i have something to say: July 2004

Thursday, July 29, 2004

remuneration`~ i must recuperate

Wonder what's in store for us tomorrow at the Temasek Seminar at SAFTI. Heard that we are gonna get a tour then have lunch then the real talk begins before some fun and games? Not sure. But aiyah, seems bad timing bcoz i wanna do other things tomorrow but like this cannot already la. Bad Bad timing. Hope my O-Team interview turns out good, not sure though, this time it's different because i had different interviewers as compared to Open House Interview. This time, I've got Harold Khoo [my classmate in ri in sec 3 and 4 :)] ahah and Lynn, my friend from CCAL camp, plus Victor who was bumming around. Yup. They asked a few questions which i hope i answered as well as i could. Certainly was honest thru out. :) Didnt know how to impress them in taht 1 minute. Ah its just so different from the other interview with Jialun, which instead turned out to be a heart to heart talk, mano to mano. Whoowee, then went for training. Fitness needs improvement and speed needs work on. Hearing stuff about going Thailand for a week's duration and playing three games there. Yeah thats fantastic. Finally some real good stuff, a ruggers trip after Sentosa this year. haha. Missed the meeting prior to training though, supposed to pay up for physio fee and return jersey. OH man, I really wanna keep the jersey! Its like the jersey which we won the Championship in la. Please let us keep it.! Result slip looks horrredous, expected it to look like that from the day i started to study for common test. Oh well, let's pull up our socks, and slog for the promos. May better results rain down on me. Just like how it rained at track finals. Rain rain rain. May on the day of exams, all the answers come into my head like the way the rain washed all of us away. Rain rain rain.

Track finals was crazy la, some real Mat stuff going on at the back really. No matter how heavy the rain was, we just kept trying new beats with the pails and the giant trash bin. haha. Even Izzat, our Mat Brother who's now a TJ councillor, came to cheer with us. haha Mat Power. Know what? Jau got a call from Jialun like around 1 plus to quickly come back to the stadium bcoz they wanted us to create some Mat Stuff at the stadium. Haha the councillors were power la, so resourceful. Hehe sadly the Rj turnout wasnt that great. Haha, nvm la, the mats did waht they have to do. HOi! Hoi!

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

racial`peace

Racial Harmony Day, 21st July 2004.
Dikir Barat performance by MLDCS & Friends.
reminiscent of some Arts @ the Atrium, this time it's Arts @ the Concourse.

moooovviiee`mania

MEDFAC Movie Outing!!!
6th August 2004 (after National Day Celebration)
J1s and J2s are all welcomed!
Further details like ticket purchase/collection, venue, etc will be posted later.

sick`parrot

cough cough cough
cough cough cough
Have been having bad coughs these days, caught it from my brother i think. Not good. Bcoz there's training resuming, there's more spas to take, there's College Day to perform for, plus more things that i can't synapse to now. It's not nice being sick. Not nice. And evertime i feel sick, I'll go to my wardrobe to find my Raffles rugby jersey and wear them the whole day. If i've a cold, i would take the long-sleeve one. I'm wearing the traditional one now, with the no.15 behind. Okay, so gotta spend tmr night finishing up on Kinetics Tutorial and that MCQ List. Wonder whether my classmates have received their Result Slip already or not. Bcoz ppl from other classes have, wonder whether Ms Ho bothers to give it to our class at all. Haha. Oh yah, hope that Daryl's printer works fine, may use up quite a lot of his ink though, hope the poster turns out nice. Gotta find him tmr and thank him aha, then must get the poster chopped, then paste it on the doors of LT1. Tmr can't train man, feeling sick, prob will get on with the program or sit out training. Something.

random conversation :-
HL: He's so full of angst.
Monish: He's so full of shit.

