Singapore Athletics Assosiation Cross Country Meet
On the 17th of January, our school took part in the Singapore Athletics Assosiation Cross Country Meet held at Bedok Reservoir. While the results showed that both the B and C division won first in their events comfortably, the journey was anything but that. Before the race, we have been training hard five times a week. We had to be sure to be prepared for the first race that came our way.
On that day, the atmosphere was tense. It was sunny. Looking around us, we saw our rivals. Singapore Sports School, Catholic High School and Raffles Instituition. I took a deep breath. Recent training has really been less then desirable. If I blew this race, I knew I only had myself to blame. Appearing light-hearted and easy go lucky, I was actually nervous. I closed my eyes and prayed that everything would be alright. The first race started ( C division girls ) and we went to start on our warm up. My muscles were tensed, my mind was made up. Today, we were running to win.
After doing our warm up and stretching, my heart was pumping faster then ever. Wanting to get a good starting position, we decided to walk towards the starting line first( the starting was first come first serve ). Standing there, it had to be the one of the worst 10minutes of my life. Waiting for the horn to go, I stood there, heart thumping.
Ready, GO! And it began. I flew off, not wanting to get boxed in. Soon, i was in the front pack and leading the C division (B divison and C division boys ran together). Afraid that i was starting too quickly, I slowed down slightly. The first 3 kilometres of the 5 km race was still easy. And then, I felt the pain. My mind was telling my body to give up. It wasn't worth it. I looked back, and i saw my team-mate and fellow Victorian Venuraam. He was just a few metres behind. I looked infront and saw a boy from Raffles Instituition. I made my mind up to overtake him.
And so, my pace was getting faster. The pain was getting worst. My head was screaming at my body to stop. But I just kept going. I told myself that I had to keep going. I could't disappoint my friends and those that believed in me. My legs carried me forward, I think. I could't feel them. Soon, we reached the 4km mark. If only one last km to go, the boy from Raffles Instituition was close now. Before I knew it, I started going at top speed.
I was never really a big fan of sprinting. Sprinting after the boy from RI, I caught him. 700m to go. I wanted to surge forward with all i got. Venuraam was just behind. Raffles was sprinting together. We were together, the three of us. I surged forward and they followed. Surged again and again. With 500m to go, I gave up. I lost hope. Venuraam kept going, and soon overtook the Raffles. I just did't care anymore. Until, I saw that Raffles was dying too. This spurred me on for the last 400m. I over took Raffles. Me and Venu finished in fantastic positions.
We walked back to get our drinks. We were tired, but happy. We knew we have done it. And when the results came out, we were delighted. We went to recieve our trophies and medals.
Today, we have won a race. It was a small race, but we now have the confidence. The confidence that on March 25th, we can make it happen. We can win this. Just ignore that stupid thing inside your head that tells you to stop.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 // 4:28 AM
Movie Review: The Wedding Game
Today, the 27th of January, I went to watch The Wedding Game with a few of my seniors at orchard.
"Jack Fang (Christopher Lee) publicly proposes to Vikki Tse (Fann Wong) during the live telecast of a regional awards show. Surprised but happy, Vikki accepts. What the public doesn't know is that the entire love affair of these two famous celebrities, Jack and Vikki, is an elaborate and meticulously planned ruse designed by their ambitious managers May (Alice Lau) and Tom (Charles Chan) to trick the public into believing that they are getting married. In reality, Jack has disliked Vikki from the first day they met and vice versa. Yet for fame and money from endorsements, these rival celebrities keep up with their “fake” marriage to up their popularity. Just when everything is going so well, an incident has rattled some of the fans and the media. There is doubt now lingering about the authenticity of this love match."
Taken from www.wikipedia.org
Now my ratings on the film.
Plot: 2/5 Acting: 4/5 Atmosphere:4/5 Overall:3/5
Now, I will give my opinion on the different components of the show.
Plot- The plot is really cliche and predictable with no real bite to it. It is the typical kind of love story where hate comes first which then slowly blossoms into love. Granted the fact that certain parts of the movie such as when videos of the fake couple argueing where leaked, the director managed to find a realistic way as the solution. Still, the plot is pathetic. 2/5 seems reasonable to me.
Acting- Fann Wong and Christopher Lee did a excellent job in portraying the characters. They subtly showed their slight reluctance without spelling it out or saying it much. Their expressions were wonderful and did well to get the message across. Also, Clares Chan(Tom) and Alice Lau(May) were fantastic. 4/5 is well deserved, really. And people still say Singapore dosen't have talent.
Atmosphere- The atmosphere is romantic and beautiful for the scenes with the most impact. Towards the part where they really fall in love, you can see the beautiful sea. Other parts such as the houses of the stars, the location of Vikki's(Fann Wong) Father's house and other such minor details that makes the atmosphere different and quiet. Also, during the "paparazzi attack" you can feel the noise and excitment level running high. 4/5 seems fair to me
Overall-Both the leads, Christopher and especially Fann did well and shown great chemistry in the movie.The sceneries are beautiful and the story proceeds at a good pace. Overall, it is a decent movie but definitely not at the level the publicity suggested.
// 3:12 AM
Chinse New Year
Yes it is that time of the year again! The time when some red and filled with money is given to us! It is none other then Chinese New Year. This year it is the year of the ox. I don't really think i need to give a whole story on cows, so let us skip to what I did on Saturday.
