Sleep Walk Home

Ogl camp...was...well...a little messy...but necessary. Good that we had the opportunity to work out kinks in the program and get familiarized with our own roles...Medicamp won't be easy to pull off. Hope the freshmen will really have a good time and get to know lots of their batch mates..and well...us too. Ok I think Im just kinda lazy to talk about the ogl camp now. Haha. Well, it was a waste that so many people didnt come and even more left halfway here and there. Only 30 of us stayed overnight at Aloha....there were 4 rooms! I guess the good thing was that there were enough beds in the end. Haha.

We had a grand plan to go to sentosa after ogl camp at aloha...but a sudden turn of events at supper at downtown east macs changed all that. Everyone was suddenly geared towards watching the Man of Steel. And so, plans came tumbling down...calls were made...And..the movie sucked. I fell asleep so many times, bet I missed most of the good bits. Then again, maybe its better missing it all. Shan't comment much more for fear of spoiling the show for others.

Munus games tomorrow. Joining the volleyball team for the first time! Hope we don't just lose straight out. May it be a good enjoyable game.

Like we won the World Cup

Last night's beach theme party at Zouk marked the end of Singapore's first ever Open Category Water Polo Competition..open to foreign teams that is. The Hong Kong state team, Royal Thai Navy and Kuala Lumpur state team came down to join in the games. I had a grand total of 3 trainings before the competition; Once with the team, composed of players from nus,ntu and smu. Im not sure what the rest wanted, but I didnt really expect to achieve anything. I mean, 1 training as a team. So there.

Day One, we played Chinese swimming club and Hong Kong. Won the former and lost to the latter. Both matches pretty close. Should've won both though. But as luck would have it...it was strategically sound to lose. Or else we would've met the would-be champions in the quarter-finals and be ousted altogether.

Day Two, met rj in the quarters. Played pretty badly, but we won. Played the would-be champions in the semi's. They beat us 10-1 without even really trying. They even mercifully and purposely missed a few shots. Yes, thats how good they were. All those national players. Well, that loss sent us to the the 3rd-4th placing match. Which was REALLY close.

Our match against SAFSA ought to have been the final. We were so much more entertaining. We drew first blood, only to let them catch up with us. We took the lead again, the score at 2-1, and they returned our goal with one of their own. Well it happened one more time. And it ended at 3-3. It was an electrifying match. There was so much tension in the air. Supporters literally cheering and shouting their hearts out. Both teams so tense, I was so tense. It was also probably the best game we played.

Well, we had a penalty shoot-out to decide the outcome. It seemed like a whole match by itself. Being goalkeeper and bearing the brunt of the opponents assault was nerve-wracking, heart rending, it was just scary. We'd fought so hard to be there. To cut the story short, both us goalies each saved a shot,and one shooter from each team missed. So that left us equal again. Sudden death penalty shoot-out this time. Their first shooter missed, ours didnt. And so it ended. We felt like we'd won it all. Like it was the fight for 1st place. Like we'd conquered the world. Perhaps, in our hearts, we did. Anyway, zouk was dead boring. Dinner was bad. The prizes sucked. Wth right. What nonsense. Haha.

A Very Happy Combined Uni Team

Supper-seeking Cycling

My biological clock is screwed! I just woke up at 2am. Man. Havent really recovered from night cycling yesterday. Got back home from east coast at 930am...slept 2 hours. Went out AGAIN. It was madness. Watched Scary movie 4, which was better than the 3rd installment. Came home at 530, and I wasnt really sleepy at all. Slept an hour till dinner. Read for 2 hours before falling asleep at 1040, and voila, something woke me up at 2. Ok, that kinda just came out in a big mess. Im still sleepy.


Anyway, on to more interesting things. Night Cycling yesterday! It was a mad rush for me even before it began! Had cell group at 8. Fetched my sister at the airport at 10. Got dropped off at East Coast by 1045 to meet the rest of the gang...Eugene,zj,aileen,rous and ian were already there. Fortunately, I wasnt the latest and we waited awhile for Raymond.. We were beset by problems even before setting off... The last bike, eg Raymond's, had this recurring problem with its stupid chain. It kept coming out. Indeed. Fortunate of me to reach ecp before he did. Haha. Well, after an episode of broom therapy, the chain seemed to work fine.

