I think it's my focus. As the hot day went on, I just totally lost all my concentration on the ball, and swinging like nobody's business. :S

Or is it juz my strokes?

Mi strokes have never been the most smooth to start with.

1. I always don't take it IN FRONT of me.

2. I always don't FOLLOW THROUGH.

3. I always don't STIFFEN my hold on the grip. (causing my wrist to fling at hard shots)

4. I always don't follow golden rule of avoiding USE OF WRIST.

Please, Alvin, get your mindset rite.

I've been in reflective mood the whole day. I've been thinking wad's going on with me today. And I'm actually using anything I'm holding to practise my strokes!!!

For a moment before dinner, I almost lost control at myself and felt lyk kicking the cars I see in the carpark. :S Luckily, I didn't talk to anyone and tried to contain myself to just me and my music. o.o

I think i'm going crazy over a trivial matter.

Or maybe tennis has now been more than just a trivial matter in my life? I srsly don't know.

My mum says whenever you feel you're feeling down, there's this thing in your head that drives you to hold on, to persevere. It can be a person, a feeling, or a thing.

I think it's all three into 1. A person can make you have this perseverance feeling, and he/she's related to you by this thing.

Thank you very much. (hopefully you know who you are)

Oh and if you do, don't let other people noe. Let's kip this among ourselves. ;)

Still holding on,

Aloovi the Alv

Forgotten what it's like to hold you

Coz where I am right now, so unforgiving

It's numbing everything.

So close, yet so far

It's tearing me apart

So close, yet so far

So promise, no matter how long it takes for me to get back to you,

I promise, no matter how far away I go, I'll come back to you

I miss being at home

I miss your face

Don't think I, can wait...

22:38

I practically wasted the whole of the day, watching vids on youtube. -.- Can't find anything to do.

I wanna I wanna get out, please!!!

Confinement sux. >.<

On a brighter note, I now prefer the Korean Rainstone Remix version of Nobody by The Wonder Girls. The dance version which we're all familiar with gets sianx after listening too much to it. And they sound better in their native language. :P

I don't always give compliments to non-english songs, so take it, Wonder Girls. XD

Well I finally found something to do. I started my day watching X Factor Auditions on youtube. xD Not bad leh, sum reli have the talent there. ;)

Then after that my parents went 2 work, so I took up mi racket and swung a few aimless shots juz 2 get back dat feel of a swing. Finally getting 2 hold a racket after wad seems a century, feels great I tell you. Feels reli great.

And thanks to Shane, I managed to know that my sabbatical this week gives me the opportunity to get IH ACE, which I think is the only ACE I'm lacking now. ;) Just have to research n present on a tennis legend. Hahax easy for me, eh? I'm doing Bjorn Borg, coz his style of play about the same as me. :D (Or rather, shld be the other way round, since he's a great.) Thanks again, shane. ;)

Uhh you should hav guessed it by now that my sabbatical is a Tennis sabbatical. :D

Woohoo! Tmr finally can get on the court!!! :D :D :D

So long, confinement!

Back in the game,

Aloovi the Alv

Walking hand in hand

Going on a second date

I can picture how we touch and a,

kiss I can almost taste

I've imagined all the ways, we'll meet for the very first time

I can see the place, feel the love, at first sight

Baby if they asked me, I would say,

I don't even know your name

And when they asked me, does it change?

No it don't change a thing

Coz there's something 'bout the way you'll love me

There's just something 'bout the way you'll know me

And I, can't explain, enough

There's just something bout our future love, future love, future love

Something bout our future love, future love, future love

I know

The minute you pull up next to me

When it feels like, you're fighting just to breathe, that's when you know

The minute I pull up next to you

12:02

It's good to finally be seeing the outdoors again. Now I reli symphatise those who are bed-ridden or in a vegetative state. My heart's with you, people.

Ok shifting the focus back to me, actually I'm not fully suppose 2 go outdoors, coz I'm still under my 1 week MC-cum-quarantine. But it's for a competition, a good cause. :P So today was the Sudoku Masters Semis in the afternoon. If you made it into the Grand Finals, it'll be in the evening around 4+, 5.

