Random

This title fits any post, which is why I use it for sort-of-unrelated-to-my-life posts.

On your birthday, if you have a meal that is undecided, fill up that free slot with a trip to Swensen's. If it's dinner, that's great, because Ice Creams are best eaten after Dinner as dessert, and Swensen's is famous for that. And what is even better, is that if you bring identification, you're entitled to a free Ice Cream in Swensen's, specifically the Firehouse, but it's still free. All you have to do is to go there on the day of your birthday, when ordering your meal, show them your identification card to prove that it is your birthday and ask them if you get a free Firehouse for that. Unless they explain why it is otherwise, it will be a yes.

Today, the unexpected results became true. Our C Division beat RI 3 - 0, which was a really great surprise to me as we had lost to them 4 - 1 in the first round of the Nationals previously, even with our China players. Again, I was not there, so I could not witness this unforeseen endeavor. They will meet SSS in the finals on the 13th.

As for the B Division, we had a somewhat narrow win against Cheung Cheng High as the score was 3 - 2. Of course, China players did all the work again. After what happened last year, my Ex-Coach was determined to beat us yet again, but he failed this time. It will be interesting to see, however, if they manage to defeat RI, and we will be up against St. Gabriel's once more in a contest for the 1st place in the Nationals. RI lost to them 3 - 1.

As for school, Chemistry Lab Lesson was quite fun. We were testing for the properties of Acids and Alkalis today, which proved to be interesting when the chemicals reacted. And I found out that my Physics Gradient of 7500 was completely wrong, I had plotted the graph inappropriately. I had swapped the X-Axis and Y-Axis, so my rise over run was very off.

Then for PE, I forgot to bring my PE Shorts. In the morning when I was packing my bag, I wondered if I would go for training after the competition, then when I decided I wouldn't because my bag was getting quite fat (I've got a number of files in there and my Macbook), I took out the shirt and shorts. Thus, I was made to do 20 Push-Ups. Not that it was hard, I just didn't want to sabotage the class just because of my mistakes, because they do punish the whole class just because of a couple of people sometimes, and there were 2 yesterday in my class.

I love Mondays, and for the third time I'm saying it on this blog, thank god it's Monday. There must be some link, but I kept drifting off to sleep. To commemorate Easter Monday, every student in the school received 2 chocolate eggs which tasted alright, but not quality chocolate. But they had 1500 students to give it to, so they probably can't afford it. Well I love English lessons because my teacher is very good at telling stories, and that's what she does for English lesson, be a story teller. She always seems to have something to share on every topic, which range from information that we did not know to her own experiences, that brilliant mind of hers.

Biology was a nice lecture, I was tired there though, so I think I did not pay attention to today's lesson. My ears can work with my eyes closed, but teachers don't think so, so I was sort of struggling to keep them open, which resulted in only 50% concentration, the other half of my body was spent on preventing my eyes from shutting. It isn't fun or easy. His lessons are supposed to be enjoyable anyway.

Then, of course, you have to pay full attention in a Physics Lab lesson. You just can't sleep when you're standing and carrying out the procedures of the experiment. My data was a lot more different compared to my friends though, and I ended up with a gradient of 7500, something tells me that's wrong.

And then again, because it's Monday, the day was over by then. The rest was just listening, which I enjoy. Listening is fun :D. Tomorrow is Semi-Finals, but we again are doomed.

For today, training was below average. So I practiced with Julian in the morning. He fa qiang and I dang lor, as usual. Then An Qi had to fa qiang also, but she was hungry and then jiao lian told her to play 1 match with me before she could go for lunch. Won her 3 - 1, made a mistake on the 3rd set. Then I went for lunch with Julian. He suggested Macdonald's and I went "What?" because I had had it for dinner last night and breakfast this morning. So he pestered me on where else there was and in the end I said ok to Macdonald's, but too bad for him Macdonald's was full. So we brought back KFC, just 1 large box of Popcorn Chicken each. That's about the only thing worth eating from KFC beside the Mashed Potato and the big chicken wings. As a result of his pestering, I forgot to get the birthday present that I was supposed to buy.

After lunch, back at school, jiao lian told me to wait, then 30 seconds later asked me for my bat. After positioning us nicely, I was going to start, then he told me to wait again. Was out of the system for 2 rounds, then he put me at the last table, which was table 8. Climbed all the way to Table 3, met Yen Kar, lost to him 11 - 9 and 14 - 12, then I was asked to tui sia again by jiao lian. It was 3:15pm then, and for the rest of the 45 minutes I had left, I talked...

Dinner was Sensen's at West Mall. Omelette with chicken ham and cheese, I loved it. Then the Ice Cream was nice too. After that, we went to bata to buy shoes, my current pair had a small hole that could rip open any moment. After a little bit of pickiness, I finally decided that Size 9 (yes, 9, it's that big) was suitable for me. But guess what, when I unpacked it to retie the shoelaces at home, 1 of the shoes was the Size 9 and the correct design, the other was Size 8 with a different design. OK bata fail, I'll have to do with my tattered shoes tomorrow.

