glimpse of my bubble: CAMY retreat

Had a full day of retreat on saturday. To be exact, it wasn't much of a retreat cos the activities were back to back and it was overall, quite tiring. But still, i really enjoyed it, was really fun (partly cos I organized some of the games! haha).

We were supposed to meet at 9 and start our first activity at 915, but alas! we only started at 945, close to 10am. and why is that so?? cos we were sitting around and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for ppl to come... seriously everyone, punctuality is a virtue.

Anyway, my dear Vannnn led worship that morn. Silly girl appeared so nervous and unconfident lor.. actually dear, i really believe you can do a very very good job at it, jus haf to gain that confidence ya? it felt quite funny for me you noe, i felt like a mother hen watchin out for her while at the same time tryin to let her do her stuff by herself. i have a motherly side too.. haha.

then it was my turn for games!! started with "I am special because...", it's a different version of blow wind blow, and we played without chairs. since there were no fixed number of seats, the game turned into a squeezing game, with everyone tryin to close up the circle as fast as possible and squeezing some ppl out of the circle. it was really quite fun leh, and i only got squeezed out once! heh. Then we played a good old game of wacko! first few rounds was played normally, then i changed the game to using each other's chinese names. that was so funny la... u see the cheeky guys calling out one name and pointing in another direction, so the poor person in the middle got so confused. haha. well, the game ended abruptly when our dear uncle joe dislocated his shoulder (for the 18th time or so). It was so worrying okayy.. then i felt so bad lor, like we shouldnt have played such a rough game like that. joey was so traumatised!! ahahahaha! he jus went to a corner and started playin the guitar while joe was still on the floor and everyone was anxiously crowding over him. in retrospect, it was really funny ah!

Keith couldn't stop laughing when he "pasang" lor. Poor boy really can't remember chinese names very well. Everyone couldn't stop laughin at him!

i really dunno wat joey was doing leh.. haha.

Thankfully, joel's shoulder got back eventually. but he had to stop playing and it was time to move on to the next game (you didn't think we were gonna cancel games because of that rite...) So we played a calmer game of "looking for your partner silently". We stuck masking tape with words written on it on each person's forehead and they were to look for their partners without mouthing words and making noise. Of course, there was a moral behind the game la. Many times we should take the focus off ourselves (tryin to find out what's on our forehead) and look to the needs of others instead (helping others find their partners first). So meaningful rite? heh. i'm good!!

Then we split them into teams and played human tic tac toe! haha. i modified it from my company retreat this year. it's a combi of tic-tac-toe and dog and bone la. we played 3 rounds with all of them facing the TTT "board", then another 3 rounds with everyone backfacing the board, then last 3 rounds with everyone's legs taped up. it was interesting to see each group discussing strategies, and even the really phleg ppl (i.e. laid-back) guys playing their hearts out!
oh, and i added a rule sayin that whoever broke the masking tape tat binded their feet had to do a forfeit! haha. poor Shaun and Keith broke theirs!!

the tic-tac-toe board. whoever snatches the ball first gets the spot.

Anyway, the last game was "keep the balls out". Each group gets 23 balls, and within a time limit (depending on how long the music goes on), they're to keep throwing the balls. whichever group with the least number of balls on their side of the court wins. There was also a forfeit for the whole group if anyone's caught throwing the balls when the music stops. in the end, both groups got forfeited. haha. made both groups write out their group name with their bums. altho i also think it's very paiseh for the prim and proper girls (like me) to do tat, i really saw the team spirit within each group lor. everyone jus got together and wrote their names, such good sport!

"Jurassic Park" discussing their strategy

"The Champions" deep in discussion

Heng on the spot he fought hard for..

Shaun's forfeit: free (un)professional waxing

By the time lunch came, we were already tired out. haha. such high energy games in the morning. but i had good feedback la, some ppl said the games were not silly and still remained fun. quite a compliment. heh. actually i think i make quite a good PC (prog coordinator) leh, cos i dun like to play games, so i know what kinda games to avoid. heh.

oh, we had time in the afternoon to set team goals and some up with our team names and team "banner". was really good cos majority of my team members were there, and it was impt for us to get to noe each other since we are a relatively new team after all the reshuffling and installation of new members. we chose the name "beacon" in the end, reminding ourselves to be a beacon of light to the world we live in.

uncle joe drawing a beacon
but none of us could tell wat it was... ehh.. generation gap!

my teammates hard at work

"precious thirds"

hann's team.. sorry, i forgot the team name!! paiseh paiseh.

there was quite a lot of "free time" in between stuff cos there was alot of waiting for each other, waiting for ppl to come back from lunch, waiting for ppl to gather, waiting for ppl to debrief etc. so they started playing their own stuff. actually, i felt it was good too taht ppl had time to themselves to do wat they wanted cos in the end ppl really started to play team games, talked to each other, played music w each other, even ppl who are not in the same clique normally.

brother joey enjoying his own (silent) playing

what's grace smiling at?
or rather.. who's grace smiling at?? Heee.

playing their spontaneous game

H & H
Hann & Heng

catching up!

uncle joe's bubble illustration

daniel reliving his childhood

overall, it thot the 1 day retreat was altho short, sweet. it saves alot more time and money than the other 3 days 2 nites retreats from prev years, and we had about the same amt of time to do out activities. hmm.. hope next year's retreat will be this short too. heh. also cos i'm working so public holidays are precious la..