NTS Camp 2005

Yes, I have survived three days of intensive training. Yes, it was held over the Christmas weekend. I spent my entire Christmas doing Kendo. Do I have no life, or what?? I have learnt that when you hit a certain point during training, whatever hurts doesn't hurt anymore. I have learnt that you win when you either have nothing to lose or everything to lose. I have also learnt that when people tell you to "Have fun!", it is best to be slightly pessimisstic as well.

I hate to admit it, but yes, I did "have fun!" at three full days of training. It is by far even more intensive than NUSKK camp. Makes me wonder how I felt so weak and useless at NUSKK camp than at NTS camp. Must be the people involved. At NUSKK, you know you will never be the first one to fall out because of so-and-so reason. At SKC, if you fall out first, you are just weak. No one likes to be the first one to drop out, cos if one does, the rest will follow. What do you call it? The linch pin? Haha, nevermind.

And since the last few posts have been so bereft of pictures, and I had even resorted to putting up a comic, you shan't be disappointed this time. If you're eating, drinking, or just have a generally weak stomach, please skip the few pictures at the front.


Picture 286: Bruises received on day 1 of camp.


Just one bruise, actually. Had shiai with two people, and as I walked away to take a rest, I felt a painful tingle on my right upper arm. You know how you smack yourself, there's this lingering tingly feeling? Well, imagine that, but starting to bite into you and just won't quit tingling. I thought to myself, Shit, a bruise? So I lifted up the sleeve of my hakama and found It. It changed colour from light blue, to dark blue, to dark green, and then with reddish tinge. It was amazing how It changed colour over five hours.


Picture 287: Bruises received on day 2 of camp.



Picture 288: Closeup.


Second day, there was team shiai, so I was up against one of the strongest female players in Singapore. As we fought, she hit me in the same spot that was bruised the day before, and when we both came in for kote, she missed and her shinai jabbed me in the arm (hence bruise number 2). It didn't just like, hit and slide off. It hit and left a scratch mark of sorts.

When the match was over, I went over to Saizou, "I know who gave me the bruise yesterday le." Actually, I have no idea. It might have been the second girl, but well. I have another bruise from the second day on the outside of my right elbow. It's this big painful bit that's quite reminiscent of Lawyer's bruises. That one is LENG hit one lor. During keiko later, everyone loved hitting my arm. Four partners in a row proceeded to hit me in the exact same spot. At the end of it, I couldn't really feel much of my arm anymore.



Picture 289: Bruises received on day 3 of camp.


Today was another bad right arm day. During keiko, got hit on the second bruise very hard by one guy. My arm went numb for a while, and I had to stop keiko for a while. The poor guy was wondering what happened to me. Then he proceeded to give me the third bruise. -__-"

On to some better looking photos:


Picture 290: Saizou looks like some kind of gangster in this picture.



Picture 291: And the image is quickly shattered when she posed cutely for this photo. See the dead (tired) bodies in the background. How she gets her energy, I have no idea. 

I haven't mentioned the number of suburi we did. Nvm, another story for another time. I just want to sleep now.

Impromptu outing

Had to wake up earlier than usual on Sunday morning (at the unearthly hour of 10.30am) because someone was coming over to fix my kitchen/toilet ceilings. Something about leaky, plaster, toilet unusable and other profound adult words. I can't remember why I woke up either. I think it's because my alarm started ringing, and these days I can't snooze it for two hours like I used to. So I got up, bathed and then came online.

Saw Kimchi online, and in the midst of whining to each other that we were hungry, she suddenly popped the million dollar question: "Want to go out?" So we proceeded to call the "sweaty people", and finally managed to get a bunch of them out. Met up with Kimchi, and we walked about for a long time, because the Sweaty People were taking too long to arrive.

We finally went to Ajisen Ramen and waited some more for them. In the end we ordered first, cos they were stuck at the entrance of the carpark. Finally they arrived, and we had a good time chatting about that day's training. It seems like after joining Kendo, my whole world becomes just that. I go out with people from Kendo, I feel most at home with Kendo people, hell, I even start chatting about Kendo to other people.

Anyway, we all went to watch movie. Enginger and his sisters watched Hairy Porter, while LENG, Saizou, Kimchi and I watched Perhaps Love. Like Darren who aptly put it, came out of the movie wondering, wtf? At least it wasn't as bad as 2046, where I completely caught no ball. But I'd like to watch Perhaps Love again (and no, it's not for Takeshi however-you-spell-it). There was this Korean guy who popped up at really random intervals of the show. I thought he was like, Puck in Midsummer's Night Dream, but he was absent most of the time. Really weird. Did they put him in just for eye candy? But the soundtrack's good. Jacky Cheung sure can sing still.

Ah, I forgot to mention that I bought two new shirts. It's the end of the year! I can indulge a little! Then this morning I got an sms from my mother, "I just got 50% discount coupons from U2." That woke up me right away, cos I bought the shirts from U2 as well. -_- Talk about timing, man. Anyone wants to go shopping with me on Wednesday?

We all met up again after the movie, and had Mos Burger for dinner. Haha there were two funny quotes of the day:

1/ At Bravissimo (ice cream counter), and Lawyer asked LENG why she doesn't want ice cream. LENG replied, "I'm going StarBucks for coffee..." Lawyer says, "StarBucks? Boring person." And then stalked away.

2/ After movie, we were trying to decide where to eat. So someone said, "Fast food?" Lawyer: "No! I don't want fast food..." Then I said, "How about Mos Burger?" And the sister covered her mouth, looked at Lawyer from the corner of her eyes and said, "OKAY!" I tell you, we couldn't stop laughing at the expression on Lawyer's face.

All in all, a really nice day. Here's how much I spent: $14 (Ajisen) + $6.35 (Coffee treat for Kimchi) + $59 (U2) + $9.50 (Movie) + $6.70 (Mos) + $3.20 (ice cream).

Okay, just kill me now. I don't want to total it up.

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College Roomies from Hell!!! 

Kendo Camp 2005

Sorry, no pictures this time. Cos my camera ran out of batt (forgot to charge the batteries), and I was too lazy to take any pictures. Camp isn't so exciting when there are people around whom you are not close to. Last year was more fun, cos I was close to most of the people. This year, the rooms are so far apart, and there's just something missing. I don't know what, and I'm too tired to come up with a long essay about just exactly what it is.

I'm achey. I'm sleepy. I have tons of stuff to read through online. I have bruises on the weirdest places, like the little and fourth finger of my LEFT hand. My right foot hurts. My left forearm hurts. And I'm still contemplating going for training on Sunday, because I really wanna sleep innnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

Survived all the training sessions, not really well, but hey, didn't take off men unneccessarily. Food was good. And I'm just randomly putting points down because I don't know what else to say le.