NUS Medicine
KEVIIan
FM Foilist
05S15
Victoria Junior College
AHSJAB
VJ Epeeist
Caixin
Cats and cats =)
...St.John
Gina '05
Johanna '05
Huiling '05
Li Ting Y. '04
Sabrina '04
Clarice '04
Shiya '04
Crystal '04
WenBin '04
Hannah '03
Joyce '03
Joycelyn '03
Kok Keng '03
Ho Yan '03
PinRu '03
Jonathan '02
Yu Han '02
Matthew '02
Evelyn '01
Vanessa '01
Jia Yan '01
Si Hui '01
Wei Quan '01
Kia Boon '01
Peng Siang '99
Home of the XiNxIaNs!
Squad 5 2006
Squad 4 2006
Squad 3 2006 Squad 2 2006
...siblings
Jaina Fel =)
My sister's Wedge/Biggles site! =)
...Church
The Allegiance
HsiaPin
DeZhi
Chee Keen
...AHS 4F
FuJing
XiaoQuan
John
...AHS Kinabalu
Wen Rong, Mt K-er
Natalia, Mt K-er
...AHS 2E
Charlene
...VJC
05S15
Sharifah
Lionel
JiaMin
Stella
Dory*inda
Jon ChuaH
Vibha
Phoon
LiLing
Derek
Jingyi
...Fencing
FENCING MASTERS
VJC Fencing (blog)
VJC Fencing (school)
Vanna
George
Candice
Sun
...NUS Medicine
Lakota
Bombini
Julia
Ruth
Charlene
JiaYi
Daniel
Kok Pun
Theng Wai
blogspot
blogskins
SEE YOUR IP ADDRESS
Archives
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Conversation over the dinner table on 2008
My brother: I know what will happen in 2008. There'll be wars in the middle east and global warming
Me: Oil prices will go up...
My mother: ...have gone up
Me: Will continue to go up
My mother: Everything's going up
Me: Mentoses will cost $1.20...
My brother: ... and Arsenal will win the Premier League
____________________________________________________________________
Thursday and friday was pretty eventful. Thursday morning with handball training, Thursday night with the VCF Christmas Play and thankfully after a stuttering start, Wing Yee and my games took off ok. Then was considering whether to go for fencing camp that night. The tie-breaker came when Maurice called from FM asking "when was I coming".
So went there, too late for the Indiv tournament, but participated in the Team event from about 1 to 3 am. Was paired with SuSan, but there were only two of us so we had to double up for the last person, making it quite tiring. Our advantage is that ours was an all-foilist team heheh.
And much to my surprise, at the end of the night, after roping in Aleks from ACSI and ChangLing, my second gen. VJ fencing captain, we actually won =D For myself it was largely thanks to circular sixtes executed as quickly as I could manage.... Plus a few close quarters...
In the morning we had an hour long yoga course (which nearly killed me. I don't exist well on my head), and Maurice and I gave some talk about winning Novices and A-div.
Actually not that many people this year. Coach increased the price to see who would be committed enough to come. Was VERY encouraged to see the four VJ musketeeresses coming =)
Then back to NUS for ANOTHER handball training, after sleeping a grand total of 3 hours next to an icy cold metal piste in FM (My mother scolded me for pulling this stunt. Apparently it's bad for the heart), but it was kinda worth it cos I made my best ever handball save heheh... WuHong managed to pass through the defenders and jumped and tried to lob me while I came dashing from the line and jumped and JUST deflected the ball past the far post. He gave me that smirk that he does when someone does a good play. Ok but I concede it was a little lucky.
AND
on the other hand there's my-other-sport, which I don't really want to talk about. But apparently the fact that KE's the IHG champ for my-other-sport gives some people the impression that training's not much needed and that instead, the freshies' committment are to blame. And to that I say " " cos its to my certain knowledge that only me and another freshie had the moral compulsion to come down to the field for the one training which people cancelled without telling us.
Well, I won't be shedding tears over my-other-sport's account. Cos I already gave ample warning that I was nowhere near the other-sport's goalkeeping standards and had to be trained. Instead, I go there every week, get muddy, get scolded, get my water drunk and get treated with very little respect and don't get trained. Which, ok, I can take, but if you question my commitment, boy, you're REALLY pushing my buttons.
Because, you see, I've been the captain of a sports team too, and this is definitely not the way to get the allegiance of your members.
My brother: I know what will happen in 2008. There'll be wars in the middle east and global warming
Me: Oil prices will go up...
My mother: ...have gone up
Me: Will continue to go up
My mother: Everything's going up
Me: Mentoses will cost $1.20...
My brother: ... and Arsenal will win the Premier League
____________________________________________________________________
Thursday and friday was pretty eventful. Thursday morning with handball training, Thursday night with the VCF Christmas Play and thankfully after a stuttering start, Wing Yee and my games took off ok. Then was considering whether to go for fencing camp that night. The tie-breaker came when Maurice called from FM asking "when was I coming".
