八天在上海

In just 2 more days time, i shall be leaving for Shanghai, to spend 8 days in homestay!
it would be my first time travelling alone, until i get to the airport at least. but everythings pretty much set and i dont really have to worry about anything.
after all, my friend in Shanghai has offered to give me 包吃包住包导游. haha
包住 is for sure, cause im staying at her house. ill try my best not to be a freeloader though.
包导游 is the main reason that i chose to go there. i wouldnt know where to go and how to go otherwise. this is a good time that we're both free.
包吃 would not be necessary. bleh. ill pay for my own meals.

this is gonna be so much better than a tour package. though such an arrangement is usually hard to get. thanks be to God for this opportunity.
i should be able to meet up with some other Shanghainese friends there. Time to revisit the friends ive made in Disney!
i very much hope that the ties ive made during the Disney program would be lasting relationships. perhaps this trip would be one big step in maintaining them. :)

Nuffah

with the scores i have after 2 tries of napfa, i am now only 12-seconds-of-running away from a silver - and my 2 months exemption.

the 2 tries of napfa happened on no other than today and yesterday. having napfa on 2 consecutive days doesnt sound like a good idea, but today is the last chance to do it in school. so just to give this last chance a shot with whatever i got; hoping to do better somehow, i dragged myself to school this morning with my aching muscles from the previous day's strain... to get myself strained even more.

the results for today clearly showed i needed a rest. every station deproved significantly - with the exception of sit n reach, where i mysteriously became a lot more flexible overnight. and that was what i needed, cause i previously failed sit n reach by just 1cm.

2.4km rum
yesterday - 12min 42s
today - 13min 15s

shuttle run
ytd - 10.1 sec (A)
today - 11.6 sec (way failed)

broadjump
ytd - 228cm
today - 221cm

sit-ups
ytd - 30 truly, and my partner helped me cheat to 35
today - 25 truly, cheated up to 39 ... and the tester simply believed.

sit and reach
ytd - 36cm
today - 42cm - already a big increase by itself. but for some reason, the tester recorded it as 49cm! weird, but cool

chin ups
ytd - 5 on the second try
today - 1, excluding 2 voids.

but its not all over - there are still many chances to come, at the toa payoh stadium. with all the other stations settled, now i just have to focus on running. my silver seems so near, yet so far.
i believe i will acheive it eventually. but even if i dont, the extra 2 months wont be too bad.

Extraordinary timeout

Call it divine appointment. as for me, i guess it was.

The jym timeout set on Thursday 11 march at 9pm was initially intended to be done together at Dappen's place as part of the Acacia (and, unknown to me, combined with myrtle) cell outing.
However, at the stroke of 9pm, half of the people present perpared to leave, and said they would do their timeout on the way home. (highly doubtful they did, or that it was of quality) it was as if everyone was intentionally defying the official timeout period.
i would have stayed and looked for a quiet spot to do my timeout too, if not for someone bugging me to leave too...

so oh wells. the plan to do timeout there failed. next plan was to do it somewhere downstairs my condo.
but in an unfortunate event, being distracted as i alighted the bus, i discovered that i had left my bag of stuff (containing cards and souvenirs) on the bus! it was too late; the bus sped off just as i wanted to make a dash back in.
i thought of hailing a cab and immediately asking the driver to overtake the bus, but i didnt wanna go through that cost and trouble. so i just took the next bus and follow all the way to the terminal, hoping to find that bus and my bag.
i was hesitant. the ride would be long. it wasnt that those stuff were very important. but since i was free and wanted some 'adventure', i just went for it, taking that little chance of getting my stuff back. on top of my mind, i was also considering creating a good opportunity for doing the timeout.

the bus took a long boring ride all the way to Hougang. and the worse part is, i didnt do my timeout during the whole ride.
reaching the interchange, quite as i expected, there was nothing left on the bus, and nothing turned in to lost and found. someone must be enjoying my monopoly deal, las vegas deck and Disneyworld accessories now.

taking the last mrt train back, i stopped at orchard, and found that my direct bus from there was no longer running - i missed the last bus by like 15 mins.
i didnt think much about what am i to do next or worry about how to get home... i just did my timeout there alone at the bus stop. it was a very indescribable, peaceful feel.

halfway through, i received a call from my mom, interrupting my timeout. she asked why i wasnt back so late; i told her my story, and without me requesting anything, my dad offered to make a trip down to fetch me at that midnight hour. and so he did.
i continued my timeout until he reached about 15 mins later. i got more than what i asked for - im sure it was a much more meaningful and somewhat exciting timeout than what i would have otherwise gotten.

as for those stuff i lost, i wish for the finder to enjoy them to the full.