And then as you walk along, you think of the many memories you have had as a kid, growing up, finding yourself in the shoes of your parents who have held your hand while you were young, along the shore at a trip to the beach.
Then suddenly, your son/daughter asks, “Daddy, when you were young, what was one thing that you really enjoyed the most?”
What would you answer?

For me,
I answered: “I would say that I enjoyed my youth the most.” But then I added, “Your youth is the best thing in life that can ever happen to you, treasure it well while it lasts and as you grow up, you will find those beautiful memories of your youth a joy, a serenity, and one that lasts for as long as you live.”
It is indeed hard to comprehend the reality that I’m growing up, soon to be an adult, and soon to take on the challenges that life has thus specially reserved for adults. Actually I’m more or less starting to learn how to take up some of these challenges in the things I do these days: earning my own living so that I no longer need to depend on my parents for daily expenses, learning how to deal with different types of people all around and so much more. As much as I don’t want to accept the reality that I am finally becoming a full-fledge adult, I know it is only a matter of time before I actually do so. Besides, awareness of being near-adult would definitely do me great benefits and most importantly, ensure I continue to learn and mature myself.

And I think it would do me good to acknowledge that it is almost time that I bear the challenges, the burdens and the responsibilities that come with being an adult, take today for instance. I was very tired, yet I found myself being so whiny, as if I was a four-year old kid and I complained and complained about the task which was frankly difficult given the enormity of the task and that I have a serious lack of manpower. Even then I should not be complaining but rather just shut up all the whining and focus and just get the job done. Something to learn from it, adding on to Uncle Robert’s advice, “Don’t think about the problems, just think about doing the job, one at a time and steadily.” I must learn to not complain but rather work to get things done efficiently. There are many things that I am still learning, but working this job is quite an interesting yet enriching experience despite the nonsense and the tiring tasks at hand.

It’s pretty late but I will blog a bit more; Sorry just killed this gigantic cockroach that decided to impersonate a beetle and then scare me. Anyway it’s been busy for the past two days; I’ve been fervently washing, cleaning and replacing the self-bailers for 20 Laser dinghies that we are gonna charter for two regattas in Langkawi (and I’m following as well..). It’s only one part of the whole packing process and there’s still a lot to go. Gonna be very busy these few days before I fly off to Langkawi most probably next week. I should have been asleep by now but then I wanted to finish this blog post although I feel a sense of frustration and annoyance because it wasn’t as good as the one I typed yesterday thanks to the stupid things WordPress does to my posts. Better take precautions today.

I managed to sail on the second day of Chinese New Year in a good breeze on the Radial: Was a good decision to take the Radial since I was so fat and unfit and although I could handle the Radial somewhat I struggle initially and slightly throughout. Imagine if I was on a Standard Rig, the amount of hell is blown up to epic proportions. But the training was good, and as it did, it brought out some things that need my attention due to the unacceptable levels of rustiness. But I guess it would most probably be the last of any trainings I can do because of my business trip to Langkawi so yeah. I will be training in full force though when I come back, to get ready to try for what could be possibly be the last time in being crowned National Youth Champion.

Okay it’s about time I go to bed. I’m really tired and I’m up early tmr. See ya!

I keep finding it pretty annoying that my inspiration to blog is fickle; it comes and goes whenever it wants to and more often than not it comes at wrong timings. I can’t fault it though because the inspiration always arise whenever significant or thought-provoking scenarios play out to me and I find myself in the midst of something which I am then unable to write down or able to keep that inspiration long enough to blog a great post.

But anyway, today after a long hiatus, I finally got myself into training mode: I went back out on the water to train for an hour in the light winds.
I was only available to take a Radial rig out because I was using Daryl’s boat and he sails a Radial. That aside, I decided after watching Jon Emmett’s rigging video multiple times, it was time I gave it a try as well. And so I did. I took a long while to rig it up, because it was the first time in many months I had properly rigged up a Laser with a racing set-up and besides I was trying out new things so it took a while. After a change of clothes, shades and cap on, life jack on and off I went, launching into the still green water, with the Sun’s shining (and HOT) light reflected in many flecks.

