Row, row, row your boat

journey: Singapore-Melbourne-Bendigo-Echuca-Port Echuca-Bendigo-Horsham-Arapiles-Horsham-Grampians-Bendigo-Melbourne-Singapore

Day 2

"In the depths of winter, I finally learnt that within me there lay an invincible summer."

Albert Camus

Woke at 6(i think). Getting adapted to the cold really quickly(or so i tot). Daringly walked out of my tent in just shorts and a shirt. Was the only person to do that, other than our aussie guides =) My cold resistance rocks man.




Anw, i forgot to mention that a few other aus ppl had came to join us on our paddling down Murray(pronounced Ma-Ree) river, while peter didn't come along. He had papers to mark, being head of the school. The people who joined us were Rob and Leia. So we had breakfast, bread with spread, and then got ready for paddling.





We're using one sided paddles, unlike the 2-sided ones we use for kayaking. and the canoes are also open -top ones, as u can see, unlike the close-top kayaks as well. It's 2 ppl to one canoe, so Meiting asked to pair up with me. We were taught a few basic skills for paddling(cuz it's slightly different frm kayaking), as well as how not to capsize if we hit smthing side-on, and took sometime getting used to the fact that the front person cannot steer much. The front person is just mindless horsepower and the back person(which was me) has to steer.



The scenery was so beautiful in the morning, with the clear blue sky cloudless and the trees standing tall by the riverbank. Looked just like one of those pictures u see in the calendar. lol. So after that we got back to dry land.And were then asked to go for a swim, to prepare for capsize drill. Rob said that if were alrdy wet, we'd be less likely to not want to capsize. lol. And damn it man, the water was totally freezing lah. Like ice water like that. I stepped in, shivered, and turned numb almost immediately. Drifted out witht the current, then swam back to shore. After that, watched the other grp humji frm the freezing water haha. They went in only a bit. Went to do capsize drill after that. Which was damn fei. Me and Meiting chose qte a bad place to capsize in, like some dirty place with weeds floating on them. And the moment i went into the water, all my body functions disappeared lah. like i just totally froze and forgot how to swim for a split moment. That was how cold the water was. Anyway, we then went back to shore and loaded our bags on. Cuz we were doing journey type canoeing, meaning we dun hav a base camp and we just keep moving down the river and kep finding new places to camp till we reach our destination. cool man. so if we capsize, our stuff will gg. haha.




Yup, that's my paddling partner Meiting. She's like the only girl i can find who's shorter than yt. haha. And so we started paddling down the Murray river, starting frm 1820km from adelaide, the place where yt went. lol. Brendan and the aussie ppl are damn pro and natural man. They just paddled down the river, looked out for and took any suitable place to stop and then they'll use it. They hav no fixed place in mind so it made our journey very flexible. pro man. unlike those kind of paid guided tours where they hav specific destinations.




Paddling down the river with trees on both sides was nice, damn nice. really beautiful. and u get to see a lot of birds overhead or water hens swimming in the water. and there're a lot of fallen trees by the sides of the rivers and they're dangerous cuz they can capsize u if u hit them. We made a random stop for lunch, and then paddled again till we stopped for dinner.

The first photo on top is our stop for lunch, and the second, our campsite for dinner. Nothing eventful, cept i learned how to do the j-stroke! It's a stroke where you can do one man paddling on just one side of the canoe and the boat wun turn , instead of going in circles. yay. and learned a bit of gossip abt meiting when our teachers, Ms Pang and Ms Lim paddled over. haha. They're the ones in the background of the photo of me and meiting. Anw, we went for a walk after dinner, when it was alrdy dark. Attempted to spot animals, witht the aid of Brendan's red light, which is less harmful to the animals' eyes compared to the white light we use. Found nothing though, so we went back to the campsite. And went to sleep. haha.

Who will speak for planet earth?

Day 1

"By three methods we may learn: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest."

Confucius

and odac chose the bitterest method, by embarking on a 12-13 day journey to victoria, australia to learn more about nature. And i must say, it has been fruitful and fabulous. absolutely great.

The title of our expedition is the title of this post. yup, it's printed on our expedition shirt too! haha

Yup, and that's the back of our shirt. Anyway, having delayed blogging bout my exped for like a month, i finally started! whee!

so yeah, on the 17th of nov, odac met up at the airport at 12, really early considering the flight is at like 3.30. And a lot of ppl were at the airport sending ppl off, cuz there were 3 trips going off around that time. One to cambodia(dunno who went), one to laos(jameson and the canoeists) and one to australia. spent an hour slacking arnd, then checked in at 1. got my flight seat, which was 25G, then went to check wif the rest of the guys for their seat numbers.

"What's ur seat number?"
"44B, wats urs?"
"25G, qte far frm u."
"25? are u sure?"
"yah" (shows him my boarding pass)
"qte funny leh, all the guys hav 40 plus numbers one. aiya nvm lah, u'll enjoy ur flight."(gives me a screwed up smile)
"huh? y? i'm like sitting like so far frm everyone."
"no, not frm everyone."
"huh? then?"
"the girls are sitting at 20 plus."