Sunday, July 25, 2004

madrasah

Amantu Billah, Summas Taqim.
Berimanlah kepada Allah, dan Beristiqamahlah

Saturday, July 24, 2004

yuck`how lo can u go?

had to brave the rain on the way to school today, the driving rain. really it's like the perfect weather to lie in bed and sleep 24-7. did some napfa and went walking about with my friend, lucky me i didn't bring a single cent. got paid for for everything. was so extremely sleepy and tired so slept all the way until now. oh shoot man, the bahas (malay debates) on tv, that's really frustrating frustrating frustrating!! it's so shallow, not much depth in knowledge processing, not much flair or style, poor judgment when stating their points of contentions, just plain 'ol malay style of emotional fighting. ergh. yuck. give me my team of hanis, hirman, nizam and iwan, i tell you we can beat these pretenders any time any day. these ppl on tv have a special ability to talk faster than the highways of germany, but without making much sense, what's the point? something is wrong with the rj people too, the moment i mentioned bahas to them, they just shy away. Why oh why is bahas treated like that? Is it so difficult? Come on lah guys, i tell you, we are in RJ for a reason, if you are not going to step up and be counted, then move off. I'll get the new crop of malay ppl next year to step up and be counted. Maybe even up to the stage of Caldecott Hill.

off...

Thursday, July 22, 2004

`aching

Body's aching body's breaking, not much of training, not much of sleep either, can't do no homework, can't do nothing, cos there isn't time, there isn't will. Practise, practise and more practise! Time to get organised, time to get clean. No dirt no mess no frills. Just the real thing. Need rest need out. InsyaAllah.

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

riot of activities

non-stop activities have suddenly become a norm because i just cannot run away with it. time always flies by so quickly that the moment one activity ends, the next one comes by so quickly and so on. today was no different. yup morning we have normal lessons, but the moment pe finished at around 4, it was quickly on to weights, before i ran to take all the games down and help the minahs prepare the stuff for tmr, then played congkak with Janahan, haha thrashed him every single game. then played touch rugby, before finally going home. made a short detour to ulu pandan cc, and im glad to see the cheerleaders working their ass off to put up a real good performance. haha just two weeks left of 100% commitment guys and it will all be over. Hope that we win though! Cos their effort must be rewarded in one way or another. Hopefully it is by winning. Yay!
Waddup? ya tmr everyone listen up! Come down to the concourse to watch an electrifying performance by the MLDCS at around 1plus after your lessons. It'll be a cultural experience that most of the RJ fellas have never felt before!

Impt Announcement! All those performing for MLDCS, pls go to the concourse after your last lessons. Help carry the benches and musical instruments.

Impt Announcement 2! All those performing for College Day KOMPANG with MLDCS, pls meet at the hall by 2pm for a rehearsal session.
goodnite :: be there or be square

Monday, July 19, 2004

kompang power

Deafening and booming sounds were heard today, no not the cranky fire alarm bell, but the power of the kompang. I'm really glad those who came for the first time today like Derrick, Khalrul, Iylia and Adzfar caught the beat with ease. They learnt it in less than 30 mins la, after that we were all practising all the transitions from the opening to the normal to the closing. I think the main problem will be about sustaining the volume and the tempo, because after a few rounds, your hands will really start to ache. Each single smack of the kompang feels as though your bones in your arms will just shatter. But with practice and more practice, I really think we'll get used to it. Hope the other guys like Pravin and Firas will turn up for the practices as we get closer to the actual day itself. Yup, so guys out there, watch out for us the mat gang with a few manjens and mama come this College Day, 31st August. Cos it'll surely be like a wedding at the void deck. Woohoo!

Guys playing the basic beat: Ivan the pro, Khalrul, Dexuan, Pravin, Firas, and me.
Guys playing the complex beat: Jauhari, Hafiz, Adzfar, Iylia, Derrick, Rudy.

team matland

Team MatLand, RI class of 2003.
from L, standing: adzfar and iylia.
seated: jauhari, me, izzat, rudy.
Pic was taken from Busking@Orchard 2004

unda` konstrucksyen

*testing, testing*
alright, let's just see how it looks, its plain but i think i like it. only tt i cant get rid of the dog, nvm la, pretend its not there.
this wednesday, remember to head down to the concourse at 1plus p.m. to catch a sexay sexay performance from mldcs! woohoo, yeah i think the gals and guys did practise really hard for this, given the short amount of time they have to prepare. And the mats will have something special for everyone come this wednesday, just u wait and see :) Mats, let's do it alright? One for all, all for one!

k tata

wobbly trot

What does one do if one doesn't get to play?
1. Beg the coach, use money to bribe him (that's outta the question, i'm damn poor, have no money!)
2. Work harder at trainings (but there's hardly training, only like once or twice a week!)
3. Choose a different club where I've played before (this seems good, cos this team's full of mats! haha sing song before matches, lol)
4. Try a totally different club (hope joel remember to help me on this)

anyway, tmr is Hafiz's birthday! yo Kopi, u'll be seventeen, older, richer and creamier! lol :)happy birthday mat~!

