The Perfect Storm...

As the StingRay sinks defeated into the dark waters, the Mosquito sets voyage at yonder for her avengence...

Yup, Hao Qing and I didn't make it to the Finals. 4th place at the Heats didn't get us much. But hey, the fact that we got 4th compared to other pro rowers says a lot by itself already. And besides, even if I don't get my name in the papers or a trophy of sheer colours or a fake scroll at Honours' Day, I feel like that doesn't matter as badly. And why?

Because God and my parents came to watch.

And that's all I needed to be satisfied. Even if they saw me lost, they were still there. And after that, I rushed back to school to help out in Inter-Class Debate which we won, so I didn't loose everything today! But enough with the mushy-mushy, let's get into the action...

It all starts early in the morning. I recieved an SMS last night telling me to report to Bedok at 7.30 for briefing and warming-up. A quick rice-based breakfast and I went to my room to pack my bags. I checked my time-table to estimate what lessons I might miss, and so packed accordingly. I ended up with two sling bags across both sides, and soon set off with my paddle to the reserviour. Once I got there, I walked alone the rubbled path towards the newly-installed boat sheds about 400 or more meters away.

Just then, I almost startled in shock when I heard Mr. See's voice. "I see you, Raemiguel," he said in a calm tone. Looking towards whereer the voice came from, I saw Mr. See beside a still electricity generator, looking at his phone. Observing the other bags in front of him, I assumed we were to gather over there, so I went over to place my bags and paddle down.

Monkeys then started appearing around the sheds and were making a slight racket in the place. "If you want, I can do a live disection in front f you," said sir, who took his eyes off the phone just when the monkeys were reaching our school's shed. I mumbled a soft laughter, then got down to my bags to check that everything was there.

Mr. See saw that I brought my tablet bag, so he wondered why I'd be bringing my laptop all the way here. I explained to him that they were my files and that I was going to return to school after this. He nodded with a firm, "Hmm." and went back to his phone. He the told me that Daniel and the others who were already here were further up the path to search for the 500m Mark, and adviced me to check it out.

For those who haven't seen/notice Bedok's tracks, they're not the kind that's convenient to paddlers around here. For one thing, the buoys aren't at specific intervals, so you have to commit to memory which particular buoys of the entire set are the 500 buoys. I agreed, and ran off to Daniel to see where the line was, after that returning back to the generator to wait for others to come.

Slowly, but surely, they came one by one or pair by pair or cluster by cluster, and soon most of the 'C' Division, along with much of the 'B' Division, were present. By around this time, the staff in-charge of the equiptment around here were starting up the generators, so Mr. See told us to move further up the road so we didn't get dosages of carbon monoxide before our races.

He later gathered us close and pointed out a few things we had to take note of in the race, using twigs and his pen for lanes, starting/finishing lines, boats and etc.. Another thing he pointed out was that the racing course wasn't the typical rectangular shape, but more of the inconvenient parallelogram shape.

At MacRitchie, we have our very own Mr. Goh to help us straighten the lanes and maintain it time after time. But in Bedok, not many people give as good attention to it as in MacRitchie, and even those who'd bother aren't in charged or permitted to be in charge of Bedok. Thus, as time goes by the buoys may loosen and end up twisting the shape of the course.

And as a result, you can never be certain that your bow had passed the finishing line yet by just looking left and right. Mr. See highlighted a mistake Abraham made yesterday. It was a tight match for third place in the heats between Chinese High and him, and AB was just at the lead of the two. But just as he was about to reach the finishing line, he looked left and right and thought that he made it through first already, so he slowed down thinking that he had already finished.

Well, he did finish before the other boat IF you were looking at it from the perpendicular view. Unfortunately, thoguh, the judges would only take the finishing line itself as the rough measurement of who came first and the sort, and that means the parallelogramic view. And it so happens that the tilt of the line alowed Chinese High to pass through first before Abraham did, even though AB was supposed to have crossed the perpendicular line first.

