Triple day post. Went for training on all 3 days, that is, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Start with Friday first.

Well I can't remember much (lol) on Friday except the 三分 part, maybe I'll remember later. Dawn + Denise + Hanzhi against Ying Wen and some girl whose name I don't know, and me. I know we lost 3 - 1, then we had to 捡球, standard job for me. And I think the last set was 19 - 13 in their favour, then our side caught up to 20 - 20, then we lost. Oh then I played with Dawn, where I led the game 2 - 0, 10 - 9 to me. Then I lost that set, and the next, and the next. I was quite unhappy because she had made such a great comeback at the last possible moment. OK FRIDAY DONE, NEXT.

Saturday... Arrived at 3pm when I said I would come at 2.30, because I slept on the bus and missed by one stop, and the distance back was longer than usual. Once I got to school though, I think I was made to 推 again, for like 6 people. Then we had to 三分 again. This time, I finally got to be on Dawn's side (I'm scared of facing her) with An Qi. Julian, Joy and that girl became our opponents. I really can't remember the score, I think it was 3 - 1 though. It was 21 - 20, 21 - 20, 21 - 20 then the last set, woah. 5 - 5, An Qi took over. 16 points for our team straight to help us win the match. We were so impressed as Dawn and I stood at the side just watching our rivals go up and come back down in a minute again and again.

After that, doubles. Benedict, Dawn and Joy, we were supposed to be playing a full round, but we only got to play two. First, I paired with Joy. We had a less than good start, but not bad. We were down 2 - 0, then we caught up to 2 - 2, thanks to Joy's speed and her 一定进的拉球, 我只需要搓过去就够了. Never partnered with anyone else who had such consistency and confidence along with the ability to get into position so quickly. However, it was not enough and we lost the last set 11 - 9.

Benedict became my next partner and we did quite well, I guess. Another 3 - 2 match, we lost. The 短球 strategy didn't work because Joy was so good. Then Dawn used the effective method of hitting to my forehand as it would be to my disadvantage because left handers stood in a more awkward position. I still have yet to find out how to handle that.

When that was over, I got to play against Dawn once more. This time, I lost totally. 3 - 0, I was completely trashed. Day concluded, I was pissed.

Then came today, 1.30 became 1.50, I was allowed to play 升降 (Please correct me if I'm wrong, it seems right) first. Primary school kids don't count, so the first proper game was against Denise. She asked me to let her win because she had been on a losing streak and she was going off soon. I had no intention of doing that but did not play my best, and ended up losing 2 - 0. So I went down again. Then after another game, that session stopped. Then 升降 part 2, without Primary School people started. 教练拿着八个球拍，请我挑号码，我选了四，后来呢，发现人数是奇数的，所以一个人需要等着一场，真倒霉，那个人却被我自己选了，就一场没的玩. At round 2, I played Hanzhi, and finally won. But she was off form today, so I guess it doesn't really count? Ziping was shocked by his loss to Hui Li, for he didn't expect her to be so good.

I went up and played Gerrat, who lost to some girl that Ziping was confident of winning. I got the first set, led the second set 7 - 1 and still lost ultimately, so irritated after that. There was this one ball where I got too overconfident because I thought he would never be able to reach there in time, but I should have expected the old Gerrat back, ready for anything, 他把球拉进去了，让我吃了一惊，举起球拍接那粒球，可以经太迟了，我没准备，就打到网里. Wasted match, Ziping was taken aback again as he lost to the very same girl that Gerrat had lost to in the previous round, and he was wondering how they all became so good. I went back down and got Hanzhi for the second time, she was still very off. I played Dawn next. There was this one ball that she accidentally threw and was about to catch it again but failed, then she gave the point to me despite my words of refusal. It led to me winning the first set, she would have won otherwise. She won the second set with ease. Then I had to tyco the very last ball in the third set to win. (You should have taken back the point lah Dawn!) Ziping lost to Gerrat, whom he had previously joked as "a waste of my time". He was on a losing streak today.

I was VERY badly beaten by Daryl next, whose moves were so fast and accurate, though with a few overestimated shots. 2 - 0, in less than 5 minutes, I think. First to lose in that round. I was too discouraged by that loss, I don't remember who Ziping lost to this time, but he was having a really bad day. I know Deirdre beat Gerrat, apparently by numerous tycos. Back down to Dawn, I lost this time, 2 - 0. Ziping was losing to An Qi, then coach told them to play again, 五局三胜.

