Dear Diary,

Ytd was fencing again :) I trained with coach. I learnt a new Chinese phrase: shu du. it means speed. at the end of the training with coach, he gave me his comments in Chinese. I talk to him in Chinese so maybe he thinks I understand chinese well enough. :S I understood about 40% of what he was saying. In summary, he says I have the power but I need to improve my speed, I think. Yeah, I'm quite a slow fencer because I don't have the strength nor stamina to keep up. I don't fully extend my arm when lunging or poking. My triceps muscle on my arm gets tired faster than the others. When I have the power, it's because I have planned my attack and unleash it in a fury. Hence, sorry to all those that I have caused pain on the chest from the poke wounds. Sorry sorry sorry much. (It's usually the guys cos we girls wear chest protectors for a reason.)

Today I went swimming in the morning with Lynn. I met her at Hougang MRT where we then took NEL to Seng Kang then changed to the LRT to go to Seng Kang's swimming complex. The last time I went to a public swimming pool was in primary school at River Valley Swimming Complex and Ang Mo Kio swimming complex in P5 and P6. There is water sports day in primary school, it's like sports day but it's swimming. We trained at River Valley and competed at Ang Mo Kio (I think it is AMK). All the upper primary students had to attend. (not enough space for the whole school i think) The other public pool I went to was Toa Payoh with my family in Primary 3.

The pool's facilities were quite good. One sheltered pool, one outdoor olympic sized pool, one 1.0m deep pool for children and WATER SLIDES. Oh yes, WATER SLIDES!! And since the place wasn't crowded, no queues! yay~

We first changed in the wet shower cubicles (what to expect, they will be wet) that had a partitioned area with a seat and 2 hooks on the wall and one on the door to put the stuff on (very convenient!) After Lynn waited quite some time for me (as I put on my sunblock and went toilet) we then went to put the stuff in the locker. Swaku me put in only one 20cent coin and wondered why the key won�t turn. I didn�t see on the other lockers (mine didn�t have the sticker). It�s 2x20c coins. I just donated 20cents to the complex. I didn�t want to pursue the matter. We both took a photo of us in our swimming costumes. She wanted to see the �full-length� or at least the length of the body. I told her she can upload onto facebook, but to lock the album. :P sorry, but no one sees my shoulders or that much leg except a select few. (Have you ever seen me wear a tank top without my over shirt?)

The first thing we did after showering was to get into the water. How? WATER SLIDE. Oh yes, a very sudden way to get into the water. We went to the tallest slide (about 3m tall, so it isn�t super tall as like I saw from outside Jurong�s nor big splash), she into the purple one on the right and I in the yellow one on the left. I laid back instead of sit up at an angle and I felt that I was going down so fast without control that I did what I usually always do on rollercoasters: scream. A thought ran through my head as I slid down: what if the pool wasn�t deep enough that I hit my tailbone on the bottom of the pool and da da da? What a thought one could have on those few seconds of sliding down. Soon I was completely immersed in water and I rushed up to the surface since I didn�t hold much breath. The surface wasn�t very far up (in fact it was quite near) but I had to overcome inertia first from all the disturbances in the water. It was the first time I slid on a water slide in years. The last time I slid down a proper water slide was in primary school at now defunct Fantasy Island (as far as I can remember). Lynn appeared on my right. O.o I turned around and saw the slides twisted around each other.

We also tried the medium open top slides. It was also fast but not as fast as the tall tube previously. Lynn burned her back a bit because she laid back, as the staff on duty warned. I still screamed on the slide. Such a noob I am when it comes to water slides. Haha.

So now wet and ready to enter the water, we went over to the sheltered pool because Lynn wanted to keep fair. She says no matter how much sunblock she puts she will chao ta. I�m the kind that slow to burn slow to tan. So if I burn chances are everyone else is burned as well. Lynn popped herself in the water and I slunk in. We did our favourite breast stroke for a few laps first, resting at the ends and in between. Both of us find breast stroke the easiest. Lynn also showed me her butterfly and the forward tuck turn underwater that swimmers do to change direction. I tried doing those (my dolphin kick resembled half frog half dolphin according to Lynn, and my turn became a half turn half twist), as well as a failed attempt to do a handstand and my awful messy front crawl. I learnt that what I had thought of all these years was wrong: the legs had to be as straight as possible for the fish kick to get more power. Oh man. I always thought they were bent as I saw others swim (hmm, come to think of it, the swimmers at the Olympics do have straight legs when doing that kick). So I tried and retaught myself the fish kick. I felt like I was going forwards like a slow locomotive, at a slow constant speed that was slower than the frog kick, but I reached Lynn some way the pool length faster than with the breast stroke.
We practiced the strokes, swimming laps, taking breaks. Goofing off and talking once in a while. I found out she has the same blood type as MF (as I recall MF could�ve told me in JC before), and similar blood type to me. I also showed her the position I liked to rest in at the edge of the pool, curled up like in a hammock or foetal position with one arm supporting me upright placed in a triangle on the edge of the pool like an arm rest. I also pulled her along as she floated, we floated around relaxing on our backs; we also did backstroke(mine was quite bad). We talked a lot of things like Mas Selamat reportedly cannot swim more than 1km, the NUS swimming pool. We at one point were bobbing up and down, making different faces at each other underwater, which set me off laughing at the end of it, like I did several times that day. I�ve improved my swimming techniques a bit today. I can say by far, though I learnt swimming for much longer than Lynn has, she is a much better swimmer than I am.

To round off the swimming (it was past 12), we went on the big tube slides again. Whee! I went on the purple one and she on the yellow one this time. We then went to slack in the 1.0m pool which was surprisingly colder than the sheltered pool despite being in the sun. Lynn managed to swim normally and do the turn in the pool which I previously thought was too shallow. We also tried sitting at the bottom, which wasn�t easy to reach.

We took a photo of our wet selves with my hair in its messy wet glory. Then off to bathe. We chatted a bit as we showered. I lent her my comb. Later outside Lynn spotted a spider on its huge web. So cool! On our way out we stopped by to check out 7-eleven which had quite a bit of food and was big for a 7-eleven. They even sold kites. The last time either of us flew kites was in primary school. We shall fly kite one day!

We took the LRT back to Seng Kang interchange to Compasspoint. She took the stairs while lazy tired me took the lift between 1st and 2nd and 2nd and 3rd floors. We had lunch together at Ajisen Ramen, where we had a conversation that was greatly appreciated by both sides. Lynn�s bag handle broke (again apparently) so we went around shopping for another bag. She didn�t see any suitable bag at Montip nor 77th street. She saw a halter/tube top at pepper plus and went in to try it. She tried a brown one for size and a purple one for colour but the store assistant didn�t want to let her try a purple one of her size. Bad service, because she just showed she was lazy. Lynn took a photo of the mannequin in the window before we went off back to Hougang; her mum called and was waiting for her.

The silence was broken: we talked so much. I felt sad that we soon had to part our ways, me to home, she to her mother. I queued with her at the McCafe stand at the interchange (so nice lor! Got such thing at the interchange. Apparently this is the only McCafe without seats.) until I had to run after my bus. On the long winding journey back, as I listened to songs on my hp, I sat cross-legged, unwinding and smiled on the inside. Thanks for the great day Lynn!