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.