Then he put Deirdre against Gerrat, Julian vs Hanzhi and Dawn with me, again. 3rd point in, I was going to just play aggressive on the fourth, but my hand collided with the corner of the table at full speed as Dawn had served over there. My thumb instantly went numb and as I lay my bat on my table instinctively, I saw a red patch and immediately knew I was bleeding. And the first way I deal with it it to press on it to stop blood flowing out. Then our very nice Dawn came forward and made me wash it even though I told her it was ok. Well, I did, then she told me that I should not play. I insisted and she gave in here, but she seemed so worried. Well, I admit I was not able to hold my bat as firmly thereafter, but after than that it was fine. In fact, I somehow got a morale boost or something and won that set. In the end, I won, but I think Dawn may have been too worried about me being unable to play properly that caused her to lose some focus and result in her more frequent mistakes. I was happy anyway, for I had finally beaten her (the earlier one didn't count, that was total luck on my side) once after 3 days. And thanks for caring, Dawn, but you should listen to me more, I'm no stranger to injuries :) (applies to Deirdre and Hanzhi as well).

To end the day, 蛙跳.

It was yet another day of insanity today. I arrived at Kallang station, 11.55am. Then I waited.... until 12.20, where Daryl told me he had arrived. Our call was rushed as he was running low on cash. He told me to meet at the colourful building, mentioning the colours yellow, red and blue. I was completely baffled because I could not see any such building around me. I even scanned the whole station to look for another possible exit because I didn't believe that I could have missed him as he exited the station. At 12.30, Daryl called me again after buying a new prepaid card to save my life, by reminding me that I was supposed to go to Stadium and not Kallang. I was really shocked and quickly made my way over through the circle line. Naturally, I was the last to arrive, at 12.55pm. The rest had arrived already. They were eating Subway at Leisure Park. Kai Zhong bought 2 cookies and gave them away. Deirdre took one, I took the other then Daryl gave me one more to speed up his eating rate. So at 1.30, we left for the..... Skating Rink? It had a nice little queue outside, and the girls added to it. Daryl, Kai Zhong and I stood elsewhere. We got in at 2pm, finally. Kai Zhong and Daryl got a pair of gloves each (the girls had brought their own), it was too late before I realized I didn't have one, but I thought "Who cares, it's Singapore, how cold can it get?"

The ice rink was smaller than I expected, but could fit about 75 people quite comfortably, albeit with some really dangerous scenarios. The middle was reserved for tricksters, it was amazing. Well, we went into the ring after putting on our skates, 4 of us being first timers, total noobs :). At the start, it was very wobbly, wouldn't fall, but very unsteady. I kept using the side for support for the first 2 rounds. After a while, it felt like rollerblading though, and I slowly got used to it. Dawn suffered a couple of skin peels, one on each leg, like 20 minutes in. Deirdre and Hanzhi got her a plaster from the counter, it was their last one. Then Daryl got his own skin peel on the ankle. I suggested a tissue as a padding, but it shifted positions often and didn't really help, so instead, both Dawn and Daryl got long socks, then wore it over their current pair, and had trouble fitting back into the skate.

With continuous rounds of the rink, I slowly got more confident and was eventually able to move at a pace I enjoyed. I was the first to slip and fall, which was not my intention. Well, everyone fell except Hanzhi, in the end. I totaled 3, one by myself, another by Daryl's pushing during a race and a 3rd by an attempt to avoid someone which failed. I tripped Dawn in that one as well, she was so pissed after that. 2 hours spent there, we played around with the camera and basically did rounds after rounds on the skating rink. Endurance was key, but everyone got blisters. It was amazing to see certain people moving through so quickly and gracefully, though most were amateurs. Children got to use a mobile support made of metal, which took up some space but overall didn't affect us. We took many breaks but had a lot of fun. Kai Zhong spent quite some time with a friend of his though. He fell the most among us, and his gloves were really wet in the end. The floor got more slippery with time and repeated skating over the same area, which instilled fear in us and friction was further reduced, increasing the chances of falling. Speed was something which I liked, but greater speed meant lesser balance, and balance overruled speed. I did get some fast runs in the times that I decided to take the risk, though.

