rj ccal camp 2006

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (:

Friday 26 May
Went to school, couldn't wait for the day to be over. econs sian. haha, then had training! yea, after that went to 1sg's wake, guess i'll like to believe she went on to a better place. reached home super late, 11.40pm. did training schedule, packed super light, 3am.

Saturday 27 May
CRAP! woke up 15 minutes late, chiong-ed to sch, managed to zam in on time. first person i saw in my sub-conscious state was amy, yea, she passed me my camp t-shirt, booklet, travel card, ferry ticket. went to find A4. hm.. briefing briefing, didn't get a very good start. then cynthia couldn't come because of fever and our group was super small, 3 ri guys at founder's day.

picked up the stall, boarded the bus, squashed. yea, went to tanah merah and pachara got stuck at immigrations. somehow managed to get rescued and off we were into the ferry!

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE, the scenary was super good! (though it was the same for 1 hour) slept on the way there are reached bintan fresh!

Camp ABLE! first thing we did was to wear this prisoner tag on our wrists. 26960. actually it read 09692 but i wore it opposite. was introduced to the Fitness Innovation Team instructors. and off we went for our first activity, high ropes (enocuraging the heart! each activity was abt some KP model)! rained so we did indoor games in an aircon rm, human ladder was super fun! 2 people holding a stick and 1 person flying across the room on sticks! super cool lah (: yay, we gg-ed A5! yea, mr gary ortega was in charge of the alpha group. didn't really like him initially because he "chose people that he was familiar with" and sometimes you just feel like smacking him for the things he say, but well, bitter medicine remains the most effective (: and by the end of the camp, he has earned my respect for that, shoving the cold hard facts right in our faces but also teaching us how to handle them. thanks (:

lesson learnt: seemingly boring or mudane tasks (the sticks) turned out to be fun! yep, innovation! (: WHEEEEEEEE

back to camp, got ready for camp out. bintan turns super dark arnd 6pm. (time difference from s'pore is minus 1 hr) had pasta and soup plus marshmallows for dinner. yep, presenting A4: Guangyan, nathaniel, samuel, liyana, mingyan, yongsheng, benson, pachara, yihong and me! wheeeeeeee, mr tan gan hup was our teacher. haha, to be honest, first time i looked at him i thought, oh crap, he didn't look the outdoor super on adventurous kind of teacher and i was proven wrong (: haha, he admitted that when he first saw our group, he was already thinking of how to get our group talking and stuff.

did reflectiosn abt personal best leadership, haha, i remember screwing the one i was suppose to do last yr, the project abt ug day that died. so i talked abt organsing camp instead. was feeling really sentimental, abt platoonmates and the good old rg days.

Stars! the whole sky was full of them! everywhere (: things like this make me wish singapore could balckout for awhile so we could all see stars. yea, i guess it's really escaping from reality, considering the friday that i had, camp was the escape route out of all the crap that was happening.

haidi (oops, i can't spell) our j2 odacian was super nice, always encouraging our group (: yep, thanks for the chewing gum on the ferry back (: hahahahhahahaha

so yea, what an eventful first day at camp. ahhh, did i mention all the while we were in this mega big resort called nirwana gardens? nice sand, nice sea with coral reefs and jellyfish (to be elaborated later) and omg, even a freakin wakatobi jungle inside it lah. gg-fies sentosa upside down i tell u.

Sunday 28 May
woke up at 5.45am! the sky was quite bright already, had a gd sleep on the rocky ground! haha, this was my best night in terms of sleep (: struck tents and back to the campsite. omg, guess what the first activity was? (besides breakfast) SEA KAYAKING! WAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAH

went to the sea sports centre (inside nirwana for your info) and got ready, but it started to rain, thunder, lightning and all. yea, brian and philanna were our expedition leaders and they did a great job (: remaining optimistic throughout the mega rain, brian pushing on in his singles and thanking everyone for their contribution at the end of the expedition. that's something i really admire them for. yep, samuel and i hopped onto a doubles and we were the sweeper (: haha, knew this wasn't going to be anything like training, but i went in thinking that i would make the best out of it, no matter what. heck if we were the slowest boat, heck if we get owned or what, this is a totally different thing, it's an expedition, not sprint. and this is where the journey really counts. memories of obs flooded back, abt the monster 10 hours kayaking trip. yep, really glad was kayaking with samuel, he didn't mind stopping to let the other boats pass by and was always encouraging to the boats lagging behind the fleet. yep, water is my element! haha, felt super comfortable though it was raining and stuff. ALPHA MALES AND FEMALES! haha, mr shah was super funny (: managed to see jellyfishes! many many jellyfishes! woohoo (:

lesson learnt: not really learnt, but reinforced, about how enabling others to act is important! yea, in an expedition, the slowest boat will eventually dentermine the speed of the entire fleet so that's where pushing on the weakest member came in. felt i wanted a challenge and sam was game enough to, so we colunteered as sweeper (: roles like this frequently go unnoticed, like how the secretary in a cca is busy keeping all the records and attendance but hardly gets any recognition. not that reward and recognition are the most impt thing, but pple do need that encouragement once in a while, could be verbal. yea, the view from the back is certainly very different from that in front. u get to see things u usually don't. btw, javine gg-ed everyone in her single kayak. ahahahhaha. really proud of philanna and brian for leading alpha on our sea ex (:

next up was low elements, there's this super gged balancing ramp where this group balanced for 1200 seconds. lol, they even did their reflections on it. haha, not an alpha group though. yep, yongsheng was super powerful lah, we had to scale this 2.5-3m wall and guangyan was the last guy down. so yongsheng stuck out his arm to let him grab and ELEVATED him. combined schools judo! powerful (: yep, sand sculpture we did mr hodge! woohoo! it looked quite good (: yea,

lesson learnt: this was suppose to be challenging the process but let me share with u a cool "game" we played. btw, steven, the rugby captain was our j2 facil for this and he's cool. found out later that he's a foreign scholar, living on his own in s'pore, was from acsi, made it to be rj rugby captain. yea, he definitely isn't your typical poser rugger, he's humble and nice, very friendly too and he shared with us his personal story abt the rugby match. to quote him "even as the game was over, there wasn't a moment where i regretted because i knew we did our best given the circumstances. true, we lost, but we never lost in the hearts of rafflesians" yea, camp ended on tuesday 6pm but the j1 ruggers took an earlier ferry back just to play a grudge match with st andrew's for the kiwi cup. some of the ccal campers were there supporting after we came back and we won. never have i seen the rugby boys in such a different light.

ok, back to the game. it's called "rules rules". everyone forms a circle squats down and closes their eyes. there are 4 rules to the game.
rule number 1: Do not cheat
rule number 2: If you're tapped once, repeat the rules. (so the person has to say "rule number 1: do not cheat and so on)
rule number 3: If you're tapped twice, stand up and open your eyes
rule number 4: If you're tapped thrice, you can do anything you want.

for my group, pachara got tapped twice and she said "since i can do anything i want, then everyone stand up and open your eyes" so we were all "saved". in the original experiment did in the US, participants walked out of the room to have a beer in the bar when tapped thrice, leaving the rest in that contorted squatting position with eyes closed for THREE hours. yea gg. this game was suppose to demonstrate leadership. at the start, no one knew anything so we were equally confused and lost. those who were tapped once got even more confused, but at least they knew they were part of a bigger plan. those who were tapped twice were given the info but not the power to act. those who were tapped thrice represented the leaders who were given the authority. you could abuse them, or share your power with others by tapping everyone 3 times or it's equivalent. yep, simple but powerful game.

after that we went back to campsite, dinner, then got ready for the amazing and adventure race. sounded simple enough. 10 checkpoints around nirwana, abt 2.5 hours, find a clue at each station, solve them and piece them together to find the treasure and "the pride of raffles". so off we went, in the end, most groups managed 3 stations only. the best part was mr seah told us he didn't expect anyone to finish the race at all, it was virtually impossible. but jason's group broke the code using only 4 clues and they found the treasure. haha, many pple suspect a conspiracy theory. the pride of raffles was the shield, the lower part of the school crest. and it symbolises the trust placed in the student leaders to guide the school. oh yarh, forgot to add. mr seah MADE the shield using lego bricks! ggxx! it was super realistic and nice (: haha, i got to meet gerald tay, ex ri ncc csm, at the third and last station. some lame thing abt only stepping on a poncho to move 2 pple across a distance.