I stayed all the way till evening. Enough said. :D :D :D

But dat's about the best achievement of d day as I can get luh.

I think I saw half of Muttons, the fatter Justin Ang. :P But I'm not sure. Wore a new red specs, I think. (coz nv seen him wear it?) Sounded like him at times, don't sound like him at times. He cracks about the same jokes, but I duno leh. No one confirm wiv mi. xD I think he donned a new dyed hairstyle, which looks ugly. I tink i'll just kip to listening to u 2 on air ba. :P

Still, after the Grand Finals, I have 2 questions to ask myself.

1. Could I have done better/faster if I have spent less time looking at people who finished (not many :P)?

2. Could I have done better/faster if I didn't have that cough?

For question 1 and 2, yes yes yes!!! The cough happened once every 1 min of the 30 mins to do d 4 puzzles. So I dunnid 2 do d math for you, rite? Haiz~:( And the looking at people would have to be attributed to my luck, coz I'm sitting beside sum mugger who was writing his name when we were starting at raised his hand on the 17th min mark. -.- Sick shit seh these people, muz hav been spending all his life doing nothing but Sudoku. -.-

Nevertheless, most of d problem still lies with me. I just ain't fast enough, and I just ain't careful enough. That mugger beside mi didn't win it, probably coz he had a lot of wrong. So judging from that, the 1st place trophy COULD HAVE BEEN MINE!!! However, I made a mistake in one of my 4 puzzles and had no choice but to erase the entire puzzle, wasting away that precious number-1-placing time. >.<

Trophy aside, I think it's a really good experience this time round. I learn that in the Prelim and Semis round, you can scam your way in. For those blanks you duno what to write, just put one of the possible numbers there, and put for all surrounding it. Well one of them has to be correct, rite?

**Provided they don't deduct for wrong answers, just like this competition**

Playing with the rules, as you might have called it. Psychological battle against the rules. Hehe~~~

Great, more answers than questions at the end of the day. An accomplished Day 5. :D

Hold the phone/horses! Day 5!!! 2 more days to FREEDOM!!! sum1, this reminds me of akon. -.- (for the record, don't reli like his music a lot...just like the hilarious 'Konvict' call he always does before most of his songs)

One thing's for sure, I don't think I wanna join Marigold-Sudoku Competition anymore.

coz they only give prize to 1st placing. -.- Get 2nd and 3rd is useless crap. :S

Petty prize givers. :P

Oh and luckily my random song shuffler brought me to the song below, to make me remember to WISH SOMEONE A GOOD LUCK FOR PRELIMS TMR! ;)

Eh no, GOOD LUCKZZZZZZZZZ!!! :D :D :D

(good things come in threes, if not more)

I have a plan tmr, so...

tell y'all tmr. :P

Peace & Cheerz!!!,

Aloovi the Alv

Take, take your time.

Smell the roses, but steal the vines.

Don't wait, for the hands of time.

To second guess, and change your mind

And shine.

Shine

Lay, down my friend.

And I'll take you,

There and back again.

No more questions why, I'm not so surprised.

Why you have

Been there and back again.

20:28

My body's aching, but not for the reasons as you have seen for past 3 days. Rather, it's the result of the past 3 days.

I've been sleeping a bit too much for the past 3 days, so quite naturally muscles all have stiffen. Everytime I stretch in bed, the cracking of bones can be so clearly heard, as if I've juz slept through an entire season. -.- Immediately following that is the muscle tightening. Haiz...

Which brings me to my next point.

According to my clock, at the point when I wrote this part, it's smack 10.00am now.

On a Saturday.

Morning.

I think anyone who is close enough a friend would know what I should be doing at this time of the Saturday morning. Unfortunately, this will not be the case today. :(

It's really painful to be sitting at home and constantly looking at the clock, then looking at the awesome weather today. That's how much a passion it is for me. Being confined in the house for a week really sux. >.<

I somehow think, if I were 2 really be bed-ridden sick, I at least have the excuse 2 tell myself I have to be at home. However, I'm quite fine now.

