SJI Canoeists of '09

Hey dudes!

2010-02-12T07:36:00.000-08:00

Yo people,

it was definitely awesome to meet up again on CNY and go out for lunch again at LONGHOUSE (first time in what, a year?). I hope we get loads more opportunities to do something like that again, like maybe get together to celebrate some people's birthdays or go out for lunch whenever we feel too stressed or something. That would be cool =)

Anyway, I believe the plan for this blog (correct me if I'm wrong, Nick) is that we can use it to keep each other posted on stuff that's happening in each of our own lives. Like the AC carnival thingy Jon is having one day in Feb. You could use this blog to advertise events like that to the rest of us if you like. Stuff like that. It's late and I can't think of how to properly end this post. Oh I know, let's do it with a bang.

*BANG*

P.S. Happy CNY and Valentine's Day! Enjoy JC, dudes!

Mummy Exhibition @ Nat Museum

2009-12-27T23:48:00.000-08:00

Yo guys anyone interested in the Mummy Exhibiton? It's free entry for students so Jon and i were thinking we could go together before we start school. . . . sobsob.

Presented by National Museum of Singapore, in co-operation with Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Egyptian and Near Eastern Department

Venue	Exhibition Galleries 1 & 2, Basement
Date	TUE 22 DEC 2009 - SUN 4 APR 2010 10:00am - 6:00pm

The ancient Egyptian world is often characterised by a fascinating and remarkably supple mental universe. Ancient Egyptians melded images in ways that often beggar logic. They linked material elements with a realm inaccessible to humans, as reflected both in their daily conduct and their emphasis on the afterlife that led to their quest for immortality.

Quest for Immortality – The World of Ancient Egypt offers an insight to the ancient Egyptian’s attitude to life and the afterlife, and the preparations they made to ensure their transition from earthly existence to immortality. Discover the Egyptians’ means of equipping the dead – through mummification, provision of sustenance, magic and ritual – and explore the evolution of their burial rites as well as the changing relationship between man and ritual through time.

With 230 artefacts spanning from 4000 BCE to 950 CE, this exhibition endeavours to place tomb objects in their social, religious and artistic context, demonstrating the diversity and adaptability of an art that has prevailed in both time and space.

Post 'O's training!

2009-12-20T01:33:00.000-08:00

O Macritchie, how great it is, to look upon thy face once more…

After a lovely – what was it, 7 months? – of hard ‘O’ level preparation and putting on weight, a couple of us decided to go and visit our juniors at training. Ok, fine, ‘couple’ means Russell, I and Nick. Jon was actually supposed to come too, but on that day he called up to say he was really tired and so couldn’t make it. Ah well, what could we do?

The initial plan was to go to training, catch up with our old pal Jiao Lian, take the boat of our choice and have a nice, relaxing playtime. If the juniors needed a little mentoring, ok, we’d oblige. I think when we made that offer to Jiao Lian, what we had in mind was standing safely on shore, watching the sec 1s in the small pond and correcting their strokes. Or maybe we’d row beside one of them slowly and carefully monitor them. Guess what? Nick was made to row K2 with our sec 2 Gabriel and had to do two 2k timings together with about three 500m s. Poor dude…

Russell and I, on the other hand, were a little more fortunate. We got to take a K2! It was a tiger, naturally. We went nicely, slowly, and even played the throw-your-paddle-in-front-and-paddle-with-your-hands-to-get-it thing! Every now and then we had to stop to rest though…*sigh* we’re getting so old… but hey, we were fast! We could keep up with Nick Goh’s K1 FOR 3 BUOYS! We haven’t lost it yet!! =)

In any case, getting to see all our juniors again was a treat. We missed you guys…and having lunch with you’ll again, just like old times…train hard, little dudes!! Get the B’div gold, and you guys are one up on us oldies! And make sure the littler dudes (sec 1s) retain the C’div gold once more!

Good old cheer...

Anyway, as I recall, the day after training, I woke up and ached.

-Peter

Back when we were young

2009-12-19T03:12:00.001-08:00

AFTER THE O's

2009-12-19T00:04:00.000-08:00

I have no idea how you guys felt after the Os but for me, as i watched our peers cheering in ecstasy and hugging each other in the hall as if a brutal battle had just ended, i couldn't help but ask myself if working so hard for the Os was worth it. I felt lost. Honestly, i didn't know what to expect from then on. As relieved as i was, i also was exhausted and it took up to lunchtime for me to feel a tinge of happiness.

Yes....they're definitely on ecstasy...

The period spent preparing for the Os had really widened the gap between us. It was indeed a stressful period and the fact that we had to relinquish a considerable amount of fun-time together made it even more painful. Often, our inner urge to go out and play would be held back by our O level preparation which demanded more attention. We were like caged birds that were fed nothing but examination questions. Finally, on the last day of Os, we were freed from our shackles. It felt so surreal. For a brief moment, we forgot how to fly.

Joel defying the laws of gravity

Ok lah it wasn't that bad. It was stressful but we did find time to play frisbee and paper planes! But seriously, being with the team again felt great. I felt reunited with the team. Of course, eating at Seoul Garden brought back even more wonderful memories of the past. It felt just like yesterday that we were tasting victory for the first time after winning the C div cup. Although not everyone turned up, it was a great feeling to be in the presence of great friends again after such a long time.

17 March JON's BDAY!

2009-12-17T22:15:00.000-08:00

Lol i have to admit that it's kinda weird posting bout something that happened at the start of this year! I was browsing through my album of photos when i found several photos i took on Jon's Birthday which was 9 months ago. I thought it would be nice to let you guys and Jon see the photos i took so i decided to create this post in the end!

Well if i recall correctly, it was after training and we brought Jon to our favourite place (Donut Factory) to celebrate his birthday. We bought a cake from Breadtalk first before heading to D.F. With two boxes of 12 and a devilishly delicious chocolate cake, we celebrated the JON's Birthday!! Lol this post just doesn't seem complete without a birthday wish so..........HAPPY UBER-BELATED BIRTHDAY JON!!!!!!!!!!!

PiZzA TiMe

2009-12-16T06:13:00.000-08:00

The Sec 4 team has worked real HARD for the comps and our efforts did pay off. Defending our silver trophy was no easy feat and our teachers in-charge are aware of that. As a reward, they decided to give us a little cheese and pasta fiesta. At the same time, we celebrated our good friend Fenyit's birthday. (getting old buddy! XD) Unfortunately, our big Teddy bear Mr Teo and not-as-big teddy bear Mr Fong couldnt make it, they said they were busy - yea right.. but we still had our quality time with Mr Lim.

Anyway, the lucky outlet that was to serve us is the Pizza Hut at Plaza Singapura. Mr Lim most probably still remembering our voracious appetite at Seoul Garden, ordered a whopping 12? no 13 12-inch pizzas for about 11 of us.. That is equivalent to about 8 slices each. On top of that, we also had the buffalo wings and soup. Man, bloated is an understatement for everyone of us. Russell, FenYit and I were having an eating competition, I was on par with Fenyit but got owned by Russell who beat me by 1 slice. I had 9. By the way, that Pizza Hut has closed down, collapsed rather.

We ended off the day with a small piece of cake complimentary from Pizza Hut for FenYit. He didnt want it, saying that the cake would make him fat, so I took it :) It's bad to waste food.

What i found most interesting was how we passed the different pizzas around and the entire process of finishing the food. Hehe, since Russell and I were sitting on the outside, we had the privilege of getting the pizzas first and yes, we certainly did not miss this golden opportunity to hog the nicer ones. Back to focus, when one of us wanted a swap, a few of us would end up with 2 pizza trays on hand, if I remembered correctly, Matthew Sng had 3 on him. Don't ask me how he did it. ask him lol. As usual, Peter being a calm, unhurried person made us all wait on him.. i mean for him. No one else could eat and there were a few slices here and there so Peter who was just like me ( don't like to waste food) was asking us to pass him the rest of it.

It was a real fun time for all those who were there. Hope there'll be more of this in future! THANKS MR LIM!!!!

The Tales of the Mr Teo

2009-12-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

It all start a nong nong time ago, in a land far far away. There lived a man called Mr Teo...

Ehh what am i saying paiseh. Okay... so basically our blog has not been updated in awhile so its time to get it back and our first topic shall be MR TEO!!! YAY! *clap clap clap clap*.

Most of the story involves Mr Teos leg, who we shall call his knee for now, funny name i know but what do you expect... its a name for the leg. Basically his knee has not been that good for awhile, but he injured his knee even more in OBSabah. To make a long story short, he slipped and his knee got injured.

Well after that, Mr Teo had problems even walking around normally and had to move around with the help of crutches. So... he decided to go for an operation and he would be gone for 5 months. So we decided to throw a farewell party for him. So basically we took the two persons called farewell and party and threw them on Mr Teo... Sry digressing again.

We had cake.

And people were happy... Hmm that seems wrong... But oh well

It was dark dark days the day that Mr Teo was gone. Haha raining mah...

And a few of us decided to go visit him.

Juz tilt ur head and look at the photos haha.

LOOK!!! HIS KNEE! there you got a view of his knee after operation

And Ryan Cheng standing with his foot.

Well to make another long story short. Mr Teo came back. To watch our competition and later to resume his duties in school and lived happily ever after.

The End

So touching right... I know now even i crying *sniff sniff*

Lol joking.

Canoeing Nationals 2009

2009-12-15T19:39:00.000-08:00

Time really flies. It's been a loooooooong while since the comps that I've made any posts. To be exact, it's 248 days after the comps and I can still barely believe that the O's are over! Anyway, I have some pics from the comps period that ought to be posted here coz after all, this is a blog about the lives of SJI Canoeists!

It's a good thing that Mr Teo made Pete and I write about this year's comps for the JA when we were preparing for Prelim. I was grumbling at first coz I wanted to study but I did a draft anyway and Pete made a final check before we submitted it to him. In the end, he used our write-up for the letter to the Sec1 to 3's parents' and i don't think we'll get to see it in the JA. That's why it's good! Hehehe. I can just copy and paste what we did and use it as a post for our blog! It's definitely better than what i was typing before i decided to copy and paste. I can barely remember the details of the comps after Os so this is a better option :P

But before i copy and paste, here are some pics of the boat waxing day before the comps!

Left: Fen Yit wiping the insides of his second wife, Right: Jon wiping the outside of his wife

Left: Grass patch outside K2 shed , Right: Peter and Paul fanning their boats dry

COPY & PASTE:
***************************************************************************************

National Interschool Canoeing Championships

Some of us were listening to our MP3 players. Some were whispering quietly to each other while some simply stared into blank space. Yet, deep down, under the semblance of calmness, our insides were turning to liquid. Our muscles were numb just from anxiety as we waited in silent anticipation of the events to come. Then the bus rumbled to a stop. The doors creaked open. We stepped out. Out into MacRitchie Reservoir.