What the hell. ended up wif like 7 girls arnd me. apparently they put same surnames ppl together, and there are 4 'ng's in my grp. gina ng, kelly ng, ng xinying, ng yong sheng. And apparently, i'm the only guy. diao. so i ended up among all the girls. the other 4 girls, i dunno how they ended up arnd there as well. go ask emirates.

And emirates has damn nice food onboard lah. as in the main dish. their salad sucks like siao, but their main dish damn good lah. had some prawn thingy. which was nice, and then had some beef sandwich, which was hard but tasty. and for those who are fantasizing abt my plane journey, let me tell u that it's damn boring without any boys to talk to k.


So landed at melbourne airport at arnd 2 am. met up wif the latrobe university ppl, brendan munge and peter martins(above, with our teacher in the middle, brendan on the left and peter on the right). loaded our backpacks into a trailer, then set off for the university in bendigo, victoria. the roads were totally quiet with no vehicles. made a pit stop at arnd 3.05 am, for an airsick friend, Thomas. He had been vomitting since the plane trip till now.that was when i realised that their night is really really cold, and their night sky is really really shen. the faint stars of constellations all cld be seen lah. damn zai. but cldn't look too long, cuz it was damn cold, so ran back onto the bus and slept. Arrived at the ironbark center in latrobe uni at arnd 4.25 am. settled down, put our stuff into our rms, then slept at arnd 5 am.

Woke up at 9am. but i had hardly slept, cuz i cldn't slp cuz it was so cold! so we went off shopping to stock up supplies at a nearby supermarket called iga(independant grocers of australia). Had lunch at macs, which was slightly different from singapore. Then we returned back to the ironbark center(named that cuz of the trees arnd it, ironbark trees).

Yep, the pic on top shows the ironbark center, the pic to the top right is some signboard, and the pic here is wat we did as we prepared to set off.

yup, after we came back to the ironbark center, we loaded the canoes onto another trailer, as seen on the right. Then we headed off for Echuca.

Took a long time to reach Echuca , of which by that time, it was alrdy dark. On the way, we passed the Victoria border into New South Wales, and passed by Maoma, where i saw a horse carriage. lol dunno wat a horse carriage is still doing there in such a modern day society. Stopped at Echuca town for a toilet break, and had a bit of fun at the playground there. At that was when i realised that Australia has damn a lot of flies. Just sitting on the grass there attracted like 2-3 flies coming to buzz arnd me lah. Everyone cldn't stand the flies and went back on the bus.

Arrived at Echuca, Murray River, near night time. but in australia, the sun sets damn late. so we still caught the last bit of the sunset! yup the pic on the left. We set up the tents and unloaded the canoes quickly. Was going to get water with one of the australian guides when we discovered a really rare sight. A baby Tawny Frogmouth owl was sitting on the floor beside a tree. That species of owl is very rare to see. It's a type of owl that feeds on insects. Being a baby, it must have tried to fly, but unfortunately fell down the tree to where it was. Cute, u can actually go up to it and touch it. Wanted to find its nest and put it back, but cldn't find the nest.

yup the pic of the owl is on the right. Anw, went off for dinner after that. Had pasta with tomato puree and other stuff. The dinner was ok. I tot it was great until i saw what we cooked for the other days. haha. Went to sleep after that, arnd mayb 11 or smthing? It was getting cold again.

Christmas Party!

heys 6N pple, since ms tan's house isnt available for the initially arranged xmas party, i've booked e bbq pit at my condo on the 28th dec from 4.30 - 10pm. So this is the plan. We'll meet at toa payoh mrt at 5pm next thu, and i'll bring ya'll over to my place. Please note the following extremely important points.

1. We are going to play this secret santa game. Each of u MUST bring a unisex present around $5 in value, all wrapped up. I'll collect all of them and randomly assign numbers to them. At night after the dinner, each of u will get to draw lots and u'll get the present with that number. DO NOT FORGET TO BRING YOUR GIFT. If not, i wont let u come to my house mwahahaha.

2. If any of u would like to bring along side gifts/xmas cards for your gd frens / buddies / more-than-friends / "qing ai de"s, feel free to do so.

3. Those of u who want to play in the pool, bring along your swimming things.

4. Those of u who want to play badminton, bring along your rackets and shuttlecocks. I wont be providing any.

5. Those of u who want to play any other games, bring along e respective eq. Frisbee soccer anything. *hopes the guard wun shout at us for playing in e garden* heheh.

6. This is going to be a potluck dinner, so ALL of u must bring along a food item. Do not bring snacks! Bring food. Something that can be put on a DINNER table. U can offer to bring drinks or ice or disposable crockery/eating utensils, just make sure u inform me what u're gonna bring by next tues latest. oh and it should preferably be halal ok.

7. Have a merry merry christmas! And i hope u will all enjoy yourselves at this party. All of u please try to make it ok (: it would be nice to spend christmas together as a class, and make merry and have fun on this last gathering of the year. See ya on thu!

Changi photos!

