Saturday, June 23, 2007
<$BlogItemHeader$>
it's close to the end of june ... and it's reflections time ... what events happened (besides canoeing of course).
THE month of MAY/JUNE HOLIDAYS 2007
canoeing [took up about 75%]
mpac video editing/meeting [close to 5%]
bb camp [close to 7.5%]
dragonboat race [close to 5%]
fps session + physics project [close to 7.5%]
church+GOD [timeless ... 100% ... invisibility is what makes a difference between you and I]
UP FIRST >> canoeing/dragonboating
every week, it's between 4 - 6 times a week training ... and that's, like i've previously mentioned, practically everyday. but, now that june holidays is gonna be over very very soon, i've come to realised that though the move from mac to kal was rather troublesome ... but, it's worthwhile. 1) it's closer to my home, 2) i can sleep longer, 3) kal is more scenic and windy (talk about raining!!), 4) more toilets for shower, 5) got to travel up to the merlion, 6) dragonboat training was more fun (cuz more people)
well, the bad thing is ... how low or how high pontoon is to the stairs is subjected to the high/low tide. mishaps and unforseen circumstances happened ... but well, this is reality ... kal is far 'fiercer' than mac with the wavy conditions and stuff. i'm just glad that no one got seriously injured ... anyways, the runs at mac was actually far better than kal such that people wont cheat themselves so badly ... check out the place and u'll understand why ...
dragonboat race 2007: surprises & not-so-fanciful ideas
today was the annual inter-school race ... had early breakfast and needless to say - superb early lunch ... surprise no. 1 ... while shaun and i were on the bus, i was mentioning to him abt the slope at bedok ... then, as we peered out of the 'window', we saw davin crossing the road and then, looking up the bus directory to find out which bus to take ... he seemed kinda 'confused' ... so i decided to give him a call to inform of the correct bus to take ...
that aside, the dragonboat atmosphere this year was far 'less strong' than last year due to the participation figures i guess ... then i saw my s1 jnr t.W ... with someone who looked familiar ... (but i've finally figured out thanks to gossipy c.L ... haha, if u're reading this, don't be offended) it was quite unexpected ... then i saw joon sin's dad kindly bringing us packets and packets of sandwiches (of course no macs cuz there's still embargo) ...
i was the point-man together with davin for the 10-men boat ... and it was totally nerve-wrecking ... mr goh didn't tell us about the holding-the-'buoy' kinda thing until this morning during briefing ... and the front-right man had to hold+release the thing ... so scary!! when we were at the 500m point ... my heart was pumping like crazy ... beating like the drum ... for the heats, our strokes were so fast that there was no difference for the entire set ... and we managed to clinch a spot in the finals ...
after a brief 10min mini-break + some stretches ... it was the 20-men finals ... everyone gathered and got down to business ... mr goh was the corxen ... (yay! his aura was superb) ... my heart settled down for this one after much roller-coaster ride previously ... we rowed our best ... and had like what ... 3 hard-tens?? i had almost lost balance of myself due to the incredibly lightning-speed kinda rotation ... but overall, it was fun to row with the s4 snrs for the last time ... how emotional for that ... we stick to our gold-title for that by a rather close margin?? (someone pls rectify this for me)
not long later, it was the most intense race for the day (in my opinion) ... it was the 10-men b division finals ... i followed what hadrian said 'bout the 'buoy' thingy ... and it worked ... but then, after the horn sounded and letting that go ... it was down to concentrate for the very very competitive race. sji was on our left, our s4 snrs were on our right ... midway during the race, i saw sji catching up so close and then ... pulling ahead of us ... in the end, we had to wait for a respectable amount of time for the results to be out ... 1st) sji, 2nd) us (s3), 3rd) our snr (s4) ... we overtook the s4 by just 0.42 of a second to take the silver
prize presentation ceremony was crazy with the girl schools screaming and cheering for their teammates ... our b div didn't know who would take home the overall 1st title ... and when the announcer announced our school ... i was so relieved that we managed to defend it. well, that's more or less about the race ... except ... for one more thing ... the distribution of medals ... it was rather unfair for someone to receive it ... cuz that particular person only turned out for 2 or 3 d-boat trg and skipped several runs ... i'm not quite pleased with that ... and oh, i surprisingly saw AB's sister and parents (again), but this time got the chance to say 'hi' live in person ... that's surprise no. 2!
footnote: adrian hit my right eye ... and it hurts ... i'm still thinking of how to deal with him ... forgive and forget maybe?
