This day I dread most, because I can do nothing.
I never dare to take the risk; not that I’m a coward but the stake is too great.
Your smiles are tattoos in my heart and I can never erase them off.
Rip Curl Beach Volleyball 2008 Was yet another Laughing Stock
I woke up exceptionally early for the Rip Curl beach volleyball competition on a Saturday – last Saturday.
The gang delayed for some time and finally, we met up at Seah Lm Food Centre and the chicken rice stall was still closed to our disappointments. Jingkun was the driver and we reported in early to see the most astonishing volleyball competition event ever.
There were many volleyball courts being set up but almost all of them were reachable at the tips of my fingers when I raised my arms. At the height of 1.64 metres, I estimated the top of the nets were around two metres tall, which was probably meant for primary school kids. With the poles and nets set at such height, skill was definitely not the main factor to victory, and instead, any tall and average player could easily defeat an experienced opponent team.
Rip Curl Beach Volleyball 2008 was yet another laughing stock.
Why would the organisers set up such a beach volleyball competition with such lousy quality poles and nets? They should have organised a beach sepak takraw competition instead.
Every team had to pay a huge amount of price – more than twenty bucks for each member – in order to participle. The goodies bag including the Rip Curl top which probably cost the organisers less than five bucks had a plain white mug with the current Rip Curl’s theme printing was such a great disappointment.
Some participants were probably tank tops collectors but the organisers made it a rule that every player had to put on the new top in order to play; if not for this stupid rule, I would definitely have the top wrapped inside the plastic bag and not adding on a burden to my congested wardrobe. Moreover, the tank top would definitely leave ugly tan lines on everybody under the torching sun.
This event was deemed a total failure to me.
What eventually happened to my team was that the first game was an easy win. We had a close fight in the second game and before we could catch our breath, the emcee announced our team for the next game. We lost totally due to the net. It was almost impossible to block the spike when the opponents played it a distance away from the net and when the height was so dramatically low. The low net made it possible for all incoming balls to travel more horizontally aligned, which was tougher to receive; we were totally not used to such game.
There was no tension for the net at all that there was once when the opponent spike and somehow the ball pushed the net towards me to hit my spectacle off my face. I guessed that was the reason why Rip Curl had to make every participant sign the indemnity form to cover their asses in case any player got injured.
Mingfa’s team was a pity as well. Wilson most probably was not used to playing such immature net. Since not everyone seemed to be giving in full effort, they failed to break the omen as well. In their last game, Mingfa played as spiker instead and he certainly did it much better than anyone else.
The most pitiful thing was that they decided to leave the beach at around noon so that they could go for volleyball during the evening. We went straight to Redhill to collect a car for Mingfa’s friend before going to the ABC market near Queensway for lunch. Seven of us shared a chicken and the meal was quite satisfying.
Our next destination was Vivocity and by then, we were left with Mingfa, Mingli, Weitat and me. We kicked a fuss when Weitat tried to throw his salary away again. We ended the day with Mingfa giving me a ride home and then Weitat and Mingli hit the muffin shop just in time before business was closed for the Saturday afternoon.
An Early Home Volleyball Session
The Teachers’ Day Celebration was dull. I received a couple of presents and cards from students eventually. I was overjoyed not for receiving presents but was more pleased with the fact that some of them had shown appreciation.
What is most important about education is morale after all.
We had our dinner at IMM. Jingkun’s car did us lots of time and energy saving. We met up with Mingfa there and I finally had my Long John Silver’s meal after missing it for a couple of time. This time, I was greedy and had three pieces of chicken instead of the usual cheapo-yet-cost-effective combo one.
Before the volleyball game started, I fell into concussion once again for I had only around two hours of sleep before that.
The few of us seemed to be reluctant to strive hard like usual because of the Rip Curl beach volleyball game the next day. Apart from trying not to wear myself off, I was basically strengthless and my performance declined soon.
It was one of the rare times that I would leave the place early right after nine PM. eventually I got a little frustrated of myself for forgetting to bring my formal wear home after leaving them on the side bench.
Practice Makes Perfect
Last Thursday marked a new historic record of mine – speaking for eight hours with only an hour of break in the middle, and of which, at least two hours was roaring against the crowds.
I was quite surprised that I was able to make it in the end without feeling sore after taking a little rest.
