Still new for now.

Almost a week into the new year.

So is the new year still considered new? Relatively so I believe.

Okay enough being lame.


Been a rather interesting year so far.
Went for a hike route recce with Chandan Terry RW last Wednesday night, which is the first night of 2014.
A planned short two hours recce turned out to be a night hike we've been intending to have since that very hike that bonded us so tight back in December 2006, albeit short of two people.
Finally bus to Yishun at 8plus and RW just came in time to catch the bus.
Reached at around 9pm and started to walk to the start point.
Wrong decision to let Chandan lead us...
Spent 50 minutes or so walking a big round before finally reaching the start point.

And that's when the fun just only began.
Started walking the exact hike route for PLC Hike 2014, and eventually we started to walk on this super long stretch of road connecting from Yishun to Punggol.
Took us quite some time but our pace was good and eventually we reached Marina Country Club, the supposed Checkpoint 1.
From then on it's just a short distance to the next Checkpoint, Punggol Jetty.
And it's there we had our first and in fact only break throughout the hike and ate the snacks that RW had with him.
Black sesame eggroll. Nice.

Continued our journey and by then it was about 12am already.
Next part is arguably the most fun part of the hike. having to walk along the coastline and on gravel road instead of proper pavements with no lighting at all for about 5km to the next checkpoint.
It was tough, demoralizing and just plain creepy to be walking there past midnight.
Finally reached the bridge at Punggol Waterway, supposedly our last Checkpoint for the night.
But... since there's no bus we still have to walk all the way out to home.
And even if we wanted to hail a cab, there's no cabs to be seen around in that area after all.
Bottom line is, the hike goes on.
And the life lesson is, what might seems to be the end might not be the end.

So on the longgggggg way out, a police car passed by us and stopped for a routine check.
And after some hesitation we decided to just ask if they might be able to give us a lift to at least the main road.
Then we got rejected...
Now tell me how often do you see people getting rejected by police?
I dare say that we might be the first among our friends to have this experience.
Not like it's something that people would be very proud of but still...

Anyways so after getting the interesting encounter, we had to continue walking all the way out to the main road.
And as we walked the idea of supper and this and that came up.
When we reached the cross junction though, we decided to just go over to the petrol kiosk and buy something to eat and chill for a while before continuing to walk home.
Had sandwich, ice cream and a drink from the vending machine at the residents' corner that we chill at under some void deck.
Took us a bit more time but we all finally reached back home after this long journey and fun hike.

Best part, RW did the hike in slippers.
Please applaud him for being a true legend.
And other than complaining and wanting to go home, the next thing he did most was to suggest what we should do the next day.
Well the bowling and basketball that he mentioned countless times through the hike didn't happen, but I still met up with him and Terry for "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty".
A really nice show.
Had dinner at the shabu shabu at TMall basement after that before going home.

Friday was the start of PLC Hike.
But since my presence was more of a bonus, good to have but not absolutely necessary kind, I decided to just drop by later and see what happens.
So I went to meet Freddy for lunch since I supposedly couldn't meet the class on Sat.
Hang out for a while, lepak at his house and played some PS3 before heading down to NAS.

Nothing much for me to do so I took on the role of the camp photographer.
Programme was delayed by quite a bit and by 9plus the Scouts finally got off to the Start Point.
Waited for Mr Mak to come pick us up and to send us to the Start Point after that.
Was District AGM that day as well, and surprise surprise, Dolphin is now officially our new DC.

Anyways we sent the Scouts off on their hike and headed over to Jalan Kayu for supper.
Mr Hazmi came over to join us soon after.
Went to their first checkpoint, Marina Country Club to wait for them and Grizzly came over too with Owl and Gorilla.
Had wanted to just stay for a while but then I sort of already realized that I'll most probably stay overnight... when I gotta take IPPT on the next day sigh.

Next checkpoint is Punggol Jetty.
Stopped there for quite a while and then it was decided that we will wait at the next checkpoint for the Scouts and that Mr Hazmi will send me home once the boys arrived.
Well, that never really quite happened the way we wanted it to.

Waited really long before we thought that we should backtrack to look for the boys.
So Grizzly, Owl, Gorilla, Chandan and I started walking back and it wasn't long before Gorilla's legs gave way and we lost him.
After quite some time we finally got a vague idea of where the Scouts might be and we actually walked one big round, at least for 45minutes, possibly 4km or more, just to find the Scouts.
Freakin' burden.
Anyways they were actually already close to the checkpoint, and close to dying as well.
We went back to the bridge to wait for their arrival while deciding what to do next with them since it's quite clear that they will not be able to carry on with the hike.
And so we decided to just send the Scouts back to NAS to rest before proceeding with Ubin.
Then it was the fun part when we tried to come up with the transport plan.
3 cars, 9 Scouts, 2 teachers, 5 leaders of which 4 are going home.
Took us a while and some discussion before the conclusion that Grizzly will ferry all of us home, Mr Mak will take 3 Scouts back first and then return to take the rest of the Scouts back with Mr Hazmi.

