Where Did The Cat Go?

Aite, it seems to be out of the bag. What a minor blip in my otherwise perfect world =/ I hope what it seems to be is not in fact the truth but only a slight bending of the reality that is. This is me using even more cheem english than I normally do, cause some people said my blog uses impressive english. Wow @ the compliment, it inflates my already unbearable ego.

Significant Things Which Have Happened Since My Last Post

Well, there was the match against ACS(I). Now that is an experience I shudder to recall. I got pwned, so well, no good memories there. They totally outclassed us.

There is today, where I finally moved my rear off my computer chair to go look for a job, hopefully we'll clinch it. I have no plans to waste my holidays at home. Also went to Taka to find benny and ho tat, they are deprived and desperate already, poor terrible little boys.

There is my going to a proper lan shop for the first time in months and feeling so proud of myself for owning, or at least for not being owned.

Then there is, of course, my hong kong trip. Actually this post would have been a short one, and nobody would have to complain. Too bad I'm going to include the details of my trip, if only so that next time I can read it to remind myself of the experience. It was a fun trip, I did much more than when I went 2 years ago. What amazes me is how I felt so mature 2 years ago, when I went there on my own. I realize I was only 14, but I felt so self-important and thought I was so mature. Pretty unbelievable that I was there on my own for 10 days, at 14.

Well, this time when I went to hong kong I was determined to shop. Cause I realized it was a golden opportunity unlike any I would ever have. Selfishly, I knew that my uncle would sponsor quite a bit of my shopping, which he did. Of course, he is a blessed man who blesses others, and he actually gave me 2000 hongky dollars to shop with. Cool shite. I spent quite alot of time wandering about causeway bay cause I kept getting lost. I was trying my bestest to find the bus interchange without consulting the map no matter which part of causeway bay I was at, so I spent alot of time walking around. The weather is fantastic so walking was fine, and rather enjoyable.

I bought lots of stuff at times square, cause I'm not really the flea market kind of person and I feel more at home at major shopping centres than struggling through the human tide within dark crowded alleys. I also went to factory outlets to check it out and bought some stuff there too. I also spent a considerable amount of money on food. The food there is excellent, as is the service. It seems to me that the service staff there are infinitely better than those in Singapore, as they're neither too pushy nor too indifferent. Perfect balance I think. Or maybe that's just the "Grass is greener on the other side" syndrome.

More on their food. I recalled a wanton mee shop that sold amazing noodles and dessert. So I spent one of my afternoons searching for it. In the end I drifted out of the area and ate at a little noodle shop which made veli nice soyabean. I probably can't find that shop again if I wanted to. Anyhow, some days later I managed to find the famous wanton mee shop and it was worth the search.

What is more noteworthy is that I had 2 of my most expensive meals ever, in hong kong. The first and foremost was on my second last night there, which was tuesday I think. It was in a crazily high-class restaurant which was open above a french boutique, agnès b. I probably didn't recognize three quarters of the menu. Well, all the dishes were in french, with short english descriptions. I didn't get most of the descriptions anyway. I'm a neighborhood coffeeshop kind of guy. Throw linguini, carbonara, bolognese, escargot, mousse, souffle, ratatouille, hors d'oeuvre (no idea how to spell or pronounce that) and a host of other such words at me and I'll go, huh? So yeah, I went for the one thing that looked familiar to me, lamb fillet, medium rare. I think it was 328 hongky or something? That's like 60 bucks. One bottle of vittel (high class for water I presume) is 10 bucks. Desert was 14 bucks, and my soup was also about 14 bucks. I think my meal totalled $100? Or thereabouts, it was by 500 kilometres, the most expensive meal of my life. The ambience there is totally wicked, and the service is pretty good. Almost everyone else there brought like a bouquet of flowers for their dates, never seen that before. So the whole thing was like, totally rad.

Second most expensive meal I paid myself, heheh. It's not in the league of 100 bucks, but it's still more than I ever forked out for a meal. maybe, 50 bucks or so? This meal has a story behind it. Long one. On the first day we reached hong kong, we went to eat at this Italiano place called Fat Angelo's. Best pizza I ever ate, after all that pizza hut and canadian. I totally dug the atmosphere there, and I also noticed that the waitresses there were pretty pretty. That meal was not a 100 percent happy experience, quite the contrary in fact, but I shall not elaborate. But I remembered the cool place and the pretty waitresses, and thought about going back there for dinner at least once before I left hong kong. So on the second last day, I decided, what the heck, this is my last chance to see pretty waitresses. So I walked there from causeway bay, which is hella long. If I was in the habit of uploading pictures I would upload the route I took there. Like.... 3 hours maybe? From Sogo to Times Square to Wanchai to the Hong Kong Convention Centre to the Bank of China to the Peak Tram Station to Queen's Road Central and Soho where the restaurant was. I was quite proud of myself. Along the way, I met 3 pretty cute girls and a friendly surveyor so I was happy even before stepping into the place.

So I approached the restaurant, surreptitiously checking to see if the pretty waitress who served me on the first day was there. I couldn't see her, so I walked the entire street which was full of restaurants trying to decide if I should indeed eat there again. I decided to, ultimately, and lo and behold! The pretty waitress who served me previously was the one who brought me to a table. The even more wonderful fact is that... she wasn't the one to serve me this time but instead another waitress, even prettier and cuter. HAHAAHHA maybe I was deprived or something, but I was beside myself with delirium. Well, when one is dining alone in a pretty sophisticated restaurant one tries to act more mature than his 16 years of age. I think I pulled it off quite well. She actually gave me the wine list =D Unfortunately, I had not the finances to purchase a bottle and complete my mature act.