Monday 29 May
NO MORNING PT! oh no, gg-fied. so i did pushups in the tent! 50,50,10 hold for 10s, 10 knuckles pushups, 80. woohoo! 200! wheeeeeeee, go ready for rafting in the morning.

walked over to sea sports centre, yea, rafting isn't my cup of tea. had a gd structure but we chose the wrong rope. used rafia instead of rope for the barrels and vice versa for the sticks. first time we went out, back 2 barrels fell out, it's ok we thought, so we fixed it and went back out. second time then front 2 barrels fell out. nvm, we'll fix it. third time the SIDES FELL OUT! omg, gg lah. 15 minutes to go. A2 came over to help, not really help to tie, but came over to enocurage us and we just pia-ed, just WHACK lah. even mr tan was super on, he said, this time i don't care, we're going out, if our raft falls aprt, so be it, we'll swim back. so off we went and guess what? we touched the red buoy then the green and back! GG! ahahahhahahaha (: this was about inspiring a shared vision.

lesson learnt: most of the j2 facils we came into contact with (this time was hongsheng) said we were very stubborn! haha, or perservering people! wheeeeeee, yea, and because we didn't talk we couldn't do the task. A4 works better when we're relaxed and happy like wakatobi below...

afternoon event was wakatobi jungle trail. it was our last as well. this one was simple, each group given a GPS and compass, appoint a new navigator for each checkpoint (a vertical raffles banner), 10 checkpoint in total. brought back fond memories of orienteering. haha, GPS is super cool, u key in your coordinates and it'll direct u to the next one. yep, aik our FIT isntructor cum J5 told us at the end that our group was blessed with great navigators. we didn't get lost at all! and we all had lots of fun. yep, this was abt modelling the way and mr tan said it showed our leadership styles and preferences. yea, the stretcher bag was super fun to carry lah. haha, when walking to our 4 checkpoint, aik shouted hornet attack! so we did the hornet drill and pachara "hurt her eye (blindfold)" so we had to help her navigate the jungle. yep, nat, sam and mingyan guided her around more or less safely (: yep, the part i navigated had quite gd terrain so we were moving quite quickly (GPS has a speed counter, how cool is that) yep, then when u are abt 75 m to your checkpoint the gps will alert u. haha, aik liked the speed but it was er.. what can i say, orienteering kind of speed, too fast lah (: wahahhahahah, yea, aik is super cool, after As, he went to part time for FIT, a lobang by mr low, then went to army (he went ocs, taht's all i know) then back to FIT and now he's waiting for uni. yep, he does scuba diving instruction too, super cool lah. he was an ex-odacian too. yea, throughout the trip he offered us his blackcurrant drink and coke maom and food! haha, maybe because we were the last group. yea, he ran with me when we went to check out the road ahead, foudn the flag, then turned back to get the group, pretending we didn't see the flag yet (: haha, i wanted to let someone else "discover" the flag (: wheeeeeeeee! mine was fraught with lots of crossroads and fork so just choose the path lah. yea, even if the road doesn't look like it's in the correct direction just go, because it might curve later. some other groups BASHED through the jungle.

yea, after 9 checkpoints we were on our last one back to camp. then aik told me "u have a sprain ankle now and your group will stretcher you back" haha, so acted a bit, "sprained" my ankle and A4 had to stretcher me back to camp! yea, was very encouraged by A4, benson actually overheard but he jst kept quiet (: haha, thanks guys (: yea, still remembered their look when i hopped out of the stretcher back at camp. yea, wakatobi is my element too! wheeeeeeee (:

