Tuesday, November 10, 2009

trip to ipoh @ 7:30 AM

finally have some time to blog a little. been busy with marking, results, meeting parents, extra lessons, still busy with meetings but at least lessons are outta the picture for now.

went for a recce cip trip to an orphanage in ipoh about a month back. on the whole the trip was enjoyable, enriching and meaningful. there was an adventure aspect built into the trip. this took place on the 2nd day with waterfall abseiling and caving.

went down the waterfall one of the last few so gotta see my colleagues abseiling down. was tough as the rocks were slippery and at parts the water just came down really hard. many of my colleagues fell not once but a few times, so i was mentally prepared for the slips. and indeed i slipped but managed to get up and continue. what i wasn't prepared for was the 2nd slip when somehow or other i slipped and my head slammed into the rock surface. i tasted the blood immediately. i wiped across my chin and saw red. but it didn't hurt all that much. my left arm got tangled in the ropes while my right hand and knee got banged up. i thought it was just a cut on the chin but my colleague noticed a chipped tooth.

so all in all that trip down the waterfall ended up in a huge bruise on my knee, a sprained thumb (still hasn't fully recovered), a chipped tooth which was sensitive to even the air in an air-con room (this one led to a root canal, core and crown after i got back to s'pore, all $1820 worth for ONE tooth!!), an acute strain on the shoulder (doc at clinic said maybe hairline fracture but treatment is the same, i.e. rest) and a cut on my chin (didn't wanna get stitches, but it bled from noon till past 10pm, stopped by the time i woke the next day).

to add to all that, we tried out white-water rafting on the last day. while practising body-rafting (safer way to go down the rapids in case the raft capsized than freestyle swimming cuz you'd probably whack the rocks) i bumped my tailbone into some rocks twice. lol. doc here said that movement in my legs were fine so probably acute strain to my back as well cuz i had some problems sitting up and on the floor.

the cut has healed completely and you probably won't notice it. the rest of the injuries are well, on the way to healing? still hurts a little but definitely much better.

thinking back, it's quite amusing really. i brought along my own first aid kit only to use it on myself. and i probably brought back the bulk of the team's injuries. lotsa "souvenirs" so to speak. guess i'm just very accident-prone. felt pretty bad as it got my colleagues worried and the head of the team nagged at by the upper management when we got back. sighs.

but thank God the injuries weren't serious and i was still able to participate in the cip at the orphanage. taught the oldest bunch of kids (hmmm... maybe not kids as the oldest was 17) there. they're a really bright bunch. bet some of my sec 1 kids can't spell some of the words they can. oops.

looking forward to going back next year. hopefully next time, no one would end up getting hurt =x

on another note, will be flying off to US to visit my aunt with her son and my grandma end of this month. won't be back till a couple days before Christmas. saving all my shopping for there. haha. though i'm almost $2k poorer after the medical expenses. hope the insurance will cover the entire cost =(

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

trip to ipoh @ 7:30 AM

finally have some time to blog a little. been busy with marking, results, meeting parents, extra lessons, still busy with meetings but at least lessons are outta the picture for now.

went for a recce cip trip to an orphanage in ipoh about a month back. on the whole the trip was enjoyable, enriching and meaningful. there was an adventure aspect built into the trip. this took place on the 2nd day with waterfall abseiling and caving.

went down the waterfall one of the last few so gotta see my colleagues abseiling down. was tough as the rocks were slippery and at parts the water just came down really hard. many of my colleagues fell not once but a few times, so i was mentally prepared for the slips. and indeed i slipped but managed to get up and continue. what i wasn't prepared for was the 2nd slip when somehow or other i slipped and my head slammed into the rock surface. i tasted the blood immediately. i wiped across my chin and saw red. but it didn't hurt all that much. my left arm got tangled in the ropes while my right hand and knee got banged up. i thought it was just a cut on the chin but my colleague noticed a chipped tooth.

so all in all that trip down the waterfall ended up in a huge bruise on my knee, a sprained thumb (still hasn't fully recovered), a chipped tooth which was sensitive to even the air in an air-con room (this one led to a root canal, core and crown after i got back to s'pore, all $1820 worth for ONE tooth!!), an acute strain on the shoulder (doc at clinic said maybe hairline fracture but treatment is the same, i.e. rest) and a cut on my chin (didn't wanna get stitches, but it bled from noon till past 10pm, stopped by the time i woke the next day).

to add to all that, we tried out white-water rafting on the last day. while practising body-rafting (safer way to go down the rapids in case the raft capsized than freestyle swimming cuz you'd probably whack the rocks) i bumped my tailbone into some rocks twice. lol. doc here said that movement in my legs were fine so probably acute strain to my back as well cuz i had some problems sitting up and on the floor.

the cut has healed completely and you probably won't notice it. the rest of the injuries are well, on the way to healing? still hurts a little but definitely much better.

thinking back, it's quite amusing really. i brought along my own first aid kit only to use it on myself. and i probably brought back the bulk of the team's injuries. lotsa "souvenirs" so to speak. guess i'm just very accident-prone. felt pretty bad as it got my colleagues worried and the head of the team nagged at by the upper management when we got back. sighs.

but thank God the injuries weren't serious and i was still able to participate in the cip at the orphanage. taught the oldest bunch of kids (hmmm... maybe not kids as the oldest was 17) there. they're a really bright bunch. bet some of my sec 1 kids can't spell some of the words they can. oops.

looking forward to going back next year. hopefully next time, no one would end up getting hurt =x

on another note, will be flying off to US to visit my aunt with her son and my grandma end of this month. won't be back till a couple days before Christmas. saving all my shopping for there. haha. though i'm almost $2k poorer after the medical expenses. hope the insurance will cover the entire cost =(