Saturday, November 26, 2005

Long time since I last blogged. My blog is dying... No time... Morning leave home, at night return home to sleep... everyday... but it is worth it...

NPC is in 4 days time... Must be prepared...

Something to take note for myself... Now because of NPC a lot of lashings and guylines are getting wet and soggy, after NPC have to sun the lashings and guylines and rearrange the poles for the upstairs store...

I think the secondary 4 level should plan next year's PLTC and UTC in advance, maybe in january or december or something, so that the QMs can start preparing the list of equipment needed and all that...

Monday, November 14, 2005

Tired... Anyway, First Class Hike is tiring. Not so much the walking, but doing the post-hike log. But a worthy experience in preparation for CCA Hike.

Yes, today's NPC training went quite well, we managed to practice, and do our stuff. But I think we can, as a team, work harder and faster. We must have a greater sense of urgency. We must also take good care of ourselves. Make sure we do not get injured or sick. Work harder, faster. quicker!

Tomorrow have to go for PLC. Hope it goes smoothly and productively.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Busy... Busy... but not stressed. Taking it in my stride. Don't think I'll be able to blog at great lengths this time round or anytime soon. Blogging just for the sake of blogging now in this post. No time to type any reflections or anything. Yes, so I better stop here to stop wasting precious time. Just to remind myself to do a reflection on PSLTC...

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

I just realised that my posts are getting shorter and shorter. But I have not learned less in a day or something like that. It just means that I am getting busier. I guess it will get shorter increasingly as the days pass and as NPC draws nearer. But never mind, not writing out learning points in the day, or in this case typing out, will not mean that I have not learned anything. Just no time.

By the way, I was thinking through and thinking deeper into Kenny's metaphor for reflection. Here's how it goes:

Our life is like a taking a bus. The main purpose is to get to a specific place somewhere far away. We roughly know where we want to arrive at.

However, we have not taken this route before, and there is no direct bus. So we have to change buses. The problem is, we do not have a bus directory, and we are not quite sure of what buses to take before we get there.

So while taking our bus, we have to stop at bus stops, to reassess our route, and that is just like reflection. To see if we are heading in the correct direction. The direction we want to go towards.

Standing at the bus stop, we do not look ahead, but instead look backwards, looking for the next correct bus to take, to set us on the right path to our destination.

In reflection, we too look back at our lives, and reflect on the learning points. We then choose how we want to change the way we live for the better based on these learning points. We then 'choose the bus' we want to take next, so that we can head in a better direction, and get on it.

No one looks ahead when waiting for a bus. One has to look back for the buses.

So reflection is just like a bus stop. We must make that effort to get out from our comfortable seats, get out of our bus, and change to a more suitable bus. It is easier not to reflect, and just zoom through our lives. But are we heading in the correct direction?

Sitting on the bus, we can only look ahead, we cannot look backwards to assess our route. Likewise, we must make that effort to reflect, to make sure that we are heading in the correct direction.

There is no direct bus in life. You sit comfortably for too long without getting off? You miss many chances to head in the correct direction. The more chances you miss, the longer your detour.

Have you missed many bus stops? Make the effort.
My first NPC training today! I was a little uncertain as to how it would turn out. And I must say I think we did quite well. Especially in setting up the tent and improvising of gadgets. Lots of learning points for improving our standard. But got to work even harder!

But I learned something else today. Today's training changed my perception of NPC. I had all along thought that NPC would be some camp that would be more tough than PLTC, but I was glad that it is not. I mean, yes, we have to work super hard and will be super tired and all, but from another point of view it would be more fun as there are fewer boundaries and we can stretch our creativity and that is something fun. Such as... hmmm.... never mind, I shall not leak secrets. But yes, I will do my best for NPC. Goal: Go for the gold!