11/25/07

翔子( xiang2 zi3 in hanyu pinyin )

As mentioned, i fowled up my cone trick routine while executing my toe toe traversing trick ( technically known as 'toe toe special ')

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The picture on left shows my entrance and the right shows the catastrophe as i exited the cones. Oh well...

After the competition, i joined the boys to feast in ECP chalet. Team Micro had booked some chalets as accommodation for the foreign judges from Korea and China. Most of the boys headed home, except for me, Felicia, ZhiZhong and Andy, still gaming for a few more sliding sessions in the rink. I guessed they were still having the competition HIGH in them.

What we did not expect next was guest appearance 翔子( A member of Team Micro China ). I supposed you wont know him, so let me introduce to you here :


He was also down for the competition judging, and we had not expected his presence at the rink. Seeing him accelerate before sliding is a magical moment, so overwhelming that it would easily make any singapore skater wonder what they actually did with their skates. You can see how fierce he slides in the clip so i dont bother with the elaboration.

Here's a picture of us at the rink
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Those young fellas in white and me are locals 翔子is the guy in black tee standing beside me. Best. The other black tee guy was his sidekick.

Felicia insisted on going Night Rider, because apparently the 3 young fellas were still reminiscing about how the competition went and all the 'bitchings' what not. Non of them wanted to go home early on a Saturday night. I stood for awhile pondering when i last skated at the rink after 10pm. So the 4 of us whizzed on the smooth green surface enjoying, occasionally stealing glances from by standers. Happy times really flies and soon the time on my Timex showed 1245am Sunday.

Yes, that mean we had to make our way from ECP to the Night Rider Bus stop ( the nearest one being Suntec City ). The guys dont seem to translate the actual distance into their heads... Oh well.

In less than 5min we got our stuff into our bags, and off we were, somewhat feeling the visual difficulty under dim lightings. Thank goodness we eventually pulled through the distance, fuelled by the sheer thrill of having the chance to skate a long distance together.

This night skate felt somewhat different from my past night cycling experiences with my university mates. Skating with these 3 peeps really make me feel so light and care free, chattering nonsense and bulls*** as if i were also a young boy. We got lost a few times in Kallang Stadium Area( we ended up on the other side of the Shears Bridge Hahaha )

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Featuring Good Old Goat with Singapore Number 8 slider Andy

Thank goodness and in God's Grace, we found our way to the bus stop facing Funan Shopping Centre. Though with half eyes closed, we still managed some energy to hop onto NR2( Sembawang )with some drinks we got from 7-11.

Letting it go

Yup, i'm letting this new toy go. SGD300

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Featuring Powerslide's Nexus Inline Hockey Skate.

-Brand new.

-Hi-Low wheel set up ( i.e 72-72-80-80)

-Can modify to a banana set up for slalom ( using configuration of 72-76-80-76 ). Weird configuration because of its hi low frame structure.

-Short frame, about 231mm i think. See the picture below; I place my slalom skates with it for visual comparison :

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Here are some more pictures upclose
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Anyone keen can approach me for viewing. I will come down to let you try on the skates.

Personal Hurdle Number 2 ( After Math )

I finally made it back from the competition in one piece.

There was basically 10 competitors in this year's National Freestyle Slalom Competition. The reason why i included the title of the competition is that the results would actually make its way into the international WSSA ranking. Dont get me wrong; i'm not trying to say i did very well this time. In fact I got the 6th Position among 10 competitors.

I'm extremely delighted getting this 6th position because:

1. In a run of 1min and 30 second, i did not manage to showcase all my routines on the cones. I ran out of time and had to go into a forced ending. Ha ha i did not actually include the time factor in my training since i thought i was just going for the experience that's all.

2. In one of my routines, my legs suddenly became jellified and gave way to pressure and heat. I had to exit those cones with basic moves after failed attempts to retain my control over my toe tricks.

