Oh yeah, the holidays are finally upon us.
Boy has it been long since I've blogged, haha.
Hmmm, in a week, there has been plenty of CHANGE. yes that vague word.

Haha, firstly, on Wed, finally passed out of NPCC after 3 and a half [ i really dont know why everyone says its 4, 4, 4, its 3 and a half only what!] years of that cca. We'd barel;y rehearsed for the parade thing la, and we didnt have our own fancy drill performance like other batches did in the past, but, what the heck, we've broken plenty of 'records' in the other extreme end for being arugably the worst batch, and yeah its good to keep the streak going. LOL. Hiaz, just a year ago, when we took over, it was like so sian, keep getting scolded by CIs during the first few trainings, but since the turn of the year where i got to take squad and organise camp, man it feels bad to leave, esp when the sec1s are in such a sorry state of affairs [no offence its a formality]. Back to the occasion, whoa, while marching the final 14 steps to ark's timing, started to remember all the miserable moments during sec1, 2 and 3, lol. All the times we got criticised for having small attendance, and the times when our drills were crap. lol. Time has called upon us. yeah, the feeling of throwing our berettes were great sia, and the boot-stomping and chaotic-chasing after that was unforgettable also, haha. Next was the "early-anticipated" buffet [jus a high-class way of saying "catering"]. haha, the apostrophes do their job la, the food was SUCKY. bud wadeheck. after that the performance frm sec3s was quite good, the movie thing. and they gave us a gay band each, how gay! and the small and last-min card the sec1s did was quite touching also la, lol. There was this guy who said he likes my sense of humour! and i mean like, i try my best to act fierce when taking squad, and he thinks its funny. well thats funny.

lol, then on Saturday NEA3 also got restructuring. Ah, its like happening so fast la, these things, and all in this fateful year summore. Hmmm, now in grads. group things im sure great things beckon, though ll still miss the jons and the petes and the zhicais. lol. not yk [okay JK la]. Speaking of it, i think the sermon was the most significant one yet, about addiction and all, which is quite true to me la. I mean i'm so addicted to watching soccer, i've been watching almost every early kick-off, every super sunday match, and every match involving Arsenal, including 2.30am champions league matches. sigh, and also sometimes cant stop playing computer games. so, seriously, ive gotta fight the addiction la. hopefully the sermon served as big motivation. AND, btw on friday night,

[for pple who hv read Digital Fortress]

Subject: Big cockroach
Status: TERMINATED

lol. i managed to swat one of those fearsome creatures! mainly cos it was in my way and i really really needed to get my calculator. haha. staying at that, Shirley must be quite some person to witness 12 cockroaches writhing in pain walking the road to hell. you know, it's one thing having Baygon spray, its another thing daring to spray and watch them die tragically. okok, better not digress too much.

No, i still havent got over the 5mins of madness in Paris on May 17th.
No, my skin still hasn't fully healed.
No, i cant bring myself to change my impression on HER, [lol, never will]
No, i haven't decided which JC i want to go to.
No, i can't stop sleeping late.
No, any slight movement of any cockroach within visible range will STILL cause a proportional [reflex] movement in me.

However,

Yes, Henry's decison to stay at Arsenal has been comforting.
Yes, i've learnt a whole lot about self-control [or rather LACK of self-control] when u develop rashes
Yes, i'm NOT going to HCI.
Yes, I've adapted and aint that sleepy in sch nowadays.
Yes, I've started to kill cockroaches who stubbornly stay stationary and chose not to frighthen me. Mercilessly i should add.

[hmm, think i ll upload pictures when im free some other day, boy its LATE!!]

It makes full sense. =p.

"When you win it's happy days."
yeah, when you don't. i guess the feeling sucks.
yeah, the losing feeling does suck.
Arsenal finally fell to Barcalona, 2-1, in Paris.
The sad thing was, we were so close, so close...to winning the "holy grail".
Down to 10men after our goalkeeper was sent off for a silly challenge outside the box, i thought it was all over, we would be run down badly, especially with the class that barcalona had, Ronaldinho [THE best player in the world], Eto' and Deco.
Miraculously, we still managed to take the lead before half time, after a strong header above a hapless Barca defence.

In the 2nd half, they came at us badly. On the few times that we managed to hit them on the break, Henry spurned 3 guilt-edged chances. Had we been 2-0 up, it was truly game over. But they say in football, it's all about taking your chances, and we didn't. And Barca came roaring back with 15mins left. 15mins short, of the holy grail. Pre-match, everyone was talking about Henry and Ronaldinho, but they played poorly, sadly. It was a Barca sub that changed the match, and 2 goals in 5mins totally wrecked our hearts. Damn!