Went to Mak's Restaurant in Kembangan with my mummy's side today for dinner, i think it's my uncle's birthday. He had this thing early cos he needs to go india for a course or sth. Haha, India.. reminds me that the soccer guys will be there in year's end too, playing in freezing conditions, as Adz says it. Now that will probably be something like our NZ trip in Sec3, woah shiok know, playing rugby in winter, u play without getting ur jersey wet, so u can just reuse them for next training haha! Hope that we get to go on tour too, miss having those tours with ruggers! ah..

Hmmm, wad next? Oh went to pergas too, in the morning, had some simple lessons too, so easy u understand immediately. "Seorang hamba Allah bertanyakan Rasulullah s.a.w., secara ringkas sekali, apakah itu Islam?. Lalu Rasulullah pun berjawab, Islam itu adalah beriman kepada Allah, dan beristiqamah!" see, so simple, that single phrase covers already 2 integral aspects of Islam, the first is the Aqidah and the second, the Amaliyyah. Met up with the mats from pergas, haha they all still look the same, its very interesting talking to them because their concerns are actually quite different from ppl like me, they have very genuine and real concerns like finance (about how much they have to pay for this and that, their ezlink cards and stuff), their courses at poly, and of course, this one cannot miss, their minahs (explanation not required). haha. okie doks. should go to sleep now, bcoz school will be quite a long day tmr, hope tt i'll last it. Yeha smiles everyone and dun forget to forgive :)

Friday, July 16, 2004

first club training

::Had my first taste of club rugby training today, at SPE, with the Wanderers RFC Team, where our coach Marcus Blackburn is playing. Golly, started off with Will Greenwood (Yes! The Englang world cup centre!) pushing us off with FEET!FEET!FEET!FEET! and short bursts..then had small drills of passing.. then went to do backline moves with good gosh, the Premier team! aiyoh, didn't expect it at all. Dunno whether i get the chance to play, hopefully i do, so that its not considered a waste of time me coming down in the evening for training. Need to get back myy fitness though. More running will do the trick perhaps, but not just running running, but running when i'm playing, like touch or soccer or whatever. Yup. Time to sleep, still gotta go to school tomorrow, gonna watch the remainder of GATTACA(this is actually a DNA base sequence!) during GP. Still have to do PW! Right, see you soon...::

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

dubidoo

::RJ won swim golds for both boys and girls! Met my juniors too!Yippee. Track is coming, hopefully the colour remains gold! haha. Today there was nat'l U19 rugby training, looks like I'll just kiv that cos right now i'm hard pressed for time (Then What the hell am i doing online?).. Lol. Tmr there's Wanderers club rugby training, yup I'm certainly going for that one! Yah!

For Racial Harmony Day, there will be a CONGKAK CHAMPIONSHIP, at the concourse. Round 1 begins on Tuesday 20 July. Since we probably have very little time, we are going to accomodate 16 participants in the championship. Please sign up at the MLDCS Notice Board at LT 2.5 ya? Can do so from Friday onwards.

For those who are not sure how to play the game, here's how: The Congkak board consists of two rows of seven houses (or pits) and a home (score pit) for each player. To begin, each of the houses contains seven seeds (or balls, pebbles). To start play, the player chooses one house from which to "sow" the seeds. Each seed in the house is then placed, one at a time, into the successive houses, including the player's Home, moving clockwise around the board. Seeds placed in a Home are points for that player. Seeds are not sown in the opponent's Home. If the last seed in a play is placed in the player's own Home, they get another turn. If the last seed is placed in an empty house on their own side of the board, then they Capture the seeds in the opposite (their opponent's) house. All captured seeds, as well as the capturing piece, are placed in the player's Home. The game ends when all of the pits on one side of the board are empty. The player with seeds remaining gets to put them into their Home. The winner is the player with the most seeds. easy? yup of cos.

Also take your time off and head down to the concourse at around 1.1o or 1.20 on Wednesday to catch a DIKIR BARAT Performance by the MLDCS and friends! See you there!::

Monday, July 12, 2004

RUGBY! I'M BACK

I've had many a sleepless night, When all that I thought were right, Actually they only blurred my sight, 15 men minus one, what a terrible plight.

