Been quite long since I wrote. Now that the more worrying papers are over, I can ease up a little. Let's see...chem was a killer. Gp was ok I guess. Math was relatively easy which means the cut off mark for A will be much higher. Can't wait to start relaxing and playing again on 23rd. All that's left will be physics p1 and it'll still be almost a week away so not much pressure. Hopely the guys can come down for a training. If not I guess I'll hang out with Eugene and yl. Probably be playing tennis and swim after that. It's gonna take quite an effort for me to start my engine again. Been so long since I last exercised and I've put up a few pounds during this exam period. My school pants feel tight now. Damn those chips!!! They're so enticingly placed right beside the sofa for me to chomp on automatically when I'm watching tv. And not to mention those nice afternoon naps after lunch. And the cunningly placed condensed milk can in the fridge which is opened wide for me to dip my pinkie in and suck on it. I've already came up with a rough schedule to get back into shape. In the morning, probably go to school and run for an hour followed by gym session. Then in the evening, join the j1 training and on those no training days I'll probably go down to Eugene's house to swim or go jw swimming complex or just go run. Probably be feeling sluggish for the first couple days but I can only blame myself...and the chips...and the naps...and the condensed milk...and my mom (it's all her fault for buying those chips and opening the can in the first place, wait in fact it's all her fault!!)
Busy days ahead for all of us. Yl today asked me to follow him on Friday to jp to buy present for xj. Her birthday is coming up on the 22nd, next Monday. And he's got quite a plan going on. According to him, he asked her out for a movie. At first she asked whether is it class outing. Then he said no, I just want you to go. She replied ok can. Sounds like a date!! Hmm...it could be just me or I'm getting better at taking hints, but that definitely sounds like a hint for yl to make a move. Or she's just plain naive or just toying with yl. Well I wish him all the best. If all went well, we might be seeing a newly formed couple at prom :) Speaking of which, not really looking forward to prom. It's such a big fuss and a hassel. I've to go shopping for a shirt, pants and shoes. And I've to endure the horror of seeing girls with overly done make up. Personally I prefer girls without make up. I mean everyone has got a pimple or two and even for those with acne problems, I think make up will just worsen their conditions. Hmm...I'm not sure what I'll do after prom. Confirm would have some post prom programme. I shall see where the wind blows. Anyway after chem we went to bukit batok to eat. We talked about how they check out girls. They'll usually turn their heads and observe the girl for a couple of seconds and in that time manage to assess from top to bottom. As always I failed miserably again. Seems like I don't know the procedure of assessment. I'll usually just take a quick glance and that's about it...well maybe other than the mrt girl case. That one even I myself have no idea why it happened. Anyway, I won't scan from top to bottom and come up with a rating. Well it's more like I can't. My brain can't process fast for this kind of thing.
After prom, I think I'll probably be left with two weeks plus before I return home. Well, I guess this time round I have something to look forward to. It's been like 10 years since I came to Singapore to study and I haven't had a Chinese reunion dinner with the whole family every since. 10 years!!! It's like more than half my lifetime!! Every year I dread CNY period. It's always the same old thing, stuck at home doing nothing. I envy my friends, having fun with the families during the dinner and collecting hong baos. It's not so much about the food but the whole atmosphere. I guess I enjoy the company of having people eating together with me and chatting. And my grandpa's birthday is in January so that's two dinners to look forward to. Plus I'll be collecting hong baos as well, which I can change back S$ from my parents :D :D free cash is always nice. But I'm not sure about being around for the annual water festival. It's in April and I might be in Singapore. It's always such fun during those 4 days of festival. I'll say it's on par with the new year eve party for teenagers, probably the most anticipated holiday as well. But all I have are the impressions when I was still a kid. It was so fun. My dad would arrange a pick-up truck on the 3rd and 4th day for touring around the city. Those on the truck were usually some from the office and friends of my aunties and uncle. I remember I would sit at the front of the truck with my aunty, armed with my trusty pressurised water gun. I would use anyone and anything that I could get my hands on as target practice. We would load the truck with 2 large barrels filled with water and a big block of ice in each and tour the city, splashing at people and getting splashed back. It's a whole day affair. We would set off in the late morning and just enjoy ourselves till late in the evening. There would be stages built around the whole city where they'll have music and girls dancing and lots and lots of water being splashed around. And mind you from what I remember, girls dressed appropriately and dancing traditional dances. We would drive to those popular stages and sometimes my auntie and the driver will quickly pull up their windows when approaching them because they meant business. Some of them are equipped fire hoses and high pressure water guns. My parents wouldn't allow me to go to the back of the truck because it's dangerous for a kid. But it could be boring after a while being stuck at the front of the truck. So I would beg my auntie to let me go to the back for some action. She would reluctantly allow provided I stay in the middle. And I'd get eventually called back after a few stops. And at those really big stages, things could get a bit rowdy. Some guys who were drunk would shout and scold vulgarities and wolf whistle at girls. But those girls at the stage doesn't get physically harassed because the stages are built a storey high. But mostly I would say it's clean innocent fun. Guys would try to tease the girls and try to attract