1st water training

Feeling good ...

Just had the first official Canoeing water training for J1s in the afternoon .... Which isnt really that great to talk abt but it was a good learning experience .... Rowing around the water with a standard round hulled kayak (i forgot the official model name) takes some practice really ... Cos today over there at the jurong lake park near chinese garden i kinda screwed myself up fumbling with the controls of my boat ....
I can stand here and blame the wet weather that reduced visibility , blame the park management for opening the main floodgate that caused such unstable currents in the waters , blame the coach for assigning me to a lousy boat ...
At the end of the day i have to admit that my skills kinda suck ... Cant even maintain a tight steering to keep the direction straight ... At first set off with Ceyong GuanJie ZiYonD they all with the round hulled boat ... End up i lagged at the back cos i keep moving in a zig zag direction that no amount of stern rudder efforts would keep it in place ... Attempts on course correction using sweeping turns made things worse ... End up when i looked behind when making sweep strokes i can see the path on the water my boat is taking ... Resembled a i giant "S" ... maybe that explains y i lagged cos i covered about a third more dist than the others with the irregular course .... in addition the current was strong enough to blow me off the makeshift mini jetty as i waited off the shore for my turn to disembark ... took some effort to steer it back ...

More Interesting things include trying out the T1 competition boat for the first time ... those T series boats have a narrower cockpit and deck plus a "V" shaped hull that supposed to make it more streamlined but the downside was less balance so need more skill to play with these boats , and they seemed to cost quite a lot more ... but yeowch i cap'd twice on it despite being right next to the shoreline ... disgracefull :(
The J2s were using the K series boats that were even more narrower .... so guess i should complain less and practice more next time ... duh so much for the confidence i had of rowing a boat ... its not that easy mind u ...

And yah to lighten things up ... guess wat ... i kena attack by leeches !!!! At first i first saw it while in the water helping ShiKun balancing with his T1 when i felt somethin slimy on his hull underwater ... when we flipped it over to empty water then i saw IT ... a greenish wormy abt the size of a index finger was stuck on the boat ... Zhi Hao came over and scratched it off and flicked it into the water with a paddle ... And we thought that was the last of it ... SO all this while i was barefooted inthe water ... and the water bed was muddy and rocky so i couldnt really feel anything abnormal against the rocks ... sSo when i climbed back on shore , imagine my surprise when i saw our dear green friend above my ankle ... tried slapping it off but it held on tight , and pulling at it it simply stretched its body .... So I yelled for attention and those behind who just came back came over ... miss ong who was on further on shore ran back to the store to get help ... she came back with a can of antiseptic spray and sprayed it on the creature on my leg ... when it refused to budge , we spammed the spray can till finnally the worm gave up and wriggled off ... we put it on a leaf and placed it in a plastic box from the lady in charge of the sea sports club ... said something about providing edvidence to the superiors abt the presence of leeches ... seems that i was the first case to kena leeched .... So this poor 'ol leech got his turn of life imprisonment ... so mr leech next time beforee u suck my blood , pls check the price tag ... they dun come cheap u know ...
Ms ong took a picture of the worm ... I'll try get it from her ....

CNY aftermath

UH
aftermath of CNY celebration .... NOthing much happen , cos this year there wasnt too much of visiting due to the fact that my grandfather passed away like last year then there's this taboo somewhere or another in a certain chinese law book that restrict visiting to this person that person , this and that , so I simply stayed away from wateva they do lah , i dun really bother abt all those funny customs and rituals ... As if i would give a crap .... Avoided excessive gorging otherwise i really need kowtow to the Canoe team and beg for forgiveness ...

Even so , training on wednesday felt more tough than usual , either that or really the inactivity during the break has really taken a toll on our bodies ... During the intermissonal running felt weak on the limbs , wat kept me going was a resounding phrase "when I am weak , then you are strong " thats an adaptation from 2cor12:10 i found out later , ... and it came rather random so i didnt know WTH just beared on with it .... Kinda shag off after that , and to make things worse, the warm down felt kinda sloppily done and that resulted in various cramps and aches that clinged on to me thru out today ...

But hey went home to reflect and looked up on that magic verse .... quite touched by it actually even though i had no absolutely no prior thinking of it when it came at that moment when i felt really weak (in the limbs that is ) ..The whole context might be made clearer if i list it out ....

