It was a tiring day, like all Thursdays are. I'll skip details on today. Sports day tomorrow, yay!

Started off today with double Chinese, we were practicing for our Oral today. Being a chicken, I stayed at the back and did not volunteer myself, instead suggesting for others to do the talking. The result is that I have to do it tomorrow :(. At least I have some idea on what to say having heard my friends' opinions.

Following that was Maths Base Test. The teacher was so kind to forget and only tell us that we had a Base Test today, yesterday. It's not that I can't prepare in one night, but many of us panic when time seems short, especially when most of them are busy 24/7, unlike me. So ok Chapter 4.1 and 9.3, we made sure by asking him several times yesterday. And guess what, he came today and told us that Chapter 1 was included. Now what's chapter 1? Quadratic Equations, the Alpha Beta part of the chapter. I immediately went "Oh shit" in my heart, because as far as I could remember, I was slacking when he taught that as it was just after the Exams. So naturally I was weak in that when it came to homework. But it turned out ok in the end as I asked my friends for help. However, I was still not entirely confident of my ability to solve those questions. That's where the sarcasm ends. Mr Wu gave us a quick 2 minute revision to pity us for keeping from us the fact that Chapter 1 was included in the Base Test, and then I suddenly remembered everything. I was fully ready for the test then.

4 questions, 20 marks. Turned out very good. Confident that my answers are all correct, working-wise, not so much. Only applies to the last question anyway, so I'll just take off 2 marks from that. Should be 18/20 or higher. I'll wait :D.

The rest of the day passed like usual. Ms Leng told us stories during her period, and Mr Teo extended this section by telling us a couple of stories of his own, and he even released us early so that we could be punctual for our NAPFA test! Includes lunch time. Went with Russell and Reuben. None of us knew where Serangoon Stadium was from the MRT Station, but they met a classmate of theirs who knew the directions, so he lead the way. I still arrived there 40 minutes early at 2.20pm. By 2.45, the group that was supposed to start at 2.30pm hadn't even begun. They just kept dragging it. There were 4 groups of about 20 people per group on the track, that makes 80 students running in circles, some sprinting like they can't tire out, most panting for breath and moving at their comfortable pace. When I finally started at about 3.30pm when my class had been scheduled for 3pm.

It wasn't as tiring as I thought it would be, but it wasn't fun to feel breathless either. I clocked 11 minutes 56 seconds, 4th in my group :D. That's a B for me and it secures my Gold. Ming Xuan had a timing of 10 minutes 48 seconds. If I had not sprinted the last half lap, I would probably be position 10, I think. That's how close we all were. It was as if we all had the same constant speed. I jogged throughout the 6 rounds, pausing once for half a second to catch my breath, but then decided that I could not afford to stop, so I continued running. Poor Waise missed his C by 3 seconds, and I told him to beg the teacher to be merciful, but unfortunately for him it didn't work out as he could not change the timing, the receipt still showed the actual time and that would prove to be very suspicious when they came to check. So he is one who has 27/30 points for NAPFA, but has a Silver. That is really, really hilarious.

Went back to school for training, shouldn't have bothered though. If all my juniors skipped it, what's the fun of going for it?

Blogger just screwed up today's post, and I'm not typing it all out again. I'll just make it short

I was puzzling over my timetable in the morning.
Today is Daryl's birthday (my classmate).
Did not run for PE today.
Crapping in Maths lesson (again).
Made Copper(II) Sulfate crystals during Chemistry.
Failed to do the ICAS test after they stole my money.

Taking my NAPFA test tomorrow.

It was a better Monday today then the past 3 Mondays. Maths was fun, Biology was fun, Physics was quite fun too, then the day ended. The problem was that it felt a little too lengthy, but I shouldn't be complaining since it's only a half-day. Assembly filled in the epic part of laughter of the day as Mr C. Kunalan, Singapore's greatest runner and one who set the record for 100m sprint at 10.38 seconds, entertained us with his numerous photos of his life. The caption that he threw in was valuable to causing our laughter as well. He wasn't the average height for a man, but he loved to compare his height with other people so he showed us many photos of himself standing beside people taller than him and there was this one where he was more than a head shorter than another athlete who was 1.95m tall. And with every of those pictures it would have a line above his head that stretched across to his companion in the photo which would show how much shorter he was compared to that person. He is Malay, has 2 daughters, one who married a Scotland guy and the other married a British guy, so he has an International family.

