SAT II tmr and i haven't touched literature yet! and i do hope i don't screw up my essay for the Writing test. math Ic is freaking easy though so that's a relief. ugh. this is going to be one hell of a hectic weekend- SATs tmr, last-minute shopping for stupid grad night things, SAF OMS tea session on sunday and thereafter the dreaded(?) prom itself. okay maybe it isn't all that dreaded, just that i'll make it known here that i don't really fancy wearing dresses all that much but i shall do so just this once. man! aiyah should have done what gs said and crashed in my rubbish punk tank top and berms. anyway on monday i've got to hurry down for the Navy seminar so i won't even be able to enjoy the damned hotel. why does this always happen to me? College Day after post-nationals at Oriental and now this. oh this sucks.

my sister had her birthday party yesterday and I must admit that i had a Smashing Time with Ten Little Girls! especially the cute one in orange *grin. but i suppose you already know that Little Girls aren't exactly my type, though i know some people do fancy them quite a bit. You know who you are haha.

i've started kickboxing lessons. fantastic because martial arts are something i've always wanted to do- from wanting to take up taekwondo in p1 and getting a flat refusal from my mother until now when she can't say anything! ha. and it's not just those lame aerobic cardio kickboxing classes, it's muay thai kickboxing! man. it's a blast. although i had to use the putrid-smelling boxing gloves from the rack because i don't have my own yet. but yeah it's still awesome and i relish the adrenalin rush. it's better than... sex? ugh let's not go there. anyway yeah it's great and i'm gonna keep at it- it's just like canoeing, it kind of consumes you.

to my sms buddy: lets go watch pierce brosnan in after the sunset and im keeping my eyes peeled for suitable people for you! anyway im really not that horny larh believe me can. ah nevermind.

the As are finally over! but there's still SAT II, tons and tons of US uni apps to be completed... okay so now i'm like whatever la.

those of you who are about to say something vaguely damning about the Template,
SHUT UP.
hahaha. but i do hope i'm not being too morally objectionable. anyhows.

anyway, As are almost over (it's been a long time!) and so i feel damn free now until it's time to write the stupid berkeley and illinois essays. so actually i only have about 2 more hours of feeling relatively unfettered. oh and i don't know how to put in tagboard in this blog template so i've reverted back to the comments thing at the bottom of every post. and those of you who want to build big blazing bonfire to send those awful pediplanation/ monetary transmission mechanism/ 3d trigo (o horror of Horrors!) notes up in tongues of flame, Count me In. and we can all do Evans'/Prendy's Capital Jig(gles) while we watch ms law's hydrology notes sizzle in the fiery depths of Hell.

how to study for Econs S? I am going to spot 3 topics: (1) Alternative Theories of the Firm (2) Labour Market, and (3) Profit Maximisation, and read "Free to Choose" by Milton Friedman. (Un)curiously enough, "Free to Choose" has been the only credible Economics text i have laid my grimy paws on in the course of this year, besides weekly forays into "The Economist". Surely, Mr. Sowden will have a lot to say on the transparent paucity of my reading material (besides the fact that he doesn't seem to care one bit for Messrs. Friedman) but, in the words of Paul Pennyfeather, "God damn and blast them all to hell."

anyway, melissa, i'm very poor leh how. How? i Don't Know La.
---[So anyway **** you like me a not if you like me you must prove it and the way to do it is.. $$$$$$$ ( thanks )]
help me! Then i let my sister become Best Friends with you.


freaking old boybandish song but i just heard it and yeah...

baby i don't understand
just why we can't be lovers
things are gettin' out of hand
tryin' too much but baby we can't win

let it go
if you want me girl let me know
i am down on my knees
i can't take it anymore

it's tearing up my heart when i'm with you
but when we are apart i feel it too
and no matter what i do i feel the pain
with or without you

baby don't misunderstand
what i'm tryin' to tell ya
in the corner of my mind
baby it feels like we're running out of time

let it go
if you want me girl let me know
i am down on my knees
i can't take it anymore

this song really gets to me.

do y'know?
i wish you'd see that.

