~JcZw

Its been a week of mixed feelings (even though the week ain't up yet). Got back from camp on wednesday... Camp was pretty interesting, some parts were even useful.. haha... yup, interacted with many people and made quite a few new friends. Enjoyed playing bridge at 12 plus in the night with the OSSIS people, lighting charcoal fires blindly (cos due to allergic conjunctivitis I can't see in dusty and hot environments). My group was pretty nice, had a few people I knew, including Zu Hao, Maurice etcetra.

The sharing session on the last day let Victoria and I say out what we felt regarding our position as a new student-initiated club... Mr Ho told us that we "had a good attitude" so I guess it was kinda reassuring. Watching Gerry set up her rock climbing club has also done a lot for me wanting to work harder at it. The soccer and bball people were really quiet during the session... Guess they realised finally how privileged they were while other ccas were fighting for survial. I mean, they deserve it, with their awards and all, but sometimes I feel that the distribution of funds for ccas should really be more communist in nature....

Oh yeah, discovered that in the PSLE first option, Tinyau put AHS as first choice, while I put VS as mine (ChuaH, Cat. High was my second choice ok?). The girls concluded that I would then have desmond's character while Tinyau would have had Phoon's... haha..... Quite true. But then again, I like being blur sometimes... It helps when certain strangers try to borrow your handphone. Clarification... I got into AHS cos of the second option for SAP schools.

Anyway yar, the camp was fun... and made me appricate my friends more... haha

Immediately after the camp Maurice and I chiong-ed home and then to fencing (so tiring, but we felt too inspired about winning the competition "Don't settle for mediocrity"). Thats when the first indication of bad things happen.

Note: I am a sensitive fencer, ie, I know when my blade is under pressure and know how to withdraw my blade, to prevent it from breaking. However, as events shown, that does not make you invulnerable to breakages. The VJ Fencing Club is fast gaining a reputation for breakages.

I was fencing with maurice when I pulled my classic move - a fleche for his arm. Two things went wrong. First, I missed, hitting under his armpit instead, at the side of the torso, tangling there. Second, I was running past to avoid his counter and he was still turning trying to avoid the blow. The stout triangular epee blade bent into a horseshoe before snapping completely. I had already been withdrawing the blade and so no one got hurt. Except mentally and psychologically (which is the same thing, but since I typed it already I think i don't want to erase it) I was quite distressed. One expensive blade down the drain!! I mean, relatively its cheap, low quality, crudely made, but its still more than 2 weeks pocket money for me!

The next day Coach Jeff fitted a new blade for me. This time I was fencing with Victoria, my vice-cap. It so happened we lunged at each other at the same time. Unfortunately she missed. So the weight of the two lunges, which should have been carried on two blades, was carried only on one. Mine. I can safely say, without exaggeration, it was bent at a 70 degress angle from the horizontal, creating a structural weakness. Coach says he's never seen a blade bend so much without breaking before, but now I think its doomed to break. And on its second bout too!! I feel really disgusted about it lar! Two incidents within 24 hours of each other! And because of unforseen things!

Oh yeah, quite a few VJ fencers turned out that day, including clarissa and charlene... it was nice to see them... haha

The good thing was that I won the first foil bout in I-don't-know-how long. The bout with Shawn(This SJI guy) was really hectic, we were so evenly matched. With 20 seconds left, he was leading 12-11. In the next 15 seconds, we had 3 offtargets. In the 4th second, I launched my final attack. At the final second, I lunged, he parried, but I had already gone to close-quarter mode, curling the lighter foil around my back and hitting him on the side of the torso on the very edge of his electric jacket, just as the buzzer went off. That red light was a really beautiful sight.

Of course, he protested the point. I would have. But Brenda, who was presiding, declared that it was valid, so we went into 1 min of extra time. I won through the fastest fleche I've done in recent memory.

Later on I fenced with Brenda. For the first minute we danced up and down the piste. Imagine doing your shuttle run for a full minute instead of 10.2 seconds. Thats what it felt like. It ended only when she attacked and I parried and countered. Both of us hit offtarget and we made gasping noises before we could continue. Oh, I won 15-7 i think... haha.... I love foil... it gives such a sense of security.

Yup, thats it for the past few days.... I probably bored some readers with details of the bouts, but I can't stand it! I really love fencing... haha.... Oh yeah, I gotta go study bio now... byee