My doubles partners.....

hmmm…havn’t blog for quite awhile…..
been busy with uni applications e last week…
sigh!!! never knew that could b so bloody stressful and confusing.

anyway, yesterday was the 2nd day of SDBA…..
and it was Vasin and my race day,
n…..
it was fantastic…
everything went juz fine though we weren’t giving all out…..
told Vasin to hold back as I didn’t see e need to push harder
since it was confirmed that we qualified for e semis after our 3,3,30s…..
so it was juz a long hard pull past the finish line…..
less risk of errors…
but…..
I’m pretty sure the semis will be a lot tougher…..
but nothing we can’t handle.

oh welz…….
come to think of it…
throughout my 6 years of life paddling,
I’ve been quite blessed with good partners,
from my very 1st sec. 1 partner Jason Wong(fellow r ommate then too) to my present partner Vasin,
we did work really very very well together.

I guess it was with Derek that I truly felt the joy of paddling….
still remember our first partnership toward the end of sec 1,
Edward(my partner after Jason) decided to quit as he was a year older then e rest of us…..
well….me and Derek were doing the spastic water ballet stunt(ie, cannot keep direction).
hahaha!!!!!
but anyway, later it got better and better and better….
our 1st ever T2 race together was terrible,
slow start leading into back wash eating leading to last in heat….
bah!!! from then on,
we vowed to work hard on our starts and work hard we did….
our dragon boat starts in our T2 became the best in the team…
and we practically work our guts out every session,
and only then were we able to always lead our waves...
and even catch some K2s ..
we work together up the ranks,
from heavy “grandmother” T2 to light racing F3 T2, to Braca blades…..
from blur retarded sec 1s to a formidable T2 pair in kallang…..
boy, we even thrash those JC rowers then…hahaha!!!
and who could forget how bloody noisy we were down in e water…….
I was always e 1 yelling, cursing, swearing, screaming at Derek when something feels wrong, even at time when we were leading,
and poor Derek would juz quietly row and allow me to verbally abuse him…..
only on certain occasions he retaliates verbally……
we were like enemies in a same boat sometimes
but enemies who matched each other to the dot.….
we quarreled like a mismatch couple but we still ruled the wave in our event….
and who could leave out the ‘silver curse’ that we unfortunately picked up that is still workin on me till now….
always a Silver during nationals….but for other races, other colours are permitted…haha!!!
think I was more like a naggy n freaking demanding friend to him…..
and without me, he would hav miss who noes how many trainings for not being able to wake up in time,
or waking up in time, but falling asleep again in e toilet...
haha!!

oh welz……after Derek came lonely period of being a T1 rower,
but then in came Nicholas(for those who r wondering, it’s Nicholas Lin, not coach Nic…) to save me from the horrible depths of bachelorhood…..in terms of paddling tt is….=]
it was mid of 2003 n I had went thru 5 freaking terrible months of rowing a single,
n so, when Nic’s partner retired due to injuries,
Anderson(our coach then) gave us a chance to pair up…..
n I jumped at it..haha!!
we were good too, though not as good as me and Derek,
but I could maybe say around 90% of wat me and Derek had……
and to Nic….
there was only respect from me….
not only was he a committed rower…more committed than Derek I could say,
he was a Ace student with S papers n all which was e exact opposite of Derek….
but my silver curse with Derek seemed to hav infected us too, thought we were juz happy for coming in top 3.

well following that was that spontaneous on e spot pairing of me and Eugene for a K2 1000m race….
which was good enuf to had brought us to the finals,
and…
was 2nd during the finals until we capsized 50m b4 the finishing line……
hahaha!!!! though we cap, we were still laughing and joking and stuff…..
we were really down juz to hav fun, and not to win….
so…..
lets say we were grateful that we even got to e finals,
though I think we both felt like knock ourselves a few days after e race when we thot thru it…..
it would have been our maiden K2 medal…hahaha!!!!
think it was juz not meant to be…..haha!!!

then there was my dear Ashley….
Ashley: u pantat benkok!!!!!!hahaha=D
well, though we weren’t really working well together,
but 1 thing pairing up with Ash taught me was to cherish all those who I was fortunate enuf to be paired up with….
no matter whether they were good partnerships or terrible couples…hahaha!!!!!

n now, I’m with Vasin….
my 1st non Singaporean partner..hahaha!!!