Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Adapting

Adapting.

I guess i'm growing accustomed to being continuously loaded with heavy school work. I still get a little anxious and worried at times, but it doesn't bug me as much now. However, it's really robbing me of my time though.

It's making me treasure every moment i have with my friends, each moment i spend surfing the net and listening to music, every moment of recesss and lunch and every moment of sweet slumber.

That's good to a certain extent, and i just wanna thank God for giving me such great friends and a wonderful family that have been supporting me. Nick helped me organise the fortnightly soccer when i was caught up with work, my dad helps me out with maths tirelessly, and Serene and Ruth are so supportive of me joining the BeatBouncers. The list goes on... but i wanna thank God!

The Pitts Building was closed today, so we were forced to run the 5km X-Country track around the Botanical Gardens instead -.-" It was then that i realised how unfit i was! haha! I could run 4.8km pretty easily back in Singapore, but i couldn't even manage a constant speed for more than a kilometre today!!!! Ahh!!! This is what homework does to you... Seriously.. Shucks! I need to start running more!!!

Oh yea, Tommy, Harish and i had a race to put and end to Harish's claims that he's "so much faster" than i am. Tommy and i accelerated while Harish "slipped" at the start. loL! He sprinted for barely 4 seconds before giving up! haha! Later on, we were about 300m into the 4km track when Tommy and Harish decided they had enough and turned back -.-""" Duc, Leo, Victor, Jimmy, Jack, Phan and i finished the entire course though. It was an achievement! haha! Not really! 4km's nothing really.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Sweet Feet Beat Crazy Legs

The inter-church Futsal comp went awesome yesterday! I was surprised to see so many familiar faces from the other churches. There were about 4 Melbourne High dudes, and 3 people i knew from Chink school.

Well, the first game was against "Bilingual A Team". It started off slow with Nick, Jerusha, Pete, Alvin and myself on the field. It was then that we coped the only goal in the whole knock-out tournament - a glancing header from some really tall dude. haha! The ball was pumped high up from a kick-in and flew straight into the goal. Well, a goal can't be scored from a kick-in. However, this dude claimed that the ball skimmed past his hair, but others said that there was no contact at all.

Fortunately, we dominated the game and wrapped it up with a 4-1 victory, thanks to 2 goals from Nick, 1 from Shaun and 1 from Gab. Then we overcame our fatigue and played for the Netball A Team (who needed A LOT of help!) Nick and i had no clue how to play Netball, so we just defended at the back. haha! We were really effective surprisingly, and the first half ended 0-0. But we were too tired to continue, so we got replaced... what do you know... we lost 4-2 in the end -.-"""

Our next match was against "Linc B team". We completely dominated possession in the first half, putting pressure on the opponents at every opportunity possible; which paid off in a 4-0 score line at half time.

At this point, some players in the "Linc A team" got a little pissed off.. and so they decided to hop on the battlefield. We were really intimidated by the new burst of talent in the team because they had defeated their opponents 7-0 in the last stage. Well, we played just as we did in the first half and scored some awesome strikes and some neat finishes to end the game with a 7-0 scoreline =) lol! Thanks to a brilliant performance from Shuan with 3 goals, I scored 2, Nick scored 1, and Jerusha scored a left-footed drive from halfway.

With that, we made it to the finals. However, we got a little shocked as we sat by the sidelines and watched the other semi-final - Linc A versus Bilingual B. It was obvious that the players from Linc A, who played for their B team against us, were struggling to keep up with the pace of the game. How Foolish! Anyway, there were 5 good players on the field from teams. Not surprisingly, the game ended 2-2 and had to be decided in a shootout. Linc A buried 21 outta 3, while Bilingual B kept a perfect score of 3 outta 3 to make it to the final!!!!

Nick, Quentin and i had done some prior planning and tactical plays, but it all came down to this 20 minute final. The opposition had 3 decent players - Shef (a striker), Crazy Legs (a defender that spends most of his time sliding on the ground and injuring opposition players, and a random guy in blue (a midfielder who has awesome ball control).