And which would the judges take? The parallelogram reading, of course! Why, they only have one camera to tell then who came first, and that camera is only in-line with the slanted finishing line, thus after watching the video over and over and over again, the judges decided to make Chinese High win over AB.

"So always make sure you sprint through the finishing line, gentlemen," noted sir. "If you want to be safe, wait till the boat is one-third through, then you can slow down. In fact, even one-fith through is good enough. Just one-fifth."

"In other words, till the line reaces you or your front rower," said Daniel, who was trying to help out as Captain.

"Yes, just one-fifth in, gentlemen. And then we also have wind conditions to settle. You all better have learnt your draw-strokes well, because here is a good place to use it."

Winds at Bedok are rather wild at times, especially in the afternoon. They always blow from the right of the lanes, and with the stern's greater exposed area this causes the boat to turn towards the right if you're not careful. Thus while you're lining up for your event, you shoudl always observe if you're drifting, and if you are then respond to where and at which direction you are drifting to - correctiong your direction while starting a sprint can cost you up to 3.5 seconds.

Soon, the organisers came to the area and unlocked the metal fence that protected the sheds which held our boats, of which canoeists of all schools of life rushed towards the area to collect their boats for warm-up. Right behind Saint Joseph's Institution, ACS(Independent) huddled towards the gates and went for our shed to grab out the lifejacks, seats, footrests, wingnuts, paddles and most importantly, boats.

After searching for where our items were within the scattered stack of equiptment, Hao Qing and I carried out the StingRay and assembled it somewhere nearby, later launching off for a rough warm-up. As can be seen as we walked closer to the shore, the wooden dock which was temporarily built along the shore was removed, so launching was going to be a lot harder and longer.

As a K2, we both went to this special pontoon which floated off the shore by a bridge. The only problem getting there was that the organisers haven't brought the key for the bridge yet, so with the help of coaches from other schools we had to climb over a fence with the boat securedly on our shoulders. A little funny tackling our way through the fence, but once that was over we paddled a couple of laps before returning to shore.

By now, the pontoon we launched from was already crouded with tonnes of other K2, so we had to pack up at a concrete slope near by. The problemS with this place is that on the slope, I may be able to feel the ground with my paddle, but Hao Qing may not AND that even if I wanted to paddle towards the slope, there were tonnes of boats also tryign to get out the same way. In our attempt to try getting on land, we ended up capsizing but quickly got the boat out of the way before the waves made it drift towards the rough concrete surface.


Back at the sheds, we gave Mr. See ezLink cards for registration. Placing the boat at a rack somewhere nearby, we proceeded to warm up along the coast as the first events began on the water (Go Ming Sheng, GO!). Mr. See later chased us away to another end of the coast when he saw that we were too close to the generator, which was producing enough gases to give Mr. See headaches on end.

Event after event went by. We watched, we cheered, we estimated. And in due time, I went to my bags to get my handphone just in case my parents SMSed me, which they apparently did. They were wondering if the competition was still on because it was raining moderately at their area, but I reassured them that the races were as normal where I was.

And around this time, it came to our event. Nick Ng just left, so now our turn is just around the corner. Event 14 could be called any minute now. Soon, Mr. See gave us the 'go' sign to launch off for our event. But as we bought the boat down from the racks, it began to drizzle. The winds were picking up, and the rain was increasing by the minutes. But haven' being told not to stop, Hao Qing and I continued to go launch.

As we were carrying the boat towards the pontoon, we had to tilt ourselves to the right to make sure the wind didn't blow us away along with the boat. I was giggling slightly with all the irony around and with the fact that rain meant a lot to me. Especially at a time like this. But as we went down the pontoon, the coaches were telling us to turn back, signaling that it was too dangerous to paddle now.

