bite mark, higher up, near my family jewels and this time it was not funny nor exciting, it was worrisome. I remember Christian B.P. was bitten on his dong by a leech. Damn. Well moving on, In the morning, I did not many stuff to do so all I did was hang around the Demon's Temple. Oh yeah, my stomachache lead me to shitting five times in the morning itself. Bad. Well, I got better after I got my first leech bite. I did the K.K.B. in the afternoon until evening and then I helped out in the kitchen with the S.L.A.V.E.S.. It was fun! It's been some time since I did some real scout stuff I did back when I was still a senior. Ah, the good old days. Well, dinner was out the roof! We had spaghetti carbonara! It was awesome! Like damn awesome! Ah. Time kinda flew… I can't really remember what happened here but yeah, Mr. Colin asked me to help out for Night Base Station activity for the Warcrafts. I was to tell them about wild animals in the forrest, why they attack you and how to save yourself. I learned a thing or two in this. Haha. One of the reasons why elephants attack people is because they are on heat. Haha! Mr. Colin gave me a book to refer to and in the book were descriptions on how to tell if an elephant is on heat. Hahaha. I also learned that to defend yourself from wild boar is to wave your arms and cheer (make noise). Oh yeah, wild buffalos sometimes attack people for no reason. What?! Hahaha! Well it was fun. After that I took my bath and found the fifth leech bite. Haha. Five leech bites in one day, all in the same day I first get bitten by a leech. Awesome shits, huh.

27th November 2010

Saturday

Cloudy (Morning), Sunny (Day), Rainy (Evening), Humid (Night)

I woke up from the voices of the other scouters. I was kinda blur but I still was aware of my surroundings. I immediately went to brush my teeth and had breakfast, pancakes. Yummy. The S.L.A.V.E.S. did a good job on making the pancakes. After breakfast, we got ready for morning inspection. I was paired with Kaili to check the cleanliness of the Warcrafts. After morning inspection, we all headed out to do Airplex. We let the juniors who had not gone on Airplex and then each of us had our fun riding on Airplex. I was the last because I did not really want to get on Airplex because of my acrophobia but I did it anyway, three years and I still get the shivers riding Airplex, still, it was an excellently awesome experience. After Airplex, we went back to the Demonic Temple and we had our lunch, burgers! Chicken and beef. I only had beef because not everyone can eat beef and the chicken was out fast. The best part is that I had five huge beef burgers. Nom nom nom. After burgers, we conducted Triplex Quest. I was teamed with Edwyn, aided by S.L.A.V.E.S., Joey and Cassandra. We did the Orb of Lightning, a game of accuracy. The darts game was the same as the one I wad back in Triplex 2008: Inferno, blowing darts at pictures drawn on starofoam. The funny thing is, I was in S.L.A.V.E.S. that time and I was to assist Edwyn that time for the same game. Haha. Such coincidence. Well, I later learned that the participants were actually fighting against time to try and complete the whole Triplex Quest in a time limit. After Triplex Quest, I helped out in the kitchen again to cook. Well, I accidentally screwed up one of the pots of soup, I added too much salt, really, really, too, much salt and it was ruined. I was devastated and tried to fix it, almost made myself miss dinner, steamed chicken with rice and soup. Dawson came and stopped me and told me to eat dinner because Triplex Got Talents Season Two was going to start. Well, I had a bitter dinner but oh well, how many times already have I disappointed others and myself. TGT was a cheer up for me there were good dances and stuff that made my night. Haha. The S.L.A.V.E.S. were great! Their S.L.A.V.E.S. dance was off the roof! There were two Korean dances, this crazy dance from Step Up 3D, the part where there's this guy who moves only his body and his head stays in place, breakdance moves and others. It was spectacular. It was simply amazing that the simple Power Rangers dance the S.L.A.V.E.S. back in Triplex 2007: Blizzard and in Triplex 2008: Inferno has been changed into a complicated modern cool dance in Triplex 2009: Vortex and now, Triplex 2010: Aftershock. It was really, really, great. You can say I was blown off my seat.

28th November 2010

Sunday

Cloudy (Morning), Sunny-Rainy (Day), Rainy (Night)

Benjamin woke me up together with Wai Sin, Chee Meng and others for morning inspection.We did a pretty strict inspection that morning because it's the second last morning inspection. After morning inspection, some of us went for K.K.B. again but this time, instead of hiking into the forrest, we had no choice but to do it near the Illidari campsite because of insufficient time. Well, it was going fine until it rained, everyone was wet and the juniors had no choice but to change from backwoods to modern cooking. Yeah. After we were done, we rest at the Demonic Temple and soon after that, Wei Liam, Benjamin, Wai Sin, Chee Meng and a few other of us went out to the Commonwealth Park entrance to usher the parents in for Triplex Night. We did the ushering until 7.45p.m. seconds after Triplex Night starts. Yeah. Triplex Night was intense! The S.L.A.V.E.S. dance still blows my mind. After Triplex Night, I was so tired I fell asleep for about two hours in uniform. Oh yeah, this day's the first time I've seen Gordon Koh in person.

