ICE.COLD.COFFEE

I was at the bus stop today when a family with 2 young boys arrived.

One of the small boys was singing "Count on me, Singapore".

Although it was a little out of tune, it sounded nice. Really heartwarming.

Nowadays, I seldom hear so many national day songs on the television as I used to when I was young.

Is it because I don't watch at the right times? Or is it because they don't show it so much now?

I think it's the latter.

Even for the new song for this year's celebrations, I only heard it twice. So pathatic.

I think it should be aired so oftenly on television until people can hum to its tune and that you can hear it almost every hour or so.

But now, I think only a very small handful of people have heard the whole song.

Kinda sad, isn't it?

I miss the times when we used to sing national day songs in primary school.

Lessons weren't so stressed and rush then that we had time to sing during assembly and music lessons.

So far, my favourite national day songs would have to be "Count on me, Singapore", "We will get there" and "One people, one nation, one Singapore".

I doubt I'll get the chance to sing it this year.

The last time I went to a national day parade was when I was in primary 5, almost 6 years ago.

And I think a lot of the older generation havn't been to a national day parade either.

Really miss going to the parade.

I like the fireworks and singing the national day songs with everyone else.

I'm a true blue Singaporean.

Or should I say, a true red and white Singaporean. Haha.

I love Singapore!

10 more days to Singapore's 40th Birthday.

Happy Birthday Singapore!

I'm so happy today.

Why?

It's because I can go to school late today, at 9.15am.

College day ended at 9pm last night so the school was thoughtful enough to let us come to school later. I think that put everyone in a good mood.

How good if we could go to school so late everyday. But that would mean late dismissal. Not too sure I want that. Haha.

Lessons went on as per normal today, just that we didn't have the first 2 lessons.

After school, we had a class outing.

9 people turned up.

Ok, can't really call it a class outing since less than half the class came, but we had a ball of a time anyway.

We went to Amarjote's house.

Her house is so cool.

So big!

She had a badminton court with a basketball net and a big, big garden with 2 swings.

Oh man, I wish I had swings in my house too!

But then again, if there were swings in my house, I probably wouldn't be so fascinated by it after a while.

It's the same with the swimming pool downstairs too.

When I first moved in, I felt it was so great to have a pool downstairs. But now, I havn't swam in it for months! Haha. What a waste.

Anyway, Amarjote's mum was really great. She prepared lots of food for us.

I especially loved the lagsania (is the spelling correct? Haha.)

Anyway, it was really great. I really feel sorry for those who didn't turn up. They missed out on so much fun!

We played till almost 6pm but had to leave because Amarjote had a dinner function.

I went home after that, but some of them were going out for dinner with other classmates who were joining them later.

I was too full to eat anymore. Besides, I was tired.

So that was all for our class outing. Really enjoyable.

Cheap and so much fun.

That's the way it should be.

Class outings don't always have to dig a big hole in your pocket for you to have fun.

The most important thing is spending quality time with your friends.

It's VJC's 21st birthday today!

We have lessons till 12.10pm then we have to come back to school later at 6pm.

I feel a "celebration" mood in the school today. I guess everone's happy because of early dismissal.

After we were dismissed, I went bowling with Kaijun.

I bowled quite well today. My score was 97 for my first game and 79 for the second one.

Then we got quite bored with bowling. So we decided to go roller blading at East Coast.

The last time I went roller blading was in sec 2.

My school had sports enrichment for all the sec 2 students then and I learnt roller blading.

That time, I didn't manage to blade very well although.

So after not blading for like 3 years, I almost forgot how to roller blade.

At first I couldn't even move.

Then after a while, I could take really small steps.

But, we got stuck at the hump.

It was a really gentle one but I still couldn't get up the slope.

I think we spent almost 5-10 minutes there. The people passing by were looking at us and I think they were laughing inside because I really couldn't get across.

Everytime I tried to go up the hump, I didn't have enough speed to go across so I would just slide right back. So embarassing!

Finally, we managed to get across.

Kaijun knew how to blade so it was a breeze for him.

I guess he was kinda bored because I really slowed him down. Haha.

