Saturday, December 31, 2005
good-bye 2005, welcome 2006.
resolutions for the new year:
1) do extremely well in nationals track
2) be a good friend to whoever my friends are
3) be more mature
what the? no more? oh my, can't think of any already... from this, i can tell that i'm a person who doesn't know what i want, lolx...
anyway, happy new year everyone x)
aaron | 8:41 PM
Saturday, December 24, 2005
whoa, it's been some time since i last updated...
another week of the december holidays have passed. the non-training days have been rather boring for me, for there is almost nothing to do at home and people hardly (or never) ask me out xD but the training days were like, whoa. as usual pandian enjoys killing us during training, and he introduced this new exercise during training which requires us to kneel down, butt sitting on ankle and bend backwards slowly until our elbows touch the floor. i named this exercise the 'ankle pain pain' as our ankles hurt terribly whenever we do that. ouch.
almost everytime after training, we would visit good old jec for lunch, and after lunch would be arcade time! lol. it's like it has always been a habit for the fellow carrots to visit the arcade after training during holidays, and most of them would be hogging onto the para para machine. but sadly, today's training will be the last official training for the holidays already... wonder if we can get together again sometime and visit that arcade xD
aaron | 6:25 PM
Friday, December 16, 2005
pandian's training... as usual... a warm-up + stretching exercises that takes away half of your life, followed by workouts... tiring, but i'll still go for them. there're ppl who ask me why i go for training when there's no need to. the answers are simple. 1) i have nth to do at home 2) i need my fitness 3) i'm doing track next year. feeling very tired now... had not been feeling this tired for some time already. nostalgic? lolx, duno if that's the right word to use...
results for PAE out already. got into njc science. anyone in the same school as me? (crap, i bet there're hundreds of them from rv going to njc)
aaron | 5:14 PM
Saturday, December 10, 2005
My Life As A 'Carrot': A Tribute to RV Athletics
when i was studying in rv, the feeling of wanting to leave the school at that very moment was so strong that i could have exploded anytime in class. however, when it was time for me to leave, i somehow felt sad about it. ironic isn't it? it didn't happen only once in my life though...
one major factor that contributes to my unwillingness to leave the school is probably my cca - Athletics. over the years, i've watched how the team grew from a 20+ athletes team to the team we have today. i've watched how the athletes matured and excelled, winning many races and never letting the school down. it's really hard for me to go, after all we've been through together.
it's kind of wierd on how i came into athletics. before i even joined rv, i had never been running much. my only racing experience was my primary school sports day and 2 years of participating in nationals track where i didnt even do well in the heats. my primary school cca wasn't even a sports cca. when i came to rv, i wanted to join a sports cca, and since there were no soccer, i tried basketball and badminton instead. i didn't even consider athletics as my choice. after failing to get into either of the 2, i was posted to dance society with some other guys. of course, i was reluctant to and asked for a transfer. that is how i came to the team i am in today.
i have no cross-country background, i had never done long distance before. when i came to athletics, i thought i'll be doing sprints. i didn't expect to be doing long distance running when i came in, simply because i suck at long distance. i was one of the slowest runners in the team, even slower than almost all the girls. my first 2.4km timing was an embarrassing 12:30++, and the subsequent few were about the same. horrible, isn't it? however, due to some unnatural force that guided me, i did a 10:57 on my last 2.4 run in sec1. that was when i started to realise that i have SOME ability in long distance.
my second year is the one which there is much to rejoice about. rv 'c' boys emerged as a dark horse and beat acs(i) to clinch the fourth place in the nationals school cross-country championships. i could still recall the trainings we did, how we reflected on our attitudes then, how we started to get serious, worked hard before winning our well-deserved victory. sadly, the 'c' girls lost out in the finals due to injury problems... when we were transfered to track for the first time, all of us were complaining about how tough the trainings were and how we wanted to go back to cross, but we held on nevertheless. we did well at nationals track that year too. zhenjie clinched the 3rd place for the 400m 'c' boys. our 'c' boys 4x400m team missed the finals by merely 2 seconds. 2003 is probably the highlight of my 4 years in rv athletics.
