Friday, January 27, 2006 | 1:47 AM

I am so glad that along the path of life I have so many people to walk with me whenI dont want to run. Thanks to all who have encouraged me to run and ran and walked with me, be it physical or emotionally. =D

There are gonna be a lot of photos. And this will be one long entry. You have been warned.

Today is really a happy day for me so I am gonna do my best to write the details down so that I will never ever forget it.

Reached the place kinda early and took attendance. I coulnd find a pen at first and no one was willing to volunteer a finger. Yj, however, volunteered her teeth. =D Anyway, also found out then that me and Jamie cant help Mrs Chan with the prize presentation stuff cox we are a little too.. "out-standing" so Mrs Chan chose Dor, Bee and Jasmine to help instead. Height discrimination!! X) Haha, actually, it was just as fun sitting down and watching everything. More about that later.

Mrs Chan lent us the use of her car for us to store our stuff and after deliberating for a while, I didnt take my camera along with me, which is to both my immense relief and regret. Regret because as I was running, I was constantly bemoaning the abundance of photo subjects and there I was, without my cam!! My relief cox, had I brought my camera along, I would really have come in last for the run. ( As I discovered that one oft gets left behind by the others when one is taking photos.)

So, we were at the starting line, so close that we were right behind the teachers, who are starting their race before us. And we saw Mr Seah!! And if I am not wrong, with his wife too!!! And he had a 5 MP camera with him!!! *wails* As you might have noticed, I had begun bemoaning me leaving my cam behind even before the race started. mk is such a whiner. =) Oh well, and then Mr Seah took a pic of us ( me, Dor, Jasmine and Bee are running together). I hope we can get a copy of it in some way of another. *hopeful* Not only cox it is a pic of 4 of us but also because in the background, there is this scene of water reflecting of the water surface with the sun obscured by clouds in the background.

And we saw Mr Wan and Mr Haniss amongst those who are taking part in the teachers' race too! Haha, the day before, Mr Wan was telling as a couple of us about wondering whether to run today cox he was still kinda sick. And he even joked that at most we would have a new relief teach next week, at which we exclaimed in horror. Haha, and still he ran, and if I am not wrong, came in 5th!! Haha. =D Mr Haniss was just as funny. Right after the race for the teachers started, (the girls are still gotta wait for 30secs), Mr Haniss turned back and declared, "Anyone who overtakes me will have marks for the test deducted!" XD Goodness! There was an uproar at the starting line when all of us girls who heard him were torn between mock horror and outrage, watching him chuckle as he sped away. Haha, it was a great parting shot man! =D

So the race started and everything felt right. I would do my NAPFA in the reservoir anytime over 6 rounds on the track. Really. It felt so great to run in the forest and having the light spilling past the leaves onto the damp forest floors. And to feel and hear gravel crunching beneath your feet as you run. And past those trees which has beautiful vines of a deep green crawling and entwining with the trees. X) Goodness. There were so many things which I had wanted to capture on film so much. We pushed past 1km without stopping till we reach uphill where we slowed down to a climb before running downhill again. I wonder if it is the excess oxygen, or the peaceful hum of the forest, or all those green tapestry but the run in the forest felt really short.

Then there was the reservior itself. Actually these are the shots taken after the run from the external perimeters of the reservior but still. =)

This is the boardwalk. We were running beside the planks and we then entered the forest.

Me being abandoned as I was clicking shots after shots away. That happened quite regularly, accompanied by either "You are taking pictures of flowers?!", "Not again.." or sometimes, "Where is mk?" =D

At the end when we are reaching the uphill slope to the expressway, the hill was kinda steep but the sun rays cascading down the bumps on the hill were absopultely beautiful. The leavesaround the path all caught the rays and there was this scene of a stairway to somewhere heavenly beyond. That was when I felt really thankful and happy that I got to take part in the run.

Of course, after passing through the forest onto the roads, the spell was broken, I was confronted by a (rather ironiccally opposite) sight of what I had envisioned.

The sight of vehicles of all shape, sizes and colours whizzing past on the expressway spewing black fumes into the air. Eeewwww.

Fast forward to reaching the finishing line where I spotted Mr Chee among the welcome commitee. The exchange basically was about him laughing at me whenI exclaimed that he wasnt running. =D After which I continue my dash towadrs the line with shouts of "There is Milo at the end!" "Jia you" from the councillors. Had a discussion just now and I do agree with ZR about having ppl at the finishing line. It feels kinda great to see familar faces at the end there cheering and hearing encouragement from all directions. And also, of course, the welcoming sight of bottled drinks.