By now, the sky was extremely grey, and one couldn't speak without having 50ml of water going into the mouth every three sylabuls one says. It was rather scary - something like The Perfect Storm just that reduced to the scale of canoes - and so we turned and headed back for the sheds. When we arrived, we saw many canoers trying their best to hold down the boats onto the racks with their lifejacks or bare hands.

Not realising how strong the winds were, HQ and I placed StingRay on a close rack, only to realise 4 seconds later that it was just about to fly off. Nearby to the bow, I quickly ran back and caught the bow just in time to keep it from slipping off. Unfortunately, the stern was still free and it flew off by a couple of meters towards the neighbouring rack. At least it wasn't as bad as another boat which flung off and barely missed Mr. See by an inch or so, or the SJI rack that collapsed in the middle of the storm.

Thankfully to God, the rudder didn't have contact with the ground, so it didn't snap off. A couple of people rushed for the boat and slightly lifted it to allow me to slide the bow off the racks, then slowly release it onto the ground so the wind can't effect it anymore. With lots of people helping to keep the equiptment safe, Mr. See told the remainder of us to go to the ol' Pavilion just a little sprint away.

We all ran there, and soon the Pavilion was crouded with loads of ACS(I)an rowers trying to brave the cold temperatures (water freezes faster than air, so having both elements together...). Time after time, we would imitate the penguins in Happy Feet, saying lines like, "We remain!" or, "Keep your eggs warm!" or even, "Nah, I know you like it!". But despite whatever jokes were said, our skins still felt like 14 degrees or so and goosebumps were the norm.

After half an hour, te rains were starting to calm down, and we were greatly merry that the temperature was rising again! Soon, rain was back to a normal drizzle, and Nick Ng, HQ and I were called back into the water.

While Nick was getting to his event, HQ and I kept paddling around the 500m Mark of the tracks to wait for our turn. And as soon as ever, our time was up. We slowly paddled towards the Starting Line. After an entire year and three months worth of training, it all came down to this. This was it.

I could faintly hear the commands of the started at my farthest right.

"K2 500m Heats 1, alert!"

I looked straight towards the Finishing Line, making sure I had a straight route.

"Starts within 10 seconds!"

All paddles were raised in one swift move, and we were ready to launch off at the sound of...

*air horn*

Here we go! All the boats burst out in a rage of fury as we raced for those three chances to make it to the Finals. We padddled our hearts out, but I could tell that my boat was already burning out by 250m. Nevertheless, we paddled on.

Sadly, we didn't make it for even 3rd place, but just 4th place. Somewhat dissapointed, I held water and looked down in slight defeat. But then as I paddled towards the packing-up area, I noticed two distinct people within the slight croud. They were smiling at me, and one was holding a camera towards me. It was my parents.

I assumed that after that delay from the storm, they might not have stayed longer for my event. But they actually came, and in my presence! The momment I saw them, I lighted back up again, still defeated but nevertheless still loved. The feeling of being appreciated by your family no matter what you get is an honourable feeling, and that satisfies a medal hands down.

As we got out of the water, I carried my boat along the muddy path (and posed a bit for my parents to take photos) before arriving back at the sheds. At the shed, we placed g'd ol' StingRay back on the rack she was placed originally before reporting to Mr. See for debrief. He stated that "this was your whole year's work summed up, and it equals you both to 4th place. There is no disgrace in that, as long as you did your best."

We were then permitted dismissal, of which I searched for my bags and later found at the Pavilion. Over there, I decided to stay a little longer to cheer on Joon Sin and Kenneth for their K2 500m event. Might as well cheer on my avengers. They had a third placing, and after so I headed back to the shed to take my shoes and leave for the bus stop (which was a looooooooooooooooooooooooooog walk away).

If you've forgotten, I now needed to go to school for the Inter-Class Debate Finals. The fate of the class rested in my hands, since after all the replacement was Kirby (Hey, I'm quoting from others, so don't blame me for being blunt!). So my original plan to get there was to take a 67 to Bedok MRT Station to take a train to Dover, then take a bus/walk to school.

