UNIGAMES!

alice, allison, cam, me, elaine

Day 1:
i met up with elaine at her place and we both got a ride with allison to the airport. I had to walk about 1km with a big backpackers-style bag....and it totally drained me! so not combat fit now. oh how i dread reservice...
anyways...moving on. we got the airport and met alice and cam there and surprise, surprise, found that they were on the same flight as us. just as well, bcos one of cam's frens had rented a car in adelaide, so when we touched down we got a free ride to the hotel!
the hotel was nice...BUT! cam and i got put into the smallest room. (or at least thats what it seemed) everyone else's room appeared bigger than ours. there was only one queen-sized bed, but luckily the hotel soon provided us with another single bed so we didnt have to sleep brokeback-style. nothing much happened on day 1. we went to the supermarket to stock up on supplies and had an early night.


alice, elaine, sofie, allison, bry


me, hamish, cam

Day 2:
Woke up at 9am and went for a walk. there are really nice parks in adelaide! but the birds are evil. one attacked me and landed on my head.
We all met up at 12pm and caugt a bus to the race venue at flinders university.
The race? 12km cross country. The course? the most boring-arse course u could imagine... 6 x 2km. super sian. and part of the course was on very uneven terrain which made it that much more annoying.
ran a 48min...not too good. thats 4min per km....
It was a horrible race... there are only a few times in my life that ive felt more shag after a race. But we got a team silver medal, so it wasnt all for nothing. Went back to the hotel and got a massage. (my first ever massage...seriously) Then we went out for dinner to this supposedly nearby place that ended up being 45 mins walk!!! and the food wasnt too great either. i had a pasta that was too creamy and too salty. bleah.


before

after

Day 3:
The day of the dreaded 10000m.
woke up feeling SORE from the 12km the day before. the massage helped...but not much.
I was feeling very reluctant to do the 10km....but cam was doing it too, so i figured what the heck, why not.
10000m on the track is boring boring boring multiplied to the power of infinity.
i had to stop a couple of times and stretch my ITB which was beginning to hurt, prob from running on too much uneven terrain the day earlier.
ran a 39.20....again not so good. just under 4min per km pace, which for 10000m is not fast enough. Cant quite remember what i did the rest of the day. haha. i think we stayed at the track and watched some other races before going out to dinner. oh ya! now i remember...haha. we went to another pasta place. much closer to the hotel this time, and better food too.


tram to the beach!

Day 4:
rest day! no races for me!
went to the beach with cam, sofie and elaine in the morning. unfortunately i was fasting, and coundnt eat the fish n chips by the beach.
we went to support some other people who were racing in the afternoon, and i managed to sneak in a bit of shopping into the day too.
at night we went to this ice cream place called Cold Rock that sofie was going on and on about. i must say, its the best damn ice cream ive ever had. EVER! what happens is u choose a flavour of ice cream and a topping (for example, an oreo cookie), and they actually mash and beat the two together on the counter top in front of u. haha. its great! and it tastes oh so yummy. needless to say, that wasnt my last trip to cold rock.


COLD ROCK ROCKS!


Day 5:
steeplechase!
looking back, the steeplechase was fun. but running it....NOT FUN. haha. why do they have to make to steeples so $%#& high?? i was like the second shortest person in the race, and at some points i had to use my hands and literally CLIMB over the steeple. so not pro. haha. but i definitely want to try it again. im sure i can do a better time. oh yea, i did a 11.28 btw....
poor cam injured his leg on one of the jumps. nothing major thank goodness...he should be back training in a week or so.
again...cant quite recall what we did at night. hmm...




