Extraordinary Time

It all happened too quickly. At one point,I was wondering if I was actually dreaming. It just seemed so unbelievable-what a change of fortune in a matter of hours.

Well, it all started when my friends and I had to stay back for co-curricular activities that Wednesday. We had just returned from La Salle after buying our lunch. We were enjoying our food when one of my friends got a call from his dad. After a small conversation, my friend enthusiastically told us that his father had 3 free VIP passes for the Arsenal vs Malaysia match, which was taking place that night. And, he was asking if any of us wanted to join him for the match.

I immediately agreed and told him that I wanted to go. Then, it hit me that I was supposed to get my father's permission. I called him and surprisingly, he agreed. Another friend of mine also agreed to join us. My other friends were a little disappointed for not getting a chance. Their parents were a little strict about going out to far places and there were only 3 tickets.

Around 3.30, I followed my friend back to his house. I couldn't go back to my house because there was no one to send me to his house so that the father could take us to the train station (we planned to go there by train). At his house, I did my biology homework for about half an hour. After that, my friend and I went for a walk around his housing area to get something for tea.When we returned, my other friend who was supposed to join us arrived. We quickly had our tea and muffins and got ready to go for the match.

We had to take 2 trains to the stadium. This was a first time experience on the train to Kl with friends for my friend whose father got the free tickets. So, on the way, I was explaining my experiences on the train for the past 2 years. In the second train, it was getting very crowded as many football fans were travelling to stadium by train as well.

After some hassle, we managed to get to the stadium. It was amazing-the atmosphere. The footballing feel started from the train station itself as many different football items were sold from the station all the way to the stadium. The best one for me was the vuvuzela-like horn. It was so loud and was the perfect tool to create the joy and spirit of football. We got one each and made our way into the stadium.

The matched had already started for 2 minutes when we finally took our seats in the VIP section in the stadium. The moment we sat, Arsenal were awarded a penalty. Aaron Ramsey converted the penalty and sent the keeper the wrong way. By half time, Arsenal were 2-0 up, Theo Walcott got his name on the score sheet.

During the break at halftime, my friends and I decided to get something to eat as we had not had our dinner (we were hungry on the way to the stadium but the excitement just kept us going). Then, we got another surprise when we found out that food was provided for VIP ticket holders. We were delighted and gulped in as much as possible before returning to our seats.

The second half was what the Arsenal fans had been waiting for. Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager substituted the young players who played in the first half with the stars of Arsenal-Van Persie, Arshavin, Vela, Song and a few others. It was really like a dream. Never once had I imagined I would be seeing these players playing football in reality. It was quite unbelievable. The match ended with Arsenal outclassing the local team by score of 4-0.

The best part of the day was right after the match. The players were walking up the staircase ( it was right next to the VIP seat that I was sitting in) to receive their winners medal. And, I actually got a chance to get a handshake from most of the Arsenal players. Again, it was like a dream to have shook hands with Arshavin (he is my most favourite Arsenal player), Walcott, Van Persie and Carlos Vela. I actually slapped myself to check I wasn't dreaming.

After that, we immediately left the stadium to get our tickets to get back home. It was quite a struggle to get my tickets for the train from Bukit Jalil to Bandaraya but I managed to get with the help of a kind man. We boarded the train and walked to Bank Negara station to get our train back home. Bad luck struck us there.

We discovered that the last train had left and the train station was closed. We had no choice but to call my friend's father to come all the way to KL city at 12 midnight. We walked back to Bandaraya station as it would be easier for his father to pick us up. I finally reached home at 1.30-the latest I've come back home after an outing with friends.

What an experience. It was truly amazing to have had the chance to meet Arsenal players face-to-face although I'm a Manchester United fan. Within a few hours, it turned from feeling bored to attend the co-curricular activities in school to feeling excited after shaking hands with world-class footballers. And, the reason I gave this blog post the title Extraordinary Time was because I experienced great football, great food and great girls (of course) !

P.S. I was just joking about the great girls. They were quite average :P

Life In The Middle Of Adjustments

Every year, sports day would be the day I will always look forward to the most. And this year, after my loss during the district level athletics competition, I was really looking forward to clocking a good time for the 400m. However, I soon found out that I wouldn't be able to make amends for my loss this year.

The sports day in my school was supposed to be held on the 28th of July. Then, a major problem occurred. The district education department had planned a test for us where the dates would clash with the date for sports day. Due to this, the school had decided to not allow the Form 5 students to take part in sports day.

Many students and teachers were disappointed with this. So, one of the main teachers in school who was in charge of sports had another discussion with the headmistress to change the dates for sports day. He managed to persuade them to change the dates but that decisions came with a cost. The Form 5 students could take part but 200m and 400m events were scrapped from the sports day program. The only running event for the sports day would be the 100m as sports day was going to be held in my school field which was a little too small for longer events.

