Looking for a light

VJC vs NJC Inter-JC Girls Soccer Tournament

The day started off bleak enough, as the realization that Audrey was not gonna play from the start haunted me and WQ, even more so then it seemed to affect the team. We tok a gamble, and Sara came into midfield, with Christl being moved back into defence.

Bad mistake. Within minutes, NJ slotted in their first, with a soft shot after they got behind our defence. That was a sign of things to come. We quickly warmed up Audrey, and asked her if she was ok to play for the game. She was a bit hesitant, i must admit, but in our desperation we had to put her in.

Things steadied from there. The referee was the most fucked up piece of shit in the whole bloody world, it was disgusting, I was spewing expletives like nothing, so pissed wif her. BUt anyways, She Fong got through and was one on one with the keeper, before, she took a shot from way way off. I shouted "Nooooooooo....", u noe that dramatic sort of no? But well in typical fashion that has been a fixture in my life, the ball actually crept past the keeper and went in! Wat a superb feeling! I was damn shocked that She Fong scored, but I was real happy, and I saw dat she was ecstatic too. Brilliant, we were back in the game.

However, the match was still in tatters for the team as we weretotally out of shape, and not able to play the way we were supossed to. WQ was so damn pissed, I've never seen him this pissed in a long long time. We expressed ourdisappointment in the team and told them to buck up for the coming half.

We brought in Shi Hui. Wara and Aramia, all who did well during their stint in the game, I think some of the first team players have already lost their places cos of this.But anyways, NJ managed to sneak in one in the second half, and we were left staring. Charmaine tried her best to stop the barrage of shots, and succeeded most of the time, but well the defence let her down I must say. We just werent running, just werent in it. Sigh.

Our best chance to score, was fluffed, and that summed up the game.

Mini ordered the girls back to school to train, maybe it was a way for both of us to tell them how frustrated we were at them, but seriously, I thought the training was beneficial, cos we think w have finally stumbled upon the correct formula, which we will further fine tune tomorrow during training.

I had a counselling session with several of the girls thereafter, and spoke to them, I realised that most of them just felt rather "off" dat day, which led me to think that perhaps I wasnt doing my job in trying to psyche up the team enough.

BUt what has been done cannot be undone so we will look forward to the next match on Saturday against Hwa Chong.

"We will win on Saturday." - Audrey, our rising star, when asked of her comments on the NJ Match

And we will, god willing.

Community Service?

Today was my last day of community service for the "Tiles That Bind" project. Spent most of it slacking in the library, and only had the occasional observer, whom I quickly stood up to join and talk to.

I must have read and flipped through bout 10 books in total from 10am to 7pm, when I left, cos it was so bored, realli wondered why I was there. And the other people there were equally bored too! Can u imagine they actually had the audacity to go and play DOTA during the suposed comm. service hours? Omigosh, shockin,but I don't blame them. Doing this Comm. service has been 80% meaningless, perhaps the only day when I thought I was doing proper comm. service was on UNi's B'day at Junction 8. But yah, the girls realli din take this projet seriously, and judging from the way they spoke and stuff, I realised I'm realli lucky to have Uni, who thinks much more maturely.


This was the view for most of the day, me reading a book, with the sun shinig down from behind me. Moo.

But anyways thank god its over, I'm gonna move on from this experience and learn. At least I don't have to travel from home(Tampines), to Woodlands to VJ anymore. Amen.

Out.

Nothing beats this, sitting back, drinking ginger beer and enjoying the evening. Listening to James Blunt's "you're beautiful". Today has been an ok day I guess, been slacking around too much for my liking, but oh well, not dat i meant to. Tomorrow is gonna be a busy day in fact, sigh.

I like sitting back, typing on the comp, playing flash games, or surfing around, while bathing in the warmth of my orange light. I like switchin on the orange light, feels kinda warm, u noe, funnily, of course....its not realli warm, maybe cos it feels like sunlight i guess.

Today went to school for about an hour plus, to help she fong out with her movement and shooting. She took some good shots, but must realli practice more before she can master it. But step by step i believe. I had a nice time talking also, and i guess inevitably, frendships are borne between coaches and players too, which of course i welcome.

After soccer, had a big bust-up wif Uni, oh man, i hate it realli. I was so pissed i took a cab home, got stuck in the jam, and it cost me motherfuckin $15.80, from marine parade to tampines. Can u imagine dat? Fuck Luck. No doubt about it.