Trish gen and yiting!

what's this? smuggling money out of changi airport? orh hor.. ys and gerard caught red handed!


NO la.. obviously.. its Monopoly! indeed.. gerard owns them all!


k just testing out the screen resolution..

Well.. er. just wanted to post some of the phots that i have.. haha. Finally been able to log in to the new blogger thingy... after much fustration hahaha.. Thanks to ys and co. for keeping the blog alive! wohoo. cos i can't log in to blogger cos of the new blogger thingy. actually i'm just lazy.. hahaha. oh wells. busy too lol.. must catch up soon!

Anyway, hohoho! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! look forward to seeing you all again at gerard's house! >.<

Saga of the 6Nations Excerpt

The source of the continuous tapping became clear as he rounded the bend. Making his way slowly along the path, with a lantern in one hand, and a cane in the other, was a blind, old man.
"Old man, why do you carry a light if you are blind?" the young man asked curiously. The old man held the lantern higher, making as if to peer into it.
"Really? Is the lantern really lighted?" the old man asked irritably.
"Quite sure," the young man replied.
"Damn, I told him to get me a lantern, and he has to go and light the lantern for me as well," the old man muttered under his breath.
"So why the lantern?"
"Young man," the old man tried, and stopped. "Young man," he began again.
"Yes?"
"Stop interrrupting and listen to me!" the old man snapped. "Now tell me, is it the Mid-Autumn Festival now?"
"No," was the reply. Another muttered "damn" was heard.
"Now you see," the old man lectured sternly, "if it's not the mid-autumn festival, then why else is a blind old man like me carrying a lit lantern? The answer is so obvious, and you young people should start thinking for yourselves. I'm certainly not going to spoonfeed you."
"Um...the lit lantern is symbolic, to show people that even though you are visually disabled, yet you see clearly where others cannot, and thus use the lantern to guide others on the path towards enlightenment?" the young man tried.
"Nonsense!" the old man snapped angrily. "Young man, have you ever heard of basic road safety? Since I cannot watch where I'm going, at night, it's necessary for people to watch where they go so that they do not collide into me. All these airy-fairy explanations about symbols, I wonder what the next generation of seers is coming to..."
"Sir? It's daytime now."
"Oh." This time the old man didn't bother cursing under his breath. He raised his head, then went completely still, staring straight into the young man's eyes with his twin milky orbs. "...for the light of the Sun, the Holy Lightbulb-in-the-sky*, is but fleeting and transient, and the time will come when the Lightbulb will be engulfed by the darkness of the Evil Overlord, and darkness will befall the lands of the 6Nations for all eternity," the old man intoned ominously. He blinked, shook his head, and declared triumphantly, “so I must be prepared for all contingencies."
Upon hearing his words, the young man fell to his knees, and prostrated before the blind man in wonder.
"Forgive my insolence, Great Seer. I have heard of you before, but failed to recognise your exalted person."

*The people of the 6Nations believed that their world was created in a laboratory, with a Great Lightbulb serving as their Sun and sacred Source of Life. Refer to the Holy Book of Creation for more details.

I need comments.

blogger beta

Quote -
Team blogs move when the blog’s original creator moves to the new Blogger. When that happens, team blog members will also have to move to the new Blogger in order to post.
- endquote

hey guys, i just realised that when out of my foolish curiousity to see the new blogger beta interface, i switched over to the new blogger, that means that this blog comes along with me. haha sorry for the trouble. but now if u guys want to post here, i think u need a google account, which is same as your gmail account, and sign in at https://www2.blogger.com/login.g yupyups.

edit: realised that there's more trouble for ya'll. u actually need to sign via your old blogger account, then go to the dashboard, and request to switch over to the new blogger. then after a while u'll get an email saying u can sign in with ur google acc now. haha oops paiseh

Meteor Shower II

Yup, I believe the meteor shower was damn cool, even though I didn't really measure the exact temperature. A very memorable experience. Everyone was very excited at the start, and since the meteors appear for no more than about 2s, it can get frustrating at the start when people see the meteors and you're looking in the wrong direction lol. Its especially wonderful when you see the meteors streak across the sky one after the other, which is quite rare. the most number of consecutive ones was four, I think.

Like Yong Sheng said, it was quite funny when we were trying to trick "someone" (*ahem*) that a flying plane was a meteor, and pointing in that particular direction, when suddenly a meteor really streaked past the sky lol. I wonder what pilots can see from their side...

Another funny part was when some J3s from Astro came, and they were teasing Krithin (an Indian), then Yong Sheng said (or smthng along that line), "Hey don't be racist lah...Krithin, where're you?". Considering that it was very dark, it was quite funny.

