this is a backdated entry. told you i procrastinated a lot.
Modern Pentathlon: YOG Asia-Oceania Qualifiers � Singapore 2009
And a bit on Minds Cafe with Engin Pubs ppl, Swimming at Seng Kang pool, WL�s 21st birthday.
20th December 2009, 10.21pm
Dear Diary,
What an exhausting week it has been. Nearly every day I have been at Singapore Sports School, which is quite ulu in my opinion. Sunday Fencing camp finished, so I rest and recovered on Monday. Tuesday afternoon went to play board games with the engin publications people who could make it at Minds Cafe � my first time. We had a lot of fun playing all the games (that I never played before). My favourite game was the shooting duck gallery. Simple, no deception, direct quick fun killing � it�s very fun and exciting when we decided to play evil instead of nice and delaying each other�s death. And the food�s not bad too. And it�s cheaper than karaoke.
So back to the story, after that gaming session, took MRT to Woodlands. I followed the gothere.sg instructions and got lost. Yes I took the bus correctly but the thing about gothere.sg is that the walking instructions are hopeless. They don�t show the way correctly and don�t measure the time accurately. Furthermore, I found out there�s a bus route with a shorter walk but gothere.sg keeps suggesting a different bus number. Horrid horrid, I spent 45min walking around � I wasn�t wandering that aimlessly but the distance, and I followed a pair of sibling joggers, so I jogged a bit as well, I reached sports school and within sports school went up and down for the security guard didn�t know what �TT Hall meant� and directed me to auditorium, and later I spoke to another security guard at the boarding hostel entrance and she figured out it was table tennis hall. When I found the place and found them there, I plonked down on the floor and laid flat � I was glad I was alive and found them. Wandering around in the dark is something I REALLY REALLY don�t like doing. Good thing Daddy fetched me from there and he had his GPS � which didn�t have �sports school� listed but had the building in the map � he had to enter �Champions Way� to get a direction.
Wednesday, I went to swim at Seng Kang pool with Lynn again. It�s a nice pool. We had a great time swimming. My butterfly goes up and down in the water but very little forward, my front crawl, you can just say it�s not there. Both of us swam hard, but not too hard, for we wanted to keep ourselves able to move � Lynn just swam the day before as well. Then we had lunch at the kopitiam foodcourt at Compass point top floor. The (hua dan)seafood horfun wasn�t bad. When I tasted it initially I could taste that it was less salty than usual hor fun, which is good because as I ate the rest, I didn�t get satiated or find it too salty. It was just the right amount of salt.
Thursday, the seminar part 2 for the judges was held in the evening, starting at 5.30pm. Initially I was supposed to have something on in the day before that, but fortunately the schedule cleared out so I could rest at home. I took that long MRT and bus ride and that long walk, except that the walk was in the day, so I could see things clearly instead of darkness, and I felt better for that. After asking around, I learnt the names of a few other volunteers and got some of their numbers. We pakkat to take taxi the next day after meeting at the MRT since the seminar would start at 9am in the morning. Yes, 9am at Woodlands.
Friday, the seminar continues. The lecturer this part is an Italian, compared to the Portuguese for part 1 in October. We skipped riding and spent today only on combined. Swimming and General were covered thoroughly the previous day and Fencing he just flew through it, skipping most of the slides. We had lunch catered � dinner the previous day was better. The kitchen at the dining hall of SSS catered the food, so it was in abundance and rather healthy and definitely warmer and not as fried as packet food. There were even bananas, salad, a fridge of packet milk or juice and milo dispensed cold from a drinks dispenser, the kind you just put your cup under and push the lever. Nice, man. After walking through the Fields of Play (FOP) after lunch, we went up and did our written exam for the judge�s license. The test was by component sports (hence we didn�t take riding), and was super easy and simple: just Yes or No. The hard part, if any, was trying to figure out what the question was asking, since the lecturer set the questions � and hence it was in Italian English. Eg. �Are MulFunction allowed?� This was from the combined shoot and run section. After thinking for a few moments, I realised it was referring to malfunctioning guns. It was supposed to be a closed book exam but it became open mouth. We were asking our neighbours, and even asked the lecturer. Neighbours copied each other�s answers. I did ask the lecturer indirectly to firstly test my hypothesis, secondly, clarify the terms of the answer, and thirdly to get the answer on something I wasn�t sure. True enough, he gave me the answer. I did the tests for swimming, combined and fencing. The tests were over and done with by 3pm odd, and so we left early though the programme was slated to end at 6pm. Some people might have wanted to attend the (not compulsory for us) technical meeting that evening but given the time, chose to leave. And hence I found out how to quickly take the bus back to Woodlands interchange with minimal walking.
It was WL�s 21st birthday that evening. I initially planned to nap when I was at home but in the end ended up reading newspaper. I did change out of my jeans into a pair of shorts and washed my face and then leisurely took the bus to bishan to meet up with the rest of the fencing gang who were watching Avatar at Bishan GV before going to WL�s party location. I arrived a few minutes before the movie was over, so gang hao. Chewy and KY left, then the rest of us went to search for a birthday card for WL. We got one from Precious Thoughts and it�s design was originally meant for a girl, talking about a guy with hairy chest in a bath tub, but when you open it, you will see a dog having a bath � the dog was quite cute. We bought it in nonsense fun. And hallmark cards are expensive. Hence I tell you now for my 21st birthday, please do not buy a hallmark card, or any birthday card. A piece of construction paper would serve the purpose so much better � it�s cheaper, brightly coloured, and has a lot more space for writing messages, drawings etc.
