New Day New Discovery

FA Cup matches last night were superb. Exciting as always. Not so much the Liverpool vs Arsenal match, but the Birmingham vs Newcastle one instead. As usual full of drama and spectalcular football. Not to mention a few upsets. Give you guys the score in a while.

The past few week has been pretty good. In terms of social life and managing to absorb during lessons. Transition back into school has been really easy. Will talk about it at a later date.

School homework has been coming in in large piles (adding to my still uncompleted piano homework), so I'm taking it one step at a time, finishing up those that I have to hand in the earliest. Its a pretty good strategy to survive, but it does give that sense of unaccomplishment which comes with not finishing all your homework in one go.

This post will also contain little snippets of the hols, namely the various outings I haven't managed to talk about yet. A bit of bowling, Orchard, pool, house visiting and other stuff.

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Soccer

FA Cup

Portsmouth 2 Wigan 1
Birmingham 2 Newcastle 2
Sheffield United 0 Swansea 3
Chelsea 6 Macclesfield 1
West Ham 3 Brighton 0
Doncaster 0 Bolton 4
Hull 1 Middlesbrough 1
Leicester 2 Fulham 2
Watford 4 Stockport 1
Nottingham 2 Charlton 0
Liverpool 1 Arsenal 3

Man U 2 Aston Villa 1

Everton 1 Blackburn 4

Sheffield Wednesday 1 Man City 1

Tottenham 0 Cardiff 0

Number of premiership sides eliminated: 6 out of 20 (Wigan, Sheffield, Charlton, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Everton)
1 premiership club yet to play. (Reading)
8 premiership clubs go to round 4 of the competition. (Chelsea, Bolton, Watford, Arsenal, West Ham, Portsmouth, Man U, Blackburn)
5 premiership clubs have to replay. (Fulham, Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Man City, Tottenham)

For those who know nuts about the FA cup, heres a bit of info. The FA cup is held every year to search for the best team in England. So all sorts of teams can play. Ranging from the lousy to the awesome. From the premiership to the 3rd Division. Teams are eliminated by knockout. So if you lose once, you're out. If the game ends in a draw, a second game is played at a later date. So eventually after all the knocking out, there'll be one team left, and the team is the winner!

Traditionally, good teams always win. The winners of this FA Cup will play against the champions of the league. Hence for this season, last years winners of the FA Cup, Liverpool, played the champions of the league Chelsea in the Charity Shield match. (AKA the opening friendly match of every season, just for fun.)

Thats all for soccer 101. Learn more next time.

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Last week of Dec Outings

Had them mostly with YE people and family. There wasn't any for the JPS people, X'PEIA people. Actually had class chalet, but regrettably, I needed rest on the 26th, wasn't allowed on the 27th and had worship prac on the 28th. They must have had fun there... Oh well.

YE ~ 22nd

First stop, bowling! I went bowling with YE on this day at HomeTeamNS near my house. There were lots of us, and we occupied 3 lanes I think. Did quite ok then.

94, 127

Once again, another 94. How many times have I gotten 94 during the hols? 3 or 4 I think.

After that the rest went for Laser Quest, but I went to school to get stuff. Checked out the Orientation 2007 preparations while there. They were singing the new batch song when I got there. And the people from 7-11 were already stocking up the shelves. Took my 1100 words and the Maths Paper Amanda needed from my locker and headed home.

Went to Martin's house after that. Spent the time playing connect four and owning Andrew at it. Then played some poker, roulette, and left soon after.

YE ~ 23rd Dec

Went for Tim's housewarming Christmas party. The way there was pretty tedious cos I alighted slightly early and had to walk a bit. Martin and Paul were so late, I think because they'd gotten the directions all wrong and were lost or something.

Once I got there I sat down at the dining table. Hui Min brought their cat out, and I think just looking at me frightened it so bad it went to hide under their bed hmm. So I was technically the 4th to get there after Sarah, Hui Juan and Myrtle. They were complaining about cockroaches on the void deck.

So we had turkey, ham and spaghetti for dinner. And at Shirley's request uncle Pak Chee sang the coconut water song.

