The Ego Episodes

Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2005

Sentosa Outing 2005

www.flickr.com ladyisis' NTU Pinoys Sentosa Outing - August 2005 photoset

Finally, our first ever outing! We usually don't do this -- nope, we have NEVER done this before so it's good to know that we finally had an outing and it was at Sentosa!

As some of you know, the Pinoys in NTU treat each other like family so I was happy that even if I'm not a student anymore, I was still invited to this rare event. I was happy to see many new faces, and of course, familiar faces whom I have not seen in a long time.

We were blessed with a sunny weather, perfect for a day at the beach. Early in the morning, I woke up at 6:30 am to start cooking the dishes that I was going to bring to the beach. For potluck, I volunteered to cook calamari and also a vegetable dish called "chop suey". Basically it's just sauteed carrots, Chinese pechay, chickpeas, some mushrooms, with a sauce made of soy sauce, dissolved cornstarch, salt, pepper and sesame seed oil. I finished cooking by 9:15 am so it was a lot of work but fortunately, the food was sold out at the beach!

There was chicken adobo, and shrimps sauteed with Sprite (this is a Filipino cooking secret), roast chicken, and spring rolls, which was also a hit.

We played volleyball once the court was empty and managed to play 2 games before giving up. We were being roasted alive under the sun. The sand was almost unbearable.

While everyone was piling on layers and layers of sunblock, I did not put sunblock for those two games that we played. That did not go well with my exposed shoulders and back. Until now it's still aching and red, with marks signifying where my white top and bikini was.

Aside from that, it was great fun! Some strangers who could not wait to take over the court again decided to challenge us to a game. I told them, "But we suck." And they came up with excuses with the same point: they suck, too. The first half an hour or so was just playing for fun. But the heat was getting worse that evad decided to challenge them to a scoring match. First team to reach 25, running score, wins.

So we had a break before the actual game. Drank more water, put more sunblock (but not me) and then it was game time. Our opponents took out the girls from their team. Smart move! We observed that we were dwarfs compared to the other team. But oh well, we still won, 25-21.

To me, that was the high point. Because I am such a competitor. Kidding. The whole day was a high point. The swim after the volleyball game was refreshing. Donny threatened to throw me down in the water in a suplex but my puppy eyes deterred him from doing so (not really. It was because I begged, REALLY BEGGED.) I learned how to throw a frisbee so that it will land on my target and not on some innocent, unsuspecting junior's head.

Then it was off to The Island, purported to be the Southernmost point of the Asia continent. We crossed the suspension bridge and climbed flights of stairs to the top of the hut to enjoy the view. It was just sunset so our timing was good. Great shots were taken. It's like you're not in Singapore.

After that, others went home while some us stayed behind to catch the Magical Musical Fountain. Though we did an Amazing Race to the venue, we were too late for the 7:40 pm show so we had no choice but to wait for the 8:40 pm show.

We made a short stopover at the Food Center and ordered refreshing desserts. At 8:15 pm, we went running again and found the venue packed with long queues. But we managed to get seated so that was ok.

The show was really worth the wait. Amazing stuff! We were entranced that not a single worry crossed our minds. It was just us, the show, and the crazy soprano fat fish, which was cornchild's favorite. There were also, literally, fireworks -- fire spurting vertically! I knew it was real fire and not a hologram because it got warm everytime a burst of fire shoots through the air. Really enjoyed the whole show and we even got LSS with the song, "HelLO, helLO, helLO ..." Tsk, tsk, tsk ...

Then it had to end. We were so tired and literally burned that we were aching to go home. I had so much fun! Hopefully, we'll be able to do this kind of thing again.

Thanks to everyone!

{ joycie at 6:16 p.m.}