Tried to sleep, but it wasn't really comfortable, and early morning, it got really cold. I left at about 7am, after seeing a sort of sunrise by the beach. All in all, a very memorable experience, what with priestess of the moon spamming starfall all night. I recommend the carrot cake at Changi Village. buy one plate get one free. $4 each, I think.

meteor shower

yes we witnessed a meteor shower! we meaning me and sc. cool right? anyway, we met at changi at abt 7.30pm on thursday 14th dec. the meteor shower was projected to be at it's peak arnd that day, with an estimated 100 showers per minute. so yeah.

and the watch was absolutely fabulous. if not for the large number of storm clouds that night, it wld hav been better. the night was qte clear, and u cld see many stars. nvr tot that u cld see so many in singapore. and we saw many meteors! many burned really really bright as they entered the earth's atmosphere. some so close and bright that u cld see their distinct burning tail. cool man. saw a hell lot that night. then after a while, due to the clarity of the stars and the presense of binocs which wei lin, our astro chair, kope from the rj astro store, we started to talk abt the stars. of which wei lin said she cld see the constellation cancer. so i asked her to pass me the binocs and asked where the approx. position is. She said that it was near the constellation canis minor. so i identified canis minor's alpha star( the brightest star in a constellation basically for those who dun hav much astro knowledge) procyon and started to search for cancer through the binocs. omg man, how lucky can i get that a comet streaked across my binocs. that comet wld hav been unseen by the naked eye. wooh! so i saw one which no one else saw. yay. another interesting one was when me and sc were trying to trick someone that we saw a comet by pointing at a plane taking off. only to realise that a comet streaked past the sky next to the plane at that moment. lol

anw, arnd 12 or 1 , the clouds slowly drifted and covered the sky. so we took a break and went to do other stuff. which was fun. we sang songs, and danced! we sang "liu xing yu"(meteor shower, how befitting haha), did befrienders dance, and then learned next yr's orientation dance! wah the songs for next yr's dance qte cool leh. they hav tokyo drift lah. wooh then i went to slp. and woke at arnd 4 plus. the rest after that is boring alrdy. nothing much to say. left changi terminal at 7, b4 the odacians who r arriving there at 10 to recce ubin for next yr's j1 camp. haha so the skills i/c ponned the recce. lol i told them i was too tired(which i was, i wasn't lying k). anw, we hav another recce this coming wed, which is longer and i wun pon. yay.

k that's all!

Happy Birthday Gen!

ok i was supposed to release this on the 14th when gen comes back, but i can't hold my excitement anymore. so yeah. sometime ago, during mid autumn festival, i complained that i cldn't get a special screenshot out on time. so this time, i made sure i completed it early, but the bad part is that it's hard to hold back the excitement. so yeah here they are. Happy Bday Gen!

My very first attempt. Sucks i know. wanted to put happy bday gen, but wards are hard to place. really. i tot it wld be easy so i used orcs. cannot man. had to use the blademaster to repeatedly destroy wards placed incorrectly. and stasis traps last only for a short period of time!so yeah, the sentry wards and stasis traps are supposed to read gen, though it may be hard to tell.

erm kept the 'gen' word there, but tried to add an exclamation mark. using my shaman and witch doctors. qte lousy though, can't really tell.

Anyway, the above 2 screenshots using orcs were not that gd, so i tried using another race! i mentioned my intentions in my previous post. and it was damn successful. damn proud of them now. whee. Presenting... the night elves.

Happy Bday. Can see right? sui man. damn nice. i'm damn happy now.

Lack of space, lack of wisps le. anyway, this screenshot reads "HAPPY BDAY GEN". kinda squeezy, cuz out of space le. and i also dun hav anymore wisps le. i create wisps until out of gold and max population liao. my 100 food all wisps and the 2 heroes only. nothing left. lol. just see the wisps count at the bottom left of the page. lol

Anyway, yay! Happy Birthday Gen! hope u had fun overseas!

woot

yay today was a somewhat gd day. ok i admit that i wasted half of it away(the morning). but if half the day was wasted, it only means half of it wasn't!so yeah, i managed to sort out the aus souvenirs(finally), washed my hse toilet(the showerroom), and finally finally managed to get 3 measly photos frm my fren. 3. it may be damn little, may be damn shit, but they're still THE FIRST PHOTOS I GOT FROM THE AUSSIE TRIP! wooh shld get a lot more soon when he passes me his dvd, but as of now, i hav to content wif this 3 which i asked him to send via msn first. anyway, here they are.

Wooh this pic was taken at the foot of Mt. Arapiles, the mountain which we rock-climbed on. The name for this wall is the organ pipes. The natural rock kinda looks daunting, isn't it? possible to climb though haha.

This is a grp photo of my grp. taken at "The Balconies" at the grampians-gariwerd national park in victoria. While our handsome and pretty faces may be too attractive, what i'd like to point out is that if u can avoid the attraction, the scenery behind is fantastic as well.

Taken at Melbourne airport just before we came back. If u r wondering what the 3 is for, it's cuz we're grp 3. the person in the middle wif the weird smile is our teacher, Mr Leong. He was trying to look weird.He did not bad a job, didn't he? haha

And erm shit, yt who went aus later than me has alrdy blogged bout her trip on ulu le. oops. anyway just to comment on some points mentioned by yt.

"observed that adelaide is quite a peaceful town, filled with lowrise buildings and the sky is clear blue with not a single cloud."