So I looked through the menu instead and I felt that a steak was the manliest thing to eat. So it was a something steak, medium rare, no drinks thank you. FOC came a huge plate of salad and a piece of italiano bread. I tried to eat as stylo as possible but it was hard to accomplish that with the bread crumbs falling all over the place and the veggies climbing out of the plate. I only ate about a half of each cause, well, the bread was kind of large and the amount of veggies is really mind-boggling. I'm quite surprised I have the stomach for so much greens, might have some cow/sheep genes or something. So finally the steak came, and after a few mouths of it, the pretty waitress actually came to ask me "Sir, is everything fine?" Wow. Of course I acted cool and went like, yes thank you, with a light smile. But inside? Like wah, want to just faint and die of happiness. BE STILL MY HEART. Oh yeah, and the seat I was at was quite awesome, mainly cause it had a good view of the wine bar which was also where the cashier was. Anyway I'm quite sure the place hired only good looking people cause the bartender dude was pretty good looking too.

So after my steak I had dessert. I was contemplating getting one of those after dinner drinks or cocktails or whatever but I decided against it. What if I turned red after one glass or something? Totally not cool. So I got a tiramisu instead. It was unnecessary cause I was veli full after all that bread and grass and cow, but I got it anyhow. Firstly it allowed me to further the impression that I was a rich young good-looking dude (the damn cake cost 10 sing dollars I think) and secondly it gave me and excuse to ogle the pretty waitress one more time. (Ogle sounds like a perv thing to do but whatever.) The bill totalled 22x hongky dollars which I paid and then left behind dunno how much tips. Meal cost me 250 hong kong dollars. 50 sing bucks eh, what extravagance. But if you could see the beatific smile on my face when I left, you'd know it was worth it. Oh right before I left she said, "Thank you and have a nice day." Or something to that effect cause I can't really remember properly cause of that pink haze that descended upon me at that moment.

All in all that was my best day in hong kong. Of course, I think that makes you come to the conclusion that a) my hong kong trip must have been bad if that was my best day or b) de yan is a perv and he's deprived and depraved and he ogles at girls. Oh well, pfft. You have no idea what love does to a man. HAHAH. The rest of my trip was mostly shopping and sight-seeing and one day was hiking, or rather, taking a walk among the mountains. Pretty amazing views they've got up there. Ocean park was one place visited, but not disneyland. The peak, but that trip didn't end very well, no thanks to well, something that happened. Went to my uncle's church there, richie and his fiancée sarah(gasp!), joanne who is an ex-flight attendant and annie and her parents, who I met on my last trip, joined us for lunch after church. Never met sarah, but she seems like a very nice person and I think richie is very blessed. Well, so is she, cause richie is a totally cool guy who is a mighty man of god. Apparently this is all quite rushed but they're getting married in january I think.

I don't think I have much more to add other than the trivialities of my shopping. Except that my cousin is really cute and speaks quite amazing english, but she's also pretty spoilt, I think. My attempts to discipline her were rebuffed and criticized by liyan. No surprise there. Takes one spoilt kid to defend another. I'm trying my best not to make personal attacks, but I shall fire some salvos cause I just can't stand it. How does someone who has managed to master the art of being late and making people wait get so incredibly pissed off at having to wait for like, 10 minutes? That totally tickled me, I was not so much angry as amused at her childish reaction. Can you imagine? Huff and puff and throw a tantrum and go back home on her own. At least when I'm pissed I'm reasonably reasonable. (I think.) And who, after someone is obviously pissed off, decides to regale him with her stories of her adventures in macau and the beautiful F1 cars and the architecture there? When he's not interested in the slightest? Oh well, at least if you proclaim to be a fan of F1 and racing, try to pronounce grand prix properly cause it gets really embarassing. Friendly advice. On the subject of english, you CANNOT say: "Oh, ya, pacific is really conducive!" HUH? Or "Ya, I think this atmosphere is very conducive." Because there's a very big hole after the word conducive. You HAVE to say conducive for something e.g. conducive for studying or conducive for productivity or something. It's a MUST. DO NOT embarass yourself further by throwing in words you think are cool and impressive, but make no grammatical or linguistic sense at all. I shall limit myself to that and refrain from making even worse comments. I don't really care if she reads this or not cause I have almost come to the conclusion that our friendship isn't really worth anything anyway. Neither of us would care much, me least of all. Insensitivity is something that is intolerable to me and I cannot abide by it. Also, if many people have pointed out your flaws or you know it yourself, please do something about it, don't put it down to oh that's just how I am.

Enough. Stop. I'm getting carried away again. Blast my indisciplined fingers. Be Still My Fingers! So right, there's training tmr, couldn't go the monday one cause my mom was worried about my infection. I forgot, in hong kong I was plagued by an infection of what I think was a pimple on my arm, near my elbow. It's eerily similar to what edmund, and I heard, woon shin and lucas suffered. No idea how I got it in hong kong. Maybe it took a while to manifest, cause I suspect it's from the field. It hurt like holy crap until it got burst when I tackled one of the ACS ruggers. I thought it freaking exploded cause it hurt even worse than any time before. But after that it slowly got better although it's still leaking pus even now. Anyway what a mofo, spending half your time on holiday in pain. Shouldn't sleep too late today anyways.

Before I forget, Elbow owns, the Beatles own, U2 owns, Muse owns. Current Most Owning Songs are: Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and Across The Universe by The Beatles, New Year's Day and City Of Blinding Lights and The Sweetest Thing by U2, Drops Of Jupiter by Train, Zephyr Song and Scar Tissue by Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and all of Elbow's songs are still owning.

