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Friday, July 29, 2005
Well lets just pretend I got bored. So I decided to put some random pics... Righttt... A few ordinary things that happen in my life...
Near my house lives a small colony of.....
Chickens.
Yes. Chickens. The domestic fowl things that flap around making clucking noises. The peak of their acrobatic ability is to fly across a 0.75m wide drain, or generously estimated, at most 1m. Oh well... considering I've never seen a chicken fly, it was quite impressive.
Its a wonder that the chickens have survived this long given the presence of the below species of animal.
Yes. Cats. The four legged furry creatures, much beloved by Jonathan, JiaYan, WeiLun and a number of other people. The ones the rub against you and make meows. So cute! A few months back I saw a couple of cats stalking the chickens with the its-you-or-me-this-time look when I was going fencing. Naturally, being a cat lover, and confident my favourite animal would win, I didn't warn the birds. A week later the chickens were still alive. I guess the cats didn't make it.
I must admit that the cat shown above (in this case, Kit Chan. Literally. Or Kit Cat. Or simply, Kit), isn't much capable of moving, let alone chasing cats. Once I balanced it on the top of my foot and carried it 2 meters trying to get it out of the house. Any cat subject to such a position would scram. But this one just hugged my foot and went to sleep.
We (or rather, I. My classmates were around the corner) found this picture in MPH at Parkway.
It was promptly dubbed "The Exploding Cat" by chuaH. It looked even cuter in the real picture, with its tail puffed up like a bottle brush n all... haha
Of course, cats in their own right are also vulnerable to canine attacks.
However as this picture shows, with feline Mariotta Chan carrying out the demonstration, cats are INFINITELY superior to dogs. So there, chuaH! =) haha
___________________________________________________________________
Right anyway. Today went back to SJ for seniors meeting, which never came to anything much anyway.... I shall post some pictures of the SJers taken over the past few CCAs...
Interactions (Squad 3 2006 and their Squadron ICs)
Squad 2 2006 falling in (All the guys are taller than me when I was in sec. 1)
And today's NDP rehearsal.
Yup. Thats about it for now... Seeya n G'night
N cats rulez
Near my house lives a small colony of.....
Chickens.
Yes. Chickens. The domestic fowl things that flap around making clucking noises. The peak of their acrobatic ability is to fly across a 0.75m wide drain, or generously estimated, at most 1m. Oh well... considering I've never seen a chicken fly, it was quite impressive.
Its a wonder that the chickens have survived this long given the presence of the below species of animal.
Yes. Cats. The four legged furry creatures, much beloved by Jonathan, JiaYan, WeiLun and a number of other people. The ones the rub against you and make meows. So cute! A few months back I saw a couple of cats stalking the chickens with the its-you-or-me-this-time look when I was going fencing. Naturally, being a cat lover, and confident my favourite animal would win, I didn't warn the birds. A week later the chickens were still alive. I guess the cats didn't make it.
I must admit that the cat shown above (in this case, Kit Chan. Literally. Or Kit Cat. Or simply, Kit), isn't much capable of moving, let alone chasing cats. Once I balanced it on the top of my foot and carried it 2 meters trying to get it out of the house. Any cat subject to such a position would scram. But this one just hugged my foot and went to sleep.
We (or rather, I. My classmates were around the corner) found this picture in MPH at Parkway.
It was promptly dubbed "The Exploding Cat" by chuaH. It looked even cuter in the real picture, with its tail puffed up like a bottle brush n all... haha
Of course, cats in their own right are also vulnerable to canine attacks.
However as this picture shows, with feline Mariotta Chan carrying out the demonstration, cats are INFINITELY superior to dogs. So there, chuaH! =) haha
___________________________________________________________________
Right anyway. Today went back to SJ for seniors meeting, which never came to anything much anyway.... I shall post some pictures of the SJers taken over the past few CCAs...
Interactions (Squad 3 2006 and their Squadron ICs)
Squad 2 2006 falling in (All the guys are taller than me when I was in sec. 1)
And today's NDP rehearsal.
Yup. Thats about it for now... Seeya n G'night
N cats rulez
~JcZw~ at 10:15 pm
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Last night while eating dinner at East Point, my sister told me that if McDonalds wanted VJ students to make less noise on their premises, they could simply put up a sign saying "Its not an exothermic reaction! Don't do it!" Just a random thought.
Its exactly the 24th of July, the last birthday among the three of us, today being my brother's one. The dinner, as some may have guessed, was one of our collective birthday presents. My other presents would include among other things an FIE foil and an FIE epee from my father (the most expensive present to date =/), a much-needed pencil case from my thoughtful classmates, so now I can put aside the holey one I've used for 8 years, and a card from my NC competition team with a number of nice messages inside. And yes, hoyan, I do feel old.
______________________________________________________________________
We had racial harmony day on friday, n I missed chem lecture so that I could string chicken and capsicum to form kebabs with Eileen and Elgin. Mr Tan, Mr Seet and Mr Goh the three PE teachers came to watch us, and Mr Goh was like "wheres your hawker license" heh, but he also said he'd tell his class to come n patronize us. People like drama, on the other hand, had contacts that allowed them to import in an entire candy floss machine. Nice. I wonder what would happen if someone stuck their hand in.....
Went for bio lecture. I had dared Daniel, the sole non-bio student in the Cultural Fiesta preperations for fencing, to hold a few kebabs, stick his head into LT5 and go "Kebab?" to the (we-hoped) amused students and lecturer. He didn't of course, or at least, not that I noticed.
One thing that caught my attention and made me serious for the moment was the video clip on "One wrong letter". Just the wrong stuff in the wrong string of DNA enough to kill a innocent child slowly and painfully. Makes you wonder again at how perfectly God has made us. True, you may be short sighted, flat-footed, but at least you can walk n all that. If a human were in charge of these things, well, there are 3 billion potential mistakes he could make. But just seeing how many healthy happy people there are now, you can't help but wondering how perfect God himself is also. Kind of a sad story, the video clip was...
After bio lect, we had a break, in which all our remaining kebabs were sold out, before GP. Look at Phoon's blog to see the hilarious happenings in GP. With Dory at one end of the row and Liling at the other end... well... I must admit that the laughter had a certain characteristic of continuity in it.
The concert... was still okay, although the MCs sort of got on my nerves... Couldn't see ChuaH or Peien during their performance cos of where we were sitting (for the latter case anyway). Stella's dance was pretty nice though, very synchronized, or at least, more synchronized than I could have been... I recall in sec. 2 for farewell it took us about 2 months of continuous practise before our dance could be perfected.
Of course, we had mass dance after the whole thing. As my sister said when I related it to her, not surprising. Yeah.... n Mr Seet was dancing part of whineywhiney in the gallery above...
Sad thing though, cos I had a stall to maintain, I couldn't go back to AHS for the founders' day there.... My brother said that it was quite disgusting, and I guess I would have thought the same thing if I had still been an Anglican student, but then there are friends to meet and teachers to see etcetera.
Spent a lot of time after the whole thing wandering around the school with XunAi n LiLing, watching captain's ball, floorball etcetc... We were too tired to do what we were supposed to do anyway... Had to take cab home cos of my gigantic oven... Its super awkward having to wait for a cab in the vicinity of Mrs Chan, although she was quite friendly. I wonder if she remembers me from the CNA incident.. haha....
____________________________________________________________________
Another random thought.... The circumstances in Harry Potter when Malfoy has to kill Dumbledore.... Doesn't it remind you of the circumstances in which Anakin killed Mace Windu? In both cases both were plagued by loyalty to the victim versus not wanting their loved ones to suffer (a mother in one case and a wife in the other).