Day 6:
We had to get up early and meet up at 9am in the lobby to head down to the road relay. We showed up at the race course, and there was only one other team there!! hahaha. apparently, the other teams had gotten too boozed the night before and couldnt wake up. hahaha.
the course was 5km, and once again, it was a boring 6 laps of a horse racing track. it was a fast course, though, and i got a good time...17.59. i suspect its a little under 5km, but i dont care! i'll take what i can get! haha.
we got back to the city at around 12 and had lunch at this really nice italian cafe. i had a seafood pizza...and it was WOOO!!! nothing like a good pizza after a hard run.
spent the rest of the afternoon walking ard and shopping. haha. but in the end i only bought a couple of plain tees for 27 bucks. (the thought of saving for my road bike was ever-present in my mind)
i've got so much to write about friday night! we had a HUGE clubbing session!!
but i gotta go break fast now, so i'll dedicate an entire post to friday night soon!

MUACXC end of season bbq...and off to adelaide!

the white train!

MUACXC had an end of season bbq today. was so fun!!
ive said it before, but this grp of runners are really nice people. its great to hang out with them at these social events, cos we dont get to talk so much during training when everybody's so shag. haha.
Roly and Hamish prepared this absolutely hillarious presentation that recapped the season. They're so funny! they should be stand-up comedians...i think they'd make a lot of money off it.
And of course we started getting excited about adelaide and talking about all the parties that we're gonna go to there. haha. Monica was like super excited about all the parties...she was telling elaine and me how she had to sit on her suitcase to close it! haha. I havent even started packing!! shit... must start real soon.
Still not confirmed what events i'll be running for unigames. At the moment my schedule is like :
Monday - Cross country (6km?)
Tues - 10000m
Thurs - 3000m steeplechase.
But i found out today that someone pulled out of the 800m, so i might want to run that! I prefer these shorter track races. Not too sian. haha. its painful but over quickly.
Hopefully can squeeze in a bit of sight seeing too. Definitely want to hit the beach!!

ah...better go pack now! updates n pics in a week!! ta

a tan at the TAN

today was the last race of the winter season. its kinda sad...i really enjoyed the winter season. Ive always been more of a cross country runner...i like it more than short track races. so knowing that there wont be any more such races till march next year is kind of a bummer.
I will still do the summer season tho (the track season)... wanna try out some events like 1500m and 3000m steeplechase. (satiish! gimme some tips!)

yeap, so today was the final winter race, the TAN relays. i dunno why its called "tan". probably is an acronym for something but i dunno wat. haha. Its a 3.88km route, and each person runs one round only. Its FAST n FURIOUS! oh...and crowded also! had to dodge n weave my way thru other competitors at some points. It felt much shorter than 3.88 tho... compared to running macritchie 4.8 back home, this lap seemed much much faster.

I aimed to do a 14min... and ended up with a 13.36...yay!
originally i was supposed to run in division 5 (there are 7 divs, with div 1 being the best)...but there werent enough runners, so i got bumped up to div3!! the other 4 ppl in my team were pro! i was slated to run the last lap, so i got to see the times of the ppl before me...and they were FAST! they all did ard 13mins flat! so i was like 'oh shit...if i do 14mins plus its gonna look bad.' luckily managed to go under 14mins. phew.

most of the ladies had a good run. some clocking under 14mins!! which is just utter madness. and for the div one guys, some did 11min plus. again...CRAAAZZZY!!

Dave brought many pieces and sizes of our new club t-shirt. its called the "white train"....something like "le blue train" from tour de france, but this time its runners. looks really cute! haha. he even brought really small sizes "for our kids". hahaa. damn funny! we all wore the t-shirt and took photos. i heard they looked really good! will post them once i get my hands on them.

its really nice hanging out with the running bunch. they're all such nice, easy going people. cant wait to go for unigames with them in a week! its gonna be so much fun!
ah...but gotta do my essay b4 then. i read a few books this week... will prob start writing on monday, but i write very..............very..................slowly...................

one, two, cha cha cha

Crystal's dance exhibition was fun!
We left the city at around 12pm...caught a ride in a maxi-cab with esther, crystal, and crystal's friend jacklyn and her parents. The place we went to was quite far away from the city in this suburb called forest hills...its about 40mins drive. The actual ballroom itself is right smack in the middle of a housing estate, which is kinda weird...but its a very beautiful location. I can imagine the place being used for small weddings. It only seats about 100-150 ppl, so much less than the void deck weddings in spore *cough cough*.