3. Out of 10 competitors, 3 of the competitors were from the professional team, leaving the real competing down to 7. Among these 7 we had 3 international skaters from india who barely started out slalom( i wouldn't considered them ready for this competition since there was one of them who just started playing cone tricks like a few months back - nonetheless i respect their courage for taking part );So effectively in my realm the dogfight was down to 4 competitors, of which one of them was a champ in last year's slalom mania competition and the other a hardcore skater who seemingly spends most of his weekends in ECP rink. And so its down to 2...hahaha...I was really surprised i could beat the other fella who represented skatesports, because for that skate sport boy's run he did not lose control and seemingly did well in all his tricks.

( So you see, clinching 6th position was indeed a great boost somewhat )

4. I won myself a pair of inline hockey skates ( correct sizing somemore ) from lucky draw. Ha what luck i got!( i'm thinking of selling it at 300 bucks any takers ??? )

I only have myself to thank because i managed to persuade myself to try it out.

Probably this is one of the few occasions when i actually confronted my fear at the expense of my ego. The competition injected a certain level of humbleness in me, making me want to do more, not just in cone tricks but life in general.

11/23/07

Personal Hurdle Number 2

I've decided to give the competition a shot... after lying domain for quite some time.
I remembered the times when i was almost immobilised on skates because of my ankle operation.

I shall not press too much on myself. Afterall, i am giving shirley support for this competition. I think its one of those ways i can really get involved in spreading the sport, as well as getting myself more involved in committing to more demanding tricks.

If i were to nominate a personal objective, it would be to do my very best, given the unfavorable circumstances of lack of training plus the hot sun. Guess i really have to move on from this point.

11/14/07

The power of tongues

I felt rather helpless today.

Just a few hours during lunch, i was having a simple casual conversation with some of my coursemates. Somehow the topic drifted to my fiancee. My friend asked what her main diet in US was i think. So without any thoughts i replied sausages. I could still remember my short conversation with my dearie a few days back on MSN, when she posted a few pictures of packets of big sausages that she got from Walmart ( this real big hyper mart in USA ).

I got pretty pissed actually when this friend of mine actually could link sausage with male genitals, and happily tried to joke about it and my fiancee( implied ) in a lewd way ( in what way i shall spare the readers of this blog, because i dont really feel comfortable when people try to joke like this about my kin )

I am fine with people calling me all sorts of weird names, because i am also like that, giving people weird nicknames. Doesn't matter if you call me monster, ugly boy or some porn shit. I've gotten used to such things.Its just some ways people around you try to lighten up things. That i understood. But how would you feel if i start making lewd or any jokes about your spouse / parents?

I had to pretend not to feel affected. But deep down in my heart i feel rather disguisted at the way some people can actually make jokes about people whom they never knew.

Jokes are fun. You can laugh it off and make your day ( maybe others as well in this context ).

But make sure no one is being undermined at the expense of your jokes.

11/9/07

Where was i when i was 16?

A fruitful Friday passed by just like that. Time flies when you are really enjoying every single moment of it.

720pm, Friday : I whizzed past the steel doors of the passenger lift that ran through the spines of Admiralty MSCP. Was quite surprised to see Clarence, one of the team Micro boys,because i have not seen him in action since late September. As soon as he stopped his routine, i greeted him.

He smiled at me as if he was equally excited to see me. It did not take me long to realize that he had just cleared his Os and was happily dancing on 8 wheels.

"Hey man, finished Os liao right? "

"Yah, sibei shoik ah. Yay!!!!!"

It daunted upon me as the words of this 16 year old sank into my head. What was i doing after my Os? Where was i enjoying my free time after the major exams?

In that split second, my mind fell into a trance.............

Red Cross House, this building behind the present park mall, felt like my 2nd home 10 years back;I was a very "uniform grouped" person, who loves to assume this instructor role and share with others what i have learned in the First Aid Duty Department. Every weekends during my upper secondary school days were spent attending courses on footdrill, leadership and first aid duty management. Semester breaks meant camps, first aid duties, red cross committee meetings and MORE CAMPS! I was from an all boys school, and combined school activities were quite a motivation for hormone raging teens like me....

