No, I Wasn't...

No fair.

They all had a chance to run cross-country and excert their strengths, and what do I do? Duty.

And even worse, I get blamed for being a slacker.

The first four sentence circulated my head as I left Turf City after Cross-Country Run today to go eat at a MacDonalds before leaving for training at MacRitchie. But let's just say God was able to thrill me back to my happy mood after the lunch. (God, You never fail to amuse me...)

Now on with what happened today, from the top. Starts with me sucessfully waking up at 5.30! After weks of oversleeping, I finally got myself to wake up early with the help of an annoying alarm clock! But sadly, the momment I switched off the alarm, I woke up to realise I knocked off the momment I switch off the alarm. And when I checked my watch, I found out it was already 5.55!

And I needed to reach Turf City for Prefect Duty at 6.30! And to get there in time, I needed to leave at 6! Alarmed altogether (har, har...), I rushed out of my room to eat a quik breakfast. My Mom then got out of her room, all ready to send me to the venue, only to find me still dunking a chocolate sandwitch in a cup of Horlicks.

She then told me I was really stretching myself too far, of which I responded by gulping down the remainder of Horlicks and rushing to my room to gert changed into my co-operate T-shirt. There were no lessons but training today, so I didn't have to pack much of a bag except a small one for my water bottle. For training attire, I just did the ussual thing I'd do - wear it underneath my uniform (or for this case, my co-op T).

Once finished with settling this stuff, I, along with my Mom, rushed down to the car and drove off. When we arrived at Turf City, the place was still in moderate darkness, and Mom had doubts on whether there was even an event at the time. I got off at the drop-off point and checked the area, later finding another cluster of prefects and so I called Mom to tell her all was fine and she could go.

After some more waiting, all the different clusters combined to form one group along with the Student Council, and we all had a combined briefing on the duties we had to do. For me, I had to do parking, basically guiding parents' cars (and subsiquently student that are lost on the roads)to the round-a-bout we're forming in the carpark.

I ran with Calvin and Andy to the main road areas to help students andteachers to cross the road, and also to secretly keep watch for the Senior Administration and other VIPs. For the first hour, it was rather exciting to gather the students bundle by bndle and then running in the middle of the road to risk your life in front of cars just to help them cross.

Then came a subsiquent half an hour, where the traffic, along with the number of students coming in, were dieing down. Easing off, but still maintainable.

Then came the next half hour. There were rarely, if not barely, any cars on the road, and we were literally stoning there and doing nothing. It was miserable, and so we were thankful when the people back at Turf City called Andy to tell us to head back. We walked back and gathered with the rest, later to be told that we were going to the shopping center's interior to chase out loitering students.

We tried to chase them out, but many have already lined up at 7-ll. It was somewhat funny to watch them all compressed inside the stall, but we had to try to get as many people back in the tracks as possible. We then moved towards the tracks to get the student assembled for the remaining races, making sure we had a controlled path for people who needed to go to the toilet.

I was told to guard one of the exits and make sure no one goes in or out from that way, telling anyone who wants to do so that tey needed to go to the controlled path. I was able to do it for the next hour or so, with the help of listening to the music being played. (Heh, there were some funny songs played, like one which kept on singing, "Chocolate Rain!")

But after that, I was starting to get tired standing still. I was watching all the racers on the track as they were finishing off their runs, and I looked down to watch how my feet were screaming at me to start joining them. I sighed and stayed at my spot, soon allowing students to pass through me if they wanted to. And when I saw that the senioors were moving away from their posts, I got my bag and went to their direction.

Loosing track of time, I sat on a railing, watching the runners walk pass me to go to the toilet. They were well-exausted from the run, and seemed to have enjoyed themselves. I knew I was missing out on a lot, and so I stared don again.

Finally, the announcement was made for people to report back to the grounds for prize presentation. All the prefects went down to chase the students out of the building, assisted by a couple of teachers or so. But once it was done, we had a debrief on the opposite side of the building.

After the debrief, we saw the students flooding through the building and knew it was time to get dismissed. Finally! I could walk again at free will, and so I went off to the bus-stop to eat at MacDonalds at Coronation. A quiet meal by myself, and I was off for MacRitchie for training.

I was suppose to report to the chin-up bars at 1.45, but it was still 11.55 when I got there. So I decided to walk around MacRichie to visually entertain myself. And I must tell you, MacRitchie looks beautiful in the afternoon! Walking past the food stall, the countless benches, the 'zig-zag' bridge and even Lim Bo Seng's grave, it was good enough for me to say, "What a wonderful world!" I should have taken photos, but there were many timeless locations around the reservour perfect for group outings, such as picnics and re-creational activities!