I went out on the water without any definite targets set: Being my first time back on the water (the sail-off at last month’s Monthly In-House Race is not counted as a proper sailing session), I definitely didn’t want to ease straight away into training so I decided I should aim to get back my fell of the boat and everything and see how everything goes. It was pretty light, perhaps close to zero knots but out there were better winds I could see so I thought: Okay, let’s aim to learn and practise looking for wind. And so I did. It was hard initially because being quite rusty it was very difficult to gain control of the boat. But once I finally did settle down, I started off by sailing around close to shore to get the boat accelerating to speed and ensuring I stayed in the gusts. When I got a bit more confident, I set out for a long sail down and away from the NSRCC Sea Sports Centre where Constant Wind’s based at. It was pretty good I would say; the gusts makes it a more enjoyable sail and today I could say I was pretty satisfied although I realise my tacks and gybes were way off and also my mark roundings as well, they were quite terrible. I did more upwinds than downwinds, one thing was because I was still getting the feel of things and also I wanted to see how my upwind would fare. Light winds is my serious weakness and I need to tackle that head-on if I want to be fighting hard alongside the national squad. I did do one long downwind though, was catching the opportunity to go out as far as I can, the only thing stopping me was the concern I might not be able to return on time.

And when I did have that concern, I stopped the boat, looked back and thought to myself: Okay it’s now 10.15 AM, let’s see if I can get back there by 10.30 AM. And off I went on the upwind, looking to reach back shore arounf 10.30 AM.
I reached shore around 10.35 AM, although by 10.30 I was already just outside, deciding to do a mark rounding to really assess how bad it was, which didn’t turn out so well since it all the more confirmed its relative rustiness. And then I washe dup and got back straight into work.
It was a good session although I wished it lasted more than an hour because the wind was improving. But nevertheless I was really happy I got the chance to train. I guess right now I need to continue watching more videos, read more books, visualise more and then practise more!
I managed to buy my new clothes and shoes too, pretty successful for some last-minute shopping I suppose?

Anyway I will be soon heading over to Langkawi as pat of my job: Seems quite cool for a part-timer. I will be dealing with the outlet that Constant Wind will be setting up there as well as handle the charter boats which we are chartering for two back-to-back regatta that will be held in Langkawi, particularly the Asian Sailing Championships.
And these two days that I’m not working, I hope to get myself a good rest so that I will feel recharged to do the entire packing for Langkawi! It’s about 20 boats plus equipment, spare parts, tools and so on that we are bringing over so it’s quite a logistical nightmare I have since I will be mostly involved and in charge of the project! Hope I’m able to take off for a full day on Friday though: I wanna go visit Cheryl at Coffee Bean @Parkway Parade and I wanna visit Renee at Cold Storage @ Bugis. I also wanna head down to Mana Mana Surf Shop to collect my shipment!

Okay about time I have a rest. It’s getting late. Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

I have been very busy these days, with the conclusion of the SIM Windsurfing Championships and the 31st SIM Singapore Open Asian Windsurfing Championships today, it culminated all the tiring days that I had spent working, but working sai kang work, which I must admit frankly isn’t very enjoyable. As it turned out, not a single day did I spent working these few days was a happy one; indeed I found myself complaining a fair lot but still grudgingly getting the commonly last-minute tasks done as soon as possible. And to add on, working at F&B yesterday and today was hell worse too, especially today since there was the ending party and closing ceremony for the championships which made it so hard to tend to the throng of customers that kept coming. Good for business, but not so for a business with a lack of manpower.

