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Haha training was so crazy today! I did 3x300m and ended up all dead and dizzy. It's been quite a long time since I got that close to pure fatigue and I guess it's really rewarding, having your mind taken away from all the things that have been going on. Sometimes we do want to seek the release.
I wonder what keeps me going, I wonder what actually is my source of motivation. Well seems like it could be a blind run all along but I know it's not. That source is somewhere. Still I don't know what I'll probably do with that answer. Oh haha heck it today's a nice grey rainy day, comfortable and cosy.
Last night I was drawing away again so I came up with this short comic script about the recent dumb boxing issue. Haha well if you haven't been reading the papers, well this RJC guy and this ACS guy were supposedly 'fighting it out' over a girl as the prize, which turned out to be a publicity stint for setting up some boxing movement and to promote boxing, but turns out the public got it wrong and yes the usual big fuss is kicked up again as they take offence and deem it dumb. Haha I was thinking I might add some fun to it!
Oh well here goes. Enjoy. Click on the pictures for an enlarged version.
Haha the rain just stopped but it's still a nice grey day.
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Been returning home so late over the past few days I hardly have time to post much. Haha well on saturday I was at ITE East the whole day for the HarmonyWorks conference. It was overall quite fun, being a one-day conference and everything, and I liked the convention package. But one of the best selling points of the conference was the campus itself. All along I only took glances at the beautiful campus from the mrt train and now I'm in the school itself so I took a nice walk around during lunch. It's fantastic!
Imagine if we had classrooms like these!
Block-connecting bridges on every floor and not just the second floor like ours haha.
The arts block is simply the best (glass-blue block in the photo)
And of course, the track. As I watched down at the track from the train frequently the main nice things I noticed about the track were the nice throwing zone, the seats and the fresh new lane markings on the track and now I'm looking at the real thing without having to look through a window in a train carriage.
Haha apart from that, the auditorium we were in was painted a bright orange so it was rather chirpy no matter how cold the place got.
And we had many activities. Well we had a forum theatre session after lunch and it was quite nice to experience it again for the second time since One Degree Asia. Haha it was quite fun!
Then afterwards we had the serious part of the conference (though it was a nice casual discussion but I found it to be the most meaningful part of the whole thing) and we all just rambled away about common spaces and why differences mean so much to Singapore.
Well I guess it really matters haha. Differences among us Singaporeans are essential because without them, we aren't pretty much special and unique Singaporeans. We are divided by vast cultures, different social and personal backgrounds, fed different things, learn different things, and it's beautiful when people from everywhere and come together and talk it out about anything. It makes us versatile, able to understand, accept and appreciate (I hate the word 'tolerate'). It erases our boundaries, so when we see someone or something different from what we expect to see everyday, we won't resort to ostracizing or suffering from culture shock. Instead it broadens ourselves and makes us more welcoming of everyone around us. It does matter haha.
Well it was a fun day. Ended at about 5 plus and I reached home by 6 plus after a nice walk home. Haha it's fun to picture this: I signed up for this conference mainly because it's in ITE East and I can just WALK home after that because it's so near and I end up taking away quite a lot of things. Haha what can I say, sometimes it's good to listen, feel and to explore possibilities, to feel the release in discussion and questioning rather than the release in leisure and recreation.
Afterwards Dad brought us all the way to the yacht club again and I was dining by the seaside once again. Haha then eventually when it got quite late (about 9-10 plus) I started walking down the jetty and pacing up and down feeling the (very) freezing sea breeze. Well then I wondered what kind of interaction between people that I want. Then I realized quite a bit.
I want truth.
Truth in every action, expression,
word or exclamation.
I've had enough of the sarcasm,
too much to need more.
I need truth in what is conveyed.
I don't need truth in what is felt.
Boundaries are there, but don't expand them.
Boundaries are there, they need not be shrunk.
Haha oh well. DELF seems to be prickingly irritating. I just reminded myself it's on the 7th of December. O Mon Dieu!