But just as I was about to board the 67, I realised that my ezLink card was still with Mr. See! I quickly got off the bus and stomped my way back to the shed, which mind you was the same looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooog walk away. This time I didn't care: I walked through all the grassy patches in the park and didn't follow any roads. My main objective was to make a straight line for the sheds, and no roads were gonna stop me in the state I was.

Once back at the shed, Mr. See didn't need to look up to see I was there, and immediately got out my card with a sarcastic, "And I was wondering when you would've realized." I responded with a soft, "Opps." and collected my card before making my looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooog way back to the bus stop again. By now, I didn't think I'd arrive at school early enough for the debate, so I decided to take Plan B! And what is Plan B?

Take taxi, lah!

I hailed a cab at the bus stop, and I hadf a friendly conversation with the driver in Mandarin (Yay! The fact I could hold a 10-minute conversation with the guy without any mess-ups is a great miracle! Praise the Lord Almighty!) Later, I also asked if I could change in the cab, which he willingly allowed (or at least he sounded like as if he was willing). I first stripped of my shirt and replaced it with a uniform shirt, then worked my way down until everything I wore for the race was replaced with a uniform's item (exception being the watch, 'cause it's practically under both categories).

After changing, I took out my Debate notes and read through them over and over again so I knew by scratch what I needed to say. And within minutes, the uncle alerted me that we were near by, so I had to help direct him to ACS(I) instead of ACJC (both are near-by each other, for those who don't know). I told him to drop me off at the school's bus stop, placed the finishing touches onto my uniform and made my way down and up the ramp to school, slinging my large water bottle from the handle like it was a Western pistol.

I seemed to have blended in rather fast, like as if I had always been in the school during the morning. Or did I just have a Sportsman's Immunity which repelled the security guards or something, I don't know. From the Space Frame, I met up with most of the class, which was making their seperate ways to their respective Enrichment Programmes. They informed me that the classroom was lcked, so I had to place my bags in my locker for the time being.

On my way, I met up with Ryan, who was shocked to see me at school, when he knew very well I was suppose to be at a competition, or else already dismissed and headed home. I explained to him I had somehtings to attend to in the school, so he teased me as a workaholic. He then asked what I got, so I said I didn't make it to the Finals. He was shocked again that I wasn't afraid he'd do something because of admitting my failure, but nevertheless went back to his lessons later.

I kept my stuff in my locker and made a dash for the 'unkown-area-somewhere-in-the-boarding-school' room (man, I still don't know the name of that room...) for my EP of Billards. When I arrived, the Mdm in-charge was just about to take attendance, with her back facing the door. Perfect! While she was still talking to the rest of the students that were surrounding the pool table, I quietly took off my shoes and quickly tip-toes towards the table, slowl leaning against the edge in a relaxed position as if I had been there all this while.

After she went through whatever she needed to go through, we queued up for our ques (har, har) and got our balls ready (har, har, heh). With alert instincts fresh from a race, I caught a triangle or two before it fell on Mdm from the top of the shelves. Man, race instincts feel good.

For me, I tried Billards first, then a simple game of Pool. Well worth the hour, even though I couldn't score that much. Yet. When we were done, I went back to class with Raam to class for LAA, and boy was Mdm Kavita angry. She mentioned a few dissapointments she had on this class, then turned to the Chairman (Tim), the Language Arts Rep (Me), the Favourite Student (Jai) and the Worst Student (Kirby) in one go, saying that she was dissapointed in our roles.

Those were just some of those moments when saying, "You're fired." isn't far from the subject at all.

After the dragged lesson, Tim, Niranjan and I were about to go to the class of 6.2 for the debate when I discovered that I had just lost my debate notes! Thankfully, Niranjan leant me a piece of fulscap, along with his own set of notes for me to copy with. We then went to the venue, permanantly registering in our heads that if the finals are post-poned one more time, we're gonna quit.

