Yorkshire – Day 5 – Ripon and Lightwater Valley

Breakfast – Bangers, Beans, Peach Slices, Cornflakes Miracle of all miracles – the boys took it upon themselves to clean up their rooms, the entire campsite, AND hoover the entire building to boot by 9am. One suspects it has everything to do with the fact that the Lightwater Valley trip would end at 2pm no [...]

Yorkshire – Day 4 – To Knaresborough and Harrogate

After lunch – an utterly sumptuous baked potato and cheese melt experience, the fact that the boys were holed up with the Casino Royale DVD permanently in their sauna-like bedroom, which had had the heating on for 4 days now, as we belatedly realised, detracted from the pleasure somewhat. Still, with 2 consecutive meals, they [...]

Yorkshire – Day 4 – Rained Out!

If, the day before, we had been in self-imposed dormancy in the campsite on account of the weather, today, paradoxically we spent as much of it OUT as possible despite the worsening weather. Breakfast – Bangers, Beans and Cornflakes After that meal, we headed out to Pateley Bridge at 8am for the carboot sale; there [...]

Yorkshire – Day 3 – Rained In!

Breakfast – Bangers, Beans and Cornflakes Breakfast today – a far more subdued affair, given that it had been pouring maniacally the night before. The temperature had sunk into the mid-teens, and they say it’s summer. After grub, we shepherded the whole camp to Pateley Bridge, this time via the river route. On the way, [...]

Yorkshire – Day 2 – Becoming Brit

BREAKFAST – Bangers, Beans and Cornflakes My production – conceivably, as a vegetarian, I would avoid cooking meat like the plague, but I have absolutely no compunctions about feeding other people and accelerating their atherosclerosis via bangers that are dripping in cholestrol, fat and all that makes them ooze with a certain genteel charm. Over [...]

Yorkshire – Day 1 – Fly by Night

Nicholas nicholas86@gmail.com reports The moment the exams ended, you know you had a problem. With barely 3 hours’ shut-eye in between, punctuated by a good pizza buffet, we (me and Gan) showed up at Byker Community Centre, disheveled, to say the least. With 2 mini  backpacks between us, we were dwarfed by our boys, who [...]

Pesta 2003 – Day 12 – KL Shopping

An uneventful morning was characterised only by the first mamak breakfast we had all Pesta. As always, we detoured to Cheras for a Mrs. Ting-endorsed breakfast. That breakfast, Cassandra left us for Korea. She will be sorely missed, not least by a bunch of 16-year olds. Next, of course, we hit the sidewalks of Bukit [...]

Pesta 2003 – Day 11 – KL Bound

At 2.00 pm, all boarded the bus – and this time, “all” referred to a select band of 9th KK members. As a result, the bus was packed in a most outstanding fashion, without the luxury of ad hoc sleeping areas as before. As we bid a fond goodbye to Malacca – some their first, [...]

Pesta 2003 – Day 11 – Drumbeat Service and Farewell

Welcome to the beginning of the end. The live band practising was just what we had expected at the end of Pesta – a difference. The drumbeat ceremony cum closing ceremony began at 8am with a quick praise and worship session, ended by a less famous BB tune – “Lord Bless The Boys’ Brigade” – [...]

Pesta 2003 – Day 10 – Originally Orange Bash

The Pesta closing dinner is a constituent fixture of the Pesta experience. Well, the Pesta experience has just changed. This year, Pesta organizers upped the tempo a wee bit with the Originally Orange Bash, a festive collaboration of sounds, beats, music, fashion shows, performances, and (adults’ shudder) clubbing. As members filed in at 5pm to [...]