At 4pm, we were all tired and we left as time was up. Arcade came next, I played with the Claw Machine again. I wasted a lot of money here, I felt so stupid after that, really stupid. But I could have gotten it so many times, the machine just didn't want to let me have it. Pooh got played 5 times, after which it fell to the side. Hello Kitty 1 was swung to the side to, after being picked up thrice. Hello Kitty 2, didn't try much but gave up. Donald Duck, I did it until his head was right over the whole, and the body refused to go over. On my very last try, it grabbed its butt and just flipped it upside down, dropping it back down to square 1. I totally went broke here. Daryl dropped one coin because he had left his coins on the table and they were slamming the machine so the vibration caused it to fall, took a while to find it back. They were playing a game of reaction time where both players had an equal chance of getting the point. Quite interesting. Hanzhi did some physical tap tap thingy with 5 lanes, for like 10 minutes, she was complaining about the slow speed and was tired after that, but they had to add a round 2 to make her suffer. Then Daryl and Kai Zhong against, Dawn and Hanzhi, in Basketball. The guys failed, 38 against the girls' 175. Throwing two balls simultaneously wasn't the way to go, as they would clash and both would miss the basket. Then Daryl went to Time Crisis 2 again.

Dawn then went to eat at KFC because she was hungry (as usual), so did Hanzhi. That was Tea, and they just have to take every single possible meal available. At 5, we went to Suntec City Mall, which was at Promenade Station, something I'd never heard of before. Caught the train just in time. Anyway, Deirdre and Hanzhi used an umbrella to get across 40m, the rest of us ran across. At Suntec City... we discussed what to eat and failed. Then we decided to camp out at Coffee Bean, like really camp. 6pm to 7.35pm, we stayed there and 5 people shared 2 cups of coffee. Deirdre used it as a pacifier for Dawn when she got too noisy or said rubbish (Well, she is 艺乐妈妈 after all). We just talked crap and stayed there because we couldn't decide where to take dinner and no one was coming in to the shop. Daryl showed us some amazing mind blowing tricks. Hunter and Rabbit and a couple of other finger tricks which required multi-tasking of the brain. Then Solar Energy and Soya Bean, wow really laughed at that. Then Hanzhi got me on the head twice with the walk into the tree and the 7th person trick, I still don't understand that one by the way. Then jokes were shared, stories were shared, crap was shared. Black Magic came up again, I will figure it out one day, still impressed by how they do it without me catching it though.

Well at 7.35pm, they went to the food court to eat dinner after deciding that Daryl couldn't tank Kai Zhong's cost at some restaurant, and talked more. I left at 8.10, and used Google Maps to plan my route home. Apparently, I needed to go to Fu Lu Shou Complex, but the route shown was impossible. I had to cross a two way road which was separated by a metal railing, without any bridge or pedestrian crossing. There wasn't even a pavement. I tried to make my own way by running around (getting to the other side of Suntec City Mall hurt as well, I had to go back to the mall to cross), but when I found that I was just bringing myself further from the location, I got desperate and went to the nearest bus stop in search of familiar figures. Thank god, I really thanked god here, there was 61 on the list again. While checking the board that I was in the right direction, the bus itself came. I quickly looked for my stop then hopped on as it was about to move off. I stood throughout the 55 minute bus ride from 8.35 all the way to 9.30. It felt like going through the whole route like a bus driver, except I was not sitting or driving. And worse, with 9 buses available at where I had to change, for 5 minutes, no bus came, not a single one, and I was running late. I finally arrived home at 9.45. Even "anticipating" had failed, because of Google Maps. I had left early and reached home late, this was one of my worst rides back home.

Still an amazing day to spend, possibly the last for this year. Thanks, Dawn :D.

21 - 28 hours. Today was physical work, I was told to move books to create space for new books when they arrived. It was quite tiring when it came to the bottom rows. Anyway, I cleared about 13 shelves, each with 5 rows, finished at 3.10. It felt so hot in the library after that. And they kept dropping, frustrated me. My lunch was totally chocolate, I got so sick of it and took a long time to eat. Didn't even finish it. Brought the last waffle home. Anyway, after the book moving part, I had to make sure that the contents of a board game collection, meant for promoting team bonding, were in order. And there was really a lot of problem, miscounting in the contents. Well I didn't finish that part before 5 and it was a lot to count but I was let off. Tomorrow, final day!

I said that I would go at 2.30 for training today, but I only left home at 2.05 and I need 45 minutes to get to school, on average. Well.... I would have been late for 15 minutes only if I hadn't fallen asleep at the wrong time, which dropped me off 2 stops later. And this particular bus goes on its route infrequently, so it added another 15 minutes and overall I was 35 minutes past my target time. As I got into school I bumped into Dawn and friends on the staircase and they said hi and I walked past them with a responding hi but barely looking at them, I felt so rude after that (Sorry!).

Started with a match, with some AT girl. The first thing she asked was whether I was sheng jiao, and I told her I was Anti. The first set turned out bad for her, and she looked very upset, so I slackened a little. While we played, the rest of the AT girls came and told her I was Anti because they thought that she didn't know as she had not turned up for training recently, and they came one after the other so it was repeated quite a few times, and she seemed quite irritated after that because she already knew that before they came to notify her. Anyway, I lost the 2nd set, then when I found out that it was a best of 3 I gave no more chances, Primary School style (没杀球但也没乱打). I won in the end.