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Haha today was track camp day two! Yesterday was the first day of course, and sadly there's the ban on overnight camps in school. Now all CCA camps turn into day camps where people derive less than half of the original fun but I guess that's something we have to make do with.
Well today started with normal training drills and stuff and yes a bit of fun relays and we progressed on to war games! Which ended followed by a massive downpour resulting in Mr Quek kindly sending us to Bishan station in a total of two car trips, with more than 6-7 people in his car. Haha here we have the second trip here with Ting Zhang gleefully screaming at me to snap a photo and blog about it haha!
Then we proceeded on the train to City Hall. Well a group of us ended up somewhere in the middle of the train while the other group was at the back. So to join the group at the back we had to squeeze our way past the crowd to the carriage at the very back and halfway through we gave up trying cos it was too crowded. So what did we do?
When the train stopped at Braddell, we sprinted out of the train, raced down the corridor to the end and entered the train just before the doors closed HAHAHA. Then we developed this whole train-sprinting thing. Like when you're late for a track competition, you can do warm-up and do strides on your way there by train-sprinting. Just dash out and sprint as fast as you can and dash in again when you hear "Doors Closing". Haha like Mr Quek said, "Control the controllables!"
Well yeah we reached Marina Square only to find the lan shop closed down and moved away. So we proceeded to go bowling and we made a big racket in the bowling alley lol. Well there were buttons at the platform which when pressed, would lower the barriers and cancel the current bowl so it would be read as zero. So what we did was to playfully press the button when someone was bowling. So what happened numerous times was that the ball will crash into the barrier quite loudly and slide all the way back onto the platform. Haha and for the final bowl, Ting Zhang whirled around like a hammer thrower and sent the ball crashing into the gutters. Haha we laughed our heads off.
After that we went to catch a movie then track camp ended. Lala! Went to tampines mall after that for dinner and some aimless walking then went home. Haha I do realized when it's in the morning and you start thinking about the next day, it's going to be a rotten day. Or at least you expect it to be. Haha weirdness.
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Haha I just got another t-shirt done! Well got back from day one of track camp, just drew some random stuff, splashed together with words of various fonts, a little skewing and moving and here I have a new t-shirt with all the designs ironed on!
Haha here's a closer look. Don't mind the words if you don't like them though I tried my best not to make them seem as if they were there for the sake of being there haha. I think it's okay. For Raffles Track, for all the runners out there.
And here's the new brand, the new wave! Jonlim's coming your way!
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Yesterday at some unearthly hour of the night I started working on a t-shirt design haha! Not that late la I guess. It was about a little past midnight. Well I started off by planning out some designs and stuff and in the end creating a big mess on the table.
Then I printed out a formatted version of some runner drawing which I did on foolscap paper using pencil. Now it looks rather formalised and I proceeded to add on other details onto it.
Then when I got all the drawings ready, I printed them out on the transfer paper and ironed away! Haha there were a lot of screwups resulting in my back logo being somewhat skewered towards the sides but never mind haha there's always a first time!
Haha and finally there, a new t-shirt!
And turning onto the back you can find some form of a little logo thingy!
Haha and I wore the t-shirt to training today to test it out. Now it's in the midst of washing and I hope the colour doesn't run (that fast). Yay haha shall get more t-shirts of my own to design and experiment.
Track camp Thursday+Friday!
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Back from a nice outing with Walter! Haha went to Vivo City again and caught Casino Royale. Well it's definitely some nice action-packed movie given the whole 007 thing and jumps, dives, crashes and explosions here and there but I guess it was rather anti-climax at some point. The main aim of the mission was to win a poker game and claim back the money for some treasury. Haha. It was fun though overall!
Haha not to mention I went to Vivo City two days ago on Saturday to catch The Guardian. It's a really inspirational movie. The way they train past their limits, the way the discipline is upheld and the way they govern themselves as coast guards. And knowing that in really turbulent waters, you have someone holding on to you and reassuring you that everything's fine and safe is really great. It really drove me when they hung on to the victims and said "I won't let go."
