Stop the haze, clear the skies, Shanghai!

Friday, January 30, 2009

Just one week till...

http://myorientpearlwenthome.spaces.live.com/

8:18 PM

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

"the mad cow got to say happy NIU year."

Another year. Another snoozefest.

1:12 PM

Saturday, January 24, 2009

A Video made for the Champion team using the only available resource at home, Windows Movie Maker.

and another one where Cynthia mops the court floor while trying to find her shoe.

11:41 PM

Friday, January 23, 2009

We are the Champions.

It was the Global Immersion Programme talk that very morning. The speaker was animated, keeping the crowd entertained with anecdote after anecdote of the things in Shanghai. There I was, sitting on the third row, trying hard to focus on his floppy grey hair and the way they reacted whenever he moved.

I yawned. My eyes are droopy, but I shook my head to keep awake. It wasn't the speaker's fault, but mine. I had slept at 5am, finishing up a video conceived by Cynthia and Felicia so that I can show it tonight, after the IVP finals.

I didn't know I had drifted off, and only found out when I heard a voice that said "Nan Da..." It was only when I wanted to open my mouth to say "Jia You", that I awoke and found myself at an inappropriate place to shout the "Jia you". Now the speaker was talking about doing business in Shanghai, or something along that lines. I listened.

Then, instinctively, my shoulders moved. My body was trying to do a fake. Wait, I reminded myself, I'm not at the basketball court now. I'm in a bloody auditorium, with Joyce dozing off beside me.

It was weird, but it made me smile under my breath.

Fast forward to 8pm later, we were all psyched up for the final game. Us versus (reverse) SUN. SUN was a powerhouse team, no doubt, and brimming with stars. They crushed all their previous opponents in the tournament, not just crush anyway, they steamrolled them. With nifty pick and rolls, and a penchent for fast passes and shooting, their offense moves killed the defence of many teams in the first quarter.

We were a different team altogether. Drafted into the "Group of Death", where two teams were in the top four last season, we had to play every game carefully. There were detractors all around, such as Mr Jerkface, saying that we'd never survive the first round. Our team was also different. Every victory was a hard fought game, where we always clung to our lead till the last whistle. By the end of the first round, we did the impossible by becoming top of our group.

That was because we found the winning formula.

The answer to winning was simple. It wasn't just about the stronger players in the team, whether they performed well individually or not. It wasn't a calculation, to see whose bench players are stronger or weaker. It wasn't about the 5 people on court, whether they worked well with each other.

You see, basketball was not meant to be played with 5 people on each team. It is meant to be played with 15.

From the first game to our last, one could feel all 15 players on court. We shouted ourself hoarse during every match, from the first quarter to the last. The five players who represented us could hear our voices, and they could feel our belief. We never gave up during any matches. All of us had the same thing in mind. There we were, killing the opponents who only played with 5.

There was many tricks to make 15 become a team. Throughout the tournament, we played the Angel-Mortal game. We had training in between matches. We had dinner together after training. We played 7-level Pig. We played hide-and-seek. We had a sleepover. We played Taboo, Twister and Hide-and-Seek.

All of us became friends.

As friends, we started having inside jokes. Our captain is Ah Fang, and Cynthia is the no. 1 in 笨笨排行旁. Pey Pey emits light, and Jayne's hair may be a wig. Pin is too young for her age and Bao Shuang has face spasms. Kalai loves to dance as much as Xiao Hei loves to bounce. We strive to have beautiful endings with WanMei and Yan Yan wins hands down for being the loudest. Kathrin is practising her "Nan Da Jia You", and Zhi Hui is the glue that holds us. Belicia shows us where's the love, and Pris is Babarella. Jean and Michelle are our pillars. As for me, I live in the "mole-ment". And of course, our beloved Coach, also known as Charlie (we're Charlie's Angels) always provide us with fruits for thoughts like "Do you gets it?" and "Walk your talk."

Therefore, we went into the finals, knowing that this would be the biggest advantage we'll have over the SUN.

The game started. Jayne tipped the ball, but none of our team players got to it. As the oppenents started their 1st play, the whole SRC suddenly boomed with our voices. "DEFENCE, DEFENCE!" We shouted. I swore it was the loudest ever. As much as I could be wrong, I did feel that the opponents were taken aback by the ferocious screaming of our team.

