Sun Sea Sail Song 2007

Watery week now, and watery week ahead. Love it. Muaahaahaahaaahaaa.
I really wear my heart on my sleeves apparently, a colleague was commenting of the marked difference in my vibes as I unconsciously bounced up and down the staffroom as she tored her hair off the usual work piled on her. I am just so easily readable.

Anyway the new teachers came down for sailing yesterday, eager-eyed, awed and confused. As I steal glances at them on the boat I went down memory lane; all my sotong actions and blunders I did along the way returned and said hi and laughed muahaahaaahaahaaaa loud and clear in my head. I wondered if the rest heard it.

Hehe, no, I was too distracted looking at the kiddos and trying to act cool (and failing and getting wet; haha) to be bothered by my history of blunders and I think the new teachers seemed less sotong than me. Overwhelmed they seemed to be, but well, it's their first session, and it will take us all some time to be comfortable out at sea.

The winds were fickle too, just as I thought I had a chance to steal a boat to sail abit at the end of the session, the wind packed up and went home. :[


I wonder if it was a good thing or bad, when we heard our sailors discussing DOTA with their coach. Dots... Kids. Haaahaahaaaa...

Next week's THE week!!!

加油！

Different Frequency

Gotten a lift from some aquaintances after a briefing at the sailing centre and had some casual conversation.

He went about saying how the society has become more and more Americanised and how more and more people size one another up from the way people dresses and the brands they wear. When he asked of my opinion, I told him frankly that I am actually oblivious with the sizing up and that brands does not excite me.

He was surprised and in fact thought it incredulous, "you mean you don't feel excited or anything when you see the people outside queueing for LV and stuffs??"

"... eh... no...?"

I don't care, but, show me a nice new wakeboard, or fins, bdc and reg, I may just hyperventilate. He of course didn't understand why. Haahaa. Different frequency.

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Heh, can't help but feel old during the sailing briefing for teacher officials. There were so many new faces in there! And in comparison with them, I am one of the more experienced ones there, apart from the regular ROs. O.o Lesser people to rely on liao. T_T hehe...

What a start...

What a start...
Presented the prizes to the sailors on stage in the morning; met up with parent of sailor in the afternoon; sent a sailor to the hospital in the evening. He popped his knees today, a day before his birthday, but was as chirpy as ever, crapping away and playing on the wheelchair. Kids. Hehee...

Started to let my academic students know that I am leaving, wanted to let sailors know too. Was pondering when will be a good time, before or after the interschs, but I guess no time is a good time for such things. Some of them heard of it here and there already, haha, but still, got to make it official for some closure. But had to go to the hospital, so no chance to really say so, yet. -.- Ah wells, there will be better teachers out there, coming in. Lol.

Sentosa National Byte & Opti C'ship - Day 5 & rambles

The winds picked up and blew constantly after the races were completed in the evening... Dots... But managed to have some races on last day, so it's not too bad...

It has been a good regatta, some of the sailors got some prizes, most improved. Some had lousier luck than others, but well, there will be other races and regattas. Interschools coming, all seem hopeful. :] Chances have never been better. :P

Character and skills, which one is more important; which one comes first.
It is a simple question that is hard to execute in real pragmatic life... It takes moral courage to axe a skilled sailor who has lousy attitude. But for us at least, the name of the school is more important than winning. Haaaa. Let's just hope we don't need to do that in the near future, though I do see some possibilities growing. Haiz... Kids, have to be educated in all sides, and to know that winning may be coverted but it should not be everything. My temper is still bad. :[


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Today, I was finally out at sea for my own enjoyment. Hehee. It's a good wakeboarding day, and with practice comes improvement. ^_^ Am finally comfortable popping. Hohohohohooo. Now to get more height in my jumps, and play with the other fanciful show-offy stunts... The company's been good too, so it's a good way to end the school holidays. Haiz, has to end no matter... :C

Thanks to J's camera, I have my pops recorded. :P Gonna whack wakie some more before I get landbound. Heeheehee... And I am sooooo tempted to get a better digi camera. Haahahaaa. Human's desires...

For wakie friends that I have left out this time round, (yes J, yes, paiseh paiseh!), give me a beep and insist that you wanna go! :P

Sentosa National Byte & Opti C'ship - Day 4

Today is 'heavens-playing-with-race-officers-and-sailors' day.
The winds were light and shifty; the officers were pressured to run a race or 2, decisions were made and remade, there were loads of waiting, launching, then waiting, then recovering then launching again...

It was really a catch 22, not to run races, people would complain, run races and the day would end late and people would still complain. So... one race was run at about 5pm. Hehe...Ah wells.
Tomorrow's the last day, then it would be back to school next week. T_T

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Shucks, bonuses got eaten up. Should I have known, I would have treated myself to a longer break. Never mind, decision made, stick to it.

Sentosa National Byte & Opti C'ship - Day 3 and other rambles

They say no news is good news. An relatively eventless day is, heng ah! Haahaahaa...