Throughout the game, Pete and i kept a tight backline in front of a watchful Alvin (the keeper) while Shaun, Jerusha and Gab kept making runs. Nick had a serious cramp in his thigh and had to sit out. Surprisingly, we kept a clean sheet and scored 4 goals in the first half! However, Shaun and Jerusha got knocked up pretty badly by "Crazy Legs". They were bruised and battered. loL!

Anyway, the second half started with an even bigger bang! We were on 110% straight from the kick off and we gave it all to them to finish it off with a 8-0 scoreline - Nick scored 2, Shaun 2, Jerusha 1, Gab 1 and i scored 2. Yep... we had pizza and drinks after that, and i got to make some new friends too.

I just finished doing my QT, and i realised that Pride crept into each and everyone of us. And the bible says that Pride corrupts Wisdom. How true is that? I almost got carried away yesterday with the adrenaline rush, and i know that i was close to boasting and all.

Pride corrupts Wisdom

I wanna thank God for all the fun we had!

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Futsal Training Match

The Fungus Futsal team took on the dudes from Melbourne High today down in the Aqualink Centre in Box Hill. Phan, Jin, Tommy, Jimmy, Banh, lil Joe and Jono took on Nick, Jerusha, Pete, Gab, Shaun, Alvin Jack and myself. We paid a total of $54 for 2 hours (that's an awesome price! it's almost half the price of one at Albert Park)

Anyway, i was kindda disappointed early in the day because people were letting me know that they won't be able to make it at the last minute -.-" Turk, Lobo, and even Tran. Sigh... Harish even called up and said that he was "too tired", and "had to do Physics homework". lol! But i forced him to come anyway.

The game was really competitive, and it went on for the whole two hours. haha! I'm feeling dead tired right now, but i've still got a lot of Maths to get through -.-" The dudes pillaged us in the first few minutes, and gave us a 4-1 mountain to climb. Harish, the top goal scorer knocked in 6 goals, i had 5, Tommy had 3, Nick had 3, Jerusha had 1, Pete had 1, Jimmy had 2 and Gab had 1. We won 11-10 in the end. haha! Don't know if that adds up, but it was such a tight game though.

Tomorrow's the big day. The Fungus team hasn't lost a single match yet, and i want to maintain that record =) But i'm not too sure about tomorrow judging by the way we played today. Though the defence was pretty solid, and we maintained a considerable amount of possession, we struggled to get the ball past the goal line. We blew great chances when the ball was only begging to be put away. haha! I hope this doesn't happen tomorrow.

I've been studying so much in the past two days, Covlent Network Lattices, Covalent Layer Lattices, Macbeth, the Factors influencing price, supply and demand, the importance of corporate culture and the use of it, the valency table... haiz... i'm running on overload right now. But i've still got tons to get through...

But it makes me treasure days like these when you can just relax and hang out with your friends, to appreciate something that i haven't been able to do.

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Merimbula

Memories of Merimbula are like cumulus clouds that hang sweetly on the top of your mind. As time goes on, more memorable experiences add to the weight of these cotton-like creations and cause a downpour of sentimental emotions. I love these paroxysms.

I won't bore you with the details, because i can't remember everything that happened, but i'll jot down all that comes to mind.
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The first day was a 4 hour drive down to Lake's Entrance; which is a cosy little coastal town just along the East Gippsland coast. Dad and i went around to explore the feasible sites for fishing before going home for an scrumptuous meal. I don't know why, but that meal was particularly tasty. haha! That's the good thing about holidays. You actually remember and treasure the small little things that you would usually take for granted.
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On the second day (Monday), we went out to fish for a bit. Shucks! I can't remember what we did actually. haha! But i think we fished for a really long time at several locations - Lake Tyers, along several coasts, and off the jetty. However, we were left in dissapointment =..( We only got to catch the tiny little ones which had to be thrown back into the water. Dinner was good that night =) Uncle James' family drove down to join us that night. His kids; Charmaine, Daniel and Shauna came along too. I had a game of pool with Daniel, and we watched a movie after. But i was so exhausted after the long day of fishing that i dozed off not long after it started. haha! Apparantly i snored really loudly too! x.x"

