i.love.to.climb!

ive always loved to climb. trees were my specialty. my dad brags stories of how i'd used to run out to the back of my house as a child, sit up on a tree and sulk when i was unhappy. i don't really recall doing that, but i did climb lots of trees. i'd still do if they had not chopped off my favourite branches.

a trip to Camp 5 yesterday was the very thing i needed. Kelvin was in town and i figured its about time i use my 10 passes before they expire. I never really liked climbing in Camp5 on Sundays because its usually packed with taster sessions, but yesterday was alright. there were more season climbers than beginners. and most of the staff on duty were the senior staffs as well. so it was like meeting all the old friends again. especially adam *melts*.

Tan poh leng & Kelvin

Climbing along with kelvin and i were tan poh leng and hooi lian. hooi lian had friends to meet up with. Turned out her friend was a funky middle aged woman with a hyperactive 20-something son! so cool! they gave me a lot of pointers. there was this particular orange route on the top floor which i was never able to nail since the first time i climbed at Camp5. i told myself that i would nail it before i resigned. and i never did.


Wendy and son, Bali

HooiLian, Bali, Poh Leng

Wendy belayed me. she had just completed it and was trying to help me do the same. however with whatever power invested in me, i lost again. my arms are completely useless sometimes. it took me a long long time to get just halfway. disappointed, i headed on to the boulder. perhaps my ego can be boosted there.

Bouldering turned into a camwhoring session instead. i think all of us were dragging our hands alread, that's why. except for Bali who was happily jumping up and down like a frisky lamb. Foong and Devan dropped by.



camwhoring on top of the boulder

before i left, i had to give the orange route another try. Hooi Lian was kind enough to belay me. I think one would have to be very patient to be my belayer. oh, and very alert too, since i fall so often. with my repeated screams whenever i fell, i managed to gather quite an audience beneath me. felt quite embarrassed coz the route aint exactly hard. but owell, Tang wei or something was throwing me lots and lots of pointers. everyone else were basically giving me lots of support. with all the comotion, it would've been a downright pity if i still did not make it.


don't u just love battle scars?

thank God i did. :)

Even though the gods are crazy
Even though the stars are blind
If you show me real love baby
I'll show you mine
I can make it nice and naughty
Be the devil and angel too
Got a heart and soul and body
Let's see what this love can do
Maybe I'm perfect for you

seriously, someone shoot her or i would...

stiff

i dont like the fact that i've lost all my flexibility. i can't split, i can't arch, i can't do anything anymore. and its not like i got those overnight. all those years of work and now im a stereotypical non-gymnast. gah! maybe continuing gim for the sake of my flexibility was a good idea. haha...owell...

friday night gim has always been my sanctuary. while other friends have clubbing plans and dates to go to on friday night, i look forward to a good sweat in the ventilation-deprived badminton courts of Holiday Villa. now, i really dont know how i did it. seriously, the air in there is stale and suffocating. the carpets are dingy and dusty. [check out ther alliteration!:)] but i guess we have been thoroughly trained to work under such conditions. it never bothered us one bit!

i miss gim-ing.

sem 4 week 1

this is what i think. one can actually get enough of holidays. really. and the last person to say that sorta statement would be me. yet, here i am actually glad that college had started. because i can only have so many days waking up almost noon, lounging around my pc till evening, going for runs, and then going to sleep again at 2 am. funny.

so i've gracefully stepped into Year 2 Sem 2, which is also known as sem 4, which is also known as the-second-half-of-my-commerce-degree. yea, i'd stick to the last title. :) My first lecture of the week was Finance (Introductory). I have a good lecturer, Ms Con Nee. Only problem is she isn't as fun as Ms Juliana. She's nice, but long winded. And the friggin' lecture starts at 8 am on a Monday morning. bluek! Then i've got Human Resource Management 200. I simple L.O.V.E my lecturer, Mr Ronald Hor. the guy's such a cartoon. he's very witty and he says things you would never in a million years think a lecturer would say. i was laughing my head off during his lecture. haha...On Wednesday, i've got Marketing Communications 201, lectured by Ms Janice. Very professional, very knowledgeable, very i'm-so-good-u-can-tell-by-the-fake-accent-i-put-on. i supposed i could grow to like her. *shrugs*. Then it's Marketing Research 211. Now i actually like Mr Lim Teck Sun. He's very very nice. Very grandfatherly. So you can guess he's long winded. even long winded is an understatement. But yes he's very very nice. He's the kind of lecturer that would go all the way back of the lecture hall, go through all the students to where you are sitting and show you how to use your calculator, step by step. The fact that he's probably more than half a century old, doesn't make him very popular unfortunately. heh.