--- cause it's all in my head
i think about it over and over again
and i can’t keep picturing you with him
and it hurts so bad yeah
cause it’s on in my head
i think about it over and over again
i replay it over and over again
and i can’t take it yeah i can’t shake it
no

i can’t wait to see you
want to see if you still got that look in your eyes
that one you had for me before we said our goodbyes
and it’s a shame that we got to spend our time
being mad about the same things
over and over again
about the same things
over and over again

ohh
but i think she’s leaving
ooh man she’s leaving
i don’t know what else to do
i can’t go on not loving you

cause it's all in my head
i think about it over and over again
and i can’t keep picturing you with him
and it hurts so bad yeah
cause it’s on in my head
i think about it over and over again
i replay it over and over again
and i can’t take it yeah i can’t shake it
no

i remember the day you left
i remember the last breath you took right in front of me
when you said that you would leave
i was too damn stubborn to try to stop you or say anything
but i see clearly now and this choice i made keeps playing in my head
over and over again
playing my head
over and over again ---

over and over again nelly ft. tim mcgraw

i was on cable tv on friday evening! hahaha.

i think this is going to be one of the longest personal entries in a while. so treasure it till the next one. haha haven't blogged in so so so so long so i'll take a brief respite from the dreariness of agricultural geog and integration to type a little about my life.

friday was a curious experience! pretty cool one though. after the blah gp paper in the morning (As have started! ack.) i went to the ESPN starsports headquarters in lorong chuan to film an episode of football crazy with the bayern munich fan club. got adeline along HAHAHA and she said i never let on that it was a live tv filming session (apparently this is what i told her: adeline: ok, so it all began with my darling feng. she told me that there was an "exhibition" at espn hq in conjunction with the bayern munich fan club, and "jamie reeves was going to be there" and she asked me if i wanted to go. and since the hq's just 5 min walk from my house (tres cool eh!) i just decided to go.) well i can't partly remember whether i told her it was a studio session, but i vaguely remember being rather prone to circumlocution when she pressed me earlier on what it was for.

yes so anyway we headed to the ESPN hq where we had to sign some funny waiver so that our "names, appearances and likenesses" could be used for regional broadcasts on the channel. Imagine! my likeness on every television screen! hahaha. there was this lady called sharkey (what a name!) who briefed us on what to anticipate and we had to rehearse all the banter and questions and answers pre-show, which i thought was pretty contrived. But still. Anyway i was supposed to respond to a pre-sent SMS that went something along the lines of: "i think the reason why oliver kahn is such a good goalkeeper is because he looks so scary. With his scary face, strikers don't even dare to score!" well. when i first heard the statement i kinda thought the sender was of decidedly limited mental acuity, but yeah since oliver kahn is one of my favorite topics, i came up with a stupid two-liner about how his form had indeed deteriorated after WC2002 but i'd no doubt that he'd be back to his bulldog best in time to come. And adeline was supposed to add that she thought he looked scary anyway. there was still time before we went on air so we busied ourselves with free drinks from the dispensing machines and playing a rather unexciting game of table soccer (may i add, with a wadded-up kitchen towel procured from the pantry since there wasn't no ball in sight) which ended in a 1-1 draw courtesy of a last gasp goal from me.

then it was time to hit the airwaves of the region! i'd originally intended to hide at the back but sharkey made me sit in front (which wasn't that bad in itself, just that everytime the camera panned into view of the two hosts i appeared in full glory on the television screen since i was sitting next to them). there were 2 guests besides the hosts andy and collette, this aussie hunk called PJ roberts (man he's damn hot la. serious.) and our very own homegrown sheikh haikel, whom adeline later admitted she'd been dying to ask "did you really do drugs?" but she didn't in the end. darn.

anyway sheikh haikel, in testimony to his girth, kept eating throughout the show. and his impression of czech beauties he came across while hosting a modelling show was hilarious. the way they'd dissolve into giggles and swoons everytime he mentioned the name "milan baros", since that was the only thing remotely czech he could say to them. haha he's just damn funny la. even if he did do drugs. it was a blast being on air- even though we had to wear awful little party hats that made me look positively weirder than usual, and we had to cheer and sing some funny bayern jingles which i thought were rather corny. and everytime the camera would pan to the hosts i'd try to lean to one side to get out of its range, but the first few times i misjudged and leaned towards collette instead, and i'd realise and hurriedly jerk back out of sight. i think that happened several times, not very glamorous really. hahaha.

