TUESDAY, 22ND JULY 2008
DAY ONE
And so it begins.
Protected: to emote Sunday, Jul 20 2008
emo and musings and recaps 1:52 am
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run me ragged Saturday, Jul 12 2008
friends and musings and recaps 8:49 pm
I seem to have the worst possible luck with injuries when playing sport. Rolled ankles when merely hitting a ball around during tennis coaching sessions, a pulled back when playing GSV tennis, an ankle injury when pushing myself during Maktab Sains’ annual cross-country in Form 4 – although I eventually emerged 16th in my year group overall, but also had to endure yoga-based treatment that afternoon… Injuries really aren’t that uncommon to me.
So when I rocked up for netball with the Crazy Pandas this morning, at UBD’s Sports Hall, I expected something – something was going to inevitably happen, what with the hall’s really slick wooden flooring, which grows even more slippery after sweat builds up on it. Only Imah and Syaz were there when I walked in at a few minutes past nine, so it was only after ten that a proper practice match got under way. For some odd reason, Ming Hui and I were attacker-defender for all three matches that we had time to play today – a throwback to the good ol’ days of interclass netball at Maktab Sains, where she’d always be the Goal Shooter (GS) and I, the Goal Keeper (GK)!
I’d forgotten what it was like to be paired with Ming Hui. And oh man, did she run me ragged – zig-zagging up and down the section of the court that we were confined to, so quick on her feet.
And then, in the middle of our second match, the netball soared over my head. I caught it with one foot on the ground – my pivoting foot – and I had to look for someone to pass it too. Ming Hui was so good on the defence, that I couldn’t find a way to pass the ball to anyone on my team. I landed, pivoted…
… and my ankle nearly crumpled beneath me.
And the ball ended up… I have no idea where. BUT by the time I managed to right myself and speed after Ming Hui, one point was already on its way to being scored.
Such is the story of my life.
I had a good day with the Pandas though. We may not have trained together as a team post-Maktab Sains more than a handful of times, but playing with each other is still so familiar. I got such a whiff of nostalgia when watching Anis playing as Wing just now; she may be playing for BruNotts this summer, but she was on our practice team just now and her playing style still remains the same and that gave me crazy flashbacks to Secondary 3 netball. Cikgu Mikah would be mildly surprised to realise that the same people she coached all the way from the beginning of secondary school are still playing together! Who knew class netball would lead to the Lufbru Summer Games? (:
I love this crazy random bunch of people, whose only ties to one another happen to be the fact that we were from the same secondary school, and are now spread out all over the United Kingdom. We’re united by team spirit, no matter how different we are, and how far apart we’ve grown since graduating.
Maybe this is why I prefer team sports to individual sports. Personally, I find hardly any thrill in solitary sports – I like group camaraderie, working together to fulfill a common goal – but that’s just my take on sports! I even play badminton and tennis only in doubles; that’s how much I dislike having to be out there by myself. I love my team mates to bits.
In other news, I’m back in Brunei, and have been since Monday! I haven’t really gone out all that much yet. Everyone seems to be on some sort of internship or another, or doing the Tash-thing and spending most of their time at home. Netball practice is basically the only time I’ve been out of the house; I’m just taking it easy for the time being. There’s an absolute luxury in being able to feel bored, to have nothing to occupy your time with! When work begins (and hopefully, soon enough!) I’ll have to kiss goodbye to late nights and even later mornings.
For now, jetlag wins.
goodbye, bankside Sunday, Jul 6 2008
So I’m at the LSE Library right now, and I don’t really know why I ended up here at 7.00 pm the night before I take off for home. It could be partly due to the fact that I was intending to change my module options for next year, but I’ve left them be – I guess taking the two compulsory modules for exemption post-degree in the same year will probably the best strategy at this point in time. I don’t really need to check Facebook/Gmail/LiveJournal… I guess I needed a place to sit while having a quick dinner, and what better place to do it than where it all began this year.
So I sat on a bench on Houghton Street – actually really observed the sign hanging at street level, and for a moment there was hit by an intense feeling of surrealism. I can’t believe I’m actually here in London, that I’ve completed a year of university already… No matter the number of times my mum calls a week to check up on me, I’ve actually grown more independent than I have ever been in my life over the course of the year. Not even boarding school teaches you that. However, in some ways I think I’ve also grown more dependent on people, and with that comes the realisation that I really need to start burdening people less with my problems.
My first year at LSE has undoubtedly been a life experience – and it’s only just beginning. It hasn’t been smooth sailing all the way. There were moments of intense bliss and happiness, interspersed with feelings of loneliness, of sadness – in fact, of just about every single emotion available to man on this rollercoaster called life, both good and bad. And all this has served to change me to some degree. I think I’m still the same person I was before I came, essentially. However, I feel like I’m a bit more of a realist now, and in some ways I think I’ve matured, although for that matter I also believe I’ve regressed in certain aspects of character.
Leaving Bankside this morning was tough. It was horrifying, and really sad, to see my empty shell of a room once everything had been packed and moved out. Room 357 was left this morning in the exact same way I found it when I first moved in all those months ago: the bare mattress, together with duvet and pillow; empty drawers and waldrobe; a naked desk I haven’t seen for a while… And somehow, it was bigger than I felt it was while living in it. I guess I filled it up too quickly in the space of nine months, so much so that it took six boxes, one suitcase, one piece of hand luggage and stray clothes being draped over the arm to completely empty my room. I took pictures, because I’m sentimental in that sense… but it won’t be the same as living there again. I cried bucketloads in the process of packing, and continued to feel really hollow when I moved out. Then again, memories linger on – that’s their power:
“Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space . . . if you knew enough and could move faster than light you could travel backward in time and exist in two places at once. Nothing goes away.”
Margaret Atwood – Cat’s Eye
I know I quote this passage too often, but it’s really true, isn’t it?
Bankside, for all the good, the bad and the ugly that I – along with my closest friends – experienced while living in you, thank you for everything in the most positive sense. And I really mean it.
