a tribute to CBC Burwood

TODAY WAS MY OFFICIAL LAST DAY, CAME AS A SURPRISE AS I DIDN'T EXPECT TO START THE NEW SCHOOL SO SOON BUT WELL, THIS WAY I GET TO SKIP TESTS!.. I'M GOING TO MARIST COLLEGE IN EASTWOOD AND DOING THE FOLLOWING SUBJECTS: MATH EXT 1, BIOLOGY, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, ADVANCED ENGLISH AND RELIGION. HAHA ONLY 6 SYBJECTS... WELL I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE THE OPPURTUNITY TO THANKS MY SCHOOL FOR ALL THEIR SUPPORT AND LEARNING THEY PROVIDED ME WITH...

balanced?

today was SUPPOSED to be a good day, i was going to try out my NEW boat. however, my boat was unfortunately DAMAGED!!!... it hit the ramp whilst recovering due to the waves. otherwise today was good, the boat was awesome, i got 1, 1 today with both races held in 8-15 knots. as for the three scratches on my boat, please repair yourself!!!
for a more detailed log:
race 1: start: 2 knots, i started at starboard end and it paid off as the wind came in from the right, i was the 2nd boat to get into the wind (8-10 knots) and stayed on the right hand side the whole leg to maintain my position, rounded about 5 boat lengths ahead of alex. i extended my lead on the reach to be about 12 boat lengths ahead at the bottom mark. i then again protected by staying right and i managed to. finished 1st infront of peter by 7 boat lengths.

race 2: started in the middle with richard, peter and alex, the four of us headed out left in 12-15 knots of breeze, i was the first one to tack as i was lagging behind the other 3, and got a shift on the right that took me to 3rd. at the top mark i was third behind richard and another guy from dbsc who went right. i then overtook to 2nd at the leeward mark, the following upwind i stayed left and managed to catch up with richard, i then overtook him on the downwind before match racing to finish in 14-18 knots!... the wind dropped abit making it easier to maintain my lead, near the finish, i squeezed him out to force him to tack and successfully got water from him to finish 1st, it was lucky as we were going to lose to the third guy.

new sail no.: 189027

yippee... today i just got a new boat!, it came with all the ropes, a zhik hiking strap, new spars, new brown laser foils, a brand new carbon tiller, a brand new sail, a brilliant boat cover and a sleek trolley... whoah!... ya.. i'm still suffering from awe, so much that i can't even concentrate on my p.e. assignment due tomorrow morning... well what can i say... i can't wait for saturday now... i want to sail!... one more thing... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

random

today is very random, classes were cut short by 10 minutes due to the parent teacher meetings, i got back a few of my marks for the first assesment task... some are incomplete though;

english: 24/35
science: 39/40
maths (section a): 21/21
religion: 19/20
commerce: 12/15

i think thats all.. well... i can't wait for thursday, i wish thursday never ends (read my previous post to find out why), congrats again to the winners of the national youth: opti: rachel lee, byte: fendi, laser: seng leong, laser radial: vic, 420: sherm and stine, hobie: jonathon and chun... well done guys and girls...

the golden three

there are three main outines of this post...
1. saturday training
2. sunday training
3. boat

1. on saturday i had the luxury of being dropped off at the club by my parents (normally i take the ferry), we then rigged up and went to double bay for the race, wind was abt 13-17 knots with lulls as light as 8 knots and gusts up to 20... it was definitely very gusty as the southerly wind was from the hills... we had one race, i started averagely and played a windshift that took me into the top 3, i then was unfortunate as my outhaul uncleeted itself, recovering slowly, i rounded the top mark 17th and last radial. i caught 5 boats on the reach before rounding the top mark 8th the second time, i caught up to 5th then to 4th, the last upwind saw the wind die a little due to the approaching storm and i managed to squeeze into 3rd. as the storm hit, boats were sent back to their clubs as ash, kevin, alex and i stayed out. we did abit more trng before heading back. i took the train back with ash who lived near pennant hills (on the same train line).