Haha I've had two movies within three days. Fun enough! And just now I went into PageOne and dug at all the design books and now inspiration is steaming from my mind. After I clear all the required work I shall get down to drawing and designing a bit. There's so much I want to do now haha!
But DELF is there. Haha DELF GO AWAY. I still need to study that extra bit.
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If your wardrobe hides two or more different types of people,
you know you've got decisions to make, every single day.
Little decisions, wise decisions, foolish ones even
that might make your day, or spoil it.
To be someone for that day which you aren't,
would be fun, yet wrong, yet uncomfortable still
but somehow you'd wish you've never had more than one style.
From shirts to sneakers to slippers to singlets,
and bags to pouches to berms, jeans, shorts,
would they define you in the end for that day?
Or ultimately, would you define yourself.
Haha a few days ago I got myself the new Corrinne May album. It's always some wonder! Her voice is soothing and the songs really let you know that christmas is around, even with the hot sun, crazy rain and lack of snow. Haha oh well can't wait for the concert in December! Well then life still goes on. DELF looms ahead and still I haven't started much. Definitely starting this week.
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I'm back! Blogger was down yesterday, much to my disappointment but finally I can get everything off my chest. Haha it was 3 days' worth of pure fun and laughter.
RIPB RETREAT 2006 DAY ONE
Well we assembled crazily early at 6.30am and soon we were hopping away past the customs and into Malaysia. Then the people at the back started playing the yes-no game and we had a great deal of fun! The whole 3+ hour trip was spent munching away, sleeping, playing, getting hooked on music, and basically just wasting life away to the best of our abilities, and yes this is quite the life man!
Then along the way I took a few snaps at some cars on the road and the best one I caught was this rather hip blue car hahaha. Malaysia's cars are getting better and better. Five years ago they were mostly Kancils, Protons and Malaysian-brand cars and now they've opened up to the world.
Then around early afternoon we finally made it to the hotel and had our lunch and soon we were in our booked seminar room and kickstarting all our games and activities! Well there were games like mass scissors-paper-stone-ing around...
which eventually a few prefects made it into the final few rounds and they had to keep a still face without laughing, subjected to external pressure by the other prefects to make them laugh.
And yes Jerome was quite a winner hahaha he kept this face as I flashed the camera light on him and having him exposed to maniacal laughter from all around him.
Another game was an icebreaker where we separated the board into new prefects and old prefects and we had a big blanket blocking the two groups from each other. One prefect from each group would go up to the blanket and the blanket would be dropped. The prefect who cites the name of the other prefect first would win a point for their group! And so we proceeded to do it with one of the trusty pink hotel blankets.
And yes it generated quite a bit of horrible laughter and fun. Pure fun!
Then another game was when prefects had to tie balloons to their ankles and walk all over the place to step on others' balloons but yet protect their own. Haha so everyone was busy tying them tightly, and stuff and there was a mass stampede of hopping crazy prefects stepping all over the place. Wildness.
Haha and before all of that, yansheng and jerome decided to do a little demo with balloons under their shirts, which caused them quite a bit of pain when they eventually popped I guess!
Hahaha. After that was water games in the big swimming pool. I didn't bring my phone down so I couldn't snap anything. But the big thing was before that I thought I lost my hotel key and my group was basically freaking out all over the place before we realized it was with Mr Teo. Hahaha.
Then came DINNER, in a very very nice restaurant in the hotel.
Tom got quite high so I got this nice pose from him!
Haha yay lol. After dinner we all had a scavenger hunt where there was a requirement for 2 handphones. Since only the exco could keep their phones with them and each group only had one exco member, Paul and I were eventually begged / threatened / seduced / coaxed into giving our phones to them haha! Yes eventually I gave the phone to Biquan's group after considerably doing much damage to his face in the spirit of ART.
Another required item in the list was an EZlink card which the photo doesn't look like the owner. Jerome won, but he stuck some woman's face across his photo so eventually we decided that he had better look more like the woman before concluding the scavenger hunt. And so, we got down to business!
And there the final product was, touched up with a pinch of powder and rosy cheeks HAHAHA.