Tomorrow I'll have PE again, I must remember to bring my shorts, and for Chemistry, I must remember to bring the standard file duo and Workbook. And we'll be running tomorrow for PE, I can see through the evil plan of the teachers to tire us out on the day just before the official 2.4km test so that we will all fail to get the grade that is expected of us, but I think I'll still run through it tomorrow anyway. Oh and I had to return a couple of overdue books today...

My performance improved today, but I don't know if it's the bat or I just got lucky. Early in the morning, it's just to practise. But I did get a doubles match with An Qi and the twins, so that's 3 left handers in one match. Still won all 3 times though. Then I stroked with Yi Kar for a bit before leaving for lunch with Julian.

Same thing as last week, couldn't be bothered to get anything else besides a Hot Fudge Sundae. We camped outside the station watching the time. 3 mins on the board. I ate my ice cream and finished it with 1 minute remaining to rush into the station, down the escalators just in time to see the train pull over. Went back to school to continue part 2 of training.

Coach as usual put me at the last table. When I was about to start the 2nd game, he told me to go back down and let Yi Kar take my place. Then I let Xin Wei play. After that, Kai Shiun came and we played alternately. At about 3.30, I think, Coach made me play with Celeste. Celeste and Jia Wei wanted Doubles, but he said no because she has her tournament coming up. So it was Celeste vs me and Daryl vs Jia Wei. That's a 4th Daryl I'm mentioning in this blog. I was full on form then because to be honest, she looked quite tough. First set 11 - 0. 2nd set 10 - 12. Then I won the 3rd and 4th set. There were a number of lucky balls and I had to run around like I always do because of my tendency to fang gao qiu. Daryl won his match 3 - 1 as well.

After that, Coach called for a Doubles match. Si Min and I vs Daryl and Gerrad(is that how you spell his name?). Whatever I'll call him Carrot :D. We lost the first set and I think Si Min was quite pissed after that because I did not match their standards, but after that we took 3 straight sets to win 3 - 1, again.

And then in the final game of the day, I was made to play against the same pair but with a different partner, Benedict. I could just tell that we were going to lose 3 - 0 100% having played that previous match. And we did. I told Benedict that if we won I'll give him 20 cents (I'm a cheapo, I can't afford stuff) but of course I didn't try to lose.

I had extra Social Studies lesson in the morning today. It was supposed to be 9 to 10:30am, but at 10:30 she said 10:45 and that's it, and naturally we were dismissed at 11am. I went to Xin Ten afterwards.

I am really eager to go for training tomorrow. I have got a totally new bat although with the same 2 rubbers, and it feels so much better than my old one, which I got in P3. Maybe the broken wood was the reason for my lousy playing, and people complaining about my "Pirated Anti" should stop that tomorrow, it's new and if it still doesn't act like it should, it's not my fault. And this is the 2nd new thing this week... and I have a 3rd thing in mind although I should stop getting new things.

I finished my Maths homework :D. 9 graphs straight, it was so pissing off and I needed to find Graph paper on the internet that could fit my requirements and it was so difficult to find. I don't have a Graph pad, but I should get one. Anyway, the ones on the internet are either in inches or their width is too small. But I finally found one which was almost like the Graph Paper that I use.

Teacher: Apollos, come out and do question 1 on the board now.
Apollos: *Gets out of his seat*
Teacher: Wait, have you even done it on your worksheet?
Apollos: *Looks at worksheet* Er… I do now. *Sits down*
Teacher: You haven't even done your work and you're talking to your friends like a busybody.
Apollos: No… just… some people give the money already, some haven't.
Teacher: And why does that concern you, Apollos?
Apollos: Because I give my money already, then I scared my name not ticked (on the nameless).

That was part of Chemistry lesson on Friday. I remembered to bring my things this time :D. That 1 period should have been longer, because we had Chinese 听写 next, and I could just tell that I'd fail. So I was desperately but calmly trying to remember the words, then this teacher came in, and the class started to cheer and whoop because it was a relief teacher. In the midst of our shouting, our chinese teacher came into the classroom. The relief teacher looked surprised and they talked for a while, then he left. He was reliving the part of the class that was taking Chinese Literature, that is, our China Scholars (They don't take Higher Chinese). Then the class was in a moody state after that. Temporary moment of triumph backfired completely, it was an epic fail.

