Bicycling to Chek Jawa -- Ouch!

We bicycled from the Ubin jetty to Chek Jawa last Sat. Cheng Puay was our Tour guide. He took the Tandem bicycle together with Pearlie (Dexi's wife) who does not how to ride a bicycle. Don't ask me why its not Dexi.

We notice that Cheng Puay keep on bumping into friends in Ubin. We were left in the 'lurch' at the basketball court waiting for him to give briefing, while he was chatting up a young lady friend. *sigh* Dehui almost wanted to take over the briefing..

Along the way, we make a 'usual' pit stop at a small stretch of mangrove mudflat. Those who came to Ubin last year together with him during our chalet stay at Changi would remember.

(Disclaimer: I may have gotten lots of stuff wrong, so do not rely on this post as any sort of scientific study)

He showed us sea anemones, the home of a hermit crab (i.e. a sea shell) and sand crabs (these little critters produce tiny watery bubbles on top of the ground when they burrow into the sand). And no forgetting the Sea Hibiscus flower with its one-two day cycle - Yellow in the morning, Red and then Orangey-brown (wilted) in the evening or the next day.

This is along the Chek Jawa boardwalk. I missed out what he was telling us about in this spot. But look at the mature students watching with rapt attention at the teacher. I do remember we saw a few mud skippers and lots of those big-arm crabs.

This is House No. 1 at Chek Jawa, our rest spot before making our way out of Chek Jawa and back to the Ubin jetty. It really has a beautiful view of the sea, one that is not obstructed by big ships, tankers and such. I can spent the whole day looking at the sea from that vantage point.


Looking at the beaming faces and cheek-to-cheek smiles, you can tell that we had a great time in Ubin. This is the Jejawi Tower, it has a sweeping view of the surroundings of Chek Jawa. It would be a nice spot for some bird watching, but its close to the afternoon when we were there, so not many birds to watch. As you can expect, Wanying and Rohana grumbled about climbing the Tower. But they gamely climbed up anyway after cajoling from us.

On the way back to the jetty, we took a more adventurous road with more thrilling slopes. And I prove once more, I had lousy bicycling skills. I fell 3 times (that's where the "Ouch" in the title comes from), nothing more serious than scratches, lots of mud, and bruises on my pride. Especially, when even Wanying called me a 'Loser' (sigh.. see what kind of friend she is).

Thank you guys for making this trip enjoyable, and I like to say welcome to Choon Kuan, Roland, Jacqueline and Connie. And a big thank you to Cheng Puay for being such a good tour guide!

Cheng Puay's birthday -- A National Celebration!

We had post-national day celebration last Saturday with good food at Raja's Inn in Tiong Baruh Plaza. For those who doesn't Raja's Inn, its not indian food, its hotpot. The hotpot is nice, but I like the goreng durian best.. yum yum.. the chocolate fondue is good too.

Actually, the occasion is also to meet up with a friend, Jiayi (ex-SCS volunteer), who is now working Phuket, and is back in Singapore for a short holiday (who is by the way a very nice girl.. Jiayi remember hor, I also want to stay in Banyan Tree Phuket). It is also to celebrate Cheng Puay (CP) coming birthday, unfortunately he was busy at work, so we had his share of the food.

After dinner, CP finally joined us and we headed to Weiguang's apartment for a short mahjong game (well, at least for those who plays and I admit that includes me). He was not aware that we were all prepared to celebrate his birthday, we were ready with a 'cute' birthday cake (that looks like him) and a good-looking card (donated by me hor).

When we got to the apartment, and got started with our mahjong game. Jiayi had to act like a pesky little girl (which doesn't need much acting from her really) and come up with excuses to get us one by one out of the mahjong room, so that we could pen our message onto the birthday card. And, Geraldine had to sneakily get the cake out and candle lighted in the Kitchen.


When the actors and the stage was set (so to speak), the show got started. Suddenly, the lights of the mahjong room went out, and then there was a warm glow of candle light and out came a burst of 'Happy Birthday' song from all of us.. We must have made quite a ruckus that night, but its was good fun.

Of course, we can't do without a 'big happy family' photo! Oh ya, I won the mahjong game that night -- first in a long while, the feeling is magical ;-)


All photos courtesy of Weiguang.

August Birthdays

photo from flickr by Gúnna

Happy Birthday to Dexi, Jiakai, Qingpei and Elaine! Best wishes & hope you like the (photo of) flower..

Volunteer Connection 2007 Slide Show

I have moved the slide show posted on this page to here (this will open the silde show in a new window), so that it won't run every time you open this page.

This is a slide show was done by Chris for the Volunteer Connection 2007 event. If you missed it during the event because you were too busy stuffing yourself with the food (or you missed the whole event), now you get to see the right show here *smile*

There are lots of pictures of people from the GP group. So, glue your eyes to the show and you may catch a glimpse of yourself or someone you know!

Oh.. by the way, the loading of the show may take a few minutes (so be patience), and there is music (so turn the volume down if you don't want your boss to come over.. kekeke..), and right-click on the slide show and select 'play' if it doesn't start by itself.

Finally, you can leave your comments by clicking on the 'comments' link at the bottom of this posting!

Volunteerism among students rising, challenges to keep adults involved

I just read a news article from Channel NewsAsia (CNA) posted just today - Volunteerism among students rising, challenges to keep adults involved.

Its says that "Volunteering for good causes or social activities is rising among students, according to the Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister at a student forum."

And then goes on to say that "But when students finish their education, the numbers who are still volunteering dwindles.

"People may be too busy establishing their careers or getting married or looking after kids, which explains the drop after school. And that's why we are now trying to focus on young working adults," said Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan."

Does that sounds familiar to many of you? Many of us in the GP volunteers group are working adults. It can get difficult to meet the demands of our job, and still commit time and effort to volunteer work. Even so, many of you have done remarkably well!

There are some who are working, studying part-time, married or even married with kid and still volunteering. So, what keeps you going.. Is it the passion and the joy we get for helping others to better their lives? Is it the bonds we build with fellow volunteers, staffs and the organisation we serve?

*** Read the full news article from CNA. Photo reproduced from CNA ***

Seng Meng is passing over the Baton for GP!

Hope you guys have enjoyed yourself last Saturday during Volunteers Connection 2007. Congratulations to Bein Shu, Yee Ling, Poh Lee, Vincent and Geraldine for getting their long service awards. For those who were unable to join us last Saturday, hope to see you all at Volunteers Connection 2008! =)

Thank you everyone for your help in making our Guidance Programme one of the best in Singapore! Really, no bluffing, we are one of the best, if not already the best, in Singapore. This coming November, myself and Cher Meng will be representing the 17 centres running the Guidance Programme in Singapore to present a paper cum workshop at the International Conference on the Rehabilitation of Youth Offenders organised by MCYS and SSTI. Details can be found from the following website: Rehab Conference Programme

I would also like to take this opportunity to inform everyone that there will be a change in my portfolio and this coming December's GP night hike and family day would be my last time working with you guys before I pass over the baton of GP programme-in-charge to my colleague. So since it's my last time, hope to really end it off with a bang! haha.. and hope that I can work with as many of you as possible. So, please block out the following dates ok?

GP Night Hike: 1 Dec 07 (Sat) 7pm - 2 Dec 07 (Sun) 7am
Family Day: 9th Dec 07 (Sun) 9am - 6pm
Post Event Volunteers Celebration: TBC

Planning will most likely starts in October and I will send out an email nearer the dates to get your confirmation. Meanwhile, reserve the dates if possible ok? =)

*** Posted on behalf of Ah Meng ***