So went there, too late for the Indiv tournament, but participated in the Team event from about 1 to 3 am. Was paired with SuSan, but there were only two of us so we had to double up for the last person, making it quite tiring. Our advantage is that ours was an all-foilist team heheh.
And much to my surprise, at the end of the night, after roping in Aleks from ACSI and ChangLing, my second gen. VJ fencing captain, we actually won =D For myself it was largely thanks to circular sixtes executed as quickly as I could manage.... Plus a few close quarters...
In the morning we had an hour long yoga course (which nearly killed me. I don't exist well on my head), and Maurice and I gave some talk about winning Novices and A-div.
Actually not that many people this year. Coach increased the price to see who would be committed enough to come. Was VERY encouraged to see the four VJ musketeeresses coming =)
Then back to NUS for ANOTHER handball training, after sleeping a grand total of 3 hours next to an icy cold metal piste in FM (My mother scolded me for pulling this stunt. Apparently it's bad for the heart), but it was kinda worth it cos I made my best ever handball save heheh... WuHong managed to pass through the defenders and jumped and tried to lob me while I came dashing from the line and jumped and JUST deflected the ball past the far post. He gave me that smirk that he does when someone does a good play. Ok but I concede it was a little lucky.
AND
on the other hand there's my-other-sport, which I don't really want to talk about. But apparently the fact that KE's the IHG champ for my-other-sport gives some people the impression that training's not much needed and that instead, the freshies' committment are to blame. And to that I say " " cos its to my certain knowledge that only me and another freshie had the moral compulsion to come down to the field for the one training which people cancelled without telling us.
Well, I won't be shedding tears over my-other-sport's account. Cos I already gave ample warning that I was nowhere near the other-sport's goalkeeping standards and had to be trained. Instead, I go there every week, get muddy, get scolded, get my water drunk and get treated with very little respect and don't get trained. Which, ok, I can take, but if you question my commitment, boy, you're REALLY pushing my buttons.
Because, you see, I've been the captain of a sports team too, and this is definitely not the way to get the allegiance of your members.
~JcZw~ at 9:01 pm
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Kinda fitting that my 400th post lands on Christmas =) Pretty eventful last week despite the lack of hall trainings... THREE simulataneous activites, of which, sadly, I could only go for one, landed on Saturday afternoon =/ A FM gathering, a S15 outing and a family gathering. But blood being thicker than all other fluids (well, morally at least), I chose the latter. Ack, though I still miss my class...
And yesterday! Ahhh haha...
Carolling at Quality Hotel, whose ballroom we use for services on Sunday! It was really fun to return to carolling after dunno how many years! Singing our larynxes into our pharynxes, even though we weren't highly trained or anything... And, as we prayed, everything went smoothly, the best performance of all (Hsia Pin said cos today there were more guys than ever before so the guy-bits didn't sound so underpowered heh)
And everyone was put into touch with their inner-officer cadet =Pp
Yen Chin and I were stuck in the second row right at the end, where we didn't mind too much cos it was less easy to embarrass ourselves haha, and yet it wasn't too hot and stuff (and under those fluorescent lights it WAS hot and stuffy haha)
My aunts (one of whom's not in the picture)/uncle/cousins from Malaysia who came to watch...
And the hotel allowed us to go into the coffeehouse to eat their Christmas buffet cos it was late already and there weren't many people left heh... Took more group photos...
Siblings
Family and all....
And I think most of us were very high at the end of the thing (no we didn't drink anything more potent than pineapple juice)... Went home and puttered around until midnight when each of us children got a stocking with a lot of unhealthy stuff from our parents heheh... Also a shirt from my paternal relatives, a T-shirt from my maternal relatives and a book on small arms, recoiless rifles, artillery pieces and generally most weapons from WW1 till now from my father hoho (with a picture of a M16A4 on the cover)..
Oh yea and everyone who didn't know what to give me gave me money to sponsor buying an extra foil...
But the picture says it all, Christmas this year was certainly eventful!
And yesterday! Ahhh haha...
Carolling at Quality Hotel, whose ballroom we use for services on Sunday! It was really fun to return to carolling after dunno how many years! Singing our larynxes into our pharynxes, even though we weren't highly trained or anything... And, as we prayed, everything went smoothly, the best performance of all (Hsia Pin said cos today there were more guys than ever before so the guy-bits didn't sound so underpowered heh)
And everyone was put into touch with their inner-officer cadet =Pp
Yen Chin and I were stuck in the second row right at the end, where we didn't mind too much cos it was less easy to embarrass ourselves haha, and yet it wasn't too hot and stuff (and under those fluorescent lights it WAS hot and stuffy haha)
My aunts (one of whom's not in the picture)/uncle/cousins from Malaysia who came to watch...
And the hotel allowed us to go into the coffeehouse to eat their Christmas buffet cos it was late already and there weren't many people left heh... Took more group photos...
