Tired. Post-Rag syndrome. It's been this way for the last two years now.

Still feeling sore and bitter that we lost; that we didn't win *anything*. Our float was the nicest of all the faculty clubs' out there on 12th August; almost everyone who was there on Rag day and whose opinions I know agree on this.

Even if we didn't win, I'd be less pissed off if a more deserving faculty had won it. SDE, best float? What the fuck.

It's exactly the same float as last year; they just repainted it. "Best Float" should at least go to a faculty club which *bothered* to put in the effort to build from scratch.

I think the judges were (and probably still are) blind. With all the painstakingly-done tessellation of cans all over our float, I honestly believe our points for design detail were higher than any other faculty's, and as I've said before, there're plenty of people who thought our float should win. Heck, even some of the Halls thought so, and there isn't anyone whose opinions I trust more than the Halls' on the subject of Rag.

Or maybe they were just an overly-conservative bunch of old fogeys who took issue with the fact that our float theme was that of a casino. But that's something else that I'm proud of; that the Arts float is one which always pushes boundaries and is something bordering on controversial.

Last year when the theme given was something along the lines of dreams and aspirations for the future (it being NUS' centennial year and all), we built a float whose theme was disillusionment upon graduation and finding out that a degree wasn't everything.

This year, we're poking fun at the soon-to-be-existent IR. :)

Maybe next year our float will be a re-enactment of one of the many book-burnings which have taken place in history. Perhaps a theme about the death of creativity would be fitting. ;)


So far Hall life is good.

Eusoff Hall gets kinda noisy at night though. But I can't tell if the noise is coming from C1 (C block, 1st floor) or from Temasek Hall just next door. It's still bearable, but things could be a lot better; like how the person whose room is directly below mine could lower the volume of her TV at 11 pm at night. -_-

C block is tucked away right in the corner of the Hall though, so maybe that's why it's relatively quieter than what I've been told the other blocks are. It does mean that I have to walk slightly further to get back to my room, but the distance is still pretty all right. All in all, C is a nice block. :)

My room overlooks the swimming pool of a private house just behind my block, and while there are a few trees between my window and them, this doesn't mean I get a lot of bugs in my room. It also means no direct sunlight in the mornings. :)

Our block staircase also looks right out onto this small collection of massive bungalows; three of them, to be exact. Of the one which is nearest to our block, we can see the whole porch, driveway and front of the house, designed with Roman columns and such and painted completely white. Beyond that is another house; the one room which is visible is on a top floor; it has a massage chair, that much I can make out. :) And next to the white bungalow is yet another house of which the dining room is visible. There's a sparse covering of trees blocking, but I've seen warm lighting and a lot of glinting silverware in display cupboards at night, and someone reading the news at the table. Feels so cosy. :)

Haven't really gotten to know my neighbours yet; the most frustrating thing is that while I know plenty of people in EH, none of them are in C block! Grr.

Figure I'll get to know them soon though. Especially once you keep seeing the same people awake at the same unearthly time as you early in the mornings. :P So far, I have a four-day week, and three of those days start at 8 am. :P

Body clock has been turned upside down by now.

I just went to sleep at 8 am this morning and woke up at 1 in the afternoon.

Seven days left for Rag.

Seven days left to complete everything and make it something we can really be proud of.

We need people to dream with us, to believe with us, to work with us.

I wonder if other Raggers get asked this question sometimes: "Do Rag for what?"

It's the third time I'm doing this now, and I can honestly say that this is something that I love; I love the people that I'm working with and I love the goal that we're all working for-- but sometimes I think my faith shakes a little when I get asked, "You wanna do Rag for what?"

"Don't be stupid, can... It's a one-time experience; you only do it as a freshie."

Then again, we can't stop people from knocking holes in our dreams.

We can only patch up the holes and hold them up the best we can. And make something beautiful of it all in the end.

Busy busy busy. It's been a busy week, and things are gonna get even busier in the next two weeks.

Haven't had the time to blog the whole of last week, despite the fact that there's been lots of stuff going on. So this gonna be an all-in-one post.


26th July, Wednesday:

Moved into hall.

Thanks Weiquan for driving me to school and helping me move all my stuff into my room, and thanks kor for helping me clean the room later. :)

Found out later in the afternoon that Theresa was staying on my floor, just four doors down from me. :) This is good; at least I'll know someone on my floor. :P


28th July, Friday:

Busy day.

Up in the morning to shoot for a while, confirm sighting, do a bit of bow and arrow maintenance; rag in the late afternoon and evening, then home at about midnight with all my equipment, ready for competition at NJC tomorrow morning.


29th July, Saturday:

NJC shoot.