reached camp, started prep for campfire. haha, abit screwed lah but the emcees were already trying their best. had a grand dinner! super cool, buffet style! lots and lots of fresh fruits! WHEEEEEEEE mr koh played the guitar! the best guitarist in rj (: alpha item, well, thanks to anna, yihong and james miao we didn't die as badly. haha, ours was a parallel between what we could have been doig at home (sleep, sleep, sleep) versus what we were doing at camp.... ahhhh, another reason why the kayaking was my favourite activity. we were all damn cold so we huddled together to sing dedication, pass it on and college anthem. yep, then the ri guys sang their version of voices that care. yea, and java and i went to do pushups to keep warm! ahahhahahah. and that's what we did for the skit! wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee (: 1...2....99! 100! haha, there was this super cool beatboxing thingy by some guy, don't know his name and indra's pole dance was super funny! ahahahahhahahahha, the fire was so strong that everyone started to back off throughout the campfire!

tuesday 30 May
struck tents, listened to closing address by ms melissa lim. and more lego to come! this time the whole sch crest was assembled! thanks to mr seah again (: wheeeeeeee, yea, then as alpha went to collect the communal stores, bravo, charlie, delta, echo (200 people) lined up, shoulder to shoulder and swept through the whole campsite picking up ..... rubbish. haha, they even had scout parties to recce! yea, joo, yang, java and i took the first photo at the banner then everyone else copied us. ahahahahhaah, took with mr koh and mr goh, then looloo the toilet bowl, jingcong, and tim chow. yep, SPSB 05 photo! kelly (yishan sick) odac, guiyi dance, eunice table tennis, rng germaine council, mingfang guitar, carmen archery and muddy canoeing! wheeeeeeee, felt the spirit, our board spirit when we all chionged up to take photo. amy was there too so she took with us (: yep, last yr they took an 04 spsb photo too! it's a generation thing! wheeeeeeeee, haha, then the rg prefects copy us and took their board photo.

yep, then closing ceremony. mr gary kept talking abt a prize for best group since the start but we didn't win it, delta force won! haha (: anw, all i can say is that alpha is a very qiang group, we all got to raft, we helped each other along the way and we have the coolest mix of people (: yep, somehow when mr gary was naming alpha best camper, yea, wasn't thinking it would be me. i didn't think i stood out as much as some other people, brian, yihong, meiting. "from alpha... alpha 4 (wah!) Ms (huh)....Cheryl Tay (huh??) haha, but yea, got a pink nalgene water bottle! pink i tell u, rng wants to swap with me (: yea, some interesting connections i have with the other best campers...

bravo kritarth (same og, metafyr!)
charlie justina (same sec1, 2 class)
delta rng! (spsb 05! 310,410!)
echo nadzirul (er... no connection, ahhaa)

yea, was really encouraged after that, people came to congratulate me. small thing really yea, mr kadir! he's my favouritest teacher! yang is super lucky! mr kadir was her group teacher (: yea, haha the other 4 were from council. raffles canoeists forever! wheeeeeeeee, mr koh and yang told us that the teachers were generally impressed with the canoeist's working attitude! yep, we are super zai, powerful people! wheeeeeeeeeeee (:

haha, it's super strange how u get things when u least expect them. yea, for the past few ncc camps, we were all pia-ing for ooc and platoon best but yea, success rate wasn't very high though we still won some. ahhhh, and i keep thinking abt the rg leadership camps i've attended. yea, really learnt alot from those and putting into practice what i've learnt. i guess camp is a refresher, a reminder of what i'm capable of, of who i really am and what i can do, yep, self-actualisation, highest level of maslow's hierachy of needs! haha, but well, understanding myself a little better (:

thanks everyone for everything these 4 days.

my dearest canoobs for pia-ing the last 3 water trainings
A4, mr tan
pe teachers!i think pe dept is the coolest deparment apart from physics. but well, mr kadir is super involved in soccer so he's a half pe teacher lah. haha, i want to come back and work in the pe dept!
rg people, those whom i got to interact with during rg leadership camps, yea, esp the juniors, alot went through my mind.
all the other ccal campers (:
and last but not least platoonmates (: what can i say?

wheeeeeeeeee, what a long post (: back to reality of training and mugging!

AB+ blood type

From: Janet Chew To: Undisclosed Recipient Subject: My Colleague's son needs your help Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 11:14 PM
Hi !