So after getting the card and meeting up with Aerene, we walked to the venue. Aerene was told by WL that walking by the canal would be faster. I saw the route on the map but I was more familiar with the curving route that would go by Shelby�s. We decided to walk the canal route and it was a LONG walk, especially when they were walking slower than I. After walking for so long we were beginning to doubt if we were heading the right way when finally at the other end there was smoke and two BBQ pits.
WL had ordered bbq from some company that also included hiring a person to bbq the food, hence the friends could all mingle and he didn�t have to be stuck at the pit. That�s a good idea on his part. The food was nice but as usual I don�t eat much at bbqs. Jason appeared later with his new hairdo that surprised us fencers (surprise is an understatement). Thankfully it wasn�t purple. Very loud new hairdo he got. Later in the night Katie also appeared after a function for potential employees. Also, Khai and YL came with WL�s present: a Man U jersey � sweet! Carefully to, they included the receipt in case the size was wrong and he could decide what name to print on the back on the shirt. If you aren�t one who watches football, you might be wondering why include the receipt for it would give away the price of the jersey. Thing is, a football jersey from any famous club is expensive � it can easily go up to $140, especially if it won a championship. Oh hint hint, world cup jerseys are out at adidas and cost $99 ;)
I managed to get Shelby to come down then I could transact her chocolates. She brought her bicycle which gave me fun cycling up and down the canal for a bit. WL initially didn�t invite her because he was afraid that she would be awkward for she only knew me, but in the end, he assured her it was alright and she stayed. :)
At 10pm, the lights went out in the pavilions so it was hard to operate in the darkness. Using torchlight from Aerene�s phone and my camera�s red focus light, we opened up the cake box and prepared the candles etc. So we sang the birthday song in the dark and cut the cake in the dark. The photographs I took using flash. The cake was called �cocoa exotic� from four leaves. It was quite nice. A lot of people liked the crispy base. (in my opinion I don�t like it when cakes are too sweet � this is considered too sweet for me). YL�s bro also had it on his 21st birthday � seems like this cake is popular. Four leaves is a good brand.
Shelby and I walked Katie to the bus stop where Katie could take a bus home. We waited with her. After Katie left, I cycled with Shelby pillion to her home. Daddy picked me from Shelby�s home. On the way down saw WL with his cleanup gang. Reached home about midnight.
Bright and early, got to SSS via cab from the MRT station, pooled. Girl�s competition. My first attempts at scorekeeping were botched, whereas the noobs at fencing got it. Haizz, I can�t expect myself to be advantageous at this even though I have fencing experience. Later got the hang of it. Swimming we were supposed to do control room, but there was no control room � it became a space near the spectator stands of concrete. In the evening did shooting judge. Things went smoothly mostly. A good run-up and learning to prepare for the next day: boy�s competition.
The boy�s competition had more competitors. My scorekeeping was better. I took more photographs that day. Something I noticed: the Chinese team was sponsored with top notch European equipment: fencing suit from all star or uhlmann, and the shoes were the expensive adidas fencing shoes Ivan has. The Taiwanese (aka. Chinese Taipei), one of them wore very clearly all china made equipment. You know the plastron with the red and blue logo? I saw that logo on all parts of his suit: plastron, breeches, jacket, mask even. It�s a clear sign the Chinese know that their own home-made equipment is inferior and would rather buy the expensive foreign things than use their own things for pride. In the morning some of the other volunteers took the fencing exam. I received in the email a week later that I had failed. I guess I didn�t memorise as much. Fencing advantage did not work here. Oh well, I will take it again in August, and I will start reading the document form of the rules a week before, and keep reading it and internalise it � the only better way is osmosis it.
In the swimming section in the afternoon, the Chinese boys wore those high-tech suits. Apparently they are much thicker than the regular spandex so it forces the body into a certain shape. It may be two layers, but it�s one piece. I�m so glad of the new ruling. And boy, did those boys swim fast. The Koreans too. For the girls� competition the Chinese dominate, but for the boys� competition, it�s the South Koreans, followed closely by the Chinese.
In the combined session, it was a classic example of how one needed to be an all-rounder to win the competition. There was one boy who was ranked quite well, top 5, but because his shooting wasn�t as good, he slipped his position, and another boy who was ranked in top 10 caught up because his shooting was quite on the mark and might have become one of the top 5 or even the top 4 in the end.
On the morning of the boys� competition, I had arrived early so I had a second breakfast: honey stars in milk, a banana, and more milk. Seriously they feed the people here well. Yumm. The meals catered were also good. Rice, veggies, fish, chicken, salad, juice, milk, MILO. Yums and cooked healthily (like my home�s Cantonese cooking) and served warm � way better than packet lunch.
I hung out with the different group of volunteers. The youngest group were the announcers, full of energy and spunk, bringing smiles to the seeming-youngest of the UIPM judges. Then there was the other volunteers who I got to know, who we all served the same roles as judges etc., all older or same age as me. They are from different walks of life but they are a great bunch of ppl. I hope these two groups can come together, if only the cell membranes can be broken.
At the end of each component there was a sigh of relief and endorphin, for it was �Yay, it is done, and it was successful!� We were very happy after the combined event.
See the photo album on fb for more story. So in August, it will happen all over again, only this time it will be BIGGER.
