~ Goodbye 2004 ~

Hi people,

I will be on the run with my team-mates - Guozhang, Chee Meng & Hazel - for the next 24-30hrs on the Amazing Singapore Race. Hope it's going to be exciting and we finish the race in time. Wow, what a way to celebrate New Year Eve, though many plans had to be cast aside just for this race. To all my friends out there, those that I know from Army, MuddyGrass, Karate, Medicine, Rosyth, and all other acquaintances, thank you for making 2004 such a special year to me! From Army to ORD, from Medicamp to end of Med Sem 1, it had been a whirlwind year, non-stop in action! Let us all wish for better things to come as 2005 approaches! *Pops a champagne*

Sign off 2004,
Victor :)

Miss Chen & Me! 

The famous LT1 that produced tonnes of doctors of the future 

The passageway to hell! Haha... the entrance to RJ I mean... 

Against the council room I used to hate! Haha! 

29th Sep - Chalet & RJC moving house

Just woke up from a 10 hr sleep after coming back from RJC moving house event. Wasn't really done with a 'Bang!' as what I was originally thinking of, but it was nonetheless touching to visit the old Ghim Moh campus for the last time before it turns to NUS High School.

We were in DBS chalet in Sentosa the previous night for a BBQ before moving off to RJ. Thanks Daniel for the wonderful chalet u provided! Excellent housing it was, but the weather did not complete a rousing and fine holiday it would have provided! Played volleyball in the afternoon, in the bloody rain and drizzle that refused to stop. No bikini babes, no crowd, no food! How wonderful can Sentosa beach get! Later at night, I set up my 1st BBQ fire, with help from Daniel and Siying. Who says army teaches you all the life's skills? Haha. After pigging out the food, we went in to rest before starting the night's activities. It was quite cool to be able to teach some gals to play mahjong too! Now the graduates, Denise, Joanna and Claris, have been officially welcomed into the Mahjong Gang. Haha! And yes, it was a crazy sight to see Wee Soon and Chengyu hogging the PS2 with 'Winning 11' , scoring goals and thrashing all other partnerships...

It was a sad sight to see the old RJ so bare upon stepping into school. Everything was gone - the school Crest which proudly hung in the atrium, the 'Auspicium Melioris Aevi' words in the parade square, the names of the clubs in every notice board, the howling sound of the crowded canteen during breaks and so many others. We used to crinch and complain at every single ugly sight of the old campus, complaining at how everything's so run down and wishing to be in the new campus for any other reason.

However, it did not really matter anymore when today came. Instead, I was reminising the old days when me and my class would stroll down the corridors for lectures & tutorials, how I was sleeping in LT1 during lectures, when my badminton team would perspire our asses out in the courts in the courts, in the gym and on the track, when my CLDCS would rehearse performances in the LTs, how my 1st love started in school, when my hydroponics team would thrash out in the gardens and the stinky toilets that drove any sane person mad instantly. I really had nice wonderful memories of the old, run-down place and I could say my best education years were formalised there. The teachers and the students really made life so interesting and everyday was a day worth looking forward to. *sure or not?* When it's time to let go of this old campus, suddenly it just seems more difficult to do so.

Went down later to the new campus in Bishan. Wow! It was a bloody huge giant that is monsterous to walk about. Was too tired from the chalet and with a set of mahjong titles on my shoulders, I gave up exploring the campus and hide out at the atrium instead for food. Yeah! Was so happy to see my Math teacher, Miss Chen, there. I was her Math rep last time and it was so funny and relaxing to be working with her. Din recognise any more teachers ard I knew and I postulated that either they were as lazy as me to attend this function or are pigging out in their new staff room. Ate and dank to my fill before I went home to crash. *Crash* And indeed I crashed till now to blog... Only to continue my sleep again...

At the airpot...Whilst everyone's still in smiles... 

This Christmas...

This season's Christmas is the 1st I've experienced with such ups & downs. One which gave me such mixed emotions...

Yeah! I've finally got to learn how to bake my mum's bread and egg tarts! I'm in total elation beause this is the 1st time I've actually got the patience to follow through with all the procedures, something which I give up halfway in the past. Thanks to the new oven that arrived on Christmas eve and the newfound enthusiasm by my mum and I, 22 yummy sausage bread, ham bread were rolled out fresh and delicious from the oven after 3-4 hrs of pressing the dough, waiting for the dough to raise and heating the eventual products. A similar number of tarts rolled out hrs later too! Whoo hoo! Young baker in the making, forget about medicine...haha! To all who tried the bread and tarts, thanks for the reviews! It's really heartwarming to see people enjoy what you've created...from scratch!

