nice outing. haha today morning shop with family. den evening went to 4-8 outing. its a good feeling to noe we've nv distanced though we were not tgt all the time. haha it feels great. 4-8 rocks.

12:16 AM

haha anyways here's an acct abt my chalet, not exactly vv interesting but it was a good gathering in my opinion where we "went thru thick and thin" tgt to fight the slp monster.

the first day i was totally prepared for the chalet, think i slept abt 6hrs in all. haha everything was packed b4 i went out. Took mrt and met mz at cityhall (turn out he 4got bring water and toothbrush and bought 1 vv ex toothbrush in guardian).

upon reaching at 2pm sharp we were second to feiqing den we walk ard for a bit, when we came back we saw jj and sf and went to shop for a bit until the rest came. Upon reaching the chalet, we settled down and played cards and nuah ard until bbq time. the bbq food was late and the person had the audacity to ask us to w8 at roadside at 4.30pm when it arrived ard 5plus! (lucky we din w8)

den a few of us went down to start the fire (it was like a real fire at first with lots and lots of smoke attracting considerable attention from all ard. a passerby even said "whoa, their fire.." we started off bbq some otah and some others came down to help with the bbq food and it was rather late when th arrived. lucky for us he was able to "flame grill" the chicken and lamb chop and chicken wings. in the process i ate some contaminated food as well.

finally after ard 10 pm we all retired to the room, but slp was never to come.

we played cards, played memory game, played a little chess, watch tv, chat, eat tidbits in the small room, which became sort of a pig sty. after 11pm we guys had intended to play pool, but to our horror, when we walked to dere, it was gg to close at 12 and it was 11.15 pm already. So we just walked away, we found an arcade but by tt time it had only 15mins left!!! and so we walked back and several of them went to the park i tink. Me, Th and Mz went back, but not b4 i grabbed an apple pie and mcflurry from macs, meeting xh and fq in the process. I ate my apple pie as we walked back and started on my mcflurry only when i reached the downstairs of the room. so we sat near the bbq pit and i ate my ice cream. Xh and fq den came back while i was still eating.

after i finished we went up to the room and disrupted the gals' sleep. but i tink some of them couldn't slp at all and was waiting for ppl to play with them, lol. so we played card game, murderer, 99, uno until dey were really really sleepy. The rest of the guys came back and after some dilly dally we went to the nearby toilet to bathe.

IT WAS A HYDROPUMP! the water was so great tt it directly sprayed to the nxt cubicle. hahaha th was on my left and he was complaining, haha. After i bathed i brushed my teeth and when i was opening the toothbrush i tink i suffered a plastic cut on my thumb, seems like it bled a bit and din realise it stained my towel (as i applied pressure to my thumb using my towel).

we walked back refreshed and cooled and continue to nuah ard for a while. But dere was absolutely no space for us to stand let alone sleep, so we went out to the nearby kopitiam to watch soccer. In the midst of the game, mz and ja and bae took several power naps. it was an arduous journey to idle our time away. haha at ard 6am it rrly started to get cold cos of the cold surroundings and my body shutting down. We walked back and it was ard 7plus when we walked to the pavilion downstairs to sit and talk. din suffer any mosquito bites to my surprise but i was rather drowsy and siting on the chair was more better way of sleeping den sleeping on the cold floor in the room.

We walked back and the gals vacated the beds for our slp but it was quite difficult cos i wasn't used to sleeping on floor, my waking up time is ard 8 plus and mz totally din slp i tink. He was moving ard and creating noise. haha wth. After i woke he spoke even louder! haha i prepared myself and we went to macs for breakfast. at ard 9plus. we went back ard 10plus and the gals was alr inside the room agn and some guys started to wake alr. we jus walked ard and started to chat and play cards and i duno when i started to suffer from a block nose. It escalated into a flu in no time and from then onwards u could only see a signal from my face "i feel like dying". it was worse den death in my opinion and flu is almost my close enemy. haha whole day i felt restless and it was tough. I slept during the movie and after tt played some card games which i had luck in. the guys went for brunch and gals went to cycle, only some remained in the room to play cards.

The card games were fun and made me 4get my cold, i tink i drank ard 10 bottles of water tt day cos i believed it was water therapy for me. After de guys returned dey gambled a bit and i rested on bed too. It was only for a short while i tink after which my flu kept me up. I idled ard until 6pm when dey went to bedok to play lan.

We walked to the shoppin centre first nearby pasir ris mrt and dey bought some drinks while i ate 2 curry puffs from lao chang kee. hahaha we took mrt to bedok and played lan until 9.30 pm. My flu was much better den alr and we took bus to changi village to eat dinner. I ate my hokkien mee at ard 10 plus and i can tell u it was the nicest i have ever tasted so far. the stall seems quite old and we had to wait a while but this hokkien mee beats bukit timah one i tink. dey combine the yellow hokkien mee with some beehoon and the gravy is quite nice. the chilli is unique as well bringing a slight sour aftertaste.