Soon after we were pretty done for the day. Spent really really long in the hotel room talking rubbish with Linan and Yanliang and we slept quite late.
RIPB RETREAT 2006 DAY TWO
Okay sadly not many photos for the rest of the retreat anymore but yes we woke up 15 mins before the required meeting time so it was kinda screwed. Eventually we made it punctually and after a bit of games I borrowed Zongyi's wonderful Adizeroes to run with Mr Yap and we covered about 6km circling the hotel grounds twice. I tell you, the hotel grounds are huge.
Haha we had loads and loads of activities. I couldn't possibly remember much without taking much photos but halfway through we had this activity where we had to devise methods to measure Mr Teo's height using a ping-pong ball. So we had lots and lots of quirky ideas.
With a caricature of Mr Teo,
a body caricature of Mr Teo,
Tom's wonderful ideas and Lionel's wonderfully emotive actions and expressions,
It was definitely some crazy fun we had. Well I was horribly down with flu so yeah
I slept earlier than the previous night but it was still a lot of fun haha.
Wait. How could I have forgotten! Well we had an activity where each group had to do up a skit on HOW TO GET PAUL TERN A GIRLFRIEND. I think that was some climax of the retreat, we took away really alot alot of laughs. Poor Paul didn't like it!
RIPB RETREAT 2006 DAY THREE
Woke up 5 mins before the required meeting time! But still made it in time. And ran 6km with Mr Yap again, this time a little slower because of the horrible flu but after I ran everything simply cleared and I RECOVERED. That's training the flu away for you! Hahah.
I realized I didn't take a single photo today but yeah the best thing was the shopping bit where we stopped by Malacca to shop and I got myself a haircut! Plus the best thing is that it's possibly the same price for a haircut in Singapore but here in Malaysia I got myself a wash and style too. Haha nothing like a good cut to pamper myself instead of returning to Singapore and getting those shave-along-the-bowl haircuts along the streets. Hahah yay.
The rest of the retreat was spent in the bus crapping away, sleeping, listening to music before my ipod went flat and yes crapping crapping. That sums up the board retreat just as much I guess!
Haha and along the way I was thinking about so many things.
The eyes are strong on you,
waiting for you, seeing what you can do.
The world's coming to pieces,
it's up to you to hop on these bits
and hop back to the surface.
There's a time for everything,
but sometimes that time doesn't come.
As much as you try to make it arrive
it flops and drops no matter
how much or how hard you strive.
What matters probably
is to keep alive,
believing in what's interesting and what's best.
Haha before I return again tomorrow, here was a little poem done by Nabil and gang:
Roses are red,
violets are blue.
Most poems rhyme,
but this doesn't.
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I'm just about to leave home for school haha and yes for the board retreat!
I think I had a weird dream about two construction workers going up to my car and taking it apart piece by piece and I got out of my car and whacked them so hard again and again but they didn't seem to take any damage. Haha fun fun.
Till Wednesday!
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Went for duck tours sometime around late afternoon yesterday, well it felt weird to be standing amidst tourists from all kinds of countries haha but it was fun at the start nevertheless. Well it was indeed fun when we all went crashing into the kallang basin from some offroad track and those people sitting at the sides got themselves all drenched.
Then we went scooting around in the water. And at some point we went near the merlion at Fullerton and that was when everyone started snapping away on their cameras. Haha it reminds me of the prefects' training camp we had last year! We went on an all-night singapore nightlife tour and at some point we were at this jetty stoning and laughing and yes some sleeping. We were taken to Bedok Jetty to catch the last sunrise of year 2005 but sadly we were all dozing away and missed it just as much. Hahaha.
Then for dinner I went to Vivo City. (FINALLY. I know I'm very very slow and this is the first time I've been there sigh lol) Haha the place really really reminds me of some Malaysia shopping mall. I guess it's cos shopping malls in Malaysia look mainly like that, low ceilings, long corridors, different sectors of the mall labelled east west north south. Haha it's a really fun place but sadly I think I spent a little off an hour there only. I shall go back another day and have the entire day there to clown around. I liked that old cruise liner thingy hanging outside the mall!