Sailors not feeling well, sailors trying their luck, sailors slacking, sailors trying their best, haahaa it's a full spectrum... it is pretty cool when you see the progression of the sailors, and how they grew up in a relative short span of 4 years. It is also pretty cool, when now the sailors span from the top all the way to the bottom for the noobs; and it is not even rock bottom. >:P I will miss them. Yah, I think I will.........

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A few years back, friends aplenty got married. So now naturally, friends aplenty are getting pregnant, or are new parents.

Just received news of one more friend who is now 3 month pregnant, and another friend having kid number 3... woah...

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Sometimes it is not that people don't get the idea; they simply do not want to get it.

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Irrational Objectivity- one of my favourite phrase. Favouritism, it's a common human flaw.

We pride ourselves to be thinking and analysing. But more often than not, we make bad decisions, based on our feelings and prejudices, or simply by not thinking thoroughly. Don't know leh, just do lor... Kids do it, overgrown kids parading as adults do it, organisations with thinking capacity of kids do it too. Politicians are famous for such acts too and you wonder why they have so much say in things.

It is so convenient to just do, not think and change for the better. It is also so convenient to take things for granted, and complain, and talk about it and analyse and give solutions of how it should be done better. Talk is cheap. But talk looks good too.

Fortunately, a rose of any name smells as sweet. No matter how underated you are, if you are good, you are good.

But then again, in the realistic world, it may get you nowhere; or so it may seem at times. A rose that is not appreciated in a garden may bloom and fade away... But, a sweet smelling rose' perfume can be carried by the winds; people will get to know of its sweetness and seek it and give it the attention it deserves. Give it time, and when opportunity comes, grab!


Sorry, brains on a rampage. heheee...

Sentosa National Byte & Opti C'ship - Day 2

ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZzzzzzzz

Used up all the winds yesterday; no races at all today. :[

Human count is worse off than sky count. Hahaaaahaahaahaaa...

一天就这样过了。。。 明天会更好吧。。。


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火快烧屁股了。哈哈。。。快开学了。。。

O.o

^0^

Perhentians... :>

Sentosa National Byte & Opti C'ship- Day 1

While waiting to launch, a toad hopped by my foot to say hi.
Out at sea, a sea snake slithered away without saying bye.

The winds picked up after a whole morning's preparation.
The swelling waters completed the sea's transformation.

Heavenly playpool it was for the experienced sailors;
Frothy hell it became for the wide-eyed beginners.

Anxious safety boats out there rescuing,
Results to be sent back after nauseous recording.

Sailors towed back, broken equipment and retiring from race,
Ah well, tomorrow's a brand new day to try redeem their grace.

莫名的感触，来自于复杂的情感。
复杂的情感，来自于矛盾的情况。

事情往往就是这样多姿多彩，不象数学题那样单纯；对就是对，错就是错。
我厌倦了，可是还是会想念。

我真无聊，真不够爽快。呵呵。。。

Leopard's liver spots.

Heh, I never learn... older but still none the wiser. Still overestimated the capability of my liver. -.-

But with little bloopers and blunders I realise just how fortunate I am, to be surrounded by the people who are around, and often taken for granted... My dad; my colleagues; my friends; my students...

Thank you. Really.

3 to 3

It's official; I'm 3 to 3.
Time really flies. Hehe.

Haiz...

Gastrics acting up, puked bile in the morning; couldn't go blading. Body shutting down on a Sunday! Urgh! Why is this happening? I miss my activities. T_T Anyway got to rest and recover by tomorrow, school camp's coming up in 2 days' time.

Tummy, 要乖乖。。。Feeling bloated and flabby at the same time, urgh.


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It is interesting in what online friends mean to different age groups... The Sunday life section just featured this pair of teenage sisters who have some 16,000 online friends and counting. Oh and small world; one of them used to be my sis' coursemate. So is that considered as a friend too? Hahaa...

Apparently it has become some sort of popularity contest and numbers count other than anything else. I belong to the older generation (already) I think, my friends count in my account is a measly under 100, in that I only add friends and organisations whom I know or knew... just did some serious spring cleaning of my account recently and axed many accounts that I didn't remember how it got there... Hehe... Of course in the process I accidentally delete some by mistake, as recognition takes more effect with all the fanciful nicknames. Hahahaha... Oh wells, don't think I will miss much anyway.

Has the definition of friends changed too? Are friends just becoming figures appearing on your screen? Shudders. Come to think of it, I don't even know the home numbers or addresses of most of my friends; we are connected only via emails and hp. So the link of connectivity is so fragile, it is easy to go MIA amidst the other numbers. With convenience and connectivity we actually become more individualised and disconnected. Odd. Sad.

To Tan or Not to, and a cert for your worth.

Talk about cultural differences...
Recently caught a infomentary on tanning trends among youth in Japan and I was amazed at the different categories, depending on the colour of the tend and the clothes they wear... The most interesting thing was that all of them got their tans from salons instead of the sun... so looks and the portrayal of a certain lifestyle, instead of really living that certain kind of lifestyle is the aim. I got really confused after this...

http://www.japanlinked.com/about_japan/culture/fashion/galstyles.html


For us, the tan comes naturally, as a by-product, we don't purposely go for that tan, or wear clothes to suit that tan... we get tanned because we spend more time out in the sun. That's it. :]

No matter how rebellious and difficult society deem their teenagers to be, it is interesting to observe that the teens are also ingrained in the society and in the midst of testing and trying out the boundaries, still fall within the boundaries of cultural and societal norms. Like the japanese teens, looks and the need to belong to groups still feature strongly, and the myriad of subtly differences among the groups is just so Japanese. To be confused and angsty is normal, but eventually you will be assimilated into the big society...

