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Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Saturday/20 July. Main event, was baking cookies. Typing that alone makes me feel embarrassed. And to surge more blood to my face, let me announce: this is my project work. To date I still can't believe I didn't oppose this idea. Task1: Nature's Forces: To integrate 'essence' of wolfberry (a TCM) into cookies so that little kids suffering from eye degeneration can get some help. It's a little weak doncha think. And I'm doing it. And one more thing. My group members are still suffering from slight problems with grammar. I'm so dead.

So met at 23niqmAT MRT station, went to buy the lousy ingredients and made our way to Longman's house. Went there before, but forgot the way long ago. No matter. We got down to taking pictures of what we bought, then referring to a book on cookies and biscuits to prepare the stuff for baking. Eventually the 1st batch came out overbaked and the 2nd batch underbaked. Not until the 3rd batch were the cookies the right texture, but... there are always buts... all the cookies were bent somewhat like the watches in the Persistence of Memory. 'Cause the oven was funny. No tray, and it was circular.

Then came the cream part. We plan to make Oreo-style, with the cookies and the cream. So all was fine, the butter and the sugar went together. After adding the ground wolfberry, yellow became slightly orange. Then complaint inevitably came of the smell and the appearance. So cocoa powder was added. Not slowly. So the end result was a brown cream, not unlike those in Julie's Assorted Biscuits, but the smell wasn't gone. What the heck. Home then it was for me.

Monday. I'm skipping Sunday 'cause its really nothing much. Mass PE was again, disappointingly, the ACES day dances, and as usual it sucked. The whole hall was, from what I think, divided into two groups: the onstage enthusiasts and the obligated, on the floor. I was practically a masses-dependent mobile corpse. Not dancing, but moving with the people in a bid to avoid detection. After that it was the same old tpjc Monday life. Playing, having fun, masking my agenda.

2nd day of the week, and the kite I painted "TAMPINES SO1" wth the iconic crescent/five stars won. The prize? Some plastic bag containing Oreo, Wang-Wang, a few chocs and the like. Budget is definitely the word. I just wasted my time doing the kite. For class PE, the teacher promised us last week that today'd be games. He just broke it the same way Ang Pow Chew broke his co-ed promise in 2001. Weird how humans break promises as easily as stepping on an ant nowadays. So we ran 3 rounds, and it was over. We played soccer after that on the not-so-wet basketball court, but he found us and made a mountain out of a wormhole. So we had to go home. So much for the promise.

Wednesday then. Can't remember much about academic time. Just that during track, guys ran one round and rested while the gals ran one round, then they rested and we ran; we did this for 16 rounds. Then for the last, we then did a no-rest 5 rounds. 11:50 for me. After that I was almost on the verge of a breakdown. After the cool-down, I cheonged home (not on the part of the bus).

Thursday's memories are blanked out. I don't know why.

Thank God it's Friday. GP essay test saw me writing my longest essay yet. 6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in a multi-racial society? Actually I sort of cheated; I knew the question beforehand. So a few of the points were prepared. But then again, the details weren't.

Track time. The sprinters ran 5 rounds and were knocked out. I did the 5 rounds in less than 10 minutes, which was our limit. After that, it was workout time: pumps, sit-ups, and the like. When track ended, I went to my second home- VS. Sat there, slacked, waited for Rey, Darren, KeunHo.

Found that the OVA had some meeting at the time. Hope they come up with something strong enough to change the sickening fate that APC put us up to. He and CKG are beside themselves trying to convince the world that co-ed is really the way out. They are wrong. It is not us. It is APC. Ever since he became principal, VS's been going down. With the exception of my year, perhaps that's why it's the way it is now. He just spent too much on my batch. Dad's been convinced since I was Sec 2 that he should be given the sack.

Anyway, then went to Parkway's Mac for, in my case, a half-dinner with them plus Sanjay. I think Sanjay's doing very well. He's working hard with the rest of the school to prove APC/CKG how wrong they were and are. And he's got such a bigger opportunity than my batch had. If it weren't for the dragon year, I would have... damn.

