photos of arran are up although i've no time to write about them yet. ;p check them out here
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gee... i miss VJ.. was having dinner at Rajesh's place today... and reminiscing those times together with Allan & Zhongyi (a pseudo-Victorian)... and of course laughing at Raj trying to do mass dance... =X
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being away in cambridge means missing out all the stuff happening in london... hmmz... if only cambridge was much closer to london, then i won't feel so lost about what's happening to my friends in london.....

ok, i'm FINALLY just about fully packed. what began as a leisurely paced, arranging things neatly in the trunk compartment soon became a stuffing competition at the end and the last few items were literally forced in and any small holes were soon plugged. it's amazing how much stuff i've managed to accumulate in just 2 terms. Last term, my trunk compartment was just about right to fit all my stuff. This term, it's the trunk compartment plus a bag of books (at least 10kg), my fridge, my steamboat + my ironing board in the trunk room upstairs. I can't imagine what it'll be like at the end of 3 years. HMMz. ok. i'm quite tired. doesn't help that the clocks here go forward by one hour in 37 minutes' time. *frownz*

sorry, it seems i didn't manage to find time to write an entry on Arran today. it was quite tough trying to squeeze packing, shopping, laundry, running, chatting, relaxing, working, emails and more in one day. alright then. hope everyone is well. start tagging! =) take carez!

i'm back! from the scottish pulau ubin! will write real soon, once i get my stuff unpacked and sorted out! =)

Ok.. I'll be gone from Cambridge in about 8 hours time. Be off on a Geology field trip to Arran. And it being a Geology field trip, I can't be sure if I'll have access to a computer for the next 9 days. *frownz* Unless of course, we stumble upon a jurassic-age computer. ;p I'm praying for real good weather and real good company as well. *keeps fingers crossed*

I'll be back on the 24th of March, be around for the weekend before heading off again... I'll write more when I return on the 24th. I think I should be able to blog from my handphone though. I THINK. *rolls eyes* Ok. here's to SUNNY ARRAN. ciao peeps!

i guess you're wondering what the strange funny acronym the title is... it's actually Women's Eights Head of the River Race... this race was held on the Thames River (which i'm told is supposed to be pronounced Tam-s rather than Tames.. ;p)

Anyway, this is my second race outside Cambridge and a very different one from Bedford.. For two main reasons:
1. The Thames is sooooooooooooo much wider than River Cam... haha.. we can proabably fit 10 boats rowing side by side compared to just 3 on River Cam at the widest point...
2. The Thames is a tidal river... ie. it is affected by the tides quite significantly. So trick for me this time is to try and get onto the "stream" where the river flow is the greatest. Those who studied Geography before should know about this. But when you're actually on the river, all you can do is guess and feel... And it isn't also true that the outer corners have the fastest flows cos of deposition, etc etc.

So on the whole, it was quite a challenging river to cox. Lots of things to take note of. Very fun though. The race was a pretty big event too.. I mean even the Dutch NATIONAL team was there! and they were even in the same holding room as us. How cool is that! and there was also the Great Britain composite crew i think... And i suppose having 280 boats racing is also another indicator. ;p

After the race and rowing back to the boathouse we boated from... Claudia looking quite stressed still... Putney bridge in the background

A slightly better shot... Smiling crew.. Nice rowing.. (almost)

How did we do for the race? We came in 91st position out of the 265 boats that completed the race (4.8 miles i think) and 11th in the S4 category we were racing in (out of 65 boats in the category), so i guess you can say we did fairly well, although i'm sure we could have pushed harder though....

Anyway, I think Churchill College is like the VJ in Singapore in terms of college spirit. Everyone who was from Churchill is so passionate about Churchill. When we were racing in London, at least 3 people came to wish us luck and proudly proclaimed that they were from Churchill College before. And in terms of college spirit, i think we're pretty united too. I guess that's what you get from being further from everyone else. =)

Some other stuff that happened this week was the CUMSA End-of-term Bop which happened on Thursday and also the first event that my committee organised. I must say I was quite glad with the event and turnout, considering there was only two days notice, and everyone certainly worked hard to get their friends to come down for the event. =) And I'm so glad that I have the committee I have, because everyone has such good ideas and genuinely wants to make a difference. What more can i ask for? *grinz*

Tomorrow will be the dinner with DPM Wong in London, Tuesday will be our 2nd event - Film Night, Wednesday is the last day of term, and Thursday i'll be off to Arran! What a(nother) busy week!

[Anyway, i hope everyone is well and fine. I'm sorry i haven't had much time to chat with people online. There's so much work and things to do. I've also removed the cupids at the request of Pierre.. haha.. i hadn't noticed they were still floating around.. oops.. pun pun.. haha.. take carez!]

i'll write tomorrow! promise! after i get some rest that is. i'm REALLY tired now. Got loads of stuff to write about though, so just hang in there! i know everyone's getting quite impatient now..... sorry!!!

keke.. i'll go get some rest now and i'll produce a wonderful entry tomorrow. (hopefully) ;p

Day 3 - 3 Mar 06
Chasing: Pembroke
Chased by: Selwyn

So it was a really beautiful day to be rowing... nice clear blue skies... birds singing (my crew will have gotten sick of this phrase... ;p) But anyway, we all knew this was gonna be the day if we wanted a bump... It's amazing how stressful bumps are, even for a cox... or rather, more so for the cox... I swear I dreamt of bumping Trinity Hall the morning before... and then i was phasing out during lectures thinking about how was gonna cox and give calls for the race... it can get quite consuming...