M!©HæĹ at 8:12 PM
Friday, June 15, 2007
<$BlogItemHeader$>
busy, busy and even more busy. i'm totally packed up with activities this month ... with canoeing training practically everyday (except sunday), f.p.s sessions (which were most of the time cancelled due to whatever reasons kept to the group leader C.L), video editing (which is in sch and have to travel half across the island to 'play around' for 2.5h) + other personal stuff (like homework and working on my second album).
however, this week was rather fun-filled with loads of stories to tell everyone. but then, it seems like it's gonna be another long post if i have the 'feel' to post that long ... xD.
situation no. 1 | monday 11.6 | canoeing + video editing
went for training on monday. at macritchie as we conducted the huge movement from mac to kal. it took us approx. 3h to finally settle down at kallang in the end ever since the move started at 6.30am. s.T & I thot that train + 156 combination would be faster than the usual transfer to 93 direct-to-mac kinda everyday arrangement, but it turned out to be the same when i was walking towards the overhead bridge cuz i saw the 93 stopping at the bus-stop. it's so stupid ... woke up half an hour earlier just to take the early train ...
zoom zoom zoom to 7++ to around 8am ... we uploaded the boats and then hopped on for a ride to kallang, where all the lucky sec 1s were waiting. i was very fortunate to be allocated a front seat with the truck uncle by Mr. See ... then during this 1 hour-long ride (extended due to a particular reason), the uncle talked to me about people dashing across the road, not treasuring their own life kinda thing ... yeah, it's rather cool to talk to an uncle who also mentioned about even graduates nowadays don't have jobs ... so it's very important to be at least a University graduate in order to stay in the competitive society in Singapore - very political there. and the truck uncle, followed another truck uncle, who didn't really know the way and made a huge loop around here and there, JUST TO AVOID THE ERP. save $2 or 3 if dont pass the gantry.
keep it short >> we had a orientation around kallang and training ended at an all-time late of around 12pm?
Day Factor >> B+
situation no. 2 | tuesday 12.6 | canoeing + f.p.s (was unable to go)
it's our second canoeing training at kallang in 2007. we had to balance ourselves in the wavy conditions and they were rather crazy. the sprinting up and down was tiring and we almost lost track of our counting. overall grade of canoeing that day >> B.
when i went back home for shower, it felt rather tired and wanted to rest, so i sorta 'skipped' that session which was held in school. i scared if i go, i halfway slam my head on the table and enter dreamland, so i decided to just stay put at home, hitting for the bed. but my sleep was interrupted by C.L and W.S calls throughout my 3-hour sleep. i was so fed-up that sometimes i just continued sleeping, but my phone ringing volume was so loud that i could not avoid it.
Day Factor >> B-
situation no. 3 | wednesday 13.6 | canoeing
this was the extra training, which the 3 K2s went down for. it was a totally unexpected programme and extraordinary day. Mr. Goh told the 3 of us that we were going to row all the way to the Merlion and back. throughout the 8km distance, we had topsy-turvy moments when shaun and i almost felt like cap-ping several times ... like Mr. See said "front man enjoying themselves, but backman terrible time balancing the boat..." (of course not word for word lah... just roughly).
we got the chance to see the floating NDP platform upclose as well as the Merlion and the future I.R site/plot of land. the currents were typically wavy and heavy ... throwing us about ... with side wash, back wash and ... all kinds of right-smack into your boat with water!! we were trying to keep control of the boat and not just enjoying ourselves. in the end, we had to do several sets of sprints as part of the training programme for the day ... but ...
Day Factor >> (is as expected) A+
situation no. 4 | thursday 14.6 | dragonboating + donut factory...
we firstly had a new route for running ... which was totally terrible ... the scenery wasn't nice at all ... we have to run up and down, up and down, which was rather mental-block-ish. have energy, but don't have the mind to run at a faster pace. WEIRD. then, we headed for our d-boat. we split ourselves up into 5 boats (4 small, 1 big). Mr. Goh was corxing (aiya donno how to spell lah) our Sec 3 10-men boat ... we were in for a big treat. we had big laughs here and there, but had also put in our more-than-usual confidence, speed and power to the boat. it wasn't one of the very good small boats (i think), but we still manage to keep up with the other 4 boats. it's rather strange that we could ... cuz the previous sessions, we were still struggling to survive with the rest.
*blink, blink, blink* it was 11-ish, zac and i were at raffles city shopping centre (marketplace). we firstly went to the mph bookstore, before we queued up for the famous DONUT FACTORY. i didn't know how come i had this crazy idea, but i queued anyway ... the first 2h 20min, we were playing a game to pass time away ... of friends/family members we know ... starting from A - Z. then zac had to leave for a movie with mervyn and whoever lah ... so, he left me with his g.b to play for the next 2h 20min. for the first half with him, we barely moved much, but after he left, the queue was much much faster. i couldn't believe my eyes when the queue was shorter and shorter in front of me. the total waiting time: 4 hours and 40 minutes. i bet you would have ran out of patience by 2 hours!! haha, go beat my record of waiting that long ... and i shall reward you with a ... handshake for beating my record.
Day Factor >> A
friday, 15 june 2007
donut factory & more ...
Labels: it's a very, very long wait ...
M!©HæĹ at 7:40 PM