_______________________________________________________________________
Oh yes. Last thing. Everyone at foil night has improved SO MUCH since I last went!! Last time Nico's attack was easy to parry, cos he came at me with his blade outstretched. Now he advanced with his blade whirling before him, to form a protective cone of steel from which his attack suddenly shoots from... oh well... I'm seriously out of practise...
Next competition coming up... Pesta Sukan, the National Team event. Hopefully we'll all be more prepared and able to send more teams then...
Its exactly the 24th of July, the last birthday among the three of us, today being my brother's one. The dinner, as some may have guessed, was one of our collective birthday presents. My other presents would include among other things an FIE foil and an FIE epee from my father (the most expensive present to date =/), a much-needed pencil case from my thoughtful classmates, so now I can put aside the holey one I've used for 8 years, and a card from my NC competition team with a number of nice messages inside. And yes, hoyan, I do feel old.
______________________________________________________________________
We had racial harmony day on friday, n I missed chem lecture so that I could string chicken and capsicum to form kebabs with Eileen and Elgin. Mr Tan, Mr Seet and Mr Goh the three PE teachers came to watch us, and Mr Goh was like "wheres your hawker license" heh, but he also said he'd tell his class to come n patronize us. People like drama, on the other hand, had contacts that allowed them to import in an entire candy floss machine. Nice. I wonder what would happen if someone stuck their hand in.....
Went for bio lecture. I had dared Daniel, the sole non-bio student in the Cultural Fiesta preperations for fencing, to hold a few kebabs, stick his head into LT5 and go "Kebab?" to the (we-hoped) amused students and lecturer. He didn't of course, or at least, not that I noticed.
One thing that caught my attention and made me serious for the moment was the video clip on "One wrong letter". Just the wrong stuff in the wrong string of DNA enough to kill a innocent child slowly and painfully. Makes you wonder again at how perfectly God has made us. True, you may be short sighted, flat-footed, but at least you can walk n all that. If a human were in charge of these things, well, there are 3 billion potential mistakes he could make. But just seeing how many healthy happy people there are now, you can't help but wondering how perfect God himself is also. Kind of a sad story, the video clip was...
After bio lect, we had a break, in which all our remaining kebabs were sold out, before GP. Look at Phoon's blog to see the hilarious happenings in GP. With Dory at one end of the row and Liling at the other end... well... I must admit that the laughter had a certain characteristic of continuity in it.
The concert... was still okay, although the MCs sort of got on my nerves... Couldn't see ChuaH or Peien during their performance cos of where we were sitting (for the latter case anyway). Stella's dance was pretty nice though, very synchronized, or at least, more synchronized than I could have been... I recall in sec. 2 for farewell it took us about 2 months of continuous practise before our dance could be perfected.
Of course, we had mass dance after the whole thing. As my sister said when I related it to her, not surprising. Yeah.... n Mr Seet was dancing part of whineywhiney in the gallery above...
Sad thing though, cos I had a stall to maintain, I couldn't go back to AHS for the founders' day there.... My brother said that it was quite disgusting, and I guess I would have thought the same thing if I had still been an Anglican student, but then there are friends to meet and teachers to see etcetera.
Spent a lot of time after the whole thing wandering around the school with XunAi n LiLing, watching captain's ball, floorball etcetc... We were too tired to do what we were supposed to do anyway... Had to take cab home cos of my gigantic oven... Its super awkward having to wait for a cab in the vicinity of Mrs Chan, although she was quite friendly. I wonder if she remembers me from the CNA incident.. haha....
____________________________________________________________________
Another random thought.... The circumstances in Harry Potter when Malfoy has to kill Dumbledore.... Doesn't it remind you of the circumstances in which Anakin killed Mace Windu? In both cases both were plagued by loyalty to the victim versus not wanting their loved ones to suffer (a mother in one case and a wife in the other).
_______________________________________________________________________
Oh yes. Last thing. Everyone at foil night has improved SO MUCH since I last went!! Last time Nico's attack was easy to parry, cos he came at me with his blade outstretched. Now he advanced with his blade whirling before him, to form a protective cone of steel from which his attack suddenly shoots from... oh well... I'm seriously out of practise...
Next competition coming up... Pesta Sukan, the National Team event. Hopefully we'll all be more prepared and able to send more teams then...
~JcZw~ at 8:18 am
Sunday, July 17, 2005
I have no excuses as to my performance on the 16th of July at the team event. I totally threw my training out of the window and made so many unforced errors...
My effort against khai, I'm happy about that... pity the judge called "halt" so quick, otherwise I could get more points through my closequarters. But against KaiWen I repeated the same mistake again and again. I couldn't think of anything else besides the fleche. I don't even know how to bind his left handed close-to-the-ground blade. Eldon says I move like a foilist, so I probably think like one too. If KaiWen had killed me at least I would have had an excuse not to win.
Oh yes, did I mention that he nearly killed me? Not deliberately of course... he's too nice to do that =) Just one of those freak accidents that happen sometimes. Seems that it happens to me a lot.
One mistimed close quarter and his epee slamming through the back of my mask and glancing off the unprotected rear of my head behind my ear was enough to give me a nice little headache, as well as a pretty abrasion and now scar... Thank God that nothing worst happened..... phew... The thought of the foil doing that to be is bad enough, but the thought of a heavy epee that close to a vital area makes the skin crawl.
I sincerely apologize to maurice and daniel, and thanks for helping catch up so many points later on... guess I made the gap too big huh? scored one point but got hit 5 times...
Interesting statistics on left handers:
9th July: Injured on right arm by left-handed Kevin of CJC
10th July: Eliminated from indiv. foil by left handed Wei Yang of RJC
16th July: Mask penetration by left-handed Kai Wen of CJC
Heh
My team mates, Maurice on the left and Daniel on the right... both a great fencers n both are much taller than me... heh...
Daniel receiving his bronze trophy for his victory at the individual epee event... Maurice and I, a mere two people, cheered louder than the rest of the crowd put together =) Such is the Victorian Spirit...
Before tournament... Maurice and Liang Sheng checking their equipment.
Maurice and Daniel at KFC... we ate a lot of KFC during the tournament period cos it was the only nearby convinient place to eat...
____________________________________________________________________
My birthday's past. Today's my sister's birthday... my father's also flying off to Michigan under an overseas thingy by Ngee Ann Poly.... may God go with him, especially in the light of all the recent tragedies, both overseas as well as close to home. It strikes me that there are soo many things that can go wrong in this world and theres so much to thank God for that things actually do go right.... Most people would call it coincidence, like my mother's accident preventing us from going to Penany last year (which would have resulted in us being Tsunami-ed), but really, its all down to the blessings of God.....
My brother's birthday is next week, all being one week apart... heh, convinient for the family... we all can get fat for just one month.... In sec. sch it happened that this month would be the month of NAPFA.... celebrating 3 birthdays with all the edible stuff never detracted my performance though... haha
_____________________________________________________________________
We shared a combined activity with TJ's First Aid Unit and MJ's Red Cross Humanitarian Network on wednesday... Finally met Jia Hao from MJ in person... heh... For the first time in a long long while I felt really at ease with the people around me, especially since Wei Quan was there... So was Elaine, as well as Xiu Min from Kong Hwa, and Ying Hui from my old class in AHS.
We had photo quiz... and i PROMISE we were NOT BIASED (as can be told, VJ won), just that we had 3 very experienced First Aiders... heh...
On the right, VJ, then MJ and TJ, staring at the questions projected on the screen...
