The winds have gone crazy.

It never felt so chilly and windy in a January morning in Singapore, or so it wasn't for me in my mere 20++ years of existence. So there we were during morning assembly at the basketball court, shivering in unison as a school and trying to read and educate ourselves.

Are our efforts to educate ourselves too little and too late as the climate changes show us just how screwed we are? Hmm... points to stop and ponder on as we rush around busying ourselves with petty concerns.

Yerp... the winds have come, and gone crazy.

Flying Shark

Papa shark!
Bibibibibibi.

Mama shark!
Bibibibibibi.

Baby shark!
Bibibibibibibi.

Flying shark!
Bibibibibibibi.

Bite a sail!
Bibibibibibi.

Tear 2 sails!
Bibibibibibi.

Tow them back!
Bibibibibibi.

Heart attack!
Biiiiiii...............

Better late than never?

The northeast monsoonal winds are finally here... Better late than never? School kiddo sailors just had their first race of the year, most of them suffered terribly out there with the strong breezes. One even thrashed his boat during a collision and happily pointed out the jiaolian who rescued him as the jiaolian mentioned to me in glee and passing that he rescued the kiddo. If only there was a trench digger at the time... I would have dug a hole and hide in there... Heheeheee...

Another kiddo clinched third in the open category but was so shy about it... haha. Kiddos...

My butt itchy too... asked if I could be on a comm boat and help out without allowance to watch my sailors and avoid boredom. Got semi burnt up; the cloudy skies give people a false sense of security and I didn't apply sunblock, but UV's around and well the rest is history... and I was naturally lectured by mum back home... The waves and current were tricky too and got all wet. But lunch was good. Though am so pooped now that I couldn't do what I should have done on land. Lalaaa...

Goodbye keelboat regattas.

Another layer of jade has been laid upon me. A grim reminder that sailing has been and still is a game of the rich and the elite.

The idea that money is king, and that the rich has the final say and will always be right and be listened to has been reinforced tonight in a post regatta meeting. The reason? Because they have the technology and equipment more reliable to prove that they are more accurate than the race management.

The vibes I get was that the race officers are nothing but servants to and minions to the wimps of the rich competitors, and should work to please them despite the verbal abuses they hurl when the masters are angry and frustrated and when the winds decided to well, be winds, unpredictable. The race management has to be more professional in recording and invest in the fancy high-tech toys, without the support and adequate resources, results should be proper and typed while out at sea, timings calculated, and yet the respect due to the management should not be expected. Reputation seems to be at stake because the officials are not superhuman and make mistakes, and because the official race committee boat does not have a computer on deck, unlike the competitors.

The take from the leader? It's how it is, we are service providers. We have to ensure that the rich boys have a great time. Of course he too admit that support for us weren't there but seemed to accept that and expected race officials to accept their fate of this unadmirable job.

My take? I am off... will stick to the dighny regattas instead. It is not that I agree to cockiness in attitudes of race officers. Race officials make mistakes too, but due respect and understanding should be given when mistakes are corrected. Why should I bend so low and be so cautious and to make do with so many things, to the extent of being spineless just because that the competitors are rich? Does having more cash mean that you have the rights to forget basic courtesy and respect and vent your frustrations as you deem like it and demand for the stars and the control of the wind?

After one more day of keelboat regatta that I have had promised to help earlier before I knew the underlying philosophy of this 'sport', think I will be out of the rich boys' games. Pissed. Yes, I know you can tell, but it will not add up to anything much as I am not a multi-millionaire. My words mean nothing. >:[

You decide.

Hmm... read this somewhere and it hits the nail on the head.

"We are so used to other people making decisions for us that we are usually at a loss when we are given opportunities to do so."

It is easy to follow decisions made for us, if things work out fine, all's well. If things don't turn out well, we can play the blame game. Yes, one can complain that it is not by one's choice, but it is safe, the responsiblity to bear the consequences of the choice is lessened when you just do.

Hehe, so when the time comes to make the decision, hope I won't say "Don't know leh, see how lor." Got to have more gumption, just decide and go do it. No regrets. Live by it, live with it.