Anyway, I got better along the way. Still a little shaky but at least I could go over the humps without much problem.

I fell down like 4 to 5 times.

There was once when we went down a slope. It was quite steep so I got scared.

It was fun actuallly but I don't know why I started screaming. So embrassing!

Then I fell down. Ahh! Don't know where to hide my face!

Then at about 4.30pm, it rained.

There was a shelter near by but I took quite long to get under shelter. So in the end I got quite wet!

Luckily the shelter was near by if not I really can't imagine what would have happened.

The rain only lasted a little while.

After that, we went to return the roller blades and went back to school.

I felt kinda bad because Kaijun didn't really get the chance to blade properly.

Mostly, he was teaching me and blading beside slowly. I think he got bored. Hee.

Later, we went back to VJ for the performance.

It was kinda boring because the beginning was all speeches and prize giving.

A lot of people left halfway but I stayed throughout.

The performance was held in the performance theater but it wasn't big enought for the whole school so only the guests and some students could go in.

The others had to stay in the hall where the image from a camera filming the whole ceremony was flashed on the screen.

The camera made every single person look fat! Haha.

And before the ceremony started, the camera showed some people from the audience who didn't know they were being filmed. Some of them looked funny because they didn' know they were on camera.

And all the people in the hall had a good close up of those people's faces.

Imagine having your face shown in close up on the big screen in the hall.

And to make matters worse, you had some funny expression on your face.

All the people in the hall would be laughing at you but you didn't know. After the performance, your friends would be laughing at you and you wouldn't know why either.

Then after you find out... *faints* Whahaha. So embarrasing!

Ok, enough of that embarassing stuff.

Anyway, there were people playing cards in the hall and the teachers didn't care. The teachers must be pretty bored too.

The whole ceremony ended at 9.00pm. I think.

There was mass dance but I didn't join in because my class only had 4 people left and we were quite tired too.

I reached home at 10.15pm after having my dinner at bedok interchange.

Watched Lost until 11pm then bathe and went to bed.

I was super tired and fell asleep almost immediately.

Zzzzz...

Today is Anglican High School's 49th Founder's day.

I've been waiting for this day for a very, very long time.

Last year when I saw the seniors going up on stage to collect their prizes, I told Hanjie that I wanted to get at least 6 A1s so that I could come back on founder's day to receive the prize too.

Luckily I got 7 A1s. Because those who achieved 6 A1s didn't get the chance to come back since there were too many students who achieved 7, 8 and 9 A1s.

Initially, I wanted to go for the first 2 periods of lessons today but in the end I didn't go because my Dad wasn't going to drive me to school and I was lazy to take the bus. Haha.

We drove my brother to school then my Dad, Mum and me went to east coast to eat at a coffee shop.

I had 2 roti prata. Nice! I love eating roti prata for breakfast.

After that, we drove to Vj because I had to take my blazer. In the end, we drove Melissa and Li Yue there too.

We reached at about 9.40am.

It's really amazing how much the school has changed.

The structure is pretty much the same but the walls of the walk ways were lined with many beautiful pictures. They were by the students. So beautiful!

There were many pictures of students along the stairways too. I thought it made the school feel very "homely".

It's so sad that these changes were implemented after we left though.

The first item of the ceremony was the singing of the school song. I remembered the tune but forgot quite a bit of the words.

Nonetheless, I tried my best to sing.

All the students sang very loudly.

I think it's because they had some sort of "rehearsal" one day where they had to sing loudly, if not they weren't allowed to be dismissed.

I remember going through this before. Haha.

But seriously, the loud voices made the ceremony more grand.

During the school song, I felt very touched. Like I was almost going to cry. It was a long time since I last sang the school song.

But everyone around me didn't look like they were touched so it would seem totally stupid if a tear rolled out of my eye.

As if anyone would believe that dust had flown into my eye. Haha.

Back to the ceremony.

Later, there were speeches by the principle and guest-of-honour.

I thought the speech by the principle was rather interesting because she told us about the achievements of the various ccas and made our school seem really impressive.