The audience... no Victorians though... all our other members were very busy with interact... On the front are our two teachers in charge.... heh... they participated too!! Respect man... The best CCA teachers are those that participate in what the members do *thinks about fencing*
____________________________________________________________________
Had Sergeant Interview today... at last theres a chance we might get promoted.... hmm... then i'll be 3/4 Derek's rank instead of 1/2.... The officers kept hinting that I should go to OTC and kept telling them I had church so I couldn't... St. John's a Christian Organization my foot....
Then went to watch Fantastic 4 with Stella, ChuaH, Li Ling n Nick.... pretty ok, 'cept with all the flashing lights it was kinda disorientating.... We arrived too late for that 1.60 offer to be of any use though... So we had to pay the full, ridiculously high weekend price for the tickets.... Quite a good show... haha... Found Johnny Storm quite irritating at a few parts... haha...
Yup... thats been kinda it for the past few days then....
My effort against khai, I'm happy about that... pity the judge called "halt" so quick, otherwise I could get more points through my closequarters. But against KaiWen I repeated the same mistake again and again. I couldn't think of anything else besides the fleche. I don't even know how to bind his left handed close-to-the-ground blade. Eldon says I move like a foilist, so I probably think like one too. If KaiWen had killed me at least I would have had an excuse not to win.
Oh yes, did I mention that he nearly killed me? Not deliberately of course... he's too nice to do that =) Just one of those freak accidents that happen sometimes. Seems that it happens to me a lot.
One mistimed close quarter and his epee slamming through the back of my mask and glancing off the unprotected rear of my head behind my ear was enough to give me a nice little headache, as well as a pretty abrasion and now scar... Thank God that nothing worst happened..... phew... The thought of the foil doing that to be is bad enough, but the thought of a heavy epee that close to a vital area makes the skin crawl.
I sincerely apologize to maurice and daniel, and thanks for helping catch up so many points later on... guess I made the gap too big huh? scored one point but got hit 5 times...
Interesting statistics on left handers:
9th July: Injured on right arm by left-handed Kevin of CJC
10th July: Eliminated from indiv. foil by left handed Wei Yang of RJC
16th July: Mask penetration by left-handed Kai Wen of CJC
Heh
My team mates, Maurice on the left and Daniel on the right... both a great fencers n both are much taller than me... heh...
Daniel receiving his bronze trophy for his victory at the individual epee event... Maurice and I, a mere two people, cheered louder than the rest of the crowd put together =) Such is the Victorian Spirit...
Before tournament... Maurice and Liang Sheng checking their equipment.
Maurice and Daniel at KFC... we ate a lot of KFC during the tournament period cos it was the only nearby convinient place to eat...
____________________________________________________________________
My birthday's past. Today's my sister's birthday... my father's also flying off to Michigan under an overseas thingy by Ngee Ann Poly.... may God go with him, especially in the light of all the recent tragedies, both overseas as well as close to home. It strikes me that there are soo many things that can go wrong in this world and theres so much to thank God for that things actually do go right.... Most people would call it coincidence, like my mother's accident preventing us from going to Penany last year (which would have resulted in us being Tsunami-ed), but really, its all down to the blessings of God.....
My brother's birthday is next week, all being one week apart... heh, convinient for the family... we all can get fat for just one month.... In sec. sch it happened that this month would be the month of NAPFA.... celebrating 3 birthdays with all the edible stuff never detracted my performance though... haha
_____________________________________________________________________
We shared a combined activity with TJ's First Aid Unit and MJ's Red Cross Humanitarian Network on wednesday... Finally met Jia Hao from MJ in person... heh... For the first time in a long long while I felt really at ease with the people around me, especially since Wei Quan was there... So was Elaine, as well as Xiu Min from Kong Hwa, and Ying Hui from my old class in AHS.
We had photo quiz... and i PROMISE we were NOT BIASED (as can be told, VJ won), just that we had 3 very experienced First Aiders... heh...
On the right, VJ, then MJ and TJ, staring at the questions projected on the screen...
The audience... no Victorians though... all our other members were very busy with interact... On the front are our two teachers in charge.... heh... they participated too!! Respect man... The best CCA teachers are those that participate in what the members do *thinks about fencing*
____________________________________________________________________
Had Sergeant Interview today... at last theres a chance we might get promoted.... hmm... then i'll be 3/4 Derek's rank instead of 1/2.... The officers kept hinting that I should go to OTC and kept telling them I had church so I couldn't... St. John's a Christian Organization my foot....
Then went to watch Fantastic 4 with Stella, ChuaH, Li Ling n Nick.... pretty ok, 'cept with all the flashing lights it was kinda disorientating.... We arrived too late for that 1.60 offer to be of any use though... So we had to pay the full, ridiculously high weekend price for the tickets.... Quite a good show... haha... Found Johnny Storm quite irritating at a few parts... haha...
Yup... thats been kinda it for the past few days then....
~JcZw~ at 7:56 pm
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Sorry, couldn't write more last night, but I was really tired..... I fell asleep a lot today, including at the fencing school, when I should be observing opponents by right...
A tribute to NC2 2005, as well as the rest of the AERIEANS
Sunday was N-comp, Hai Sing Catholic. Why Zone 10 was on their home ground I don't know. Like, so unfair lar.. haha.... well, seeing the pink and green colour scheme of AHS would probably be quite repelling. Plus the construction of the school on a hill!! Well, AHS people should be quite fit, or rather, the DOUBLE SCIENCERS are, cos we had to climb 5 STOREYS to get to our classes!
I couldn't attend N-comp cos of the Foil Tourney, and for that I seriously regret, cos I wasn't at my energy peak on sunday after getting bashed about in epee, hence a poor showing. Can't help thinking that it could be more worth it to go back for the N-comp instead. But I'd already paid 10 dollars, as well as I thought I had a chance. Read the bottom post to find out how this confidence was misplaced...
I was feeling rather miserable at a sudden and crushing elimination from the competition. Ate my lunch and went to meet Daniel and Maurice at the Sports Hall. Then I picked my phone out of my bag where I'd left it. Obviously, I couldn't carry my phone in my pants during the bout.
"1 Message Received"
"Wei Quan"
"... NC got 2nd... AC got 1st!! AA got 2nd.... NA got3rd"
My goodness. I got a tremendous adrenalin rush at those words. I was like bouncing around the hall... wahaha.... NC got 2nd!!! Oh my!! All the trainings paid off finally!! I'd never had this feeling before, cos I'd never known what it was like to command a team that did well. But I was so so happy!! I wanted to rush off right away, but I had to stay and see the tournament out to the end, esp since Daniel was getting a prize. Sadness combined with exhiliration really is a weird feeling...
After the competition I hurried to the train at clementi, and chiong-ed to tampines, to sunplaza park, reaching only at 9.15. Maurice kindly helped me take my stuff home. By the time I reached there, I was so tired n aching all over (and regretting not having my foil with me, knowing what SJers do to birthday guys). Ran into soo yee and wei lun who were escorting two sec. 1s out. Heh I didn't even recognize them until I heard one whisper to the other "was that our sir?" ArgH! I must! get to know the sec. 1s better. Only can recognize jun cheng, angela, keith, wan ling and wan ying by sight. Bad bad. Slowly slowly....
I reached n ate some bee hoon or something.... Seeing all the happy faces..... It was such a blur.. the first people I saw were my own team, Joyce and Pinru, coming from the playground. There were so many of them, laughing, shouting, adrenalin-ing.... I can't remember, but the faces that stood out..... the AC team.... Crystal.... James, my own number 1... Wang Miao.... W. Li Ting... Shiya... Angela.... So many times I'd seen them scared, demoralized, depressed, sad. Now I saw raw happiness, and it brought a rush of emotions back to me. It made me so happy too =)
I walked down the path with them, then into the open space where all the seniors were. Wei Quan leapt up to greet me. Joy shook my hand vigorously and we congratulated each other a lot! Evelyn, Jia Yan,. Laytheng and Vanessa all were there.