Like Singapore, the endless paper chase and to be efficient... can imagine students disinterested in studies pitting their energy in lan games and mmorpg as a form of rebellion and yet a affirmation of the societal norm... but well it seems that Japan is still ahead in that sense, as another article laments on the incessent need for people in japan to obtain certificates of efficiency for even recreational pursuits. Sadly we seem to be following that path too.

Hot day hot temper

My patience and temper is really bad today again... It seems harder to keep one's cool when one isn't feeling too well. Had a really bad headache and slight fever last night after a whole day out by Kallang, and while the headache and fever has been staunched, my tummy feels funny. It feels like gastric flu again and that indirectly affected my mood I think.

Lost my cool to an uncle at NSC as he took one big round to say that we do not our regular power boat to use, but will still have a boat, due to an ongoing regatta. His punctuations twisted the meaning that I intially thought we would not have any boats to use at all; all became clearer when I nearly blew up and when my cooler colleague came along the way.

Oh wells, minor screw ups happen all the time. Just as when we thought all were ok, we were shown the boat we would be using; the trottle boat with a canopy, aka the pram.

I nearly flipped. Yes, a canopy provides shelter, but it also effectively takes away the necessary space needed for 2 people to sit on the boat and to bring along buoys.

I was resigned to it though with a sulky face and as opportunity struck, I casually sulkingly commented of our situation; and viola with some arrangements we got a proper boat for training. Of course the uncle wasn't very happy when he saw us on water as we sort of bypassed him, but well I was lucky to be able to get help when needed. :]

The sec 1s were put on a full rig today and the wind was pretty strong at the beginning; and there was casualty again as a sotong collide into one who was in irons. Shudders... and their maiden regatta is just 2 weeks away...

Cheap thrill -.-

I had to make a trip down to the police station to get some paperwork done this morning. My sis had a whale of a time playing pretend as we made our way to the MRT station.

"You see lah you chao ah beng, tell you how many times not to smoke and go club, now tio big problem liao lah, have to go cantoment! Tsk tsk tsk..."

Dots... Cheap thrill... Sisters... hahahaaaa...

The building is impressive, but there wasn't a single ATM machine in it. I had to change my plastic 10 dollar note with a police officer (I supposed...) for a paper one as the instant photo machine doesn't recognise it; then its a long wait before my turn to be finger-printed... snores... Well I guess waiting in the queue is the norm for government service, and an hour's wait is... still quite ok for the common people? :] At least the people there are polite. Hehe...

Jelly jelly jelly jelly, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Today's world environment day... and ironically I see the most number of jellos in my life today. Bobbing... in a small patch of calm, sheltered sea blissfully away from the sailors. (Maybe they are more scared of the sailors than the sailors are of them. Haha...)

They surrounded our boat, bobbing away. I counted 20 at a time, with more bobbing about... Thank goodness for the boat as we looked on in awe and fear. Hehee. Anyway the wind was really good. Haiz...

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Heh, had my 3 secs of fame last night on TV it seemed, as students told me of their findings. Then I saw the footage of me picking litter for WWS on a hp... I was cameo while my sailor got interviewed. Heh not bad, not bad at all. So much for world environment day. Haha...

Restful week... of sorts.

The state of mind; to get a balance of it is the ultimate aim of some religions' and people's own personal goals. For the majority of us mere mortals, our state of mind is in a constant flux of the happenings and decisions made around us, to gain control or understanding of it tends to be temporary. One feels more at ease when decisions have been made and when things are more firmed up. It has been a long time since I have had felt this good, this selfish, this free and eager... :P



Money has been flowing out like water these days; the Great Singapore Sale doesn't help as well as my sis finally couldn't stand my wardrobe and grabbed me shopping. I decided to whack wakeboarding a few more times and started it again yesterday. I finally popped! Muahahahahaa... But the shots friends took were the not glam ones, like the one below... -.-




Camera ran out of batteries when I could pop a bit. Haiz. . . Will go wakie abit more, and that means more bleeding of the pockets. . . :[


I also want to go diving at Sangihe, an underwater active volcano there but it is even more expensive than wakie... And I also want to see molas in Bali! Argh!!! So many things to do so little time and money!!!

Higher on the priority list, I will need a laptop but the PC show was so crowded that I decided just to pop by Sim Lim soon in the weekends to get it. Been dining out and playing quite a bit, meeting new friends and reconnecting with old friends. Parents coming back from China this evening, the doggies will be so happy. Mum might flip at the credit card bills. Hahahahaaa...

It is already the 2nd week of the school holidays! Gonna be at the river and the sea and the river and the sea and school for the whole of the coming week. Heheheee... buzzzzz...