IRINAH HOUSE NIGHT 2016

Far from shopping malls and the city bustle, Eagle Ranch was chosen once again as Irinah’s House Night destination for this term. Clad in t-shirts and sport shoes, the Dynamites were ushered onto the two awaiting buses outside the house after the end of school on Saturday, January 16.

Upon reaching the cowboy-themed recreational resort an hour and a half later, we teamed up with our pre-determined group members and were taken to different locations in the resort to undergo team-building activities, one of which was called Bridge over Troubled Waters. Equipped with only three planks and a couple of ropes, the mission is to get a ping-pong ball in a container of water, as well as each and every team member, safely across a make-believe river. This activity truly tested our ability to cooperate, coordinate, and think critically in order to get across. This wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be and it took us several tries before we finally managed to figure out the solution.  

 

Pleased with our little achievement, we followed the facilitators to the other end of the resort. There was another challenge for us complete. And by another, I actually meant twenty more, because the next (and final) activity was a 20-feature obstacle course.  Teamwork was truly the crux of this activity as it was virtually impossible to complete all the elements in this course without the assistance and support from our own team members. The end of the activity left many of us with a sense of satisfaction at having survived an obstacle course that we were initially convinced was too hard for us to complete.

Our day ended with a gratifying dinner of barbequed chicken, fish and lamb, with a side of pasta, potatoes and delicious dessert, after which we boarded the bus back to KTJ.   

 

-Written by Nurul (L6)-

         HOUSE  NIGHT 2015

Shouts of ‘Clear the house!’ abounded Irinah as us Irinah girls swarmed out of the packed common room, and into the two waiting buses. Since it was Ruo Yi’s birthday (an upper sixer), most of the upper  six were put on one bus.

It was all fun and games until the bus pulled over into the restaurant … that’s when the real hunger games began! Us famished teenagers, as well as the staff, were delighted to find steamboat stoves awaiting us, complete with the necessary ingredients, like fishballs, prawns, vegetables, not to mention the succulent crab meat!

As we dug in and started getting into the mood however, we had a little steamboat scare,  as one of the pipes on the stove had gotten loose and the table cloth caught on fire. Luckily, everyone was alright as the staff quickly dealt with problem, and Shazlin, who was sitting right in front of the stove, escaped with singed eyelashes!

Although we were quite shaken up for a bit, our joyful spirits were soon restored once we tried the delicious ‘muar chee’ which was being sold. I myself dropped one whilst eating and was extremely eager to get another. Some of us then ventured out to the seaside where the view was startlingly tropical and dazzling. It was so bright and sunny that everyone was soon taking multitudes of pictures on the wooden bridge behind the restaurant.

Not long after that, we went to visit a bird’s nest farm. At the bird’s nest farm, we watched a very informative video about the origins of bird nest farming in South East Asia, particularly in Malaysia. Unfortunately the video was in Chinese so most of us were forced to rely on the sporadic and sometimes rapid fire subtitles but it was all in great fun.

In conjuction to the bird farm, we also visited the small neighbouring animal farm, where we saw porcupines, koi fish, deers, rabbits and peacocks, just to name a few. We then proceeded to explore the street cuisine of Tanjung Sepat, and I can certainly vouch for the delicious fare, primarily the kaya bao, red bean bao, kuihbaulu, char kuey teow and we even watched people roast coffee beans. To top it all off, we splurged at a local chips factory (including trying way more of the food samples than we should have) as well as a delightful seafood-themed dinner. My personal favourite was the fried squid! After an exciting albeit tiring day, we all climbed back aboard the bus, sweaty and aching but determined that we all safely reach Irinah to begin another crazy, exciting day.

After all, we love our bread, we love our butter but most of all we love each other. Go, Irinah dynamites!

Written by Maneesha, (L6)