29th November 2010

Monday

Sunny (Morning), Sunny (Day), Rainy (Evening)

We had scouter briefing at around 2.30a.m. and after that, I'm here typing away on my laptop using this energy I have no idea where I got from. I had some biscuits and milo and just now I finished my song compilation for Comic Fiesta. I just realized that Bobby is my distant cousin, how fail is that? I'm so ashamed that I did not recognize him and he recognized me. After taking a better look at his face, yeah, I remember him now, haha, so fail.

I did not want to sleep but I slept anyway, so I woke up pretty early. Today there's only Mr. Colin, Amanda, Wei Liam, Benjamin, Ken, Chee Meng, Jarrel, Arron and me left. Mr. Colin left to do morning inspection. Well we packed our bags and stuff and then immediately, packing up the whole camp was in procession. We went around to monitor the Warcrafts to pack up their bags, clean their campsite, throw away their rubbish and stuff. The S.L.A.V.E.S. on the other hand we're busy cleaning up the Demonic Temple and the bunker and got ready things to be put on the lorry that will come to take the camp stuff back to SMK Tropicana. I did some rounds and then took a break with the other scouters and at the same time listen to the survey Mr. Colin was giving the juniors to vote for the best scout, best patrol leader, best assistant patrol leader, best quartermaster, et cetera as the S.L.A.V.E.S. together with the Starcrafts work together to put up all the things to bring back on the lorry that arrived earlier. Soon enough, we had almost all the things out. When all the patrols went out to the parking lot outside Commonwealth Park to get ready to get into the buses to go back to SMK Tropicana, I learned that Wai Lynn is Yu Kane's younger sister. Well, to wrap things up, I learned that there are a lot of the younger siblings of well known scouts who were at Triplex, Wai Lynn one, Amos, younger brother of Abel, Jesselyn, younger sister of Justin, Nick, younger brother of Neal, Steve younger brother of Joycelyn and many others. It was just wow. Anyway, I took a bus back down together with the juniors. Oh yeah, I also learned that Wai Lynn knows Mae Yen. Haha. It's such a small world after all. Well, we got back to SMK Tropicana and we did the closing ceremony. Well. That's the end for Triplex 2010: Aftershock. Next year Triplex will be completely different as the Blizzard theme (Warcraft, Starcraft) will be changed.

It's good to home again but deep down I still have this feeling of wanting to still be at Commonwealth Park, the same feeling I had back in 2007 and 2008. The sentimental feeling of missing the times being at camp with different people. Well, at Triplex this year, I meet new friends, reunite with old buddies, learn new things. I learn new faces of others, learn new catchphrases from others, find new potential scouts and also learn my own mistakes. There's always this thing about Triplex that makes me more sentimental compared to other camps I've been to and that's probably because of the number of troops this camp brings together, the number of participants this camp has and the number of days this camp lasts. Even though I was not a participant in Triplex, it was still a fun and trilling ride as a voluntary scouter for the camp of the year that rocks, Triplex, beyond excellence!

Triplex Dictionary for Dummies:

Triplex: An anual skills camp held every year for scouts from troops within Petaling Utama. This year the troops are 37, 147, 152 and 157.

Warcraft: Form1 and Form2 scouts

Starcraft: Form3 scouts

S.L.A.V.E.S. (Super Lame And Very Efficient Seniors): Form4 scouts, involved with the activities for the juniors in a way that they are the ones who build the commando courses, Dark Portal, etc., serve the Demons.

Demons: Scouters; adult scouts from Rover H who help to run the camp

Azeroth: Commonwealth Forrest Park campsite

Demonic Temple: The big pavilion in Commonwealth Forest Park for the Demons and S.L.A.V.E.S.

K.K.B. (Kayu-Kayu Belakang): a play on words on 'backwoods', participants are to carry their cooking stuff into the depths of the forrest to do backwoods without modern equipment (excluding the provided things; e.g.: pots, matches)

Dark Portal: The huge awesome Triplex banner structure.

Triplex Quest: Commando Course

Airplex: Flying fox made from scratch (bamboo, flysheets and man power)