My colleague, Kewin Chew has a son, 2 yrs 4 mths old, is diagnosed with a serious Bone Marrow Disease called "Aplastic Anemia". His name is Ken.

This disease causes blood forming stem cell not producing enough platelets & blood. We are calling help for all kind-hearted people to donate all types of platelets & blood, preferably best with AB+ at ONLY Health Sciences Authority (11 Outram Road).

He needs a lot of blood for tranfusion every day during treatment, so supplies at blood bank will run low. All blood & platelets donated is for common pool which ultimately will be used for Ken. If anyone of you are AB+ type, we also hope you can try to match Ken's marrow. For any donor who is making your way to donate blood for Ken, please tell the staff that you wish to donate blood or platelets with HLA typing match for KEN CHEW JIAN ZHENG, ic, T0402637, ward no. 6523, KK Children hospital. HSA Blood Bank opening hours: Tues - Thurs 9am - 6.30pm, Fri 9am-8pm, Sat 9am-4.30pm, Sun 9am - 2pm, Mon closed.

Ken needs to do transfusion regularly to stablise his condition, and it will go on for the next 3-6mths. Lots of blood & plateletsare needed during tis period. It will be a lengthy & tiring process for this strong boy! Thus any blood type & HLA Platelets donation will be required for a long time. We would like to appeal to all donors to donate regularly till Ken is out of danger. HSA informed that there is expiry period for all donated blood, hence advise us to donate at staggered timing. Please call HSA at 62130626 before going down.

If you want to be kept updated on the progress of Ken's condition, please let me know.

Thank you,

janet chew
on behalf of Kewin & Ken Chew

muddy officially gg-fies the pullup bar

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Dear Muddy the qiang, the smart and the powerfulest,

(encouraging the heart, celebrating small accomplishments)

congrats! u have gg-ed the pullup bar today! ELEVEN PULLUPS! let me say that again, ELEVEN PULLUPS! not once, but twice today! after 240 gg-fying pushups.

remember your new year resolution of 10 pullups? Look! today is the day, heck the GP, what's done is done (besides, u were quite psychic in guessing that one question would be on sports). Let's celebrate your achievement today with um... more pushups! hahahahhahahahaha

yep, continue to work hard and strive to pull the Earth down when you do pullups. (:

Love,
Muddy

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

muddy (:

wheeeeeeeeeeee

back from water training! haha, tucking in to a 1kg tub of marigold NON-FAT strawberry yoghurt, that's pretty much the only strawberry thing i like. yep, anw i came to this conclusion that i shuoldn't worry too much abt strokes, because i'll get it soon (: haha, but i don't even worry about it (: wheeeeeee

yea, i figured since pushups are my best friend and i love to play= go "play" pullups, muddy is uber strong! yea (: ultimate stronge-ness, wahahahhaha.

for the record, muddy set sets of 10 x 30, then since i wasn't running, so 12 x 30 and muddy actually did 20 x 30 pushups! WHEEEEEEEE, and a couple of pullups in between, avg 7 a set, 4 sets (: YAY!

muddy feels powerful (:

wheeeeeeeeeeeeee

it's 3.33am now! ahahahahhaahhaha

a few days ago, i emailed joan liew (she's this super zai national bodybuilder) and she replied me! haha, she has my admiration and respect (:

anw, went back for pop today or rather yesterday. i guess they'll eventually sort things out themselves but just in case our little part as forget what it's suppose to be like, we should go back to see them more often (:

"To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world"

yea, looking at partas today, really thankful that we were given the chance to take care of them for the past year. haha, and what java said today was a good point, that in rg, though we're in our small little groups, more or less everyone knows everyone in the batch, maybe rj's way too big for that and why do people keep talking about other people? haha, that's a weird thing i can't understand either. yea, can see 10 new faces a day and won't remember the 10 tomorrow.