At the end of the day, people say that the referee was biased against Barca, but honestly, Barca deserved it la. We would surely have won if Henry worked his way passed the goalkeeper before tapping in, like he usually does. Tension or whatever, he always tried to hit it first time, and it did not work out at all. What a pity.

But it's ok. The 10men fought like heroes against the 11 of Barca. And i can say for sure, we gave them a much tougher challenge than Chelsea did with 10 men. Oh well, now it's time to look at the future. There's a great season ahead in the new stadium, and if Henry stays, I'm sure we can overcome Chelsea.

I think, when the second goal went in, it made me realise how much time i have wasted playing computer games and all. Watching football is so much more meaningful. [contradicting, lol]. Or any kind of sport la. Be it tennis or F1 or whatever. Its def so much more meaningful. Sigh, prob that's why my results have deteriorated so much. Besides, it's still salvageble la. gotta find some way to fix Amaths. and of course, the bewitched language that is English.

It has been an emotional week la. I am really mentally tired.

But it's not too bad, they were only the best I've ever had.

Today, we got back most of our remaining results. Or at least i realised.
Started with english. and the functional writing was a miserable 20. but the vocab test that followed left me stunned. Boy is this another term of English screwed up, and since sec3, i've only gotten A1 for a language ONCE. Seriously sad, and, worrying.

Then, Amaths was pretty horrible really. so careless. and when mr tan saw my paper, he was saying "Not good enough!". and he wasn't wrong. so many freakish mistakes on differentiation, and they cost you big time when u get the first part of the qn wrong. And to the test i have this to say.

- Sum of terms is the EASIEST be it differentiation or integration.
- Always check to make sure the SIGN is correct. I seem to have a real knack at making these sort of silly errors.
-Proving. ALWAYS complete the square.

Sigh. "Nothing to talk about liao la".lol.
Also got back Emaths and physics.
This term is very average for me la. dammit.
Emaths geog and the 3 sciences were all fairly simple tests, who doesn't get A1 for them.
I suspect, prep. will be much tougher la, so hopefully, I can rise to the occasion. Honestly, the only outstanding subject has been my combined humans, or history at least. lol. we've got plenty of time now. chemistry syllabus if finished le, so at least can start revising. bud we are pretty slow at bio and physics man. imagine all the chapters we have to cramp into our minute brain. I cant. boy oh boy.

but we all have to. period.

I think this term, the soccer has totally overwhelmed me, the race for 4th place, and the great run in the champions league. Now, season's over, apart from the small matter of the champions league final, and the even smaller matter of the world cup [ha!]. Really gotta do constant revision. and selective studying for geog, if its going to work out. The late nights studying in the bright lights in my room have been the best nights, where i really felt i was MAKING PROGRESS. Now I've gotta try to lock myself in there man. haha.

I'm an optimist. you know it makes sense. lol.

Wow, the fact that im blogging so soon again means it must be something special.
And it was. On sunday night.
It was the final day of the season 05/06.
More importantly it was the last match at Highbury, which i have been counting down on this blog since the turn of the year. lol.
Apart from all the celebrations expected post-match, there were still points for grabs.
We soooooooo needed 4th spot for champions league nxt season [only top 4 teams get it], and rivals Spurs have been there since December, keeping us at 5th. If Spurs won, there was nothing we could do. If they drew or lost, and we won, then we wld pip them to 4th. But, spurs have been on excellent form la, and they were "expected" to win, so no one gave us a chance about getting 4th place.

As fate would have it, on Sunday morning, a bug hit the Spurs players and 10 of their first team players suffered from food poisoning. WHAT A "BLESSING". yeah,. if it being the last match wasnt enough motivation. And we started off brilliantly. Scored a goal in 8mins and the crowd was in raptures. Then, complacency kicked in. Sigh. While everyone was cheering, Wigan stunned us first with a poorly defended freekick, to make it 1-1. And then another freekick, where the goalie was caught offguard, and BANG, it was 1-2. I was so dam shocked la. However, 2mins after that, right away, Henry got us back level with a superb 1v1 finish. 2nd half, a gift from a defender allowed henry to make it 3-2. and then soon after 4-2 from the penalty spot. His hat-trick, and he kissed the ground after that, a scene which will prob be replayed over and over again. Full time followed, and all the fans hailed the wonderful player who turned the match around. Surely, after yesterday, he would stay at Arsenal. Critics say otherwise, but i am damn sure of it. Now we can look forward to May 17th, against Barcelona, where the pressure will be off our shoulders. =)

DOUBLE STANDARDS.
Boy do i hate that phrase. It applies to all aspects of life, I feel.
Like, for example, in soccer, the Chelsea manager always feels that the press is against Chelsea. When Manchester and Arsenal were winning titles they were well-branded and well-respected. Now that Chelsea have won their 2nd title in as many years, all everyone talks about is when they will collapse, and their boring style of play. Yes, i don't like Chelsea. I don't like the way they play. But I understand how Chelsea are feeling.