In Australia, buildings are all lowrise, cuz they dun hav a lack of land space unlike sg. The sky looks damn nice, clear blue without a single cloud becuz they're having a drought now.

"oh yes i forgot to mention the time difference between SG and Adelaide.. it's 2 and a half hours. Adelaide ahead." "we had to wake up at 5am, which is 2.30am in Singapore."

erm the time diff between sg and bendigo(where i went to) is 3 hrs. Bendigo ahead. so we slept at 9pm(sg time) and woke at 3 am(sg time) almost every day. beat that haha.

speaking of overseas trips, i cldn't go fetch rard back today =( my parents dun allow and want me to stay home and wash the hse. which i promptly did(i mentioned above). now i can only hope that they let me go see gen back at the airport. lol

anyway, that's all. for now, will blog abt my trip soon(hopefully), after i get photos frm my frens. grr damn hard to chase for photos lah. haha

woo

Oh no

erm yah, like the title suggests, oh no. From the previous 4 tasks i mentioned i need to do, i've done only the first, that is, get my hp repaired. I havn't started on gen's letter at all, gotten any photos(wah lao the odacians damn slow), done anything to the souvenirs, let alone start blogging abt my aussie trip. I havn't done any revision, hw, or anything of the sort. All i've done so far is waste my time away. I feel pissed with myself now.

But then again, i always feel pissed with myself, i'm such unorganised procrastinator. but everytime i try to change, i'll be back to myself say a week later? this is damn screwy. oh well, at least i managed to get a special screenshot done, even though its quality sucks compared to what i wanted originally. dunno whether i shld retry using another method. aiya see how.

crap, it's 10 dec alrdy. yt's back, rard coming back in 2 days, gen in 4. in 3 weeks' time, sch will start again. Will i still then, mayb on the 31st of dec, be typing such a post being pissed with myself? I hope not. I hope that by the end of the hols i wld hav gotten something meaningful done. And that i'll be proud of myself that this hol has not been like the others, wasted away.

I hope.

An empty heart

Somewhere in me i just kinda feel empty, like something's missing. I miss australia, the times odac 22( we are odac batch 22), my group especially, has spent together, as well as the australian ppl. Rob, Brendon, Peter, i miss u guys really badly. I miss the feel of nature, the soft touch of the grass brushing against my legs, the rough feel of the rocks which has aided me up to its top, the cold feel of the water which warned me against capsizing into it. And above all, i miss the beautiful scenery. Sights which beats any guided tour Chan brothers or whoever can give u. Because no such guided tour will ever bring u paddling down the Murray river, climb up natural rock like Mt. Arapiles, and reach the top of moutain ranges in the Grampians national park. The scenery in those places are impressive, able to beat those photos u see in the calendar, probably able to beat what rard has witnessed in his many years of travel. It is precisely this reason that i applaud and thank the aussies and our odac teachers for bringing us on such a wonderful trip.

As much as i would like to thank the aussies, i would hav to first thank the people who made the class chalet such a success and so enjoyable. so yeah, here they are

Gen and Ms Tan, for even organising the chalet in the first place
Hanchen, for being such a great chef and preparing first night's dinner
Liu Peng, for kindly bringing his laptop and allowing others to play with it
Chin Ee and Jasper, for letting us dump stuff at their houses, and also for bringing ppl to the chalet
The people who cooked all the meals, as well as helped hanchen out wif the first dinner, for not letting us go hungry
The people who brought games down, be it board games or Jasper's xbox, for letting us have fun
Ms Tan, Mr Lai, and Mr Raufie, for turning up for the chalet and giving us valuable advice
And last but not least,
Everyone who turned up! so that the chalet was such a success!

So yeah. wooh i can warp space time so now my post is b4 pin's one! haha. kinda waiting for photos now so i can carry on wif blogging bout my aus trip.

of aussie hunks and freezing fields

wah lao i hav 94 posts for me to read! so i shan't bother reading them first, i shall blog my own first haha.

anyway, for those who r slow to realise, i'm ys and not someone imposting ys, meaning that i'm back frm aus. yes. back, after abt 30 cuts here and there and abt 15 insect bites here and there. ok frm my last short post just b4 i left, i said i wanted to thank the ppl who made the class chalet so enjoyable(at least frm my view point). that i'll probably do in my next post. and then subsequently i'm gonna make 12 posts detailing my trip! gen wun get to read them, but it's ok cuz i'm writing my secret pal letter to her anyway. wooh frm nothing to write to now probably a 20 page letter? owns. at least that's if i dun get tired of writing lah. anyway, i probably need to do 4 things now.

1. get my hp repaired. it self destructed after my mum gav me a wet charger and i used it without drying it. damn it.

2. write gen's letter, this is gonna be exciting but might just get painful nearer the end when i'm sian of writing.

3. kope the beautiful photos of aus which r in all of my friends' cameras. this is gonna be a messy task. next time i'm gonna get a digi cam of my own man. instead of asking random friends all the time to take.