2cor12:9 ..."My grace is sufficient for you , for my strength is made perfect in weakness"
v10 ... "therefore .... for when I am weak ,then I am strong "

So it just at that crucial moment it kept me going on .... To think of it what I have got so far its all miraculously brought to me .... Catholic high had 3 prelims for my year .... Flunked out the first 2 with results of abt L1R5 of 30 + .... Then came the last one which knocked me to my senses: with this result i dun have a future!! lolx a bit exaggerated but wth , which school to go accepts 30 pointers ?(JCs lah i mean , no intention to suan other pple but i dun have plans to go other educational pathways) ... Picked myself up and went for it .... and despite the big gap i am lagging behind by with the help of the teachers who hey was all but too glad to have finally some motivation coming from me myself ... Tag team of Mdm Ee and Mrs Tan salvaged my A maths from F9 to B3 ... Others can criticise all they want ... but to me ... they rock!!!! And after that period of time , hey dun ever think i said it was easy ... it isn't .... that period was one of the toughest to go thru in my 16 years ... (I didnt give no crap to PSLE) ... Everyday was a challenge i didnt want to go for ... every morning i wished it all that was but a nightmare that would end but no... it didnt ...

BUt after all its in always in the deepest valleys that the freshest rivers flow to ... To soak and enjoy the refreshing water u just have to go down ... And only after going down to the deepest valleys would u realise how high the the mountains are .... And after experiencing the realities of life would u appreciate how beautiful the world is ... Eh I am deviating from the topic ....


OK so as a summary and conclusion of the interesting things in this CNY (despite wat i said at the top )


1) Played lots of blackjack ... Won abt $20 against some relatives on my paternal side only to lose them all to those from my maternal side the next day :(

2) First time drank champagne ... Down one whole shot of it ... A burning sensation that begins at the throat down the gullet that lasted several mins ... after that the stomach starts radiating heat ... slight retardation of reaction for a while ....

3) Realised that onions goes well with cucumber and ketupat in satay sauce (personal opinion)

4) FOund out that there are still relatives i never seen before

5)Drank a cup of good quality expensive italian espresso at a gathering in one of the nights that kept me awake tilll abt 3 or 4 am ... Real powerful stuff but taste real good ... Better than singapore's nescafe gold roast , or those hazelnut coffee , or the mocha vanilla flavoured coffee ...

6)Didnt buy any new clothes for CNY simply because i couldnt be bothered to do so ....

7) Had intended to go go the ISTANA open house on tuesday but those zhu peng gou yous (namely benedict , edwin,borui) wanted to go play LAN ... So spent 5 hours dota-ing at azure instead of visiting Uncle NAthan's house ....

8) Realised that there are actually very little close cat high frens with me here in SAJC , (raynold leaving chunhian leaving WTH) ... occured to me cos when i went back to cat high on fri ... realised i was pretty much alone until those VJ NJ AJ gooks arrived (they kinda dominated the whole arena, most of my classmates are there ( poor me in SA , poor keeyong in NY,poor john kuan in TJ ... the few who are in RJ and HC are not worthy to be listed as "poor")

9) Ang pow money set a record low in recent years ... only $*** (due to security reasons ... the above mentioned figure has been censored)

Cant remember anymore ....

No Date ? no prob

14-02-07

V-day passes second by second as i type out word by word . The irony laughs at me in the face ... NO date ? No prob ... i dun give a crap . Maybe thats lying , I'm cowering behind a mask and shield that I am reluctant to escape from . No I'm not always happy , I'm not that ever cheerful person who carries the world on a trolley and pushes it along if it crashes. I do know wat I want , and I do feel left out .... More than once did I chance upon a close fren or acquaintance out on the street with their mates (with this i mean GFs not er-hum ) , say hi and act as if its nothing I-dun-give-no-shat 'bout this , but somewhere in me something stirs in its socket uneasily . My heart ? Maybe,maybe not , I'll be worried if it ever stopped stirring and beating . But its this hole that desires to be filled , like thirsty wanderer . Yet i dunno wat i want ... I am afraid to show it out , I'm not prepared to commit myself . For this i run , i act , i pretend , i treat it like dirt in a new showroom , clean it , cover it , hide it ... No not that i dun want , I'm just not ready .

To all those eagerly seeking a partner (i mean my age mind you ) , are u really prepared to handle something as fragile as a person's emotions? It might not necessary be yours , her heart (or his) wasn't made to effectively support the immaturity mindset and behaviour . Are u ready to lay it all down for this one shot on your *er-hum* ( is First Love a suitable word ? ) wateva
Seen alot alot of pple of who swore and promised their love only to have it trashed or have trashed it themselves later ... kinda daunts me , i dun ask for much, but a lot more for myself , my first er... wateva ... i dun wanna squander it away on an impulse ... (Am I getting very mushy here argh yeeeee )