To cut the story short by half an hour or more, we won! By 2 points, but that's besides the point! When it was all over, we told the joyful news to Mr. Tay, who in response started laughing here and there, and later treating each of us with a dollar each for a drink down the SAC. We all thanked him, and he thanked us in return for our efforts, also legalising the Class T-Shirt again.

The whole team went down to the SAC to celebrate our victory, whole team being;

1st Speaker (Me)
2nd Speaker (Tim)
3rd Speaker (Niran)
Stand-by Speaker (Kirby)
Supporter (JKit)

And since I'm already out of the competition, I can now break embargo! Woohoo, feasting the anti-embargo way rocks! Haha, yeah the good times! We then chatted around before leaving for our own homes. And now here I am typing into my blog what happened today: I may have lost the Canoeing Inter-Schools, but I've won the Debate Inter-Class. Whether that's a fair exchange, you be the judge.

I'm just happy Mom and Dad were there to see me race.



G'dnite, and God bless!

Just keep walking...

"...ummmuhum....luhummumumm....hummuuumuumuaI'm up! I'm up!"

I think that's what I ended up saying when I finally arose for real this morning while my maid was hassling me to wake up. Checked my watch, and it was already 6.17 a.m.. Well, a good reason for oversleeping this time was that in the last few minutes of my sleep, I was dreaming of myself waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room, then suddenly waking up to find my maid in my room so much so until I couldn't tell the difference if I was dreaming or if my maid had just almost succeeded in waking me up.

I quickly rushed out of the room to make my breakfast, then went to my room to finalise my bag and make sure my rough plan for the debate (that was supposedly) today was somewhere in there ready to make its way to the school. After that, I changed into my uniform and glided back to the dining room to eat my meal. For your information, this is the first time in almost half a decade for me to change into my school uniform before eating my breakfast. But I guess I had no choice - time (and my dream) wasn't on my side this morning.

All finished, I brushed my teeth and went out the door, followed by my Mom who unlocked the car split seconds before I reached it, giving me an uninterupted run. Once we were both inside, Mom took out the Ancient of Days CD from her handbag and inserted it into the CD player before driving off for her usual routine in sending me to school.

During the ride, I rose the volume by a bit when the player reached the song Ancient of Days by Ron Kenoly. A really nice song which depicts every trusting Christian's freedom through Christ somewhat better than Mourning into Dancing. 'Every tongue in heaven and earth shall declare Your glory! Every knee shall bow at Your throne in worship!...' Man, soul Christian music is good for the Christian soul indeed. But by the time the song was coming to an end, I was nearby the school and so told Mom to drop me off 'behind' (refering to 'behind the school').

Once dropped off, I made my way up to my classroom where I found the usual guys who are usually early at this usual time of the day doing their usual stuff. Walked to my desk, placed down a few items and softly walked around the classroom with my draft of my speech for the debate in my hands, trying to revise the lines in my head without uttering a word that may interfier with the present game.

I guess when it comes to situations like this, I should just step back and not up.

When it was time to go for Assembly, we all went out of the class and divided into respective clusters while walking towards the Parade Square. While escorting my class to the area, Toj highlighted to me that he'd appreciate it if the people who came to my Birthday party paid him/Tim/JKit $3 after they sponsered $10 each for the LAN centre. Reasonable, I guess.

I suddenly stopped in my tracks and headed towards the classrooms again for duty, of which Toj thought was because I wanted to get the money straight away. Once at the same ol' duty spot (Red Level Classrooms), the atmosphere starts to turn more 'philosophical' in a way. The school never feels as peaceful as this at any other time of the day. Seriously. Once they finish with the National Anthem and Pledge, it's as... quiet... as it get's around here.

