It was a glorious Sunday morning. At 11am, most Papillons were fluttering around in the ExxonMobil tent at Bedok Reservoir. Something(s), however, felt amiss. AH – we were missing parts of our head and tail. Ah Jon (head) was still turning the refinery around and Ah Ben (tail) was simply MIA. Not to worry, we boast of a squad with depth – Freddy-ever-Ready would take us through the first race. (And fortunately, a flurry of phonecalls later, Ben-the-Man appeared from nowhere.)
After eternity, it was time to warm up! Led astray – sorry, away – from the hustle and bustle of the tents, the troop flipped-flopped-jogged along a lovely track that showcased intricate wooden architecture among the trees.The steps, burrows and whatnots suspended by ropes reminded one of some kind of SOC (standard obstacle course) – only, for monkeys.
Some side shuffles, back paddles, touch-the-ground-without-kissing-SuLi’s-ass-s and leaps later, we did a solid 2-minute drill of simulated rowing. With stinging palms as evidence of our superb coordination – never missing a slap - we were ready to rock.
And rock, we did. The boat was very rocky indeed when we boarded for our heat, threatening to spill a few Papillons into the water. With Jon appearing in time to cheer us on, the team was raring to kick some ass. Bearing in mind what Coach Patrick said earlier when educating us on the finer points of not losing out in a race, Marilyn was trying hard not to fall into the water as she reached for some imaginary buoy.
Holding our breath in anticipation of the air-horn after the call of “ARE YOU READY. Attention...,” we almost died of asphyxiation because the air-horn never came. Luckily our common sense kicked in and we rowed away on hearing “GO!!!” half-a-retard-second later.
Hard 10, fast 20… maintenance… “Hard 10 ready”, “READY!”, “GO NOW” – “one, two…nine, ten. Ki yah, KI YAH, KI YAH, KI YAH…!!!”
… with that, Papillon glided into the semi-finals with half-a-boat-length lead over the second-placed team. One down, two to go.
Feeling all confident and good, Papillons gathered under the trees, stretching and shaking the lactic acid off. In particular, one newbie was observed trying to fling her arms off. Anyway, Coach Patrick did a post-mortem and concluded we could do an even better job in the subsequent race – to which we agreed. The team then topped up themselves with some high-octane Redbull and H2O and bananas that appeared from nowhere - courtesy of the mysterious reservoir elf (Freddy!)
After forever, we reassembled again for warm up as semi-finals approached. After more stretches and smacking each others’ palms, we did deep-breathing exercises to calm ourselves down. It was obviously something we badly needed – seeing how most of us piew-ed to the toilet every 5 seconds.
With Jon and Freddy swapping the roles of “fervent supporter” and “superpacer”, Papillon did not miss a beat and confidently headed out towards the starting point. This time, the eagle-eyed officials spotted our drummer Marilyn without her white buoy, and we gostan-ed the boat a little to hand it to her.
“ARE YOU READY. Attention…” “BORRRRRHHH” – the air-horn went. Papillon did a good start set and finished off equally strong – way ahead of the rest. And hence a place in the finals was booked.
With each race, the tiredness started creeping in… fortunately, with our morale bolstered by the two good performances, Papillon oozed sufficient adrenaline to overcome any signs of fatigue.
More Redbull and bananas later, it was Showtime!!!
Papillon cruised to the starting point with William and Dawn frantically bailing to relieve the boat of any unnecessary weight. The officials’ eyesight was getting better with each race, so we did not try anything funny.
… for a final time that day, the air-horn went and Papillon rowed like there was no tomorrow. Unfortunately, the Police and OCBC rowed like there was no today, so they clinched the first and second placing respectively. Third place was secured by a relatively dark horse, which had never tasted medal before. It could only be… the one and only Papillon!!!
Slaps on the back for a good job done, we brought much cheer to the ExxonMobil tent with our star-shaped medals. Then it was off to Pierre’s palace for a joyous celebration!
The swanky place rocked to the beat of Queen’s – to which Christy delightedly grooved along. Pierre eventually decided to fast-forward a few tracks to get to the one he –really- wanted to hear. “Weeee are the champions, my frie-ends... and weeee… go on fighting till the end… We are the champions, WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS; no time for losers, cos we are the championssss… of the world…”
Dinner was a feast of 2 delicious deep-fried sambal-chilli fish, 2 grilled frozen pizzas, and approximately 4 CEUs (chicken-equivalent-units), accompanied by beer, Pokka green tea and/or Sprite. Yes – we were HUNGRY. Meal time entertainment consisted of the interrogation of Coach Patrick and it was certainly a quick and efficient way to learn about our coach. Newbie Dawn was then showered with the same rapt attention as the whole team-minus-Dawn suddenly resembled a grand panel of matchmakers.
All in all, it was a fantabulous full-day affair which, I would think, totally made everyone’s weekend (and month… and 3Q07 YTD!) Well done Ah Ben, Desmond, Freddy, Jon, Su Li, Jessica, Christy, William, Yen Nee, Ah Biow, Dawn, Marilyn and Patrick! And not forgetting our trusty video-grapher Ken! And Samuel who was there with us in spirit! And Dennis too!
Papillon has come some way and we’ve entered a new era of title-chasing hopes and ambition. Seat by seat, race by race, medal by medal… we’ll get there. Let’s strive for a GOLDen era ahead!!
Next up – J.I. race – BRING IT ON.
= Chief Editor signing off =
No comments:
Post a Comment