I was down in spirit though.
Down because yesterday, my dream of going to the Olympics in 2016 was majorly crushed this year.
I was not only unable to garner full support from my parents, I also realise many plans that I thought of were far-fetched and unrealistic. I remembered an important rule on the way to success: NEVER set goals that are too ambitious and too long term; it increases the impact of any failure on our morale and makes it a lot more harder to achieve those targets we set along the way.
But then that my parents gave me full but reluctant support is not enough, and also I felt that they exhibited a chracteristic that I never liked: Being too over-protective. Despite me being close to adulthood, the conversation that took place between my parents and me over my dream were hard, because one thing, they are really against it, like every other Singaporean parent who will go like, “Why do this? No point la, go save up for your uni.” and all that nonsense. There was also the concern over financial issues which would seem reasonable becuase judging by the amount of equipment and gear plus funding for training and in particluar funding for the training cum racing trip to Oman this March, I would really spend a huge sum which unfortunately is not readily available for me.
In a fit of sadness, I said I will scrap plans to buy a Laser, which negotiations had been going fine till the conversation yesterday with my parents. I also told them that I will definitely scrap the trip to Oman, in which Daryl was pretty stunned by my sudden U-turn over this since he knows of my dream.

So what now?

It’s a question that took up my mind all day, from the taxi ride to work, to now while I’m blogging.
While my dream has been indeed majorly crushed, it still lingers with remnants; which means it hasn’t completely died. I will take time to think real hard about it while I just continue working and then perhaps taking some off days to ease myself a fair bit from the demands of working.
Right now though I am looking into other sports, notably darts, and kiteboarding. You didn’t see it wrong; I do wanna do these two sports.
I’ve always been fascinated by darts and watching occasional periods of world darts championships feels me with exhilaration on the throws and the intensity of the crowd watching your every shot and so on. Couple it with a small despite insginificant time of playing darts back at SAFYC where I could bullseye quite a fair bit, you have an interested player. In fact, I’m looking to buy a dart board with my set of darts and then practise at home. I want to play it recreationally for now, but I’m pretty sure the allure of competition will soon come its way.
Next, I thought it would be indeed cool to be doing kite-boarding which is surfing using a special kind of kite. I thought if sailing didn’t go my way, at least I wanna be a good kite-boarder and go for PRKA World Cup in the long term, but right now I want to learn it first to see how well I can go with it. Haven’t started on it yet but sooner or later.

Since I made up my mind to cancel the trip to Oman, means I can more or less start applying for ym driving licenses, for vehicle and powered pleasure craft. Shall do so as soon as I get my pay and then start booking lessons!

Okay I guess it’s about time for me to sleep. It’s been a long day. Goodnight then. I will blog again pretty soon.

“Why is the world becoming so complicated?“

Google as usual gave a whole lot of serach results. Although some of them did give pretty decent answers, it failed to turn out the convincing and applicable answer that I was looking for. And is it indeed sad I can’t.

It is indeed sad that the world is turning so complicated and yet there seems to be no viable solution to reverse the growth of complications in the world; I feel it’s like a ticking time bomb. It’s only a matter of time before we find ourselves in a huge fix.

I ran out of inspiration to blog after typing that sentence. The fatigue I’ve been having these few days and the many thoughts in my head is draining me out. But at least I wanted to blog that. Sorry I really need to find an off day, having worked everyday since 1st December last year is not a joke at all to comprehend with. Only then do I think will I have the inspiration to keep blogging.

Many thoughts, many indecisive moments, let’s cut down on those too.

I was bringing home a list of boats, charter Lasers from the 2008 Olympics and the 2010 4.7 World Championships, as I was going to do up a revised list in response to the messiness. I look at the page-long list of serial numbers and being me, I naturally tend to start thinking how I wish I had money to buy one of these boats for my own, with no problems towards getting it ready and so on.
But right now, I’m about to start negotiations for a decent second-hand boat. Like what Paul Goodison used to say in his book, a decent second-hand boat can be as good as a new one by paying attention to some details and more importantly, training hard. I have inspected the boat finally and apart from washing and some upgrading, I see a decent boat waiting for its potential to be tapped on. It’s a regatta-winning boat and all the more I must make good use of it while I still can. Now comes the part of how I’m gonna get it.

