wah bone weary after thequest. disclaimer: what occurs below is exactly what mode it is. don't think too badly of me after reading this!

*beep* rant mode on.

i shall save the best for last. so i won't put it here. ahaha.

walao the day was plagued with troubles from the start. somehow the nebo people failed to collect the registration forms from college side. leading to alot of frustration and delays and whatever. i don't know who to blame, the teacher or the nebo staff. but anyway we filled up the form again and submitted it. and race begins!

turned out that there are like 30 different checkpoints, but each grp is like only given 7. to ensure its totally (well as much as it can possibly be) random. our first stop was botanical gardens. where we had to hunt for like 3 totally obscure plant species out of the entire damn gardens. called yichen to google. but failed. since botanical gardens obviously doesnt have the time to document all the various species all over the gardens. and the passport had these little quizzes on ntuc. where the answers were given on posters on the floor or something, rendering mugging and cheating totally obsolete. i feel so sorry for those people who had to lug around laptops. ahaha.

so after burning 1++ hr looking for these plant species, we headed to the next station. after wenbo suanning the station masters like crazy. for their absolute rigidness at following the rules. they refused to give us the time deduction for this question: just because the word wasn't copied exactly from the poster. bo bian.. have to continue. but at that time we still felt good. quite confident. and so we boarded the bus to fort canning park.

jay walked across a tunnel and climbed alot of stairs: we reached the next checkpoint., there, they gave us this poem. perhaps some of you have heard it before.

teddy bear teddy bear turn around.
teddy bear teddy bear touch the ground.
teddy bear teddy bear climb up the stairs.
teddy bear teddy bear say your prayers.
teddy bear teddy bear turn off the light.
teddy bear teddy bear say goodnight.

so 2 ppl are supposed to spin this skipping rope, 1 guy jump in the middle, 1 guy read the poem. only 4 ppl need to do, so i volunteered to sit out. obvious. what makes it difficult is that the guy jumping has to do these actions as well. so the station masters gave us 3 trials. and said. 1 fail, all fail. so we were thinking.. fine. then wenbo skip first. finished. then xy skip. then he tripped. suddenly the stationmasters step in and say. "thats it! next station." then we were like wth. haha. 1 try only?! so its like obviously make or break in 1 go. i suspect they bs us so we got only one.. but its only a suspicion. no flaming invited! ^^

so we headed to city hall to take to paya lebar MRT. started raining halfway. supposedly we're supposed to head for this fairprice to look for items. at west plaza or something. but somehow we cannot find the checkpoint! win. then we saw this other grp sitting outside... at like 12+? they said they left that one. but they cannot find. so they sit there 1+ hr alrdy. thus, we went look around. called the help line: they say look in the mall. nothing! then suddenly we notice this closed up nebo umbrella. where all checkpoints should be located under. then we and another grp were ?!?!?!?!??!. since there was noone. then we saw the stationmasters: across the road well hidden in a void deck. full marks for camouflage! so we finished the activity. nothing much, pretty basic stuff. name all the household brands and whatever.

2nd last checkpoint. its at pasir ris town park. walking halfway out.. then suddenly started raining. not too heavily, so we broke out our umbrellas and ponchos and kept going. we thought we didnt need take the bus. then halfway, it suddenly start POURING. and instantly drenched all of us totally from head to toe. soaked all the way through my shoes and saturated my socks. now my shoes are seriously black. wash time. then we took the bus... and went to the station. which was piggybacking 20 times. so we carry mingyang and spam. though thats illegal. hahaha. so the guy was nice and gave us 2 min. yay for nice stationmasters. some of them were really ...
super kb. oh well. so we caught the bus back. and headed for DT east. last station! by this time the rain stopped alrdy. and can see abit of sun.

so we reached dt east! and it was drizzling abit. then we headed for our last checkpoint: shuttle run. but we just DAO the whole thing and head straight to submit our logbook. i guess we're hopefully in the top 50%? but heck la. we know confirm lose already based on all the cheating we saw on the way. as long as the super imba routes that some groups get. while we spending 1 hr at botanical gardens, they can just fail their activity and pia. and still win. since their stations are pretty. uh. different.

then we went to collect our goodie bags. weighs a damn ton. but i guess the vouchers were worth it. we daoed the stuff going on in the marquee and headed straight for escape theme park. but there were like only 4 rides worth taking. so we went for rainbow first. something more passive since we just had lunch at KFC. nothing much though. then we went inverter. i was thinking confirm gg. sure vomit. but then it was nothing much too. so we went viking. bleh. the kids behind me were screaming their heads off though. nearly punctured my eardrums. so we went final stop: gokart! waited for 1++ hours. but had a great time. first time gokarter. ahahaha i overtook this other woman. and tried to prevent xiaoyao from overtaking me. but to no avail. i no guts speed down a 45 degree slope la! suicidal people. then i found out from my friend later that some imba (read: cheater) team clocked like 1 hr +. which means they completed 7/6 stations in 2 hrs? even after all the deductions and stuff. at most is only 1+ hour. seriously la. if that isn't some serious cheating i don't know what is. either that or their route is so freaking imba that they can actually..nvm.

*beep* rant mode off.

personally i think thequest became more of a physical activity (read: run like crazy, run like mad to save a few minutes) than an intellectual one. comeon la, all the answers were like on the board? really need mug haha. but rite. the one thing that gets me the most is the way they carry out the competition. the teams were left TOTALLY ALONE for the entire duration of the competition. not even a fac to follow the teams around to ensure safety and whatever. NOTHING. and the rules aren't standardised, routes aren't standardised... its like comparing apples with oranges: and saying apples are better than oranges because its flesh feels better. obviously cannot rite! so maybe if they had like selection rounds, or prizes for the different routes then it might be better. or at least cut the damn number la! so many people how the heck can anyone keep track. but of course i realise that its merely a publicity stunt to get more attention. congratulations: you succeeded. and thats a saturday burnt.

bleh.