Bball match

Played bball with Minli, Jing Yi, Nicole and Pam at one of the estate courts. Was severely out of touch not having played in months so I didn't get to touch the ball much. Nicole saved the day as usual with her accurate long shots that were puled off despite heavy blocking. Maybe I should get back to shooting some hoops.

Late night Spins

Spins are fun. You don't go anywhere but that's not really the point. It's interesting to see certain places shrouded in the sultry night time gloom through raindrops pearling the mist-tinted windows. The entertaining companion beside me provides an informative commentary on the army camps dotting the roads and interesting conversation. Amazing how some people can do so many things while driving. I think I must ask my dad to drive faster than 60km/h, it makes going at 100km/h seem like the bullet train. Saw buses plying for hire on roads so devoid of vehicles that one could lie down in the middle and sleep, unharmed so long he woke up by first light. Lim Chu Kang area (though to its credit, it retains a rustic, idyllic charm) is incredibly ulu in the day, and in the night is incredibly ulu and spooky. We passed by the row of low-lying flats which appear incongruous in the tapestry of nurseries, farms and vast expanses of greenery. It remindedme of the times when my mum used to bring me and my sis to visit her friend, who owned a frog farm nearby.
Thanks for the nearly 2 hr ride and everything else =).

Chats

Church for service followed by stoning at Orchard for about 3 hours before I met Eug at the Orchard Library. He had church in the morning and lunch with his friends later on. Did buy a black rasorback and sale from Mango so it wasn't entirely fruitless. We walked up and down Orchard Road and I was angsting over whether I should cancel my fencing appointment with David cus I was feeling tired and the cooling, rainy weathre was just right for curling in bed. Eug kept trying to sway me from one choice to the other (evil person :P) and I almost decided to go home and call it off when I asked him, seriously, what he would have done in my shoes. He said he would go for the lesson so the responsible part of me, after a long hiatus, finally kicked in. I gallivanted at Far East for a bit while Eugene waited to pick up his gf from Orchard Mrt.
The lesson past, I took 190 home and promptly fell asleep, exhausted. Met Eug again and we chatted about all kinds of issues, ranging from elitism in Singapore to daydreams of ours. It's wonderful to talk to neighbours every now and then, to catch up and bring yourself back into the loop. I might not be as close to my basketball mates as compared to last year, but I certainly hope if we were to meet by chance along the street, we could stop what we're doing for a moment, say hi and perhaps even more...

Little India

Lest, Ash, Nava and me went to Little India for a culinary experience today! Firstly, 3 of us had our eyebrows threaded at some beauty parlor. Using her teeth and those deft, quicksilver fingers, the beautician managed to shaped our eyebrows into more pleasing appearances. I was a little apprehensive because Nava told me it could be quite painful but it turned out fine, even though the stinging sensation was rather intense at the start.
Nava brought me to Designs Today to tailor my sari she brought from India. While I was being measured, Lestari bought some colorful bangles for her friends. Think my sari will be kept in pretty good condition as I don't have many opportunities to don it, Racial Harmony Day and Deepavali aside.
We headed to Komala's Sweet and Savouries to buy Indian candy. Instead of the usual jalebi (sweet and sour), I opted for a milk beva (is that how its spelled?) and something like a jalebi, except that it only tastes sweet. The milk beva was like eating condensed milk whereas the jalebi-thingy flooded my mouth with sugry goodness with each bite. Lunch was on the cards and we left for Muthu's Curry, a posh Indian restaurant.
Nava's dad gave her $100 to spend so she very generously gave us a treat! Thank you so much Nava =)! We had Black pepper chicken, Fish cutlets, Cheese Naan, Rice, Lassi, Strawberry Kulfi and some other delicious Indian dessert. Indian cuisine truly engages the tastes, be it sweet or sour, spicy or salty, the tastebuds are given a tantalising time. At the end of it all, Lestari , who had been taking photos all day, took a picture of the bill, drawing muffled laughs from several waiters.
Our bellies sated, we trained to British Council, where Ash and Nava could find out more information about studying in the UK. I did flirt with the idea of studying abroad but most likely, I am destined for a local uni cus my Papa has not enough moolah to send me over. And scholarships are for brainiacs, which I am not.
Stayed there for quite a bit, before going to Tekka Mall to get a drink and visit That CD shop. Browsed randomly till 6-ish and the 4 of us were on our way home.