And the National Competition trophies stood proudly at the side of the open area, gleaming dully in the light of the lamps and the tea light candles. A testimony that if effort was put in, we could achieve anything. A confirmation in everything we believed in ourselves.
I talked to Jasmin, congratulated her on this terrific way to end her term. I talked to Angela, about the example for her squad set out that day. And the best was yet to come.
My friends were all around trying to tell me different things at once. "NC first aid " "97 out of 100" "97!" "Best Leader" "Joyce!" And from this I knew that NC had fufilled everything I had wanted them to. They'd given their best, their everything, they had not held back. That they had won, that was great! But the main thing is, they did their best. Its BECAUSE they did their best that they won!
So at about 9.25 on the 10th of July 2005, NC, Joyce, Joycelyn, Hoyan, Pinru and Shiya, gave me one of my most memorable birthday presents, and made me the proudest instructor that night.
Well done NC! Well done everyone! I'm so happy to be an Aeriean!
A tribute to NC2 2005, as well as the rest of the AERIEANS
Sunday was N-comp, Hai Sing Catholic. Why Zone 10 was on their home ground I don't know. Like, so unfair lar.. haha.... well, seeing the pink and green colour scheme of AHS would probably be quite repelling. Plus the construction of the school on a hill!! Well, AHS people should be quite fit, or rather, the DOUBLE SCIENCERS are, cos we had to climb 5 STOREYS to get to our classes!
I couldn't attend N-comp cos of the Foil Tourney, and for that I seriously regret, cos I wasn't at my energy peak on sunday after getting bashed about in epee, hence a poor showing. Can't help thinking that it could be more worth it to go back for the N-comp instead. But I'd already paid 10 dollars, as well as I thought I had a chance. Read the bottom post to find out how this confidence was misplaced...
I was feeling rather miserable at a sudden and crushing elimination from the competition. Ate my lunch and went to meet Daniel and Maurice at the Sports Hall. Then I picked my phone out of my bag where I'd left it. Obviously, I couldn't carry my phone in my pants during the bout.
"1 Message Received"
"Wei Quan"
"... NC got 2nd... AC got 1st!! AA got 2nd.... NA got3rd"
My goodness. I got a tremendous adrenalin rush at those words. I was like bouncing around the hall... wahaha.... NC got 2nd!!! Oh my!! All the trainings paid off finally!! I'd never had this feeling before, cos I'd never known what it was like to command a team that did well. But I was so so happy!! I wanted to rush off right away, but I had to stay and see the tournament out to the end, esp since Daniel was getting a prize. Sadness combined with exhiliration really is a weird feeling...
After the competition I hurried to the train at clementi, and chiong-ed to tampines, to sunplaza park, reaching only at 9.15. Maurice kindly helped me take my stuff home. By the time I reached there, I was so tired n aching all over (and regretting not having my foil with me, knowing what SJers do to birthday guys). Ran into soo yee and wei lun who were escorting two sec. 1s out. Heh I didn't even recognize them until I heard one whisper to the other "was that our sir?" ArgH! I must! get to know the sec. 1s better. Only can recognize jun cheng, angela, keith, wan ling and wan ying by sight. Bad bad. Slowly slowly....
I reached n ate some bee hoon or something.... Seeing all the happy faces..... It was such a blur.. the first people I saw were my own team, Joyce and Pinru, coming from the playground. There were so many of them, laughing, shouting, adrenalin-ing.... I can't remember, but the faces that stood out..... the AC team.... Crystal.... James, my own number 1... Wang Miao.... W. Li Ting... Shiya... Angela.... So many times I'd seen them scared, demoralized, depressed, sad. Now I saw raw happiness, and it brought a rush of emotions back to me. It made me so happy too =)
I walked down the path with them, then into the open space where all the seniors were. Wei Quan leapt up to greet me. Joy shook my hand vigorously and we congratulated each other a lot! Evelyn, Jia Yan,. Laytheng and Vanessa all were there.
And the National Competition trophies stood proudly at the side of the open area, gleaming dully in the light of the lamps and the tea light candles. A testimony that if effort was put in, we could achieve anything. A confirmation in everything we believed in ourselves.
I talked to Jasmin, congratulated her on this terrific way to end her term. I talked to Angela, about the example for her squad set out that day. And the best was yet to come.
My friends were all around trying to tell me different things at once. "NC first aid " "97 out of 100" "97!" "Best Leader" "Joyce!" And from this I knew that NC had fufilled everything I had wanted them to. They'd given their best, their everything, they had not held back. That they had won, that was great! But the main thing is, they did their best. Its BECAUSE they did their best that they won!
So at about 9.25 on the 10th of July 2005, NC, Joyce, Joycelyn, Hoyan, Pinru and Shiya, gave me one of my most memorable birthday presents, and made me the proudest instructor that night.
Well done NC! Well done everyone! I'm so happy to be an Aeriean!
~JcZw~ at 10:58 pm
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
9th July 2005. My birthday wish for my blog is not to use it for whining, complaining, irritating, or scolding. We'll see how well I keep that. I think not too well. Oh well.]
I spent my birthday at Clementi Sports Hall at the National Under 17 Fencing Competition (Epee Individual). Quite an eventful day... left me very hyper... heh...
Maurice, Liang Sheng and I arrived early, warmed-up, checked equipment, and collared by the Fencing Singapore official who got us to help set up the pistes. No joke, each segment has to be carried out, laid out in the correct order etcetc. After that, we registered n everything then the comp started proper. PE shirt, plastron and jacket... so hot man! Nort funny!
Fencing competition, unlike other sports, has its preliminary round as well as its elimination rounds in one day. Thus, we were divided into 6 pools of around 7 to 8 fencers each. Then everyone bouts against everyone, and the person who scored the most points minus the points scored against him is the top seed. I was in a pool with Gabriel from CJC, so at least we could talk to each other. My father came and took some pictures... I think I managed to capture a lot of the action by replaying it frame by frame and taking stills... haha...
Don't ask which one is me. Clue: I'm right-handed. This is the hall during the comp.
Before the bout starts, the judge tests your blade by placing a weight on it. The spring in the point should be able to push the weight off it.
The fencers then salute the judges before the bout begins proper. Hold the blade pointing to the judge, bring it to your nose then sweep it away.
My first point. The flying fleche. I can't believe Wei Lun thought I was the shorter one... as a matter of fact, I was shorter, just that he was crouching down... heh. This is the very moment my blade hit his thigh.
The lunge, the standard attack. In this case, I was half-lunging, not extending my back leg, so that I could recover faster.
The best hit in the tournament for me. Nailed him under his wrist.
Hong Mun, my ex-captain, who was also acting as a coach for us that day. I'm trying to undo the scoring wire from my jacket.
Against Gabriel. My stop hit. I'm the futher one away
In the name of sportsmanship. He's the only opponent I gave a pat on the back to. Throughout the tournament CJC and VJC cheered for each other. =) Below are some of the CJ girls that were there cheering for him
However whats not shown is that later on I met Zi Xian, the ITE fencer in the second elimination round. He shook my hand and said "may the best man win". It was no contest. Before 7 minutes were up he registered 15 hits to my 3. Darn pathetic score... sighz... Oh well...
And the best part of the evening!! DANIEL WON A BRONZE MEDAL! The only JC fencer in the Top 4!!! What does VJ say to that then? The final was between Tanglin and Pasir Ris Cres... oh well, thats what we expected.... Oh man! We were so happy for him, coming from 4 points down to take the lead and then the victory! Later on, he and Zi Xian became the two bronze medallists... ahaha! VJ's first win! May it be the first of many.