oh and then i got my 20seconds of individualised fame! after they showed a clip of oliver kahn in all his snarling glory and read out that sms. so i duly reprised the two lines above, after which the camera zoomed out again, which was a good thing because i thought i looked awfully pasty on screen. argh. pity bayern lost the night before to juve (cursed be you, del piero!) if not there might've been more things to say. football crazy also showed snippets from the '99/'00/'01 champions league (manchester united heartbreak and valencia joy) and then showed an earlier video the hosts dressed up in bavarian costume and displaying emotions in relation to bayern's fortunes. they did a funny bavarian jig which was pretty hilarious too haha.

anyway it was a very interesting experience indeed! being on tv, talking about my favorite topic in the world, albeit in stupid party hats and looking pasty. excellent way to destress from the horrors of the As. anyway back i go to work!

so there
you got me in your clutch again
so there
so there
i love your touch
and that voodoo that you do so well
it's got me spinning around and round

so let me in your world
let me in your world for a while
let me in your world
so i can sing to you

oh no
you got me going crazy
for you, baby
oh no
you made me go
insane for you, baby

so there
you got me in your clutch again
and this living is strange
we count our feelings in yesterdays
but is that how you keep your clutch, baby
is that how you keep it, darling

so let me in your world
let me in your world for a while
let me in your world
so i, i can sing to you

shea seger [clutch] : the may street project

she rolls the window down
and she
talks over the sound
of the cars that pass us by
and i don't know why
but she's changed my mind

would you look at her
she looks at me
she's got me thinking about her constantly
but she don't know how i feel
and as she carries on without a doubt
i wonder if she's figured out
i'm crazy for this girl

she was the one to hold me
the night
the sky fell down
and what was i thinking when
the world didn't end
why didn't i know what i know now

right now
face to face
all my fears
pushed aside
and right now
i'm ready to spend the rest of my life
with you

etymology: what's really in a name?

i'm kinda buzzed and it's all because
this is how we do it
South Central does it like nobody does
this is how we do it
to all my neighbors you got much flavor
this is how we do it
let's flip the track
bring the old school back
this is how we do it


montell jordan this is how we do it

thanks philip for inadvertently making my econs 's' paper much more bearable by telling me that makaay scored a hat-trick in bayern munich's 4-0 rout of ajax just before the paper started! it's been a long while since they showed any hint of brilliance against one of the noted european teams. suddenly things are looking much better for bayern and germany (after that 1-1 draw with brazil). excellent.

man i have vivid memories of makaay's hat-trick against bayern two years ago, the morning just hours before my e math prelim paper. he totally screwed me up then, being only the second player to put three past oliver kahn (the first being michael owen in germany's disgraceful 5-1 loss to england).

well i DO like the way he's making amends for that, though. go number ten!
***

Roy hammers hat-trick at the right end



29.09.2004
In a couple of short seasons, Roy Makaay has put the Bayern loyalists through a roller-coaster of the emotions, from profound depression to total rapture. Almost exactly two years ago, at the same time and in the same competition, the Dutch ace fired his single previous hat-trick at the Olympic stadium, only for the "wrong" team.

Back then, Munich's Champions League dream came crashing down in a 3-2 defeat to La Coruna, but on Tuesday evening the Netherlands hitman almost single handedly returned the 2001 winners to centre stage in the European game. "He blew us away with La Coruna then, and he did it to his fellow countrymen tonight," Uli Hoeneß said with a grin afterwards, "and that's why we bought him. "

Makaay set a rousing Champions League evening in motion after 28 minutes. "Owen Hargreaves delivered a long ball, and I had the half second or so you need to let off a shot. I wondered what I should do, lob or shoot. Then I decided for the latter, and I reckon it was the right idea," the player said, describing a sensational 20 metre thunderbolt in typically dry fashion.

"That was a really acrobatic display. The way he brings down and controls the ball is something I've never seen in my long career," deeply impressed coach Felix Magath said in admiration of the goal-getter's skill.

Magath's Ajax counterpart Ronald Koeman was angry with his defence. "I told my players before the match always to keep a man behind Makaay. If I look at the opener, I have to say none of them was listening to me. " Makaay struck again shortly before and after the break with a header and a penalty to seal his fellow countrymen's defeat, drawing words of the highest praise from the visiting coach. "He's put on a superb demonstration today." Makaay now has 10 goals in 10 Champions League appearances for the Reds.