Then I had to 推 Julian and... I don't know what's her name, again. That one took about half an hour, I think. At first I wasn't doing it right (发力） for Julian was so aggressive that I decided to give him a harder challenge. It was more fun to do it that way though. But then I was asked by coach to not 发力, so I did that and it became a lot easier for him, but he still failed to reach the 50 that he needed.

After that, 三分. This took up a lot of time. 五局三胜. Dawn, Deirdre and Isabelle on one side, Hanzhi + Jerilyn and I on the other. I totally couldn't beat Dawn, I need to figure out a way, but I was grateful that Hanzhi wasn't on their side either because that would be a double death for me. We took the first set, they won the second, we got the third and almost won the fourth but Dawn made a comeback at the end, it was like 19 - 14, then she climbed her way to 20 - 20 and I asked Julian if there was deuce and he said yes but Deirdre was not for that idea, so we passed it and Dawn took the final point. At 2 - 2, they were sighing because I think Isabelle wanted to go home. Anyway, she was being a tyco queen over there, getting net-ins on all of us, twice in a row on me at one point. There was also this rule that if either side lost consecutively twice (6 times because there were 3 people), they would have to do 蛙跳. I almost gave them the honor twice, but Dawn and Deirdre both stopped it at the very last point. Well, I wouldn't have made them do it anyway, but it would have felt good. Last set, we won 21 - 14. Loser's side got to 捡球, then they went home. Dawn said bye before she left, and the sun was shining right into my face I couldn't see where she was and took a while before I found her and waved back. They called me a lagger. Then I was told that they had said it 3 times and I had supposedly ignored all of them. I felt even more rude after that. (Sorry again!!) But I really couldn't see and I didn't hear them.

Training hadn't ended though. I played against Julian after that (loser would have to pick 50 balls). When it was 2 - 0 with me leading, Julian asked for 七局四胜, so I agreed to that. But, I lost that third set even though I had a significant lead when Julian requested the extension of the match. 2 - 1, 3 - 1, 3 - 2, 3 - 3 and then finally 4 - 3, I triumphed over him once more. That 2 set pick up by Julian was amazing though.

Then Darryl offered to play me, to see my Anti Skills because he said that my ability was better than his (he used the word "Perfectionist", a word that was far too strong). It turned out good for me, but I was very impressed by his corner smashes on my forehand side because I normally wait for it on the backhand. It caught me off guard quite a few times. 至少他也有吃我几个发球. I won 3 - 1, but he had been really tired, so I guess it doesn't count.

2nd day of CIP was even more fun than yesterday. I was left alone almost all the way, and I was doing something more fun today. I was supposed to be writing out titles of the maagazines, state the date range of the issues along with the number of issues there were. It was tough to go up and carry the heavy bundles down then have to put them back onto the shelf again. And, I didn't know how to tie a nice knot, I spent more time trying to figure out how they tied it than writing on the list. I had to retie them after arranging the magazines in order, then return them to the shelf. The heavy sets were definitely not fun to tie though.

Lunch was a very nice time. I went to the canteen and bought Fish and Chips for myself, and found that the meal included a bun that I had not eaten for a very long time since the Hawker moved off from the Hawker Center near my home. It tasted the same, and what was even better was, I could buy it separately. I was so yay! I finished that up and was wondering if I had to dispose of the plate myself, so I went to ask this cleaner for a location to place my plate, because I had seen a sign that implied that this was a self-service area, but underneath that was "Muslim only". The cleaner took my plate and told me that I could just eat and leave in the future, how nice.

I still had half an hour, so I went to explore the lounge-cafe above the library. I got a Chocolate Waffle there and it was so delicious, I'm going for it again tomorrow. The chocolate was hot and sticky, like fudge. After that snack, I returned to the library to continue my list, all the way until the end, 5pm again. I finished a couple more rows, there were just so many bundles, and I'll be doing the same thing again tomorrow.

I did my first day of CIP today, 4 days left. 7 hours each for a total of 35 hours. I arrived at 8.30am, then scouted the area for the entrance to the library along with the food court. It's a complicated building, I must say. They just couldn't make a staircase down to the ground floor, could they?

