absolutum dominium

i think we ought to start a blog for the team. just so everyone can write entries, pen down their thoughts about training, each other, stay in touch, etc.

but i don't know if the idea will fly since not everyone blogs as regularly as yours truly (except maybe 1 si geena junior (the one in denial)), and in the first place i don't even have everyone's contact. like, wth.

anyway it's a bit redundant for me to really be blogging my thoughts on the day since my day will probably be the same as the other 3 days of the week every week: i.e. training.

for the uninitiated, i have sold my soul to dragonboat. training is 4 times a week: mon, tues, thurs and sat. however, training means waking up at 7am to catch a bus out for a 9am training and to be there early (better early than late coz the boss will not be happy otherwise), warming up and running between 9am and 10am, rowing between 10am and 12pm (although we seem to have a tradition of going OVERTIME, HOR?), and doing the proverbial pull-ups, cooling-down and having a debrief that makes training end around... say... 1.30pm?

and then after tt assuming that you have nothing to do for the rest of the day (which is usually me coz i: 1) don't have a job and am totally monetarily dependent on my parents, and 2) don't make social life plans on training days in anticipation of the fact tt i will be tired, grouchy, sleepy and will need to have dinner with the parents so as not to get into their even WORSE books for having been swallowed up whole by the kallang river), you'll help to keep all the equipment and go to bathe @ the stadium with the rest of the team. factor in waiting time, and you should be done by 2.45pm, give or take 15 minutes depending on how fast or slow the boss... *cough cough* uh, i mean the slowest bather takes to do her hair *cough cough* uh, i mean bathe. yes, tt's it. bathe.

give yourself another say... 30 minutes to 45 minutes to get from the stadium to the lunch place (factor in waiting time, walking time, bus travelling time), and maybe add 10 minutes for food ordering time and waiting time before everyone settles in to eat... and i think lunch should be around 3.30pm, and more or less completed between 4pm and 4.15pm. now, factor in the usual team-nuaing time (i.e. when we all think it's too early to just go home and will die die stay out a little longer even if it means vegetating at pac coffee along with the other no-life s'poreans), add another 2 hours or more... and by the time i reach home it's nicely between 6pm and 7 pm. just in time for dinner.

so now you understand why training saps your life away. oh, and why my mom's turning into the three-headed monster over my training? all she can do is nag nag nag about why the hell i need 12 hours to train. and even when i explain everything tt we do it seems she omegas my explanation the way i omega her naggings. UGH.

anyway besides training itself, there's also the sleeping early parts. no more mambo nights, not more late night movies or suppers... all because i need to sleep by a certain time so tt i won't die for training the next day. and the food bans. no chili - no chili padi, no chili sauce, no belachan, no sambal etc. no coffee, tea or any other caffeinated drinks. no ice-cream. no potato chips or heaty snacks. absolutely no coconut milk. includes no curry, no nasi lomak (the david way), no red ruby burbur chacha or chendol. oh, and no alcohol. *sobz* yes. tt's kind of hell on social outings.

anyway this is a breakdown on how life is with training. but even though i make it sound like a hazardous occupation, it's actually incredibly fun. i love love love my teammates. i love hanging out with them and talking cock and absolute nonsense, because i never ever laugh so hard as with them, never forget about my troubles or problems or issues as long as i am with them.

anyway woke up this morning to have breakfast. mom got me to dump the clothes for her in the washing machine while i was at it. got to training after tt... btw. is there a shorter way to training from kallang mrt rather than thru kallang park? i suspect there is one but i know not what it is.

the rowing today was... well... i like it. i like the rowing to be tough, actually. i can't wait till the period where i ache ALL THE TIME, and not just when i get up in the morning. it's such a sentimentally familiar sensation. endurance set was kind of sian... i guess tt's why it's call the endurance set. you really have to endure. loved the tyre set even though it was damn xiong and felt like we weren't moving and the boss cheated our feelings! and the race set! nice... damn chuan, damn suan, had to keep reminding myself about my stroke and to not slack, but i found tt wave so exciting! such a big wave! the yelling at each other to be steady! and how our timing was miraculously uniform! ooh.

i loved my boat. morale was damn high. tt's why we always need loudhailers around. to remind, to encourage, to motivate. it only works when everyone really really wants to give their all for each other. i think we put in our best. special mention to jul my partner this time, who really pushed herself and even managed to tell me to "jia you" when we were all so tired, and to yirang for giving her all even though she's not fully recovered from injury.

