Time check - 4.30AM
Gosh. I just messaged Terry to give me morning call when she wakes up. Immediate reply. She's awake already! And I haven't slept a wink yet! Shit. I'm so going to die. Am I? :X Didn't manage to sleep last night cause erm... After slacking, I was about to go to bed. Laid there for awhile and Terry called. -_-" Great. Just nice. Washed up and went to meet them for breakfast. Namely Shuling, Terry and Xueli. Macdonalds rock my socks! :D Especially their tea! :X Erm okay. Too lazy to make tea for myself la huh. Anyway regarding studies, I'm left with four bloody chapters! Yay. Literally forced myself to study Chemical Composition when I got home. Figured out that if I didn't do that, I'll probably never be able to finish studying. Just did Pressure. Left with Temperature, Material Balance and Stoichiometry. Pretty simple. Didn't manage to study during race today. -rolls eyes- What's new. Well at least now I think I'll be able to finish studying? Shall study the rest by today after race. Then if there's time and I'm still feeling alive I'll go re-do the past tests. Monday I'll do past year papers and start on OIC. Yay. Okay I'm trying to make myself feel as though I've got loads of time on hand so shut up. Hahaha.
Day 1 of MR500 today. Or should I say yesterday? 26th March alright.
Reached Macritchie early in the morning. Yeah I know we were late but it's okay. Once in a blue moon alright. Usually we're the early birdies and Derick's the one whose always late. He took the car today so not fair! Started our mini photo taking session as usual. Heh. Didn't take much pictures cause well, not many people considering not everyone's participating in Day 1. I'm only supposed to go down on Sunday actually. But I wanted to support. :P Halfway through, Ah Bao called. My planned relaxing-race-watching day totally changed. She needed me to row for the alumni team though she really didn't want to touch the current rowers. No choice cause one left rower just backed out. Was kind of lost cause I didn't bring my stuff at all?! I was wearing the race tee... But what. Row in my boxers?! Hahaha. Luckily she offered to help bring clothes. :P
Ran around Macritchie panting like some mad dog. Cause I couldn't find Ah Bao. Apparently she was waiting at another toilet. Bleah. Passed the alumnis their race tee and ran all the way back to another toilet to change into my attire. After which I ran all the way back to our bags area to keep my stuff, ran all the way back to Ah Bao then ran all the way to loading point cause we were running late. What a warm up. Thanks. -_-" Managed to load the boats on time. There was a minor delay cause erm one of the alumnis had to go re-park her car while we were doing our warm ups. Illegal parking... And they announced her car plate. :X
Loaded the boats and rowed to the starting point. 500M really seemed so far all of a sudden! I was like feeling so tired before we even reached the starting point. Think maybe due to the lack of sleep I assume? Was damn stressed out too... Everyone was trying to calm me down. :X Cause it's my first time not rowing with my teammates... And the alumnis are like so, so experienced. And I'm like what? A freshie Year 1. -_-" So intimidated. Thankfully I knew the people sitting around me. Ah Bao was my partner at the fourth seat. Which was good cause that seat is comfortable and she calmed me down. Sharon was sitting behind me with Dawn as her partner. Others on the boat include two national rowers namely Wan Xin and someone called Joanna I think? There's also Cynthia whose the left pacer, Helena, Lele the TP coach and erm the rest I don't know their names. :X I didn't even know their race strategy?! 8 15... Usually I'm doing 8 20. And I wasn't sure of their stroke rates, power, that sort of thing? By the way, Dawn's birthday today! She insisted on us winning cause she wants to come back to row the following day. Birthday girls. -rolls eyes- Hahaha.
Ah shall jot down the details cause this would probably be the first and last time I'm ever rowing with others a part from my own team mates. Race started so suddenly. Our starts wasn't good... Not enough power? So all the boats were like in front of us initially. One boat was even leading us by two boat lengths. Basically I didn't know what was going on cause I was too nervous. Everything just blanked out. All I knew was. Don't think, just row. Serious. --_-" Just whack. Bleah. Don't know if I've given enough power or not. Had to keep looking at Ah Bao to remain focus. It's not easy to focus when you're so tired. Mind starts wondering away.