Siblings
Family and all....
And I think most of us were very high at the end of the thing (no we didn't drink anything more potent than pineapple juice)... Went home and puttered around until midnight when each of us children got a stocking with a lot of unhealthy stuff from our parents heheh... Also a shirt from my paternal relatives, a T-shirt from my maternal relatives and a book on small arms, recoiless rifles, artillery pieces and generally most weapons from WW1 till now from my father hoho (with a picture of a M16A4 on the cover)..
Oh yea and everyone who didn't know what to give me gave me money to sponsor buying an extra foil...
But the picture says it all, Christmas this year was certainly eventful!
~JcZw~ at 11:47 am
Friday, December 21, 2007
Spent this misty Friday morning pondering whether cats find it amusing that whenever humans walk past them, these ignorant bipeds try to communicate with them in their own language. One cannot help meowing at a cat when one sees it =D Or maybe its just me. Maybe that's why cats like to just walk up to me when I'm on the road and rub themselves against me.
The last week was spent paying off an exceedingly heavy sleep debt. There was only one handball training on Tuesday, cos on Sunday after the comp I was feeling flu-ed so missed Monday's training. The only thing more crazy than fencing twice in three days is fencing twice in three days after a handball camp.
Anyway HB training has been called off till after Christmas cos a number of players are falling sick, including my shi fu Loo Bing haha... No small wonder, considering that for the most part in the camp we were playing in the rain...
Have been wondering about the matches during the Team Event. I think that was the first team event where, at least during the matches, I was at OPL.. Its the closest I've come to using The Force to fence haha... Hopefully will be able to replicate it at matches such as U-20s.
Nuts... must get better and settle my sleep and digestive system down before Christmas... Haha.. oh and carolling with church is really really fun =)
The last week was spent paying off an exceedingly heavy sleep debt. There was only one handball training on Tuesday, cos on Sunday after the comp I was feeling flu-ed so missed Monday's training. The only thing more crazy than fencing twice in three days is fencing twice in three days after a handball camp.
Anyway HB training has been called off till after Christmas cos a number of players are falling sick, including my shi fu Loo Bing haha... No small wonder, considering that for the most part in the camp we were playing in the rain...
Have been wondering about the matches during the Team Event. I think that was the first team event where, at least during the matches, I was at OPL.. Its the closest I've come to using The Force to fence haha... Hopefully will be able to replicate it at matches such as U-20s.
Nuts... must get better and settle my sleep and digestive system down before Christmas... Haha.. oh and carolling with church is really really fun =)
~JcZw~ at 8:03 am
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Today was significant in my life as a fencer =)
I won my first team event together with Wei Ann and Sirui (the latter being my sister's M4 classmate) after three long matches with NUS and ACSI people. And everything went according to plan. We contained the good fencers and opened leads on the not-so-good ones. We really went out of the way to disrupt their normal fencing rhythm heheh... Fenced slowly for against the fast guys and fenced fast against the slow guys...
The only individual match I didn't win was the first bout in the final when Freddy led 5-3. Besides that, the lessons Coach gave me in stop hits worked wonders =) Being an hybrid foilist-epeeist helped also.
And to Second Lieutenants Maurice Lee, Zhang Peng Fei, Benjamin Chen, Kenny Chua, Marvin Sim, Chua Zhen Rong, Eric Chong, Tango wing-ers and all those who's surnames I've forgotten =Pp, congrats on commissioning after 9 long months! Seeing all those pictures on Facebook really kinda makes my heart ache
I won my first team event together with Wei Ann and Sirui (the latter being my sister's M4 classmate) after three long matches with NUS and ACSI people. And everything went according to plan. We contained the good fencers and opened leads on the not-so-good ones. We really went out of the way to disrupt their normal fencing rhythm heheh... Fenced slowly for against the fast guys and fenced fast against the slow guys...
The only individual match I didn't win was the first bout in the final when Freddy led 5-3. Besides that, the lessons Coach gave me in stop hits worked wonders =) Being an hybrid foilist-epeeist helped also.
And to Second Lieutenants Maurice Lee, Zhang Peng Fei, Benjamin Chen, Kenny Chua, Marvin Sim, Chua Zhen Rong, Eric Chong, Tango wing-ers and all those who's surnames I've forgotten =Pp, congrats on commissioning after 9 long months! Seeing all those pictures on Facebook really kinda makes my heart ache
~JcZw~ at 9:08 pm
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Yesterday was kinda terrible, but again, it had its good points.
Woke up at 6.20 to prep for the competition. I voluntarily started rolling out of bed and gravity accomplished the rest... Dragged my fencing bag to Buona Vista, to Bishan, then across RJC's expansive campus to their sports hall. Everything there is like VJ magnified x3 and painted green -_-"'
And the sports hall was cold. Like ultra super cold. Warm up was more like, "slightly less cold"-up, since I got nowhere warm.
