this blog is beginning to revive. ho.

had to umpire again on saturay, the recre teams as well as the clubs. it is also known as the strike lottery day, because it rained in the afternoon and i was saved for one week from umpiring the clubs, as well as being paid for just well, being present. which means if i turn up next week i will get paid too. the sadness of noting it is that i have come to treat umpiring as a job/chore for which i get paid. the perks are in the money duh. which leads me to wonder whether working life is just as 1)stressful, 2) monotone or demanding, depending on the game 3)just all about the money. bah. i hope i never get stuck in a job i dont really like, without any passion in it and follow after my mom. but on a brighter note, it means that i have earned somewhere in the range of a hundred bucks, from last saturday afternoon and the whole of this saturday. hopefully. which means, that i can probably pay the whole sibu trip myself,since im going to be down again on the makeup dates, if i make up my mind to go. or pay for avventura.

on the other hand, we should have gone for the recre teams category. not playing was a big joke, because the players arent that great at all. the play was a big mess, making umpiring hard, because its nearly impossible to make out who hit who, tangled up their feet, obstructed in the space of one minute. the rate of mistakes made was averaging about 5 per minute in a super messy one, which is quite bad, going by standards. sigh.

im not sure about avventura, but i think its going to be fun hohum. that is if we register lolx. the whole thing still has a shaky kind of ring to it. well. but it will be super duper fun. including all the training sessions we will have lol.

i have been slacking, since the weather is so cold, and reading. i can't belive i fell asleep reading neverwhere, but i suspect it was because i was tired out. how blasphemous. lol. but neverwhere's a good book man. just finished cry of a heron today. ending was disappointing. the flow of the book just stops, abruptly like that. its still pretty good, but long drawn.

speaking of long books, harry p and the deathly hallows suprised me by wrapping everything neatly. not bad at all. considering book 5 and 6 were such disappointments. well.


okay i shall do some PROPER work people. PW.

bleh.

Get there by candlelight

this blog is quite dead, but nevermind. after my loaded week im pretty much taking it really easy.

last week was adv camp, adv race and umpiring in the same span of 4 days. really tired me out, gave a lot of food for thought.

but adv race was one of the most fun things i will remember about my JC1 life. i will NEVER look at velocity the same way again. or ford factory. even now, when i pass by it everyday, i'll always see 3+1 standing there being delivered the bombshell that was elimination. haha. and maybe it has strengthened my resolve, if i ever join adventure racing next time, not to walk if you can help it, dont take extraordinary bus rides, hitchhike like crazy nuts, dare to try, and not to get eliminated so easily. and oh, carry a road map of singapore in my head.

shoutout to adv race people!

yl: thanks for ALL the help. like holding hands and running up the blastedly long hills/parts, squirming at the taste of bugs and power gel. when i was dying of aches it was wonderful to know that there will be always someone to help and wait for me :)

andre: LOL ORANGE FLAVORED POWERGEL! haha. thank you for all the encouragement, and everything else.

mark: the KING of lame jokes. omg. no wonder he and sihao are friends lol. but you really lightened up the whole amazing race even though your jokes are damm not funny but its okay me and yl always laugh (not outright) and groan in the extent of the lameness.

the sloths and 4 Blind mice teams: thank you for being there and helping us cope with our elimination! and im glad you all had fun after that lolx :P

the best part of adv camp with 3O has been covered and uncovered again and again by my classmates lol. but i must really say that the campsite is truly beautiful. i really want to camp there, solitary actually or just with a bunch of good friends, and take my time enjoying all the wild beauty ubin has to offer. being next to the mangrove and the sea is beautiful, where land meets the sea and shakes hands. love listening to the sound of the waves beating against the shore. love watching the beautiful sunset, and listening to the crickets. after that with the sunrise, trek to chek jawa and examine the intertidal zone. another beautiful place.

and the good thing is i discovered it with 3O :D

which brings me back to what i really joined ODAC for, as i was mulling today on the bus ride home. its so visible that 23 is really fragmenting. i dunno, but its pretty obvious to me that what you get out of it is what you really want to commit. I want to enjoy the outdoors, challenge myself. I dont want to again be stuck in some cca fighting and fighting to excel against the rest. I want to fight against myself, show that i can really do it; abseil, reach the top of the wall, kayak, summit a mountain, trek across singapore. and while i know that ODAC isnt the most perfect cca around, but what is a cca for if you dont commit to it wholeheartedly, or give without reservation, and look forward without regret.

its a shame that june ex was canceled, but i dont think i want to regret and resent it forever. i want EOY Ex to be a success, not a make up for JEX. i dont want to resent the fact that i joined this CCA and its currently not living up to my idealized expectations from RG ODAC. I want to remember why i joined in the first place, and keep on looking for it. this is why i will always give up everything for MY cca. because i chose it with eyes wide open, it is MINE. not some cca i chose to fill up my afternoons.

for that i do not resent netball. fighting for a team place is not a negative issue, it is just that 4 years of it is too stifling. it is time for something new. i thought i could channel all that passion into umpiring and i realize now that it will not fit. it was wrong, and i realize it only now. everytime i go for umpiring, i wonder why and how it is possible to enjoy it. other umpires can smile at the players while they call their decisions; i think i have this permanent intense scrunched up look when i umpire. it is the most stressful thing i have ever done; to me its a duty, an obligation. i dont enjoy it, or feel the same passion when i play. im sorry, but its true, i will give it up sooner or later. at most i will not take my badging and remain as a cadet until my license expires. i will fulfil my obligation when they call me up to ask, until the 2 years are up. but one thing is clear; i will never choose umpiring over odac activities. never.

i really want to visit all the beautiful wild places in the world before they disappear, before it its too late to see them. i think odac is a stepping stone towards that dream. i want to become a scientist in environmental science. i dont want to sit on my butt waiting for the world to die out; at least to die fighting is worthwhile.

thats why school really irks me. and i stone a lot now a days. the feeling of being trapped between 4 concrete walls, while inept teachers drone on, not even trying to inject some interest, or competancy into their teaching, really irritates me, when i could be somewhere else feeling more alive.

somewhere like, on top of a mountain.

:D

Get there by candlelight

me and eli's perfect day at ECP

1) Turn up early in the morning, go biking until butt sore (like two hours or something until the rental runs out)

2) Rent kayaks and kayak from the rental place down to wherever and back again. Until like its time to return them around like 4 or something.

3) Walk to New Zealand's Natural ice cream and buy ice cream :D:D:D

4) Rent blades and blade for another 2 hour+++++

5) And then go, "OH! THEY HAVE OVERNIGHT RENTAL FOR BIKES"

6) Slot in go SAFRA and climb somewhere :D:D:D


ALRIGHTY. who wants to join us

Get there by candlelight