The 29 year-old would dearly like to apply his deadly finishing skills to the Dutch national cause, but new coach Marco van Basten seems determined to follow his predecessors' practice and relegate the striker to a substitute role. Makaay will be thrilled at turning in such a potent display against Amsterdam, although he insisted afterwards his priorities were his club and his personal goals, "not some third party somewhere else."

Fortunately for Bayern fans everywhere, super striker Makaay now turns out for the "right" team.

***

feels like you made a mistake
you made somebody's heart break
but now i have to let you go
i have to let you go

you left a stain on every one of my good days
but i am stronger than you know
i have to let you go
no one's ever turned you over
no one's tried
to ever let you down
beautiful girl- bless your heart

i've got a disease
deep inside me
makes me feel uneasy
i can't live without you
tell me what am i supposed to do about it
keep your distance from it
don't pay no attention to me
i've got a disease

feels like you're making a mess
you're hell on wheels in a black dress
you drove me to the fire
and left me there to burn

every little thing you do is tragic
all my life before was magic
beautiful girl- i can't breathe

i think that i'm sick
but leave me be
while my world is coming down on me
you taste like honey, honey
tell me can i be your honeybee
be strong keep telling myself
that it won't take long till
i'm free of my disease

matchboxtwenty disease

i just couldn't help reminiscing- especially after rowing at macritchie on friday evening and watching the sun set progressively over the course of our last kilometre, till all that remained were the bright blinking lights in the distance, and the quiet motion of our paddles entering, the strong pull, and then the withdrawal with nary a sound. awesome. remembering the way it all used to be, not that long ago. somehow it's not the same without everyone else, and i know we can never go back to that. Memories, sure. but that's all they can ever be, now.

on a lighter note,
i promise i'll upload the rest of the photos after prelims!

the Raffles K2 rowers- this one's for you!


[RJC 13 500m / RJC 13 1000m/ RJC 12 1000m/ RJC 19 500m]
L-R weiqi shine fengyi leqi sheryl mag jingting youjia

when you close your eyes
takeaminutetakeamoment
realise
do you see me when you fantasize
tonight'll be your night

i'm just sitting here daydreamingaboutyou
and allthethingsyoudo
girl, feels so right
and all i know is you're the one for me
that special kinda' lady
in my life, in my life

finally changed my layout after years. please read the disclaimer on the left before bombarding me with pointed remarks. thank you very much.

three days of the prelims have passed- somehow the papers have generally been decent so far. i can't expect too much of math but at least it was a paper i could do for once. econs p3 was pretty good, seeing that my deficiency of knowledge with regards to macroeconomic policy, which i just couldn't force down my throat, wasn't exactly very detrimental. three hours of phygeog today has not been very kind to my hand. i've got a total of six more three-hour long papers, including a day with two of those killers, which is not a thought i'd like to entertain right now. went to the toa payoh clubfitt gym after the paper, hoping to be able to save myself from deteriorating further into a lumpy mass. was looking forward to it at first, until i stepped into the gym. man that gym totally sucks. so damn pissed with all the creaky old machines with putrid smells and peroxide blonde old faggots who kept hogging all the free weights and preening into the mirrors that i left after only bench press and upright row. what a stupid waste of a dollar fifty! (at least the ticketing lady was nice and gave me student rate since i was in school uniform). the rowing machine was damn cranky too. i had to coax it out of its slumber and somehow the seat was wobbly and the metal chain entirely rusted.

to top it all off, the gym instructor on duty bore an uncanny resemblance to ahmad.

and so i decided to leave as fast as possible.

think i'll stick to bishan gym. so far it's been the safest place. i hope that doesn't change.


you can be my brown eyed beauty.

still a little bit of your taste in my mouth
still a little bit of you, laced with my doubt
still a little hard to say what's going on

still a little bit of your ghost, your witness
still a little bit of your face, i haven't kissed
you step a little closer each day
still i can't say what's going on

stones taught me to fly
love taught me to lie
life taught me to die
so it's not hard to fall
when you float like a cannonball

it isn't hard to fall, at all.

i watched the men's allaround gym finals yesterday and paul hamm was a true inspiration. normally you'd think that after screwing up your fourth event with a dismal score of 9.1 caused by lurching into the judges' table after an awful landing from vault, there'd be no chance for a medal, much less the gold. usually there wouldn't be anything left to compete for, you'd reason that it wouldn't be possible to get back into the running after that horrific mistake. hamm was twelvth after four rotations, which left him with only parallel bars and high bar to redeem his olympic dream. but hamm pulled off one of the most electrifying parallel bars routine i'd ever seen immediately after his vault, which earned him 9.837 points and rocketed him into fourth place, within reach of the top three. and a similarly powerfully inspirational high bar routine (three releases! with the one-armed giant swing! god.) was enough to propel him past the koreans and back to the place where he belonged- the top spot.
the true spirit of a sportsman- it's never over till the end. and he thoroughly deserves his victory. i'm inspired.

