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!!!

Generally Speaking...

*coughcough* ...dusty...

Ah. 'Ello. Woah, a term and a June Holiday since I last posted. Shows how much busier I've been these days (so those who intend to join IB, better be sure you can handle the heat; I've got Someone watching over me for protection, do you?).

Indeed many things happened throughout the time I was gone:
My 'B' Div Dragonboat got Bronze, just inching behind the 'B' Div seniors and Bukit Panjang Government High (by 0.03 seconds...).
Became a reserve in Inter-School canoeing (I blame Chinese 'B').
Raced and was defeated in Nationals.
Projects of many varieties filling up my diary, many of which my advantage of powerpoint cannot bloom in.
Did badly for Term 3 Art due to poor colouring.
And now, we're in Term 4.

But hey, those were just the bad highlights. Canoeing-wise, Ting Wei and I have been promoted with 2nd priority to the Boaz (that's a really good thing), and we're still paddling at around 11km/h in a Tiger so we're definitely qualified to race in this year's Round Ubin Race (I don't know about him, but that sounds good to me)!

The 'B' Division II Crew & The 'C' Division Crew (Dragonboat)

The 'B' Division Crew (Canoeing)

Social-wise, I've been going to a decent amount of gatherings lately (and at interesting venues, too). Had a Canoeists' 'End-Of-Inter-School' celebration at Wild Wild Wet, where we had extreme fun (especially at the Tsunami Pool!) and when I had my first theatrical encounter with a horror movie, having watched The Strangers in mid-afternoon ("Don't worry guys, I heard it's a great comedy!" - Davin). Also had Prefects Dinner Nite at the Mandarin Hotel next to Suntec City, where we all (or at least the enthu ones) dressed up in a Retro theme to party with the music (and make fun of the seniors using random song titles).

Me struggling off the tao-pok on Marcus.

Culture-wise, I did something which I think should not be witnessed or attempted by the faint-hearted. Please skip a few pictures forward if you do not intend to view an interesting item in Philippine cuisine: the Balut.

Basically, balut (say: BAlot) is like the typical hard-boiled egg. With a twist. These duck egg already went through fertilization. That's right, the egg now has an embryo.

Don't worry, we won't encounter live ducks when we open the shell; you boil it first anyway, so it'll definitely be dead once served. Here's the batch of eggs my grandma brought all the way from the Philippines:


After a few minutes, the eggs are brought out and broken:

Yeah, what my mom's touching is the egg white and the egg yolk. By now the egg white's hardened to much to be eaten, so that's taken out, while the egg yolk is rather juicy and has developed a few veins to make circulation between the chick and the yolk better (you do know that the yolk is the food supply of the embryo, right?).

'Speaking of chick, where's the embryo?' Good question.

Yup, that's the thing on the piece of tissue paper. Now with a partially-developed head (complete with eyes and beak), that's the main highlight of the whole thing. The main nutrients come from this chunk of a meat (actually, I don't know if it's considered meat yet), and it's supposedly something every mom would like to give her sick child (yeah, possibly to scare the illness out of them).

Ooh, a closer look int the embryo...

Yeah, the good stuff. Ah, well. Here goes my first try on eating this stuff...

Mmm, tastes like chicken. (Seriously.) I mean, the little bt of soup in the egg tastes like a nice salty broth with exposure to the embryo, and the 'meat' is kinda chewy (although the beak was a little annoying to spit out).

Yeah, I went for a second round. The flavour stayed in my mouth till the next day, even after severe brushing... And don't you stare at me with those 'you-Filipinos-are-barbarians' kinda eyes: did you know that this stuff originated from China? (Oh great, I'm still part of that race, never mind...)

Academically, my grades weren't that bad actually. In fact, I feel confident that Term 4 will be at my favour (In Jesus name, AMEN!). Health-wise, I'm still in good racing condition based on my results in the school's Annual Cross-Country Run (And my house won!)

CKS House
(I'm part of the crouching people at the center, next to Marcus Teo, who's directly above the guy with the towel, front row 4th from right)

Against my original thinking, I also ended up running for Council in the Prefects, and now I made it to become Assembly TransCouncilor 2008!

That means I'm (for now) Hadrian's heir, who's coincidentally also a canoeist and art student. As Assembly, I had to make a whole new Morning Duty List, as well as be I/C of National Day Celebrations (which was a little embarrassing 'cause I accidentally signed off my emails as 'HR Trans' instead of 'Assembly Trans', sorry Mike)! And the most interesting thing is... I get to be one of the Chief Instructors for Prefects' Recruitment Camp 2008!!!

Haha, unfortunately there's more to Selection Camp than meets the average student's eye, so I can't really write about the camp (otherwise I'd be spamming this blogpost with tonnes of stories). But what I can say is that I had my fair share of adventure and yes, I was FIERCE! (Don't believe? Have a look...)




Yeah, but besides those 'tekan' moments, I was busy with the logistics of the camp. Very busy.

Anyways, if you want to see more pictures, go to Facebook and check the albums that I've been tagged in. Ah, which reminds me, I've also now got over 100 friends (Currently 135) in my Facebook account!

Ah well, wanted to do a Mikipedia post about my oldest hobby, (Multi-genre) Music Appreciation, but I still gotta revise for Chemistry (exams are just a couple of weeks away!). Miguel, signing out for now.(gosh, how'd I sign off again? oh yeah-) Jeremiah 33.3!!! God Bless Y'all!!!

No. of bracketed statements = x
.'. Luke (x/2):(x-19) to (x+2) = Mig's favourite Bible story