Yeah YOU!

Evidently, George the Dragon's pretty busy and way behind in keeping this blog up-to-date. So here's your chance to help out.

Calling all budding writers of the dragonboat world, here's your chance to be a guest-writer on "A Dragon A Day". Just leave me your name and e-mail addy under "shout-outs" and i'd be getting back to you!

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i am pretty sure that no one's gonna respond.
anyhow, to you, you and you, do give it a shot anyway.

Trading beans

Put Wendy and a chalet together and you definately get the bean game.

I have never learnt how to play the game, but listening to it on the side lines, out of context is in itself entertaining enough coz you end up hearing things like...

"I'll trade you X garden beans for X stink beans"

"I'll trade you X wax beans for X soy beans"

"I'll trade you X chilli beans for X blackeyed beans"


There are so many ways to entertain yourself when in a big group. Playing the bean game, the name game, the animal game, the number game... it's loads of fun coz you get to make fun of one another, and find out who really sucks in having fast reflexes or good hand-mind coordination. Then of course there's the dishing out of forfeits. And being dgnbtrs, the natural punishment of choice is not surprisingly... push-ups

Ink

The big tattoo craze.

5 tattoos between the 4 of them,
and 1 very jealos vic...

(smiley face on the right has her tattoo on her hip, but kenna blocked by vic)
(oh which leaves 1 unseen tattoo... shall leave that as a mystery!!)

the pic's outdated now, coz vic has since gotten ink too!

Pinks and greens

June 2005, race gift. Bright pink pom-poms, topped off with a lime-green bow. On the left side for left rowers, and right side for the right rowers. The feet below were cut out from cork board.

I almost killed my fingers not only from making the pom-poms, but also from cutting out the little feet, coz the cork board was so thick! Thank goodness i only needed to make 19!

When it comes to making race gifts, i work alone. Mostly, coz my gift ideas usually come quite late and coz i wanna do what i wanna do. Which can sometimes be a terrible decision, coz when i get too ambitious or am pressed for time, little sleep is involved. And if it's the night before the race, sleeping late has gotta be the sin of all sins.

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If you look really closely at those lovely babies, coz of the angle at which the pic is taken, some of them just look really pissed!

SRC's ever fickle mind

I've always said that i think SRC (Sports and Recreation Centre) doesn't give their sportsmen/women enough. We train the full year 4, 5 times a week and get 8 miserable CCA points PER YEAR, this compared to hall people who can chalk up to 60 each year. It was only till 2 years ago that they offered hostel rooms to their sportspeople (compared to NTU which offers hostel rooms with ease to their sportspeople). Before that, with 8 points each year, sportspeople had to be kept on the waiting list of hostel applicants. Or practically beg for it by coming up with some super sob story to let the people at the Office of Student Affairs release a room to you.

And apart from all of that, like the sports scene in Singapore, they only pay attention to you if you are hauling in the medals. Considering i was from one of the most high profile sports in NUS and i already can't stand SRC, I can't imagine what it's like for the other lower profile sports which probably get an even suckier budget. No wonder everyone in the sporting scene in NUS hates the dragonboat teams.

Apart from all the complaints, i guess i gotta give SRC credit for honouring their sports people each year with the annual Sports Awards.

Sports Awards are held at the beginning of each academic year to hand out recognition to sportsmen/women who have served their respective sports well the previous academic year. Meaning you've been in it for at least 2 years, or if you are an expectional sportsperson, or if the whole team stands out above the rest, you get to get on stage to get a little plauqe or trophy.

September 2003 was the first Sports Awards i attended. Back then, Sports Awards were held at hotels. Yah like the Prom Night kinda Ball. With good food and attractive lucky draw prizes. That year it was held at the Grand Copthorne Hotel.


May 2004, SRC decided to go budget. With the Sports Awards held by the poolside of the SRC. Yah, by the pool which we used to practice rowing in each Tuesday at training. Bleh. Oh and instead of a 7 course dinner, it was buffet style this time. The food sucked so bad, we all headed to Clementi after for some decent food.


The downsizing budget continued with the 2005 Awards held at the Multi-Purpose-Hall. Yes the very location where we take our semester-ly exams! And once again buffet style. 2006, SRC decides that its was time to have it on a bigger scale, so this time round, the awards was shifted to the University Culture Centre. Sadly, I wasn't in SG to attend it. But it was good to know that SRC's now treating their sportspeople better!