2. today, i took the ferry down and reached WSC at 12.10. the wind was unusually light at around 4-8 knots. training was in rose bay itself and we practised starts and racing with kevin, ash, peter, howard, alex and myself. we had mini races and results were somethin like 1,2,1,3,1,1,4,3,3,4,1,1... out of the 4 radials.. many races i was in front and the wind just died and picked up at the other end... thanks to adam (alex's father), i was able to get a lift home with little delay.

3. lastly and most importantly the oat, i'm very excited as this thursday i'm getting a new boat, ya, michael mills is sending it down, the number is 189024 so it is very new... it also comes with a free sail but a very hefty price, $8000... ya... well... at least i save by not spending much on charter fees...

well... to all that qualified as a result of the recent competition... well done, and for those who didn't, don't be disheartened, just pick up yourself and try harder next time..

life goes on

today was full of ups and downs, firstly, i want to move now, then i won't have to complete any of these useless after useless assignments, i mean how helpful can geography be?... i mean if its physical, i won't mind, but urban growth and decline?... not as though i'm going to be a city council minister... well... i glanced at the results for the nat youths, and all i can say is that i wish i could be there... life here is kinda empty without the usual laughter and jokes from my singapore friends... ya... just here to say i miss ya... sob, sob...

time to move on

ya... after 6.5 weeks in CBC Burwood, my parents and teachers have given me the green light to move to year 11, lets weigh the pros and cons...
pros: i get to go back to singapore 1 year earlier
i waste less time on year 10
i save 1 year worth of school fees
i eventually do everything 1 year earlier (ns, uni...)
cons: i have to make new friends
i might not top the cohort
i will have to settle to a completely new environment
i will have to pay more school fees

well... i guess pros win... well fyi, i am most probably going to st. patrick's college, another boys school that is also one of the top schools (along with st. marys, sydney grammar, st. andrews, st. joseph)... now i am just slacking my way thru school, whats the point, i can't be bothered anymore, i am leaving in 3 weeks and its time to move on...

volleyball mania

today we had the metropolitan volleyball championships held in the sports hall in the sydney olympic park, it started at 9 am with a controversial match against rooky hills high school, it turned out that we were not supposed to play them and hence, we had to forfeit even though we had won 2-1. the second match was against the eventual runner ups (i dunno what they're school is called), and i played the first set which we lost 19-25 the other two sets were also losses (9-25, 22-25). we then had lunch before playing against westfield, i played all three sets this game and we won 2-1 (25-17, 25-19, 22-25). the last qualifier was against great lakes and we won that 2-0 (28-26, 25-12). after this, we were certain that we would enter the semi finals (top 2 teams in each pool), unfortunately due to the controversy, we were the third team and hence played the 5th and 6th placing match, we were disappointed and lost 2-1 to great lakes u-15s, (22-25, 25-11, 12-15), great work by everybody though and i am proud to say that i've improved alot due to this experience, well ttfn..

once every 2 days

haha... i guess i'm now blogging once every two days, well yesterday was a dsiaapointment, after looking forward to receiving my english and science tests, it turned out a failure. for english, my so called good essay only earnt me a 10/15, and the mcq section 14/20, overall i got 24/35 and i was 10th in the level. for science, i got 49/50 and that 1 mark was for not giving the diagram a title!... what the hell!... well i was also looking forward to sports science where we were supposed to do table tennis, but instead, we did more fitness tests!... we did sit and reach but unlike the one in singapore, we placed a ruler at the tip of our feet and tried to stretch as far down the ruler, so it was possible to get a negative score, i got 15 cm, 2nd highest in class. well tomorrow is volleybal... wish me luck

