Oh Shit, Its Friday!

Alas, the end is here. Two more days of freedom..imagined freedom till chaos is unleashed once again. Alright, so it ain't that bad...but it's back to 8 to 4/5 ++ days...more brain-numbing lectures...dead-boring prac sessions...etc etc.. Oh well, at least we've got each other.


Tried wakeboarding for the first time today with Zj, Chris Li, Hazel and Ian! It was quite a good experience for us 3 newbies (Hazel, Ian and myself) We all managed to stand up fairly quickly and soon progressed to wake-crossing.Too bad our progress stopped there..tried to do a few jumps..only to wipe out in an unglam fashion, face/butt first.But it was all GOOD! Only problem with it is the price and the wait till its your turn..and oh yes..sore hands at the end of it all. Nothing else is aching yet. I think I'd still enjoy cable skiing after this, its a cheaper alternative...and though you're restricted to going around in circles in a lagoon/over-sized pond, there're still tricks to learn and stuff you can do thaty you can't in wakeboarding.


It took a while though..we were only done at 230 plus...and we were ravenous by then, a good lunch location was the prime topic of discussion for the last hour or so while we were still on the powerboat. We made our way down to Kenny Rogers at Great World (My 3rd time in 2 weeks! Crazy.) where we were somewhat disappointed with price hikes and downsized chicken. Oh well, wasn't any different from the last 2 times I went, but it was disappointing nonetheless. I still think they have the best mac and cheese around. Oh, fyi, San Remo instant mac and cheese is good too. You'll need a cup of milk and 1-2? table spoons of butter for each packet of it.

After lunch, I headed down to Orchard to kill time before fetching dad from the office. Met Aileen at Far East where we were stopped...and where I probably said the dumbest thing I ever have. EVER. Argh. I'd have given it more thought if only I'd seen the camera. Here's a re-enactment:

Random Girl 1: Hi, can I get to you to answer a short survey for seventeen magazine?
Me: (Looks at Aileen) Er. Sure.
Aileen: They're asking you only la.
Random Girl 1: Ok. Whats the BEST gift you've ever received from your mom?
Me: Whoa, er...(thinks hard)
Random Girl 2: -whispers in girl 1's ear-
RG1: Oh, whats the BEST gift you've ever received from a female? your mom, or gf?
Me: (After some thought) Shit, I don't know. Er...I've got a mental block. I suppose...something that means something to me. <-----ARGH. RG1: (writes THAT down, regrettably)
RG3: (Steps from behind RG1, holding camera)
Aileen: (Bursts out laughing) They're gonna take your picture! Good luck.
Me: Oh shit.
RG3: Alright..just look cool..(Proceeds to snap a few shots).. thats right..good..thanks.

After which, I escape with Aileen. And she berates me. "You're gonna be featured in Seventeen!" , she quips. And I'm like..."Oh shit, that was hell-retarded of me. I sound like a moron." Aileen: "Quick, go back and give them a different answer!". Me: "Ah..wth..screw it."

Damn, was that dumb..or was that dumb.

Happy Birthday Baos!

A Tribute to Our Beloved Vegetarian/Genius Baos!

Turkey..

________________________________

Medicamp 06

Maria, Pattupong and their Mum!

Poor Pattupong, scorned by Mum.

Dnd.

Botak Jones and VERY Full Bellies.

Today, we paid a visit to Botak Jones, authentic american food, damn good food at damn good price. Well, it was pretty damn good! Considering it was situated somewhere in Clementi in a Kopitiam. You wouldnt expect much from your average western food stall in a hawker centre. But, this was different. The portions were big...the meat was good..ah the meat...the fries...seasoned with...er.. some stuff in addition to salt.

Alright, maybe it was a little pricey compared to standard hawker fare..but youve gotta admit, it's a rung above normal standards ..Also...what made it better for me..was the fact that everyone else couldnt finish their food. Haha. So I got to try a bit of most of what everyone else ordered. I had THE swanky franky/wanky by the way. Its a mother big hot dog, which you can still eat without having to cut up, with some difficulty i might add. Ok, so I took off the onions, that made it easier. And it was a little unglam trying to stuff the whole thing into my mouth.

After helping some of the rest finish their food, I could feel my stomach pressing against my diaphragm, but not to the extent where I couldnt walk straight. No good to overeat... but it was good stuff. Haha. I couldnt even eat much for dinner. Haha.

Back on track.

Woke up today to a cold morning...and to the sound of raindrops falling against my windows...Which almost made me happy coz it meant that I had an excuse not to run in school. But there was still the chance that the skies over school were nice and clear..and good for a morning of exercise. So I dumped my shoebag in the back..drove my dad and bro to work...and made my way to the src. After an errand, I still didnt feel like engaging in any activity. I'm just not a morning person. Mornings are meant to be spent in bed. Or at the breakfast table.

