Went to my church feast day this morning. Met Jared at 8.15am at the church gate and had breakfast. The mee rebus I ate had too much tumeric in it, so there was a powdery taste in the gravy. Anyway, I had $20 worth of coupons to spend, and I didn't have much idea on how I was going to spend it.

Nigel was supposed to meet us at 8.30am, but he came late at 8.45am. Spent the next hour or so walking aroung buying food just to blow off the money and watching people get dunked at the dunking machine. Not much fun, pretty much the same as last year. I guess you can't have your cake and eat it; the fact that we have a pretty successful feast day is good enough.

Went for Mass at 10am alone. Nothing much to report, just that at the near end of the mass, the power went out. It was rather amusing because the objective of this year's feast day was to build a new power substation for my church. The church at the moment is underpowered and the lights and airconditioning at the parish centre can't be used properly if those at the main church are on or else the power goes out. The final minutes of the Mass - one final announcement Father Henry was making and the final blessing were conducted in darkness with the priests having to shout across the whole church and making jokes about it all. The powere came on after the final hymn, when everyone was leaving.

Went back down to the canteen to meet Jared, who was on duty to clean tables. Haha. Nigel had gone off beforehand when I went for Mass. Skipped music lesson today because though I could've made it, there wasn't much point since I hadn't practiced. I also had $8 worth of coupons left, so I went around with Jared to buy stuff. Had a simple luch of tahu goreng, something I don't usually eat.

P.S. There was an article today in the Lifestlyle part of the newspaper regarding bloggers. For the record, I don't blog because I'm narcissistic, but rather because I want an avenue to express myself and chronicle it all down.

If you don't already know, I got an Individual 1st runner-up for the NPCC .22 Shooting Competition with a score of 160/180, an improvement from the Individual 8th I got last year. If you already know, don't complain and read on, because this post is not what you think it is, namely me bragging about myself. Rather, it's about how unhappy I am that I had to waste a whole bloody afternoon.

Went over to the Home Team Academy today. You know, the spiffy-looking sprawling complex? Very nice and all, except for the fact that it's at Choa Chu Kang. That's some trip across the whole island for me, since I don't stay anywhere remotely near. Well, the purpose of my being there in the first place was to collect my 2nd placing trophy, as well as my junior's 8th position trophy, since he wasn't able to come as he was part of the GOH for Founder's Day. Which brings up another point.

Today is Founder's Day. Everyone came to school for Mass in the hall, before having to watch some dumb video after that of the 'history' of the Marist brothers before we were dismissed at about 10am. I say the video was stupid simply because it was out of point and rather unrelated to the history of the school's founder anyway. Incidentally, Father Henry, my church priest was the celebrant for today's Mass.

After school, I went over to Serangoon to play soccer for an hour or so, had to leave early at about 12pm because I had to go over to HTA and arrive by 2.45pm. Fine, whatever. But what pissed me off was the fact that I arrived there at 2.30pm and found to my horror that the bloody prize presentation was at 6.15pm! So instead of just collecting my prize in which doing so I had to 1) cut short on the fun I was having 2) Travel for and hour and a half by train and bus just to reach the stupid place and 3) Spend 2 hours doing my full uniform, I had to wait for 3 hours just so I could get my trophy in a 15minute prize presentation. Those 3 hours were spent watching competitors in the finals shoot via a video feed from the shooting range. I wouldn't have minded one bit if there were a team from my school shooting or if someone had come with me, but as it was, I was alone. Oh, yes. What made it worse was the fact that I was the only one from my school there, and I really had no purpose in being there other than to collect the trophy. While others screamed and cheered for their schools, I sat there rather mundanely, looking and feeling like an idiot.

In total the whole thing including transport time took a whopping seven plus hours. Left the house at 1pm and reached home at 8.30pm.What an absolutely daft way to waste away a fine Friday afternoon.

What is Joy?

JOY

Jesus first, Others second, Yourself last.

Went for the Mizuno Wave Run yesterday, and it wasn't as scary as I expected. Apparently many of the people who went weren't that fit after all, seeing that some started walking after 1km? Haha. That morning, one lane of the entire route was closed off for the runners. The run flagged off at about 8.30am, with the competitive runners with their green number tags going first followed by us, the 'fun-runners' with our white number tags, and it was pretty much a slow jog from Kovan Hub all the way along Tampines Expressway before a U turn back. I've mentioned before that it was ten kilometres, and surprisingly, it wasn't that hard after all, though I clocked in at a pathetic 1h 28min. This was due to the fact, of course that I only ran for about 5km and walked the rest, and also because I spent some of the time jogging on the spot like an idiot. My friend (I won't mention who) was feeling sick and stopped to walk, so I stayed behind with him while the others went ahead first. Nothing heroic or altruistic, but it's just what I think friends should do. Funny thing was though, that he left me behind at the end and decided to jog ahead while I strolled along with Wei Bin and Jing Feng after they slowed down as well to wait for us. He said it was due to a stomachache, and I won't fault him for it since I know he wouldn't lie. Along the way there were a total of 3 water points, where cups of water had been poured for the runners. What was an interesting sight, though was the fact that for the next 25 metres or so after the water point, the grass at side of the road was littered with plastic cups. A whole ton of them, so much so that it resembled snow covering the ground. It was definitely the first time I'd seen such a thing. Ran the last 100 metres or so with Wei Bin, but my sprint was curtailed when I twisted my ankle against some stupid post. Limped the last few metres in. Haha.