I especially liked the part where she compared the 2004 O level results with the previous year. It made us feel so proud!

The average L1R5 for 2003 was 12+. For our year, it's about 10! What a great improvement! The 2004 batch totally rocks!

I guess we set the bar pretty high for the present sec 4s. A high expectation to meet.

Hope we didn't give them too much pressure but I guess everyone really hopes AHS will be able to keep up the good results.

If this year's average L1R5 for the O level results slide back to the usual 12+, I really wonder how the principle will be able to compare with our results on next year's founder's day.

After the speeches, we went up on stage one by one to receive our prizes. I thought it would be just a brown envelope with just our O level certificate and maybe a certificate to recognise your good results.

But I was wrong.

Firstly, we were supposed to collect our O level cert quite some time back. But I didn't know. So of course, we didn't receive it on stage.

Secondly, we recieved some... erm, I don't know what is it called. Is it called a trophy? Hmm... I don't know, but I think you get the idea. Do you? Haha.

I was really glad to recieve that "trophy" because it looks really nice and it looks nice on my table too!

After the prize presentation, we had performances by the various performance groups. Makes me remember the times when I used to perform with choir.

When the whole prize giving ceremony was over, we went to the archives room. The room was really nice!

Today is the opening ceremony of the archives room. I think it really makes the 2004 graduating batch seem special since it's launched on the day we came back to receive out prizes.

I never knew AHS had such a long history. I think it kinda made us have a greater sense of belonging to the school.

We took quite a few pictures. Then, we went for the reception in the air-con hall.

That made me remember the times when we didn't have the chance to eat because only the guests could eat. Haha.

This year's reception is grander than the previous years.

A lot grander.

After the whole thing, I went window shopping with Melissa and Hanjie at Tampines Mall.

I was really tired and carrying the heavy blazer made it worse.

At about 4.30pm, we went back.

Today was such an exciting day. I'll never forget this day.

Anglican High School's 49th Founder's Day -- 22nd July 2005!

Today is my first Thursday of lessons after the June holidays.

The thursday before, I was having the swimming competition.

I'm beginning to miss swimming training. I don't know why either. I just feel like swimming.

The last time we trained was for the competition. Since then, we haven't been training.

I think we should start soon, if not all our joints will get "rusty". Haha.

Today, we played floorball for pe. I wasn't really very good at it, but it was fun nonetheless.

After pe, I had ice jelly, like always. I missed ice jelly. It sure has been a long time since I last had it.

The rest of the day went by quite smoothly.

I slept almost half of the econs lecture away because I was so tired. But I wasn't the only one. There were others who were sleeping.

During maths lecture, I didn't dare to sleep although I was super tired. Because we just started on a new chapter.

If I missed one part of Mr Ho's lecture, it'll take a long time for me to catch up. I think he's a really wonderful teacher. And he has a quirky sense of humour too.

Our last lesson today was GP. We had 2 periods and it was really boring.

To make matters worse, Mrs Ch'ng exceeded her lesson by almost 15 minutes. It was like having 3 periods of GP. So scary. Haha.

Later, we had horticulture meeting. After gardening, we discussed about landscaping.

I'm really excited about this project because I think it's going to be the highlight of our 2 years in horti.

And I feel proud at the fact that I was the one who suggested it. Haha.

On the bus ride home, the woman sitting beside me had a super cute ringtone.

It was the cadbury chocolate advertisement song!

So cute! It even had the words!

I think when her handphone rang, a lot of people noticed her ringtone. Haha.

Anyway, I'm very, very tired now.

I'm supposed to pass up my EoM draft for PW tomorrow but I realised that I didn't take note of the author's name, year of publication, blah blah blah before returning the library book.

But, I'm kinda happy actually because I have an excuse not to do homework and I can go to sleep after finishing this post. Haha.

I don't feel bad that I didn't do it because I really can't do it without the book. Haha. Not my fault, right?

I'll borrow the book again tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be able to find it.

Tomorrow after school, I'm planning to do some homework, then sleep really early because I'm terribly tired.

Hopefully, I'll be able to have a good, long sleep.