I’m also thinking of getting contacts, so that I can get the opportunity to wear a pair of Oakley Radar sunglasses. I have always wanted a pair ever since I set my eyes on it and I have always wanted it to be of a particular colour, likewise the lens as well. I don’t want it to be very expensive though considering the staggering amount I’m gonna find myself spending pretty soon. Someone suggested going to Johor Bahru to buy. Good suggestion, will they have what I want?? I really hope so; it would be such a major boost to me.

I’m tired, time for me to sleep! Tomorrow I will be up earlier to head down to warehouse before going to work, to run an errand. And negotiations start tomorrow too. I’m hoping things go my way, but my experiences from the attempt to gain a sponsorship, I must always be ready for anything that can happen.

Goodnight!

The weeks leading to today, I had been relatively busy, playing with hand flares up on the roof of Constant Wind to mark the New Year, rushing through paper work and toiling the hard work that Operations usually take charge of.
I can recall I made resolutions back in 2011, but this year, I’m goinna do something for a change, knowing that it’s not easy to fulfill all my resolutions if I’m setting unrealistic and very long term goals without any short term feeder ones.
I’m only gonna set myself two resolutions for until May. Yup.

The first one’s pretty simple: With a whole lot of regattas coming up and my 12-day racing-cum-training trip to Oman in March, it’s about doing well in my sailing and hopefully enter the National squad by then in addition to doing my best to win the Mussanah Sailing Week if I can.It will do a whole of good to my confidence.

I’m looking really really very forward to this trip. It will be my first time sailing overseas and it’s good to get to know the sailing cultures of different countries and Oman is a place I never been to, making it the first time I’m gonna sail in a Middle Eastern environment, another first for me again. And it would be real good to share tips and pointers with the Omani Laser Squad which is one of the highlights that attracted me to this, along with attending World Number 2 Nick Thompson’s clinic. MUST REMEMBER TO TAKE A PICTURE PLUS AUTOGRAPH WITH HIM.

The second one’s is to get into a university and the course of my choice. Of course I really hope I can although I do have a large worry about my results. Yeah the second resolution is like climbing a mountain with a cloud layer. After I climb through the cloud layer would I then know the extent of how much I need to go to attain the resolution.

Frankly speaking, amidst enjoying to some extent my job, a part of my mind is always set aside, worrying about what’s gonna happen when I see my results and I really do worry about my results. I know my efforts in preparation were not good enough so I’m prepared to face the music. Even then I really worry how bad the music would be. But right now, my mind’s only on my work and three regattas.

It seems strange that 3 regattas will be on my mind, okay let’s make it 2 instead. I’m not sure if I can enter the third one. Yeah but this 3 regattas are the one currently occupying my mind, which is why I am looking ahead already by starting to plan out my training schedule with my new training partner Manfred and then starting to figure what equipment I’m gonna use on the boat. I cycled to NSC today not just to find out some information but I was also hoping to try get a glimpse of the boat but couldn’t find it. Guess I have to wait and see then.

Okay I think I blogged enough for today, can’t find much to blog today, I hope I can so by the next blog post!
Need to write up my to-do book for a list of things to do tmr. It’s gonna be one long day..
And Friday is gonna be Clam Chowder time with Ralph and Ee Shuan. Looking real forward to seeing them after quite a long while.

Till then catch you later!

Okay I apparently got quite annoyed that the rest of the original post was erased after that point. I was literally fuming because the original post was really quite good.
But never mind, I will try my best.

Anyway I recalled as the title suggests, that I have many doubts. I’ve been feeling troubled as of late. Yesterday was no different; I found myself close to breaking down at times. I have plenty of things which I have doubts over.
The one main thing I am certain though was my initial and still lingering doubt whether I still want to go ahead and fight for the sole Olympic spot in 2016.

