Saturday, November 03, 2007
Back
I'm back after this long break from blogging.. (Ok, it's only like 8 days since the last post, but to me it seemed like an eternity)
It was a rather eventful 8 days! (Shit why am I acting enthu like on the oweek blog =X )
27th Oct, last sat: Arts Open!
Arts Open was fun! For the first time in this semester after oweek, I got to join some organised activity to get away from these academic stress. Formed a football team with Soon Leong, Jeremy, Hock and Reuben. Manburn United Rovers. What a flop name. hahaha.
I'm always suay when in either 'lucky' draws or balloting. I remember in the 4SIR Ord dinner, when the emcee announced the first 3 numbers of the 4-digit 'lucky number' FOR THE FIRST PRIZE, and gave clues for the 4th number, I had a 2/3 chance of winning the thing. However, it proved otherwise, and the prize went to Soon Bing! I'm gutted (with my luck rather than not winning the prize), but happy for Soon Bing, cos he is my friend. I've never won anything in lucky draws. I got ZERO tutorials I wanted in my top 5 choices in the tutorial balloting this sem. I've got a crappy timetable haha
Back to Arts Open. I remembered last year, I was the one responsible for drawing the lot. We got 2 strong teams and we lost the both matches. This year, the previous day, I drew our ballot for the fixtures, and we got team C, meaning we got grouped with teams A and B (it was a 3-team group). First match, against team A. Against Indian-looking people. They will very fluent in their movement, very clinical in their finishing, and very quick in their tackling. We got a resounding 5-0 thrashing. Second match: We played a United Nations team, with angmohs and blacks. They're not very hardworking, but rather fast and ruthless in their finishing, and tackle very physically without them fouling us. Really hard to play against. However, I felt we matched them, and we even led 2-1 at half-time!
Yes, after conceding a sian 'not again!' goal, we scored two. First, countering them, Hock send a through pass to me on the left, which the ball was kinda bouncing. I then supplied a half-volley cross into the area, and Soon Leong did a nice overlapping run into the area, and reached the ball before the keeper's hand can reach to it! At least we scored, and we felt damn relieved. Then, with an attacking move, Hock burst down the middle, only to shoot straight at the keeper's hands. But well, the angmoh keeper did a Paul Robinson, and I was there to tuck home the rebound with a fine left foot (yes left foot!!!! haha) grounder into the bottom right corner. YES WE ARE LEADING!! WE SCORED!! ME AND SOON LEONG SHATTERED THE MYTH OF WESTERN SUPREMACY!!!!
Haha or so we thought. 2nd half, same old story, we condeded 2 goals, and we lost 3-2. We feel like we're spurs or something. But well, I'm happy we scored! Don't care already.. Credit to Hock, Jeremy and Reuben! Fun playing with you guys nonetheless =)
We don't care cos we got to play captain's ball! haha sometimes the fun is about the people, not the sport. At the captain's ball side, we have like almost everyone we know from arts club ocomms, mostly our year somemore! haha. Captain's ball was fun, it was fun kaopehing with everyone, and ARGUING WITH THE REFEREE!! Damn kaopeh, but damn fun.
I was the catcher for some matches. Hmm the stupid thing is that for both Shafik;s (sp?) and Eileen's team, they had a rather short defender to guard me. Although wenwen praised me for my catching skills, I think it was easy!
And our team just keep winning, winning and winning! Tough fight in the semi-final against wenhui's team made up of mostly people from t-house, man yun and shimin etc, but we came up tops, although some kaopeh with the ref came again hahaha. Final: We are against a strong all-Indian team (again!), with a reputation for physical play. Indeed, they were damn physical! They ran everywhere, were quick to close down anyone in an open space, and counter-attacked in swarms. But when they were marking people, some of them just pushed and hooked their arms around me! Super rough acts which blur-cock refs will not be able to see hahaha.. So we keep kaopehing. I played the first half as an 'outfield' player, and I scored the first 2. It was fun to give a row of 5s with the spectators (made up of our arts club people) after scoring. haha damn kaopeh! We led 7-6 at the break. Tight game.
