Today was an unusually busy day. Most days I just slack around because there is nothing to do. Then there are days there is one thing to do, for example, i go to school for fencing. Today there were two things to do: play badminton, and go for CAC+US dinner, PD's treat. I like being able to do something, I like having fun and making friends and strengthening friendships. I had a happy day today.

Before all this, last night, I had a bad case of insomnia. I just couldn't sleep. I tried knocking off at 1am - that's usual. But the thing is, I didn't fall asleep. I spend hours lying there, turning here and there, thoughts, ideas, imaginations, flurrying around inside my head. At 3.24am, I received an sms from Joel, confirming what time to meet at Woodlands. I was invited to badminton only last night. I was awake when I received the message. After that, I still was having ideas running through my head, such a blur flurry. Probably fell asleep only 4am or even much later. In between I did get out of bed, go toilet, drink water, and even eat chocolate because I became hungry.

This morning some of us from my family were supposed to go walking at botanics with the dog as well, but because it rained I could sleep in. I thank God that at least I could somehow make up for my lack of sleep. Later Mum, MP and KM went for haircut but they left me to sleep some more.

I left home after lunch, some internet and a rushed packing of bag. I thought I was going to be late! turns out I arrived near the agreed time and Joel was late. So I walked around in Causeway point while waiting for him. When he was nearby, I came out and found him, and his two friends from SYO were also already there at the station. There were supposed to be 5 people but the one who booked the court didn't come (for some unknown reason, a weird situation in my opinion) and so the 4 of us walked to the stadium.

Our court was quite dark, and there wasn't much ventilation besides the ventilation holes near the ceiling. I hadn't touched a racket for 2 years - Joel 5 years! My playing wasn't good, but a bit better than in the past. Then, when I played badminton, I used to go a bit blur like I had lower blood pressure in my eyes and brain. Then start whacking any old how. Today I was able to focus. Not only that, my lunging from fencing helped get some of the shots about the net. My forehand isn't as good anymore, but my backhand is a bit better?

I perspired so much and my shirt was dry fit. I kept wiping my racket handle on it but it wasn't enough. I had to towel rub it. I perspired so much that my racket handle was slippery, and when I didn't hold the racket tight enough, the racket went flying. It did across the net, spinning like some dangerous racket shaped shiruken star, horizontally parallel to the ground with the corner between the face and the stick as the centre of rotation. ah, rotational dynamics. :| i really malu malu malu malu. It went across the net and nearly hit Joel and his friend who is studying marine engineering in SP. (sorry I didn't memorise your friends' names! paiseh)

All in all, I had a fun time exercising and playing. I lunged further than I ever did during fencing (with more power too), and my right shoulder moved so much more range than it usually does. instead of just in and out sideways, and a bit forwards and back, now it is rotating all around the socket. I am aching a bit now but I hope I won't be out of action for fencing tomorrow. I hope this would help in my lunging and range.

Joel rushed off (w/o telling his two flautist friends from SYO). After I changed, I found the two of them outside the stadium buying drink and so we walked to the MRT station together. They kindly planned to pay for my share of the court booking. If you wanna play badminton again, feel free to invite me again! :D Oh ya - i am waiting for the day to fence Joel. Ah yes, WL also owes me a bout.

I took the train down a part of the MRT line my friends take very often, down to Clementi, then changed to 154 and off to Dunearn road (yay i finally got which is dunearn and which is bukit timah road) to Cherry Avenue for CAC+US 'reunion' dinner. Only 5 of us came: XY, YJ, RP, Kr and I. Our dear PD (project director) treated us to the meal. The service was very very very slow. half an hour per dish. WOLS. Effective Uncle managed to make the last 2 dishes, and his bowl of rice come faster. Thanks Uncle! The beancurd was too spicy for me - i got low tolerance. The thai style fish head curry I could tolerate! and it tasted nice too! the baby kailan was too hard (and according to XY the food expert, it's not really baby kailan), the sweet and sour pork is not too bad...

We then took a bus over to Island Creamery. We managed to get seats. It was quite crowded. While waiting for the 3 girls to return from toilet, RP and I looked after their bags, and I tuned the shop's guitar which was lying on the bench.

We shared a tub of horlicks ice cream, covered with lots of milo and horlicks powder. yummy. We reached the point where we took turns to eat the ice cream, passing the tub from person to person, and even changed direction once, so as to deprive XY of the ice cream she was eyeing with those big eyes for one round. hahaha :) She took big scoops of ice cream. It was very fun eating and talking. We took a group photo which we printed on the spot with the shop's photo printer. Canon Selphy photo printers are the best consumer photo printers I have come across. We printed 5 copies - one for the each of us. RP didn't want his copy so we made drawings on it and put it for the owner to put onto the photo wall. For the extra copies we made (instead of the one copy intended), we donated 50cents for each photo into the donation box for Singapore Cancer Society. how nice :)

I saw the videos for the rag performances and floats by the halls this year, filmed and produced by Eusoff Works. Eusoff's float had hydraulics - wicked! a rising and going down platform, dorsal fin erected, the side fins of the fish can move up and down like the fish is swimming! their dance has this certain quality the other halls don't have. Cheerfulness, innocence/cleaness, and fun and energetic, and unique. Not like the other halls, focussing on hip hop/indian dance/something victorian-ish/brought in their halls cheerleaders(they're good) or attempted to be cheerleaders(dangerous to the flyer's safety). Their dance I can compare it to disney's parades maybe. They are fun. and do not copy any of the popular styles. It's the same for the Christmas-like performance last year. and no revealing costumes. I like it. KE7's float was also very pretty. Too bad they didn't put up the faculties' performances. I pity my own faculty. there's not much interest in rag cos of the lousy reputation, so we got a vicious cycle of being undermanned and hence unable to complete the float - some of the dancers are also float builders. I don't want to see my faculty make a no show next year for rag. But can we make something great?

Good luck to you YJ, all the best for your exchange - and happy birthday in advance!