~The Road Less Taken~

Monday, December 15, 2008

ok here we go.

an attempt to condense what's happened in the last 2 weeks or so into one long post.

(i'll be breathing a huge sigh of relief once this is done.)

ok so basically most of what happened happened on thursday the 4th of december, the day on which i spent 11 hours out of the house. almost seems like school all over again doesn't it. only that sometimes in school you spend the entire day there (plenty of times).

in the morning and afternoon was a pool session with the awesome foursome minus the little one.

and since it's been well-documented, let's just say it was rather enjoyable, as usual, and this time the magic dust stayed relatively controversy-free.

i think i might just want to be a pool player in future. (if my back wouldn't ache so much after all that bending over)

then after that it was back to school to deliver my "farewell gifts" to the prefects, who (by some strange coincidence) were having a training camp at the time. what timing.

ok but that wasn't the end of the story.

my time there included a game of soccer in which guanlin failed to concede, or rather only conceded because someone had distracted him earlier.

we even missed a penalty. (i say we because lousy soccer player, yours truly, was gently coerced into taking a penalty, and since my confidence was practically non-existent, theo and i decided to do it the arsenal way. flashback to game at highbury about 3-4 years ago, arsenal vs man city. pires and henry (i think) conspire to miss a penalty.)

and guess what? deja vu.

and in the end the score was just a shade higher than the premier league record of 9-0 which man united recorded against unremembered team (bradford?).

that also meant that punishment in the form of the xbox 360 would (and hopefully still will) come in due course.

and before that was interdepartmental games, and as usual it was captain's ball, and i played lousily and caught only 3 balls. pfft.

but anyway it was good to catch up with the people there. all of them, even the neps (amongst whom, i'm ashamed to say, i know few of as of now)

and this included the one and only ryan tan.

(taken on the morning of grad ceremony this one. it's a rarity.)

ok maybe not one and only.

at one point during our discussion in a room of prefects, with rtyj on my left and rytc on my right:

me (trying to speak to rtyc): ryan.
me (realising that there were two ryans): ryan tan.
me (realising that there were two ryan tans): ryan tan yu-chien...

needless to say i got a punch from ryan tan. the one in the picture up there.

but that's not the only thing i got from him that night!

i give as good as i get.

while walking to that room from the canteen:

me: so ryan, how do you feel about... being where you are now?
ryan: where am i?
me: in the raffles square.

ok that question didn't quite work did it.

but then of course he gave me this:

"everyone... is looking for aaron tiong - but aaron is still finding himself."
"i am you... and you are me... and we are each other." (something like that.)

and many more i'm sure which will roll off your tongue effortlessly, ryan.

i later learned the first quote was somewhat plagiarised from something ryan had said earlier to chander. tsktsk. heartbroken. < 3.

and after that i had a memorable time distributing my bear(hugs).

at this point it's appropriate to illustrate what i mean. (and yes, if you think i'm obsessed with carebears, i happen to have the exact same sentiments.)

the original carebears.

with their children now, who were delivered to their owners.

we are family. they are incredibly cute, don't you think?

if you're new to this blog, please don't think i'm slightly looney, sleeping with 5 personified carebears for what has been almost 10 months.

and hey, at least i'm fair.

sorry that i wasn't able to photograph the new generation carebears though! (the other 5 who aren't the carebears in the pictures) if ever by some chance they reunite i will not hesitate. =)

and that concluded a most eventful day, after which a spillover of events occured, ultimately ending in heartbreak.

(sorry shayne. i didn't need to do what i did, but when i did do it i failed, and that's not very special at all.)

that would be one of the last times i went to ri... but not the last yet.

later the following tuesday (incidentally also the day i went down under) i was in school again.

for ncc camp! (as a harmless ex-spec)

and in the end i didn't even spend most of the time in school. instead the specs who did come (and weren't bogged down by a meeting, coughcough) and max went off to toapayoh community centre to play some badminton.

whee. used to play it rather regularly when i was younger (and sadly, when i was rounder), but hadn't touched it much until this year.

and it was great stuff, but it wasn't terribly easy getting the booking of the court done, thanks to a rather unfriendly staff member.

however i'd like to think i saved the day, somewhat.

shikai&heezhi: basket! that indian guy doesn't like our faces or what... i'm sure courts booked until 10 at night. oh wait! let's try the other one... the chinese lady. (i don't know. is that somewhat racist?)
me: erm wait. let me try! i think i'll be able to charm the socks off that old lady...
shanzhi: eh, the socks might not be the only thing you'll be charming off her...

but in the end all the clothing stayed on. damn--- erm, i mean, thankfully.

so we got the courts, played a lot (and i missed some simple smashes. and i mean simple. like coming down from high in the air, 1cm across the net, and i missed it totally. repeat as many times as is necessary until game is lost), laughed a lot, shouted a lot (especially when playing with shanzhi against heezhi and shikai), talked a lot with everyone, and basically had a smashing good time, cringe-worthy pun absolutely intended.

seriously though, it's times like this you can't exchange for anything else. (and i could have stayed on longer too with the gang, if i knew the guy who was supposed to arrive at my house at 5 came at 6.30 instead)

but oh well it was time well spent (compared to what happens usually, i.e. facebooking and basically wasting a lot of time needlessly), which is most welcome. =)

and then after that it was down under!

it should be said that it's my 2nd trip to sydney, so maybe i shouldn't say too much, especially about how i flew there and back. (let's just say it was pretty damn good, and it wasn't in economy.)

ok rubbish that. i will talk about sydney, and aussieland in general.

it's a really nice and charming place you know. lovely weather (at least it's not 30 degrees all day), nice people, wonderful history, beautiful scenery.

i'm considering making it a second home. (my parents are, at least, and i certianly wouldn't object to that.)

and so here come the pictures. i'll let them do the talking, because as the cliche goes, pictures are talkative.

(all of them were taken on board a cruise ship, mainly because the rest of the time in sydney was spent mainly in shopping centres, and when we weren't shopping, i became terribly lazy and refused to even consider taking my phone out from my pocket.)

apologies for the bad photography and all. i know i'm not good at taking pictures - no need to rub it in.

and now here's some pictures from around ri!

this one is my personal favourite. it does look a bit like the 3rd floor has no walls along the walkway! illusions. o.0

ok then that's all i have (and finally i have found the drive to blog). more to come soon, hopefully!

I stopped to rest at 10:18 PM

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...