Second half, I didn't play, and Soon Leong came in. And after being BTH with the Indian guy pushing, Soon Leong nearly fought with him! "Not happy wanna fight ah!" hahaha typical Soon Leong. After that, after very tough fights, we won 12-11!!! WE ARE THE CAPTAIN'S BALL CHAMPIONS!! hahaha
Anyway, I was really damn impressed with our captain's ball players. We see a side of everyone we rarely see. Wenwen! Played like a true pro, with a swagger of a sportswoman, bearing pain and kaopehing the ref! Best! Applie, the energiser bunny (totally unexpected from her usual gentle image) who ran all around creating spaces. Way to go PD! Kaiwei and Serene: Rotated as everyone was tired, good job in marking! Can see u two are not really ball players, but ran totally committed to mark the opponents and create spaces! Totally kept the shape of the team for us. Soon Leong: Really running around like a monkey (HAHA), his fitness was plain for us to see. Suffered a cramp to prevent travelling. HAHA Remmy: Keep saying "BingDe Wo Ai Ni" with my catching.. haha! Nice defender and catching too, when he's like tall and can jump =) Woon and friends: Woon is obviously the star player with his 100001 tips off the catcher's hands! haha and great mo qi with his friends as well.. I love the way u all guailan-ly passed at ball back and forth at the defence when we are leading, earning the kaopeh of the opposition defender (the 06 black tshirt with cap loser guy). haha guailan and kaopeh is the order of the day!
But WE'RE CHAMPIONS. hehheh
After that rushed down to the UCC for juling's concert. Hmm we only caught the second half, only for a short hour, but it was quite cool! If only we could see a little more closer. ahah.. it reminded me of my secondary school days and HO days. Music making is fun! =)
After that, I'm grateful Caleb was so coincidentally going down to Clarke Quay as well, and I earned a fast free trip down to Settlers.
It was great meeting up with 08/02 people.. Although I've made new friends, old friends still matter a lot to me, just that I haven't had the time to really meet up. Sorry! And I was super shagged after everything, so I'm not bored by the company if I showed any, but I was just too tired =) A nice meet up though! =) Conclusion: Saboteur is still the best game! haha crappy games like the balancing one really gets on my nerves =P
Sunday was a rest day, but I was damn high at the end of it. Christopher Samba scored at 93rd minute goal to help Rovers win the Spurs at White Hart Lane! Rovers are so good at the moment, it is unbelievable. FIFTH, above liverpool and on par with Chelski. After beating Portsmouth 2-1 AT FRATTON PARK, in quarters of the Carling Cup. On a 7-match winning run. What more can I ask for? =)
Ok everything came tumbling down after the weekend, as I have to hand in the bloody 3000-word EC2373 essay on Friday! Not wanting to repeat the debacle of the PS2249 essay last semester (I spent 2 days writing it, did very little research and got a B+), I started reading on Monday. However, I kept dragging and dragging until I only seriously started typing it on Wednesday (when I self-declared a free day skipping two lectures). It really dampened my mood for the whole week, when you have this niggling feeling of something to be completed. Plus the fact that I'm super anal for my essay (I make sure the English's good - my natural English grammar is quite chui, so I need to constantly edit my sentences' structures. I make sure the logic flows, I make sure the 'topic sentences' answer the question - very GP). It doesn't help when I got below average for the mid-term MCQ, so I need this essay badly to pull me up. Hence, the very headache + fever + not enough sleep + something to be done at the back of the mind + I must do well for it feeling.
But on Thursday our translation group received another boost when we got back our first translation 'reflection'! This is the first time this semester I saw an 'A' written on an assignment with my name on it. Really thanks to Kate for doing all the shit work again.. It's great to have you in a 'project' group! Despite all the nonsense we talk during discussions and even during lessons =P. It's looking good, but I must do well in the finals. =)
It was also fun 'giving a lecture' to PS1101E students for the crash course, and answering questions. It was late (6-8pm), I was hungry, but it is fun talking about PS. 'Politics is in my blood!' I hope so haha. I miss talking about PS, I miss talking in tutorials generally, so it was nice meeting these budding Year1s! And it was only nice doing a little catchup with Stephanie and Karen who attended this crash course. It feels good to be invited to help out in PS when I'm an Econs major =P
I missed quite a few dota games (but still played some! suicidal, suicidal..) for a few nights doing the essay, but on thursday night, I finally completed it. Edited it for the last time on Friday, and handed in both the hard copy and the soft one on ivle. I don't know if I did a good job though. Cos the lecturer has a tendency in liking narrative stuff, yet my essay topic is an argumentative one. It's tough hiding narrative elements in an argumentative structure without being over-elaborate on the details. But neh mind, the only thing you care about when you complete something is that you've completed it haha.
It's amazing (but not surprising) how something can affect you. Every moment my mind goes idle, it1 enters it2 and you think about it1 and it2 becomes non-idle again.
This period will be tough, but I'd rather believe it will bear fruits.
One more presentation and one more translation reflection to go!
I'll fight on =)
(Will blog about the usual (BOOORING) reflections soon when I have the mood, time or energy)
lowtide blogged @
11:22 am