We went on a 7-nil run. The spirits were high.

After a while, they managed to rebound back and were neck-and-neck. We would pull away with 10 points, but they always managed to close the gap fast. We had a few shots in which were quite ambiguous too. The ball would dance around the rim for a while, twirl a little, but it went in. We call that "home advantage".

During the fourth quarter, in the last 2 minutes of the game, we were still neck-and-neck. However, the difference between our opponents and us began to show. Their five people looked frustrated. Their bench was quiet. Our bench, on the other hand, were just making as much noise as we can. For every free throw they get, we'd go "REBOUND BLOCKOUT REBOUND BLOCKOUT" as much as we can. With every ball we got in, everyone was jumping. The last minute came, and the bench held hands and stood. 50 seconds left and we were leading by 3. 15 seconds left, we were still leading. They started to foul us, forcing time to stop. There was a time out, where we were all jumping like monkeys already. Coach has to shush us to talk. Cynthia had two free throws and the whole bench shouted "Just put it in!" (another inside joke) while laughing among ourselves. Yes, she put them all in. We led by 5.

2 seconds. Jayne put in a lay-up and was fouled. 60-53, the scoreboard read. We were already jumping for joy. The bench were hugging each other. She shot. It rebounded and landed somewhere. The buzzer sounded. And then, the entire bench erupted.

It was the most surreal feeling. We all rushed out, and everyone hugged each other in a mass hug. We were screaming like mad, and it was fantastic. After shaking hands with our opponents, we proceeded to Tau Pok our coach- yes, only when you win Championships can you do that to your coach- who, poor him, almost suffocated and crushed by our weights. Bel said," I've never been so happy before to be sitting on the bench," and I agreed with her totally.

After having 2 trainings a day, 3 trainings a week in December, including Christmas Eve and New Year's eve, trainings in January in the midst of the tournament, we've done it. The blood, sweat, tears and laughter paid off. I couldn't be prouder to be in this team.

We went to Geylang for supper, my eyes nearly closing from the lack of sleep. We whispered to each other, "hey, you know what?" and when the latter asked "what", we'd shout in the poor person's ear, "WE WON!"

Last night, as my head finally hit the bed at 4am, I fell asleep with a huge grin on my face.

4:47 PM

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

On MSN last night,

nicknames changed.

Mine: Deanna. I love my Nan Da teammates. The white ones, the black ones and the other colour ones.

Pey pey: Yin. I love my Nan Da teammates too- Those with mole and those without.

(-_)

Felicia: I love my Nan Da teammates. Those with big ankles or not!

Belicia: I love my Nan Da teammates. Those who are SQUARE (ahfang) or not.

Cynthia: I love NanDa too. Be it at night or in the day... you are cordinally invited to join the BEN (笨) club

Pris: I love my nanda teammates! Those who are blur (cyn& bel) and those who are smarty (i.e myself and angel)

Pin: I love my Nan Da teammates. Those who are in the Ben Ben Pai Hang Bang (笨笨排行榜) and those who are not!

Bao Shuang: I love my Nan Da teammates too- Those who are fat (Cyn & .... ....) and those who are slim n slender like me.

Kalai: Kalai is slow but she loves her Nan Da teammates too!

Gosh! One more day to go before the showdown!

9:18 AM

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Dear Jennifer,

I have a very vivid memory of you this morning. I remembered the wink you gave me on saturday when we shook hands, and the friendly bye you said as we left the court. Oh yes, how can I forget, when you were the one who brought so much upon me. So much, an understatement, as to how I've suffered this past week. Throbbing toothache, check. Swelling gums, check. Desperate fear that tooth will fall off anytime, check. And of course, like they say, the best is yet to come.

Oh the best came. It came real good this morning, bright and early when I went to the dentist. Two jabs on the gums, which usually doesn't make me flinch a bit, brought me to hell and back. "The nerve had died, from the impact of the fall," he had said. I would have corrected him "a hard knock from the back of your head" if I wasn't in so much pain.

"There may also be a chance that the rest of your other front teeth flare up, we just don't know when," he mentioned casually. What a nice man, my dentist.

