Do not regret

I must say that I am a man of few entries. I still find it kind of difficult to start writing in a blog. Anyway, I strongly few that I must post this story that I heard so that maybe years later I can still look back and reflect upon it.

There used to be a chieftain of a particular tribe who gathered the teenagers and said to them,"I will be sending you all away to seek your own destiny, your own path and your own life. I have only six words to guide you and these six words shall be sufficient. You will receive the first three words now and you shall return when you are older and I shall give you the last three words."

And so the young ones set off to seek their own destiny. Over the years, they braved every ups and downs of life. They experienced both failure and success each in their own special ways. But they always remember the three words given to them by the chieftain : Do not fear.

Many years past and the young become the old. Some have achieved great things which brought them glory and fame, while others returned tired and bruised from their quest. They all gathered around the old chieftain who gave them the last three words: Do not regret.

五星红旗迎风飘扬， 胜利歌声多么响亮!

Beijing Olympics had finally begun 2 days ago with the official opening. The official opening was a huge success with good reviews by western media (though the many Chinese people were not that impressed). I think the best part of the ceremony was when the little girl came up to sing the song 歌唱祖国 as the national flag of China was brought in. I am sure that everyone could feel the sense of pride and achievement at that very moment as the Chinese people sacrificed too much for the fulfillment of this century old Olympic dream. I can't really describe that feeling well but at that moment I could not help but sing along:

"五星红旗迎风飘扬， 胜利歌声多么响亮； 歌唱我们亲爱的祖国， 从今走向繁荣富强。"

Oh, and the flag bearers were damn cool.

Yesterday, I watched the weightlifting competition. Chen Xiexia was so "inba". I switched on the TV when the competitors were lifting 84Kg. At that time, I could already see those weightlifters struggling to lift the 84Kg. 3 athletes from Turkey, Thailand and Korea( I think) were eliminated at 84Kg. Then came 85Kg, 86kg and finally a Turkish athlete attempted 88Kg and barely succeeded. The crowd cheered. I was thinking that this is it, the limit of what everyone can lift.

But what happened to China? China had not even attempted once. The weights were once again added and now it is 90Kg. Finally China's Chen Xiexia appeared, and she lifted 90Kg (first attempt) with ease!! Kind of reminds me of the time when Theo do his chin ups. The rest is all her show with 92kg and 95kg, no competition, but she could win just with her first attempt of 90Kg!!

I wish China gets more gold this year. I also wish Singapore gets a medal.

I was really amused yesterday. The morning assembly at school ended with a series of prize presentation for my friends who won at the international Olympiad, and the principal announced that we year 6 and year 5 have done really well in our AP exams with everyone getting 5 for year 6s. The amusing part is when he announced that to celebrate, the school will be having half day off next Wednesday. At this point all the year 6s were like -_-lll diao... The reason is that we year 6s have compulsory internships on Wednesday so it doesn't make a difference to us at all. I was amused at the fact that the school rewarded the juniors who did not take the exams while the year 6 are not rewarded at all. I could not stop laughing after the announcement as it was sooooo funny. The juniors better thank us.

The Difference Between Heaven and Hell

This is an interesting story I heard:

One fine day (like how we start compo in P3), a guy decided to pay a visit to hell. So he went down and found everyone starving to skin and bones. It is not like they are not given food. The people of hell were in fact given all the delicacies we can dream of (i.e sharkfin, abalone...yum!). He found that the problem lies in the spoons. The people in hell were given spoons with a loooooooooooooong handle. So they will never reach their food with their mouth.

Next, this guy went to heaven. There, he saw that the people were served with the same food, with the same spoon with long handle. However, the people of heaven are all happy and well fed. Why is this so?

Answer: Unlike the people of hell who are trying to put food into their own mouth, the people of heaven feed each other using the spoon with long handle.

Well, I guess there is no need for me to point out the moral of the story.

Do you believe in balance?

Do you believe in balance?

Yesterday, I failed my 2.4km run at east coast----yin :(
Today, I received news that I passed my piano exam, woo hoo!! ----yang :)

The 2.4 km run was really depressing. I had the feeling that I didn't try my best because I were not dead after finishing the race. I should have tried to pace Roy. I guess I will have to keep on running till the end of the year.

But who cares? I am happy that I still passed my piano exam even though it was as screwed up as my 2.4 run (I wonder how, I wonder why). I thought that I would have definitely failed and here are the reasons:

Scales---mostly Ok except cromatic scales, which I played an octave more (probably too excited).
Exam pieces--- Die!! The room was soooo cold that my hands went numb. And my pieces have so many ornaments.
Sightreading---Same old same old.
Aural--- ARRRGH, this one really screwed. I had no practice at all and I had no book, so I dug out an old grade 5 aural book to study. But somehow the examiner still looked at me with a "What are you doing?" look.

This is a miracle. Now that I passed my piano, I expect a major failure to be coming soon XD.