As of now, the only four places I know are best for picnics would be Bukit Timah Hill, East Coast Park, West Coast Park and MacRitchie Reservior.

MacRitchie is if you're with an artistic group and want a peaceful meal in a beautiful landscape.

Bukit Timah is somewhat similiar in beauty, just that this is suited for those who want an adventure just to get to their breakfast.

West Coast is for those who want adventure, but in a more convenient and simplified (playground) manner.

East Coast is more towards re-creational activitise like fishing and cycling. There's also a great variety of food to feast on throughout the stretch, so meals aren't a problem.

Back to where we left, I later found a spot up a hill and sat down to get a good view of the reservior, then taking out my MP3 to listen to some jazz and country music to enhance the mood. My annoyance of not being able to run was long gone, and I was praising the Lord for saving this momment for now.

"Lord, You never fail to ammuse me!..."

After a while, I tried to sing along with one of the songs an octave higher to train my vocal cords, just as Tim had been advising me through the past couple of weeks or more. But I could tell I was sounding annoyingly squeaky, so I decided to stop and pause my MP3 for a while. Just then, I saw from the corner of my eye that someone was walking past. I turned to look, only to bite my tounge to see that it was, well, Mr. See.

"You should have sat somewhere over that area," he told me smiling as he pointed out a bench a few meters away. "You'd have a better view of the water there, and it'd have shaded out the sun."

I quietly followed him as he walked down the hill, biting my tongue even more with the thought that he might have heard me singing squeaky if I wasn't careful back then. We then talked about the cross-country run, which lead to him telling me about how it was like when he was once Assistant Prefect Master, which lead to the story of how he was somewhat against the double-CCA policy in ACS(Independent) when it came to application back in 1999, about the same time Canoeing started in the school.

We then met up with Michael at the Carpark toilet. Mr. See then remembered that Winston lost his spectacles somewhere in the bushes in the area, so he asked us to help him do a brief search. By the Grace of God, I found them seated beside a tree, and so I passed them to Mr. See, who later called Winston to tell him to buy 4-D and that any punishments he'd give me would go to Wins for the next week or so.

We then ran up to the Bags Shed, except Mr. See who can't run because pof his leg injury. He called for me, then took out the keys from his bag and toss them to me, later giving the 'opps' face when he over-shot me by a bit. I unlocked the shed and we placed our bags inside, while Mr. See told us about how rental fees for these sheds were increasing, yet still worth it.

We then went to the chin-up bars behind the Paddle Lodge to, well, do chin-ups. Mr. See left us there while he searched for more canoeists from our club. After doing a few sets, more fellow canoeists came, and soon the group was alrge enough to justify us to get back to the sheds to get out our boats.

For today, I took StingRay with Kenneth after we bargained with Mr. See and a couple of Juniors. We launched off and did our sets, although in the middle of sets Kenneth would swear in anxiety that his strokes were somehow wrong. Through the programme, I was praying to God for peace in my boat, and soon enough it came around the last two sets of 2K.

Basically, what is wrong with our strokes is more of our timing together, and that we need to stop crossing our arms too far over the opposite sides of the boat. Individually, Kenneth is apparently pulling beyond his waist (I don't know if that's true 'cause he's Backman so he's obviously not in my view) while I'm still punching too high and, as quoted by Mr. Goh, "You're too stiff in the boat. Relax."

Well, at least we were able to keep pace with Derek and Ryan. It feels nice to paddle sets alongside another friendly boat. Once finished with our sets, we packed up and got the boat to Upper Shed. Kenneth then made a dash for the toilet, while I got the sheds unlocked and the life jackets and blades brought down to the Lower Shed. Soon, the rest of the team came over with their boats, and within 10 or so minutes we packed up everything.

Only to find out that there's a missing blade.

After a short debrief, the Sec 2s went to comb the entire grounds of the launching area to search for Derek's paddle, only to find nothing. Mr. See then told us that we'd have to share the cost of the $700-odd paddle. Ah, well.

After changing up and catching a bus home, I got back home by about 5.45 or so, of which I went to sleep the moment I sat on my bed. When I woke up, I somehow had a few random doubts about life in my head, and they went around until I knew something was wrong so I quickly called out, "Good evening, Lord!"

And instantly my mind was calm again. Heh, comes to show you can never start a day right without starting it with God.

Well, since tomorrow's a sub-holiday in many schools, Dad said he'll permit me to watch TV late tonight! Yay, CSI and Criminal Minds! Well, I've just finished watching the shows, so I better turn out now. Can't be late for tomorrow's (sorry, today's) duty at the OneACS thingy. G'nite and God bless y'all!