attention and girls will purposely ignore them. Come to think of it, it's sort of like a flirting period for the youngsters. And they would drench the girls by pouring water slowly over them but they will smack the scoop of water as hard as they can at each other. And those sometimes can really hurt if done by an expert. I wonder what the whole thing is like now. Hai...come to think of it, I've been missing quite a few fun festivals with so much fun things to do. Durning CNY, we get to play with fireworks. My grandpa would buy them at from Chinatown where he used to live and give them to us to play. There are many types of fireworks. There's one where it gives multiple loud bangs. Then there's one like a rocket where after you lit it, it'll fly off with a loud 'shoooo' and end with an exploding bang. But my favourite is the firework stick. It's this about a half metre long stick filled with rounds and rounds of pellets. When you lit them, it shoot out those pellets and gives a firework display like those during national day parade. Not as spectular but still quite awesome. Then there's this candle festival. My mom would buy a few packets of candle and we would lit up our whole driveway. Then after that I'd start playing with fire, burning whatever things that I can get my hands on. We would also fly hot air ballons into the night sky. Can also other people's ballons up there as well. Then during monsoon season when we start having those heat rashes from eating too much heaty stuff like durians, my mom would let us bath in the rain. I would play ball with my brother or just run around, half naked like some crazy kid. Then we used to have seasonal fruit pickings. The garden is half fruit plantation. Got coconut, mango, guava, banana, lemon, papaya, starfruit and the velvet fruit (I don't know the actual name). My mom tried to plant watermelon for me once but it didn't work. Hmm...that habit of hers, planting useful and edible plants, even till now she tries to do that. She got this whole pot of spring onions in the house. Hmm...actually there's so much to relfect about my mom. Maybe I should dedicate a post for her. Wait...in fact maybe I should just dedicate one for whole the family, about the Leongs. Next time bah. That will be one hell of a long post.
Oh the other day I was watching this documentry on samurai sword. It's really insightful and fascinitating, about the quality of the craftsmanship and actual composition of the sword. It's amazing how people long ago could produce such a fine weapon without modern technology. It's a really tidious process of making a fine sword. There's this ore maker who would make this special carbon-steel and send it to the blacksmith who would then make the sword. After that the blacksmith would then send the sword to the polisher who would then sharpen the sword and make the blade shiny. All these people are master-class and they take great pride in their work. So they would put in the skills to produce perfect results so as to not get looked down by other fellow master craftsmen. The sword known as katana is the ultimate melée weapon. It has both aesthetic and function perfectly combined.And it has a long history with heavy Japanese influence. I'm going to display one at my house next time. My grandpa has a katana and short sword but I don't know where they're now. I remember when I used to visit him, I would sometimes sneak into his room to check out the sword. It's a lot heavier than expected. And the blade is so shiny. But the edge is dull. Maybe it's a display sword. I know there's this shop at plaza sing. It's sort of an armory shop. Got all kinds of stuff like knight armors and all kinds of swords and weapons. I think almost all of them are displaying items but they look so cool. Nothing beats a lightsaber though :)
Well that's it for now. Gosh this probably is the longest post ever.
16/11
Can't wait for Tuesday. We are starting training again. Quite a few j2s are coming down. And it's also time for me to start getting back into shape. That means no chips, no condensed milk, no afternoon naps after lunch and no soft drinks. According to mr sufian, the testimonial match is tentatively on the 4th Dec so we only have a couple weeks to get our game together, and hopefully get back at least half percent or our season fitness. This won't be much of a problem for me though because I'll be working out almost everyday. This only thing I'll have to be careful is over-exhaustion. So I'll probably plan my own conditioning after my first work out.
This is a highly anticipated match. Your looking at potential plate champs for next year vs current plate champs. So everyone is assuming that j1s are the underdogs. But in reality we are the ones. We're going up against a team which is bigger, stronger and fitter than us. And they are constantly in touch with the game. While we are unfit and lack of practice. They already have many match experiences, competitions even, so not much weaknesses we can exploit. The only weakness that I can think of is executing their backline plays. I know they've played 7s, but 15 aside is quite different. You've got less space and the pressure is much higher. When you get the ball, the opponent would probably be right at your face. Other than Daniel, the rest of the backline may screw up a bit. Our gameplan will most probably be safety and ball retention. They've got huge people like Javier and Kenneth which makes them very dangerous in our 22. They could just drive or maul through for a try, so we should always kick back for safety. Also, since we'll be slower than them, we need to retain our ball posession to slow down the pace of the game. The forwards will be a real problem. Rucks are very dangerous for us cuz they can easily turnover with their size. The only way I could see us pulling through is with sheer willpower, determination and hunger for the game. Its either make or break. Either win the j1s as everyone expected or go down in jj rugby histroy as the first senior batch to lose to the juniors in a testimonial match. I hope it'll be the former.
I'm not sure what the class had in mind after physics on Tuesday. Probably the usual stuff like pool or movie. Well maybe not yl and xj :) they probably have 'other things' to do. Think maybe Eugene might be asking me to play LAN with him.
21/11
my second voice
- 1:28 PM