Fencing Training...

Went for fencing training in the morn with a frission of apprehension. You see, Mark (the not so nice coach) was taking us, instead of David (our usual coach). Thankfully, we were spared the ordeal of PT as Mark made us practise footwork so that we could gain a little preparation for U-17 Indivs. He gave us a talking-to on how he and David had not sent any J1s for Indivs since 2003 (this year, we have people who break tradition again) because if we win a medal (odds 1'000'000 to 1, for me at least =P), we can't participate in Novices.
Did some free fencing and tried my hand at presiding for the first time. Gave up with the hand signals soon after and just indicated who had the point. After the epeeist were done with electric fencing, the sabreurs took over. Had to go to great trouble to procure a sabre jacket as I, in a moment of sheer brilliance, left mine at home. Denise very kindly lent me hers and thus saved the day! Watched Darren and Reub fence; quite evenly matched the 2 of them. Fenced with all the guys and got a score of 4-10 against each of them. At least there's a measure of consistency there :P. It's so different when you're up on the piste fencing as compared to mindlessly executing drills. The element of unpredictability certainly threw a spanner in the works for the moves I intended to carry out.
In the end, I stopped consciously attempting to carry out feints and parries (they don't ever seem to work :S), and resorted to finding an opening to attack. Think I have to work on my lunges and the speed of hand extension... Also need to work on suiting up QUICKLY and without help from others (Thanks Reuben and Terence for your assistance :) ). Henry (foil coach) got really annoyed when Darren and me held him up due to our delayed bout (score 5 : 1 [guess who.. :) ] ) When I innocently suggested we prolong our bout, "BOOM!" he blew up at us. My fault there...should not have added fuel to the fire.
Went for lunch at Cedele at Raffles City Shopping Center with Darren, Reub and Kalpana. Bought kueh lapis and Chill-o and am therefore broke for the rest for the week. And to think I wanted to watch Cars this week. After our meal, we chatted meanderingly about our scrapes with teachers, primary shcool GEP years and movies. At about 5, we all split up. Kalpie to her dentist for tooth extraction, Darren and Reub to the airport to recieve the UK Lit field trip ppl and me home, to the econs notes :(.