Shit I also almost forgot I watched Gangs Of New York and The Virgin Suicides while in hong kong. Both are films that I wanted to watch but never got around to. Gangs is good, shows leonardo in a much more masculine role than I think, any he's ever been in. I hate titanic anyway. But Daniel Day-Lewis is truly awesome. I understand why he's considered one of the best actors, cause he is. An erratic character, but he pulled it off with panache and mojo. I so have to watch There Will Be Blood which features him. And The Virgin Suicides is good too. The story is told in quite a weird style, but pretty nicely done. Kirsten Dunst, I think, is quite amazing in that movie. I never liked her cause I don't like Tobey McGuire and by association Spiderman and her, but the movie managed to change my opinion. She is excellent as the popular Lux Lisbon. Josh Hartnett is good too, as are the parents of the sisters. Good film, but I can't really pin-point what makes me think so. I am halfway through Apocalypse Now but I didn't realize it's a 3 hour film, and I was falling asleep at about halfway. So I'll have to find some time to finish it. And Season 2 of my Criminal Minds, only one episode left.

And shit also, it's 1 o clock. Gotta go bathe. Gotta go sleep. I'll leave with 2 lines of lyrics from Elbow, Switching Off.

I choose my final scene today
Switching off with you.

I'm sure I will. Goodnight.

and to you:

i'm sorry. thank you. i was an idiot. i was afraid and i was an idiot. i'm still an idiot but at least you're still happy. you too, dear friend, are not easily replaced, no matter my sharp wit or handsome smile. i wonder if it'll ever be the same again. i dearly hope so. i'm unspeakably honoured, and i miss you too. have a nice forever, too (:

Musik

Ahhh, in my last post I totally forgot to mention music. Arts Central is really awesome, Live At Abbey Road is awesome. Too bad it's gone now -.- (whistle) OKTO!! Anyway I discovered a totally owning new band through the show. ELBOW. Honestly it's one of the greatest discoveries I have made all year. Their songs absolutely appeal to my tastes and I can safely say all of the songs I have heard by them own. And I've listened to all the songs of their last 2 albums, Elbow is the sex. Highly recommended if you have the same musical tastes I do.

Okay, after some reflection, I have decided to revise my opinion of the bbss match. That being our virgin match, we were admittedly unprepared and naive. I think most of us were quite shocked at the level of foul play involved in a rugby match, and as such, were naive enough to retaliate and respond in like. Thus they managed to drag us down to their level of dirty play and it's true we began to play dirty too after a while. Rugby being rugby, no matter how you look at it there's bound to be some dirty play going on. And we have to be prepared to face opponents in the future of varying degrees of dirtiness, and win regardless so at least the match managed to open our eyes. While I do not believe in its accuracy of the actual play, I respect the scoreline and the fact that bbss were the winners. So the statements in my previous post, while reflecting my opinion at that time, were just a bunch of sour grapes and harsh. Well thanks to bbss for wisening up our previously unblooded team.

What I cannot accept is the way they carry themselves like hooligans. Behaviour on the pitch is one thing and can be explained by competitiveness, but off it they were cocky and downright disrespectful. Then again, cockiness is unacceptable on it as well. And I foolishly thought rugby was a gentleman's game. Whooping after sidestepping opponents is uncalled for and it reflects very poorly on the person's character. It also appears that some of their team get on the pitch looking to pick fights rather than play rugby. I think taunting is acceptable, but only to a certain degree and after that it gets disgusting. And also, coming to our school grounds and then shouting "Express very big meh?" after winning is ridiculous. We never insinuated it, and it showed a very basic lack of sportsmanship. Oh well enough whining.

Chinese today and if my results reflect my preparations I'm screwed. I'd hate to fail despite my disregard for chinese. Imagine 4 As and one S. Hell no, lol. Question 4 cause it seems like a failsafe baby question. Honestly hope to pass, hopefully a C? That'd be beyond my wildest dreams. Oh right, I forgot to mention I didn't know how to do about.... all of paper 2.

I've broken out in rashes and I have no idea why. I might have some unknown mysterious allergy or I might just be dirty. I think I have an allergy. Damn itchy sia. And I'm feeling abit sick. I'm feeling hot and bothered. On a lighter note, imma kick soccer tmr at last long long long last yay. I hope it doesn't get cancelled and that people actually turn up cause my legs itch (not because of the rashes.)

And even better, I'm pretty sure I've gotten over it. HAHAHAHAHAHA finally at long last. I hope. It was torture. Sweet torture, excruciating torture. I sincerely hope to have gotten over that which has caused me so much torment. No idea.

"It is finished!" John 19:30
The Lord bless you and the Lord keep you, and the Lord shine his countenance upon you and your loved ones. In Jesus' mighty name, amen and goodnight.

On Wishes.

Occasionally they come true, and when it does, it gives me that funny tingling feeling in my stomach :D Yeah, I wish my wishes came true more often. But if wishes were wings, pigs would fly! Cannot recall where I read that from.

On books.
I just bought Brisingr and A Thousand Splendid Suns from POPULAR (which is obviously named after me) with my awesome vouchers I got for my awesome performance in the O levels =D O levels is a long long long long long time ago. Anyway I'm a fantasy fanboy, and I couldn't help myself but buy the hardcover cool version of Brisingr but those idiots extended the supposed trilogy to a cycle which means one more book which means more $$. Idiots. And I expect A Thousand Splendid Suns to be awesome cause I love that author despite reading only Kite Runner, but still awesome nonetheless.

