15 Aug : Yconfidence!

basically its a volunteer program with beneficieries from bukit batok boys' home and MINDS. personally, ytd was my 1st session with the bbbh boys (i missed the 1st session due to my weekend shift)

frankly speaking, like what xin min had said, they are really nice boys, just that they had gone on a wrong path. my buddy, jun ling, is a quite a quiet taurus and from our 1st interaction, he seems to be a well-behaved boy. the probs are probably he didnt really think much on the consequences when he does sth. And to be truthful, they are less vulgar than ns guys actually. hahaha!

We had high elements ytd, rope activities at the height of a normal 4th storey. It seems that my buddy was infamous for being afraid of heights and everyone who hears about my buddy told me to work really hard on encouraging him.

on the 1st rope course, the buddy n the volunteer had to hold onto each other while crossing two ropes with some small planks in between them in midair. jun ling was so afraid that he kept shivering and after 3 4 steps, we lost our balance n fell.

on the 2nd rope course, my buddy, due to the previous failure, was even more afraid and was reluctent to even go up to the obstacle. I kept persuading him to do so but he was still hesitating. (and i thought tats it..=() tom then came, after a few words, he ended up "ni3 zhe4 yang4 zi3 fang4 qi4, ni3 gan1 xin1 ma?"

the ni3 gan1 xin1 ma? is really impactful i must say. somehow it strikes into junling's emotions and he decided to give it a try. the 2nd rope course is basically 1 long rope for u to walk on, with some vertical ropes above u for u to hold on too. after jun ling had gone up, his phobia of heights strikes in again and this time he fell even earlier. =/ at the moment of time when he was lowered down to the ground, frankly speaking, i wanted to get down too. Whats the point of me crossing alone when i failed to assist my buddy to complete it?

"Whats the point of winning the battle when you had already lost the war?"

then tom shouted to me, telling me to continuue with the obstacle and after a few seconds of pondering, i decided to just complete it on my own. (apparently the people on the ground were impressed that i managed to complete it on my own. zhiyong said he was watching me doing that. chiki came n congratulated me on being able to complete it alone in a fast pace. mahlen? asked me to dance a victory dance before coming down.) but yeah, all i felt was just failure somehow.

after ytd's session, i learnt that, what matters really is teamwork, teamm success. So what if you alone can do superman acts? only winning the battle itself is pointless actually. the another thing is, i really nid to work hard on motivating skills. yeah. =/ any tips yining? :)

16 aug : Army half marathon 21km

This is the 1st marathon that i had ever run! I must say that other than the waking up at 3.30am to go to the race venue, it had been an enjoyable experience!

summary/impression of my 1st marathon:

a lot of people running together, with half of them listening to mp3 while running

at each certain distance, there will be a waterpoint with volunteers super busy in filling up paper cups with water (and occasionally 100 plus, one of the sponsors)

and at every waterpoint, there will be THOUSANDs of paper cups littered around it. (Great Singapore Litter)

some yaya people will be making phonecalls while running. (zhiyong n i were waiting for kaikeat who started 30 mins later. we called n smsed him quite a few times during the race and apparently 2 uncles recognised us in the middle of the race as the 2 guys who were so free to make calls during a marathon.) -.-

u can actually go msn with ur phone while running a marathon! too bad there really wasnt anyone online at 6+ am

To be continued..