~The Road Less Taken~

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

i think it's high time i chronicled what happened over the last few days (culminating really quickly. almost too quickly).

so it all started on friday afternoon, when i decided that i would like to play a game on monday, and needed some number mats (the kiddy rubber version would suffice), from 1-30.

PLAN 1: laminate 30 sheets of paper with numbers on. unfortunately, at $2.50 a piece the price was a tad to steep.

PLAN 1 FAILED.

PLAN 2: purchase similar mats from stores like toys r' us. a quick scan through their catalogue revealed nothing vaguely similar.

PLAN 2 FAILED.

(by this time it was friday night at about 10pm)

PLAN 3: ask around and see if anybody had the number mats. some people did, but unfortunately none to my exact specifications. ><

PLAN 3 FAILED.

PLAN 4: e-mail ms lily to ask for the number mats used during apcg. but i forgot that it was a 5-day work week, and she was away anyway until the monday of the game.

PLAN 4 FAILED.

(saturday, 1am. getting slightly desperate)

PLAN 5: sms joy, one of the apcg youth leaders, to ask for the number mats and where they got theirs. joy replied that it was diy by one of the volunteers.

PLAN 5 PARTIALLY SUCCESSFUL. but overall, it still FAILED.

PLAN 6: DIY. period.

the ultimate back-up plan, in case i failed at DIY (which i had no intention of using until monday morning) was paper.

fast-forward to saturday, 1pm.

what exactly happened on saturday afternoon was this:

i made a pitstop at spotlight at about 2pm, to search for materials on the advice of theo. i spent about half an hour looking at all the materials (and getting a little bit more desperate when all i saw were cloths at first) before finally stumbling upon something which looked like the material used at apcg.

a little ray of hope.

the assistants at the section, however, replied that i would have to test it first if i wanted to know if spray-paint would work on these things, and so i heeded their advice and bought the one roll at first. enough only to make 10 numbers.

at 3pm, i was in school and busily testing the spray paint. and lo and behold it worked!

so i had to make another trip down to spotlight to get the remaining materials. ><

4pm: back at spotlight, but the process was way faster this time.

5pm: back in school with all the mats at my hands.

PLAN 6 SUCCESSFUL, surely. barring any calamities.

next problem: the mats were in a 1.5m roll, so i had to trim them to size, but being the perfectionist i am, i simply had to trim them absolutely properly.

and it's here i am forever indebted to the floor tiles of the ripb room.

the width of the rolls were 30cm (exactly the same as the floor tile dimensions) and since numbers look good on squares, i simply had to use the tile as a guide and cut away.

so at slightly after 6pm, all the mats were ready for action.

next problem/realisation: i forgot to bring any templates to spray on. more evidence of my perfectionist nature.

so i had to adjourn until sunday, but either way saturday was a big day.

and a shower rarely ever felt as good as the one on saturday.

sunday, 11am: having printed out the templates the day before, it was time to start cutting away.

by 1pm, after a few delays and distractions (and some help), eventually the templates were all done and i was finally ready to produce an actual number mat.

so at 1.30pm, the moment of truth. would the number mat hold up?

the answer was a resounding yes. and the sheer delight and relief i felt was quite something i've never felt before.

but of course i had to be careful about ruining the porch area, so it was slow-going until about 4pm (i was only up to 15 out of 30 mats). then a little break (to get some carebears! yes, you should know what for, bossman. =D).

and thanks to the help from my entire family (who had more reason than ever before to think i had a bit of a screw loose to be doing all this) the job was finished by 7pm.

and of course drying and all took time as well, but thankfully everything wrapped up before 10pm on sunday night.

whew. close shave that one.

and yes, again, that night's shower was almost like rain in the desert.

and then on monday it was time to rock and roll.

well we'll skip straight to the number mats' use actually. it took all of 30 minutes before they went back into the bag they had come in, but the response to those 30 minutes more than made my 2 days of effort worth it.

and there was one final additional cost i had to shoulder (or rather, leg) - twisting/spraining my ankle while doing a dry run of the game.

my right side still feels shorter than my left. o.0

but more on monday now.

it was really the perfect combination between the psl and the apcg experience (the best of both worlds, almost), and yes the lack of girls might just have made it a little bit less fun, but still i'm really glad that i chose to do what i did in the first place.

live life without regrets, they say so often.

and i'm a firm believer of people power. anyone around would have seen that.

and the people really did make the difference.

and mind you, i learnt a great deal from that session myself. especially from yuda - respect to the dude man.

i just hope that in the end i really did make a difference, in some way, which would sort of make up for my own shortcomings.

i don't really like to say this too often, but i think i will make this one exception.

i'm really proud of myself.

and of course i'm immensely grateful to a few people through this incredible journey (especially over the friday-to-monday stretch):

the people who helped me search for the number pads, and actually cared about me enough to help. - charles (and for your nick)! theodore! nicchee! danieltay!

honestly, in times of need, these people make you feel lucky to have them. and i am incredibly lucky.

the people who came down to do the business. - yuda! kengchee! theodore (again)! thanks a million times over until my saliva runs dry and i need my liangcha again.

and of course, the juniors who came down to listen to whatever we had to say. it really heartens me to know there're people still like this in ri.

and so two conclusions from today:

1) i lied to a few of you. knowingly.

2) and i was wrong about all of you. and i'm glad i am.

and so ends the epic adventures of the number mats.

they sit pretty comfortably in a neat pile near the staircase now. and i just hope that a year from now, they'll find a suitable use, once again.

there's so much more i want to write, but some things are better left inside. i'll need to make sense of them fully before i can pass them on anyway.

but yes, people continue to ask me the same question, and my answer will always be the same.

"i don't know. it's just the way it is."

ok then it's 2am and my eyes are bulging out (and my right leg is crying out for a rest) so till the next interesting bit of holidays come about, so long.

(and i think i'll be off to sydney! 9-14 dec.)

I stopped to rest at 1:25 AM

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...