Beautiful Bintan

On our arrival, we were ushered to the Orzo Restaurant, a special cosy place, for a late breakfast spread.

The food was really good and sumptious. And once the tummy was taken care of...it was time to get down to the business at hand., the seminar proper.

The Welcome address was held at the Manado Conference Room by Chairman ATC Mdm Cynthia Phua.

That was followed by Ice breaker activities carried out by staff of

aAvantage Consulting, the organisation engaged to do the team building programme. The official seminar programme then followed. Bintan time is 1 hour behind ours. As I was not involved in the seminar proper, I took my camera and went for a stroll around the huge grounds of the resort and ended up on the beach front. The scene before me was most inviting and captivated my heart. These were some of the images I snapped.

There were many deck chairs on the beach front. I dragged one under a shady Casuarina tree and laid down. With a steady breeze blowing gently and in the simmering heat of the early afternoon sun, I closed my eyes to enjoy this free of stress luxury of soaking in the sea, the sun and the sand.

Goodness old me!

I did not realise it. In less than 5 minutes I was sound asleep and when I awoke....3 hours had elapsed!

There were more people at the beach as I looked around.

I walked back to the main lunch area the Kopi O Restaurant. Most of the others had finished their lunch and were on the way back for Part 2 of the seminar. Me? I took a lunch of fruits...very healthy. They had a goodly spread.

Thus fully recharged, I decided to drop in on their seminar at the Manado Room.

I was curious what they were all up to when I went in.

All of them were seated on the floor with papers,scissors, glue , staplers, markers etc.

They were divided into teams for the challenge of doing a 6 minute presentation.

After watching D2's team and what they were doing, an instant idea hit me. I can add some spice for them.

To find out more, do read the next post.

Serangoon Adventure at BINTAN !

The Aljunied Town Council organises a yearly Retreat for all their Town Councillors, staff and spouses at exotic "overseas" venues such as Batam (last year) and Bintan, this year.

10 councillors from Kampong Serangoon, plus yours truly (unk Dicko ) led by Chairman CCC Daisie Yip, joined the other adventures from the other component kampongs...nearly 2 busloads full.

Early that morning, our group met at Hougang street 21 Bus terminal where 2 private buses ferried us to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.

I knew quite a few people from the other "kampongs" as I was with them at the Batam Retreat in 2007. Thus, it wasn't surprising that the very first thing that many of them asked me was," Hello unk Dicko ! Did you bring along your little BABY ? "

They were of course referring to my little UKULELE !

If I had said No, the smiles would have vanished.

Instead, I gently pulled out my ukulele and asked, " would you all like some sing a-long?"

Our busload of people were singing from Hougang to Changi, non-stop!

See...what a tiny little baby can do?

For those of you who would like to pick up ukulele playing...let me just say there is hardly any music school that offers such a thing, guitar yes..ukulele no.

So, in the world of the Ukulele...people such as myself are a rarity, especially in Kampong Singapore.

We boarded the ferry at Tanah Merah and settled down for the 1 hour journey to Bintan. Time was about 9 am plus.

Weather was perfect..a little hot.

On arrival, after clearing I and C at the Indonesian side, we arrived at Bintan Lagoon Resort where we were given a local, native WELCOME by this group of performers...with lots of kumpang drumming and other exotic musical items.