anw, i figured canoeing's very good for you (: yay, perfect cca! ahahahhahaha

"Love the game. Love the game for the pure joy of accomplishment. Love the game for everything it can teach you about yourself. Love the game for the feeling of belonging to a group endeavouring to do its best. Love the game for being involved in a team whose members can't wait to see you do your best. Love the game for the challenge of working harder than you ever have at something and then harder than that. Love the game because it takes all team members to give it life. Love the game because at its best, the game tradition will include your contributions. Love the game because you belong to a long line of fine athletes who have loved it. It is now your legacy. Love the game so much that you will pass on your love of the game to another athlete who has seen your dedication, your work, your challenges, your triumphs... and then that athlete will, because of you, love the game." --Unknown

basketball quote? but applicable to caneoing also lah. hope all my team mates will come to realise that in canoeing, we're talking about loads of self-discipline, commitment, perserverance and most importantly passion. it's not about being there only for training, it's about being there for each other even outside training. yea, this is psycho, trying to make it like the gd old days but i think that's the winning formula for a team (: yea, and trusting jiao lian isn't just fatalistic; he's trusting that you'll put in your best to one day be the best. that's why i don't give up, that's why i don't quit, because i know what counts at the moment is doing my best. i won't say winning isn't important, it definitely is but first let me enjoy the journey, where i train to be the canoeist that i can be. and talking abt dreams, i'll say dream big, as much as you can, limited by your imagination only. if we all aim for gold, we know that we have to, at the most, be the best, or at the least, train to be the best. settling for other things might be realistic, but i want a dream which we will fight our guts out for. something that will require the ultimate sacrifices, blood, tears, sweat and macritchie water. something that will let us leave at the end of 2 years at peace with ourselves knowing that we have made the difference where it mattered, that we showed the world who we raffles canoeists really are, that we proved our critics wrong, that we were rewarded for all our training and most importantly, for the sake of leaving a legacy and getting others to dream big and live it as well. yea, we want to win it together. we'll do it our way. i think the greatest failure after two years is not losing, but standing there regretting and being unable to feel the joy of your team mates/ the team winning. yep, feel that at this stage, if all we're going to care about is ourselves and our own medal, what can i say, that's really easy, too easy in fact. not enough challenge, no kick lah. i want a gold medal, who wouldn't, but a team is something to remember for life. yea, and i think the team is about accepting each other for who they are, that we're different individuals but with the same purpose. there's no need to crush your team mates to win; we'll crush the other schools together. there's no need to be someone you really aren't when you're with the team, together we'll be somebody. there's no need to feel irritated at yourself, we irritate other people! wahahhahahahahahhahahha (: this is the team, our team, the 07 batch of canoeists with a dream. love canoeing (:

and to my fellow canoeists "Ah, the glories of women's sports: the camaraderie. The quiet dignity. The proud refusal to buy into traditional stereotypes of beauty." Sports Illustrated For Women

woohoo! (:

YES!

ahhhh, good news!

geog test is over! lalala, joohui! we guessed the geog test question twice out of 2 times! wahahhahahahah, knew that it would be some mega large question like what happens at plate boundaries, argh.

and there's pe tmr! haha, frisbee again, not like i'll play, can workout!

MUDDY CAN GO EIGHT PULLUPS IN A ROW! yufang, u reading this? how's your plan for 5? wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

MUDDY has found out what's wrong with the evil right leg that keeps hurting.

muddy's gonna get a paddle soon!

and ggxx, YELLOW SLEEP (oops, SLIP) WHEEEEEEEEEEEE,

time to go sleep (:

another post!

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, ok, need to unload all these random thoughts (:

Hi muddy!

hm.. thought long and hard about what joohui told me yesterday. wasn't the first time thinking about this topic though. used to hit me once in a while. yea... i know how you feel muddy, (duh, i'm muddy too! AHAHAHHAHAHA)

here goes:

muddy loves canoe (: yay, and you know what? we made canoe what we wanted it to be! we could have done things differently, could have done much less, but the fact is that we have chosen this path and we have committed ourselves to.

since we all say canoe is a team sport, the worst thing i tell you about these team thingys is when not everyone feels part of the team. yep, there must be a strong sense of belonging in everyone for us to call ourselves a team (:

let's see, we all thought and think the odds are against us, but now, or rather next year, the odds will be against the rest! why? because next year is our year. because rj has us now! where else can you find a bunch of canoeists like us? if there's a batch to win gold, it has to be us.