Apart from those, I've recently read Cormac McCarthy who is absolutely marvelous but cheem but still marvelous. The Road is a deep disconcerting read, but a brilliant piece on hope, and also on morality. Seriously great author who manages to weave lots of human touch and indecision and grave questions of choice into his short books. No Country For Old Men is also excellent, and makes me even more fond of the Coen Brothers who converted it into a movie. The movie is even more excellent after reading the book.

Oh and Robert Jordan died! What the hell. One book more to the end of the series and he dies, how sad is that! Honestly hoping the person who takes over the job does a good one, can't remember what his name is. WAH LAO. One of my most eagerly anticipated books in the near future and the author dies. The Wheel Of Time is greatness, almost right up there with the scope of Middle Earth.

On movies.
Okay the most awesome movie experience has got to be BATMAN!!!!!!!!! Heath Ledger I love you and I wish I could be your gay partner in Brokeback Mountain!!!!!! Too bad he's dead, seriously. What amazing talent, that is the most ultimate portrayal of the Joker one could ever hope to wish for. He totally drove the movie and he was insane. Why so serious? Absolutely crazy stuff, best 10 dollars I've spent this year. Oh and erm no I'm not gay in case anyone has any serious doubts.

I've also watched Snatch which is a Guy Ritchie movie and it is also awesome. I like to think that my taste is really really good. Anyway Snatch is one of the funniest movies ever, I think. Watch it on tudou or youku. But those websites load terribly slow or I'd have watched Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

I want to watch Painted Skin and Burn After Reading. Mainly cause Zhou Xun is the best, and because I think Burn After Reading is my type of comedy. Oh and maybe Rocknrolla cause it's Guy Ritchie but it's M18 so oh well. And I wanted to watch Boy A with my sis but it's not playing in cinemas anymore, seemed really interesting. Probably set my date with Zhou Xun sometime soon, hopefully.

On others.
We lost our match. To those assholes from batok. Honestly, a clean game is much more enjoyable than a dirty one, and much more respectable. That was bullshit though. Too bad we lost or we would have taught them a lesson. Bastards. Anyway I was useless. Their backline was so pathetic we should have scored probably 5977642 tries against them, but I failed. I can't believe I failed to get past their weakling excuses of rugby players. Time to train harder and lose some of that complacency, if not all. Good job yewsiang aka mr sunny for scoring anyway. Credits to the forwards who got fouled up down left right by those losers.

Waiting for House Season 5 to end so that I can one-shot it rather than wait agonizingly for every episode every week. Still 2 seasons behind on Criminal Minds, but no time at all to catch up. Still wondering if Reid remains a junkie -.- (although logic dictates he won't) My books I haven't read yet, with the exception of Brisingr. Am reading The Wheel Of Darkness featuring the most excellent Agent Pendergast.

Aite, I just had a bout of diarrhea and it was smelly as shit. Well, obviously. I think it means that 3 large pizzas shouldn't be shared by 6 people, which we did a mere 8 hours ago or thereabouts. Went for the tribe/semi-clan outing to pizza hut then to the batok csc. It was pretty fun, I was surprised at the high turnout cause I was kinda reluctant to go cause I thought there would only be a few people. Oh and our beloved former and best tribe leader denise was there! Awesome. Thanks a bunch to whoever organised this.

Didn't expect this post to be as wordy or lengthy as it is, but I figure since I segmented it into pretty little paragraphs with cool headings like On Wishes it'd be bearable. Okay then again by my standards this is really short but I'll spare the long laments on my hopes and desires. So tata it is then.

One more matchstick tonight for what we could have been.
Burn.

What Would We Be Without Wishful Thinking?

An update, at last. It's been, unbelievably, 3 months since my last post -.- I have somehow been occupying alot of my time, and I haven't even dota-ed for like 3 weeks which is probably a record. Not to mention being an LB. The lack of free time I have is quite unholy. And soon it's gonna be training training and more training. I think imma start doing more extra training, especially since I seem to have discovered an innate ability for sprinting recently =D

More 20km runs, more speedwork, more gymwork. Oh and more teamwork too. Balonglong says to call him to go running next time, I think I should. Running alone is energy sapping man, and the only motivation comes from myself. And it's scary too. That morning I ran at 3.30am and it was some freaking scary experience. First of all my imagination told me that I could at any time be snatched off the road by some crazy mafia gang or some paedophilic mofo irresistibly attracted to me -.- Then as I ran past the heavy vehicle park I seemed to hear a child shouting "help me" quite a few times. I kia tio sia, and ran away ASAP. Then I run run run, until it started drizzling when I was at zhenghua park. I sian 1/2 cause I was like at least 5km away from home with no ez-link or money. Heng it didn't rain or I'd probably have died and missed the physics promo. Then ran back to teck whye then to gombak and back home through the long bloody new road which I almost got lost on.

Moral of the story is that I'm not half the brave strong man I thought I was -.- Oh and my shoes suck. If I weren't so deep in debt I would be saving for a pair of running shoes, maybe adizero which is cool shite. But I owe a myriad of people money and I need to buy other stuff too. Super loser man, I'm losing things at a crazy rate. First my shoebag with my spanking new boots and spanking owning new havaianas slippers which I didn't get to wear. And the shoebag is chock-full of sentimental value to me. Then I lost, amazingly, a plastic bag containing my dirty clothes so I had to buy new ones. Next, my rugby pants. And most recently my school pants. Holy moley. That's 200 dollars worth of stuff right there. I am a loser indeed.