Cos we're satisfied for now, but come the novices, we'll be aiming higher!
____________________________________________________________________
Sunday was foil. A few more pics.
On guard position in foil. I'm the nearer one.
Here's me n my opponent (Some SJI chap) testing our wires by touching each other's electric jackets. Running around in 4 layers on a hot sunday afternoon is no joke... I sweated so much my hands became wrinkled from bring perpetually wet!
The move that is unique to me in the VJ club (cos i'm short enough to do it relatively easily), looping the blade up for close quarters. For the record, I missed though... note the absence of lights on the scoring box.
This was the best point of sunday. With the score tied 4-4 I did a disengage and hit him just on the edge of his jacket to get the point.
Later on, fencing with an RJ chap, he tried to fleche me (look above to see whats a fleche), so i ducked to stop hit. Instead he ran into me and kicked me in the head. I nearly ate my specs, but he apologized anyway.
I avenged myself with another lunge. Note the light on the left is an "on-target" light while the one on the right is the white "off-target" light. Since I was the attacker, I got the point =)
This is a bout i died in, against a leftie from Tanglin. Left-handers are not easy... sighz.... I lost 5-1...
Oh yes. I was seeded 16th and was taken out by left-handed Wei Yang, formerly of SJI, now in RJ, of 5 years fencing experience. That was fast...
But after the whole thing was over we had prize presentation... haha.... maurice and I cheered for daniel louder than the rest of the audience put together... Go VJ go VJ go!
_____________________________________________________________________________________
So, great work by the VJ team, especially also to our seniors who came down to watch us fence and give us tips, as well as our other members. Victoria and Charlene came to support us during the round robin, while the rest sent us nice messages, as well as lent us blades...
Also, thanks everyone for the birthday wishes, and I'm really sorry to those people whom I didn't reply to... it was a bit hard cos we were constantly being called to go to -what-and-what- piste....
Yup!
I spent my birthday at Clementi Sports Hall at the National Under 17 Fencing Competition (Epee Individual). Quite an eventful day... left me very hyper... heh...
Maurice, Liang Sheng and I arrived early, warmed-up, checked equipment, and collared by the Fencing Singapore official who got us to help set up the pistes. No joke, each segment has to be carried out, laid out in the correct order etcetc. After that, we registered n everything then the comp started proper. PE shirt, plastron and jacket... so hot man! Nort funny!
Fencing competition, unlike other sports, has its preliminary round as well as its elimination rounds in one day. Thus, we were divided into 6 pools of around 7 to 8 fencers each. Then everyone bouts against everyone, and the person who scored the most points minus the points scored against him is the top seed. I was in a pool with Gabriel from CJC, so at least we could talk to each other. My father came and took some pictures... I think I managed to capture a lot of the action by replaying it frame by frame and taking stills... haha...
Don't ask which one is me. Clue: I'm right-handed. This is the hall during the comp.
Before the bout starts, the judge tests your blade by placing a weight on it. The spring in the point should be able to push the weight off it.
The fencers then salute the judges before the bout begins proper. Hold the blade pointing to the judge, bring it to your nose then sweep it away.
My first point. The flying fleche. I can't believe Wei Lun thought I was the shorter one... as a matter of fact, I was shorter, just that he was crouching down... heh. This is the very moment my blade hit his thigh.
The lunge, the standard attack. In this case, I was half-lunging, not extending my back leg, so that I could recover faster.
The best hit in the tournament for me. Nailed him under his wrist.
Hong Mun, my ex-captain, who was also acting as a coach for us that day. I'm trying to undo the scoring wire from my jacket.
Against Gabriel. My stop hit. I'm the futher one away
In the name of sportsmanship. He's the only opponent I gave a pat on the back to. Throughout the tournament CJC and VJC cheered for each other. =) Below are some of the CJ girls that were there cheering for him
However whats not shown is that later on I met Zi Xian, the ITE fencer in the second elimination round. He shook my hand and said "may the best man win". It was no contest. Before 7 minutes were up he registered 15 hits to my 3. Darn pathetic score... sighz... Oh well...
And the best part of the evening!! DANIEL WON A BRONZE MEDAL! The only JC fencer in the Top 4!!! What does VJ say to that then? The final was between Tanglin and Pasir Ris Cres... oh well, thats what we expected.... Oh man! We were so happy for him, coming from 4 points down to take the lead and then the victory! Later on, he and Zi Xian became the two bronze medallists... ahaha! VJ's first win! May it be the first of many.
Cos we're satisfied for now, but come the novices, we'll be aiming higher!
____________________________________________________________________
Sunday was foil. A few more pics.
On guard position in foil. I'm the nearer one.
Here's me n my opponent (Some SJI chap) testing our wires by touching each other's electric jackets. Running around in 4 layers on a hot sunday afternoon is no joke... I sweated so much my hands became wrinkled from bring perpetually wet!
The move that is unique to me in the VJ club (cos i'm short enough to do it relatively easily), looping the blade up for close quarters. For the record, I missed though... note the absence of lights on the scoring box.
This was the best point of sunday. With the score tied 4-4 I did a disengage and hit him just on the edge of his jacket to get the point.
Later on, fencing with an RJ chap, he tried to fleche me (look above to see whats a fleche), so i ducked to stop hit. Instead he ran into me and kicked me in the head. I nearly ate my specs, but he apologized anyway.
I avenged myself with another lunge. Note the light on the left is an "on-target" light while the one on the right is the white "off-target" light. Since I was the attacker, I got the point =)
This is a bout i died in, against a leftie from Tanglin. Left-handers are not easy... sighz.... I lost 5-1...
Oh yes. I was seeded 16th and was taken out by left-handed Wei Yang, formerly of SJI, now in RJ, of 5 years fencing experience. That was fast...
But after the whole thing was over we had prize presentation... haha.... maurice and I cheered for daniel louder than the rest of the audience put together... Go VJ go VJ go!
_____________________________________________________________________________________
So, great work by the VJ team, especially also to our seniors who came down to watch us fence and give us tips, as well as our other members. Victoria and Charlene came to support us during the round robin, while the rest sent us nice messages, as well as lent us blades...
Also, thanks everyone for the birthday wishes, and I'm really sorry to those people whom I didn't reply to... it was a bit hard cos we were constantly being called to go to -what-and-what- piste....
Yup!
~JcZw~ at 9:27 pm
Friday, July 08, 2005
So finally comes the night I'd dreaded for so long, just before the National Cadet's (Under-17) Individual Fencing Tournament. Tiring day, esp since I stayed up til 2 am this morning to finish my zuo wen (and I bet its all fouled up anyway).
After staggering through the school day (and getting prodded awake numerous times in Bio Lecture by my namesake), I went back to AHS to see the SJers. It made me realise one more thing.
One of the things St. John taught me was to go for a goal regardless of how impossible it is. On the way to Fencing Masters from AHS, I thought of all the PT and discipline we'd gone through.
Run up the Chang Cheng in 20 sec?
Run from the classroom block to the old parade square, falling in in 10 sec?
Some of the tasks that we were given as SJ members we were meant to fail, meant to get punished for it. But we just went full spate, pushed ourselves past our endurance to try and attain an impossible goal. And this attitude reflected itself later on as well.
OCC knew as much as I did that going into the National Competition last year was a vain hope. With so many parental objections, personal objections etc plus settling into the new storeroom, the lack of equipment, the unstable schedules, we weren't going to make it.
My team, together with the NCs and my squad nursings still did our utmost during the competition. We scraped through National 4th, as well as best in footdrill for my team (tied with Dunman High, although mysteriously, they didn't announce during assembly, or give us any trophy for it). Happily, the comp teams this year are much better prepared than we were.
