MINDSville Firework Outing 2008 on 23rd August 2008

Today was the long-awaited annual MINDSville(considered it as a annual outing since we had it since 2006) Firework Outing 2008... Seriously speaking, I was quite optimistic about the weather in the sense that it would be a sunny sunny day as I actually digged out my old old tripod so as to take some nice nice pictures... But the weather proved me wrong... but it was a blessing in disguise as we managed to secure a place which kinda of "belonged" to just us during the firework display just now...

For this year Firework Outing 2008, unlike the previous 2 years... we did cater for wet weather programme this time round as follows, namely Plan A and Plan B. Below are the information extracted from the briefing list done up by Ivy :)

Program Plan A/Sunny
3pm - 4pm
Bus to leave MINDsVille (to reach Lau Pa Sat at approx 4pm)
4pm to 4.30pm
To split the residents into 8 sub-groups + walking to Merlion Park/settling down
4.30pm to 6pm
Coloring + Origami sessions!
--->>> 5.30pm - Selected volunteers to contact Shawn for food collection from Apollo Centre
6pm to 7pm
Dinner (packed food) @ Merlion Park
7pm to 9pm
Toilet break/Rest/Relax/Interaction with residents/Sing-a-long
9pm to 9.30pm
Fireworks Display
9.30pm to 10pm
Sparklers Time
10pm to 10.45
Clean/Pack Up + Walk back to Lau Pa Sat for bus pick-up

Program Plan B/Rainy
3pm - 4pm
Bus to leave MINDsVille (to reach Suntec City Convention Hall Area at approx 4pm)
4pm to 4.30pm
To split the residents into 8 sub-groups/Co-ordination to move in different directions
4.30pm to 6pm
Shopping session!
--->>> 5.30pm - Selected volunteers to contact Shawn for food collection from Apollo Centre via TAXI
6pm to 7pm
Dinner (packed food) @ Suntec City Convention Hall Area
7pm to 8pm
Toilet break/Rest/Relax/Interaction with residents
8pm to 8.30pm
Clean/Pack Up + Wait @ Suntec City Convention Hall Area for bus pick-up
8.30pm to 9.30pm
Bus Journey back to MINDsVille
9.30pm to 10pm
Sparklers Time @ MINDsVille (if only weather permits)

In the end, due to the heavy rain in the afternoon... we activated Plan B... and divide the volunteers/residents in 8 sub-groups from our usual project session groupings to play some photo shopping game while me and Yany went to search for some suitable location at the same time... In the end, we settled ourselves at the Koi Pond in Suntec City while me and 3 volunteers from NUS went to Apollo centre to collect our veggie dinner sponsored by Fanny's friend. Thank alot to Fanny and her friend... The food was very very nice according to the volunteers' feedback... :p

While we were having our dinner, Ken, Lixian, Pauline and Yany actually went around to check for locations for the residents to catch the fireworks once the weather improved... In the end, we went up to the Shaw Tower Car Park level 6th... Although it's kinda of quite a dark place for the resident to be in, but one good thing is that we had the whole area all by ourselves as the area used to be a former parking lots for car which had been cornered off... No problem of going toilet as the toilet was just a few storey below via the lift... and we had a good shelter in case of heavy rain... It's indeed a very very nice location... to see the fireworks although some of them were blocked out by the shopping buildings and hotels nearby. Anyway, I would like to thank Ken, Lixian, Pauline and Yany for doing the recee... if not, we will miss the firework display... :)

Once we settled down, with the plastic sheet lying on the ground for the resident to sit on and for the volunteers to place their belongings, with some time available... we started to light up the sparklers to warm up the residents prior to the firework display... Glad to see that they were having so much fun, with some of volunteers/residents asking our beloved "camera man" Terence to take photos for them with his friend's DSLR... Haha~


Terence, Liyue and myself went up all the way to the top storey for the SHAW Tower carpark, hoping to catch some nice photo (by Terence) and videos (by me). But sadly, my camera went dead after 15 minutes of the fireworks display... much to my disappointment and I regretted not buying additional batteries earlier... *Sadden* Frankly speaking, the fireworks display were excellent... but if not for the bad weather throughout the night, it would be prefect... :) The whole outing ended with a couple of overall group photos before we made our way to beach road to board the bus back to Mindsville...

I would like to thank the Firework Committee, namely: Yany, Ivy, Ann, Lixian, Yinning, Liyue,
Huiqi, Pauline, Evelyn and Rueben... for all their help and coordinating the activities during the Operation Phase 2... Not forgetting Anthony and Saili too :) You girls/guys rocks... Special thanks to the following as well... namely:

Ken - our "Bus Commander" :p
Chew Ling - as GL when Rueben was activated just now :p
4 NUS guys - for their help in collecting the food from Apollo Centre.
Fanny and her friend - for the food.
All the volunteers... A BIG THANK YOU once again... This outing would not be made possible without your help...
Last but not last... our beloved residents...

Anyway, whoever who read this blog, please do upload your photo of your various groups activities and photos of the fireworks display if any, into the Mindsville Picasa album... :)

Do have a great weekend ahead and have a great week ahead... Take care :)

~Shawn