The Harbours from Before: Temasek Hall

I have to touch on hall life before I close the chapter here. It would otherwise feel kind of incomplete.

Yup, I stayed in Temasek Hall for 4 years. I went back in my 5th year even though my batch mates had all graduated and left. It was a great place to be at and as the hall anthem goes "proud of this hall we call our own, Some call it hostel, We call it home".

Given my schedule, I was never a true blue hostelite. My hallmates would go for suppers at 2 am, sleep at 4 am after their committee meetings and wake up at noon ... I could not ... I did not participate in many of the hall activities either. However I still felt very much for this community. For me, it was largely to due to the Inter-Hall Games (IHG) whereby strong camaraderie was fostered through trainings, heartaches and triumphs. IHG typically starts in Jan each year and lasts 5 to 6 weeks. And the bulk of the trainings would occur during the Nov/Dec holidays.

I enjoyed playing in IHG. It gave me the opportunity to pick up other sports, such as handball, basketball, netball, badminton and touch rugby. I wished I had time for games like soccer, softball and volleyball.

There was something about playing for Temasek.

I fought along side with people whom I lived with. Chaps who knocked on my door during the Dec holidays trying desperately to gather the team for 8 o’clock training. Kind souls who shared their bread as we waited for the internal shuttle to SRC. Neighbours who I had seen in their most un-glam state when they woke up with their hair disheveled and I had heard screaming when there was a lizard in their rooms.

And when I played, there would always be Temasekians at the sideline cheering the team on. The support could be immense and that could certainly drive one to fight despite the odds. That sort of feeling I had not felt elsewhere. Not in my years of playing for RGS or RJC or NUS …

Perhaps the clip below could better bring across that feeling. It shows the culmination of sweat, blood & tears put into each IHG. Some of those who played 6 to 8 sports would have trained 3, 4 sessions under the sun each day for the past months to make it happen.

ps: pardon the quality of the clip. it has been highly compressed.