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SMRT Challenge 2007
16/09/07
Sunday was a day that was rather unexpected. I woke up at 6 a.m. and couldn’t really sleep the night before because I was afraid of the outcome of the challenge on Sunday. Thinking back on how our team fared last year kinda fazed me so I wasn’t very excited or enthusiastic about Sunday’s challenge.
Got up and things to pack into my bag just flooded into my head. I packed food, umbrella, extra clothes, water and even a bus guide. My bag was already rather heavy by then, but I wanted to keep the weight manageable as I could run if I needed to.
Set off to Orchard MRT station. Met Ming Han there and we were complaining ‘cos we were waiting for Wei Jie, our team leader for the day, who was running late.
Wei Jie finally arrived and we walked to Ngee Ann Civic Plaza which was quite a distance away. What greeted us were tons of balloons, a giant tent and a sea of red. Boy, was there a crowd. All the participants were clad in the SMRT Challenge 2007 t-shirt which was bright red. I must say though, that red isn’t my colour, I didn’t really like the t-shirt but we had to so…
TA-DAH!
Me, Wei Jie, Ming Han and Kia Hong.
All raring to go!
We quickly registered and got our free back packs. Pinned our number tags for the day which was 0010 with the pathetic number of safety pins they gave to us. Joined the rest for a crowd to listen to all the banal speeches by the head of SMRT and chiefs of transport or something.
Planet Fitness instructors then got on stage to help to rah-rah and do a workout demonstration to get everybody all warmed up for the impending race. (Which was mostly ignored by the young crowd since we didn’t really give a damn.) After that there was a performance by a traditional drum group which was ear-splitting, but overall rather enjoyable.
We were flagged off around 9+ and quickly ran towards the yellow coloured balloons which had our clue sheet in it. KH was supposed to get the clue but he kinda slipped and fell on his butt when he burst one of the balloons. Helped him up and Wei Jie got the clue for us instead. Ran away to a secluded corner to get away from the crowd and we started to decipher the clues…
A brief explanation of the race:
We had joined the student category and these were 8 stations we had to complete. Upon completion, we were to make our way back to Ngee Ann Civic Plaza which was the final checkpoint. Along the way, we could collect merit points if we displayed courteous behaviour or demerit points for flouting the rules.
Prizes are as follows:
1st prize - $2000
2nd - $1500
3rd prize - $1000,
For each prize, half the amount would be donated to the school in a separate cheque. So, we weren’t just doing this for ourselves, we were representing VS as the only team in the race.
Yeah! I’ll try to remember as best as to where we went so here goes!
1st stop: Aljunied station.
We had to make our way to Geylang Home for the Aged where we were supposed to find out the names of certain blocks of flats which had specific names assigned to them. I got tasked with searching one corner of the flats but got hopelessly lost and it turned out to be a fruitless attempt. Wei Jie called and said they had gotten all the clues already and there I was all panicky and blur… Quickly made our way to the counter and got our Race passport stamped.
2nd stop: Eunos station.
Because of Wei Jie’s sharp eyes, we knew that Eunos was one of the stops even before the race started as he lives in Eunos. Made our way there and we had to play a game. Each of us had to roll a thin metallic wheel using our hands for a short distance without dropping it or we had to restart. Along the way, we had to pick up placards that had images on them. Each of us picked up one and we had to identify the images. Eg. Emergency Alarm Button, Fire Extinguisher, etc. Had our passport stamped and left quickly.
Now around this time, by a wicked twist of fate, this other team which consisted of all guys too, Team 0061 (for short, let’s call them “61”.), were hot on our heels since the first stop and we kinda realised that they seemed to be around us all the time… hmm. They were the team that stood in front of us while we were waiting to be flagged off too. Certainly quite recognizable from their poseur Crumpler bags that we see so often. No offence to Crumpler bag users out there, but it really is easy to spot 2 people using Crumpler bags in the same team… especially when one of them uses the same bag as JX. JX are you reading this?!
3rd stop: Bedok station
Being uber neow, the organisers made 2 counters at far ends of the station. 1 counter was at the walkway where you take the lift up and the other is just at the opposite end. We were given an envelope that contained puzzle pieces, a marker and scotch tape. Had to piece the double-sided puzzle together. 1 side had the CitiBank credit card picture and the other had jumbled up sentences on MRT courtesy.
Pieced the picture together and MH helped to scotch tape the pieces together. The end product was a terrible looking piece of crappy paper but heck! Rushed to the other counter at the end, unscrambled the sentences, read out the sentences to the person-in-charge and got our passport stamped.
4th stop: Tanah Merah station
Got off at TM station and made our way to the free shuttle service waiting stand. There were many teams from other categories there and surprise surprise, 61 was there too… We saw the other teams waiting impatiently for what seemed like eternity for the shuttle to come and we decided to WALK/RUN to the NeWater plant where Changi depot was located.
Along the way, when we were almost close to Changi Depot, THE SHUTTLE BUS PASSED US and sent us into a state of panic. I glared at the shuttle bus and saw a member from 61 raising both his arms “triumphantly” with a scrunched up face as though he just had his first orgasm from his first sex act.
Oh gosh, I shudder to actually picture that.
Never mind. So we trudged on despite being all sweaty and aching from the walk. Reached the counter at the depot and got our clues. We had to number off the procedure to lower the ramp in an MRT in an emergency situation. By now, we were planning our next step and WJ made a call to the taxi service to get a cab for our next destination.
