I took part in the operation fun - here's the write up ...

In a week where general elections took centre-stage, a milestone event of Republic Polytechnic took place from 3rd – 4th March 2006. Republic Polytechnic has been housed in Tanglin Campus for the past 3 years. What started from the small little Strathmore Block to house the 100+ staff evolved into 3 blocks, consisting of Tower Block, Strathmore Block and Belvedere Block, which housed the first batch of 800 students. Phoenix Park soon became part of the family in Tanglin Campus as well.

On 3rd March 2006, Northbound was held in Tanglin campus and on 4th March 2006, Operation Fun was launched at Woodlands campus. While Northbound symbolizes farewell to Tanglin, Operation FUN (Finally United in the North) symbolizes our arrival at Woodlands. Ms. Indranee, Guest-of-Honour of Northbound, began our symbolic move when she handed over the flag to Yi Feng, Vice-Captain of Biking IG, to transfer and bring the RP Flag to be planted in Woodlands campus. What followed next was a journey to a new era.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. On 4th March 2006, Prof. Low led a group of about 100 staff and students on bicycle and left Tanglin Campus at 5.45am. The journey to the new campus included 2 stops, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Tech Semi-Conductor. At Tech Semi-Conductor, Yi Feng then handed over the flag to Zhi Hui, 3rd year student and President of Student Ambassadors. Along the undulating journey, most of the contingent felt tired but all of them persevered on. And while they were traveling, a record 700+ staff and students arrived at Woodlands campus to welcome the contingent.

At 9.15am, Mr. Lee Hsien Yang, Guest of Honour and Chairman of Board of Governors, arrived and was welcomed by the Lion Dance. He proceeded to dot the eyes of 2 new lions and as he completed the dotting ceremony, the cycling contingent arrived.

Mr. Lee welcomed the contingent and went up the mound with Prof. Low and Eden to await Jonathan, President of the Biking IG, who was on a unicycle to complete the final leg of the flag planting ceremony. Prof Low and Mr. Lee gave their speeches and despite some technical glitches from the sound system, the crowd cheered on and Operation FUN, the launch of Woodlands Campus began with the joint sounding of horns by Prof Low and Mr. Lee, bursting of confetti and the cheers of the crowd.

There was free food, drinks, t-shirts, caps, ice-cream, bags, folders, soft-toys and a lot more there! Someone even joked that all you need to do is throw a stone and you will hit someone who is carrying a freebie. If you think that the freebies were good, the dunking machine was even more popular. Staff were dragged, (yes, literally dragged) onto the dunking machines to be dunked. It doesn’t matter if they were guy or girl, academic staff or administrative staff, prepared or not, nominated or not, the moment a student wanted it, he / she was on the dunking machine ready to be dunked. And all the staff who was dunked took it in their stride. Some taunted the students and laughed when they missed. Mr. Chang York Boon, had both his legs on the dunking machine and even though the student hit the dunking machine, he did not fall into it.

The competitions began too and everyone was clearly soaking themselves into the festive mood. A lot of the students also went back to basics when they collected their free spray and water guns and started spraying at each other. The event ended at about 1pm with the lucky draw. Ms. Low Bee Hong showed everyone how lucky she was by walking away with 5 lucky draw prizes!

As the crowd started to disperse and for the year 3s who are graduating, all of us realize that even though all of us started off thinking of the end in the journey, in the end, it is the journey that matters most. Operation FUN is not the destination; it is the beginning of our journey in Republic Polytechnic.

It has been ages that i ever blog... My apologies to all.. Have been busy working and running.....

I will be back again SOON!!1