Haha I just reminded myself of the DELF exam in early December. I'm screwed.
But never mind. Tomorrow will be prefects' retreat yay! Will be in Malaysia from tomorrow till wednesday so I guess I shan't blog unless I have a laptop to blog from. I can try posting! Haha. But no photos, nothing of much till I get back home altogether. Then I shall start studying for DELF, spend my last few hours with french before I leave it totally altogether I guess.
Haha oh well. Till wednesday then! These coming three days will be full of fun and madness.
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PLC ended yesterday, but I was horribly far too tired to post anything. Well what I know happened was that I arrived crashing into the doorstep when I reached home in a fatigue-laden stupor and couldn't be bothered to think about anything. I was dozing while having dinner and yes, slept at around 8pm and waking up at 7am the next day for training! Haha. Okay three days worth of posts coming right up.
PUPIL LEADERS' CAMP DAY ONE
It was a rather nice start to the camp well I was expected lots and lots of mental torture and PT and stuff to grind us into disciplined people but it was a relaxed start, taking attendance and expectedly confiscating our valuables over the period of the camp. Haha was quite a fun start actually.
It was a little more fun when we had to move to the AVT and had talks and stuff for the entire morning. Lots of them were really inspiring. And I loved Mr Eng's talks about the past events of RI where the Rafflesian Spirit was really shown at times. Now we look at those events and wonder when will we ever reach that defining moment again. Somehow we will achieve that, this coming new year is for us to take.
We had lots to do and lots to listen, about taking our camp bags, packing our stuff, preparing for our trek and kayaking expeditions and stuff, which I couldn't really remember. Haha oh yeah forgot to mention the groupings. Haha all the CCALs and ACCALs were split into 12 groups and each was named after a Greek god. My group was Poseidon! Haha and the group comprised of Tom, Hiok, Leonard, Louis, Bing Long, JonNeo, Bi Ran, Danny and me! Haha we really had a lot of fun I guess.
One of the first few things we did was to design our flag! Haha nowadays I don't know but everytime we get to design something I just feel happy lol. Well we were Poseidon, and when we had to give our supposed 'ship' for our expedition a name, we immediately came to the idea of Poseidon itself haha but eventually we named our ship TOM CRUISE. Tom wrote the name down happily himself yay.
And here's our flag!
Haha soon after our lunch we packed up and we hopped onto the bus to our starting point for our trek. Well we were blindfolded on the bus lol and we got whished away to somewhere in Pasir Ris, near some farmland thingies. After some games and stuff we got the map and compass cracking and we sped off.
Sped off in the wrong direction, unfortunately. After we walked about almost a kilometre we realized we walked in the wrong direction and had to walk back but now Paul's group had already overtaken us by lots and lots. Haha we tried to catch up but to no avail. And halfway through we left Leonard lagging behind so the Group Instructors made us pay for the mistake by having Hiok blindfolded. Haha and I had to guide him all the way.
Later on we exchanged blindfolding and I was blindfolded at some point haha. We eventually went from this Pasir Ris farmway to Pasir Ris park and got stranded there playing games and eating stuff. OH YES I FORGOT ABOUT THE FOOD. We are one quirky group! We sent Danny and JonNeo to go buy the food and they returned not only with 6 loaves of bread, but more excitingly, 26 packets of hello panda, and lots of other stuff like Chips Ahoy, Ritz Biscuits, Zooland, Famous Amos and whatever there is. Haha and all the way we kept focussing on 26 hello panda to eat. Hahaha.
The bad point was that by the time we reached Pasir Ris park (which was our first checkpoint) it was already getting dark and we still had two other checkpoints to reach. This time JonNeo had to navigate and he led us all deep into Pasir Ris park, which I knew quite well but however my knowledge was proved useless and we walked all the way into Aloha Loyang, out of the park again and onto Pasir Ris main road, after which we continued onto the transition between Changi, Pasir Ris and Tampines and continued on the Changi Beach Club, which was way deep into Changi. It was a horrible horrible late time by then and we were lagging by lots.