Talk about my own V day , guess who i celebrated with ... NO ONE !!! ... Eh wait , does those canoeist guys (pple) count ? Spent the afternoon training under the bloody hot sun whom somehow managed to shoo away the thick black cumulonimbus (chim word for rain clouds ) that was there just a jitter moment ago .... Actually so far the life here at SA has been very eventful , save for boring lectures of which i skillfully converted to replenish rest that was much coveted after .... (if u're confused w that last sentence , its means i slept ! ) ... The class's great the pple's wonderful , do i still need praise u guys more ? Bottom line ... I love SA , and thank God for my results ... It may not have been the best around here ( in fact its not ) but this eliminates my possible dilemma of whether should i have to consider changing schoool ... A lot of ple around me have been faced with this ... And with this result i dun even need to think of taking 4 H2 simply cos i cannot qualify .... If this is His answer to the prayer, then ah ... I dunno wat to say ... One word : trust .... wait ... ONe more : Faith !!! .... uh one last one , no make it two : THANK YOU !!!

Random writings ....

What a fine day this is ... not much to talk abt .. Guess I'll post something abt MYSELF .....
Well this just me trying to set up a proper blogging or if u like to call it a diary kinda website ... Leaving the age of writing on a book to the age of posting it online for all to see ... ( Believe it or not, I really do have a handwritten Diary ) ... Difference between that is that much of it if u read it (I doubt u'll ever get a chance to ) , u find that most of it is all me MYSELF talking to myself ... The day's events ,some random issues here and there nothing interesting . And the thing is it neva gets longer than two pages , hand dam tired u know ..... haha ....

Coming a little closer here when the transition from Cat High to SAJC gives me a lot to think abt ... Things dun happen the old ways it used to ... still trying to adapt to the difference but hey thks to all those very sporting class mates of mine I;m doing rather fine ... Otherwise if u find me stoning around its probably because like always I'm often lost in a world of my own ... ( dun get the wrong idea , I'm not autistic ) ... JUst that sometimes in a group when everyone is fooling around and making noise and being such a public nuisance (which i kinda enjoy) I quieten down my heart , to relish the moment ( a quick Thank You GOd prayer ) .. only after leaving cat high did i realise the true meaning of the expression "there's no great meeting that never splits "( Chinese translation) ... the fragility of the moment of feeling close together with frens ... hmmm ...
Recently read tiong hui's blog on our old days back in school brings back memories that i regretted not treasuring ... HOw we fooled around , skipped lessons to go lounge to sleep (applies to chen ji ce's remedial ) , mr lee's "gentlemen" speeches that was oh-so-insipring-that-no-one-gave-a-crap :P , creative ways of vandalism ( hey i realised the toilet at lvl 3 still hasnt got its piping fixed the other day when get result ), verbal assaults, mock fights that ended up as wrestling tournaments, the tau-poks and wedgies , sneaking into other classes by removing window panes ( 4-8 or 4-9 had at least 4 panes removed that exposed a hole big enuf for me to comfortably climb in ) , how indrajahdra the indon guy slept thru three lessons in a row , ice shooting competitions in the canteen ( my highest record was a head-shot on someone 4 tables away :D) , the scout days back when we sludged our asses in the mud swamp they called a equipment storage area (heard someone lost his watch there , buried in the crap never to be found ) , how we locked pple in the scout den room and then gas chambered them with leftover deodorant and bunsen burners , the flood prone padi field used as a school field where we had our trainings , endless days carry wood from one place to another only to put them back at the end of the day ,... the list goes on and on ....
All in all they are but now memories to be kept in our hearts , very touching to look back to see the distance we walked ... Because during results day the reality struck me that we , the '06 sec4 catholic high batch may never gather again like this as one batch of students , in this place where we spent the best years of our lives .... I would have cried there and then if I had remembered how to ... Haha come to think of it the days in cat high almost eliminated me of my emotional side , no kidding , i almost forgot how to cry there ... ]


Hmmm back to the present , I really belive that If looking back demoralises u , if lookng up daunts u , if looking down scares u , LOOK IN FRONT !!! I'm sure now the days in SAJC would really be a great time to remember as ... THis time I really will treasure .... haha

Maiden blog ? lolx

HAhA
this my first new time in attempting to set up something proper ..... In commemoration of this fine day lolx ... Not much time sia later got training ... So I leave it hanging here for next time when logging in again ... Sry for the influx of Noobism in this page i'm trying to learn more abt this .... After a near 2 years w/o internet connection u start to wonder how this world have changed :D ... Feel free to leave some tips along the way to help me leh pls ... i dam blur in this thks to my bro who intro me to this ... haha he more inclined to such stufff .... Lolx talking as if i some old person looking at youngersters ... LAMEography accepted and appreciated , i am one who are in support of lame pple (as in really LAME) ....