MacRitchie Reservoir- our familiar training location, the place where we often push ourselves past our limits. It is the place where we gather at least 4 times a week to practice and improve our paddling skills and subject ourselves to excruciating fitness training. In the days leading up to the competition, we were made to run seemingly endless distances and did push-ups and pull-ups till our bodies ached with a profound discomfort. We can only ascribe our seemingly improbable fortitude to our strong desire to do our Alma mater proud. We knew the challenges that had to be surmounted, and we contrived to give nothing but our personal best.

With our paddles in one hand and the other idly clenched, we made our way to the competing area. The atmosphere was exuberant but the C-division and B-division team maintained a cool demeanour, with our minds focused on our goals. After 3 days of intense competition in the heats and semi-finals, our perseverance and determination paid off. The C-division team managed to get 12 boats in the finals and the B-division managed to get a record number of 15 boats in the finals. Unfortunately, a few boats did not make it that far. All the same, we are all proud that they faced their opponents with courage, especially the Sec 1s who had to race competitors twice their size.

Peter Chen-Yang Nikhil Daniel (204) obtained the first gold for the team in the K1-1000m event. He later went on to win his second gold medal for the K1-500m event. His success is the first of its kind in SJI history. No person had ever won two gold medals in the National Interschool Canoeing Championships. Brandon Seah (210) was the second person to achieve such a feat. He obtained gold for the T2-500m event and together with C-division Captain Joshua Ng (211), they obtained gold for the T2-500m event. And for the first time, SJI sent four kayakers, Timothy Tan (201), Gabriel Lim (206), Shaun Tan (210) and Timothy Lim (202) to compete in the C-division K4-500m race and emerged with silver medals.

Faiz Azhar B Hazman clinched the 5^th gold medal for the C-division team for the C1-500m event. In the C2-500m event, David Chew (207) and Benjamin Ng (208) got the bronze medal while Tay Yang Zhi (212) and Daryl Wan Zhi Sheng (207) obtained 5^th. Yang Zhi only joined the Canoeing team towards the end of 2008, but he, together with his partner, Daryl, worked as hard as anyone else. Despite their late start, they managed to become one of the best duos that SJI had to offer. For all the hard work that both of you have put in, Yang Zhi and Daryl, we laud you and are most proud of you.

As for the B-division, both canoeists and kayakers contrived to win a total of 5 medals. Yong Fen Yit (432) successfully won a bronze medal in the K1-1000m event despite being encumbered by a ligament injury during the heats. James Ong (336) came in 5^th for the K1 500m race. Alvan Ng (431) and Canneth Ho (331) was up next in the C1-1000m race, and they came in 4^th and 5^th respectively. Paul Tan (324) and Peter Ooi (432) was the first pair to obtain a silver medal for the B-division in the C2-500m race. Joel Low (435) and Seet Qin Han (325) came in 4^th for the same event. However, they had managed to win bronze medals in the previous C2-1000m race.

After the K2-500m race, which saw Seet Qing Hong (422) and Roy Quek (437) come in 4^th while Jon Chan Hao (437) and Matthew Sng (437) attained 6^th position, Jon and Matthew had only enough time to catch their breath, though, before they set off with Ryan Cheng (435) and Nicholas Tan (432) to compete in the K4-500m event and successfully obtained the first gold medal for the B-division.

The C-division team has once again secured the C-division Title for the 6^th time in a row, maintaining the achievement of their past predecessors. The B-division team achieved the First Runner-up for the Championships, which is an improvement from last year’s results. The success of the Canoeing team this year can only be attributed to the hard work and determination displayed by every team member, coupled with the guidance and undying support from our dedicated Coach, Mr. Lim, Mr. Fong, and Mr. Teo, who, despite being hospitalized after surgery, maintained contact with us.

All in all, 2009 has been a year of blood, sweat and tears, but also of triumph and success for the canoeing team. Even so, we will continue to work hard at canoeing, shattering our limits and constantly improving ourselves. We are confident that as the new year brings new challenges, it will bring also new triumphs.

*************************************************************************************

HOW WAS IT???

I found it a little boring lol. Hope you guys liked it though(: I felt Pete's intro was nice.

Well, below are some pics of us in our celebratory mood at SEoul GarDen.

ONE BIG CANOEIST FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A beautiful photo......

Study Hard Guys

2009-07-18T06:40:00.000-07:00

Haha...all sec 4s...lets study hard.Its not too late now,4half months to go.AND the blogs not yet dead man...joel :p

We're officially dead(until further notice)

2009-07-16T08:26:00.000-07:00

Please refrain from visiting this site (unless you are totally bored and have nothing better to do in life) as this blog would be left untouched due to the fact that all our sec 4s are preparing hard for our 'O's :D

The canoeists would also like to wish all 'O' and 'N' level-takers the very best in preparations for their exams!

Peace,
Jo-Elmo-tard-i-ness-thingy-whatever

P.S. If you do not understand who signed off, it's me Joel XD

Balls...

2009-06-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

Quit complaining that this blog's dead peeps,we couldn't care less.we're trying to get our life back after comps and exams,so cut us some slack.and we wont have much time on the com anyways,we gotta prep for O's,unlike SOME people.Whatever.

Balls u,
Joel

P.S. I'm not really pissed :D

Yo guys...

2009-04-12T06:41:00.000-07:00

Comps are next week.Well,2 days away actually.All the best man.Oral exams tmr.GG guys.Well,for me at least,I haven't prepped :P

do check out the profiles,I edited them.hope you like it :D

None other than,
Joel

P.S. I know you'll think 'if got time to edit profile,why don't go prepare for oral?".I thought the same.But I responded "Ah what the hell,it's only MYEs" :D :P :d :q :p :b

2009-03-01T05:31:00.000-08:00

Here's something else to look forward to(:

http://www.monstersvsaliens.com/

http://www.x-menorigins.com/

http://www.transformersmovie.com/

Onwards!!

2009-03-01T03:10:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

you would have noticed by now that our comps is just 6 weeks away. YES. 6 WEEKS. Just two weeks ago it was 8. Look how time flies. Like what Pete said, these 6 weeks will pass really fast, just like how 3 years and 3 months of our schooling life already has.

Of course, all of us had our beginnings. We weren't always this strong, always this fit. We started off just like how any average Sec 1 would have. We strived for a goal initially given to us but we pushed together and forged friendships along the way and by Sec 2, we made a pact that the goal would be ours. And it did.

That, was how many of the stories would have ended. For us, it almost did. Sec 3 posed as the most challenging year, where we had to maintain our bonds while striking a balance in our academic work. Sounds familiar? Well, for many of us, we did what we were called upon to do. But along the way, some fell out, while some, who weren't initially enthusiastic, got pulled in.

Having said all that, let us have a look at the present. Ask yourself, Am i contented with who i am now? If I could just rewind time, would things be better off now?

My answer to that, is NO. It wouldn't be.

I believe that everything happens for a reason. All you have to do, is find it.

Scoldings and cold shoulders i got from Jiao lian- what good came out of that?
For me, it brought me down to earth. It made me humble. I wasn't as great as i thought. Sometimes, success gets to your head and it raises you up high. Thankfully, i didn't go to high. His scoldings served as a reminder of the big room of improvement i had. Had i chosen to ignore them, i wouldn't be who i am now.

What about all the quarrels i had with my teammates?
They served as wake up calls. It made me realise that you can never be too good to learn from others, and never be too wise to listen. Everyone has their faults and strengths. So do I. That's the reason why we're put together. We make up for each other's faults. And if we choose to combine our strengths, we'll succeed. For example, you don't see me leading P.T. , coz i'll be blindly spamming push ups and pull ups without having a clue of how it would help. Instead, Fen Yit and Joel help out in this area and train us in a more effective way.

So guys, take every failure as a lesson. Experience is a tough teacher, it gives the tests first, then the lessons. Don't give up on yourself. Once you have, even the team can't help you.

In any case, Actions speak louder than words. Giving ourselves a chance is one thing. But what we do next really determines the outcome. It's just like a farmer planting his crops. Without the daily dose of water after the sowing of seeds, there would be no fruits. For most of us, we speak of the things we can do, or will do, but ultimately, it's whether we effect our words that really counts.

Similarly, we should lead by example when getting our juniors to do something. Don't expect them to be what you are not. In these remaining 6 weeks, i hope that we as seniors ( be it sec 2, 3 or 4) can really set an example for our juniors. As we all know, we have limited time during training. Since we can't make time, we'll just have to manage it. One way is to move faster and minimise time wastage so that we can do P.T. after rowing. As Seniors, we'll have to do it first before the rest can follow.

6 weeks left is all we have and lets make the best of it! Like what Fen Yit said, for many of us, it'll be our last chance to fight for our school and what we believe in. In any challenge, it's those who push through the last lap that emerge as winners. SJI Canoeists of year 2009, let us make history by giving our very best and fight without regrets!

ONWARDS SJI!!!!! ONWARDS!!!!!

ps- there's this new programme on chnnl 5 called "School Nationals" and they will feature every school nat finals, including canoeing! So smile for the cam before passing the finishing line ;D

The Comps are in 6 weeks

2009-02-27T04:56:00.000-08:00

6 WEEKS PEOPLE!!!

Hey guys, if we haven't already started, we've got to start giving our all for Canoeing. I know sometimes we feel like we're not in the mood to train, cos we're tired or whatever, but whether we're in the mood or not, the 6 weeks will become 5, and 5 weeks will become 4, and so on...and on competition day, right after our race, we might think "I could have been so much faster...all those training days when I could have put in more effort...I had such a good chance...I might have got the gold". Then we break down and dissolve into tears.

Guys, you already know that by then, it's too late. What we need to do now, is to train hard right now, put every single bit of effort into it so that when the race is over, we can tell ourselves, "we didn't get the gold, but so what? I gave everything I had."

Believe me, that feels better than "I could have won gold if I had just put in a little more effort."

There are times when we tell ourselves, "I will go for training. I will train hard. I will push myself till my guts spill out. Just not today. I'm too tired." I've felt that before too. But then again, if not now, then when???

My dad told me some time ago about this concept. It's called 'Hero of the minute'. It goes like this: just for a particular moment, do what you're supposed to do.

E.g. I'm set my alarm to 6am for every morning. The problem is, sometimes (ok fine, all the time), I hear my alarm, wake up, feel groggy, and then shut my alarm and go back to sleep. How does being the Hero of the Minute help here? When I wake up, however sleepy I feel, however much I yearn to plonk myself back down on my bed, I get up and brush my teeth.

It's as simple as that. Just for that particular moment, do what you're supposed to do. Whenever you're in the middle of Macritchie doing a 2km timing, and feel like giving up, or already have given up, be the Hero of the Minute. Just keep going. At the end of the race,

1) You'll feel proud of yourself for pushing yourself.
2) You'll forgot all about the pain you felt during the race.

If you're in a dilemma about going for training or not one fine day (when you know you should be going), be the Hero of the Minute. Just go.

Guys, there all only 6 weeks left. ORA ORA ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!

Peter

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISAAC MR TEO AND RUIZHI!!!!

2009-02-06T05:42:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday ISAAC, MR TEO and RUIZHI!!! Wish you all the best for the year ahead and that you'll remain HAPPY and HEALTHY!