After consideration and remuneration, I guess it's time to take action, Little by little, I could see a vision, Of us lifting the trophy, in front of the nation.

That cannot happen, unless there are fifteen, If one chooses to quit, there goes the machine.

For having been brothers on and off the pitch, Now I've got back this really swelling itch. For so long have they been my brothers, I won't ditch, Who else to replace me, to complete the final stitch?

With the new crop that enters the school, They will act so cool, but they're just playing a fool. With other teams having a wider talent pool, Its up to our batch to provide the tool.

Soccer had been a wonderful experience, I hope they take this with a lot of patience. Your day of glory will come into reckoning. Just work hard at it, be unassuming. Stick to the plan, play with your heart, Champions you will be, you certainly look the part.

Its gonna be my final year, what the heck, For Rugby, I'm here to tell you that I'm back! For rugby it'll be a tough hurdle, The year we'll defend our first title, We'll scrap at every bits and pieces, So the crowd keeps filling up the terraces, What an experience it's going to be, To bring glory to RAFLLES RUGBY!

club rugby anyone?

time to grit my teeth and push hard

::good gosh what do I have in front of me. Now that CommonTest is raelly over, we are hearing ppl talking about promos, its really coming, we have around 10 weeks to prepare, so gotta brace myself to ace myself.

moving on, we have IFG coming up soon. That means more work for MedFac. Today was the first session for the host of dancers that medfac have, plus the brave low yingliang. I think they enjoyed themselves, learning some basic steps from the Minah trainer. haha :) Hadri can't believe how small her skirts ah, and when she squatted down, God knows what he saw underneath. yuck. Had to plead the Joel Louis, Pravin and Zach to join with me. Aiyah, die man, I think i'll really have no time. Not only will I have to practise the routines and what not, then there's still Racial harmony day as well as College Day to practise for, for MLDCS. As for now, Dikir Barat will be on Thurs and Fri after school. Kompang will be on Sat. Suwee, Lynn, Ther will get quite pissed if I don't join cheerleading. Ivan says that one must try cheerleading at least once in his lifetime! How? Got time or not? What else, oh still have to do publicity for MedFac Movie outing on 6Aug. As in the preparations for it la. Then before all that, must set up booth for Racial Harmony Day, like games and posters etc. Hmmm, oh still have PW to do, the contents pages, will photocopy for you guys, don't worry. And must settle class admin, like class funds and class photos.

~brace myself to ace myself! ::

Sunday, July 11, 2004

sunday fun!

::woowhee, what a sunday! After a rather miserable saturday wasted at Deyi Sec for that tarian competition, when we had lotsa fun wearing make-up!! And had lotof fun dancing, coz we all thought, we danced as perfectly as we could. But sayang, unfortunately, the judges weren't impressed, maybe its because our instructor came from a different school of thought (in malay dance sense) as the judges, so we didn't take home any prizes. Oh how I wished we had been one of the winners yesterday, the winner took home whopping $500 cash la! PLus sexy individual trophies! Nvm, a chance gone begging. Yup, was so sad that i had no mood to go for medfac meeting too. Sorry guys. Was too emotionally drained :( ~ Dinner was urgh too, poor service, poor food, poor portions... Yuck :( was still hungry after dinner.

But anw, Sunday was good. Skipped madrasah to go for this talk at Masjid Sultan Auditorium, which went extremely well. The speaker was this excellent motivational speaker from Malaysia, and the talk was about dispelling the myth about lazy Malays. In fact, Malays can be hardworking, but more often than not, they are inconsistent. They are seasoners. They do not have the commitment or dedication to pursue something all they way. I loved it! Cannot share with you the details of the talk. As in, i get after-life points if I share with you any form of knowledge that is benefitting, but time doesn't permit. Sorry, PW is just too important to ignore. Went looking for long pants after that, glad that I've found one that i really like. Yup. And found a pair of berms too. Must find jeans though. Later la, when I have more money.

Excerpts from the Talk by Dato' Dr. Mohd Fadzillah Kamsar:
"Apabila satu pintu rezeki kita ditutup, ketahuilah bahawa ada sembilan lagi pintu rezeki yang akan terbuka. Maka carilah."

"Kalau kita sentiasa mengejar dunia, dunia akan meninggalkan kita, sehingga kita yang ketinggalan. Kalau kita sentiasa mengejar akhirat, dunia pula yang mengejar kita."