But anyways here I am, if only every nite could be like this.... Time to sit back, I hear Foo Fighters' "The Best of You" coming up on my laptop.

Is it wrong not being able to look up to your dad? I seem to be having this problem to dat. I respect him, no doubt about that, and I am so grateful for allthe things he does for the family. But somehow, I just cannot seem to put him on a pedestal, admire him and tell myself "I wanna be like him".

I feel rather guilty about it, considering he's my dad, I mean to a lot of people, the person whom they consider as their personal hero, is their dad, but well, honestly, I'm not in that category.

This is mainly cos' of the certain developments I've seen lately, that realy woke me up to the fact that he aint realli somebody I should look up to and all. He has admirable qualities, but not those that I think are important, especialy in the life we live today.

I feel realli down, thinking bout this, but I know its thetruth, and I cannot keep telling myself that he is somebody I want to emulate in the future, cos its not realli true.

Oh well, i shall stop here for now, just wanted to get this off my chest and into cyberspace. Funny right? Some ppl say blogging is not realli ethical cos u let the WHOLE world noe about your problems, but somehow I feel fine just typing away, I'm not realli sure why.

Tomorrow is gonna be another long day, but its worth it. The weekend saw the girls play their second match in the league and we got a nil-nil draw in the match against SRJC. It was a good match, I felt the girls really played well, and SR are surely, DEFINITELY, thanking their lucky stars they escaped with a point, we pounded their goals like there was no tomorrow, oh well I guess it was just not to be.

Nonetheless, I'm so proud of the girls, and their performance has given me extra impetus for me to stay and fight for them. I realli hope they go somewhere cos they are realli beginning to shift into the correct gear.Not there yet, but on the way at least.

A few observations from the match:

Fitness
The girls really have to work on their fitness and on their speed. Christl is showing some good touches but she needs to learn to run faster, that of course will take time. But she fought hard, am proud of her. Tan Xuan is doing great on the right, very promising.

Our Bedrock
Definitely this team's future will depend on Stef and Audrey, both are realli outstanding and played brilliant in the SR match. Audrey especially looks like she has the potential to go very far, I dare say, given the correct development she can go to the national team. Realli.

Corners
This is our fault, we din realli expect to be taking so many corners, but we should work on it tom, we had a few chances and should have done better, to finish them off.

New Prospects
Salome looks brilliant in defence, she can shape up to be great if she keeps going at this pace. She did a brilliant tackle on the attacker, POETRY IN MOTION. She Fong should be put on the wing I believe, she's got pace I think she should play in the wing definitely.

So dats dat for the match, some of the girls are kicking themselves rather hard cos of the result and personal performace, which has left me and WQ a bit dumbfounded, but we empathise wif them, at least it shows they do give a shit about this whole thing, and dats great.

Anyways, this will be mini's last week wif us, I realli hope he can find time to keep coming down, we shall see how. But I brought my cam along, to take some pics of the team, cos I noe this pics will be good memories of our time here.


The first teeam, in order from left to right, captain She Fong, Christl, Stephanie, Tan Xuan, Grace and keeper Charmaine. All talents in their own right.

Head coach, Lim Weiquan, Mini and to the girls, Mr Lim, staring into the sky before the match, enjoying the brilliant warmth before the stress of the game.

The girls coming in for a team cheer. This must be the first time they've cheered. Our cheer is very simple. "VJ!" Shout loudly and enthusiastically and fllow-up cheer with enthusiastic whoops and screams for optimum result.

The rest of the team, from far end of the bench to nearer side, Shi Hui, Salome, Wara, Aramia, Sze Ling, Shu Yu, Wai Yan, Bee Teng and Sara.

After the match the girls pack up to go back to school, Audrey(with towel) was looking kinda pissed now and I knew something was up.

In the bus on the way back, I dunno whose obscene leg it was stuck out there, but everything was good.

Back at school, the reserves continued training relentlessly, proving their commitment to the team. Good stuff this. I realli hope to give these girls a chance to prove themselves in the coming games, god willing.

Anyways apologies I didn't take any pics during the match, was realli too engrossed wif the match, which we could have won. Nonetheless maybe I'll get an official photographer or something for this, but keep an eye on this page, next game against NJ on wednesday.

ME and WQ have been training the team from scratch, as in realli zilch, zero,sifar and we were suddenly thrown into the deep end, but being forced to participate in the competition is too much. Wats more today we learnt that results do matter...sigh. Why is it always like dat.