Settler's Cafe

Shall resume blogging after a 2 days hiatus due to extreme exhaustion. Went to Settler's Cafe on the fringe of Holland V with Xh, her 2 friends. Denise and Pei Jie. At the Mrt station, Xh tried to dupe us into thinking her friend Brandon Kwan was from Mongolia and required talking to in Mandarin to facilitae easier communication. Unfortunaely, no-one believed her :P. We walked up and down the stretch of road for nearly 45 minutes before resorting to asking for directions. One of the shop at Blk 15 had an eviction notice from the police and for some reason, sent me and Denise into peels of hysteric laughter, before Bk and Pei Jie finally found the cafe.
Settler's cafe has a cosy ambience, replete with warm lighting and pop music playing in the background. The best part of it was the many different kinds of board games patrons could choose to enjoy while dining. We played Cranium Basher initially, a game which incorporated humming, acting, verbal skills, general knowledge, drawing and sculpting. Dee, PJ and me emerged victorious, mostly thanks to Dee's drawing skills and our wild guesses. Next, we played Acquire, in which players had to build conglomerates and eat up small companies to win. Wit the exception of the chess players (Bk, Xh and Tim Wee), the rest of us were clueless and kept on turning to the helpful and friendly supervisor for advice and tips. Xh ultimately won!
PJ, Bk and Tim Wee left so the 4 of us (supervisor included) played Blockus. I really liked the game beause of the simple learning curve, lack of complex rules and brain power needed. We also played a card game "Ugly", where players had to try and snatch cards when 3 of the same pictures appeared. If 2 players were tussling for a card, the one who said "Ugly, Ugly, Ugly" the fastest won.
Since it was raining outside, the kind supervisor very nicely let us stay behind till it reduced to a feeble drizzle. We'll probably come here again sometime considering the wonderful experience we had that day.
Rented "Perhaps Love" to watch at home that night. Decent songs, visually rich sets, emotive acting, an a somewhat cliche but still believeable storyline was marred by poor vcd quality.

The end of Raffles Invits!

At long, long last, the Raffles Invitationals has finally come to a close. Despite the frayed tempers, increased cortisol levels and other adverse health effects, I think it has brought the exco together and allowed me to know the national fencers better. Many thanks to the referees, helpers and all those who made this possible in one way or another =). I feel under the aegis of Joanna and Darren, this Raffles Invitationals has been the most sucessful one up to date.
We won gold for women's sabre (only 3 teams >_<) and gave the bronze to the women's epee team behind the scenes so it wouldn't seem unfair. I sucked as anchorman despite my individual ranking. Instead of pulling the team ahead, I actually lost to Balpreet due to her immensely long reach and my poor technique and Joanna was the one who saved us all. Against Ruth, I conceded 10 points before scoring 5 and thank goodness we were fencing up. Charmaine and Joanna totally rocked and mostly managed to reach the point cap beforethe other team. The SJC girl were really sweet and we took a group photo after everything was done. The SJC girls also fenced the women's epee team for fun and won 45-43.
Clearing up and then prize pesentation followed after. The referees, exco and some of RJC fencers went for Sakkae Sushi for a buffet. Several plates of sushi later, we got so sick of the rice, we attempted to conceal it by hiding it between the hollow bottom of one plate and the other. This measure was undertaken beacuse of the surcharge for food wastage. It worked for a bit, except when I stacked it for four consecutive plates and realised it was kinda conspicuous cus 4 empty plates should not be that heavy. Our seat also happened to be right next to the kitchen exit. Ou attempt was foiled when we gave this staff member a whole stack of our plates, and she in a brilliant moment of serendipity, took a smaller stack, thus unveiling the exposed rice. Jun Hao was so embrassed even though the woman did not appear to notice anything was amiss. I was trying hard to stifle my laughter and Bern and Joanna had the same experience as I related the discovery to them. Joanna was duped by the group of pranksters (Darren, Reub Foo and Yeo, Balpreet and Noelle) into eating sashimi that was in reality ginger slices on top of sushi. What a laugh they had at her expense...
Went back with Darren and Alvin to RJ to help Juliana load her equipment into the car before going home.

100th post

Day 1:

Fenced in women's sabre event and clinched the gold medal. Hooray! I was initially rather worried about the Youth Developement Squad Girls but as it turned out, they weren't that intimidating. The epeeists (Sophie and Ruth) turned sabreurs did very well, clinching sixth and seventh position. Joanna was third so I hope our combined points is good enough to give us a bi.
Thanks to all supporters (RJC fencers), my coach David and all others who were there!
Watched Darren eat dinner at KFC while I sipped milkshake and chattered inanely. Returned home and watched the Professional later that nightand decided that Natalie Portman had the makings of a beauty at the tender age of 12. Pity about the bittersweet ending though.

