it's the ironic & controversial rhapsody of an ambiguous bert

Return of the Cool Bert... ...

Return of the Cool Bert... ...

Hey peeps, I'm back!! After this long long period of busyness and "buzziness", a new blogskin and a new haircut, I've decided to keep the posts coming. Cool huh!

Loads of stuff happened after Kid's Games, there was Growth Camp, pre-Growth Camp activities and tonnes of spiritual discussion to throw in. My birthday's knocking as well.

Pre-Growth Camp Preparation

Yours truly is in the logistics team this year. Basically, the team has a relatively easier job to accomplish as compared to last year due to the lesser number of kids that would be turning up for the camp. Somehow, I become my good friend cum brother-in-Christ Jason's unofficial second-in-charge. Which may not have been a good thing if you look at the big picture? I'll explain at the bottom.

Anyway, four days were spent dutifully in church with fellow brothers-and-sisters-in-Christ preparing the various logistics. I think by the end of growth camp, most people would have developed a phobia of cutting paper. Being a logistics group leader also meant that I have to be familiar with the logistics items, how many are there and where are they supposed to be stored at, you know, things like that.

There was also the usual stay over in church the night before the camp. This year's however proved to be a test for me. Again, pardon me but I'll explain at the bottom.

Growth Camp

I do not wish to bore anyone with little details about how the camp was run but here's just a quick summary.

The first day actually turned out to be below my expectations, in terms of tiredness. Apart from the morning, that was filled up with setting up the Problems Solving programme and due to unforeseen circumstances which resulted in me turning into a game marshal at the very last minute, the rest of the day just seemed to wither away. True, there was a Maths programme in the afternoon, I had a sore throat and I had to make sure all my teammates were well fed but all in all, the first day went pretty well.

The second day became a challenge for me personally. I had to make several trips back to church to get shirts for the concert personnel, the main committee faced problems which resulted in shifting of programmes that would definitely caused changes in the logistics, I had to do crowd control during lunch, make announcements in (*gulp) mandarin, take over Jason for setting up of Science programme, blow a lot of inflatable beach balls for the kids to play with and well, face inner demons of my own.

Gee, imagine being so busy till the extent of not having time for a toilet break. That was excruciating. A friend of mine even told me that although it was obvious I was constantly busy running around, I was acting like I was not. Just a side note, apart from the breakfast, camp food was horrible.

The last night was fun though, there was Captain's Ball (*an all time favourite of mine) and almost all the group leaders and logistics personnel spent hours together in the hall, munching away on biscuits, chatting, writing encouragement notes and sleeping.

By the third day, I was physically drained. And as expected, I was the last to wake up but not the last to breakfast. Clearing up proved to be more difficult for me. Buying lunch together with Vinc for everyone was a much needed break.

After Growth Camp officially ended on the afternoon of 3rd December, I went with a friend to Hougang Mall to get a birthday present. The fatigue set in and we both caught forty winks on the bus ride. Upon reaching, I had no mood to shop around and we just headed straight for the shop to buy and dash.

(P.S. Getting bored of typing, would continue soon.)

posted by bert @ 3:11 PM