I mean i'm the last person one should talk to about results, and yet I totally don't agree with this matter. The girls are so raw, so new, how on earth are we to expect results of them? evry team starts some where rite?

Anyways, as a stop-gap measure, we were asked to take in girls from other CCAs, to increase the quality of the team and thus produce the results. Well the players were realli good, dat much i concede, but there was no way i was gonna change my team around some very good players, cos the girls in the team had trained so hard!!

In the end the back and forth yo-yo came to an abrupt halt, when Mr T had heard enugh and agreed with us, and in retaliation say he wanna shut the cca down. Sigh its so sad, dat results always come in the way of progress.

But anyways, I'm so pissed at the bleak future of the CCA, cos being with the girls has taught me so much, and I enjoy it so much, it takes my mind off other things. those 2-3 hours every afternoon are simply worth it cos of dat. Don't get me wrong, not dat i'm a dirty old man or wateva, i see the girls like little sisters(serious), they have so much to learn, and I'm glad that I can help them lar.

BUt anyways, I will cross the bridge when I get to it, rite now, better concentrate on the coming matches. They're gonna be tough, but I hope the girls will have faith in themselves.

Hi all, I noe its been ages since I've blogged but due to a multitude of reasons, i decided to take a sabbatical on blogging, mainly due to the fact i just had no inspiration not to. But I've been reading all of your blogs constantly, and its been a joy recently, and thus let me update u on wats been happening lately in my life, for those who don't really know.

So school is gonna start in exactly a month from today. I'm feeling kinda overwhelmed and all, but I'll take it inmy stride. A lot of people keep saying that Econs people are smart and are all muggers, so I picture myself having a tough time in school. Sigh. I hate this. I hope I can be more regular in my work, and do well enough to at least do the double major that I intend to do.

Anyways, I've been indulging myself in the community service project "Tiles That Bind", and its been a rewarding experience. I must say though, that the organinsing committee could realli afford to buck up, but wateva lar, these ppl are also desperate for hours, so I don't see them seeing the objective of this too clearly beyond it being a way of collecting.

For those that don't already know, I've started coaching the girls' soccer team at VJC, as an assistant to my good friend WQ, or mini as i call him. I've also been put in charge of their fitness regime, and I'm realli relishing my role in this.

Dealing with girls is so different, so far I've had 2-3 girls crying during training, and its made me rethink, once or twice, about my methods in dealing with them. I'm a tough one on them, and more of the bad cop of the coaching duo. But its ok, I feel that sometimes dats thebest way to do things. Of course, as always the team has its different people.

The Captain - She Fong, committed, an energizer battery, needs to sort out her leadership style still, but definitely respect her for her efforts.

The Superstars - This I will not name, but bascially people who think and know that they are good, and choose to take part in team activities always with a frown as if thinking "I'm too good for this". Bottomline? I'd slap them silly if i had the chance. *grrrrrr*

The Jokers - Christl and Charmaine, hilarious girls whom i always make fun of, and of course they return the favour. Nonetheless they are free-spirited people whom i respect. But well, the giggling is quite distracting at times.

The Silent Workers - People like Aramia, Shi Hui, Xiao Feng, Salome, Jia Yi to ame a few, hardworking, very teachable and humble, definitely team players..

One for the Future - Definitely Audrey, talented and able, I hope she stays with the team and the team continues to grow. Lee Ann, the other 15 year old is not too bad herself.

I realli enjoy coaching these girls. It can be a challenge at times,but I'm up to it. I really treat them like little sisters whom I need to take care of, and so far I think I've been doing that job ok. Keep following this page, as I track their progress.

I hope to make this a long term thing, cos it realli rox, and takes my mind off most troubles.

Tuition has seen the addition of two new pupils, and the deduction of one, bringing my total to 4. At times its stressful, but again, i really enjoy interacting with these kids, who are unassuming and I take it as a challenge to get them going. Hopefully I will be worth the money for the parents. For my two new pupils, I've had to teach Malay, and its been a stretch at times honestly, nonetheless I think its realli good.

This as usual has had its ups and downs, but this month has the potential of looking like a good one. Hopefully things will go my way. Keep u guys updated.

Anyways, dats all for now, wow, glad I've gotten stuff off my chest, its great to be back. This time its for good. 1 more month to a new beginning. Cheers.