A-HA MOMENTS IN HUNTING HIGH & LOW

PETALING JAYA 12 FEB 2011: ‘A-ha’ may remind you of a famous band from Norway during the 1980’s, but it is also an exclamation to express the satisfaction or surprise in discovering something.

One of the greatest joys about treasure hunting is the A-ha opportunity it provides on the road; as well as during the answer presentation.

During such enlightening moments, it’s likely that either you will beam with pride for solving a toughie, or kick yourself for missing an obvious clue. Either way, you would have learned a valuable lesson and enriched yourself to become a better hunter.

Nowhere is this A-ha opportunity more vividly on display than in the recent Hunting for Meals on Wheels 2011. This is undoubtedly a hunt that showcases the qualities of a masterpiece.

It is hard to pinpoint exactly a single factor that makes this hunt so outstanding. It is a combination of several elements: brilliant questions to get the grey cells ticking; wild card draw to form new teams in hunting; and of course, palatable Thai dinner with wine and whisky flowing.

Kudos to the COC VK Chong; for investing his precious time to polish the questions to near perfection!

(Photo from Michael Pang blog)

However to merely suggest that the question-setting ability of VK was good, would be an understatement. For this hunt, VK was really at his deceiving best.

He unleashed a bagful of cryptic trickery, catching many experienced hunters off-guard. His indicators were innocent-looking words hidden in plain sight; his fodders were thematically interwoven, resulting in gems such as Q12 Possibly what the Red Devils would be like without their Dutch 'net' man (Ans: Seeri Restaurant) and Q20 They love homework that is non-direct (Ans: One Stop Centre).

Surprisingly (but pleasantly) his usual forte of employing ‘very-hard-to-spot’ signboards was kept to the minimum. What a refreshing change this was; otherwise hunters again would be reminded of an overdue visit to their optometrists. 

This hunt is not just challenging the participants. It is also challenging two presuppositions.

Firstly, an oblivious outsider may surmise from the low score that participants would have had an unenjoyable trying afternoon.  Indeed with an average score of below 70% among the pool of experienced hunters, the questions may seem to be a tad challenging.

On the contrary, there were none of the jeers that would have accompanied any less-than-satisfactory answer presentation. Instead, the participants were greatly enthralled during the explanation, with responses ranging from sporadic ‘palm-slap to the forehead’ moment, a sigh of relief for putting in the crucial dot to a ’I-know-the-answer-but-I-can’t-find-it’ riposte.

 “So glad to be suckered - with my eyes open and disregarding the alarm bells going off in the head!” as aptly said by Jay, one of the Grand Slammers.

Secondly, it is a conventional tendency to gauge the greatness of a hunt with the lucrativeness of  its prizes. One doesn’t need to have a PhD in Economics to know that money usually talks. So often hunt events were undeservedly passed over because the carrots were not motivationally juicy. But sometimes it is not about the sponsors and goodies, nor publicity and record-breaking entries.

On this occasion, it is about the calibre of the question setting, which VK possessed and the great spirit of camaraderie, which the participants shared. It is about the moments of past hunt experience that were related during dinner and humourous anecdotes that were told to the amusement of others – well, these are really priceless!!!

Just as A-ha band may have entertained some people with their song ‘Hunting High and Low’ in the 1980’s, more than 2 decades later, VK has certainly entertained hunters with his ‘Hunting for Meals on Wheels’.

Come to think of it, we don’t mind ‘Hunting High and Low’ if VK can regale us with more ‘A-ha’ moments!

(Photo from Michael Pang blog)