~JcZw

Its a mere 2 days from Pesta Sukan and here I am still stuck with an injured thigh and 9 points worst than the average person in VJ, not to mention the National Teams of Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, and all the other places where people grow taller than 1.64 m...

Its a simple fact that few can comprehend that fencing is not simply about moving your hands, its about moving your feet in concert with your hands! Thats why it has been likened to dancing so often. Its a simple fact that if your hands are not long enough to reach out and hit your opponent (like certain VS people can), you have to move, jump about, parry parry and parry and rely on your speed to keep you out of trouble, not your length.

Of course, when your limbs are not operating properly, this becomes just a leeeetle bit difficult. Especially since that muscle supports the lunging leg during basic attacks. To put it less cheemly, without that muscle you CANNOT make most of your attacks.

Mainly it comes down to counters and fleches. Huh. On thursday Maurice picked me off easily like a person would pick a flea off a cat. Fine I put up a fight, but its impossible to move fast now. If its not better by the weekend he's gonna be the anchor man. The bout against Jared was okay, but both of us were practising moves, not really fencing... won by a mere 1 point. If he's not an ex-foilist I'll eat my epee.... his moves and bladework are exactly those of a foil. The only thing lacking is his close quarter... hehe....

On wednesday we went to eat katong laksa at katong (itself. not somewhere else where they say they sell katong laksa when obvious they're not in katong. Katong laksa does not grow on trees). Mr Chong entertained us guys with anecdotes of his NS life. Considering the sheer stupidity that can be displayed by NS men, its a wonder many of them make it out with their anatomy intact.

But we saw something really freaky. On the way to the bus stop we saw this HUGE TENNIS BALL SIZED SPIDER HANGING ON A NDP SOMBERO SIZED WEB STRUNG BETWEEN THE SUPPORTS OF THE OVERHEAD BRIDGE! Everyone was like "wah" and pointing at it. But for me my arachnophobic instincts kicked in and I literally (i used to think this was a cliche, now i know otherwise) felt my blood turn cold, although I started sweating freely. I didn't move for a long long time and when I finally tore my gaze away from that horrendously colourful arachnid I felt quite weak.

Yes, I have arachnophobia. Ask Hannah and Joyce. Once I flung one of their shoeboxes down the Anglican hill when a little spider fell on it. In fact not too long ago I made a loud noise in the VJ library when I came across a picture of a gigantic tree spider while reading "Asian Geographic". Luckily I preserved my dignity and was contented with jumping violently and slamming the book shut. Why I hate spiders and anything with 6 or more legs (depending on the insect) I cannot explain. But I can tell you I was freaked out by "Arachnophobia", "Eight-legged freaks", "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" due to the appearance of octiple limbed creatures.

Is it a coincidence that on the day of zone comp 2004 when we were having EL Compre test that morning (much to the disgust to me and soo yee), the topic was on tarantulas (that WAS auspicious... my foot) and I suffered a massive nosebleed in between....

Yes, I am firmly arachnophobic, thank you.

Yup thats all for now... gotta wake up n study bio g'night!