Practice makes perfect.
After all, does it worth? So much for the time and tiredness, so much for the lack of attention, there seems to be some hesitation to the answer.
The Sweetest Job Offer
I have never dreamt of working near my house with a good position status, having higher pay than now even though with just a diploma certificate, working for eight hours daily and last but not listed, having own room to hear knocking on the door and I say “Come in!”.
Overall, the greatest loss is the chance to grow up further more.
If only the offer has come earlier, I would not have promised verbally. Now that my integrity has played a huge part that I cannot go back on my words.
Second Dinner at Chinatown Complex
We had our dinner at Chinatown Complex for the second time last Wednesday. At first, Weitat told me to continue with my own dinner before we parted from work. Jingkun messaged me just in time for me to halt my mum to get takeaway for me.
I waited patiently until eight PM and the holy call finally hit my phone. I continued to slack since they were of a far distance away, until at a point of time I regretted not setting off earlier to get myself some finger food for me to prepare myself in the office when hunger strike me again.
We had sting ray like the previous time. I told the uncle to increase the spiciness and I was glad enough that they found the fish tastier this time. They got some side orders from another stall and the dinner was enjoyable.
Jingkun gave me a ride home and they waited at the car park for me to get some papers for him since he forgot to bring his copy home. When I got down, an auntie was standing by the pillar, staring at the car. She was familiar and I was somehow worried over her, wondering if she had encountered any problem, until my gang told me she was actually behaving weirdly and could be another insanity case.
Muffin Fever
Last Wednesday, my attempt to please my colleagues with the delicious muffins set me in an unfavourable position again.
For the five working days per week, I had to leave my house very early for three days and the pastry shop did not open for the first day of the week. My only chance to get to see the muffin was therefore only every Wednesday.
This day I got some of the smiles on the way to work and had to start behaving sneakily since I could not afford to get many of them. There were too many staffs working inside the same office and that many of them were on good terms with me. It became quite awkward to show favouritism even towards those who had been helping me.
Many people started to tease me for not sharing the muffins with them. Regardless of close friends, mentors, or even those hi-bye colleagues, they repeated the same words that even though they were only making fun of me, but the jokes became so irritating when it was repeated again and again.
I would not be buying any of them anymore.
New Server Setup
I pointed my domain name to the new server without completing the uploading of all files, which had caused problems since the changes were applied.
Access to the control panel (Plesk) was lost and I could not do anything else other than logging into FTP using the direct IP address of Mike’s server.
Since the firewall had set restriction, I could not log into my new control panel at work and thus, had to wait until I got home at late night to re-setup the rest of the sub domains.
I have yet to create the database for my other websites.
It Rained Again at Beach
Sunday’s beach was another disappointment for the rain ruined it completely for us.
It was supposed to be only passing shower as claimed by the weather forecast but somehow the sky did not spare us. So coincidentally that the rain was showing love only the southern part of Singapore again, my weekend did not go accordingly as planned.
We did not even get to finish a game and was chased away by the rain. At least, I was able to get to see Peh after so long.
We bathed inside the open shower inside the toilet while the rain continued to hit on us.
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While waiting outside the washroom, we spotted a illed smoker’s doing to the pond. |
We had dinner at Vivocity’s Central. The mood was pretty good until a waiter came over and tagged me on my shoulder to inform me that no photography was allowed there. It was actually so rude of him to touch me even though his tone was polite.
After that, we did a little shopping before going to Anchor Point to find Mingfa’s shirt. However, Mingli and I got ourselves something inside the G2000 shop while Mingfa left empty-handed. My new short sleeve shirt would allow me to wear less one long sleeve shirt to work every week.
Mingfa gave me a ride home after that.
Ending and Beginning of Webhost
Mike has informed me that he would be terminating the service from his dedicated server’s webhost soon since his website is not making much money anymore; the two-hundred over US dollar web space is too much of a flattery to the low traffic.
Over the past few years, I have been using free services from Ganz, Irwin and Mike, who kindly shared their web space with me. In the end, I use only Mike’s server since it is a dedicated server and that I’m able to use domain masking instead of redirection. I’m also given the privilege of experiencing the settings of the web server.
It is time to try getting my own server, be it a cheap and slower one, I have no other choice.
During setting up period, configuration may cause temporary site offline.