Wouldn't it be nice! *Sung to the tune of the cadbury chocolate song*

Nitez!

I just realised that this title "swimming dinner" sounds as if the food is swimming. Haha. So lame.

Anyway, I meant that the swim team went for dinner together.

Today was the last day of nationals. We had only 1 event left -- 4 x 50m freestyle for guys.

It was the last event of the day. Kai Lun, Wanpok, Winson and Reeve took part.

Halfway through the competition, RJ and ACJC were very close while the others were trailing behind by quite a lot.

We were all competiting for the 3rd position because RJ and ACJC would surely take the top 2 positions.

In the end, VJ came in 3rd! And we were so happy!

The difference between the 3rd and 4th position was 0.09 seconds. Really close!

After the competition, we realised that one of the reasons we won was because Winson's reaction time for plunging was only 0.12 seconds.

That's really fast! If he jumped a little earlier, we could have been disqualifed. We're really lucky!

Anyway, after the competition, we went to Marina South to eat the seafood steamboat buffet.

It's at the same place I went to for the Horti farewell dinner. But this time it was a different restaurant.

The normal price was $12 per head but because there were 23 of us, we had a discount. Only $10 per person plus free drink.

And the best part is, our dinner was paid for with our swimming fund!

I didn't even know that we had a swimming fund.

And I didn't know that there was so much money in our swimming fund.

Anyway, back to the dinner. The food was quite ok. I didn't really eat a lot of seafood.

Mostly, I ate chicken, fish and vegetables. I ate so much that I was really full.

During dinner, we made lots of lame jokes.

I told Fabian that I wanted to learn butterfly because I thought it's a really nice stroke.

We made lots of lame jokes about how I should ask Mrs Leong to teach me butterfly.

I can't say the joke here because it would sound weird and it wouldn't be funny. But it was really funny. Haha.

After dinner, we went to the arcade.

Howe Li said he could complete the entire Time Crisis game with just one token so all of us wanted to see for ourselves if it was true.

He managed to complete lots of stages, but unfortunately, didn't manage to complete the whole game. But it was exciting just to watch.

By the time I reached home, it was already 11 o'clock.

Although I was really tired, I went to do my maths and econs homework. See, I'm so good. Haha.

I'm really tired because I wake up so early and sleep so late. I'm going to sleep now.

Nitez!

I never thought 1 second would matter.

Much less 0.04 seconds...

Until today.

Today was the swimming finals.

I went to the Toa Payoh Swimming pool at 1.30pm with Li Ling because we skipped a few lessons to go down to support the guys.

I was kinda happy because I could skip GP. Haha.

Anyway, today's finals made me realise how important every single second is.

The competition was very close since the best separated from the not-so-good swimmers during the heats.

A difference of 1 second could mean that a different person would win.

It could make a whole lot of difference.

Imagine you had trained a year just to take part in this competition, hoping to win first place.

But, to your horror, you realise that you came in second because you were just 1 second slower than the guy next to you.

Only 1 second!

Now, imagine how that would have felt if the difference was only 0.04 seconds!

That was what happened for one of the events today.

The timing of the 1st and 2nd positions differed by only 0.04 seconds.

Imagine how the slower competitor would have felt.

There are 25 x 0.04 seconds in 1 second.

1 second just passed.

And another.

And another.

In just that split second, it was decided who would have the final victory.

At the moment the results were flashed on the screen, there was an initial buzz.

Then, it became quiter than usual.

I guess everyone just realised how much difference a split second would make.

I was no exception.

It suddenly occured to me that that was the harsh reality of life.

No matter how small the difference was, it's a fact that someone won, while the other lost.

Really sets you thinking how merciless life is, huh?

Just think about it.

I was really touched by the encouragement from so many of my close friends before my swimming competition yesterday.

I wanted to blog about this last night but didn't want to bore readers with such a long post.

That's why I decided to thank them today.

Thanks to the following people:

SHUWEN: My best friend since primary 3, I think. It's been so long I can't really remember when we met. Thanks for all your encouraging sms. You told me that I should tell myself that I can do it when I feel like giving up. I did. And I did it. Thanks so much!