4. sort out the souvenirs! this is the most fun task haha. cept will probably get qte messy as well. i just hope i bought enough. australia's stuff are damn damn ex! hardly dared to buy anything lah. so yah to yt who's going adelaide soon, spend wisely. really. and i know this is a family hol trip and not some mad camp where u hav to stock up supplies now and then, but then if can, try to visit the local supermarkets and buy some starburst! they're some damn nice gummy sweets. i didn't buy enuff, i kinda just realised. i actually bought a few packets for the class and trish especially, but then when my mum realised that i bought some nice sweets back, she said gd and wanted to giv them to my young cousins, those cute little kids. so erm shit lah. forgot abt my extended family. my bad. anyway, my backpack was bursting le. aiya that's a lame excuse though.

alright so now u r probably wondering abt my title, which i hav made no mention in my post thus far at all. haha so i'm mentioning it now! the aus latrobe uni ppl who went wif us and helped us out in our expedition are damn shuai lah. the girls on the trip kept talking abt them. like eye candy and stuff. haha lol. qte funny. but they're really very shuai, brendon especially. will be posting up photos after i manage to complete my 3rd task.

and wah lao, i kinda totally understand the term 4 seasons in a day liao. this time in aus is their summer time. mind u, it's summer. and the temperature at night and in the morning still hovers arnd 8-12 degrees celsius. wth man, everyone feared waking up and crawling out of the sleeping bag lah. the whole forest was totally like a freezing field man. the trees and mountain ranges block the sun frm reaching us somemore. wooh anyway, i survived it. yay. yt shldn't need to worry so much, cuz i suspect she'll be slping in a hotel and not outdoors. haha.

and the afternoon temperatures then become damn bomb. like really really scorching, 38 degrees? arnd there lah.pretty much y i look kinda blacker now, at least till i peel lah. then arnd evening, the winds become damn strong, like autumn like that. so yah, u hav morning spring, afternoon summer, evening autumn, and night winter. 4 seasons in one day. owns.

anyway, the weather there very dry. will talk more to yt abt wat she shld expect. i was somewhat ill-prepared lah basically. explains y i came back wif 3 ulcers and cracked lips. haha. whee!

all rrright, i guess i go off now, blog again some other time. off to read the other posts!

Yong Sheng

Saga of the 6Nations

Prologue

From the Holy Book of Creation, 1:8

In the Beginning was the Word. And the Word was, “Watting?”
And the second, third, and following words were, “Heaven! It’s 3am in the morning, you’d better have woken me up for a good reason! And I can’t see a damn thing in here, doubleu tee af. Turn on the damn lights!”
And there was Light, which shone upon our universe, and blessed us with its holiness. The Eternal Light blessed us with its warmth, and the Lightbulb never faltered, for it was changed monthly by two hundred Imbecilic Angels.
And the Next Words were, “So…Watting?”
And Archangel replied, “Not Sure Sir, but it appears that we have inadvertently created an independent, miniature universe by accident.”
And Not Sure Sir, Supreme Creator of the Universe, saw that it was Good, and blessed it. “You Stupid Fool! I told you not to mess with that new element until we had tested it properly! Now what are we supposed to do with this blessed universe?”
Archangel You Stupid Fool replied thus, “What should we do then? I think pushing this big red button here can end this universe and destroy all evidence.”
Not Sure Sir, Supreme Creator, in his infinite mercy, then spake thusly, “You imbecilic moron! This could very well be the greatest breakthrough that we’ve ever made so far, and you want to destroy it? This could very well be the defining point of my career, the creation that will bring in big bucks! I want this universe preserved! You are demoted in the ranks, Corporal!”
And for presuming to know his will, the Creator thus punished Archangel You Stupid Fool, who was stripped of his glorious name, and renamed Corporal. Thus did he become the Fallen Archangel Corporal, and forever after that sought to conspire against our holy and sacrosanct universe known as That Thing in the Corner There.

Introduction

Not too far in the past, in a land not too far away (but still highly inaccessible), there were twenty-nine characters in a fairy tale (without the fairies), with countless other minor characters in the greater scheme of things. Living in a forgotten land of myths and legends, the Gods ruled supreme, with a few hiccups. Within six decadent, corrupt nations, evil overlords and baseborn traitors arose, seeking to destroy all that the people held dear. In that tumultuous age where the gods did as they pleased and the evil overlords sowed the seeds of strife and war, heroes arose from humble and noble beginnings alike, formed into bands and ganged up on other heroes, hoping to save their own skins, and lost.

It is a classic battle of the politically correct and the rebels, a bitter conflict where the winners died and the losers died even more horribly, while onlookers laughed sadistically. It is a tragic story of a world without rules, where the strong preyed upon the weak, and inevitably still ended up as plant fertilizer, a bitter war where alliances were made and broken faster than a speeding tortoise, a free-for-all where everyone fought only to save their own skin (hopefully intact). It is a story where the pawns and creeps were ruthlessly slain by their own heroes to deny the enemy, a story of downtrodden, desperate men brought up as heroes by the wheel of fate, and crushed in ignominy.

This is a book dedicated to the characters, young and old, evil and eviler alike, both the heroes and the cannon fodder, like the fourth treant on the frontlines that no one knows, or remembers. This is a book that consoles you that no matter how bad life is, there will always be someone worse off than you. It is the Saga of the 6Nations.