don't think most people will remember, but muddy promised in the exco speech that no one will get left behind and we will win this together. and muddy means what muddy says. ultimately, we need a strong team to win and as captain, muddy thinks that's when developing each and every person to their fullest potential comes in.

and bringing back to the first para, no regrets. i want to leave rj with a great experience, taking along as much as i can, but 1 thing i'll never want to bring along is regret, and i'm sure no one would want that either. the feeling of knowing you could have done better, or having your wonderful dreams crushed sucks. totally. the gold unit dream died on muddy, and muddy is determined not to let the canoe dream die. muddy wants to see the canoe dream fulfilled.

muddy wonders how people feel at the end of each training. sometimes thought of feeling like crap creeps into muddy but the law of muddism says to give these evil thoughts a mega canoe punch! yep, we should all aim to leave training happy and sane (: it's easier for us to do that for land training where everyone trains together and get high but water's a little trickier. you could have a totally ggfied day in k2 and no one else would know. and since prevention is better than cure, if there's anything muddy can do to help during training, muddy will to the best of muddy's abilities (which is ALOT! WAHAHAHHAHAHAHA)

must be the whole rgsncc thing ( i confirm it's not an ncc thing) or maybe the rgs ug thingy, i think i speak of some of us when i say we won't mind "sacrificing" for the rest. wah, so noble? yea, it's that noble. paying it forward, hm..., if one day the person/people you've helped steps out to help others, then you have succeeded! canoe is this exciting and new thing to all of us, sprint kayaking at least. so we're all here to learn and share our knowledge so we can get promoted from canoobs to canoeists!

and come to think of it, training isn't just abt the physical training. there's the mental part, where we learn to focus and there's the other lesser known part, which builds character. where we help each other out, where we be humble in seeking advice and be generous in sharing tips, yep, that's all part of training.and of course, learning to accept bribes of eggplant! WAHAHHAHAHHAHAHA

so yep, there are many ways to get to our gold, (see, muddy has already declared it ours) and i have chosen this path. there are leaders who walk in front and lead and there are leaders who stay behind to lead and there are also leaders who are next to you. either way, they are still leaders. (mrs loh! be proud of muddy! all the sln knowledge coming in here! and 4 years in rgs gave me lots of insights on this too" there are leaders who push, leaders who maintain and leaders who pull, either way, they are still forces to reckon with (physics!)

there's a huge responsibility that's nonetheless shared by all the canoobs, and we can do it! we will make our mark! see, muddy has calculated, if we win first and second in every event for girls at least, we will own, haha (: (haha, still need to count ah) yep, let's all train hard and look out for each other. enjoy the friendly competition and let everything evil stay in the water, at the end of 2 years, we want to remember each other for more than the races we've had in water. we want to push each other to achieve something that we could never have done it alone.

muddy suddenly remembers this:

Why is it important that everyone gets a chance and learns to lead? In the race, you don't want to be the follower, you won't be contented just to follow the other boats ahead of you, neither do you want to be ordinary, you can't afford to just be like any other boat. because you are from raffles canoeing. you want to win, you want to be the leader in your race, you want to be the first boat to cross with the rest trailing behind you. because you want to live our dream!

yay

wheeeeeeee

training yesterday was super chickified ggxx! ahahaha, in the good way lah (:

didn't really start out well though, lots of screw ups, but hey, it's only our first proper water training without the J2s. yep, a big thanks to elisa, xinmiao and hannah for the boat carrying (:

ahhh, econs tutorial before that was bloody gg lah. the evil person was like firing our group. ahhh, for 50 minutes can. but muddy the mud remained calm and nice and respectful and smart and survived econs! haha, totally owned econs lah. yep, grace under pressure! wheeeeeeee

ok, back to water! (*oops, this paragraph was deleted by muddy because elisa has bribed muddy with eggplant!) wahahhahahaha! yay, and elisa's dad gave muddy a lift to west coast, supe nice oh him (: wheeeeeeeee, and if you're reading this elisa, thanks for all the rides to clementi mrt after training! muddy reaches home 45 minutes earlier!