KAIJUN: You reminded me that it's not the results that matter, but the process of having fun. I kept that in mind and luckily you reminded me if not I would have let this great experience pass without even enjoying it.

LI YUE: The one who always tells me that I can make it. You gave me confidence and made me believe in myself. I did it!

BERNICE: Although you're not in swimming anymore, you still give me lots of support. And calling me darling always makes me feel good. (In a friend-friend kind of way) Haha.

LU JIA: You give me the feeling that you're always behind me in whatever I do. Thanks for giving me that kind of support. I really appreciate it!

LI LING: My swimming buddy! If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have any motivation to train. Thanks for training and whining with me all this while. I'm glad that you did well too.

KAI LUN: Our "coach"! You taught us how to plunge and swim better. I know that you sacrificed some of your training time to teach us and we really appreciate it. Thanks! Looks like we didn't let you down.

JIA HUI, JUN WEI, KEVIN & KAI XIANG: Training with you guys really made swimming much more fun. Thanks for helping us with plunging and giving us the command to plunge during training!

ALL THE OTHERS: Thanks for all the support! Although I didn't mention your individual names, I really appreciate every single one of you!

Before the competition, I read all the "good luck", "all the best" and "jia you" sms that I received the day before to keep me going.

That totally helped.

I felt calmer and more confident.

Ok, that's about all. I feel like I'm giving some big thank you speech after winning a great award. Haha.

But who knows?

If I train hard, I might get into the finals.

If I train hard, I might win the finals.

If I train hard, I might get a chance to represent Singapore in the Olympics!

Haha. That's almost impossible but I can always dream, right?

Anyway, that's another incentive for you to read this blog. It shows the making of a future great swimmer.

From zero to hero.

Then next time you can tell your grandchildren that you sort of know that girl who won the Olympics swimming gold medal because you read her blog.

Haha. Yeah right! But one should never be afraid to dream big. As long as you work towards your dream, the impossible can become possible.

I saw a quote that goes something like this:

This is so totally true. If you keep telling yourself that you can't do it, you're probably right.

Don't be afraid to dream big.

*Visualising how the Olympic gold medal would look like hanging around my neck* Haha.

It's better than striking 4D!

I haven't felt so happy in a long, long time.

It's all because of 4862.

What's 4862?

It's my timing for my 50m breaststroke competition today. 48.62 seconds!

That's my personal best!

Ok, I know this is a little slow. Very slow actually.

Because the timing to qualify for the finals is about 37 to 39 seconds.

I took 10 seconds more!

But why am I so happy?

It's because my previous best was 51 seconds. And when I first joined swimming this April, my timing was 1 min.

I improved 12 seconds!

That's a great achivement for me!

I was really hoping that I could do it under 50 seconds and I did it! I'm so proud of myself. Haha.

I started the day feeling brave because I felt that I had nothing to lose. Even of I came in last, so be it. I wasn't hoping to get into the finals anyway.

But as the day went by, I started to get nervous.

After lunch, it suddenly hit me that I might make a fool of myself. I might make a big mistake. I began to feel scared.

At 1pm, Li Ling and I went to change, then warm up. It was less scary then because we were occupied and didn't have time to let our minds wonder.

Soon, it was reporting time. We lined up according to our events. We were seated in rows according to our lanes.

I talked a little to the girl on my left and we wished each other good luck. I guess it made both of us feel less nervous.

Also, the girl in the 4th or 5th lane wished everyone good luck. I thought it was really nice of her.

Because people in the 4th and 5th lanes are the best, while the not-so-fast swimmers are at lanes 1 or 8. I was at Lane 7.

I heard from my friend that this arrangement is so that there would be an "arrow" shape during the competition. With the fastest in the middle lanes and those slower at the sides.

So it was nice that she wasn't stuck up and all. Instead, she made us feel good.

Although you can make friends, you must always remind yourself that it is still a competition. If they win, it means you lose. There can be only one winner. That's the cruel reality.

Anyway, back to the competition.

When I first plunged, I was so afraid that I had a false start. Meaning that I plunged before the command was given. If I did that, I would have been disqualified.