Sorry for this slacking mood :).

Instead of going for school's training, I went for my friend's brother's training. He's in NUS High, and his training was apparently unofficial, arranged by him and a group of friends. He was the best of them all, they had competition on Monday and their coach did not train them as he was helping the better players now. So he was on the weaker side, but he was still playing because they were short of players. He coached his friends, and they were quite new to Table Tennis. At least his brother could do some nice rallies. I played with them from 9.30am to 2pm, at which time I was asked to go home, to slack for the rest of the day and that's why I am posting now...

Wow today actually turned out to be fun. It's a public holiday (Good Friday), but I usually treat my holidays as weekends. Today was different. It was the first time this year that I was outside with friends for a casual outing, but the problem was that everything I did seemed to be wrong.

I left my home at 12.50pm, was dropped off at Newton MRT Station to take the train to Dhoby Ghaut. 3 stops only, but the train was super crowded. Without the Circle Line, this would be worse. So I arrived at 1.25pm, then I found Daryl waiting. Without a clue where the correct exit to Plaza Singapura (It's the Dhoby Ghaut Maze) was, we asked a security guard and he pointed us to the right direction, which appeared to be where Daryl had previously come out from. Then, finding Dawn and Hanzhi was the next problem. Which part of Basement 2 would you be at? We met up anyway. With just 5 minutes left to the start of the film, I did the queuing for the tickets, Daryl lined up for the food and the girls went to the Arcade, how nice of them. Of course they paid their own share for the tickets, but Daryl sponsored the food completely. The first mistake was to watch Jack Neo's film, which I was supposedly banned from after his scandalous act, but I forgot that he directed the film Being Human although Daryl had mentioned it before. $10 gone to him just like that.

It was ok, I suppose. The storyline was not very exciting, but the jokes that they cracked up were quite good with a nice balance of English, Mandarin and Hokkien. It was basically a story about a man who cared only about his wealth and in the process, caused hurt to others and even lost his loved ones. He had no conscience and did not care about the lives of other people and thus did many wrong things. I shall not go into details, but it was a really dumb ending where the whole film was rewinded very quickly over a period of 10 seconds and the main character decided to do the opposite of what he wanted initially. Daryl bought 2 boxes of popcorn, one which was fully salt popcorn and the other which was mixed. We did not finish it, I can't stand Salty Popcorn. The sweet ones were consumed by the girls.

After the movie, we decided to walk around. Went to Carrefour, looked at things a little, then we visited the Arcade. Misdeed number 2. Play in the Arcade. Dawn was emo-ing over the numerous failures to catch that little plush toy and she looked really sad, so I went for a go. I got it on the 5th try. She didn't seem too happy with that as she wanted to do it herself, but I made her take it anyway (You know you wanted it). I accidentally wasted $1 worth of Daryl's tokens after hitting the wrong button in Time Crisis 2, so sorry about that. Then we did a couple of games in Spot the Difference, which seemed incredibly easy to them, I couldn't see anything! We spent about 45 minutes in there, then we went to Burger King to eat as Daryl had not taken his lunch and it was 5.20pm.

"Lunch" turned into Dai Di as Daryl had brought a pack of Poker Cards. So instead of sitting there and eating, we were using the space to play Dai Di. Wrongdoing number 3. They had their suitable reason of "I'm still eating" albeit at an incredibly slow pace. But it was true, the food was not completely devoured until about 7pm. Hanzhi kept winning, then when I finally joined in Daryl started winning. Dawn failed miserably with Triple Di in one of the games, screwed up big time near the end. I, of course, did not win at all, I was not familiar with the rules of the game. We eventually broke off from hogging the table at 7pm and went home.

Random

The thing I hate about April's Fools Day, is that when someone asks you to do something or tells you something, you don't know if it's an April Fools joke or a legitimate statement, and moreover is when it's at 12am on the 2nd April and someone tells you something that could be an April Fools Joke, but they were just late by a few minutes. You still can't be sure if it's real. And when you ask them if it IS indeed an April Fools Joke, they'll tell you that it's already the 2nd April. And so it's sad for people who are born on 1st April, they get loads of jokes for their birthday present which might not be considered fun to them.