Anw today was sports carnival which my class didn't participate in cause our form didn't get handed up. I thought I could dazzle everyone with my soccer skills. Oh wells. Wanna kick street soccer soon, it's been a helluva long time since the last time. So I played badminton almost the whole morning, where I dazzled everyone with my badminton skills. I played with chengyong and lost 21-15 or somewhere there. Probably better than balonglong could have, LOL =D I was feeling so extraordinarily talented even thought I lost. But chengyong represents singapore after all. At least in JJ against those foreigners -.- so I lost quite happily =D

Then class outing at east coast park, where we cycled till our butts lost all feeling. And my leg is cramping. The highlight of the day being that I crashed into kelly which left me feeling traumatised all day. I have since decided that I'm a retard and will strive as best I can not to crash into anyone again. Then we went to eat at Han's and the spaghetti I had seemed quite pathetic next to their fishes (grilled, dory) and the chicken chop. And mine is 3 dollars more expensive. What the fish? I bade farewell to the last of my money. And I bought doughnut factory doughnuts (what else) 6 of them for the enjoyment of my brother who has probably never eaten nice doughnuts before. 7 dollars leh. I am pure awesomeness as a brother, except that the money I used I borrowed from my sister. Anyway plain glazed doughnut is holy good, methinks.

It's 12:51am now, which is the name of that awesome strokes song which I prolly mentioned previously. I'm not going to school tmr since imma pon all the lessons even if I did go. Rest more and train harder tmr. I'm going to watch my Criminal Minds soon, that excellent show which is eating up all my free time which I do not spend reading or going out. Stuck at season 2, almost reaching season 3. And the cool title of this post comes from one of the songs I heard on the show, and I like it. Indeed, we would be nothing.

Life as a member of the LB club is really depressing -.- a few months back I wasn't, and I wish it were a few months back, where maybe some things could have remained. Oh welluh, too bad so sad neh neh ni poo poo. I have chosen to be a monk/golem and I shall persevere~ It is so very tempting however, the prospect of not watching movies alone. I was sorting through my stuff and I re-read one of the postcards I received. And I realized how much I missed the companionship which unfortunately is all but gone now. I am an idiot. At least the matchsticks are useful, seriously. Everytime I emo or start reminiscing about the past and realize how much I miss it, I light a matchstick. And for a few good seconds, I focus solely on that flame and I think not of anything else. And feed all emotion to the flame. So I guess what I'm trying to say, actually, is thanks, for everything. Oh and that I am an idiot.

I shall ruminate no longer on my regrets. I think if anyone were to list down his/her regrets they'd never get halfway through. It really is an exercise in futility. Anything I care to blog about I'll update again. The end.

"The flame and the void. Feed all emotion and all pain and all thoughts." Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time.

Purely China. 求是实验中学

Yes, it's been ages. Believe me when I say I've been much too busy to blog, even though I'd been meaning to ever since I came back from China. I'm afraid the memories might have faded away, the edge taken off, but I'll try as best I can to replicate the feelings that I wanted to blog about when I returned. Well, other than that, there's been a host of other things that I've been doing lately, I am a busy man!

Okay, let's try this chronologically. Well, obviously only the significant stuff, which I myself want to remember. Hmm. Since my last post..... lotsa birthdays, as is expected in the dreaded June/July period. Tests probably outnumber birthdays, and are a thousandfold more dreadful. Out of the tests in these few painfully long weeks, I don't think I scored well in any of them. Am not gonna embarrass myself with the actual results here.

A huge chunk of June was preparation for the Zhejiang trip. Well, with hindsight, almost all the preparation done was in vain. But at least learning was done in the process. Because in China, everything was just impromptu and rushed, practically everything we had prepared for failed to materialize, and it was all just on the spot stuff.

Yep, time to blog about China. I knew an overseas trip would definitely be enriching, but I did not expect this level of.... accomplishment. Start from the basics, lest I ever need to refresh my memory. We went to Qiu Shi Experimental School 桐乡求是实验中学, at least I think that's the Chinese version. Upon reaching, we had our first look at their so-called leaders, and had to teach them some noob cheers for some basketball tournament thing. Nothing much, boring day. On the next day, we had to go down to some semi-rural school on the outskirts of the city. We were supposed to do classroom interaction and teach the kids there cheers. The kids there were extremely receptive and warm, but I screwed up. It didn't help that the other JJ fellow in the classroom was Hui Mui, who's quite a pain to work with. I couldn't work with her at all, and I was just bad in the classroom on that day. At least a few of the Qiushi leaders managed to look quite promising despite my failures.

Next day, we went back to the school again. The children recognized us and seemed pretty happy to see us again. They were damn excited about what games we were going to conduct and what songs we were gonna teach them. That was damn heartening, and since I had by then found out what exactly we were supposed to do inside the classrooms, it was great, I felt. I managed to let 2 of the more outstanding leaders take charge of the class and conduct the activities, only stepping in for comic effect.

And then, we had to meet the 112 supposed leaders. Okay, the plan was this. 20 of us, were supposed to be advisors. The 28 leaders, the planning comm. The 112 leaders, the facilitators. Obviously, that was a cock up. The "leaders" were supposed to be so capable just because they had half a day's more experience than the rest -.- Absolute disaster. What happened eventually was that the PC became the OGLs while only a few of the supposed leaders helped them. Yep, 700 campers and 28 OGLs.

Okay so, we had very little time to actually do anything with the 112 leaders. They came in at like in the afternoon, we played icebreaker games, and taught them some cheers. Just like campers. Then, we had very little time with which to tell them and impact upon them their roles, basically just telling them that they were leaders among the campers. Really, really lame. Which set the tone for the orientation lah. I can't recall in detail what we did with those 112 people on that day, nothing much really.