Round Robin was ok. The first bout was the hardest and I had to come from 2-4 down to win 5-4. The judges that day were quite strict and it was quite hard to pull off hidden blade attacks. Somewhere my serratus anterior wouldn't allow me to extend my arm properly sigh. But after 5 bouts and 1 yellow card I got seeded 4th. Thanks for the various NUS people and my VJ juniors for cheering me on =)
The first DE (Round of 16 since I got a bye), was the PERFECT foild bout for me! Not the best one maybe, but I made very few mistakes and everything went exactly to plan. First encounter ended 6-0, second 9-3 and the finally finished 14-6 as per Coach's lessons =) Did one very good stop hit which I shall remember for the rest of my life.
Then just before the Bronze I got owned by WeiAnn and my spectacles together -_-"' So irritated. Long story so won't write it here.
Still, if my specs were working, I think I may not have won since WeiAnn was really flying yesterday (and fencing much better than I saw in trainings at MPSH6) and I was very tired as well as adapting quite slowly to fencing a tall fast lefty. But at least I would have lost by a much smaller margin. He said I gave him quite a few scares cos I actually got past his defence quite a lot but didn't hit.
Well, its hard to hit when your specs are at the ends of your nose and you're looking through 9.5 diopters of myopia...
So that's two comps in three weeks I just missed a medal.
Anyway was feeling terrible throughout the comp... Dunno why I was stressed since I had nothing to prove and I"m not even going for Novices next year. Maybe I WAS burntout by the handball camp and stressed cos of FTT, but I really was in no mental condition to compete properly. I felt like I was being crushed/strangled or what have you. Sianz.
Well, anyway, thanks to the people who supported me throughout the comp =) Maybe I'll do better in the next one whenever it is... And happy that I made a few new friends from RJ, St. Pat's, ACSI etc also!
Woke up at 6.20 to prep for the competition. I voluntarily started rolling out of bed and gravity accomplished the rest... Dragged my fencing bag to Buona Vista, to Bishan, then across RJC's expansive campus to their sports hall. Everything there is like VJ magnified x3 and painted green -_-"'
And the sports hall was cold. Like ultra super cold. Warm up was more like, "slightly less cold"-up, since I got nowhere warm.
Round Robin was ok. The first bout was the hardest and I had to come from 2-4 down to win 5-4. The judges that day were quite strict and it was quite hard to pull off hidden blade attacks. Somewhere my serratus anterior wouldn't allow me to extend my arm properly sigh. But after 5 bouts and 1 yellow card I got seeded 4th. Thanks for the various NUS people and my VJ juniors for cheering me on =)
The first DE (Round of 16 since I got a bye), was the PERFECT foild bout for me! Not the best one maybe, but I made very few mistakes and everything went exactly to plan. First encounter ended 6-0, second 9-3 and the finally finished 14-6 as per Coach's lessons =) Did one very good stop hit which I shall remember for the rest of my life.
Then just before the Bronze I got owned by WeiAnn and my spectacles together -_-"' So irritated. Long story so won't write it here.
Still, if my specs were working, I think I may not have won since WeiAnn was really flying yesterday (and fencing much better than I saw in trainings at MPSH6) and I was very tired as well as adapting quite slowly to fencing a tall fast lefty. But at least I would have lost by a much smaller margin. He said I gave him quite a few scares cos I actually got past his defence quite a lot but didn't hit.
Well, its hard to hit when your specs are at the ends of your nose and you're looking through 9.5 diopters of myopia...
So that's two comps in three weeks I just missed a medal.
Anyway was feeling terrible throughout the comp... Dunno why I was stressed since I had nothing to prove and I"m not even going for Novices next year. Maybe I WAS burntout by the handball camp and stressed cos of FTT, but I really was in no mental condition to compete properly. I felt like I was being crushed/strangled or what have you. Sianz.
Well, anyway, thanks to the people who supported me throughout the comp =) Maybe I'll do better in the next one whenever it is... And happy that I made a few new friends from RJ, St. Pat's, ACSI etc also!
~JcZw~ at 2:05 pm
Friday, December 14, 2007
Under pressure from more than one person, I finally succumbed and got a Facebook account. And now I'm seriously freaked out
By how it can link to my contacts and tell me who has facebook and who doesn't,
and by how many emails I'm getting.
I don't even know how the (&^% thing works..
Am eating breakfast and prepping for RJ Invites. Sigh
By how it can link to my contacts and tell me who has facebook and who doesn't,
and by how many emails I'm getting.
I don't even know how the (&^% thing works..
Am eating breakfast and prepping for RJ Invites. Sigh
~JcZw~ at 6:49 am
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Friendly handball match against Raffles Hall today. Somehow I ended up being the keeper who played the longest.
Puneeth started in goal as the Raffles players clashed with the proverbial Thin Red Line (of KE players). It took them about 7 seconds to breech the defence and the ball was past Puneeth and in the net.