"Maafkan orang, berdoa, membaca Quran, berzikir, meminta ampun, sembahyang sunat dan lain-lain lagi merupakan cara-cara membuka pintu rezeki."

"Competition is actually a form of misguided concept. Muslims have to bear in mind that whatever is given to them comes from Allah. They already have their own portion that is pre-determined by Allah. It is pointless therefore to 'compete' for other's portion. We should focus instead on getting as much as we can from our own portion."

Any queries? feel free to approach moi! :)

Thursday, July 08, 2004

bad day

venue: RJC Field
Match: Soccer Testimonial Match for J2s

J1s 3-1 J2s
(Pravin x3, Raihan)
Line up: Kaixiang (Mark), Adzfar, Wei Fan, Kin Yip, Chun Yat, Soo Tet, Zhi Hao, Peiqian, Geoffrey, Pravin, Fairuz.

The day was totally screwed up. I put my shampoo and other toiletries in my shoebag cos there was no space in my bag. I didn't realise that one of the soap bottles were not capped properly til i touched my boots and they felt soapy.

Nevermind, so we played soccer at around 5.30pm. As usual, both sides were tentative with the ball, especially with slippery conditions due to the rain. Both sides kept giving away possession away but the J2s had more verve in their attacking and the way they pass the ball was sweet. They had Raihan as guest winger today, while we had Pravin as our guest striker.

Towards the middle of the first half, with neither sides really threatening the goals, we got the ball from our own half and a few quick passes set me down the left flank. I was through on goal, behind their last man. Appeals for offside were in vain. One-on-one with the keeper, I sidefooted the ball into the path of Pravin, who smashed the ball into the empty net. 1-0 to the J1s! Hah we showed them who were more serious today.

Before they could regroup, our constant hassle (to the extent of Junxi having to warn the J1s about 'protection...A'Levels!' haha) brought their defence under pressure. Jieming's attempted clearance was intercepted by my first-time header into Pravin's path. Looking up to sneak a peek, he coolly struck a fierce drive that went in at the far post, past Shengxiang who probably didn't expect anything like that. Yay 2-0 to J1s.

The J2s clearly stepped up a gear after that. Their midfield of Adil, Renji, Uncle Heng, Jasmeet, Raihan and Junxi were having a ball of a time laying passes to each other. One of such moves resulted in a string of corners awarded to them, which we miserably fail to clear. Renji broke through a few weak challenges down the left channel before squaring a perfect low cross which was met with a thumping typical Raihanic shot the bulged the net. 2-1, with J1s still leading at the break.

J2s picked up where they left off with some wonderful display of great passing. But certainly their finishing was not their greatest asset. We sat back for most of the second half, except for a handful of surges in counter attacks. I got only one shot in the entire match, a lob by Geoffrey over Amos put me into space behind their defence. But the bouncing ball seemed too hot to handle, as my left foot half volley sail high over the rugby post (which would have counted for 3 points in rugby!).

Peiqian hassled Adil in the J2's half, winning the ball and rolling it to me. Seeing that Pravin was in a more advanced position, I squared it to him, who took just one or two steps before blasting the ball into the net, past the stranded David Lee Dong Hoon Kimchi. 3-1 to J1s, and everyone began to cruise after that.

So, this game breaks my scoring streak. What a shame.

Areas of my game that needs improvement:
1. Controlling high balls on the run: bcoz this will help me to take the ball past the defenders if the ball given to me is short.
2. Taking up more central positions: bcoz often the midfielders have noone to pass to the centre bcoz i drift wide very often. I should offer myself as a target man more readily.

Then after the match, during tarian, I totally smashed my plate to pieces during the flick move. Noone ever broke theirs into such fine bits before la. haiya, when I got home, there were not enough pails to soak all my dirty clothes. The day when everything went bad... :(