That's because after I plunged, I didn't see anyone in the left or right lanes.

Still, I continued to swim.

I totally forgot all my strokes and just did high frequency swimming.

I couldn't hear anything.

My mind was completely blank.

I only knew that I wanted to finish as quickly as possible.

When I was almost two-third through, I felt really tired. But I told myself that I couldn't give up.

I went on and when I finished, I was panting like mad.

I couldn't see the results because my spectacles weren't with me.

When I went back to the grandstand, I asked the others what was my timing. While I desperatly wanted to know if I did well, a part of me didn't want to know for fear of disappointment.

But Reeve told me that my timing was 48.62 seconds.

I was shocked!

I thought he saw wrongly.

But when I realised that was my timing I was really glad!

I messaged lots of my friends and told them the good news.

It's really ironic that 48 seconds can be good news to me while it may be terrible news for others.

It's weird that I was so happy about my timing. Haha. But I was proud of myself!

Now when I look back, I ask if I could've done better.

Maybe. I felt that I did my best then. But if I trained harder the last month, it could've been better.

Regrets?

Of course. I made a big mistake. After I plunged, I forgot to glide. Instead, I started swimming straight away. That cost me maybe 1 or 2 precious seconds.

One will never be contented with his performance. He'll always feel that he could've done better.

But, it's already over. I should be praising myself for what I did well.

At least I plunged well. And I didn't give up halfway.

Most importantly, I had fun.

That's all that matters!

We went to the Toa Payoh swimming complex today. That's the pool we're using for the competition.

Since the pool is different from the ones that we usually train at, we had to have a feel of it before the actual competition.

But actually, the pool wasn't that different. It had 8 lanes, 50m wide and filled with... guess what? Water!

Haha. Of course la! What did you expect? That's the standard pool.

Anyway, today was like yesterday. Didn't really train a lot and it was relaxing. It's kinda good actually. We shouldn't stress ourselves out too much before the big day.

I was kinda worried at first.

What if I plunged earlier and got disqualified?

What if I plunge with a big splash?

What if I come in last?

What if... ?

I thought about lots of bad stuff that could happen on that day. But after watching some of the competitions today, I realised that we didn't have to be so nervous about it.

For the participant, it sure seems a big thing if he makes a mistake.

He would be thinking that everyone would remember him if he made a big boo-boo.

He feels as if people would remember his face. So he wouldn't be able to show his face anywhere.

Probably die of embarassment.

At least that's what I thought I would feel.

But for the spectators, it's a totally different experience.

When we see someone make a mistake, we only make a small comment about it, look at him for a second, then forget about it.

It's not as scary as I thought it would be.

Anyway, I told most of my close friends about the competition tomorrow. And I received about 6 encouraging sms. That made me feel a lot better.

I don't feel scared already.

I already don't expect to win anything. If I do, it'll be a very, very big surprise. If I don't I'll still gain experience. It's a win-win situation!

Kaijun's sms was the most encouraging. He said that the result wasn't important. It's having fun and enjoying the moment that matters.

I feel this is totally true. That's why I joined the competition in the first place. But I totally forgot about it as I was too caught up in training.

I guess the best I can do now is to do my best and be glad about it!

Enjoy the moment!

Today is already Tuesday. Only 2 days left to the swimming competition on Thursday.

I'm getting the jitters.

Now, I finally feel how much I want to get into the finals, but 2 days is definitely not enough to change my timing from 51 seconds to 41 seconds.

But even with the 10 seconds improvement, my place in the top 8 wouldn't be confirmed. Everyone's so good. The pressure is killing me!

Anyway, I went to swim at Bedok swimming complex with Li Ling. The whether was especially hot!

Jia Hui, Jun Wei, Kevin and Kai Xiang were there too.

Kai Xiang was really nice. He kept commenting on Li Ling and my strokes and told us how we could try to improve.

It was really nice that he took the trouble to spot our mistakes.

Swimming with these 4 guys really made training more fun. At least we had someone to talk crap with. But we also encouraged and made fun of one another along the way.

