A brief dropoff on thoughts.

I think yesterday's class BBQ went quite smoothly. To be sure, it wasn't perfect, there were flaws here and there, some bigger than others, but generally everything worked itself out alright.

Had time to reflect on the beach and redefine my bearings for abit. Its extremely easy to get overly engaged and caught up in activities that we lose sight of the direction in which we're headed, isn't it?

I'm still more accustomed to, and tend to thrive in, a purely male circle of friends. Perhaps its because sarcasm is taken with a pinch of salt when applied to guys but girls tend to take a more...offensive stance. I'm speaking in general terms, of course.



That pretty much sums up the thoughts from yesterday.

Now, for an actual account.

...This is gonna be rather dry, cos I don't have pictures just yet. Bear with me.

The general flow of events went like this from my perspective:
GP paper-->Buying BBQ stuff-->Setting up BBQ pit-->Heralding the gradual arrival of everyone-->Spontaenous, random activity that sprung up during the BBQ-->Spending time alone at the beach-->Everyone going home-->Journey to Still Road-->Crazy stealth operation in Sameer's house-->Cycling from Still Road to CJC to Far East to Plaza Sing to Funan-->Desperately finding a way to get back to East Coast from Funan-->God Bless, private bus back to East Coast--> 3 zombies proceeding through breakfast and going home after a looooong day.


Organizational Experience
It was a great experience, but lets start from the organising side of the experience. In many senses it was a spontaneous decision, but it was also very much a decision guided by the 7 habits. It was up to me to act towards an end that I desired, so if an eventful JC experience was what I had in mind, I couldn't be depending on others to brighten it up for me, could I? Especially not since no one seemed to be committed to any action. The decision and activity, then, were spurred by Habits 1,2 and 3.

The approach on the other hand, was also an entirely fresh experience. I've acted in several insignificant positions of leadership in the past, but this was the first one to be carried out after acquiring the 7 habits. Its different. There's more...positive energy when respect, delegation and trust is exercised. Habits 4,5 and 6 changed my tendency to micromanage, to put everything under my control, and my rigidness. Granted, I'm am still, in many aspects, unbelievably stubborn, but the very fact that I am aware of the weakness allows space for change. In the process of organising the event I received an abundance of help from Kang Ming, Roy and Kumaran.
And more than frequently I felt I was simply giving the ideas, the general direction we should travel in, while they were the ones who did the real work.

Now of course, there was imperfection. Attendance, for one thing, was the looming imperfection that struck me. While much effort had been put into trying to ensure maximum attendance, perhaps a better alternative could have been worked out to include those who unfortunately couldn't make it. Apart from attendance however, I have minimal complaints, perhaps just the usual rant that indecision should be made punishable by law.

Physical/Crazy Experience

Did I mention we(KM,Joel,Me) cycled to Sameer's house at Still Road, snuck into his room, and used Google Earth to devise to cycling route on the PIE that we would eventually use to cycle to CJC? Yea, we did that. Sometimes I surprise myself with my courage. It wouldn't have been possible with a less sporty group of people for company, who adopted the same reckless and fun loving attitude that led us on the journey, Joel and Kang Ming were great. Woo. We cut lanes on the PIE and survived near death experiences frequently. We were also guided by alot of luck when we simply chose random routes to take when faced with choices. We eventually managed to make it to our original destination, CJC. I can only suppose the two Christians now have a deeper faith in God, considering the sheer fact that we are still alive and the amount of luck we had through the whole process. Me? I remain a happy agnostic.

In retrospect, though, as I said, the experience constituted a "supreme lack of foresight" as we eventually found heaps of trouble trying to get back to East Coast Park from uh, City Hall. Cycling back was out of the question considering our level of focus and energy, plus morning traffic wasn't nearly as good to deal with as midnight traffic. We eventually settled, once again with tons of luck, with a private bus which a hotel helped find for us which cost 45 dollars. It isn't expensive if you considered the state of desperation we were in, and the pure frustration generated when taxi drivers tell you they are unable to transport the bicycle, with the more retarded drivers telling you its totally possible to transport bicycles, but we have to remove the front wheel ( For goodness sake, if I can remove the front wheel I would most probably just throw the whole bike away and take MRT home )

I sure gained insight on the Singapore Traffic system. Both in terms of the highways and the operational quirks of Singaporean taxi companies.







Now, I'm gonna go sleep.