Life's a game, a game's reflection of life. You win, you lose, you triumph, you blunder, you learn you move on. (Hopefully) You decide. Urgh...

Of true passion and medals.

With the haul of medals recently in Asian Games and other international regattas one can say that the Singapore sailors have arrived. This fact is further accentuated with a feature of the sailors and the sailing scene in the papers today. But what caught my eyes in the full 2 page feature is one short paragraph somewhere at the bottom of the page.

"This new efficient system has also produced sailors who are focused only on getting results."

"We're a little off balance in that we don't have enough recreational sailors, characters who say I'm fifth generation sailor in my family, I built this boat myself. They don't have salt in their blood." (laments Dr Tan)


Com'on let's face it, in the current pragmatic system sustained recreational sailing has no room for development at all. As a matter of fact I think that it is even frowned upon either on purpose or unwittingly as it is seen as a waste of time and resources if sailing is not done competitively. With such a system, how do we expect sailors to take time, smell the roses, or the salt sprays in this case and proudly build their own boats? Also, the DIY culture is not prevalent in Singapore, where space is a constraint and where most of us live in rised apartments. It will really challenging to try to build a dighny in a 4-room flat. But boat building is just an example of how sailors can be passionate about sailing and not racing. It could take other forms like going on expeditions, or just sailing out and 'rot' out there, observing the wind and currents for its own beauty.

It is indeed sad that the sailing scene is skewed, like other things Singaporean, to the production of results. I am not proud to say that I am also a cog of this system that I feel systematically kills off the intrinsic passion and interests a child may have for this particular sport. In fact I hate myself for it as I cannot recouncil it.

If only mindsets can change and the pace slowed down, where a little more resources can be allocated to the more frivilous and leisurely aspect of the sport instead of the incessant need to rush to the finishing boat, the salt of true passion will not accumulate in the sailors' blood.

Looks deceive.

心里不平衡咯！
为何查她的IC而不查我的？？

Hahahahahaaaa... friend of my age was asked to show her IC when we went for a NC-16 movie. So effectively she looks more than a decade younger... Why not me? -.-

But yah, the movie deserves its NC 16 rating, it's trying too hard to be confusing and philosophical where even old aunties like ourselves almost fall asleep. Movies these days. Haiz...

Introducing Sunray!

Its name is Sunray, it shares the name of my blog. It also shares the birthday of one of my sailing colleagues, and most importantly its a manta ray. Fine, it's a soft toy. But I can't help but buy it. Heeheeheeheee... Yah yah dumb dumb... :P

Frog. Hot pot.

哇，真是口水多过茶。。。This is my 200th post in slightly more than 6 months... Scary.

Heh... it is not as if I start with full of drive but it seems that I have even less drive to do what I am supposed to do. Year in year out it is the same, it is never ending. Do it for the first time and it is exciting and new; do it the second time, you feel more confident and want more, do it the third time, you wonder if there is more to it; do it the fourth time, you question the rationale of doing it year in and out, and for what end...

A continuing cycle; it may be a good cycle or a vicious one, depending on one's perspective. I am ashamed to say, I can't match up. I really can't. Just tell me what to do. Don't want to do more, for what, for who. At the end of the day, who cares?

Severe salt-water poisoning...

You know that you are going nuts when you dream of opening a door into a room full of garupas and frogfish crawling all over the floor. One frogfish somehow with legs actually crawled towards the door and croaked at you. Then you say to yourself, that is why frogfish are called frogfish... O.o

I am screwed. Haha...

Mum knows marketing.

"Ah girl ah, you know what your flaw is? You do not know how to flaunt your strengths and hide your weaknesses. You just do and do and do... you are too humble at times!"

-_-

Mum knows best? Not sure about that but I do know loads of other people who are doing so much more than me in even quieter ways.

But then again, it is the ones who know how to speak and act who get the recognition than those who really do and just do, most of the time. So...

Infinity

Heeeeh, don't know whether to be happy or sad. When you get what you wish for, you start to see the initial invisible strings attached materialising.

