ICE.COLD.COFFEE

It's the CJ, TJ and VJ swim meet today. Also my first day of attachment at Conrad.

Yup, I'm having attachment there again. This time it's at banquet. No pay. Same as last time, but I really wanted to go for this just for the experience. But somehow, I can't help feeling stupid that I'm going to be exploited again - cos there's no pay. Anyways...

I met Aishu at the bus stop at 8.30am. It's the second time I'm seeing her. We met for the first time last friday when we went for uniform fitting together. Because a few days before, I asked her if she had any news from Conrad. That was how we got to know one another.

She's quite a big girl. My uniform size is M. Hers is XL. I'm quite glad actually, cos I have broad shoulders so they always make me look big. Nice to have someone bigger than me for a change. :)

We went to HR department where we got our keys for the lockers and also our nametags. Then we got changed. I don't exactly like the banquet uniform. It's a light yellow long sleve jacket (with shoulder pads! Eeew... Makes the girls look even bigger.) and a quite tight black knee-length skirt. And can you believe it? We need to wear stockings! I've never wore stockings in my life ever! I also had to go buy black shoes over the weekend cos the pair I bought 5 years ago for choir performances had started to crack.

After that, we went to the banquet office where we met some of our managers. There were all quite nice, although I still can't remember their names. One guy showed us around (but I still have problem remembering all the places). Haha... There were 7 people who came on this attachment. Me and Aishu from VJ, Xin Yi, Seet and Dawn from RGS and 2 guys (I can only remember Sean) from I don't know what school. Haven't had time to ask them. 5 girls and 2 guys. Ha...

The guy also mentioned that Conrad believes in human signage (don't know if I got the name correct or not...). For example, all the tiny washroom signs are engraved on pillars, also of same colour, so that it won't be obvious to guests. Meaning that we want them to ask us for our service. Kinda lame, isn't it?

And at first, I though Xin Yi was kinda stuck up. She had that kind of arrogant look. But after talking to her a little, she started to smile a bit and I realised she's actually quite ok.

Our first task was to set tables for a Chinese wedding dinner tonight. Each table has 12 sets of cutlery and each set has 6 items. One plate, a small plate for the tea cup, the tea cup, chopstick holder, chopsticks and a spoon. 7 of us split the job and each of us took one piece of cutlery. Me and Aishu did the spoons cos we needed to wipe the spoons of any water stains before arranging them so we needed more hands.

After that, the second task was to fold napkins. I think it's to place on the plates for that dinner. It was a large white piece of cloth and we folded it into a kind of a fan shape. But halfway through, it was already 11pm and I had to leave so I left the others with the large pile of unfolded napkins. Haha... Also felt quite sad that I couldn't have lunch with them on the first day. It was the day we were supposed to find out more about one another.

I took bus 10 from nicolle highway down to ITE east where our swim meet is held. I ended up being one hour late. Luckily they just entered the pool for warm ups when I reached.

We warmed up a little, then the events started.

The first event is 50m breaststroke. Me and Cheryl took part.

I wasn't properly warmed up cos I was cooling down from rushing to the ITE.

There were supposed to be 2 races for this event, but somehow, quite a lot of people didn't turn up so it was squeezed into one race. I was in lane 5. Being the first event, we weren't sure about the whistle commands and all. Luckily, it went well for me. It was only after the race that Cheryl told me she plunged only 5 seconds after the command cos she wasn't sure. So wasted...

I always pace myself with the other swimmers in the adjaecent lanes so I was just chasing the the girl on my left lane. I swam at high frequency, but after the event, I felt I didn't give it my all. Not good enough. My timing is 48.89 seconds. Just a little slower from my personal best at 48.62 seconds at last year's nationals. I was disappointed cos I expected better. After all, I had trained one year more. Surely there had been some improvement?

After that, there were other events. Vivien, Shu Qi, Ngang Ju and Janice all did well in their individual events. Cheryl didn't do that well though.

The guys were ok too. But there was one particular event that shocked me. 100m breaststroke guys. Jun Wei came in an obvious first, Joel Poon second (although we all thought he was our best breaststroker) and Rodrick third I think. All top 3 from VJ! :)

After that, I took part in the relay medley. Ngang Ju (backstroke), me (breaststroke), Shu Qi (butterfly) and Janice (freestyle). We came in 4th out of 4 teams. It was good for experience though.

My last event was 100m breaststroke. Cheryl also.

I was in lane 4 this time. My "strategy" was to swim moderately fast for the first 50m, then sprint for the last 50m. I was nervous because it was my first time taking part in a 100m event.

The weird thing is, I didn't feel tired the first 50m. (Maybe because of the 2 cans of H-two-O I drank. I didn't have lunch!) I paced myself with the girls on my left and right. And seriously, there were both about the same pace as me. I was leading them by just a little bit. I was secretly thinking that I may have the chance to come in first. I could also hear the girls cheering my name. That must be it! I must be doing well!

I reached the end before the 2 girls on my left and right lanes and asked Cheryl how did I fare. Turns out that I came in third in that race, out of 5 people. The other 2 faster girls were on further lanes so I couldn't see them. And, there were 2 races for that event so I wasn't overall third. I may have been 5th or 6th. I don't know...

When there were about 6 events left, it started raining and the competition had to be stopped for a while. Luckily, we didn't have to wait long.

After the whole competition, the results were released. And since this is a friendly competition, there were no medals.

The results for the first event came out. And I realised that I got 3rd! Surprise surprise!!! I didn't quite expect it because when I took part in the nationals for this even last year, I was far from the top 10, least to say the top 3. To come in first for nationals, you needed a timing of about 38 seconds.

For this competition, the first girl had a timing of 41 seconds. Second was 46 seconds. And third was me at 48 seconds. Quite a surprise, but I was happy nonetheless.

After the competition, we all went to Sumo house at Bedok for dinner. Everyone from the 3 schools. The VJ people went there first cos we were the first ones to finish bathing and since the bus couldn't take so many people at one go, we couldn't wait for the others.

There, we ordered our food and started eating. When we were halfway through, the CJ people arrived. There were enough seats for the people from these 2 schools. When we almost finished our food, TJ came. By then, there were already not enough seats and they were waiting outside. So we had to leave. It was supposed to be 3 teams eating together but it somehow ended up as the teams eating indivudually. Oh wells... The place was too small for all of us to eat together.

The whole meet was meant for us to make friends with others from other schools and prepare ourselves for nationals. I think I got to know a few people. Don't know them that well though, don't even know their names, but at least it was nice meeting other swimmers.

Guess the few familiar faces we see during this year's nationals will make it a more fun event!