it's my brother's birthday today! happy birthday, dude!

heheh yeah. meant to blog about the NYgep gathering earlier, but didn't have time to use the computer. anyhows i thought it was a success- we went to marina south for steamboat! 17 of us came, and we had a pretty fantastic time. and i'm sure huiyuan feels most loved, everyone else in our table (qing, xy, nina and I) kept making sure she was never in want when it came to food. (most notably, chicken wings). well actually the truth is that no one wanted to eat them, so we dumped them on huiyuan's plate when her attention was directed somewhere else. unfortunately, she caught on after a while and we were forced to find alternative methods of disposing of the offending chicken wings.

went to boat quay to catch the last act of the buskers' festival. this 19-year-old guy from canada was performing- his show was called The Dan Show, and it was pretty good! well we managed to get his autograph and a photo with him at the end of his performance.

we had a really good time! so many laughs... especially between me and qing! during one of the quieter moments xy said this "i don't think much has changed over the course of one year." i think she's right. everyone's still the same, and things are just as good as before. which i'm thankful for, and i hope this never changes!

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training yesterday. met vania in the national stadium gym first for land training. did the usual routine (lat pulldown, bench press etc... and of course the obligatory ab work!) and later some free weights work. total workout yeah. was really good to train as i was feeling guilty after friday's marche and sunday's steamboat. even though my appetite has decreased significantly from previously. vania was at the gym since 7+ and she was bored to tears after 2 hours. so she sat at some corner to sleep and this fitness instructor came around, asking concernedly "are you okay?" well she was quite happy over that since he was quite good-looking, apparently, and in her words "isn't it good to wake up to the sight of a nice face?" erps. grin--

water training at 11 thereafter. did a K1 for the first 6 km (only my 2nd time doing K1!). rather wobbly during the first 3 rounds but much improved after that. and i was just feeling quite proud of myself at not having capsized before, so i took my hands of the paddle to roll up my sleeves (i hate wearing rj pe tshirt!) and over i went. i think i manage to capsize in most inane, incomprehensible ways. especially when with sheryl! haha! our 3 capsizes happened in the strangest ways possible! anyway i quite like K1. when coach made me try for the first time last monday, i doubted i'd be able to get off the shore. took me a good ten minutes then, but once i got the hang of it, it was quite good.

K2 later with leqi for the other 6 km. and she's really good! really good. had to push myself quite hard especially since land training earlier had drained me quite abit. but it was great rowing with her! pity coach says that it's unlikely we will row together. oh well.

added a link to my new guestbook- you'll find it over at the top of the right margin, just beneath "archives". feel free to drop a note!

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just returned from southern islands expedition yesterday. it was, truly, an unforgettable experience, in all ways possible. and i've also discovered that my rowing strokes are improving, as my torso and not my arms ache after the 50+km over the three days. contrary to popular belief, canoeing uses the back muscles primarily, and not the arms, for propulsion.

but i'm not sure if i ever want to get into another expedition kayak. i think i'll just stick to racing for now. gosh rowing in the open sea and waterways was quite an experience! we had to navigate the waves and backwash generated by the ocean liners and the other vessels, which was pretty good as you'll never be able to do that in a racing kayak. riding the waves was great, except when you plop down the other side and the sea spray splashes into your face, mixes with your sunblock and starts stinging your eyes real bad.

let's not talk about direction though. shit i hate having to do direction. spent half my time telemarking instead of rowing proper. gawd i was pissed. and weiqi was most amused. she related our experience of rowing together to the rest later, and yeah maybe it was quite amusing. but not so funny when it was happening. haha.

and kudos to our culinary experts, gao shang and leqi! without whom we wouldn't have tasted stuff like marinated chicken wings and pineapple rice. which is admittedly damn good food for an expedition. i've also discovered that, apart from them, everyone else has either a vague inkling of how to cook rice or absolutely no idea at all.