As mentioned, I am sure I failed, because I forgot at least one of the words in almost every one of them, just can't write the full thing correctly. This feeling of misery was enhanced in the next 2 periods as it was Maths. Mr Wu really went to check that he didn't have our E-Maths Book 2, so he assigned Homework, which is like 15 questions of which 10 require drawing graphs that are not linear, and that's what I hate the most. The flexicurve is one of the most hateful thing to use, it just doesn't cooperate with me and fit the graph nicely, so any part questions after that which involve estimation will be off.

Following that, Recess. Then double English period, where Ms Leng was absent once again. We were so happy for a relive period, but then in the last 15 minutes of the 1st half of the supposedly 1 hour 10 minutes of peace, Ms Wong came in to teach us whatever Social Studies information that she could in that amount of time. Then it was Chemistry, again as Ms Yeo took the 2nd period. I was dying for the day to end as I wanted to do my NAPFA test, it would be fun to see the results of the other students in my group. I endured the final period, Physics, in a depressing state. When it was finally over, my heart felt SO light.

But laughing at others about their NAPFA test isn't a really good thing to do in my case, as I'm not really fit myself. My group of 8 was comprised of 6 Scholars, Kai Xun and I. Of the 6 scholars, 5 had to do their Pull-Ups already. We started off with Sit and Reach, a D grade for me, 1cm more to C, which was same as last year. One of my scholars did not know how to do it and just pushed that metal thing as hard as he could and we were all laughing at him. When he did it properly, it was still 40+cm. Then my Inclined Pull-Ups was A, and 3 of the Scholars failed their Pull Ups, where just 1 was enough to pass. The scholar who did IPU was so tall that he could not lie properly and low enough as his hands were super long too, so he got a free A as the teacher did not know how to handle it either. Shuttle Run was A, Sit Ups A. I was happy with my Sit Ups result as I thought I would die from a weak Stomach muscle having not trained for it properly at all in the past year. Then came Standing Broad Jump. After wa tiao, I expected this to improve, but no, I did worse than last year. Another D. There goes my Gold. Kai Xun is guaranteed his, he has 4 As and 1 B, and that B was Sit and Reach, 1 more cm to A. Unsatisfied with this failure, I offered to retest, but the teacher said that I would have to wait for everyone to finish, which was likely to be at 4.30pm. At that time, my watch showed 3.30pm.

So I waited 1 hour for a retest with Jia Hui, Shawn and Ashley, they wanted to improve their results too. Jia Hui needed to redo sit-ups as I had caused him to get an E in the official test because Keng Wee shouted "Stop" near the end and I thought the time was over, but he actually meant that he was to stop, and I was confused so I stopped holding down Jia Hui's feet for him. He managed a D in the second try anyway, but 1 more to C. My Sit and Reach became C and so did my SBJ, by 1cm. "There goes my Gold" is history. Ashley still failed it after numerous tries and in the end he gave up. Now all I have to do is to get a nice timing for my 2.4km run and I'll have my Gold!

I got a new watch today, the one that I had since P2 finally died out. It has served it's time well though, even after losing the metal casing, which isn't important, and there are a couple of scratches on it, which would be natural since I have it with me for 90% of the time, I bring it everywhere with me, be it carrying it or wearing it. So anyway, it has been a really good timekeeper for me, I grew so reliant on it that I found the 2 days without it to be awkward. It just didn't feel right to not feel my watch in my hand or have an empty wrist. The way that it has become faulty, is that one of the buttons is being pressed in, and 2 buttons cannot be pressed simultaneously. The screen shows the stopwatch, but as I cannot press anything, I cannot switch to time mode. If it was in Time mode, I would consider it to be still functioning since that is what a watch is mainly for, but too bad, it will show 6 zeros on it's face forever in minutes, seconds and split-seconds, each value supported by 2 digits. But I am happy that it survived to date, I actually lost one which cost $104 in 2008, and that model is similar to the one that I have right now, it's still available, but my current one has a base price of $116. Due to an offer, however, the price is a wonderful bargain of just $69. After losing the watch in 2008, I had to revert to the old watch which just broke down today. This new TIMEX watch has a larger face, supports up to 3 time-zones, has 3 alarms and a nice feature to record Occassions on every date, which I can use to help me in my addictive challenge to memorize my friends' birth dates. Only certain friends get to be on this list, or if their birthdate is a really nice date, such as 11th November, which a couple of people have.