Besides, I know my limits. I definitely can't play. But I just wanna watch. Promise.

I also know it's quite hard 2 believe me when it comes to tennis, coz whenever I get near the court, I definitely will be super tempted 2 pick up a racket n get on the court. Once I start, I seldom stop. :S

I'm not blaming anyone actually. Just wanting 2 pen down my frustration~

Oh on the 'sunny side up' XD, I've got someone else I wanna thank, coz she juz smsed mi 1.

Thank you Rachel, for your well wishes. ;) Very hard 2 communicate when we seldom see each other, but grateful for the effort 2 sms me. Thank you! :D

Well, I guess that's about it.

"Do you wanna go fight for something in your life which you don't know what will happen in the future? Or cherish the one who's always been waiting for you all this while?" The choice is yours.

Peace!

Dilemma,

Aloovi the Alv

I guess I just got lost, being someone else

I left myself behind, somewhere along the way

Hoping to come back around, to find myself someday.

Lately I'm so tired of waiting for you.

To say that it's ok

But tell me please, would you one time,

So I can shine, with my own light

Let me be myself

Would you let me be myself?

09:42

I think I'm reaching normal condition lerhs. :D

My appetite's coming back. No more aches. No more running nose! 1 day wonder! ;)

I'm becoming cold-blooded. Jkjk~ Just that it's been so long since I've seen 36.4 as my body temperature.

Or is it coz I do many temperature takings in one day? Wadeva d case, it's progress! ;)

Now I reli don't like medicine. Coz medicine makes mi have that thing-in-the-throat feeling again. Summore lose appetite coz of that. >.<

Still, I shall take this time out to thank people.

Thank you Yusong, 1st 1 to send well wishes. ;)

Thank you cousin Queena, second fastest fingers. xD

Thank you mbf Yinghui [XD], and Joanne! Caring awesome fwenz, although it's quite unorthodox how I got 2 know y'all. :P

Thank you Claire, another 1 whom I don't reli know too well other than through BSP camp. Oh btw, see you next year! xD

Thank you Jia Sheng, my father's joint boss-fwen's son, who is of course also my fwen. :D

Thank you Lim Kiat, for wishing me 2 get well soon. Sorry 2 put a slight dampener on your bday. :S

and...

Thank you Shermaine, for sending a 'take care' sms 2 mi despite being busy wiv PSLE. ;) Superman fall sick luh...steel nids replacement due 2 rust...got spare steel? XD

And this has 2 b the biggest ever. Let's see how big this can actually be.

namely Zi Kang, Yin Hong, Shane, Dennis, Jun Rong, Arnold (who? XD), Kelvin, Si Heng and Sean, and Twex. xD

I've counted, out of 26 messages sent via fb, exactly 13 messages came from 4E1. Nice! Thanks, pals! ;)

Still, whether you're from 4E1 or not, I'm reli grateful for all the well wishes. It's amazing how I can get well wishes from all types of tech. fb, msn, msn...~ Really glad 2. ;)

Hence, here's me saying another from-the-bottom-of-my-heart THANK YOU 2 all of you. :D

Cheers!,

Aloovi the Alv

I get the strangest feeling, you belong

Is it because, I lied, when I was 17

Why does it always rain on me?

Even when the sun is shining, I can't avoid the lightning, oh

I can't sleep tonight

I'm seeing a tunnel at the end of all these lights

10:28

I'm walking around the house with a mask all the time. So uncomfortable. I hate wearing masks. It's like all the hot air from your breath moves up your eyes. Coupled with me wearing specs, the heat all juz gets trapped at my eyes area, making me so easily drowsy. I don't want 2 slp anymore. I'm not tired but have to sleep, thanks, or rather no thanks, to this mask. >.<

08:24

I say bad news.

This may come as a shock to y'all, but I'm down wiv 90% H1N1...1 week MC.