2004 is the year when the guys came crashing down and the girls starts to win. michelle's team came in third for nationals schools cross-country. during the track season, many unhappy incidents erupted. one reckless tackle during a normal street soccer game sent me crashing out of the soccer court and the nationals track competition. a mistake of not going to training saw zhenjie, darius and a few others being banned from the competition. it was a miserable year for the sec3'04 guys. on the brighter side, michelle came in 3rd for the 'c' girls 800m and the 4x400m 'c' girls clinched the 3rd spot as well. the 4x400m 'b' boys team'04, consisting of soon hock, cejin, chia ming and peng bo put up a great fight during the finals. there were many things to cheer about at national stadium that day.
this year... well... the 'c' division guys and gals did great at the nationals schools cross-country, with the girls coming in 2nd and the guys missing the 4th spot by 2 points. zhenjie bounced back from his mistake last year and became the 'b' boy 800m champion during nationals track. many of us also made it into the semis and finals of the competiton. i must say that the rv athletes did extremely well this year.
yup, glad to have been in this team all this while. i've had few but respectable seniors, and a handful of playful but great juniors. we've all gone through a lot together, as a team, we motivate and encourage each other, cheer for and spur one another to strive and excel. though at times, we tend to cause trouble. but hey, that's part and parcel of a secondary school life isn't it? we've had much fun together as well, especially during the perth trip. the hot chips and the red rooster joke from the all time crapper lirui.
all these are precious memories would be etched deep in my heart. may the bonds we've forged stay strong always. i came into rv athletics without any running background. through the years, it had helped me to find my potential and my passion, and making the athlete i am today. to the team: thank you.
aaron | 7:37 PM
Friday, December 09, 2005
today's senior farewell was a nice one. thanks juniors, for all the effort that u all had put in to making this occasion such a success. although the attendance was not too good, it was still fun lar xD thanks guys, and all the best to the future of rv athletics. may the carrots triumph all the way! we, will win the race!
anw, to apply the finishing touches on my update on the perth trip
Day 8: went to explore orchard glory farm in the morning, went to look at all the fruits before heading the store to buy some fruits at really cheap prices (taste really good too) anw i forgot to mention in my previous entry that the rabbits there are cute! (refer to my msn display pic). after the farm tour, we had lunch. the food there was really good. it's just that there were carrots for almost every meal so i suspect that they got a lot of carrots for the rabbits there xP went for sandboarding that afternoon. oh man, it totally rocked!!! sandboarding damn fun!!! the sand there was like so damn fine. no matter how i fell, it wouldn't hurt much. the only thing irritating abt it was that there were a lot of sand in my hair after the fun and my hair can be easily styled. went to some cosmo centre to watch the stars that night. the stars were like soooooooooooo beautiful. something i will NEVER see in singapore. stars were everywhere inthe night sky, and there were quite a few shooting stars seen. a pity i didnt see any =( watched coach carter back at the chalet that night, slept at ard 2
Day 9: left the chalet early in the morning and headed for the chocolate factory. ironically, we didnt get to view the chocolate making process. bought a couple of chocolates before heading to fremantle for our lunch. the fish and chips there was great. simply delicious, and in a huge amount too. few managed to finish it, and i'm proud to say that i'm one of the few. explored fremantle for a while, headed back to perth city for some shopping, before heading back to the airport to lag for a long time. had red rooster (xD) for dinner. took a 6 hr flight back to our homeland and tada! here i am!
aaron | 9:55 PM
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
northern trail was fun =) wanna do it again sometime... anw, i'll continue with the perth entry.
Day 5: woke up later than usual as we were tired out from a day's work at the ironman race. set out to town and went to have our lunch. this time was at kfc. anw, their chicken was like so oily that i could see the oil flowing at the skin (eewww). after lunch we did a bit of shopping before heading to coles supermarket to get stuff for our dinner. after that we went back to camp and did our training - 10km run. was very happy with my performance then cos i didn't stop even though i havent been running for like 4 months. yup, it was fun x) probably the ironman race had inspired me quite a lot =D
Day 6: moved out of camp geographe and headed back to perth. had another very long bus ride before we arrived at king's park. went for a tour around the place which is sort of like botanic garden. after that went to harbour town for a lot of shopping. the items there was like damn cheap. the fila outlet there was having a 50% discount storewide and in addition, tourist got to have a 10% discount, so that makes it 55% discount for us. got a shirt for both myself and my bro there. there were many other factory outlets selling goods at affordable prices as well. after much shopping, we headed for another chinese restuarant for our dinner and fortunately, this one serves much better food than the one we went to on day 1.