The event had only just started when we got there, but crystal n jacklyn's first performances werent till about an hour after the start, so we were making good time. I was quite skeptical at first as to whether i'd enjoy watching ppl dance for hours, and i joked with crystal that i would bring my PSP with me...but i must say its very interesting to watch the pros dance! especially the HOT latin dances with the shart movements and questionable groping. (okay..im exaggerating)

We had a lunch break at around 3.30pm. (everyone else had pasta, but i had the vege meal which was just soup!! do they think vegetarians eat less or something???) anyways, as a result, i was really really hungry by dinner time, which was at about 8pm. dinner did not disappoint! it was a buffet. and it had oysters!!! (bennett! r u jealous?? i had FREE oysters!! hahaha)

Oh i must mention one thing. There was this slightly dodgy guy sitting at our table next to esther. He behaved a bit like a perv and constantly "touching" everybody. There was one instance where he (already quite drunk) grabbed esther's arm and pretended to nibble it cos he said he couldnt wait for dinner. I was sooooooooo pissed off, but i didnt wanna make a scene, so i just clenched my fists beneath the table and tried not to lose my cool. Luckily he didnt do it again or i think i might have seriously hit him. arrrggghh...wat a dickhead. Later on he got REALLY wasted and began shouting profanities....then he left (thank god), and the rest of the evening was peaceful.

Esther, jacklyn, her parents and myself caught a cab back to the city at ard 11pm. crystal stayed on the party with he dance mates. All in all, it was a really wonderful evening. Thanks crystal! I'll be there for your march showcase! (am i invited? haha)

ive posted the pics of the nite HERE

2 more wks to unigames!

I went to Savers this morning. Its this place that sells second hand stuff (kinda like salvation army, but a lot BIGGER). Crystal has a dance presentation this sunday, and Esther and i are going to watch. Its from mid afternoon all the way till 9pm...looking forward to it! should be fun! Its a formal event, so have to dress up nicely ala ball-style. Thats why i went to savers...wanted to look for a shirt to match esther's dress. But her dress is this very unique colour so i ended up buying just a white shirt in the end. Ooooh, but i got a suit for super cheap! its second hand...only 17 bucks!!! and it fit me soooo perfectly! haha. so happy! now i suddenly feel the urge to go to more balls. hahaha. Met up with esther at night and went looking for a tie (since i couldnt match my shirt with hers, the next best thing was to match the tie). We found quite a close match in the end. and it was 25% off! but its damn funny...my tie costs 22 bucks, which is more than my suit! hahahaha.

going to the botanical gardens for training tmr morning. should be a nice change of location. usually we train at princes park, which is behind uni. im so sian of that place! haha. looking forward to the change of scenery. also bcos we are having a relay there (the botanical gardens) in a wks time, so we need to get familiar with the route. Each person runs one lap of the garderns, which is about 3.8km. Some of the ppl do it in under 12 mins!!! crazy lah... i'm aiming for 13.30.

its only 2 wks to uni games!! getting really excited! booked my ticket already. taking the morning flight with elaine on sun 24th sep at 9.10am, and back on sat 30th sep at 7pm. 6 days of holiday! wheeee!! BUT, this also means that i have to finish my history essay in the next 2 wks! which is no time at all considering ive barely started research. argh.

survived the half! new PB!!

im so happy!!
i ran the half marathon without my knee guard, and my knee held up fine. was a little sore at the end, but thats to be expected. after a bit or stretching it felt fine.

but the best part is....i did a new PB!!! yippieeeee!!!

1hr 25min 30s

the course was really nice! although it was one of those "lap" courses (in this case, 3 x 7km laps), it didnt feel nearly as monotonous as i thought it would be. It rained super heavily at the start point, and we were freeeeezing!!! once the race got underway, though, the weather cleared up into a slight drizzle which lasted the whole race. It was actually quite nice to have the drizzle.