As he worked on the tooth, my gums were on fire. You know, something like a constant throbbing discomfort. I know what you're thinking. Discomfort, alright, probably I can handle it. Well, let's just say discomfort was an understatement. Anyway, I tried to remind myself how you look so I won't pass out from the pain. And I noticed you bleached your hair blonde. Nice. So while you walk around like some beach goddess, I was in my own living hell.

Well, anyway, enough of the humour. I can't laugh properly, you know, it still hurts. And my friend pointed out that my face looked kinda weird. I told her it was the gums. It seems quite amazing how you don't notice that they are part of your facial muscles unless something drastic happen to them. Ooooh, you should come touch the lower half of my face sometime. You'll see it throb real hard soon after.

Anyway, I haven't reached the climax yet. The dentist (and believe me I'm gonna describe this in true graphic detail) pushed into my swollen gums, causing me to cringe and moan in agony, in order to push pus out. Yes, pus has collected itself when my nerve died. He was unrelentless, my dentist, and asked his assistant for a blade to cut a tiny hole so the pus can flow. You should have been there to look at all those blood that flowed out. And of course, I think I can say my pain threshold has increased. Just imagine his one hand pressing on them swollen gums, throb throb throb, and another hand forcing a blade in- let's just say I should have passed out. It'll be more painless that way.

I need to tell you how I left the clinic with my mouth shut. With each step, I can feel the gums. Throb throb throbbing yet again. Yes, what's new right? I can probably get used to the throbbing, if not for the fact that it was excruciating. As much as I would like to cry out, I held them all in. For your sake. For you had winked to me on Saturday, thinking that I'm really alright and nothing has changed.

You're quite right. On the surface, nothing has changed.

Loads of love,
Deanna

11:41 AM

Sunday, January 18, 2009

It's a good January to kickstart the rest of the year.

8:58 PM

Friday, January 16, 2009

Toothache.

This incident must be explained
With a vivid flashback
Of a game with a ball
and ten players, in fact
There was a head which knocked me back
Along with it, my tooth, which bled, bled and bled.
Off I went, to the dentist then
But not before I winced and sobbed
The pain was just too much to cope
Did I mention it was my front tooth,
the one where everyone sees the first time they look
On the way over, I thought in fear
What would happen to my smile, with an empty space here?

The dentist used his strength and might
To pull the teeth back without a fight
He did mention a tiny little thing for thought
A thing that I never once did forgot
He said, there may be a chance that the body will reject the tooth
For it may become unfamiliar, as foreign as it could
We'll never know what'll happen indeed
But come regularly, so we'll check up on it

For months and months, it felt alright,
But one day it didn't, it felt odd inside
My mouth was trembling, there was a little pain
But what do I know then
I thought I was already okay
Then two days back, for a while I winced
A pain shot through the gums, and boy, did it sting
I called up the clinic but to no avail
My doctor, dear doctor, he'll only be here next tues
From then, it'll sting once in a few hours
Like a pendulum, it comes and go with increasing powers
My front tooth feels like it's having a war
To tell the truth, I'm tempted to smash it through a door
What keeps me from going insane
is the empty space nightmare that's more fearful than pain
Today I rhyme to tell this tale
To distract myself from stinging that's real
What happens if it all falls true
I wake up tomorrow,
And where's my tooth?

So now I'll keep my mind in check
Make sure I breathe through, front and back
It's a painful ordeal but I'll make it through
For tuesday, oh tuesday, better come to

2:51 PM

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Everyone is copying the Anti-You team now.

Photos and Article from Redsports.sg

Nanyang Technological University, Monday, January 12, 2009 - The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) women’s basketball team overcame Republic Polytechnic 60–51 in a Group B game of the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Basketball Championship.With the NTU men whitewashing RP, it was now the women’s turn to show what they were made of. TheRP women team were no pushovers after they had registered a 60–42 win over SMU in their previous game.

However, NTU had beaten the same opponents 74–43 margin, and so this was a match to watch.
NTU went on the attack right from the get-go as they dominated the early proceedings and hit RP on the break early on with their speed and passing.

