The last day of 2008. Excited? 22hrs to 2009, skeptical or cant wait to jump off ur bed in screams?
Well, 2008 had been one hell of a year of many firsts. - Organising & managing a FO Camp of 200. - Experiencing wad is coined as flashflood & being trapped - Going Bangkok with friends. - Completing my First marathon - Kayaking ard Singapore. _ & many more..
Hopefully 2009 would be somewhat sweeter & more lovely.. yeah?
Back to now, got back 2 paper's exam results OOP was ok, but definitely can do better. MCT was quite bad i felt, loads of careless mistakes everywhere!!
Ahh shit this week feels like holiday so much. Wonder if i shd go for tml's one hr lecture with withaya.. scarli go there its a waste of time once agn..
Anw, i wld be spending countdown as wished, "over-seas". Would be gg over to sisters island tml night, pray hard that the telecoms network dun jam so i can get my wishes out, & yes i'm looking fwd to watching the fireworks while marooned on an island.. =)
i've an urge for steamboat too, maybe a little drinking too. err guys lets not spoil sport. heh
~As promised. Many thanks to Dear friends & relatives that have expressed their wishes & presents ; Also the GREAT company!
The National Museum is quite a fun place to be. Its like a sponge of knowledge waiting for u to absorb..
Boy man, a picture tells a thousand words.. Saw tis photography exhibition by a famous photographer, it depicted a story abt Taiwanese men going to Vietnam to find wives.. It's like a package tour for the men, going into this room & having the women stand in front of them like a firing squad. After making his choice the women is then brought to get visas, wedding pics, post-nuptial ceremonies.. After that, its hoping back onto a plane with a seat for two. Its quite sad for the women, whom are arranged by brokers, to be leaving her hometown in the tow of a man she doesnt even know exist a week ago.. Money seems to be the deciding vote for things aint it..
Pride & Glory is a good movie to catch. Truth Loyalty vs Lies Betrayal.. =)
Sch's starting in 2days. Pahh, there's still so much to do. I dun recall touching the pbil assignements too. Deng! Looks like hair-tearing months ahead! FOC, SIKE, exams... & yea exams, the cursed word..
D'oh! since everyone's in the jolly mood, here's a vid i find particularly cute.. Bon appetit. (read the subtitles)
It had been one rainy, chilly xmas, which is gd as it compliments myself indulging in fine wine over the last few days. Many thanks to those who have given me presents!; i must remind myself of being guilty of taking w/o returning one, i would be on the lookout for it.. =)
I had my fun of gatherings , food searches too. First gathering was on the 23rd over at sherwin's place.. pizza, cards, etc, though i believe we were overwhelmed with the little nonya show rather than cards.. hehs. Aft Cristal's grp left, me sherwin derrick went over to xin wang for yuan-yang.. hahas, & i ordered the peanut butter toast which proved a fatal combo as i made the toilet runs.. Anw, xin wang had quite a cosy ambience to spend the night, spongy sofas, overhead lights..
Xmas eve spent the morning sleeping before meeting with the guys in the evening agn. Went over to tanjong pagar in search of nonya food following the hunch from a foodies website. At last we found the place but it was too much for our tiny pockets to afford.. Took a bus over to clarke quay & settled for tis cosy place selling fish & chips.. The food there was great & they had all sorts of diff fish u can choose to go inside ur F & C.. =D Aft dinner when searching for desserts agn, which ultimately leads us to kovan but the xin wang was full house so macdonald icecream cone.. lol.. Spent the night over at derrick's hse, with a bottle of wine that we bought..
Today was another lazy day, had dinner over at gramps place, quite sumptuous lahh.. & as usual we drank agn.. hahahas festive of joy aye..
I'm back from my Round Island Kayaking Trip. it was tiring but reali lots of fun, learning & eye opener. Now its left with charred lips & sun burns.. =)
Day1 woke up at 4, to have mac breakfast & prepare for launch. we launch at 0630 & its pretty cool to jus be out on the sea so early, everything is jus so serene, no waves no boats. made reali good times & was ahead of planned time thru the day. we pitched up on this barren piece of land somewhere in tuas to lunch.. feels lik as though we were shipwrecked victims.. i dun even noe places like this still exist in space cramped singapore. Aft lunch was abit demoralising as we could alr see our end point [2nd link bridge] in the far distance, but the time jus tick by so slowly, the barren land & calm seas.
Arrived Raffles Marina, pitch up & slacked til the lorry came to pick up our kayaks to sembawang park.. & boy the winds over at sembawang was Holy ****! Dinner & sentry for the night.
