On lessons learnt

i forgot who was it tt ever once asked me, "why u say the snrs taught u things--> see archive 14 aug 06, but dun tell me u nv learnt anything frm e jnrs?"

Of which i replied defensively, "of course u all did, but doesnt necessarily mean i gotta say it out explicitly rite?"

while TP-ing them today i suddenly recalled the above conversation.

i learnt frm zee tt its nv ez being on the top. u can nv make 1 decision to satisfy everyone.

i learnt frm angela to be sensitive towards others feelings (hahaha cancer..) and words indeed have profound impact on others. whether u realise it or not

i learnt frm ljiun baby it is difficult to fill the shoes of the person before u. hence juz be yourself..e team eventually built their trust on her

i learnt frm sharon e meaning of self-sacrifice. Contributing to the team does not mean one nds to be selected to row, but its the presence tt counts

i learnt frm joanna tt being strong is not the most impt thing one can attain. it is trust tt matters

i learnt frm tweesah it's ok to be the bad guy in e team..someday they'll understand ur 苦心. Ms-understood ;p

i learnt frm huibing abt fighting spirit. it may take a longer time to get it right, but u juz gotta persevere n fight against the odds

n for the remaining..it remains untold. Seek n ye shalt find.

On having aches..

i wont be shy to admit diz..

was seriously panicking ytd nite at 12am. it took me a whole 1 hr to pack my stuff to go for today's trg. somehow i kept taking 1 thing and forgetting the other.

had to check n double-check to ensure i've got all my stuff packed so i'd b all set and ready to go in the morning. i was so lookin forward for trg today coz will get to see the gals and sir and feeling the water and getting a tan and..ya u get the idea.

though i kinda regretted the min we ran across the road and up the steps towards 2nd bridge coz the pace was not as normal. i turned to my partner Qiying (yr 1) and asked, 'is tiz the normal pace?'

she replied, 'yup it is..'

i think i asked the wrong person!

turns out aft the run i realised she is one of the fastest runner in e team. tt kinda in Premier league..whist im hovering in the S-league. Oh and we had to OTOT back. Now how g-r-e-a-t is tt?

didnt wanna b a burden to e yr 1 who's full of vibrance n vitality, hence despite feelin extremely breathless coz i'm in e midst of recoving frm throat infection n flu, i juz went her pace.

when we were at the longkangs, there were 2 occasions where we cld overtake the other pair in front.

before overtaking the pair in front of us, she asked, '可以吗？' and i nodded. Then we overtook.

then there was another pair in front of us and she asked again, '可以吗？’ and diz time i cldnt help but reply helplessly, '不可以了。。’

the row was..walau eh tiring and xiong + shagged to the power of 10. i was so screwed during the 8 sets of 3 min and according to raine n bc, i was 'panting like sunny'

tts how bad state/shape i am at present.

felt kinda bad tt by gg down for trg, no doubt we snrs had our fair share of fun, but was wondering if it is at the expense of the team's disrupted trg. 是否把我们的快乐建在他们的痛苦上？

for 1, i felt we used alot of 'eye power'. i wouldnt deny tt i am guilty of it. wasnt much help when moving the boats n left it to the juniors to do. 1stly coz there were loads of hands on e boat alr, 2ndly..well there's no 2ndly. for tt i'm sorry for my action, or shd i say, inaction.

aft trg, 10 of us went to have our muz-do activity..makan! zw, theresa, hb, angela, sharon, karine, raine, wt, bc n i. we traded our fair share of gossip at the tau-huey place n though its juz plain crapping n teasing, we derive lotsa fun and entertainment frm it. despite the fact tt some teasings never fade away with time -_-^

yah we had the competition again, and of course bc won. i take very long to park mahh..really muz compete leh. haha

if u asked me if the back aches i'm experiencing now is worth it, even without thinking, the answer is..

值得!

dreams

hahah i am so fickled..but nonethless pretty excited coz i'm looking forward to advance sculling course.

though tt'll mean 6 consecutive 'burn' weekend coz gotta go down for the sessions.

i'm not complaining..juz whining. the thought of waking up early at 6plus to get to pandan reservoir by 8am.

i wished more pple knew abt the beauty of diz sport. every time nicholas (president of SARA) speaks abt the sport, there's tiz spark in his eyes. he nv fails to tell us abt how he hopes we can talk to mr s*et*w to get 8-10 pple who are interested to take on sculling as a sport. As of now, there isn't a single university in s'pore that has a sculling team. There's a canoeing team, a dragonboat team in almost all the universities, but hardly is there ever a sculling team!

he's willing to train these 8-10 pple. to provide access the equipment n stuff, free-of-charge. every time he talks abt it, i'd imagine and day dream how i'd be a super sportswoman. ie juggling with both db intensive trg, and sculling.

I always loved the idea of pushing myself to the limits, even to the edge. just to see how far i can go. then the idea of representing s'pore to go japan to take part in the university games

And then i'd suddenly wake up realising i'm alr a working adult. tt i dun have the luxury of being a full time rower, part time student.

i wished i was part of tt 8-10 people

how i wish..

strangely but surely, i find too many similarities btwn a new sport n the old one which i still hold dearly in my heart.

its during the team dinner, aft floorball trg, tt we get to unknowingly find out the team politics, the underlying probs.

in short, the not-so-rosy side of the game/sport.

big team= ratio of 1 coach : 24 players= divided attention= not able to optimally perform

solution? take a cut..

but to take the cut wld mean less funds. having left a very sheltered environment where previously everything frm coach's fee to boat rental fees to transport allowance was covered, now we are introduced to the 'harsh reality' whereby members have to by their own means cover the expenses of court rental, coaches fees, equipment, etc.

Despite knowing winning comes with a sacrifice, it makes me wonder, how big a sacrifice will it take?

same same..but different

ytd was the 2nd time i went down for floorball trg. trg is held at kallang e court off a deserted road path.

trg started with 'physical' and we were like, 'ok..tts it?' at the end of it.

wahahahah tts coz i think we r too used to the running last time as compared to the running now. they clocked a 16.24 min run, tts aft a 'nooo..' by the newbies when weili turned left and headed for an extended path towards cosy bay.

no doubt the aerobic aspect of it was pretty alright, but the anaerobic part, the intensity of the 5 min game itself, definitely reqd lotsa switching of players. walau i hate sprinting. rah!

aft the 2 hrs session, coach (jamie) made everyone sit down, go frm 1 to another to say y we joined tiz sport. i was like, 'omg..do we have to do tiz. seriously?'

of all randomness, i juz blurted out a weird outta-the-world reason: i like the aggressiveness of the game. having got the opportunity to watch 2 matches at jurong west sports hall, i had diz sadistic wish to have players crashing in my direction.

Yes, i am that sadistic! muahahaha

the most common reason pple gave was tiz: i like the team bonding part of the sport.

Seriously is it deja vu or deja vu?

aft trg we headed to old airport road for dinner. 1 table was discussing bout team politics while our table were juz casually talking bout our jobs. it was ltr tt i realised the other table was discussing with their coach abt the growing team strength, the lack of court time, etc.

Isn't tt such a dilemma? trade off between an expanding team, and the lack of space and time to accomodate for all.

On e way back, in e car..we started talking bout commitment level towards the sport, trust, and all the usual. We were laughin secretly how we r so glad we r not in e situation whereby we are entangled in such politics which simpley kills the interest in the sport.

a new beginning?

not decided yet.