D-Day, first day of the orientation. Okay, to compound the bullshit, I was family head. Yep, in China, with razak as my assistant. VHUT DA? I think, that was kind of ridiculous. I was under-prepared and my assistant fam head couldn't help me much. Chinese, chinese, and more chinese man. Terrible. I did not want to be family head, but I could not refuse.

Too much family time, too little activities, too little cheers to teach. Little or no enthusiasm from the kids. My PC worked extremely hard, yes, but did not manage to control them. I got angry many times, up on my puny little ping-pong table. Oh, and it once collapsed under me, thankfully Shen Yi (who was up there with me) was not injured. I tried everything I could, but there were only like, 3 different cheers we could use. Games, got boring after a while. Claps were overused, and yes, only 3 or 4 of them anyway. Razak tried extremely hard to help from on the ground, but he cannot speak chinese. Ping Fan lost her voice that day. All of them did what they could, but there were only what, 4 of them? Yu Yang had to do admin and Wu Yi had some emcee thing probably. Lol, it was so terrible, after the family times, me and razak would just shout out vulgarities cause we were so damn frustrated and pissed off. Like, "CB WTF LAH! NB SIA! Really DAMN CB SIA EFF!"

SSS was not good too, the emcees didn't do well. Then, a masterstroke from Mr Leow. Emo-time. He spoke to the family heads, and told us to tell the PCs to tell the campers what they've done so far and their feelings. I think Mr Leow is an excellent manipulator, the way he does things. Basically, that was one helluva night. I cried, too. Had not done that in a VERY long time.

After SSS, the kids were sent back to their classrooms. The PCs proceeded to do what we told them to do. But they did not know how to do it properly, like Lu Xin's class, she was actually laughing along with them -.- That's where I came in, and owned those little kids. In all my life, I have never spoken so eloquently in chinese. I managed to move, 150 people to tears. I managed to extol the qualities of the PC so well that each class broke down, and of course, the PC themselves broke down. Yeah, what a night. Entering each class, saying different things in each class. I think, moments like those, are what being a leader is all about. Leaders are nothing if not for the people they lead. And that night was the best experience I have ever had, in terms of seeing the impact on the campers themselves. Each classroom has it's own story, 14 classes. Each leader, his/her own frustrations and problems. And it's all about the people element, that makes everything worthwhile. Sounds tacky and cliched, but that's the truth and what I went to China for. To feel each of their frustrations while speaking to the class, what they've gone through and what they've sacrificed. The PC, they're special, and they're amazing.

When I had done with my classes, the sense of satisfaction was just.. sweet. After all that the PC had gone through that day, to see that the classes actually acknowledge it, even though only after being scolded, was just shiok. So I sent my PC back to the command centre, and went to check on other classes. And I saw a scene which actually made me tear, seriously, like some scene out of a movie. So I was walking around, when I saw 2 of the PCs outside their class crying. As I was walking over to them, their whole class came running out of the classroom crying, and in one voice, said "对不起姐姐!" My goodness, I was so shocked at the entire scene, it was damn touching. Then I had quite a lengthy talk with the 2 of them, until we were reminded to go back to the command centre. And that emo-session just changed the whole day, not only, the whole camp. Truly a masterstroke by a master manipulator.

The next day was, comparatively, a breeze. The campers co-operated most of the time, and the influence the leaders had on the campers was much greater than before. We started the day with the treasure hunting game, and that was fun. Very messy, but it was fun. Our job was to roam about the place, looking for missing campers and missing classes. And it was a great opportunity to look at how the PC interacted with the campers. Lunch, then the China Kinetic Warfare. Our stations were spread far and wide around the school, and it was an excellent atmosphere. We could have sustained the game for very long, and it would have been great, but we had to push forward everything due to some basketball game going on in the indoor stadium. My station was only played once -.- I prepare everything and in the end played for just 5 minutes lor, then gao dim alr. Damn suay, I think Chris and Jacelyn must have been pretty upset man. They plan so long, then in the end we had to cut it short even though it was doing great. The finale wasn't so great, and much of it was because of the stupid gathering place. 700 people had to squeeze in some tiny canteen. I cannot recall if there was AVAC support, if there was it wasn't good. It was hot in there, squeezy and humid. And all we were doing was some lame rah-rah session, which I think flopped.

Then after that then move into the stadium for some telematch finale. It took way too long, because of the stupid fishing thing. But it was average lah, I believe the crowd got tired after a while. And oh the basketball match was after our finale thing, which was why we had to push everything forward, unfortunately.

Oh yes, it was family time before and after the KW. Before, was to rah-rah my family about the KW, and after, about the Qiushi Night. The one pre-KW was pure bullshit. I was like, we're second in the standings, not so far from the number one, but number three and four are quite close. Then some more bullshit about how if they cheer loudly, they get more points and if they talk while I'm talking I will deduct points. Lol, bullshit like that man, and they believed everything. Super useful. Of course la, every family head told their family that they were number two -.- But that one was not so bad, I think I did pretty well.

Ah, but the one after the KW was excellent. I was alone cause razak went to prepare for the night. Plus the PC from SCDC had to go off too. So there were like, me and 3 PCs. But I think I did a damn wonderful job lah, seriously. First I did some rah-rah thing, very standard one. Then I let them sit in their own circles around the ping pong place. Quite amazingly they took damn long to understand what a circle was supposed to look like -.- After that, I just randomly did stuff and it was damn good. I did like, cheer competition, song-singing and lecturing in that one family time. Power sia. I scolded these few boys so badly, they kenna punish by their teacher. Because of them, I managed to lecture all those gina kia on some random stuff like respect and something. After that was the Night.