I think lately this thought had been lingering because of my apparent unfitness and a worry that I will not be able to reproduce the form when I was in my prime back in the year 2010. That form was definitely the best form so far in my sailing career, a medal winning one, and a form I need in order to progress to the next level, of arming myself with a war chest of tactical tricks and then applying it to the main stage on my way to conquering that dream. That form is also what I will need to learn how to beat, at least for the moment, the Russians, Alexandre Nikolaev (2005 Masters Champion in the Radial including a number of top 3 positions in numerous Master Worlds)  and his son Maxim, a future star in the making. To demonstrate what I meant, I must train like they do, in which they train almost everyday. I mean it literally; without fail, I would find the Nikolaevs rigging up and then going out on the water, training. Despite the occasional self-questioning of how Maxim can sustain such a routine with studying, it nevertheless serves as a timely reminder that practice is of essence, and I must train almost everyday, for a few hours, to make up lost ground.

Right now it’s 4 days left to the year’s end. 4 days I need to decide whether I want to go all out in conquering the dream I had harboured all these years. Because I don’t want any doubts to hold me back as I go on the pursuit; when I go all out, I’m going to put all my energies, whatever I can spare at least till NS first towards the marathon to glory. Come the new year of 2012, without any doubts left, I will buy my boat and practise hard. Without hesitation I will start planning for my March training-cum-racing trip to Oman, working hard at Constant Wind to save up and train hard and also buying the air tickets to Oman no doubt, despite a concern over the release of my A Level results. That wont matter though, I can always circumvent that problem.
So this 4 days, I will think long and hard about it.

Another concern I’m having is over the relationships I’m having with my friends, but that one is still something I’m thinking about. Yup.

I’ve a headache, and I think I wanna go rest it. It’s pretty annoying that had the original post not have majority of its content deleted, I wouldn’t have to type a replacement which is not as impressive. Never mind that now.
Time to rest my headache. Good night all, I will blog again soon.

My assistant manager Daryl’s on leave, hence I’m stepping in to help him sort out some of his matters while he’s on vacation in Penang, although I must say with two calls in two consecutive days he might not be really able to enjoy his holiday. Hmmm there’s nothing much I can do.
But doing some of his matters is not easy I must say, making it a better understanding of how busy he is. And it also serves to stress the point of how one must be really responsible and on the ball at all times in a business kind of thing. It’s these kind of things that give you the experience and makes work so challenging, tiring as well as unpredictable.

Anyway away from that, I find myself at a dilemma
I find that each time I come home from work, I find myself using the computer into the late hours of the night and then going to sleep. It’s a routine that I can’t live without, but it’s also a routine I find necessary because of the work that I need to do sometimes. It can be amazing for someone like me I can have plenty of work to do on the computer. Let me show you just one example: My work. I do daily records of how long I work, from what time to what time, how long is my break, no. of hours and how much I’m paid. This is to facilitate my keeping track of my salary although I’m not sure how it’s counted by the accounts manager Karen. Sometimes, I bring home work to do from the office so that the next day would be an easier day and also there’s the occasional update to my Olympic campaign database. See what I mean? I’m a busy man, and for now remain a busy man.

That workload’s gonna increase soon since I’m in charge of a certain Year-End Sale which has yet to start so yeah. Also, this reminds me that with 10 days left to the start of the New Year, I better do proper planning of my training schedule so that everything will go on smoothly for the year 2012. In addition I think from next year on I’m going to like come down super early to train in the morning everyday before I work.
Which suddenly reminds me of something important:

I have yet,

TO GET A BOAT.

Yes I have yet to get a boat. In response to that I’m waiting for Daryl to return so that I can go have a look at a prospective boat that I’m gonna do some work on and then take it out as my warhorse. I’m already doing plenty of work to ensure I do not overshot my use of funds. I must and need to save for my trip to Oman next year and also be ready to go on the long journey towards being a number 1 in not just Singapore, but also the world.

I must be ready to face all my competitors, strong ones, comparable ones, as I fight my way for the sole spot to the Olympics. As my new motto for my campaign says, “The air ticket to the Olympics in Rio, 2016 will bear no one’s name but mine.” As such, it would be real important to remember the drive and focus on the goals ahead, outwitting all my competition and going all out to win. To win, to win and to win, is the only goal ever. That’s the purpose of the Olympics: One winner, thirty-plus other losers.

In the end, it’s all about being victorious in the best way possible, like Tom Slingsby in the Laser and Marit Bouwmeester in the Laser Radial..

