Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Despite having only a few hours of sleep yesterday night, I woke up at 7.30am today to get ready to meet my group for the field work at Bt Timah Nature Reserve (BTNR) at 9am. I always prefer to be early than late so it was no surprise that I reached the place at 8.45am and to pass away the time, I went to tour the exibit at the Visitor's Centre. Reading some of the captions regarding the plants and animals, one would be amazed at the wildlife that Singapore used to/can offer. We used to have tigers swimming in from the Straits of Johor to breed in our jungle (I can't imagine running into one in BTNR and would totally freez if that encounter ever happens) and lots of other biodiversity in our catchment areas.
Guess I was lucky today because I managed to catch a group of monkeys swinging their way down the trees near the entrance. It's sad thing to observe that no longer are they not scared/shy of humans but also do not hesitate to attack if we go too near. One old man was just walking pretty close to a couple who was screwing away on the pavement (I'm not joking, they were quite open when it comes to procreation) and the male monkey showed his teeth and wanted to jump at him. Luckily, he had a stick to ward them off. Then came along my 2 group mates who unfortunately, became victim number 2. One was holding a sandwich and the other a packet of famous amos. Benji, the one holding the cookies was ambushed by another, likewise for him, he managed to run away before the monkey could get any nearer.
One thing is for sure, all these incidents of people feeding the monkeys is starting to backfire. We have only ourselves to blame when incidents of monkeys attacking humans occur. It was a morning well-spent as we managed to single out the 2 places that we want to measure the infiltration, soil temperature and compare the different concepts of migration, competition and colonization etc. The next and final trip there will allow us to wrap the project up. However, as my group wanted to spoil the market, we are thinking of heading down to macritchie reservoir to compare the areas there as well. Honestly, I wouldn't want to head down to BTNR again if I can help it.
It was lunch at Ngee Ann Poly and Gary gave me a lift home before I took a 2 hour nap to prepare for the evening's ippt. It's been a good day because after tonight, I can bid goodbye to ippt for the year of 2009. Basically, I want to avoid last year's scenario where I didn't have time to train and book ippt before my birthday arrived. With all the exam revision, project/assignments deadlines to meet and exams to sit for, April and May aren't exactly the most conducive months to take ippt. Add to the fact that I had to attend an outdoor camp organized by my school, I had only 1 week to prepare for ippt.
A silver award and $200 really made it a good day for me.
Standing Broad Jump - 239cm
Chin Ups - 8
Shuttle Run - 9.4 seconds
Sit Ups - 44
2.4km Run - 10.01 minutes
Alot of people have asked me why am I not going for Gold and the $400 cash and the answer is pretty straightforward. Running-wise, I have yet to hit that elusive 9.45 minutes which will enable me to meet the gold timing. As a result, I don't often go all out for stations like chin ups (10 to get gold) and Standing Broad Jump (244cm to get gold). The pti was shocked that I didn't want a second attempt after getting 239cm on my first. What's the point of wasting energy of these stations when a silver is already enough? It's like I've seen nsmen doing 50 to 60 situps at one go, was it really necessary?
The past 1.5 months of running at the astro turf and gym work has made the 10 minutes timing possible. It just goes to show that with training and discipline, passing ippt and getting additional award is possible. I mean I can't tell people I'm a pe teacher and then say "Oh, I'm going for RT tonight". It just doesn't make sense and it projects a negative image of myself. Instead of spending my precious/free evening time with in army camps, I rather be outside having dinner with my family and friends. I've met friends and even army friends in Maju taking their RT and honestly, I made a vow to myself that I won't want to go for RT ever in my life. For that to happen, there's only one way - to train hard.
I felt like a loser today partly for what happened after ippt ended. As I was rushing to use the toilet (it was raining and cold), I just shoved my bag in and without checking the locker number and password that I've selected, I left the locker area. When ippt ended at 6 plus, I waited like a fool till 8.30pm in order for the ptis to open all the possible lockers for me. They did give me 3 tries earlier on but I blew it. After a 2.4km, it just was not possible to think straight or even to remember which exact locker it was. Luckily for me, I spent time talking to the ptis and to the 2ic (1st Warrant Ong) who happened to know John Tan. I guess he probably went back to school for some sports related exercise. He's realyl a nice guy because the first time I took ippt at Maju, he was really encouraging and told the nsmen not to give up regardless of what happened.
Take for example, he was seen consoling a nsman who failed the 2.4km run and pulled a hamstring. "The money will always be there but your health is more important". It's something that I definitely agree with. One thing that left me very embarrass was seeing old friends who went for RT thinking that I'm in it too - just because I was forced to wait to collect my bag. Never again will I want this episode to be repeated when I go for future ippt. Don't get me wrong though, there's nothing wrong or shameful to be going for RT. For many of my friends who used to be damn fit or were meeting the gold standard back in ns, the lack of time due to work and studies have affected their fitness. If possible, RT should be avoided.
Now that the army test is over, I have to prepare for my actual fitness and conditoning module in school. Now that's the real test.