-_-

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

plan

:: Had a good talk with Mr. Low today after school, even though he kept me waiting for around 30mins. It's good to hear that whatever points I've acumulated this year won't get erased even if i make the switch to soccer. It's totally a personal choice. I've spoken to many soccer guys, especially Adzfar, Mat Hao, Peiqian, who's been really patient with me. I've felt so bad for abandoning them in year one, for this year's season, after having played with them for the matches. Now, it's going to be quite a rollercoaster. Nothing has been confirmed. I need to urgently speak to My Kadir, Mr Batchelor, the 2 rugby teacher I/Cs regarding this decision to switch to soccer. I really hope that the teachers understand. I also think it's best that I talk to Mr Blackburn, my coach, because I need to inform him that I wish to play soccer, so I don't disrupt any of his plans anymore. I really think I am already disupting his plans by choosing soccer, just like what my teammates have been telling me. The chance to defend the gold doesn't come often, especially for us the bunch of players who have suffered quite badly in our respective secondary schools. It still excites me to play rugby, but I really think i've achieved my objective of playing rugby, and that was to win the damn old Police Cup. Now the chance to defend it, but I'm refusing to take it? How? I've spoken to some teammates already, like Luneh, Pravin, Firas, joel leong, zach... Of course they want me to stay. Junren told me 'mat, u better don't quit.' It's very heartwarming to hear how much it means for us to stay together as a team. For we have been teammates for almost 5 seasons already. I still find it hard to leave them. They tell me it's going to be hard to find someone else to play in your position, and that I should be playing fullback cos it suits the team best for our running style of rugby, and that next year the batch that comes in isn't as strong as the ones that came in this year, that is my batch. It's really going to take a lot out of me to leave them but I really don't want to miss this oppurtunity to pursue something which I've kept inside of me for so long. After my rugby season was over in Sec4, albeit prematurely, I've told myself that that's it for rugby. Let's pursue something else. So i looked to soccer. Little did i realise that soccer by itself won't guarantee me my cca points. It's not a totally core cca. So people like Pravin especially told me to come for rugby training, especially with the new coach Mr Blackburn who had just come in. I enjoyed training a hell lot, and the company that the ruggers provided me, can't substitute that for anything else in the world man. But it saddens me even more when I was told, that i had to choose between rugby and soccer bcoz rjc doens't practise a student playing multi-sports anymore, except for exceptions. So i chose rugby bcoz i believed that we had the better chance of winning. In the end we won gold and I was over the moon. But it still saddens me to see the soccer boys go out so narrowly in the second round to mjc. How i wish i could make the difference. How i wish i could, so now after the rugby gold, i think i have a real chance. I really believe in the friends that I have in soccer, Zhihao Adzfar Peiqian SooTet KinYip and the rest, that we shall train hard and work hard to get to where we want. If we want the championship, there is no other way but to work hard and play even harder. Euro2004 was an inspiration. (This was just like Rugby World Cup in NOv,Dec 2003 which inspired me to continue Rugby in J1) So NOw is the time....

Guys, I love you a lot. You all are like brothers to me. I hope you all understand. Long live Raffles Rugby!

Now's the time for soccer. You were all there when Rugby won the gold. Now's the time to emulate that kind of success. Raffles Forever!

Monday, July 05, 2004

ili sleepover

ili's house was fantastic. the barbecue had great bites. the company superb. but the sad thing is, the football let us down. quite a bore wasn't it? not much end-to-end stuff. few goalmouth action. nevertheless, whatever, Greece won. we hardly slept there, until like after the match, when most of us woke up around ten plus. people were like playing need for speed underground with her brother in the wee hours of the morning la. haha typical of any sleepover. that was a crazy mat gathering :)

rjc 3-0 ex-acjc

venue: Bukit Timah Field
match: RJC 3-0 ex-ACJC
weather: extremely sunny at first, light drizzle in the end

line-up: Fairuz Chang Wen
Geoffrey Peiqian Zhihao Soo Tet
Renji Kin Yip Adzfar
Jieming
ShengXiang (gk)

We were there much earlier than their team, because after goodness knows how long we haven't played, we can't wait any more.

So we kicked off at around 1pm, under the blistering sun, with the old buncit ref. Peiqian is cock la, he said to us 'u better dun try anything stupid with this ref, cos he sent me off before'. haha :p Everything was quite even in the first half, not many scoring chances and space was pretty tight. But I think we started more brightly, with nice passes into space on both flanks. We tried slotting through balls, but couldn't find space in between their defenders, who were both strong on the ground and in the air. I tried drifting wide to collect the passes but everytime I tried to burn them, they could match my pace or I tapped the ball too far forward. Overall our defence was okay, but still a bit shaky at times.

There was one scoring chance for me which went begging. A mixed up in defence forced a weak clearance into my path. I was on the right corner of the 6yard box. I tried to find the top left corner, but the ball ballooned wide for a throw in! Wasted chance.