After chatting with Jai about Jack Black, rugby, rock songs, spoof videos and Australia's failure to cencor vougarities in a particular PG (as Singapore might have rated it) movie, the students were seen rushing in from the distance, and the peace was at an end. Nice while it lasted, but we headed back to 2.10, of which JKit ran past us to unlock the door. Settling back in the classroom, I was also approached by Tim about today's (supposed) debate, and what points we were going to use. I told him what I wanted as my share, and he agreed, although he pointed out that I took the harder parts. Ah, well. First Speaker needs to speak the most, apparently.

The class then settled a few administrations with Mr. Tay and Mdm. Rani, followed by Maths where Mr. Tan was explaining to us more about the terms of quardratic equations. He also commented about how he felt Mr. Tay's mindset of constant changing of our table arrangement actually makes sense. When we told him it was to help us 'foster class unity', he snapped back that it was just 'rubbish!'.

Next was History, where we learnt a bit more about Ecconomic History. At least I get to learn a bit more on what my Dad's involved in I guess. Or is he involved in something else? This is sad - up till now, I still don't understand what my Dad's occupation is, even thought I know his workplace, his colleagues and the projects he get involved in.

CL'B' was a slight fright. For one thing, Mdm. tested us on oral, and I didn't know how to explain the four main things I did during the holidays (Birthday, training, filming, competition) without asking the Justinicionary about a definition every 5 seconds or so. I was so thankful when it was all over and done with. And whenever another friend is up at the front trying to go through his turn, I can do nothing but pay attention to the fella, trying to show in my eyes that I supported them, and yet trying to hide the other view of my eyes that highlighted I couldn't help them if they needed help in their vocabulary.

And after that, we were reading through the textbook again, and I was not sure what precisely was going on with the other students racketing around in their onwn way. They were literally a big obstacle between me and my eagerness to learn my mother tongue. And what dissapoints me more is that... Justin tries his best to join in their gag. Every 5 minutes, he'd ask if we could go for Recess already along with some made-up excuses, and everytime I kept telling my annoyed half that he didn't mean to delay my education of the language.

Once the lesson was over, I went back up to the class (along with Kirby's and JKit's books) and waited at the corridoor for the Chinese guys to finish so I could enter. When they were done, a great portion of them ran out of the door. I knew why - it was Fried Food Day. But unfortunately, I couldn't join them. Mr. See already specified a FULL Embargo. A sacrifice I'll just have to endure for another couple of weeks, I guess...

Placed the books down at their respective tables, then walked down to buy one of the only items that doesn't break the embargo. Baos (Chinese for 'buns'). I bought three tao sar baos ('red bean-flavoured buns') and walked towards the table with Joel, JKit and Kirby present at. I had a seat (that was forced my way, but nevermind...) and ate with them, later to go to the Oasis shop to buy a bottle of the usual Ice Mountain before heading up back to class.

Back in class, I looked through my debate notes another time, halfway I was informed that a particular piece of information was 'accountably inacurate in a way, but nevertheless correctable'. Let's just see what happens...

After Recess was P Sci, where Ms. Ho re-explained to us about the criteria of our 'show-and-tell' presentation, and also how light works in our eyeballs. I knew light goes through the iris and enters the eye through the pupil to display an image at the nerve at the back of the eyeball to display to the brain, but it never really dawn into me that the eyeball was actually hollow. Something new to learn about my anatomy.

We then had Music, where Mr. Lee announced that we were going to do a music group performance for our Term 3 assignment. To simplify the rules, we were allowed to sing, play or dance to any pop songs we could get our hands (or ears/mouth) on.When he told the class to stand so as to prepare to form groups of 4, I felt myself being grabbed at by multiple arms within the blink of an eye. It was something like Neo after just being deleted from the Matrix, all covered in cables, just that I had no cable going for my neck. Thankfully, Mr. Lee told whoever those arms came from (I was standing at the front row, so the arms came from the back, and I couldn't see where exactly they were from) to stand down and relax, to which the hands slowly released and slithered back to where they came from.