**This is a post that reminds you of people who have too little time on their hands and still do not know how to use it well. I'm feeling bored, so I posted this. Will need comments on how to improve and edit the above. I'll probably work on the rest of this story end of next year.

today is a good day

:)

planned to go lan - cancelled
planned to go bowling - cancelled

went to singapore youth flying club to collect certificate, 2 actually. one is a first solo cert, the other is a cert of participation saying that i completed phase 2 and flew 18.2hrs.

this airforce recruitment guy, capt aaron mak or sth, came and tried to psyco us into joinning rsaf. he's quite funny and gave us a tip on how to escape commando and navy diver. after the basic medical which everyone has to go to determine if you haul rifle or haul documents, some will be [invited] to a second medical this one determines if you get put in commando or navy diver. he added that those who passed the ...
...
...[singapore youth flying club private pilots licence course medical checkup]
...
...which is in fact the rsaf pilots medical, will definitely pass the commando medical. these medicals check for physical ability, not physical fitness. i passed this for those who are wondering. the simple way to escape commando is to skip this second medical. crap up some excuse or just get a mc can already. he added that commando and navy diver are highly hazardous vocations and many of their previous pilot candidates got farked up in commando training(arm broken leg broken neck broken back broken...kelvin?...)
then someone asked when should we apply, he replied before A lvl as it would allow more time for the application process. if you applied late and is not accepted when you finish bmt, you'll be put in some shitty army job for the time being.

so i applied for the airforce today
next yr do computerized test, interview and medical, after A lvl sign contract. good right?

:)

class chalet! (part 2)

zzzzzz... so sian now so i'll tok about the 2nd day of chalet. 3rd day got nuthin much to tok about so i wont bother...


ok so most of the ppl went to sleep... now left several ppl who refuses to sleep... yet. wang xy and oCC stayed in the living room to watch lucky number slevin while the rest of us lp me ys gen started playing monopoly in 1 of the rooms where trish yt rard and chinny were doing stuff together (sounds wrong?) so play until dam sian so we went back out to the living room to find wang half asleep and oCC sleepin in a dam wierd position, wats more he din bathe... so started playing the most uber ownage game in the whole world! TwiSTer!!! haha played thru the nite. shiiiiiiiit it was like dam fun... played until around 5 in the morning and the only ppl still awake were xy gen rard and me then we watched just frenz quite farny but i found it quite boring so fell asleep about 40 mins b4 the end. got awoken by the ending song. (rard fell asleep at this point) me, gen and chinny started cooking breakfast bcus there are some ppl who needed to go sch. the luncheon meat emitted this totally disgusting smell when it was being cooked and gen almost puked >.> xy walked oCC to the bus stop to go sch at arnd 6 and bought some prata back for us to eat. niceeeeee =D


after eating breakfast, jamie lz ellen yt zann went out to play soccer and bball while nar and i watched convenant in the living room... the dvd quality dam suck lar haha after the movie ended i realised the house was dam quiet as if the ppl evaporated or sumthing... went arnd and found the late-nite ppl sleeping -_- wanted to go out to find jamie but didn no where they were so i found an empty room and tried to sleep... but it was way past sleeping time and i couldnt sleep... just rolled arnd the bed stare at the ceiling and zuo bo... haha lucky lz came back at arnd 9.30 then at 10 he woke up xy to play monopoly. oso dam bo liao but better than staring at the ceiling hehe. lz told me jamie was at the bball court so we went after the monopoly game played a few minutes b4 it started raining... so had no choice but to go back to bungalow 10 and wrote our notes for the teachers...


went to dte to eat lunch and to meet with the ppl who went to sch and the PRCs.. meet a few ex-classmates there. lz and i occupied ourselves by watching the "ah wang xin zhuan" trailer at the dvd shop while some ppl went to buy charcoal. went back to the chalet and found jasper! with his xbox! started playing with ys rard jamie xy and lz while some of the gals played O2 mania on lp's comp. play play play, play play play until dunno wat timethen started to prepare for barbecue. (at this point of time i couldnt rmb anything clearly cuz i was started to feel tired) so mr lai and raufie came to eat... lp got high from eating satays and gen went to fry the xess chicken wings. tasted dam nice. the outside ppl were either playing xbox or tokin with raufie...


then after raufie left we went back to our rooms to tok kok. the 5 gals lp xy rard chinny and ys where there. tau poked some ppl. chinny bathed in 2 mins while gen took like 10+mins(was already considered fast according to gen) slacked arnd in the room then wang came in... gen suddenly vanished from the room and the rest of us wsa like dam sian... so went to ka chiao lz by putting his fone next to his face then call it so that it vibrated on his cheek and played the power rangers song... zy woke up to paly monopoly with occ xy and me but i left the game dam quik to follo lp to go somewhere I CANT RMB ALR


okok so after hrs of doin stuff i found myself back in the room where we toked kok. ys fell asleep dam quickly. i found myself a nice corner and settled in to sleep while trish rard chinny yt where singing some funny song that involved tea and wine <.<>


the last day was rily short and bo liao xept we went to chinny's house to play haha so thats the END of the class chalet... quite fun we shud have more chalets =) lol jukinjukin