1)This was Pete, Brandon and I at Novena after training to get the cake.

2)The cake was too boring so we went to donut factory

3)We asked if we could get a customized donut with "Happy Birthday Isaac and BT" on it. But couldnt so ended up with a smiley donut!

4)The Fusion between Donut Factory and Breaktalk!

5)We smacked the donut on!

6)Still boring so Brandon bought ferero Roche and Pete bought Twirl and I added other stuff on the cake!

7)I lied to Isaac that Mr Teo wanted to talk to him bout his attendance.9)We celebrated their Birthday!

10)Got Isaac to blow one candle 16 times (:

Chinese New Year

2009-02-06T05:10:00.000-08:00

Sigh. You'll never get enough time when you're sec 4. But beter late than never!

Chinese New Year! Yay! My most Favourite time of the year! Why? Coz there's all the goodies to eat, reunion meals, visiting, ang baos and the festive spirit! As usual, we had our CNY celebration in the hall and while waiting for it to begin, i was playing chopsticks with Yangzhi from the second level. I guess the school finally realised that the lion dance really bores us so they brought in new performances this year. I enjoyed the Chinese Ochestra very much, and i especially enjoyed the Jhu Hua Tai piece they played. I could see Ryan on the opposite side of the second level and he was really funny(: He was the only fellow being enthusiastic and waving his hands in the air while we were singing CNY songs. Haha(:

Mr Lim was really thoughtful and he bought us a container of pineapple tarts to share after training. We got Jiao Lian oranges. Joshua got pineapple tarts for Jiao Nian and he recieved a box of ferero roche in return! So sweet!
random

22nd Day Out!

2009-01-03T23:08:00.000-08:00

Whoa, i think i'm pretty lag. Anyway, still remember our day out? How to forget right (: Well lets recap!

On the 22nd Dec, i set out at 7am with my bro, each one of us carrying heavy bags of BBQ equipments. We met up with Jon, Cleon and Peter at Novena station and together we made our way to Pasir Ris station. The weather didn't look very promising that day. There were dark clouds at several stations we passed by. However, when we reached our destination, the sky there was bright! And guess what, Joshua was on the same train the whole time and we only found out when we were getting off.

And so, we waited for everyone to arrive before we made our way to Downtown East. The bus ride there was short but sweet. We had the whole bus to ourselves as the crowd had not arrived yet. I could even get a group photo of us given all the space!
Joel and ZJ were already at Subway waiting for us by the time we got there. They had stayed over night at Changi airport and made their way down much earlier. I could see that they were really tired! But No worries! Wild wild wet woke them up a little!

We got our tickets and waited for the gates to open. Once in, we spent a cinsiderable amount of time figuring out how to work the lockers. ZJ took out the key after depositing $3, but did not take out the key. For Cleon, my bro and I, we couldnt even get our key out after depositing our cash:/ However, with help from the staff, we finally got our stuff stashed in the lockers. The sec 1s were one step ahead of us. They had already gotten their floats and were floating in the shiok river! Of course, we got our floats later and drifted in the river for several rounds...................over turning each other along the way.

There were several rides i really enjoyed. There was this ride where 6 of us got into a big float and went down a slide together. With more people in the float, it was much more fun(: There was also this two seater ride where we set face to face and went down a steep drop. I went with Alvan and it felt as though my insides were gonna come out as i went down. I heard from Mat that their ride nearly flipped with Ryan seated on the top. Scary sia. And then there was the wave pool, where we battled each other on our floats, capsizing one another, while overcoming the strong waves. It was 12 by the time we finished doing all this and we decided to take a few more rides before having lunch. At the top of the Hoo lala ride we could hear ZJ and Alvan screaming their heads off on the way down. We also decided to take the group ride one more time. The queue this time was very long and the wait was chilly, but worth it in the end. We did a cheer as we went down the ride and completed it just in time for the final splash at the end of the tunnel.After lunch, where we met up with Isaac and Kev, we went to do our shopping. Some of us went to get the meats while the rest went to get stuff like seafood, eggs, sauces,hot dogs, bread, drinks.......there was a lot to carry and i realised that we had to walk quite a distance to reach our BBQ site. It looked closer on the map:P

We were ahead of time and i guess we were confident that we could start the firs fast, so while some of us went to catch up on some sleep, the others rented bikes or bought kites to fly. Our kite got stuck in the tree after a while and we spent most of our time getting it down than actually flying it.

Starting the fire was really difficult. We would light a fire starter, and it would burn out almost immediately.... sian... it took several attempts before the fire started, but even then, the fire was not hot enough to cook anything. On my side with jon and Nigel, we threw in coconut husks(as taught on Man vs Wild) and dried leaves in our desperate attempt to start the fire. While the other pit was cooking the meats, we were still starting the fire:/ The sec 1s were pretty efficient and managed to start the fire and cook pretty fast. When our fire finally started, i put my pan over the fire and we cracked in an egg, not knowing that the fire was not hot enough. The egg remained uncooked for a long time and we had to wash the pan in the end): After waiting patiently, the fire was finally hot enough and we cooked eggs! It tasted really nice with all the extra ingredients we added: Sprite, honey, soy soauce and sausage. Matthew even made french toast which was DELICIOUS! Smart idea! WHile Nigel was cooking the eggs, the sec 1s were really cute and brought all their marshmallows and began toasting them with our fire, despite having a senior like me fanning ash into them:P They were persistent and came back immediately after each wave of ash was blown at them and continued their marshmallow escapade.

The Ancient seniors came really late and they pretty much took over our pit and got a HUGE fire going. ON the other pit, the fire was dying and the cooking process was really slow. It wasn't really pleasant when some refused to pay for the food as they said it was not enough, which made things really difficult for us. But after cooking all the remaining meats for them, which was quite a lot, we managed to get money from the other Ancient seniors. Honestly, the atmosphere wasnt very nice. That must have been the most disappointing part of the day.

On the train, the remaining of us looked exhausted. It was late into the night and the train was close to empty. We could even take a group photo, using our reflection, although it wasnt that clear:P

I wanna thank everyone who went that day and i really hope you guys did enjoy yourselves! And thankyou to those who offered to bring BBQ equipment too! And thanks Nigel for spending time with us! (:

random pic

2008-12-11T09:29:00.001-08:00

...by Joel

Just thought of designing something with SJI in a 'Heroes' theme...ZJ you'll recognize it :P

p.s. just FYI, I spent 3 hours sketching,scanning,touching up...

p.p.s. it's 1.35 so i'm sleeping...

p.p.p.s. pete i put this on the hookalert blog too

FRIDAY LUNCH!!!!

2008-12-07T01:39:00.000-08:00

Training today was....really tough! I felt so satisfied after running the 4k and doing the 3 2k timings. What had to come after that was a GOOD HEARTY LUNCH!

Fen Yit, Javinn, Ryan, Matthew, Jon, Peter, Timothy, Yang zhi and I went out for lunch at Novena! While waiting for our bus to come, I decided to throw berries onto the road, hoping for that small thrill you get when you see a bus run them over....SPLAT!!!! I think i hit my record today. 6 berries. 2 up from the previous attempt. And Javinn, who says i cant get photos of you! MUUUAHAHAHAHAH

At Novena, we got ourselves appetizers at Old Chang Kee before having lunch at the food court. I got fried squid. It was yummy (:

For some reason, we decided not to have donuts despite the promise we made on wed. Only Ryan kept that promise and pang sehed us while we went to Mac for dessert. We took the underpass to United Square and we were pleasantly surprised to find the Winx club performing there!!!!! Winx club could wait though as we had to satisfy our craving for dessert (: Jon went to get Bubble tea first. I got myself a sundae, Javinn got a pack of fries, Peter and Timothy for Macflurries and Matthew got some sort of coffee which he thouroughly enjoyed! Javinn even got himself a cup too after trying! Ironically, we consumed our sugary treats while reading the nutritional chart displaying the amount of fat in them. Peter and Jon were laughing their heads off while reading the values. I wonder why(: Oya.....Fen and Yang zhi quietly left us at the underpass.

After dessert, we went to watch a bit of the Winx club dancing, then went to a bookstore to browse through comics and lastly to a game store before going home.

Thursday Lunch (:

2008-12-07T01:35:00.000-08:00

Well, not many went out for lunch today. Ryan, ZJ and I went to J8 food court for lunch and for some reason i was convinced to eat beef noodles. I felt sick after that....the consistency of the gravy was eeer to me. ZJ enjoyed it though!

Wednesday lunch(:

2008-12-07T00:29:00.000-08:00

Our intention ( Ryan, Matthew, Jon and I ) was to practice in K4 today but Coach had another idea for us, which was to bring the new boats up to the shed. Our school got 2 new C1s and 2 C2s and although our job was done in a matter of minutes, Coach volunteered some of the SJI boys to deliver the other boats in which other schools ordered to the sheds too. Before the boats actually arrived, we had to wait for an hour in the hot sun, chatting away while sitting on the gravel road. For our hardwork, Billy wanted to treat us to lunch but Ryan, Matthew, Jon and I decided that we wanted to get lunch ourselves (: So, while the rest went out for free lunch, and Matthew and Jon changed, Ryan and I spotted Coach's bicycle which he had left behind, and he decided to pose with it. Hey, you dont get to pose with your Coach's bicycle everyday y'know! It was an opportunity we couldnt miss! (;

Once the four of us were freshened up, we made our way to Thomson Plaza for lunch. I enjoyed that lunch very much(: Ryan and I upsized our order of Mee Goreng and Claypot Rice so that we could share it. YUM YUMMYYYYY. Jon decided to 'geh kiang' and upsized his plate of fried kuay teow. He had problems finishing it after that :D Matthew was smarter. He bought rice with mixed dishes first, then oluah when he realised he was not full. Ryan kept telling me he was stuffed, so I reminded him each time that he still had training after that!

We decided to get something else to snack on at Fairprice after walking past Donut Empire. We had promised ourselves that we wouldnt have donuts until Friday. And so, we got ourselves Ginger Beer! Coincidentally, it came in a package of four! Sweet! Cheers! Drink! ......what to do with the bottles after that.....time capsule perhaps, we'll fill it up with pictures of ourselves and bury it in Macritchie. Hopefully in the future, we'll find it and laugh at the good times we had together as great friends (:

CANOEING GATHERING!

2008-12-01T22:28:00.000-08:00

Hii GUys,

As most of you might have found out already, we cant book a chalet. YES, WE CANT.....So Here comes plan B. My Bro, Tim, has come up with a plan that guarantees fun jam-packed in it. But basically, we DO SOMETHING FUN at downtown east first, maybe WILD WILD WET or ESCAPE THEME PARK then LUNCH TOGETHER somewhere, then PLAY SOME MORE, then we go to a nearby SHOPPING MALL and BUY THE BBQ FOOD TOGETHER. Then we go to PASIR RIS PARK and BBQ DINNER there.

