Rained the whole morning so windsurf session was cancelled.

But the notification came too late, I was already at water venture when I received the sms from jude. So in the end I still went out to surf using the club board.

Figured out that I really have to train for the next few sessions because my tacking and gybing is pretty bad (to be honest). Windsurf is going to take up quite a lot of my time this year even since I took on the job.

Also stayed back till late yesterday with samuel, yoongwend and esther as well as the other university representatives for the WAS meeting. Apparently we are now all committee members of the Windsurfing Association of Singapore (which means more work for us).

Meeting was pretty long, but I saw a genuine effort to revive the windsurfing sport back into Singapore. Its a fun and exciting sport, both physically and mentally challenging at the same time. But I still believe that given enough effort (like all other sports), someday I can plane on the water and feel the wind blow away all the stress that I have.

Suddenly felt an impulse to blog.

But there seems to be nothing to write down at all. Perhaps its because this entire week I have been busy with tutorial work and windsurfing stuff that I hardly have time to sit down and enjoy doing the things I like.

The most interesting event I could think of is star-watching at my uncle's place. Like me, he is also an avid astronomer-wannabe and he got a super cool telescope that can be used to do star gazing. A pity that I have missed out too many star explorations trip with him because I was busy. But last sunday I managed to grab some time off to go star spotting at his house multi-storey carpark.

Nothing impressive was seen though because the night sky was only cloudless for a short while. But nevertheless I got to see Jupiter! Its not exactly big and clear like those in the astronomy books, but its still the first planet I saw with my own eyes.

I look forward to seeing Saturn and its beautiful rings next time =)

A picture of Jupiter taken from yahoo images.

What a week!

Windsurf Championship was a great experience. I finally rid myself of the traumatic experience of the last Internal Race. So it is possible that a new memory can erase/negate the memory of an older incident.

I still remembered the Internal Race was a total disaster. 3 Races with DNS (Did Not Start) and getting drifted 2 breakwaters away and no one to save you. Fortunately I managed to complete all the race course at yesterday's windsurf champs. Identified my weak points and I shall improve on my board handling in strong winds. Somehow I can't really handle the wind proficiently yet.

And the biggest surprise I gotten after the race. haha shall not post it up here.

Its about time I start to concentrate on studying and spend lesser time on all the exciting stuff I like to do.

So I will not be able to blog as regularly as before. And I still have to figure out how to upload the photos on blogger =(

Somehow I cannot seem to upload photos onto blogger =(
Its the end of the holidays =(
I got no money left to spend =(
There is still a lot of things I want to do yet =(
Sch and mugging is starting to pile up =(

But CPG Dinner & Nite cycling this week. and that is a reason to smile =)

These days other than the NDP preview that I watched on saturday, there wasn't much things for me to do. Other than picking up on my neglected reading (currently reading Paulo Coelho - The Winner Stands Alone), I spent most of my time trying to figure how to use photoshop and photoscape.

And now I'm so addicted to taking photographs in second life =)

My desktop keep getting infected with trojan/virus. And its irritating me a lot. I need help to remove these nasty pests!

Matric Fair is over. So that is another item off the list. School is reopening.

Not much happenings during this period, maybe with the exception of the extremely cute japanese anime (which I forgot the title) which I watched together with the kids during Project Excellence.

And also meeting my abacus teacher who taught me like more than 10 years ago. Its such a small world that she is currently teaching at the community centre near my house, but for the past 10 years we have never met. Somehow things just happened and we finally met again =)

It's good to know people who have made an impression in my life.

Windsurf Camp went pretty well (looking at the response on facebook). I didn't really expect that though, after all many of the things didn't really go according to plan. But somehow everyone still had fun (which is what the whole camp should be like).

Before I start writing about my camp reflections, I will first like to thank personally everyone who has helped me a great deal throughout the camp. Comm members (Eugene, Yoongwend, Kwanrong) and gay buddy Jude for supporting me all the way with the planning and execution of the programmes. CPGs (Hen, Sab, Char, Karen), yanjie, alvin, yongjian, joanna for volunteering to be OGLs when I was extremely shorthanded. Esther for transporting stuff and Simon for kindly lending me all the games logistics at such a late notice. THANK YOU ALL =)

On a personal note, I wasn't really satisfied with the whole camp. Somehow I felt it could have been even better than the one we ended up with. Perhaps this is so because I set quite a high standard as to what a camp should be like. When I fail to reach this, I tend to get disappointed with myself. But what I realised after all this is, as long as the rest of the participants enjoyed themselves, nothing else matters much.

It took me quite alot of effort to plan for the treasure hunt and the mini-race, so it was quite a waste that I had to scrap both plans because the participants didn't really seem interested. But I guess I ought to be more flexible and just go according to the situation instead of rigidly follow the initial plan.

After the second night, almost a third of the participants left the camp early and I was rather saddened by this. I started to question myself whether this camp is indeed such a failure. Never have I been to a camp when so many participants left the place early. Imagine 46 people reduced to 31 at the end of the last day. But things still have to go on.

I cannot expect everyone to enjoy themselves fully in this camp. There had been lots of hiccups because a lot of the things wasn't well-thought out and planned. Boards, accomodation and BBQ food was a problem. Though no one said it out, I could still sense their disappointment. And this really made me emo.

But I am still heartened to see that a few more people seem to be interested in windsurfing. Next camp will be better (If I still remain in comm). But for now, I shall still do my best to serve my remaining time before the next batch takes over.

Away for Windsurf Camp 21-23th July.