Of course you can take a more optimist view and say that it is just levelling up where new set of challenges have to be overcomed. :]

Attitude, words.

I think the reason why teenagers get confused and angsty easily is that the world we live in has double standards and they try to understand it. On the brighter side, they are easily encouraged and inspired to greater heights, with kind words, sound advice and genuine care and support to cushion the reality.

For me, the palpitations brought about by such inspirations occur far and in between, been there done that, or heard that advice or sayings before, it sounds so cheesy. The cynics know the counters, examples galore...

Heh, infinity sign. A nicer way of saying you are going on and on in circles.

Shouldn't complain.

Bombings in Thailand. Transport vessel disasters in Indonesia. Floods in Malaysia and Indonesia. Earthquake in Taiwan. Getting special attention for something others did as well. Haaah... it's a wonderful start to the year.

First Day of School

Priceless.

The looks of distraught and fear when some of my sailors thought that I would be their form teacher. -.- I am not that scary actually, right? Right?



First days' usually easy and yet difficult at the same time as one has to readjust the volume of one's voice and find the appropriate vocabulary, even if preparation is almost none. I tend to have partial loss in my ability to speak and form proper sentence during vacations as I tend to want to shut up after weeks of forcing students to listen to me. I wonder, if I were to switch profession, will I lose my faculty to speak entirely? Shudders!

I have a confession to make though, as I was unprepared I went into class, I blabbered the way through, doing housekeeping and admin stuff. The blabber comes easier with every year in the profession, or should I say that one's skin thickens as the years goes by... You can probably tell the teaching age of a person by the thickness of one's skin, the growth being about 1mm per year? Haahaahaaa. But it was amazing how time flies, I actually fished out resources that I had prepared in 2004 for one of my colleagues just now. 2004... it seems so near yet so far. Thought it was only yesterday but in truth it was 3 years ago. Already. Makes one wonder, what have we been doing all these while. -.-

But well, the first day's over! Wow...

New Year Eve with people and little people

Spent my New Year Eve with nice people whom I have known for years but not taken much pictures with, so decided to take some with some of them and their 'daughter/son(s)'. Of course most of the time we were busy eating, drinking a little, catching up in gossip or gaming/ watching Japanese anime/ movie and having fun, so my photo taking's also... half hearted. Heeh. Didn't launch a campaign to round all up for a groupie, just took some shots and then went off to play and gossip. Here goes...




Introducing Feena and my ex-roommate.

Feena and her dad.

PY and Yves Happy New Year bite your ear... -.-

And for the next pic... Goodness, didn't know I was that burnt until this pic came out. Heeheeheee... Oh well... Heh now I regret that I didn't capture the rest of the gang in the pics. Heh no worries, chances abound I think... :P

2007, 来了！

Happy New Year!!!

Heh, first blog entry of the year, must start it out on a right note and finger (to type). Hahaaa...

New year, fresh beginnings, though the cynical part of us know that it is actually the same, especially for young and not so young adults who have been working for some time and things become routine.

Yes I know I should be happy and excited of the fresh possibilities and prospects of a new year, but I just couldn't feel the same excitement I felt decades ago on 1st Jan when I was 10 years old, for example.

Ah well, the rains have stopped and the winds blowing, I finally gotten rid of my tan line at my arms in exchange with sunburns on my back yesterday...O.o

Went wakeboarding and had a really nice instructor who got me to get rid of my beginner mistakes. Still can't do stunts etc, only managed to gain a little control of self etc etc... But it was fun. Heh. tons of room to work on and therefore tons of excuse to hit the waters... And I realised that the place wasn't as inaccessible for a car less person as I thought it was. ^_^

Didn't get an even tan so I resemble a half cooked manta ray with curious tan lines if you let your imagination stretch a bit. Haaahaaa but no regrets in spending my last day of 2006 that way... though a little more sunblock will have been good. Hehe.

Of course me being half cooked became the butt of the joke in a friend's gathering later in the evening. I was already red before I started drinking! Haahaahaaa...

Anyway, not too bad a start to the new year lah ah! :P