Finally got home at 7plus, slept at 8am when I had to take IPPT at 4pm at Maju Camp zzZ.
Woke up and luckily Dad offered to send us there.
As expected, 5 points for all except 2.4km and a Silver.
Could've gotten 5 points for 2.4km too but I walked for a distance in the last lap since my timing was around 8m43s by 5th round and it was fairly obvious that an average person won't be able to run 400m in 1 minute after running 2km.
Felt like trying again in two months' time or so after training for it though, now that I can see that my stamina is still fairly well maintained and not cui like shit.
My year 0 was close to 11mins so at least now I know that I managed to not deteriorate further.
Shall see how though.

And then came my toughest decision in life, at that time.
After RW pangseh me and got into his Dad's car, I had to travel alone all the way back to the East, rush to Changi Jetty and possibly take the ferry alone and walk to Mamam Beach alone.
That's tons of time and money and effort that could've been channeled to elsewhere more useful.
At the same time my JC class was close to finishing their movie, so it was very possible that I join them for dinner as well.
To spend so much effort just for a night a Ubin, or to meet my friends whom I've not seen in quite a while, and be able to stay home for the night?
Tough decisions.
Still decided to just ditch Ubin though.
Got off at Kallang to really think it through once more before hopping onto the train towards Joo Koon.
Alighted at City Hall, waited for Yi Ern before walking over to Esplanade to meet up with the rest.
Walked around quite a while to find a place to eat before settling at Nam Nam, the Vietnamese food restaurant at the "newly renovated" Suntec.
Well it was already done quite a while ago I believe, I just haven't got to Suntec since it was renovated and it just looked so new and different to me.

Went over to chill at SMU after dinner till 11plus and then MRT back to Simei to take bus 9 home.
Reached back 12plus.
Ohh and I just realized that this was just last night.
Don't know how I managed to clock such a long post with just five days into the year but hopefully that this is a good start to the year of 2014 and a sign of better things to come.
Did nothing much today though.
But still there's something worth mentioning.
Woke up to watch Running Man with Mum and Sis before simply sitting in front of my computer again, as usual.
Then CJ messaged to meet up so I just went to meet him since it's really been a long time since I get to catch up with him.
Hopefully from now on I'll see him more though, either in school or what, since he's staying in TH anyways and there's always a chance for supper and stuff.
Had dinner at Tmart and got to just talk cock with him before heading back home again.
Got home at 8plus, watched TV a while, nothing much since then.
But felt so sleepy all of a sudden at 10pm or so and went to lie on the bed for a while; ended up sleeping for an hour and woke up at 11 to eat my supper.

It's 4am now and I should probably sleep soon.
The holiday had been not bad, managed to really meet up with quite a number of people whom I've not met for a while, and also to just go out, relax, nua at home etc.
Still didn't sketch though, other than the ones I do for my #wordoftheday project.
Getting somewhat lazy about it though, hope that I can persevere on when school starts.
Really thinking if I should pick the words from myself or some other sources or ways though, since Merriam-Webster is an American site and only updates their Word of the Day at 12pm GMT+8.
This means that I'm usually only updating my posts at the end of the day.
And if I pick my own words I can at least sketch in advance if I know that I might be too busy to do so or what, and just queue the posts up so that I can still post daily without disruptions.
Shall see how things go.
I feel like I should start another project on something else and somewhere else too, either on tumblr or what.
Tumblr side blogs aren't easy to manage though.
And instead of thinking of all these, I should simply just go back to basics and just sketch and sketch and sketch and seek to improve myself.
Speaking of all these though, reminds me that I should probably consolidate the movie tickets collected since the last time I archived them properly in my book and update it soon.
And possibly decorate its cover by somehow wrapping it nicely too.
Well exactly one week left should give me enough time to do so.
Already tidy and cleaned up my room too, except for certain areas which I still hope to tidy up before school starts since I would probably have no time to do anything about it from then on till CNY, which is actually just three weeks' time.

Everything is just happening so quickly.

And I'll just have to sleep soon to wake up fresh tomorrow so I can do some real work and finish up what I gotta finish up before this precious holiday ends.













Byeall.