Papillon can be French for ‘Butterfly’, or it can be a breed of dog. It is also the pen name for a French convict who escaped from a penal colony in French Guyana.
That’s all history.
Papillon is also the name of the Dragon Boat team I have been training and racing with for the last 14 months. Less than a month ago, we were denied a place in the semi-finals of the grueling “Singapore Festival” open race by a mere 0.5 seconds. We knew that our next opportunity would come at the Corporate Community Games (CCG) – a multi-sport competition where corporate teams compete against each other over two week-ends. This time, we would enter a true ‘mixed’ competition where each team was required to have five women and five men rowing.
ExxonMobil had also entered two men’s teams, which was run in the morning. “Sea Blades” made it to the semi-finals and “Ace” made it into the finals. Competition was tough and “Ace” placed a very respectable fourth.
All of last year, ‘Papillon’ was the under-performing team of ExxonMobil. While “Ace” and “Tiger Lilies” won the Jurong Island competition and did very well at the Singapore Regatta, and “Ace” and “Tiger Blades” did well in the CCG, ‘Papillon’ always seemed to fail at the last hurdle.
In the heats, we were first, just ahead of Glaxo Smith Kline, and well ahead of Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays (Lot’s of banks seem to find the time to enter this competition…). The victory meant that we qualified directly for the semi-finals. Unfortunately, we were drawn in the same semi-final as the only team to beat our time in the heats – The Police Sports Association.
When the semi-final came, we were ready and did an excellent time, just behind the Police. Unfortunately, only the winning team qualified from each of three semis, with the next 2 best times. We had the fourth best time of the semis and therefore qualified for the finals with the Police, OCBC (Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation), HSBC (Hong-Kong and Shanghai Bank Company) and Keppel Shipyards. HSBC had won the competition in 2006 and had a better semis time than we did. OCBC, Keppel and Police had won their respective semifinals. A tough fight ahead.
The final was ‘the perfect race’. Police and OCBC were ahead and racing each other for first place. Papillon was fighting with HSBC and Keppel for third place. Our ‘hard ten’ mid-way through gave us a small lead; the final charge did the rest and we ended up third, with about 1 second lead over HSBC.
Time seemed to stop. All the efforts of the past months, all the training finally paid off. Ben was so elated that he threw away his paddle. Coach Patrick was silent for the first time since I met him. The rest of us were cheering and waving our paddles in the air. From shore, a faint refrain of “EM! EM!” made it across the water. We composed ourselves enough to row back to the docks and almost capsized as all the right rowers left the boat at the same time – after all this time, we can still act like amateurs!
Presentation of the main actors – by captain Su Li:
- Thanks William, for sacrificing your Church-going time last Sunday, to join us through the medal-winning journey.
- Thanks Jon for rushing down straight after work to be our pacer, and always be a supportive vice-captain, negotiating with Vincent on all big/ small issues, despite your hectic schedule of TA.
- Thanks go to Freddy for being activated at last min to be a pacer w/o any grumble, Always readily supporting us, being it to drive us/ paddles/ drinks/ food around. If Vincent is Dragon Boat “founder” then Freddy is our Papillon “god-father”.
- Thanks to Desmond, who has not let any of us down, for remaining composed throughout the race as a pacer, Thou it’s his first race as a pacer, he had displayed extreme composure. Of course, Samuel, the pacer seat will still be yours, provided u are “running” in the gym @ UK now. Haha… which I believe u are, since u had brought the running gear thousand of miles. To reward Desmond, to let him go back to his Backpack role. Think he will love u for that. ^.^
- Thanks to Yen Nee for being there with us, despite her photo-shot is coming soon n she needs to get ride of her tan line. She is with us, giving us the strong pull that we need to get through the Finals. I can see the joyous face in your face, after we had passed the finishing line. ^.^
- Thanks to Marilyn, for coming down readily, despite the little girl at home waiting for Mummy to be back home. It’s not easy to be a drummer, and as Dawn summary had wrote, U did a prefect job, except that we got “Ma Ta” next to us lah… no choice, kanna caught. hehee… She was so calm where me n Desmond was panicking to ask her to pick up the white buoy. hehee…
- Thanks to Jessica, as Freddy’s says, you’ve done 3 gruelling races in a day. That showed that age is not a barrier to keeping fit. Without your constant support last year, we might not even had a mixed team found.