Of course we can change the plan . What you saw was the skeleton of the plan. My bro has found out details of the nearest biggest mall and the location of the bbq pits and whats on at downtown east at that period of time. The fun bit is up to us to decide (: We do what we think would be fun on that day. But for now, this is the plan.

So right now, we can either book the BBQ pits at Pasir ris park either on 22 DEC or 27 DEC. There's a voting board on the side bar so pls vote! I'll book by fri.

BYE BYE AND CHOC is GOOOD

Nic

SKELETAL PLAN :

8 am --> Meet at Pasir Ris Interchange ( can be reached using MRT )

8.15 +-am --> Once everybody is more or less gathered, head to bus interchange and take busses 3,5,6,12,17,21,354,358 and alight at first bus-stop along Pasir Ris Drive 3. Walk to E!hub from there.

8.30am --> Those who haven't had breakfast can buy it at E!hub. Those who have, can explore the place so that it would be more convenient for shopping of food later.

9.30 ++ --> Either we go to PAsir Ris PArk to play there ( There's a beach, or we can play Blind Mice (: ) OR We go to Downtown east Escape theme park but it only opens at 10am

1pm --> we can go for WILD WILD WET if we want, or continue staying at the PArk.

4.30++ --> we'll go to E!hub to by our BBQ food together. We'll Purchase in groups, eg. Sec 1s buy their own food, Sec 2s buy their own food....... less chaotic this way(: then we split the cost among our groups. The BBQ materials will be provided so just buy the food on that day.

5.30++ --> we head to Pasir Ris Park to start BBQ and from there just have fun and eat!!!!!! There'll be 3 BBQ pits so we can share among us. Seniors who's only going for BBQ pls bring your own BBQ food :P OR join us in the morn for the fun first:P jk lah, you can contact one of us to get food for you guys, provied you guys will come.

Things to bring with you:-

SNACKS!!!!!!
Ez link card
swim wear ( just in case needed )
Extra clothes
Money

- $2.50 for BBQ pit______$17.70 if you wanna go Escape Theme Park______$15.50 if you wanna go WILD WILD WET________LUNCH MONEY_______DINNER MONEY ( about $10 per person since we're buying together )

In all, i'd bring $30++ to be safe.

Hope you guys will spread the msg like a virus and get ppl to visit this blog!!!!!!

Extra info

http://www.wildwildwet.com/guest/ticketing.aspx

http://www.escapethemepark.com/guest/index.aspx

http://203.208.249.111/NParks/Internet/disclaimer.php <>

Donuts

2008-11-29T08:40:00.000-08:00

It was Tuesday i think. Ya. We went to Novena for lunch and of course we met the legion ppl. James and David wanted to have donuts for lunch and so they went to buy them while Isaac and i ate. I almost wanted to slap them when they said they couldnt find Donut Factory. DIDNT KNOW WHERE DONUT FACTORY IS!!!!?!?!?!?!? SLAP SLAP! And so we had to bring those two fellows there and Brandon joined us. Once there, Isaac got his RUm and Raisins ice cream plus Mint ice cream while James and David had their Donut lunch..

The day Isaac brought us out for chicks

2008-11-29T08:26:00.000-08:00

Ah it's after a morning training and Isaac brought us to a place near Novena church that sold good chicken rice. It WAS GOOD but pricy....one plate costed $4 and the Heh Zoh we bought costed $9!!! WHoa seh! Well, at least we enjoyed our meal (: Isaac was like spamming black sauce on his rice until it was black black! Oh and for the pic with the lone guy in the centre, he's Brandon and he insisted on me taking a photo of him between the white and green fence.

< this is Heh Zoh btw
< spammage

4th SPORTS CONFERENCE & PETER'S BIRTHDAY!!!

2008-11-23T03:54:00.000-08:00

If it weren't for my brother, i might have forgotten about today's sports conference. This year's sports conference is the 4th one SJI has organised and this year's theme is Olympic values: Friendship, Respect and Excellence. At each sports conference, SJI invites some experts to share their experiences and knowledge of sports. This year, we got Mr Nick Aplin and Dr.G Balasekaran to speak to us. They're really inspirational. Among the many things they shared with us, i noted down some of which i found most important:- "respecting your opponent means doing your best", "picture yourself as a winner, not as a participant".

After the sports conference, we headed to the Singapore Youth Olympics Learning Centre. This Museum is very new and i'm pretty sure i would have enjoyed the trip if it wasn't so rushed! There were many things on display, like the medals won at the Paralympics and even the torch from this year's Olympics. The bus ride back to school was really funny. Akira and a group of us were waving at strangers that we saw on the road, and he got so excited each time one stranger actually waved back!

Once in school, Isaac and I headed to Novena to get 30 donuts for Peter's Birthday Party while Peter led the bunch of sec 1s and 2s to his place. I ordered all the flavours available at Donut Factory and we had three big boxes to carry back. Donuts never felt that heavy!

It felt like forever when we had to walk to Peter's house. The sun was scorching us and when we finally reached, we were greeted by sec 1s and 2s, and a 3/4 finished lunch of Pizza, Onion rings and fries. I was soaking in my own sweat while digging into the homemade lunch. I really enjoyed that lunch(: I got to know my juniors better and found out that they're all crazy and funny, especially Paul! Man! Paul is really a funny guy! As i was eating a slice of pizza, i couldn't help but laugh as i saw all the sec 1s gathering at the window of Peter's sisters' bedroom. They were so fascinated by their bedroom:D After the main course, we had to force the juniors to finish the two plates of fruits before we opened the three boxes of donuts. We let Peter take the first pick as he was the Birthday Boy and we sang him a birthday song as he savoured his first bite. After the song, it was free for all! Everyone got their favourite flavour and the only ones left were the triple Cs! Brandon used the two Triple Cs to form the words Happy Birthday. That crazy boy.

After lunch, we went to the playground to play blind mice. For many of our juniors, it was their first time playing it but i think they enjoyed it! I tried to sabo many of the juniors by hugging them tightly and literally delivering them to the blind mice. HAHAHA. Unfortunately, they ganged up and brought me to the blind mice later on:P I think Faiz was the only one who didnt get caught. Oh and my specs got broken coz Yang Zhi stepped on it when he was blind mice! I'm getting a new pair of specs and they make me looks studious!

We ended off the game with cold drinks and jelly! I didnt feel like having any so i stood in front of the fan and cooled myself down. I saw Peter's Birthday card; it was smudged with donut icing and filled with the scribbles of his dear sec 1s and 2s, all of which written with love! PEter, i hope you enjoyed yourself!!!! Coz i'm sure we did!!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!

boredom

2008-11-13T05:43:00.000-08:00

Hi guys i was bored so i decided to doodle some stuff

i like the C rower use it for whatever tshirt pls
and also got some lame thing for jiaolian at the bottom
P.S i know my photoshopping sucks i just try to burn the image thats all.
my scanner sucks lol
-ALVAN

China Trip

2008-11-12T05:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday at training, mr teo n jiao nian discussed about the canoeist going china next year. okok may seem like a not that interesting place to go BUT we are going there to train YIPEE LOL! yep jiao nian said something about how he can bring us around n stuff and train there n maybe race against the china people. But this trip is maybe only hopefully we can go and you noe how we can increase the probability? We must win the b n c div title. So train hard i know many of you have holidays that will take up most of your time but u can still train there. do push ups n runs over there keep your body fit n don't slack off during the hols=)
-xin yang

MArking day

2008-10-26T06:44:00.000-07:00

Marking day! And yes! mORNIN training! I enjoy morning trainings. You get to go out for lunch with your buddies after a hard day of rowing. So where did we go this time you ask? Long house! Know why? Coz Long time no go! HAHAHAHAHahaha..aha..ah....ahem. Mat, Fen, Pete, Kevin and I went to Long house for lunch and mmmmmmmm... the food was good. I think Mat ate hokkien mee, Fen ate duck porridge which led to our conversation of diarrhoea, Kev and i ate chicekn rice and Pete had noodles. And to top it off, we had Goreng pisang! I'm really looking forward to the holiday trainings!

DRAGON BALL Z --> Kev's got the hair, all he needs now is a ball with stars and then he'll explode out of his T-shirt

!st Day of Training

2008-10-26T06:06:00.000-07:00

AH the good old days.... After about two months of studying and no canoeing, i guess it wasn't too bad an idea to resume training IMMEDIATELY after my Geog Paper. Honestly, i was tired and wanted to have a break, but after considering how long i haven't rowed in that reservoir, i started to miss the taste of Macritchie water and decided to go. I must say, the first day of training wasn't exactly what i had in mind. It was HOT, SUNNY, and we ended off with push ups. By the end of training, it was clear that my once pale yellow skin had returned to its healthy coffee brown tan.....althought i did prefer a toffee tan with a pinch of cherry....strawberry would be good too. SPeaking of strawberry, after training i had this sudden craving for donuts and i managed to drag Peter and Brandon along with me. And YES, it was an afternoon training and we did go to Novena at 730pm just to get donuts. WHen you gotta have one, you just gotta have one! And guess who we met at Novena, Timothy Chua! And being me, i halted him in his track and got a photo with him(: Ah donuts donuts....I'm actually considering starting a blog dedicated to donuts and maybe add a donut counter or something like that...

Okay...so i over estimated myself...i cannot finish 12 donuts. I had to keep 3 in my bag and by the time i "discovered" it the next evening...well...yea it was squashed. But it didnt taste that bad, surprisingly.

OUR NAMES

2008-10-16T06:10:00.000-07:00

Hey yo....
Today, Xin Yang and I (Sng) went for the OB Sabah training, during the walk, xin yang told me about what his class did. They gave each of their classmates a girl's name. Sooooo, we tried it out with SJI's canoeing team and this is what we came up with....
Nicholas - Nicole,Nicky*
Xin Yang - Xin Yi
Cleon - Chloe,Claire*?
Jon - June
Joel - Julie,*(my ass man julie...pffft!)*Joelle sounds nicer :P*
Isaac - Isabella,Isabelle*
ZJ - Zena (not too sure if this is a real name...)
Zeus - Zoey
Kevin - Katrina,Kylie*
Roy - Rachel
Russell - Rebecca
Timothy - Tiffany
Javinn - Janet,Janice*
Alvan - Alice
Glen - Gwen
Ryan - Riana (i wanted Riane though...)
Fen Yit - Fiona (hint hint.....)
Peter - Patricia
I'm Maltida
AND........ Mr Teo's Beatrice

Cool eh??? So feel free to change your "name" and laugh your a$$e$ off.
Cheers, Sng.

*added by joel

SEP HOLS study group!!

2008-09-19T08:14:00.000-07:00

DAY 1

The final year exam has taken it's toll on the canoeists! It was 3 weeks before the exams and the sec 3s gathered back in school during the hols to study. It was a challenge at first for us to even begin our revision. Our gears were still set in "relax" mode and we definitely needed lubricants to to start them! so maybe that's why the first day of study wasn't really much of a success.. Well let's look back and recall what happened....i arrived at 8am and saw Roy and Russell there..i tried to study before more came...then Joel got tired, Xin Yang started playing handphone games, Russell watched videos on ipod, Jon brought down his clay and boy did that get everyone in the mood of playing! Ryan and Isaac came late! hmmm oh then we went for lunch (: and i ate BBQ FISH AND BEEF.

