This is the Hockey/Rugby blog for the Singapore Snapshots.
This is the story of the guys who didn’t go to Malaysian Montage.
You may think that it was a bore, however, it was very interesting and relevant to our syllabus.
We went to several places: Singapore Zoo, Green Circle Farm, Oh’s Farm, Greek exhibition(national Museum)
History Of Singapore (national Museum).
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We are the Hockers/Ruggers who can't go for MM.
What else is there to know? ;P
Friday, March 7, 2008
9:38 AM
Singapore Montage Monday, 3 March Today is Monday, and the start of MM and SM( the official name is Singapore Snapshots). Today is also the day for the last match of the second round in the C Div Floorball tournament. Since we have a match today, the floorball guys did not go on the farm visit in which we were supposed to visit a hydroponics farm and a organic farm. Heard from the guys that went it was quite good and was definitely an eye-opener. We spent the entire morning in the 2A classroom talking trash and doing reflections on the floorball tournament. Just then, Mr Shahrom walked in and announced to us a pleasant surprise: We were going to conduct tomorrow’s morning exercise! We were immediately immersed in thought and started to contribute ideas. Ideas(some crazy and out of this world) started pouring in and very soon, due to the inefficiency of Timothy, our captain of the floorball team ,there was a din and the noise is comparable to that found in a wet market.
Tuesday, 4 March In the morning, we went through the worksheet which we were supposed to do the previous day. It was quite a noisy affair with people trying to “sabotage” others and people shouting nonsensical answers to questions. After that, we, the floorball guys, conducted the morning exercise. Originally, the plan was for us to play captain’s ball for half an hour and spent another half an hour doing aerobic exercises. However, it was raining so we had to abandon the plan to play captain’s ball and instead do stretches and dynamic exercises at the bottom of the SR block. At first, Timothy, our captain, conducted the exercises but due to his pour counting (when we were doing push-ups and sit-ups he was counting as if he was trying to catch a train) and unclear instructions, he was “substituted” and replaced by Ryan. After we had our recess, we started on our trip to the National Museum of Singapore. There, we visited the history of Singapore and looked at the exhibits on display from the louvre. WE visited the history of Singapore gallery as we are learning it in history now. Inside, there are lots of wax sculptures and re-enactments which provided us a visual and audio threat and served to enhance our learning of the history of Singapore. Next, it was time to visit the amazing exhibits from the world-renowned Louvre museum. The exhibits were shipped here as the Louvre is undergoing renovation. There were sculptures of both men and women and exhibits of other everyday objects from ancient Greece. The sculptures are carved beautifully and lifelike. The other exhibits, such as vases, are really nice and the craftsmen who made them are really creative and artistic. Wednesday, 5 March It’s time to visit the Zoo! We set off enthusiastically and once we arrived at the zoo, we can’t wait to visit the animals living at the zoo. For the first 45 minutes, we were given the opportunity to “roam freely” and visit any exhibits we want. We visited the free-ranging monkeys first. The monkeys are so pro at swinging and climbing trees. I wonder if they are given the chance do pull-ups, how many could they do in a minute? Possibly more than 50? Next, we visited the majestic white tigers. They look so awesome in their white suits. However, as it was daytime, they were quite lazy and just slack under a tree and open their wide, big mouths at us as if yawning. Next stop: Hippos. The hippos are housed in an aquarium-like exhibit with plenty of fish and just 2-3 hippos. Despite their size, they are real graceful when swimming. After gathering outside the Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream store, my group proceeded to visit the Animal Research Facility. There, we learnt a lot about animal conservation and what do vets do. We even got the chance to visit the X-ray room! I think that some of our batch-mates already have an idea of becoming a vet in the future…
9:24 AM
K GUYS THE FLOORBALL SEASON IS OVER....WE WERE VERY UNLUCKY LA....ST GABS BT NORTHLIGHT 6-4 NIA...WTF SO SAD LA...IT ALL STARTED WELL....
GROUP RI BT CORAL 9-6 RI BT BUKIT VIEW 17-3 RI BT ORCHID PARK 15-0 RI BT NORTHBROOKS 6-5
QUARTERFINALS VS BT RI 4-1 RI BT NORTHLIGHT 17-3 ST GABS BT RI 8-5 BS BT RI 3-1
ITS THE END OF THE ROAD GUYS...BUT THE TIME WE SPENT 2GETHER WAS THE MOST WORTH IT...THE SPIRIT SHOWED WAS EVIDENT WHEN WE CAME FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL(5-1) TO WIN NORTHBROOKS 6-5...GJ GUYS....YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!LETS WORK HARD FOR THE C DIV 6 a-side and the 11 a-side tournament@@
9:08 AM
On our first day we went to two farms. One is an organic farm, while the other is a hydroponics farm. Both with many differences. The first farm we went to was “Green Circle Eco-Farm”. It’s situated in Neo Tiew Road. The farm’s motto is “A biodynamic organic vegetable farm in Singapore, dedicated to producing healthy food and looking after the environment.” You can easily tell that this is an organic farm. This means that they do not use pesticides and non-biodegradable materials. The farm was rather quite interesting. The techniques the farmers used were very basic and simple but effective. This farm uses nature to do its farming. An example is the pond in the farm. There is loads of water hyacinths in the pond this is to absorb the harmful chemicals present in rain water. Then, the water is transported via pipes to other plants. Another technique they used was crop rotation. You may not understand what this means but it simply means the rotation of crops. For example I have a very sweet plant. The ants begin to feed on it. The crops are then quickly sold. Now the ants would be waiting for the next batch of sweet plants but, the farmer now grows it in another area of the farm. It will take a very long time before the ants migrate. This is crop rotation. These are few of the many things we learnt in the farm.