Haha then at Changi Beach Club we decided to sneak into the toilet because we had to refill our bottles and we had to sneak in via the back door of the sports facility because the guard wouldn't let us in. Haha I tell you the toilet is air conditioned and so peaceful, given our conditions, I'd be more than willing to sleep overnight in the toilet but sadly we couldn't. Haha.
Okay after the second checkpoint we got sick and tired of the trek already so in the end Bing Long decided to take a shortcut through some ulu road to the third checkpoint which would save us a great deal of time. AND YES IT WORKED! Haha we came in second last, which wasn't so bad and finally we pitched our tents and slept after a while. We rushed our tent-pitching so our tents were somehow deformed and twisted. My tent was a little silly cos halfway through the night the strong wind from Changi Point blew our flysheet away and it started raining after that. So I was feeling raindrops on my face before I woke up and Louis stepped outside to put the flysheet back on. Haha.
PUPIL LEADERS' CAMP DAY TWO
Oh yes we woke up, unpitched tents, endured a crazy morning PT session haha and soon after we had to start kayaking! We kayaked from Changi Beach and Loyang Beach which was about 4 click. 4km I suppose. Haha and by the time we reached Loyang Beach it was already dead-sun afternoon and we had to eat our miserable lunch comprising of chips ahoy and bananas and run around playing three games, the first one being that we had to use our t-shirts to blindfold ourselves. I don't know how many citizens of the public had to endure topless RI guys all running around here and there over the field. Complete eyesore hahahaha.
Okay after all of that we had to kayak another 4km back to Changi Beach, and halfway through it actually started raining and the current was crazily against us so JonNeo and I had to kayak like mad pigs across the currents which rocked our kayak like crazy and swept seawater into our kayaks alot. Haha so much for the ziploc bag that contained our lunch and first aid kit. It was supposed to keep the stuff totally dry but what we got in the end was a waterlogged ziploc and the stuff were FAIRLY dry thanks to the extra plastic bags yay haha.
We saw weird stuff. Like small fish on our seats and loads of seaweed on our shoes and stuff. Haha it's quite sad that my phone was confiscated, otherwise I'd have so much to post through photos and stuff. Well eventually we did kayak back successfully (of course, God save us if we didn't) and yeah danny dug out all of the hello pandas and we finished them in the sea sports club shortly after. Haha. Luckily for us we didn't have to trek back to RI and we hopped onto this luxurious bus back to school.
Hahah we got back to school, washed tents, ate some great great dinner, packed up alot of stuff, and slept in the junior block! Haha we chose to sleep right in the centre of the junior block atrium and it was really a fun thing. We all slept like pigs thanks to the kayaking!
PUPIL LEADERS' CAMP DAY THREE
Woke up, had another torturous PT, had breakfast and then came the session by Paul and I. I was pretty disappointed la at some point. For the CCALs and ACCALs some displayed strong spirit while alot of others weren't even paying attention, and weren't even committed. I do agree I was sleepy at some point but yeah looking at the how come CCALs were behaving during the session it was quite sad. But yeah it can be improved. Definitely.
Haha after that was the performances by groups and stuff, another inspirational talk by Mr Mag and soon later we packed up, rounded up, and went home after getting our valuables back and that was when I started taking shots all over the place even though I couldn't take much already by then.
Walter! Haha thanks for all the support this year and all the years way back. So understanding too.
And then at some point TingZhang forced Ben Khoo to face the camera and they were struggling all the way through.
And this is what you get when you take a shot of the junior block while lying down in the ground floor!
Haha and that was it. There was training today too and stuff but shan't go so deep down about it. Oh yeah today I tried Kieran's Maxcats cos I was thinking about getting a pair for next year but turns out I might not get it. Haha too different from my Celars. Maybe I shall just stick with these clown white shoes for next year yay haha.
And there was sec4 prefects' farewell! Haha shall blog about it tomorrow.
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