Well,I didn't have a choice but to keep my aspirations to clock better times for the 400m for another occasion. So, for this year, I decided to try out some new events-high jump and shot put. I decided to take part in the high jump out of my own will but the decision for shot put was made by my teacher. I couldn't believe when she told me that I would be taking part in the shot put. I'm guessing she chose me based on my performance when I was showing the girls the right technique for shot put using a lighter metal ball.

Anyway, lets get to sports day now. The day started off with the opening ceremony. This year, I was given the chance to say the sports day oath which would be recited every year by the top athlete in school. Since sports day was held in school, the opening ceremony was held in the students assembly point. Well, honestly but sadly, the opening ceremony was my only highlight for this year's sports day.

After the opening ceremony, the honourable guests were asked to check on the tent decorations of all the sports houses. By one look, even you would have agreed with me that the blue house was the clear winner. They had spent a lot of time and energy to prepare all the decorations to decorate their tent. Their theme was pirates and they made ships and sea creatures from polystyrene and made them to stand upright using sticks.

My first event was the shot put. I was pretty excited to participate as it was my first time and I knew that I was surely going to be the thinnest participant. My first throw was disqualified as the metal ball was touching my palm before I threw it. I corrected my technique and managed to throw for another 2 times. After the first three throws, my participation in the competition ended as I didn't make it to the second round. On the positive side, I didn't finish last as I threw further that some of the big sized boys. Yeah! :P

Next up was the high jump. I joined this event just for the experience and fun. I stuttered during my first jumped and my legs hit the bar. It was the same story throughout the competition. I did clear 2 different heights but both of them were not on my first try. The problem was, I hadn't mastered the technique to jump. I could project my body high but I always jumped too early or my leg would hit the bar on the way down. Eventually, I bowed out a happy man knowing I had gained some good experience.

I was quite disappointed at first when I found out that I wouldn't be able to run the 200m and 400m in possibly my last year in secondary school. But, I managed to put that aside and take up new challenges. In life, everything just doesn't go our way every time. We just have to learn to adjust. I had a great time adjusting and this year's sports day will be one that will always be in my memory.........

A Day Of Mischief

OK,I'll tell you this. I was expecting to have some fun that day but little did I suspect that it would turn out to be very fine day. Well,I can say that it was the best day of the year for me so far.

This year,due to the increasing cases of diabetes and other health-related problems among school students, the Malaysian government had decided to implement a sports program that would last throughout the year. The 1Student 1Sport 1Malaysia run was one of the events on the sports calender this year. Basically, it was a a 2.7 kilometre run that every school student had to take part in.

Since no prizes were awarded for the students (it wasn't supposed to be a race, it was just a health program), my friends and I decided that we run together throughout the course. The problem was,not all of us were athletes and it was sure that not everyone could have run continuously for the whole 2.7 km. However, we didn't really have a solution to that until the day itself.

That day,when everyone started running, my friends and I decided to become the last ones to start running. However, we found that most people were actually walking right from the start. So, as soon as we got out from the school compound, we started jogging. Then, all of a sudden, my friend got a idea to make our day fun.

He suggested that we sit down in front of La Salle school by the road in a group. See, our plan for the day was to have loads of fun and attract as much attention as possible. So,we sat down and started chanting some words which were attracting a lot of attention from the students. Then, we started singing our school song. It was the weirdest thing to do at that moment because our school song was the most boring and longest song ever and wasn't suitable for a happy event like that. But, we loved the fact that people were laughing at us the whole time.

After that, we decided to continue running to continue our fun in another place. The next stop was in front of some one's house. We did the same thing. We sat down and started chanting some names. I'm sorry to disappoint you but I can't reveal what we chanted because I think it would be inappropriate to be written on this blog post. Again, we were attracting loads of attention. Some La Salle boys were quite jealous of our bravery but they couldn't do anything about it. We took a group picture here.

Now, it was time to add some spice and flavour to our day. As we continued running, I started ringing the doorbells of the houses we passed by. My friends were shocked at what I did first but they then found it fun and followed what I did. The thing was,being a prefect in school, I never had a chance to do naughty things in school. So, I wasn't going to waste my opportunity this time.

Next up, we stopped a some one's house again. This time,I suggested we do planking and one of my friends suggested we do snow angels on the ground. We started off with snow angels. One of my friends decided to take a video. Then, it was time for my planking. I was so amazed by how crazy planking sounded that I really wanted to do it. So,I asked my friend to take a video of me planking. However, after I lied face down on the floor, my friends decided to jump on me. I hurt my chin and we had a good laugh about it. And.......the video turned out to be "Planking Gone Wrong"!