The second farm we went to was Oh Chin Huat Hydroponics Farm, situated at Nee Soon Agrotechnology Parks. This farm too does not use pesticides to grow its crops. It aims to promote a healthy living and to raise awareness on hydroponics technology. I wish that this trip was as informative as the previous one. This is because, the tour guide was emphasizing on the nutritional value of crops and not on the implications of hydroponics. I just know that this farm uses a lot of water but this water lasts the plants its whole growing season. I should say that the interesting part about this is that the seeds are placed in cotton sponges.
This day was interesting.
9:02 AM
DAY 1
On day 1, the floorball-ers had a 'final' match against bedok south whereby we don't got anything to lose. win, draw or lose, unfortunately, we will be kicked out of the competition. how sad. x(
Eventually, we lost 3 - 1. What a match. We were not able to go to the hydroponics farm because we had a match and we lost the match. That makes 2 reasons why that day wasn't really nice but the following days rock okay. ;)
DAY 2
On day 2, it was the start of a new day and we went to the national museum to learn about the history of greek and also about ancient singapore. It was really fun because we get to see lots of interesting statues and carvings. xD which some of those are naked. haha. they had this really cool gadget while we were going for the ancient 'singapore tour'.
To sum that day up, it was fun. ALMOST.
DAY 3!
On the 3rd day, we went to the..... ZOO! haha. we get to see lots of monkeys just like most other hockey players. seriously... we learnt alot from that trip too. 1. don't lose our way in the zoo. 2. dead lioness smells foul. 3. baboons have really red butts.
there were lots of stuffs that we did when we were in singapore instead of going to malaysia. (:
please watch the movie that AMIRUL! has posted up.
none other than your best hockey player(just joking) but seriously.. ;) -hakiim! xD
9:00 AM
On the 3rd day, we went to the zoo. It was like rather cool because I have not gone to the zoo for like umpteen years and I was like stunned in awe by all the changes. Upon our arrival, Mrs. Ong extended our leash by allowing us to roam free in the zoo…but I don’t know how I was able to get lost...
After a while, we gathered and went for a behind the scenes tour of the zoo by this guide called Maggie. Firstly, we went see the Animal Health Care Centre, which was erected in 2006. Inside the building, we saw like a lot of stuff, like tiger foetus, hedgehog foetus, tranquilizer gun, blow gun, a stuffed model of the bird of paradise and much much more. Then, we went to an animal freezer (It’s where they put all the dead animals before cutting them up). After a long day in the zoo, we went back to Raffles to be released.
8:43 AM
HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (: HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (: HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (: HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (: HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (: HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (: HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (: HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (: HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (: HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (:HEY IM MASON! (:
Hey ya’ll, these are your boys from Singapore! We want to give a shout out to everyone, especially our batch mates in Malaysia, which we hope are having a bash. Anyway, for the non-MM pupils, like me, we started the day off with a morning PT. (I know it doesn’t sound that cool, but it was kind of fun.) After that, we went to the National Museum to check out the Lourve exhibits, which were shipped from France. We also learnt about the past of Singapore in another section of the museum. We even got to use an iPod to listen to the past of Singapore. (Well, it was something like an iPod.) The Lourve exhibits were very interesting. They showed us that there were many differences between the Greek civilization and the modern era. Examples include Science & the Arts, form of writing etc. This was very interesting as I never knew that modern era has many similarities compared to the Greek civilization, like how they both have agriculture, a form of writing etc. Learning about the past of Singapore was also quite cool. We could actually compare the past of Singapore to the modern Singapore and see what has changed over the years. It was quite fascinating, and the ipod wannabe’s were SWEET! Overall, I guess the day was okay. JUST KIDDING! It was very cool and educational and we learnt a lot about the Greek Civilization and the modern era. We were told that this might help us in the next term. (Don’t let our boys in MM know about this.) Oh well, that’s mostly it, see ya later dudes!
Hey ya’ll, these are your boys from Singapore! We want to give a shout out to everyone, especially our batch mates in Malaysia, which we hope are having a bash. Anyway, for the non-MM pupils, like me, we started the day off with a morning PT. (I know it doesn’t sound that cool, but it was kind of fun.) After that, we went to the National Museum to check out the Lourve exhibits, which were shipped from France. We also learnt about the past of Singapore in another section of the museum. We even got to use an iPod to listen to the past of Singapore. (Well, it was something like an iPod.) The Lourve exhibits were very interesting. They showed us that there were many differences between the Greek civilization and the modern era. Examples include Science & the Arts, form of writing etc. This was very interesting as I never knew that modern era has many similarities compared to the Greek civilization, like how they both have agriculture, a form of writing etc. Learning about the past of Singapore was also quite cool. We could actually compare the past of Singapore to the modern Singapore and see what has changed over the years. It was quite fascinating, and the ipod wannabe’s were SWEET! Overall, I guess the day was okay. JUST KIDDING! It was very cool and educational and we learnt a lot about the Greek Civilization and the modern era. We were told that this might help us in the next term. (Don’t let our boys in MM know about this.) Oh well, that’s mostly it, see ya later dudes!
8:21 AM
This is a video of the photos we took during Days 2 & 3.