One Aeroplane Clap...

*clap*
whoo-whoo-whoo!
*clap*
whoo-whoo-whoo!
*clap*
whoo-whoo-whoo!
*clap*
Om-ba-pa-ei-ah-ei-ah, om-ba-pai oh!
Om-ba-pa-ei-ah-ei-ah, om-ba-pai oh!

Ah, the memories of surviving Pulau Ubin and Changi Beach. Few of the many memories I've had here in 2008.

Yes, it's been some time since my last update, but I might as well confess something - This blog's seriously in a coma. I mean, sure it's not updating as often as it would a year and a half ago, but I guess that's just the sacrifice for my busier schedules. My commitments are expected to grow stronger next year, and I can already smell the gists of the broth back here in late November. If the waves are starting to flood the decks, some things' gotta give.

Not saying that this blog has no meaning to me. (Being a guy who likes to archive memories so much until his 'memory box' is already bursting, this blog is the most practical solution to getting my views of the many special moments in my life at the time itself.) But then again, what's the point of archiving your life to strict accuracy if you don't have a life to live in the first place?

So my compromise? Termly updates, I guess. I'll just do whatever I do normally, and after every three to four months I'll just update whatever I can, like a set of minutes. And if there's something really special or if I still feel I need more events to fill up my 'report', I can always intercept or delay the rotation as I please. A bit like what I've already been doing for the past year really, just that it's an official plan with a proper layout.

So don't drop by everyday just to check for an update. (I can see from my cBox that everyone's already got the idea.) Now with that's cleared, let's see what I've been up to from the time of my last update to today...

For canoeing, I raced again this year in the Round Ubin Race! Ended up 5th this year, though. See, Ting Wei and I were expecting rough waves like last year, so the strategy was that we wouldn't get spray covers and just endure the entire course while trying to get a good lead till Chek Jawa, where we would encounter the really big waves and capsize. Once we recover on a nearby shore, we would have rested enough to go for a hard burst all the way to the finishing line in hopes to beating whoever's in front of us.

But the waters were calm this year, so without a wave to capsize us, we had no reason to rest and had to paddle the whole 22km non-stop (with water spashing into our boat). Joseph and Barnabas were somewhere behind us (like last year), but lost a lot of time when they didn't turn at the buoy marking the start of Chek Jawa. Lucas and Zhihong had a rather smooth ride behind them, and since it was Lucas' first time there it was probably an adventure for him.

And news also came that due to the Youth Olympics coming in 2008, all involved sports will have their tryouts around the later half of 2009, forcing all competitions of such sports to be pushed forward to the earlier half. THis means that the Inter-schools will be held around March again, but also means that dragonboating may be around the same month. As such, timetrials will be held more often now so we can quickly form up the team.

I'll be running for K2 and K4! Yay, K4 is really fun! When I first rode one, Winston (who's already left the team to pursue Fencing, God bless him) was the frontman, so I wasn't so scared. But now with new crew possibilities, and me being a more experienced frontman (hehehe), I'll probably be condemned as frontman for therest of the year ahead.

I heard the rumour that if you turned the rudder of a K4 too fast or too far to a side the tiller rope will snap. SO when it was my turn to try out the frontman position, I was really scared and didn't dare make the sharp turns I'd recklessly do with StingRay or Boaz. But after a few training sessions of using the boat, I got over the fear (just need to get use to telling the other 3 people behind me I'm turning before I actually turn).

Ooo, and speaking of StingRay and Boaz, Ting Wei and I have decided we're through with StingRay (sorry girl, it's time you had someone else to take care of you. Such good memories...) and we're now aiming for one of the Advance Kayaks! Yes, we're going for Boaz! But now we have to fight against Nick Ng and Eugene for that boat, so we'll just have to see how it plays out. Worst comes to worst, we'll have to settle with Hybrid (which Ryan and Victor gave up to get Nelo).