Damn tiring, the night. Chori-chori ah, chicken dance and mass dance all. Sibeh tiring. But not bad lah, overall. Much better than SSS. But highlight of the night was, a girl who injured herself. I don't know if she jump or what, but she kenna her ankle. Then me and jocelyn brought her to the medical room which is like SUPER FAR from the stadium. But it was very cool lah, the girl was super cute. Cause it was like, damn dark. If didn't have torchlight, seriously super dark and kinda scary. I know cause I had to walk back there on my own after leaving the girl in the med room -.- But she was damn cute. At first she was super scared cause it was dark, then after me and jocelyn kept talking to her, she was like, "现在不怕了" or something like that, because she had "帅哥得彦" and "美女姐姐" to accompany her. At first she was very shy, then after that she will laugh and smile, very cute. Highlight of the Qiushi night for me.

And that was practically the end of our orientation programme for them. There was e-web the next morning, but only for the 112 leaders and the PC. We were doing our own one, so I didn't manage to hear what was said :/ But it was pretty good lah, from the atmosphere. Then at night, they planned a party for us, with cake and drinks and performance somemore. Very sweet of them. Then we debriefed at LN and I had to smuggle my letters to my PC out to them. Don't know why, they didn't allow us to meet our PC after debrief, but I managed to. The letters for my PC, 6 of them, I had to write using torchlight from like 12am to 3am after the Qiushi night. I'm not sure how long I spent writing my letters to them, but my hand almost cramped man. Super tiring. Like very romantic like that, write letter using torchlight. But tiring lah, during e-web I was super sleepy. And the next morning, we left.

It was super rushed lah, if we had more time it would have been much better. But we had to leave by like... 8 or something? And that was where I cried for the second time. Because it's hard to imagine that we'll see them again, and almost impossible for the 20 of us to meet the 28 of them ever again. The goodbyes were very difficult. Photos, giving them our jackets, and our last words. It's hard to describe the emotions. Cause these were the kids that we trained for 7 days. Really train them and take care of them, and try our best to make them into leaders. And the hope that I did not fail them. But so little time, maybe I could have done more, talked to them more. And that was the last chance we had, while waiting for our bus to arrive. And it's hard to describe the sense of loss, that comes from leaving behind the kids that you have watched grow so much within 7 days. Theirs was an impossible mission, to plan an orientation for 700 people. But they succeeded, and more. It was humbling, because they were excellent and amazing people, all 28 of them. The fervor with which they helped us with whatever they could, with which they learned whatever they could. There's always the regret that maybe I could have done more, for these amazing kids.

It's an experience, being looked up to. Because these people, were wholly dependent on us. They looked to us for advice, support, encouragement. Whenever they are lost or clueless they turn to us. The respect they have for us, is overwhelming and yes, very humbling. Mentorship is a very valuable thing. To have the 6 of my family PCs looking to me for guidance and help, is invaluable.

陈婷 - Out of all of them under my care, she is the one I was most worried about. She was always alone leading her class as Yu Yang had admin work always. She was so timid and shy, I feared for her. I had to pay special attention to her class always. She told me, everytime she saw me she would be afraid, because it usually meant I had more instructions for her. I am very sorry that my presence meant that. I hope she does fine, and she smiles more and worries less. She promised me to. She looks like a mouse.

雨旸 - He could not spend much time with the family, caught up with admin stuff. I know how much he would have wanted to be with his class, but cannot because he has to take attendance and stuff. He said, once when he was at our family spot doing admin stuff, he couldn't help but to scold some boys who were playing behind, and even made them do push-ups. I felt bad when I heard that, it meant that I wasn't doing my job well, and he had to help me when it wasn't his job to do so. He also said on MSN, that he couldn't bear to go offline because he was talking to us. How very sweet of him. I promised him we'll talk again.

沈易 - He is a very nice boy. He looks like some noob nerd in his specs, but he's very nice. He always keng from his log so that he could be with the family. He is also the dude who I almost got injured because I pulled him up on the table with me. He thanked me in his letter, for giving him encouragement. I wonder if I thanked him for his support? He says he doesn't have time to write much in his letter, and I believe him. I know that they wrote their letters to me at night too, after I gave mine to them. I did not realize that fact until I read their letters on the plane, that they too, sacrificed their sleep to write their letters to me. How very stupid of me. Wish I had the chance to thank him, and the others.

吴逸 - She's the emcee. No, I have never blamed her for not being with us. In fact, I failed in giving her the support that she needs. Being an emcee is not easy, what did I have for her but my drink, sweet and lollipop. Oh. I gave those to her late, after all her emcee-ing duties were done. Stupid. She wrote a long letter for me and razak, and folded it intricately into a heart shape. It was great to see english words. "I LOVE YOU, I MISS YOU" That summarizes everything into 6 words. I'll have to tell her I reciprocate those feelings.

吕歆 - This one's the games I/C. I wish I knew the names of the other gamers. It amazes me that I can hardly match any of their names to their faces, except for her. They remember all of us. She's very bubbly, it's hard to imagine what she must have gone through for her to weep during the emo session. The kind of hardship, I must respect her for that. She came up with the treasure hunt game, which is probably better than any of my ideas in the few months leading to the trip. I could probably learn alot from her. She wrote a letter to some of us, but it got lost, unfortunately. Wish I had more to remember her by.