RP, on the contrary, were having problems getting settled and this affected their passing game. The silly mistakes by the team didn’t help their cause as they found it hard to score.
By the end of the first quarter, NTU had accumulated a comfortable 10-point lead at 21–11.
The second quarter started where the first half left off with NTU dictating play and RP trying to get settled. With their fast-paced attack, NTU brole RP down with tremendous ease.

This did not last long however, as a series of turnovers by NTU gave RP a chance to settle into the match. As a result, the team from Woodlands strung a few points together with #5 and #10 contributing significantly.

Despite this, NTU held on to their lead and extended it to 13 points.

The third quarter proved to be much tighter with both teams scoring 10 points. The paced of the game increased, and the referee was called upon to make many calls. Despite having many free throws, RP failed to make them count with poor shooting.

Both teams cancelled each other out in the final 10 minutes with NTU only scoring nine points throughout the quarter.

A late spell by RP gave supporters hope, with the RP #10 dictating play. Although they outscored NTU 13-10 in the fourth quarter, it was too little too late as NTU held on to win the match 60–51.

With this win, NTU improved to a perfect 2-wins–0-losses record while RP fell to 1-2.

------

That was three nights ago. Yesterday, we managed to beat powerhouse ITE to maintain a 3-0 record in a nail-biting match. We, who were on the bench, were shouting like crazy to up the spirits of our teammates who were fighting for us. And all of us never once gave up, clinging to our lead, which was only 1 or 2 at times, until we shot right ahead to more than 10. We booked ourselves a place in the semi-s, and a lot of us went back with hoarse voices.

(but it was worth it)

TP had a shock loss to RP, which means that they will be clamping fast and furious on us in a bid to advance. But we're not afraid, because when Anti-You plays, the whole fifteen players will be doing something, no matter if we're on court or on the bench. We'll just bring the old SRC down with our voices tomorrow. Yes.

Kick butt!

10:26 AM

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Never draw Adolf Hitler as a representation of Germany.

That's what I found out, after drawing Hitler to represent a teammate from Germany on one layer of a birthday present for another.

It's really not a good thing to do that, she said to me yesterday, but also said that it wasn't the first time someone did that. It left me slightly embarrassed, as a matter of fact. I spent the next few minutes wondering why I didn't draw some gorgeous German, like Michael Ballack, and instead, drew a tiny, moustache man who had blood all over his hands.

Plus, Hitler isn't even from Germany. He was born in Austria.

So, this was an enriching lesson for me. Never draw any sensitive political figure to represent any country in this world. Therefore, no Hitler, Attila the Hun, Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, Qin Shi Huang, Mussolini, and definitely, definitly, no Sarah Palin.

1:49 PM

Saturday, January 10, 2009

How to have a smashing good time.

8:41 PM

Friday, January 09, 2009

Almost all cleared, good Ma'am!

While cleaning up the drawer choke-full of letters, I found

1) A Ziplock bag full of notes from the Team Exellence Camp people while we were camping in Malaysia. Among them was a note from Sivalingam Charlene Liye. "Thanks for washing my spoon and fork for me," she wrote.

2) A newspaper article about 3 perverts preying on teen girls online. The mosiac-ed man on the picture, balding and wearing Adidas all over, was unmistakenbly my ex-coach.

3) A string of letters from Ng Li Ping while in Primary school. I have no idea how she look like, or how her life is right now. We corresponded through snail mail, writing stuff like Qiong Guang Dan (Penniless Egg) and "I hope your mama scold you" in our letters, even though we lived one street away.

4) A poem I wrote as a junior for my basketball team in Junior College. It was stuck on a photo of all of us, including Ms Rivera, acting cute for the camera in the lobby of a hotel in Malacca.

5) An orange Aces Day 98 cap, signed by most of my classmates in class 5/C.

6) Letters from the US from Shaz, one which she wrote on the plane, and a birthday card from Belgium written by Charlene Su.

7) My official Driving Test paper. It states that I passed with 10 marks on the 26th October 2006.

8) 2 D.I.Y Christmas cards from Clara.

9) An organiser where I recorded the top 100 songs of the year 2002. "Dilemma" beat "Complicated" to become no. 1. Mandy Moore's "Cry" was at 71 and Santana's "The Game of Love" was at 41. Gosh, I was such a radio junkie then.

10) My PHS yearbook 2002.

11) Singtel bills, Prudential reminders, True Yoga crap, POSB passbook updates.