Now onto Prefects, I'm now HR (Assembly) Councilor!!! Haha, the election process was a little scary at some parts, but it was still a good experience. The speech in front of the whole Yr 3 cohord will always be in my memory, as it was the first time in my life where I can honestly say I almost fainted (backstage can really be nerve-breaking). But by the grace of God, I managed to pull myself at the last minute and did my speech on stage! At the last part of my speech, I did a mimic of the "Yes, we can" thing Barack Obama did for his elections. Hehe, fancy I was elected into Council the same year he was elected into Presidency...

After that was the interview with Dr. Ong, which I must admit was the weirdest interview I had. For some of the questions asked, I ended up asking myself later on, "What does that have to do with me being in Council?" But I just answered whatever I could and before I knew it the interview was over.

And on the last Wednesday of school this year, it was confirmed not only that I made it to Council, but I got the position I ran for: HR (Assembly) Councilor! So now I have a key to the boardroom, a key for my HR cupboard, a 'Prefect Councilor' badge and the licence to move around during Assembly! (Haha, so cheap-trill...) I'm also invited to go for a Global Young Leaders Conference in Washington D.C. next year! But it's not being sponsored, so I'm washing my godmother's car every week to earn a little money to ease the payment a little.

But I also had my responsibilities: Since being elected, I've had to create my set of 'Standard Operating Proceedures - Assembly', run a HR duty (Sec 1 Registration Duty, the second HR duty I was in-charge of after National Day Celebrations), slug out an Adventure Camp (which for once, the councilors got tekaned as well) and plan out an EOY camp while on holiday in Japan (especially the HR games).

Whatever the case, I still praise the Lord for the opportunity to go through this. I have faith that God will somehow bless me through this experience, hopefully to help glorify His kingdom. (Can I hear a good amen?)

Ooo, and I need to talk about Japan! It was AWESOME!!! My second time there, but this time we went to Hokkaido! And do you know what that means? SNOW!!! Haha, yeah I saw snow for the first time in my life!! It was white, and fluffy, and soft, and it was nothing like the fake kind of snow you find in Korea where it's just small chucks of ice: It was real snow!!! And mind you, this was not suppose to happen; my mom wanted a 'white Christmas' this year, so she claimed the holiday through Christ. And after a bit of searching (and a couple of miracles) she finally got the tickets.

To be honest, I was a little edgy on the idea of going overseas this year. Next year being my last year in secondary life (let's face it, there's a little form of isolation between the yr 1-4s and the IB batch), I wanted to just dig head-first into my duties (in canoeng, prefects or acedemically) and get through this golden year, afterwhich I can spam on holidays for all the world could care about.

But I guess Japan was required to relax me a little bit. Yeah, I also learnt snowboarding there, so now I can do that and ski as well! Also met up with a few family frineds, so we decided to have Christmas Eve Dinner with them (had the honour of saying grace, too). And somehow, I also met up with Joel Yap on Christmas Evening! Haha, he was apparently with a few family friends as well, and we so happened to have dinner at the same pizza house in that nice snowy night.

But when we were heading home, a heavy snow storm struck Hokkaido and as such our flight home had to be cancelled. Mom was praising the lord, cause she wanted to have more snow. Me, on the other hand, was coughing away in sickness, dissapointment and fear, as I didn't want to miss too much of EOY camp (esspecially since HR Games was under me, I absolutely could not miss that). Daddy was somewhere in-between: he was demanding the lady at the check-in desk for the best alternatives to get back to Singapore, but was thankful that we had more time to shop around for souviniers and delicacies we could give to our friends back home.

When we got to a hotel to last the night before our new flight the next morning, I quickly went to the internet service (500 yen for an hour) and checked out my emails to see how progress was doing for EOY Camp and other council matters. Also got a chance to get in contact with Clifton (Head Prefect '09!) through Google Talk and told him to tell the others I'd be a little late as I was caught in a snow storm (no surprise people kept teasing me with the phrase 'snow storm' when I got back).

Anyways, now that I'm back from both Japan and EOY Camp, I've lost my voice to a severe cough which is so bad, I cough everytime I talk. But in the name of Jesus, I'll be healed by the time school starts (which is when the first Fall-In proceeds!).

That raps it up for now, I guess. To one and all, a (late) merry Christmas and a(n early) blessed New Year 2009!!! Luke 7:50!!! God bless y'all!!!