Hamm's victory was high drama
By Jill Lieber, USA TODAY


ATHENS — When he walked over to the high bar at Olympic Indoor Hall, the final gymnast in the final event of the men's gymnastics all-around competition Wednesday, Paul Hamm had no idea he needed to score more than 9.825 to pull himself out of fourth place and take home the gold medal. What he had in his mind after he crash-landed on the vault two events earlier was that he needed to pull off the performances of his life to even get the bronze. So Hamm took a deep breath and began swinging powerfully through the air, executing his technically difficult routine and then nailing his landing. When his score came up — 9.837 — he still wasn't sure if it would be enough. And even after the arena scoreboard retabulated the scores, and his coach, Miles Avery, screamed, "Olympic champion!" Hamm couldn't quite compute what had just happened. "I looked at Miles and said, 'Olympic champion? No way!' " a still-stunned Hamm said an hour later. "I really had thought gold was totally out of the question."

In one of the most dramatic comebacks in sports, with the closet margin of victory, 0.012, in Olympic history, Hamm, 21, of Waukesha, Wis., became a U.S. men's gymnastics legend.

An hour after the event was over, Hamm was still trying to fathom what had just happened.
"After I missed the vault, I thought there was no chance for gold," Hamm said. "I thought maybe a bronze. I was very upset and depressed, because I knew that all-around was my best chance for winning the gold. When the score came up and Miles yelled, 'Olympic champion,' I was still shocked, because I just didn't think it was possible. How could it be possible?"

Hamm had come to Athens as the reigning world champion, filled with high expectations, billed with lots of media fanfare. He showed strength, power, creativity and consistency throughout the qualifications and team finals. All along he had said if he hit all six events, there was no question the all-around title would be his.

On the night's first event, the floor exercise, Hamm made a statement, his solid tumbling earning 9.725 to put him into first place, tied with China's Yang Wei, the 2000 Olympic and 2003 world silver medalist. He followed with a 9.7 on the pommel horse, although Wei snuck past him on the still rings to take a .037 lead. Next it was Hamm's turn on the rings, his weakest event, and he scored a solid 9.587, celebrating with a pinpoint landing and pumped fists. Wei dipped on the vault (9.512), and Hamm took over first by .038.

And then disaster struck. Hamm didn't rotate enough on his vault, which caused him to sit down on the landing and almost fall off the podium, nearly hitting a judge. He appeared to have fallen out of medal contention in one fell swoop, scoring 9.137 and dropping to 12th.
"I just didn't get enough power off the vault," he said. "I landed to the side and couldn't withstand the impact, and I fell over."
A collective gasp, then murmurs, swept through the hall. Hamm sat on a chair on the sideline adjacent to the vault runway, stunned and forlorn, staring silently into space, figuring his shot at U.S. men's gymnastics immortality was gone.
First up on the next event, parallel bars, Hamm pulled off a great routine — his handstand positions were solid and very extended. His double-pike dismount was the period at the end of his never-say-die sentence. Some of the leaders who followed him on the parallel bars had problems, but the last man in the event, Korea's Yang, stuck a 9.775 and took over first place.

Elsewhere in the arena, the gymnasts in sixth through 11th place started faltering, too. All of that helped rocket Hamm into fourth place — and put him in striking distance on the high bar, his strongest event. "I'm very happy right now," Hamm said. "I was so angry at myself after I'd missed the vault. I had worked years for that moment, and it all went down the drain.

