Holidays and Spillage Village
I'm on holiday now, so, yes, I'm so addicted to the Web that I even specially go to school just to blog. You see how devoted I am to you?
The holidays began last week. I only got back to my room last night from staying over at the Gorilla's place (he invited me, my sister, and my brother), and even then it was only because Serene wanted me to give her a bit of help with Biology today. Otherwise I'd probably still be in the Gorilla's place playing with the kids.
Allow me to try to get everything in chronological order...
OK, so the holidays began last week. My brother, who (you should know) is studying in Singapore, also is having a week of holidays, so it only seemed right that I should forget about promising my grandfather to pop down, instead staying up here to play the gracious host/sightseeing guide to my brother, who will henceforth be called Gobble.
So Gobble took the first available bus up to KL from So Hour last Friday and that's when I got my new handphone. I've already finished the manual, so I know pretty much what and what not to do with it (which is a bit more than I can say about the average car). He brought it with him as a sort of belated birthday present from my parents--I suppose after my subtle hints about wanting a camera phone, they got it just to make me shut up.
My church was organising a mission trip up to Spillage Village, in Jaw, and since my sister and I were going anyway we decided to register my brother in absentia. He didn't complain too much, since we made sure to email him about it.
Spillage Village is this little place down in the boondocks that my church is currently reaching out to. It's quite a nice place if you're into fishing and huge ponds and rivers with terrific undertows and stuff like that.
We went there on Saturday and arrived around twelve in the afternoon. I can't think we made a good impression on the headman (who'd been warned of our impending arrival) by immediately chowing down on every item of food in sight, but then a four-hour drive does things to the digestion.
I declare I saw him sigh in relief when we got back into the cars and left for Monkey Pond. It is, I think, one of the largest natural ponds--or is it lakes? My Geography has never been good--in the country, and it certainly looks nice. Peaceful surfaces, little tufts of grass sticking out of the water, not a single bird in the sky, and a distinct orange tint to the water.
Apparently, Monkey Pond has a very high concentration of iron in its water, which turns it orange. It also apparently gives the fish an abnormally high level of intelligence, since Clause, Jogger, and Free Golf fished and fished and used up a whole bag of sliced bread without getting so much as a nibble. They took three hours to decide to give up on the fish.
Of course, having about 16 other people sitting on the bridge and merrily splashing their feet in the orange water probably played its part in warning the fish off. I mean, if I were a fish I wouldn't be going near the place. Not with all those unwashed feet mucking up the place. And what's more, orange bread on a hook? (It was white until the water changed its colour.) Quite the tempting meal.
In any case, we went back to the headman's place without a single fish to show for the efforts. However, the schedule had to go on, and it turned out that the next item on the list was a cooking competition.
Now you have to understand that the Gorlla was a Boy Scout and never really recovered from all that tramping around in the woods. Also, this competition was his idea (he even volunteered to be a judge. Quite sporting if you ask me, since it opened him up to food poisoning). As a result, each team of about five was supplied with: two pieces of bamboo, a limited supply of onions/carrots/etc., some rice, and a pandan leaf. We were supposed to hunt up our own firewood and do the cooking without anything else. Including metal tools.
I always thought Boy Scouts went around doing good deeds and suchlike. I never knew they liked getting caught in someplace without even a Swiss knife on them... but I digress.
Fortunately, we were allowed to use lighters, so all I really did was order my other team-mates to collect leaves, grass, and twigs. Quite easy, since I had the advantage of age and size and vocal volume. Of course, I made sure to collect a bit myself: it turned out that the bit of forest lying on the edge of the grounds was a prime source of twigs and suchlike.
In any case we were the first group with a functional fire. It would've been much more impressive if we'd got the raw food ready for cooking before we got the fire going, because I tell you it was beeping difficult to get the bamboo into the middle of the fire. You try it yourself.
And then I had my hands full trying to direct the cooking. Note that I wrote trying: it's not easy, trying to keep a bamboo piece pointing up and supported while putting sticks on and adding grasses to keep the fire up. (Later I was told that a roaring fire isn't really the best way to cook rice, but what the heaven, I was in a hurry.)
After the rice was done, we cooked soup, which was basically a replay of the previous, except that we put the carrots etc. in this time. Somebody also added the pandan leaf, which was actually meant to scent the rice--but everybody just said it made the dish more unique.