Saturday. In the evening, I went missing in action for a while. In half an hour, I ran to 7-Eleven to get a Nemo rubber ball, went to Guardian in ShopNSave to get a blue water bottle (as I realized later it should have been transparent), ran to the park to fill a quarter of the bottle with sand, then ran home with the things.
At night, I tried and tried to overcome every setback I encountered, in a desperate bid to create a decorative bottle as a present to my mum. In the end, At 4 am, I finished. But the acrylic on BluTack wasn't promising. Then I drifted off to the land of sleep. Dreaming... again. I was wearing VSPE, the only one in the tpjc scene. It was raining, but there was a great glass ceiling over the field, in a pattern somewhat like the Esplanade exterior. Mr PE was saying that it was raining, so we couldn't play games. When in fact there was that great ceiling.

So Sunday, 28 July. Happy Birthday Mum! Then, satisfied to see the acrylic still intact with the BluTack, I gave it to her, and all was well. Eventless describes the rest of the day. Went to buy hor fun in the evening and I can now confirm: it takes extremely long. 'Cause their business is real good. Watched Homerun, and quite a touching show it was, of determination and desire. My eyes and heart devoured the whole show. Because it was exactly my life now.

Monday: PE was volleyball, quite fun, but too academic. The lesson should be more interactive. Actually PE shouldn't even be taught verbally. Then the rest was as usual. Skip all of that same boring stuff. I'm home, typing this out.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Haven't been blogging for many weeks as many of the days were all the same, me struggling with my pathetic life in tpjc. So I'll keep typing on this post about whatever I have to say, to make up for the loss.

Singapore's 40th birthday, aka National Day was fun, but not also very fun, due to the infiltration of my biological system by a virus. For after that, I had fever, a very, very, very bad sore throat, and cough. So I took MC for 2 days- meaning I get a week of holiday, while others had to go to school for those 2 days. Not until I had a small chat with Eric, some Temasekian, who told me to drink lots and lots of water, that I drank lots and lots and lots of water, and then I started to feel it going off. And that feeling, is really euphoria. To feel life come slowly back into myself... Please please please please please.

The newspaper reported: Victoria School's going co-ed, and they've already sent in the proposal. NO WAY! VS will not shine as a mixed school! What about the years of tradition, culture, history? Currently the VS webpage shows the 129 Speech Day presentation, and Nelson Mandela's words shout out: "There is nothing like returning to a place that has remained unchanged, to find the many ways in which you have altered." And they still dare to do this! How can Ang Pow Chew, to whom we have given 5 SYF Golds, 2 with Honours, Cross Country Double Champions and National Track and Field Double 3rds, even have a hand in this? I'm really ashamed to even think of the possibility. No more shouting, cheering in the rain, one voice, VS Spirit, everything! I am glad I did have my four years, for they were the best I ever had, better than my primary school, better than kindergarten, better than jc. The best. I would really cry if VS really goes co-ed. If such happens, 129-year old VS will always be in my heart.

VS... I admit, I love Victoria School.

NAPFA- I should get a gold, as I kept all above C. My 2.4 is disappointing, however. I retook it 3 times- 11:47, 12:30, 12:00. I might as well have not retaken. That's why "I should get a gold", and not "I got a gold". On the other hand, I'm quite satisfied with Standing Broad Jump-260, best in the class. The tip of my toe was just touching the 300' mark. I remember when I jumped- the class was going "Ah, Bryan, surely A one", which was very comforting indeed, and when I jumped to 260, the eruption of cheers held me momentarily rooted before I let myself go off. Shuttle run was 9.3s, but I'm not at all confident of Vincent Lee's reaction time. Nonetheless, 25 points for me- with all above C- that's a Gold for me!

I forgot if I'd said it before, but I'll just say it again. I'm in track now. And one great, big fat difference about neighbourhood schools and our kinda schools, is that neighbourhood schoolpeople find it silly to join track, when it's one of the more prestigious CCAs in our-end schools.