Day 7: went for a run in the morning. nearing the end of the run, melissa suddenly had this breathing difficulty which almost freaked me out. she was like trying very hard to breathe seems very uneasy. there was this person (whom i think is a doctor) stopping her car by the roadside to help us out. they even offered to sent her to the hospital (which i didnt think was needed) but didnt (cos the ambulance took dunno how long to arrive). anw, mel got better and headed slowly back to the hotel after that. checked out after breakfast before heading to the worm farm (known as the worm shed). learnt quite a lot about worms and how they could be o useful. after that we headed to orchard glory farm, where we will be staying for the rest of the trip. the chalet there is damn damn nice lar, the bed had heaters in them xD after that explored the farm for the entire afternoon before having our bbq dinner.
i'll finish up on the next 2 days on the next entry xP
aaron | 6:39 PM
Monday, December 05, 2005
didnt regret joining the juniors for training today. it was great, especially since we had a nice game of basketball after training xD
i feel like talking abt the perth trip, missed it so much =(
Day 1: met at changi airport terminal 2 row 11. took a 6hr flight to perth. first destination was lake monger, filled with ducks, ducks and more ducks. took pictures of ducks before heading for commodore hotel. went to some chinese restaurant which serves salty food for dinner. the guys were sitting together at 1 table and we ended up refilling the rice 4 or 5 times. so the moral of the story is that guys shouldn't sit together when eating. went back to hotel, had debrief and slept...
DAy2: woke up early for a run. ran to this lake and ran for 30mins. guess wat, the weather there is so cold and un-humid that it is so hard to sweat, but i did sweat lar. lol that's crap. after the run, went back to bathe and had breakfast before heading to busselton. bought groceries at a supermarket and headed for camp geographe. omg the camp is infested with mosquitoes. because there is so much mosquitoes, it is rather easy to kill them. after unpacking, we cooked out own lunch before doing another run to a beautiful beach, lagged there and then ran back. cooked our own dinner that day, forgot what we cooked though, i guess it must be something horrible xP
Day 3: woke up early for the asics fun run. the run was simply tiring, with the (very) strong wind blowing against me. my legs felt as if they weigh 60kg -_- yep, anyway, we completed the run and got our certs (yay) explore the ironman village for a while. lots of asics stuff there, and i sort of regretted not buying any. had our lunch at macs and went back to the ironman village to slack even though we were told that we could explore and do some shopping (guys mah...) headed back to camp after that.
Day 4: the highlight of the trip as mentioned in my previous entry. went to help out at the western australian ironman competition(refer to previous entry if u dunno what's an ironman race). 700 participants from all over the world came to take part in it. my group's first job was the handing out of bananas, cookies and drinks to the cyclists. it was damn fun, i wished i can do that again some time. after that we were handing out food and drinks to the runners (koped a few for myself... shhhhh...) saw mr lee and we were all like taking pictures and cheering for him x) waitied for him at the finishing line and we all cheered like mad when we saw him. wat a day we had, wheee.
to be continued...
aaron | 3:47 PM
Saturday, December 03, 2005
finally back from the perth trip. ten days sure pass by very quickly. how i wished the trip had lasted longer, and i'm sure all those who went would wish for the same thing too x) a very big thank you to all those who went for the trip and made it such a wonderful one
i won't be going into the details on the trip or it'll take me forever to finish this entry. however, the are some things which i really need to write about...
the highlight of the trip was no doubt the ironman race at busselton. the first ironman race which i have witnessed in my life.(oh btw, an ironman race is a madness 3.8km swim, 180.2km bike and 42.2km run) i've learnt a lot from the race being a spectator/volunteer at the race site, the race the undeniably a inspiring one for all of us. those who managed to complete the entire race (regardless of timing and position) really deserved to be called an 'ironman'. as we were interviewing the competitors, they said many things which we really need to think about and learn from. watching the competitors complete such a tiring (& horrible) competition made me feel so motivated to achieve more in my life.
anw, the fun part of being a volunteer is to pass bananas and drinks to the cyclists along the route. it's like a much more challenging baton passing cos the cyclist sometimes just zoom pass you. i had a lot of fun running up and down passing the bananas xD
feeling a bit to tired to think now... i'll write more about the trip for the next entry lolx. sorry for the anti-climax.
aaron | 8:20 PM
