2 highlights of the week so far:

1. Dinner on Monday with Jo, De, Jyang and Shu. Received Part 2 and 3 of my bday present. Yesh it's extremely belated but it doesn't matter cos I LOVE THEM! Thankew thankew all of you :)

2. Senior's Camp from Tue to Thu i.e. it just ended, I still need to catch up on my sleep but thankfully got a nice tan heh. I guess the camp was pretty slack, except for "Campfire" night. As a first-time costume mistress, I left some costumes behind *slaps forehead*. Good thing Edmund saved the day haha. I'm actually pretty proficient with the sewing machine now. So I can cook, I can sew, I'll have to work on my "keeping-the-house-tidy" skills but I'm on my way to housewivery and auntie-hood.

Someone save me. Please.

Looking forward to Sat (meeting platoonmates) and Sun (meeting Cornellians hopefully). Calmly accepts the rapidly-diminishing account balance. I love money, but I think I love my frens more.

I had a weird dream last night. I dreamt that platoonmates and I were gathered in a small dusty room at one of the upper levels of AMQ. It was late afternoon cos the sun's rays cast a yellowy sheen on everyone in the room. So the whole platoon of us were just sitting up straight minding our own business (a.k.a stoning) in our No. 3 uniform. Then out of nowhere, I decided I was bored and started kiwi-ing my combat boots because apparently NCC Day was around the corner and I was part of the marching contingent. Anyway, setting aside that odd discrepancy, a Mdm came up and wanted to have a few words with me so I told her to "hang on there for a moment, I want to get this side of the boot done". So when I was finally done, she was obviously rather vexed at me. Of course I had no idea where I got the guts to tell her to "hang on for a moment" but it happened and I braced myself for a scolding. She scolded me for dropping my beret on the floor and went on to harp about how I was a specialist already and still displaying this sort of atrocious behaviour. At that point, something snapped in my mind and I started shooting back at her. I admitted I was wrong but mistakes do happen and everyone will drop their beret sometime or other in their life as a cadet. I then rambled on something about my passion for NCC which was exemplified by my neat and smart uniform and lastly, I told her how I wished officer-cadet relationships could improve by the officers not nit-picking at minor mistakes. I excused myself and walked out of the door with my platoonmates, leaving that Mdm slack-jawed at my audacity. But of course, she had no grounds for rebuttal. Hee I even remember Zing, El and Jyang giving me a good pat on the back.

So back to real life. I can only describe the feeling as weird. Puzzling. Queer. That sort of thing. It also reminded me of all the times that I crapped my way (and my platoon's) out of certain uncomfortable situations. That's right, jyin the crapper. In fact, this whole dream was an ego-booster for glorious little me ha. I guess I'm likedat sometimes.

I have plenty of other stories likedat, real-life stories (Jyang and Shu simply love to reminiscise about me PMSing during Pt A camp). But I'll leave that for another time. Meanwhile, I shall savour this little dose of ego on a cold and rainy Sunday :)

Still waiting for Yali to post her photos on yahoogroups cos I think she has some nice pictures of me. Well as nice as they can get with me as the model.

I've resumed air pistol training after a 2 week break. Coach commented on how he felt a little apprehensive about me when he started coaching the NTU team.

Why? Because I am so small.

Well more accurately, compared to my teammates, I am really quite small-built. But he's glad that I'm reasonably strong. Well at least strong enough to hold the gun steady for 40 competition shots. And my stance is quite stable too, so that's good. In fact, it's also good that my toes and feet start to feel numb after standing still for about half an hour or so. Queer isn't it? Apparently, badminton is a no-no for shooters (sorry shu!) and playing piano is good for triggering. Then he also recommends swimming with one's arms only to build up arm muscles. I wonder if I can swim 10 metres likedat...

Guess I'll find out soon heh.

Meanwhile, it's nice to have met up with jyang, adila and shu recently. I think those 4 years of s**t really bonded us well. I really glad for those 4 years of my life. They were the best. But don't worry, I dun dwell on the past that much. I think "now" is pretty cool too. At least no ugly school uniforms yar :)

Over the weekend, I went on a hiking trip to Gunung Stong in Kelantan, Malaysia. Dear Yali, who was the trip IC, invited me sometime in March but I turned her down at first cos I didn't know anyone else on the trip. Later, some of my tutorial group mates expressed interest in the trip too so I signed up for it. I'm glad I did. I rediscovered the fun of trekking up a mountain, pitching tents and field-cooking heh. Besides having marvellous trip ICs, I was lucky to have a very energetic guide and tons of fun people on the trip too.

We took an overnight train on Friday to reach Dabong in Kelantan on Saturday morning. After breakfast, we explored 2 caves. We then started to hike up the mountain, eating a mobile lunch along the way. The climb up was torturous but the waterfalls made the climb worthwhile. Waterfalls are so fun! I remember sliding down 2 waterfalls and going underneath 1 of them. Although the water was cold, it was incredibly refreshing. We spent the night out in tents. Before we went to sleep, the guide predicted rain in the morning so we were furiously water-proofing all our belongings and were prepared to dash for the shelter if the rain was heavy. Luckily, the rain fell lightly so we had a peaceful night.

In the morning, we had pancakes for breakfast haha. Yali's idea actually but well now I know that it is possible to have a tasty breakfast out in the wild. The original plan for Sunday morning was to hike up to the summit but that plan was canceled because it takes 5 hours to reach the top and another 5 hours to descend back to the base camp and we didn't have the time to do that. So we had a leisurely breakfast before setting off on a short hike to another part of the waterfall and playing with more water heh. At 3pm, we striked down our tents, compressed the garbage and by 4pm, we were making our way down Gunung Stong. We had dinner at the small kopitiam beside the train station and after that, we just sat around and chatted or watch World Cup on TV. The train arrived at 10.45pm and once again, we spent the night on the train.

Yup so it was a short trip but full of memorable and hilarious stuff. I'll post some pictures as soon as I kop them from someone :)

I finally shot a new personal best at competition. My previous record of 356 had remained unbeaten for 3 years until today at NUSIS, I shot 360.

3 years man... call me retarded...

88 + 93 + 95 + 84 = 360.

It's the last series that wasn't up to standard *sheepish grin*. Lesson learnt: Thou shalt not panic when thou has 12 min to shoot 10 shots because it isn't the first time I had so little time!! If my memory serves me well, NUSIS should be my 4th time standing at the range till the very last 2 min.

So? The next time I do something foolish like panicking, it will be inexcusable. So there.

Latest happenings in my life:

1. Everyone in Marketing class today commented about how fast the month went by. And I commented that in 2 weeks time, we shall be free of one another's company. Wondered who perceived that as good news, who perceived it as bad.

2. I am W-O-L-S. I finally realised what a great site youtube.com is.

3. I've finished watching Da Chang Jin. (wahaha)

4. I'm hooked on Boris Akunin's books again. I ready The Winter Queen and Leviathan more than a year ago. Was ecstatic to see 2 more books on the library shelves recently. The Death of Achilles is definitely better than The Turkish Gambit and I found a new love: Erast Fandorin.

5. Now raise your hand if you haven't the slightest clue what I'm talking about.

Good.

6. Bacteria life cycle is surprisingly similar to product life cycle. Lag, growth, maturity and death. Seriously. Go compare Microbiology and Marketing textbooks and you'll know I'm not lying.

7. Me will never get around to watching MI3.

8. NTU has me confused about when the results are released. "First week of June" meaning this week or next? Infinitely irritating.

9. Me want straight hair.

10. Now raise your hand again if you saw that (No. 9) coming.

So smart, of course in any list, my hair will be featured. Goes to show how well you know me =)