Second half was much better, especially due to the drizzle. We felt more amped up, and attacked vigorously down either flanks. We threw in crosses after crosses after they seriously threatened our goal with a menacing drive just outside the penalty area, which our 'keeper managed to brilliantly tip over the bar. One of such crosses forced them to concede (or rather conceive) a corner. Soo Tet curled a superb floater which the 'keeper flapped at before the ball trickled into the net. 1-0 to RJ!

Obviously that goal lifted our game to a higher notch. Another surging run down the right wing after great work by Adzfar saw Soo Tet tumbling. He took the freekick to area C, supposedly, but the ball went straight into the top left corner. 2-0 to RJ!

I didn't feel as good playing this match as the recent few matches. Maybe its bcoz of the socks, the white junior socks. I couldn't find as much space as I would like. And my runs weren't as penetrative as before.

Peiqian had a good game supporting the attack with his neat passes and flicks, along with Geoffrey always releasing me into space. Zhi Hao worked like hell in the centre, breaking up their play to feed us with the ball. Another combination play saw Soo Tet having a clear sight of goal, his shot for his hat-trick was so powerful that the keeper couldn't hold onto it. The ball dropped under his body and I was first to it, so i toe-poked it into the empty net. Yay! 3-0 to RJ! Surely they can't catch up now.

Areas that I need improvements in:
1. Handling with crosses: either taking shots or headers, or to set up a teammate.
2. Crossing: because i may free myself on the flanks, but i need to locate my teammates well with good crosses.
3. Shooting: more power and accuracy with my shots, means learning the correct techniques and postures.

Overall, we played quite well, and are definitely looking forward to more games under our belt.

Personal Goal Tally: 4 goals in 3 games.

Friday, July 02, 2004

::Finally, gotta thank Ah Foot for this. Haha enjoy the photo display, there are photos from Rugby Finals (260504) as well as Busking@Orchard::

mats having some dinner at a round spinnin table after busking. L-R: rudy, ili, me, adzfar, iylia, jauhari, izzat :)

DIKIR BARAT!! RJ watch this, more headed your way! -busking@Orchard 2004-

crazy mats pointing to dunno what?

Seated: Jauhari flat-hair, Fairuz mat-hair, Izzat batu-cave-lover, Rudy manjenboy
Standing: Adzfar red-hair, Iylia musklees

The day after. Back on the field, or rather desert, where blood and sweat are poured for the men next to me.

My Brothers on and off the field. Locate blue boots (that's me :p)

The Slickest Backline in A Div Rugby

looking zonked? Yup, especially after getting bulldozed by Khalrul-monster, whose teeth caused 2 stitches. Yay
pix`

ablution is over

.Haha finally, my personal ablution from the Net is over, conciding with the end of CTs. Good gosh the amount of marks that I've already lost, they just flow like water from a burst pipe, teachers are probably having a whee good time setting new world records marking my scripts! :p

.And CT week was mad too. The routine of the day would be waking up really early to take bus to school, then do some last minute revision at spexgal then rushing to hall to fail my paper. Then quickly take train home, to read newspaper on Euro updates before lulling myself to loooooonnnnnnngggg naps. Haha will try to revise after that, but end up eating instead or getting distracted by Euro on tv. Nights are meant for us to rest and get some sleep, but were spent watching Euro. Once a mat, always a mat.

.Today was CPS's movie outing: SPIDERMAN 2. wohoho! It was awesome man, I love all the web-slinging action and the subtle tenderness surrounding Peter Parker beneath it all. Sam Raimi deserves all the millions that this movie is raking in right now. Go catch it at a cinema near you! Shoots I forgot what i wanted to say. :p hehe, oh Doc Ock has real menacing tentacles and Jimmy Jamison was quite hillarious. "Everyone needs a hero..." -Aunt May.

.I had a good time with the Mats today and Ili and Yus. Really good to catch up with them after the CTs. Ili gave me this keychain from Johor with my name FAIRUZ in front and these at the back:
"Bererti Batu Permata.
(Hijau Kebiruan)
Memiliki kelebihan, menarik dan sentiasa menjadi perhatian.
Cekal hati, tetap pendirian dan tidak mudah dipengaruhi.
Disenangi teman-teman."

How true! Ask your malay friends what it means. :)