Tomorrow, our chances of winning aren't high, even though there is so much at stake. But I hope I can continue to adopt this attitude, and duel well, calmly and intelligently tomorrow. They might win, but they'll know they had a scrap with the VJ fencers, if I know my guys.
My cell group prayed for me tonight. Not to win, but to have the ability and energy to do my best. To resist the overwhelming heat at Clementi Sports Hall. To have the endurance needed. For safety. I trust that will be enough for tml, on top of all our training in the past few weeks.
I guess I should be pushing off to sleep soon then... g'night!
After staggering through the school day (and getting prodded awake numerous times in Bio Lecture by my namesake), I went back to AHS to see the SJers. It made me realise one more thing.
One of the things St. John taught me was to go for a goal regardless of how impossible it is. On the way to Fencing Masters from AHS, I thought of all the PT and discipline we'd gone through.
Run up the Chang Cheng in 20 sec?
Run from the classroom block to the old parade square, falling in in 10 sec?
Some of the tasks that we were given as SJ members we were meant to fail, meant to get punished for it. But we just went full spate, pushed ourselves past our endurance to try and attain an impossible goal. And this attitude reflected itself later on as well.
OCC knew as much as I did that going into the National Competition last year was a vain hope. With so many parental objections, personal objections etc plus settling into the new storeroom, the lack of equipment, the unstable schedules, we weren't going to make it.
My team, together with the NCs and my squad nursings still did our utmost during the competition. We scraped through National 4th, as well as best in footdrill for my team (tied with Dunman High, although mysteriously, they didn't announce during assembly, or give us any trophy for it). Happily, the comp teams this year are much better prepared than we were.
Tomorrow, our chances of winning aren't high, even though there is so much at stake. But I hope I can continue to adopt this attitude, and duel well, calmly and intelligently tomorrow. They might win, but they'll know they had a scrap with the VJ fencers, if I know my guys.
My cell group prayed for me tonight. Not to win, but to have the ability and energy to do my best. To resist the overwhelming heat at Clementi Sports Hall. To have the endurance needed. For safety. I trust that will be enough for tml, on top of all our training in the past few weeks.
I guess I should be pushing off to sleep soon then... g'night!
~JcZw~ at 10:17 pm
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
I know the last post was kind of incoherent. I owe a lot of people apologies and explanations.
I guess the past few days have been mixed with tension for 2 competitions, chinese, as well as relief for my back. I can't tell you how much I worried for the competition. I didn't want to let the seniors down, or my team members. I didn't want the club to close down.
If I did, somehow it brings back memories of zone comp 2004. SJ members know what I mean. My best then wasn't good enough. And I don't want my best now to be nothing. When my team didn't do well in mock comp last year, it just brought back all the cold words of the seniors reminding me of a personal goal unacheived.
The trigger was not the assembly thing. That was such a petty incident. It was the realization that the school didn't know, didn't care, that did it. She told us, we aren't even seen as a proper sport since it was student initiated. It was what changed all the tension into anger. It was what changed jubilation at the completion of chinese oral into gloom and despondancy.
I know that my own fears are no reason for me to take it out on people, snap at them or anything. I know, this is "dark-side" behaviour. I should be back to normal. I hope to be.
I am sorry if I did anything to anyone while in a bad mood, but I'm also truly thankful to the people that have reassured me.
I guess the past few days have been mixed with tension for 2 competitions, chinese, as well as relief for my back. I can't tell you how much I worried for the competition. I didn't want to let the seniors down, or my team members. I didn't want the club to close down.
If I did, somehow it brings back memories of zone comp 2004. SJ members know what I mean. My best then wasn't good enough. And I don't want my best now to be nothing. When my team didn't do well in mock comp last year, it just brought back all the cold words of the seniors reminding me of a personal goal unacheived.
The trigger was not the assembly thing. That was such a petty incident. It was the realization that the school didn't know, didn't care, that did it. She told us, we aren't even seen as a proper sport since it was student initiated. It was what changed all the tension into anger. It was what changed jubilation at the completion of chinese oral into gloom and despondancy.
I know that my own fears are no reason for me to take it out on people, snap at them or anything. I know, this is "dark-side" behaviour. I should be back to normal. I hope to be.
I am sorry if I did anything to anyone while in a bad mood, but I'm also truly thankful to the people that have reassured me.
~JcZw~ at 11:09 pm
Without doubt I am so so so irritated with life. Today so many irritating things happened. And I'm totally tired of trying to act happy, diplomatic, yes-sir-no-sir to people I have to deal with in the course of my college life for certain things.
It started with me being tired in the morning, and very worried about exam results. It started with me being depressed that our competition was coming so soon and no one could do anything about it. I shouldn't have thought. The more I thought about it the worst it got.
During assembly the first indication of salt was rubbed into the wound. They announced all the competitions coming out, down to GOLF. Did they announce fencing? No they did not. Why should they? They probably don't even know we have a comp. Come on man, 75% of the teachers themselves don't know there IS a fencing club.
Along the day I ran into Mrs Chan, our teacher-in-charge. I updated her again about the competition, whereupon she icily told me to tell her faster next time. No mean feat considering the application came so late. Then I asked about our appeal for subsidies. She replied
"No, I haven't passed it to the school admin yet. But I mentioned to the principal in the canteen, and she was not very pleased about it."
"So, we have to win something first before we can get money for anything?"
"Yes. We don't have a fencing fund at all. The school doesn't give us any money"
I wanted to ask, so what has golf won? Does the school think it is chickenfeet to beat fencers that have dueled for 4 years? Just because we're a top 3 JC?
And she herself, what has she done? She comes late for training simply to chase us home, so we cannot stay and free fence. She's not committed to us, she doesn't defend us like other CCAs would. She's just a link from the school, to make sure we toe the line. Thats all.
For all that talky-talk in the Operation Backwoodsman that they tried to inculcate us with, nothing, no "improvement" seems to have happened. I have tried, I promise you. I have tried to be optimistic, to shut out the fact that my members are being killed off at FM to the ITE people, or winning narrowly, or being given chance. I have tried to kid myself there is a chance we can do well at U17. I have tried to tell myself that sacrificing the SJ comp will be worth it, that Pasir Ris Cres won't be that difficult to defeat. I have tried to tell myself that my members are good, that they will perform well.
I have tried to be optimistic, to be motivating, to keep spirits up.
But what can you do without the support of the school. No money, no facilities, no time. NO FLEXIBILITY by the STUPID school admin and the teachers?! We WANT to train! We can't train in school cos of the lack of electric apparatus FINE! I KNOW! I UNDERSTAND! But we must muster EVERY SINGLE MEMBER before you make the training LEGAL! We don't have a common timetable for goodness sake! Just throw the rule book out the window for once for goodness sake. How'd you expect us to do well if you keep keeping us down? If you don't want to let us do OUR best that WE can do? Or is it so that you can get more balls for tennis? More sticks for hockey? More jerseys for soccer?
But you can't even spare a cupboard, or you can't even be bothered to KNOW that there is a CCA called Fencing in Victoria Junior College! Golf gets subsidized, bowling gets subsidized. Fencing is just something you can write in your magazines about "We have dynamic new CCAs such as Fencing". Dynamic my foot. The school is not doing anything for it is it?
Fencing is not a recreational CCA. But we are battling tougher opponents than we should be at our standard. Pit the vaunted soccer team against Home United and see who will win.
What hypocritical things we heard in the camp. Sure, "You have a good attitude, keep it up" "You all can do it". Yes indeed, pretty words to hear. Thanks. But an "attitude" cannot be reflected in these results. Our choir can sit around thinking happy thoughts about going for Olympics and all that, but if they did not SING and TRAIN like they are now, they would be nowhere NEAR Malaysia, let alone Germany. Its the hardwork that they put in. But its also the resources that they have. The school supports them and all that. The "12th player", the soccer boys called it. If its all that important, why doesn't the school care?