Later at night, I managed to get a car to fetch people to the airport to send Vera off for studies in Canada. She's so lucky to be studying abroad at such a young age, I feel. In fact, I encourage people to study overseas whilst still young and be exposed to a different culture & environment. It's mostly a win-win situation! I'm so bloody stuck here in SG thanks to my course and the fact I've no $$ to fly out. Damn! Anyway, it was pretty shack to drive around at 3-4am without any sleep on previous day and then be the last one back home after sending friends home. Back to topic, it was sad to see Vera leaving the country and now, the club would be a pretty lady short. Also, it was very touching too to see Vera bid her entire family off. The close hugs with each relative, the last words from Vera's grandparents, the red eyes and tears dropping from Vera and her relatives was something I've never really quite seen in any send offs before till today. Thanks for the lesson on family bonding which I'm truely lack of! Hey, come to think of it, now that Vera's missing, I'm kinda missing her too... Today's training felt wierd and quiet without her presence... Or am I thinking too much?

Anyway, bye Vera, and enjoy your time and studies in Canada. We'll be looking forward to your presence around in the months to come! *sob*

Shihan Aishemera 

Mad Victor and his weekend Journal

This is one of the most back-breaking weekends I had in years since my torturous badminton trainings years ago! So what did I do? Nothing much actually, except for Karate 'Kata' training from 9am-5pm for 2 entire days! Kaoz, never knew repetition movements of standing and squatting hurts that much! *yelps*

This training is particularly special because it was conducted by a Japanese master, Shihan Aishemera, who has trained a disciple who is the current 7-time Kata world champion! Woah! And his disiciple is said to be quite chio too! *out of point* Shihan Aishemera is a very pataient old man I must say. It's amazing that he managed to impart 6-8 katas to a group of us newbies who had not much idea what was going on. It is considered a feat because each kata takes at least 2-3 hrs of time to understand and train up and he did it with much breeze. His training was fun too because of some language barrier and the funny faces that he keeps displaying. Oh yes, his favourite part of the training was to keep repeating each set of movements for at least 5 times and saying 'lasto' (meaning last time) when he doesn't mean it. But of course, we would make his day upon getting the moves correct and he would signal his happiness with tonnes of claps.

The training was made even more fun by the kids from other Karate clubs in Singapore, especially Scottie, Heng Xuan, Nash, Heng Soon, Austin. During breaks, we would hit around with our newly learnt Karate moves or tackle each other on the mats. When you add up the cuteness and playfulness of these kids, the scale would shoot beyond 100%. Haha. Without these kids who add tonnes of cheers, I doubt the Kata training would be fun or even go 'stale'. Hee, and I think I've brought the 'tau-pok' culture into Karate as well. Whenever we saw anyone lying down, the poor guy would be piled on by many bodies on top. Wat a gd way to train abs with a very red face! Haha. On the whole this Kata training had been very fruitful because I had learnt 2 difficult Katas which I would not have been taught otherwise during normal trainings. Whee!

Just when you think it's time for a break after the 2-day training, Victor pulls yet another stunt. Haha. I went to my Xian Hong's house after training for a Pri Sch class stayover. It was so cool to meet up with my old class, some of whom I've not seen in donkey years. Thanks to the number of legal drivers around, we also drove to Geyland at 3am for supper. Unfortunately, it was spoilt by a scenary of 'rich' guys and 'poor' transvetites around. *Yucks* Nearly did not have the appetite to finish the frog prridge in front of me.

After training, with minimal sleep in the stayover, I headed off to Pulau Ubin with Aziz, Raj, Jeremy and Huren on our majestic Tour de Ubin journey! It was particularly painful for me in this bike trail because my butt, legs and hands were especially sore and numb and we went mostly on off-road trails with steep slopes. However, it was rewarded by some of the breath-taking scenaries especially near the haunted house & Chek Jawa at low tide. Oh yeah, and weren't we glad that we had no gals tagging along or else this trip would not get as 'rough' as it could be? Haha! I realised that a thai, sweet and young coconut is the most heavenly thing on earth that you can find after an ardous cycling trip! The cold refreshing juice and sweet juicy white pulp that crunches with every bite! Lovely!

It's time to crash now and head off to another journey in ZzzLand. Wonder what's coming in this sleeping journey ahead. Haha!

I'm Special. It's Ok~!

