Sunday, July 5, 2009

READING MARATHON - 144 Hours

For Read! Singapore 2009, one of the event is a reading marathon to set a 144 hours of reading aloud non-stop record in the Book Of Records. The week long event (3rd July 1 p.m. - 9th July 09 1 p.m.) is held at The Plaza @ the National Library, Victoria Street. We took part in the reading marathon today.


Under the group name "Wheels of Knowledge and Friends", Nantha Kumar, Chong Choo and I each had to do a half hour of reading aloud. There were 3 other wheelchair-users in our group. The timer on the panel on stage was clocking the 47th hour of reading when we arrived. Serangoon Garden Secondary School was doing the reading. The girl must be dry in her throat from reading aloud. I could hear the rasp in her voice but she continued to read well. I began to worry if I could do the same. Afterall I've never read aloud for long stretches of time and I do get breathless if I'm tired. Initiately, Chong Choo was to read at 1, Nantha at 2 and I would be reading at 3 p.m. with someone else taking over in between. But on hearing that we hadn't taken lunch, the organisers kindly rearrange our time slot so that we could finish one after the other. We were called to go onstage for a group photo shoot after which they seated us accordingly with readied mics. After a very short introduction of our names to the audiences, we took over the reading at 1 p.m. At an average of 13 pages each, we finished 2 stories and a half in the book titled "Dreams and Choices". Just 15 minuites into my reading, the wicked witch of my imagination cast a spell over my throat. It was as dried up as a piece of patchment left too long in the sun. I strived on. Nearing the end, I gladly took a sip of water which my volunteer held out to me. Perhaps she noticed the raspiness in my voice. Ah! How soothing, and refreshing, and precious is the sip of water. I did my turn and joined Nantha and Chong Choo below. They had won something in a draw and would collect their prize at a later date. We had lunch at the Cafe where we order anything from sandwiches to set meal. Lunch at 2.30 p.m. might as well be tea. Sandwiches was a good choice for me. We stayed on for some time after our break and took our leave at 4 p.m. Andrew, our volunteer driver for the day, had us worrying when the Home van died on the way out of the underground carpark. God helped us. The engine got going again after serveral trials and we returned home without any mishap.

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