Tomorrow I'll be having my NAPFA 5 stations, and I haven't done anything to practice for it this year, but I think I'll be fine, since I never trained for my NAPFA in the previous years, I just did it on the spot and always managed to cover the requirements for Gold, although I missed C for my Sit & Reach last year, after which I offered to try again but the teacher said that he would just give that 1cm to me, so I achieved my Gold. In fact, I expect to do better this year after the more vigorous training that I have attended this year compared to last year, which would naturally improve my fitness, I hope. But good luck to Reuben, whose birthday had to be tomorrow, 9th April, so that puts him with the older age group. We were notified last week that the date of the test had been postponed due to certain important meetings, and it was really unlucky that they put it on his birthday, which means that he'll have to do the harder stuff now. I'm not there yet, but I will next year :). Until then, I won't care too much.

Random

If you ask why my blog is like a composition, the real purpose of it is because I'm trying to practise my English. Of course it tells about my life like a real blog, but it is more formal in the sense that I barely use singlish and improper English to write a post. It's also important not to use SMS or Chat language too much because if you consistently do that, you'll come to a point where you write it in your school work. Common words such as "You" and "why" will be seen as "U" and "Y" on your homework, and you'll be famous in your class when the teacher decides to show the class your amazing and daring feat to write that in your work.

The Dictionary is a good friend of mine when I'm writing my posts, because my English isn't really that superb and I do check the Thesaurus for synonyms of the word that I'm trying to say, and this widens the range of vocabulary. To a lesser extent, my spelling needs to be corrected sometimes too.

It was quite a nice day today. Started off with Geography, which is ALWAYS fun, and I really mean always. There hasn't been a period where Mr Low has not made us laugh at least once since day 1 this year, which is quite a record. Too bad it was just a single period. Well, it was followed up by Physics, where my test was ok. You just can't be sure if it's well done or not, for Physics. Then we spent our English lesson doing homework, that's how obedient my class is when we're left alone, which is a complete contradiction of my class last year, where every period, there would be at least 1 Macbook out unless a test was presently being conducted, even when the teacher told us to put it away. English lesson was off because Ms Leng had sore throat.

Recess succeeded that period and then Chinese was the next period, which was again, quite good, and after that we had a fun time in Maths Lesson although ironically I told Kaiser just before it started that I hated it because we had to do work all the time. But, like Benedict said to me earlier this week, I will be learning the "Art of Bullshitting" this year and it will turn out to be very good by next year. True enough, it WAS a lesson of nonsense. Firstly, our 2 main rebels of the class, Apollos and Samuel, had been placed far apart from each other in the class, but it just wasn't enough. They continued to communicate by throwing their voices across the classroom, and the conversation was ridiculously funny and everyone in the class could hear it so we were all laughing. Then Mr Wu said that he should ask Ms Leng to put them further apart, at both ends on the classroom.

Anyway, they continued talking crap throughout the lesson about random stuff and when the teacher asked questions such as "Why x could not be 0", Samuel would say "Yeah lor Apollos", and sometimes it would be the other way round. Then when he drew the graph that we were doing on the whiteboard with a black marker, Samuel said that it was racist to do that. They also kept telling Mr Wu that they did not understand his explanation for the same question and he had to elucidate it repeatedly. After a while, more people joined in this unreasonable series of crap talking, all just to delay his lesson. Then when the bell ring, we told him that we had Biology Lessons after that although it had been confirmed during Morning Announcements that Mr Teo was absent and thus his session was cancelled. He was about to give homework, but then he asked us if we had our E-Maths Workbook 2, and I told him I had a book 3, which of course doesn't exist. Then Kaiser said: "Let us go home and check if we have it", and wow, Mr Wu said fine and added that he would check if he had them too, so we were released with no homework. Nice one, Kaiser :D.