Saturday:

FYPJ in the morning was ok....

Training the afternoon was more fun. Although there was a pathetic number of the guys team showed up. At least the girls could fill in a baby boat. Then earlier I found out that Stephen wasn't going for training. Why? Because the attendance is like crap and he feels no morale to train. Got quite pissed and blasted at him a little over the phone.

Firstly, being in a team is about taking and giving. Yes, its good to feel good because you're part of some awesome team. But when you leave in bad times, then what's that say about your commitment? What's that say about the team's sincerity? Then, by not going because of such a reason, you're just making things worse loh...

Anyway, the water in kallang was like shiiiiiiiiiit. Like someone's lao sai water. So fricking brown. What the heck was the rain doing to my beloved basin?! Coach Ben asked me to go left, cuz boat was imbalanced. I geniusly managed to feel my usual powerful catch and pull on the left side, too. Ambidexterous Reu, good job.

We thrashed the girls boat for a couple of sets... although I think the head starts they had weren't enough. Looking around I felt quite dispaired. about 8-10 guys... then besides Jonny... all of them weren't twisting or throwing themselves forward enough during stroke.

AHHHH!!! I'm going to grab all these buggers for extra training!!!!11111

Talked to Jonny abit after training. Told him about some stuff regarding training. I always think of Jonny as having a really hard job... like being so young yet cap of older guys and such. But then... there's only one year difference between us anyway.

I talked to Steph about how to get the team back together... extra trainings, and such. I figured its quite stupid to leave everything to the cap and hope that he sorts things out. It may be expecting too much, but in the end, its up to us to take a pro-active role in the team. Because the team is made out of the team, not the cap.

Heh, fancy me talking about trying to get the team back together... the one who ran over to canoeing to have his own race just in case the dragonboat race sucked like last time...

Went to church after that. Really envisioned my bed but I figured I'd see what was going on. Lots of familiar faces... the on-screen presentation was quite good. Looked like the product of aftereffects and premiere. Went to eat CHICKEN RICE after that. Haven't eaten chicken rice in Novena for like sooooooooo long. It was awesome... but that damned soup! Still so much msg for what?!

Some problems with Lionel while we were going there... the group never changes. Same type of interactions going on. Its fun but I'm not sure if thats good or bad?

Took a bus back with Karen after that. Found out lots of stuff... and revealed some juicy background info on the gang to her... ahahaha.

Hmm... sweet, I can see why he likes her.



Sunday!:

Managed to talk to Sensei Patrick about me not being able to make it on Sats... and suprisingly... he's letting me come down on Sundays to row! *ecstasy*

Perhaps I saw this possibility whilst I was talking to him too... mainly because he has a passion for the sport... and wants to share it. I shall not take this passionate chance forgranted.

Woke up at 7... went down to kallang. The one star course Patrick was teaching was going to stay around the beach, so I was all along during all of my sets. Water was still as shit as saturday... but after it drizzled and stopped... drizzled and stopped, it cleared up a little. Took the RED racer out. The red boat is like damn sat... I look like team singapore rowing in it or something hahaha.

Kallang basin should be called Kallang Watery Animals Cemetery. Saw a bloated rat, which was rolling around on the shore due to the waves. It looked quite cute at first... like some cute ilttle fat rat... but then I realized the damned thing was dead so I did not play with it. Then saw a bloated toad in the middle of nowhere... and then a pigeon at the beach. Sensei Patrick asked "You want pigeon for lunch?", yuck loh...

Paced a little with the ngee ann canoeists. Not sure how far they were going per set... but I managed to catch up to their first canoeist a couple of sets along the beach. I recognized one of them... came in before his pair during the duo-athelon. I don't think they're that strong... what happened to all the other canoeists today? Cheers, ngee ann's coach spotted me and watched a little. Probably wondering why this bugger is canoeing all by himself haha. Genius secret training!


When the one star course ppl went for lunch, Patrick showered me with attention. Damn cool, during his tutelage I managed to get from okay stroke to super sat twisting on formz by the end of the day. That's why I regard him more of a Sensei then a coach... although they mean the same thing in some places... For Ben, everything's like... strict, high discipline. You ask him something... he'll give you a quick straight answer then move on. For Patrick, he'll let you push yourself... just to see your interest, then prod and poke you in the right direction with comments. Then when the time is right he will bombard you with attention. Even a simple question can be answer with several references. This really helps to keep the fun in canoeing, I think. Really lucky to have crossed paths with him.

Dragon boat races going on... some british, japan, australian, canadian teams duking it out. I stood there and watched them go out... felt quite sad at first... remembering my own race with the team... Will it ever be like that again? Then those cute japs almost overturned the dragonboat when they lifted their hands up for stretching exercise and stretched... right.

A lot of dragon boats going around today. Was quite afraid some coxswain wouldn't spot me then I would go flying out of the water. Tried to spy on some of the other teams too, hahaha. Some of the rowers are quite amusing. You see these huuuge guys who have closed squinted eyes rowing as if damn shacked.

You can tell the unity of a team by the rower's expressions, really. I don't think our team's unified even. If I looked at our team while they were rowing, I'd probably see many different expressions, instead of one unified one. I for one vary between normal, serious, PISSED OFF, to laughing and smiling like an idiot.

If a team is really serious they would only have one expression altogether - Serious.

Happened to capsize right in the middle of the basin when I was aiming for the toilet and beach. Omg... had to tow this huge boat a good 400+ plus metres back. Slowly slowly kicked, some dragonboats passed me by and the coxswain asked if I was ok, then I gave him the thumbs up. Nothing a dragonboat can do anyway... Luckily Loy and Sid came to help. I must learn how the heck Naresh managed to overturn his boat and get back on while still in the water. Thats quite shen...


30km altogether... arms not tired but was feeling damned sleepy so I took a nap earlier.

Dunno what game to play....