Dinner at Queenstown

hmm here's a short clip of dinner that day. decided to upload a video..

okie. look b4 lz objects.. haha!

cooling down

hey, ppl! thx for the ppl who took the pics and make an effort to ul it. And thx for the ppl in the pics to let us see...haha, especially me!! ~_~!

for the stupid game "TWISTER" rite, it is really good. wc, xy and me love it so much, at least i think so. everyone is like trying to 'hug' each other using dif part of the body...
for the first day, it took me 2 hours plus to travel from RJC to the 'aloha loyang', a pretty strange name. and the bus is like those illigal car for emigration, feeling bad lah...

safely i find the house...been here once, i think. the 3 days are like blazing away, duno wat happened, just enjoyed it. ahahhahah, chinny and jasper so nice, let us bycicles. i love cycling coz i hvnt done it for years and years and years...i am quite amazed that yt, gen and pin can stay awake for very late...em...they must have been trained be4.

after the chalet went to chinny's hs. really thx chinny for letting me take a good rest at ur hs. I think ellen is really addicted to o2jam...sory for that, i did not want anyone to be addicted to this game as crazy as me. (actually, i am innocent:P)

after being too crazy in the chalet, we should cool down lol...tdy is raining. i was caught in the rain also, rain likes me(i think?)

really love 6N, and yo ppl. i will miss u all when i am at home(China, not RIB). Do we have any activities for christmas? I will be back only after 27th...so sad...anyway, i will be able to play dota...lalala

photo printing

hi everyone i took some time to fix a few photos in detail thinking that you guys(read the girls) may want to print. im also suggesting that we give some of the prints to mr lai. these photos are of much higher quality than the 10000000x compressed thumbnails you see in this blog. i have 23 photos at around 2mb each.

muahahaha my turn to blog about chalettttttttttttttttt!! (part 1!)

haha im felling sian rite now class ppl seemed to have stopped playin dota so im blogging >.> THIS IS GONNA B SOOOOOO LONG so im gonna tok about 1 day at a time =P

went to chinny's house at 11 on tues morning to play a bit of dota haha then occ and jasper came over too! then evil chinny made jasper go to the mrt to wait for ppl and buy food for me and 0CC while he stay at home to play XD. we wanted to catch the 3.15 bus to aLoHa! but becus of screw ups by some of the guys we wasted a lot of time... then went to mrt to wait for ellen then set off to aLoHa!.

when we finally reached bungalow 10 chinny and jasper went back to get ppl at the mrt while em lz occ xy started the first game of mahjong! rard jamie zann pin playing music while wang and some other ppl started cooking... oCC total nub at mahjong and we palyed suuper slowly... when gen yt and ys arrived xy wanted to play Risk so they played ( while i walked around toking cock) the gals didn seem to understand the game so they left the game to i dunno do wat cuz i was playing soccer outside with jasper... wang made us some bread with tomato thingy and told us the oil was very oily -_-" haha then we slacked arnd until 7-8 b4 wang came out of the kitchen with plates of fish cracker, fries, chicken chunks and beef that gen insisted tasted like char siew. after dinner lz and lp taught me how to play "dou di zhu" some super pwnage 3 player card game >.> then played abit of mahjong again...

then xy started watchng final destination 3 which scared the shit out of some of the gals while lz was super excited and hyped up... ate chao fan that chinny's mom bought and then went out for night walkkkkkkkk which really was walking aimlessly arnd the beach... wang and xy had a dispute about the bike wang refused to get off the bike while xy held on for dear life onto the brakes so wang couldnt ride the bike -_- so they stood there like idiots while the rest of us walked on... the walk was quite uneventful xept that we walked rite into an ants nest while taking foto... ouch then found a toad that had super slow reflexes and 2 cute little kitties that were quite friendly haha. some ppl went to play soccer and captains ball in an open area which was infested with ants -_- on our way back to aLoHa! oCC's brain fell out and lp picked it up >.> went back and watched the drift king in 2 fast 2 furious and most of the ppl went to sleep....

(to be continued =D)

Highlight: Picture of the day!

trish n chinny with sparks between them =)

---

mr raufie n nar

risk!

mr lai n qingling

lz approaches jamie

much sparkler lights!

post-sparkler smoke...poof

sleepy pin

luzhou with his favourite colour! xP

more pple sprawled on chinny's bed

gen n mr raufie

class photo with 2 of our bestest BEST tutors!

mr lai with his awesome farewell card

chinny n his leet piano skillz

jamie haohui chinny

sing-a-long song

nar -- best improvement award!

mr lai playing teh guitar

qingling -- top scorer award!

hc reading ms tan's letter

lao pee and yong seng

minmin wenjia zann sotongball

ellen yt pin with more sotongballs -- ellen looks funny

zann tucking into a sotongball mercilessly

zomg mr lai acting macho!