But, both Li Ling and I forgot how to plunge again!

It always happens! After we master the skill, we'll simply forget it the next time we go for training.

Then we'll have to waste time splashing into the pool time and again before we finally get it. Only to forget the next day. Haiz.

But, we met a good guy today.

There was a swimming instuctor at the next lane. And he was teaching little kids how to swim.

When he saw how had we were practicing but still couldn't get it right, he voluntarily gave us some advice.

After he taught us that new method of plunging, both of us got the hang of it straight away.

He was so nice! I felt so touched!

If I get into the finals, I promise that I'll buy him a big present. IF I get into the finals, that is. Haha.

Today's training wasn't as intensive as I thought it would be. We mostly did plunging and slacked the rest of the time away.

Anyway, we went to bathe after training. And, I made a stupid mistake. I was so careless!

I... I left my shoes in the changing room and forgot about them!

Oh my God! I've never been so stupid in my life!

But that was because I was wearing slippers so I forgot about my shoes!

I really can't imagine what would happen if I forgot about my shoes while I wasn't wearing slippers.

I would probably bang my head against the wall after I realise my stupidity!

Haha. I can't really do anything about it now. Just hope that no one steals it and that the cleaning auntie doesn't splash water all over it while she cleans the floor.

Haiz. I'm amazed at my carelessness.

Exams are finally over. Woohoo!

I really pity my friends who have exams today. Almost all of us have finished but they still have to study.

Anyway, today is the last day of exams so they can play tomorrow too. Haha.

I went out with Kaijun today. We went bowling!

I always loved bowling, but didn't have anyone to play with. How to play alone? It'll be so boring!

Anyway, since the Horti farewell when we went bowling, I've been bowling more often. Twice with Kaijun (including today) and once with my family.

I had swimming training in the morning.

But I was very dissapointed with my performance today. VERY dissappointed!

My timing for 1 lap of normal swimming is abt 1min 5s. Timing for 1 lap sprint is 1min! Shouldn't my sprint timing be significantly better than the normal swim timing?!

What the hell... How can my sprint timing get so bad? My best was 54s.

I think it's mainly because I didn't train during the mid-year exam week. But now, I regretted not training.

I should've just studied less and swim more. But I think I'll regret that too if my results aren't good. Haiz.

And, to add to the bad news, I forgot how to plunge!! Now I see what one week of not training can do to you.

This happened to Li Ling too.

We practiced plunging after training and were complaining to each other how dissapointed we were with ourselves. I felt as if I was going to cry.

In the end, we trained till 11.45. The sun was scorching hot and at the end of the day, my face turned red.

We went back not because we were tired, but because I had to meet Kaijun and also because it was very hot.

I'm terribly dissapointed with myself. I swear to train harder. I promise!!

Anyway, I was late in meeting Kaijun because we were training.

We went to Katong to bowl. But before bowling, we went to eat. I was so hungry.

After the meal, I felt a lot better.

At the bowling alley, the guy told us that we had to leave at 1.50pm. So sad!

I was looking forward to bowling. So we had a little less than an hour and managed to play 2 games each.

I scored 114 for my first game. That was my personal best! I knocked down at least 8 pins for every set.

But, 9 points were "contributed" by Kaijun. Because he made a mistake and bowled when it was my turn! Haha.

For the second game, I got 96. There was one particular part where something totally unexpected happened.

There were 2 extra pins in the left gutter because they flew out when we hit them in the previous set. My ball was moving towards the left and it was definitely going into the gutter.

Under normal circumstances, I would surely not hit a pin down.

BUT, the ball went into the gutter, hit the 2 pins lying there and bounced back.

AND, I GOT A STRIKE!!

It was totally unexpected!

Then, we started laughing. Absolute madness.

During the bowling game, I totally forgot about my lousy swimming. I felt a lot better after that.

Soon, it was 1.50pm and we had to leave. It was so sad that we couldn't continue.

Anyway, I was also very tired so we went home.

Luckily we had a good game today. That totally made me feel better.

I should just train harder and stop whining about my poor performance. Competition is this coming thursday.

Wish me luck with my training!