However, our maintenance was good. Really. The pace was fast yet comfortable. Kind of weird... Cause I'm not good with fast strokings... But it was totally different. Manageable. Wilson was saying cause we point together and our strokes were not draggy. Maybe? Anyway... When you're on the boat, you can really feel their strong mental somehow. We were pretty quiet throughout the set. There's a big difference between quiet but calm and quiet but stress you know. Especially when you're behind other boats. And well we've never trained with each other before so in terms of physic and bonding. It's not there. In fact, now thinking back... It's pretty scary. Hahaha. If only we could be like that too. -ponders- We picked up during maintenance and quickly overtook the rest of the boats. Team Blue was like coming towards us?! Mind you, they're in Lane 1 and we're in Lane 3?! Lane 2 was some Breast Cancer Foundation team so they were knocked out very quickly... Then Team Blue came cutting their lane and into ours. But they backed off after Victor yelled at them.
Charging was hmm... No power also. Hahaha. Guess we were all too tired. Old already. :X But hey! We got first for our heats! So who cares! We were like doing maintenance strokings for charging. But it's okay. Ah Bao said since we were leading, don't do charging also nevermind. -_-" First time hearing such stuff. Still! It was a really good experience! Fun too. Heh. Too bad I can't row for them tomorrow in the semis... Wonder if they'd have enough rowers or not. Man. All of them were like so afraid I'd cause them to lose since I'll most probably be rowing for the current team in the same category tomorrow. Oh. The current team clinched first in the heats too. Different semis though. Imagine if both teams were to be in the same semis? Saturday in alumni boat, Sunday in another boat against them. So totally wrong.
De-briefed. They were like so damn funny! They wanted to do a cheer and call themselves NAPA?! Ngee Ann Polytechnic Alumni. That sounded so hmmm. Sharon kept saying nap, nap. They were talking about ACJC who clashed with the current team in their heats. Heard it was really bad. They injured our rowers... Like whacking with their paddles when the boat clashed? Xueli and Qihui got whacked. :( Poor them. What's with teams and their dumb coxswains?! Can't they learn how to stay in their lanes! Tsk. And! Even if you do clash by accident, at least be considerate. Our rowers were good enough to bring their paddles in while you guys go whacking them with yours. Bleah. The alumnis would be against ACJC in the semis tomorrow. Hahaha. Don't underestimate them... They can be real fierce. :X Scary. They were like cracking jokes. What with slowing down for the teams if they give them $500. Then Lele was saying might as well discard one paddle. But Wanxin mentioned "Wa. I'll still have $430 after that okay!" One normal paddle costs about $70. Then some said stuff like laugh like a lunatic at the other teams when they're side by side. Imagine laughing so hard while rowing?! And then there's the stop rowing and wave at them part. Or if side by side, "Hey we're going too fast. Slow down, slow down.". There's even the back paddle five strokes. -_-" I remember someone saying something like when they're beside ACJC, "Paddles in!", then proceed to flipping their boat with their hands. :X Is that possible? -shrugs- Hoho. I realised that our age gap is really big too. All of them are like... Much older than me. They were introducing themselves(ya, after the race), some graduated in like 2000, some joined in 2000, that kind of stuff. I just blurted out... "Oh. 2000 I just joined secondary school." They almost wanted to beat me up. -_-" Bleah. It's not a sin to be young. :P
Okay, back to the other races. Men's IVP heats... We did get first. Second best timing in that category. But what the hell we were disqualified?! NYP went to complain about us cutting lane. I've got nothing to say. But... It's obvious which teams are good. We don't come in with that kind of timing for nothing alright. Third for Men's Opens heats. And yeah, first for Opens Mixed! Performance was awesome! It's funny how our mixed team is so much stronger than our Women's and Men's team. Hahaha. It's the bonding, it's the bonding. :)
Washed up and went home in Ah Bao's minute past race tee. So small! Didn't know she was so small in size till I wore that shirt. Tight. -_-" Okay, maybe it's just me. Hohoho. Alright. Guess erm... I should start preparing for breakfast soon. Wish me luck for Opens... If I'm rowing that is. I don't mind rowing for either teams be it current or alumni... As long as I get to row. Results don't seem to matter for Opens to me... I just want the experience. Besides, the teams in our semis are like woah. NJC - fastest timing so far, NJC Alumni - you get the drift, NTU - they're good, especially with Winsten as their coxswain, NYP - should be manageable. Man I think I really need the luck. Bleah. Oh ya. Think I had a very bad attitude to some today. Got irritated damn easily. :( Sorry guys. I had practically no sleep at all... And I'm like that when I'm tired. Sorry. :)
Gosh. I just messaged Terry to give me morning call when she wakes up. Immediate reply. She's awake already! And I haven't slept a wink yet! Shit. I'm so going to die. Am I? :X Didn't manage to sleep last night cause erm... After slacking, I was about to go to bed. Laid there for awhile and Terry called. -_-" Great. Just nice. Washed up and went to meet them for breakfast. Namely Shuling, Terry and Xueli. Macdonalds rock my socks! :D Especially their tea! :X Erm okay. Too lazy to make tea for myself la huh. Anyway regarding studies, I'm left with four bloody chapters! Yay. Literally forced myself to study Chemical Composition when I got home. Figured out that if I didn't do that, I'll probably never be able to finish studying. Just did Pressure. Left with Temperature, Material Balance and Stoichiometry. Pretty simple. Didn't manage to study during race today. -rolls eyes- What's new. Well at least now I think I'll be able to finish studying? Shall study the rest by today after race. Then if there's time and I'm still feeling alive I'll go re-do the past tests. Monday I'll do past year papers and start on OIC. Yay. Okay I'm trying to make myself feel as though I've got loads of time on hand so shut up. Hahaha.