haha, felt very happy in the T1, though muddy still thinks the T1 is evil! ahahahhaha, managed to own the hc orange t1s! wheeeeeeeeeee, yep, jiao lian wasn't there and there wasn't a set programme, somehow muddy feels relax when there's no programme, or when it's just "row 10km". yay, could feel the evil T1 slice through the water! the flow! the flow! wheeeeeeeee

and i think my technique's improving! tried with the J2 michelle's brac, then amanda's flite and then elisa's flite! i still think bracs are abit too light! OH YARH, GGXX jo can brace perfectly with a powermaster! joohui can also i think. gg!

yay, we need new paddles! must let the J1s upgrade from powermasters asap next year! and yep, our dream is still alive! and we're moving nearer and nearer to it! we will win! we will do it together! look at the gg improvements we have made in 4 months! ahahahahahhaha

ggxx is muddy's new favourite term, besides owned! ahaahhahahahaha

and yep, i really think we have a wonderful team! people who are willing to make sacrifices for each other! yay, you'll never know how much, or even whether, your actions are appreciated but they are! yep, must be big hearted, because we are a team! yay, things get done faster and better when we help each other out (: wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

to java and amanda, balance and start gg-ing on your k1s! wahahhaha, can't wait for you all to join the sprints!

and to all the others who are testing out the k2s, you can do it! haha, though we seem like (actually we are) the only school who keeps capping and capping infinitely, it must be some secret training jiao lian has in mind! ahahahha, maybe capping and swimming makes you better! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

hw/revision time!

wheeeeee

muddy declares that muddy became nicer today! wahahhahahah

yep, it's a wonder how all the small little actions add up to something really good (: wheeeeeeeeeee, and how some people don't look nice but are super nice, haha. wheeeeeeee, feeling very happy today (: yay i'm eating a milo bar now, super hungry, don't ask me why. and muddy can do at least 6 pullups, until the part between the thumb and index finger starts to hurt (yea, too much abrasion from the paddle, doesn't look too good now)

10 pullups! wahahhaha, that is so reachable! WHEEEEEEEE

wheeeeeeee

wheeeeeeee

shaun's speech today (for moor-tarbet capt) was super good. yea, "the empty spaces between us are our differences" yea, MT is in good hands (:

ahhhh, this shall be muddy's post for all random thoughts.

MT and metafyr: mt's a really really cool house, haha, red hot! yep, was listening to shaun's speech, then samjo's thank you speech. yea, was super enthu abt metafyr and stuff, and after a while it died. just got sick of everything, sick of "dragging a dead weight" thanks bennett. let me give it one more try...

canoe: haha, training's gonna be crazy now, but well, isn't muddy always thinking of canoe? haha. when i need someone to be there for me, i know the canoiests are (: yay

it's comforting to know that no matter what you do or who you are, the canoeists are here! ahahahahha, people who really care, people who go through everything with you, yea... (;

anw, muddy has decided to be nicer! ahahahhahaahha, peace (: WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

and fellow canoe people, yay, think the j1 guys team is not too bad (: haha, and the j1 girls team is super motivated! yay,we have a dream! haha, actually haven't talked abt it yet but let muddy share the dream with you. our dream is to win nationals next year! 2007 GOLD! WAHAHAHHAHAHHA we will beat the other schools, we will crush our opponenents, we will overcome all odds, we will challenge ourselves! and why? firstly, we are rafflesians! and we want to win. and we don't like losing, and we are willing to sacrifice, and we are willing to work hard, and SIMPLY BECAUSE WE CAN! YES! WAHAHAHAHHAHAHA don't mess with us! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

and that is the dream we're going to live (: do you think the07 rj canoeists will live their dreams? stay tune...

wheee

dear muddy's blog, muddy is sorry for abandoning you for so long. yep, get home after training then piak and sleep. ahahahhahahhahahah, anw, muddy's alive and kicking, to all rg sec 4s out there JOIN CANOEING NEXT YEAR! yay, it's a good sport! teaches you to focus, self-discipline, epitome of rafflesian spirit! and you get to meet a nice bunch of people, and you get to live your dreams! WHEEEEEEEEE