Anyway a ton of people I knew were there; Mr. and Mrs. Koh, my school DM and VP respectively who coincidentally happen to be from my church as well, Mr. Nicholas Koh, my school PE teacher and a gang of other Marists. We took a photo after the teachers left - I'll post it if I ever get my hands on it. Paul-sir and Melvin-sir were there too. After resting for a while, we went to collect our goodies bags, one of the highlights of the event, both literally and figuratively, seeing that the dri-fit type T-shirt worth (according to them) $39.90 given was a fluorescent lime green. Nice colour, really. =D

The run finished at about 9 plus, and we went to have breakfast at McDonald's after that. They shortchanged my of my hash brown, though =( . I didn't notice till I started eating and saw that everyone else had one on their trays. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Went to play LAN after breakfast at Hougang Superbowl, notorious for it's horrible computers. True to its reputation, we spent a frustrating half an hour changing computers because either a) they were out of order b) the keyboard wasn't working or c) the LAN connection didn't work. I changed computers at least six times, and it didn't help that I had to go over to the counter that was ten metres away just to do so each time. Once things started though it was pretty fun.

The Mizuno Wave Run was a pretty unforgettable experience. You really don't have to be one of those super-fit types just to go for the fun run category, as seen by the many large bellies I saw along the way, and I'll definitely go again next year, though I'll try running all the way the next time.

The Mizuno Wave Run is this Sunday. 10 kilometres of road, the last 5 of which will be hell. The only reason I signed up was because we agreed to go together, and so in a moment of insanity I acquiesced to some suggestion that we should go together. The things we do with our friends.

In preparation for the run, I ran 2.4km on Sunday, 2.4km on Monday, got lazy after that and stopped doing anything. Oh well. Of course, the last 5 kilometres are only a torture if I have to run. I could, of course, take a stroll and admire the not-so-breathtaking-but-still-passable scenery of the streets. Haha. It's all good, except for the fact that I be overtaken by some overzealous senior citizens aged 60 and above, and get condescending and haughty looks from those nutter fitness freaks. On the other hand, however, I'm not too keen on panting like some rabid dog after I've finished the run.

I'll see. I'll probably run some, stop to walk and then carry on jogging. Stop and repeat cycle.

Something rather interesting happened today, a matter of coincidence so rare that I thought it should be recorded here.

See, I've just finished (I'll stop short of the word 'perfected' since I'm modest =P) this song called 'Moonlight Serenade' on the Electone. It's a pretty nice song, jazzy-waltzy latin music type. If you don't know, never mind, maybe I'll show you the score if you want it. Well back to my point. Today after my music lesson, my parents and I went to this small Peranakan restaurant, and guess what song was playing softly in the background?

Deja vu, life sometimes throws you some interesting coincidences.

The picture says it all. Went to Plaza Singapura to collect my results and certificate today. Funnily enough, I didn't get a zero as I so envisioned. 5 points! The same number of points that I got for my Grade 8 exam, I might add, and it's a pretty respectable pass at that. No A's in my results though; but no D's either, so I didn't have any points deducted off.

Weird. I was sure everything went wrong. But nevermind that. It's hello to Grade 5 now.

Here's the results slip:

First good news of the week!

Guess what? Remember the music exam where I was really sure I flunked? Well I PASSED. Haha! It's not going to be a good pass, I'd probably get zero marks (negative marks are a fail grade) but to hell with it, I'm officially a Grade 5 student!

Woot.

P.S. If you're wondering how anyone can even get negative marks, here's a little overview. A = 2 marks added, B = 1 mark added, C = 0 marks added, D = 1 mark deducted. If you even get an "E" grade for any component, it's an immediate fail grade. There are 6 (I think) components graded in the examination.

Betrayal.

Anger and acrimony.

Disappointment.

One can forgive, but it is impossible to forget.

I have forgiven, but like a scratch on pristine glass it cannot be forgotten.

Period.

Ah. Finally got my ass up again to blog.

Came back from a run just a while ago, and it appears my fitness level has sunk to a pathetic low. 2.4km at a fair pace and I'm almost dead. How am I supposed to survive the 10km Mizuno Run?

Last Friday, as I mentioned in my earlier post was a rather big day; Marist Youth Day, Chinese 'O' Level Oral and my POP.

So then, since I'm not really in the mood for any quirky comments, I'll just dissect everything in methodical fashion. First off, Marist Youth Day. Spent at least half the time owning in a Halo 2 tourney organised by one class. Won the first prize, a simple enough affair, which turned out to be some cheap Xbox game which I'm hoping to sell off for a bit of cash. 30 bucks maybe. The rest of the time was spent in class, slacking and sorta preparing for the examination later on as well as buying a bit of food with the coupons I had left. Anyway after the carnival itself came the really juicy part. We all went to the hall, and Ronin came and performed! Absolutely rocked, and I'm now a fan. Heh. Will get my hands on their CD asap.

Chinese Oral totally sucked. Too nervous. Screwed up like some idiot goon, but what's done is done. I was never one fully eloquent at speaking the Chinese language.

And, after 4 years, I've finally had my passing-out-parade. Perhaps the 2 most important years were my term as an NCO, and I've had many regrets. Some of my cadets didn't like me; I knew it, but I also knew I wasn't there to be liked, though that could have been a bonus. But I wouldn't have them all like me so much for the world, as it would mean I'd have been too lenient with them. When a cadet becomes your buddy-buddy friend, then you know something's wrong, because we'll be no different from those lousy units and that'll be the day MSHNPCC falls, which I hope never happens. There must always be NCOs who give you hell to maintain the discipline, and it's a sacrifice, having the cadets hating you, though looking back, I really didn't give enough of hell anyway. Of course I don't like having people hate me. But, it's always for the greater good of the unit. One won't ever understand that unless and until he becomes an NCO himself. Now I'm not making myself out to be some bloody hero or anything, but that's the truth, the simple truth. There are other things I'd like to change, given the chance to go back, but again, what's done has been done.


Regret, regret.