PS: the following phtos were taken during the few minutes that we did study

ah...this was what we did....

After our lunch Xin yang and Peter destressed a little by joining in with the little kids and playing with the touch pad thing on the ground where you can virtually kick and step on stuff (:

DAY 2

Ah! I decided to be smarter today so i came at 7:30 (: and i got quite a good amount of revision done (: Then Cleon arrived shortly after coz his mom wanted to beat the ERP. And together we managed to get a whole lot of revision done. It was quiet and the atmosphere was perfect for studying. Fen Yit was next to arrive and despite more arrival of canoeists, we didnt seem to lose that much focus(: I guess some of us had a common goal in mind, that was to study hard now so that we can watch WALLE later! Oyea Mr TEo came in the middle of our revision and gave us cookies to eat (: Yummy......He's really good at providing us with the yummies(: After lunch ( i ate BBQ FISH AND BEEF ) he brought us to Mac and bought us each an icecream cone! We stood by the escalator and ate our cones until we realised that we were almost late for our movie. Oya! Glen Koh joined us for the movie too after his band practice. Together we watched WALLE and i must admitt i'm in love with EVE now......

isnt EVE beautiful!!!!!!!!!!! i love EVE......

DAY 3

I decided to be even smarter today(: so i fought through the heavy rains and made it in school by 7am and ate breakfast there(; I even bought and extra pack of bee hoon after convincing mysself that i would stay past 12pm to continue my study and not go out for lunch with the rest. Well by 12, i couldnt resist the temptation of BBQ FISH AND BEEF and finally decided to join them for lunch at j8 for the 3rd time that week.

LOGO DESIGN

2008-08-29T07:50:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, i've designed several logos for the team. Which pair do you think is nicest? Just vote in the corner then i can touch up on it....or design more! haha cheers everyone and study hard! Oyea for the hols, Pete and I are meeting up at school canteen from morn 8 to lunch time then we gop out for lunch, MOn, Wed and Fri. Anyone interested? Can join us! For the week after, Mr Teo has found a class for us to study together on Mon Wed and Fri too and the juniors will join us too. We can tutor them from there (:

LOGOS 1

LOGOS 2

LOGOS 3

Hope you guys will give constructive critism!!! I'm sure there's more room for improvement! (:

2008-08-16T06:40:00.000-07:00

A mother and her young daughter were cooking stew together. As the little girl stood beside her mother, watching intently how her mother was preparing the stew, she noticed that her mother was chopping a portion of the bone aside before placing it in her pot.

She was curious and asked "Mother, why do you remove that piece of the bone every time you prepare stew? "

Her mother paused.

" My mother used to do it. So i picked up the practice from her. But honestly, i don't know why she chops off this portion too."

So the mother rang up her mother, and asked her.

" Mother, do you still remember the stew you used to prepare? Why did you always chop off a portion off the bone before putting it for cooking?"

"Ah, the stew. Well you see back then, our pot wasn't big enough to cook the whole piece of meat, so i had to chop of a portion of the bone to fit the meat in! "

At times, we do things without knowing the meaning behind it. Generation to generation, a practice is passed down, and we simply carry them out without knowing why. It is important to understand why we do things, be it in Canoeing, in life, or in school. A practice back then had its reasons, and may not necessarily apply to present times. Sometimes, we need to make changes to improve. And it is only through understanding what we stand for, can we meet up with present times; by changing our customs while keeping our values unchanged.

DONUTS!!!!!!

2008-08-02T07:34:00.000-07:00

AHAHAH! to all you who werent here today! after about a month plus of DONUT FASTING, Ryan, Jon, Peter and i decided to eat to our sugary tooths' content (: MMMMMMMMMM..........

Canoeist go Bald for Charity

2008-08-02T07:23:00.001-07:00

Several canoeist signed up for Hair for Hope. We were nervous but we knew that our effort, though small, was still a difference made for the children in Singapore stricken with cancer. Joel, Ryan, Xin yang, Russell, Peter, Qin hong, Jon, Zeus, Ruizhi, Luke, Yi qing, Nigel, me and yes, even our very own teacher in charge, signed up for this. These brave souls, where appearance is important at this age( except Mr Teo) , were willing to give it up for charity. We felt that this was something we had to do and the experience of going into the public bald would definitely help us understand how the cancer patients feel, at the same time spread the message that there are children out there with cancer who could use Singapore's aid. I hope that this experience will help us, as Josephians, as canoeists, as men for others to realise that there are people out there who need our care and our friendship, not our pity and discrimination.

AHPPY BIRTHDAY XIN YANG!!!!!!!! 19 JULY

2008-08-02T06:48:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Xin yang!!!!! After the National Juniors on Saturday, the a group of us went out to celebrate Xin yang's 15 birthday at Cafe Cartel. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of being back with the team after a week long of camp. It was nice to know that i got called up late in the night during the camp by Isaac to discuss what we should do to celebrate Xin yang's birthday (: We do care for each other (:

It was funny how Ryan kept spamming the free flow of bread. Our table definitely had loads of bread to munch on but then again, that much bread was still not enough for us canoeist! Finally our meals came and MAN! the ribs were good!!!! First time trying it and i love it. I have NO IDEA why Ryan got a bigger slice than me. We took a group photo but Jon still hasnt given it to me yet.... Oh and who knew Ruizhi and Leonard would decide to have dinner there too! Their teacher treated them to a meal for tehir fantastic history essays. Oh and Leonard you better watch out.

Anyway the team and i wanna wish Xin yang a HAPPY BIRTHDAY and thankyou for all you have done for us!!!!!! You really mean loads to us and thats why we really wanted to celebrate your birth!!!!!!!!!!day

It's the end.......and the start of a new beginning!

2008-07-18T01:45:00.000-07:00

We sat in the LT listening to Mr Teo's glim prediction of the C' div title - "We'll lose it", he said.

Silence.

He said there was hope.

That we'd need a miracle......

and we'd have to fight for it...

and that's what we did.

*************************************************************************************
It seemed as though the bus ride to Macritchie got shorter everyday. I could clearly see how focussed the team was. They were nervous but along with them came a quiet confidence.

Luke and Yi Qing were the first to prove Mr Teo's predictions wrong. They came in 4th and 5th position. Excited as we were, James came in 3rd for the next race ( K1 1000m ). That was a position below Mr Teo's prediction. But James stood strong and undeterred for his 500m race. Next up was Jon and I. I'm proud to say that we beat our heats timing by 11seconds! Now our timing is 3:58 baby! But we got 4th place hehe. Ren Hui and Jun An performed better and came in 2nd for their race! But things were not looking good. As I returned to the SJI tent, Mr Teo was shaking his head. He said we needed a miracle to win.

Even the lunch break seemed shorter that day. I watched as Qin Han, Glen and Darren made their way down for their 500m races. Glen got 6th place(expected) while Darren came in 5th. Qin han on the other hand came in 4th. He worked really hard for this race and I can understand why he was upset. Don't worry Qin Han! I'm proud of ya and keep up your attitude! Same to you Fen Yit! Its clear that you have pushed really hard for this day and the team knows that. To us, you're our winner for persevering through these years for the team. Ask around. We're all proud that we have you in our team. Adam surprised us by leading the 500m race at the start, though he came in 5th(-_-). Adam you have the potential to do much better and I'm sure that you'll push harder next year! As for James, he came in first(minus Bionic Man Brandon Ooi)! That's the true fighting spirit of SJI.
C' div Cap'n Ian lead the way by coming in 3rd for his T1 500m race. Nice one! However, Based on Mr Teo's calculation, things were still looking glim. The C' div title was almost out of reach.

The time came for our K4 race. Jon, Ryan, Matthew and I were ready. We were up against our previous competitors from BPGH and ACS(I).....who beat us by half a K4 boat and one whole K4 boat respectively. But hey, guess what? All three boats were on par this time!!!!! It all came down to who jerked their boat in first. We jerked it second.... so close....but we outperformed ourselves and that's what I'm proud of (: Next year man! (note from Joel: YEAH PPLS!)

Then came T2 500m race. Ian & Shu Yi, Joshua & Brandon came in second and third respectively while Isiah and Canneth came in 1st! Shuyi and Daniel came in third. (another note from Joel: Josh and Brandon, you two have the potential to become the next machines of SJI. Do bear in mind that Sam and Hin Yang came in 4th in their sec 1 year. TRAIN HARD GUYS!). Though it was a position lower than expected, ACS(I) DQ'ed. THERE WAS STILL HOPE!
Leonard and Nigel were up next and emerged 4th place for their 500m race! You two really showed them!

Finally, the 'JUDGMENT RACE'. The pressure was on Ren Hui and Jun An. They had to come in first to win the Championship. To make things worse the race was delayed by a late ACS(I) boat. The suspense was killing us and we were tempted to start cheering even before the race started. And when it finally did, we cheered our hearts, stomachs, livers, and all other intestines out!!!!! the closer they got, the faster we cheered. "JOSEPH! JOSEPH! JOSEPH! JOSEPH! JOSEPH! JOSEPH! JOSEPH! JOSEPH! JOSEPH! JOSEPH...................YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

We leapt with joy! Tears trickled down my face! They DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We turned that prediction upside down!!!!!! With our hearts as one we did all the Josephian cheers we knew and I guess the other schools felt our joy too(not so for ACS(I), we foiled their grand plan for cleansweep titles :D[they won both A and B div titles]). 5th year running man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*************************************************************************************

Sweet taste of victory! Seoul Garden! Celebration!!!! One of THE Happiest moment in our lives!!!

I love this team!

~by Nick (edits by Joel)

P.S. to Nick: sorry if I corrected some of the 'short-form' words if they were for emphasis

We owe this victory to him man............the one on the right!

Tights

2008-07-16T07:15:00.000-07:00

Hey guys.....
the talk about having tights............everyone's interested, but nobody's buying........so.................................i'm gonna start it first........i;m going to buy whichever tights is good.
so who's with me?by the way, i talked to mr teo and he wanted to make one for us but seems to him like we're not interested.......so.................i'm gonna start it!!!! Who's with me!!!!! JELLLLLLL BELLL Signin' OUT!!!! LOL

DAY 3

2008-07-10T04:49:00.001-07:00

The bus ride to Macritchie was different today. It rained so hard that some said God was trying to tell us something. If that was the case, i think God was trying to tell all of us that no matter how bitter, how tough, the odds may be, the human spirit, the spirit of a true Josephian, will always triumph. Because after the rain, high up there in the sky, like a brilliant bridge, like a promise, was a rainbow. To me, it seemed like a sign, a sign of things to come, a victory so tantalizingly close now. So close we could almost reach out and taste it.