we've also discovered our residential santa claus, ms. poon! she's got all the stuff you could ever ask for on an expedition. like barley mints and tom yam noodles(!). and she's really funny too! oh and she asked me to try weightlifting after Alevels. erps. no i don't think i will. but kickboxing, no problem!

and one more thing to add- gao shang absolutely loves communual bathing! she had a blast of a time in the sisters' island toilet! but i shan't divulge details. go ask gao shang.

aaron mailed this round, being a man U fan. now i don't actually hate liverpool or anything, but this is still quite funny. :)

Court Ruling

A seven year old boy was at the centre of a courtroom
drama today when he challenged a court ruling over who should have
custody of the boy. The boy has a history of being beaten by his
parents and the judge awarded custody to his aunt. The boy confirmed
that his aunt beat him more than his parents and refused to live there.
When the judge suggested that he live with his
grandparents the boy cried out that they beat him more than anyone.
The judge dramatically allowed the boy to choose who
should have custody of him.

Custody was yesterday granted to Liverpool Football Club as the boy
firmly believes that they are not capable of beating anyone.

was it you who spoke the words that things would happen but not to me
oh things are gonna happen naturally
and taking your advice i'm looking on the bright side
and balancing the whole thing

but often times those words get tangled up in lines
and the bright light turns to night
oh until the dawn it brings
another day to sing about the magic that was you and me

cause you and i both loved
what you and i spoke of
what you and i spoke of
and others just read of
others only read of
of the love that i love

see i'm all about them words
over numbers, unencumbered numbered words
hundreds of pages, pages, pages for words
more words than i had ever heard and i feel so alive

cause you and i both loved
what you and i spoke of
and others just read of
and if you could just see me now
now you and i, you and i
not so little you and i anymore
and with this silence brings a moral story
more importantly evolving is the glory of a boy

cause you and i both loved
what you and i spoke of
and others just read of
and if you could see me now
well then i'm almost finally out of
i'm finally out of
well i’m almost finally finally
well i’m free

and it's okay if you have go away
just remember the telephone works both ways
but if i never ever hear them ring
if nothing else i'll think the bells inside
have finally found you someone else and that's okay
cause i'll remember everything you sang

you and i both loved
what you and i spoke of
and others just read of and if you could see now
well i'm almost finally finally out of words



jasonmraz \\ you and i both

an jing by jay chou is a fab song. i got hooked after listening to it countless times at jamin's house during pw last sunday. it's all mx's fault, but i can't really blame her or anything. it's got beautiful lyrics, and for me to say that is really something because i'm not a chinese music person and my chinese is in the dumps.

was reading qing's blog, and i realised that i do understand exactly how she's feeling about all the shit that's going on. sometimes life does seem like the pits- when you try so hard yet you never manage to find what you've set out to achieve. shan't dwell on that bit though, it's most depressing.

sadness is beautiful
loneliness that's tragical
so heal me I can't win this war, oh no
touch me now don't bother
if every second it makes me weaker
you can save me from the man i've become

caught the first half of the england vs. wales rugby match. and i think jonny wilkinson's pretty darned good yeah. shall keep my eyes peeled for the rest of the matches coming up.

dinner with mr. R and the rest of 1a13a at marche's tmr. kind of looking forward to it- but sheesh i'm gonna be dead broke by the end of the week. hope tomorrow'll be good yep.

i really don't see the point of having chinese lessons in jc. well at least there could be something remotely resembling a syllabus that would make it so much easier to study for. and shou3 ce4s! i'm lost without them. the rj blue book doesn't exactly help anyway. i quit mugging from it after about a third of the book, and i'm not exactly sure that that third proved particularly useful.

on a lighter note, chinese wasn't that bad after all. hopefully i'll make an A and not get another B3 ha.

national stadium gym for own training yesterday. i think i'm becoming a gym rat, slowly but surely. and a health nut. well weicong came along slightly later, and got bored really quickly. somehow i don't think he'll be returning anytime soon. maybe we should go kayaking instead, but to me that's even more boring. oh well.

>>contempt is a hundredth of a second------