So hurrah hurrah we get ready, once more a hurrah, we go all out to be a champion.

Guess I have enough for the day! Tomorrow heading out to the place early to do some more clearing of the office. Yup, cant afford to always be up late again then miss the opportunity. Tomorrow will also be an opportuntity to explore Changi City Point, the new mall down at Expo since I have never been there, and also it’s a good chance to see Angeline at work!

Alright then that’s all I have! Till next time!

I deleted my previous blog post because apparently somehow a large chunk of the most important part of my blog post just disappeared. Literally, just like that.
It was mostly about the Extreme Sailing Series and the NeilPryde Racing Series, RS:One Singapore Open that were held in the same venue of the Marina Barrage. Helped a lot, tiring tasks, lot of pictures taken and it’s just an amazing expreience just being out there to witness the spectacle. I remember how same time last year I was  still moaning in disappointment that I couldn’t go to see it because I was studying and also tied up with things on that day. To be able to now have time to witness such a spectacular moment is awesome. It’s ironic though I will still be disappointed at the event becuase I didn’t get to take pictures with Dean Barker, Captain of Emirates Team New Zealand, or Chris Draper, the helm and Captain for the entry Oman Air. Prominent and world class sailors in their own right.

Anyway a point that I realised that was gone with the deleting of the blog post was the fact that my sponsorship proposal failed to get through. It was indeed an ambitious and audacious gamble to actually ask, but I took my chances and it didn’t go through: there were many glaring factors I realised I must rectify in order to start making my way up the ladder towards being a world champion. Nevertheless it was a good try, and I forgot to thank my friend that helped me pave some way into this even though the end result was not the way I wanted it to be.
With the sponsorhip now gone, it calls for Plan B, and yes do I have a Plan B: Hopefully as soon as possible, I’m going to view and inspect a prosepective boat that I’m going to get. Although it’s gonna cost me some money and even more money to get the boat ready in my setup, I’m definitely determined to get hold of a good AND fast boat so that I will have confidence and go all out to practise. I’m only slightly worried tha I might not have enough money in time to go to Oman for a 12-day training and comeptition trip with the Omani team and also have a decent amount of savings. But I will leave that for later on. Right now, I’m gonna think about how to make Plan B a success without ensuring too much money involved.

Hmmm I feel pretty tired after all the scrubbing and washing that I did today at work, that means I added yet another role into the job I call the Flexible Job, but okay tomorrow I’m gonna give myself a break from the computer, wanna give myself something to do, so that means I will blog again in like two days yeah!
See you then!

Well it has been quite an eventful week actually! After finishing my A Levels and a day’s break to sort things out such as having a mass clearance of my messy and notably prominent pile of school notes, I jumped straight into my next new venture: Work.
I’m currently working at _____________. Okay this is silly. Anyway I’m currently working at Constant Wind which is a company running a sea sports centre and a shop selling watersports equipment. It’s based out at East Coast, and it’s just right next to my beloved second home the sea. It’s just great: the staff there are great and treated me well, and helped me whenever I needed help learning the ropes of the trade, especially when I have to handle the money matters since it can amount to thousands and there’s so many modes of payment such as VISA, MasterCard or cash. Also, it’s great to have a job working on something I enjoy and am relatively fond of. Yup, it sure is a great job to have.

I could say the job was really a good learning experience as I learned to handle many things to ensure operations go on well in the sea sports centre and the shop since my job is a very flexible one, meaning I can be deployed to whenever I’m needed if there’s no customers to serve. Let’s take today for instance.
Today is Sunday and the last day of racing for this year’s edition of the Starhub Laser Open, a regatta I can’t and wont attend no matter how much I’m asked because I’m definitely way under-prepared. I came at around 9 because the sailors participating from Constant Wind were arriving at about 9 since racing commences on the water at 11, so I was busy helping some Yishun JC sailors prepping their boats because of some mistakes that they committed in their rigging, understandable given that they were not experienced. At the same time I was ensuring that they did their signing on and off which was a vital part of a competition, something like attendance taking and it also helps with tabulating results later on. At all times I was carrying a radio/ walkie-talkie with me to facilitate communications with the coach who was going to escort and then provide on-the water support to some of the sailors later on.