So back to the race, we got on to a good start, gaining about half a length onto Pembroke. Although we expected to bump them much earlier, they managed to hold us off for a longer distance than we thought they would. Steered a good corner round Grassy Corner , and I swear i bumped them once before we pushed off towards them again, and after their 7 rower bumped our bow a couple of times, they finally conceded when 7's blade got caught under our boat... We BUMPED. =)

On hindsight, I felt quite sorry for bumping them though... The girls from Pembroke looked really dejected and disappointed. I could tell they were trying really hard.... But i guess C'est La Vie..

Day 4 - 4 Mar 06
Chasing: Girton
Chased by: Pembroke

Well, we all knew that this last race was going to be a tough one, considering it's the last race for everyone and everyone will be giving their all. So our race strategy was to race well, and if we get a bump on Girton, then good job, otherwise, we'll just row really well. And indeed, we did row really well. Not much competition from behind us though, cos Selwyn bumped Pembroke, and in front of us, Girton was pushing really hard to get away from us and getting their revenge on Trinity Hall. But in the end, Churchill, Girton and Trinity Hall all rowed over, so i guess it was a sort of "happy ending" for everyone.

Got myself worried round first post corner though. I steered a corner SOOOOOOOO tight that our blades was brushing against the grass along the banks, and if I had gone like 2 cm more, we'd have hit the banks. I just prayed for the best as we came round the bend... =) But thankfully, that proved to be the tightest corner anyone could've ever done.... ;p

VIDEO <- short clip of us rowing round first post corner REALLY nicely.. =)

Boat Club Dinner
It's a tradition to have a boat club dinner at the end of the races of each term, and for this term, this meant the Lent Bumps. It's my first boat club dinner considering i missed the one last term and I flew off to France right after term ended.. =X

So well, it's my first boat club dinner, and I must say I really enjoyed it.. What's with the "boat races" round the table (basically, someone proposes a challenge to another "team", eg: M1 challenging W1, and then we stand on our chairs with our wine glasses, and someone counts down, as in a boat race, and then we start drinking, relay style and see which team wins... ;p) and what's with the speeches, etc... It's really nice.. Feels nice to be part of a big family in college... =) And then we also pass our boat club menus (which have our names on it) round the table for people to autograph in it... it's a really nice way to end the term...

And here are a couple of photos from the night:
A nice photo I thought.. Height nicely arranged too... ;p (L to R) Barbara the "teeny girl big bag", Sarah the King, Emily "crabophobia" Schwartz, Noel "I'm so excited" Bakthian, and me! =)

The midgets photograph.. I really like this photo.. really amusing... Ok... this is actually the COXES photograph... ;p although being small is quite a pre-requisite for being a cox.. but then again, SMALL is GOOD! The three people behind are just there so as to make a contrast... hmmz...

Well, i'm glad bumps are over, and i'm gonna try and be catching up on work now... Really really tired now, i'm off to bed... Nitez peeps!

pS: more photos available here btw...

Here's the report for Lent Bumps at the end of Day 2...

Day 1 - 1 Mar 06
Chasing: Trinity Hall
Chased by: Christ's

We were rather unprepared when the start cannon (yes, cannon) went off. But we manged to get off to a good start still, and caught up with Trinity Hall by about half a boat's length. But Trinity Hall sensing the bright pink crew catching up, managed to pull away. Round grassy corner, it was evident that the cluster of three boats - Trinity Hall, Girton & Pembroke, ahead of us were gonna get a bump between the two of the three boats. Sadly for Trinity Hall, Girton bumped Pembroke before they could get Girton and had to get round and continue to row on (I reckon they were really pissed.. haha). Although the Churchill crew pushed really hard, we kept a constant distance from Trinity Hall down the Reach to row over the finish unscathed. It was not a bad race generally, although there was room for improvement. =)

Day 2 - 2 Mar 06
Chasing: Trinity Hall
Chased by: Selwyn

A very relaxed and happy stern 4 just before the race... =)

So having benefitted from the experience from Day 1, we got off to an even better start today. We got pretty close to Trinity Hall at some point just after the start before them pulling away again, them managing to bump Pembroke just around the first post corner, resulting in me having to steer round the carnage to go for the overbump on Girton instead.

The Churchill W1 rowing nicely round Grassy Corner. =)

Having gone onto the reach, we got to within 3 boat lengths of Girton but kept that distance rowing down the Reach. And we rowed across the finish once again, unscathed. And Selwyn, who was chasing us, rowed over sometime later too.
But it was generally much better rowing today technically, keeping a constant distance from Girton even though we were under-rating them. I'm sure we'll do much better tomorrow and get our first bump for Lents... We're chasing Pembroke tomorrow... Wish us luck! =)