Losing to the best

There are 2 kinds of losers. Those who come in second but are damn pissed with themselves for losing the gold, and those who get the silver but are happy for those who came in first.

June 2005, NTU won the IVP race with a whopping 7 seconds lead, i dare say it's probably the the largest win in recent years. We got the silver. We didn't do badly, everything went smoothly and it was a great race set for us, it was just too bad that there was someone better in the field. I remember being happy for NTU as they took the gold, coz with such a convincing win, you know you've competed with and lost to the best and that they deserve every bit of the medal.

Despite the fact that I've always heard rumours about what NTU have been saying about us, I've always had great respect for the NTU girls. Mostly coz they carry themselves very well and as fellow competitors in the field, they always put up a good race.

This picture must be the first in dragonboat history.

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Oh and since it's the new year, HUAT ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Random fact #557

At the June 2004 race, SRC sent down supporters and cheerleaders for the PM Cup event. That year, supporters came by the bus-loads. They were given free t-shirts from which a sea of orange emerged. Many of whom were exchange students. The ang-mohs fascinated by the dragonboat races whipped out their video cams and started recording. The Chinese students must have thought we were some celebrity rowers in school coz they kept stopping us, wanting to take photographs with us.

It was the first time SRC had come out in a big way to show support for the rowers. No doubt, there must have been the intention on their part to show off and intimidate. But we rowers don't really give a hoot, coz we just look forward to getting the free t-shirt.

The following year, NTU sent their supporters down as well. And since then, each June race, there'd always be a contingent of orange and reds (NTU's school colour). See who bigger and louder only loh...

Logistics nightmare

Each race is a logistics nightmare. Coz we not only have our own paddles to take care of, there's also the butt-pads, life jackets, medicine balls, water coolers, glucose containers, water, bread, bananas and sometimes packet lunches. Oh and not to mention our personal belongings. If that's not troublesome enough, imagine bringing all that overseas. Packing our paddles with bubble wrap for cargo when we went to Penang in 2005 itself was a big challenge. Thank goodness, things were made much easier in 2006 with the introduction of large paddle bags which could store up to 12 paddles each with ease.

With so much going on at the race site, it's amazing that over the years, nothing major has been lost.

Bad mix

Dragonboaters and alcohol....

Not a combination i would strongly recommend.

Creative theft

Let it be known that in 2005 in Penang, I was the first person to suggest that the butt pads be strung up with rope so that it'd be much easier to move it around. A technique still used today.

HA! I'm such a "cheap thrill"...


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Actually back then i got the idea from seeing another team do the same...

it's not plagurism, just creative theft...

The piggy-back culture

Ok if there's one thing i don't understand or cannot explain, it will have to be the piggy-back culture in the team. The fad probably began a couple of years ago. The popularity of the piggy-back syndrome is just beyond me. Perhaps it's the display of female prowess?

For fear of breaking someone else's back, i've never tried it.

Maybe i just should one day.

Lucky 7

We've always had the habit of using locker 7 at SDBA to store our valuables. Valuables range from watches to wallets to laptops to cameras to pineapple tarts. Each locker cost $1. Which is kindly contributed from a random wallet which the person locking the locker picks up.

Why locker 7 you may ask? Maybe it's coz it's the Lucky 7. But seriously, I think it's just coz the locker is convienently located at the eye-level.

Pre-training rituals

There's always alot to do before training starts. Filling of bottles, tying of rudders, back in the day it included the collecting of bailers and paddles for the whole team.

Underlying all this, it's always an issue of politics. Coz somehow, the same few always end up carrying out the pre-training rituals for the benefit of the whole team. They are the ones who quietly go about moving things around so that after warm-ups, all we need to do is just pick up everything and hit the water. And those who arrive later or on time always get away with not contributing. Which sometimes can irritate and piss the quiet sloggers off. But the guilty ones most of the time get their asses moving with a little nudging and explict telling off... now you know it's not always lurrrveeee lurrrvveee lurrvvvveeee in the team.

Oh and not forgetting, after we get up from the water, the whole process is repeated... only in reverse.

Yearly reunion

Chinese New Year reunion dinners take place sometime a week before Chinese New Year itself. The dinner itself is a big project with welfare duos calling up alumni members and scouting around for a venue big enough to house the whole party.

As usual, alot of food is involved, with some people regretting sitting at the table full of big eaters... ha! Yu Sheng's also a must each year. Alot of it ends up on the table though, so it's just for the fun of it. And as usual, everyone always goes for the crackers.