after training, i found 2 missed calls from my dad tt really pissed me off. the cordless phone receiver was apparently missing, and he was accusing me 2 times on my voice mail for having lost it, and he was screaming idle threats and telling me what an emergency this was (btw. i found the phone later in the attic, where HE HAD BEEN ON SAT). and when i called him he accused me some more, then said tt even though he understood tt i was training for a competition, my "mom was very tired" and he wanted me to help. as if 1) i don't help at all and 2) i have a moral obligation to be the new family fucking maid. i think i was pretty pissed. wanted to bathe and go home, but on coming out from the sdba shower i saw mona, geok, wendz, yunshan and vic and they hadn't bathed yet, and somehow i got convinced to go for lunch with them.

ended up reading the economist outside the stadium shower rooms waiting till the si geenas who'd finished bathing first came out. inspite of much efforts to persuade us to eat at beach road by cindy, who was supported by jul and wenya, she was overruled by the more spoilt seniors who wanted air-con. bwahaha. we ended up at bk at raffles city. but with about 5 of us munching on subway sandwiches.

ooh. and the boss has never watched star wars! *shock shock horror horror* the boss has not fully comprehended the attraction of the dark side! *shock shock horror horror* but we did eat the star potatoes. which are small, few, and totally not worth the fucking $2.20, but an experience to eat. star-shaped hash browns. very cute. very nice too. brings out the jedi in me. well. not. are jedi sexist? it seems i generally don't see female knights in the order, although i thought i might have seen a female jedi warrior get destroyed by palpatine's order 66 in episode iii. hmm. can't remember.

i think i was saying something about becoming darth vader after eating star potatoes. so tt i can go: "luke. i am your father."

wendy one-upped me with the hokkien version: "luke. wa si lim lao pei."

we have si geena juniors. we have si geena seniors. i can't rem what we were talking about, but every now and then the temperature dropped a few degrees with every sentence tt came out from cindy's and yirang's mouths. i don't know how geok and yunshan managed to survive between them. they both looked seriously traumatised. and then dear wendy pointed to me and said: "she's rock, and i'm chick" and then we chimed in together: "we're rock chicks!" (complete with spastic grin and cute japanese hand sign)... and i think all credibility has been lost as of now.

and we were talking about how chao tar we all were. i'm damn chao tar now. me and wendz same colour. turning black. roasting in the sun. sunblock bloody not working lah!!! knn.

and after tt some of them went to k box to ktv, but i opted to take the bus home with wenting, seeing as it is tt my father would want me to come home to do more housework. knn.

anyway was just talknig to wenting on the bus. realise tt we're damn similar. both damn quiet, but with hidden si geena. both from scgs, and cannot stand the damn politically-correct "must be a kim gek" attitude of tt place, and both kentang to the core. she confessed to me tt for the first few weeks of training she couldn't bring herself to say "jia you" coz it was so not her to say stuff like tt...

and i started laughing coz tt's exactly how i felt for the first few MONTHS of training. me? bloody kentang never speak a word of chinese if i can help it and i have to say "jia you???" add oil??? HUH?

but you get used to it. tt's what i told her. dragonboat puts a lot of new words into your vocabulary tt you never knew existed before. like si geena for one. or 'zhua'. or well... there were a lot of more words and phrases tt i never knew before till now, but you learn new things everyday now don't you?

speaking of learning new things, i was just thinking about time. past, present and future. we live in the present, but we prepare for the future. and if this is such a case, what is the importance of the past? it's no point living in the past or holding on to something tt is no longer there. yet the reason why the past is so important, is because it forms you. it is what moulds you, develops your character, increases your knowledge, forms the basis for your relationships with other people and the world around you, gives you life's lessons for you to hold on to, and explains the present (and future).

just a thought. but we should always live in the present. and keep the future in mind.

oh. and one more thing. one of my fave phrases has always been "feel good running". but since i find it hard to do tt right now, i think i should have it replaced with "feel good rowing". coz it's true. feeling good rowing is a damn unparalleled feeling.

god. i think i sound obsessed.

but coz dragonboat is a much better alternative to coming to a home where you are forced to be domesticated and have to deal with squabbling parents all the fucking time, so you must excuse me. no matter how horrible i may feel during a run, it beats coming home to a place where your parents just fight fight fight hands down anyday.

i'm fucking sian now.