On Saturday morning, I went to visit my Grand Uncle's house. He lives in Penang and it took us a 5 hour drive. I seldom see my Grand Uncle as he lives in Malaysia, and was ectastic at seeing him after such a long time. If I'm not wrong, it has been about eight months the last time I saw him. After the long car ride, we finally reached Penang!
When we entered the house, we could smell the fragrance of spicy food. Our grand uncle was cooking! I have never really tasted his cooking before, but judging by the smell, I would love to. Usually, he would come down to our house when my father drives him, but this was the first time we ever visited his house. We greeted Grand Uncle and he commented on how tall I've grown. I smiled back. After we exchanged greetings, it was time for lunch. Grand Uncle served delicious Samba Fish among other dishes such as Otah. But the fish was just fantastic. After lunch, we watched television while my father was chatting with Grand Uncle about the current financial turmoil.
Soon, it was time to leave. We said goodbye, and my father promised that we would come again soon.
We headed back to Singapore to visit 2 more families. They were my mother's close friends. I played with the children there and had lots of fun playing Monopoly. I might be Secondary 2, but I still love that game. Soon, night fell and it was about time to get home.
// 1:58 AM
Training Recently
During this period of time, only one thing has been on my mind so far: training. Sure school is really important, but to me right now, training and winning top in the coming Cross Country Championships is my top pirioty. Why? Studies is for myself, winning is for the school. If I don't do well in my studies, I will disappoint the teachers in my class, my parents, and myself. But if i don't win the Cross Country, I will disappoint the teachers of the school, the students of the school, my seniors, the alumni who have been coming back as often as they can, and most important the tradition of Victoria School.
So how often has my trainning been? During the Chinese New Year, we had a break from Friday to Monday. And wow life has been way different during those 4 days. But, i still had to do my own running everyday. I have to keep fit to prevent everything i have been training for go down the drain. Before that, trainning is 5 time a week. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. But trainning is only going to get tougher, and training on Fridays is going to start really soon. So, whats going to happen next? Expect more tiring Mondays and Wednesday because of intervals.
On Mondays and Wednesdays I have training at East Coast Park or Victoria Junior College. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays I have it at Mac Ritchie Resevoir. And wow, that is really far and takes me about 1.5 hours to reach it.
So as you can see, training recently has been anything but easy. But I really believe, all of this is worth while. Maybe because I like the feeling of winning, or maybe because I feel this is a way to help Victoria School and myself make a name. But whatever the reason is, I am going to train my heart out. I don't like running, it is tiring and painful, but at the end of the day, holding the trophy in front of the school and presenting it to our principle. It makes it the pain go away.
// 1:06 AM
Barack Obama's Speech
After hearing Mr Maran's words about Barack Obama's Inauguration Speech, I decided that i should go and check it out myself. Searching the net, I found what i was looking for after sometime. If you want to read it yourself, you can go to http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/obama.politics/index.html and read it yourself. " what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage."
"that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace."
"For the world has changed, and we must change with it."
Those words were the one that caught most of my attention. It showed a dawn of a new era. A new country. A new America. The country which is falling apart piece by piece. The country which has been in war for so long now. The country that is America. But it's all about to change now.
With everything that has been happening to the world around us, it is impossible to ignore the looming resession. Singapore, known to be one of the most economically stable country is being affected greatly with this downturn. Imagine about those poorer countries..
Imagine the poor boy thousands of miles away, crying for just a little water to stop his throat from hurting. Imagine the baby even further away, starving to death. Imagine the families, the citizens, the innocent being slaughtered everyday in Gaza. And then look back at the speech. All you can do is nod your head, and believe Barack Obama, the most powerful man on Earth. Believe he will bring peace to the war-torn areas of this world. Believe he will bring hope to the starving and the poor. Believe he will bring change this world. Believe in the new world. A world of peace and prosperity. And then I remember our Pledge. Don't we have the same goal as America? To bring peace, to bring prosperity to our nation. To the world. And so, hopefully we can look forward, to change.
In the current financial turmoil, the world is affected. Singapore is affected. So we must stick together, as one single nation to overcome this crisis. I look back, and can't help but to remember what I learnt in Social Studies. Is this really worst than all that has happened to Singapore, or any other countries so far? In the past, there has been The Great Depression, World War I and World War II, the Asian Recession. There has been wars, there has been struggles, so much of them caused by our own kind. Yet, some things were unavoidable. Such as MotherNature taking the lives of thousands during the Tsunami. Or when SARS striked and killed our loved ones. So, is the current recession worse than all that? Maybe.
But let us not compare it to the past. For we live in the present. What ever we do now will be the future. We must stick together, as one People. We must stick together, as one Nation. We mut stick together, as one Singapore.
Video take from www.youtube.com
Pictures found from www.google.com
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 // 10:37 PM
Boring day, or so i thought
It was a normal Wednesday. I went to school at about 6.40am. So I went into class and my dull day started. Counting down the minutes, P.E finally came. Not that it really mattered. I was exempted from P.E because of my coming competition. Soon the hour passed and it was recess. Recess was equally boring. Getting bored reading this? Imagine i had to live it, minute by minute.
So let's just skip to after school. I waited till 2.30pm before heading to the PAC room where i ordered my shoes, and then went for training. Typical boring day, or so i thought. During my training i saw something that touched me. I saw a little boy crying. He was lost. There was nobody there to help him. There he was, in the middle of the "nowhere", with no one to hold close to him. But suddenly, another young boy, this time even younger, came up to him. He was at least a head shorter than the poor lost boy, but that did not stop him from reaching out his hand, and helping him.