"And then I had the best performance of my life on high bar. I'm proud of myself. I realized my dream. And I never, never, never gave up."
***

***
i feel so unsure
as i take your hand
and lead you to the dance floor
as the music dies
something in your eyes
calls to mind a silver screen
and all its sad goodbyes

i'm never gonna dance again
guilty feet have got no rhythm
though it's easy to pretend
i know you're not a fool
i should have known better than to cheat a friend
and waste a chance that i've been given
so i'm never gonna dance again
the way i danced with you

time can never mend
the careless whisper of a good friend
to the heart and mind
ignorance is kind
there's no comfort in the truth
pain is all you'll find

tonight the music seems so loud
i wish that we could lose this crowd
maybe it's better this way
we'd hurt each other with the things we want to say
we could have been so good together
we could have lived this dance forever
but now who's gonna dance with me
please stay

now that you've gone
now that you've gone
now that you've gone
was what i did so wrong
so wrong that you had to leave me alone

george michael :: careless whisper
***

oh snap outta it. what an ass i am.
but is it a sin to keep hoping?

in the computer lab now after a damn slack human geog lesson- just finished an awful econs essay-cum-drq during econs tutorial just now (i swear, sowden can be really slack at times but when he gets going its workworkwork all the way) and i've got a math quiz later, which i'm positively sure i'm going to flunk. oh god my lower back aches like crazy, a product of doing 4 sets of 15back extensions clasping a 10kg plate in the weights room yesterday. but yeah it nails the abs and the back at the same time. my calves are screaming out too from calf presses yesterday. gosh. and i heard something that quite aptly summed up my passion for doing weights/ working out, coming from a rugger (if you have to hear it from anyone, it's gotta be a rugger) when he was talking to a j1 guy canoeist :" it's like a fucking addiction".

oh boy i couldn't agree any better.
hell yeah it's like a fucking addiction.

haha there're national squad time trials this week- man isn't it crazy? how'd they expect us to maintain our peak for three weeks, spanning nationals to scf to trials? it's damn crazy la. especially since there isn't anymore school training now and all we've got are our own sessions, and we've cut down on morning training at macritchie due to the lack of time. and the timings to make it to the elite team anyway scf on sat/sun was a great way to cap off the competitive season for 2004. our heat on sat was total crap. i have no idea why i thought it was a false start, so we stopped very nicely in the middle of the race (remember its only 250m, no time to stop man!), looked back, went "oh SHIT" and continued the race. yeahh. well at least we still managed to come in 2nd. semis were marginally better, at least we didn't stop this time. and the funny thing was that the hc boat with chian lin was in lane1 while we were in lane2- which is ALWAYS the case-it's really quite hilarious at how we inevitably meet each other no matter what distances we race in. finals we re so damn close! we won by a hair's breadth. oh man. i'm quite sure it was a rather spectacular race to watch too because the 5 boats came in within 2seconds of each other. anyway nic and melissa came down (it's nice finally seeing you, for the first time, nic) hahaha!

finally i've found the time to get back to this blog and reminisce about nationals. it's been almost a week since finals, and a week since heats. man. i'd like to thank the seniors for coming down to support us- the j3s and the j4s and perhaps more (though i may not know every single one of you, thanks for coming back and showing us that the call of raffles canoeing remains strong even after you've left). the support was incredible. especially to people like benedict, justin, huilin and lynn. you guys have done so much for our batch- continually motivating, supporting us, since you all have the wealth of experience garnered from competing yourselves. also tremendous thankyous to the j1s who didn't compete but came down to provide the logistics support, carrying paddles, transporting boats, bringing food... i'm sure all the j2s are really grateful for you guys. it'll be your turn to compete next year- carry on the legacy that we and our seniors have left.

i guess thinking back right now about the finals race- it's kinda weird reminiscing about it. i have nothing much to say except for the fact that i think it's the best i've ever rowed. every inch of me, every breath straining towards the finish line. before the start of the race my mind was a complete blank, and i was entirely focused on rowing the best race of my life. winning was secondary, doing my absolute best foremost. and i'm glad that i have absolutely no regrets about that race. definitely it hit me hard that i wasn't able to clinch the gold, but i guess that's part and parcel of life and canoeing. you win some, you lose some. the pair from acjc, winny and jasmine, totally deserved their gold, anyway. i must say that they rowed a very inspired race, giving it all they had, and such opponents are definitely worthy of respect. congratulations.