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Both our families took another 4 hour journey across the Victoria-New South Wales boarder up to Merimbula. We stopped by this little town called Cann River for lunch, the typical lunch that you have when you're at a small coastal town - Fish and Chips -.-" haha! Not that it's bad or anything, it's just LOADED with oil and all that grease. haha! Reminds me of Turk! =P

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Yea, i needed to use the loo badly then. So i walked up and down the street looking for a public toilet, but there was none. My last resort was the "Cann River Fishermen's Club". loL! The smell of lighted-ciggarettes and stale air filled my lungs the very moment i stepped through the door. It was a bistro-casino-fishermen-adult (If those words have any relation at all) entertainment center. haha! I thought that i would be deemed as an under-aged non-member and would be kicked out on sight. So i just rushed straight into the toilet and got out as quickly as i could. It was one of those funny experiences.


Oh yea, i remember making this extremely loud burp after finishing my fish&chips lunch. The two families were sitting at two separate tables, but Charmaine started cracking up. loL! I had been totally oblivious to my bleach. But Uncle James said that she's laughing because she does that all the time too. haha! Charmaine suffers from her chronic laughing disease. Seriously, she can laugh for hours. No Joke.

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We spent most of Wednesday fishing. There was this awesome fishing spot very near to where we were staying, but we didn't get anything there except puffers -.-""" I caught 3 pufferfish, and i chucked them into this puddle of seawater on the rocks, when i realised that there were 4 others that were already there. haha! We weren't the first ones to have our baits swarmed by these irritating puffers.

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The view was spectacular at Merimbula. The horizon was as blue as the sea, and the sea was as blue as the horizon. The fine sand at the beach was glistening gold, and the waves were perfect for body boarding and surfing. So yea, Jerusha, Charmaine, Shuana, Daniel and i went for a dip at the beach.

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Thursday passed really quickly. We started the day early with a drive down to another fishing site called Navy's Wharf, which was an extremely long jetty. The people next to us were caught 3 huge tailors, while we caught little Yellowtails -.-""" Oh... Charmaine and Daniel caught one Leatherjacket each. But we chucked them back as they were too small to be eaten.

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Daniel, Jerusha and Charmaine wanted to go to the beach again, but my Dad, Uncle James and i were hungry for our first real catch. haha! Daniel tried hard to convince me to go swimming, but i joined the dads instead. As usual, we didn't catch anything except midget fishes. Oh, Shuana caught a leatherjacket and a small crab! haha! We kept the leatherjacket this time after learning that there was no size limit for it.

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Anyway, i gave up after an hour and went swimming. The pulling current was so much stronger this time, and the strong 2-metre high waves were relentless. Daniel stayed near the shore as the current was too strong for him, but Charmaine, Jerusha and i drifted out a little too much. Jerusha was fine because she was holding on to the bodyboard, but Charmaine and i were being sucked in by the strong current. I didn't realise the danger at first, but it grew more and more risky as each second passed. I was struggling to keep my head above the water and i battled to get back to shore, we were about 30 - 35 metres out. Charmaine didn't know how to swim, and she had a cramp -.-""" I quickly whispered this silent prayer, and almost as an immediate answer this giant wave shoved us closer to shore, and freed us from the current. haha! Thank God!

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We had a hotplate dinner that night. I don't remember why, but everyone was laughing their guts out. haha! It was something about the cloud looking like a squirrel and a rat, my hat-hair, Agrum, Daniel's shoes and Shauna's love for salad. haha!

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My family had to leave for Nicholson on Friday morning, another 5 hour drive -.-" THat was a killer, i felt tired, weak and sick. Anyway, we checked in at this caravan park before heading back to Lake Tyers. My dad had grown tired of not catching any large fish for the past 4 days and we sought professional help. We payed $180 for this dude named, Peter, to take us out on a fishing boat ride on Lake Tyers. He taught us this ingenious technique for catching Flatheads, and how to fish with a loose line. We ended up with 3 Flatheads and 4 Breems at the end of that 4 hour expedition. We decided to release one flathead though, because it was tagged by some Fishery that was using it to conduct some research.

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THat's about it. We drove for another 4 hours to get back to Melbourne today. We stopped by the beach near Sale, and had lunch at Pizza Hut.

