So the hottest Question I was asked today was…

*drum roll*



… are you still shooting archery?


That was hottest question I was being asked today.

Nope, it wasn’t any question asking if I was attached yet (leave that question to the uncles and aunties on CNY) but this particular question which friends I bumped into today all asked, surprisingly.

“You are my archery icon mah!”, LZ (another friend who asked me the same question) commented after I wondered aloud to him that there were just too many people asking me the same question surprising in one day.

I am still shooting, but only leisurely. I still love archery.

But I guess it hard to shoot competitive again. At least for now.

Especially with the condition of the Final Year Project (FYP), with datelines crashing into the picture in an instance.

And the “timely” bad showers over NTU whenever I string up my bow and pick up my shooting gears.

“Are you shooting for IVP (Inter-varsity Polytechnic)? 19 March, NUS…”, came the popping window of MSN after I came back from my night jogging session this very night.

IVP at NUS, the venue where triumph calls and images of victories will always be remembered.

I guess that will not be my “ORD” shoot for my final year.


Sometimes I wonder if I will continue to shoot after I graduate. The idea of the lack of archery companions upon graduation started to dawn on me recently. Even though archery is a very individual sport, it is not possible to shoot with other companions to progress and enjoy the sport together. I guess that is how all the previous batches of seniors felt after they graduated from the team. None of them are shooting already. The only 2 seniors still shooting are in the national team with jobs that have relaxed work schedule. Just by looking at the strength of my batch of final year archers, I already feel kinda “qeng sim”.

The kind of team spirit and companionship that I experienced from shooting with the NTU team can never be found outside with other clubs. Especially, with the numerous “crossed-fires” we had with other clubs on the competition field.

Our shooting companions are our school mates, our hostel mates, our neighbours, our toilet mates, our room mates. I guess these kind of unique relationships can never be found with the archers in other clubs. Not only in archery, but in many areas of life as well.

Maybe that is why NTU Archery is still one of the best team around.

the Condition of my FYP

I'm feeling like a bug in the sink for my Final Year Project...

Rain Rain

It has been raining non-stop for the past 5 to 6 days already.

If by singing the “Rain Rain Go Away” nursery song was of any use to rid the rain and bring out the sun so that little children can go out to play, everyone would be singing it non-stop and the FM radios would be playing it endless by now..

When I was still “little children”, I like to the sing the “Rain Rain Come Again” song whenever it seem like it is going to rain. It is actually the same as the original nursery song just that I changed the lyrics of the song to those that ask the rain to come and that little children hate going out to play instead. I seriously cannot remember the motive of singing that song. Maybe if it is raining, I can skip school, stay at home watch TV or play “mah sah”, or maybe the cold weather just makes me feel happy.

Sometimes kids do have their funny way of thinking.

I when grew up, the rain did come and come and somehow or rather “little children” did manage to “play” in the rain still, no matter how my version of the song went. Somehow the rain had the ability to make experiences richer and leave long lasting impressions.

I remembered the funny incident during a night hike as a scout during secondary one where the patrols started off from Sarimbun Scout Camp and got caught in the rain not long after we got lost. It was at the final checkpoint where we crowded round a silly hand-dryer machine in the boys toilet at Kranji Dam, pulling the edges of our wet t-shirts in attempt to dry them with the hot air after been drenched in the heavy downpour. The silly hand-dryer that could be rotated to different directions soon malfunctioned after our repeated usage, even the one in the girls toilet.

Then there was another time while having NS training in Australia, where my entire company got caught in an “Outback Rain” during an exercise in the night. I forgot the number of hours we lay prone in the pouring night rain until we got the call to cut the exercise. Our cold bodies were greeted with boiling hot tea made by our every own “Encik” or Company Sergeant Major (CSM) whom we kinda hated due to his fierce and harsh behaviours with us for almost a year. It was the first time where Encik boiled tea and even cooked magi mee for us. Somehow the hot tea and instant mee made by Encik tasted like heaven while we shivered under the shelter of our armoured vehicles. It was also the first time where we saw the “soft side” of our fierce Encik. Somehow from that night onwards and during that training in Australia we got closer to him. After that incident and even up until today, my platoon mates would always get together and wonder if Encik had added extra ingredients into the stuff he made for us that night, as sometimes we felt had used the weather and the food to buy over (收买) our hearts so as to work hard for him and to obey his commands. Hmmmm, not that we had the ability to not do so… Haha


Somehow the rain has been raining too long already. This time the “little children” really want to go out to play.