23rd September 2011, 5.40pm Chewy and Alvin�s birthday cake, lunch with Joel at ION
Yesterday I was supposed to go lunch with Joel at Jurong Point but we had to call it off while I was on the MRT because I was late and he forgot he had rugby training. (Seriously, he is so busy with so many activities. Hall Life, yo.) I hadn�t seen him for a long time, since my house-warming and that chance encounter at MT�s dance concert last Saturday. So I went direct to NUS to eat my late lunch and then memorise the next week�s Jap vocabulary test and the conversation. I also completed the reading practice assignment. It was quite easy. Jap is shiong in NUS, but not so shiong that it would cripple me. Maybe cos I cleared one of my mods already. So yes, it was a productive 2 hours.
I found out on the NUS website how to connect to the new NUS network on laptop and hp. I used the chance to install Whatsapp on daddy�s hp and then chatted with Xy. Heehee =) she kept me company while I did my work, waiting for 6pm when I would get ready for training. The new exco had been doing store cleaning all this while. I didn�t help them because I wanted to study, and more importantly, I wanted to hide the cake from Chewy and Alvin.
During Fencing I found out Stefan, or rather I imprinted deeper into my memory that, was a permanent MBA student, and will be here for 2 years. So he is not an exchange student. So every Thursday I can practice German with him :D heehee. He is tall and dares to lunge and knows to disengage the opponent. I was about to lose to him in my first bout. At the last two points, I woke up. I realized I wasn�t thinking hard while fencing. I suddenly fell into a quiet zone, of deep focus. In this zone I suddenly was a lot sharper and did solid-er parry-ripostes and lunged more properly instead of going in too close, and sealed my victory.
I fenced this freshie sabrer who wanted to learn foil. I had good lunges and parry-ripostes that YL praised �good�. That made me happy. It is funny; the store has one lame that is converted from a sabre lame. You can see the cut off sleeves and this triangle sewn on. Hongbin commented my parry ripostes were fast, which I don�t really think so. Maybe the zone thing slowed things down/quicken my perception. Freddy who presided that bout (thank you nice Freddy) commented that a lot of sabre moves came out from him.
Later I fenced DJ. I had observed last training and this time round that he likes to attack from the 6 and 8 corners. So I had to be extra careful there; to pay attention to there and to make sure to parry deep enough there that I would catch his blade before he would touch� me. He won this time round, not after I gave him a tough time. I noticed that in my zone I just lunged at him whenever my body came within the right range. It was a subconscious decision, compared to my more hesitant conscious lunging. But alas, most of my points were on DJ�s arm and therefore invalid.
That night I fenced Ian in epee as well, making it 4 bouts for the night, which is quite good. It helped that the foil bouts were 7 points each, with this being the only 10point bout. I was lucky in some of the points because I hadn�t cleared Ian�s point fully but I think because Ian was trying something new out or donnowhat, he was more flustered and his actions were bigger and missing the point.
Jessica popped down today after she was studying in school. Nice to see her :). Another surprising thing was Spiderboy, as we nicknamed him. We suddenly saw a little boy in spiderman singlet and shorts chasing Alan around the hall, just as Jessica walked in. Spiderboy appeared later again. Apparently he just appeared out of nowhere and tried to pull Alan�s shorts. Apparently as well, after we asked him, we found out his father was playing badminton on-campus. His father found him later and gave him a few instructions before letting the 5 year old continue running around. Aerene and Alan were playing with him. Jessica was also a bit engaged. I was as usual cannot engage young children. YL talked to the little kid and smart he was, the little kid would not let Yan Li carry him even when YL tried to bribe him with sweets.
Oh yeah, someone didn�t lock the switchbox so we turned on the aircon that training. Oh yeah. But I didn�t feel a remarked improvement than when there�s no aircon, cos when I�m all suited up, it�s still hot. But at least less humid.
Later we went for supper and cut the cake there. Chewy�s birthday had passed on the 19th and Alvin�s was coming on Saturday. We made it a more quiet version compared to Aerene�s very malu one at Clementi coffee shop. I had miscounted and forgot that Alvin was in the same year as I, and so I took more candles than needed. It was also another junior�s birthday coming soon, Gabriel the new log fella. Good thing most of the people present then chipped in for the cake. Next time I will try to catch everyone and cut the cake in MPSH6. But today we were very late and everywhere; some had changed and were outside, some were still fencing, some were packing the stuff, and we were running very late.
