Starting last Saturday.

I have tragically left uncovered the three busiest days I have experienced since the summer vacation started. So now that I've got a spot of free time, I might as well post about them so as to preserve these memories for posterity. I don't want to look back in 10 years' time and go, "Oh no! Whatever did I do from Saturday, August 6th, 2005, to Monday, August 8th, 2005? Ack! I simply cannot remember! Quelle horreur!" o_O

On Saturday I took my written handicap test for golf (my practical is scheduled for the 5th of next month, presumably before I enter NS... where is my enlistment letter?!). It started at 2pm at Seletar Base Golf Club - they showed us 2 videos and took us down to the practice green where the instructors explained the various rules of golf and their applications in different scenarios. I lost track about halfway, it was all very confusing, especially since one of the instructors couldn't speak very good English and all of them were wearing distracting bright pink shirts. I didn't know touching the sand in a bunker carries a TWO-stroke penalty... that's harsh. It's also one of the two questions I got wrong. But anyway 8/10 multiple choice questions were good enough to pass me.

I finished at about 4.30 at which point my dad msgd me to say he'd be there at 5.45. I figured since I had an hour to kill I could just hop over to Seletar Country Club and play a bit of pool - I thought if I walked it'd take maybe 10 minutes. Stupidest idea I have ever had, ever. I ended up walking for 30 minutes in the blazing hot sun... it definitely looks like a much shorter distance from inside a car. Moral of the story is, take a bus next time. Anyway I did eventually play two games of pool so that was somewhat rewarding.

Saturday night was my brother's ACS(I) band concert as a part of their "Festival of Arts." Sophisticated name for an arts festival. -_____- Oh, and thanks Marian for coming... your support was much appreciated :) Have I mentioned my brother made band major for next year? Such a smart boy. :D

Anyway, I heard "Vesuvius" for the third time this year (twice previously at the Esplanade)... but it has gotten better each time so that's ok. It's obvious how they won SYF 'Gold with Honours' on that piece. Also liked the themes from "Lion King" and "Phantom of the Opera," as well as that one anime piece which they'd also played at the Esplanade before and my brother claims to have a solo in... but I must not have been paying hard enough attention, heh. The emcee's were fun, they looked entirely serious while saying scripted lines like:

A: Well, Joshua! That was a fine piece, was it not?
B: Indeed, Jonathan! Most rousing! It truly set my heart ablaze with emotion!
A: And my heart resonating vibrantly! An excellent offering by our band tonight.

Performance was made very much more exciting by Samy and Reuben who kept poking me in the back at random times. Kept me alert.

On Sunday we had worship practice after service for this week's Celebration Sunday... tiring. Then met up with Adrian and co. for his goodbye party at Marina South. Apparently I am better off without my mustache. Hmph. *simmers in resentment* We met up at Marina Bay MRT and took a bus to Marina South (although there was a bit of confusion caused by the public transport changes as a result of National Day preparations). We ended up having to walk a long way to get to the right place. Nonetheless, had a nice BBQ/steamboat dinner with live prawns of dubious quality and copious amounts of satay-flavoured chicken. Thanks Adrian for bringing us... I dunno if I'd ever go back there though, it's almost not worth the trouble. :P

We headed up to Victor's Superbowl to, um, bowl a bit. Failed to break 100 twice, which was disappointing, but I got close with 99 pinfalls. On the way back to the MRT station we passed the arena where they'd be holding the Marina South National Day celebrations... Adrian and Jun sneaked in to take pictures of the stage. I just hung outside next to the vending machine agonizing over whether it would be wise to add to my sugar intake of the day.

Monday was EBC youth steamboat day. I woke up at a cruel and inhuman hour so as to be able to reach Esther's place by 8am to do grocery-shopping. As it turned out, it was a bad, BAD idea to take the bus on that day. I took a non-aircon 74 from my place and ended up being squished against all these sweaty, smelly, rain-drenched people (this also made it difficult to fold my umbrella). Plus there was a huge traffic jam, so I ended up reaching the NTUC at Clementi at about 8.45. Anyway, we finished most of the groceries by 9.30 (staying well within budget), and by the time we'd carried them over to Esther's place it was nearly 10am. So I ended up being about 40 minutes late for Chinese class, but that was ok since they'd only been reading newspapers for that whole time.

Went to Colin's place (via Esther's flat) after class. We did the steamboat prep and then went to Dover MRT station at 5pm to wait for everyone to arrive. At about this time I concluded that Esther knows far too many Russell Peters routines for her own good.

The steamboat was fun (prawns were definitely fresh this time). I played Cluedo 3 times, 2 of which I won, happily enough. One of them was on a fluke guess after we gave up a game to let someone else join - we knew it was the lead pipe, and then I just guessed "Miss Scarlet" and "Hall" and blimey, I got it right. It's a gift. :D

It so happens that the second win was also on a guess. We knew it was Mrs. White with the candlestick but it was getting late and everyone had to go, so we all guessed a room. Turns out it was the Billiard Room, which I had guessed due to a feeling of affinity, heh. Like I said, it's a gift. ;)

Unfortunately I turned out to be equally poor at the answer-the-lame-joke game. How was I supposed to know that Happy's last name is Lee, or that the ocean "waves" to the beach when it sees it. -____- Anyway, thanks Esther/Eunice for organizing those games, it was loads of fun.

I slept in on National Day. That really accounts for four days, but school's been out for months so I'm permitting small mistakes like these.