As we took bus back to chalet it was 11 plus i tink. We settled down and playd cards and with some gals gone alr dere were more space. I bathed first but my block nose kept me from sleeping, so i just idled ard until ard 5.40am i tink b4 i was knocked out. I lied on the bed after ja let me slp and my memory of time from 6-8am was totally nth. I dun rmb moving or ath, it was total knock out. The gals left at 6 am i heard and when i woke at 8, ja was almost up too. I washed face and ja went to bathe and after we slept agn until ard 9.30am. This time though i slept on floor it was totally a knock out agn. We packed stuff and went to BK to eat b4 we went home.

On bus when i was talking to th it was ok, but after he alighted den i hung a packet of otah i brought home in my finger, but it kept slipping down as i fell asleep. So on bus it kept slipping and i picked it up and it repeated for more den 10 times i tink. haha

i went to nearby market to pick up keys from my mum and den after i went home and bathed, i turned on the com. Den i tot i'd lie on bed to listen song for a while. my hp was in outdoor mode. I got KNOCKED OUT YET AGAIN and i did not hear my hp's sms nor my mum's call on my hp (cos she gave me her keys alr) neither did i hear the doorbell. only when she called my room phone did i wake up. GOSH.

so i woke to open door for her, i fiddled with the com for a while b4 i turned it off to go slp agn. and somehow when i woke i itnk i mistook 2 smses for some missed call sign, so i clicked it away and nv realise the sms at all. or it could have been i subconsciously pressed away the sms when i was sleepnig. So i only saw the sms at nite! Yes tts abt all for my chalet

overall i tink the times spent with my friends, be it playing cards or talking or playing lan or walking ard tgt without a place to slp, was precious and a worth. Oh i also learnt some games like PIG and guessing hand game. haha

to jz: haha my blog revived but i nth interesting to update le. hahaha got ideas give me ok? haha thanks in advance (:

9:07 PM

Wow Finally

Today after we had lunch as a cls, we guys went to shop in kinokuniya at first, b4 we went to play lan. haha when i was playing cs halfway, den yf called to ask us go kbox, MAN i was rrly tempted but i was playing halfway.. haha luckily ja was available, and he used my night hawk to kill 4 opponents and earned loads of money for me. haha shiok, got rusty in dota le, making a lot of mouse err, but not intending to train back anyway. haha

When we were walking to eat dinner in plaza sing? haha duno whr, i'm bad with remembering places. den mz say he wanna play chess with me, den i asked:" IS THIS A CHALLENGE?", "IF IT WERE, I'd train hard tonight and go learn up my chess books". haha meant as a joke, not seriously intending to train cos i'm alr half dead now. It reminds me of my years of playing chess. From primary 5 when mk brought me into chess, (he was like my unofficial shifu, cos he brought me in) den i started to learn and improve.

I rmb in sec 1 or sec 2 den my senior who was sec 3 took me in as disciple (last time our team very bonded, it was almost like some seniors would take in disciples to train and help pass on the helm, i was fortunate i had a shifu) haha. My shifu got vv tall height, 1.83m den, or 1.81m i 4got. lol den teach me a lot of chess theories and his openings which some would think unorthodox (cos he modified himself- end up got loopholes and i lost using it b4. haha ). den secondary school passed by.

In J1 end, got to know of a senior from NJ and took me in as disciple. (so he's my second shifu, 1st shifu in army, but i sought his consent first b4 i started learning from second shifu) but sad to say, i tink i've let him down cos the heavy workload did not permit me to train in chess. So it was a downslope for me.

In my recent years of playing chess, i've constantly be thinking abt a question-"should i continue or not." Its because sometimes i think i lose interest in chess and also no time to play or train. This question have been constantly in my mind, and most friends would see that i seldom play chess. My close friends from chess would know tt i often talk to them abt whether i shld continue playing chess. haha i've finally realised it.

Its not so easy to let go, when i was overwhelmed with stress from school work and cca, i would feel like giving chess up. When u are in a cca for a long time, den you noe all its pros and cons but a bad thing abt cca is dey emphasise too much on achievements and the pressure is great. So in chess i nidda constantly train to win the cup for my team, and i noe many team players would encounter the case whereby ur team mates finished playing and u're left to decide, it happens to everyone. The stress is immense.
What abt playing an hours game and u've used up 55mins and ur opponent also used up as much time?
It becomes a speed chess and because most competitors would have finished deir games, dey crowd ard ur table and look. Stress.
What abt the long and arduous training hours u went thru with team mates and by a stroke of luck ur opponents won the cup?

there are many more variables tt i cease to mention and yet i believe many chess people would have experienced themselves.

Ironically, this kinda stress have become part and parcel of my life. I used to think i'm tired of these stress and i dun wanna be in chess anymore (especially when cca teachers pile up sai kang for u) but its life. If i were to leave chess once and for all and stop playing totally, all those school holidays where competitions were organised, i would feel a sense of loss. I'd miss my team mates and of course friends i got to knew from chess over the years. I guess thats the reason y we always see seniors and friends who come back to look at chess competitions even if they were not involved. We're bonded together by- chess. (Xiangqi)

9:05 PM