Now, for an example today, we got back a test paper, and i did quite okay for it, and i'm assured of an A1 liao. There was this one question worth 2marks where everyone who has seen my answer and compared it with others, would agree that I deserved at least 1, if not both marks. When i asked the teacher, she said "I want you to learn how to phrase your answer in the proper way" Okay. The thing is, instead of using "heat absorbed", I wrote "heat taken in". Apparently someone's English aint so good, but it doesnt take an English pro to understand that they mean pretty much the same thing. Okay. So i'll learn.I'll use absorbed next time. However, I noticed some one my friends using phrases such as "energy used up" and golly me they got 2marks for that question. So i went back to the teacher to demand an explanation. And she said, "It's not that it matters, you've already got your A1. I won't entertain you any further." Why how professional! We are from 4/7. The average person gets an A1, unlike in other classes. And she declares that, "If someone from [another of my classes] wrote that, I can understand that their English is not that good. As long as what they are thinking is right, they deserve the mark." Indeed, I am sure this is doing you no favours into increasing your likeness which has been so evident of your actions. [all the following is referring to A TEACHER and not some close friend of mine however intimate it sounds okay, LOL]

This, my friends, is blatant double standards. Being a teacher, you can be strict or lenient. Easy-going or always serious. Either way, you can be a good teacher in the eyes of students. [Mrs Lim and Mr Tan respectively]. What is important is to be consistent in your actions, so treat everyone equally, with the same, i shall say, RESPECT. Only then will you get it in return. Earlier, I was talking to some of my classmates, and i sort of told them that i felt, teachers who are rigid, and don't give in easily to students' requests for marks, are good. What is important is being consistent in being rigid, or giving in. Being inconsistent and contradictory in your actions, will result in dire consequences in the future. In politics, one contradictory statement will be instantly picked up on by the opposition. It gives a poor impression of yourself, and that's exactly how i feel. It doesn't really matter much to be, as far as I'm concerned. I'm pretty confident of being able to self-study in a subject which is poorly taught. If anything, it's an ADVANTAGE on top of other students who depend on notes. [BOO HOO!].I mean, u print so much notes for free and you sell a small bundle of test papers for how much? And we're forced to pay! Why don't you try selling your notes and see the reaction you'll get? And I can seriously picture her, 10years down the road, being something like a Ms Ow-yeong.[if u can grasp the insulting part of that].Teachers say that the results don't relate to any bonus to them or anything, but the truth is that it will determine whether they get to teach sec4, or, quote "socially cannot mix with" sec2s. Results do matter to teachers. Mr Tan is always stressing how poor our results are, why? The answer's in the question isn't it.

Oh well. I made so much out of something so small. Guess it goes to show, that

"one never knows what ripples one's falling pebble will cause"

Sigh. Ok. Today, also got back Chinese and History. Failed Chi la. lol. 25/55. That's "Chan's minimum standard" ? lol. doesn't matter la. only thing that matters is that I PASS OVERALL can le ba. i mean the tian cong is pretty much guesswork. and compre is jus whether i can UNDERSTAND the qn, which shows how freaking poor my chinese is. too late.
History was ok la. 18/25 is not great, but then again the highest was only 19. Really, by making the combined humanities tougher and tougher, they prob want pple to neglect it more and more, with the essays being of more weird forms, and souce-based having combined skills in one qn.

Well, this term has been tiring, and if anything, term 3 will definitely be rush-hour term, if what Ernest and Mr yong said is anything to come by. Seriously, the end of the football season is quite a huge relief to me. I mean i wun die if i miss a world cup match. Final or not. Blimey, international matches just don't captivate me like club football matches do. Passion. Support for a club.Perhaps if Singapore football gets better. LOL.

Well, there is just a Sunday of premier league action left. And its the farewell match at Highbury before we move into the 60.000 seater emirates. Lets just hope the day will be a great one. Wigan ain't strong. I dunno. 7-0? We've already done that twice in the past year! ha!.