~JcZw

DARN it!!! Went for CCA this morning, when Daniel and I put the new primary team through an intensive accelerated period of individual strategies, mental training blahblah... AND... The thread of my epee's tang got worn almost smooth, that means although the blade is hale and healthy, I cannot attach a handle to it!!! What's the world coming to man!! And why do these things only happen to me, like we're 3 weeks away from the second major tournament!!

Anyway they're going for their inaugural tournament this saturday... The U-17 where Daniel got his medal last year in spectacular fashion... haha... All the best to them.... Pity Jon Boon is overseas... otherwise he could take part...

Aiyarrrr, how come my blade always got problem.... thats the advantage of other sports over fencing.... Say, soccer... your ball is either inflated or deflated.... it's never grounded, kinked slightly, kinked a lot, loose or whatever... it's All-or-nothing (Guess what I studied yesterday). Really worried sometimes about the survivability of VJ fencing... Not that I'm supposed to be too concerned cos I'm now sorta "graduated", but still...

Speaking of graduated...

Just watched the SJ camp and handover... it clashed PRECISELY with FSI... so on the first night I came just in time for half of night games and night walk... I think the best think in night walk is to do what Clarice did and just talk and talk and don't leave any awkward silences... Hahah....

Oh then due to an infusion of caffeine via a thick and sweet bottle of coffee my mother made me, I managed to stay up till almost 3.30 am talking to Kok Keng, who was on sentry duty... Hmm... Sort of reflects the thoughts I had when I myself was going to handover... But as I said last year, its too late of recrimations at this point of your NCO life... the only thing is you coming back to make sure your juniors don't make the same mistakes... And yea, being enlightened on certain issues the day before handover is still not too late yea =)

The log room at 1.30 plus at night... Wonder if I'm breaching any security with this picture... Oh yea... I took my best ever hose-and-tap bath due to finding a hose which actually FIT the faucet, thank God... heh... Spent the night sleeping on the wooden table outside 2H...

Up at 5 am, when I accidentally rolled and fell off the table... Watched PT, did 5 chin-ups (I'm going to be unfit by the time I enlist....), climbed the ropes... Hmm prepared for topo by sleeping all over the place... then topo was almost called off by rain but oh well...

Anyway ended up with... err... Mortigen? i think... Well, ylt's group anyway, with Joyce... Since there were only 5 of them (6, plus Joyce), it was quite an easily organizable (yea, I know there's no such English word) group... For the life of me, I can't remember who is the person I know who lives in Aquarius-by-the-park.... And happily, Junhao didn't repeat his performance outside Temasek Sec...

Fell asleep on my feet in tampines... I was literally walking around with my eyes closed... -_-"'.. Fell asleep again at Tanah Merah MRT... I just leaned against the escalator, and next moment Joyce was whacking me with her file yelling at me to wake up... Whoo thanks.. haha... Quite cool... I haven't done that before, not even during NDP rehearsal... Falling asleep on one's feet... All the other seniors didn't believe me when I told them that...

Campfire was super muddy... Campfire prep consisted of Weiquan, Sihui, Samuel and I filling water balloons, climbing the structure to set up the firestick etcetc...

The view from the structures

From the grandstand... The condition of the field was really atrocious... haha...

Samuel's triple water balloon... can see the three colours... haha...

Oh and after dinner, each of us collected about a dozen water balloons and hung them on the structure to throw at people later... hahah...

The lighting up of the cyllum sticks, taken from the bridge where I was sitting.... Oh followed by the mad hurling of water balloons... heheh... I threw my best ever water balloon... lobbing it over two of the seniors before it landed on some poor person on the other side of the bridge.... Ok, I'm sadistic...

Mr Chen lit the fuse of the firesticks... Zhongkai and my part of the engineering went well.. haha... the thing released as planned... Just that it hit a LITTLE off on the campfire...

Campfire performances were quite good I guess... Hmm I liked... err.... can't remember... Think it was the last group? One of the dances I think.. Think campfire performances are one of the few things which have improved over the years... Think my sec. 1 performance ("Hound Dog" under Jarrod and Bixia) was still the most fun one... haha... probably cos I didn't have to think... Still remember Jarrod telling me I danced like I marched ("Stiff")...

Went home during singalong... Shown above... Yes, its badly taken...

Came the next day with all my barang barang from team event, just to watch their handover... Played a little soccer with Xuan Ming, discovered I still possess a certain measure of goalkeeping skills, and picked up an abrasion on the knee for diving on concrete (The last time I played was over a year ago I think... ), discovered I cannot play as an outfield player... I tried to head the ball and ended up eyeballing it, resulting that now my specs are giving slightly more fuzzy vision -_-"'

Well, handover went as planned... Watched the seniors pass on their files... watched the berets fly through the air... Poured some water on some of them... haha... Well... Here's a little bit for Squad 4'06 to contend with:

During all your time as an NCO, you did everything that you thought was the best, that is, given the chance to go back in time, what you did was what seemed best to you. This means you have done your best under the circumstances (that is, no one did anything wrong deliberately), and this means you don't need to look back thinking about anything with too much regret, but rather looking on it as a learning experience (trust me, such skills will be important in the future). You have made mistakes yes, but the only thing left now is to pass these lessons on to your juniors...

On a personal note, I remember when you all just entered SJ... We were sitting in 3G, in the old library block, with Wei Lun and I contemplating giving fake names (which in the end we didn't), playing Whacko..

I remember HP at Kiaboon's house, teaching you all how to polish shoes and knocking over the bowl of water next to her fishtank..

Camp, and all the Melvin-related stuff.. Being your COS IC

Being your OC. The soccer games after CCA. Outings, dinners... It was always fun to hang around Evelyn and Sihui's squad.. haha..

Then our handover, and sitting at the computer night after night, talking to some of you all, trying to stave off the feeling of "what am I gonna do with all my time now"

Watching you all dance during farewell.... I still have the videotape somewhere...

Well, now you yourselves are seniors yourselves... SJ life doesn't end with Squad 4, as we've realised... But there's still a different journey out there... Well, no matter what, well done, you all have been thoroughly lovable and cooperative (well, in the time when we worked with you all), and its been a pleasure to watch you all develop and etc =) God bless and all the best for your future!