It's Zhong Ning blogging for Ada this time round. Why? She doesn't know how to blog. Cool huh? So now, I shall be doing this round's reflections until we teach her how to blog.. (Or maybe get her the “Dummies Guide to Blogging )

Honestly speaking, this entry is one week late. Nonetheless, I think reflections can be done any time, though it is best done as soon as the activity is completed.

Hmm...well, I entered Sungei Buloh in the same way as the week before, though it was more disastrous this time round. First of all, I woke up late, and so, in my rush, I forgot to bring along the measuring tape, TWIST TIES, and goodness knows what other stuff. Hence, I have resolved to pack my bag the day before, and ALWAYS list out the things I have to bring along for each meeting.

According to reliable sources (i.e. Amanda), I will be dead the next round I forget something. Anyway, after confessing to an irritated Ada and (I think) an exasperated Mr Lim, some improvisation was done. (Habits of the Mind come in useful here I suppose..."Creating, imagining, innovating" and "Thinking flexibly")

The tidal level was taken to be as mentioned in the tide table, and as for the twist ties, raffia string replaced them temporarily. Since the person at fault was me, I was naturally the one to run back to the visitors' centre to get raffia. After some chiding from people around the topic of "you are suppose to bring your own twist ties. It is not our responsibility to provide you with string", I eventually managed to secure some raffia string to tie the hypocotyls to the bamboo after applying some more HoM ("Gathering data through all senses"??). Ok, HoM don't really work here. After all, I was remorseful.

So after these hiccups, we finally started securing the hypocotyls to the bamboo. This round was fun since we did planting in the rain! =D That was enjoyable, though I doubt anyone was in the mood to “赏雨”. Well, despite the morning's work being done, the raffia string had to be either replaced or secured further by proper twist ties. That basically meant that we needed to go back to do the tying one more time.

We went back today. (and Amanda continues, with occasional protests from Zhong Ning.)

We started early in the morning. The meeting time was 7.30 a.m. (I know we are nuts, nobody gets up that early to do RS. I mean who would even bother bout RS that much :b) but Zhong Ning was late (as usual) [Comment from ZN: I am not late AS USUAL. It's just today!]. Reached SBWR at around 8.00 a.m. to meet a highly annoyed (as usual again) Ada, and proceeded to Kranji Extention to start work.

Ada and I had our dads with us, so with adult supervision and aid, all we had to worry about was attaching the twist ties properly. Ada's dad helped with cutting the twist ties. Pardon my failing memory, I think they were about 15cm long.

Since there were 3 plots and 3 of us, we took 1 plot each. I think they were rather kind to me [duh! I did the muddiest plot because you ppl were so reluctant!], I got to work on the 'cleanest' sandy area. It was much easier for me, considering my inability to mobilise myself in mud. But anyway, I think I have an innate talent, just undiscovered [haha, like real. wait till you do the middle.] . I didn't have any difficulties moving in the mud today! The url of our blog no longer stands :) [at least for Amanda]

Everything was completed in about an hour and a half. The hypocotyls barely grew - none on the first plot (closest to the trail), 2 on the middle muddy plot, and 1 on the sandy plot, nearest to the waters. 1 hypocotyl was found rotten, and we replaced it with a new one we picked up from the ground.

I can't say the morning was a well-spent one, as all we did was to attach the twist ties to the hypocotyls and supporting sticks. But, at least we got what we were supposed to do done pretty efficiently :) Hopefully the next time we get to our plots, there'd be more measurements to take. I really hope they grow! And then we'll be contributing to the country, by extending the beach coverage at kranji extension by about 50%.

Yes, so Happy Birthday Singapore :D

Zhong Ning & Amanda. (Pictures from Ada to be uploaded soooooon.)