First shock of the day was when we found out that the target face for 50m was 80 cm and not 122 cm. This is what happens when you don't bother to read the invitation and details carefully. Nic and I were very thankful though, that Weiquan suggested "playing" with the 80 cm target a few times.

We were lazy to get a new 122 cm target from the lounge one day when we came down to train, so we shot using the 80 cm target that happened to be on the board that we were using, and did so for another two trainings, just for fun. So at least we'd had some "experience". :P

Surprisingly though, my score was pretty good; 244 out of 360.

In the end, the combined score of my team (myself, Weiquan and Zhicong) was even enough to get us into the top 8 teams for the team event. Was so happy considering that I hadn't shot in team event for two years. The first and only time I shot in team event was during my first competition in my first year. After that, my team never managed to qualify for team event, and after I upgraded to C-class, we never had enough girls in C-class to form a team. Damn.

At least this time, mixed teams were allowed for Recurve Open class, so I could have a team. :)

I managed 4th placing in Ladies' Recurve Open... getting so tired of getting 4th place. 4th place is the worst place to be; it's so close yet so far. The top three places went to these three girls from the Malaysian sports school that participated; obviously they have more time to train than the rest of us do...

Zhicong and Kenneth were saying stuff like, "Never mind, that means you're the best in Singapore lah." -_-...

Same went for Zhicong though; he was placed 5th, and if the Malaysian sports school archers hadn't been there, he would've got 2nd place.

But the best thing of all had to be that James, Henry and Connor won GOLD for Standard Men's Team.

So proud of them; James in particular since he's one of the juniors I mentored and he's really come a long, long way. I cried while hugging and congratulating him. It's silly, but yeah. I was just that happy for them. :)

Gerri is now 21.... yippee. ^_^

Was quite surprised when the few people who were still at Rag till late last night bought me a small cake and sang "Happy Birthday" for me... thankew thankew. :)

Ivan, James, kor, Beatrice, Chong Han, jie and Pam, thanks for your birthday wishes via SMS... :D Beatrice especially; considering we haven't seen each other ever since we left secondary school, I'm honoured, flattered, gladdened and ever so appreciative of the fact that you remember and still wish me happy birthday every year. :)

Kor, sorry I couldn't have lunch with you today... another day, yep? Maybe when we go to Ikea to buy my hall furniture, we'll have a Swedish meatball lunch, haha. :D (Oh, and Yuimin tells me that there's an Ikea sale going on now! Or something like that. :P)

Henry, thank you for all the trouble that you went to to arrange dinner (Weiquan told me you were jio-ing people haha); however, I have to celebrate with family, so maybe another day? :) Thank you so much for the thought, though... :)

And all the archery people, thank you for the whole blog of 21st birthday wishes!! :D


An overview of presents I've recieved:

There's my lovely baby, my IBM T60 laptop which is a present from my parents...

My aunts gave me a necklace with a key pendant:




Pam gave me a lovely seal and wax set (the kind you use for sealing letters) and two Kinokuniya book vouchers:




My little sister got me a lovely blue pair of Surfer's Paradise shorts (I find I quite like Surfer's Paradise's shorts... I've accumulated three pairs in the space of about one and a half months, haha.)





And this is the present I got from the new archery exco...


More Kino vouchers!! :D

$50 worth of them this time! $70 worth of vouchers altogether... Gerri is so gonna go on a book-shopping spree. XD


And then there's this pretty little thing Weiquan made for me, haha:


It's a pen made with the shaft of one of my damaged carbon arrows. :) May not look like much to most people, I guess, but I think it's pretty cool. :D This one's too short, so I couldn't have fletches on it, otherwise I wouldn't be able to write with it. Next time I think we'll make a longer one. Then I can put fletches on it. :D


If you haven't seen my 21st birthday wishlist blog yet...

Here's what's on it. The original idea was to have 21 items on the wishlist, but even till today, there're still 3 empty spaces. But a friend told me that apparently 21st birthday wishes are still good for about a week after the date of the birthday, and I accept belated birthday presents! :D (I get a little more thick-skinned everyday, I think. :P)


1. A sling bag (preferably something that can double up as a school bag during semester time)

2. Running shoes; the ones I'm eyeing are a pair of Asics Gel-DS Trainers. I'm hoping to go running once a week once I move into hall; it's something I've always wanted to do, and hopefully I'll actually get to doing it and not be lazy, haha. :P

3. Deutschland jacket

4. Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis" (I realise that this story usually comes packaged with others, so it's all right if you get me something like "Metamorphosis and other stories". As long as there's "Metamophosis" in it.)

5. Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita"

6. Vladimir Nabokov's "Pale Fire"

7. Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children"

8. Bertrand Russell's "In Praise of Idleness" (Routledge has a nice compilation of this and his other essays; that cover is actually the one I'm eyeing. :P)

9. One volume (of ten) of Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman" series. (If you're feeling generous, you could buy me all ten. XD)

10. A laptop soft carry-case. (((I've got this one already. :D)))

11. Earphones; the kind which really "plug" into your ears and block out all sound.

12. Jewellery; a choker, maybe? I'd like one of those wide ones made of cloth and sparkly beads...

13. A new pair of Havaianas! :D

14. A new pair of jeans, and this time, maybe one with some pattern on them. :)

15. A nice blouse I can use for formal or semi-formal occasions.

16. A pair of shoes! A pair of ballet flats would be nice; practical for semi-formal occasions.

17. Since I'll need a new set of arrows after the NJC shoot.... XD Anyone wants to pool money to get Gerri a new set of Carbon Flash arrows? Spine weight 750-14, fletches are blue spin-vanes, nocks are green outset nocks. XD

18.

19.

20.

21. As an inside joke between kor and me, number 21 is a wish for a boyfriend. Haha... :P


I wish Life were full of days like these. ^_^...

Kor's back from his Europe trip with da-sao, haha. :D

He just called and said he got back at 7 this morning. I finally got caller ID on my phone, and when I saw his name pop up on the screen when he called, I thought I was seeing things coz I knew he was away for a month, and so, me being stupid little me, hit the wrong button and rejected the call. -_-

So I called back and yeah, it turns out he's back. Haha. :P

See ya around, kor. Still wanna go to Ikea with me and buy furniture for my hall room? :D

You make running away easy. :)

What is it about the things that we seldom say...? What is it about them which makes them difficult to stop once we've started saying them?

80 kph with the wind on your face is a good feeling. If I let my imagination run away with me, it's almost like the rest of the world can't catch up and we're really escaping. Random thoughts escape my subconscious mind and wander about my head; would tears fly away on the wind and dissipate into nothing in seconds? I'm still alone in my head with the running commentary, but for now, it helps to look over your shoulder and watch the speedometer climb.

West Coast Park in the wee hours of the morning is therapeutic. In between daybreak and night-time, six-plus feet off the ground and nowhere near enough to reach the sky and watching greyed-red rope segment the purple-pink cloudy sky is enough to make everything be quiet for a while. This organised tangle of child's-play string cradles us together in its highest point, in between the sky and the sand, between morning and night; in-between, in-between, always in-between.

That you're here listening makes all the difference. Physical contact is a warm, solid reassurance-- "I'm still here" without the words-- and for someone who used to be afraid of touches, I miss holding and being held.

Thank you.

Can't hardly wait till the semester starts; it's good to have found someone like you. Maybe when August rolls around, we'll find more reasons to run away and suspend ourselves in the middle of the middle of nowhere, hanging our spirits out to air.

Yay. Germany won third place. :) That's still something to be happy about.

So, this calls for a picspam. XD

I take no credit for the lovely photos, and I make absolutely no apologies for the overkill of Miroslav Klose pictures. XD


From the Strenesse photo shoot:




I know, I don't usually like Ballack, but this shot of his face in profile is nice. I have no idea why I didn't save the picture of Podolski, but oh well. I can't be bothered to go look for the site with all the pictures now. :P


From the opening game:


Lahmi is just such a happy boy in this shot, it's adorable. XD


Klose after his second goal; I loved that goal. :D


Frings and the 25 yard line!! Woot!! :D

Against Poland:


Neuville and Klose. Ballack's just along for the ride. Quite literally. XD


Against Ecuador; my favourite match of the whole tournament, since my new fave striker duo were all over the place:



Can't you just feel the love? Klose and Poldi make a lovely picture.


Threesome! XD



This shot is funny. It looks like Schneider's getting all possessive with Klose or something. Lol.


Against Sweden; once again, Miro-Lukas galore:




Those two together are dangerous. :D


Argentina. Thank dear Mirek for scoring the equaliser.





Italy. Was so upset when they lost.


It was heartbreaking seeing all those pictures of Klose and Micha and everyone else crying.


Portugal. Hurrah for Schweini! :D






Now for miscellaneous shots:







Group hug!! :D


Aww. He looks so adorable. XD


Poor Lahmi with his dislocated elbow. Lucky thing for him you don't really need elbows in football.


Prinz Poldi and his Best Young Player award. He's always all smiles; gotta love that about him.


Poldi's personalised Adidas TunIt boot, with the words of Germany's national anthem on the inside. Nice.


Ich liebe Deutschland. :)