Lots of ppl in the club did PBs this time round. it was really good! and a couple of girls ran sub-1hr30mins!!!! i was like...whoa!! PRO!

gonna be really sore tmr morning. i can feel it already.
okie..gonna sleep now. its only 10.30pm but im so tired.

nite!

the HALF cometh!

tmr is the half marathon!!

i feel so unprepared. only trained up to 15km...and that was only once!!
back in spore i would've done at least a couple of 18km runs by now. oh well...too late now. haha. hopefully it will be a good run. im not aiming for a good timing (though i wouldnt mind if by some miracle i did one!). hoping to finish is more like it...
this is the first race that i'll be doing without my knee guard...so im really praying that the knee holds up, if not its another couple months of laying off running. nooooooooo...i dun want to go thru that again!

wish me luck!

so chio!

i have a new love....cycling!
been going ard the city quite a lot lately on my road bike. its so fun! a bit scary cos of those evil trams, but thats what makes it more exciting! haha.
theres a pro bike shop downstairs at my place, so i went there last wk to have a looksy. arrgghh all the road bikes are sooooooo cool! but damn ex la.... cheapest is like 1000+.
went online last nite to search for cheaper road bikes at various shops in the city (instead of doing my assignment). found one that was 800+ bucks...still ex, but thats the cheapest i could find thats good for starters.



shit la.... why do i always pick up sports that cost so much $$$??? in JC it was bowling, then running in NS(new asics shoe every year = 200 bucks), and now cycling! ahhhhhhh.
im really really interested in trying out triathlon next year. the more i hear my fren talk about it, the more interested i get! but gotta brush up on my swimming....cos, well, it sucks. after 30 laps of the 25m pool at my place im like half dead. i heard that the tri squad at uni swims 2-3 km during trainings! (i know...wtf!)
so heres my plan :
1. from now till feb next year, will start training up my swimming till i can swim (gasp) 2km non-stop.
2. save money from my part time job! and buy less comics! (oh thats gonna be tough...) if i can save 150 a month, and i work in sept, oct, nov, and jan....then by the time term starts in feb is hould have enuf to buy a road bike!
3. join tri squad during feb orientation!

sigh....im like totally not saving money for my future. everytime i get my paycheck i just blow most of it. i was supposed to use the money from this part time job to pay for my cartooning course next year, but now looks like its going into a bike. damn...am i making the wrong decisions? should i not be thinking about all this sporting stuff? after all, few years down the road, a cartooing course cert will be more valuable than a road bike. and its not like im super pro in sports and gonna do it professionally. just doing it for fun but its costing me so much money! sigh...decisions decisions.

(suresh, i think definitely no Man U jersey for me this year)

shit...been typing for quite a while now....back to work! assignment due later today!

4 more days to the half....

ultimate spidey 100!!!

ive been collecting comics for about 6 years now...started way back when i was 16yrs old. and the first comic that i started collecting, the one that started it all, was a title called Ultimate Spiderman. at that time, Marvel were just starting their new Ultimate line, in which they were gonna "restart" the universes. and the first character they were gonna try it with was spidey. well, that was 6 years ago, and in a couple week's time, Ultimate Spiderman issue 100 will be out!!!! ive not missed a single issue since it debuted! so excited!! i preordered my copy already! woohoo! hahaha.

met up with my frens from the SSS today. we went to natalie's house to make laksa and bandung. were gonna sell it at the Festival of Nations in uni next week. but silly me bought the WRONG kind of rose syrup. in fact, it wasnt rose syrup at all...it just looked like it. argh...d'oh!

went for a 15km run this morning with jensen. (satiish u remember him? he was one of the cadets during AHM, when we were ocifers) was quite a fast paced run... the knee held up fine without wearing a knee guard. im so glad for that. no pain so far, so im considering risking not wearing a knee guard for the 21km next wkend. we'll see how...

going DFO tmr with esther, yongsi and my mom. i just got my salary on friday, so i have a bit of money to spend spend spend!! but must keep in mind that the variant cover for ultimate spidey 100 will cost about 30 bucks. im definitely getting it! i dun care! its issue 100!!! gotta start saving a bit for uni games...