- Thanks to Pierre, who has acted as Stand-in gym coach when Patrick is not around, and for sponsoring the Post-CCG celebration dinner aka Pizza n KFC n drinks n your wonderful place. N yes, pls stay there for as long as u can, as we will be having more celebration to come. ^.^ Thanks for also making us “famous” by including us in your Blog. Maybe next time we can google for our name and it will appeared.
- Thanks to BEN!! Because you dare to dream big and we are here!! Frankly, I’m always very pressurized by you when u start to talk “big” about winning medal. Thanks for letting me believed also that our team can DO IT!! and I now believed that “GOLD Medal” for JI is within our REACH!!
- Thanks to our dearest n beloved Coach, who we now knows had more than coaching skills in his bag of knowledge, He is also gg to be the greatest Cook! Err,,, btw, I had told my dad about your “restaurant”. We interested to book a table this sat for my family dinner. Can hor. Table for 10 pls. ^.^
- (by PJO) And let’s not forget Thanks for our Captain Su Li without whom the team would not be what it is today. She does not limit her role to organising Dragon Boat events, she also doubles as our Social Secretary – constantly on hte look out for opportunities to further build the team with outside activities.
The excitement was only beginning. The rest of the EM family was waiting for us and seemed just as happy at the results. I floated through the medal ceremony; we probably all did.
BackRow: Freddy, Ben, Desmond, Yen Nee, and Jonathan
Middle row: Su Li and Christy
Front row: Pierre, Jessica, Dawn, Marilynn and William
Front Front: Coach Patrick
We had a party at my apartment afterwards. There was champagne, beer, soft drinks, excellent chilly fish, bad pizza and KFC. We listend to, and sang along with Queen: “We are the Champions!” and listened to Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd and Lute music – quite a combination. A good time was had by all.
Pictured above are: seated from left: Captain Su Li, Coach Patrick, vice-Captain Jonathan; standing from left: Christy, Dawn, Ben, Pierre, Desmond, Yen Nee and Jui Goy.
In two weeks, we have our next competition: the Jurong Island Race. Last year, we did well in the heat, and messed up in the finals. We have matured as a team in the last year. We will see what that brings.
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Dawn’s “Papillon Diary” – with minor edits from the ‘editor’ to insure the facts are correct…
It was a glorious Sunday morning. At 11am, most Papillons were fluttering around in the ExxonMobil tent at Bedok Reservoir. Something(s), however, felt amiss. AH – we were missing parts of our head and tail. Ah Jon (head) was still turning the refinery around and Ah Ben (tail) was simply MIA. Not to worry, we boast of a squad with depth – Freddy-ever-Ready would take us through the first race. (And fortunately, a flurry of phonecalls later, Ben-the-Man appeared from nowhere.)
After eternity, it was time to warm up! Led astray – sorry, away – from the hustle and bustle of the tents, the troop flipped-flopped-jogged along a lovely track that showcased intricate wooden architecture among the trees. The steps, burrows and whatnots suspended by ropes reminded one of some kind of SOC (standard obstacle course) – only, for monkeys.
Some side shuffles, back paddles, touch-the-ground-without-kissing-Su Li’s-ass-s and leaps later, we did a solid 2-minute drill of simulated rowing. With stinging palms as evidence of our superb coordination – never missing a slap – we were ready to rock.
And rock, we did. The boat was very rocky indeed when we boarded for our heat, threatening to spill a few Papillons into the water. With Jon appearing in time to cheer us on, the team was raring to kick some ass. Bearing in mind what Coach Patrick said earlier when educating us on the finer points of not losing out in a race, Mommy Marilyn was trying hard not to fall into the water as she reached for some imaginary buoy.
Holding our breath in anticipation of the air-horn after the call of “ARE YOU READY. Attention…,” we almost died of asphyxiation because the air-horn never came. Luckily our commonsense kicked in and we rowed away on hearing “GO!!!” half-a-retard-second later.
Hard 10, fast 20… maintenance… “Hard 10 ready”, “READY!”, “GO NOW” – “one, two…nine, ten. Ki yah, KI YAH, KI YAH, KI YAH…!!!”