The next day I went out for lunch with Joel. I hadn�t seen him in quite long. I finally had the chance to pass him his Man-U souvenir I had bought at Old Trafford for him. We met at ION Orchard to eat some neutrons and protons. He suggested Newton if we wanted something cheap � yah if so you should have told me earlier so that I can wear more slack, and that Newton was nearer than Orchard for me. By the way, the cheng tng at Newton I like because Uncle Milo gives a lot of liao for $2 or less. We settled for this sukiyaki teppanyaki place in the end that while pricey could be kept under $15. I had a whole sukiyaki set to myself which meant a lot of veggies. Good for me since I hadn�t eaten much veggies lately. The food wasn�t bad. Happy Belly Happy Human. I burned my tongue a few times from the scalding hot soup, you know that hardened plastic feeling on your tongue, all numb? Haha
After that we went to get Joel�s Happy Lemon. I am not a fan of Happy Lemon; I prefer Gong Cha, but the pearls are acceptable still, not like sweet talk�s. Donno why but the pearls from this stall tasted sour to me (not to Joel), as if the shop put some happy lemon inside the pearls. Haha. Maybe I should drink that lemon drink to find out why people like it.
Joel and I walked walked around cos he and I had free time. He caught eye of a push cart selling t-shirts and really liked a t-shirt with a green level up mushroom from Mario. He liked the material because it was soft, good for dancing. He bought the shirt, though it wasn�t in yellow, and was $16, a price I wouldn�t pay. He then followed me to buy shoes for fencing. The plastic had hardened that I had no more grip. On Thursday we played captain�s ball to warm up. The moment when the game started when I wanted to run after the ball I immediately slipped and fell like a carpet had been pulled from under my feet. I knew I couldn�t put off buying new shoes any longer, even though the shoes are only less than 3 years old. Only one model from the adidas women�s range had something my size. Otherwise I would have to look at the Mizuno guy�s range. I didn�t want to look there cos the shoes on the shelves looked expensive, especially that the store keeper guy immediately suggested me a pair that was $129, a price I wasn�t keen to pay. I related to Joel how hard it is for me to find shoes in Singapore, and therefore I bought a lot of shoes while I was in Europe. 1 new pair of shoes. I am $85 poorer. No more slipping for me!
Walking out of the shop he saw the batman/superman/donnowhatman shop and went in for a look. He was drawn to the shoe section and spied a purple and black checkered high cut shoes. The coolest thing about the shoes, are that they have the superman logo. If the shoe and the logo aren�t in your face, then they aren�t worth it. There was a particular white pair that was quite nice except that the toes part curls up that it doesn�t touch the floor and the material is patent.
In the evening, I met up with rookas, OPHHJ, 1icing and Mongs. Justin was stuck in traffic so we went to Ootoya. Turns out the restaurant Justin was recommending was the one I was also trying to recommend. Yummy yummy I had katsu pork with the sesame seed sauce that you grind yourself. I was thinking back about my trip to Japan and how I had this on my first night in Kobe. So nice!! Happy Belly Happy Human.
We thought about what to do after dinner. Mongs proposed as an alternative to her Irish bar place Butter Factory but the rest of us weren�t keen on it. We decided to try doing KTV but it was $42 per person, way too expensive, though it was to 6am (no I am not singing all the way to 6am). So we went to that Irish bar as planned. Mongs wanted to go there because she thought the singer was good. I do agree. Both the singer and guitarist were good.
We ordered drinks. It was the first time I was ordering alcohol since I came back from SEP. I saw the prices and almost flipped. It was $9 for a half-pint (25cl) of cider. Crazy. I used to pay 3Euro for that. Now I know how expensive alcohol is in Singapore. The Strongbow cider was quite nice. So was the Muscato wine, though it was quite sweet. I didn�t order the Erdinger Weissbier because I wasn�t sure if it came from Bavaria. I didn�t want to drink too much alcohol either.
So the song �love me love me, say that you love me, please me please me (donno), say that you need me� is called �love fool�. We played a game Justin suggested, we had to guess the name of a character, fictitious or non-fictional, written on a tissue or post-it (we had no post-its) and shown on our head. We could ask the rest at the table yes-no questions. Funny game.
Since we wanted to continue playing games, we went to Mind�s Caf� at Prinsep Street. It was past 12 midnight when we started walking. We had a fun time playing Jenga, Taboo and Who�s the Boss. I had to end the game quick because T was calling me. She had locked the door and gate and was waiting for me to come back, or else no one would be able to open the door for me. It was already 2.30am, and she was tired. Immediately after the game ended and we kept the stuff and paid, Mongs and I immediately headed down to catch a cab home.
I was expecting some HTHT chit chat to catch up but it turned out like the cookout. When we 5 are together, the thoughts immediately drift to games, that we somehow haven�t actually started the conversation ball rolling. I hope to be able to do so the next time we meet. Maybe next time we also do KTV. Heehee.
Sunday morning helped out at Sunday school Kindy section�s children�s day celebration. I did so because I knew Aunty Pat was short on helpers. I did what I could, which was carrying 12*1.5l bottles of water in a box, because I am not good with interacting with young children who I don�t know them and they don�t know me. Some of the kids were staring at me, wondering �Who is she? Why is she here? She is so tall.� If I were them, I would do so too. I�m not a one-hit-wonder (as in first time see kid can get them to play with you and listen to you) like my Mum or the legendary Auntie Pat. They have an amazing way with kids.
