It's Finally Over

I scored two significant overs today without swinging a cricket bat (hey! I made a Piers Anthony-esque pun!). The first was the class chalet for my form class this year E23 (who are marginally the top class for their stream and year - YES! that makes it the 3rd year running my form class has achieved that distinction - woohoo! ). The second was my MOE teaching career.

By over, I mean just that. The class chalet finally ended late this morning after three days and two nights at Aloha Changi. In the afternoon, I officially tendered my resignation letter. Whew. That is probably a tainted and misleading expression of the mixed feelings I have regarding the overs.

I think the class chalet was quite a success, although I had hoped that everyone would turn up. Still the quieter and in-my-limited-perception less sociable ones like Nicholas, Gavin, big Derek, Khamin and gang did show up, for which I'm glad. Nobody died or got injured, except for the rash Isabel got and Jolene's too-tight spectacles causing migraine-level discomfort. Everyone participated in the activities, mostly impromptu ones I cooked up when I noticed that nobody seemed to have prepared any, in some way or other and appeared to really enjoy them. There was one sleepless night and one semi-restful one, and strictly no hanky-panky, so I guess I must consider myself rather lucky.

The highlight, I suppose, would be the treasure hunt on the second night. It went somewhat like this - five tokens to be retrieved by solving clues revealing their location, with each token placed in a progressively harder-to-reach location. The prize for each token retrieved increased in value corresponding to the difficulty of the location. What made this different from normal treasure hunts were, one: the game would be played in darkness with no lights allowed at all, and two: two of the tokens would be placed in a truly challenging location - inside the haunted and derelict ruins of the abandoned Changi Hospital.

The first token was hidden in one of the drawers inside the double-storeyed terrace house we were staying in. Surprisingly, all three groups of four took an unexpectedly long time to find this one, which I had anticipated to be the easiest to find. I suppose groping about in the dark needs practice heh. The first clue read "Slide me open, and there I am."

The second was hidden under a bush in the large courtyard fronting the terrace, which was rather easy to find since the inextinguishable streetlamps helped immeasurably. I truly enjoyed watching them frantically throwing themselves on all fours and peering under every bush. The second clue read "Under the cover of leaves" or something like that, I can't quite remember.

The third was at a barbeque pit attached to one of the rows of abandoned houses adjacent to our plot. There were three rows, all shrouded in darkness. The first group were extremely tentative about venturing out of the lighted safety zone of the streetlamps, and took far too much time deliberating and searching at the wrong row. They ran out of time and was the only group to fail to return with the third token (each group was given 15 minutes, with a minute added for each token they returned in order). The third clue read "Where there was once coal, now there's only dust in a hole." Rather easy, I think, since all the groups headed straight for the barbeque pits although the second group did mention searching for a fireplace in the houses.

The fourth was the first to be planted in the haunted ruins of Changi Hospital. For two groups, the token was in the first room on the left after the staircase, on a windowsill bathed in moonlight. It was meant to be easy enough to retrieve, yet still requiring a certain degree of courage to step into the dark, shadow-filled (and God knows what else) compound. For the last group, I placed it in the "ventilation shaft" overlooking the main stairwell on the second floor, where lurkers had hidden themselves to scare us the previous day. The clues read "1st chamber left beyond the stair, sitting under the moon's glare" and "Up the stairs, at the entrance of the airy lair" or something like that.

The final clue lay deeper, sitting right in the middle of an open elevator on the second floor in pitch darkness. This one could not be sighted, but had to be found by blindly groping about in the dark confines of the elevator. It was quite funny watching the second group balk, standing in the corridor staring into the dark space where they knew the elevator was. After some encouragement, they took deep breaths, held hands tightly and carefully made their way in feeling with their feet. Pamela's surprised squeal of delight after she kicked the token, and the subsequent sounds of frenzy when everyone groped about to find out where she had kicked it away to, will be etched for some time in my memory, stored under the "Funny Moments archive". Anyway the clue read "Upstairs dead centre is where I am found, pray when you enter I do not plunge to the ground."

Now most people who read this will probably think that I'm a sadistic teacher with no concern whatsoever about safety who played with the lives of my charges. Perhaps. After all, it was never confirmed that all that we experienced and saw the previous day when exploring the ruins was really the actions of pranksters or paid actors so there was still the possibility that the ruins were really haunted, or that an accident could happen in the darkness. Well, I did consider that when placing the tokens in darkness and experiencing for myself the conditions that would challenge the groups. I decided that I would follow a short distance behind, within sight, to observe and watch over the wandering group, providing hints and encouragement when necessary.

Something nearly went wrong with this plan of mine. I missed the last group when they entered the hospital as I had just escorted a group of students from another school (Innova JC, I think)who wanted someone to guide them to the 'chapel' on the top floor. I had walked briskly back to the main entrance (without the aid of a flashlight using only ambient lighting to navigate) but, seeing no one there, walked down to the barbeque pit where the third token was. I almost panicked when I saw no one there. The idea that my kids were wandering without me keeping an eye on them somewhere in there was frightening. I called the others waiting at the starting point and confirmed that they were indeed in the hospital, and dashed right back and started shouting for them.

The first shouted reply came from Guru somewhere in the main block above the dentistry ward. but I could not quite place them. I ran over to the winding stairs on the hillside nearby that led directly to the 'chapel' block and kept shouting for them to reply, intending to pin down their location and run up to meet them. Their replies came only intermittently and from different locations each time. As I stared up at the eerie concrete walls and windows that seemed to be mocking me silently, I had the wild notion that 'something' was now awake and mimicking the voices of my students to lure me back inside to someplace I hadn't yet explored - somewhere evil. The voices began to sound sinister. Haniz called me from the chalet and informed me that they were forming a search party and coming up with flashlights. Half an hour had passed.

Then I saw movement on the second floor. I had been shouting for the 'missing' group to make their way to the elevator on the second floor where the last token was and it appeared that they had finally made their way there. Haniz called again but I reassured her that I had found the group, and ran up to meet them. They were searching on the third floor elevator landing. I called them down, pointed them in the right direction and they swiftly located the last token. Time taken: 35 mins and 4s.

The second, and champion, group won entrance tickets to their choice of either Escape, Wild Wild Wet or Fuji Ice Palace, plus an assortment of snacks and drinks. Everyone else won goodies according to the number of tokens they managed to retrieve. While the two groups that managed to retrieve the tokens from the hospital ruins actually exceeded the time limit (maximum time is 19 mins including time added for retrieving first 4 tokens in order), I decided to reward them for being such good sports and successfully achieving the objective of the activity - to work together to overcome their common fears and obstacles. Hopefully this experience will teach them that no matter how daunting the obstacle appears, courage and cooperation can pull them through.

For those who missed the chalet, I may probably not see you again so here's a quick rundown of some games you should find out about from the others - the very popular Werewolf-vs-Villagers game, the I-love-beetles-but-I-hate-bugs game (which no one has been able to solve yet) and the Black-Magic game (which everyone solved very quickly, congratulations). Play them next time you guys get together!

Hmm, I had quite a bit to say earlier about the second over but I'm quite exhausted so I'll just quietly announce that my last day is 31 Dec. The future looms uncertain, but as I keep saying to concerned colleagues "Hey, I'm not someone that needs to sleep at night with a security blanket. No worries."