Looking back, i thanked my uniformed group cca commitment in making me who i am today: a very vocal and outgoing person who does not hesitate to voice out his personal fears and share with others what he knows.

As i stood on the smooth cemented floors of the MSCP, watching clarence demonstrating his slalom kungfu, i cant help but wonder what kind of a person i would be if i had chosen to commit to some form of discipline 10 years back.

Probably i felt insecure in that sense, not having some 'specialty' sport that i can claim with pride that i can do very well in.

Ok, maybe that's why i am penning this blog entry in the first place.

11/8/07

A mobile running tap

I had a mobile running tap.

Last Friday, i came home feeling spineless and wobbly. I was sneezing my way into the house as i slowly settled down and took my shower. A few hours before, i was shopping for winter clothings with dearie ( she's leaving for US for work for a month! argh!!! )and i had been sneezing after leaving that shop. Maybe it was the dust from the merinos and wool and cashmere... ....

Ever since that night i have been sneezing for as long as i'm awake, all the way until tuesday. Every sneeze shook the nerves within my skull i tell you... super bad. Thank goodness i managed to recover to do this post, but was equally sadden to learn that one of my course mates had kena STD (SPENG - TRANSMITTED - DISEASE). I felt sorry for him and offered him a packet of tissue on wednesday.

Right now ( Friday ) i'm home, enjoying the off day which rolled over from Hari Raya 2 weeks back. And so i will begin my 2nd part of my course mates pictures. No particular topic in mind.

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I used this picture as my desktop background in the aviation academy. Guess what happens next....
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Basically i am honoured to have an ardent fan in my class. And again i was equally sorry to have spread the STD to this boy. HAHAHAHA.

3 weeks ago there was some interclass ( i almost wanted to use the word 'inter-COURSE' ) games session following the hari raya celebration. We took part in some real ku ku games. Here are some pictures...
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Can you see what i was kicking?

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Holding hands with the 'koon sin' of the class

October ended with a slightly happy note, having realised that i have cleared 12 modules worth of test and 2 more coming. Theory course is coming to an end, and it will mark the beginning of a month of operational attachment in the radar centre.

God, please help me tide over this one month of radar centre shift work.

11/3/07

Bang Bang!

Here are some october shots of my coursemates. Well its not like we have time to take pictures and all. These photos below were taken a few days before my fellow international coursemates from brunei left after their 8wk stay with us.


Even though i braved the odds of university life, it is always difficult to keep awake THE WHOLE day sitting down and listening to lecturers talk.
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Each of these little cans represents the sweets intake for one week. ( Your task is to guess how many weeks passed since i started the course. Winners can claim one of these 'eclipse' minty tablets from me. Taste like toothpaste though heh heh )

I stumbled upon a billard pro in my class. How did i know? Ok we dont have a billard table in the aviation academy BUT sometimes during our free time we do head down to Changi Airport Recreation Club for a few games of billard and KTV. I learnt a thing or two from this pro who started out cheating pple of money from billard table since his poly days.
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Just check out his goatie. That's what i called a true blue hustler.

During breaks we turn the classroom into gambling dens
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Sometimes during class WE ALSO continue...away from the eyes of the lecturer that is.
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If there's a gambling den THEN there must be a bookie or loanshark of sorts
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And this loanshark only operates when there's life music
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Sometimes the loanshark insist more music....
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Again i had the honour to steal some tricks on strings from this guitar pro who started out his jamming life since his poly days. There is NOTHING that i request for THAT HE CANT play.

The gambling den requires some form of wireless communication with the outside world. I volunteered my laptop as a point of contact with the outside bookies / loanshark. Sometimes i get abit of pressure from the lady loanshark in the class
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When i could not make the mark, the loansharks in my class send me to Terminal 3 to do coolie work
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They also gave weird punishments to my fellow colleague who failed to collect money. This guy was made to stay still with a 1. 5 litre bottle on his head while the rest will torture him anyway they want
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Ok, this one is a slightly more prestigious form of punishment done in the changi control tower. GETTING READY to be slapped on his fat butts that is.
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So far that's it. More to come.