I started about 10 minutes in the match. Barely 20 seconds after I was in the court I took a shot while I just barely deflected with my left arm. The ball screaming past the goal was a sight for sore forearms.
The RH players throw so hard that when I get hit in the arm I need to recover my balance. After that, I managed to get my hands on the ball at least 4 more times, but only could deflect the balls into the goal. They threw that hard. My trusty hypothenar eminences which stood me in such good stead when playing against KE handballers could not stand up to the RH players who would leap in super far and release the ball from about 4 meters range.
The only other incident of note (besides picking balls out of the net), was when a RH player shot the ball in, which I deflected with my leg, before he tumbled into my goal area carried by his momentum. His teammate, meanwhile, had collected the rebound and was jumping in for the shot and there he was LYING RIGHT ON THE EXACT PIECE OF GROUND WHICH I NEEDED TO STAND ON TO STOP THE SHOT! Not that I had a high chance since the range was point blank, but you get the idea. I jumped and threw out my appendages as far as they would go, but the ball went in anyway -_-"'
I should have stepped on the feller. Its not often keepers have a chance to injure people (ok just joking)
We lost, but apparently we didn't do too badly. Still, I've learnt that if the player is on the 6m radius of the goal area and has a clear shot, the keeper's had it.
Meanwhile, given the state of my body, I'm in no condition to go fencing tomorrow, but I guess I still will be. Don't expect much cos opposition is quite strong, but we'll see how it goes.
Puneeth started in goal as the Raffles players clashed with the proverbial Thin Red Line (of KE players). It took them about 7 seconds to breech the defence and the ball was past Puneeth and in the net.
I started about 10 minutes in the match. Barely 20 seconds after I was in the court I took a shot while I just barely deflected with my left arm. The ball screaming past the goal was a sight for sore forearms.
The RH players throw so hard that when I get hit in the arm I need to recover my balance. After that, I managed to get my hands on the ball at least 4 more times, but only could deflect the balls into the goal. They threw that hard. My trusty hypothenar eminences which stood me in such good stead when playing against KE handballers could not stand up to the RH players who would leap in super far and release the ball from about 4 meters range.
The only other incident of note (besides picking balls out of the net), was when a RH player shot the ball in, which I deflected with my leg, before he tumbled into my goal area carried by his momentum. His teammate, meanwhile, had collected the rebound and was jumping in for the shot and there he was LYING RIGHT ON THE EXACT PIECE OF GROUND WHICH I NEEDED TO STAND ON TO STOP THE SHOT! Not that I had a high chance since the range was point blank, but you get the idea. I jumped and threw out my appendages as far as they would go, but the ball went in anyway -_-"'
I should have stepped on the feller. Its not often keepers have a chance to injure people (ok just joking)
We lost, but apparently we didn't do too badly. Still, I've learnt that if the player is on the 6m radius of the goal area and has a clear shot, the keeper's had it.
Meanwhile, given the state of my body, I'm in no condition to go fencing tomorrow, but I guess I still will be. Don't expect much cos opposition is quite strong, but we'll see how it goes.
~JcZw~ at 10:46 pm
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
In handball, there is this brief moment of panic when the attacker is temporarily eclipsed, even for a second, behind one of the defenders forming the wall at the 9 - 6 meter line. This happened quite a bit today when we went down to train with the girls.
Most of the shots were pretty ok enough to grab out of the air, one forced me to deflect with my knee, but in this particular case, the girl disappeared behind Jun Kok and her hand suddenly appeared on the other side. And there I was thinking "left, left left OH NUTS RIGHT!!!" and the long and short of it was that I got lobbed -_-"' but oh well it was a good shot haha...
Am kinda dreading soccer training tomorrow. Bought a new pair of gloves today (and I hope I wasn't ripped off cos it cost me a good bit of my birthday money) and hope I can break them in tomorrow. My present pair which I'm using for handball seems to have grown mould or something, and the perpetually wet weather is very not helping with that and with my fencing stuff, which is kinda gross.
Well handball camp starts tomorrow, we'll see how it goes. Funny how not two months ago we were complaining that it was so hot all the time and now we're complaining bout how the rain's depriving us of training time.
Most of the shots were pretty ok enough to grab out of the air, one forced me to deflect with my knee, but in this particular case, the girl disappeared behind Jun Kok and her hand suddenly appeared on the other side. And there I was thinking "left, left left OH NUTS RIGHT!!!" and the long and short of it was that I got lobbed -_-"' but oh well it was a good shot haha...
Am kinda dreading soccer training tomorrow. Bought a new pair of gloves today (and I hope I wasn't ripped off cos it cost me a good bit of my birthday money) and hope I can break them in tomorrow. My present pair which I'm using for handball seems to have grown mould or something, and the perpetually wet weather is very not helping with that and with my fencing stuff, which is kinda gross.
Well handball camp starts tomorrow, we'll see how it goes. Funny how not two months ago we were complaining that it was so hot all the time and now we're complaining bout how the rain's depriving us of training time.