In any case, I spilled the first lot of soup when I was trying to get it to point straighter upwards, and when I saw all those ingredients gone--well, I gave up. I thought there wasn't any way to get back into the running, and as you know I hate losing. I always think it's better not to compete than to lose. Apparently Shunner didn't think so, because while I was consoling myself with the artistic way the soup had spilled out, she was running around getting spare parts from the other teams.
Suffice it to say that my team didn't get any awards.
The rest of the day was nothing of interest to one who wasn't there, so I'll just go through it quickly.
Dinner was candlelit, which was a good thing since it was fish again and it didn't even taste that nice--but then again, it was the boondocks, not a hotel.
After dinner we had a campfire and sang a bit, then we had a bit of thanksgiving (people thanking God and each other) and toasted marshmallows. It turns out that Boy Scouts are expert toasters--the Gorilla did his very nicely.
We continued the fishing after bedtime was officially announced, but from a riverbank this time; apparently all the fish in the area go to the same school, because we got exactly zero fish. I'm obliged to report that Clause thought the fish were bullying him: apparently, they would take his bait and waltz off without even disturbing the hook.
No wonder people think fish brains are good for the humans'.
I went to sleep around midnight. It would've been earlier, except that Ache Wind was complaining about the tent being stuffy and wanted to move it to the riverbank. I, Free Golf, and Wallet were very much against it, especially since Wallet had a headache. Jogger was sleeping in the next tent, and he says that he found the argument most amusing. He says also that he found the part where Free Golf was yelling at Ache Wind to "shut up since people [were] trying to sleep!!!" very ironic.
The next morning, I woke up a bit later than planned (around nine). I found Free Golf already fishing, but he didn't catch any fish until the headman turned up and gave a fishing lesson, five monutes after which he got a (est.) 15-cm catfish. Clause was nearby and, I think, tried to duplicate that, but he didn't catch any fish. Period.
We helped out at the local Sunday School, and the most persistent mental image I have of that is some little kid sneering in a most irritatingly superior way, and then proceeding to blast our eardrums off when he tred to sing. It was bad enough to bring down passing birds. Come to think of it I do recall a cat that looked like it had been scalded repeatedly.
We got back to KL on Sunday afternoon, and it speaks volumes about Clause's physical stamina that in half an hour, he was trying to get everybody to join in a game of captain's ball.
The days since then have been passed in taking my brother around, swimming, and a little bit of revision now and then. I plan to do a bit more studying tomorrow, of course, so I don't expect to appear online.
The holidays began last week. I only got back to my room last night from staying over at the Gorilla's place (he invited me, my sister, and my brother), and even then it was only because Serene wanted me to give her a bit of help with Biology today. Otherwise I'd probably still be in the Gorilla's place playing with the kids.
Allow me to try to get everything in chronological order...
OK, so the holidays began last week. My brother, who (you should know) is studying in Singapore, also is having a week of holidays, so it only seemed right that I should forget about promising my grandfather to pop down, instead staying up here to play the gracious host/sightseeing guide to my brother, who will henceforth be called Gobble.
So Gobble took the first available bus up to KL from So Hour last Friday and that's when I got my new handphone. I've already finished the manual, so I know pretty much what and what not to do with it (which is a bit more than I can say about the average car). He brought it with him as a sort of belated birthday present from my parents--I suppose after my subtle hints about wanting a camera phone, they got it just to make me shut up.
My church was organising a mission trip up to Spillage Village, in Jaw, and since my sister and I were going anyway we decided to register my brother in absentia. He didn't complain too much, since we made sure to email him about it.
Spillage Village is this little place down in the boondocks that my church is currently reaching out to. It's quite a nice place if you're into fishing and huge ponds and rivers with terrific undertows and stuff like that.
We went there on Saturday and arrived around twelve in the afternoon. I can't think we made a good impression on the headman (who'd been warned of our impending arrival) by immediately chowing down on every item of food in sight, but then a four-hour drive does things to the digestion.
I declare I saw him sigh in relief when we got back into the cars and left for Monkey Pond. It is, I think, one of the largest natural ponds--or is it lakes? My Geography has never been good--in the country, and it certainly looks nice. Peaceful surfaces, little tufts of grass sticking out of the water, not a single bird in the sky, and a distinct orange tint to the water.
Apparently, Monkey Pond has a very high concentration of iron in its water, which turns it orange. It also apparently gives the fish an abnormally high level of intelligence, since Clause, Jogger, and Free Golf fished and fished and used up a whole bag of sliced bread without getting so much as a nibble. They took three hours to decide to give up on the fish.