After the sailors have launched I was back at the shop where  my sort of friend cum supervisor Noel was tending to a customer and straight away it’s on to the cash register to start practising the routine of punching in the numbers and some letter and some clicking to deal with the purchases. That’s not adding the faxing of the sign on/off list to SAFYC, the organiser of the Starhub Laser Open and it goes on and on..
In addition to the sales, there was also the task of making reservations since the Belly View Cafe which is located in my workplace apparently has a deal with Groupon and their vouchers are so immensely popular. It’s not just the cafe too; the windsurfing courses that Groupon has vouchers for is also crazily popular. Typically Singaporean huh, discounts.
The list of what I need to do everyday stretches quite far, but I’m quite happy with it because it’s things I can manage and reasonably okay for myself. Also there are times when I finished the current things-to-do, I can have breaks, which is quite good for me too. Today I was working overtime though since it was literally pouring when it was past closing time so Noel and I took our time doing the daily bill report and summary, checking every single cent tallies up nicely. It was afterwards more of waiting in the shop for the heavy rain to ease and for me a chance to look at the stores because I was interested in getting some stuff there and needed to see if they were in stock.

There were three things that arose today, all of them being first experiences:
1) While waiting in the shop for the rain to ease, I heard a rat. Yes, a rat literally. It isn’t surprising that there are rats because with our location just next to the sea it’s where the rats dwell. There are a number of rat traps, cages and sticky traps set in various positions around the shop, but not a single one on the top of all the large shelves and it was one of these large shelves today I heard a rat. I didn’t manage to see it but the sound was unmistakable, and I could hear it running across the ceiling.

2) I am pretty happy about this one because it bodes a good start for my training regime next year. I managed to get not one, not two, but THREE training partners for myself to be able to train with on weekends beginning next year. They are experienced sailors and although their experience on the Laser is not very extensive, their vast experience in other classes such as the Moth or J24 will indeed be helpful. In fact one of them who hails from Australia has undergone Olympic selection trails for the men’s keelboat the Soling class back when it was still an Olympic event. It would be sure good to tap on their experience and knowledge to get higher on my learning curve as I make my way to the top.

3) I just learned of an event, the NeilPryde Racing Series that will be held on the same day or right after the exciting Extreme Sailing Series. It will be an event contesting RS:One Windsurfing Boards, the new board that is undergoing selection to be the new event for the Olympics. What’s interesting is that it will be held at midnight at the fantastic Marina Bay reservoir which would be a real eye-opener since the boards will be equipped with sails that have specially designed LED lights to help the windsurfers surf in the night. It would be a thrilling experience if I can attend both events, whether as a spectator or working there (yes, it’s still possible I will be working there.)

Really hoping this December would be good because one good thing leads to another and then yet another; I hope next year, my wish to go to Muscat, Oman for the Mussanah Sailing Week and to Hyeres for the French leg of the Laser Europa Cup Series will not only come true but go without hitches and hopefully I will medal at these regattas! It’s gonna become a challenge and I like the audacity of the challenge, bring it on. I’m gonna aim to medal at every local regatta I’m going to participate in and finish well in every overseas regatta I take part in, of course medalling should things go well. If Ben Tan can get a 37th in his first ever World Championships, I belive I can do the same or even better it. The main aim in the long run is to also become a World Champion. I definitely want to be one.

It’s close to 1 yet I don’t feel any inch of sleeping although I must be quite tired. I think I am tired but I’m not feeling the effects because I’m still busy typing this blog post. I guess later on when I’m lying down it will only be a matter of time before I doze off into the Lake of Dreams.
And I want to take this opportunity just before I sign off to wish Paul Goodison the very best for the Worlds at Perth! Do your best and hopefully beat Tom Slingsby and his record on his home ground!

I guess I will sign off here already! Got another day of work yet again later today!
Goodnight!