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The only thing i can think about now is the large amount of work that i have to complete in the week -.-""" Ahh!!! I don't care anymore... i just wanna thank God, and my parents, for this awesome holiday. It's been such a long time since i've been so relaxed. Argh... i feel my muscles tensing up again.

*A teary smile =...)


Saturday, March 11, 2006

Finally! the Hols!

The long-awaited holidays have finally come. The first term has really zoomed past in a flash... the unbelieveably large amount of work has just kept me constantly occupied. haiz... time really flies. I don't wanna grow up so fast, yet i'm dying to get my drivers license =) Yea! I can't believe i'm actually having a break! I played Dota, for the first time in 2 months, till 3am last night with Nick and Gabriel.

The last day of school, yesterday, was pretty fun. Firstly, i was thank God for helping get an A+ mark of 23/25 for my first BM SAC. Also, i topped my Methods class in a test that i knew nothing about, and had no time to prepare for as i was in North Sydney, with a score of 47/50. haha! Thank God!

Anyway, Harish picked up a semi-serious ankle ligament tear during a soccer game on Wednesday, but he still came down to school yesterday. The dudes went to MC for KFC, and we watched the Blackburn vs Tottenham match that was showing at the food court. I couldn't spend much time with the guys, who went to STRIKE later on, cuz i had to go to Joyce's farewell party at South Melbourne beach. Yea, but it was really nice hanging out with them...

Yea... the party at the beach was good. There were a ton of people there, many that i didn't know. Erm... Terrence, Michael, James, Blee, Jerusha, Peter Wangie, Tommy (the piss-wink), Leo and Jimmy were there. We had a mini-game of beach soccer and all. People were getting dumped into the sea, and all. haha! Joyce got chucked into the sea twice! Tommy was being a piss-wink... he didn't want to get his "$400 richman" jeans sandy, and spent most of his time on tip-toes. haha! It was hilarious!

After the party, Jerusha, Joyce, Vicky and i took a tram from Port Melbourne to Box Hill. Joyce was just considering if she should buy a ticket, when 6 ticket inspectors hopped onto the tram. Joyce and Vicky ended up getting fined -.-""""

We met up with Nick, Shuan, Gab, Joshua, Audrey, Aviel, Adora, Chara, Mike and Rachel for dinner at La Porchetta. haha! I was absolutely bloated after that meal! We shared 4 pizzas and 4 pastas among us since Nick INSISTED on having so much food. haha!

Oh, i played Dota with Gab and Nick till 3.40am last night... -.-"

Joyce is gonna leave for Japan on Monday for 10 months. Just wanna thank you for being such a cheerful friend =) Enjoy your trip to Japan, and get the most outta it! Catch ya in 10 months!

Thursday, March 09, 2006

North Sydney Exchange

The only thing i regret is forgetting to bring a camera along to North Sydney -.-"" The sights at Syndey were sensational! Some of the most picturesque scenery i've seen in my entire life! Especially the view from the train while it was crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The trademark harbour looked absolutely spectacular from a bird's eye view. I loved the small green islands not far from the harbour most... all i wanted to do was to jump off the plane and swim to one of those seductively-green islands.

Andrew Cepak, my billet, is an awesome dude! He's in Year 9, but he's a huge tank... biggest in his grade. He did Javellin, Short put and High jump. I did Futsal. Hmm... he was really friendly. And his mum looked after me as though i was her son. She got up early in the mornings just to make us our breakfasts and to prepare our lunches. haha! I've never lived with an Aussie family before, so this was a great experience. The food was pretty good actually. I remember having a bacon and egg burger for breakfast, Australian Stir-fry, Pizza and a Burrito for dinner. haha! I was bloated after every meal. That explains why Aussies are so huge!

Andrew's dad, Mark, had an extremely rich friend named Barry who owned a Visual Communications company and an awesome yacht. And he organised a boat trip for Andrew and i. Andrew's dad couldn't make it, so George (Andrew's Uncle) took us down to the port, and we met Barry there. Whoa.. his 750k yacht was enormous! He showed us all the fanciful gadgets on the yacht, including a fully-mad GPS-tracking system! haha! He even gave us a little session about how to drive a yacht!

