ahh.. forgive me for the belated post, but I was rather caught up with the 24th Singapore River Regatta 2006 last weekend.
For the uninitiated, the River Regatta is a national level dragon boat
racing event held annually along the Singapore River. This is the 2nd
time I am racing under the banner of teamNUS, and even with 2 years of
rowing for the Chung Ling team back in high school, I gotta admit that
it is rather exciting.
For completeness sake, (and not to mention save myself from having to
type out another post=P), this post will now bring you, the reader back
to the day before the race - Friday.
Friday :
ahh.. call me crazy, call me quirky, but I always get this overwhelming
need to go have my hair cut on the eve of any dragon boat
competition, to literally shave, or rather, cut-off the extra weight.
(To all of those who have their eyebrows raised at this point in the
post:- It's a mental thing ;)) So I've decided to go to the hair saloon
which I normally go to when I'm in Singapore - the one at Rochor
Center. Since I was in the neighbourhood, I figured I would drop by the
Kuan Yin Temple to pray - the world is in a such a mess nowadays.
Besides world peace and wisdom for mankind, a few prayers or two to
keep the participants safe during tomorrow's race wouldn't hurt i
thought. Ahh.. by virtue of the rainy season, heavy rain began to fall
even before I alighted at the Queenstreet terminal. Good thing I had my
umbrella with me, else I can't even begin to imagine what would happen
to my laptop that I had with me at that time(I left straight after
class you see..) *hugs laptop* (glad that you are safe and sound! =))
*whistles* My goodness, the rain was so heavy at the Bugis area. I had
to hug my laptop while walking around with my umbrella just to keep it
from getting drenched. Just when you think things can't get any worse,
they do. My umbrella started to leak=P good thing it wasn't too bad..
in fact, I was quite amused by my predicament at the moment in time..
hahaha
hmm.. a lot of interesting things happened to me that evening.. Quite a
few people actually approached me to fetch them over to another
building and such. With my tiny umbrella, the presence of other people
with bigger umbrellas in the vicinity, I am lost as to why I was
approached of all people.. Perhaps I have the face of a guy who just
can't say no.. hahaha, konon! But I enjoyed helping out nevertheless,
so I guess I have no complaints to that! =) Anyway, I managed to get
myself to the temple despite the rain. As I was leaving the temple for
my haircut, I saw a ice-cream stall uncle, you know, the type who sells
ice-creams by the road side, manning his stall. What caught me was that
he was still stubbornly manning his post despite the heavy rain(we all
know that most people won't go anywhere near ice-creams on cold rainy
days, right?). At that instance in time, I was like, filled with awe
and respect at the resilience of ice-cream sellers in Singapore. Wow,
that's dedication, man.. As I was pondering over the matter while
walking hurriedly down the road in the rain, I suddenly realised that
all the other ice-cream stalls in the area were already closed.. I was
like OMG OMG! RESPECT! That ice-cream stall uncle was really something.
In the end, after contemplating in the rain for a while, I decided that
I shall go make the uncle's day. Sooo, it's all the way back to the
temple for me, rotten umbrella and all=) Ahhh.. the uncle was so
surprised to see me coming back for ice-cream. I told him jokingly that
I enjoy the 'kick' of eating ice-cream on cold days and we both
laughed. I'm glad that I could offer him a bit of cheering up on his
rainy day. Besides, it was the eve of an important sports event, I
needed the excuse to have some otherwise taboo-to-my-captain
ice-cream xD Making one's day is easier than you think, no? ;)
ahh.. so I finally went back to the hair saloon.. but something was
wrong with their circuit board, the power kept tripping at every
flash of lightning. So I left my umbrella at the saloon and went to
7-11 to get something to drink. I chatted with the cashier at the
counter and he was teasing me about me getting a half-cut hair on one
side of my head if there was a black out in the middle of my haircut..
so bad, lol.. at any rate, back at the saloon, I sat down with the
aunties and ladies outside the shop, waiting for the power to get back
on, and somehow they almost managed to convince me that I should have
my haircut along the corridor in front of the shop.. LOL.. the younger
trainees at the studio was like giggling away at the idea la.. Wth la!
I am your customer you know! hehe.. anyway, the power went back on just
as I was on the verge of becoming a publicity stunt for the saloon, so
we all moved back in.. PHEW! xD
So.. all went well for friday huh? ;) ahh.. contented
Saturday & Sunday:
Man, I'm so lazy to continue typing.. I guess that's the bain about doing late posts >.>
Oh well, I guess I shall just give you guys the highlights.. My boat,
NUS Boat B came in 1st in the men's open grand final, beating
3-year-champion Singapore Canoe Federation(SCF) and even our team's own
Boat A! What a jaw-dropper! I don't really know how we pulled that one,
but I'm very happy for all of my brothers.. Man, this is what I mean by
the fairytale in dragon boating in one of my previous posts
here.
I'm glad that all of us got here together.. I love you guys!;) NUS did
quite well, in this River Regatta-- 3rd in women's open, 1st in men's
open, 1st in Tertiary education institutes category, and 1st in plate
finals for the mixed team. It was a very touching journey for all, and
I am glad to be there beside them all as we created history and
achieved immortality. Cheers NUS! As my captain, Teddy, fondly referred
to as the Teddy Monster by the team, puts it, "..medals and trophies are
but to garnish our journey in dragon boating as friends and
brothers..it's the friendship and camaraderie that makes each and every
stroke, worth it." ;)
btw, I still can't believe Teddy plotted a graph from the tide tables to
determine the current conditions at the race site in order to adapt our
strategies accordingly.. now that's an engineer for ya.. hahaha
Signing off with an aching back, breast and shoulder, this is Tan Jo, dragon boat rower, friend, brother..
human. Peace.
Just a token to garnish our friendship and camaraderie.