2 wks to the half! oh no!

less than 2 wks to the half marathon! yikes!
the farthest ive trained so far is only 10km. yeah....im so screwed. been telling myself to start clocking the mileage, but ive just procrastinated and procrastinated till now theres only 2 wks left. looking at my current condition, i'll be happy to do a 1.40.

went cycling down the coast on sunday with some frens. super fun! road cycling is great! we left the city at about 9am, then rode down to st kilda beach. the ride to st kilda sucks, cos there are lots of evil trams and heavy traffic and annoying padestrians. but once u get to the "beach road", its smooth sailing all the way. at some parts the wind was so strong, u kinda go "whoa!" and feel like you're gonna be lifted off the ground! the views are spectacular along the coast. wish we couldve gone further, but one of my frens had a skin irritation problem, so we had to stop and take a train back to the city. cant wait to go again this sunday!

school is a little less hectic this week. fewer assignments. but there are big ones coming up, and if i dont start now, i'll regret it later. i got my essay topic a week ago. went to the library yesterday to find books and already a lot of them have been loaned out! talk about KIASU!!! and if they're like me, they'll just hog the books and keep extending the loan period till the essay is over. heh heh.

nothing much else happening really. its been very routine lately. cant wait for the mid-sem break.....and UNI GAMES IN ADELAIDE! but my coach wants me to run 10000m on track! 25 rounds! omg....

finally...a break

ah...ive been waiting for this day for several weeks now.
i only have one assignment to do this weekend. can u believe it?!?! only ONE!!!! woohoo!
finally, i can take some time off to start training again, go for a bike ride, read the new comic books that ive been neglecting, and maybe watch some TV!! its good....its real good.

still sick tho. the fever is more or less gone, but the sore throat is still bad. im glad the fever is gone tho, cos with it went the lethargic feeling as well. its good timing, cos im working tmr, and its no good waiting tables for 8 hrs with a fever.

i was so happy today. this year's issue of EYES (a magazine that showcases the best student work in the archi faculty of the past year) was released. I had submitted one of my projects for inclusion in the magazine earlier in the year, but i was told that i would probably only get a small portion of a page. so i was very pleasantly surprised to see that i had a whole page to myself! yay! that really made my day...especially after a long studio where once again i didnt get a very high mark for this wk's model making assignment.

its almost 11 now and im gonna sleep...and im not gonna set my alarm!!! haha. its been countless nights with 5 hrs sleep or less, so its about time i made up for it!

good nite folks!

TNA : Total Non-stop Architectural studies

its 1.31am now.... and i FINALLY get a chance to post another blog entry.
i have seriously not had a minute's rest lately!
the course coordinators for this semester mustve been on crack when they came up with the workload...cos its way too much!
and its not just me.

just take a look at some of my archi fren's MSN nicks:

rachael : architorture
monkie : starting to feel the architect's life
justmich : die

over the past week, ive been sleeping at 2am, wake up at 7.30, do assignments, go to school, come home n do more assignments, go for running training, come home super shag but STILL have to finish assignments. argh... NEED BREAK!

thankfully this week's assignment (one of THREE for the week) was to make an 8-10 page comic book! YES! THATS RIGHT! make a COMIC BOOK!!! i'm loving it!
there's a catch tho...we cant just do it on ANYTHING we want. it has to be based on this placed called CROWN hotel in the city. we went to take photos of the place, and our comic is supposed to showcase the movt thru the spaces...or smthg like that.
who cares! its a comic book! yay!
trouble is, its due in one week! and one week is NO TIME at all to be writing and illustrating an 8-page comic book. i spent from 3pm till 1.30am today (yes, thats right...with only a break for dinner in between.) just pencilling it. still havent got into inking yet. my hand is damn pain n numb at the same time now. ah.....
and tmr have to get up at 7.30am again to do ANOTHER assignment. cant go on much longer like this....

some good news :
im meeting a guy tmr who wants to sell his road bike for less than $100. if its in good condition im gonna get it!! some frens of mine go cycling on sundays, so im hoping to join them.