Maundy Thursday was started off with service. During the service, they were talking about Servant Leadership and how Jesus was a leader who came to serve and not be served, which he evidently displayed when he washed the feet of his disciples. That particular incident aroused his disciples and caused them to think that Jesus was wrong to be serving them in a way. They went through "Stations" when Jesus made his way with the cross to the place to die. In each "Station", they described the events that happened such as the fact that he fell 3 times and Simon helped him carry the cross. In them, they represented the values of Jesus, of his love and perseverance, his willingness to die for the people and other inspiring qualities of Jesus. They followed it up with Marists who exemplified Servant Leaders, and apparently my form teacher felt that I was one of them, after observing my behaviour for a while, so she had nominated me. There were about 7 people whom they mentioned, and in the 30 seconds where my name, class (put wrongly) and picture (A 2009 picture, they couldn't find any other photos of me) was revealed to every single student in the hall, I became more famous than I ever had been. Random people whom I had never met recognized me even after the Service, I don't know how they did it, I would not even be able to identify who the other 6 Servant Leaders were in a group of 10. Well, I had one day of "fame", if you could call it that.

For Geography lesson after that, we learnt about Biomass. My teacher told us that everything that we ate could be traced back to plants as plants are the core units of an ecosystem and if we lacked them, the whole population of animals would be affected as they are the start of almost every single food chain. So my teacher came up to me, asked me what I ate for Breakfast and I told him I did not eat Breakfast. He then told me I had eaten air, which was what I did say previously, then he asked me why I did not eat, was it because I was too poor, I could not afford food for breakfast and in the midst of all that he was saying rapidly without waiting for an answer, he withdrew a $10 note and put it into my pocket and walked off. My classmates started shouting that they had not taken breakfast either, in hopes of free money. Naturally, I returned it to him, but if I did not, it would really have been mine. When he asked me again why I did not eat and gave me a chance to answer, I told him that I barely took Breakfast.

After lessons, I went to make up for a couple of Biology Lab Experiments that I had missed when I had attended the Table Tennis Competitions. Kai Xun came as well, since he had missed them too. The very first two food tests... Mr Teo gave us the answer sheets to save time. Experiment 1 was ok, but when we were doing Experiment 2, we found that we were short of Dry Test Tubes. So Kai Xun asked for extra Test Tubes and returned with 4, which we split evenly. After doing the first part of the Experiment, we found that 2 was not enough, we needed 6 each. I still had 1 dry one since I reused 1 of the Test Tubes in the first Experiment, so I went to ask for 3. I told the lady that I needed 3 Test Tubes, and she took out a book, flipped it to the last page where any entries were made, and asked me to fill up the slots. It appeared that I had to write my details when I borrowed test tubes, so I did that. Date, Name, Item, Quantity, Signature. When I wrote my name, I looked at the slot above mine and wondered why Kai Xun's name was not there when he had borrowed 4 test tubes 15 minutes ago. Nevertheless, I filled up the rest of the required blanks. While writing the quantity, she asked me how many, to which I answered 3 and she looked shocked. I supposed no one had borrowed that many from her simultaneously before. When I was done, the lady told me "不用现在赔钱“. I looked at her, thinking "Why do you think I would pay money to borrow 3 Test Tubes?" Then when she made no effort to get 3 Test Tubes and repeated her words, I suddenly knew why. The book had been to record down the details of Broken Laboratory Apparatus. That's why I needed to write my name, which item I had broken, how many of them I had damaged and my signature to confirm that. It would then make sense for her to say what she had said about paying for the Test Tubes and the reason why Kai Xun had not filled up the blanks. It would also then explain why she had been shocked when I told her 3 Test Tubes. Hence, I told her again that I was there to borrow 3 test tubes and she looked at me for a second before taking over the pen, striking off what I had written and then going to get the Test Tubes. I was right, she had misunderstood me, or maybe I did not make my point clearly. She told me that she thought I had broken 3 Test Tubes, and I corrected that.

Now with an adequate number of Test Tubes, we conducted the 2nd Experiment and finished it up. It was 3.40pm then. Yan Tian had told me earlier before my lesson that he would wait for me before going for the Competition. He had skipped his Chinese Lesson. Walking out to the Porch where I had told Yan Tian to wait for me, I found Jia Ming and he too was about to make his way to PLMGS. We went to find the missing Yan Tian who was supposedly at the Library while I was doing my experiment, but failed to do so. Returning to the Porch, I felt my Phone vibrate and found that it was Yan Tian calling me. He told us to go to the Rock Wall. So he had decided to take a step further and leave us misinformed.

Making our way to Serangoon, I realized the mistake to go with Yan Tian and Jia Ming. They both jaywalked like before. Again, I disregarded them and took the long way with a run. Upon reaching PLMGS, we saw Dong Shuai starting his Final Set. After watching him lose that, our China Doubles went up. Losing 2 - 1, it seemed like they could not make the win, but they were the Miracle pair that made a 10 - 7 become 10 - 12 in the match against RI, and that was what they did again. With a comeback, we won that Match 3 - 2, and at that point Daryl was telling me again about how they were wasting time by playing all 5 sets. Of course it was not on purpose, each side wanted to win ASAP, but too bad it was true and it really consumed a lot of our time. You Hao gave us the 2nd point in yet another 3 - 2. Looking over at the Sports School vs St. Gabriel, we saw Pang Xue Jie lose to one of them 3 - 1, but there were incredible rallies which involved remarkable reaction time and speed as well as skill, which both players had. Anyway, Edwin and Benedict assured our win and Yan Feng just cleaned up to make it 4 - 1. We're now in the Semi-Finals, although with relatively low chances of winning, but then again, I expected a loss today, and it was a reverse outcome.