~JcZw~ at 9:08 pm
Monday, December 10, 2007
FM Open for foil didn't go too well, firstly cos it was on an early cold rainy morning, so I was quite sleepy. Also cos foil is my weaker weapon in terms of time spent on it.
And also because FM's computer decided to be funny. Where one pool had all the SJI and ACSI boys, my pool had
Shaun Paul Lopez
Matt Lopez
Brenda
Joo Chyao
and myself, plus two other ACSI boys (one being a leftie), giving us more than a total of nearly 20 years combined experience (the other pool had about 8).
Turns out that, with the exception of Brenda, we all killed each other. SP lost to Matt, who lost to me, who lost to SP. I got close quartered three times pah.
There's this split second in time, when you're half a meter from your opponent, your blade is spinning around your back and you can literally hear it whistling through the air, your fingers barely on the grip and you know for sure, your close quarter is going to hit.
Until Shaun Paul kinda thrust out his backside, and parried my blade with his behind before replying witha riposte of his own. Both of us saw his red light come on before he was dancing away in delight and I was yelling insulting things about the height of his rear end.
Anyway, through a fouled up combination of round robins, I ended up fencing Joo Chyao in the first round and lost 15-8. Was launching very slowly from my hidden blade attacks.
Up next is RJ invites. Angie just came over to KE7 to train a while before lunch. There's free fencing here from Mon to Wed, not sure if I'm going, and I REALLY hope the weather clears up cos I REALLY want to play handball again =)
Well we'll see how it goes. Till then, auf wiedersehen
And also because FM's computer decided to be funny. Where one pool had all the SJI and ACSI boys, my pool had
Shaun Paul Lopez
Matt Lopez
Brenda
Joo Chyao
and myself, plus two other ACSI boys (one being a leftie), giving us more than a total of nearly 20 years combined experience (the other pool had about 8).
Turns out that, with the exception of Brenda, we all killed each other. SP lost to Matt, who lost to me, who lost to SP. I got close quartered three times pah.
There's this split second in time, when you're half a meter from your opponent, your blade is spinning around your back and you can literally hear it whistling through the air, your fingers barely on the grip and you know for sure, your close quarter is going to hit.
Until Shaun Paul kinda thrust out his backside, and parried my blade with his behind before replying witha riposte of his own. Both of us saw his red light come on before he was dancing away in delight and I was yelling insulting things about the height of his rear end.
Anyway, through a fouled up combination of round robins, I ended up fencing Joo Chyao in the first round and lost 15-8. Was launching very slowly from my hidden blade attacks.
Up next is RJ invites. Angie just came over to KE7 to train a while before lunch. There's free fencing here from Mon to Wed, not sure if I'm going, and I REALLY hope the weather clears up cos I REALLY want to play handball again =)
Well we'll see how it goes. Till then, auf wiedersehen
~JcZw~ at 2:02 pm
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Physio was better than I expected. I don't say I'll do well, but at least I had answers to put down. Don't know bout anat. Can give absolutely no prediction on that one. Just hope I don't disappoint my tutor. But anyway, its over, so might as well focus on the next bout, literally.
FM Open (Foil) on sunday
RJ invites on the 14th and 16th
Handball from 12th to 14th
FTT on 21st and
Epee camp after christmas
And throughout, quite a bit of Hallplay Ticketing
Will pretty much spend the hols doing sports and losing all the fat built up over the exams. Not that its an entirely bad thing y'know? A fencer and a handball keeper wouldn't hurt to have a bit of padding haha... especially the latter...
Just got an email, there's a friendly with Raffles Hall, the handball defending champs, coming up! Whoo exciting...
Anyway, yesterday's more memorable events started with us arguing for a long time what to do (I have a feeling we're even worst than OSSIS =Pp) before heading to cine, arguing somemore, watching Elli scoring a memorable Daytona win over Med-WeiLun, eating at Suki Sushi, then watchin Fred Claus cos Enchanted was sold up... Turned out to be a very happy, children-friendly show specifically designed for christmas heh....
After walking around somemore headed back to hall with Jason n Julia cos was super tired. Just paid off my sleep debt sleeping from 10 to 10. Now have to go back home n test my blade haha...
Well, here's to an exciting holiday!
FM Open (Foil) on sunday
RJ invites on the 14th and 16th
Handball from 12th to 14th
FTT on 21st and
Epee camp after christmas
And throughout, quite a bit of Hallplay Ticketing
Will pretty much spend the hols doing sports and losing all the fat built up over the exams. Not that its an entirely bad thing y'know? A fencer and a handball keeper wouldn't hurt to have a bit of padding haha... especially the latter...
Just got an email, there's a friendly with Raffles Hall, the handball defending champs, coming up! Whoo exciting...
