Christmas Dinner 2013
Christmas Dinner 2013 was held at Le Bistrot Pierre in Leamington Spa. Members enjoyed sumptuous two or three-course dinners and excellent company while playing a variety of entertaining audience-participation games. A lucky draw was also held which saw a few people walking home with everything from gift cards to speakers.
Ski Trip 2013
The annual Ski Trip during the Winter Break of 2013 was held in Val D'Isere, France. Members of all years, courses and abilities came together to shred the slopes (or fall on them) during the seven day holiday.
Orientation 2013
Orientation 2013 was held at Aloha Loyang, with most of the games held at the nearby Pasir Ris town park. This year, the Warwick Singapore Society welcomes a batch of freshers larger than 60 in size! This is easily one of the largest batches we have in years.
Orientation has always been a time to meet new people, to get to know the faces you would probably see around for the next 3 years. Starting our orientation at Downtown East, the freshers received their first chance to get to know each other, while waiting for registration to end. After which, they then proceeded to Pasir Ris town park in the sweltering weather, where the icebreakers began in earnest. After a quick lunch, it's back to more games, in which the freshers would start their Orientation games against each other. It was an afternoon of mud, water bombs, blindfolds, raw food tossed around, soapy wrestling, and tons of sweat, fun and laughter. This year sees a return of the ever-cringeworthy Sock and Bone (AKA Sock Wars) and the food-wasting Captain's ball, with the addition of new games such as blindfolded catching in Zombies! and a tweaked water bomb version of Battleships. Though the rain threatened to dampen our spirits, we held out till it ended, and finished off the games on a high note with our war game, White House Down, which involved the freshers collecting ammo (water bombs) through a series of activities, after which they had to correctly ferret out the President, amongst 3 other decoys, and hold on to him till the end of the game. Congratulations to OG3 who won the games!
With that, the sweating was over; it was time to proceed to the night activities! After the allocated dinner and shower time, the representatives from each OG were put in front of the rest of them, in which they had to display why they deserved to represent Warwick at the annual UKBound event at Zouk on the 7th September 2013. It was a nice change of pace from the afternoon, where the freshers cheered their peers on as they put their talents on show. With all the beauty and talent strewn around, the batch of 2013 had difficulty deciding on who shall represent them, but in the end, John Choo and Elena Ho were selected. Congratulations to the 2 who were chosen, and we hope they would do well at UKBound!
Extending from last year's Orientation, where some felt it was too short, we had an event on the 2nd Day! After freshening up from a relaxing night with newfound friends, the freshers made their way to their respective pit stops for the Amazing Food Race! It was a chance for freshers to appreciate the gourmet food so cheaply available around Singapore, yet so scarce in the campus university many of them will call their second home in the coming months. The freshers made their way through some of the famous hawker centres in Singapore, such as Maxwell Food Centre and Tiong Bahru Market, where each group has to accomplish a certain task at the specified location and post it to the HQ via Instagram. A sugarcane Boat Race, while perhaps not as challenging as the original consisting beer, is still exciting when you pit the freshers against the seniors. In the end, the Amazing Race is one where there are no losers, only winners, where everyone gets to eat cheap and tasty food!
Old Airport Road marked the end of the Amazing Race, where the freshers said their goodbyes, shared their contacts, and of course, took pictures. Orientation, to us seniors, is all about making the freshers feel welcome and have a good time, not only at Orientation, but also at Warwick, and we hoped that this batch of incoming freshers would treasure the time they spend together! :D
Warwick Summer Games 2013
Summer is... Sun! Fun! Hunks and Babes! (plus the occasional Gordon Ramsay)
Singapore is... Food! Family and Friends! (plus insane queues)
Summer in Singapore is... Warwick Summer Games! (no queuing needed...we promise!)
The Warwick Summer Games (WSG) was first held in 2009, and has since been held annually for Singaporean students in the UK who return over the summer to Singapore. The University of Warwick is proud to present this year's event, now in its fifth year and with more sports than ever before, which is held in support of the Children's Aid Society. We hope that through this event, we can foster bonding between students from different UK universities, and at the same time do our part to contribute to society (even though we're not here for the bulk of the year).