Good news should be I get 2 rest/slack at home, and I get to miss 2 tests. :P

But bad news is so much more. :(

1. I still have 2 complete d 2 tests~

2. I can't play bball this friday for PE. :(

3. I can't go for the last sabbatical of my HC high school life (at least can't go 2 days~ :( :( :( )

And most importantly,

4. I can't go tennis dis saturday. :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

The SPEX competition is coming soon luh...early September. I don't even take private trng, so even lesser training. >.<>.<

Speaking of which, dis virus juz came all of a sudden. Morning a slight fever (37.9), den go doc suddenly confirm 90% H1N1 leh! 1 week quarantine. So ppl, please take care.

You feel any aching in your body and cough, coupled with a slight fever and running nose, GO SEE A DOCTOR!!!

Better to be safe than sorry.

Well I guess all I can do now, is build my resistance up again, prevent it from controlling me instead of vice versa, so that I can get myself back in the game as soon as possible.

Juz can't wait for that day, man.

Who knows, mebbe this 1 week absence will bore mi 2 death, hence making me cherish school life even more than before. Not that I don't love my school life enough now already. xD

Staying optimistic!!! :D,

Aloovi

the Alv

Got the news today

Doctor said I had to stay

When I thought it'd all been done,

When I thought it'd all been said

A little bit longer, and I'll, be fine.

And you don't know what it's like to feel so, low

And everytime you smile, you laugh, you glow

You don't even know, know, know

19:38

First and foremost, I LOVE MY BLOGSONG!!!

09:25

2 put a dampener on it, I still have Chinese Common Test (despite 2 Chinese tests for the past 2 weeks!~) and another Physics Test. -.-

But at least I'm quite confident wiv both ;)

Kayz let's move into d main topic ba, and I shall be writing (and practising) letter writing. :D You'll understand the content frm within. :D informal letter btw~ xD

Hey Mr Chris Foy,

Alvin here. I would just like to say a big 'thank you' for refereeing the Man United Chelsea match. You did a really great job.

People say refs are never recognised, so for your great performance, I think you deserve some credit. And might I say, I emphasise more on PERFORMANCE than great.

I mean seriously, it was like watching a show. You totally took centre-stage, eclipsing all the other 22 players.

Your crowning moment came when Chelsea's Ballack came on, man. Once he came on, his 1st ever contribution was to get himself hit in the rib when colliding with Man United's Evra, albeit it being accidentally. Technically, there was nothing wrong with the incident, and play is supposed 2 carry on. But as a mark of sportsmanship, you blew the whistle and Man United gamely stopped the game. Fair enough, we don't really know the extent of Ballack's injury at that point of time anyway, so it's right he gets treatment.

But once the whistle blew, the ball was out of play, and before you could walk close enough to him, Ballack stood up and grimly put his hand on his rib. Back on his feet, he continued on with the game. Even I suspected sumting here, say, deliberately stopping play?

Whatever happened after that was PLAIN BIZARRE. Probably eyeing Evra for revenge, while Evra was planning an attack on the left of the Chelsea half, Ballack lifted his arm to chest level and blocked Evra's route, elbowing him in the chest. Evra crumbled to the floor.

Play was allowed to go on, and United, with one defender down injured and the other on the right attacking flank, went 2-on-3, eventually unable to defend against them and succumbed to allowing a goal.

Rubbish.

Tcchnically play should be stopped, since you stopped play when Ballack was minor-ly hurt. Then why not when the player is down for EVEN LONGER THAN BALLACK? You seemed delirious to everything around you, or is it juz against Man United? Biasness, I say? I know! >.<

The bottom line is simple. You wanna stop play on every minor injury received, you do it for ALL INJURIES. But think again too. Do people wanna watch an injury-filled, play-stopper match, or one heck of an interesting game? The answer is obvious.

Simply said, you totally ruined the 2nd half after an awesome 1st half from both sides.

Don't get me wrong. Chelsea are of course at fault here, but you're nowhere better yourself.

Although they're all big-shot players, you're the one in black. You're the one who is in charge, coming up with ALL THE RULES YOU DEEM FIT.

