RWinds Chalet

After not having an RWinds chalet last year, I was eagerly anticipating this one. As opposed to the conventional method of taking a shuttle bus from Tanah Merah MRT station, I decided to bike from my house to the chalet. I was not disappointed by my choice, I did enjoy going all-out along the cycle path, enjoying the wind in my face and the beach going by, punctuated with the odd landing in Changi Airport.

I arrived just as the vanguard of the comm did, and we did some basic unpacking before settling down for a game of Taboo. I noticed that they had renovated NSRCC chalets completely. This proceeded with the trademark RWinds hilarity, and we played for quite some time before switching to preparing food and watching the Simpsons.

At this point people, especially J1s J2s, started trickling in. Around this time, I decided to go return my bike, stopping to rescue Shang, I took the bike down to the PCN Pit Stop at Area G, then strolled back to the chalet, admiring planes and listening to music.

When I got back, the barbeque was in the process of spawning, led by Huijun and Yethong. I flitted around between the barbeque and the movie (Incredibles and Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End), though I spent a lot of time relaxing by the barbeque pit and enjoying some idle chatter.

At one point however I was called upon to give advice, and while I attempted to dispense it as best I could, I'm not sure if my efforts were enough, or indeed, if they were in the right drection... Sometimes I feel helpless in such situations, knowing that a friend's in need and there's nothing you can do to help.

Still, we did rejoin the party and enjoy some excellent barbeque and great company all around, definitely what makes RWinds special. We soon settled down for a game of charades, the trademark of RWinds. More hilarity ensued, doubtless our esteemed quartermaster would have some videos.

After charades much of the group left, aiming to catch the last train. The remainder settled down to, on request of Quanhui, watch Coda IV and V. Memories resurfaced, but ultimately this was more of a technical critique of our playing, always useful to see what we can learn from to lead to a better Coda VI and beyond.

A game of Saboteur was initiated, but as we had too many people, some satellite groups formed. On my part, I took a walk with David, Yethong, Shuotian and Jeremy to find some food. This attempt failed, but we spent some time in the main lounge relaxing and chatting about topics such as university applications and the latest army vehicles.

We returned to the chalet and the other highlight of the night began - Werewolves. This is a convuluted version of Polar Bear that I shall not attempt to explain here, though, suffice to say, it was -BOOMZ- some great fun.

Later on in the night we were left with Richard, Edison, Amir, Jiamin, Shirlene, Ben, myself, Jeremy and Shuotian playing, with Ivan somewhere else in the building. This group of people would be the ones staying till the very end. We played a few rounds of Werewolves and ordered some supper.

After those rounds of polar bear, which were especially enjoyable as moderator, most of us settled down for sleep. I gazed at landing aircraft for a while, then fell asleep on the floor.

I woke up after half an hour, thereabouts, and saw everyone still sleeping. This is one of the moments I hate the most, the window between early morning and dawn when most people are asleep. I can't convince my body that easily, and the floor didn't really help matters.

The room was pretty cold. As I love cold places and I was dressed somewhat warmly, I was mostly fine with it. However, I could tell some of my compatriots were not. I felt another short wave of helplessness, sitting next to my friend in the morning, watching him shiver in the cold and not being able to offer any help.

I did catch a little more sleep, missing the sunrise, sadly. However, I did see what I had come to see, the Qantas A380-800 flight from London Heathrow and bound for Sydney. Jinjun had risen by then, so the two of us strolled along the beach path towards the Changi Park Connector.

We got some nice view of incoming aircraft and were soon joined by Shuotian. The three of us returned to the chalet hungry, as none of us had eaten much the night before. We then ordered in McDonalds again, and spent the morning playing Taboo and chatting some more.

A couple of people, such as Jeremy, were beginning to leave. We then proceeded with games of Saboteur and Bohnanza.

At this time, I then decided it was time to retreat, we all did, actually, so in in the end, Jinjun came over to my house a while before leaving for home.

Ultimately, this year's chalet was a big success! Bonds definitely stengthened, especially among the different batches. It was definitely a highly enjoyable and relaxing, though tiring, event. While I had not been able to help some people, for which I still feel slightly guilty, I really did enjoy the performance, the dinner, werewolves everything. Hard to get bored at RWinds chalets!

I hope this year and the following, we have more such events, they're good ways to bond the various people that make up this band. Onward to next year!