So, thank you, Aileen, for convincing me to run and not be a lazy slob, coz I hadn't run since last tuesday..which is pretty long if Im trying to be consistent with my training... So I compromised. Instead of going for a 40min run on grass...I decided to give the ol' 2.4 a shot. It IS, after all, what I'm training for ultimately. And also, 2.4 takes a lot less than 40 mins to do. So, why not?

Stretched. Did two slow laps to warm up. Apprehensively approached the start line. Placed my hand on the start button of my watch. And then I was off. It occured to me how I'd forgotten what a 2.4 pace ought to be. But I went on, it WAS a trial of sorts. Did the first lap in 1.20. Not a bad start, but only not bad if i could keep it up. Wanted to keep the pace at 1.30 a lap. There was always this fear that made me hesitate whenever i wanted to check my watch. But I did anyway.

I probably started to slow down on lap 5. Thats when my lungs started to burn more...my strides started to shorten..footfalls got heavier...Soon enough, I was running the 6th and final lap. Forced myself to open up...had to finish it well. I crossed the finish line, stopped the timer on my watch. And I half couldnt believe my eyes. I did 2.4 in 9.09 mins. Thats like....redemption from my 11 mins or so a few months back. I'd met my objective. All the runs had paid off. So..thanks are in order. In no particular order, to running buddies/mentors...Suriya, Aileen, Kok, Quan Yao and Hon( though it was only for 1 round around the field). Haha. I'm a happy man today.

Our Paths in Time.

Just a little something I saw quite awhile back. Apparently, its pretty accurate! Courtesy of Peng...and of course...whoever made it.

A Week-Long Hiatus

Time certainly flies. One day you start school..and the next thing you know you're struggling to keep up with lectures..(ok thats if you forget about sleeping thru all the lectures) and then you already feel like the pros are at the end of the month coz people are holing themselves up in the library to mug till it closes..only to be chased home, to mug somemore....and then suddenly its the end of HALF a sem! A QUARTER of the school year has passed. wth. That can't be true. Someone correct me if im wrong please. 6 weeks have passed. Seems so fast. I'm still ignoring some tracks. And thats what this week is for. If only it were that easy to achieve some sorta balance.

Super People!

Yesterday, we celebrated the beginning of our hols..or study break if you want to call it that. It's been too long since we've really gone out without the intention to go back early to mug. Or without thoughts of mugging lingering in the backs of our minds. Been too long since we just went out to hang out, to chill..and most of all, enjoy each others company...as people..and not just study buddies. Its a disease we all have man, 'work' in the brain, ought to call it encaphaworkalitis. Well, yesterday was a welcome change. Even if all we did was hang around and window shop, but we did bowl! Something relatively new too. And we found out how certain friends of ours (who are probably closet muggers!) probably had 'closet' training too. Tsk tsk, no mercy to the noobs. Ah well. It was fun anyway. We ought to do it again, laughings good for health.

Oooh

Our dethroned/dejected Bra/Bowling King.

Terry Fox and Co.

Counsellors, counsellees, and a few extras.

Sunday Morning! Terry Fox run! (Ok this was almost a week ago) I'd slept 3 hours the night before..foolishly squandering time on msn talking nonsense with everyone er..as foolish as me. Haha. I wasnt really mentally prepared for the run though...was somehow surprised to see so many people going for it too, on the mrt. I don't usually go for these things. It's a start. Anyway, the only thing that sucked, was the rain. It was a double edged sword...kept us cool as we ran..but annoying nonetheless. Met quite a few other meddies there, m1/3s....Thought the turn out was pretty good.

The 9k breezed by pretty fast. We were pretty noisy though..talking among ourselves and keeping quiet only to comment on nice legs and stuff like that. Haha. Most of us got free spray on tattoos after the run. Such a pity that the superman template was spoilt. I settled for something else..which got washed off pretty quickly anyway. We'd planned to stay on in Sentosa to chill out and get a tan..or play a little volleyball..but the weather put a stop to that.

Proud of our textbooks.

Guess who we met?

Lunch was at Seah Im at Harbour Front. After that, us diligent m2s made an attempt to mug. I shan't bother talking about how much was actually done. It'll suffice to say that..some were more successful than others. Our choice of mugging location was Island Creamery at Serene centre..for the ice cream...er...the not bad looking salesgirls...the photos of ourselves that we could put up...Haha. After that, was MORE ice cream at Awfully Chocolate. Can't say I enjoy dark chocolate very much...but it was GOOD. Wish I tried the cakes.