Of course, having about 16 other people sitting on the bridge and merrily splashing their feet in the orange water probably played its part in warning the fish off. I mean, if I were a fish I wouldn't be going near the place. Not with all those unwashed feet mucking up the place. And what's more, orange bread on a hook? (It was white until the water changed its colour.) Quite the tempting meal.
In any case, we went back to the headman's place without a single fish to show for the efforts. However, the schedule had to go on, and it turned out that the next item on the list was a cooking competition.
Now you have to understand that the Gorlla was a Boy Scout and never really recovered from all that tramping around in the woods. Also, this competition was his idea (he even volunteered to be a judge. Quite sporting if you ask me, since it opened him up to food poisoning). As a result, each team of about five was supplied with: two pieces of bamboo, a limited supply of onions/carrots/etc., some rice, and a pandan leaf. We were supposed to hunt up our own firewood and do the cooking without anything else. Including metal tools.
I always thought Boy Scouts went around doing good deeds and suchlike. I never knew they liked getting caught in someplace without even a Swiss knife on them... but I digress.
Fortunately, we were allowed to use lighters, so all I really did was order my other team-mates to collect leaves, grass, and twigs. Quite easy, since I had the advantage of age and size and vocal volume. Of course, I made sure to collect a bit myself: it turned out that the bit of forest lying on the edge of the grounds was a prime source of twigs and suchlike.
In any case we were the first group with a functional fire. It would've been much more impressive if we'd got the raw food ready for cooking before we got the fire going, because I tell you it was beeping difficult to get the bamboo into the middle of the fire. You try it yourself.
And then I had my hands full trying to direct the cooking. Note that I wrote trying: it's not easy, trying to keep a bamboo piece pointing up and supported while putting sticks on and adding grasses to keep the fire up. (Later I was told that a roaring fire isn't really the best way to cook rice, but what the heaven, I was in a hurry.)
After the rice was done, we cooked soup, which was basically a replay of the previous, except that we put the carrots etc. in this time. Somebody also added the pandan leaf, which was actually meant to scent the rice--but everybody just said it made the dish more unique.
In any case, I spilled the first lot of soup when I was trying to get it to point straighter upwards, and when I saw all those ingredients gone--well, I gave up. I thought there wasn't any way to get back into the running, and as you know I hate losing. I always think it's better not to compete than to lose. Apparently Shunner didn't think so, because while I was consoling myself with the artistic way the soup had spilled out, she was running around getting spare parts from the other teams.
Suffice it to say that my team didn't get any awards.
The rest of the day was nothing of interest to one who wasn't there, so I'll just go through it quickly.
Dinner was candlelit, which was a good thing since it was fish again and it didn't even taste that nice--but then again, it was the boondocks, not a hotel.
After dinner we had a campfire and sang a bit, then we had a bit of thanksgiving (people thanking God and each other) and toasted marshmallows. It turns out that Boy Scouts are expert toasters--the Gorilla did his very nicely.
We continued the fishing after bedtime was officially announced, but from a riverbank this time; apparently all the fish in the area go to the same school, because we got exactly zero fish. I'm obliged to report that Clause thought the fish were bullying him: apparently, they would take his bait and waltz off without even disturbing the hook.
No wonder people think fish brains are good for the humans'.
I went to sleep around midnight. It would've been earlier, except that Ache Wind was complaining about the tent being stuffy and wanted to move it to the riverbank. I, Free Golf, and Wallet were very much against it, especially since Wallet had a headache. Jogger was sleeping in the next tent, and he says that he found the argument most amusing. He says also that he found the part where Free Golf was yelling at Ache Wind to "shut up since people [were] trying to sleep!!!" very ironic.
The next morning, I woke up a bit later than planned (around nine). I found Free Golf already fishing, but he didn't catch any fish until the headman turned up and gave a fishing lesson, five monutes after which he got a (est.) 15-cm catfish. Clause was nearby and, I think, tried to duplicate that, but he didn't catch any fish. Period.
We helped out at the local Sunday School, and the most persistent mental image I have of that is some little kid sneering in a most irritatingly superior way, and then proceeding to blast our eardrums off when he tred to sing. It was bad enough to bring down passing birds. Come to think of it I do recall a cat that looked like it had been scalded repeatedly.
We got back to KL on Sunday afternoon, and it speaks volumes about Clause's physical stamina that in half an hour, he was trying to get everybody to join in a game of captain's ball.
The days since then have been passed in taking my brother around, swimming, and a little bit of revision now and then. I plan to do a bit more studying tomorrow, of course, so I don't expect to appear online.
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