9th Weekday PDT - Water Parade

A team activity at the start of each PDT does wonders. Besides helping to shake off the weariness from work, SPY10s also get to recharge and synergise ourselves before we begin the session. It is 24 August 2010 and September awaits. Time is against us but we are ready for the Big Day.

Brothers (and Sisters) in arms

The first activity really requires some focus. Led by Fizah, everyone sang "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" and when we sing any words which begin with the letter "B", we have to do a half squat.

How apt a song for SSEAYP! Very soon, our Bonnie would really be lying over the ocean, atop Fuji Maru! And as we sang and did the squats, we could feel the waves move through our body...

YL Zatan initated a Water Parade to ensure that fellow SPY10s were fully hydrated. Given the hot weather, the water parade came in time to ensure that we do not fall sick.

Water Parade is a term used during our National Service where recruit soldiers drink up their water bottles before strenuous activities to prevent dehydration.

If not for our PDT and the scarcity of water resource in Singapore, I think we would have enjoyed a mini Water Festival (as celebrated in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand).

We went into our groups to continue with our cultural practice.

"There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle." -- Deepak Chopra

And as our contingent splits up to work on our individual performance segment, deep in our minds we know that everyone contributes to the success of OUR show. We work hard to make sure that we don't let anyone of us down.

Most SPY10s come to PDTs after a long day of work. But when PDT kicks in, everyone is on SSEAYP-mode. Adrenaline surges and it seems we have a second life in SSEAYP.

At times, 2-3 hours of cultural practice during PDT sessions are not enough. And SPY10s have to do their own practice at home every other day.

However tough the training gets, we still find simple pleasures.

Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own,

and let it grow, be like water.

Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water.

Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup;

You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle;

You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot.

Now water can flow or it can crash...

Be water, my friend.

-- Bruce Lee