Anyway, yesterday's more memorable events started with us arguing for a long time what to do (I have a feeling we're even worst than OSSIS =Pp) before heading to cine, arguing somemore, watching Elli scoring a memorable Daytona win over Med-WeiLun, eating at Suki Sushi, then watchin Fred Claus cos Enchanted was sold up... Turned out to be a very happy, children-friendly show specifically designed for christmas heh....
After walking around somemore headed back to hall with Jason n Julia cos was super tired. Just paid off my sleep debt sleeping from 10 to 10. Now have to go back home n test my blade haha...
Well, here's to an exciting holiday!
~JcZw~ at 11:16 am
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
If gan-jiongness nearly cost me A-Division last year, it really cost me today. 3 careless mistakes are really a lot, when one question is 1% of the final. Sigh. Oh well, my worst sub is now behind me, and I can look forward to physio, secretin, CCK, gastrin and histamine =)
Have been thinking bout the epee tournament and how I actually had a realistic chance of making it to the final =) But ah well, epee is now my recre weapon... Was just thinking how Maurice was saying 'Next time I'll have a jacket which says "Lee, Singapore" and you'll have a lame which says "Chan, Singapore" ' Now I don't know, what with Med School being so busy. I guess I could leave hall after one year, but there's KE blood in my veins, literally...
You say "Why"
I say "I don't know"
-Hello Goodbye, The Beatles
Sums up a typical discussion bout biochem...
Have been thinking bout the epee tournament and how I actually had a realistic chance of making it to the final =) But ah well, epee is now my recre weapon... Was just thinking how Maurice was saying 'Next time I'll have a jacket which says "Lee, Singapore" and you'll have a lame which says "Chan, Singapore" ' Now I don't know, what with Med School being so busy. I guess I could leave hall after one year, but there's KE blood in my veins, literally...
You say "Why"
I say "I don't know"
-Hello Goodbye, The Beatles
Sums up a typical discussion bout biochem...
~JcZw~ at 11:00 am
Monday, December 03, 2007
Serves me right for, while reading Jiayan's blog, laughing at her battle with the dragonfly... I just had my own close encounter with a similar insect.
I never thought, actually, that dragonflies would make it up to F block, but one suddenly hurtled through the open window, smacked me in the neck (and I was eating dinner and watching "Thin Blue Line" on Youtube, so it didn't aim for my ear cos it was occupied with my earphones), then flung itself at the opposite wall.
I, on the other hand, flung myself back, tethered on the rear two legs of my chair, fighting for equilibrium before righting myself and diving for cover.
Simple reason: When something goes wrong, think sparrows, not robins. Or think cockcroaches, not dragonflies. But dragonfly it was. By now, it was butting my room light going "zzzt! zzzt! zzzt!".
So, I switched off all forms of illumination (table light before the room light. Didn't want it charging at my face behind which was the only illumination). Then, going out of the door (much more calmly, I must say, than my illustrious squadmate =D), I waited for something to happen.
Instead of heading for the brightly lit corridor or for GH block, it headed to the corner of my room to sulk. So decided to throw something at it. The nearest thing at hand was a tube of cream for bruises, which I flung, hoping it didn't head of the window to Amanda's room. Instead, of getting scared, it continued to run against the wall going "zzt! zzzt! zzzt!".
So decided to go to Zichun's room to see if he knew what to do but he wasn't in. So I headed back to my room and glared at my erstwhile companion.
I was thinking, "YOU'RE the one with the compound eyes! Can't you see the lights! See the lights! Out here! Out there! Anywhere but my room! I have Anat to study!"
I walked in, headed for a heavier object to throw. If gentle persuasion wasn't going to work, shock and awe might have to do.
Then it happened. It flew towards the centre of my room. Maybe it saw the light at last, I'd never know. But its course of flight intersected with my ceiling fan oscillating at maximum speed, F block being quite a hot block. There was a terrific "ZZZTT!". Lights on, and discovered the mangled remains of a dragonfly in my fan, which at this very moment threatens to fall down my neck, and wings and things and other stuff sprayed around my room....
Interesting bit of excitement for one night...
I never thought, actually, that dragonflies would make it up to F block, but one suddenly hurtled through the open window, smacked me in the neck (and I was eating dinner and watching "Thin Blue Line" on Youtube, so it didn't aim for my ear cos it was occupied with my earphones), then flung itself at the opposite wall.
I, on the other hand, flung myself back, tethered on the rear two legs of my chair, fighting for equilibrium before righting myself and diving for cover.
Simple reason: When something goes wrong, think sparrows, not robins. Or think cockcroaches, not dragonflies. But dragonfly it was. By now, it was butting my room light going "zzzt! zzzt! zzzt!".
So, I switched off all forms of illumination (table light before the room light. Didn't want it charging at my face behind which was the only illumination). Then, going out of the door (much more calmly, I must say, than my illustrious squadmate =D), I waited for something to happen.
Instead of heading for the brightly lit corridor or for GH block, it headed to the corner of my room to sulk. So decided to throw something at it. The nearest thing at hand was a tube of cream for bruises, which I flung, hoping it didn't head of the window to Amanda's room. Instead, of getting scared, it continued to run against the wall going "zzt! zzzt! zzzt!".