And might I say, they're pretty wrong. -.-

I wonder if you've written this in your post-match review. Hope you did, so you can get your just desserts!

Go retire man,

Alvin :D

Mother never loved you

Father, touched you with the hand of god he's

Gripping tighter, saying

you will burn in hell they say.

You will burn in hell!

Liar liar, pants on fire!

Liar liar, stop your soul from catching fire, fire

God and maker, liar liar!

You f***ing liar!!!

You're gonna burn in hell

You're gonna burn in hell!!!

[Hahax i think this song CLEARLY SHOWS that I not only listen 2 calm sentimental songs, eh? :P]

07:57

Alvin's not in at the moment as he's being sent to slavery somewhere in the vicinity of UBKTM for a few days.

But he assures his loyal supporters that he'll be back as soon as he's back from hell job.

Fret not, and stay strong!!! :D

Peace from slavery,

Aloovi

I know it's hard (I know it's hard), to see me go (to see me go)

To see me standing, so close to the door

I know it thought, when I'm far away

Close to your hands, close to your legs

Close to the way your body fits on the bed

Close to your hips, close to your lips

Close to the only one that I can resist

Close to your laugh, close to your words

Giving you everything I know you deserve

Close to you baby

Close to your world

Close to you, girl

Baby turn off that frown (turn off that frown)

Wipe off your face (wipe off your face)

You know I'm weak, so weak (so weak)

And you're making me late

Turn off your frown

And come over here (why'd you come over)

I'm gonna say this like I did before

Gonna make it crystal clear, when I'm

17:06

Chem was ok ba, but hav 2 see d result 1st before I can tell u anything at all. :S

Hopefully it's good news ba.

Well, time to look forward to the thing I always do everyday since MONDAY...TENNIS!!!

omg I'm gonna take part in SPEX singles and doubles (with Nick). And I still have to juggle with my homework and EOY! Tough job, but when you don't feel lyk giving up any (actually I do :P), you bring yourself into a dilemma.

But I think it's worth it. ;)

Furthermore, despite this being my second major competition, I still am very very nervous. :S Well, it's natural 2 b nervous. So hopefully with time, I can play fearlessly :D :D :D

Wish me luck! :D

Kayz dis is kinda a small note. I'm off liaox!

Lyrics time! This song is actually kinda influenced 2 like 1. I used to have this song, but after a while got sian of it. But now when I take it back, I realise it's a reli nice song, juz like Starts With Goodbye by Carrie Underwood! Well, here goes. :D

Oh and I urge y'all to take a look at the lyrics. Really nice. ;)

Here we are

In the best years of our lives, with no way of knowing

When the wheel stop spinning, coz we don't know where we're going, and

Here we are

On the best day of our lives

And it's a go, let's make it last, so cheers you all to that

Coz this moment's never coming back

16:11

Worst is, I barely touched the one thing that keeps on bugging me, my lun4 wen2.

It's due this thursday, but I'm still ONLY thinking about it.

I don't care, I must get started on it. I shall use all the bio periods 2 do it. Go home read them, bio periods 2 do it. ;)

I nid go library too, any1 interested? :D

Oh btw, I decided to choose the topic "从餐桌礼仪看中西文化差异", coz I feel that's quite interesting. ;) At least more interesting than discussing about historic things like 儒家思想, and especially Tibet. Coz I'm supposed 2 go there for my Outward Bound. But why in the end got cancelled? It's all coz of the stupid riots there. >.<

Why ruin such a beautiful outdoor place just like that? haiz...

Moving on, let's take a step back, to the future! :D

(actually the face should be :( instead)

I went to do NDP roadshow cip with my classmate, Yue Quan. I must say, it's totally not what I expected. I actually thought it was a huge event where we stand at the booth and promote the bags, with special guests, etc. And to my surprise, it's just a mini-booth as a meet-up spot only! We were suppose 2 be like beggars and ask for money for the Community Chest.-.- Still, if possible, we can sell the bag.