In the middle of nowhere.

We started off at bout 1115...first stop...changi village. Getting there took us SO long. 1 and a half hours or so! And...I shall always remember...Angry bus drivers and middle fingers. Not a good match. By the time we got there, we were hardly interested in the trannies. We just went straight for the desert stall to quench our thirst..After a bowl each, we went to check out what else changi village had to offer. Not trannies mind you, Food. Well, the fish head curry place zj suggested going to eluded us. And so we cycled down our next long road...Loyang Ave this time...headed for Bedok. Block 85.

In front, everyone pretending not to be tired.
You can just make out block 85 in the background.

Getting there is another story by itself. We took so many wrong turns and ended up taking a gigantic loop...and ANOTHER hour and a half before we arrived. We were all so happy to be there. We'd just cycled up and down 1 or 2 pretty lengthy up-and-downslopes...so you can imagine how tiring that was. Block 85, land of beef ball/ba chor mee. Xue Ying's personal recommendation, he was suppering too. Good food, good sugarcane with lemon to wash it all down. Good company. Painful butts from bikes with lousy suspension and cycling on the pavement.

Loved the beefballs.

Ray and Zj not looking like themselves.

Next stop..and also our final stop because we took so long just getting anywhere, was Geylang. It was a much faster trip this time. And an easier route, other than that one long upslope. In just under 45 minutes, after negotiating haphazard traffic with cars trying to park at road sides and cars turning into lorong whatevers..we made it to that famous tao hui and yu tiao place at Lorong 9. Pity the beef kway teow closed at 330. We'd just missed it. We were kinda at a loss of where to go after that, so, to placate eugene and raymond, we decided to cross the road to let them watch Argentina and Holland (0-0) and have some stingray, which was disappointing.

Deciding where to go.

Famous tao hui!

Lousy stingray and 2 happy posers.

After all that, dark clouds and impending rain kinda coerced us into deciding to head back. It was a race against time. We felt the first droplets of rain even as we were cycling down towards fort road. Such appropriate timing. Well, we made it back to macdonalds unscathed. And in 15 minutes too. Pretty damn fast. By then..it was 445. Time didnt seem to slow down then even as we talked the morning away, awaiting our rental bike return time. We passed the time photowhoring and talking nonsense. Pity the arcade/bowling alley was closed. We wanted to scare rous by forcing her to play house of the dead. Haha.

No bikes allowed.

Zj superstar. Haha.

No! No House of the Dead!

Well, after a macbreakfast, it was soon time to return our bikes and return home. We were taking turns to doze off in front of each other by then. Wet roads and laziness kept us from going down to Bedok Jetty to watch the sunrise. Pity. The journey home was...well..long..and sleepy. I didnt sleep a wink in 36 tho. Just wasn't tired that way. Well, thanks everyone! I had a great time! Do it again soon! Faster, harder, visit other places, more food, more fun! Heck, i took a long time doing this.

Rollerblading, Hanging Out and a Polo Game.

I was kinda lazy to blog yesterday. And not in the best of moods. So here goes. Met rous, aileen, zhenjin and eugene for rollerblading! They wanted to go at an unearthly hour. Ok not that unearthly, but its the holidays man. 1030 at ecp. Thank God for the rain which delayed that timing, haha, and so we met at PS at 1115. It was still raining, so we just munched on my first-ever baked cheesecake (A lotta first times this holiday I realize) and drank milk tea from mos burger. We kinda wondered why the cheesecake was green, yes i wondered too. But apparently its because of the jelly crystals which I put in, which are green. Haha. Anyway, i think it was alright....Right, guys? Be encouraging. Haha.



It was still raining so we decided to lunch before heading to east coast. Eugene joined us by then and we ate at the foodcourt. Next time, Ill order the grilled chicken at that indo bbq place. By then, it was time to head to ECP, we ended up blading till 515....met zhihan and yansheng along the way, it was quite amusing tho. I must say Aileen's a really fast learner! Considering she'd only bladed her first time the day before. We were doing stupid things like playing pass-the-water-bottle..which was fun....and ended up in rous crashing into a boy on a bike. Dinner was back at Dhoby ghaut..Meridien foodcourt to be precise. What happened next was what made yesterday so amusing. We dota-ed.