So I was started off with a list of books for withdrawal. Scanning through the shelves, I had to look for books with "codenames" that didn't make any sense to me, but they are codenames for a reason, I guess. It was tiring to kneel down for prolonged periods to look for one particular book, because they could differ in just one letter so it did take quite a while to find them. 3 of the books were missing, 1 was a CD-Rom although there was a book as well. Then there was this Hello Kitty book that had 2 copies, but the barcodes were different. Another huge book that could not fit onto the trolley like the other books had 3 copies, all with different barcodes. Then there was a book about some guy, 3 copies as well. They had different designs, then I looked at the titles again and found that they differed too. In all, I collected about 70 books, I think.

With that done in 2 hours, my next job consisted of three steps. With a trolley full of books, I had to run the same process through everyone of them. Pull out the barcode, scratch the label and stamp "Withdrawn" between the covers. It was quite fun, but my first attempt did not successfully scratch the label the way it was meant to be, so I had to run through the shelf again to re-scratch them all with the penknife as it had to cut through the label. Pulling out the barcode resulted in constant pinching of my own fingers and it started to hurt after a while, so I didn't exactly enjoy pulling out the barcodes, but I realized after a while that it could be eased by pulling up a little of the barcode with the penknife. And stamping was my favourite part because it's so easy, but I had a hard time getting a nice chop on it. It was visible, but not clear as I would like it to be. With repeated stamps, it got better, but still not clear enough.

I did this until 1pm, where it was my lunch break. I took McDonald's again, and I think I was ripped off on Saturday's dinner. That meal cost $6.60 while this was $4.90, and both are the exact same thing. I was looking for more game labels since we had collected quite a number last Saturday, but they didn't give it this time. Whatever, I finished lunch in half an hour and spent 15 minutes loitering around the area, then went back to continue the remaining 3 hours. I was tasked with the same thing, which I did all the way till 5pm and I managed to clear 1 whole trolley (about 60 books) in that period. I will be hoping to do the same thing tomorrow, but probably not.

Media Production ICT Enrichment course: I don't think I learnt anything at all, not that I didn't listen, but it's like everything was common sense. But, the really good part was that we didn't have to do a lot, it was really fun just listening to him talk about his experience and that caused time to fly through.

I just want to post about yesterday's training. It was not bad but not good either. Started off with a match against Isabelle. Then she had to 拉球. Deirdre joined in a while, and the first ball scared me because it was aggressive immediately. It continued for a while, then Ben Yang took Deirdre's place and when Isabelle left, some AT girl replaced her.

Then, doubles Sheng Jiang again. This time, I was paired with Deirdre. And I didn't do well at all in this part. Wasted 9 serves, so Deirdre says, along with about 5 nets, which could have resulted in failed serves too. We ended up in the table below our initial position, which meant that we lost more than we won. Benedict and Edwin were both paired with small kids, and to balance the game, both the big boys were not allowed to hit hard or give spins. As such, it was a game to see whose 搓球 was better. The result was that we were forced to play them once, and we naturally lost, because of me, again.

After about 5 matches, we played Singles again. I lost to Hanzhi yet again. That's thrice in a row. I'm upset, with a smiley face :).

Woke up at 9.30 today, then went for my dental appointment today to tighten my braces and clean my teeth. Tightening wasn't fun as usual, but at least it didn't hurt too much. It was very cold too, today. Then we went to Fairprice to get some stuff. After finally getting home at 1.30pm, I was feeling very frustrated because I wanted to attend training, but do some work before that. In the end, I didn't do anything. I ate lunch, took a power nap, then went straight for training. Started off by la qiu with Deirdre, again. Well at least we swapped roles after a while, but I couldn't do it as well as her.

After that part was done, it was already 5pm. Then was sheng jiang doubles, again. We beat Jia Ming and Marcus thrice and that was it. We lost so pathetically when we went up, skill gap was so great. We could have won the first pair though, we were leading 10 - 5 and we lost 7 straight points. Daryl didn't even know we were leading. That concluded training. At the fitness corner, I totally proved myself a failure at Pull Ups.

We threw some time to exploring Nex, which was incredibly crowded. Didn't think about it being a hotspot as it has only been out for a week. After looking around the place for somewhere where 4 could sit, we realized it was impossible. Even walking was difficult as it was so crowded. Along with that, the escalators were situated at un-favourable points. So in the end, we headed to MacDonalds (the one NOT at Nex). With the use of Maps on the iPhone, and the compass feature which Dawn totally didn't know about, we brought ourselves to a familiar place, the Bus Interchange before looking for MacDonalds. We had to climb over a fence at one point, where Deirdre almosy fell, found the Macdonalds and eventually took dinner over there.

On my way home, I dropped off at my usual spot, then 'outran' the bus to catch it. When I boarded the bus, the driver gave me a thumbs up and complimented me for my run.