… with that, Papillon glided into the semi-finals with half-a-boat-length lead over the second-placed team. One down, two to go.
Feeling all confident and good, Papillons gathered under the trees, stretching and shaking the lactic acid off. In particular, one newbie was observed trying to fling her arms off. Anyway, Coach Patrick did a post-mortem and concluded we could do an even better job in the subsequent race – to which we agreed. The team then topped up themselves with some high-octane Redbull and H2O and bananas that appeared from nowhere – courtesy of the mysterious reservoir fairies (must be Jin they all la).
After forever, we reassembled again for warm up as semi-finals approached. After more stretches and smacking each others’ palms, we did deep-breathing exercises to calm ourselves down. It was obviously something we badly needed – seeing how most of us piew-ed to the toilet every 5 seconds.
With Jon and Freddy swapping the roles of “fervent supporter” and “super pacer”, Papillon did not miss a beat and confidently headed out towards the starting point. This time, the eagle-eyed officials spotted our drummer Marilyn without her white buoy, and we gostan-ed the boat a little to hand it to her.
“ARE YOU READY. Attention…” “BORRRRRHHH” – the air-horn went. Papillon did a good start set and finished off equally strong – in second place behind the Police, but well ahead of the rest. The escaping paddle was recaptured despite its protests.) And hence a place in the finals was booked.
With each race, the tiredness started creeping in… fortunately, with our morale bolstered by the two good performances; Papillon oozed sufficient adrenaline to overcome any signs of fatigue.
More Redbull and bananas later, it was Showtime!!!
Papillon cruised to the starting point with William and Dawn frantically bailing to relieve the boat of any unnecessary weight. The officials’ eyesight was getting better with each race, so we did not try anything funny.
… for a final time that day, the air-horn went and Papillon rowed like there was no tomorrow. Unfortunately, the Police and OCBC rowed like there was no today, so they clinched the first and second placing respectively. Third place was secured by a relatively dark horse, which had never tasted medal before. It could only be… the one and only Papillon!!!(We rowed so hard that one tortured paddle couldn’t take it any longer and decided to jump overboard to escape from an abusive rower. The escaping paddle was recaptured despite its protests.)
Slaps on the back for a good job done, we brought much cheer to the ExxonMobil tent with our star-shaped medals. Then it was off to Pierre’s palace for a joyous celebration!
The swanky place rocked to the beat of Queen’s – to which Christy delightedly grooved along. Pierre eventually decided to fast-forward a few tracks to get to the one he –really- wanted to hear. “Weeee are the champions, my fre-ends… and weeee… go on fighting till the end… We are the champions, WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS; no time for losers, cos we are the championssss… of the world…”
Dinner was a feast of 2 delicious deep-fried sambal-chilli fish, 2 grilled frozen pizzas, and approximately 4 CEUs (chicken-equivalent-units), accompanied by beer, Pokka green tea and/or Sprite. Yes – we were HUNGRY. Meal time entertainment consisted of the interrogation of Coach Patrick and it was certainly a quick and efficient way to learn about our coach. (Hmm… could the IBT of Global Security and Procurement have something to do with it?) Newbie Dawn was then showered with the same rapt attention as the whole team-minus-Dawn suddenly resembled a grand panel of matchmakers.
All in all, it was a fantabulous full-day affair which, I would think, totally made everyone’s weekend (and month… and 3Q07 YTD!) Well done Ah Ben, Desmond, Freddy, Jon, Su Li, Jessica, Christy, William, Yen Nee, Ah Piow, Dawn, Marilyn and Patrick! And not forgetting our trusty video-grapher Ken! And Samuel who was there with us in spirit! And Dennis too! (Shoot me if I’m forgotten any of our Papillons.)
Papillon has come some way and we’ve entered a new era of title-chasing hopes and ambition. Seat by seat, race by race, medal by medal… we’ll get there. Let’s strive for a GOLDen era ahead!!
Next up – J.I. race – BRING IT ON.
In your photo, everyone looks sufficiently hot and sweaty! On the other hand, that could be typical Singapore weather!
A medal… at last! Perhaps the jinx is broken now… :o)
Congratulations! May you get a few more before the year is out.