Totally caught unexpected when huihui told me simon is not around to conduct yesterday's PE session. We were unprepared at first but fortunately the 3 of us still managed to pull through with chinese chess.

What I learnt from yesterday's session is that we have grown over-dependent on simon's lesson plan that we failed to have any backup in case of contingency. And communicating with the kids and getting their attention is indeed hard work.

I marveled at huihui's patience with the kids. No matter how inattentive/disruptive they were, she still kept her cool and continued the class smoothly. That is what future teachers should be like =)

I didn't know doing cement work would be so tough. Looks like I shouldn't underestimate those construction workers.

This short working experience has been fruitful. I've been to so many departments during this period that I doubt not many undergraduates can get a feel of the things that I do.

If I were to list down my job scope, they will include...

Project Coordinator department - liase with customers on job scope, create schedules for work, do risk assessments/method statements, attend site meetings, go for site surveys with supervisors.

Operations department - plan manpower allocation, transportation arrangements, tools maintenance, admin work (Delivery order, storage order etc.)

HR department - interviewing new employees (I still remeber the first interview I had to conduct, that was when its was only my second day of work. haha). Record daily attendance and leave application and medical certificates.

Purchasing Department - sourcing for tools for work (eg. generators, customised bolt/nuts, cement, electrical panels etc), negotiating price for subcontract.

plus a whole lot more of weird little hands-on jobs like cement work, dig trench, lay power cables, drive forklift, help in hoisting, scaffolding, fixing pipes, delivery of equipment etc.

Ballroom class is over. Unexpectedly, the class was extremely small yesterday so I managed to get more attention to improve on my waltz. Christine (the teaching assistant?) was definitely a great help and now I'm more confident of my 18 steps.

Shall practice regularly in case I forget this skill and wasted all my wednesday nights. Finally another item off my list. It's about time I get a break and just stay at home to sleep =)

Finally handed in my letter. 11 more days to go. Then its back to school stuff once more.

"Always plan early, but nothing ever goes according to plan."

Today is definitely the test of my problem-solving ability. I always remembered this maxim and this important assignment I settled everything way in advance.

The guard house always gave us problems for our work everytime, and this time round I made extra care to complete all the paperwork early so that work can be done smoothly. Everything was according to plan, but then still some things went out of our control.

Work got stuck and there was confusion everywhere. Everyone had different solutions to resolve the problem, so it was quite an effort to reach a consensus. This always happen. Whenever there is something wrong, the first thing people do is to blame the in charge. It is not that we do not do our job, but some things are just beyond our control.

But nevertheless I am still glad that work was still done eventually.

For I am like the wind,

formless yet always present.

When the journey is calm,

I shall return to my quiet solitude.

But if the heat gets too unbearable,

You can be sure that wind will be there

to cool you down

everytime.

-peng-

I was sitting down alone at Bugis Street yesterday, waiting for 2 straight hours before ballroom dancing class. Suddenly I was struck by this deep feeling of loneliness. As I watch the people walk pass tending to their respective lives, I began to feel more and more empty.

It was as if there was nothing to look forward in life anymore. There is something missing in my life. I don't know what it is. And I fear that feeling =(

Random post but this note reaffirms the desire to volunteer.

Three lesson that I wanted to learn from this climbing trip. Teamwork, Perseverance and Goal-doing.

Teamwork - Since this was a climbing expedition, there were definitely going to be groups. What I wanted to learn was how to work more effectively with strangers. In real life, a lot of the times you will be meeting with people you are unfamiliar with, be it at work or school projects. It's actually a useful skill to learn.

Throughout the five days in Stong, I realised that teamwork isn't just about assigning roles and doing your own jobs. That is not a team, that is a group. A team is one where members are enthusiastic about achieving a common goal (reaching the summit) and everyone tries to help each other to reach it. For example, I have seen numerous cases of people helping carry backpacks of physically less fit. Even though these guys have their own load to carry, their willingness to help others is commendable. Also there are cases of people who offer to the extra helping hand even though they are not asked to do so. I wanted to see if I was capable of such acts too. For example, it is very tempting to just sit down and rest when we reach a checkpoint, but how many will actually remember those that are still struggling behind and offer to help them. I hope to make it come naturally (sometimes I too get lazy and pretend not to see).

Perseverance - Like the saying "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going." I aimed to learn this through constant trying and strong motivation to succeed. I wanted to challenge myself to see if this mountain was conquerable and I'm glad that I managed to do so. The satisfaction of succeeding on a task was definitely worth the effort. All that thanks to perseverance and not giving up halfway (when I was too tired to even move).

Goal-doing - This is different from goal-setting (even though it is just as important) but what I wanted to do was to see whether I can follow through with the goals that I set. It is easy to set goals, but it is hard to achieve them. I set my goal of reaching the summit, but if I do not put it into action, nothing can ever come out. Its no point dreaming of standing at the top of the world and not making the preparations to achieve it. My next goal will be Kinabalu before I graduate, and I will definitely prepare myself for this day =)

Nothing much to blog about these days. My new project at Bedok/ Ulu Pandan Water Reclaimation Plant has just started work so I guess it's crunch time for me.

Basically my life is becoming a rountine once again. Every weekday just work, monday nights for Second Life camp/matric fair meeting, wednesday nights for ballroom class, thursday nights for windsurf camp planning, saturdays work and volunteering. I feel guilty that I haven't been going down for windsurf sessions for quite some time. Jude must be very busy trying to coordinate every week's session.

Once again I will miss this week windsurf again because I'm going JB. oops. This friday is Project Excellence camp, I can't wait!