I totally hate this kind of CIP. It makes no sense. I can't find any fun in doing such kind of CIP. I want to go for those which I can enjoy myself while doing it. Like the CIP I always do at Lakeside. Can bring kids to Wild Wild Wet and Escape Theme Park leh...free entry!~ :P Hehehe~~~

Nevertheless, I tahan-ed for 4 hours from 3.30 - 7.30pm, thanks to Jurong Point being so huge and full of interesting stuff 2 look at. ;)

But trust me, I won't do such things again.

I didn't play well today. Nothing worked out. I think I absolutely lost my head, treating it for fun rather than a game. Of course, it's good to have fun while playing it (which is supposedly the real aim of the game, rite? :D), but personally, I don't find the fun if I can't do anything which I can be proud of.

Alvin, #10FOCUS&CONTROL!~

Although, I wasn't the most pissed player out there. During the team game when Johnathan was serving his point against someone, he did an underhand serve, which caught someone out of surprise, I guess. Unfortunately, she hit the ball into d net. But that wasn't the pissed part. Probably feeling a little angry with herself, she threw her racket to the ground!!!

Bad idea.

I duno whether it's coz she learnt it from Brian or not, I also didn't really see her smashing the racket until I heard it, but whatever the case, it's a no-no to such actions. It's not good for your racket, nor you. Your racket gets dented and you'll need to BUY ANOTHER ONE, and you show your opponent that you've lost all confidence, no mood to play on any point. So there's only one beneficiary out of this...your opponent! We don't want that, rite?

So no matter what, don't do it. It's an act of helplessness, that you cannot do anything else. What you wanna do, is show your opponent that no matter how good he thinks he is, you're not affected by him and his guts. ;)

Oh but we still had a lot of fun playing tennis in the afternoon. Played till evening 6.30pm leh!!! I think Rebecca had a lot of fun whacking balls at Johnathan. xD Tired, but really satisfying. ;)

I think this is the most awesome day of the week. The morning was the usual sianx lessons, but in the afternoon, we had a celebration, a farewell party for Dion. Woots, $4.50 each person leh, but we each got to eat 2.5 slices of pizza. :D The most enjoyable moment though, is when we all came together 2 take pictures, and the speech by Dion made hilarious b'coz of us. Only then did i realise how united 4E1 really are. We're not a very smart class, dat's for sure, but anything that we lack in brains, we make it up with our unity, our teamwork, our spirit.

Go 4E1!!!

At night, a smaller group of 11 of us went to celebrate with Dion again. :D We actually decided to go to Liang Court, but then we met at Central, and ended up at Settlers' Cafe. Awesome time we had there, playing board games and screaming our lungs out. xD I even lose my voice that day, man! :S

At the end of our 3 hours, one of the staff came up 2 us and said there's sum lucky draw or sumting. Basically, we had 2 take out coins a bowl of water using a pair of chopsticks. Obviously, we asked Dion to represent us. Hahax not too successful though. In the end, almsot everyone tried, and we managed 2 pick up $2.10, which was later deducted from our bill.

That may seem quite a bit, but fyi, when you put that amount beside the total bill column, it seems smaller than dust...

Ahem...Total bill: $226.99!!!

Lucky I have Settlers' Membership Card which allowed a 10% discount. If not, that amount could balloon even higher. Much much higher...

Think about it. Around $227 spent from 11 people. That's like $20 bucks per person for 3 hours!!! Woah, i'm definitely not gonna spend lyk dat anymore.

Still, for the sake of giving a great fwen a ballistic time before he goes,

~~~IT WAS WORTH IT~~~

In the years to come,

In the years to come,

are you gonna think it over,

and how we lived each day, with no regrets?

Nothing lasts forever, though we want it to

Sometimes goodbye, though it hurts, in your heart, is the only way for destiny

Sometimes goodbye, though it hurts, is the only way now for you and me

Though it's the hardest thing to say,

I'll miss your love, in every way

So say, goodbye

But don't, you cry

Coz true love never dies

08:20