The 3 of us were bewildered when we saw the clue ‘cos we weren’t really knowledgeable about MRTs. WJ kinda started hyper-ventilating ‘cos he was put on hold by the operator and he had the answer on his handphone. So there we were… stuck and at a loss.
Suddenly guess who POPPED in. 61 came rushing in and were totally shocked when they saw us there first. *smirks* The look on their faces? Priceless.
Apparently, the shuttle took them to the NeWater plant but the depot was quite a distance away from the plant. So by walking there, our team had actually stumbled on the place first. Aww!
Completed the clue sheet and we were led into a MRT cabin. We had to count the total number of fire extinguishers in the MRT train while 1 member had to carry out the lowering of the ramp. WJ was tasked with the lowering of the ramp and we counted the fire extinguishers. For the record, there are 14 fire extinguishers in every MRT train. Got to look into the driver’s cabin for the first time, which was really cool.
Got our passport stamped and left quickly. The cab driver was really timely and picked us up right away. Heard one SMRT member remark that we were really smart to get a cab, lol. The cab driver was also our guardian angel for the day… but I’ll get to that later.
Passed by like almost 10 teams and we were sympathetic that they had to walk out and couldn’t get a cab. But sympathy was the last thing on our minds.
Oh yes, 61 had also gotten a cab and I think they told the driver to follow our cab… although they were stuck because our cab was blocking the path when they needed to U-turn so we had a little head start.
5th stop: Changi Airport
Along the way, we made a deal with the driver to pick us up after we finished our task. We promised him that we would finish in 10 minutes as that was the maximum time a cab could wait at the airport or risk getting summoned by the police. Stakes were really high here…
Asked him for some help with our other clues and he provided some really vital information. So we gave him a brief intro on what we were involved in and he said for the sake of the competition and for fun, he would do his best to help us. Haha, he was like speeding all the way there, about 120 km/h. Exciting!
Reached the MRT station area at Changi and we were told to count the number of fire extinguishers (again!) in a cordoned off area. Quickly counted everything and submitted our answer. Got it right on the first time, yeah!
Passport stamped and we left. Amazingly we did it all under 10 minutes. The cab driver picked us up and we headed towards our next stop…
6th stop: Bishan Sports Complex
Nearing the area, I made a himbo remark and commented that the stadium was owned by SMRT and the cab driver was laughing at me. I mean duh, the stadium would be owned by the government or something. Ahh, made a fool of myself.
Walked into the complex and made our way to the badminton court area. WJ suddenly stumbled because his leg had cramped up. We had to assist him to the badminton court. Told the staff about WJ and he just had to do some exercises to get his legs un-cramped. MH, KH and I then did the task which was to throw basketballs into the baskets, we had to get at least 2 in.
That’s when 61 came in again… zzz.
After countless attempts, we managed to complete the task. Sadly, that wasn’t the only task. Had to make our way out and search for clues in a SMRT cab. We had to find slips of paper hidden in the cab and determine the relevant ones that were true. 61 stood at a corner and watched us do our task. Guess they kinda knew where all the clues were hidden while we did the task.
THEY SHOULD BE BLINDFOLDED or stand faaaar away!
Left quickly after getting our passport stamped. 61 were once again hot on our heels. We just had to lose them!
7th stop: Tanjong Pagar station
61 reached the counter first as they were nearer to the staircase. Anyways, we had to throw balls that had velcros on them at a dart board. We had to hit the dart board 4 times and the points would be converted to time that would be shaved off our finishing time. If we hit the bull’s eye, we would win a $50 voucher.
Watched 61 do their task and they annoyingly hit the bull’s eye. We didn’t. Accumulated about 600+ points from the game and that would be the seconds shaved off from our time.
8th stop: Dhoby Ghaut station (LAST STOP!)
Got to the counter and we were supposed to re-arrange a sentence about courtesy in an MRT again. After re-arranging the sentence, we had to fish out plastic balls one by one using a ladle from a container located about a metre away. Only one member could go at the time. Managed to get all 4 balls and we had to read out the entire sentence aloud to the staff. Completed the task and rushed down stairs, almost getting scolded by the staff. Oops.
Oh yes, 61 was still doing the task when we left so… feeling good about this!
Got a merit point from a staff member while we were waiting for the MRT cos we were very considerate by standing behind the yellow line. =)
(1 merit point = 5 mins subtracted from our timing)
Waited for the MRT and sadly, 61 caught up with us. Ahh!!!
We had to make our way back to Ngee Ann Civic Plaza as fast as possible and we weren’t going to lose out to them!
Hopped onto the MRT train and I was sure our hearts palpitated fast & furiously. Said words of encouragement to one another, put our arms around one another and just took in the moment.
61 got off at Somerset station first; they would run their asses off from there to reach Ngee Ann Civic Plaza. Was a little worried at first, but WJ was sure we could beat them.
The doors opened at Orchard station and we walked briskly out of the station. Didn’t wanna incur and demerit points here. Once nearing the exit of the station, we would run till we could run no more and only stop at the finishing line.
As the exit came into view we braced ourselves…
Brows furrowed,
Hearts beating strong,
Perspiration dripping off our faces,
Our minds focussed as one.
This was it.
THIS WAS IT.
The final sprint to the finishing line.
Would we reach there before team 61?
Would we one of the last few?
What could be the outcome?
*Cues Amazing Race Music*
And I…
will leave it at that for now.
To be continued…
Hail Mary.