i guess i've come out of nationals (and canoeing) learning so much more than i'd ever imagined i would. i'm glad that after nationals the canoeists from different schools can finally set aside their rivalries and i can get to know people for who they really are. to HC canoeists- man! we've always thought you people were great! but having to compete against each other on so many occasions kinda hampered us in getting to know you better. anyway i'm glad to have known you all, and hopefully we can all meet again sometime! to SR canoeists- haha wow i didn't know that some of you went to my church- i kinda got a shock when i saw you ppl there- thanks for the support and encouragement especially prior to and immediately after my race. even though we're not from the same school i'm really touched that you guys put aside school loyalties to egg us on during the finals. thank you so much. to MJ canoeists- haha training with you guys has been quite an experience! haha thanks for the support.. train hard and you guys will definitely do real well in all the races to come.

oh shucks the bell's rung for gp class. i'll blog about the rest sometime soon if not i'll be late and evans won't be very pleased with me. haha.

oh god. final land training yesterday and that realization only struck me when it was over. when i was dumping my workout gloves and weights logbook into my locker and it dawned on me that i'd never have to use those if i didn't want to, ever again. i wouldn't ever need to bust my ass off doing 110pds/10reps for lat pulldowns, bench 86/30 till the lactic acid builds up and explodes, or knot raffia for string roll (which we had affectionately christened 'spring roll' in futile attempts to make the prospect of that exercise somewhat more bearable), or do nauseating 4x1.6km intervals at 5pm ever again. yeah. so is this how it ends?
 
philip's right- part of me, like him, does yearn for days when i can be lazy. after one plus years of committment to this sport i love, i've almost forgotten what it's like to go home early when school ends instead of training till dusk, eat anything and everything i want (okay perhaps i've attained moksha when it comes to this, hahaha quan!) and generally have all the time on my hands especially on weekends to blow. but i don't think that'll suit me. i just can't give up what i've gained over the past year. i can't go back.
 
i'll miss the training sessions-  seeing gs do her rubbish vibrations during weights, being suaned by weiqi and vania, our team runs, our circuit trainings, ab work (in which gs vibrates (AND gyrates) awfully, again),  next-day-wake-up-with-hellish-backache 4-3-2-3-4 kayak rotations. Going to kallang gym and being buaya-ed by stupid mat bodybuilders (there you go, vania!). pullup trials under the watchful eye of huilin. 6k runs to the esplanade and back, following the oft-frequented route by shine and her fellow apple-eater. collective groans from the entire team upon hearing that jiao lian wanted us to run before training. rowing 4 2ks and countless 500s and getting all sunburned and parched under the merciless sun. complaining about the oilspills and dead animal carcasses at kallang. hating wakeboarders and speedboats to the core for delaying our launching. doing weird things like one-stroke starts. the thrill and exhilaration of racing and being in a k2 that flies.
 
our team dinners and team outings- stayover at zhen's house with sharksfin soup and pizza and deutscher fussball on tv to boot, yami yogurt and subway saturdays with sheryl, gs and the rest, and not too long ago cheesefries wednesdays (okay i admit!) LAST YEAR after training. team dinner after southernislands expedition when the dessert vanished from the plate within twelve seconds after having arrived at the table, carol being the main culprit. weiqi being mock-impaled with a greasy pork rib knife from kenny rogers' by gs. taking rubbish photos at the esplanade, most notably the shot of me gesturing at gs's ample chest which was nicely illuminated by a ray of light. psycheup session at lyd's house with nail-painting exploits pre-sdba,  slicing our own leftover bananas from dragonboat competition onto the waffles at cafe cartel, which carol promptly devoured, being none the wiser. those hilariously raucous team chats at fuzion or tcc, which inevitably always culminated in a most undistinguished array of candid photographs being taken amidst the forore, which would, upon close examination later, prove to be most incriminating. (how can i ever forget the shot of gs's inflated assets HAHAHA) mag urging vania not to  attempt to "make a mountain out of a molehill" in perhaps undisguised reference to the aforementioned assets.      
 
the team. zhen sheryl gs mag weiqi shine lyd vania leqi carol. the ten of you mean so, so  much to me. inexplicably, i'll miss suaning and being suaned. i'll miss the training together, running together, rowing together. the encouragement, the spirit that's lacking in other teams but most definitely not in ours.  the guys team. though our teams mightn't be as close as we'd have preferred them to be, we're still all raffles canoeists together and that's what really matters.
 
a week to finals, and then i won't know what to make of everything.  i'm relishing the idea of competing, but then again, i'm dreading the time when everything'll be over. i might cry. i don't know. when it finally fully sinks in that i've rowed my last race as a raffles canoeist.
 
oh well. Till then.