Roy and Qin hong, i am proud of you two. Truly am. i saw, WE saw how you two pushed to the end. We know how much you two have gone through. And we know you two tried your best. And for anyone to attain that goal, to reach out for their personal best, makes them a winner. A winner is not someone who recieves medals, a winner is not one who beats the rest. A winner is one who beats himself by trying his best. And Roy, Qin hong, that is why you two are winners.

There is definitely a bright future ahead for the both you. With every storm comes a rainbow...

Do your very best

2008-07-10T03:21:00.000-07:00

Ok guys, today was the semi finals and although some of us may have not qualified for the finals, I don’t want u guys to be affected and disappointed. I want every one who is competing tomorrow to be focused on his race tomorrow. Tomorrow we show the rest of the schools what SJI Canoeing team is made of, we will fight and we will do our best. I want every one of you to give your best tomorrow, don’t finish your race and then say that “awww if I had burst abit more I would have won”. Do not think about winning or losing tomorrow, just think that you are going to go out there and give your very best, you row until u can row no more tomorrow because you have put in your very best and at the end of the race you will feel good cause you know that you have done your very best for SJI. Also enjoy yourself tomorrow this is like a once in a year competition so enjoy it and do your best. The whole team will be cheering for you guys so go out there and do the SJI CANOEING TEAM proud.

Mat Sng and me got photos of everyone who rowed today but all in Bernard teo's camera so if we get the photos from him we will send you

HEATS DAY 1

2008-07-08T06:16:00.000-07:00

Its the first day of heats. Gathered together in LT1, we did our last mental preparation before our races. With our voices as one, we did a final cheer outside the PE dep and from the faces of the ppl in the canteen, i could tell that they were confident that WE, Josephian Canoeist, would bring glory to SJI and make our Alma mater proud.

On the bus, the atmoshpere was really tense. I was really nervous. i was trying to focus throughout the whole bus ride. Withina few short minutes, we were at Macrithcie.

We made our final preparations- took out our boats, did a test run, made sure our weights were in place. However a few of us got injured because the ppl in charge of constructing the platform to the launching area were SO IRRESPONSIBLE and left behind RUSTY NAILS. Luke, Isaac, Peter and Jun An stepped on the nails. Jun An was worst hit. I saw his pale face, sat down, and he really looked like he was in pain. He was sent to Ian's dad immediately to make sure he was ok. I really cannot believe that these kind of thing can happen. I'm really dissapointed in the management.

Luke was the first boat to make it to the semi finals. Great performance by him. Yi qing was the next to make it to the semi's. Peter's C1 1000m race was next. I'm very sure, and the SJI community is very sure that Peter and Joel tried their very best for their heats! I'm really proud they pushed all this way. DOnt worry guys. its not the end. Together you two can make waves!

For jon and i, we came in second for our heats and are now heading to the semi finals along with Leonard and Nigel. COmpetition is gonna be real tough. Fortuantely Jun An came back before his race and managed to compete. Together with Ren hui, they came in 1st for their heats! Straight finals baby! Samuel and Min wei made it to the semi. Little Peter a.k.a. Larry performed really well, nearly beatin a sec 2 boat. HEy other schools, if you're readin this, watch out! Larry's gonna be SJI's next Bionic MAN!!!!! And yes he's only sec 1! James got into the finals too and i must say he performed really well (: Am really proud of you guys (: SJI, we've had a good start, lets show them what we've got tomorrow!

GOOD LUCK JOSEHIAN CANOEIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~ LUNCH BREAK ( dont worry i'll get the photos of you guys rowing. IN the meantime, enjoy these pics! )

~CASUALTIES ( from left > LUke, Jun An )

OUR LAST LUNCH TOGETHER >7 july

2008-07-08T05:48:00.000-07:00

The atmosphere was tense........for some our heats were the next day. After waxing our boats we decided to have our final meal at longhouse. As you can see from the phtos below, all you need is food to get the SJI canoeing team back into that crazy whacky mood again! (: I guess it's good we went out for that meal. I'm not sure bout the rest but i felt much better after bein with the team. Half the time we were cracking jokes and putting on sun-glasses to secretly look at g*ahem*ls. i really enjoyed that meal. it might be one of our last with our dear seniors.

Last trip to donut factory > 28 june

2008-07-08T05:05:00.000-07:00

Oooooooooo after another training we decided to have one last meal at Donut factory. i have NO IDEA how many donuts we ate but all i can say was that i felt like pukin after the whole thing. But it was worth it....considering the fact that we wont be eatin anymore of this until after the comps!!!!!!!!!!

KEVIN

2008-06-26T08:06:00.000-07:00

Name: Kevin Heng

Class: 424'09

Birthday: 12 Dec

Description:

Slightly chubby but good-natured, Kevin’s quite a character in our canoeing team. He’s good-natured, has a sense of humour, and also this amazing ability to start a conversation about anything under the sun (maybe over it as well)! In fact, he’s talked about so much, I can’t actually remember any of it! But I do know I enjoyed those conversations during which he expressed his rather intriguing sentiments and shared all his jokes. Another curious fact about Kevin is that he learnt Japanese simply from watching Anime! Neat, eh? Though how he can achieve such a thing, I have no clue…guess it goes to show you can succeed if you really put your heart to it. Right, Kevin? (COUGH*BIO*COUGH) Right?

Back in Sec 1 and Sec 2, we actually bullied the poor dude. Yea, it wasn’t kind of us, mainly because we ridiculed him for things he couldn’t help, but hey, now we’re in our right senses. He’s not really that bad, and he’s actually nice company. If he’s got his faults, so do we all. Plus he’s one of us canoeists; he’s part of the team.

So all in all, Kevin’s a cool, friendly guy who talks a lot, but then again, that’s who he is!

P.S. Kevin has trained pretty hard this year (and has got attendance to show for it), but he didn't make the first team, unfortunately. No matter, mate, next year, go for it!

~Pete

Famous lines:
"I put in my answer for the Chem paper:Isomers are atoms that are arranged in an isosceles triangle!"
"I'm bored"
"Nooooooooo~"
"What the- ?!"

Dedicated to Donuts

2008-06-21T07:11:00.000-07:00

AH.................life just wouldnt be complete for us without sweet sweet donuts. we go there practically every week! Donut factory should have some membership card for us for patronising their shop so often! This time Mr Teo was with us. He treated us to donuts and boy did we eat to our hearts' content that day. And i love the new flavours Cookies and cream and Rocky road. Their uber delicious! I really enjoyed myself as we got to talk to Mr Teo bout stuff and it felt as though he was one of us, a friend. After all those donuts................i think i'll probably keep my distance from them for bout a week or so before stuffin my face into these sweet babies again!

MOVIE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-06-21T06:57:00.000-07:00

Ah yes......that time has come again when the team watches movies together. After training we went all the way to Ang Mo Kio hub to watch Kung FU PANDA!!!!!!!!!!!! Which was really awesome!!!!!!!!!!! During the whole movie RYan was laughing like crazy! Its was really a funny show and it was nice when we were the only ones left in the theatre, holding our bladders to see the last few minutes of clip after the credits.......which was disappointin(:

CIP for Orthega cup

2008-06-21T06:20:00.000-07:00

Orthega Cup! Mr Teo called some of us down to SJI on sat to do CIP. Well we arrived at about 1 and just stoned there for a long time. We talked loads of crap, Peter got some hol homework done, and i was sleeping.

Then the time came when we had to usher in the spectators. Ruizhi and Yi Qing were like sitting outside the carpark waitin for the guest of honour to arrive. Mean while i was waiting for the silly ice man to come, who was 3 hours late. When he finally arrived we stashed all the water bottles in the ice for the RI and SJI guys as we watched Zeus and Russell play.

In between the breaks, we hung out at the PE department, looking through Mr Teo's stuff (: and playin the guitar. And who'd thought that at the end of the whole thing we even got to eat for free! All this HARD WORK and we got 7 hours of CIP. Haha

2008-06-21T06:14:00.000-07:00

Yet another holiday training. I kinda love these times coz we really get to talk crap with each other after trainings. These times with our seniors..........i think i'll never forget them (:

Swimmin at bishan

2008-06-08T02:02:00.000-07:00

After sup lessons a group of us went for a swim at bishan. I guess we pretty much enjoyed ourselves there(: Haha ! At the end of the whole thing some of us went to get Ramly Burgers!

24 MAY = RYAN'S B'DAY!!!!!!

2008-06-08T01:30:00.000-07:00

Hehe it's Ryan's B'day! The big kind fellow brought us to Seoul Garden to celebrate the occasion after training. And boy, we were hungry by the time we found an outlet with enough space. The one at Orchard was fully booked! We had to walk all the way to the one at Bugis and by then, our stomachs were well emptied for the buffet that awaited us.........SPAM the food!!!!!!!!!!!!

:) HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (:

Chew the meat! Suck the fishballs! Lick the ice cream!

We talked and ate, ate and talked. Melted sugar. Made coke-egg. Spilled dessert. Made a mess. Ahhhhhhh...........contented (:

T-shirt!!!!

2008-05-31T07:09:00.000-07:00

hey guys, there would be a meeting for sec 3's to discuss the t-shirt design..........cos it's like delayed for uber long...............so we will meet like after training next week during the june holidays......maybe tuesday??????see how...............those who have read this please spread the message to everyone so that they know.......k thanks...............WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE........
Jelly Belly,Signing Out!!!!!

Competition

2008-05-30T10:51:00.000-07:00

Yo guyz,
competition is on the second week of july. From the 8th to the 11th. So it's time to train hard and beat ACS!

SJI ALL THE WAY!!!

From.....
SNG :)

yet another sat training

2008-05-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

Today's training was really good. The best part was when Marcus wanted to join us for lunch. And what's lunch without donuts (:

SJI CROSS-COUNTRY

2008-05-17T06:56:00.000-07:00

This year's cross-country was at Bedok Reservoir. It gets futher every year:/ Some of us decided to have lunch at Temasek Poly while waiting for the lower sec to start off their race. When it was finally our turn to run, we got ourselves a number tag which was strapped with a device that would electronically take down our positions. SO coooool.

< Poser

After the whole run i went to get myself a drink and saw a group of sec 3s making bandung! Its really good! The best i've ever tasted! The following pictures shows the proccess of how SJI bandung is made:

I regret buying only one packet.......

SPORTS FIESTA

2008-05-11T00:36:00.001-07:00

Sports Fiesta, a time when Josephians, young and old, gather to show off their talents, team spirit, or simply to have fun together.