today was good and bad... first we had math then pass which we did more fitness test... we first did suicides for warm up and then we did as many sit ups as possible in 1 min, i got 3rd highest in class, getting 53. thanks to mark for all those ab lessons. then we did the stout test, we had to tiptoe on one leg and balnce whilst placing our hands on our hips and placing our other leg behind the dominant leg. i got 16 seconds which was the average, then we did standing broad jump, i jumped 211cm... not my best effort. after recess we had history in which we were learning abt communism threat in aus. i got called to the office then where they took my photo to do an article abt my win in gosford... yes, thank you, thank you. haha. we then had sport which wasn't good at all, before ending the day with volleyball trng. tomorrow shld be fun, we are going to play table tennis for p.a.s.s. and we are going to get back our test papers for english and science, pray for me please!.. well i'm going to put in some pictures of gosford...

things have officially changed for the worst, the cbsa swimming carnival yesterday was a disaster... i swam in both the medley and freestyle relays and both times we came in fifth. in the medley relay, i was the freestyle swimmer and i helped by catching up from 6th to 5th. my timing was also a new pb of 29.80 sec... the second relay, we started off badly and i was half a lap behind the 3rd team by the time it was my turn, i swam in abt 30.46 seconds. overall the medley relay timing was 2.39.45 and the freestyle was 2.18.93... well tomorrows reflection day and i'm looking forward to it...

back from gosford

hey... back from gosford... i can safely conclude that it was a windless weekend, besides the odd gusts that blew up to 12 knots on saturday, we were sitting in our boats most of the time. i went up to hornsby by train in the morning where i met kevin, he gave me a lift to gosford which was a 45 min drive. there, we registered, rigged and waited for the race to start. there were three races on day 1, the first race started lightly at about 5-7 knots and was shifty, the wind picked up later to 12 knots on the reach. i started averagely and tacked after the start to cross the starboard end starters, i then played the shifts well until 3/4 up the upwind where i was 4th... i then took a risk by going right when the top 3 went left, it payed off as i got a gust and crossed by quite a distance, i rounded the top mark 1st, the rest of the singaporeans were close behind, siobhan, 4th, victoria, 5th and manyi, 15th.. the wind got very gusty and i just managed to maintain my lead, second was zac skulander and siobhan finished third. in the second race, the wind was 8-10 knots the whole race until the last upwind to finish where it dropped to 3-5 knots. i started badly in the middle and was not playing the shifts properly, at the top mark i rounded 17th, victoria 18th, siobhan 25th and manyi 26th... the rest of the race was practically catch up and at the second upwind top mark, i was 5th, siobhan 9th, manyi 11th and victoria 14th. i caught up with 2 more boats on the final short upwind taking advantage of the lighter winds. there was alot of weed stuck under the rudder and daggerboard and it was a case of the less the weed, the faster your speed, the third race, all the singaporeans started at the pin and got a large advantage as the wind persistently shifted left. we rounded the top mark, victoria 1st, siobhan 3rd, me 7th and manyi 9th. we all improved throughout the race, i finished 1st, victoria 2nd, siobhan 7th and manyi 8th. there were no races on the second day due to the lack of wind. that was all... well what an awfully long post. results and pics can be accessed thru the link above.

cradling the essence of nature

cradling the essence of nature... i couldn't believe i wrote those words myself... today we had an english exam... in section a, we had to analyse two poems and answer 20 mcqs... in section b, we had to do a descriptive passage on one of two pictures... the first one was a fantasy like one and the second was a picture of an aged woman. earlier the day, we had a science test which i thought was easy followed by a fitness test in sports science, we did the agility test where we had to run around cones like an obsticle course.. fastest time in my class was 15.99 sec i did it in 16.41 sec... my best attempt... i'm quite happy... but for the coordination test where you had to throw a ball at the wall and catch it with the alternate arm.. i got a best of 57 catches in one minute when the average was about 65-70... boy, i can't catch.. well tomorrow is a regatta, will report it on monday... but for now cradle your essence of life...