Over at the Meridian Junior College, at an irrefutably early timing of 8am on a Saturday, we start to see students streaming into the canteen, registering for their respective sports. With a line-up of Soccer, Basketball, Netball, Floorball, Touch Rugby, Ultimate Frisbee and Table Tennis, not to mention the non-sweat-inducing-yet-still-intense games of Scrabble and Monopoly Deal, the tension is palpable as we see the various universities preparing for the day ahead in the canteen.
The teams did their best in the events, as supporters from their schools cheered them on from the sidelines. After a grueling day in the hot and humid weather, the results were in:
Soccer Table Tennis Overall Standing
1st: Imperial B 1st: UCL4 1st: UCL
2nd: UCL 2nd: Kings 2nd: Manchester
3rd: Warwick B 3rd: UCL 2 3rd: Imperial, Warwick
Netball Frisbee Scrabble
1st: Manchester 1st: Oxford-Nottingham 1st: UCL 1
2nd: Warwick 2nd: Imperial 2nd: Oxford 1
3rd: Leeds 3rd: Oxford 3rd: Oxford 2
Basketball Floorball Monopoly Deal
1st: Warwick A 1st: Leeds 1st: Sheffield
2nd: Imperial 2nd: LSE 2nd: Manchester
3rd: UCL 3rd: Manchester 3rd: Kings
Congratulations to UCL, the overall champions at the 2013 Warwick Summer Games! A side note goes out to Sheffield University, whose team displayed their enthusiasm and team spirit with a photo at the photo booth, garnering the most likes at the end of the day! At the end of the day, what we take home is not the victory that you have gained, but the enthusiasm and sportsmanship displayed in the course of playing sports. What matters is not the destination, but the journey. The committee members are glad that the event is able to increase interaction between different universities, and help build a community away from home.
A shout out goes to our Guest of Honour, Ms Low Yen Ling, Member of Parliament of Choa Chu Kang GRC, Permanent Secretary of Social and Family Development, for showing up and giving us her support for the event. We would like to thank her for giving a speech as well, reminding us that Singapore is our home, and it is where we truly belong.
Chinese New Year Dinner 2014
Chinese New Year Dinner this year was held on 1st February, at Copthorne Hotel, Birmingham, in conjunction with the Birmingham Singapore Society. Members of both societies enjoyed the traditional 'Yu Sheng' salad (purportedly hand-carried to the hotel from Chinatown), followed by several Asian-inspired dishes. Besides enjoying the company of old friends and new, participants were also entertained by entertaining games such as a boat race and a chopstick agility challenge.
Production 2014
Synopsis: Situated in tiny Singapore, where space is a premium and property prices mind-boggling, the story of a stubborn mother and her property agent son challenged with the potential enbloc sale of their home unfolds. Sucked inexorably into their narrative is the tale of Ivan, an atypical civil servant, who faces the seemingly impossible task of relocating a corpse...against his will.
'Boom' is a truly Singaporean story about the constant pursuit of wealth in a society consumed by the march of progress amid the unavoidable loss of personal stories.
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One of the most anticipated and popular annual events is the theatre production, and this year was no exception. Produced by Sia Chen Yang and directed by Anisha Primalani, the script chosen this year was Jean Tay’s ‘Boom’.
Starring Dominic Nah (Boon), Samantha Ong (his mother), Elliot Choo (Ivan, the civil servant) and Werty Heng (the corpse), Production 2014 also included an ensemble of supporting cast ranging from old pros to first-time thespians, all brought together by Acting Coach Felix Lee. The show would also not have been possible without a laundry list of supporting crew (coordinated by Stage Manager Terence Tang), technicians and production team.
Despite all the blood, sweat and (artificial) trees, our team’s work paid off when they performed for a few-hundred strong audience in the Warwick Arts Centre on the 6th of March, all of whom enjoyed the show tremendously. The cast, crew and audience alike also went wild at the traditional after-party, held at the Altoria VIP room this year. Definitely a night to remember!
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Credits
Playwright: Jean Tay
Original Play by The Singapore Repertory Theatre