Day 1 of MR500 today. Or should I say yesterday? 26th March alright.
Reached Macritchie early in the morning. Yeah I know we were late but it's okay. Once in a blue moon alright. Usually we're the early birdies and Derick's the one whose always late. He took the car today so not fair! Started our mini photo taking session as usual. Heh. Didn't take much pictures cause well, not many people considering not everyone's participating in Day 1. I'm only supposed to go down on Sunday actually. But I wanted to support. :P Halfway through, Ah Bao called. My planned relaxing-race-watching day totally changed. She needed me to row for the alumni team though she really didn't want to touch the current rowers. No choice cause one left rower just backed out. Was kind of lost cause I didn't bring my stuff at all?! I was wearing the race tee... But what. Row in my boxers?! Hahaha. Luckily she offered to help bring clothes. :P
Ran around Macritchie panting like some mad dog. Cause I couldn't find Ah Bao. Apparently she was waiting at another toilet. Bleah. Passed the alumnis their race tee and ran all the way back to another toilet to change into my attire. After which I ran all the way back to our bags area to keep my stuff, ran all the way back to Ah Bao then ran all the way to loading point cause we were running late. What a warm up. Thanks. -_-" Managed to load the boats on time. There was a minor delay cause erm one of the alumnis had to go re-park her car while we were doing our warm ups. Illegal parking... And they announced her car plate. :X
Loaded the boats and rowed to the starting point. 500M really seemed so far all of a sudden! I was like feeling so tired before we even reached the starting point. Think maybe due to the lack of sleep I assume? Was damn stressed out too... Everyone was trying to calm me down. :X Cause it's my first time not rowing with my teammates... And the alumnis are like so, so experienced. And I'm like what? A freshie Year 1. -_-" So intimidated. Thankfully I knew the people sitting around me. Ah Bao was my partner at the fourth seat. Which was good cause that seat is comfortable and she calmed me down. Sharon was sitting behind me with Dawn as her partner. Others on the boat include two national rowers namely Wan Xin and someone called Joanna I think? There's also Cynthia whose the left pacer, Helena, Lele the TP coach and erm the rest I don't know their names. :X I didn't even know their race strategy?! 8 15... Usually I'm doing 8 20. And I wasn't sure of their stroke rates, power, that sort of thing? By the way, Dawn's birthday today! She insisted on us winning cause she wants to come back to row the following day. Birthday girls. -rolls eyes- Hahaha.
Ah shall jot down the details cause this would probably be the first and last time I'm ever rowing with others a part from my own team mates. Race started so suddenly. Our starts wasn't good... Not enough power? So all the boats were like in front of us initially. One boat was even leading us by two boat lengths. Basically I didn't know what was going on cause I was too nervous. Everything just blanked out. All I knew was. Don't think, just row. Serious. --_-" Just whack. Bleah. Don't know if I've given enough power or not. Had to keep looking at Ah Bao to remain focus. It's not easy to focus when you're so tired. Mind starts wondering away.