And here are the pictures of the CNY performance.

Here is the Pugilistic society getting ready for their lion dance performance.

Jin Zheng is working the lion's head of the lion in the foreground!! And he dared to tell us he is a small fry!! Go ah zheng!! =D

And here is JZ going up to Mrs Chan upon the egging of our class. =P Hehhehheh. Guess who thought of the idea? =)

This is the teach's performance. Can you see Mr Wan? A little anecdote. When the teachers went back to their seats after the 2nd song ended, Mr Wan walked past us and we called out to him. And before we could say anything, he went "Thank you thank you" with a grin. Haha, and we all cracked up because everyone knew full well we were about to tease him about going up to sing. =)

And the CO performance. And that is Genial in the orange shirt.

Some other pics during the performance. This is an ang pao which was lying desolately on the road. I quite like this.

A happy (I presume) kid with her orange! Sounds familar. =P

And after all those stuff, we were dismissed. But not before Mr Kwek wished us a happy new year and "J2s getting straight As for your A levels!!! " Ain't that cool!! That definitely brought things to a high. =) We then made our way to the carpark to get out stuff. We spotted Mr Chee still hanging by the tents on the way and demanded to take photos. Haha. =)

(Mr Chee + us) X)

Having reached the car and retrieved our stuff, I wanted to take photos and someone, (Dor I think) wanted us to take photos with the car. And just nice, Mr Wan entered the carpark to get his car too. So here you go, presenting (Mrs Chan's car + Mrs Chan+ Mr Wan+ us).

Then we wanted to take a pic with Mr Wan's car too. And when Mr Wan pointed out which car belonged to him, I shrieked. It was a beautiful shade of amber orange!! Haha, Jam didnt like it as much, though she likes orange. I think Dz put it best, that I like the autumn colours. So maybe thats why I am so in love with that car!! Mr Wan kindly allowed us to take pictures with his 3 -DAY-OLD car and even let us touched it!! Oh man!!

After which, we made our way to Thomsom Plaza for lunch. I took quite a bit of photos along the way, but I cant upload so many at one go, so I shall leave them till another time. Anyway, so the whole x country was one really fun part of the whole day.So after that, we wanted to go shop but because Thomsom is so out of the way and everything when we eventually reached J8 to take another transport, dz didnt want to buy his clothes anymoer and went off to meet up with his friends. Jam went to meet her mum and Dor went home.

Which reminds me of a discussion we had b4 during the lunch we had after chingay prac. The conclusion was tt Dor is the type, along with Jam, who will crash and wana sleep after exercise. Me, Bee and Bel get hyper. Haha, so Dor really was like dozing off just now le.

Abandoned in the middle of J8, there were ZR, Kelv, Weiss and me. Met David, who was in goth and looking not bad in tt, and Bee and Jasmine, who were on their way for their CIP. After discarding choices such as pool, bowl and I can t rmb what else, we settled on bball near Weiss' house. And that was the second highlight of the day.

We went back to the court which we went near Catholic HIgh the other time, and found two bunch of quoth Weiss, "green shorts" playing bball. ZR asked if we could join them but they were leaving. Then we lucked out when ZR asked 2 guys who appeared if we could join them. Goodness, they were darn good! Based on ZR's analysis, Weiss and Kelv's teammate is more rounded in terms of his abilities. He may lack me and ZR's teammate's speed and agility but he makes up fo rit with his accurate shots. Man, it was like art in motion watching my teammate shoot. He got that intense look of concentration, and his drift is nice. And he looks good playing bball. Like Edison Chen that type, slightly paler, and attitude also. Sigh. He seems to be from a sec sch though. Oops. Haha. Stop tt bimbo thing mk.

Still, it was fun playing bball with them. Sometimes, I just like sitting back and watch ZR and tt guy play lo. They are so good, I can slack abit. Haha, it felt great to play rough. The only shot I was proud of, not that a lot made it through the hoop (damn!) was the one which chopped through when we were shooting to divide into teams. Oh! And I got a bit of a tan! Whee! And I get to work off my hyper-ism.

And Weiss wanted to play soccer. That MCP asked me to play goalkeep coz noone wld dare to shoot the ball that hard at me! Grr. =P Haha.. Reached home at around 3+, happily grimy and tired. It is really a happy day today!!

Will upload the shots of the flowers and the turtle Weiss saw which I managed to capture on film another day!

|