12) Countless ticket stubs. Included one Singapore Idol admission ticket.

13) A few membership cards of Deanna's Outdoor Club, a fictional club yours truly set up when she was still a tween. I remembered having high hopes for that club.

14) The autograph book for Girls. My autograph book for Boys was confiscated by the principal of the Primary school, and got a few boys in class caned because I allowed them to write swear words all over it. Probably was the naughtiest thing I ever did as a kid.

15) Unsent cards from me to others.

16) Leanne's letter on a photo for Valentine's 08.

17) A police report of my wallet being stolen. It was stolen on my birthday, hence making 2004 the worst birthday ever.

4:16 PM

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Ho hum, ho hum, home.

While my peers are out busting their ass interning in some Singaporean firm right now, I have been staying home like a pure goody-two-shoes.

I only go out at night, to school no less, for trainings, to watch matches and tonight, to kick ass until the lao kok kok Sports and Recreational Centre collapse. Yes, IVP season is underway and my team is playing tonight.

Basically, other than going to Pioneer North and making a few rounds with the food centres after training, I am home most of the time. This is a strategy, said Joyce, to save our money. A good strategy, no doubt, but it leaves me not knowing what to do.

Yesterday, I cleared out one of my cupboards. It contained precious memories of the days spanning from nursery school to my university life, such as organisers I used every year. One of them, a Presbyterian High organiser in Sec 4, had an assortment of Manchester United scorelines and B division basketball scores in it. Also apparent is the presence of many song lyrics in each organisers; you wondered why I can memorise song lyrics so well huh. There were many other stuff in that cupboard, including magazines with Avril Lavigne on the cover, and tests, assignments of my entire education. I re-read my General Paper Mock Exam paper, which I wrote on Sports. Sports was just so easy to name-drop, but then again, I spelt Kornikova wrongly. People pay more attention to her face than name I guess.

Which brings us to... today. I will attempt to clear the drawer brimming with letters given to me from the time I was born till now. It's a lot of letters, which means it is full of nostalgia. Maybe this time, I will be transported to the time where I was a pimply- no wait a minute, I was never pimply- mushroom headed kid, trying to eat as fast as possible so I could play.

And by the end of the month, my stuff shall be fully cleared, and the three of us'll have enough to go to Shanghai without having to sell our butt.

I leave on February 7th, by the way. It's a saturday morning, bright and early. The plane leaves at 8.10am, so it's exactly 1 month later. Oh yes.

11:42 AM

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

I have no choice, blog. I really don't!

The Avril Lavigne blogskin has been with me since J2. I find it amusing that I still have such a "teen angst" type of blogskin, especially when the contents are not about swearing, being disgruntled with life, being suicidal and you know, all the other things that teenagers like to talk about in their blogs. For one, most are incoherent, plus their grammar is really terrible and they like to insert the f word in between every word as if it serves a similar function as the spacebar.

But I digress. I was distracted after reading one too many blogs written by teenagers. They can't seem to do their past tense right!

Anyway, the reason why this blogskin has lasted so long is due to a technical one. Everytime I typed an entry in, I would have to convert them all to "white", because someone once complained that they couldn't see the words if it was in black. Therefore, for goodness knows how many years, I have been painstakingly (alright, I know it's not that hard) converting all my entries to the colour white. Hence, if I would want to change to say, a lovelier blogskin with no screaming teen angst Avril, I would have to go through all my entries, all 500 or more of them, and change them all back to black.

Well, I chose to be lazy.

I have been going on all day about this, but in fact, what I want to say is that I have created a new blog somewhere in the vast universe of the internet.

GASP! Why?!

Blame it on the Great Firewall of China. The last I heard, they're still banning Blogger. Therefore, I have set up another blog, so that people can at least know I'm still alive 800km away, in the next 6 months.

www.myorientpearlwenthome.spaces.live.com

Yes. It's "my orient pearl went home" at MSN Spaces. That hasn't been banned by China yet.

So, yes, I'm going to have to abandon this space over here soon. Goodbye Avril!

oh anyway, I won't blog on the other one until I truly go over. So only check that space after I'm gone. Toodles!

11:09 AM

Sunday, January 04, 2009

The Overseas Family Album.