However, our maintenance was good. Really. The pace was fast yet comfortable. Kind of weird... Cause I'm not good with fast strokings... But it was totally different. Manageable. Wilson was saying cause we point together and our strokes were not draggy. Maybe? Anyway... When you're on the boat, you can really feel their strong mental somehow. We were pretty quiet throughout the set. There's a big difference between quiet but calm and quiet but stress you know. Especially when you're behind other boats. And well we've never trained with each other before so in terms of physic and bonding. It's not there. In fact, now thinking back... It's pretty scary. Hahaha. If only we could be like that too. -ponders- We picked up during maintenance and quickly overtook the rest of the boats. Team Blue was like coming towards us?! Mind you, they're in Lane 1 and we're in Lane 3?! Lane 2 was some Breast Cancer Foundation team so they were knocked out very quickly... Then Team Blue came cutting their lane and into ours. But they backed off after Victor yelled at them.
Charging was hmm... No power also. Hahaha. Guess we were all too tired. Old already. :X But hey! We got first for our heats! So who cares! We were like doing maintenance strokings for charging. But it's okay. Ah Bao said since we were leading, don't do charging also nevermind. -_-" First time hearing such stuff. Still! It was a really good experience! Fun too. Heh. Too bad I can't row for them tomorrow in the semis... Wonder if they'd have enough rowers or not. Man. All of them were like so afraid I'd cause them to lose since I'll most probably be rowing for the current team in the same category tomorrow. Oh. The current team clinched first in the heats too. Different semis though. Imagine if both teams were to be in the same semis? Saturday in alumni boat, Sunday in another boat against them. So totally wrong.
De-briefed. They were like so damn funny! They wanted to do a cheer and call themselves NAPA?! Ngee Ann Polytechnic Alumni. That sounded so hmmm. Sharon kept saying nap, nap. They were talking about ACJC who clashed with the current team in their heats. Heard it was really bad. They injured our rowers... Like whacking with their paddles when the boat clashed? Xueli and Qihui got whacked. :( Poor them. What's with teams and their dumb coxswains?! Can't they learn how to stay in their lanes! Tsk. And! Even if you do clash by accident, at least be considerate. Our rowers were good enough to bring their paddles in while you guys go whacking them with yours. Bleah. The alumnis would be against ACJC in the semis tomorrow. Hahaha. Don't underestimate them... They can be real fierce. :X Scary. They were like cracking jokes. What with slowing down for the teams if they give them $500. Then Lele was saying might as well discard one paddle. But Wanxin mentioned "Wa. I'll still have $430 after that okay!" One normal paddle costs about $70. Then some said stuff like laugh like a lunatic at the other teams when they're side by side. Imagine laughing so hard while rowing?! And then there's the stop rowing and wave at them part. Or if side by side, "Hey we're going too fast. Slow down, slow down.". There's even the back paddle five strokes. -_-" I remember someone saying something like when they're beside ACJC, "Paddles in!", then proceed to flipping their boat with their hands. :X Is that possible? -shrugs- Hoho. I realised that our age gap is really big too. All of them are like... Much older than me. They were introducing themselves(ya, after the race), some graduated in like 2000, some joined in 2000, that kind of stuff. I just blurted out... "Oh. 2000 I just joined secondary school." They almost wanted to beat me up. -_-" Bleah. It's not a sin to be young. :P
Okay, back to the other races. Men's IVP heats... We did get first. Second best timing in that category. But what the hell we were disqualified?! NYP went to complain about us cutting lane. I've got nothing to say. But... It's obvious which teams are good. We don't come in with that kind of timing for nothing alright. Third for Men's Opens heats. And yeah, first for Opens Mixed! Performance was awesome! It's funny how our mixed team is so much stronger than our Women's and Men's team. Hahaha. It's the bonding, it's the bonding. :)
Washed up and went home in Ah Bao's minute past race tee. So small! Didn't know she was so small in size till I wore that shirt. Tight. -_-" Okay, maybe it's just me. Hohoho. Alright. Guess erm... I should start preparing for breakfast soon. Wish me luck for Opens... If I'm rowing that is. I don't mind rowing for either teams be it current or alumni... As long as I get to row. Results don't seem to matter for Opens to me... I just want the experience. Besides, the teams in our semis are like woah. NJC - fastest timing so far, NJC Alumni - you get the drift, NTU - they're good, especially with Winsten as their coxswain, NYP - should be manageable. Man I think I really need the luck. Bleah. Oh ya. Think I had a very bad attitude to some today. Got irritated damn easily. :( Sorry guys. I had practically no sleep at all... And I'm like that when I'm tired. Sorry. :)
posted by melch at 4:24 AM
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