Coconut water

Is good for your daughter

Coconut water has iron

Make you as strong as a lion

It went something like that. Uncle Pak Chee is really funny. After dinner I taught Jon how to play Solitaire Showdown, did a few puzzle thingies and then joined the rest for Balderdash. Hui Juan had to go off early so I teamed up with Aunty Doris.

After everyone had gotten bored of Balderdash, they started playing cards. Me, Jon, Tim and Paul went to play poker as usual. And of course I was dealer. And when I left for the toilet they bugged the deck to make Paul get a Royal Flush. And I got Punk'd by them grr.

Left for home soon with Jon, Martin and Myrtle.

YE ~ 25th Dec (Christmas)

For Christmas, we spent it in the most magnificent way possible, with a CIP kinda thingy at Orchard Road. It was CCIS, otherwise known as Celebrate Christmas in Singapore. Some people from YE who had signed up went to Orchard and cordoned off the entire road for the Christmas performances and the floats. We put up barricades and toiled for over 1 hour from 1230pm to 2pm.

I'm very sure no one else has ever stood in the middle of Orchard Road and survived, so here's footage to prove I was there. Believe it?

The YE people sitting in the middle of the road.

After that we went for lunch at the nearby BK. Finished my lunch quick and then accompanied En Yao to go eat something healthy. Besides being one of the most buff kids, En Yao's one of the most health conscious guys in my youth group. He utterly refuses to eat oily food, thus the blatant dislike for BK. So me and Ernest brought him to a food court to eat. And while En Yao ate his healthy fishball noodles, me and Ernest shared this:

After we returned to the meeting point, we had to do a bit more manual labour before being allowed to rest. So I placed myself on guard duty with Steph. Talked quite a bit with her, and got her addicted to Hero by Nickelback.

So the performances ended eventually and we had to pack up all the barricades. We carried the heavy stuff for an hour and finished up by clearing the roads for the floats to move off. And then our job was done. Went back to church for a well deserved rest.

Bought cup noodles and chips from 7-11 and it was a good thing I didn't take too long. Cos just as I reached the porch, it started to drizzle, and hard rain poured down as if the floodgates had opened. So we spent the night playing bridge, and I did a bit of my 1100 words.

Woke up in the middle of the night feeling very very cold. Apparently someone had decreased the temperature of the aircon to extremely cold. So tried to wrap myself in the extra clothes I brought. Managed to fall asleep, and eventually woke up with a sneeze. Went outside, where Shirley, JS and Clara were waiting to play bridge.

Was super bushed, needed to go home but it was still raining. Everyone else left and only me and my bros were left stuck cos of the rain. So we plopped down right outside the church office. And soon someone came... It was Ven Siow!

So we got a lift from him and went home to sleep some more.

YE ~ 26th Dec (Boxing Day)

It was time for YE's Christmas party. I went there dressed in my black long sleeve shirt with rolled up sleeves, jeans, my rocker's band. Would've looked like someone from Franz Ferdinand with a red tie on. But my bro took it.

It was quite a fun day. Lots of games. Bingo, Queen of Sheba, Limbo, Little Red Riding Hood YE style, Pinata whacking and so on. The food was reasonably priced, the games were good, and the friends were the best. And of course who can forget our dear saviour Jesus. We left one empty seat for him.

Went home stuffed in Gerald's car with the Angs.

Honestly couldn't remember much from that night cos of the fatigue, and didn't take pics cos my phone ran out of batt. But great day nevertheless.

Family ~ 29th Dec

Went for bowling with my extended family as always. Managed to take down the scores. Managed to better my personal best of 136. Played a total of 3 games. Here are scores.

87, 124, 148.

The counter food service at the bowling alley was so bad. The indian woman behind the counter shoved the money at us and kept on answering rudely. My cousins weren't very happy.

After that we went to Lot 1 to have Pepper Lunch, and then headed home.

YE ~ 29th Dec

That evening there was a church dinner at Safra Mount Faber. Didn't have enough space so my bros and a few of the sec 2s sat outside to wait. Went to the arcade, to the cafe downstairs, to the sofa on the ground floor.

Finally to pool. Grace kindly got a table for us to play on. I was broke from paying for my bro's dinners. Frankly they spend too much of my money, and they should pay me back. But enough about that.