Look at rous' cheeky smile, she's probably trying to backstab me when im teaching Aileen.

It was SO funny. I tried to teach Aileen, but Eugene and Rous happily preyed on her, well at least for awhile. I half couldn't believe we were actually playing it. And it lasted 1 hour 48mins! Undoubtedly the longest dota game ive EVER ever played. We were all maxed out at level 25...had crazy items...haha..it took so long, but my team finally lost. Oh well. It was funny. Eugene and rous kept gang-banging me, and MY teammates would happily run. Haha. I shan't mention names. Then again, there were only 5 of us, so you can probably guess who. Hahaha. We were tempted to watch a movie after that..but the lack of a car to go home kinda dissuaded us. And so that was the end of our day long outing.

Today, our combined uni team had a friendly match against Great White Aquaticus (some club), I wasnt sure who was playing for them, but when I saw who i saw walking into the pool, I just knew we were gonna get whooped. I kept wondering why they bothered asking to play a friendly with us. Reminded me of that 'warm up/test' match in the longest yard. To make matters worst, some of my team members werent gonna show up, that left us with just 1 or no subs. We had to ask other people to play for us. Well, we got whooped. But at least I got to train a little more before the competition this friday/saturday. Ok. Long blog entry. Woo boy.

Being wonky at Cathay's Starbucks

Numero Uno

My first gig ever! Outside of church and other Christian events that is. It all happened so quickly, except for when I was waiting for the cab to rush to my Dad's Father's Day dinner. It all started one thursday night at 2am(Or rather, friday morning). A message from a stranger, claiming to be a friend of a friend (Kenneth), asking if I could drum for her gig on Sunday. That one message seemed to brighten and darken my day at the same time. It would be a chance to play different genres...meet new musicians...make friends...Would it renew my passion for drumming? But, would I be good enough? Was there enough time to put our act together? What would the gig be like? The setting? The people? Everything.

After a quick exchange of smses, I was quite entranced by the whole idea. So, I agreed. And then came two days of rehearsals. 5-6 hours in all. Hardly enough...but we had a great time jamming nonetheless! In fact, jamming was probably more fulfilling than the gig itself. When we reached Fort Canning, our set time got delayed and we had to watch other bands perform. I must say some of the bands were quite discouraging coz they just seemed so good. Well, we were a 2 day old band if you think about it. Anyway, we did the gig and that was that. There wasnt much of an audience. We were the last band playing. And I couldnt see anything off the stage thanks to the shining stage lights. The weather sucked too. Sticky humid Singapore weather.

Even though we didnt play as well as we should have...I still kinda feel like we succeeded in our own little way. We came together not knowing any of the songs(ALL original compositions by the way), not knowing each other, not knowing what to expect(well, at least me) and we still pulled it off reasonably. Haha. Now it seems like the door to the music scene has just opened a little wider for me. I wonder. And I doubt. Wish I took pictures to remember it all. Thanks to Claire, Leanne, Fadhly, Jase and Kenneth!

A Close Shave in Geylang

Ok, before anyone gets the wrong idea. Its not THAT kind of close shave. Although we were pretty close to the heart of it all. But hey, I'm a decent guy. Really. So there we were, most of us full of good food, some of us tired and without any appetite (Ok, maybe just me). We were done for the night, getting ready to go home. After a quick check of how everybody was gonna go their own way...we kinda all decided to pack into my Honda City. All 7 of us. Haha. A Honda City's pretty small.

And then it happened. I turned out of Lorong 9 onto Sims avenue. I wasnt going really quick either. And you know how Geylang is, everyone walking all over the place like they own the road, left and right-most lanes taken up by parked/waiting cars, just bad and busy traffic in general. There was this one jaywalker who really caught our attention. Especially since he was right in my path.

An old man, unfortunately, was trying to cross the road, oblivious to his surroundings, or so it seemed, and especially unaware of oncoming traffic. Or at least, he didnt seem to be aware of us. I was almost filtering left when he stepped right in front of me, about 20m down the road. Better warn him I thought, and I did. His response? He just stopped right there, right in front of me, stunned, shocked, or maybe like nothing happened.