Relieved, I stood still for Sir's command to move to the groups, of which the original plan was that I would just stand still and wait for the first tap on the shoulder, but after feeling all those hands, I thought it was better if I moved to the back first. But when Sir said the phrase 'go', I was clinged onto shoulders down onwards by a cluster of people, accompanied with voices demanding against each other like, "Let go, he's mine!" or, "No, I booked him first! Back off!" but soon and finally, "Hey, let go and let him decide for himself lah!"

(Thanks Tim)

I creeped my way off the back of the platform and went to the edge of the Music Technological Room (or what was the room's name?). A few people followed, and Kirby sugested we flip a dice. (What happened to the coin?) Tim then exclaimed that I made my own choice, displaying to me that I had three choices: 1) His group, whic had himself, Joel and JKit, 2) Kirby's group, which had himself, Matt Ch'ng and ZWei, and 3) Shil's group, which was right behind me, so I wasn't able to see who was part of it.

To cut the arguments short, I ended up with Tim's group (at my own will, let me stress) and so we sarted discussing on what we should do for the performance. We also played around with one of the keyboards in the room (Joel either tried to play Bolevard of Broken Dreams or River, Tim played the Phantom of the Opera, and JKit played a piece from his exam pieces, along with pushing the 'DJ' button on the keyboard at rando momments. When it comes to playing instruments, I just feel so left out...).

Once the lesson was over, which it actually wasn't but just that Sir dismissed us 5 minutes earlier, we all walked back to class, at te ending part of the journey Tim telling me that I should try singing. Me? Singing? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*sigh* I understand that Mr. See might have been in the chior before, but I doubt a base like me would fit to singing that well. And yet again, I sometimes remind myself how I miss the good times when singing any song of my choice was easier. Sad, sad, sad.

Once the extra 5 minutes was used up, we went to the Chapel CPA for EP. Today was just the introduction day, so we didn't really start on anything yet. But it was nice to see what I'll be going through for the next sememster (Billards was a good choice!).

The school hours end off with Lang Arts 'A', of which Mdm. Kavita wanted us to break into our old literature groups to discuss about Extract #1 and #3. Seeing my group (Joel, Shil, Raam, Koon Min, me), I never knew they'd be so serious, which is a good thing for a time like that, but I was just... surprised. Nevertheless, I did whatever I could to provide the group with discussion pointers.

We ended off later than 2.40pm (which is the usual ending school hours for Years 1-4, but Mdm. Kavita tends to drag it a little), and as the minutes ticked off bit by bit, Tim gave a sigh for every action he saw that was delaying his departure, along with Niranjan's nervousness in biting his pen (or was it his finger? I couldn't see from where I was seated) and with me grining calmy (on the outside) as I watched Mdm. drag along. Tim tried to notify her that we had to go a debate, but it apparently failed and dragged a little longer with her trying to explain to him that she was just about to dismiss us all.

Once the wait was finally over, I rushed out of the classroom to place my files into my locker in slight preparation ahead of Tim and Niranjan, but apparently a bit too early as they were still packing while I was there. After waiting for each other, we went together as a team to the class of 6.1 for the debate, praying hard that it would just be gotten over with today.

TO OUR DISMAY, we waited there for another 1o mintues with no one else present. Assuming that it was cancelled/postponed/greatlydelayedbyamonthorso, we grabbed our bags and left the scene for the SAC to eat lunch. I bought a bowl of wanton noodles and sat down with the guys (Tim, JKit and Kirb) to eat. While I was eating, they went along in their conversations.

At one point, they also got to a point on how I'd swear. Kirby claimed he heard me say 'shit' and 'crap' before, and Tim supported him as witness. With two witnesses, stating that I was innnocence was of no use even if I really am innocent, but if I really did say those words, I guess I'd better watch my mouth. I don't detest against vougarities because of goody-two-shoeyness. It's more because of my honour for God.