Day2. was my boat duty day & paired up with chee liang in the lead boat. we cast off frm sembwang park & aimed for changi beach, the starting part was rather hard to see we were moving east towards the rising sun. Arrival at changi beach was slightly off target as everyone battled against the currents. The seas near ubin & changi was choppy & waves jus hit from all sides. Lunch was sumptuous chicken rice, & off we go agn trying to catch up to the schedule. The sea continued to be choppy & i did battle with slight sea sickness. Lucky the tables were turned & the current changed in our favour. Neared Changi Naval Base & i was amazed by the sheer size of her docking bays, we had to keep way out from the area. Continued up the coast & ECP was in sight, our campsite for the night. I guess it was human psychology cus when we saw our destination in sight, the pace jus fell below the usual. At last we arrived, & the boats had to anchored to the sea as there was nowhere we can berth. Dinner at BK & snoozed into luxurious hammock for the night. ECP was more comfy than sembwang as there werent high winds
Day3. Woke at 5, & had mac for breakfast for breakfast agn. I was excited abt the day as we kayaking by the Singapore city center. I partnered with Michelle on a double. Hugging the coastline, passing the flyer & CBD; we arrived at west keppel fairway, the busy passageway to Singapore port. had to halt & let ships pass before we can proceed. Aft that we reached sentosa & stop for sea-lunch somewhere outside siloso beach. hahas. lucky there wasnt any strong cross currents as we continued smooth paddling towards PM; roughly u'll noe where it is alr. Had to dodge a moving contained vessel enroute, from the kayak looking up to her bow, she's huge man, shd be at least 8 stories high from the sea level i supposed.
After much, we arrived back at PM safely, which marks the end of our trip. It was a memorable trip & also the FIRST ever trip we had (current batch of us) that didnt rained anybit.. Yeah! Boat washing was done fast & we had lotsa time to slack, most of all that went were alumnis lah, so pretty much everyone know wad to do & how to do.
Photo-taking, packup, dinner @west coast plaza, knockout at home sweet home.
Yeah! will upload photos aft i get them from ppl with the cams. whoow
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all... /12:48
Well, I'm leaving for my round island kayaking trip tonite.. Looking fwd to seeing raffles marina & crossing the causeway.. yeah! wont be back til sun..
Hopefully somebody brought a camera to take pictures man.. [Den send to me! heh]
lets end tis post with a meaningful quote..
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience of it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure, Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.. " Helen Keller
A week left for this break. & I'm feeling rather unfruitful abt it right now.
Wont be home for Fri - Sun, out for round island kayaking. Well, here we go again for another 3 days.. Mixed feelings about it, more of a bad than good. Pray hard that there is no bad weather on sea, & pls do not let me lose my specs or some shit nonsense happen to me again. [i aint bringing my camera on tis one]
i hope not to see more thrills added to the duo's dictionary that had plagued me ever since..
Other stuff is that i got my laptop back. good to see it back working. Fish & Co still owes me my pay. Damn it! & I've got a few movies in mind that i feel obliged to watch: twilight, Australia, Bolt?
It was a race to remember. SCSM 2008, my 1st marathon finish.
~ The time was 0530, everyone had gathered at the esplanade bridge. The five of us were like held up at the end of near the esplanade side with lotsa more behind us, thats 15'000 ppl in total. We didnt even hear the gun off, n the onli indication was that ppl in front of us started moving fwd. & yea, by time we passed the gun off mat, passed the defunct clifford quay, the safety car was alr on the return on the other side of the road with a grp of trailing kenyan runners.. damn, they were fast! - thats probably the last time i wld have seen them on the course..
Started off on a slow steady pace, feeling very "hum-ji" as the fear of energy exhaustion played on the mind. First 22km or so was fine which was up til ard the sailing center at ECP. Aft that U-turn, was the time i got the 1st indication of the villian "cramp".. After that, slowly u get the fatigue & hunger strike kick in.. I had to turn to drafting ppl lik mad to get my mind to focus on the road ahead, which was a gd move to draw me frm slowing down.. Energy gel was my best fren too, as it was onli after we exited ECP ard 30+km den got bananas, which was reali tasty & delicious..
As it was outta the park, we were running on the roads.. The morning sun was out in force by then, plus the many U-turns we had to make, it wasnt a stroll in the park. By the 34th km or so, most of the ppl were alr slowing down to walking speed, & i too hadto slow down to recuperate those soaring muscle tensions.. Frm then on, it was Kilometre by kilometre, gritting those soar n aiming for the finish line. There was a treat for the eye when we passed the pit area of the F1 track, there's a Ferrari car exhibition n u jus hadta stop n look frm the antiques to the modern series. =) Seeing the 41km route marker = 1 thing, chiong & run! FINISHED! 5:36 was the gun finish.. =D never felt better to cross the red carpet.
As usual, there are the up & downs.. Today's CTA paper was particularly demoralizing, i freaking mind block 4 a loong while before i even ans the questions, & boy i aint even sure wad i did was even the right thing in the 1st place.. omfg! hais, the paper i spent the most time revising turned out to be the worst. Others were ok, w/o exception of MCT & maths, i think got mistakes here & there. =( ~pls let me do well..
1 More day to 42.195km.. ~hadnt been training much, so i m jus going with the flow..
3 weeks vacation start lik now, & i dun reali have much plans or wad to do.. I do have this urge to go overseas say phuket or batam for a short getaway though, eat seafood, chill.. but with a almost dry well in my pants, i much less restricted..
its december 2008 alr. a year gone.. wad are the things u did thus far? - no idea aye.
~As promised.
~Lovely.. 
It was a race to remember.
=D never felt better to cross the red carpet.
MST S2's done.