So decided to go to Zichun's room to see if he knew what to do but he wasn't in. So I headed back to my room and glared at my erstwhile companion.
I was thinking, "YOU'RE the one with the compound eyes! Can't you see the lights! See the lights! Out here! Out there! Anywhere but my room! I have Anat to study!"
I walked in, headed for a heavier object to throw. If gentle persuasion wasn't going to work, shock and awe might have to do.
Then it happened. It flew towards the centre of my room. Maybe it saw the light at last, I'd never know. But its course of flight intersected with my ceiling fan oscillating at maximum speed, F block being quite a hot block. There was a terrific "ZZZTT!". Lights on, and discovered the mangled remains of a dragonfly in my fan, which at this very moment threatens to fall down my neck, and wings and things and other stuff sprayed around my room....
Interesting bit of excitement for one night...
~JcZw~ at 8:27 pm
FM Open yesterday! For a competition 3 days before CAs, it was exceedingly fun =) Was the only fencer under NUS, and I wonder how many people thought I was easy meat cos of that...
Sat around with my juniors from VJ studying bout oesophagus, gastrin and etc, until warmup and round robin. Round robin was quite easy for me, cos I was placed in a pool where I was the most experienced fencer. Not to say I wasn't pushed. Though I was fencing very economicaly, the only opponent which managed to force me to accelerate was a little sec 1 SJI guy who was being cheered on by his family. I won 5-3 but not before getting a scare by getting led from the stat...
Madness... He was small sized but forced me to do double circular locks to get my points =/ In the end won my bouts 5-3, 5-2, 5-4, 5-4, 3-0, seeded 8th after round robin
My first DE was against a sec. 2 boy Cornelius from SJI, seeded 40th, who fences almost exactly like me, uing locks and parries. Man. I hate fencing people like myself. His close quarters were even faster than mine cos he was shorter than me, so it was easier for him to manouver. Dropped a lot of points in the second segment especially cos I was thinking about %^(^&@ CA, but held off Maurice-style to win 15-9, as per Coach's teaching parameters
Round of 16 was against 9th seed Kian Seng, a CJC fencer. Matches against CJC are always the toughest cos they bring the loudest and the most supporters against you, though I guess for VJ, that's always relative.. If you can field more than, say, 7 people, you're already considered "more" supporters than us haha...
Kian Seng, like his brother, was no pushover. He's got great physical strength to match. His greatest problem was that, like Cornelius, I was the first person fencing foil-style against him. My greatest problem was that I was still thinking bout CAs and so my mind was kinda split, and kept making mistakes here and there.
In the end my experience JUST made it, cos all his epee-style fleches got locked up, followed by a close quarters to his gluteus maximus or to his hepatic flexure of the colon... Won 14-13, but not after my very worthy opponent gave me a cold sweat.
And the Round of 8! Ahh, the memories. The bronze medal bout. Against No. 1 Seed Ken from Malaysia fencing for FM. I had heard his reputation - static fencer, fantastically explosive and accurate with his attack. Daniel Mendoza said "Him? He's a cyborg!" His Round Robin scores backed it up. 5 wins, no losses, and where I had gotten a points difference of 10, he had one of 18!
Still, having never fenced him or even watched him fence before, I wasn't too scared. Then, the two blades I was using proceeded to fail during weapons check, leaving me with a red card and 1 point down. So the score was like 0-1 even before the match started.
Ken proceeded to take another point by the fastest, most out-of-the-world hand hit I've ever seen. I was absolutely stunned.
From then on, I went into my trademark fast attack mode, drawing on everything I learnt bout fencing tall accurate people from Maurice. In fact, Ken is the first person besides Maurice I've needed to do triple and more parries in order to hit. I was dancing around him, and in the course of the match, hit him with every different type of hit I've known in 3 years - close quarters to the front and back, simple lunges, turning stop hits, flicks to the hand, and all the rest of it. I'd say, it was probably the best competitive epee bout I've fenced before.
But he was JUST too GOOD and I missed a bronze medal losing 15-13. Later, I discovered that was the closest anyone that day came to beating him, except for in the Finals where he lost to Weiwen. (No shame in that for him... Weiwen is one of the SEA games fencers for this year...)
But well, enjoyed myself enormously yesterday, and in the end was placed 5th out of a field of 54, so was quite happy with that =)
Also nice to see my juniors, and especially nice to run into Daniel and Maurice again (both of whom had to rush back to camp).. Oh yea and running into Angie also, in Clementi for training with her coach.. And today my rotator cuff is giving severe ache =/
Clementi Sports Hall, Junjie fencing Junren
.jpg)
The final ranking
.jpg)
My last bout's score... Hanwen (in orange) looks quite please with herself.. And Young looks quite tall haha
Well, back to the books now then =)
~JcZw~ at 10:30 am