The way I see it, vaugarities are insultive words said in hope that they'd act as a pain-reliever for a particular scenario which is of disadvantaging to the announcer. And ussually, it works as it levels themselves/the insulted company down to the dust of the scenario itself, making them feel atoned to the situation. I'd rather just trust verses in the Bible that promise that whatever happens, good or disasterous, God is in perfect control as long as I allow Him to (God's a leagal God; He can only work through you if you alllow and believe Him to).

Trust the wisdom of Christ, than the words of the world.

Slurping down another chopstick-scoop of noodles, I then watched as Tim and Kirby arm-wrestled each other. The intensity. I twiched a little as I watched them battle it out for the stonger person. I guess it's been a long time since I arm-wrestled someone. Do I miss the feeling? I don't know, but I just watched in slight eagerness to participate, yet holding it back ecause I knew Tim and Kirb were settling buisness.

Not sure if JKit noticed how I was watching them, but he soon wanted to chalendge me in arm-wrestling. Still using my right arm to feed myself soup from my bowl with a spoon, and still watching Tim and Kirby, I took JKit down with my left hand. It felt rather odd, so I asked if he was really putting his full-strength. He just laid down on the table and muttered a few words. Praise the Lord for my strength, even if there are others out there stronger than I am.

When Tim left to buy a cup of bubble tea, I decided it was better if I left at that point of time, since I wasn't really able to participate in their conversation. I slung on my bag and was getting ready to leave. JKit and Kirb, who were watching me, asked why I was leaving so soon, and I told them that I might as well just get on with the tution I cancelled today for the 'debate'.

They then started telling each other that if they joined forces, they could hold me back down for a little longer. The little urge to arm-wrestle them came out, and I found myself chalendging Kirby into an arm-wrestle; if he wins, I'll stay until they leave. He slowly shook his head and told me that I've just gone through Dragonboating so he wasn't going to take his chances.

I didn't know what they needed me for for that period of time, but I decided to just stay a little longer, "until Tim comes back from his bubble tea." The both of them started yelling at Tim not to come any closer and take his time at the drink stall. I giggled at the sight, but then rested at my seat with my bags on standby.

When Tim finally came back from buying his drink, they both elaborated at large for Tim to stop before he arrived at the table, which he eventually stopped at, so I stood up and was about to leave, when somehow I was being convinced that debate would not be next week so I would still be able to do a make-up lesson next week, theus I could just stay a litle longer for today.

To cut the story shorter, we found out a few minutes later that the debate was going to next week. And thankfully, the guys were leaving at around this time, so I didn't look like I was leaving on my own accord. Took the same ol' bus route back home with Kirby and rushed up to the house to get my tution homework and get changed and get some change (to pay for the tickets I bought from Roxanne) and to eat a little (I was apparently hungry still).

I walked my way through the condominium to Auntie Kamhar's appartment and rung the doorbell. Auntie Kamhar answered the door, and I explained to her the situation and what I was doing at her front door when I was suppose to be somewhere at school finishing off a point-of-information rebutt. She somewhat understood me, and told me that if I had any questions I'd like her to explain to me, I could use the next 1 1/2 hours to study with her and take it as our lesson for this week.

Thankful for her generosity, I come into her house and sat at the living room, asking her a few concepts about quardratic equations I felt I needed explaination on. I also got to ask her about complex numbers! (Haha, looks likes I've got multi-sources too!) Once done with a whole lot of well-worth clarifications here and there, I said goodbye and went to Rox's house to pay her the $30 for my/Shil's(Noel's)/JohnLim's tickets, then headed back home for this.

Once back, I listened to a sermon about Fresh Starts, and it was about the book of Ruth and how it explains about Fresh Starts. This sermon was really good, so I think I'll share about it A.S.A.P I find a good and sub-empty post to blog into.

Well, now I've got some work to do, and a few songs to transfer into my MP3 [once again, thans Tim :)] Zephaniah 3:15b!!! God bless y'all!!!!