Diamonds are Forever

Gees, I must make it a point to update my blog more frequently in future. Now, I have to rack my brains on what I did in the past 2 weeks. This back-tracking thingy is a no brainer. Ok, let me refer to the calendar first. I went for the PD hunt on the 2nd Dec, had food poisoning on the 3rd, and took an MC on the 4th. Right, then I worked late on Tues and Wed, which meant no gym-ing as I had to rush some stuff for a meeting on the Thursday. Since I didn’t manage to take my leave on the previous Friday, I intended to postpone it to the coming Friday and Saturday to prep for the Mensa hunt on Sunday, 10th Dec. However, again I had to cancel my leave as work was not finished and I was left feeling ‘burnt-out’ and brain dead for the hunt.

On the sat after work, I went to Atria to look for my dictionary cum thesaurus as advised by a pro-hunter. However, after trundling through all the floors, I still couldn’t locate Payless Books but instead chanced upon Big Bookshop clearance sale. They didn’t have the dictionary that I had ear-marked so I didn’t get to buy it but another book titled “The Lazy Girls’ Guide to Losing Weight and Getting Fit” caught my eye instead. Since it was a steal at RM10, I got it as my bedtime reading material. Ahwell, in moments of desperation, any glimmer of hope is pounced upon. Hehehehe…One of my ex-uni mate buzzed me and wanted to pass me a wedding invite so I loitered around for a little longer than necessary while waiting for him to come.

The next day I got up earlier than my norm working days and proceeded to head towards the Mensa hunt flag-off point, which was in Sri-KDU smart school, a private school for the filthy rich or the ‘ambitious parents’. CC replaced LM who was down with chicken pox and not food poisoning as initially diagnosed. I and CC reached early and sat waiting for Workaholic and hubby to arrive to round off our team. As expected, the questions, which were set by the Mensa past chairman were mentally challenging and we cracked our brains trying to solve the questions. I supposed he had to make the questions tougher as the best of the hunting fraternity all joined in the fun, including some CoCs (Clerk of Course, who sets the questions for the hunts)

The theme this year was “Diamonds Diversion” and most of the questions revolved around this theme one way or another. I never knew the word diamonds can bring about so many meanings until I googled it through Wikipedia. Luckily, my colleague had hinted to me of the central theme otherwise I wouldn’t have done so much preparation work. Oh boy, this felt like sitting for my year-end exams during my school days with me doing a last-minute ‘mugging’.

The questions were ‘intelligently-set’ and I marveled at his expertise and learned ways of constructing the questions with seemingly innocuous signboards, with some of the questions testing on current affairs. On top of that, he managed to throw in some red herrings along the way and we, being inexperienced newbies fell hook, line and sinker to most of them. The highlight of the hunt was the laundry ball which was given as a treasure to us this time as opposed to the usual way of breaking a puzzle and figuring out what the treasure is. When we looked at the treasure, we were totally stumped and fortunately, CC managed to ask the right person in a shop selling household wares who knew of its usage. I reckon we didn’t do too badly as we were just a few points shy of the team in the 20th slot, which happened to be my colleague’s team.

This is as my colleague puts it, our 'baptism of fire' in the hunting game as it represents one of the tougher hunts around....and like its namesake in the song, Diamonds are Forever, this hunt is very memorable and proved to be an invaluable experience.

Hunter or hunted?

Hmmm, it’s been ages since I last update my blog…have been super duper busy slogging at work and going for my treasure hunts on the weekends. Last week I just stepped into the gym twice and that’s for BC. I went treasure hunting to PD the day before I had food poisoning. As mentioned earlier, I had intended to take leave on the fri to prep myself for the hunt as I was driving. Unfortunately, I had to cancel my leave last minute and went back to work. I got off early though as I was too brain dead and went for SGP’s BC. He however ffk the class and Pickles replaced him. Well, thanks to Pickles, my heartbeat went Boom, Boom, Boom again and I rediscovered my passion for BC….hehehehe

Got up real early on the sat morning and went to pick up my team members to go for the hunt. Felt somewhat excited as this outing was very spontaneous and agreed upon in less than a week. A bit ‘chung tung’ but that’s the thrill I guess….We also thought it would be a great prep exercise for everyone before the ‘mentally challenging’ Mensa hunt. Anyway, I having been so stressed at work lately, plus PMS plus lack of sleep was making me super grouchy and cursed at everyone who obstructed my way and shouted at my poor navigator, which by the way was her first-time at that role. Now, I realized that I am not a good driver and should just contend at being either the navigator or passenger.

I don’t have a ‘fixed hunting team’ as yet so it’s kinda a mish-mash group mostly, some with more experience than others but I reckon the most important thing is teamwork. Everyone contributes in one way or another regardless of the role that they play and it’s the camaraderie between the team members that makes it so much more worthwhile. Of course, mostly I have the final say on the answers. I’m not sure why even though I am also considered a newbie at this. Probably I’m more street-smart gwa….muahahahaha…size of head swollen to 2 sizes bigger due to ego ballooning…

The hunt was tricky to say the least and as we were not experienced enough, we fell for most of the red herrings dangled to us. I felt that the questions were not 'tight' enough and some were just too vague leading to us just 'hentam-ing' the answers. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the hunt, thrashing out whatever answers that popped into our heads, with some ridiculous far-fetched ones in-between too!!! We even trailed a pro-team and asked the shop-keeper what they bought as we couldn't cracked the treasures questions. Trust me, this is one of the 'survival skills' when in desperation. Muahahahaha....I heard from my colleague that a Master hunter joined her team once and there's no such gila antics abound. The whole car is really quiet and the Master takes answering the questions very seriously!! Sei lor, i think i will not be able to withstand that kind of pressure man.....

I'm glad that i have a bunch of hunting enthusiasts to call upon whenever i want to go hunting. The only problem is there's lack of a voluntary driver all the time. Somehow, nobody wants to be the driver, which i reckon is the easiest role to be in. Everyone wants to be either the navigator or the passenger. But when i volunteer to be the driver, i was told that i'm more suited to fit into the passenger role. What happens then? Regardless of whether i'm the driver or the navigator, i'm still engaged to help solve the questions. No doubt everyone should be invoved in solving the questions but i think the onus should mostly be on the 2 back passengers when there are 4 persons in the car so that the driver and navigator can concentrate on the roads and make sure everyone is in safe hands and the team doesn't get lost. We have not reached the status of the Masters who can make do with just 2 team members who can multi-tasked and still do well. Sigh...am not feeling too happy about this as everyone seemed to be too dependent on me sometimes....

Hunting though is not everyone's cup of tea except for those who relish in participating in some cerebral activities and mentally challenging exercises during the mostly weekend held events. As for me, i reckon it not only helps to improve my vocab but also builds on my general knowledge. And if they are outstation hunts, i get to indulge in my adventurous spirit of travelling and discovering new places too...how i wish i had discover this hobby earlier...but i guess it's never too late...:D