i study 3 days a week this sem. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. ha! don't be jealous. I start 8-ish and end almost 6. which is just too long. takes away a lot of my energy for some reason. i come home and drop like a sack.

so sem 4 is looking pretty good. i'm still VP of Circle-K, in charge of promoting Rock4Hope and selling Heart4Hope tees, visiting Rumah Kasih Sayang next weekend. all the more reason to have a good semester. :)


***
oh, and i'm reading this book i picked up from the library on Monday. It's actually a 3-in-1 book, comprising of 3 novels written by author Mary Higgins Clark. The titles are I'll Be Seeing You, Remember Me, and Let Me Call You Sweetheart. I thought they were romantic novels. They're actually thrillers. haha...i'm still at the first, and it's very intriguing. can't seem to put the book down. can't seem to sleep with ease too. hahah...:)


***
this month's expenditure is rocket high. everything seems to fall i this month. i just used up my last pair of contact lenses. i had to top up my hotlink just now. i need to buy books coz my lovely seniors who lent me all their texts last sem is now in Curtin Perth. and to top it off, i joined so so many races this month. waiting for my July pay which is way way overdue. hmm...*drums fingers*


***
i just went out with 3 doctors, a doctor to be, an engineer to be, an accountant(??) to be, and 2 business students (including myself). we call ourselves the karate retirees. heh. okay so Ju and AunWoon still goes karate-ing.

it just makes me sigh happily when i think of how many doctor/doctor-to-be friends i know. i have friends in high places. hehe...

desiderata

when i was in PD, i saw a huge poster on the wall of the PD Marina apartment. it was Desiderata. no, it's not a hotshot of Hollywood with a wicked name. it's a poem. a poem i learned from the interviewers of United World Colleges. i attended the interview in 2004 and during the open discussion, someone mentioned Desiderata. about how much you can learn from it with just one read. at that time it seemed so weird that a poet would name his work so abstractly. when i went home, the first thing i did was to google it. after reading it, i completely fell in love with it. the poem did not rhyme. but it had so much meaning to it. it was pretty overwhelming for the words he used were simple yet piercing. it's the kind of thing that makes one nod with agreement while reading it. it made me want to spread it to the entire world because it's just so true!

Desiderata is famous. the poem has become its new meaning. speak of it and people will naturally relate to the poem. such is the impact of it. truth be told, i only just found out the meaning of the term desiderata.

de.sid.er.a.tum
n. pl. de.sid.er.a.ta
Something considered necessary or highly desirable
Go ahead and Google it. Desiderata by Max Ehrmann. and you'll see what is highly desirable.

On a lighter note, abstracticity (if there's such a word) really impresses me. While abstract art may not call to my attention, abstract writings do. when i asked my mum to read Desiderata, i told her one day i'll write a poem where everyone would read and nod in agreement. and it shall also be hung up on walls and be quoted in texts. better yet. someone would turn it into a song (because everyone knows i can't sing for peanuts) and that song shall be sung by lovers across nations. ha!

Lisa Loeb is my greatest idol. she writes her own songs and every one of them have touched my heart. how does one write like her?

someday...someday...

visual overload

yea i think i've been flooding my blog with far too many pictures. And far too many stories on my races.

well for the next couple of weeks i won't be racing. college just started yesterday. at precisely 8 am in the morning. waking up was, inevitably, a drag. it felt strange to be back in college. felt even stranger to write. my friends were already making plans for a big Friday night dinner at Shogun. well, i've got gim class with the RSGs. so i gotta skip that. it's ok. i figured binging is out of topic for a while. and any form of exercise is very much appreciated.

Circle-K seems to be very active this semester. we've got a lot of things lined up. though i'm grateful for the extra colour to my mundane college life, i feel like i've lost the touch. it was an all too familiar rush of thrill to start organizing again, to plan, to delegate, to make decisions. yet i'm doubting myself. i guess it's true i've lost a bit of my perkiness. now it seems a bit of my self esteem went along with it. hmm...

this is quite a pointless post. now that the high of races has eased off, i find myself stepping on solid ground again. solid, cold, harsh ground. *frowns*