BHID Volunteers Outing - Yishun Safra

After last Saturday's visit to the Bishan Home, the NUS CSC BHID volunteers had a bonding session. Initially, some of the volunteers actually wanted to go to Sentosa for the outing. However, due to time and attendance constraint, we decided to go somewhere nearer, and some place which was more budget-friendly. After some discussion along the walkway between Bishan MRT and Junction8 for a whole 20 odd minutes, we decided on going to Yishun Safra to play bowling.

It was my 1st time to Yishun Safra, and I thought the facilities there, especially the swimming pools and slides were very nice. This made me even more determined to get my Safra membership, so I can go swim there or Toa Payoh Safra for free. Weekend movies for 8 bucks + discounts for bowling sessions, not bad eh.

Alas, when we reached the bowling alley, there was some bowling competition going on, and the next available timing for public to bowl was one and a half hours later. @#$%. To think I travel all the way from Bishan to Yishun, and no bowling to play. And to top it off, it was raining cats and dogs. No umbrella somemore. Luckily, Yishun Safra is not all about bowling. Ha. We headed for the pool room, and got a pool table to play. It was all thanks to some brave and thick-skinned gal to ask a pool playing Safra member to sign us in as guests. Thanks to the helpful guy as well.

And all 11 of us finally settled down on this corner with 1 pool table. Most of us were beginners, so our skills and techniques were like... ya.. This was like my 2nd or 3rd time playing pool, so I kind of suck at potting the balls. But well, this was all about team-bonding and having fun! Guess we can have more of such things after future visits.

The volunteers and their various striking postures. Not bad for beginners, I must say.

After the pool session, we went to the game arcade to play some games before heading back home - for soccer. WOOT!!! It's the start of the Barclay Premier League as well. How could Manchester United not win Newcastle? And with Chelsea thumping Portsmouth 4-0, it's looking bad.

Singapore Garden Festival 2008

The NUS Community Service Club had some free tickets to the Singapore Garden Festival 2008, from which about 25 tickets were given to the Bishan Home RVP. With these free tickets, we (NUS CSC Bishan Home RVP people) organized an outing to the Festival at Suntec City for the Bishan Home residents.

One memorable thing about this outing was that Bishan Home actually received a Platinum Award in the Community category on stage for its beautiful garden at the Home, i think. And after the prize presentation, the entourage of us (13 volunteers, 4 staffs, 18 residents) just roamed around level 4 and level 6 of the Suntec convention hall, looking at the prize-winning horticultural arrangements and growth.

Because the outing was just a 2-hours tour around the 2 levels of exhibits, it was not enough for me, to take care of a wheel-chaired resident plus taking photos around. So when we were dismissed from Bishan Home after the outing, a few of us decided to go back to Suntec City again for another round of tour plus photography. After all, we had already paid for our own admission and can go in again with the chop on our hands. Must make the admission fee worth. HA.

"Looking at the flowers made me feel like wanting to get married" quoted the Bishan Home RVP chair-woman.

Really meh? Ha. Probably females would share similar sentiments with her. For me, it's just the admiration of the beautiful flora and their arrangements. One word. Brilliant!

DHL Balloon

Went up to the DHL Balloon at Bugis for me and xuan's 3rd year anniversary. Because the DHL Balloon would stop services at the current Bugis area in August 2008, we decided to pop by there before we don't have any other chance to do so.

The DHL Balloon is situated at an open area behind the 7th Storey Hotel, opposite Bugis Junction and also across the street where Happy Pay Steamboat is.

Initially, we wanted to take flight at about 5, however, because of the strong winds, flights had to be suspended as it would be dangerous. In the end, we managed to get up the balloon for the 1940 flight, after a trial flight had deem flight services to be safe enough to resume. Perhaps to be safe, before going for the ride, it is better to call up the DHL Balloon place to check on the weather conditions.

While I was kind of excited to be on some hot air balloon for the first time in my life, I was a little disappointed about the views that unfolded before our eyes. 20 storeys above ground level. Hmmm. Not really interesting. Haha. One reason is maybe buildings in Singapore are not really well decorated with dancing neon lights and bright billboards, like those I see on tv and in movies.

Another reason is probably I'm more of a nature person, than an infrastructure person, so I thought the view was so-so. If I were to pay $23 for such views in a 10min ride, I guess I rather save that $23. I wonder if the Singapore Flyer would more or less be the same.

But nonetheless, I thought it was quite romantic la, hanging in the sky under the moonlight. For people like kakasea and yogi, if u guys read this, probably you can bring your girls up there and *you know*. They have no where to run. Wahahahaha.

Guys, you have up till 31st July. Act fast.