Day 2:

For Men's Sabre, after thrilling matches with multiple parries, blade clashes, shouts of victories and near misses, the J1 beat the J2s 45-33. The J2s still managed to get the silver medal after beating TFC 45-44. Wing, JX and Alvin, for the hell of it, decided to fence in epee teams. Alvin fenced foil style, JX fenced sabre style and Wing attempted to fence epee style with highly amusing and sometimes effective results. They beat the eight seeded team and predictably lost to the strongest team with half their score. There was an intensely thrilling epee bout between SMU and VJC; with 10 second to go, VJC was up 42-43, inducing the SMU fencer to run straight at the VJC one the moment the signal was given. The VJC fencer scored the point and there was only one second left and the SMU fencer did something rather unsportsmanlike. He turned his back and took off his mask.
Did the usual scorekeeping, "cheerleading" and timekeeping and fenced epee with Darren. Didn't fare too well cus I'm too accustomed to slashing rather than poking. Played some warped version of captain's ball with VJC, jsut that the ball was replaced by masking tape and the captain had to catch it with a blade. They won 3-4 due to the overwhelming number of guys (7 to our 3) and I really enjoyed myself running back and forth, in the thick of the action. Better sleep early and fence nicely for womens' sabre team.

Thanks again Darren for being so understanding even though it wasn't you at all. Just lapsing into my petty, emo side once more.

Raffles Invitationals

It went smoothly, with hardly any hitches (the fiasco of the missing money when it was really right beneath our noses >_<). As an added bonus, we ended 3-4 hours earlier than our projected time (which means either our estimation sucks or we are very efficient. I should think, the latter :P) We actually had more helpers than necessary, so people were playing Uno, talking or gaming on their laptops. RJC SWEPT the Men's Sabre but ot of the 7 fencers, 6 were from Raffles family so no real surprises there. For Men's Epee and Women's Foil, RJC didn't quite fare as spectacularly and no-one got a medal. The initial registration of participants was pretty annoying and thankfully we had 3-4 people manning the table. Thanks to all helpers who have spent their Saturday at Raffles Invitations instead of stoning at home or whatever. Bernice did a great job sorting out the poules and ranking of the fencers; lunchtime aside, no piste was left unused for more than 5 minutes. We're off to a rousing start and I think I speak for everyone when I say that the rest of the days should proceed without incident :). Gonna sleep soon cus I will be fencing and doing administration work after I finish/get kicked out as early as 8 tmr.

Tekkan Session

After a long November break that has reduced our little muscles to mere mush, the fencing coach just had to give us a tekkan session. The footwork was fine initially, broke out into a light sweat but didn't feel too much of a strain. Then, Joanna, who wasn't feeling too well ran off to the loo and the rest of us were mae to hold lunge position for the duration she was away: 7 minutes. And we only understood WHY we were doing this when he sarcastically made us thank her. It wasn't like she was skivving or changing her shoes or something. She was SICK and puked in the toilet. In the 6 minute or so, my arm was screaming from the stiffness and the nigh unberable strain of being held upright. Epee coach is a sadist!!!
I did my year's worth of push-ups today too. Certainly not 365 of them or else I wouldn't have the strength to type this entry but 75++. David made us fenced off with half the piste's length to a point cap with the loser doing 25-50 pushups dependig on the point cap. Needless to say, thanks to fencing the guys, I did my share of 50 pushups. For fencing camp next year, now we know what to give the J1s...

Church of The Holy Cross

On the way to church, I met Eugene, who was coincidentally, on his way to church too! Talked for a bit till he got off at CCK and I spent the rest of the journey reading. The trip from Clementi MRT to the church took a while despite instructions from Eugene, because I ran to the wrong bus-stop initially, and when I went to thr interchange, the bus just left -_-.
The church hall was spacious and I like the stained glass windows which adorned it, although there are probably prettier and more intricate ones elsewhere. There was a great number of people in there and they all seemed to behave as a collective consciousness, knowing the appropriate prayers and gestures. I probably stuck out like a sore thumb as I was silent during the verbal recital of prayers but I did pray during the quiet time. The sermon was suprisingly short since I expected a 45 minute or longer one, but it clocked only 10 minutes or less. I'm not sure if I felt God then but I believe if I persevere long enough, eventually I will find Him. I embarassed myself in front of this girl; when she was trying to push the prayer seat down, I pushed it back up, before realising what everyone around us was doing O_O.
I met Veronica, who was assisting in collecing donations, and we were both pleasantly surprised to see each other. After the service, she answered my numerous queries on the Catholic faith and church services, clarifying most doubts and reservations of mine. Still, I find the rituals slightly intimidating but I think this mental hurdle will be overcomed with more visits to the church. Veron's parents very nicely gave me a lift to the MRT and from there, I took a bus to Orchard.
Shopped around a bit till 4 and went to Juliana's place for the last sabre intensive lesson. David was late and maybe that was why he didn't force us to wear britches (we were short on time anyway). The lesson was rather interesting; we had to score 8 points in 8 different ways and because of that quirky rule, me and Harold were stuck on the 7th point for a while, before I took the plunge and attempted a failed alein that somehow scored. More fencing and home I went.
Later tonight, Eugene burned Borat for me! That's sweet of him considering his exams aren't over yet :). Talked again about Christianity and other stuff before we both headed to our homes.