平帆 - She put in her heart and soul, and voice into the camp. By the second day, she could hardly speak. She was hoarse throughout, and needed someone to help her speak out loud. She could only whisper, loudly. It was my fault, no doubt. Up on the stage, not helping the leaders out. She had to shout to control the crowd, which meant that I sucked big time. Also, I kept asking her to substitute me on the table, when I was sick of leading the crowd. I'm really sorry that I neglected her health and her throat deteriorated. She bears no grudges against me, and is effusive in her praise of me in her letter. That just amazes me, and I truly thank her.

There were others, but I know not their names, only their faces. And in time, even their faces will fade. But yeah, they have been amazing, and made my trip amazing. Thanks also to JJ people, of course. Chris, jacelyn, yue yin, razak from the games comm. Others for advice or companionship.

I think it's quite amazing, that 20 of us went there and made a difference, an impact on 700 people. And here I shall end my post on my china trip. And sleep. It's 4.45 already, shet. Nighto.

Wongbok bridge.

Some places somehow manage to lay a hold on people, to retain a certain allure even after we're long gone. It's subjective, and everyone has to have someplace in the recesses of their mind. I've not been on it in 4 months, and in fact don't use it much, but the wongbok bridge is a stunning place. It's like, an overhead bridge with pink flowers. The sort one sees everywhere in Singapore -.- But it's not the place per se, it's the event, no matter that it lasted about 20 seconds. However long one takes to cross an overhead bridge. It's probably the cutest event ever recorded, lolz. Well actually, maybe it's been recorded only by me and replayed only by me, but that's fine by me.

Hahah, today I saw the cutest girls on the mrt. There were 3 of them, and the youngest one was super cute, wooo. I think the other 2 were her sisters, but they didn't look alike at all, but they probably were cause they were calling the oldest one da jie. I have no idea how old she is, I pretty much suck at determining age. Maybe, in secondary school? Sec 1/2/3/4/5 I have no idea, but whatever man. I'm not sure what happened, but somewhere from like queenstown or something, they boarded the mrt and I saw the cute littlest girl who was (again I'm not sure) like 6 maybe? And they were like damn cute, no other description is apt. Then after that, I gave up my seat cause the 2 younger girls were like squeezing into one seat which was kinda funny. And then the 2 younger ones were like asking the da jie to squeeze with them into the 2 seats, cute right. But she didn't. Anyway, somewhere on the way to tampines, I noticed the 2 seated girls looking surreptitiously at me, LOL. Then I cannot help it but smile, even though I pretended not to notice, cause it's just too funny alr, the way they look at me but pretend not to.

Time for some paragraphing. Ya then hor, as we approached tampines I heard the little girl say, "oh no, going to reach tampines alr!" then the da jie was like, "SHHH! Don't talk so loud!" Then lagi best, the little girls try and take photo of me with their da jie's phone, LOL! ROFLMAO!! Then I cannot help it ah, I broke into a smile, but try damn hard to not be so obvious. Then I holding the handle mah, so my arm blocking my face, then the littlest girl was like, "Aiya cannot! His hand block!" LOL. Then they were like whispering, but it was like super loud lah. Actually, it might be because my earpiece only one side working, but they didn't know. WAHAHA. Then after that, the little girl even stand up and try and take photo, HAHAH. Then I do my best to act as if I don't know anything, and look straight out of the mrt window, but almost cannot tahan sia. Then after that hor, when they saw that I alighted at tampines also, they were like so excited lah -.- And then after that I couldn't help but sneak a peek at one of the littler girls, the second youngest one, then I caught her eye then she start giggling like crazy lah! LOL. Cannot accept lah! Freaking cute sia! Seriously cannot accept. The two little girls super cute lah, I think they were helping their da jie, AHAHAHA. Cause the whole ride I see her like very shy like that, don't dare to look in my direction. LOLZ. Really super ownage, adorable to the max.

STOKE MY EGO, MAKE ME FEEL GOOOOOOOOOOOD BABY! Hahaha, I whole day happy after that sia, funny stuff. My best mrt moment ever. Talking about mrt, I have become a whole lot more gracious man, I gave up my seat a grand total of 2 times today. Ownage huh. I also refuse to pass quick judgment on people whom I don't know. E.g RED SKINNY JEANS OR AHLIAN SUPER SHORT SKIRT OR AHBENG OUTFITS. Yes, I cannot stand the sight of these outrageous stuff, but MAYBE, it's not these people's fault that they are born visually impaired or something? That they can't discern between nice and puke-ish? Might be genetics or something, let's not visit the sins of the fathers upon their children (so to speak), for they have no say in heredity. Gracious huh? Hoho.

Oh shiz, Maths is looming pretty big and menacing on the horizon. Trigo is a piece of work, there seem to be alot of formulae involved and stuff. That sucks. Throw in the partial fractions and stuff from half a year ago, and you've got yourself a full blown disaster. What is needed is emergency relief i.e China sending their entire friggin army to help me the way they helped those earthquake victims so admirably. I just might start studying if I'm staring down a barrel. Shucks. Hopefully I can start tmr, and also do my GPP tmr. Holy moley. This could be the end of me. Nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. Maths formulae is cheem stuff. Pfft.

It seems just a simple hello(: sets me going. Mind in a flurry, thoughts raging. Different source, yo.

I'm kind of tempted to write a story, but I shan't cause I'm tired, lols. Tomorrow maybe? But probably not, knowing as I'm so dedicated to studying, won't have the time I think. =D GP sucks eh, no creativity involved -.-

Cute doesn't even begin to describe... that, or much less her. There are too many other 'that's to recall, I can barely skim the surface. I'll suffice with a few. Pfft.

Plain old wongbok, not so plain after all.
Well nighto.