Christmas Retreat 2010.

The annual Christmas Celebration cum Retreat was held at Tampines SAFRA again this year. The real fun began in the afternoon with the game of “食字路口”. As the name suggests, it involved food, words and moving around.

I was the only old folk in the group of youths. Naturally, I was a little slower, had less stamina, and panted real often. :p But the "try our best, play to win" spirit of my team moved me along.

There were ten dishes to be eaten, four places to go, and four challenges to be overcome. Th first dish was "巧克力" (chocolate) and the fifth was "糖果" (candy). While the rest were still enjoying their lunch, my enthusiastic team gathered to plan! This is our draft plan...

Our first location, Tampines Mart. We quickly found our first two dishes. The first was "荔枝水" (lychee drink).

The next dish was "水果" (fruit).

Then came the challenge. We were supposed to find out which pages of the newspaper these sentences were extracted from...

Everyone scrambled through the papers..

Some seemed to enjoy a good read. ;-)

And me? I was busy taking photos and giving misleading ideas. Hah...

It was one of the toughest challenge. We even used Google to narrow the possible headlines! Yeah, progress!

Waiting for train to the next stop, Simei.

As usual, I was lagging behind the pack. Running just don't go well with older folks like me.

The two dishes were "果条汤" (kuay tiao soup) and "糖果" (candy).

Our 地头蛇 who navigated for us around Tampines.

The challenge at this station was easy. We completed the puzzle in no time. The final dish was revealed: "树桶蛋糕" (log cake).

Next stop, back to Tampines. This time we grabbed "果冻" (fruit jelly) and "冬瓜汁" (winter melon juice).

Our challenge to the next clue was to find the actual locations of the series of monochrome photos. They were scattered in Tampines Mall and Century Square.

The seemingly difficult task was a walk in the park, thanks to the ladies in our team. The hours spent shopping in malls had paid off in a special way.

Last station, before heading back to SAFRA Tampines, was Blk 201. Where is that? I had absolutely no idea. But once again our 地头蛇, navigated the way for us.

Waiting for the bus at Tampines Interchange.

We had 芝麻 (sesame from the McChicken Bun)...

And 马铃薯 (potato in the form of fries)...

With that we headed back.

Our bubbly youths were still full of energy as they ran up and down the overhead bridge to catch the bus. One more station to go!

In the end, the spirit of youth prevailed and we came in first. Our last dish was the log cake...

Group picture of the winning team...

Thanks to my teammates, I had extra fun playing the game and won something. ;-) But that wasn't the end.

We had the traditional gift exchange. And this is what I got...

I think gifts usually depict how others perceive us. Eg. book vouchers for the reader, keyboard for the programming guru... And this is a sure sign that my status of "Father" is recognised! =) Till the next Christmas Retreat, Merry Christmas, Hurray to the Youth Spirit!