Retreat at Gopeng

The last time I went on a cell retreat was... I can’t even remember! Retreats can bring a group of people closer together because you are stuck with each other for numerous hours. Of course the location and activities are fun but it is the people that make every retreat special.

This recent retreat with my new cell was pretty short - just a little more than 24 hours. Many of the cell members couldn’t make it but we did have 2 friends join us. We went in 2 cars and each has its own Question of the day. Ours was “Do the raft have seat belts?”

When we went white-water rafting, we figured we should bring camera in a water proof bag. But during our break, we discovered the bag split opened! A digital camera and an iphone was soaking wet. :(

Other than white-water rafting, we also did a hike/walk through an Orang Asli village to an almost unknown and unnamed waterfall. It was an interesting walk as our guide - G told us about the village, the black gibbon, durian and petai trees. He got us to try some wild berries and also shared a few hilarious true story jokes. It was a pretty nice waterfall but we were only there for a short while as it was raining heavily by then. Some of us walk in the rain back to our cars while someone was clever enough to bring an umbrella into the jungle! Oh and we brought back some souvenirs – leech bites!

Earth Camp is very cool and simple. The accommodation was a simple canopy like dorms with canvas beds. We brought our own sleeping bags. We opt for the dorm instead of the tree house so that it is easier for all of us to hangout together. They had pretty interesting toilets as well. ;-)

They must think that the 10 of us were really hungry because I seriously believe that the amount of food they prepared for dinner can feed up to 30 people. We had barbeque by the river! We even cooked our own recipe – Milo Banana. It came up with multiple suggestions from everyone.
This is one memorable trip.



*update 3rd Dec 2009 - after leaving it off for more than 3 days, both camera and iphone came back to life! :)

Kampar River, White Water Rafting

I knew I wanted to do this again. Thought I won’t be able to make it this year since I didn’t manage to gather people or plan it out with few months remaining in 2009.

When Grace asked who was interested to go white water rafting for our cell retreat, my hands were all up. :)

Yesterday was a public holiday. We reached Gopeng before 9.30am to meet our river guide, Apek from Nomad Adventure. We were then transport by a lorry from Earth Camp to the starting point where we were given the equipment and final briefing (weird but fun experience - had to dodge lots of tree branches). I thought it was interesting that we had to do “water confidence” before we started because it definitely scares you if you have not done it before or just can’t swim. Basically, it is just putting you in the river and allowing the current to carry you through one small rapid.

Apek did warn us that the water level was very low as it hasn’t rain in days. This is a grade I-III river. Our journey covered 12km and 9 rapids. It did seem rather short compared to Padas.

George, Jamie, Marilyn & I were on one raft with our guide Fahimi. Grace, Chen, Shirley and Nicole on another. Alex & Ben decided to take the challenge on individual kayak. They were given inflatable ones which were not great because it kinda got flooded throughout the journey :-p My raft proved to be the noisiest as we scream at every rapid!

What was different compared to Padas/Riverbug was:
1. We had to do body rafting in Kampar. Didn’t have to do it in Padas.
2. Kampar is a much narrower river so we kept running into leaves and branches AND hitting the rocks on the river sides.
3. Maybe because the water level was low, many raft got stuck in between the rocks. There was one time, I could stand up in the river and the water level was below my knee! There just seems to be a lot of rocks everywhere.
4. We didn’t have guides on kayak. I thought it was better to have since it is harder for the guides to help if none of them are mobile.
5. We had one guide on each raft. In Padas, we had 2 guides. Guess it was necessary there since the Padas is pretty wide.
6. I had quite a bit of bruises after rafting in Kampar. Hit some rocks during body rafting and when I feel off the raft. :-p

Be an organ donor

Lately, the radio has been running the organ donor ad pretty often. I wanted to do this quite sometime ago but just never did.

I finally did it today. We'll never know when we need to go home :)
This shell won't be of any use when I'm gone.

Why let it rot when it can help someone...you might save a some lives.

Have you pledge yours? Just download the form and fax it in. Oh, and let your family know.

Read more about Malaysia's National Transplant Resource Centre.

MJ's This is it

It may seem that many things are done to gain from MJ’s death. But after watching “This is it” today, I think the movie was the least it can do to for MJ and all the people involved in the making of the tour.

On Michael
It is undeniable that he has inspired so many talented individual who can only dream of being part of his team. It is great to see someone so passionate about his work. He seems like a perfectionist - it is amazing to see how involved he was in this concert production. In this movie, we can see how he gives his input on dance, music, lights, videos and the flow of how things will be. He does most of the cueing himself. Guess that’s why his every move is so impactful with sound, light and video combined. What I admired about him only from watching this is also how gentle he can be while being very firm on his stand, getting his team to follow his direction, how he tries to adapt to the in-ear, how he said “this is why we do rehearsals” when things weren’t right, how he allowed his backup singers to duet with him and musician to “shine”. I suspect Orianthi Panagaris is going to be pretty famous from this week onwards. :)

On his “family”
That was what he called his team of dancers, singers and crew. For each of them, they have been inspired by this 1 man since young. It was an opportunity of a lifetime to share a stage with him. They gave their all at all those rehearsals. Everyone gave their best ideas, move and effort to make this great. So much have been done - so many rehearsals to perfect every sequence and flow, massive productions sets built and all the many hours of video shot (animations/special effects/makeups) specifically for this tour usage. All the hours, sweat and tears only to find out their idol has left and they will never use any of everything they gave – never to be recognised. Really, this movie/documentary was the least that can be done for them as well. They are his fans, the only fans that have seen what the tour could have been.

Kenny Ortega, thanks for putting this together for everyone.

Another free concert

Attended the All American Reject concert last night at Car Park A of Bukit Jalil National Outdoor Stadium. I'm not a fan but I'm all for free concerts. OK, I think everyone else there got free tickets. Haha. Thanks to Andrea again. How did I find the concert?

Cool

1. The band
2. Location was probably better/larger than central park BU

Not cool

1. The long delay - final opening act only ended at 8.45pm, an hour of soundcheck - yup, AAR came out only at 9.45pm.
2. Sound wasn't as good for the opening acts - either hear the band/barely hear the singer or hear the lead & drums/can't hear the electric guitar.