Finally, I got to rest a day at home after 2 weeks of non-stop action from badminton, tennis, street soccer, frisbee, BBQ, chalets, blading and of course karate. Wow, it's just pure madness to finally think back how crazy I am 'enjoying life' after the CAs! And the cool orange bag that I had just bought for myself today is the icing on the cake!

As I was readin the papers and watching Channel NewsAsia in the morning, I came across the programme 'I'm special. It's ok'. It's a programme to highlight how physically handicapped children across the region overcome their disabilities to stand tall and proud of where they are now, with no shame nor looking down upon themselves.

I was pretty impressed with the American handicapped writer whose works are based in Thailand. He mentioned he felt blessed about his disabilities because it made me more focused about his written works now and how he took joy in spreading and showcasing his writing/drawing gifts to inspire children across the region with disabilities to prove themselves worthwhile to the society.

However, what impressed me more was this group of children studying in a school in Thailand with literally no limbs. Y? This is because like their students, some of the teachers and staff are disabled too. However recognising the importance of education, the school invested heavily in IT for their students to learn. Scenes of kids scrolling through webpages by clicking on mouses with their feet, older kids feeding younger kids with spoons handled by their feet touched my heart. What mattered more was the kids were totally happy and felt blessed and grateful about themselves owning an education through IT and felt the teachers had given them an opportunity they've not had before. The grateful smiles plastered to their face literally gave me some hope and a meaning to a dull life most of us are experiencing.

I hope that in my future scope of work as a doctor, I am able to bring such smiles to any patients that I come across too! To the disabled kids of Thailand, I applaud you in your spirit towards achieving your dreams! And thank you for showing me what life is all about!

Nope, it's not National Day! Instead, we got to play fireworks on the Penang beach for RM15! 

Me, Gareth & Danny with the Malaysian Goshin-Ryu club founder 

The Singapore contingent 

Penang

Just returned from my trip to Malaysia, Pulau Pinang! It's damn shack especially if you have to carry your luggage from Ang Mo Kio MRT station and walk home to Bishan in the midst of the night to save yourself from the prying eyes of the cab drivers.

I was in Penang for a Karate training camp and mini competition with the locals. It was a great trip up to Malaysia especially so after the CAs, where this trip served as a good 'holiday' break! I stayed in Tanjong Bungah Beach Resort along with the Singapore contingent, but however, this hotel is far from the 3-star tag pegged to itself. It had me waiting and sleeping for 5 hrs in a room beside the reception while the understaffed hotel tries to clean up the rooms! BAD service!

However, that did not mar the entire otherwise pleasant trip. I had learnt quite a handful of Karate skills that I did not absorb in Singapore. Well, I had to learn anyway cos I paid for the trip and I can't possibly waste my money rite? It was so cool to have the Malaysian Karate national coach to teach us some Kumite skills and theory! It was difficult to begin learning because the coach was an Iranian with limited English and I had to first correct all my bloody bad habits in order to fight better. I was awed all over in the Kata segment of the camp. The Malaysian club had invited their SEA Games champions to perform for us and to teach us the Kata moves. They were really graceful, sleek and powerful! Way cool! And they are now my idols to perform better and hopefully break into the national squad!

Of course, stepping into Penang, who can resist the local dishes there? Every night after the last training, we would skip the night activities to munch out at the local food stalls. Penang laksa, Penang char kuay teow, Penang rojak, Penang oyster omlette, chendol, 'gui ling gao', bo bo char char.... OOO...yum yum! I'm salivating at the thought of those food again! It's so darn cheap and good to eat~! Who says food from the road side stalls with dirty hygiene are not meant for the stomach! Food and shopping always go hand in hand and likewise, it was the same in Penang. In our stay there, I got to shop around for Adidas and Fila products that went for up to 70% discount! Got myself a few clothes here and there and nice little presents for my sisters just in time for Christmas! Yeah!

When it was time to head for home, leaving Penang got a little nostalgic and unbearable. Though the place was much dirtier than home, the friendliness of the locals and the cheap ringgit (oops, sounds bad. But indeed I felt I lived like a king there) got closer to the heart. Living there felt so much more natural, with less human/artificial structures, and kind of back to the Singapore in the 70/80s. But i guess what's meant to be is meant to be, and here I am, meant to be in front of my com to surf the internet and check my emails.

Gotta sleep for FRS tmr. That pain in the ass assignment, like the seat shaft in the bus that i accidentally sat on and jumped for my life!

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