Played quite a few matches, mostly won, but lost against my bros a few times. Alethea was new to the game, and so was Sandra. But I paired up with both of them to win. Pretty good huh. Went home with my parents...

Took Jian Sheng along with us to IMM, where his parents came to pick him. Our parents gave us some puzzle thing to mull over, and it was JS who figured it out and told us all first.

YE ~ 31st Dec

Played for service, and once service was over, we took a train to Clementi Macs, had dinner and then went to Gerald's house for a time of fellowship and fun. Had a real good time playing with the dogs. I'm starting to wonder why dogs love me but cats hate me. Never mind abou that.

Anyways, after playing the guitar and playing with the dogs, we got out a Mahjong table and started playing. Me, Jeannette, Fiona and Sherill I think. Whoa Sherill can be quite loud. For the first few rounds I tried to play professional (which means only can game after you have 3 tai) but I kept on losing. It was only when I stopped playing professional that I won. Fiona was teasing me hmph.

So we played until we heard the news of bomb blasts in Bangkok, Thailand, and it so happened that the older youth were there on a trip. But thank God they were safe.

We did a bit of group reflection led by Gerald after that, and started singing songs soon after! But before we could start on a third song me and my bros had to leave.

Family ~ 31st Dec to 1st Jan

Took the lift down to the first floor, where my entire extended family was waiting for us. We went all the way to Mount Faber to catch a glimpse of the fireworks. It was jam packed, and the cars blocking the roads to Mount Faber meant one thing. We couldn't park the car to get out.

So we went the long way up Mount Faber, and then down Mount Faber without managing to catch a glimpse of the fireworks. All of us drove around for quite some time, and me and my bros were singing songs at the back of the car. Just then we saw the fireworks above a certain building, though not very clearly.

Soon enough, it struck midnight, and we started shouting Happy New Year to all the pedestrians. Strangely enough, the most friendly people were the indian workers sitting at the back of a lorry. Whats wrong with the people in Singapore? Can't event break out of your comfort zone to say a new year greeting? Haha just joking. They probably couldn't hear us shouting.

So our extended family gathered at Newton Circus to have supper. Ordered white and black carrot cake, some dimsum and a couple sticks of satay and enjoyed the time gobbling down all the food.

Went home happy and satisfied.

YE ~ 1st Jan

Woke up bright and early the next morning to meet Kenneth, Shaun and Benedict at Bukit Gombak Station to go for soccer at Gerald's house. When we all got there, there was nobody at all. Did a bit of passing with Shaun's ball (which was too hard).

Soon the St James people arrived and we played. 5 a side, score 2 goals elimination matches.

I had Saul (YE), Lawrence, Kenny and Darren (SJC) on my team. Pretty exciting. We managed to beat Shaun's team, but I got tired out pretty fast. Took a short break, then came in as part of the oldies team. Ryan, Gerald, Caleb, Ivan were on my team I think. And I scored one goal. Yeah!

Went to eat duck rice afterwards with the YE people, and Gerald drove us back one by one. First Saul, then Kenneth and Shaun, and last Benedict! So in the end I invited Gerald to my house. When we got there my bros were still sleeping and Gerald woke them up.

We talked for awihle, used the com and then parted ways.

My family went to uncle Weng Sun's, aunty Audrey's and Hazel's house for tea. Talked mostly, looked around the house and then went home to rest.

I guess thats all for the last week of hols!

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Random

Haha its time once again to put in something random. So I've chosen this particular thingy.

Its Charmander! Those old memories of playing pokemon red and yellow haha. Charmander was my fave. But then, I never managed to complete pokemon totally. Its probably cos I'm the meticulous kind and I train each and every pokemon to the exact same level. So I lost interest in the game.

I've attached my keys to Charmander. Not much significance to that though. You might have caught a glimpse of it on Saturday if you were down for worship prac.

So why Charmander? Its here to remind me of those young times, to "stay gold" no matter what. (Those who've read 'the outsiders' will know what I mean.) And it reminds me to smile no matter what the circumstances. Looking at the cute smily face on the lovable pokemon warms the heart haha.

K more next time!