My response to that? I swerved. Right. Thankfully, there were no cars beside mine. I missed him by an inch maybe? Probably a little more. Ok, I had a more elaborate response than that, but its not really nice. So, the car was filled with screams and loosed sympathetic stimulation. Surprisingly, I felt pretty calm. And seriously, even if he's old, he should be aware, especially since hes taking a risk.

Sometimes, I really can't stand senior citizens who expect everyone else to give way to them. Giving them way(in general) is a privilege. Privileges shouldn't be taken for granted. Hope I remember that myself next time.

Utter disappointment.

WHAT THE HELL. I'm so ashamed of myself. I havent run this slow since primary school I bet. Shit. How did I let myself fall so far. No training. Only mugging. Only playing. And there's no more time. A grand way to sum up an already shitty day.

Hon's Bro's Wedding!

Once again, congratulations to Hon Liang and Olivia! Too bad I didnt get to talk to the lovely couple at all...(Other than congratulating Hon's bro) Haha. Aileen, Rou an and I kept wondering when they'd call "Honlyn's medschool friends" to take pictures with the bridal couple. Haha! Alas, that privilege was not ours to take, so we had to settle for the food awaiting us below. And damn I was right, the chocolate eclairs were the first to disappear. All the skeptics. Hah. I bet its some kind of unsaid rule at Singaporean weddings, the best dessert just vanishes once the masses are unleashed.

Well, chocolate eclairs or not, the rest of the spread was pretty good! There was mango pudding...oreo cheesecake...custard/cream puffs...chicken drumlets...etc etc. I didnt wanna eat too much though, had to make up for the lack of photo-whores (Bean and Joachim!) with us. So I was replacement camera-man for today. Hope I did you guys proud. Something else worthy of mentioning: How often do we see Ms Tan Honlyn in a dress? She does look good doesnt she? Haha.

The 1st attempt at photowhoring.

Walking down the aisle.

The Bridal Couple and Band (Who just happened to be my church friends)

Looking on.

Oops, its a little dark.

Us, 3rd row from the front.

Val & Hon being naughty. Tsk.

The girls of 4/12 (Right?)

Finally, the Bridal Couple's photo with Honlyn's medschool friends.

A Fleeting Fitness

Actually, maybe my fitness is just plain gone. Even Eugene's sister says I look flabby. Wah lau. Pushed myself to run today. Told myself I HAD to do it under 20 minutes. 18 maybe. Started off fast...and slowed down as I went. Kept slowing. Especially at the upslopes..and I couldnt stop myself. My lungs burned, it felt like my heart dropped into my gut, the point lateral left of my umbilicus hurt (which was funny, if it was on the right, maybe it'd have been appendicitis, haha, ok a bit lame.)

It was PURE torture. It felt like I'd gotten back faster than the past few times, but maybe coz I'm getting more familiar with the route. I even felt a bit sleepy at some points, I was so drained. Well, to my dismay, I got back home in 20:07!!!!!! WTF. 8 seconds too late. I was so tired that I lumbered/waddled up and down the road outside my house for so long..Which was kinda a blessing in disguise actually. Happenstance forced me to talk to this nice old lady who's my neighbour...in Chinese! For a full 10-15 minutes man. All of you out there laughing at my Chinese, better be proud. Haha. In fact, she told me she knew someone who's daughter just finished 1st year medicine too. How coincidental. I wonder who. Haha.

Scandal-whores

Joachim Xavier Yau Wenkien and Eugene Chan Wei Tat. Tsk. Such rumour-spreading, impersonating, scandal-whores! Well, i suppose thats what guys might resort to when they're subject to a 2 hour talk about cosmestics. All for The Freshmen. Such noble sacrifice for our juniors. Haha. But seriously, it was boring. Most of it was. I only perked up a little when they talked about anything remotely related to bio.

Other than that, it was WAY out of my capacity to appreciate..I mean..most girls i know don't really wear that much make-up either. Haha. So I don't suppose there's any reason for me to be more metrosexual and learn about make-up anyway. Part of the reason I listened to the Shiseido lady was because I felt bad for her. Sometimes we really dont acknowledge our lecturers..but she kept her composure all through-out.