*  *  *

RAFFLES CANOEING

batch of 2003-2004

 

*  *  *

 
===================================
you said it was like this
i was torn between two worlds
one full of promise
and the truth i knew would hurt
you say i'm no angel
trying to put the past behind
 
so now i try to find
a place to leave all
memories in my mind

we try, our lives away
then stumble into the grave
we cry, and still they stay
the past won't go away
the story of my life
 
see i was just thinking
now my life is on the road
the straight and the narrow
on the route that i've been showed
you know it's not easy
to try to change your ways
 
so now i try to find
a place to leave all
memories in my mind

we try, our lives away
then stumble into the grave
we cry, and still they stay
the past won't go away
the story of my life
 
a place to leave all
memories in my mind
 
we try, our lives away
then stumble into the grave
we cry, and still they stay
the past won't go away
the story of my,
try, our lives away
then stumble into the grave
we cry, and still they stay
the past won't go away

the story of my life
\\ kristian leontiou

 

hey check this website out. it's freaking hilarious. apparently it's the website of the weird eyebrow plucking guy who roams around outside tangs, pouncing from behind corners to accost unwitting victims. i remember encountering him once last year with charm and he tried to wheedle us into plucking our eyebrows *sheesh. now he's a guy who's thoroughly strange. grossly inflated ego to boot as well.

doing some last minute research for my religion presentation on jehovah's witnesses for tmr. so awfully busy! and nationals are in two or so weeks... which seems rather near yet far away at the same time. actually i'll be really sad when it's all over. not gonna think about that right now..

CRASH : PUSH
***
crash
would you like me to forget myself
and lose myself
in you

push
just one push will do
then i`m overboard
drowning in you

i hear a whisper slowly and
soon our lips will be near
in between the day and night
i step into the blue twilight
catch me, darling
catch me

hold me back
i think i`m falling
over you
what did you do

help me now
i`m losing me
into you
what did you do

what did you do

walk
i walk a line that leads to you
waiting anticipating
desire has no safety
to lead you on the road
going crazy

i hear a whisper slowly and
soon our lips will be near

hold me back
i think i`m falling
over you
what did you do

help me now
i`m losing me
into you
what did you do

i hear you whisper darling
darling

in between the day and night
i step into the blue twilight
catch me, darling
catch me

hold me back
i think i`m falling
over you
what did you do

help me now
i`m losing me
into you
what did you do

what did you do
***
robi draco rosa \\ mad love

it's been a month plus since i blogged. but my computer hangs roughly every ten minutes so i haven't been going online much either. oh well. it's halftime now of eurofinals and i must say the greeks are doing an excellent job defensively. which is both good, and bad, as it'll be an awfully low-scoring game and i think it'll be decided either by silver goal or penalties. actually i'd quite like to see a penalty shootout because i want to see Ricardo the Lionhearted take off his gloves and perform his heroics again.

haha. 6-a-side futsal yesterday at ecp- it was a blast! first match walkover due to the no-show of our opponents. we were all secretly relieved! (okay so maybe it wasn't secretly, it was audibly). second match against bishan ite, the toughest team (probably) in the tournament. but we managed to hold them to a goalless draw! it was damn funny because i found myself right back just in front of the keeper. oh and sona the keeper pulled off some fantastic saves too. you go, girl! i think the bishan ppl were freaking frustrated after the match because they couldn't seem to find a way past the five defenders and the keeper(which was, actually, the entire team.) third match versus Wreckonin' United (what a mouthful!) manda's one-on-one with the keeper gave us the first goal and i scored (with my left foot!) the second. great game it was. tight defensively as well. but today was pretty disappointing as we let in one, just one fluke goal in our fourth match against the Tootsiepoops (okay this is starting to sound rather incredulous, but believe me, that was their team name. oh and by the way, we were Team Nutmeg. haha)we dominated the entire game, manda had a shot towards the left corner saved by their keeper, my first shot (with left foot again, went agonizingly wide past the right post) and yoke pean just missed heading from my crosses by a couple of centimetres. damn. but i was quite happy with my crosses from the corner! yeahhh.

oh well then. second half's started now! be back sometime.