Why do they care about golf, bowling, etc, but not fencing? Why can't they be bothered while RJ and CJ are. You can be happy and optimistc, but you're still part of the school. If you don't have their support, then you don't need to be under the banner of VJ.
My members have tried their best. They have trained until bruises have formed, until blood flows, backs strain and joints creak. And I mean literally. Unfortunately if we get like, 4th place, no one would care anyway.
I guess thats the way of life then.
It started with me being tired in the morning, and very worried about exam results. It started with me being depressed that our competition was coming so soon and no one could do anything about it. I shouldn't have thought. The more I thought about it the worst it got.
During assembly the first indication of salt was rubbed into the wound. They announced all the competitions coming out, down to GOLF. Did they announce fencing? No they did not. Why should they? They probably don't even know we have a comp. Come on man, 75% of the teachers themselves don't know there IS a fencing club.
Along the day I ran into Mrs Chan, our teacher-in-charge. I updated her again about the competition, whereupon she icily told me to tell her faster next time. No mean feat considering the application came so late. Then I asked about our appeal for subsidies. She replied
"No, I haven't passed it to the school admin yet. But I mentioned to the principal in the canteen, and she was not very pleased about it."
"So, we have to win something first before we can get money for anything?"
"Yes. We don't have a fencing fund at all. The school doesn't give us any money"
I wanted to ask, so what has golf won? Does the school think it is chickenfeet to beat fencers that have dueled for 4 years? Just because we're a top 3 JC?
And she herself, what has she done? She comes late for training simply to chase us home, so we cannot stay and free fence. She's not committed to us, she doesn't defend us like other CCAs would. She's just a link from the school, to make sure we toe the line. Thats all.
For all that talky-talk in the Operation Backwoodsman that they tried to inculcate us with, nothing, no "improvement" seems to have happened. I have tried, I promise you. I have tried to be optimistic, to shut out the fact that my members are being killed off at FM to the ITE people, or winning narrowly, or being given chance. I have tried to kid myself there is a chance we can do well at U17. I have tried to tell myself that sacrificing the SJ comp will be worth it, that Pasir Ris Cres won't be that difficult to defeat. I have tried to tell myself that my members are good, that they will perform well.
I have tried to be optimistic, to be motivating, to keep spirits up.
But what can you do without the support of the school. No money, no facilities, no time. NO FLEXIBILITY by the STUPID school admin and the teachers?! We WANT to train! We can't train in school cos of the lack of electric apparatus FINE! I KNOW! I UNDERSTAND! But we must muster EVERY SINGLE MEMBER before you make the training LEGAL! We don't have a common timetable for goodness sake! Just throw the rule book out the window for once for goodness sake. How'd you expect us to do well if you keep keeping us down? If you don't want to let us do OUR best that WE can do? Or is it so that you can get more balls for tennis? More sticks for hockey? More jerseys for soccer?
But you can't even spare a cupboard, or you can't even be bothered to KNOW that there is a CCA called Fencing in Victoria Junior College! Golf gets subsidized, bowling gets subsidized. Fencing is just something you can write in your magazines about "We have dynamic new CCAs such as Fencing". Dynamic my foot. The school is not doing anything for it is it?
Fencing is not a recreational CCA. But we are battling tougher opponents than we should be at our standard. Pit the vaunted soccer team against Home United and see who will win.
What hypocritical things we heard in the camp. Sure, "You have a good attitude, keep it up" "You all can do it". Yes indeed, pretty words to hear. Thanks. But an "attitude" cannot be reflected in these results. Our choir can sit around thinking happy thoughts about going for Olympics and all that, but if they did not SING and TRAIN like they are now, they would be nowhere NEAR Malaysia, let alone Germany. Its the hardwork that they put in. But its also the resources that they have. The school supports them and all that. The "12th player", the soccer boys called it. If its all that important, why doesn't the school care?
Why do they care about golf, bowling, etc, but not fencing? Why can't they be bothered while RJ and CJ are. You can be happy and optimistc, but you're still part of the school. If you don't have their support, then you don't need to be under the banner of VJ.
My members have tried their best. They have trained until bruises have formed, until blood flows, backs strain and joints creak. And I mean literally. Unfortunately if we get like, 4th place, no one would care anyway.
I guess thats the way of life then.
~JcZw~ at 5:51 pm
Monday, July 04, 2005
Miracle on the 3rd July 2005. Remember my backache which I complained to numerous people about? Haha... anw yes, from friday onwards, there were people praying for my back, both my church friends and my classmates. I was not a little worried considering how my family had just gone through a sequence with my mother's slipped disc.
To put it bluntly, I was worried that I'd got the same thing. And if I had, I could kiss my fencing goodbye. If you didn't have the flexibility to lean against a railing without your back throbbing, what were your chances of dancing around the piste with a heavy mask on your head and your blade in your hand?
But on Sunday, my pastor prayed for healing of my back.
Before I'd come to this church my thoughts would probably have been filled with medical checkups, hospitals, even operations. I would have worried myself sick.
In the end, it was as easy as believing that God could perform a miracle. He did. After the prayer was over, the ache was still there, but substantially reduced. I could bend forwards and backwards with greater ease. And now I'm confident that I'll be as ready for the competition as I ever would be come saturday.
Its not just this one prayer from my church leader that swung the balance. Its thanks to everyone that prayed for me. So is there miraculous healing? I'm not the only one to have experienced it in my family. Definitely yes.
And I hope that I would have the determination to pray for other people too should they need help too =) After all God is able to heal both the mind and the body yup!
To put it bluntly, I was worried that I'd got the same thing. And if I had, I could kiss my fencing goodbye. If you didn't have the flexibility to lean against a railing without your back throbbing, what were your chances of dancing around the piste with a heavy mask on your head and your blade in your hand?
But on Sunday, my pastor prayed for healing of my back.
Before I'd come to this church my thoughts would probably have been filled with medical checkups, hospitals, even operations. I would have worried myself sick.
In the end, it was as easy as believing that God could perform a miracle. He did. After the prayer was over, the ache was still there, but substantially reduced. I could bend forwards and backwards with greater ease. And now I'm confident that I'll be as ready for the competition as I ever would be come saturday.
Its not just this one prayer from my church leader that swung the balance. Its thanks to everyone that prayed for me. So is there miraculous healing? I'm not the only one to have experienced it in my family. Definitely yes.
And I hope that I would have the determination to pray for other people too should they need help too =) After all God is able to heal both the mind and the body yup!
~JcZw~ at 12:17 am
Saturday, July 02, 2005
WARNING: Contains War of the Worlds stuff
Mid years finally over. Nuts, chuaH was right. I fell asleep for 5 min during the chinese paper, although I doubt it affected my performance. Thank God GP and Chinese the compo topics were relatively easy... haha....
On thursday, of course we got suan-ed by the non-chinese taking people *chuaH, you good* OSSIS went out to parkway and had a lot of fun so I heard... but Maurice and I, as well as Daniel and Liang Sheng went to FM for fencing. Happy happy, Under 17 was postponed. Yay. On the bus we were talking a lot of nonsense... And discovered our chinese vocab was considerably inhibited.... To conclude a detracting statement maurice stated "Ni zhe ge you xue de ben ren" in other words, "you b10*dy 1D*0+". Nice translation man
Nothing much to note except I lost every bout trying to go for people's hand. Although the epee target area is the whole body, the skill in epee is to hit the very small parts very fast and accurately... especially for short people like me... Going for the leg, foot or hand. But (theres always a but) I HAD to get injured (if I don't break a blade, usually I'll get injured).
