I had a glorious, glorious weekend. Friday evening was spent at Stadium's Long Beach Seafood Restaurant with KTOWY. Everyone was present (cept' for ZZ who's in Toronto right now), and we had a mini feast and catch-up session. The prawns and crabs were fresh and really good; and they were nice enough to let me have one of the crab claws. It was juicy and just felt so good to sink my teeth into it like a drumstick. Ups ups.
The group came over to my place after and we played a few rounds of poker, texas poker, in-between, blackjack, etc etc. Wenyun's the really experienced one who'd tell us what game to play next and so on, what a gambler! Ha! I guess I got pretty lucky that night; probably won a few dollars?
Stayed on till around 3 plus in the morning and I sent the east-side boys back before catching a few winks before day broke. ITWC to follow right after! In the competition this time round, we had to use boards (big, fat mommas) and sails that were different from our usual training ones. It got a teeny bit of getting used to, but it wasn't all that hard cause the boards were stable as floating platforms and we could dance on them (in sk's words).
I gained a hell lot of experience this time round; two days of races, boom came off at the start-line after I got knocked off (can you feel my dulan-ness!), contact lens fell out from my right eye and got blown away, fell on the starboard side of the board right in front of the buoy (when it's supposed to be port rounding), had to go back to port-round the buoy, 2nd place dropped to last as a result in one of the races, used new boards and sails, not overlaying/underlaying enough, which side is supposed to give you a better start, port/starboard starts, and so on. There's probably a lot more of experience that I've yet to gain, but still, I'm thankful for all these experiences. I can now say with confidence that I am much more aware of what's going on out at sea.
It's difficult to find a sport that I truly enjoy doing, or feel so much about. Can you believe I'd hoped there were more races to go on the 2nd day?! When I joined biathlon back in TP, it was mainly due to DJ's influence (sad to say, I was doing things not for myself). I met a lot of great people in there, and I did feel a sense of accomplishment whenever I was able to complete those races. But I never cried or wanted to achieve something so badly as compared to now. & lifesaving, I was roped in for one of the events because I was with Doug. There was Xiyun, Vonday, Huileng and of course, dearest Ham who made trainings a hell lot of fun. But seriously? I just don't feel that sense of belonging that I probably should have.
But windsurfing? Okay, it's true that Doug made me sign up for the course with him. But I'm glad that he signed me up. Our group may be really small (compared to NUS/SIM), but we're still a lot of fun! Joining the club's probably one of the best decisions I've made in NTU, for myself.
competitors, helpers, and Uncle Tan!
flat-footed windsurfer.
I didn't do especially well this time round; slight improvement from the last race, last to the second-last position. But I've decided that I'm staying, for good! I'm sure all these experiences that I've gained will help me in upcoming competitions, at least I know how to deal with them now. Of course, it might be too early to say, but I'm determined to win something for the club before I'm not eligible for the novice category any longer!
NUS Opens, here I come!
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