After that, there was still more to sit through...several more presentations from the programs com bout medicamp and stuff. We were asked to vote for a t-shirt design..some were pretty good. But a little too cutesy for my taste. I did voice my opinion bout one of 'em. Can't imagine wearing it for the camp. Well, once we had our freedom, we went to town for lunch. Jack's Place at Crown Prince Hotel. The drive there was pretty amusing, what with revving our engines, over-taking and pretend-racing with each other.

Jack's Place was budget though, reminded me why I havent eaten there in a long time. It'll be awhile before I go there again if I can help it. The drive back was even more exciting, bordering on dangerous even. Haha. Weaving in and out of traffic. Coz Hon was in a rush to tutor Emily's brother....tried my best to get her there fast. Haha. Rou an was a continual source of commentary. She was both amused and amusing. And Im just tired. Sick and tired. I seem to be the most susceptible to sickness in my family, and I'm going to be the doctor. The irony.

Time to put in a few Sentosa Photos....

Our Grand 'Glans' Castle. Haha!

Me being Extra.

Post Wedding Blues

Spent half the day today in bed. A pretty rare occurrence for me. Don't usually take afternoon naps, but I decided that I needed to catch up on some sleep..After all the recent late nights and early mornings...well..not THAT many early mornings. Haha. My sleep cycle's gone mad, I almost always eat only 2 meals a day now. I doubt what I have for breakfast counts as brunch either. And sometimes I have noodles for supper at 3 in the morning. Crazy.

Went for a fellow Guard's officers wedding today....at Marina Mandarin. Parking was a bitch man, it was a warzone out there. Good thing traffic wasnt too bad. I managed to find a spot after circling around for some time...thanks to all the PC-show attendees. Only thing was, I parked at Carrefour. It was a 10-15 minute walk to Marina Mandarin and I was running late. Fortunately, Chinese weddings always start an hour after the stipulated time.

Well, I was hoping to meet some of my old friends, but it turned out that they werent coming. That left me with the ex-OCs (my superiors) and just a few of the ex-PCs (my equals)...which was boring man. I just ate and ate. Small talk died down after a while. And it didnt help that a certain ex-OC thinks he knows everything. Annoying. Well, I barely spoke to the groom, gave him an ang pow which burned a sizeable hole in my wallet, ate his food, sat around a while and left immediately after the wedding ended. So much for meeting old friends.

So much for hoping. Li reminded me bout that. Anticipation sucks. Well. Maybe it does. But it's the only thing that keeps us going sometimes isnt it? We all need something to look forward to. I know I do.

Take Time

Take time to think, it is the source of power.
Take time to read, it is the foundation of wisdom.
Take time to play, it is the secret of staying young.
Take time to be quiet, it is the opportunity to seek God
Take time to be aware, it is the opportunity to help others.
Take time to love and be loved, it is God's greatest gift.
Take time to laugh, it is the music of the soul.
Take time to be friendly, it is the road to happiness.
Take time to dream, it is what the future is made of.
Take time to pray, it is the greatest power on earth.

Supper with the Easties

Felt a little lazy to blog yesterday. I think its understandable, since I got back at about 350am. Haha. What started as supper at Geylang turned into a little drive about to the east, specifically old CGH...which happens to be very dark..and well...scary if youre alone I suppose. Drove down to Lorong 9 to meet some of the easties for beef kway teow and frog leg porridge. I wasn't too hungry though, I'd just come from a japanese barbecue, and it was excellent.

During the course of supper, Darryl had this 'brilliant' idea to pay a visit to old CGH, the whole idea sparked from our conversation about orientation and fright night. So, Darryl wanted to convince everyone how scary old CGH truly is. Hon, Kailyn and Valerie were coming down from Mambo, so they were unwitting participants in his grand plan. Instead of being greeted by bowls of beef kway teow and tao huay, they met us on the road, next to Tanah Merah MRT, it was too late to back out. Haha. I just decided to follow.

Well, our old CGH experience was short-lived and boring. There were just too many of us and we were talking normally. So I think we might have scared any ghosts away anyway. After that, we drove on to Changi Village for some dessert. Come to think of it, the whole night was pretty much engineered by Darryl. Everything was his idea. Even the drive around Changi Village to check out what 'they' had to offer. Had '5-star' dessert, which wasnt bad (another of Darryl's recommendations). And we just sat around to talk...which was good. Well that's it, so bleah, just spewing out what I did.