I will be going to Bangkok (again) for the 987654321th time from tonight to 1st May. So for the time being, I will be uncontactable, so try not to miss me too hard k? Despite having gone to Bangkok for so many times, this is only my second time going without my parents, but with Wenguang and Anand instead. Hopefully this will be a brand new and refreshing trip for me.
A good time for the trip though, as I receive back my BGS results yesterday. Got B for finals and B+ overall. Some might say that it's not too bad a result but perhaps my expectation is higher. After all this is my first ever B I've gotten and after completing the finals, I was still quite confident of it. I just need some time to forget about it and hopefully the remaining 2 papers will turn out to be good to cover this B+.
My old Adidas Adipreme had finally retired and replaced last week. Bought it in Taiwan around 3 years back and after that ran with it for numerous kms in the army, including AHM, training runs, and help me to pass my IPPT for the very first time and also wore it for cycling trips, floorball trainings etc. Sadly shoes do not last forever and the sole drop off bit by bit till it's almost unwearable.
In: Asics Gel-1130
Out: Adida Adipreme
So, here come my new Asics Gel-1130 which I bought at runninglabs last week. Comfort-wise it is definitely superior to my past shoes though design-wise it's only so-so. Went for a debut short run last week and I can feel the difference between good shoes and not so good shoes. Today, decided to go for a longer run. Unfortunately, one treadmill in the gym is down and an old man arrived one minute earlier than me and took the remaining treadmill. Having no choice, I decided to run outside and chose to run a new route. Not easy to run with so many roadworks going on as I had to go on the road then pavement then road and at one point where I had to go down to the road from the pavement and I landed rather awfully and there goes my ankle. Sprained it and looking back I ran for only 500m or so from my starting point. What rotten luck. Not a good time to sprain considering I'm going Bangkok soon and I guess that I can't run too far for the time being too. At this rate I will be so far behind my training schedule for my marathon. Haiz.
After one long week, the exams are finally over. Might not do that well for one or two paper but since thinking of it does not serve any purpose, I shall put that aside for now while the results will only be out in around 2-3 weeks time.
No special celebration after my last paper, BGS, but headed to archery training. Quite a good way to destress and vent all the frustration though but my strength was totally gone after a lapse of not shooting for 2 weeks. Nevermind, since I will have much more time to train during the holidays. After training, we pampered ourselves with a good dinner at Chomp Chomp. Stingrays, satay beehoon, chicken wing, oyster omelet, etc. That's not all, after that went to ice3 to enjoy some ice-creams and discuss some club stuff.
I have started my holidays but those NTU/NUS/SIM pple are ending their exams so late so for the time being still cannot enjoy too much. Nevertheless, I have more or less planned my holidays. So here are some highlights/ agenda for the coming summer holidays.
1) Find a job - I need a Mon-Fri job since I have quite a lot of stuff on wkends, shall start sourcing next week
2) Archery Training - Competition in May and maybe another in June
3) Floorball Mega Event
4) Train long distance run - Going for passion run, standard chartered, and maybe AHM
5) Train for IPPT - White horse not exempted
6) Outings - Fun, movies, haochidedongxi, retail therapy
7) Sports Camp - Woohoo :)
8) Kukup cycling trip
9) Personal finance advice
10) Read books - The intelligent investor and Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
11) Check out Visual Communication course
12) MAS-ESS Essay Competition
......
And I believe the list will get longer and longer as the days go by. This makes me wonder if I will have the time to work. Alternatively I can just go for hardcore archery training like 3-4 times a week and probably I will be able to upgrade to a metal bow by the end of the hols. A matter of choice which I will have to make within the next few days otherwise I can totally forget about getting a job. Stressful decisions even after the exams...
Began the exam week today with analytical skills exam. Taking it rather easy and started revising for it only on Sunday and since logic is more or less innate, studying too much for it will not help. Nevertheless, i had a good preparation today prior to the exams. Went through the past year questions in the morning and had a good nap after lunch so that I can have a clear mind during the exam. After that went to Kuan Yin temple to pray and went to Sim Lim to buy mouse and toto (haiz, din strike again) before slowing making my way to school for the exams.
On first look of the exam script I was quite surprised with the format. 14 MCQ constituting 70% of the paper!!! That's nothing close to the past year papers and some of the questions are rather hard and getting them right is just a matter of chance. It was a 2 hour paper but soon after the 1hr mark people started to leave. Most probably they must have given up on the paper and believed that logic would not strike them within the next hour or so. On the other hand, I more or less finished the paper in an hour an a quarter but decided to stay on to critically analyse each question again. Each MCQ is five marks, so there's plenty of incentive to do so. It was a worthwhile stay as I managed to sort out some thoughts and analysis and even spotted some mistake in the last 10minutes. By the end of the 2 hour mark, the examination hall was 2/3 empty. That didn't mean that I'm less clever than them since I need so much time to finish but rather that I was just more determined. It's impossible to solve all the question but every correction or inspiration is an bonus isn't it. Since it's more or less a test of luck, it's hard to gauge how good or bad I did but at least I did my best by staying on till the last minute. Hope that my prayers were heard to give me high "tyco index" today.
What's over is over. 1 down, 3 to go. 5 days to FREEDOM!!!
I've been a good student so far, mugging hard during the study week. Started slow initially and squandering my time procrastinating, watching movies and soccer matches online, oversleeping, etc. Staying at home to mug is just too difficult for me as I can never find a way to resist the temptation of my bed. Studying in school was much more effective for me and the Biz Law discussion we had that day make me learn a lot more too.
Still could not see the end of my revision so far and most likely it will drag into the exams week before I can finish my revision. A bit stunned that it actually took so long but fortunately I had set aside more than enough buffer time. Perhaps it's because I did not expect my BGS textbook to be so thick and time consuming and maybe it's just that my expectations are higher this semester. Had not even started on my AS so far and hopes it doesn't give me too much surprises when I start revising it.
That's it, nothing interesting about mugging anyway, so just keep it short and sweet.
My last lesson of my Year 1 in SMU has officially ended on the past Thursday which happened to be BGS. A good ending as prof Raj sponsored snacks and brought in red wine to class to make the end of the lesson. Although that would not change my views on him and I will continue to place him as my most hated prof who wasted 36hrs of my youth this semester. I shall not comment too much on him now as it will take a long long post for me to pen down all my thoughts about him and he don't deserve so much of my time and attention at this moment of time.
The one week study week officially started and unlike last semester where I only have two final papers, this semester I have four final papers which means that I do need to study during the study week. How I missed the study week last semester when most of the time I was playing my PSP and sleeping. This means that I might need to go back to school at least for a couple of days to do hardcore revision and having bad profs don't help as I need to figure out more stuff by myself. Nevertheless shall keep to my policy of a balanced lifestyle. I shall go running and continue to sleep eight hours a day for optimal mugging.
Got another incentive to mug hard this semester as of now I do have a 50-50 chance of entering into the dean's list (one of my new year agenda) and this semester will probably be my peak semester followed by decline from next semester onwards. Having higher GPA this sem would probably be crucial for cushioning the fall as well. Not many projects and assignments this semester so it's quite hard to gauge, but based on what I have gotten back and on gut feeling, my performance this semester is very satisfactory for me. What's important now is to stop complacency at this very last stage. Jia you to me :)