Hei Hei

Our Preppy Night Out

The Preppies. And some others. Haha

Medicine DnD 2006 totally rocked! Kudos to the dancers!! They must be extremely tired and taxed after all thats been demanded of them...what with...rag and flag...dnd...and the rest of the stuff that we did during orientation. It was a job well done..And I must say that I enjoyed myself SO much more than I did last year. I suppose...putting in the effort to dress up did contribute to all the fun that we had...I spent more on clothes than I did on the ticket. And of course, knowing many more people this year helped too. Only thing that went wrong was...both my cameras batteries died! YES, I brought 2 cameras, one to lend to Eugene though. And BOTH had to die. How stupid was that.

Our seemingly 'standard' boys and girls shots.

The Counsellee and her gift to me.

Li!

Anyway, I didnt even bring a camera last year. So, when EVERYONE else was busy photowhoring, I just stupidly sat at my table being bored to death...I didnt really know many people either. Oh well. Learned my lesson this time. Yes, how I disliked Dnd last year. I didnt spend a single cent on the costume. Im glad we dressed up like we did this year! I thought we carried it off pretty decently...too bad there wasnt a prize for 2nd best dressed table...Haha. We might've stood a chance. Oh well.

Rous and Zj having a ball.

MTV - Trying..and not really succeeding..to look solemn.

Well, a great many other things happened during Dnd. Grand appearances of The M1s, One times good one, Band-Aid...and our lovely Li! And yes, lets not forget our music videos...Haha. All thanks to Baos and Zhimin if im not wrong, for pushing us all up there. We realized that 6 out of 8 of us up there were from AC. Haha. Says something doesn't it? Hahaha. I shan't say anymore.

Don't we look preppy.

With our resident bad/top girl.

And who can forget our greatest and biggest activity, it really stole the scene..Haha..photowhoring. I can't believe how trigger happy we were with our cameras! But everyone really did look good in their costumes. I think the M1s were more sporting than we were last year...Or at least more so than me. In fact, I think we were so pre-occupied with photos that we practically forgot to eat. Haha. That was crazy. Then again, I don't think we missed much. Oh well.

Haha, Yinghao looks good, I look non-chalant.

Mojo Jojo lives on!

Snowwhite. They look scary.

Now, all this has faded into memory, there to remain for as long as can be. Hopefully, not overshadowed or overwhelmed...by the many other things that we need to remember. The race has started..4 weeks in...well..not a competitive one...more of an individual race to me...But its gonna be another challeging climb. I hope I'm strong enough...Damn, we're all muggers man. Its destiny. Haha.

Our Canon Ixus-60 ad. Cool.

Return to Tioman

Us on the Boat! Still docked at the yacht club though.

Beautiful, aint it?

Finally! The long-awaited post on our dive trip/advanced open water diver course at Tioman! Haha, as if. Oh well. School just changes things you know. Makes you not wanna blog. Alright, just humour me. I'm bored. This is gonna be long one.

Suited up, everyone was so reluctant to take the photo though.

Aileen and I

With Dom and Rous

We did a live-on-board with Seaborne...it was quite an experience...what with the constant nibbling nausea waiting to overwhelm you...the constant rocking motion,hence the nausea...just being away from land almost the entire time...the toilets we could only use when the boat was in motion(Ok, so we didnt always follow that rule,haha.), the limited space that made us have to climb around the boat....the food...good food at that...the life. The 2 days we spent on that boat made me wonder what it'd be to live a sailors life. Our experience was definitely too cushy in comparison though.

Haha,guess who?

Rou's pretending to put me to sleep

Rou's terrorizing me.

And, Rou's atoning for her sins.

Well, all in all, I was a little disappointed with the dive trip. Felt that visibility was really poor in Tioman..at least compared to Dayang and Aur....a friend of mine told me it'd be like that for a long time to come since Tioman's always undergoing some form of construction..so visibility's never very good. Only thing I saw..that Id never seen before..was a small blue spotted stingray! And this fish I couldnt identify coz it swam away before anyone else saw it. But it was big..and it kinda looked like an angelfish. Ok, I shant make myself sound so noob.

Stupid Rous. Haha

Emo shot, courtesy of Dom.

But I suppose the company made all the difference. We had our fun. The photos speak for themselves. Speaking of photos, no one else brought a camera..that kinda forced me to be the photowhore. Think I pulled it off fairly well. Haha. Live-on-board provided a whole new experience. Not forgetting the nausea. Haha. And of course, the diving, even with poorer visibility, had its appeal in its own way. Can't wait for the next trip. Got basic and advanced now...a leisure trip awaits. The only hurdle in looming in front of me is...moola...and when to go. Alright, thats all folks!

Check out the missile just above my right arm. We were at a live firing area.

AND check out what we saw! A SUB.

All of us.