Barry took us to this place called Refuge Bay. Andrew and I then got onto a small dingy boat and sped through the waters. We went to the nearby beach, and basically just went around the bay. We were about 400m away from the yacht when we ran outta petrol! lol! So we had to paddle the whole way back to top the tank up. 400m sounds like a piece of cake, but the strong current and the blistering wind made it like hell. haha! There were many other yachts docked at the bay, and the people on them started cracking up when they saw us -.-'"" haha!

When we got tired of the dingy, we went fishing for a bit. I caught 2 fishes and Andrew caught 3. But they were too small to keep anyway, so we just threw them back into the water. Oh, there was this one fish that got caught really badly. The hook went in its mouth and caught its gills. It started bleeding profusely when i tried to get the hook out -.-""" haha! it was really freaky. Btw, Andrew's afraid of fish!!! loL! He freaked out when i flung the struggling fish at him. Anyway, it died in the end... my first murder.

Oh yes, we went for a long swim from the yacht to the beach. I think it was about 800m...yea, i LONG and TIRING swim. We spent about 5 hours there in total.

I'm not gonna talk much about the Crawford Shield because we lost it 6 sports to 8 -.-"" That's the first time in 100 years that North Sydney High has won it. We played the best outta 3 games for Futsal, and we lost all three. 9-2, 6-1 and 6-3 were the scores respectively -.-"" We got owned really badly. I was left on ther bench for the entire first game though -.-"" The Year 12's think they're really good and all, but i reckon the only good player was Danno. Sigh... hope this has knocked them to their senses. Doesn't matter, we'll win it back next year when Turk, Tommy, Laios, Tran, Jin, Harish, Marcus, Duc and the rest get to play.

These two days have been extremely hectic. On my first day back, i got presented with a Chemistry test which i knew nothing about... i asked my teacher if he could postphone it but he refused. -.-""" What a tightarse. You sacrifice your precious time to represent your school and this is what you get in return.

Anyway, i had a Methods test and a BM SAC today. Haiz... the Meothds teacher agreed to postphone my test because i didn't have the time to sit for it. Tomorrow's the last day of school and i've gotta hand in an English Essay and a Economics SAC, do a Economics test, a Maths General Test, and a Methods test -.-""" It's hell!

Gotta get back to work now. Thanks Andrew and the Cepak family for your hospitality! Oh yea, Andrew had a cool bro, Chris, and a nice lil sis named Eliza. Thanks guys! =)

Friday, March 03, 2006

I Bleed... Yarra!

I've just finished packing my bag for my trip to North Sydney tomorrow. My flight's at 4pm tomorrow, and i'll only be back next Tuesday; just in time for 2 maths tests and a dead-important BM SAC. Well, many people have labelled me as a "nerd" after the amount of time i've spent in the library instead of playing soccer. But i guess it's time to take a break. Sure, i'm gonna study a little in Sydney, but i'll have a great time with my Year 9 billet, Andrew Cepak, and bring the Prefect's Cup back to Melbourne High!

Waterloo, Como and Forrest all produced good, but ordinary performances on the Piano, Violin and Clarinets in today's Instrumentals Contest. But Yarra's Ryan Williams showed the audience, and the adjudicator, the other side to Music with a daring and unique performance on the Recorder. haha! It was entertaining and hilarious at the same time. Well, we came 2nd for the Instrumentals Contest, but next up was the Choral Contest.

I felt like wetting my pants as i walked up the stage, as i heard the loud strong chants behind my back, "Yarra! Yarra! Yarra!". The feeling was phenomenal. The Chorals have always belonged to Yarra, and always will. However, losing out to Forrest last year left an eternal scar on the pride and dignity of each Yarraman.

As the first words came outta our mouths, i could see the immediate change of expressions on the faces of all the other houses. The quality of our singing was top-class, perfect to the pitch, and rang loud and clear to every ear in the Melbourne Town Hall. I felt proud, elated and filled with zeal as i sang my heart out for Yarra. The strength and passion in our voices made the other houses' performances pale in contrast. We totally owned it.

When i walked down that stage, i knew it was in the bag.

Yep, Yarra's won it's pride back at last.. the Cock belongs to us!

I love RED!!