Most of the Sec 3 canoeist turned up for the various events in their teams, whether it was for football or touch rugby. I was part of "Jon's team", which consisted of Joel, Peter, Fen Yit, Qin hong, Xin Yang, Cleon and the team Captain, Jon. With team work and the fighting spirit of a true Josephian and a true sportsman, we emerged 4th place (out of 4 teams)!!!! losing narrowly to the other teams which were trained in rugby. Haha. Of course, Russell, Roy, Timothy and Zeus displayed their fair share of football skills during the event, and their performance was outstanding. Oh and the food there is superb and reasonable. I tried the Sardine puff and an indian donut-like pastry thats uber delicious! oh and the popcorn chicken is way better than the one at KFC! Unfortunately it's all catered and that really disappointed me. I thought the volunteer parents made it :/

After the whole event, we were persuaded by Cleon to go to his place for a game of Halo. We met up with my bro on the way and had a crazy shoot out at Cleon's place, and some DOA wrestling. I managed to snipe Cleon and that's a huge improvement for me(:

INTER-HOUSE DRAGON BOAT

2008-05-10T06:45:00.000-07:00

That time of the year has finally come! Inter-house dragon boat comps! Flags of Red, Blue, Green and Yellow were proudly raised into the air, as the crews of Josephians paddled simultaneously towards the finish line in their dragon boats. It was heart warming to see most of the participants encouraging one another even though they came from different classes, levels, and houses. With combined efforts and spirits ever so strong (like a dragon!), competitors not only got to make new friends, but also got a taste of a dragon-boating experience, team success and Kallang salt water.

Of course Michael house rocked the house down by their team spirit and their enthusiastic participation! Fintan, Marcian, and Lawrence were not too bad.........but RED is still the hottest! And i must admit, the Sec 3 cohort was definitely the most outstanding and enthusiastic group of all. Rock on Sec 3s!

Comps.

2008-05-10T06:11:00.000-07:00

Whatdya know guys, we've only got one final stretch before Nationals, its June soon.
Like Joel said, ACS ain't easy opponents, they're tough, they're hard, they're mean, and most importantly-disciplined.

But that's not gonna bring us down, is it? Jiaolian always says that whoever trains harder, wins, so let's really train hard this holidays, let's really work and push ourselves to the limits. Let's also encourage each other to push on, to keep on fighting, keep on rowing. Take up our paddles, take up our boats and fight for honour, pride and glory!

As a team, we ought to encourage each other, push each other on, and strive together AS ONE, let's really try our best, as BROTHERS OF SJI CANOEING. Let's give each other a helping hand, and also inspire and motivate each other to fight for victory.

This is it, this is our final stretch, we don't 'want' to win, we must, we need, we WILL win. Train hard guys =)

ZJ

2008-05-08T07:46:00.000-07:00

Eh look! I managed to find a comic iron man and the movie iron man with the same pose! Cool eh? HAha

Heroe Movies 2008

2008-05-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

I wonder which heroe movie this year would be the best. All looks soooooooo cool! (:

Competitions

2008-05-07T04:56:00.000-07:00

Guys, Joel here. Dudes, we really have to step it once the exmas are over. ACS is friggin good and we have to counter them. We really can't afford to let our guard down liao, must focus. Train hard guys.

-Joel the random nut

100th SJI TRACK & FIELD MEET!

2008-04-25T07:02:00.000-07:00

Its SJI's 100th track and field meet! Which school in Singapore has reached its 100th track and field meet!? HAd a great time today! I'm an official school photographer now! Thats how i got these cool pics. Managed to get up close to all the action! Anyway enjoy the pics!

Here comes Michael!

Sec 1's race.....see Benjamin?(:

Teacher's sprinting. Look at Gerald Chang Go!

An utter disappointment..........

Fen Yit making a splash

Peter and Xin Yang together all the way

Matthew Sng!

Cleon plunging in with grace(:

Still got time to pose.....

There goes Fen Yit & Yan Qiang, making a leap for Michael!

Luke, making a leap for Martian!

Yi Qing our Captain in steeper chase

I just enjoy taking photos of Rui zhi

Luke taking the lead

Peter making a dash for 3G2-1

Ze Jie's got determination!

There goes Fen Yit! Look at his face

Look at Mr Lui with his football skills!

Mr Heng, Leader of the black team, planning their victory

Mrs Khoo and Mrs Goh leaps to the end!

Ms Lee in first place for the black team!

Eh Mr Kwang's not too bad!

Whoa seh! Mr Zukeflee's got talent!

Friendly comp organised by RJC

2008-04-20T23:41:00.000-07:00

RJC organised a friendly competition between the JC's( except NJC ) today. Eugene invited SJI too! We were the only secondary school there. ZJ and Qin hong participated in the k2 500 and came in 1st, Ryan and Nic 2nd in another 500m race. Pete and his two partners Joel and Darren tried their best and narrowly lost and got top 6. Oh and Fern came in 2nd for his k1 500m event. We're not too bad compared to the JC's i guess!

DONUTS!!!!!!!!!!

2008-04-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

YO!! There is a new donut shop near my house that has just opened (simpang bedok). It sells a box of 12 for $12, a box of 6 for $6.50 ( knowing you ppl, you'd probably buy the box of 12.... jkjkjk). Anyways, i can help to buy during the holiday training. BUT, there's a down side....... the flavors are not as plentiful as donut factory or munchy donut ( no apple cinammon, no lotus mocha, etc etc.....). I haven't tried it yet but they look quite good..... so any one interested give me a sms.

over and out...
matt sng

2008-04-17T23:33:00.000-07:00

The teacher's were having some enritchment programme today so school ended early! What better way to celebrate than to go play blindmice!

2008-04-16T23:24:00.000-07:00

Instead of having land training today, Mr Teo got the canoeist to go down to CCAB to help out in the National Cross country rehearsals.

Inter-School Dragonboat 2008

2008-04-12T06:58:00.000-07:00

The Inter-School Dragonboat Competition this year was a real blast. Most of us canoeists arranged to meet at Bedok MRT station before proceeding on to Bedok reservoir. We got to see quite a few old faces, like Baba, who was waiting for NJ at the same place, and Dickson, who brought bananas (bless him). There were unfamiliar faces as well, guys who weren’t in canoeing but who wanted to dragonboat for SJI.

One of the main highlights of this year’s competition, I think, was the rain. Yes, the rain. When we reached the reservoir, it was drizzling. By the time we walked over to the pavilion, it was POURING. In fact, it was so heavy, there was one point when you couldn’t even see the trees at the opposite side of the reservoir. The wind before it was awesome too. It blew Luke right off his feet and left him clinging desperately to a pillar! The queer thing is, though, he was flying against the wind, not with it…curious. At the edge of the pavilion, people were shielding the others from the wind and rain with their umbrellas, newspapers, and even their own bodies! Talk about Men for Others.

The competition itself was quite something too. By the way, ‘something’ means ‘completely exhausting’. Most of us sec 3s were involved in a total of 5 races, and boy, was it painful! Having only about a 15 min break between each race didn’t help either. We really had to push ourselves for each and every single race we went for. Oh, and while on that point, we’ve really got to commend Isaac for the sheer grit and determination he showed that day. After one of the 20-men B div heats, he came up all ready for good, nice rest, before we told him that we had to go immediately for our 12-men finals. Yet, he didn’t back out, but went with us all the way. Well done!

All in all, the dragonboat competition this year could be considered a success. Our C div guys got silver in their 12-men boat, while we got 3rd in our 24-men boat. We’ve got to thank our coxswains for guiding and teaching us through the pre-competition period. So thanks! We owe you people a lot. Anyway, our Inter-school Dragonboat competition was pretty cool, and we’re looking forward to the next one!

FOUNDERS DAY!!!!!!

2008-04-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

Hehehe the day has finally come! Founder's day! I think that this must be one of the days every lasallian looks forward to. This year, we've got many canoeist recieving awards, mostly from sec 3. They include Ze jie and Joel recieving the Sports Meritorious Award (SMA), Glen recieving the SMA, Matthew recieving the SMA, Fen Yit recieving the SMA, Jon recieving the Sports Excellence Award (SEA), Qin Hong recieving the SEA, Alvan recieving 2nd in Mathematics and Nicholas recieving SEA, E(IS)YA Scholarship, 1st in Geography, 1st in General Science and Best student!

After such and exciting prize giving ceremony, we went out for lunch at sembawang food centre and later headed to Cleon's place for blind mice! Peter the sec 1 joined us too. Had a crazy time there!

Oh and this year's Founder's day gift is a shoe bag!!!!!!!! From golden bookmark in sec 1, to wallet in sec 2, to shoebag in sec 3! What's next!? A school bag!!!!!

SEE HOW FUN SAT TRAININGS CAN BE (:

2008-04-06T07:04:00.000-07:00

I seriously enjoy going out with Rui Zhi, Yi Qing and the sec 3s for lunch on weekends! THis time we went to Novena Velocity and had lunch there. Then we went for donuts! Ryan's treat!

Funny!

2008-04-06T06:55:00.000-07:00

This is from one of the wed land trainings. ROy, Russell, Qin hong, Pete, ZJ, MAtthew were there to see this. We were doing leg raises and Ryan pushed himself so hard that he left a deep impression on all of us, and on the ground.

TO THE TEAM!!!!!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

2008-04-01T08:05:00.000-07:00

ER...sorry for the lame title.......but firstly,congratulations to Cleon and Roy and Fen Yit for winning medals!!! Whooooo!!!! Anyway......you know that early last year mr teo wanted to make the surf shirts for us to wear......something like tights but in t-shirt form??? the type that RJ Marcus and eugene wear????? well.......the discussion to have it is on so tell us YOUR views...... Some are are supporting it..... Well, maybe we can ask Mr Teo to subsidise for us.....Get some that are cheaper? HAHA!!!! By the way, the T-shirt designs are somewhat becoming reality.........Will post them Soon.....So look OUT!!!!!!!!:)

Jelly Belly Signing out!!!!! (lookin' COOL! LOL)

TEAM PROFILE

2008-03-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!

Thanks alot for those who helped contribute to the team profile. There are still fifteen people left! Pick someone you can write about and send it to me through word doc or upload it yourself. Dont worry, i have tonnes of pics i can share. Thanks Joel and Pete for the contribution!

~ Cap Nick signing off!

2008-03-24T07:24:00.000-07:00

Woahoh, Nats Juniors just this weekend guys! Hyped up, Excited, Scared, Nervous?!
Alright, last few days, let's push hard for it, and really strive to win!

I guess some of you guys may not see this comps as very important, but hey, this is something to build our momentum for Nationals, and also to really see where we stand, so that we make work harder!

Really hope you guys will treat this as a testing ground and see how we all fare, hope you guys can really chiong and win medals!

-ZJ

2008-03-24T06:38:00.000-07:00

Honestly, I'm quite disappointed with what you guys did today, waiting for the TDP students before leaving for training. Maybe you guys thought it was a nice thing to do. I don't blame you guys, it's nice to have so many team mates who actually care for one another. But think of it this way. What would the juniors think when they see us doing this.

Firstly, training starts at 3:30pm. I don't see why we should be late. If you have extra lessons, I'm ok with it. But you shouldn't be waiting for us to have to leave. I'm sorry to say that i wasn't touched when i saw the group of you at the canteen table. I was angry instead. I mean, think about it, would i do such a thing as to tell you to wait for the TDP boys and that its OK to be late. What made me even more frustrated was the fact that Cleon even took photos of the whole wait for me. But that also showed me that you guys didn't intentionally want to get me angry, as he took photos for me.

The juniors look up to us, just like how we respected our seniors. We pick up many things from our seniors, both good and bad. Let us pick up the good ones, and learn from the bad ones. I guess i got to see how nice you guys actually are from today, but next time, please don't do it again.