This time was with Daniel. I fell prey to his running attack but somehow managed to conduct a classic circular six to lock his blade away from my body and arc my blade behind my head to do close quarters. But just as I thought I got the point, my backward momentum carried me into the wall behind at high velocity. I bounced off the wall and landed on my back, curving it agonizingly. I thought I'd been paralysed initially till the pain died away to a dull ache. And its still there now.
Oh man, I really regret that. I really really hope I'm still operational for U-17.. Sighz... Its difficult to walk without feeling abnormal now lar... Back injuries are notoriously difficult to mend. But a few classmates as well as my church friends are praying for me. I hope God heals me quickly if its his will.... Must keep trusting...
Last night I slept in a horizontal sediya position and this morning I did the paper sitting totally upright, watched the movie sitting up striaght and not shaking my leg... sad man... Sorry to say I wasn't in the best of moods just now cos I was brooding over it.. I am kinda angry at myself, first at my accident, and second at the lack of body control that I exhibited.
Anyway I should stop whining. Oh yeah, the movie. We watched War of the Worlds, abeit slightly against the wishes of XunAi, Stella and Gerry... Its ok I suppose.... Quite Americanized... Replacing Leatherhead and the Thames in the book with Boston and the Hudson River in the show... The Fighting Machines are also different... Force Fields this time... Whereas in the book they were indestructible because of sheer armour and inadequacy of the British Artillery. At least in the book the Shepperton battery killed one, while the torpedo ram Thunder Child sacrificed herself to take down the other two.... The Thunder Child sequence in the book was one of the most heroic battles I've read in fiction.
Here's the lyrics of the song "ThunderChild" from the War of the Worlds Soundtrack:
There were ships of shapes and sizes
Scattered out along the bay
And I thought I heard her calling
As the steamer pulled away
The Invaders must have seen them
As across the coast they filed
Standing firm between them
There lay Thunder Child
Moving swiftly through the waters
Cannons blazing as she came
Brought a mighty metal War-Lord
Crashing down in sheets of flame
Sensing victory was nearing
Thinking fortune must have smiled
People started cheering
'Come on Thunder Child'
'Come on Thunder Child'
Lashing ropes and smashing timbers
Flashing Heat Rays pierced the deck
Dashing hopes for our deliverance
As we watched the sinking wreck
With the smoke of battle clearing
Over graves in waves defiled
Slowly disappearing
Farewell Thunder Child!
Slowly disappearing
Farewell Thunder Child!
Farewell Thunder Child!
Farewell Thunder Child!
The Heat Rays were more like lasers, but less gory than in the book.... Vaporizing its victims instead of frying them with fire.... But the whole story was distorted lar... The only parts that followed was the fact the Martians finally died cos of protozoa. They combined Oglivy, the artilleryman, and the curate together. Pow. The ending was rather abrupt. If I hadn't read the book I wouldn't know what was going on....
After that hung around outside the arcade before pushing off home to cell group... At the later part of the day my back was really quite painful... I was so so irritated... my EQ must have been darn low... I was converting back into my lower sec. introverted me.
Yup thats about it.
I really really wished somehow I could make people happy. Be a First Aider for the mind also. I wish I could take away whatever was troubling certain people. But I can't. Only God can. I cannot counter stress while I myself have stress. I'd just be hypocritical.
But I wish I could. Really really really.
Mid years finally over. Nuts, chuaH was right. I fell asleep for 5 min during the chinese paper, although I doubt it affected my performance. Thank God GP and Chinese the compo topics were relatively easy... haha....
On thursday, of course we got suan-ed by the non-chinese taking people *chuaH, you good* OSSIS went out to parkway and had a lot of fun so I heard... but Maurice and I, as well as Daniel and Liang Sheng went to FM for fencing. Happy happy, Under 17 was postponed. Yay. On the bus we were talking a lot of nonsense... And discovered our chinese vocab was considerably inhibited.... To conclude a detracting statement maurice stated "Ni zhe ge you xue de ben ren" in other words, "you b10*dy 1D*0+". Nice translation man
Nothing much to note except I lost every bout trying to go for people's hand. Although the epee target area is the whole body, the skill in epee is to hit the very small parts very fast and accurately... especially for short people like me... Going for the leg, foot or hand. But (theres always a but) I HAD to get injured (if I don't break a blade, usually I'll get injured).
This time was with Daniel. I fell prey to his running attack but somehow managed to conduct a classic circular six to lock his blade away from my body and arc my blade behind my head to do close quarters. But just as I thought I got the point, my backward momentum carried me into the wall behind at high velocity. I bounced off the wall and landed on my back, curving it agonizingly. I thought I'd been paralysed initially till the pain died away to a dull ache. And its still there now.
Oh man, I really regret that. I really really hope I'm still operational for U-17.. Sighz... Its difficult to walk without feeling abnormal now lar... Back injuries are notoriously difficult to mend. But a few classmates as well as my church friends are praying for me. I hope God heals me quickly if its his will.... Must keep trusting...
Last night I slept in a horizontal sediya position and this morning I did the paper sitting totally upright, watched the movie sitting up striaght and not shaking my leg... sad man... Sorry to say I wasn't in the best of moods just now cos I was brooding over it.. I am kinda angry at myself, first at my accident, and second at the lack of body control that I exhibited.
Anyway I should stop whining. Oh yeah, the movie. We watched War of the Worlds, abeit slightly against the wishes of XunAi, Stella and Gerry... Its ok I suppose.... Quite Americanized... Replacing Leatherhead and the Thames in the book with Boston and the Hudson River in the show... The Fighting Machines are also different... Force Fields this time... Whereas in the book they were indestructible because of sheer armour and inadequacy of the British Artillery. At least in the book the Shepperton battery killed one, while the torpedo ram Thunder Child sacrificed herself to take down the other two.... The Thunder Child sequence in the book was one of the most heroic battles I've read in fiction.
Here's the lyrics of the song "ThunderChild" from the War of the Worlds Soundtrack:
Scattered out along the bay
And I thought I heard her calling
As the steamer pulled away
The Invaders must have seen them
As across the coast they filed
Standing firm between them
There lay Thunder Child
Moving swiftly through the waters
Cannons blazing as she came
Brought a mighty metal War-Lord
Crashing down in sheets of flame
Sensing victory was nearing
Thinking fortune must have smiled
People started cheering
'Come on Thunder Child'
'Come on Thunder Child'
Lashing ropes and smashing timbers
Flashing Heat Rays pierced the deck
Dashing hopes for our deliverance
As we watched the sinking wreck
With the smoke of battle clearing
Over graves in waves defiled
Slowly disappearing
Farewell Thunder Child!
Slowly disappearing
Farewell Thunder Child!
Farewell Thunder Child!
Farewell Thunder Child!
The Heat Rays were more like lasers, but less gory than in the book.... Vaporizing its victims instead of frying them with fire.... But the whole story was distorted lar... The only parts that followed was the fact the Martians finally died cos of protozoa. They combined Oglivy, the artilleryman, and the curate together. Pow. The ending was rather abrupt. If I hadn't read the book I wouldn't know what was going on....
After that hung around outside the arcade before pushing off home to cell group... At the later part of the day my back was really quite painful... I was so so irritated... my EQ must have been darn low... I was converting back into my lower sec. introverted me.
Yup thats about it.
I really really wished somehow I could make people happy. Be a First Aider for the mind also. I wish I could take away whatever was troubling certain people. But I can't. Only God can. I cannot counter stress while I myself have stress. I'd just be hypocritical.
But I wish I could. Really really really.
~JcZw~ at 12:06 am