Yesterday, our C Division beat Catholic High 4 - 1. I wasn't there, I just knew that they won. I had extra lessons, again... Met Yan Tian, Benedict, Jia Ming and Darryl on the way anyway, and they were jay-walking. I did not follow them though. Our B Division match was against St. Gabriel's, and we lost the first 2 matches. You Hao looked like he had a chance, but his opponent was just so lucky and he dropped the ball onto the corner of the table in the final point, sealing the victory for them. We won the 2nd doubles as they were the only SG players in St. Gabriel and they weren't too strong, then Sean lost the last to make it a 4 - 1 loss. Tomorrow we will be facing SJI and it doesn't look like it'll be a win for us, but I shall see.

I had an "OK" training session today. Dozing off repeatedly through the periods before Recess, I was woken up during the break and was hence able to fully concentrate after that. And I ate more than usual, but I was still hungry during lunch, for some reason. I was hungry in the morning too. Braces hadn't allowed me to eat well, so I guess my body needed to balance that out. I started off nice and well with a very close win against Yi Kar 3 - 2. Then he played against Wei Yen, beating him 3 - 0. I lost to Wei Yen 3 - 2 after that, then Kai Xun won me 3 - 1, and that's ridiculous considering the fact that they hadn't come for training in recent weeks. So I was upset with both losses. What happened after that made it worse. Coach called for a Doubles match - Timothy + Me vs Daryl and Darren. He said that if we lost one set we would have to Wa Tiao. We took the lead to 2 - 0, then we started to lose in the 3rd set. At 10 - 6, it was time to put aside our playful mood, if there was even one. I brought the score to 10 - 8, then when we were playing the 19th ball, Darren had to hit it just above the net and cause the ball to drop right after it, which of course no one would expect, so we lost that set.

We won that match 3 - 1, but of course Coach wasn't happy. He let us rematch for a chance to redeem ourselves, and guess what, we lost the 1st set. I told Coach I would just Wa Tiao, but he told us to win the whole thing. Well of course the opposite happened. We lost 3 - 1. Wa Tiao it was.... 6 times. And that was the end of today's Off-Form training, although I felt ON Form.

I got my Braces on Saturday, they're white, so it isn't very obvious unless you're 5 metres away. I was fine with it initially, having worn the Jaw Expander for 2 years. The feeling was the same, except that there was nothing to block my tongue, so it's much easier to talk with it, certain vowels were made unclear when I wore them. Now, that issue has been eliminated, at the cost of additional temporary problems. About 7 hours after putting them on, I started to feel pain on both sides of my mouth. It hurt to bite. I was so blessed that dinner that night was Noodles, and noodles can be swallowed without much difficulty.

So then on Sunday for breakfast, was Hotcakes! Easy to cut and put into the mouth and swallow. Training was better than usual, my Win/Loss ratio was above 1. I felt that I had improved anyway.

Monday was ok, I felt lethargic in the morning when there was no reason to do so. I only had half a day, but I couldn't get through that without constantly putting my head on the table. The "extra" session for some course that I thought I had in the afternoon was a mistake of mine as it was not for me, but I had to stay until 5.30 for training anyway. I found Daryl and added to his History Homework in an attempt to pull up his grades, I'm not sure if I was successful. Then he left me to rot, once again, in at 3.30pm. With nothing to do, I read the Newspaper in the canteen for half an hour, then I decided to run off to J8 to pass time. Once there, I decided that I would have a Hot Fudge Sundae, then I went back. It was 5pm then, and the side gate could not be opened from the outside. It was also raining, so I obviously avoided the option of running round the school in the rain just to get in. Instead, I waited for someone to come out, which was what happened. He came out and I went in, held the door for that RGS Cheryl, who happened to arrive at that moment, then went in alone. I did not notice the rest of the group. Found Sean loitering at the hall, he was wondering if he should jump in from the top floor, as the door was locked. When I told him RGS had arrived, he made it a "No". 5.30, Coach arrived, ban zhuo zi... As I did that, NY came, then more RGS came. After I was done, I went to my usual slacking place. More NY came, then another group of RGS came, then an additional set of NY came. OK...... this training was officially cancelled for me. The "twins" Daryl and Darren arrived. We sat and talked until 7.30 when we were FINALLY allowed to play as there were now free tables for us. I was asked to play one match, which I won, and that was "Training" for the night.