SEE HOW FUN SAT TRAININGS CAN BE (:

2008-03-22T06:29:00.000-07:00

This sat's training was really fun. i like it when we get to go out with seniors. We went to the prata place Cleon suggested and had loads of fun talking and lunching together. Oh and root beer-soya bean milk-kickapoo doesn't taste too bad after all (:

Dragon Boat

2008-03-21T23:14:00.000-07:00

Wednesday:

Dragon Boat training started today again. Many Sec 3 canoeist(+ 1 ruger) came today for the dragon boat practice. After about a year of no practice, it seemed a bit weird holding the dragon boat paddle again and rowing with it. We were taught the basics again, which was very helpful. We had to race against the other 24 men boat and twelve men boat, i think we won the first race but we should have won by a bigger margin lol =). The second race we just won. The third race we caught up with the 12 men boat who had a lead, but the finish was really close so i think we both won. After dragon boating for about one and a half hours many of us were shack out i think, but it was a good training and we have to work hard in order to beat the other schools for dragon boat including the sec 4's.

another update!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-03-21T07:06:00.000-07:00

Er.............sorry the Mizuno's design was wrong.....this is the one on my t-shirt/pants........Looks sort of like the spiderman's design right? well.... i thought of using something like this as the design to be incorporated......er.....maybe use the concept of the double line intercrossing and somehow morph it into a C or K pedal as a design......but the lines would still be as before in the mizuno design.....as in they will end the same way as it started......or maybe design two designs......one for the C rowers and one for the K rowers.......then the Name, nickname....etc. ...followed by which type of boat...as in K or C.... maybe something like this...erm..."K rower division" or "C rower division".....whether to incorporate type of boat your decide.....motto your decide too okay????? tell me the ideas when you see me......polo? dri fit? Singlet? tell me........colour???? oh yeah now about the colours.......we can choose what colour our symbol can be...unique for each of us........EG....."one can have white for me, red for fen yit, blue for nic......green for......ETC......" Will definitely get this done in the end..............

Jelly Belly:) signing out!!!!!!!!!

T-shirt!!!!!!!!!

2008-03-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

Er the update on the t-shirt............ Er... could somebody please give me ideas..................LOL....maybe just answer this in polls.....Er i thought of incorporating an emblem for our canoeing team to use............You know the mizuno pants or shirt i wear...???????Well the design on the right is something like that on my pants or shirt. well, i thought of using this as an idea for the canoeing team to adopt.....the emblem would be used as a future symbol for our canoeing team............What do you think?

Jellly Belly, Signing out!!!!!(SO random!!!!!!)

MARCH HOLS ATTENDANCE

2008-03-16T04:24:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

Here's the March hols attendance. The attendance is counted as term 2, not term 1. So many of you are starting off well. I must say that training has been very tough but many still pushed to come down. Ze Jie, Roy, Isaac, Javinn, Zeus and Kevin are starting off very well compared to last term. Keep it up! I'm quite sure you'll get your 75% this time! As for the rest who also did well, keep it up too!

ALVAN - 75%
ISAAC - 75%
GLEN - 50%
CLEON - 100%
ROY - 100%
FEN YIT - 100%
XIN YANG - 100%
MATTHEW - 75%
RYAN - 100%
JAVINN - 75%
JOEL - 100%
ZE JIE - 100%
QIN HONG - 100%
RUSSELL - 50%
JON - 100%
PETER - 100%
TIMOTHY - 25%
KEVIN - 125% ( HIGHEST )
ZEUS - 75%

~ Cap Nick signing off!

MARCH HOLS TRAINING

2008-03-16T01:50:00.000-07:00

MONDAY:

Monday! Most of the team came for training today coz we had agreed to study together after training. We trained hard in the morning and it started to rain when we were about to leave Macritchie. We didn't have a plan yet, but we knew that we wanted to go to a library to study. At the bus-stop, we finally decided to go to Ang Mo Kio library to study.

But first, we had to get our tummies filled up. After all we did train hard in the morning. We went to the hawker centre near the library and ate........

...and ate...

...and ate....

Once satisfied, we headed to the library. Took us quite a while to find a place to do our work. Some of us had to sit on the ground at the begining. In the end, we got two tables and "studied" hard. No jokes, no handphone games, no psp games. Just our homework and silence.....AS IF!

In the end, we were satisfied and got some homework done. Most importantly, we managed to spend some precious time with our friends training, eating, laughing and having fun (:

MARCH HOLS TRAINING

2008-03-16T01:49:00.000-07:00

TUESDAY:

Training was pretty tough again. Coach decided to select the rowers for the various events in the National Juniors ( 31 March) that day. For some reason, many of the sec 3s who turned up the previous day didn't turn up that day.
As usual, some of us went out for lunch after training. This time was just Joel, Matthew, Ryan, Isaac and I. Oh, and we treated ourselves to donuts after lunch. Mmmmmmmmmmm..........

Isaac's FIRST time eating here. Can't believe it.

MARCH HOLS TRAINING

2008-03-16T01:36:00.001-07:00

WEDNESDAY:

It had to rain again that day. As a result, no Long House. We had only one option left. Fast Food, a sportsman's worst meal.

We had a difficult time swallowing our food, knowing that our fitness was at stake. But we had no choice. Together, we painfully overcame this obstacle and made a promise to ourselves not to do it again.

MARCH HOLS TRAINING

2008-03-16T01:30:00.000-07:00

THURSDAY:

Rain rain rain. No Long House, AGAIN. We decided to go to Toa Payoh for lunch instead after one of the toughest trainings we've had that week. 2km warm up, 2 ( 2km timing), 3 500m practice, 4 200m practice, 10 40 stroke bursting practice. It was tiring, but i guess the meal we had made up for it. Fortunately for us, Macritchie was overflowing and had to be drained so we didn't have training on Fri!

TERM 1 ATTENDANCE

2008-03-15T23:32:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!

Okay here are the term 1's attendance %. It's over 8 weeks, 3 trainings each. Don't be too upset for those who didnt do well. There's always term 2.

And i must really congragulate Kevin. His attendance might not be 75%, but i know he pushed real hard to come for as many trainings as he could. The only prob was that he thought that the first two weeks didnt have trainings, that's why he didn't make it:/ Next time dun be so blur.

Also, Isaac, Ze Jie, Roy, Joel, Matthew and Alvan are some of those that are putting in effort to come down for more trainings. I must say that they have changed alot since last year and are making a come back!

For those who have done well, keep it up!!! (:

ALVAN - 70.8%
ISAAC - 50%
GLEN - 25%
NICK - 100%
CLEON - 62.5%
ROY - 58.3%
FEN YIT - 116% ( HIGHEST )
XIN YANG - 91.7%
MATTHEW - 79.2%
RYAN - 79.2%
JAVINN - 20.8%
JOEL - 83.3%
ZE JIE - 54.2%
QIN HONG - 91.7%
RUSSELL - 33.3%
JON - 75%
PETER - 87.5%
TIMOTHY - 8.3%
KEVIN - 66.7%
ZEUS - 54.2%

~ Cap NIck Signing off!

Canoeing t-shirt.

2008-03-13T06:57:00.000-07:00

I thought of making a canoeing shirt for us to wear, maybe one we can wear 4 training? or a polo for going out? tell me your ideas in this blog............see how k<:) still in Progress..............Since last year:) LOL.
Jelly Belly......signing out....

2008-03-12T04:28:00.000-07:00

Hey doods, zj here.
If I'm not wrong, everyone's involved in the 31st march comps right? We really do not have much time left, and I think by how hard we train now, will really show how much is our desire to win. Training have been rather tough these days, but I think, we should encourage each other to push on just for another 2 weeks, and move forward as a team, let's not be indivisuallistic, but work as a team, hand in hand. Let's also be motivated to win, to show others, WE, SJI CANOEING are the ELITE team!

Keep pushing guys, all our efforts will definitely pay off and like JiaoLian says, its only fair that those who work hard and comes for training get better and better! Strive for the best!

2008-03-08T05:26:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, Ze Jie here, I came by and saw the birthday thingy here, and realised Jon's birthday is just round the corner!

Any suggestions on what we should do for him on his birthday?

SO WHERE ARE WE GOING!?

2008-03-07T04:57:00.000-08:00

Hey dudes!

Really need you all to actively participate! Where are we going on Mon to finish our hol homework? School canteen? Pls recomend more places. still got Sat and Sun left to decide.

Cap Nick signing off!

GROUP STUDY ANYONE?

2008-03-05T22:00:00.000-08:00

Hey guys!

ANYONE interested in a group study on Mon, March hols, where we can help each other in our holiday homework, and hopefully, completeing them together on the same day! Those who have project groups together can also decide to do their work on that day. We can go for training in the morning first then go to the prefered venue for study. However, each must prepare or bring a study snack for the gathering. Interested?

Those who are, please leave a comment plus your prefered venue for the gathering to take place.

I've got a few places in mind.

First is school canteen, second is Botanical Gardens. If you guys have any other ideas do tell me(:

Cap Nick signing off!

SWIMMING CARNIVAL

2008-03-04T05:50:00.000-08:00

Most of the team went for the swim today. People like Kevin got gold for swimming 20 laps. Arrgh! At least Peter Fen Yit and I got 1st place for our heats. Ha! Beat that!
And its always during the mass swimming that i realise how muscular you guys are.

Xin Yang's tuna and biscuits are delicious! Never knew that these two things can go so well together. Yummy.

2008-03-03T03:53:00.001-08:00

Fen Yit here, You know , our esteemed captain raised a valid point today ( unusually ). He commented on the laxity of the team. Nicholas said that a lot of us feel that the team owes us. In fact, it is us that have a duty to fulfil to the team. I am afraid we have been influenced by our seniors too much. Hope we can rectify this mistake before it is too late. By the way: YOG is here, hope we will be given the chance to participate I want to go FAST Go Team!!

2008-03-02T03:52:00.000-08:00

Hey people, Peter here.

I think we should do something about this year's sec 1s. I don't think we want another dis-united batch. It does influence their attitude towards canoeing. I think it's mainly cos of the bond between us that we actually go for training regularly, and it's the bond that makes training more enjoyable. So for this year's sec 1s, if we don't want to complain of another lousy batch later on, I think we've got to use our own initiative to start them off as a team, and then leave them to their own devices once they're ready to start going out on their own.

Though I have no specific action plan as to how we're going to rope them in, I'm confident that we'll find a way to prevent them from adopting lousy attitudes. One way, I know for sure, is to be NICER to them. Man, by the way we treated them last year, it was as they were bugs. That might have been the reason why Ren Hui, at one point, dared to call us f-ers.

Most of our attitudes towards them have changed, yea, but the mistake we made last year, was comparing ourselves to them. That resulted in us berating them for being tired during training cos we did goodness knows what when we were sec 1s. That didn't do anything to help them like us very much.

If we want the canoeing team to keep strong, we don't only need one batch, our batch, to be united, we need the entire team.