As we neared the primary school that most of us studied in, we decided to sit together on the compound walls of the school. We climbed up one by one and posed for a picture. Moments after that, two of my Form 4 friends took my shoes and ran off. I couldn't chase them as I knew that I would hurt my feet if I ran barefoot on the road. One of the teachers became angry at our naughtiness and scolded us. Then, I explained to her that this was our last year year in school and we wanted to enjoy our day. Surprisingly, she somehow accepted our reason.

We were almost reaching the end when we saw a signboard that reminded motorists to slow down as students would usually cross that road after school. Then, one of my friends suggested that we follow the instruction and walk in slow motion. It sounds pretty dumb and stupid but we kinda had fun trying to walk in slow motion in the middle of the road while everyone else was staring at us. After that, another crazy idea cropped up and we decided to army crawl on the ground. It was painful but very fun to act crazy.

When we finally reached our school, we were quite tired although the course was only 2.7 kilometres. We spent all our energy chanting words and doing crazy stuff along the way. It may sound stupid and crazy for some of you readers, but with my bunch of friends, the craziest things are always the best things we can ever do together.......

First Time, Fine Time

Since I was young,I've always liked meeting new people and making friends with them.I always love to learn about how different people take command of their daily lives and participate in their cultural activities.I really want to discover what life has to offer for others who live a very different life from me.And,recently I got another chance to meet new people when my teacher selected me to represent my school in the chemistry explorace that was held by the district education department.

It was my first time taking part in an explorace outside school.It was actually a co-academic event for chemistry.They had the explorace and the chemistry quiz. From the four of us that represented my school that day,two of us(including me) were taking part in the explorace and the other two were taking part in the quiz.

We reached the venue for the event,SMK Taman Klang Utama pretty early as there weren't many participants there at the time we arrived.After registration,we were made to wait a little while before given a short briefing on the rules and regulations of the competition. Then,the teacher in charge instructed the participants for the quiz to move to the science labs for the quiz.

For the explorace,all the participants were randomly placed into groups. I was placed in group 3.Surprisingly and luckily,one of my friends from another school was placed in the same group as me.So,it turned out to be easy to start making friends with my group members as I already had one whom I could talk with.

The explorace wasn't like a race at all.The winner wasn't decided by who finished the fastest but the group which accumulated the most amount of points from the 10 checkpoints. I wasn't surprised at all about the slightly different rules as I knew that participants that usually took part in such activities were usually the bookworms.

The explorace was really fun.We were wow-ed by the uniqueness of the explorace at the first checkpoint itself.At that checkpoint, we had to build models of the structure of carbon compounds using plasticine and toothpicks.This is when our teamwork kicked off.It was very easy to work together with my group members because all of us were pretty much the cool type and were there just to have some fun.

Besides that,we had to solve crossword puzzles,write down chemical formula of various substances,draw carbon compounds,draw experiment set ups and even fill in the blanks.Don't be deceived by the names,especially fill in the blanks,as that was one of the trickiest challenges we had to go through.We had to fill in the blanks for the experiment to identify certain salts.Again,we managed to work as a team to group together all our knowledge and complete the challenge.

Then,at one of the checkpoints,we were penalised for bad handwriting.It was a very easy task to complete.The thing was,if we could complete the task in less than half the amount of time allocated for the task,we would be given bonus marks.So,one of my friends filled up the blanks quickly.However,the teacher at the checkpoint said that his writing was not clear and cut almost half the marks for the the task.Luckily,the bonus marks we got for the quick finish helped cover up a little for the marks lost.

After we had completed all the tasks,we were quite satisfied with our performance as a team.We were all quite happy and knew that we had given our best to enjoy that day.My group leader felt a little responsible for not propelling the team even further.But,I told her that it was OK since we had a lot of fun.However,none of us knew of the surprise that was awaiting us about 2 hours in the future.

It was the prize giving ceremony.They started off with the prizes for the explorace winners. I was expecting a 3rd or 2nd place finish.Somehow,I was feeling that 1st place was a little too far for my group.Then,when they announced the 3rd and 2nd place winners,I felt my hopes going up in ashes as my group was not called out to receive prizes.Then,as they were about to announce the winner,I was filled with anxiety as my eyes and ears were totally focused on the emcee.

When they announced my group as the winner for the explorace,I got up so quickly from my chair due to excitement and joy and shook the hand of my group member who was the nearest to me.We went up after our leader to receive our trophies.In addition to that,my school became the overall winners for the day as my other 3 schoolmates won prizes as well.

I had to admit that it was a great day in the end. One of the main reasons it turned out to be great was because I wanted to have fun and forget about the hectic school life.I won a lot of things that day.The prizes were at the bottom of the list based on importance.I learned to make new friends in a short time and I learned how nice people can be when we all do something for the reason of having fun.So next time,when you think of doing something,remember that life is short and try to make use of every opportunity you get to have fun to the max........