Uni Games is in end sept!! its this yearly event where all the universities in australia come together to compete in sports. this year its in adelaide!! im gonna tryout for the 1500m, steeple, and 5km relay. the qualifying times are quite psycho, but im gonna give it a go. PRAY FOR ME!

thats all folks. take care my dear frens.
hopefully i can update this more regularly...

mari kita rakyat singapura...

national day is tmr!!! hahaha. ive never been so patriotic in my life. but being on the spore student society committee means that i must spread the mood!! MARI KITA RAKYAT SINGAPURA... ahem ahem...

anyways...its been a busy as heck week. this semester has started in 5th gear!!! assignmetns are pouring in already!! just this week alone i had to build this weird cube-window-model thing (yes, its exactly as weird as it sounds), go down to some building in the city and draw plans for EVERY ONE of its 35 floors, and prepare a hist paper/presentation thats worth 20% of my overall mark for the subjust. supposed to meet up with my hist partner this morning, and i only just finished reading the reader last night!! die lah...shes gonna be pissed... saw her at lecture on monday and she had already finished the reading over the weekend and had made lots of notes n stuff. and im like..."erm....yeah....i'll uh.....read it tonight."

oh and I GOT A JOB!!
yay!
am gonna start work at this indonesian restaurant in the city on friday. i was very lucky to get this job cos there are only so few halal restaurants in the city. the manager said that he'll put me on 'trial' for the first 20 hrs, and then if all goes well, i can start working on a regular basis.
pray for me!

nothing much has changed on the whole "i dont want to be an architect" front. i STILL think i dont want to be an architect. im so indecisive. one week i may feel like drawing for MARVEL, and the next i feel like going off and doing some humanitarian effort-thing. i wish i had as clear a vision of where i was heading as some of the other students i know. i guess i do have an ultimate goal...... DRAW FOR MARVEL. but thats more than a far-fetched dream than a goal. need to think more realistically...

ok..running late for school!

...

friday morning.
the beginning of the weekend.
the beginning of another torturous 3 days where i have to do assignment work, and comtemplate, even more, what direction my life is heading.
weekends arent nice. weekends suck.
during the weekdays, going to school keeps me busy. keeps my mind occupied. but the weekends are a different story. since i dont have sch on fridays, thats 72 hours of time to myself.
i cant turn back now, though.... already halfway thru my 2.5 year course. I must at least graduate with my first degree and find some work. i owe my parents that at least. But beyond that...i dunno. i want to be a comic book artist. sounds cheesy i know....but i really want to do it. and theres only one place to do that.....the states. sigh...am i wrong to have a dream like that? is it immature of me to wake up every morning wondering how much BETTER my life could be, when its already very good now? uncertainty......argh i hate uncertainty. the future is a scary place...its rolling towards me everyday at breakneck speed, and i cant see more than 3 feet in front of me. i think i need psychiatric help...... some moments im super happy, and 5 mins later i can slump into a completely depressive state, and not feel like talking to anybody. tell me im not crazy? is that crazy? oh no.....im going crazy.

2SB3 nite out in melb!

hey everyone!
sorry but this is a very delayed post.

a week ago, we had a little sb3 gathering here in melbourne. Bennett and Evelyn came from singapore to join the usual suspects of yongsi, esther, denise and myself.

I dunno who came up with the idea to wear our sch uniforms (esther? haha), but yeah....we WORE OUR ACJC UNIFORMS!! hahahahaha...and went to eat a buffet at Crown Casino.
It was so nice to hang out with friends that you feel so comfortable with. Friends who dont judge you, and whom u know u can talk to about anything and everything. Its amazing how after all these years, when we get together, we are STILL the same ppl. still talking nonsense and still lauging at all manner of lame jokes. i miss ACJC!!!!

ok, i'll let the pics tell the rest of the story! enjoy!

PICS HERE!