Full-time dragonboater

Preparations for the June Race are always long and arduous with trainings amounting to at least 5 times a week. It's all about training, go home and sleeping, and waking up the next day to repeat the cycle all over again. It's no wonder that for some, race day is something to look forward to!

Twin towers

Cheeling and i always took the back seat. Over time, we got used to rowing beside one another. Coz of our different rowing styles, as strange as it may seem, most of the time, my elbow would always knocked her knuckle. It really got on my nerves initially, especially during races. But we just got used to it, coz if you can't solve the problem, you just gotta live with it.

See, that's what happens when you seat two tall people together.

Mugger-mania

Everybody know us for the distinct ivp jackets in the YIH study room. In throngs, we can probably occupy at least 12 seats. People come as early as 7am and stay all through the night. Spending up to 12 hours there per day, we eat, sleep, play and workout there. At times, the crazy can be seen doing push-ups in the study room, perhaps from a lost game or just to fight off the koon-demon.

Dgnbters have been colonizing the YIH study room for as long as i can remember. Even when renovations for the new YIH started in 2004, we uprooted and moved camp to the temproary function rooms which were opened. As usual, we took it over.

The regular people in the study room must really hate us. But what the hell, tough luck, suck it up... too bad, too sad!!

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It's that time of the year again... on-going paper wars, fighting to get a coveted seat in the study room... Study Hard!... HUAT AH!

Sin sin sin

Abstinence is an essential part of race preparations. No spicy, no coconut, no excessive oily and fried foods, cutting down on the sweet and sugary goodies. Part tradition, part desire to revenge the food ban, the agenda of the first post-race dinner thus has to be filled with high fat and high cholesterol. So bring on the Char Kway Tiao, the sambal stingray, the fried hokkien mee, sambal fried kang kong, sambal sotong, fried oyster, fried carrot cake and laksa.

Happiness is short lived as the return of sinful foods to a once pure stomach results in the churning of the tummies. Almost half the team would probably return home with an upset stomach. But for the sake of spicy, oily goodness... all is worth it.

Itchy hands

These are the hardcore dragonboaters, hardcore to the bone. The ones who went crawling back. Perhaps it was the urge to cure the itchy-hand syndrome, being irritated by our white, pasty selves or just the desire to feel IT once again. I bet Ah Peng would have returned too if it wasn't for the fact that she had graduated.

As the saying goes... Once a dragonboater, always a dragonboater.

A tribute to days gone by...

For the past 5 years, i have lived the life of a dgnbtr. When something's been a significant part of your life for so long, it's inevitable that you sleep, eat and breathe it. A lifestyle of great tans, intense work-outs, food bans, heart-pumping races, regiment, discipline and most importantly, great pals.

2001,
I found a new family

2002,
I said goodbye to the seniors I had grown to respect so much,
seniors who thought me all I know about and what it means to be a member of the ladies team

2003,
I experienced the effects of ugly team politics

2004,
at 16 small, I learnt that numbers didn’t matter as long as you had the heart

2005,
I realized in Penang I’d gotten the concept of competitive sportsmanship wrong all this while

2006,
after searching all these years, I finally finally found the true meaning to the phrase
‘1 stroke, 1 boat, 1 heart’

Pw once told me when I was at the crossroads of deciding to stay or not that people never stay because of the sport itself. It’s more than just keeping fit, maintaining a tan, but about the people you row with and row for. That’s the very reason why I constantly plunge myself into crazy self-torture. It’s never about the addiction to the sport but need to be around the people whom I go through thick and thin with, people who’ve seen me at my worst and lowest. People whom i’ve experienced the high of a good race set together and the lows of not winning despite all the hard work put in. People whom I know I can always rely on and trust. People who know when I’m pissed, how hard to push me. And of course the select few who know me the best, can read me like a book and know what I’m thinking and feeling. No one can understand what it’s like to have to sign up for something like this voluntarily, train up to 5 times a week and still need to juggle everything else, and look as though you are still surviving. Only them.

Mong-na’s gonna say I’m having a major hangover. Perhaps that’s just it. But you can’t deny 8 semesters, 5 teams, 6 captains, 69 girls and 12 races. That’s a lot of memories to hold on to and not something that’s easy to let go of. Coz once you’ve been in a team, it becomes part of you and never leaves.

You never forget.